Chapter 104 The People's Sadako

Shen Qingzhou stepped over the collapsed gate and went inside. The entrance led to a narrow courtyard with shattered bluestone slabs. The cracks were overgrown with weeds and moss, and the drainage ditches at the four corners were long blocked by silt, filled with puddles of black and foul-smelling stagnant water.

The wooden windows around the room were rotten and decayed, the carved partitions were broken and crooked, and the window frames were rotten to the point that only the wooden frames remained.

Only half of the door frame remained of the main hall. The room was empty, with broken tiles and rotten wood scattered on the floor. Large patches of plaster had peeled off the walls, revealing the blackened adobe bricks underneath.

Half of the roofs of the two side rooms have collapsed, and there is a risk that they will collapse completely at any time.

The small courtyard was cramped and narrow, with sunlight filtering through the skylight and illuminating the broken bricks and wood scattered on the ground, making it appear even colder and more desolate.

Shen Qingzhou first went to check out the two side rooms.

One room was the kitchen, where the stove had collapsed, half of the cabinet door was broken, and some broken bowls and chopsticks were scattered on the floor.

The other room was a storage room, filled with farm tools and firewood, which had long since rotted due to the collapsed roof and exposure to the elements.

Just then, he heard a noise coming from the north.

"Huh, it's so lively here?"

Shen Qingzhou was somewhat surprised and a little regretful. If only she had brought Wu Ying along, it would have made things much more convenient.

But instead of going over immediately, he turned and walked toward the main hall.

As Shen Qingzhou passed by the crooked half of the door, he indeed saw a brass lock hanging on it. It was in quite good condition and should be the one that Pei Yousheng had mentioned before and returned later.

He strode inside. The main hall was empty and sparsely furnished.

The ground was covered with a thick layer of dust, with several messy footprints on it, some old and some new, presumably left by Pei Yousheng and those so-called masters.

Shen Qingzhou walked around the room without finding anything, then turned and went to the side room.

In the inner part of the left side room, there was a beautifully carved canopy bed. Unfortunately, the bed frame was mostly eaten away by insects and ants, and due to the leaky roof and years of wind and sun exposure, it had long since rotted away and was completely worthless, which was a real pity.

Beside the bed stood a wooden dressing table, on which rested a long-handled hand-held dressing mirror. It was not an old-fashioned bronze mirror, but a modern piece made of silver-plated glass. Judging from its style, it should be an item from the Republic of China period.

It looks very ordinary. If you take it to Taiping Street, it will probably only sell for a few dozen yuan. It has no great value.

But as soon as he picked it up, he immediately realized something was wrong.

The mirror was corrupted, much like Shen Qingzhou's "corruption" of Lin Yunong, except that he corrupted a person, while this ghost corrupted an object.

Holding a mirror in his hand, Shen Qingzhou chanted, "With sincere devotion, I beseech the light of the sun and moon to dispel falsehood and illuminate the desolate wilderness..."

As he chanted, runes appeared on the back of his hand, forming a pattern resembling the Bagua (Eight Trigrams) that rotated continuously.

The originally hazy mirror surface seemed to be stimulated by something. The black mist surged like boiling water, eventually calming down to reveal a human figure.

The woman was dressed in old clothes from the Republican era, and she had a slender waist. Her breasts were visible from behind, and she had a good figure, but her hair was disheveled, and she was facing away from the mirror, so her face was not clearly visible.

Upon seeing her like this, Shen Qingzhou blurted out, "Holy crap, the people's Sadako?"

He then realized something was wrong, because his words had unintentionally carried the power of a curse.

That's the downside of this spell; sometimes it's triggered by just a casual remark, and it's completely unpredictable and doesn't follow any rules or adherence to any rules.

As soon as he finished speaking, the woman in the mirror vanished instantly. Shen Qingzhou hurriedly stepped back, but it was too late.

He then saw the woman from the mirror appear in his arms. The two were very close, almost touching, and his innate spiritual root was pressing against her.

"If I said it was just a misunderstanding, would you believe me?" Shen Qingzhou said with an awkward smile.

The female ghost did not answer. Her hair suddenly spread out like an octopus and grabbed directly at Shen Qingzhou's face.

"Beautiful lady, don't be so rough. Let's talk this out."

Shen Qingzhou said this, but his actions didn't stop. He reached into the other person's hair and twisted their neck with force.

The hair that was originally heading towards Shen Qingzhou's face was now swirled around, looking quite comical.

But when Shen Qingzhou saw the other person's face clearly, her innate spiritual root instantly withered.

Because on the other person's pale face, there were five large, dark holes; the mouth, eyes, and nose were all black holes.

"You fiend, how dare you come out and harm people!"

Shen Qingzhou changed his palm into a grab, directly grabbing at the top of the opponent's head.

Countless runes surged erratically on his hands and face, appearing extremely angry. The force with which he slashed down was immense, and the air seemed to explode with a loud bang.

The female ghost was crushed by his grab, turning into a swirling cloud of black energy.

"Gah...uh, that was terrifying."

Shen Qingzhou wiped away non-existent sweat from his forehead, looked at the black mist in front of him that seemed to be reforming, and made no other move.

Because he knew that the ghost in front of him was not the real entity, but rather the source used to pollute the mirror, and also a seed.

For Shen Qingzhou, this seed was a material used to analyze the opponent's power and abilities, and he didn't want to destroy it directly. So he lunged forward with the mirror in his hand and gathered the black energy back into the mirror.

The female ghost that had disappeared reappeared in the mirror, still with her back to people, but she didn't look as clear as before, appearing and disappearing as if she might vanish at any moment.

"No wonder he didn't turn around, he's ugly."

Shen Qingzhou casually put the mirror in his pocket, looked around the room again, and found nothing else unusual, so he went out.

Walk through the overgrown courtyard, cross the collapsed gate, and then—

Old Chen and his two companions disappeared.

Not only did the three of them disappear, but even the altar in front of the gate vanished.

Shen Qingzhou quickly turned around and looked back, only to see a slightly dilapidated mansion behind him, showing no signs of being abandoned.

Shen Qingzhou reached out and scratched his cheek. "When? That's pretty impressive."

He didn't turn back. He felt his pockets; the mirror was still there. He took out his phone and glanced at it; there was no signal at all.

So without lingering, he headed straight into the village, in the direction from which the sound had come from.

Although there was still no one in the village, it had completely changed and was no longer as dilapidated as before.

As Shen Qingzhou walked, he muttered to himself, as if he were talking to someone.

"Your modeling is pretty good! It's very detailed and realistic. Is this what your village looked like when you were alive? By the way, do you know what modeling means...?"

"How did you die? Why are you so resentful? You may be ugly, but you have a good figure. Were you bullied by the villagers? Or were you drowned in a pig cage for adultery and are you still harboring resentment...?"

"Are you from this village, or did you marry into it from elsewhere? Do you still have any siblings? Do they know you've become like this? You harbor so much resentment, have they thought about avenging you...?"

"Did everyone in the village move away, or did you kill them all...?"

"To be fair, so much time has passed, you should calm down. The world is so beautiful, why be so irritable..."

……

Shen Qingzhou chattered incessantly, causing ripples to spread through the once peaceful village, revealing its ruins and blurring the lines between illusion and reality.

Clearly, the female ghost was also angered by his foul mouth, causing her to become emotionally unstable.

Shen Qingzhou took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. He then rummaged in his pocket but couldn't find a lighter. He must have left it in the car earlier.

He then turned to the shadows under the eaves of a nearby house and asked, "Is there a fire?"

In the shadows stood a long-haired woman with her back to them.