We asked you to make tokusatsu films, and you actually became Ultraman?

"Something's wrong, something's really wrong. Why has the road home turned out like this?"

Sun Sakikawa stood at the alley entrance, the effects of the alcohol mostly worn off, a fine layer of cold sweat seeping from his back.

Tonight was no different from any other night; it was a department dinner, and his colleagues took turns toasting him. He drank quite a bit, but he wasn't completely drunk yet.

After the party, he declined his colleague's suggestion to take a taxi, thinking that his home wasn't far away and he could walk back to sober up.

The night breeze did clear his head a bit, so he turned into the alley he usually took as a shortcut.

The alley isn't long; just walk through it and you'll find the back gate of his residential complex. He's walked it hundreds of times; he could find his way home with his eyes closed.

But today is different.

The moment I stepped into the alley, a gust of cold wind rushed towards me.

The wind wasn't the usual cool night breeze, but a damp, chilly wind that seemed to come from deep underground, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

A strange sound was also mixed in with the wind—

That was the rustling sound of plastic bags being blown by the wind, like someone gently kneading something in the dark.

Sun Xiaochuan shrank his neck, but didn't pay much attention.

Summer is hot and humid, and a breeze is actually quite refreshing. He felt that this breeze was just right, as it helped to clear his head after drinking.

So he wrapped his shirt tighter around himself and continued walking inside.

The streetlights on both sides of the alley are old-fashioned tungsten filament lamps, and their dim yellow light can only illuminate a small patch of ground underfoot.

He took a few steps, and the light above his head suddenly began to flicker, as if someone was fiddling with a switch in the distance.

After flashing three or four times, the light finally stabilized and emitted a faint yellow glow.

Why does it smell burnt?

A pungent, burnt smell suddenly entered my nasal cavity.

The smell wasn't the burnt smell of short-circuited wires, nor was it the smell of burnt food. Instead, it was like paper that had been burned for a long time, mixed with the fishy stench of something that had been charred. It stuck in my throat, and I couldn't swallow it or spit it out.

Sun Sakikawa frowned and subconsciously looked around.

The alley is lined with old residential buildings, most of which have dark windows, with only a few lights shining from a few households.

He thought that there were many children around, and maybe some naughty kid was burning paper money in the corner and then running away.

Thinking this, he stopped paying attention to the smell and continued walking.

After walking about ten steps, he glanced up at the residential buildings on both sides of the road.

That one glance made his heart skip a beat.

Those windows... seem different from usual.

I can't quite put my finger on what's wrong. The window frames seem to be the same as always, but something has changed.

His gaze shifted from the building on the left to the building on the right, then abruptly returned to the road directly in front of him.

The road is still the same road, and the walls are still the same two walls.

But his heart was pounding wildly, every nerve was screaming, the place had changed, and changed more than just a little.

It's a very strange feeling, like you look in the mirror every day and suddenly one day you realize that the person in the mirror is still you, but he blinks half a beat slower than you.

You can't pinpoint what's wrong, but you just know that it's not you anymore.

Sun Sakikawa subconsciously took a step back.

His back slammed into a cold brick wall.

"...What?"

He froze, then slowly turned around.

Behind me was a brick wall covered in moss, with dead vines crawling all over its surface, and damp water seeping from the cracks in the bricks.

But he clearly walked in from the alley entrance; the alley entrance should be behind him, as he just walked from there.

Sun Sakikawa sobered up instantly.

He reached out to touch the wall, his fingertips touching the rough, cold brick surface, so real it couldn't be more real. He pushed it hard, but the wall didn't budge.

"What's going on...?"

His voice trembled as he turned to look into the depths of the alley, the road he had walked hundreds of times, now stretching into the unknown darkness under the dim streetlights.

The walls were still the same walls, but he knew that this road was no longer the road home.

Fear gripped his heart like a cold hand.

Without hesitation, Sun Xiaochuan took off running into the depths of the alley.

He didn't know what lay ahead, but he knew the wall behind him wouldn't let him turn back. He could only run forward, to the end of the road, and out of this damned alley.

But the more he ran, the more he felt something was wrong.

He was running forward, and the scenery on both sides was rushing past in his field of vision.

This is normal, but what is abnormal is that as the scenery recedes, it is aging at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The already somewhat mottled wall plaster peeled off piece by piece, revealing the gray-black bricks underneath.

