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Midnight Horror
Wei Lan placed the rouge box on the table and pulled Liu Yao over, pressing her in front of the copper mirror. With her fingertip, she picked up a pinch of jasmine powder and lightly dabbed it on Liu Yao’s cheek. “Don’t move, I’ll give you a peach blossom makeup.”
Liu Yao closed her eyes. “Don’t make me look like a monkey’s backside!”
“Sis, no matter what you put on this face, it will look beautiful,” Wei Lan teased as she picked up a fine brush and dipped it in rose ointment, carefully outlining Liu Yao’s lip line. In the copper mirror, a beautiful woman with red lips and white teeth gradually appeared, and at the tail of her eyes, a golden foil petal glistened, sparkling.
Liu Yao opened her eyes, startled by her reflection. “This… this is too gorgeous!”
Wei Lan smiled mischievously and took a silver hairpin from the hairpin box, gently inserting it into Liu Yao’s hair bun. “When your brother-in-law sees this, he won’t be able to move!” Then, she leaned in close to Liu Yao’s ear and whispered, “Want me to give you a lip bite makeup? I heard it makes you look especially…”
Before she could finish, Liu Yao hugged her waist, and the two of them burst into laughter.
Later that night, Liu Mingyi laid out a bedding on the floor in their father’s room to keep watch.
Liu Yao held a pillow and stood at the door, hesitating for a moment before softly saying, “I’ll sleep in Mingyi’s room.”
Wei Lan was about to persuade her to stay, but then remembered the last time Liu Yao had spoken in her sleep. The words got stuck in her throat. “Good night, sister,” she said instead. Liu Yao nodded and turned to go to the next room.
Wei Lan lay in bed, feeling the cold breeze seeping in through the window cracks. She tossed and turned for a long time, unable to fall asleep, her heart inexplicably uneasy. She tried to reassure herself, thinking it was just exhaustion, and closed her eyes, trying hard to drift into sleep.
However, not long after she had just fallen asleep, a harsh “hahaha” laugh suddenly woke her up. Under the moonlight, a twisted figure was cast on the bed’s canopy, swaying gently with the night breeze.
It was that man!
Her hair stood on end. It had been a year since she last saw him, but hearing that familiar voice instantly awakened her memories. Why now, of all times?
“Big brother, is that you?” Wei Lan’s voice trembled.
The shadow let out a scratchy laugh, like sandpaper rubbing against a wall. “It’s time to pay your debt, my surgeon.”
This time, the man’s voice was eerie and terrifying, completely different from before.
Wei Lan realized she couldn’t move at all, as if pinned down by a ghost. Panic rose within her as she spoke to the man, desperately trying to focus and break free.
Her scalp tingled as she forced herself to remain calm and asked, “What do I owe you?”
“You drank my fragrance potion back then, now you must help me perform the soul-reviving ritual!” the man replied.
“I don’t know what fragrance potion or soul-reviving ritual you’re talking about,” Wei Lan said, her voice shaky.
The man scoffed, as if mocking her ignorance: “The last tear of ninety-nine beautiful souls was condensed into that little bottle of fragrance potion. If not for this potion, you would have forgotten your past life completely.”
“As for the soul-reviving ritual, it requires thirty-six virgin skins to form a body, and thirty-six young boys’ hearts as soul lamps. Only then can a soul container be formed, and I can stay in the human world forever.”
Wei Lan felt a chill running down her spine. These were clearly the actions of an evil ghost! She was a doctor—how could she possibly kill people and dismember them? Where would she find so many organs? She fought to suppress her fear. “Why don’t you just reincarnate? Why break the rules of life and death?”
The man sneered. “Have you ever experienced amnesia? After drinking the Meng Po soup, you forget everything. What’s the point of living then? I want to live forever!”
“If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have what you have today. You treat so many patients now, killing a few doesn’t matter, right?”
Wei Lan felt disgust but didn’t dare directly refuse. She cautiously asked, “Why do you say it’s because of you? Didn’t I get here by my own hard work?”
The man laughed proudly. “I arranged for you to be here because I knew you were an excellent surgeon. If I hadn’t changed your fate, you would still be in the 21st century, cutting appendixes! You wouldn’t have the chance to be a divine doctor, open a medical clinic, or create penicillin.”
Wei Lan gritted her teeth in anger. So it was all his doing! She took a deep breath and said firmly, “Then you should know, I can’t do what you’re asking. I won’t do anything that harms others.”
The shadow approached, its voice low and sinister. “To leave a legacy in history, one must pay the price. If you help me prepare the materials, I’ll make sure you retain your memory when you reincarnate and still become a divine doctor. This deal is not a loss.”
“What if I don’t agree?”
The man’s voice turned cold with rage. “Since you don’t want to, I’ll just take your soul!”
Suddenly, Wei Lan could move again. She grabbed the silver hairpin under her pillow and thrust it at the shadow. “Go to hell!” The hairpin, however, passed through the shadow and sank deeply into the bedboard.
The man’s hands shot towards Wei Lan’s neck, tightening around it with force. Wei Lan gasped for air, her face turning red as she struggled. She tried to scratch at her neck with her hands, but the man’s grip was terrifyingly strong, and she couldn’t break free.
“Help… help…” Wei Lan could barely make a sound. Her head grew dizzy, and the images around her became blurry. Was she going to die here?
Her nails left deep white marks on the bedboard, and with her last bit of strength, she overturned the medicine chest at the head of the bed. The sound of ceramic breaking pierced the stillness of the night, waking Liu Mingyi. By the time he rushed in with an oil lamp, he saw Wei Lan curled up in the corner, her hands tightly gripping her neck.