C144.1 — [6.10 — The Strange Tales of Fengjia Town]
by UntamedS[Whose voice is that? The camera isn’t showing anyone!]
[It seems to be the priest! God, I can’t believe I’m saying this to his face. If it’s really a demonic possession, he’ll be ki-lled by the ghost, right?]
[Can the priest see? Run away! Come on, go! This ghost is fierce!]
[I don’t see how fierce it is; just that the anchor’s face is as white as paper; it’s a bit scary; the priest should be able to see it too.]
[… Anyway, it’s better to leave here first.]
In the live broadcast room, the talkative viewers were still swiping the screen.
Jiu Shu’s gaze fell on the mobile phone for a moment before raising his eyes to look at ‘Ai Lan’.
This pretty young woman’s face was white, the hostility in her eyes had disappeared, and she was visibly flustered.
In contrast, the priest’s gaze was unusually calm, waiting for ‘Ai Lan’s” reply.
Looking into the priest’s beautiful eyes, the ghost’s brain went blank, and its throat was so dry that it couldn’t make a sound.
The atmosphere became more and more tense for a while.
At this moment, only the devout prayers of those believers remained in the church, and on the streets of the town outside the church, it seemed that even the fog had become much heavier.
“No, they’re lying!”
In the end, the ghost spat out a few words with difficulty, its tone stiff.
Although it had always claimed that it didn’t care if its true identity would be discovered by the priest, when this moment really came, the ghost realized that it wasn’t as comfortable as it thought it would be.
This was highly unusual for a ghost whose mind was filled with nothing but k-illing.
Especially this off-the-cuff word of panic; it was rather like a cover-up.
Anyone who heard such words would sense something strange in it.
“……”
After realizing this, it fell into silence, suddenly a little afraid to look into the priest’s eyes again.
Then it twisted its stiff neck vertebrae, lowered its head, and stared dead at its pale fingers that were trembling slightly.
It wasn’t afraid of being discovered by the priest.
It really wasn’t.
The ghost guessed that it had probably messed up its brain while traveling through time, and that was why it had become so strange.
It shouldn’t be this weird.
Why should it care? He was just a priest who could be ki-lled easily.
[The priest knows!]
[In that case, the priest shouldn’t hate me anymore.]
At that moment, Gu Yin in his body was also murmuring, hope slowly surging up in his voice that was still hoarse with despair.
[The priest will definitely find a way to get rid of you, a severe ghost; when he finds out, yes, he won’t hate me; he’ll only hate you, only hate you!]
Gu Yin became excited.
He saw the hope of getting back together with the priest.
Call him naive or cowardly, Gu Yin still couldn’t accept the fact that he and the priest could never be together or that he’d be hated by the priest forever.
Now even the slightest bit of hope would excite him beyond measure.
Gu Yin’s voice snapped the ghost out of its trance.
The ghost came back to his senses, and before it could mock Gu Yin’s naivety, it heard the priest’s gentle voice in its ear, “So, is it a live set?”
“It’s really hard to tell what’s true and false online…”
Saying that, the priest returned the mobile phone to the ghost, seeming to really believe this statement of the ghost.
[No way, he just believe it? This priest is too easily fooled.]
[How come the camera is still not open? Ah, I really want to see the anchor’s expression now; that ghost-like pale face is really suspicious. It’s not like a normal person at all.]
[Can you please stop acting? If you have the ability, come up with a real ghost. It’s really boring to pretend to be a ghost now. Because of the previous supernatural video, I specifically came here…]
Apparently, although the live broadcast room had been blackscreened out, due to the fact that Ai Lan’s previous paranormal video was uploaded to the internet, the popularity was getting higher and higher, and more and more people came to this live broadcast room.
The people were talking and arguing; some were worried about the safety of the priest and the others.
Some people were watching the fun and didn’t believe in the existence of real ghosts at all.
-Hey, if you don’t believe in ghosts, why are you still staying in this live room?]
[For those who don’t believe, you must have been blinded by ghosts. Do you know what it means to be blinded by ghosts? Ghosts can choose whatever they want you to see.]
The ghost stiffly took the mobile phone from Jiu Shu’s hands and looked over the screen, at the “ghost” and other words; it tried to hook the corners of its mouth, mimicking the appearance of normal humans to show a smile.
It seemed to want to use this to refute the nonsense in the live broadcast, proving that it wasn’t possessed by a ghost.
However, the ghost’s miserable white complexion made this smile seem particularly eerie.
Jiu Shu looked at the creepy smile on the ghost’s face and arched his eyebrow, his voice still soft. “You seem a bit nervous; are you still worried about that ghost? Don’t worry.”
Saying that, the priest reached out his hand and gently stroked the top of ‘Ai Lan’s’ head.
