Chapter 19: Eyes Instead of Grapes

Over the past few days, constantly experiencing various events—the coincidences of his teammates encountering ghosts, the unexplained marks on his own body… adding them all up, even though he still felt there were no ghosts, a seed of doubt had unavoidably been planted in his heart.

Could there really be ghosts?

They all encountered them and spoke with such certainty, yet why haven’t I run into a single one?

Still, it seems unlikely.

But how to explain those bruises? Once or twice is my own problem, but when it happens so frequently, something is wrong. Just because I’m bold doesn’t mean I’m thick-skulled and care about nothing.

If, every night, his bed was occupied by more than just himself, and he suffered from “ghost paralysis”… just thinking about it made his skin crawl. It was difficult to accept.

It was currently a summer day, and by all logic, the house should have been brightly lit and so hot one couldn’t leave the air conditioning. Yet as they walked down the corridor, it was as dark as midnight, and the few dim lamps provided neither light nor warmth.

Gloomy, cold, with only the faint sound of shoe soles rubbing against the floorboards—it felt like the calm before a storm.

An icy hand suddenly fell upon Pei Liu’s shoulder while he was lost in thought. Caught off guard, he was startled; his eyes widened slightly as he quickly turned his head to look.

It was Jian Yongge, looking at him with a smiling expression, pointing at a photograph hanging on the wall: “Look.”

Pei Liu followed his gesture and looked up. It was a family photo of the household—a young couple and their lovely daughter. It should have been a very warm scene, but Pei Liu noticed that the people in the photo suddenly moved. Their pitch-black eyes turned to look at him, their mouths curling into an eerie grin.

Almost simultaneously, Pei Liu heard faint laughter, dog barking, and the innocent singing of a child. Many bizarre sounds blended together to form a hair-raising symphony.

It sounded muffled, as if separated by water, indistinct yet feeling close to his ears. The sounds seemed to come from nowhere, yet also from everywhere, tightly surrounding him and leaving no chance of escape.

In the darkness, it felt as though countless pairs of eyes were staring fixedly at him.

Pei Liu’s heartbeat quickened slightly, but after a brief moment of panic, he quickly regained his composure. He looked at Jian Yongge: “What’s wrong?”

Jian Yongge frowned. Why isn’t he reacting? Can he not see it? That shouldn’t be the case.

Not hearing an answer, Pei Liu said: “Let’s go.”

He took the lead and continued walking forward.

He told himself in his mind that the photograph was a fake, a moving image, and the sounds were from speakers the production team had hidden in various corners. Don’t overthink it, you’re just scaring yourself. There are no ghosts in this world.

Pei Liu walked calmly, sticking his hand into his pocket to squeeze the cloth doll as if it were a stress-relief toy.

The doll’s button eyes glinted, and it raised its hand, preparing to grab Pei Liu’s finger. But just before making contact, it suddenly remembered something, decisively flopped backward, and played dead, refusing to resist no matter how Pei Liu kneaded it.

Jian Yongge followed quietly behind, an unwilling expression on his face. He lowered his head somewhat neurotically and bit down hard on his fingernails, gnawing them unevenly until they even bled. If this doesn’t work, I’ll have to pull something much bigger.

They all entered the master bedroom one after another.

The female ghost was already waiting for them there. She smiled and asked: “What is your choice?”

Pei Liu: “We are willing to cooperate with you.”

The female ghost wasn’t surprised; her smile remained unchanged: “A very smart choice. To celebrate our agreement, I’ll give you a little something.”

The ghost infant crawled slowly forward, pushing a plate of grapes in front of them. The grapes were round, plump, crystal clear, and full of juice, looking incredibly appetizing.

But this was a gift from a ghost. Wu Kai and the others exchanged glances; no one made a move.

“Eat. This is good for you,” the female ghost smiled brightly, like a hospitable host.

