Ning Wang’s thoughts froze for an instant.
He watched as Su Yubai collapsed into his arms. Miss Red Lips stood quietly behind Su Yubai, a smile of utmost satisfaction on her face.
**Clink!**
The rings collided with the ground and made a light sound. Miss Red Lips suddenly charged over in silence, her distorted face pressing close to the boy’s in the space of a breath.
“Classmate Su,” she said to Ning Wang with a grin, “Classmate Su, shall we go to the seaside again? I’ll treat you to orange-red sugar.”
The previous target was already dead. Miss Red Lips began searching for a new one, and right before her eyes was someone who had voluntarily dressed up as her lover.
A chill ran down Ning Wang’s spine. His thoughts, stalled for several seconds, raced like a derailed train.
*Su Yubai is dead? Miss Red Lips killed her? Is it my turn now? The ritual? Failed? Did I make a mistake? Back then with my sister I was powerless, and now am I going to repeat the same tragedy?*
Ning Wang suddenly clenched his jaw, silent rage rising in his eyes. The ritual had failed for some unknown reason, but he still had a chance to carry the girl’s body out of the room.
Under Miss Red Lips’ gaze, Ning Wang slowly began to move.
He slipped one hand under the girl’s knees and the other beneath her shoulders, lifting her entire body as if she were a princess.
“Classmate Su, shall we go to the seaside again? Just the two of us,” Miss Red Lips whispered beside him, “Classmate Su, why won’t you answer me? Why are you pretending to be someone else?”
*Ignore her, ignore her. As long as I don’t respond, there won’t be a problem…*
Ning Wang silently recited the teachings Su Yubai had left him and carried the girl toward the door. Her body was slender and light; it should have been effortless to carry, yet with every step Ning Wang’s shoulders grew heavier.
The sense of weight was no illusion. Miss Red Lips had rested a hand on his shoulder, clinging to him like a girl reluctant to see her lover leave, her actions growing heavier and heavier.
“Classmate Su, what were you just doing with this girl?” she said. “Classmate Su, why did you give her my tea to drink? Why are you ignoring me? Where are you going? Why are you carrying her?”
The murmurs layered over one another. The burden on Ning Wang’s shoulders suddenly increased, as if a dozen Red Lips were clinging to his shoulders, all whispering softly in his ears at once. Ning Wang endured the weight with difficulty, dragging his feet to the door, but no matter what he could not free a hand to turn the doorknob.
*Strange. Su Yubai has already encountered Miss Red Lips for over a dozen days, yet when she didn’t respond she was never oppressed like this. Ning Wang pondered silently. Why am I being entangled to this extent the moment I start?*
*…Heh, the reason is pretty obvious, isn’t it? I’m holding another girl.*
“Classmate Su, why did she propose to you? Why did you give her a ring? Classmate Su, I love you,” Red Lips murmured repeatedly in his ear. “Classmate Su, put her down put her down put her down put her down put her down kill her kill her kill her—”
Amid the echoing whispers, Ning Wang heard his own knees creaking. His back had already been pressed into a bent posture. He took a deep breath and forcibly straightened his spine, holding Su Yubai even more closely against his chest.
*At this rate we’ll both be crushed to death… I have no choice but to try talking to Red Lips and deny my identity.*
“I am not Su Chuanshan,” Ning Wang answered through gritted teeth. “The uniform I’m wearing and everything I just said have nothing to do with him. It was simply acting.”
Red Lips’ murmurs came to an abrupt halt. Ning Wang’s shoulders suddenly felt light. He froze for a moment, then was overjoyed, and hurriedly reached out toward the main door—
“Wonderful, I knew you weren’t him.”
Red Lips spoke again, her voice pleasant and intoxicated as if drunk. Ning Wang’s scalp prickled. He reached for the cold door handle at the fastest speed possible… but another pale hand first probed toward his neck, moving upward, and gently covered his lips.
In the final instant before his mouth and nose were covered, a question suddenly flashed through Ning Wang’s mind.
