Chapter 173: House Of Evil Ghosts
The fingers, along with the entire palm and arm, were trembling slightly, both from overexertion and as a manifestation of the agony.
The most severely damaged were the index, middle, and ring fingers of the left hand, as well as the middle and ring fingers of the right hand.
Lu Jinzhao’s backpack did contain some simple medical items, but she didn’t know how to handle this kind of situation without external injuries, and the things in the bag were obviously insufficient to deal with this situation, so she could only set it aside.
Fortunately, her physique was special; although the pain was unavoidable, it wouldn’t result in losing the ability to use them, just that some fine operations were no longer possible, but if she disregarded the consequences, even a fractured hand could still exert force.
Anyway, they would be healed upon returning to the train.
However, the fact that her fingers were injured was still a bit of trouble for Lu Jinzhao; not to mention that the pain in her fingers would affect thinking, many times she needed her fingers for certain operations, such as switching doors, taking things, or the upcoming close-quarters dealings with the ghost.
The previous situation had already clearly told her that it was best not to leave the apartment anymore; if only one ghost came to the first floor, then Lu Jinzhao planned to deal with that one ghost in the corridor before the other ghosts arrived.
So, she immediately left the restroom and walked to the door to observe the entrance to the first floor corridor.
And the ghost did not disappoint her expectations; slowly walking down from the stairwell was only one figure.
It was Tan Meng.
“It seems my other teammate is also guarding the second floor.”
Lu Jinzhao looked at Tan Meng’s solitary figure and realized that now was an opportunity.
“Do you think I have a method to strip away her human skin?”
Lu Jinzhao’s mind kept thinking about this possibility; the three ghosts had separated, which was already the best situation, and she had also seen the scene of these three ghosts poking their heads out from the window—completely three sheets of human skin; although very horrifying, Lu Jinzhao immediately thought of materials.
This was undoubtedly excellent materials.
[You can try.]
Amid the parchment’s flat text was a faint sarcasm, as if mocking Lu Jinzhao for overreaching.
Even if only one, a ghost is still a ghost; you, a human, want to strip away a ghost’s human skin?
“It’s not completely impossible, right?” Lu Jinzhao thought; her current life-preserving ability was enough for her to trade injury for injury, though very costly, but as long as she got the skin, this loss would turn into gain.
What she feared was that the small knife in her hand for stripping away skin couldn’t cut off the ghost’s human skin, or that the ghost would suddenly go berserk after being “injured.”
She wasn’t sure if there was such a possibility, but she had to consider it.
“If I strip off a sheet of skin, can I make it into something like you?” Lu Jinzhao asked deliberately.
The parchment’s pretending to be aloof had already become hard to maintain after being broken through, and Lu Jinzhao felt it was becoming more and more human-like; after all, holding back and ignoring someone was obviously something only humans would do.
[Snort]
The parchment first snorted with laughter.
[That’s it?]
[You? It?]
Alright, Lu Jinzhao already understood.
“Then the one who made you must be very powerful.”
Clearly, most supernatural items were transformed by the train when brought out from the platform, but Lu Jinzhao still pretended to flatter like this.
She felt that the parchment certainly wouldn’t like the thing or person that turned it into a supernatural item.
And the result was indeed so.
[Powerful?!]
The parchment became angry.
[A.]
It seemed to want to use some words to describe that person but couldn’t think of them right away.
The twisted blood-red text stuttered noticeably for the first time, and then, as if to cover something up, the handwriting changed.
[Stupid!]
[Malicious!]
[Cruel bastard!]
[A guy who died long ago, deserved to die, and should have been cut into a thousand pieces before death!]
The parchment was using the most malicious words it could think of at this moment to describe that person.
And Lu Jinzhao, looking at this line of text, sensed an emotion that a ghost shouldn’t have.
Hatred.
A pure, massive hatred.
On par with the parchment’s killing intent and malice toward her.
“Was that the person who brought you out from the death platform?” Even though it wasn’t a good time for chatting—Tan Meng was still approaching step by step from the far end of the corridor—Lu Jinzhao still followed up.
[Heh heh.]
The parchment’s mind was already clouded by anger.
[Are you blind?]
[Didn’t you see me say she died?]
[Hahahaha]
[Dead!]
[Brought out? How could she? With me here, did she still want to leave alive?]
The parchment seemed to be venting; as it spoke, it suddenly changed the subject.
[You’re the same.]
[You deserve to die too!]
[But no matter; you’ll end up like her, dying in the platform.]
[You two.]
[Hee hee]
[Both deserve to die!]
“Do you hate her?” Lu Jinzhao asked.
[Hate?]
The parchment felt puzzled.
[What is hate?]
How could a ghost have an emotion like hate; it felt Lu Jinzhao had started talking nonsense.
Lu Jinzhao also found the parchment’s answer subtle.
Did this guy not know that after devouring her soul, it had begun to develop emotions that only humans have?
Lu Jinzhao had many questions she wanted to ask; now that the parchment’s emotions were high, it might reveal things it didn’t intend to, but the timing was really too poor—Tan Meng had already come over.
She could only stop responding; Lu Jinzhao didn’t reply, and the parchment asked again.
[What is hate?]
“Alright, I’ll tell you when we get home.” Just in case, Lu Jinzhao pretended to soothe it.
[Home?]
[You might not be able to go home.]
The parchment was as sharp-tongued as ever, but its response exposed that it couldn’t be certain Lu Jinzhao would definitely die.
Lu Jinzhao didn’t answer it; before Tan Meng approached, she walked into the restroom.
Tan Meng’s expression became ferocious for an instant, and Lu Jinzhao knew she probably thought she was going to climb out the window again.
But this time, Lu Jinzhao didn’t plan to do so.
She decided to try a direct confrontation with this ghost; while she still had life-saving props, she wanted to test how much harm this ghost could inflict on her and whether she could escape from it without “dying.”
Only by confirming this could she decide whether to switch apartments next.
Tan Meng’s footsteps drew near.
Lu Jinzhao took a deep breath, feeling the pain and trembling in her fingertips; the intact index finger of her right hand lifted slightly, and the somewhat damaged shadow puppet slid from beside her feet to the ground.
Tan Meng walked in.
Clearly in the appearance of a person, with human features, but the moment anyone saw her, in the first second, they would feel that this person… was very strange.
The positions of the features were correct, yet not quite harmonious; the smile at the corners of the mouth was like two threads piercing through the skin forcibly pulling it up, perhaps it didn’t even understand how to “smile.”
Its eyes, upon seeing Lu Jinzhao still in the room, revealed a light that could be called “surprise,” but this surprise didn’t add any sense of a living person to it; instead, it made it even more terrifying, just like a sheet of painted skin eager to stick onto a person.
