Chapter 5: Fierce Ghost, Fierce Ghost, What Time Is It (Part 5)

◎ Little Yellow Hat and the Ghost Granny ◎

After no longer taking orders from Huangquan Community, Yu Qing no longer had to stay up until midnight every day. She finished her deliveries by 10 p.m. each night and never saw that midnight order again.

The living and the dead are two completely distinct worlds and should not have any intersection.

As time passed day by day, the time to pay the rent was approaching. These days Yu Qing had been busy packing her luggage. Although the rental house was small, Yu Qing had already lived there for three years and was very familiar with the surrounding environment. If she really could still afford the rent here, Yu Qing would not be so anxious to move away.

Fortunately, the landlord was a good person and agreed to give Yu Qing an extra half month to find a new house before moving out.

Yu Qing asked the flower shop owner to help her keep an eye out for nearby houses. However, her budget was not high and she could only afford rent under 1000.

When the flower shop owner heard this, he shook his head. “Qing Qing, at this price, it should be impossible to find a house in the city anymore. Why don’t you try looking directly in the suburbs?”

Another fruitless day passed. Yu Qing walked home with heavy steps.

Before going to bed, Yu Qing was browsing rental information as usual. Suddenly, she thought of a place: Huangquan Community.

She immediately sat up from the bed.

After delivering food for half a month, Yu Qing was fairly familiar with Huangquan Community.

Although the community was remote, there was a highway right at the entrance, and there were buses too. Transportation was not a problem. The occupancy rate in the community was very high, and there was also an elevator. It was safe and convenient. Most importantly, because the location was remote, the rent should be very cheap.

Yu Qing got up and searched the local rental information. She only found one rental advertisement from Huangquan Community from 20 years ago.

However, this was not strange. Many old community rental postings were placed on bulletin boards and utility poles.

Turning off the webpage and going to sleep, Yu Qing planned to visit the community during the day tomorrow.

……

August 15th happened to be the Ghost Festival of that year.

There were noticeably fewer pedestrians on the streets. More than half of the shops were closed. The delivery riders’ group chat was full of riders clocking out early. Yu Qing had delivered food all morning and listened to ghost stories along the way. Although she did not quite believe them, she still felt a bit uneasy because of the festive atmosphere.

Looking at the bright sun outside, Yu Qing decided to go see the house earlier, preferably returning home before the sun set. So after a simple lunch, Yu Qing stopped taking orders and rode her electric scooter early to Huangquan Community.

This was Yu Qing’s first time coming to Huangquan Community during the day. The suburban highway during the day was much brighter. However, it did not seem much different from nighttime. Yu Qing parked her scooter at the entrance as usual.

However, when she looked up, Yu Qing was stunned.

The community that was bustling with lights and voices at night revealed its true appearance during the day.

Rows of unfinished buildings abandoned for nearly 20 years. The paint on the walls had long since peeled off. The doors and windows had been eroded by wind and rain. Construction debris covered the ground. Waist-high weeds swayed in the wind. Everywhere there were broken steel-reinforced concrete pieces. Unknown wildflowers bloomed on top of them. It was obvious that no one had come here for a long time.

Yu Qing hesitated. Had she come to the wrong place?

After all, the city center of Linchuan had once been relocated. There was more than one community in the suburbs and more than one area of unfinished buildings. Could it be that she had remembered the wrong route?

Yu Qing hesitated for a moment and cautiously walked toward the direction in her memory.

Walking past the debris and desolate weeds, Yu Qing finally saw the familiar building. The lobby of Building 18 was overgrown with weeds. The elevator was covered in heavy dust and crisscrossed with cobwebs. It looked like it had not been used for many years.

Yu Qing had a bit of dull sensitivity in her. All the way, Yu Qing kept subconsciously thinking: Do unfinished buildings require rent and property fees? Is there water and electricity available?

But dull sensitivity is not the same as being a mummy. When she confirmed that this building was indeed the one she delivered food to every day, Yu Qing slowly slid to the ground.

