The young man was called Shen Haoran. One month ago, he had gathered with his friends for drinks. As they were all young and inebriated, they began to play the dare game. He couldn’t remember who had suggested the idea, but in the end, they all went to the famous haunted house in the area. That night, all of them were drunk. No one remembered what had happened.

When they woke up, they found their entire bodies covered with scratches. It seemed like some dog or cat had attacked them with its claws. They thought it was from a stray cat, so they didn’t pay attention.

As they had left the haunted house intact, they took in the fresh air and felt it was really exciting.

Then, when he came to this part of the story, Shen Haoran seemed to recall something. His hands holding the cup trembled. “We thought we would go to that haunted house one more time the next week. And, we agreed not to drink this time to see who would be scared the most! But then, something happened to Orange…

“Orange is a girl who had just turned eighteen. She dropped out of school after junior high. Every night, she would hang out with us at the bar. But one night, she didn’t come. We thought it was strange. Then, Orange’s mother, a single mom, came to us and told us that Orange had turned crazy! We were worried and went to her house. We saw Orange with ruffled hair. She was holding a painting. She stroked the painting and looked so obsessed with it. It seemed the painting had some magic,” said Shen Haoran.

I suddenly had a strange feeling. However, it soon disappeared. I nodded and asked Shen Haoran to continue.

“Master Zhang, you don’t know it, but Orange’s face looked so horrible at that time. She didn’t have a bit of color on her face, and her eyes had rolled to the back of her head. Do you know Sadako from The Ring? Yeah, she looked like that ghost.” Shen Haoran took in a deep breath.

“What painting is that?” I asked.

“The situation scared the crap out of us. We didn’t have a clear look at the picture, but I know there was some ancient calligraphy,” answered Shen Haoran.

It was a picture Orange took from the haunted house. They didn’t think it was a big matter. Unexpectedly, bad things had happened afterward.

Li Mazi’s eyes sparkled. He had the same idea as me. That picture was an otherworldly item.

“What happened after that?” Li Mazi couldn’t wait and urged Shen Haoran to continue.

“Orange’s mother saw that her daughter has been admiring the painting all day long without eating or drinking. She soon turned as thin as a skeleton. She made up her mind and hit her daughter until she fell unconscious. She took the painting and burned it…” said Shen Haoran.

“Burned it?” I frowned. All the otherworldly items had a spirit and that spirit would never let someone burn it easily. Was that painting not an otherworldly item?

I knew it wasn’t that simple. Otherwise, Shen Haoran wouldn’t have come here to ask for my help.

Indeed, after pausing for a moment, Shen Haoran continued, “It wasn’t just Orange’s mom, but we also thought that everything would be all right if we burned that painting. However, when Orange woke up the next day, she became crazy and rushed out of the house to find the painting! She kept mumbling something indistinctive. But she didn’t avoid the vehicles on the street. She was almost run over many times. Her mother was so worried. She kept watching her daughter. However, bad things still happened… One night, at around midnight, Orange’s mom thought that her daughter was sleeping, so she also went to take a short nap. However, when she opened her eyes, Orange was gone. Orange’s mom went to the streets to find her. Eventually, she found Orange at that haunted house. She was bleeding, so she took her to the hospital. Until now, Orange hasn’t woken up yet.”

Except for Orange, Shen Haoran also said that they had another friend called Along. He was also acting strangely these days. He didn’t come out to meet them. Every day, he locked himself in his room and didn’t even want to pick up his phone.

Shen Haoran was worried that they were being pestered by something, so he had come to ask for my help.

My heart froze. These young people didn’t pay attention to the dangerous games they were playing. If they didn’t seek death, they wouldn’t die! They had probably provoked a powerful otherworldly item. That was why all of them got pestered this time.

Usually, if I could ignore this sort of otherworldly item, I would ignore it, especially because I had just gotten married.

Shen Haoran got on his knees again. He pounded his head on the ground to beg me. My heart softened. I agreed to go and take a look.

Li Mazi and I sorted our bags then left. We would drive our car.

When I walked out of the shop, I didn’t know why but my intuition told me to grab the painting I had placed on the counter. I put it in my bag.

When the car drove off of Wuhan’s highway, the road became worse. Shen Haoran felt much better as Li Mazi had told him dirty adult jokes along the way. He was even in the mood to tease Li Mazi.

While driving, I carefully assessed Shen Haoran through the rearview mirror. Shen Haoran was a handsome young man with a well-built body. His hair was dyed blonde, and he had an ear-piercing. At first glance, he looked like a Korean movie star from a magazine.

