Hearing Xiao Ningjin’s words, Chi Shuyan nodded at Brother Feng, and had Xiao Ningjin follow her out.
In the long hallway outside, Chi Shuyan had Xiao Ningjin sit down. Xiao Ningjin had been uneasy all day. Although Master Chi said that with Ah Duo around, they would be fine, Xiao Ningjin still felt the most at ease next to Master Chi.
Without waiting for Chi Shuyan to ask, Xiao Ningjin said nicely, “Master Chi, don’t mind Panyang just now. He must have suffered a lot. We didn’t dare mention last night to him earlier!”
Chi Shuyan nodded. “It’s fine, I understand! Okay, you said you remember something?”
Xiao Ningjin shuddered. “Master Chi, I remember why Wang Yu was the first person that thing haunted.”
Xiao Ningjin paused and glanced at Chi Shuyan’s face before he continued, “Although I’m guessing, I think there’s a 80 to 90% chance I’m right. At first, we didn’t listen to anyone’s advice and went to Swan Lake to play. Because it was our first time there, we were especially excited. Other people went back, but we still hung around. We took two boats. Ah Duo, Luoying, Chang Hao and I were in one boat, while the others were in another.”
“When we were playing, it was Wang Yu who discovered a cave. He even said that he saw a dark figure in the cave. It was in the afternoon, and we didn’t take his words seriously. Before we went back that night, he suddenly said that he thought he heard a woman crying. It was late at night, and what Wang Yu said was quite scary. We told him to shut up; we thought he was joking. We didn’t take it seriously, but Wang Yu didn’t give up, and had us row the boats toward the cave again. He also said that he wanted to take a look inside and explore the place!”
At this point, Xiao Ningjin’s face was very unsightly. At that moment, he really wished he could turn back time. If they hadn’t listened to Wang Yu at that time, they probably wouldn’t have gotten into so much trouble and so many people wouldn’t have died.
His fingers turned white.
Chi Shuyan was also helpless when she heard this. Sure enough, Wang Yu wouldn’t have died if he hadn’t courted death. Xiao Ningjin continued, “Later, he wanted to enter the cave with a flashlight, but he accidentally fell into the water! The lake is very deep. After Wang Yu fell in, he flailed a few times, and the water quickly covered his head. After that, there was no more movement.”
Although they were on two boats at that time, it was only when Wei Panyang and the others called out to them that they found out that Wang Yu had fallen into the water. Wang Yu suddenly falling overboard scared them witless. Fortunately, not long after, Wang Yu suddenly floated up.
Later, Shen Zhihua, Fang Yinglong and Wei Panyang used all their strength to pull him up.
It was just that Shen Zhihua and Fang Yinglong didn’t control their strength, and they also fell into the water. After Shen Zhihua and Fang Yinglong fell into the water, they were in exactly the same state as Wang Yu. They struggled at first, and then they were underwater for a long time before they floated to the surface and were pulled onto the boat.
Xiao Ningjin hadn’t thought much of it back then, but thinking about it now, Wang Yu had been the first to die, followed by Shen Zhihua and then Fang Yinglong. Xiao Ningjin didn’t believe it was a coincidence.
When he said this, Xiao Ningjin shuddered violently. When he saw that they hadn’t come up yet, he had almost jumped into the water to save them back then. If he had, he would already be dead. Even if he didn’t die, he would have been possessed by that thing, just like Fang Yinglong. Thinking this, his heart turned cold. Moreover, he felt that Wang Yu hadn’t been lying when he said he heard a woman crying and saw a dark figure.
At the thought of how close they had been to that thing, Xiao Ningjin’s heart pounded.
Chi Shuyan wasn’t in a hurry to speak, but was deep in thought. She was also more and more certain of her guess about a ghost substitute. That ghost had indeed been trapped in that area at first and couldn’t go ashore.
Wang Yu falling into the water had probably given the other party an opportunity. When Wang Yu fell into the water, that thing had probably already wrapped itself around Wang Yu and come ashore. It killed Shen Zhihua and then wrapped itself around Fang Yinglong.
Chi Shuyan’s eyes flashed and she asked, “After they fell into the water and you pulled them onto the boat, was there anything unusual about the three of them?”
Xiao Ningjin shook his head and was about to say that he didn’t know, when he suddenly thought of something and said, “Their faces were especially pale, Master Chi. Yes, their faces were especially pale. I thought it was because they fell into the water, but even though it was past seven, the water wasn’t too cold. Wang Yu’s face in particular was deathly pale, like a dead person’s face!”
Xiao Ningjin shuddered and hurriedly said, “Master Chi, could it be that by then, the three of them were already…” Dead?
Chi Shuyan shook her head.
Seeing that, Xiao Ningjin heaved a sigh of relief. No matter how calm he was, he didn’t dare imagine spending so much time with three dead people in the car.
Although Wang Yu and the other two didn’t die, they were indeed haunted by that thing, which had also been in the car with them. Chi Shuyan didn’t want to scare him, so she asked again, “Did anything out of the ordinary happen during that time? For example, something that you noticed, or something related to those three?”
Xiao Ningjin thought for a while, but couldn’t think of anything. At that moment, Xiong Luoying came over. Who knew how long he had been listening to them. He walked over and said, “Master Chi, I also remember something. Wang Yu was the closest to Shi Ran. They were originally in the same car as Wei Panyang, but for some reason, Shi Ran suddenly changed his mind halfway and hurriedly said that he wanted to take our car! After he got out of Wei Panyang’s car, he kept staring at it from time to time, and he looked a little terrified!”
When Xiong Luoying mentioned this, Xiao Ningjin also remembered and said, “I remember: At that time, we thought that he and Wang Yu had suddenly gotten into some kind of argument, so we didn’t think much of it. On the way back, however, Shi Ran said that when he put his hand on Wang Yu’s shoulder, he felt something pressing down on his hand. He kept touching his arm, and his face was very terrified!”
Chi Shuyan didn’t forget what Jiang Duo had said before about Shi Ran staying with Wang Yu on the first night in the hotel. If he was very afraid of Wang Yu, he wouldn’t be in the same room with him at all.
When Chi Shuyan asked about this, Xiao Ningjin nodded. “When they were staying in the same room, something did happen, but Wang Yu didn’t know about it. That night, Shi Ran went to the room of the others for a while, and even asked them if there were ghosts in this world.”
It was a pity that they hadn’t believed in something as absurd as ghosts in this world at all back then. They said as much to Shi Ran, which seemed to dispel a lot of the fear in his heart. After that, he didn’t dwell on it and went back to the room that he shared with Wang Yu!
