Chapter 1: Fierce Ghost, Fierce Ghost, What Time Is It (Part 1)

◎ Strayed Into a Strange Tale ◎

“Don’t blame me. It’s just your bad luck. I don’t want to die.”

On a rainy night, a man covered in blood trembled as he used his finger to place an order on a food delivery platform. Due to the extremely poor signal, the loading circle spun for a long time before finally displaying the words [Order in Delivery].

At times like this, the only people who would appear in such remote areas were usually food delivery riders.

As long as he could divert the fierce ghost’s attention, he would be able to survive.

But very soon, the signal disappeared.

The man heard a writhing sound coming from beneath the ground, as if something was awakening.

He stiffly raised his head and looked out the window, only to witness a strange sight. The thick black fog on the ground slowly stretched into a tall and thin ghostly shadow. It had no facial features, only a pair of blood-red eyes.

He knew very well that the more fear he showed, the greater the chance of being discovered, but he still could not stop trembling.

He watched as the face of the tall, thin ghost shadow slowly split open, revealing shark-like serrated teeth.

The fear reached a critical point.

The man could no longer hold back and turned to run toward the direction of Huangquan Community.

But what was in the community? Of course, it was filled with countless resentful spirits.

That was truly a foolish decision.

The tall, thin ghostly shadow passed by the phone lying on the ground with the screen still glowing.

Raindrops gradually soaked the screen of the phone.

A few months later, on the food delivery platform in Linchuan City, at midnight every night, a strange delivery order would appear. The delivery fee was extremely high and the address was Huangquan Community.

But no one ever dared to accept it.

After all, who could tell whether this midnight order was delivering food or delivering death?

The resentful spirit of the man who died still clung to the phone, repeating the behavior from his life night after night at midnight. Find a substitute. Find a substitute.

Finally, one night, someone accepted the order.

…

As the night deepened, a figure wearing a bright yellow food delivery uniform and riding a small electric scooter appeared on the road in front of Huangquan Community.

Late at night, it was rare for female riders to take orders. After all, it was relatively dangerous for a woman to be alone at night. For safety reasons, Yu Qing always wore a large coat that hid her gender. At first glance, she looked like a short man. Especially every time she stuffed her hands in her pockets and lowered her cap brim, sneaking through the streets and alleys, every passerby would instinctively cover their pocket.

Her disguise was very effective. She had been repeatedly reported for dressing like a creepy stalker.

The reason she went out every night fully equipped to deliver food was simply because Yu Qing only had fifty yuan left to her name.

If she did not continue working overtime to deliver food without rest, she would be left with only one option. Go live in the primitive forest as a savage.

But clearly, Yu Qing was not yet ready to leave human society and become a forest dweller.

She let out a long sigh in the darkness of night.

Three months ago, Yu Qing was still living an ordinary life like everyone else and had not yet become so poor that she developed extraordinary skills.

She had an ordinary family background and an ordinary life.

She worked hard, though she did not earn much money.

She was kind and enthusiastic. When she helped an old lady cross the street, she was falsely accused and lost several thousand yuan.

Although she was unlucky, at least she had no worries about food or clothing and lived at a normal standard of living.

Her greatest wish on normal days was for pies to fall from the sky.

But in reality, there were no pies in this world, only traps.

Three months ago, Yu Qing was scammed into owing 2.2 million yuan. Overnight, she lost everything and became penniless, burdened with a loan she could not repay in twenty years.

Before that, Yu Qing still lacked some imagination about how poor she could actually become. Until this morning, when she opened her search history.

The first entry read: “How can humans perform photosynthesis?”

Yu Qing used to envy the rich second-generation kids who flaunted their wealth all over her social media circle. Now, the creatures she envied most were the monkeys in the park. She really wanted to become a monkey and snatch bananas from passersby.

It is said that heaven never bars one’s way. When someone is down to the lowest point, there is always a rebound. After squatting in front of the park for half a day and receiving two coins tossed by a passerby without effort, Yu Qing received an order tonight with a delivery fee as high as 120 yuan.