I suddenly got an idea and blurted, “Hey little Shen? Are you in love?”

Shen Haoran was dumbstruck at my sudden question while he was joking with Li Mazi. He shook his head.

“Do you like some girl?”

Shen Haoran nodded, but then shook his head.

I didn’t get it. Shen Haoran then explained that he liked a girl from an upright, classy family but that her family didn’t agree to let them be together.

I smiled and stopped asking and focused on driving. The road soon became quite rough. It felt so bumpy. I had to put all of my concentration into driving. That was why I didn’t know what Li Mazi and Shen Haoran were excitedly discussing in the back.

Later, Li Mazi tried his best to push me from behind and take the wheel. That was when I suddenly woke up.

“Little Brother Zhang, are you crazy? I asked you to stop!” Li Mazi shouted at me hysterically as if his life was being threatened.

I was bewildered, but as he had shouted at me, I instinctively stepped on the brake. When the car stopped, I recognized that I had almost hit someone’s house on the side of the road. I was scared.

Then, I realized something. There was a flat and white face stuck on the windshield. It seemed this white face had made me drowsy and almost crashed my car!

The face looked flat like a piece of paper. There was no nose or mouth, but a pair of open eyes that gazed at me.

I felt my legs turn into jelly as I was facing the white face. Sweat beaded over my forehead. Li Mazi didn’t look good, either. His eyes opened wide in fear as he looked at the windshield. His temper from earlier was gone…

Shen Haoran was completely frightened. He shoved his body into Li Mazi. His face at the other’s crotch.

I didn’t have the strength to care about him. The instant I wanted to draw my whip, I found that the bag I had put on the passenger seat was gone.

I didn’t have enough time to think. I pulled the prayer beads I hung in my car and held them in my hand.

That white face wasn’t simple to deal with. I had been bewitched inadvertently. If it weren’t for Li Mazi’s quick wit, the three of us would have died in a car crash!

I felt strange. These days, it was rare to encounter a ghost or evil spirit in the city area, let alone a very powerful one.

Was this the spirit Shen Haoran and his friends had provoked? Could it be that it wanted to deal with us before we could reach the place to meet up with it?

“Little Shen, is your house far from here?” I asked but didn’t turn around to look at Shen Haoran.

Shen Haoran shivered. “There’s at least half an hour more.”

My heart sank. It seemed this white face wasn’t the spirit Shen Haoran had encountered.

“Little Brother Zhang…” Li Mazi and Shen Haoran huddled together. Li Mazi’s voice choked with sobs. “What should we do now?”

I didn’t answer and held onto the Buddhist prayer beads. If my memory was correct, this chain of prayer beads had been blessed. It was the only sacred item we had now.

That flat, white face was still on my windshield. It didn’t even wiggle and continued to gaze at me.

I started the car’s engine and slowly drove a few meters. The face disappeared. I slumped in the seat. Right as I exhaled in relief, a murderous aura wafted toward me from behind. I pulled myself together and instinctively lowered my head. That murderous wisp blew over my head and flew away.

I focused and saw it was a button. I turned my head around to see. It was from Li Mazi! His shirt was missing a button, and his right hand was still in a throwing position.

Shen Haoran was petrified and looked at Li Mazi. At this moment, he didn’t even dare to gasp for breath. Let alone him, I was also stunned.

Seeing me turning around, Li Mazi released a series of low laughs. It was as if he had sputum stuck in his throat.

I didn’t think much and bit the tip of my tongue. I spat blood on the prayer beads. Then, I raised them and hit Li Mazi’s forehead.

Li Mazi reacted quickly. He seemed to have read my mind. His body flexibly moved aside.

At the moment our lives were at stake, Shen Haoran, who had been petrified, suddenly grabbed Li Mazi.

After the mala beads hit Li Mazi, his body turned soft. Then, he slumped onto Shen Haoran’s back.

I gave Shen Haoran a thumbs-up. I hadn’t expected that this young man would be of help at the critical moment.

At this moment, I heard an ear-splitting horn from behind us. I checked the rearview mirror and found that our car was parked across the street. It was blocking the narrow street.

The cars behind us were blocked, too. I immediately turned the wheel to adjust the car. Then, we continued with our trip.

Through the corner of my eye, I saw my bag on the passenger seat. It sat there quietly as if it had never gone missing.

If Li Mazi’s shirt wasn’t missing a button, I would have thought that everything that had just happened was a hallucination.

For the rest of the trip, no other strange things happened. We finally reached the town where Shen Haoran lived.