Tong Jiaqi logically knew they shouldn’t eat it, but for some reason, her eyes couldn’t tear away from the grapes. Smelling the enticing aroma, she couldn’t help but swallow, eagerly reached out, picked one up, and quickly popped it into her mouth.

It wasn’t just her; the others were the same, as if brainwashed, their eyes fixed solely on the grapes.

They moved too fast, shoving several into their mouths at once. Pei Liu hadn’t even had time to react. He stared in disbelief, realizing that what they held in their hands weren’t grapes at all—they were eyeballs! They put them in their mouths, bit down, and they even burst with fluid. Yet, they ate with an obsessed expression, as if enjoying a rare delicacy.

Pei Liu thought his eyes were deceiving him, but after blinking a few times, the scene remained the same. Every single one of them was desperately stuffing eyeballs into their mouths, their cheeks bulging high, looking as if they would burst.

They’ve all gone mad.

Pei Liu fought down the urge to vomit and tried to stop them, but Jian Yongge, standing behind him, stepped forward and took one as well, chewing it with great relish. He even turned his head to smile at Pei Liu: “It’s very sweet and soft in texture; you should try it too.”

As he spoke, Jian Yongge picked up an eyeball and moved to shove it toward Pei Liu’s mouth.

Terrified, Pei Liu took a large step back, barely dodging it.

Jian Yongge caught the rare hint of fear in his eyes, his smile widening: “What’s wrong? It’s really delicious.”

He ate another one right in front of Pei Liu.

Pei Liu simply couldn’t comprehend what was happening. They had clearly been grapes just moments ago—how were they swapped right under his nose? Wu Kai and the others were also acting extremely unnaturally, as if possessed. Did the production team instruct them to gang up and prank me? This acting is way too good…

A sudden chill seized his ankle.

Pei Liu looked down to see the ghost infant had crawled over at some point, grabbed his leg, and opened its mouth to bite.

He swiftly pulled his leg back.

The icy, clammy touch felt incredibly real, and from such a close distance, there were no traces of it being a robot; it was just like a real infant ghost…

Could it be… that there really are ghosts?

This thought flashed through Pei Liu’s mind for an instant. The already dim flames on his shoulders swayed violently as if hit by a strong gust of wind, noticeably shrinking in size.

Almost at the same time, Pei Liu noticed the master bedroom darken. To be more precise, it wasn’t a lack of light, but the overwhelming ghostly energy from a room full of spirits eroding the light itself.

It flashed for just a second before the master bedroom returned to normal.

But the dense crowd of ghosts was now seared into Pei Liu’s brain. For the first time, he regretted having such a good memory. Even though he couldn’t see them anymore, he still remembered the corpse hanging from the ceiling with its eyes rolled back, the ghost by the wardrobe covered in blood with bulging eyeballs, the ghost with half a head missing and brain matter oozing out… all staring straight at him.

Pei Liu froze completely. He had never felt like this before—it was as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over his head. A biting chill shot straight up his spine, freezing every cell in his body, and his fingertips trembled uncontrollably.

His mind went completely blank, his heart filled with panic and helplessness.

As someone who didn’t believe in the existence of ghosts or gods, he had never imagined a day would come when he would face such a situation.

His worldview shattered, his perception completely broken and forcibly restructured.

His survival instinct urged him to save himself, but his brain, overwhelmed by immense terror, practically went on strike and refused to work.

He inadvertently locked eyes with the ghost infant. It grinned—a smile so wide it took up nearly half of its face, revealing dark red gums. Drool spilled from its lips as it propped itself up on its hands and crawled toward him.

Pei Liu scrambled backward in panic, losing his footing and stumbling until his back collided with a cold, solid chest.

Black mist enveloped him from behind.

It was like falling into a massive net.

The scene froze on his beautiful, delicate face—his dark, damp eyes filled with terror and anxiety, his lips slightly parted, a hand reaching out as if to beg for help, only to be encircled around the waist by a pair of arms and dragged into the pitch-black, thick mist.

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