IWBL: Chapter 125

Compared with other ghosts, Fujiang was a very difficult type to work with. It wasn’t her ability. It was her personality. She was accustomed to shouting and ordering men around. This mentality couldn’t change overnight. Even now that she became a close relative of boiled chicken breast, she chose silent resistance.

Ri Yan was looking at the barrage instead of Fujiang and he told Xi, “I and the audience feels that she needs a shock education.”

Fujiang turned to look at him, making a sound from her throat that was full of contempt. This roughly equalled to: Boy, I’ll remember you.

Education was truly needed.

…However, now wasn’t the time to educate Fujiang. Xiao Li temporarily put Fujiang aside and rose from Taotie’s body to look at the paused ghost on the screen. The monitoring was unclear but the ghost’s rough appearance was barely visible. Xiao Li turned to the others and asked, “Have you ever heard of such a strange story?”

“I haven’t heard it.” Reiko thought carefully. “I only remember seeing a similar horror movie but… it isn’t exactly the same.”

Ri Yan carefully looked at the screen but didn’t see any useful information. The previous audience member who talked about their grandmother had completely disappeared and couldn’t be found. He waved his hand at the crowd.

Maybach was still examining the two bodies and comparing them to ordinary corpses. Taotie and the hotel manager had lost a lot of blood. A huge pool of blood was spread out under them, almost completely soaking their clothes. This made Maybach cross his legs to avoid standing in the blood.

However, Taotie and the other person had no obvious wound that caused death. The source of the blood loss remained open to discussion. It was like the blood inside the body was directly sucked out and the cause of death was a mystery.

Maybach’s position was closed to the door. He held the doorknob with one hand, as if he was afraid it would close at any time.

Xiao Li looked back, his eyes falling on the monitor screen.  There was a closed book on the table and the cover didn’t have a name. He just wanted to reach for the book when Hull, who was standing behind him, suddenly pinched his shoulder and called out in a short manner, “Mo.”

Hull and Xiao Li were very close. Xiao Li could feel the other person’s tense muscles and he seemed very nervous. This made Xiao Li retract his hand and turn to the surveillance screen. In a corner of the monitoring screen, a shadow was reflected.

There was a woman in red. She was standing in the lower right corner of this room. Her face was wounded and she stared at them with venomous eyes! Hull controlled his tone and quickly spoke in English. “I just looked back and didn’t see anything in that corner.”

The female ghost was so red that the reincarnators would see her as long as they weren’t blind. Not to mention that yesterday, they learned from Ri Yan to use the live broadcast room to see the entire room. Yet at this time, there was nothing.

Xiao Li didn’t look back. He thoughtfully stared at the corner of the monitor and reached out to touch the screen.

…Warm.

Their faces were also reflected on the surveillance screen. One was tense and the other one was questioning. Xiao Li and Hull’s state also attracted the attention of others. Ri Yan and Reiko raised their devices and phones and swept over the entire room. Once they got to that corner, Ri Yan took a big step back and spoke in an exaggerated manner. “My god! It’s red. Quickly leave!”

Red-clad ghosts were generally more powerful than white. This was a conventional concept. It was said that the causes of death for red-clad ghosts were extremely tragic. Thus, the ghost’s grievances would skyrocket. He spoke while moving toward the door. However, without the big people opening the door, he didn’t dare leave the team and act rashly.

Xiao Li was still sitting in place and looking at the monitoring screen. He didn’t know if it was his illusion but the moment Ri Yan and the others swept over that corner with their cameras, he seemed to feel that the red shadow on the screen became more solid.

For example, it was like a transparent layer had previously been superimposed, with a low red saturation. Now that layer had been slightly removed. Xiao Li suddenly opened his mouth. “Turn off all sources of possible reflection. Don’t use the camera to look.”

Ro Yan moved his camera away but there was a blank look in his eyes. “B-But we can’t see it…”

“Cameras aren’t the way the ghosts can be seen, they are a medium.” Xiao Li reached out and covered the monitoring screen with his palm, leaving only a small corner that showed half the body of the red ghost. “It is the medium for them to enter this world. In other words, the more you look at them, the faster they enter the world.”