Yu Qing believed that there were ghosts in the world. For example, herself, a broke ghost.

She also believed in supernatural events. For example, the mysteriously disappearing bank balance every month.

But now, Yu Qing’s worldview was refreshed.

The community was fake. The customers seemed to be fake too.

With trembling hands, Yu Qing opened the delivery app to check her bank balance. Thank goodness, the delivery fee was real.

Yu Qing had always thought that if she were the protagonist of some story, it would be the “Anti-Fraud Guide” posted in front of the bank. But she never expected that there would be the option of a supernatural story.

Thinking that today was the Ghost Festival, Yu Qing immediately stood up.

She had entered the community at around 1:30 pm. It should have taken no more than half an hour to come in. But now, the sunlight outside had already become dim and slanted. Sure enough, the time on her phone had also stopped at 1:30 pm and was not moving.

Yu Qing had a feeling: she had to leave here before the sun went down. Otherwise, she might never be able to get out.

The sunset slowly faded away. The last glimmer of light was gone.

The delivery girl in the bright yellow uniform ran faster and faster. But when she was panting at the entrance of the community with her hands on her knees, the last ray of sunlight had disappeared.

Yu Qing turned her head and saw an extremely shocking scene.

When the last bit of light disappeared and night fell, thousands of lights instantly lit up in the community.

She heard faint talking sounds, like people whispering and murmuring. Immediately, from the desolate weeds, pale and skinny hands stretched out. The soil broke open. Men and women crawled out from underground.

Green fireflies flew up among the weeds. A huge pale ghost moon illuminated the entire world of the dead.

There was a very eerie sense of beauty.

Yu Qing took two steps back and turned to run without hesitation.

The highway she had come on was already gone. The parking spaces had disappeared. Only a stretch of dark dense forest remained.

Behind the delivery girl, the shadows of wild trees intertwined chaotically on the ground.

……

Yu Qing was almost grabbed by a ghost hand in the grass. She barely kicked off her leg and ran into the dense forest in one breath.

Under the pale moonlight, Yu Qing could see vague figures outside the forest. But as if they feared something in the forest, those resentful spirits only stared at her gloomily from outside.

What exactly was in the dense forest.

But no matter what, she had no other choice.

Yu Qing could only continue running deeper into the dense forest.

This dense forest was very quiet. However, because there was not even the sound of insects or birds, it easily made people associate it with the word “deathly silence.”

Suddenly, Yu Qing heard a very strange “creak creak” sound. At the end of the dense forest, came a strange chewing sound, a bit like something crunchy being chewed with serrated teeth.

She held her breath.

After a while, the little yellow hat cautiously poked her head out.

She saw under the huge moon, between the sparse and orderly tree trunks, a slender figure appeared.

Borrowing the pale moonlight in the sky, she finally saw his true appearance.

She thought it was a “ghost,” but he looked more like a mass of humanoid black mist. The ghostly figure had a pair of slender crimson eyes and no facial features. There were only vague features on the “face.”

The little yellow hat looked up, dazedly staring at the ghostly figure in the distance.

So big, so terrifying.

Soon, the slender ghost also noticed the familiar head not far away.

Why was it her again.

Originally, the slender ghost had already gotten used to it and was preparing, as always, to walk home with Yu Qing. But suddenly, the slender ghost paused for a moment.

For the first time, the ghostly figure saw fear on Yu Qing’s face.

Yes, today’s moonlight was so bright, she could see him.

The slender ghost belatedly realized something.

Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river.

Not long ago, Yu Qing had ignored him, passed by him, squeezed past him in the elevator.

Treated him as air, streetlights, roadside trees, surveillance cameras.

Now, the wheel of fortune had turned.

The slender ghost slowly walked toward Yu Qing. His featureless face moved close to her and showed a smile. As the curve rose, the corners of the mouth split open, revealing the serrated teeth like a shark inside 

Yu Qing slowly retreated. After backing to a safe distance, she immediately turned around and ran frantically.

