Translator: CinderTL
Jiang Cheng sighed, gazing at the shattered remains of the sculpture outside the window. He turned his head to look at Huai Yi, who was staring back at him with a bewildered expression. "Brother Jiang, why are you looking at me?"
"You're truly twisted," Jiang Cheng said with a sigh. "Such a considerate Ghost, driven to death by your actions."
Huai Yi: "???"
"Don't do that again," Jiang Cheng shook his head and turned to leave.
After all, Huai Yi was a member of the Crimson, so his thought processes weren't exactly normal. Jiang Cheng could understand. A moment later, Huai Yi caught up to him and asked, "What do we do now?"
They had been waiting for so long, and the number of Sculpture Ghosts had dwindled. Continuing this way would be pointless.
"Let's find Fatty and the others," Jiang Cheng said as they walked. "We'll ask them how many they've taken care of. Together, we can figure out how many Sculpture Ghosts are left."
Shen Mengyun stood in Jiang Cheng's previous position, wearing her work uniform. Mimicking his actions, she directed waves of Sculpture Ghosts to climb up and down the stairs.
At first, the Sculpture Ghost procession had been a scattered dozen or so. Then the numbers dwindled to ten, then four or five.
Now, after waiting for a long time, she hadn't seen a single one pass by.
The corridor was eerily silent.
"Looks like Mr. Jiang and the others took care of them all," Shen Mengyun thought, her mind involuntarily conjuring Jiang Cheng's face.
But as she pondered, a sudden palpitation seized her.
She couldn't quite describe it—it felt like a needle had abruptly pierced her heart.
Her first instinct was that something was watching her.
She had experienced this before, but never with such intensity.
But how could this be?
Mr. Jiang had said the garment could conceal the living's aura, tricking the Sculpture Ghosts into mistaking her for one of their own.
"Could... another Sculpture Ghost have survived?" Shen Mengyun raised her head, her gaze cautiously searching. "But how did it discover me? And where is it hiding?"
From her vantage point, she could see one side of the corridor and the grand hall connected to it.
Similar to her position, sculptures and other artworks were scattered along both sides of the corridor and throughout the hall.
However, these sculptures seemed normal; they had already been checked.
In the dim lighting, most of the sculptures were only partially visible, often just a half-profile.
The longer she looked, the more unsettling it became.
She had already examined the scratches on the clothes, and all twenty-five Sculpture Ghosts had been dealt with. Yet the feeling of being watched not only hadn't diminished but had grown stronger.
Even more perplexing, she remembered an eye pattern near the scratches, but now it had vanished.
Her unease intensified, urging her to flee. It felt as though death was imminent.
Suddenly, her gaze froze.
On the right side of the distant corridor stood several sculptures. She had noticed them before, but this time, something felt different.
Due to the lighting, only the lower halves of the sculptures were visible, their upper bodies shrouded in shadow, leaving only vague outlines.
"One... two..." Shen Mengyun counted, "Four."
"Four?!" A sense of wrongness washed over her. She vaguely remembered there being only three before.
Moreover, the last statue, hidden in the shadows, was shorter than the others.
As she focused intently, something seemed to stir within the shadows. Shen Mengyun instinctively blinked.
When she opened her eyes again, the statue had reverted to three.
Everything that had happened before felt like a hallucination born of her anxiety.
But Shen Mengyun knew it wasn't a hallucination. Something was definitely happening behind the scenes, something she didn't understand.
She wanted to contact Jiang Cheng and the others, but her phone was still at the library.
"Calm down, you must stay calm," Shen Mengyun told herself, regulating her breathing as she continued to observe.
But not long after she looked away, she spotted another strange detail.
This time it was on the left side of the corridor, even closer to her.
The situation was similar to before: a statue hidden in the shadows.
A statue she had no memory of ever seeing.
It seemed to have appeared out of thin air.
Judging by the lower half of the sculpture, it was a half-body statue.
Shen Mengyun's gaze froze. She immediately recalled the story Jiang Cheng had recounted, the eerie half-body statue that had appeared in the art center photos.
But by the time she reacted, the half-body statue had vanished again.
When she spotted it again, it was around the corner of the corridor, not far from her. This time, she saw it clearly.
It was indeed a half-body statue, its neck twisted grotesquely, its head tilted to one side, its gray-white eyes fixed on her.
"Damn it."
During this, Shen Mengyun had also discovered the statue's movement pattern. Whether she looked away or blinked, as long as the statue disappeared from her field of vision, even for a split second, it would move toward her in a disturbingly unnatural way.
In other words, if she kept staring at the statue without blinking, it would remain motionless and pose no threat.
But... how could a normal person possibly avoid blinking?
