In the instant darkness fell, Qu Jiaojiao's gaze stealthily darted toward the bedroom's floor-to-ceiling window, only to find that the small black shadow reflected in the glass was no longer there.
Her pupils contracted. Her nails, painted a vivid crimson, unconsciously tightened around the small bottle in her hand.
In the darkness, a very faint sound rang out, and a strange fragrance immediately permeated the room.
What was that, so fragrant?
The bizarre scent stimulated Feng Hao's sense of smell. In the darkness, he couldn't see anything, but this sweet aroma lured him to grope forward continuously.
Pressing her entire body tightly against the wall, Qu Jiaojiao didn't dare to breathe a word. Just then, she suddenly heard Feng Hao's voice.
"Little vixen, watch me catch you—hey, why is it so cold?"
Due to extreme tension, beads of sweat had formed on Qu Jiaojiao's forehead. She knew how deep the resentment of "that thing" was, and she also knew the immense danger she now faced.
Nevertheless, some things still had to be done, and some grudges had to be avenged.
The panting in the darkness suddenly turned into a piercing scream.
"Ahhhh!"
It was a cry of utmost terror and utmost misery, indicating that the person making the sound was enduring unimaginable pain.
Qu Jiaojiao's expression changed. At the same time, she grabbed the emergency light she had prepared. The entire bedroom was illuminated, and at the bedroom door, she saw a horrifying and nauseating scene.
Blood—a massive amount of blood, mixed with unrecognizable fragments of internal organs, stretched from the doorway all the way to the bedside. Feng Hao's gruesomely dead body lay at her feet!
No, he wasn't dead yet. Even though blood and entrails trailed across the floor, he still hadn't breathed his last. One hand trembled as it reached toward her, and his wide-open eyes seemed to silently question her about what was happening.
From his blood-soaked body, a small black hand emerged—a very, very tiny hand, even thinner than a baby's arm.
Because it had never truly come into this world, never absorbed any nourishment, it could forever remain in this small, frail state.
From conception to death, in its vague perception, there was only darkness. A warm, moist darkness was its sole memory, and the thing it instinctively sought after becoming a ghost.
Now, it had found it.
Inside Feng Hao's hollowed-out body, it had found that warm, moist darkness. No longer did it have to pitifully hide in the shadows of the window corner. How wonderful.
It burrowed deeper, its small black hand discontentedly pushing aside the obstructing things, while hiding its tiny body further into the warm darkness.
Glancing at Feng Hao writhing in pain at her feet, Qu Jiaojiao let out a sigh of relief, and her expression instantly turned icy.
"Brother Hao, this child is really afraid of the dark. Why don't you play with it for a while?"
"You... you..."
Though full of questions, Feng Hao couldn't speak. Every time he opened his mouth, a torrent of blood would gush out.
"You want to ask me what's going on, don't you?"
Even so, there was no trace of pity in Qu Jiaojiao's cold eyes; instead, a hint of satisfaction curled at the corners of her lips.
"Remember Qin Wan?"
Qin Wan? Amid his pained expression, Feng Hao showed confusion.
Who was Qin Wan?
"Of course you don't remember, do you? To people like you, what exactly are we?"
"Forget it, you probably won't last much longer. I won't beat around the bush." Qu Jiaojiao toyed with her red nails, her tone as casual as if she were chatting. "That's right, after Qin Wan came here, she worried her name was too rustic and unappealing, so she changed it to Qin Ruowei."
Qin Ruowei?
The man's nearly dilating pupils suddenly contracted sharply, as if something had clicked. At the same time, Qu Jiaojiao's delicate face, half-hidden in the darkness, turned bitterly cold.
"That's right. The woman you all conspired against, killing both her and her child."
"She was also my fellow villager, little sister, Qu Jiaojiao."
"Just a few days before she died, I got a call from her family, telling me to look after her and bring her home safely for the New Year."
Feng Hao suddenly understood. The past flashed before his eyes like lightning.
He remembered, over a year ago, one night when Wang Chengfa, who had been chasing Qu Jiaojiao for months, got drunk and demanded that Feng Hao send Qu Jiaojiao to spend the night with him.
If it had been anyone else, Qu Jiaojiao could have simply refused if she wasn't willing. But for a big shot like Mayor Wang, who could command wind and rain, neither she nor Feng Hao dared to play the foolhardy game of an egg hitting a rock.
So Qu Jiaojiao had to come up with a plan—pretend to be sick.
Feng Hao naturally saw through her act and was quite angry, but fearing that Qu Jiaojiao's stubbornness might provoke the other party, he didn't dare force her. While they were at a standoff, it was Qin Ruowei who stepped in to smooth things over, offering to take Qu Jiaojiao's place and appease Wang Chengfa.
Of course, in Feng Hao's eyes, Qin Ruowei's move was just an attempt to climb the social ladder. But in wealthy circles, Qin Ruowei was somewhat of a name. Since she was willing to take this hot potato, Feng Hao had no choice but to go along. Unexpectedly, within a few days, Qin Ruowei had earned Wang Chengfa's praise, and he even kept her as a mistress, playing the game of hiding a beauty in a golden house.
If things had stopped there, it would have been just another common drama among the rich. But not long after, Qin Ruowei gleefully told Qu Jiaojiao that she was pregnant.
Undoubtedly, it was Wang Chengfa's illegitimate child.
To protect his political career, Wang Chengfa naturally wouldn't leave behind a weapon that could destroy him at any time. So he gave Qin Wan a sum of money and told her to get rid of the problem.
Qin Wan was willful for once. Instead of aborting the baby, she took the money and hid somewhere else. She was just a poorly educated girl who simply liked children and believed she could raise one on her own.
She told Jiaojiao more than once that she had saved up quite a bit over the years in wealthy circles, and even if Wang Chengfa didn't acknowledge them, she could still live well.
But Wang Chengfa thought otherwise.
He had Feng Hao trick Qin Wan into coming out and forcibly aborted her when she was already seven or eight months pregnant.
As for how it was done, Jiaojiao didn't know, but she could imagine the immense pain Qin Wan suffered.
And soon after, Qin Wan died. Fortunately, Qu Jiaojiao saw her one last time and learned what Wang Chengfa and Feng Hao had done.
Two lives lost. As Qin Wan died, she held Qu Jiaojiao's hand, and through her grip, Qu Jiaojiao could feel her hatred.
Even more pitiful was the child.
That child had its life taken just before birth, never seeing the light. So, as a ghost, it could only slowly move its tiny body in the darkness.
Qu Jiaojiao had noticed long ago that this small black shadow would sob in the dark and secretly follow her. Perhaps because of the bond between mother and child, through Qin Wan's eyes before her death, Qu Jiaojiao was the last thing it saw.
Afraid of light, it usually hid in the shadows. Though Qu Jiaojiao sympathized with its experience, she also found it terrifying.
During that time, she dared not sleep with the lights off or stay in any dark place, because she didn't know what this light-fearing little ghost would do in complete darkness.
At the same time, she never forgot what Wang Chengfa and Feng Hao had done.
P.S. Just got back from a trip, spent the whole day in the car, got home too late. Posting the first chapter first; the second is being written now and will be out tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on whether I fall asleep before finishing.
Also, a little self-promotion: Strange Tales Radio Book Club, group number: [redacted]. Welcome friends who love this book to join and chat.