Liu Dashao couldn't comprehend why he suddenly seemed so cheerful, his hands trembling with mirth as the strong liquor spilled across the table.

"Be careful!" Liu jumped up.

"Oh my apologies," the village chief said, clutching a cloth to wipe it while rushing to flip on the light switch in the dim room.

Just then, Liu heard strange noises coming from outside the door.

Tap tap tap.

Somehow this man hadn't closed the room's entrance, allowing gusts of wind to pour through. Sitting directly facing the door, Liu watched as blue-checked bed sheets in the courtyard swelled and deflated unnaturally under the breeze.

The light flicked on, illuminating the space abruptly.

The village chief, now visibly pale, stared at Liu: "Did you hear something just now?"

Liu shook his head dismissively. "Probably just the wind."

Though the rhythmic tapping was clearly footsteps, both doors had been bolted shut by this man - no one should be inside. Yet those steps felt eerily familiar.

The village chief exhaled in relief before resuming his seat across from Liu. Their seating arrangement defied logic; instead of flanking either side of the door where two men would typically drink together, Liu faced the entrance while the village chief sat with his back to it. The asymmetry felt unsettling, especially under the dim light casting shadows over the courtyard's blue-checked sheets.

Still, the positioning was this man's doing, so Liu said nothing about moving chairs. This meant whenever he glanced up at the village chief by candlelight, he could also observe whatever lay beyond the door without effort.

Then he saw it.

Beneath the fluttering bedsheet lurked a pair of woman's feet in embroidered red slippers, slender calves with pale skin glowing unnaturally under bloodstained threads tracing downward from the limbs. The sheet obscured her upper body, but those legs moved methodically forward...

Tap tap tap.

With every step left behind was a tiny puddle of fresh blood. Liu's grip on his glass trembled violently as if shocked by static electricity.

"Something wrong?" the village chief asked curiously.

"Just wind," Liu muttered.

It wasn't uncommon to see stray dogs or cats in rural homes, but encountering something like this - especially things most people couldn't perceive - would certainly make one uneasy enough to avoid mentioning it altogether.

Liu instinctively touched his jade pendant, whispering: "Pihuang, Pihuang..."

But the amulet remained silent as the village chief turned toward him inquiringly.

The embroidered slippers had already stepped free of the bedsheet when Liu's eyes widened in horror - suddenly understanding why those legs felt so oddly proportioned. With such slender limbs, her head should have pierced through the top edge of that sheet...

Her head was gone.

Completely severed from her neck up, she wore a bloodstained qipao adorned with peonies and moved swaying toward them from the courtyard.

Tap tap tap.

Red slippers tapped rhythmically against wooden planks as the village chief's parasitic children writhed violently on his back like tidal waves.

The woman reached the threshold, only one step away from entering...

"Something wrong?" the oblivious village chief continued staring at Liu with tense curiosity.

Unexpectedly, this spirit wasn't after Liu but aimed directly for the man whose back was turned to her. The ghost lingered just outside the doorframe, straining forward toward his neck like someone grasping into darkness.

Liu's mind raced - he knew logic wouldn't explain this phenomenon. But panicking would only weaken him when flight could still be an option. After all, he was certain he'd outpace that man in a race any day.

Yet abandoning this cursed child to its fate wasn't acceptable either. What did the woman want? Was it after... his head?

A sudden memory struck - hadn't there been a human skull tucked inside the cabinet earlier? Liu dashed toward the cupboard, yanking open the door.

The severed head stared back with wide, furious eyes.

Gritting through revulsion, he seized its hair and turned to face the ghost: "Here you go!"

As if sensing the intent behind those words, the village chief's face contorted in horror: "You... you actually saw it!"

Before Liu could process his reaction, the head let out a shrill scream and tore free from his grasp. It soared through the air toward the doorframe where the ghost stood waiting.

The village chief spun around with an ear-piercing shriek as the ghost's body twisted unnaturally to cross the threshold. "Y-You're... you're a..."

Darn it, Liu nearly laughed at how stupid that sounded - of course she was a ghost! Half her face had been torn off exposing skull beneath.

A cold wind howled through the room as the village chief's parasitic children writhed wildly along his arms toward Liu. Still clutching fistfuls of hair in his hand, Liu wrestled with whether to flee or not when suddenly -

The ghost lunged forward with ten bloodied fingers aimed directly at the man's chest.

Liu snatched that trembling arm and yanked it back just as the parasitic children began crawling down toward him. The ghost pivoted smoothly like a martial arts expert, grabbing the village chief's ankle instead.

"Stop freezing! Kick her!" Liu bellowed in frustration.

With sudden shock, the man planted his foot into the ghost's face with brutal force. A sickening crack echoed through the room as he shattered what remained of her nose bridge.

The ghost let out a shriek that could split stone.

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