Probably because the delivery distance was quite far and it was raining, no one accepted the order for a long time. Yu Qing easily grabbed it.

That high delivery fee was truly a timely gift for Yu Qing.

Yu Qing had not been delivering food for long and was still unfamiliar with all the roads in Linchuan City. When she accepted the order, she thought the distance was not too far. Who would have thought that following the GPS would take her further and further off route, and her phone even lost signal.

But fortunately, Yu Qing soon saw the sign for “Huangquan Community” from a distance.

From the outside, the community appeared desolate. Beside the bus stop sign was a single broken street lamp that flickered due to unstable electricity. On a rainy day, it looked even more bleak.

As she rode her little electric scooter closer to the community, Yu Qing began to hesitate.

Did anyone really live here?

If not necessary, Yu Qing would not venture into remote places. Although dying of poverty was painful, she was not yet irrational enough to die mysteriously in the wilderness.

In the pitch-black night, wild grass had grown tall between the high-rise buildings of the community. Yu Qing could not help but think of some social news stories. Things like perverted murderers or robbers kidnapping people.

But soon, the closer she got to the gate, the desolate scene was replaced by a lively atmosphere.

Yu Qing heard the cries of children, the scolding voice of a woman, and the off-key singing of a man humming opera. Although it was so dark she could not see her hand in front of her face, she could vaguely see the warm lights coming on in the tall buildings nearby.

If Yu Qing had 5.0 vision, she would have seen that hanging in the windows of every household was a person.

But with 0.5 vision, she could only recall a heartwarming saying:

“In the lights of ten thousand homes, there is always one lit for you.”

The vibrant scene gradually put Yu Qing at ease.

So lively, the public security should be quite good.

Especially in the faint light of the security booth not far away, there stood a gloomy security guard with his back to her.

Yu Qing glanced at him.

Then glanced again.

As everyone knows, the nemesis of food delivery riders is the gatekeeper.

She obediently parked her electric scooter at the entrance of the community and walked deeper into the complex.

…

Sometimes, the meaning of “heaven never bars one’s way” is:

At least there is still one road left—to death.

There were, of course, no perverted murderers here, because even if such a person entered, not even their bones would remain.

The New Calendar Year 2067 marked the twentieth year since supernatural forces descended upon the world. More and more urban legends began to emerge, arriving with blood and terror. People began to refer to these supernatural events as “strange tales.”

However, because these “strange tales” were still relatively few in number and only occurred in remote places, not many people knew about them. Most of the time, they were only spread as ghost stories on major internet forums.

In Linchuan City, there was a well-known strange tale called “Huangquan Community.” It was once planned as the most high-end community in the city. Yet within twenty years, it slowly fell into abandonment and disrepair. As urban plans changed, main roads were rerouted and the city center moved. Huangquan Community became more and more remote and was gradually forgotten by people.

What was there?

No one knew.

Because no one had ever come out of that strange tale alive.

On a rainy night, the bright yellow delivery uniform stood out vividly, like a firefly dropped into a world of darkness.

Yet even more eye-catching than the bright yellow was the aura of a living person on her body.

Between the wild grass and withered trees, men and women crawled up from underground, greedily sniffing the breath of life. Their resentful eyes locked onto the figure moving through the rainy night.

The green belt of the community had long overgrown wildly. The weeds were very tall and made walking difficult for Yu Qing.

All the streetlights in the community were broken. The deeper she walked, the more it felt like complete darkness. If it were not for the lights in every household above and the obvious sounds of commotion nearby, Yu Qing would have turned around and left long ago.

She kept using a flashlight to find her way. As she walked, she suddenly felt something grab her ankle.

Sensing something wrong, Yu Qing looked down, but the force that was about to pull her down suddenly disappeared.

Yu Qing shone her flashlight around and only saw rain-soaked wild grass.

In the darkness she could not see, something seemed to sense a terrifying presence. The resentful spirits, greedy to tear her apart, froze in their tracks.