Ri Yan was stunned again for a moment. Once he understood what Xiao Li meant, he immediately took a rag from the table and covered the lens of his live broadcast device, regardless of the mourning of the viewers.

[I can understand but now I can only rely on sound to listen to the big man’s godly operation QAQ.]

[It is dark with only sound… this is even more terrible.]

[I hope it’s fine… otherwise, if something happens to Ri Yan then I won’t be able to see him for the last time.]

[There is no way to lick the screen. I can only imagine the talking face of the handsome man for solace.]

Ri Yan and the others chose to cover their phone lens. Hull’s tense muscles relaxed for a second but he was still looking at the screen, at the ghost in the lower corner. The saturation of the red clothes was getting higher and higher, the colour more vivid…

It was slowly coming into the world. Was this the last ‘it’ that the task mentioned coming to Cavill Hotel?

“Moriarty…” Ri Yan’s voice sounded like he was crying. “We aren’t using our phones to watch but she is on the doorknob as well!”

He was crying and pointing to the doorknob, which reflected the face of the woman in red. Perhaps it was due to the small size of the doorknob but the face of the female ghost looked even more miserable. At first glance, it was like the famous ‘Scream’ painting.

Then after thinking that it was a ghost, Ri Yan couldn’t laugh and wanted to cry. Reiko covered the door handle with a towel in time. She looked around the whole room and breathed nervously. “There are too many reflective places in this room. It is impossible to defend It is better to change to a place with fewer reflective surfaces.”

“It’s useless.” Xiao Li stated. “Even if we leave here, there will never be a lack of reflection in this hotel. It can slowly emerge into the world.”

Hull stated, “But it will be a bit later… it is better than the ghost coming earlier. We still have some time to prepare.”

After all, task one was a survival mission. It was good to be able to procrastinate a bit.

“…Wait a minute.” Xiao Li stared at the reflection on the surveillance screen in front of him. “Let me confirm it.”

A place he cared about.

“Confirm what?” Ro Yan didn’t dare look in the corner but he also wanted to see it again because he was afraid the female ghost would suddenly appear there. He was feeling complicated under the torment of these two conflicting ideas.

Xiao Li replied in a perfunctory manner. “One thing…”

On the monitor screen, the red-clad ghost in the corner was no longer standing against the wall. She took a step toward him, like the spread of death. Her long red dress was like a lotus leaf but there were no folds. Xiao Li stood up and glanced to the left and right. Then he picked up the ashtray from the table.

“What are you going to do today?” Ri Yan asked blankly.

“Smash it.”

Xiao Li held the ashtray in his hand. It was quite heavy. He bent his arm like he was lifting weights and rolled his neck until the inertia came up and he swung it hard at the monitoring screen. The first time, the screen only bent and the reflection was still there. Xiao Li swung it a second time. This time was accompanied by a loud banging sound. The monitoring screen was punched through and currents were flying around as smoke emerged from the screen.

The monitoring screen was the biggest source of reflection for the red ghost in the room. Now the channel was lost after being smashed by Xiao Li. Xiao Li looked back to the corner where the ghost had originally been.

This time, he could see the outline of the ghost with his naked eye, although it was only the upper part of the body. Her hair was a bit messy like she had encountered an electrical storm and she was somewhat confused. It seemed to be the case.

Xiao Li looked at this scene and made a surprised sound. “Eh?”

“Let’s get out of here earlier. S-She’s coming!” Xie Zeqing had already slipped to the doorway and was waiting for Xiao Li to follow.

Xiao Li looked like it was unfortunate. “I wondered if breaking her channel meant she would be stuck but it seems that as long as a connection is established, she can still come here and it will only have a little impact on her…”

Xie Zeqing muttered, “…It is good to have an impact!”

The arrival of the girl in red clothes was accompanied by a light voice as she asked the reincarnators in the room, “You… do you like red clothes? It is a beautiful red.”

