11:57 PM.
Several men and women were gathered in the lightly colored living room.
Some leaned on the sofa, others sat on the rush mats on the floor.
Everyone held a thin blanket.
Their gazes were fixed on the clock in front of them.
Tick, tick,
11:58
11:59
00:00
Ghost Festival arrived!
In an instant, whether it was their imagination or not,
A gust of cold wind blew in.
The lights outside the window flickered and dimmed for a moment.
Tonight, there were very few people on the street.
Let alone various food stalls, even shops rarely opened.
Occasionally, one could see cars passing by, and the figures of delivery riders rushing.
Screech—
The warm orange street lamp flickered.
A dark shadow clung to the street lamp, hugging the lamp head, looking left and right.
A hint of confusion appeared in its gaze.
Where are the people?
Where did they all go?
Its gaze shifted, falling on the brightly lit rooms.
"Hehehehe... so they all ran into the houses to hide."
Did they think they could hide?
Naive!
The dark shadow darted and floated into the nearest residential compound.
It chose a pleasing room and slipped inside.
...
In the lightly colored living room.
A group of men and women clutched their small blankets tightly.
Only the ticking of the clock could be heard.
After a long while, a girl whispered, "The ghost gate, the ghost gate should be open by now, right?"
The girl had a pretty doll-like face and short hair that reached her chin.
Her nervous appearance evoked a strong desire to protect her.
To her left was her boyfriend, who also owned this room.
Xiu Yidao shrunk back behind the sofa, also whispering:
"Don't be afraid, An'an, my ancestors were Taoist priests, specializing in warding off these ghosts."
On the coffee table in front of them, a Bagua mirror and a peach wood sword were placed separately.
There was also a blood-red rope.
"Ah!"
Someone suddenly cried out, then shivered and squeezed towards the center of the sofa.
This cry caused the already tense group to cry out in succession.
Hugging each other, they squeezed into a huddle.
An'an had also intended to scream, but the next second, her boyfriend shrunk into her arms, holding her tightly.
"Ahhhhh—"
An'an: "..."
After a second of silence, she quickly scanned the room, then patted her boyfriend's back:
"It's okay, it's okay, there's nothing."
Her best friend hugged her head, she was the one who screamed first, "I just saw something fly out of the bedroom."
"It was flying towards us."
As soon as these words were spoken.
The backs of everyone's necks began to feel cold.
Whether it was psychological or something else.
For a moment, the living room was extremely quiet.
An'an's gaze fell on the items on the coffee table, "Yidao, can you hand me something?"
She felt a chill on her neck.
As if something was leaning behind the back of the sofa, breathing on her.
Xiu Yidao gritted his teeth and responded from his girlfriend's embrace, "Okay!"
He slowly got up from his girlfriend's embrace, his body stiff, trying to pretend that nothing had happened.
Then, lowering his head, he walked to the coffee table.
He picked up the peach wood sword and then reached for the Bagua mirror...
The moment he touched the Bagua mirror, a blood-red eyeball suddenly appeared on the mirror's surface.
As if it lived inside, its eyeballs rotated.
"!!!"
Xiu Yidao's blood froze.
He suddenly flung his hand away, then quickly holding the peach wood sword, he lunged behind his girlfriend.
"Ghost—!"
Crack!
The Bagua mirror flew out and hit the wall.
"Hehehehe..."
A strange sound echoed in the living room.
A dark shadow crawled out of the Bagua mirror.
Its head was bald, its expression terrifying, like Voldemort.
Its limbs twisted, step by step,
As if in slow motion, it wriggled its body and moved towards the sofa.
Extremely bizarre!
"Ahhhhh—"
"Don't come, don't come!"
"Streamer, save me!"
The men and women on the sofa screamed.
Xiu Yidao rolled his eyes and fainted directly.
Before he fainted, he felt his girlfriend snatch the peach wood sword from his hand.
And rush out.
An'an's face was stiff, she mustered all her strength and thrust the sword forward.
Pfft—
The peach wood sword pierced the monster's body.
"Hiss~"
The monster winced in pain, looked at the doll-faced girl in front of it.
Two drops of blood flowed from its mouth, it took two steps back and fell to the ground.
"...Dead, dead?"
An'an held the peach wood sword with disbelief.
It died just like that?
Was killing ghosts this easy?
Unnoticed by her, a pale hand flew from the floor behind her.
And grabbed her ankle.
"Ah—!"
An'an finally screamed, picking up the peach wood sword and hacking wildly.
The monster on the ground suddenly opened its eyes and looked at the terrified doll-faced girl in front of it.
Its hoarse voice carried a laugh, "I died, and I'm alive again, hehehehe..."
"Ahhhhh—"
The living room descended into chaos.
Some tried to run outside.
But they couldn't open the door for some reason.
The monster transformed back into a dark shadow and darted around the room.
"I died, and I'm alive again, hehe... Ouch!"
A white figure appeared in the living room at some point.
Picking up a paddle, it swatted the dark shadow against the wall as if it were a mosquito.
"Who? Who hit me?" The dark shadow covered its face and quickly got up.
Before it could see who it was, another paddle came at it.
Splat!
The dark shadow slid from the wall and fell to the ground.
Entering a state of dizziness.
Hearing the commotion, An'an lifted her head from the corner of the sofa and opened one eye.
She saw a figure, entirely white as paper and expressionless, bending down in front of the television.
And putting the dark shadow into its pocket.
Packing it away.
The entire process was done without any superfluous movements.
"Stream... Streamer?" An'an asked uncertainly.
...
"The streamer is back?"
"Is it the streamer?"
More and more people opened their windows and looked outside.
Under the night sky,
Paper figures flew back and forth in the sky.
Sometimes they would descend and enter houses.
The paper figures were representatives of the Northern Palace.
And now, the paper figures of the Northern Palace appeared in the Eastern Territory.
What did this signify?
"Is the streamer back?"
The eyes of a group of viewers lit up.
Suddenly, they felt as if it wasn't so scary anymore.
They even wished for those paper figures to visit their homes, to observe them up close.
In various group chats, messages poured in.
"Just now, one tried to pop out of the wall to sneak attack me, but it was knocked out before it could even emerge."
"Hahaha, a paper figure just hugged me!"
"Don't you guys think these paper figures are quite handsome?"
"Holy crap, some of these paper figures don't even have faces, how do you think they're handsome?"
How do I think they're handsome? By feeling!
Handsome isn't just a synonym for good looks.
...