Starting with dissecting ghost stories

Chapter 97 Despair

Wang Xinran spent the happiest two weeks of her life.

Her family began to understand her thoughts and respect her choices.

Her uncle, who had been urging her to take the teacher qualification exam and had a serious expression, also introduced her to a handsome guy.

Now, that handsome guy is her favorite person. Their feelings for each other grow stronger every day, and almost every time they meet, they create sweet moments.

Moreover, they were each other's first love... What could be happier than that?

If only we could live happily ever after like this.

"Aaaaaaah!!!!!"

Wang Xinran, awakened from her sleep by the sound of gunfire, looked at everything in the living room and let out a mournful cry.

In the kitchen, the father lay in a pool of blood, his body completely disemboweled, his intestines ripped out and spilling onto the floor, a kind smile still on his face as he died.

The younger brother knelt beside the dining table, facing the security door. Blood was gushing from his chest and back, pooling on the ground and spreading outwards.

Her mother stood to the side, a smile on her face. Seeing Wang Xinran emerge, she greeted her with a gentle smile and said softly, "Sorry, Ranran, did I wake you? It's alright..."

'

Wang Xinran wanted to say something, but when she opened her mouth, her throat could only utter meaningless single sounds that were neither crying nor laughing. She let her mother gently pat her back, smiling and comforting her as if nothing had happened.

"Mom...what happened? Mom?" Wang Xinran seemed to have grasped at a straw. Tears streamed down her face as she turned and grabbed her mother's hand, saying, "Mom...ambulance, call 120 quickly, we..."

"Okay, I'll call 120 for you now." The mother smiled, pulled Wang Xinran's hand away, patted it gently, and then walked past her.

The soles of her mother's shoes were still stained with scarlet blood, and with each step she took, her footprints extended all the way to the direction of the landline phone in the living room.

This horrifying scene made Wang Xinran feel cold in her hands and feet, and an indescribable fear crept into her heart.

She quickly realized what was happening, ran crying to the kitchen, glanced at her father's body, and then stopped trying to check his pulse.

My father's body was already riddled with holes, his heart, lungs and other internal organs had been completely crushed... Anyone would know that he was dead beyond dead.

She forced down her grief, turned and ran toward her brother, reaching out to check his pulse.

There was no movement; the younger brother's heartbeat and breathing had long since stopped.

A deep sadness overwhelmed Wang Xinran. She looked at her younger brother kneeling on the ground, raised her hand, and tried to brush away the stray hairs from his forehead.

But when she brushed aside her brother's hair, for a fleeting moment, just a brief flashback, she seemed to see a terrifying creature with half its face covered in black honeycomb, staring at her with its empty eye sockets.

"ah!!!!"

Wang Xinran collapsed to the ground, ignoring the sticky blood on her hands, and took several steps back.

She leaned against the security door, clutching her head in anguish. She felt as if her brain was about to split open, and unbearable pain surged through her entire body.

Countless images and memories began to flash through her mind. No matter how she cried or how she wailed, these fragments of memory kept pouring into her mind.

"Clang—Clang—Clang—"

She turned around and, almost pathologically, repeatedly banged her forehead against the iron door until it broke and blood flowed down her cheeks. Only then did the terrifying, overwhelming pain and disorientation of memories flooding her mind gradually subside.

She gradually calmed down, leaning her head against the cold security door, breathing short, heavy breaths.

Those things in my mind seem to be memories of someone.

It wasn't referring to just one person, but rather countless fragments of memories, chaotic and disorderly, flooding into Wang Xinran's mind.

For a fleeting moment, she seemed to be slightly confused about who she was.

She could only try her best to look forward and see what was in front of her in order to barely maintain the last shred of rationality in her mind.

Wang Xinran's blurry vision gradually focused, and she saw the stairwell in front of her, and a woman who seemed to still be breathing faintly, sitting against the wall directly opposite her door.

There was blood flowing on the wall and the ground behind the woman, and she looked like she was seriously injured.

What exactly happened?

There is one person... who is still alive...

Wang Xinran stood up, using the security door as support, and opened it with her hands, which were covered in sticky blood, before walking out.

But the moment she stepped out, she saw that the stairwell next to her, all the way up to the stairs, was densely packed with people.

They faced themselves, their expressions filled with confusion and sadness, standing there quietly, looking at themselves.

"You...you're here to help?" Wang Xinran could feel an indescribable sense of warmth from them. She stumbled to the woman lying in front of the door, took off her helmet, and reached out to feel her pulse.

"She's still alive...she's still breathing...is anyone a doctor? Please help her..." Wang Xinran pleaded with the onlookers, but no one responded.

Wang Xinran could only use her hands to temporarily press down on the other person's still bleeding shoulder wound.

Her pressure seemed to aggravate the sharp knife still embedded in her shoulder. The woman in front of her winced in pain, let out a muffled groan, and slowly opened her eyes.

At that moment, Wang Xinran saw the submachine gun in the woman's hand, and her hand trembled.

After a while, the crowd parted, and a middle-aged woman in pajamas was pushed out by the throng, seemingly having walked up from downstairs.

