I put on my headphones and carefully watched the computer screen.
The image showed that there was not a single hair in the living room at this time; Cheng Yan's figure was nowhere to be seen.
However, Cheng Yan's voice was clear in my headphones.
"Madam Chang, may you live forever, has invited us younger generation to attend a feast of immortals. I, Xiao Cui, am young and was playing with my sisters in the Jufeng Building, but unfortunately, there was a fire... it's unbearable... unbearable... unbearable. Mother, where are you? Help Xiao Cui avenge this immense blood debt."
Cheng Yan repeated these words several times, but I still didn't see where she was in the living room.
Suddenly, I saw a flash of white on the screen, and when I focused, I saw Cheng Yan's head poking out from the corner outside the living room, only now she was not Cheng Yan; her face had grown white fur and had completely turned into a fox. She was smiling enchantingly and occasionally licked her paw.
Actually, I should call it a forepaw.
The paw was furry with long reddish nails, looking incredibly eerie.
"Ah!"
I was completely engrossed, and suddenly heard a scream. This scream didn't come from my headphones, but from right next to me and was very real.
Damn it, I was startled; I leapt up from the chair and saw that Huang Xin had somehow gotten next to me at some point and was so frightened by what she saw on the screen that she screamed.
Huang Xin pointed at the computer, her face turning pale, and stammered, saying, "Could it be... could it be that for all these days, I've been living with... a fox spirit?"
"No, Cheng Yan is still Cheng Yan. This midnight is the time when the yin and yang meet, the yin energy is at its strongest, and the spirit reveals its true form," I muttered as I swallowed some saliva. "At this point, the thing inside Cheng Yan's body is at its most fierce."
Thankfully, I had heard from Huang Xin that Cheng Yan would mimic the sound of a fox at night, so the doors and windows were tightly locked. If I hadn't known in advance, with my habit of leaving doors unlocked, I wouldn't have known how I died in the middle of the night.
Huang Xin also patted her chest, feeling quite scared, whispering to herself that she was lucky to sleep early. If she had the habit of watching TV in the living room at night, she might not have survived.
"Yeah, the thing in Cheng Yan is very fierce," I said, and just as I sighed, Huang Xin suddenly hugged me tightly. Trembling, she pointed at the screen and said, "It's out, it's out; Cheng Yan is out, it's so scary."
I glanced at the screen; indeed, in the living room, there was a fox, at least two meters long, pacing back and forth and repeating, "Madam Chang, may you live forever, has invited us younger generation to attend a feast of immortals..."
As I listened to Cheng Yan's cries, it seemed she was talking about something, but with my limited imagination, I couldn't piece together the story of this fox "spirit" named Xiao Cui from these disjointed words.
I felt a fluttering in my heart and tried to calm the excitement. I mentioned at the beginning that I'm not very brave; if I were alone, I'd be shivering in a corner, but there was Huang Xin beside me.
In front of this stunningly beautiful woman who was like an iceberg, I had to maintain my composure as a man. Plus, with Huang Xin hugging me, I felt a bit content; my arms felt a bit weak, and I felt somewhat sweet inside.
The 'spirit' is outside the 'door', and a beautiful woman is by my side, this feeling of having both extremes is too exciting.
Perhaps Huang Xin realized that she felt a bit like "a lamb to the slaughter", but she was too scared to let go of me. She could only mutter that this was a special situation and didn't mean she liked me.
"Hey, miss, it's already so late, and you're still concerned about this?" After scolding her, I focused again on the voices in my headphones and the computer screen.
It seemed like Cheng Yan had been calling for thirty minutes or so and was about to scare me to death when suddenly the white 'fur' disappeared from her body. She reverted back to her original appearance, wearing a white nightgown and lying down on the floor.
I patted Huang Xin next to me and comforted her, "It's finally getting light. Goodness, if she keeps screaming, I'll lose my nerve."
In my professional career, I've encountered craziness and possession, but this powerful spirit possession was unprecedented. If this kind of activity had increased, I might not have survived until now.
"Is it really over?"
"At least it's over for tonight. I'll go outside and help Cheng Yan onto the bed and let her rest a bit." I couldn't let the girl sleep on the floor all night.
As I stood up, suddenly, Huang Xin reached out and pulled me into a chair. Then she hugged me and, with a tremble in her voice, said, "It's not over, it's not over, it's Yan Yan, it's Yan Yan…." She was too scared to continue speaking.
I glanced at the computer screen and a tingling sensation spread across my scalp. In the living room, Cheng Yan got up again, stood straight, looking eerie in her white nightgown.
A sly smile hung on her face, with two green fangs, red eyes, she fiercely scratched at my bedroom door with her claws.
Since Huang Xin's bedroom door was made of metal, Cheng Yan's scratching didn't leave any marks. But the sound of those claws scraping against the metal made my heart race.