The little yellow hat, on this dark and windy night, encountered her own ghost grandmother.

The slender ghost slowly chased her back toward the community.

Yu Qing fled in panic.

Yu Qing ran at full speed.

In this life-and-death race, Yu Qing did not notice that today’s pursued route overlapped with the path she usually took to deliver food.

Up until today, Yu Qing’s life had been a work of realism. Every day she worried about how to save for rent, how to pay debts. Her mind was full of the struggles for livelihood, always calculating food, oil, salt.

But now, Yu Qing found that she had still been too narrow-minded.

Life was not only about the drudgery before her eyes. There was also Bloodthirsty Shark, Split-Mouth Horror.

Yu Qing dared not stop. Just like this, she was chased all the way by the slender ghost to Building 18.

She stopped to catch her breath. She thought such a big ghost definitely could not get in. Who knew that the next second, the slender ghost twisted and shrank significantly. He could actually change shape.

To slow down the tall ghostly figure, Yu Qing threw whatever was at hand behind her, trying to create some obstacles.

But this did not slow down the ghost’s speed. The heavy footsteps were steady and even, striking the ground behind her without haste or pause, like the tolling of a death knell.

Soon, as in all horror films, there was no way ahead.

Of course, just as every protagonist always finds a way out, Yu Qing keenly spotted a small storage room. She hurriedly hid inside and desperately shut the door.

The unfinished building had long been in disrepair. Most of the doors and windows were damaged.

With a bang, the iron door shut and half of it fell off.

Yu Qing grabbed the broken half of the door and stared face to face with the slender ghost outside.

Yu Qing knew that at this moment of life and death, she could not back down. She took a deep breath and with great effort tore off half of the door. She stood up. Although she had never fought an evil ghost in her life, she had once killed a cockroach with her bare hands.

The slender ghost glanced at Yu Qing, who was holding the door and looked ready to pounce on him at any moment.

Paused for a moment.

Casually walked past Yu Qing.

Yu Qing watched wide-eyed as the slender ghost slowly walked past the first emergency exit sign, then the second, and finally disappeared at the fire escape door.

Yu Qing: “…”

Yu Qing stood in place and thought about life for a long time. In the end, she found that her posture of holding half the door looked a bit silly. She threw the door away but still did not feel reassured. She picked up an iron rod that had fallen from the door for self-defense.

She cautiously followed to the door, peeked out for a while, and saw that the evil ghost had indeed left.

Yu Qing did not lower her guard. What if he doubled back.

The urgent matter was still to escape from here.

However, Yu Qing had only taken two steps toward the entrance of Building 18 when a great gripping force came from her ankle. A pale female hand grabbed her foot and dragged her toward the wild grass.

Even though the slender ghost’s aura was still on Yu Qing, under the powerful influence of the ghost moon, the resentful spirits would lose control from hunger.

Yu Qing smashed with the iron rod and kicked with her foot. The hand refused to let go.

She was so anxious that sweat broke out on her forehead.

Suddenly, she had a flash of inspiration and untied her shoelace.

The resentful spirit: “…”

Yu Qing immediately scrambled up, did not dare to run around again, and returned to Building 18.

Sigh, her only pair of sneakers, very expensive, it cost 80 yuan.

Under the moonlight, Yu Qing felt that someone was staring at her intently.

She turned her head and met a pair of crimson eyes at a height of 4 meters.

Under the giant moon, the slender ghost, uncompressed, was as tall as a street tree. When the crimson eyes locked on her, it brought a terrifying sense of oppression.

The slender ghost bent down, leaned close, and bared its teeth at Yu Qing.

The featureless face enlarged right before her eyes.

Yu Qing’s whole body stiffened. She stepped back step by step until she landed on her butt at the base of Building 18’s wall. Only then did the slender ghost slowly straighten up.

Yu Qing, still shaken, retreated inward.

After a while.

Suddenly, with a “pa” sound.

In front of her appeared a shoe.

It was her eighty-yuan left side shoe.