Chapter 44: Ghost Encounter

Chapter 44: Ghost Encounter

One o'clock in the dead of night.

The second-floor corridor of the silent hotel was pitch black, carrying an eerie, unsettling air.

A strange figure wandered aimlessly back and forth in the hallway.

His body was covered in blood, his pallid face—ghostly pale like a corpse—wore a dazed expression.

Where is this?

Who am I?

He seemed to have no memory of what had happened before.

He paced mindlessly, staring blankly at his surroundings, only realizing after a long while that he was in a hotel corridor.

His thoughts felt sluggish, many things slipping beyond his grasp.

He also felt exhausted, weak—he needed to sleep.

He took a step forward, heading toward his room. He mimed opening the door and walked inside.

In reality, his body passed straight through the door as if it had become intangible.

The room was a double occupancy. Aside from himself, there was another colleague inside.

Suddenly, he remembered—he was a mechanical engineer. He had come to Dongning City with Old Master from their company to inspect a malfunctioning machine for a client.

His colleague wasn’t asleep yet, tossing and turning in bed, seemingly suffering from insomnia.

As he looked at this colleague, for some reason, an intense resentment began to rise in his heart.

His calm face twisted into something hideous and malevolent.

...

"GHOST!"

A shrill scream echoed through the entire corridor.

Then, the door burst open with a loud bang—"Help! Someone, help!"

Chen Shouyi was jolted awake by the scream.

Beside him, Shell Woman, curled up in sleep, drowsily cracked open an eye, glanced at him, then rolled over and went back to sleep.

What happened?

After a brief hesitation, he quickly threw on his clothes.

Grabbing his phone, he turned on the flashlight.

The moment he opened the door, he immediately sensed an inexplicable chill in the air, as if cold air was blowing through.

But within moments, the eerie cold dissipated around him.

Not far away, an elderly man in his fifties or sixties was slumped on the floor, clearly terrified. He hugged his head, shrinking desperately against the wall.

He babbled in fear, his voice trembling with sobs, his entire body shaking uncontrollably.

"Please, don’t come any closer!"

"Xiao Zhang, vengeance has its rightful owner—it wasn’t me who killed you! When we get back, I’ll burn incense, kowtow, and make it up to you!"

"I didn’t help you, but I have a family to take care of! I was scared too!"

In the cold, dead silence of the night, the old man’s voice was unnervingly unsettling.

...

But what puzzled Chen Shouyi was that he couldn’t see who the old man was talking to—as if there was an invisible figure standing before him.

By now, many doors in the hallway had cracked open slightly, their occupants peering out cautiously.

After a while, perhaps seeing Chen Shouyi standing in the corridor unharmed, a few people finally gathered the courage to step out, whispering and pointing at the old man.

"Isn’t he the colleague of that guy who died earlier?"

"Looks like it. Has he gone mad? Ghosts? What ghosts? I’ve never seen one!"

"Maybe he’s got a guilty conscience!"

There's never a shortage of onlookers at any time, and soon the corridor gradually became lively, yet no one dared to approach the Old Master, only watching from a distance.

"Better to believe it exists than to dismiss it as nothing"—this was the prevailing mindset of most people.

To be honest, faced with such eerie events, Chen Shouyi also felt a creeping unease.

Since the anomaly last night, the world had begun to feel somewhat different.

Fortunately, this trace of fear was fleeting—after all, he had already killed over a dozen barbarians and even carried their corpses himself. His courage was naturally beyond that of an ordinary person.

Gritting his teeth, Chen Shouyi steeled himself and strode toward the Old Master. He was somewhat curious—what exactly did a ghost look like?

Fear stemmed from the unknown. Having frequently ventured into the Otherworld, he knew he would inevitably encounter such things sooner or later.

Moreover, he believed that even if it truly was a ghost, given how faint the mysterious force field currently was, it was impossible for a powerful ghost to manifest—especially one that had only recently become a ghost.

"Hey, buddy, don’t go over there. What if there really is a ghost?" A young man nearby, seeing Chen Shouyi about to approach, kindly warned him.

"It’s fine. I’ve never seen a ghost in my life. I’ll go check it out," Chen Shouyi replied with a smile.

Ignoring further protests from others, he walked forward.

As he approached, the yin cold energy ahead rapidly dissipated.

His body brimmed with vigorous qi and blood, making him akin to a blazing sun in the face of such chilling energy.

Before he could even reach the Old Master, he felt a slight daze in his mind. The next moment, he faintly heard a shrill, venomous scream filled with despair.

Huh? It’s gone!

The corridor remained unchanged, only now it seemed to have lost its eerie, sinister atmosphere, replaced by a trace of human warmth.

Chen Shouyi had initially walked over with tense nerves, his heart pounding.

Who would’ve thought it’d be this easy? He hadn’t even exerted any effort before the ghost was vanquished.

"Old man, are you alright?"

He patted the trembling Old Master, who reeked of urine—clearly, he had wet himself from terror.

"D-don’t kill me!"

"Old man, you must’ve had a nightmare. Ghost? What ghost?"

Hearing Chen Shouyi’s voice, the Old Master hesitated for a long while before timidly raising his head, his eyes darting around nervously.

He was slightly overweight, with heavy dark circles under his eyes and an unhealthy puffiness, as if he hadn’t slept in days.

……

After the commotion died down, Chen Shouyi returned to his room.

Glancing at the time, it was already 1:30 AM.

Looking at Shell Woman, who remained peacefully asleep, he couldn’t help but laugh at his earlier tension.

Compared to the Otherworld, a ghost like this was probably nothing noteworthy.

He suspected that even if he hadn’t intervened, the ghost wouldn’t have been able to harm anyone.

Still, he was puzzled—why could the Old Master see it while he and others couldn’t?

For some reason, he recalled online rumors about who was more likely to see ghosts.

Though most were baseless, two points matched the Old Master’s condition:

First, those who were elderly, physically weak, or ill.

Second, those with fragile minds and frequent insomnia.

The Old Master fit both, and since the ghost had targeted him directly, that was likely why he could see it.

Ah, never mind. No use overthinking it.

Time to go back to sleep.

……

The night passed without incident.

The next day, Chen Shouyi woke up to find that the electricity still hadn’t returned, and both signal and internet remained cut off.

With a heavy heart, he went to the bathroom to wash up.

After finishing, he returned, put on his clothes, placed Shell Woman into his briefcase, and headed out.

The streets were still clogged with traffic. A whole night had passed, yet there was no sign of the congestion easing.

Chen Shouyi noticed many workers inspecting and repairing power lines along the roadside.

Aside from the usual police presence, fully armed soldiers now patrolled the streets as well.

The atmosphere was tense, thick with an oppressive feeling, as if a storm was brewing.

Carrying his briefcase, Chen Shouyi walked with heavy steps. Before long, he arrived at a newspaper stand.

With no internet or television, newspapers were the only way to get information from the outside world.

What was usually a quiet stall now had an unusually long line.

Everyone was exchanging rumors, speculating wildly—some said it was interference from an underground giant spatial gateway, others blamed solar storms, and some even claimed it was the apocalypse.

While waiting in line, Chen Shouyi overheard snippets of conversation. It took several minutes before he finally managed to buy today’s newspaper.

However, after skimming through it, he found little useful information.

The paper briefly mentioned the blackout and internet disruption, stating that emergency repairs were underway to ensure public welfare—but it gave no concrete timeline. As for the situation outside Dongning, not a single word was mentioned.

Most of the newspaper was dedicated to reassuring citizens that the city had ample supplies, that the water plant had activated emergency independent power to ensure running water, and urging people not to panic or hoard.