This was a common way of praying, used by the priests of god’s church to pacify the believers.
Feeling the warmth of the top of her head, ‘Ai Lan’s’ body stiffened before relaxing.
“In the church, the Lord will bless His lambs.”
The priest stood beside ‘Ai Lan’, and when he looked down at ‘Ai Lan’, his eyes had a crystal-like clarity under the refraction of the light.
The gentle tone seemed to have a few more hints of ambiguity as well.
‘Ai Lan’ met the priest’s eyes and stayed dumbfounded for a while before withdrawing her gaze somewhat lamely.
The ghost felt that there must be some kind of disease in this woman’s body right now, so much so that her heart was beating so fast that it seemed as if it would jump out of her chest the next moment.
It’d only take a moment to dispose of this annoying body.
‘Ai Lan’s’ gloomy brows were furrowed as she contemplated various ways to dispose of the body, seemingly unconcerned by the priest’s gentle demeanor towards her.
The roots of its ears, however, flushed a slight red.
[It’s not! It’s not! It’s lying to you! It’s lying to you!}
[Don’t believe it, Father. It’s a monster! It’s a monster!]
Gu Yin’s voice was suppressed and desperate.
The feeling of his only hope being dashed before his eyes made him almost go completely insane.
He could feel his soul gradually becoming weaker.
Gu Yin understood that if he didn’t quickly find a way to drive away the ghost that had taken over his body, he would completely disappear.
The original delusions in his heart, those foolish entanglements between positions, had finally become flowers in a mirror and the moon in water.
Originally, he was still torn between friendship and the priest, but now he had even lost the qualification to touch the priest.
The most frightening thing was that this ghost would also hurt the priest.
No matter what, Gu Yin didn’t want the priest to get hurt.
But now he was powerless over everything, weak and sad.
From the beginning, he was a monster that could only live in a dark corner, ugly and pathetic, yet he unrealistically expected to step into the light.
And now he had dragged the priest into harm’s way.
Maybe the priest wasn’t wrong to hate him.
Because he was so incompetent and weak that he shouldn’t even exist.
After all, he had approached the priest with the idea of teaching him a lesson from the beginning.
Now that he was hated and loathed, he was to blame.
This ghost was his own retribution.
Under the crush of countless despairing emotions, Gu Yin’s soul huddled in the corner of his shell flickered brightly and dimly, seemingly threatening to go out at any moment.
This should have been a scene that the ghost was happy to see.
It was waiting until Gu Yin’s soul completely dissipated and then it could start its revenge plan.
But now the ghost unexpectedly didn’t care much about him anymore, and it focused more on the priest.
The ghost was still unable to take its attention away from the priest.
It was as if it was uncontrollable; its gaze would always involuntarily follow the priest’s back.
The priest was now calming the other believers in the church; only he didn’t reach out to stroke the tops of their heads but instead looked at them with a light smile.
Although being too close to those believers was a bit of an eyesore.
But… didn’t this also show that the priest was only special to it?
After realizing this, the ghost shifted a little and pursed its lips; its pitch black pupils made it impossible to see its emotions, and it just touched its burning ears a little stiffly.
Only after a long time did it withdraw its hand.
Coincidentally, at this time, the prayers of the believers came to an end, and a few female believers next to them began to whisper.
Although they purposely lowered their voices, they could still be easily heard by the ghost.
The ghost heard them discussing it.
“Father… seems to be particularly gentle with her.”
It was the same as the woman rescued from the pig cage before.
Most of these female believers were housewives who had escaped from their families in the town, ranging in age from younger to wrinkled and covered with the vicissitudes of age.
The younger women obviously paid more attention to the priest’s every move.
“It’s an illusion; Father treats us all the same!” The older women said, glancing reverently and fervently at the priest who was flipping through his Bible in the distance.
In the eyes of these women, who had suffered years of domestic violence and were not allowed to live, the priest was the god who saved them from escaping their misery, so naturally they would not question the priest in the slightest.
“The priest is very good, but that woman is not necessarily very good; look at the way she is dressed; her face is full of charm, and when she walks so close to the priest, it is obvious that she has other intentions!”
The younger woman, Xiao Hong, glanced at the ‘Ai Lan’ not far away with some jealousy.
Of course, she was also full of respect and admiration for the priest.
But in the end, she was younger and harbored some unspoken thoughts about the priest, and now she was just like a jealous woman, with an acidic tone in her words.
Xiao Hong had long been dissatisfied with Ai Lan.
From the moment she entered the church, she had been pestering the priest, and she was also full of crazy talk, saying such ridiculous things as a ghost claiming her life; she wasn’t a good woman at all.
