Sun Tian’s sobs were quiet and stifled. Suddenly, Xiao Shan, who was driving, hesitated and said, “This place… haven’t we been here before…?”
Ah Tao, huddled in the back seat, quickly lifted his head. Sun Tian stopped crying and looked around in the dim light from the street lamps. She then asked, fearfully, “Xiao Shan, isn’t this the road back to the villa? Why are you driving us back?”
Xiao Shan’s face twisted in fear as he shouted, “There’s no other road to take! I didn’t mean to drive back here!”
But neither Sun Tian nor Ah Tao believed him. Sun Tian quickly urged Xiao Shan, “Just keep driving! We have to get out of here.”
In a panic, Xiao Shan pressed on the accelerator, driving forward again. This time, Sun Tian and Ah Tao kept their eyes fixed on the road, watching helplessly as Xiao Shan once again drove the car back to the villa’s entrance. The once quiet and serene villa, which had always been a peaceful retreat, had now become a source of their deepest fear.
The villa stood isolated, like an island in the darkness, its eerie surroundings making it even more terrifying.
“Why did you bring us back?!” Ah Tao, sitting in the back, suddenly became hysterical, pounding on the seat in front of him and screaming, “Drive! Get us out of here!”
But just as he finished yelling, Ah Tao suddenly froze, his face twisting into an expression of sheer terror as he stared out the window at a dark figure.
Despite the late hour, the figure was clearly visible, standing there with long hair and a pale, swollen face, staring directly at them.
It was the ghost!
In moments of extreme fear, a person might either scream or fall into a state of shock, unable to make a sound as their mind goes blank.
At that moment, Ah Tao felt like his throat was being squeezed shut; he couldn’t make a sound. He wanted to scream, to urge Xiao Shan to drive away as fast as possible.
Sun Tian saw the figure too, and let out a gasp. Her voice trembling, she asked Xiao Shan, “There’s someone there… is that Mingming?”
She could only vaguely make out that the figure’s face was deathly pale, but couldn’t clearly see any distinct features.
Xiao Shan was also feeling uneasy, but since he and Sun Tian hadn’t actually seen a ghost before, he hesitated for a moment and then decided to honk the horn. The sharp sound of the horn echoed through the still night, adding a chilling, ghostly atmosphere that made Sun Tian’s heart tighten with fear.
The noise also snapped Ah Tao out of his shock, and he screamed in a panicked, shrill voice, “Drive! Drive! It’s a ghost!!”
As soon as he said that, it was as if a Pandora’s box had been opened. The shadowy figure began to slowly move forward. The high beams of the car shone on it, revealing that beneath the long dress, there were no feet.
Xiao Shan’s immediate reaction was to hit the gas and speed away from the place as fast as he could.
Sun Tian, terrified, looked back through the rear window and screamed, “It’s following us!”
At this point, Xiao Shan was under immense pressure, his hands and feet trembling uncontrollably, but he pressed the gas pedal down as hard as he could, speeding forward.
Ah Tao also turned to look out the rear window. Sure enough, the ghost was following them relentlessly, no matter how fast they drove, it remained close behind.
How could a normal person have no feet and still keep up with a speeding car?
Even though Sun Tian didn’t want to believe it, she realized that the figure was definitely not a normal person. Terrified, she pulled out her phone to call the police, but it was as if her phone had malfunctioned. Even more disturbing, water droplets were seeping out from the charging port.
“What’s happening?” Sun Tian could only throw her phone aside in fear. She then grabbed Xiao Shan’s phone, which was sitting nearby, but was horrified to find that it was also malfunctioning, with water inexplicably leaking from it just like hers.
It was as if the phones had been submerged in water.
But she clearly remembered using her phone just before bed—it had been working perfectly fine, with no sign of water damage.
Ah Tao, seeing this, shivered and said, “It must be that ghost. It’s covered in water.”
Hearing this, Sun Tian threw the phone away in terror, feeling utterly lost and unsure of what to do.
Their only hope now was that the car could somehow get them out of there before the ghost caught up.
They drove for what felt like an eternity until Sun Tian noticed that the ghost was no longer visible. The eerie silence around them made everyone in the car, including Ah Tao, relax just a little.
But the relief didn’t last long. The three of them soon noticed that the surroundings were becoming increasingly familiar. Panic set in again when they realized that they had somehow circled back to the villa.
And there, standing in the exact same spot, was the ghost, motionless except for the ghastly smile on its deathly pale face.
It was as if the ghost was mocking them, hinting that none of them would escape.
Sun Tian and Ah Tao both screamed in terror, while Xiao Shan, with trembling hands, finally accepted that the figure was very likely a ghost.