The cracks on the bricks increased, and the little GG stickers that were originally pasted on the wall faded away rapidly, eventually turning into dust and falling to the ground.

The streetlights overhead began to flicker again, this time more intensely than before, their filaments emitting a dying red glow between the flashes.

The light flashed one last time and then went out.

All the streetlights went out at the same instant.

Sun Sakikawa was completely swallowed up in the darkness.

It wasn't ordinary darkness; it was the kind of darkness where you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. He couldn't even see his own hand raised in front of him.

The air became thick and sticky, making it difficult to breathe. The smell of burning suddenly intensified tenfold in the darkness, as if someone had plastered a whole pile of burning paper on his face.

"Is anyone there?! Help!"

He opened his mouth and shouted, but his voice carried out in the darkness, as if swallowed by something, with no echo. Even he himself felt that his voice was abnormally muffled, as if it were through a thick layer of cotton.

Then he heard it.

The rustling sound of plastic bags.

The sound came from the depths of darkness, initially very soft and distant, like the wind blowing a withered leaf.

But soon, the sound grew louder and more intense, no longer just from one plastic bag, but from dozens or even hundreds of plastic bags being crumpled at the same time, overwhelming and coming from all directions.

Sun Sakikawa suddenly remembered something his grandmother had said when he was a child.

The old man said that ghosts walk silently, but if you hear the rustling sound of plastic bags while walking at night, never turn around, because that means a ghost is approaching you.

He initially dismissed it as a superstition by an old man to scare a child.

But now, that voice is right next to my ear.

The rustling sound grew louder and louder, and the smell of burning became stronger and stronger.

He knew that something was approaching him in the darkness, and there was more than one. There were no footsteps, only the rustling of plastic bags, like a group of silent hunters closing in on him in the dark.

Sun Xiaochuan rushed towards the residential buildings on both sides like a madman, slamming his fist into the nearest iron gate.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The sound of his fist hitting the metal was particularly jarring in the quiet alley, making his hand bones ache.

"Open the door! Please open the door! There's a ghost here! Help!"

He smashed door after door, his voice hoarse from shouting.

But behind those doors was utter silence; no lights were on, no one answered, and there wasn't even the slightest sound.

The residential buildings along the entire alley resembled a giant tomb; all the residents had vanished, or rather, had never existed at all.

Suddenly, the rustling sound of the plastic bag stopped.

All sounds vanished in the same instant.

An eerie silence fell over the alley.

Sun Xiaochuan stood frozen in place, his bleeding fist raised, not daring to move or turn around.

The burnt smell didn't dissipate; instead, it became extremely strong the moment the sound stopped.

The smell was so strong that he had to hold his breath; it was so strong that tears welled up in his eyes...

The sound stopped, but the smell grew stronger.

There is only one possibility.

The thing was already behind him.

Sun Sakikawa's pupils contracted violently, and his blood seemed to freeze.

He wanted to run, but his legs felt like lead, and he couldn't take a single step. He wanted to scream, but his throat felt like it was being choked by something, and he couldn't make a sound.

Then, a hand reached out from behind him.

That hand was cold and stiff, like a withered branch that had been soaking in water for a long time, with long, yellow fingernails.

It covered Sun Xiaochuan's mouth, its palm emitting a strong smell of burning and decay.

"Ugh—!"

Sun Xiaochuan struggled desperately, trying to pry the other hand off with both hands, but the hand was incredibly strong, gripping his face like an iron clamp.

His feet kicked wildly on the ground, and his body was dragged backward into the thick, impenetrable darkness.

Suddenly, a light appeared before his eyes, but he was unable to move and could only watch the light recede further and further away.

In that light, he seemed to see a red paper lantern floating in mid-air, with an old man's face inside the wick, smiling at him.

Then, the light disappeared.

Sun Sakikawa was completely dragged into darkness.

The alleyway returned to silence, with only the soft rustling of plastic bags in the wind, as if nothing had happened.

The next morning, someone found Sun Sakikawa at the entrance of the alley.

He was still alive, sitting on the steps at the alley entrance, his eyes vacant, repeatedly muttering the same sentence.

"They're looking for sacrifices...they're looking for sacrifices..."

His hair turned completely white overnight.

In his right hand, he tightly clutched a piece of charred red paper.

---

"It's the Ghost Festival now, are you sure what you're saying is true?"