Of course, the more important reason was that ‘Ai Lan’s’ looks were really pretty.
It was naturally inferior to Feng Qi, who was recognized as the number one beauty in the town, but it was much better looking than these women, who had wasted most of their lives in the town.
It was understandable for the priest to be attracted to her.
“The priest won’t fall for her, right?”
Xiao Hong was worried, and trepidation showed in her eyes.
If the priest really liked this outsider woman, it would be very likely that he would follow her out of Fengjia Town.
He wouldn’t stay in this remote and backward town anymore.
She was really too afraid of losing the priest.
Losing the priest would bring her back to the days in the past when life was worse than death.
After tasting the present freedom, no one could endure those days of being beaten and scolded at will.
“It won’t be… it won’t be… ” The other women comforted, but their hearts couldn’t help but feel a little apprehensive.
Xiao Hong also forced a smile to comfort herself: “Yeah, maybe it’s the woman’s face that makes him gentler. Father is not such a shallow person.”
“Yeah, it’s probably just the novelty. He likes to take a few more glances at that face, but there’s nothing really attractive about it.”
After all, the priest himself was the real beauty.
Ai Lan was nothing compared to that.
Saying that, they turned their gaze towards ‘Ai Lan’.
But somewhat unexpectedly, they saw that ‘Ai Lan’ had taken out her mobile phone and was looking at her face with the front camera, seemingly immersed in her beauty.
It was just that the posture of this outlander named Ai Lan was more or less stiff.
Like a corpse that had been stiff for a long time, the joints emitted strange cackling noises from time to time, giving people a strong sense of incongruity.
Like it?
Did he like this face?
‘Ai Lan’ looked at the face in the camera.
It was blo-odless, but the features showed the characteristic beauty of a woman.
Although it was nowhere near as handsome as the priest’s, it could be called charming.
The priest liked this face?
He didn’t like Gu Yin’s face anymore?
Was it because of the love compulsion’s order?
Now he didn’t like Gu Yin anymore and had started to like this woman instead.
This was exactly what the ghost wanted to see.
No one knew better how fragile Gu Yin’s spirit was; just a little more stimulation was needed to break him completely.
Then, his body would be completely empty.
[… Also, Gu Yin, your face is too ugly; it’s only natural for a priest to like someone else.]
The ghost snorted, ignoring the depressing emotions inexplicably rising within it.
It just suddenly felt that this face in the mobile phone’s camera was just an eyesore, and it wanted to tear it apart so badly, for no reason.
It wasn’t jealous of her face.
After all, it wasn’t stupid like Gu Yin.
Gu Yin curled up, his eyes hollow, and he seemed to no longer be able to hear the voice of the ghost.
He had known for a long time that he was ugly and unworthy of the priest.
But every time he faced the truth head-on, it still caused Gu Yin to feel deep despair, and his breath became weaker and weaker with it.
Seeing this, the ghost’s eyes widened in happiness to the point where the corners of its mouth were almost tugging at the base of his ears.
However, a moment later, having learned the lesson of almost being caught just now, it still restrained the appalling smile on its face and continued to put on a normal appearance.
This was right.
Such a desperate and miserable Gu Yin was what it wanted to see the most.
In his last life and this life, they should all be equally miserable.
The Gu Yin that was about to step into a happy future was wrong, and fortunately, he had been corrected now.
It was impossible for a Gu Yin to be happy.
Just as it was, any possibility of being happier than it was shouldn’t exist.
The priest was nothing more than an accident.
As good-looking as he was, the odds were that the priest who spent his days smiling at other people was nothing more than a selfish human with a good face and a black heart.
Having devoured countless fragments of humans, the ghost knew all too well the vile nature of the human heart.
From the memory of its previous life, the priest wouldn’t be an exception.
In his previous life, the priest was found to have embezzled a lot of church assets right after his death, which could be described as a discrepancy between the outside and the inside.
With a good skin, he was a golden jade outside and corrupt inside.
This kind of human who was greedy and indulged his own desires couldn’t possibly look at that stupid thing, Gu Yin.
A dirty, ugly, worthless monster.
Only a fool like Gu Yin would think that he could really have feelings for the priest.
Without the love compulsion, Gu Yin wouldn’t even be qualified to talk to the priest.
He was just a disgusting monster.
Thinking about this, the ghost remembered those memories in Gu Yin’s head again and was literally about to vomit in disgust.
Oscillating between Feng Qi and the priest, weak and indecisive, naive and foolish.
Overly concerned about his appearance, overly reliant on his so-called best friend Feng Qi.
Such a Gu Yin was undoubtedly the past self that the ghost hated the most.
It would be best for this kind of pathetic guy to die before it was too late.
