Frightening Joke: Above the Mist

The blood rain disappeared cleanly, but everyone knew that the world had changed.

Yet, paradoxically, after "waking up," everything turned back to normal.

The destroyed buildings, traces of blood, the dead people... all restored to their original state.

Bai Yanliang woke up beside the stone table in the courtyard.

He was also very surprised, because the place he entered Fog Gathering was not here, but at this moment, it had brought him back "home."

The wind blew through the spaces between the leaves of the old locust tree in the corner of the courtyard, carrying a bit of the cold, frost-like chill of winter.

Moss wrapped around the feet of the stone table in the courtyard, while outside, the city vehicles came and went incessantly, shuttling back and forth.

Everything seemed to have returned to its original state, back to its most normal appearance.

He looked at the old locust tree in the corner of the courtyard, the heavily overlapping leaves had already turned yellow—it seemed winter was approaching.

At this moment, the door of the courtyard was knocked on.

Only visitors would knock, and those who would come to the courtyard were mostly related to Fog Gathering.

Who was it?

Bai Yanliang stood up and walked toward the door.

"Creak—"

He opened the door, and the person standing there made his pupils suddenly shrink.

"Qi Nian..."

She stood against the light at the courtyard gate, wearing a white dress, her hair tied in a long ponytail—it was somewhat difficult to see her face, but Bai Yanliang recognized her at a glance, it was indeed Qi Nian, or rather... she had become the new generation of haunting ghost, Qi Nian.

Without a doubt, she was a ghost.

Bai Yanliang's memory was very clear, and not long ago, Fog Gathering had issued a blood letter—corpse not corpse, bone not bone, I not I, human not human.

From a literal understanding, this instance of Fog Gathering... was perhaps a mingling of humans and ghosts, difficult to distinguish truth from falsehood.

Yet, to have a person who was already dead appear in front of him, and his own memories remaining completely undisturbed, wasn't it obvious at a glance that the visitor before him was a ghost?

What was the purpose of this?

However, theoretically, Bai Yanliang's best choice now was to close the door and immediately distance himself from Qi Nian, who had become a ghost.

But when her blurred face gradually became clear, until it was fully visible in front of him, Bai Yanliang was stunned.

"Long time no see."

The words from the mouth of Qi Nian in front of him made Bai Yanliang's heart tremble violently.

No… no, that's not right.

A ghost cannot communicate, cannot converse, is merely a pure condensation of malice... but why did Qi Nian, who he had confirmed to be a ghost, reveal the fact that they hadn't seen each other for a long time the moment she opened her mouth?

If a ghost could have memories and awareness of the world, knowing it was dead, knowing it was a ghost, then... is it still a ghost?

Bai Yanliang suddenly felt his mouth dry and tongue parched.

"What's wrong, don't you remember me?"

Qi Nian slowly reached out her hand, the backlight behind her made Bai Yanliang see less clearly again, yet at this moment, Bai Yanliang distinctly felt his lips being touched.

It was her…

It really was her!

A strange yet familiar emotion suddenly surged from the depths of his soul, rapidly spreading throughout his body.

Bai Yanliang looked incredulously at Qi Nian: "Are you… a ghost?"

Qi Nian nodded without hesitation, then turned slightly, revealing the dwindling sunset.

"You know, don't you, I crossed to the other side of the door, I became... the new haunting ghost."

Qi Nian seemed to have changed a lot compared to before, but the only thing that hadn't changed was her eyes; she always seemed to be worrying about something, even if admitting she was a ghost now, there was still something in her eyes.

"Would you like to go for a walk together?"

Qi Nian smiled broadly, inviting Bai Yanliang.

"Creak—"

The courtyard door closed, and Bai Yanliang was already standing outside the courtyard.

"What's going on?"

Walking side by side with her, Bai Yanliang never imagined he would be conversing with a ghost, even if this ghost indeed appeared to be Qi Nian.

Yet if a ghost exists with self-awareness, capable of controlling itself, retaining the emotions it had in life, then what is there to fear in death?

Bai Yanliang did not believe this was real, perhaps… this was the true peril and difficulty of this instance of Fog Gathering.

"I don't know either."

Qi Nian regretfully shook her head, perhaps because she was a ghost, Bai Yanliang felt the air around him grow much colder, the roadway beside the sidewalk, which should have been noisy, was eerily inert at the moment, as if shrouded with a gray filter, only he and Qi Nian were colorful, flowing.

"I only recently suddenly regained consciousness," Qi Nian said slowly, "Then, the scenes of me becoming the haunting ghost all surged at once. After I finally managed to digest those bizarre images and came to my senses, I found myself standing at your courtyard door."

Qi Nian stopped and turned to look at Bai Yanliang: "It was as if an invisible hand placed me at your door."

Bai Yanliang was silent.

He knew that invisible hand was Fog Gathering.

But from what he had understood recently, that hand was more likely to be someone who had completely seized control of Fog Gathering.

Whether that person was Zhou Tian or Bai Yanren.

Bai Yanliang was not yet sure.

He wasn't even certain if Zhou Tian and Bai Yanren were included when Fog Gathering encompassed all the survivors of Ye City before.

"Can you tell me something about what happened while I've been dead?" Qi Nian asked curiously.

From her perspective, she became a fierce ghost that lost self-awareness, and once conscious again, she was standing at the courtyard door.

Bai Yanliang nodded, not refusing.

The brief companionship allowed Bai Yanliang to believe that the Qi Nian beside him was truly a fierce ghost temporarily regaining human consciousness.

They walked forward slowly.

Bai Yanliang spoke as Qi Nian listened attentively, occasionally posing one or two questions.

Gradually, under Qi Nian's almost imperceptible guidance... the scent of paper money filled the air.

Like the dazed haze of a summer evening, Bai Yanliang also became somewhat dazed.

He followed Qi Nian into an old house.

The high wooden doors and carved wooden windows were all open, and the wind lightly caressed, setting the white drapes billowing gently.

At some point, Qi Nian took Bai Yanliang's hand, and hand in hand, they entered the house. The walls of this old house were black, as black as the deepest abyss, while the white drapes floating around inside were like tongues of snakes, encasing a chilly essence, searching for the fragrant scent of human presence, and silently, they moved toward Bai Yanliang.

In a trance, Bai Yanliang looked up.

It was snowing…

No, it wasn't snow.

It was paper money, white, round paper money.

Floating and drifting, like snowflakes falling abundantly to the ground.

What is this place?

His eyes lost focus; inside the house, why were there so many strangers?

The dim, ambiguous light made it difficult to see the faces of those strangers, the white drapes brushing past them as if revealing their true faces.

These were actually...

All the people Bai Yanliang had seen die in Fog Gathering.