Chapter 45: Chang Street Slaughterhouse
There was more than one Butcher’s Table, hiding behind the dense jungle of flesh and blood. Wei Ling could see the mottled marks on the Butcher’s Table, the cold instruments and equipment, and strange chains that didn’t seem meant to lock animals.
Just seeing the four rings fixed on the silver Butcher’s Table closest to her gave Wei Ling an instinctive premonition that this layout wasn’t for controlling animals—it perfectly matched a human’s body size no matter how she looked at it.
Was this Butcher’s Table really designed for slaughtering animals?
While thinking, Wei Ling felt the place was too dim. Even with the red light, it didn’t provide much line of sight, and moreover, dense hanging meat blocked the area behind the Butcher’s Table like heavy curtains.
She wanted to see more clearly. The place was too quiet. She didn’t know how to hand the rat she was holding in her left hand to the butcher, especially since there wasn’t even a shadow of the butcher here.
Perhaps she had missed some detail?
Thinking this way, Wei Ling took out her mobile phone and turned on the flashlight, shining it toward the back of the Butcher’s Table.
The instant the white light dispersed the darkness ahead, a huge shadow figure suddenly appeared in her line of sight.
It stood silently behind several panels of bright red flesh and blood, facing Wei Ling directly through the Butcher’s Table.
The red-and-white intersecting light shone on it, revealing only its extremely tall figure, brown butcher waterproof apron, a pair of rough hands that seemed sewn countless times, and the butcher knife in its hand.
What thing?!
Instantly, Wei Ling’s body stiffened, her pupils contracted sharply, and her feet instinctively wanted to retreat, but as soon as she moved, she sensed an extreme danger surging toward her!
That originally silent figure seemed to move slightly in that instant.
Wei Ling immediately stopped her movement and froze in place.
“What’s the situation?!”
Wei Ling’s complexion completely stiffened. Under fear and crisis, her brain raced, and soon she reacted—that should be the butcher.
“When did it get there?”
“Has it always been there? Watching me approach it right from that spot?”
“Why didn’t it make any sound?”
“Did it do it on purpose?”
Sweat beaded on Wei Ling’s forehead. Only two seconds had passed, but the thoughts flooding her mind were already making her somewhat confused.
“Calm down.”
She had confirmed that the huge figure in front of her, nearly over two meters tall, absolutely could not be human.
“I can’t retreat.”
The ghost had reacted as soon as she made the slightest retreating motion.
“Right, I’m here to hand over the rat. Running now might violate this ghost’s taboo.”
“It’s watching me here but hasn’t killed me, which must be because I haven’t violated the taboo. It can’t ignore the rules and kill me directly.”
Wei Ling kept giving herself mental suggestions, finally easing some of the numbing sensation throughout her body caused by fear.
Her palms were sweaty, making the rope holding the rat feel especially slippery, but Wei Ling could only grip it tightly, not letting the rat escape.
“Can’t leave. Need to give it the rat.”
This meant she needed to approach that ghost.
The thought alone made Wei Ling’s scalp tingle.
She already wanted to retreat just from looking at the ghost across the Butcher’s Table and some distance.
Actively approach it? Crazy!
But now, she had no choice.
Wei Ling kept taking deep breaths in place. She didn’t care that the air filling her nostrils was all the smell of blood.
Only after mentally preparing herself did Wei Ling steel herself and probe forward with one step.
This step was taken extremely slowly, with her paying attention the whole time to whether the figure ahead reacted to her movement.
“No reaction.”
As this step landed, the ghost made no movement.
Exhale.
Wei Ling breathed a sigh of relief.
“Looks like this is the right way.”
The success of this step gave her a bit of confidence. She took another deep breath and probed forward again.
After taking a few more steps until nearing the Butcher’s Table, the ghost still made no sound.
As if it were just a motionless statue.
But Wei Ling knew it wasn’t.
She couldn’t see its face. It was too tall; its face was hidden behind the flesh and blood and in the darkness, but it was watching her.
It was waiting for her to make a mistake.
Even after approaching the Butcher’s Table, Wei Ling saw no other place to put animals besides the Butcher’s Table itself.
“So, I need to put the rat on the Butcher’s Table?”
Thinking this, Wei Ling slowly lifted the rope in her hand, but the rat tied by the rope seemed to sense some intense crisis and struggled frantically.
Just putting it like this would definitely let the rat escape.
But she didn’t dare kill the rat casually. What if this ghost preferred it alive?
The next second, Wei Ling’s gaze fell on the iron chains on the Butcher’s Table.
Though the size wasn’t prepared for a rat, using it to hold the rat down and prevent escape was more than sufficient.
Wei Ling kept her eyes on the ghost while securing the rat to the Butcher’s Table.
After doing all this, the ghost still made no movement.
This undoubtedly let Wei Ling breathe another sigh of relief.
“Success.”
She let go of her hand and wiped the cold sweat dripping down with the back of her hand.
Only then did she realize her heartbeat was a bit too fast, and her muscles were overly tense from nervousness. A simple action felt like it had been a long run.
“Now, can I leave?”
Though thinking this, Wei Ling still didn’t move.
She was still shaken by the scene of the ghost suddenly moving earlier.
After a stalemate of a few minutes, Wei Ling couldn’t endure it anymore.
Going forward was impossible. Just looking at the ghost made her feel like the pressure would crush her.
But she was afraid to retreat too.
“Believe in Lu Jinzhao.” In this predicament, Wei Ling made this decision once again.
She didn’t want to stay here any longer. She always felt like that ghost was watching her.
In this situation, she felt her mental pressure was too great. Staying even a bit longer might make her reason fade.
While she could still think, she decided to retreat.
Wei Ling probed backward with one step.
The ghost didn’t move.
But the chill, as if in an ice cellar, grew even heavier.
And even if she didn’t move, this chill showed no sign of fading; instead, it grew colder as time passed.
“No good, I need to hurry.” Wei Ling’s complexion changed.
She didn’t know if this bone-chilling cold was an illusion, but she knew that with the temperature dropping continuously, if she didn’t leave soon, she really wouldn’t be able to.
Since the first step was fine, Wei Ling no longer moved cautiously but suddenly began retreating. However, she didn’t dare turn her back to the ghost. During the retreat, she kept watching it, not shifting the mobile phone’s light away.
She feared that if she wasn’t careful, the ghost would appear right in front of her.
Such things weren’t unprecedented.