Thinking like this, the ghost lowered his head and scratched its smooth cheeks with its fingers, waiting for Gu Yin’s complete demise.
Gu Yin had been trapped in the corner of the shell and completely silenced; his dull eyes were open, clearly having lost the will to live.
The ghost knew it wouldn’t be long before it succeeded.
The ghost was patient now.
It was just the right amount of time to figure out what to do with the humans in this town.
And this body, which was an eyesore from start to finish.
The fingers placed on the face pressed down hard.
It wasn’t until some red marks were left on the face that the ghost withdrew its hand with a grim expression.
Especially this face.
If it wasn’t inappropriate to arouse the priest’s suspicion right now, it would want to tear this face apart right now.
Looking towards the other believers in the church, the ghost’s face was expressionless as it landed its gaze on the priest.
This priest was smiling at the others again.
He was a guy with no sense of proportion; he casually got so close to other people.
What debauchery.
When it got its own body, it would surely temper …. teach this hypocritical priest.
With the love compulsion, this hypocritical priest should be much more interesting than in its last life.
At this time in the church, the other women were still whispering about Ai Lan.
The ghost put away its mobile phone and glanced at them casually.
In its last life, all of these women had died.
Died the night before the townspeople fled the town en masse.
In order to prevent the women from revealing the town’s long-standing crimes after escaping the town, they all had to be left behind in the town.
Just like him, they stayed forever, becoming the resentful spirits that were subdued under the town, tearing each other apart over the long years, raising the most powerful of the ghosts like a parasite.
The ghost cocked his head and withdrew its gaze, its face expressionless as it looked down at its nail polish-stained fingers.
Ai Lan’s body was a very typical body of a pampered city woman.
It was similar, and not so similar, to the arms that had been stitched around its soul.
The ghost looked into the overhead light at her arms, pale and thin, but the shadows in the light vaguely showed several pairs of arms strewn with scars.
There were both men and women’s arms.
It looked grotesque and ugly.
The ghost vaguely remembered that there were times in its previous life when it cared a lot about his appearance.
But after death, its soul had also turned into a grotesque appearance made from a patchwork of things, and it no longer cared.
It was no longer the same cowardly and incompetent self it had been in the past.
It was nothing like Gu Yin.
It didn’t care if the priest would like its appearance.
It just needed to keep the priest by its side forever and then ki-ll him when it got tired of playing with him.
That would be the perfect revenge.
“Well, that is all for today’s prayers; you may go home on your own, and be careful not to linger outside.”
The priest stood on the church altar and announced the end of today’s ceremony.
It was already midday, and although the fog was still drifting through the town, it was no longer as oppressive as it had been in the morning.
When Jiu Shu finished, he glanced at the ghost on the stage who still had its head bowed.
Although the fog wasn’t as oppressive anymore, Jiu Shu could detect that the air in the town was getting more and more humid, and it was obvious that something bad was about to happen.
Thinking it over, Jiu Shu put away the Bible in his hand and turned to leave the church hall, returning to the lounge.
The ghost didn’t raise its head until the priest had left and looked at the priest’s back for a long time, not saying a word in a manner that made people unable to fathom what was going on in its mind.
The ghost didn’t notice that with the priest’s departure, the already desperate Gu Yin became more and more silent, and the fog in the town became more and more humid with it.
There seemed to be even more shadows growing under the haze of the fog than before, covering the entire town in a fog so thick that no way out could be glimpsed.
“Hey look, that girl is still staring at the priest, it seems like she’s infatuated, really!”
Xiao Hong whispered, her expression twisting slightly with jealousy.
Although the priest was also nice to her, with a gentle attitude and a gentleness she had never experienced before, a woman’s intuition told Xiao Hong that the priest’s attitude towards this ‘Ai Lan’ was significantly different.
This made Xiao Hong simply unable to hold back the jealousy in her heart, and she kept talking non-stop, so much so that even her companions had their ears calloused and dispersed hopelessly.
They also had to go home to continue to pray; they didn’t have time to stay here to listen to Xiao Hong chatter.
This made Xiao Hong more and more depressed, wondering why her sisters didn’t join her in the same fight.
Weren’t they afraid that the priest would leave the town because of Ai Lan?
“Don’t you think so? You’re a man; you should also think that the one called Ai Lan is very cute, right? But do you know that this kind of person has a heavy heart and isn’t a good woman at all?”
Without a companion to complain to, Xiao Hong casually sat aside to talk to another believer.
It happened to be the bearded man who had been shivering in his seat and didn’t dare to speak.
The bearded man had become extremely quiet since the moment ‘Ai Lan’ returned to the hall, not daring to say a single word.
At this moment, he was caught by Xiao Hong and had no choice but to listen to an earful of complaints.
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