I couldn't help but curse, "Oh my, I almost forgot, Cheng Yan is a fox spirit! Fortunately, I didn't rush out, if I had, there would be no way to save my life!"
Hearing me mention the term "fox spirit" again, Huang Xin, with trembling teeth, asked me what a fox spirit was.
Seeing that I couldn't keep it a secret any longer, I decided to tell Huang Xin: Usually, possession by a spirit and by a ghost are two separate occurrences, each happening to a different person. It's absolutely impossible for a spirit and a ghost to possess the same person at the same time.
However, people are truly extraordinary. Just when you think things have reached their limits, people often exceed those limits. That's right, Cheng Yan had experienced being possessed by a ghost and a spirit at the same time.
If I hadn't analyzed from Cheng Yan's behavior in the afternoon that she had two types of "spirits" in her body, I might have been easily deceived.
"Is this a serious matter?"
Cheng Yan asked me.
"Of course, isn't it obvious? Do you think spirits and ghosts possess you for no reason? They'll drain your vitality. If a ghost and a spirit possess a person at the same time, without finding a solution, that person may not survive within seven days."
"So serious?" Huang Xin was already in tears, her shoulders shaking, clearly sad for her best friend.
I patted her shoulder and asked, "Cheng Yan frightened you like this, don't you blame her?"
"Why would I blame her? It's not her fault. Wait, it's really not her fault, is it?" Huang Xin was starting to have doubts about Cheng Yan.
I was speechless. Did she think being possessed by a "spirit" was a joke? It could take a life any time. Did she think Cheng Yan was full and deliberately let the "spirit" possess her just to scare her?
"Oh, then I won't blame her."
After saying that, Huang Xin tilted her head, leaned on my shoulder, and fell asleep.
Perhaps she was exhausted from fear. As for me, even though I was easily scared, I'd experienced many strange incidents, and although they would terrify me, they didn't consume my energy. This… could also be considered a special skill.
As Huang Xin fell asleep, I silently kept an eye on Cheng Yan.
I noticed that after scratching at the door for a while, Cheng Yan stopped and walked back to the center of the living room, then knelt down on the floor with a 'thump'.
Then she clasped her hands together and bowed devoutly on the ground.
She let out an extremely shrill and piercing voice, which included terrifying words.
"The great white fox immortal, with boundless power, cultivated for a thousand years at the Wind Gathering Tower, harmed people, lit fires in the sky, satisfied her belly, and savored the taste of human hearts..."
Her voice became smaller as she continued, and I could hardly make out what she was saying, except for the scratching sound, but I couldn't understand a word.
However, just based on the first eight sentences, I realized something. There was a deep connection between the ghost and the fox on Cheng Yan's body. Clearly, they shared the same story – a wild fox immortal cultivated for a thousand years at a place called the Wind Gathering Tower, was burned to death by a fire!
A wild fox immortal burning for a thousand years would definitely harbor deep resentment – no wonder the fox spirit on Cheng Yan was so fierce, it was vicious for a reason.
Considering the following four sentences, "harmed people, lit fires in the sky, satisfied her belly, and savored the taste of human hearts," could it be that the person who burned the fox also ate its flesh and bones?
Thinking of that scene made my stomach churn, and there was one thing I couldn't understand – what did Cheng Yan do to provoke such a fierce spirit? Whether it was burning the fox immortal or eating its flesh and bones, I couldn't believe Cheng Yan was capable of such acts.
Cheng Yan muttered for quite a while, then suddenly stopped and smiled at something right in front of her.
Her smile was both sinister and charming, and I felt that her smile was directed specifically at me.
Damn!
Her smile completely freaked me out, and my legs were trembling.
"Is she going to come and kill me?" I pondered for a while, thinking of a reason why a "fox immortal" wouldn't harm me: Cheng Yan had been possessed by a "fox spirit" for a while, and didn't her roommate Huang Xin survive all right?
I don't think the fox spirit meant any harm.
Thinking this, I calmed down a bit, reached for the pack of cigarettes near the computer.
I shakily 'felt' for the cigarette box, awkwardly 'pulled' out a cigarette, only to find that the lighter wasn't 'reached', so I reached out to 'find' the lighter.
As a result, the lighter wasn't 'reached', and I 'touched' a hand - Huang Xin's hand.
"What a bad luck, fortunately she's asleep, otherwise she'd say I took advantage of her." I self-deprecatingly said, let go of her hand, and went to 'find' the lighter.
Just as I 'touched' the lighter, I suddenly remembered a strange thing - Huang Xin is a model, her hands, don't know how delicate they are, but the hand I just 'touched' is covered with "wrinkles" like 'touching' an old tree bark.
Could it be...?