Yun Yu sat in the chair and listened to Su Mo's stories. She couldn't help but shiver.

It was the height of summer, and the convenience store's air conditioning wasn't set too low, but after hearing the descriptions of the plastic bags and the burning smell, a chill inexplicably ran down his neck, as if something cold had slid across his skin.

He subconsciously rubbed his arms and looked up at Su Mo in front of him.

"Hey, are you underestimating my professionalism as a journalist?"

Su Mo was clearly displeased with Yun Yu's questioning. She put the mug in her hand on the counter, put her hands on her hips, and looked offended.

But there was a smile hidden in those eyes, clearly enjoying Yun Yu's frightened reaction.

"It's not that I look down on you." Yun Yu shook her head, her tone serious:

"But the person in your story went insane in the end. How do you know what actually happened after he went into the alley? Can you take the words of a madman seriously?"

That hit the nail on the head, directly pointing out the most crucial flaw in the entire story.

Su Mo was stunned for a moment, clearly not expecting Yun Yu to seize the opportunity so quickly.

She looked Yun Yu up and down, then reached out and ruffled his hair, her fingertips running through his soft hair, the movement as natural as petting a cat.

"That's not right." She tilted her head, feigning confusion. "How could she have suddenly become intelligent?"

Yun Yu gently shook her head, trying to free her head from her grasp.

But wherever he swayed, Su Mo's hand followed, always steadily resting on his head, her fingertips deliberately brushing against the crown of his head.

After trying twice without success, Yunyu had no choice but to give up and let her rub it, her face full of helplessness.

"Okay, the story of that alleyway is indeed a rumor, a version passed down by word of mouth among the older folks in that neighborhood."

Seeing that things were going well, Su Mo stopped teasing him and became more serious: "But that person is real. I went to the hospital to see him last week. His surname is Sun, his name is Sun Sakikawa, he is in his thirties, and he really did turn white overnight. He is still in the psychiatric ward."

The doctor said he had no physical injuries, but he had completely lost his mind; apart from repeatedly muttering that one phrase, he remembered nothing else.

Yun Yu's expression became more serious.

"That's really scary."

Although Yun Yu said this, she was actually wondering whether it was an alien or a monster.

"What's wrong? What are you thinking about again?"

Su Mo looked at Yun Yu's profile as he suddenly fell into deep thought, put away her joking tone, rested her elbow on the counter, and looked at him with her chin in her hand.

"without……"

Yun Yu subconsciously wanted to say it was nothing, but before she could finish speaking, she looked up and met Su Mo's eyes.

Her eyes shone brightly under the convenience store lights, carrying a hint of curiosity, a touch of concern, and something else he couldn't quite decipher.

For some reason, he suddenly felt a little embarrassed, his gaze drifted elsewhere, and he raised his hand to scratch his cheek, his ears burning slightly.

After a few seconds of silence, he finally organized his thoughts and began somewhat hesitantly:

"Well... it's the Ghost Festival recently, and you've been to so many places to investigate these strange things. It might not be safe for you to go home alone at night."

So...would you like me to take you home?

The moment the words left his mouth, he felt his ears burning even more intensely.

He wasn't the type to say things like that, but the thought of Su Mo, a girl, wandering around the old town in the middle of the night, with no idea what was in that alley, made him uneasy.

Su Mo was stunned for a moment.

Looking at Yun Yu's nervous expression, which prevented her from looking at her, a soft spot suddenly appeared in her heart.

She stopped rubbing Yunyu's head, and slowly moved her hand down, finally gently covering the back of Yunyu's hand that was resting on the counter.

Her hands were a little cold, but because she had been doing fieldwork for many years, they inexplicably had a certain strength.

"Then I'll leave it to you."

Her voice was soft, with a hint of a smile, but lacked her usual teasing.

Yunyu looked up and met her eyes.

Outside the convenience store, the night wind rustled a fallen leaf.

At the far end of the alley, a street lamp flickered for a moment before finally lighting up.

Today is the Ghost Festival, so I'll use my traditional supernatural abilities to write a special Ghost Festival story. I thought about it for a long time before I came up with this kind of ghost story idea. I wonder what everyone thinks?

For the sake of continuity, this chapter is still one of two chapters linked together.

Finally, thank you everyone for your support and patience. Love you all, meow Ciallo～(∠・ω＜)⌒☆】