I returned to my rental room and closed the door behind me.
Only then did that lingering sense of being watched fade away.
In my mind, Ye Manman's face emerged clearly.
Rumors said Yang Lei's family was involved in shady business.
It was likely Yang Lei who'd trafficked Ye Manman to northern Myanmar!
But there was no proof.
If only I hadn't secretly loved Ye Manman back then, if Yang Lei hadn't found out…
Ye Manman wouldn't have stood up for me.
Maybe none of this would have happened!
Now, even her elderly mother had died in a car accident.
Even as a ghost, she couldn't stop worrying about her daughter.
Thinking about this, I felt both sorrow and fear.
Just then, someone suddenly knocked on the dorm door.
I jumped in fright.
Then, a voice came from outside—it was my roommate, Fatty: "Old Zhou, why'd you lock the door?
Did you bring a girl home? Damn, couldn't you have gotten a hotel room?!"
Fatty is my roommate whom I share the flat with, and he is a real estate agent.
We shared a single room with two bunk beds.
We slept on the bottom bunks, while the top bunks held our luggage and clutter.
When I'd come back earlier, I'd been so scared that I'd locked the door without thinking.
Letting out a sigh of relief, I opened the door.
Fatty walked right in, his face pale and grim.
He didn't even bother to wash up; he kicked off his shoes and collapsed onto his bed.
He looked utterly exhausted.
I'd heard him mention before that he had a difficult client.
The client claimed the house Fatty sold him was "unclean."
They'd said that when they got up at night to use the bathroom,
they'd seen a woman in a red dress crawling on the living room floor…
The client demanded a refund and to cancel the purchase.
Fatty had told me it was definitely because housing prices had dropped sharply lately.
The client was just having regrets and making up excuses to back out.
To prove the house was fine,
Fatty had agreed with the client to stay there for a month.
If nothing happened in that time, the client would drop the issue.
Tonight should have been his last night there.
Why was he back early?
He fell asleep instantly, so I didn't say anything.
I took a shower and went to bed too.
In the middle of the night,
I suddenly heard a strange sound.
It was like fingernails scraping against glass or wood.
The noise woke me up.
Drowsily, I opened my eyes.
I saw Fatty in the opposite bed, as if trapped in a nightmare,
scratching the bed frame nonstop with his own hands.
"Creak… creak…"
I was about to wake him when there was another knock at the door in the darkness.
Checking my phone, it was 3 AM.
Who would be knocking at this hour?
I was confused when a familiar voice called from outside: "Old Zhou, open up!"
Fatty?
How could it be Fatty's voice!
"Why'd you lock the door! You hear me? Open up!" Fatty shouted from outside.
In the dark, I rolled out of bed and held my breath.
Fatty was outside.
Then who was sleeping in the opposite bed?
Could I be dreaming?
I pinched my thigh hard.
It hurt—this wasn't a dream.
At that moment, the "Fatty" outside cursed.
The next second, my phone rang.
The lit screen illuminated the small rental room.
In the dim light, I saw that Fatty sleeping across from me had a deathly pale face, completely bloodless.
His hand, which had been scratching the bed frame, had stopped at some point.
He lay there like a corpse.
The phone kept ringing.
The caller ID showed: 136…0231
That last four digits—0231—made my eyelids twitch.
That was the same number as the person who'd ordered the bandages and hemostatic medicine.
The Fatty outside was a fake!
It was that old lady!
What did she want?
Why was she haunting me?
Was she blaming me?
If that incident hadn't happened, maybe Ye Manman wouldn't have…
My thoughts raced as I tremblingly answered the call.
I must find out why she has been pestering me.
"Hello."
"Old Zhou, hurry and open the door."
"You're not Fatty. You're Ye Manman's mother." I forced back my fear and called her out.
There was silence on the other end.
Then, Fatty's voice transformed into the old lady's.
"Zhou Yi, open the door and come with me! I'm here to save you!"
Save me?
I was about to argue when she snapped, "Don't you know what's sleeping in your dorm?"
I automatically glanced at Fatty in the opposite bed.
The sight nearly made me wet myself—
the bed across from me was empty. No one was there.
At the same time, I suddenly felt a chill on the back of my neck,
like someone was breathing on it.
A faint, rotten stench—like dead mice—wafted from behind me.
What was behind me?
My neck tensed; I didn't dare turn around.
Fighting my fear, I rolled my eyes to glance backward from the corner of my eye.
First, I caught a flash of bright red, then some black hair.
Suddenly,
a deathly pale face popped out from my blind spot!
It was a woman's face, covered in corpse spots…
"Ah!"
I screamed in terror, jumped out of bed, and ran straight for the door.
The moment I opened the door, the old lady who had been burning paper money was suddenly standing right outside!
She was holding a burning brazier, but the flames were green.
The old lady didn't look at me; her gaze was fixed behind me.
She grabbed a handful of ash from the brazier
and threw it behind me.
I heard a shrill woman's scream from behind.
The old lady looked urgent. "She's too powerful. Hurry, come with me! There's someone who can save you!"
I turned to look. Behind me, a cloud of black mist loomed.
In the mist, the red-clothed woman with corpse spots stared at me with grayish-white eyes…
I immediately ran after the old lady.
She kept urging me: "Hurry, hurry! She's catching up!"
Every so often, she'd throw a handful of ash behind me.
Each time she did, her figure faded a little.
I noticed something was wrong. "Auntie… what's happening to you?"
The old lady replied, "I've used too much energy. My ghostly form is about to dissipate. That woman is a fierce ghost — she's set her sights on you
As she spoke, her face lit up. "We're here!"
We stopped in a neighborhood of small bungalows.
Most of the area was shrouded in darkness,
except for a security booth, where a light was on inside.
The old lady pointed to the booth. "Hide in there! The person inside can protect you!"
At that moment, I heard scratching sounds behind me.
Turning around,
the red-clothed ghost was already closing in.
She was on all fours, like a spider,
and lunged at me suddenly!
The old lady roared, "I'll fight you to the death!
Xiao Zhou! Take the bandages and hemostatic medicine to the crossroads!
Manman will come to get them!
You have to save her! You must save her!"
The old lady screamed and charged at the red-clothed ghost!
In the next second, the ghost stretched out her hand—
pale fingers with nails sharp as blades.
She tore the old lady to shreds in one swipe!
"Hurry and hide inside—!"
Those were the old lady's final words before her form vanished completely.
Tears streaming down my face, I sprinted toward the security booth!
The moment I rushed inside,
the young man eating instant noodles looked up, glanced at me expressionlessly,
then shifted his gaze to where the red-clothed ghost was.
He said nothing, just bowed his head and kept eating.