*Miss Red Lips seems to have never directly called out the three words “Su Chuanshan.” The lover she is seeking—is it really him?*
* * *
Directly above the basement, in the center of the courtyard of Guiyu Building, Su Shenghai and the butler were waiting quietly around a square table. The butler lowered his head, staring at the lotus patterns on the floor tiles, listening carefully to the sounds coming through his earpiece.
“Sir, the ancestral hall has quieted down,” he said.
The paper figures in the basement were specially made. Miniature microphones were hidden inside their bodies for Su Shenghai to meticulously monitor the every move of visitors. To prevent any visitor from noticing something amiss and intentionally or unintentionally moving the paper figures out of the room, he had also asked the butler to install tools inside the walls and inside the old school uniforms.
Under all these preparations, every soundprint in the room would be captured by the microphones, travel through the soil with invisible waves, and finally converge into the earpieces of him and the butler.
“The rings?” the old man asked. He pressed the armrests of his wheelchair like an emperor. The sorrow and regret on his face had vanished without a trace, and a wolf-like, sinister light flowed in his pupils.
The butler glanced toward the ancestral hall.
The ancestral hall doors were wide open. The portraits of the original sixteen deceased were laughing at him; Su Yubai’s portrait had just been newly added, and she too displayed a brilliant smile, her black-and-white face full of joy.
“The rings have also been put on,” the butler said. “She is smiling too.”
The sixteen deceased in the ancestral hall mostly did not actually have the surname Su. They were the extraordinary people Su Shenghai had previously invited, all of whose appearances resembled Su Chuanshan—and of course also resembled Su Shenghai in his youth.
After listening to Su Shenghai’s tearful confession, no matter which school of techniques they came from, these jianghu practitioners would almost always request one or two pieces of Su Chuanshan’s clothing, as well as the ring Yu Haili had used when proposing.
Every time this happened, Su Shenghai would open the hidden room on the second floor of the small mansion, take out the school uniform he himself had worn many years ago and the engagement ring from his first lover, and hand them over.
Afterward, they would voluntarily walk into the basement and voluntarily perform various strange and bizarre rituals. Of course none succeeded; all would fall silent after five or ten minutes.
When the butler reopened the basement door, he would always find a ring on the deceased’s hand, and on the portraits they would be laughing heartily, as if they had truly formed an eternal, unchanging marriage contract with their beloved.
Therefore, correspondingly, as long as the person in the portrait showed a smile, this sacrifice was considered a great success.
As for the terrifyingly dead corpses, as long as they were left alone in the basement they would disappear on their own not long after—or rather, they would be taken by “her” to her side, to stay together for all eternity.
Sacrifices occasionally failed as well. Sometimes “she” would determine midway that the counterfeit before her was not Su Shenghai himself; sometimes the offering would panic and turn to flee, only to be killed to no effect.
“Sir, congratulations,” the butler said, lightly letting out a breath. “We can have peace for a while again.”
More than thirty years ago Su Shenghai had abandoned “her,” causing her to commit suicide, but “she” had only suddenly returned ten years ago.
At that time Su Shenghai had not yet bought Guiyu Building, had not finished building the hidden and convenient underground sacrificial hall, and had no time to find outsiders to stand in for himself. Fortunately there was still his son Su Chuanshan to take his place. Even more fortunately, Su Chuanshan could also take on all the reasons and all the rumors and gossip in his stead, allowing him to easily persuade the guests invited afterward.
“She” was temporarily pacified for several months. Su Shenghai seized the opportunity to retreat in haste, moved into Guiyu Building, and prepared the best sacrificial hall for her.
“Yes, yes, two years. Nineteen people, a total of ten years… it’s already been so long, and she still refuses to leave,” the old man looked down at the ground. The wrinkles on his face suddenly shrank and deformed, forming a pleased smile. “Then let’s continue. It’s nothing more than inviting a few more self-important fools over to exorcise the evil.”
* * *
Several meters below in the basement, Ning Wang gripped the handle, wanting to make one last struggle. But he suddenly discovered that the palm pressed against his lips, though somewhat pale, was soft and warm, with slender and delicate fingers, completely different from Miss Red Lips’.
—It was exactly the same as another girl’s.
“Don’t panic, stay quiet, I’m still here,” Su Yubai’s whisper sounded in his ear. “The time to complete the ritual has come.”