Everything started to make sense. The reason Xinyi died in such a strange way was that she had kissed my earlobe.
I knew Xinyi well. She worked as a receptionist. Her salary was not high, but it was quite stable.
She worked from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day and left work on time. She didn't even watch horror movies in her free time, so she never had anything to do with paranormal events.
I also kept my job as a corpse carrier at the funeral parlor from her.
She was very timid and a bit of a clean - freak. If I told her that my hands often touched corpses, how could she let me touch her? She would definitely break up with me.
It can be said that her life had nothing to do with paranormal events. The only connection was me, her boyfriend who worked as a corpse carrier.
Moreover, the female corpse had no grudges against her. Why would it harm an innocent girl?
The only possibility was that Xinyi accidentally licked my earlobe. This was the only clue that could explain Xinyi's strange death.
Although I had carefully washed my ear that had been licked by the female corpse, after a night's sleep, my ear still lost its sense of touch. I only recovered after going to the hospital.
Just the contact of the female corpse's filthy blood with my skin made my ear lose its sense of touch. It was as red and terrifying as if the skin had peeled off. It was more potent than poison.
When Xinyi was being affectionate with me, she kissed my earlobe, which meant she came into contact with the source of the poison.
Once that filthy blood entered her body, it probably caused her extreme pain or made her have hallucinations.
Judging from what those two staff members were talking about, Xinyi had a terrified expression before her death, as if her body was out of control and she was trying to commit suicide, dying in extreme fear and pain.
If there was extreme pain and terrifying hallucinations, it would indeed make a person do such an inexplicable thing.
I wanted to keep listening, but then the voice of a middle - aged criminal policeman came from behind me: "Chen Feng, what are you doing here?"
Hearing this, the two chatting staff members looked outside and immediately shut up. I had no choice but to leave.
After leaving the police station, I stood on the street, feeling quite lost: What should I do? Where could I go?
The new house I bought had become a crime scene. The police said that before the case was solved, I couldn't tear off the seal and move in, as it would damage the crime scene.
Actually, even if the police didn't say so, I wouldn't dare to go back and live there.
Who knew if that evil thing, after killing Xinyi, was still hiding in some corner of the house, waiting for me to fall asleep and then harm me?
After standing there stupidly for a long time, I took out my phone and called Huang Po.
I didn't have many friends in the provincial capital. Now the only person I could turn to was Huang Po.
When I called, Huang Po was still sleeping. When he heard that Xinyi was dead and I wanted to stay at his place for a few days, he agreed without hesitation.
When we met and I told him what had happened, Huang Po was also stunned: "Is it really that evil?!"
"You've seen how evil that female corpse is, and you watched the surveillance video with me," I couldn't help but grumble.
"Shut up already," Huang Po shivered and changed the subject. "So what are you going to do next?"
"I don't know," I was really confused.
"Stay at my place first. At least I can look out for you. By the way, the office has given us a one - week paid vacation. Let's go to the temple to burn incense tomorrow."
Right!
How could I forget about going to the temple to burn incense?
Ordinary people can't handle such strange things. Burning incense and praying to the Buddha is always a good idea. Maybe we'll even meet an enlightened monk.
"Come on, let's buy some food and have a drink," Huang Po suggested.
It was a good suggestion. Drowning your sorrows in a drink.
When you're drunk, you can forget all the pain and troubles in front of you.
The two of us bought several plates of cold dishes and a case of beer. We ate, drank, and shot the breeze about whatever came to mind.
Our chatting topics ranged from the gossips of high - school classmates to the scandals of the presidential election in the Lighthouse Country. We also talked about the unsolved mysteries of the Maya and the declassified files of aliens.
After a lot of nonsense, I felt the alcohol kicking in. I leaned back on the sofa and fell into a deep sleep.
I don't know how long it had passed when I woke up suddenly. I found myself standing on the stage of the banquet hall again.
It was the same familiar scene and stage. Below were the incredibly familiar guests, and even their positions hadn't changed.
The only change was that the woman in front of me had been replaced. It was no longer Jiang Lixin, but Xinyi.
Looking at everything in front of me, after just a moment of confusion, I came to my senses.
Everything in front of me was fake. The stage was fake, and the guests below were all ghosts.
All of this was a trick played by the female corpse, trying to deceive me into falling into her trap.
As for what she wanted to do later, no one knew.
Thinking of these, I immediately struggled, trying to break free and escape, not letting their plot succeed.
But as soon as I tried to struggle, a sharp pain suddenly came from my right earlobe.
The stinging sensation went straight into my brain through the ear - hole. I just felt my whole body go stiff and couldn't move at all.
I was manipulated like a puppet, re - enacting everything I had experienced before, without missing a single thing.
The only difference was that the woman opposite me had become my deceased girlfriend Zhang Xinyi, instead of the school beauty Jiang Lixin last time.
Soon, we reached the last step. The emcee took out a piece of white paper with the names of a man and a woman written on it. He grabbed my hand and pressed my fingerprint on it.
My body was out of my control throughout the process. When I saw that white paper, I stared at it intently with wide eyes.
On the white paper, the name of the woman was my deceased girlfriend Zhang Xinyi, and the date and time of her birth were also correct for Xinyi.
The name of the man was me, and the date of birth was correct, which I had revealed to the other side in the dream. The time was written as the Zi - hour, which was just the beginning of the early morning.
I immediately realized: The other side had gotten my correct date of birth, and only the birth time was uncertain. They were starting the test from the Zi - hour.
After the fingerprint was pressed, the guests under the stage all turned into ghosts. Their pale blue glowing eyes stared fixedly at me, as if expecting something.
I was extremely terrified. I wanted to struggle, but I couldn't move. As long as I struggled a little, a stinging pain would come from my ear.
After a moment, a faint voice came: "Wrong. He wasn't born at the Zi - hour. Strange. With his peculiar fate, shouldn't he have been born at the turn of the old and new times of the Zi - hour?"
I was extremely anxious and struggled again. This time, the pain in my ear suddenly disappeared, and I suddenly regained control of my body.
In a sudden struggle, losing my balance, I fell forward onto the stage floor with a thud.
I woke up with a start and found that I had fallen asleep on the sofa and dozed forward, hitting my head on the coffee table and waking up in pain.
The impact was quite hard. I felt a searing pain on my forehead, which was so intense that tears and snot streamed down my face.
Rubbing my forehead, I went to the bathroom, turned on the faucet and splashed water on my face. Then I looked up to check the situation on my forehead.
This glance was enough to scare the hell out of me.
The gray - black ghost behind me had come back. She was lying on my back at the moment, but her color was much fainter and she seemed to have become transparent.
In contrast, the long blood - red tongue she stuck out now had an even more vivid color, and the blood on it was an extremely deep red.
This wasn't the scariest part. What was scarier was that the tongue, like a venomous snake, wrapped around my ear and its tip drilled into my ear canal.
It had only just drilled in a short way.