NOVEL NEXT 027 Bai Zhi
In order to keep this dilapidated building standing, Ning Zhe had to ensure the stability of its foundation—meaning the mistaken belief that Feng Yushu had of him being a ghost, due to that one phone call.
All the current advantages were built on lies. Once the truth reached Feng Yushu and her mistaken perception was corrected, it would mean a complete collapse for Ning Zhe, with everything lost.
Therefore, Ning Zhe was acutely aware of the urgency of the situation: “I absolutely cannot let Feng Yushu know the truth. I cannot let her perception change.”
The quickest way to achieve this was:
— Kill Feng Yushu.
Only the thoughts of the dead never change. Once Feng Yushu was dead, her wrong perception could never be corrected, and Ning Zhe would stand invincible. Even if he had to face the unpredictable ghost of rules, he still had time and resources to wear it down.
But…
“Auntie, do you want to live?” Ning Zhe suddenly asked, his hurried footsteps echoing through the empty street.
“Huh? Of course I want to. No one wants to die, right?” Feng Yushu didn’t quite understand why he asked that question out of the blue.
“I’m asking you.” Ning Zhe corrected. “Let me be blunt—I don’t think you’re a strong person. Whether it’s your high social status or pampered life, they’ve both led to you lacking the experience to face setbacks and danger, and a lack of ability to withstand pressure.”
“Compared to Ye Miaozhu, who’s gone through the bankruptcy of her father and family restructuring, your life has been free from any major blows. I can see that from the confused look in your eyes and your timid behavior.”
“In other words, Auntie, you are the kind of character in a horror movie who screams and acts helpless, or the role in a hero-rescue-beauty type play who needs to be saved. But this isn’t a movie, and the ghost isn’t the director. It won’t give you more screen time just because you’re pretty and have a good figure to boost ratings.”
“Surviving in the cracks of rules, witnessing others’ strange and unpredictable deaths, requires enduring immense psychological pressure. And I don’t think you have the ability to withstand this pressure without breaking down. In other words, you should have died long ago.”
Yet the reality was that, just when the threat of death loomed closer, Ye Miaozhu had been easily broken down by Ning Zhe’s nonchalant words, and someone as meticulous as Zhang Yangxu had made an irrational decision, resulting in their identity being hijacked by a ghost… Feng Yushu was far weaker and more timid than these two, but it was precisely she, the fragile one, who had managed to hold on until now.
“Logically, you should have collapsed long ago, but you’ve stubbornly endured until now. This shows that Auntie, you want to live more than anyone else… Your survival instinct is extremely strong, so strong that you’d give anything to leave here alive. You’ve even hinted that you might be willing to submit to me. Although I’ve ignored you, this is clearly unimaginable for someone of your status and upbringing.”
As Ning Zhe spoke, Feng Yushu’s wrist, which was held in his grasp, twitched slightly. He continued, “The desire to survive is a basic instinct, but yours is so strong it affects your physiological limits. This is really rare.”
“—So, why do you want to live so badly? Is there a reason?”
Feng Yushu lowered her head, silent for a long while.
After a while, she spoke: “Because I have a daughter.”
“I see.” Ning Zhe more or less understood.
Women are generally fragile, but a mother is strong?
Ning Zhe had no interest in probing into someone else’s family matters, but Feng Yushu continued talking on her own:
“My daughter’s name is Bai Zhi. She’s a very well-behaved girl.”
“My husband is a workaholic, completely immersed in his career, and doesn’t care about family matters or her studies and growth. I’m not very good at raising children. Bai Zhi’s childhood was just like that of a child from a single-parent family—very poor and pitiful…”
“But she matured quickly. Even as a child, she knew how to take care of herself. I didn’t have to worry about her life or studies at all. I wanted to care more for her, but I didn’t know how to start. I know what it’s like to be that age, how sensitive a teenage girl’s thoughts are, and I was afraid I’d make things worse…”
“Bai Zhi is really a good child. I want to give her all my love… But she matured too fast, became independent too early, and closed off her heart. At school, she kept to herself. I, her clumsy mother, didn’t know how to reach her. I watched her grow, but our mother-daughter relationship grew more and more distant. Sometimes, I even wondered… is this tall, elegant girl really the one I gave birth to?”
Feng Yushu rambled on without stopping. In the past, she was always cautious and silent, but when the topic of her daughter came up, she seemed to have endless things to say.
Ning Zhe didn’t interrupt her, treating it like a little story to lighten the mood, as they walked swiftly through the empty street. He kept his attention highly focused, watching every stone slab they passed.
“…At the end of last year, Bai Zhi’s laptop broke. Her father wasn’t home, and I don’t understand computers. After I took it to the repair shop, the password to log in disappeared for some reason. I know it’s wrong to snoop through my child’s personal things, but I really wanted to understand her. I really wanted to know what Bai Zhi was thinking.”
“I couldn’t help but open her computer. It was like I was possessed, rummaging through it… I found a lot of strange, graphic comics in the folder, and some very bloody, bizarre horror games…”
“Then, I also found her electronic diary in a program called WPS Notes.”
Snooping through a diary… a classic Chinese parent’s behavior.
Ning Zhe didn’t offer any comments. It was nothing surprising.
What did surprise him, though, was that Feng Yushu’s daughter wrote a diary. This Bai Zhi didn’t seem like a proper person at all. What proper person writes a diary, especially an electronic one saved in the cloud? And there were so many weird comics and horror games on the computer. She was clearly from a wealthy family, raised as a lady of the house, but her tastes were so unusual.
Do all rich people have such strange fetishes?
At first, Ning Zhe thought of Feng Yushu’s rambling as a light diversion, a little story to relieve the pressure of being forced by ghosts to the brink of death. However, what she said next sent a chill through his entire body, a bone-deep cold creeping up his spine.