Chapter 72: The Red Dress
The drawing on the paper swiftly materialized under Wu Xiaoxiao's gaze. It depicted a room, and in that room was a girl, a very plump girl.
Although Wu Xiaoxiao was utterly terrified at that moment, she hadn't been scared completely senseless. She could clearly discern that the room in the drawing was the very room she was currently in; she was intimately familiar with its layout and every single item, making it impossible to mistake.
As for the girl in the room, her face contorted in terror—who else could it be but herself? Her plump figure, her tightly-packed features—she knew them intimately.
Staring at the drawing before her, she couldn't help but feel as if she were looking into a mirror.
There was no one else in the room. The paper used for the Pen Spirit game was just an ordinary blank sheet, with no drawing on it previously. Yet, this eerie image had inexplicably appeared before her eyes. Even with her generally robust nerves, she felt a chill creep through her entire body.
If it were just that, it might have been manageable. What truly horrified her was that, in the drawing, an additional figure appeared above her own head.
This figure, clad in a dress, was hanging by its neck directly above her.
Wu Xiaoxiao's heart pounded furiously, her breath grew ragged. Her plump body trembled as she slowly, gradually, lifted her head to look upwards.
Yet, there was nothing.
At the same time, the pain in her palm suddenly vanished. She looked at her hand, realizing everything had returned to normal. The pen, which had seemingly merged into her flesh, now detached from her palm and dropped to the floor with a distinct clatter.
"This. . . was all of this just an illusion?"
Such a thought involuntarily surfaced in Wu Xiaoxiao's mind. She didn't bother picking up the pen rolling on the floor, instead turning her gaze back to the white paper on the table.
Aside from the characters pre-written for the Pen Spirit game, there was no drawing whatsoever on the paper.
Everything before her eyes seemed to prove that what she had just experienced was nothing more than an illusion, not something truly real.
Wu Xiaoxiao let out a sigh of relief. She was certain that everything prior had been an illusion, and as for why it occurred, she attributed it all to the Pen Spirit game.
Now that everything had returned to normal, her taut nerves finally relaxed. It was then that she noticed her pajamas were soaked through with sweat, sticky and extremely uncomfortable.
Picking up the fallen pen, she decided to take a shower. She definitely wouldn't be able to sleep feeling this sticky.
But just as she bent down to retrieve the pen, before she could even straighten up, she suddenly felt something swaying above her head, brushing against her hair.
A doubt stirred in her heart. She looked up towards her head, and still, there was nothing. This only intensified the confusion within her.
Just then, a cold, clammy sensation suddenly came from her hand. Instinctively, she tightened her grip, yet it felt slippery, causing her to involuntarily glance down at what she held.
What she saw almost made Wu Xiaoxiao faint from fright. The pen she had just picked up had, at some unknown point, transformed into a vibrantly colored venomous snake. Its eyes were cold, its forked tongue flickered, and its body coiled, poised to strike.
Wu Xiaoxiao's face froze. Three seconds later, she suddenly snapped back to reality, letting out a horrified shriek as she flung the venomous snake from her hand!
Immediately after, she wanted to turn and flee the room. The feeling this room gave her tonight was simply too eerie; if she didn't escape immediately, she feared she would die within its walls.
However, the moment she turned, she seemed to collide with something. Focusing her gaze, she saw it was a red dress, as vivid as fresh blood!
The red dress was terrifyingly unsettling, dripping wet, as if blood might ooze from it at any moment.
Beneath the red dress were a pair of ghastly pale, bloodless feet, hanging suspended in the air, swaying gently as if clothes drying on a line.
Wu Xiaoxiao shrieked again in terror. She didn't even have the courage to lift her head and see the true appearance of the red dress's owner, and with that final scream, she fainted dead away.
The next day, Wu Xiaoxiao awoke to find herself lying on the floor. She was disoriented for a moment. After a brief pause, she rubbed her head, and everything that had happened in the room last night began to resurface in her mind, becoming clearer and clearer.
As she recalled the bizarre events of the previous night in the room, an expression of lingering fear inevitably appeared on her face.
Yet, as her gaze swept across the room, she found no venomous snake, nor any hanging ghost. It was as if everything that had occurred last night was merely a dream.
Was it truly just a dream?