"I am a doctor," the woman said sadly.

Wang Xinran's hand was still pressed on the other woman's wound. She opened her mouth, and after a long while, she finally spoke, asking, "Why did this woman collapse in front of my house? Was that gunshot-like sound from the gun in this woman's hand?"

Why did she have a gun? Did she kill her own brother?

Whose knife is that on her shoulder?

Just as Wang Xinran let go, preparing to let the doctor take over, a bloody, cold hand grasped her wrist.

Wang Xinran looked at the owner of the hand. The man was pale, his lips were purple, and he stammered, "Run...quick..."

"This place...is dangerous..."

'

Wang Xinran broke free from the other person's hand, somewhat startled. She took several steps back until a "beep beep" sound came from the woman's calf.

It seems like something has lost power.

The woman leaning against the wall turned her head with difficulty, looking at the crowd beside her, then at the exquisite chandelier hanging in the living room behind Wang Xinran, her expression filled with despair.

Then, her expression of despair slowly turned into a bewildered look mixed with pain.

Standing at the door, Wang Xinran, still somewhat shaken, felt a slight throbbing pain in her head again.

Fragments of the woman's memories... flooded into Wang Xinran's mind at this moment.

"The alien creatures we're dealing with this time have strong characteristics of emotional interference and assimilation."

'

It was a scene of a man with half-white hair standing in a conference room, saying something.

I'm listening to myself.

"Wen Yin, this is the list of people affected by the Fruit Street incident. You are in charge of the investigation in the new urban area."

'

A rugged-looking man handed himself a brown file folder.

"If anything happens, run, take the stairs, and call for backup."

'

She was saying something to the two men in front of her.

"Retreat at top speed! Drive back to the station! That's an order..."

'

He gave the order to the two men who were giving him strange smiles, and then watched them run away.

But when I turned around...

On the flickering, noisy green screen, a scene of hell unfolded: a demon, seemingly from the abyss, raised a blood-stained dagger at her—

"Ho—!"

Wang Xinran took several steps back. She suddenly turned around and looked at the chandelier in her fragmented memories behind her.

The chandelier was still intact, and the younger brother's body was still kneeling not far away, looking as if he were still a human.

Beneath the chandelier, against the backdrop of the night-lit window, stood his mother, looking at him with a sorrowful and bewildered expression.

"Mom... are you alright?" Wang Xinran seemed to be clinging to her last hope, taking two steps forward and asking.

"I'm fine, child," the mother said, taking a few steps forward. "I'm just a little sad and don't know what to do..."

'

The alien creatures we're dealing with this time possess strong characteristics of emotional interference and assimilation.

The echoing sounds and images in her mind made Wang Xinran tremble slightly.

She clutched her chest with her left hand, gripping her pajamas tightly. She took two steps forward, as if to confirm something, forcing a smile, and said in a trembling voice, "Mom...you're still Mom...right?"

"Silly child, of course I'm still your mother." The mother forced a smile, took a few steps forward, and hugged Wang Xinran.

"Mom...you agree to me dating, you agree to me...going back to my studies...right?" Wang Xinran's voice was hoarse, but her heart was throbbing as if she were suffocating.

"Of course, child, I support whatever you do," came the mother's gentle voice, tinged with sadness.

"Mom..." Wang Xinran, burying her head in her mother's chest and smelling the familiar scent of laundry detergent, began to speak, "Mom..."

'

"Do you...love me?"

"Of course I love you."

Wang Xinran seemed to have used up her last strength to ask her final question.

"Mom...can I die?"

"sure."

A mother's gentle voice came from inside.

"When do you want to die, Ranran?"

Despair, in that instant.

It clouded Wang Xinran's heart.

She was almost completely exhausted, so she knelt on the ground, buried her face in her hands, and wept bitterly.

I didn't... I didn't mean it this way...

Was all the happiness, tenderness, and even Shen Xing's love for me that I had felt these past few days all fake?

Is it all... influenced by my own emotions?

It's not that I think everything is going smoothly and everything is wonderful, but rather that everyone is following my wishes and obeying my... instructions?

Wang Xinran knelt on the ground, staring blankly ahead. Her mother also knelt in front of her, hugged her, and softly asked her how she wanted to die.

She was held like that, without any resistance, her chin resting on her mother's shoulder, staring blankly at the living room and chandelier in front of her.

It was I who turned everyone here into these inhuman, ghostly monsters.

It was I who turned my brother into a monster. Everything he said during this time was true; it wasn't a crazy delusion or a sign of rebellion.

Her resentment towards her younger brother transformed into a sharp knife plunged into her father's chest.

Thump, thump.

After immense despair and grief.

Wang Xinran could no longer feel anything.

All she could hear was her own heartbeat.

The crowd poured into the house, filling it and surrounding Wang Xinran like worker ants guarding a defenseless queen ant.

Thump, thump.

It was at that moment, when despair nearly severed her last shred of reason, that Wang Xinran's heartbeat finally synchronized with the swaying of the chandelier...

We've kept in sync.