Shen Mengyun's first thought was to stare at the statue without blinking while quickly escaping. Based on her observations, the statue's movement speed wasn't fast, so she should be able to outrun it.
Just as she was about to act, however, she realized her body was completely frozen, as if cursed in place. Only her eyes and neck retained limited mobility.
After a moment, she understood the reason. This restriction applied equally to humans and Ghosts: by staring at the Ghost, she could prevent the half-body statue Ghost from moving.
Conversely, the other side could do the same.
What plunged Shen Mengyun into even deeper despair was that the half-body statue Ghost didn't need to blink. Its gray-white eyes gleamed with a jade-like texture.
With its final blink, the half-body statue Ghost finally reached Shen Mengyun's side.
"Huh?" Jiang Cheng suddenly stopped.
Huai Yi, who was following close behind, immediately tensed up and scanned their surroundings. "What's wrong, Brother Jiang?"
"Did you hear something?" After a moment, Jiang Cheng frowned.
"No... nothing."
After a moment of thought, Jiang Cheng patted Huai Yi on the shoulder and quickened his pace. "Hurry, find Fatty and the others. Then we'll meet up with Miss Shen."
At the corner of the stairs, the two groups collided head-on. Fatty's face lit up when he saw Jiang Cheng. "Doctor, Brother Wang Qi is incredibly skilled. Together, we took down nine Sculpture Ghosts!"
"We took down ten," Jiang Cheng replied coolly. "The last one jumped off the building after Huai Yi forced it. I tried to stop it, but I couldn't."
Fatty turned to Huai Yi, blinked, and seemed to have discovered something new about him. "Brother Huai Yi, I didn't realize you were into that kind of thing?"
Huai Yi's face was a picture of denial, but he didn't know how to respond.
Fortunately, Jiang Cheng intervened, turning to Fatty and asking, "What are you doing here?"
According to their previous plan, they should have been ambushing on the other side of the staircase.
"Oh, right. I just got a message from Miss Shen. She said she made a new discovery and told us to find her," Fatty said, pulling out his phone with a serious expression.
Jiang Cheng's eyebrows twitched. "Shen Mengyun?"
Seeing the doctor's expression change, Fatty was startled. "Y-yes, why? Didn't she contact you?"
Fatty's first thought was, "Oh no, did the doctor get jealous?"
He had known Jiang Cheng for years and knew he could be petty. He quickly explained, "Doctor, don't misunderstand. Miss Shen is probably just... you know, girls are shy. You should understand."
Jiang Cheng's expression darkened. He turned and sprinted down the stairs.
Seeing Fatty's bewildered expression, Huai Yi quickly explained, "Shen Mengyun lost her phone in the library. How could she have sent you a message?"
Fatty's face froze. He stared at his phone with a changed expression. "So... the message came from a Ghost?"
"It was that half-body statue Ghost!" Fatty immediately confirmed.
They had verified it: all the Sculpture Ghosts had been eliminated.
Twenty-five, not one missing.
When the group finally reached Shen Mengyun's location, they found her still standing there in her work uniform.
Her arms hung naturally at her sides, her face turned directly forward.
At first glance, she looked just like the nearby sculptures.
Fatty exhaled a long breath of relief upon seeing Shen Mengyun still standing. But then, as if suddenly realizing something, he sniffed the air. A faint, lingering scent of blood hung in the air.
The closer they got to Shen Mengyun, the stronger the metallic tang of blood became.
Even stranger, Shen Mengyun seemed completely unresponsive to their arrival.
Jiang Cheng stepped forward and slowly reached out, pulling down her face mask.
The face beneath the mask was as white as paper. Her lips were tightly clenched, her eyelids slightly closed as if about to open at any moment.
But for her, that moment would never come.
She was dead.
Jiang Cheng had known the moment he approached her.
"Miss Shen?" Fatty's heart sank at the sight of Shen Mengyun.
He had a good impression of her, and he could tell she was particularly kind to the Doctor, even having saved his life once.
Huai Yi, seeing this, stepped forward to help Jiang Cheng lower Shen Mengyun's body.
After all, she was disguised as a half-body statue, her lower half hidden within a wooden frame, leaving only her upper body exposed.
But just as he touched Shen Mengyun's shoulder, an unexpected event occurred.
Shen Mengyun suddenly fell straight down.
No, not entirely. Only her upper body fell!
From her waist down, she vanished.
There was no lower half of her body inside the wooden frame!
She was like a true half-body statue, torn apart from the waist down, including her legs.
Her remaining upper body was left propped up on the frame!
At first glance, it looked exactly as before.
Huai Yi, witnessing this scene, stumbled backward several steps, his face drained of all color.
At the gruesome, gaping wound at Shen Mengyun's waist, he could see her bruised purple organs and intestines, while crimson blood pooled on the floor.
(End of the Chapter)
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