Chapter 15: Summon Ghosts
Is it time now?
Lu Jinzhao’s mind was briefly confused, because she realized that her “death” had arrived.
The ghost had been following her but hadn’t killed her, first because that ghost hadn’t been seen by her, restricted by the rules, and second because she hadn’t taken it to the station yet.
But now, it was time.
“Little Lu, why won’t you look at us?”
Us?
Where did “us” come from?
Not even pretending anymore, huh!
The speechless feeling in Lu Jinzhao’s heart diluted some of the fear, and it also made her realize again that ghosts didn’t have much wisdom; they only acted on instinct, so people possessed by ghosts spoke illogically and would expose the ghost’s purpose.
It’s impossible for people to win any chance of victory in a direct confrontation with ghosts, but people have brains.
——Roar
It was the sound of the train pulling into the station.
The train had come.
The ghost became more restless, and Lu Jinzhao only felt that the shoulder grabbed by the ghost no longer belonged to her.
It wasn’t just her body becoming numb; the ghost’s erosion seemed to make her thinking gradually slower too.
Something was approaching in front of her, a perception almost like instinct, as if a rotten face was staring straight at her, bit by bit, constantly drawing closer, waiting for the instant she opened her eyes.
In that instant, she would make eye contact with those turbid, pale dead eyes.
She clearly couldn’t open her eyes, but with the numbness of her body, her willpower seemed to be wavering too.
She thought perhaps it was an illusion created by the ghost behind her; there was no ghost in front of her at all. If she didn’t dare open her eyes and couldn’t escape, wouldn’t she just have to wait to die?
The breath in front of her drew closer again.
Ghosts don’t breathe, so the approaching presence was just a feeling.
But it was enough to make Lu Jinzhao’s spirit tense, especially since she also smelled a strong rotten smell!
This smell was like she was face-to-face with a corpse, the distance between them not even exceeding one centimeter!
Suddenly.
A cold sensation fell on her eyelids, somewhat like human skin but with a sticky feeling, and the foul odor became even more intense, as if rotten fingers had fallen on her eyes.
Lu Jinzhao’s breathing hitched; she could feel her eyelids being forcibly pried open.
She could already see some images.
There was indeed a ghost standing in front of her, but that ghost’s hands were both hanging down, probably because she hadn’t broken the rules, so it couldn’t directly touch her?
So, the one forcibly lifting her eyelids was the ghost behind her?
She had to find a method; if this continued, in no more than five seconds, she would die.
Lu Jinzhao gritted her teeth fiercely and pulled out the knife from her pocket, stabbing viciously at the hand grabbing her shoulder!
——Pfft
It was the sound of the knife stabbing into human flesh and body, but no scream came from the person behind her.
This was only natural; Lu Jinzhao even suspected whether she could still feel pain.
A chill completely different from before came from her shoulder; it was blood, the already cold blood inside the body of this person possessed by the ghost.
Could human blood be this cold and still be alive?
No time to think about this; Lu Jinzhao immediately shouted, “Cen Duo! If you still want to live, then make a transaction with it!”
As she spoke, Lu Jinzhao took out the box from her pocket and pressed it onto the hand that had been stabbed by the knife.
She wasn’t sure if this would work; the risk was huge.
She guessed the one possessed by the ghost behind her was Cen Duo, which should be correct, but she wasn’t sure if Cen Duo could hear her or would follow through.
She also wasn’t sure if this box could deal with this ghost; even if it did, there was still another ghost in front of her.
Lu Jinzhao didn’t want to make a transaction with this box herself to drive away the ghost in front of her.
Besides, the train had already pulled in; unless it was a last resort, she absolutely wouldn’t make a transaction with that ghostly thing herself!
The next instant, the hand shackling her shoulder suddenly lost its strength, and the hand on her eyes also slid away.
Lu Jinzhao knew that Cen Duo’s remaining consciousness and desire to survive had made her reach a transaction with the box; the box and the ghost had begun to fight over Cen Duo’s body!
Opportunity.
Lu Jinzhao fiercely broke free from the restraint on her shoulder; she heard the train’s roar very close now, probably very soon, in no more than three minutes, the train would arrive at the station and open its doors.
Bang!
The sound of glass breaking came from outside; if Lu Jinzhao opened her eyes, she would discover it was the streetlight suddenly shattering.
All the lights went out at this moment; the entire station area plunged into darkness, like being dragged into some terrifying domain. The only beam breaking the darkness was the headlight of the black behemoth approaching from the distant tracks.
Accompanying the train’s roar was a faint sound from behind belonging to Cen Duo.
She was saying…
“Save”
“…save”
She was crying for help.
But… Lu Jinzhao couldn’t save her.
It wasn’t just that she couldn’t; she had no intention of saving her.
She had taken out the box not to save Cen Duo.
She already knew from Lin Shuyue’s outcome that in this scenario, an uncontrollable transaction meant Cen Duo was doomed to die.
But she had no way to live anyway, so Lu Jinzhao acted without hesitation.
Sure enough, in no more than five seconds, Cen Duo’s voice completely disappeared.
Clack.
It was the familiar sound of the box falling to the ground.
Lu Jinzhao felt an indescribable feeling in her heart; in Jiang Yingzhi and Lin Shuyue’s descriptions, this box was a precious tool for self-rescue.
But she had used it to kill and drive away a ghost.
Lu Jinzhao picked up the box and only dared to slightly open her eyes when her line of sight was fully on the ground; at this glance, she was startled.
This wooden box, which had been somewhat worn, had become brand new.
“…Is it because it ate two people in a short time?”
It was clear just thinking about it; those who previously got the wooden box wouldn’t be as generous as Lu Jinzhao. A transaction could only exist as one at a time; others held it for self-rescue, so they controlled the amount, but in Lu Jinzhao’s hands, it had become somewhat out of control.
“Perhaps… I can’t let it continue eating people.”
As she was thinking this, a shadow figure suddenly floated by in front of her; Lu Jinzhao quickly closed her eyes.
Time was too urgent; that ghost would probably hover in front of her at all times. As soon as she opened her eyes, the next second, she might make eye contact with the ghost.
Lu Jinzhao could only run toward the train with her eyes tightly shut.
Fortunately, even though the train had pulled in and stopped, the sound it made was still loud enough for her to find the direction.
But…
As she ran toward the train, something wrapped around her ankle.
“…It’s hair.”
Lu Jinzhao immediately confirmed in her mind.
Damn it, these ghosts really wouldn’t just watch a living person run onto the train right in front of them?
It wasn’t just hair; Lu Jinzhao also heard faint cat meows, and the smell of incense and candles.
The ghost had come.
And not just one ghost.
She didn’t dare open her eyes, but she knew that many ghosts summoned by the see a ghost ritual had probably gathered around her.
Clearly, she was only less than a minute’s distance from the train door, yet it felt like there was an unbridgeable chasm.
She would die.
Never had Lu Jinzhao been so clearly certain.
Even if she hadn’t broken the rules, those people possessed by ghosts would still kill her driven by the ghosts’ instinct to kill.
She had to get back on the train as soon as possible to have a slim chance of survival!