He tried to start the car again to flee, but this time the car wouldn’t start. Then, small droplets of water and mist began to spread across the windows.
The moisture grew more intense, even seeping into the car. It felt like they were inside a steam room, with their clothes and hair completely soaked. Even their skin seemed to be oozing water from every pore.
Ah Tao was the most terrified of them all. Screaming, he quickly opened the car door, fearing that staying inside might result in drowning from the increasingly rising water. He was convinced that the ghost was a water ghost looking for a replacement.
He even remembered something Zhao Mingming had said earlier in the sea, about someone drowning.
Maybe that was the ghost searching for a substitute.
Ah Tao’s figure soon vanished into the darkness, and the ghost slowly followed him. The water inside the car gradually receded and eventually disappeared.
Xiao Shan and Sun Tian, both still shaken, exchanged incredulous glances, hardly believing they had survived.
The water inside the car was still pooled up to their waists, but miraculously, it hadn’t flowed out through the car door.
Xiao Shan started the car again, preparing to leave. Sun Tian, coming back to her senses, quickly asked, “What about Ah Tao?”
Xiao Shan, pushing Sun Tian’s hand away, responded with a cold, ruthless calmness she had never seen before, “We survived because Ah Tao was the one the ghost was after. Didn’t you notice? We got involved because we were with him.”
Otherwise, why would the ghost have left when Ah Tao did?
They had been caught in an unforeseen disaster. If they went after Ah Tao, it would be like walking straight into death.
Sun Tian was momentarily speechless. Although she couldn’t bear the thought of Ah Tao dying, she didn’t want to die either, so she remained silent.
Xiao Shan took Sun Tian’s silence as agreement and quickly drove away. Without Ah Tao, the car successfully left the resort area and entered a bustling city.
Xiao Shan and Sun Tian finally felt that they had truly survived.
Then, Sun Tian hesitated and said, “Should we… call the police?”
Maybe there was still a chance to save Ah Tao.
They couldn’t just watch Ah Tao die, and Sun Tian had never actually seen Zhao Mingming throughout the entire ordeal. There was a chance Zhao Mingming was still alive.
Xiao Shan nodded in agreement. He wasn’t so heartless that he would refuse to call the police, but he doubted if it would be effective. After all, it was a ghost they were dealing with!
Sun Tian picked up her phone, which surprisingly worked this time. She wiped off the water and immediately dialed the police.
After reporting the incident, Sun Tian expected the police to dismiss her as a liar, given how absurd and unbelievable the whole story sounded.
To her surprise, the police immediately instructed her and Xiao Shan to stay away from water sources and to go to the nearest police station. They would send someone over to investigate.
After hanging up, Sun Tian was still somewhat in shock. Xiao Shan, having heard the police on the phone, hesitated but eventually decided to follow their instructions.
Upon arriving at the police station, Sun Tian and Xiao Shan recounted their story to the officers there. To their surprise, the officers were not skeptical at all and even asked detailed questions about the incident.
Sun Tian was taken aback and asked, “Don’t you think all of this sounds fake?”
Even after experiencing everything, Sun Tian found it hard to believe that ghosts could be real.
One of the officers replied, “In the past, I wouldn’t have believed it at all. There are no such things as ghosts, right? But now, I’m not so sure.”
Sun Tian, while sipping the hot water the police had given her, felt her cold body slowly warming up. She asked, “Why’s that?”
The officer said, “Haven’t you been online lately? Have you seen the popular live stream on that official website?”
Sun Tian nodded. She was someone who was always on her phone and had indeed watched it. She had even finished the documentary produced by that website, finding it very engaging.
Xiao Shan, still confused, rasped, “But what does that have to do with this?”
“Because that live stream is real. I can’t go into details, but let’s just say, the world isn’t as simple as we thought,” the officer said with a hint of melancholy before walking away.
In fact, he had previously participated in one of those live streams, helping to seal off a villa area where a body was being exhumed. He had witnessed firsthand a body that looked disturbingly lifelike being dug up, and shortly after, he saw a female ghost with an identical appearance to the body standing calmly in the sunlight, embracing her parents and crying.
That was when his world view shattered.
Police stations communicate with each other, and even seemingly insignificant details can lead to growing suspicions and analysis. Eventually, they reached a startling conclusion.
The live stream branded as an official stream was very likely real!
Although this was almost unbelievable.
Moreover, there were directives from higher-ups stating that any reports of strange incidents should not be handled on their own.
Sun Tian took another sip of water, but her body tensed up and froze when she looked up at the glass across from her.
A woman, looking as if she had been pulled from the water, was pressed against the glass with a chilling smile.
The cup in Sun Tian’s hand immediately fell to the ground as she let out a terrified scream, “Ahhhh!!”