Wu Xiaoxiao wasn't sure. So, she quickly left her room and sought out the other residents of the villa, asking about the events of the previous night.
The previous night, no one else in the villa had heard her screams, so no one had come to check on her.
However, through her inquiries, she learned that almost everyone who had stayed in the villa last night, whether members of the Wu family or servants, had encountered strange phenomena or experienced unsettling dreams.
Over the next few days, strange occurrences plagued the villa relentlessly, growing more and more terrifying.
First, cats, dogs, and other small animals would inexplicably die within the villa—their corpses appearing in the courtyard, living room, kitchen, bathroom, and even bedrooms!
No one knew how they appeared; these small animals were never seen inside or outside the villa until they were discovered, already cold.
They bore no wounds, yet their eyes were wide open, filled with terror, as if they had been scared to death—an extremely bizarre sight.
Then, late at night, lights in unoccupied rooms would switch on by themselves, books would flip open on their own, and chairs would move, yet no one would be seen.
By last night, the strange events had escalated beyond this. After midnight, periodic wails of sorrow would echo through the villa, full of desolation, like a meat-loving person, plump as they were, reduced to subsisting solely on steamed buns all day—a truly pitiful state.
Besides the crying, laughter would sometimes ring out, joyful and excited, like a meat-loving person, plump as they were, with a perfectly cooked piece of pork belly perpetually hanging around their neck, bringing them happiness and satisfaction.
In these past few days, the strange occurrences in the villa weren't limited to just this. Besides Wu Xiaoxiao, other members of the Wu family and servants had also experienced incidents similar to what Wu Xiaoxiao encountered that night.
Due to these bizarre events, some of the Wu family's servants had already resigned; they didn't want to remain in the villa living in fear. The servants who stayed had been convinced by the Wu family with significant financial incentives.
For the remaining servants, while the recent strange occurrences in the villa were indeed frightening, having no money was even more terrifying. Staying meant receiving unimaginable wages and benefits, so even though they knew the villa was currently very eerie, they still chose to remain.
Moreover, no one in the Wu family, including Old Master Wu himself, had left the villa. If they weren't afraid, what was there for the servants to fear?
It wasn't that all the Wu family members didn't want to leave the villa. To be precise, among all the Wu family members, only Old Master Wu refused to leave this villa; everyone else yearned to move elsewhere immediately.
With the Wu family's financial resources, changing villas was as simple as an ordinary person switching chopsticks during a meal—absolutely no pressure. But since Old Master Wu refused to leave, even if they wanted to, they had no choice but to stay.
Old Master Wu was unwilling to easily abandon this villa because it was the first villa he had ever purchased, holding a unique significance for him. He truly did not want to leave this villa, to which he had grown emotionally attached, unless it was absolutely unavoidable.
However, he had personally witnessed the strange occurrences at home recently. So, to resolve this issue, Old Master Wu decided to spend a substantial sum to invite powerful experts to handle the matter.
Having held a high position for a long time, Old Master Wu had a vast network and thus knew several powerful experts. Wang Yiming and Ma Ling were two of those he knew.
Therefore, Old Master Wu personally contacted both of them, hoping they could come to his villa to deal with the recent strange occurrences.
While Old Master Wu was contacting Wang Yiming and Ma Ling, Wu Xiaoxiao, feeling down, went to Guan Hai's bar to drink.
The reason she chose Guan Hai's bar was that they had known each other for a long time. Otherwise, given Wu Xiaoxiao's status, how could she possibly patronize the kind of small bar Guan Hai ran?
With Miss Wu Xiaoxiao making a personal appearance, Guan Hai naturally had to accompany her. It was precisely because of this that Guan Hai learned from Wu Xiaoxiao that strange things had been happening continuously at the Wu family villa recently. Although Wu Xiaoxiao didn't elaborate much, Guan Hai knew that the Wu family villa was probably haunted.
Therefore, Guan Hai thought of Yang Haoran and began telling Wu Xiaoxiao about him.
However, Wu Xiaoxiao didn't express an opinion at the time, so Guan Hai didn't say much more. It wasn't until early this morning, before he had even fully woken up, that he received a call from Wu Xiaoxiao. That's what led to Yang Haoran receiving Guan Hai's call and arriving at this place with him.
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