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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter 45: Human Skin Puppet (Part Fifteen)
The thought was simple; if I were alone, it would be manageable. But then Ling Juan showed up, chattering away because she was curious about what I was doing here. Her curiosity got the better of her, and she sneaked over, intending to hide and watch me secretly. When she saw me by the Branching Stream, she must have thought I was contemplating jumping in, which prompted her to call out to me.
I had initially thought Ling Juan was smarter than Chi Xinrong, but it turned out she was just as frustratingly clueless. Honestly, my luck was terrible; I had encountered two foolish women.
"You should go back; I need to rest," I said.
"Aren't you going to see me off?"
I turned to look at Ling Juan. She had come prepared, holding a bright mini flashlight, with her scarf covering half her face, leaving only her big, blinking eyes visible. Seeing the flashlight made me angry. "Why didn't you use the flashlight earlier?"
"I got scared and didn't have time to use it."
"Forget it; just go back!"
"You're really not going to see me off?"
I didn’t turn back to look at Ling Juan and said seriously, "You dared to come here alone, which means your home isn't far from here. Since it's not far, why should I see you off?" Without pausing for a response, I walked directly toward the inn. Ever since the Bridgehead Hot Pot Restaurant incident, business at this inn had plummeted. It felt like I was the only guest staying there that night; even the staff were sparse, with most sent home.
Because of this, the entire inn felt desolate and particularly quiet. The sound of my footsteps echoed softly. Wait a minute—why did it feel like there was a rustling sound coming from behind me? Could it be—? I spun around quickly to find Ling Juan standing there with her hands in her pockets, sheepishly smiling at me and saying, "Actually, I didn’t tell you that my home is very far away—in another city. I heard from Qin that I should rent a room across from yours..."
What on earth did Qin Jian want? Did he intend to have this girl around me for some underground activities or to keep an eye on me?
Seeing that I had no response, Ling Juan stepped closer and earnestly said, "Brother Qi, I'm not here to spy on you; I'm actually very curious about what you're doing."
"What’s there to be curious about? You're a forensic doctor; you'll have plenty of opportunities in the future. You might even want to change jobs."
"Why's that?"
"A forensic doctor deals with dead bodies, not handsome guys or beautiful girls. Don't you understand?"
"I know! In school, I even personally dissected corpses. If I didn't have that kind of courage, how could I possibly come to Station for an internship?"
"What were you afraid of just now?" As I watched Ling Juan inch closer to me, attempting to link arms, I quickly pulled my hand back. I thought to myself, this girl is naive; if she encounters someone with ill intentions, she would definitely suffer. Fortunately, she met me, Ma Qi, who has a good heart and wouldn't do anything bad or have any ulterior motives.
"Just now, I suddenly thought that you know what I'm thinking in my head, and I just blurted it out. I'm really sorry..."
"It's fine. Don't think about anything tonight; just get a good night's sleep." I allowed her to stay by my side as we headed upstairs. I watched her enter the room across from mine before closing the door. I rushed into the bathroom and washed my hands thoroughly under the faucet for a while before feeling somewhat better. Then I lay down on the bed with my hands under my head.
Lying on the bed, my mind was filled with the image of that round ball floating up and down on the water's surface.
Beneath the round ball were indeed a pair of feet, rhythmically walking in the water with white legs. The Drowned Ghost must have been filled with resentment to walk upright in the water. My grandfather had suffered greatly during the civil war; it was always the common people who bore the brunt. One year, Chiang Guangtou blew up the Yellow River, causing a dam break that drowned countless civilians. Those who were swept downstream all became corpses, densely packed across the entire lake surface. Among them were also bodies floating and walking upright in the water. The salvage workers dared not touch these upright corpses and could only find professional water ghosts to retrieve them; they had methods to deal with those bodies walking upright in the water.
These upright bodies moved freely in the water, coming and going until they found a replacement for the Deadbeat. Some skeptics drained the water and could indeed see rows of footprints along the riverbed.
The reason I was startled by Ling Juan's words was precisely this. But then again, why did I feel like Ling Juan was doing it on purpose? She seemed to know quite a bit about these things in the water; otherwise, she wouldn't have accurately used such industry-specific terminology as "upright walking corpses."
I shouldn't have doubted this girl Ling Juan, but there were indeed suspicious aspects about her. No, I needed to call Lao Qin for verification. So I got up and dialed Qin Jian's number only to find it was turned off. Damn it! How can someone be unreachable at such a time?
Thinking about it carefully—sigh! They were probably busy playing house-making plans while I was here making pointless phone calls as a single loser.
Unable to contact Qin Jian and unable to sleep either, I knew I had to do something.
Sitting on the bed with my phone heating up in my grip, an inexplicable sense of panic washed over me. I didn't even know what I was panicking about; it just felt like something would happen tonight. Just as I was feeling restless and uneasy, a sudden scream pierced through from outside.
"Ling Juan is in trouble!" Without thinking much, I rushed out of my room toward Ling Juan's door, knocking and shouting, "Ling Juan! Juanzi..." Just as I called her name for the second time, her door swung open, and she threw herself into my arms, trembling and sobbing uncontrollably.
My hands froze in mid-air as I felt somewhat at a loss for what to do while repeatedly asking her what happened.
Her head buried in my chest as she stammered through her tears that she had been half-asleep when she felt someone watching her. When she opened her eyes, she truly saw a pale figure staring back at her. Terrified, she screamed and pulled the blanket over her head until she heard me knocking on her door calling for her; only then did she rush out without hesitation.
"It's okay; don't be afraid." I steadied Ling Juan and protected her before turning on the light to carefully check the room's condition. The room wasn't very spacious; it was easy to see everything at a glance—besides Ling Juan and me, there was no one else there. After checking inside the closet and the private bathroom and confirming there was no third person present, I unexpectedly noticed a damp spot near the bed.
I calmed Ling Juan down before squatting down to touch that damp spot with my finger; it felt sticky and slimy. Bringing my finger close to my nose to sniff it revealed a faint scent of mud. Confused by how this smell resembled that of what I'd touched earlier—could that thing have come into the room?
I glanced at Ling Juan, who looked pale and was nervously asking, "What happened?"
"Is what you saw standing right here?"
"Yes, it is."
She also noticed the wet spot on the ground and bent down to take a look, but I stopped her. "Don't look at it; it's nothing. You should go sleep in my bedroom."
"Okay," Ling Juan replied, but her eyes kept darting back to the wet spot on the floor.
I then walked around the room and went to the window to look outside. The street was dark and deep, lined with low buildings. If that thing had appeared in Ling Juan's room, it couldn't have just vanished into thin air; it must still be somewhere nearby. If that thing really was a slug, where would it prefer to stay?
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