This question allowed everyone to know that the fifth strange story was the red woman.

It was said that the red woman originally wore a white dress. She liked to dress herself up but on her way to school, someone brutally killed her, draining her of blood. Before her death, the bloody liquid dyed her skirt red. From then on, as soon as the red woman appeared, she would ask the target, “Do you like red clothes?”

If they answered ‘like’, they would be killed and their clothes dyed red in the same way. If they answered ‘don’t like it’, they would still be killed. At the same time, she would leave a sentence in blood: If you don’t like it then you should try it. Just in case… you do like it?]

It could be called the typical forced buying.

The red woman appeared in this room. It was unfortunate but Ri Yan, who was halfway out the room and ready to run at any time, pricked his ears. He caught a voice that didn’t belong to the red woman. It was a cry that came from both far away and near…

“Wu, wu, wu.”

It was a cry he was familiar with. It used to be Ri Yan’s nightmare. Of course, that didn’t mean it wasn’t still a nightmare. He still dreamed of her but it often turned into a comedy dream. Now that he heard this crying, he felt stupid. The double misfortune was stacked up and became more unfortunate.

“Moriarty—” Reiko’s voice was tense and dry, like she had seen something that shouldn’t be seen.

Xiao Li originally remained in the room to attempt a conversation with the red woman. This time, it was Reiko who shouted so he came over and asked, “What’s going on outside?”

Xiao Li poked his head out. This time, he didn’t need Reiko’s answer because he saw it himself.

In the corridor, the only exits were to the left and right sides. One side was the stairs and there was a pair of legs with no upper body. The other side was the elevator. There was a weeping woman with red hair like a dog had gnawed on it. She was walking this way with a posture of Meng Jiang crying on the Great Wall. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Meng_Jiang)

Xiao Li, “………”

He looked back at the room that contained Fujiang and the red woman. “This coincidence… did you plan it together?”

There were a wolf and a tiger in front of him. Ri Yan was burning in the middle. He trembled and couldn’t speak. Then Xie Zeqing spoke bitterly, “It isn’t a coincidence. This was deliberately made. Is today a general assembly to avenge Moriarty’s crimes?”

Ri Yan glanced at Xie Zeqing and wanted to say, ‘No, this isn’t the Avengers Alliance. Isn’t it the Victims Alliance?’

He thought this but couldn’t say so.

“I… do we still go out?” Hull was desperate to get the conversation back on track. “Will we really be stuck here?”

Xiao Li glanced at him. “If you want to go out then we will definitely go out. You’ll see.”

He raised Fujiang’s head and walked outside.

This time, Fujiang grew very quickly. She had completely grown a head and small neck, looking like a highly amputated adult. She had a bit of pain from being pulled and had forgotten the excuse she made just now. She opened her mouth with discontent and said, “How can you be so rude? Shouldn’t you be gentle with girls?”

She barely managed to speak when she was stuffed into cold arms. Fujiang looked up and met a weeping face. Her face was also hit with two drops of big tears. Then she heard Xiao Li say to the weeping woman, “I have good news. Your child has been found. It’s her.”

Fujiang, “……?!!”

Was he a ghost?!

The weeping woman: crying.

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The author has something to say:

@Say it to Sherlock bot, I will update the second contribution for you. This contribution is from a world-renowned evil spirit.

[@Say it to Sherlock bot, Thank you. After reading the first submission, I am a bit anxious. I just want to say to Mr Xia, “Don’t you know the meaning of killing a chicken with a cow’s knife? I am a big prophet. Although I have the word ‘pen’ in my name, I’m not a mobile refuelling field. I can only answer advanced prophecies. Next time, I won’t make an exception.]

[Comment 1: There is a pen in the name. I’m blindly guessing the pen fairy.]

[Comment 2: Advanced prophecies… the prophecy mirror next door, do you dare to fight?]

[Comment 3: Next time Xiao Xia summons you, let’s test the two of you with a few questions. The one who answers correctly will be the ultimate king of prophecy.]

[The prophecy mirror: ? Just don’t let me predict Sherlock.]