The Masked Ghost
1074 Words
Outside the old district.
A man who had just activated the f*******n zone sat by a signboard, glanced back at the half of the old district frozen like a painting, and shook his head helplessly. He pulled out his phone and started playing a match-three game.
"Bro, why are you sitting here playing on your phone in the middle of the night? Not afraid your butt's gonna freeze?"
Not long after, a passerby came from across the street, chuckling at the sight.
The man looked up at him, then lowered his head to keep playing. "Nothing to do. Just bored."
The passerby smiled, pulled out a cigarette, and handed it over.
The man waved it away and said seriously, "I'm on duty. No smoking."
"Heh, you're squatting by the road playing on your phone—this counts as work?"
"Yep."
"Alright then." The passerby shrugged and walked toward the street behind the man.
"Where you going?" the man suddenly asked.
"Home."
"You can't go back. At least, not right now."
The passerby raised a brow. "What do you mean?"
"This road's closed. You can go when it reopens." The man pointed at the signboard.
The passerby followed his finger and saw the strange sign standing in the middle of the road. Just as he was about to speak, the words "No Entry Ahead" glimmered faintly for a moment.
His gaze turned blank.
A few seconds later, he stiffly turned around and walked back the way he came, his eyes filled with confusion…
The man didn't seem surprised. Just as he was about to resume his game, another man's voice suddenly came through his earpiece.
"Zhao Kongcheng!!"
At that instant, the man jumped up, the leisure and drowsiness on his face vanishing, replaced by complete seriousness.
"Here! Captain, what happened?"
"We've got a problem. One of the masked ghosts advanced to a Masked Ghost King. While we were taking out the others, it severely injured Hong Ying and escaped the f*******n zone through the sewers."
"Masked Ghost King?" Zhao Kongcheng's face changed. "Which direction? I'll block it!"
"No, Kongcheng. You're not a fighter. You can't beat it. I'll chase it down."
Zhao froze. "Then I—"
"After the Ghost King escaped, two more masked ghosts also slipped into the sewers. The others are busy wiping out the remaining ones."
"Which direction?"
"Southeast."
"Got it."
A sharp light flashed in Zhao Kongcheng's eyes as he sprinted to the other end of the street, jumped into a black van, slammed the gas, and roared off into the night.
On the passenger seat sat a neatly folded black-and-red cloak…
and a sheathed straight blade.
…
"Alright, I'm turning here. I'll head off first."
Wang Shao stopped and turned to the four people behind him.
Just then, Li Yifei suddenly remembered something. "Wang Shao, if I'm not mistaken, you live near the old district, right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"…Nothing. Just be careful on your way back."
Wang Shao twitched his lips and rolled his eyes. "If you've got something to say, just say it. Don't stop halfway—it's annoying."
Li Yifei hesitated. "I heard the old district's been unsafe lately. There's a psycho killer around."
"A psycho killer? Seriously?" Jiang Qian looked doubtful.
"Of course! You guys might not know, but over the past few days, more than a dozen people have died there."
"A dozen? No way. If that were true, it'd be all over the news." Wang Shao shook his head.
"Heh, why not? The whole thing's suspicious. Higher-ups covered it up. If my dad didn't work at the police station, I wouldn't know either."
"Suspicious? How so?"
"They say…" Li Yifei lowered his voice even more. "They say the victims had their entire faces peeled off, leaving nothing but b****y flesh and bulging eyes. Brutal stuff."
A cool night breeze blew past. Hearing that, everyone felt a chill shoot from their feet to their heads.
"Li Yifei! Are you crazy, saying that in the middle of the night?" Jiang Qian's face went pale. She instinctively scanned the empty street, irritation creeping in.
This was already near the old district, a remote part of Cangnan City. After evening classes, it was close to 10 p.m., and the streets were deserted. Combined with Li Yifei's words, the atmosphere was downright creepy.
Even Wang Shao and Liu Yuan, both grown men, felt uneasy. Wang glanced at the narrow alley he was about to take, suddenly losing confidence.
If Li Yifei's words were just unsettling, then Lin Qiye's next sentence made their scalps tingle.
Lin thought for a moment, then said quietly, "Are you sure… this was done by a human?"
"Qiye, you—" Jiang Qian shivered.
Wang Shao and Liu Yuan's lips twitched, giving Lin a strange look.
So you're the one hiding the deepest, huh?
Li Yifei's eyes lit up. "You think so too?"
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Jiang Qian snapped, grabbing Li's arm and twisting hard. He yelped in pain.
"Stop with the ghost stories at night! I still have to get home!"
Clutching his arm, Li muttered under his breath, "It's not a ghost story…"
Wang Shao shrugged. "I'm not sticking around for your nonsense. I don't believe in that supernatural crap. I'm out."
His figure gradually disappeared into the narrow alley.
Jiang Qian shot Li Yifei another glare and walked a few steps forward—then stopped.
She sniffed hard, frowning, eyes showing confusion.
"Do you guys smell something bad?"
"Bad?"
"Like… something rotting."
"I don't smell anything. Liu Yuan, you?"
"I don't ei—ugh!!"
Before he could finish, Liu Yuan's expression changed, and he clamped a hand over his nose, looking around in fear.
Lin Qiye was about to speak when a wave of the foulest stench he'd ever smelled rushed into his nose—like rotten meat left for weeks mixed with raw sewage and a dozen rotten eggs. Just one whiff made his stomach churn violently.
It was the worst smell Lin Qiye had ever encountered.
As for Jiang Qian, whose sense of smell was the sharpest, she immediately crouched down and started retching.
"What the hell is that?!" Li Yifei yelled, covering his nose.
"No idea." Lin Qiye frowned and pointed toward the alley Wang Shao had taken.
"But judging from the way the smell's coming, it's from over there."
The next moment, a piercing scream echoed from not far away, cutting through the quiet night.
- Writer