If the view were lifted to a bird’s height, one could clearly see that behind Yu Qing, at some unknown point, a strange mass of black mist had slowly appeared. It was thicker than the night itself.

Like a cloud that was black, formless, and heavy.

That mass of black mist slowly twisted and distorted, transforming into a tall, slender ghostly figure as tall as the roadside trees.

The stormy night continued on.

With the appearance of that slender ghostly shadow, it was as if natural enemies had appeared. The ghost child crawled away like a spider on all fours. The long-haired female ghost carried the baby ghost on the ground and darted into the corridor.

The windows swinging in the wind throughout the neighborhood slammed shut.

Even the sound of the rain gradually lessened.

Thousands of resentful spirits lived in this haunted place. Most of them had no consciousness or awareness, only aimless hatred and instinctive consumption, serving merely as the most insignificant nourishment within this urban legend.

The truly terrifying existence was that slender ghostly shadow.

No one knew when he had first appeared, only that he had existed since the beginning of the legend. He could not be killed. Even if he disappeared briefly, he would grow again in some corner like a tide of darkness. He could not be eradicated, because fear could not be eradicated.

He had no facial features, only a slender, vague black shadow with long limbs, standing nearly as tall as a roadside tree.

Every midnight, he would appear on the road within Huangquan Community.

Tonight was no different.

Suddenly, his steps came to a halt.

The scent of a living person.

……

Because the rain was getting heavier, Yu Qing walked faster.

Suddenly, she felt a strong and undeniable gaze coming from behind. It was like cold rainwater sliding down her collar through her umbrella. Her body reacted instinctively as goosebumps rose all over her back.

She pulled up the waterproof outer layer of her delivery jacket, turned around, and shone her flashlight behind her, only to see thick darkness.

But fortunately, that bone-chilling gaze quickly moved away from her. Since it lasted for such a short time, Yu Qing could not tell if it had been real or just her imagination.

She quickened her pace, head down, walking toward Building 18: Sigh, hurry up and finish this order so I can go home and get off work.

Humans who accidentally entered this place would be torn apart by resentful spirits, becoming one of the countless bits of nourishment in this urban legend. Obviously, a doomed intruder was not enough to arouse the interest or appetite of that slender ghostly shadow.

Fortunately, he fed on resentful spirits. Just like humans eat chicks, and chicks eat earthworms. And humans generally do not directly eat earthworms.

At least while she was still alive, Yu Qing was not his food.

The slender ghostly shadow withdrew his gaze and continued moving gloomily and silently through the rainy night, paying no attention at all to the little earthworm.

Under normal circumstances, humans who wandered into this urban legend would panic like headless flies, running around looking for an exit, and would trigger all sorts of colorful, strange death endings.

However, after walking for about ten minutes, the footsteps following him still did not disappear.

Because she was wearing rain boots, every step made a clunk clunk clunk sound, which was especially clear in the night air.

He went north, and the footsteps followed north.

He turned west, and the footsteps turned west too.

The ghostly shadow looked down, and that small figure in a bright yellow delivery uniform was walking right beside him under an umbrella, head lowered.

“……”

The ghostly shadow paused for a moment.

She should not be able to see him, right?

But fortunately, the destination had arrived, and his attention was quickly diverted. The slender ghostly shadow slowly compressed himself and turned into the size of a normal person.

The ghostly shadow entered the lobby of Building 18.

The wet clunking footsteps followed him into Building 18.

The ghostly shadow stopped to wait for the elevator. The footsteps stopped right beside him.

The elevator arrived.

Yu Qing naturally stepped into the elevator, shook the water off her umbrella, and pressed the button for the 18th floor.

What a coincidence, the slender ghostly shadow happened to live on the 18th floor.

“……”

It seemed like he was the one being followed.

The ghostly shadow slowly lowered his head and studied Yu Qing’s small frame.

Author’s note:

Finally starting the story. This book is a collection of supernatural tales, kind of like the short stories I wrote before, but with longer chapters. All are simple love stories, just meant to be bedtime reads (p.s. not scary at all, because the author is a coward).