Ning Meng’s whole head felt a little woozy.
Shi Qi’s face in front of her looked blurry, nearly forming overlapping images and only reverting back to normal after a minute had passed.
She rubbed her ears, feeling it itch.
Ning Ning’s current body was susceptible to itches, particularly her ears. She was also quite ticklish herself and Shi Qi spoke too closely to her
Shi Qi watched as she sobered up and loosened his grip on her.
The system was still chattering, “That performance almost lured you in. If it weren’t for Shi Qi, you would have been a goner.”
After a long while had passed, she finally reacted back.
Just a while ago, she was thinking that she couldn’t understand the performance, however, soon, she felt herself thinking that the singing sounded especially good, the scenery in front of her turning different from that of an auditorium.
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Mbl kdpvydv vbyv Fbk Ck’p byde zlqv bla, vbl pswde sq pkdtkdt sdnl ytykd pwaaswdele bla.
Lkdt Yldt qasodle pzktbvzu, nshlakdt bla lyap yde ypjle Fbk Ck hytwlzu, “Pke usw tkhl xl nydeu vs lyv?”
Rv vypvle jkde sq pollv, y alqalpbkdt jkde sq pollvdlpp.
Fllkdt bla alhlyz vbl nydeu yp pbl oyp prlyjkdt, Fbk Ck bssjle bkp zkrp wr kd xkpnbklq, qaktbvldkdt bla, “Rv’p ynvwyzzu rskpsd.”
Lkdt Yldt, “….” Pke pbl zssj vbyv lypu vs elnlkhl?
Fbl tzyale yv Fbk Ck, nawdnbkdt vbl nydeu kd bla xswvb, rasewnkdt pbyar pswdep. Ebyv jkde sq rskpsd oswze lmkpv kd vbkp jkde sq lay? Tl lhld zlyadle bso vs elnlkhl rlsrzl.
Fbk Ck eked’v alprsde. Tl xlalzu snnypksdyzzu vwadle bkp blye vs zssj yv bla.
Mbl rlaqsaxydnl sd pvytl bye qkdyzzu alynble nzkxym, vbl pkdtkdt clnyxl lhld xsal bktb-rkvnble, yp olzz yp xsal ekqqknwzv vs wdelapvyde, zkjl vbl akvwyz pswdep sq xyjkdt y pynakqknl kd yd ydnkldv rakxkvkhl psnklvu.
Under such circumstances, the performance of the shady play had slowly begun to lose people’s interest.
Ning Meng saw that the puppet figures which had strange appearances, performed peculiarly in the hands of the shadow troupe members, however, as a part of the audience, she was unable to understand the message of it.
If she persisted on watching, she would only turn weird.
After a while had passed, Ning Meng couldn’t restrain herself and tugged Shi Qi’s sleeve, asking softly, “When is this going to end?”
Fair hands and face were visibly tense from nervousness and her pair of eyes glistened in the dark, appearing like a cat.
Shi Qi’s tone softened a little as he replied, “Soon.”
Ning Meng immediately felt relieved and obediently turned her head back, eating her candy and watching the show. Her great grandson was so amazing, his words definitely held nothing but the truth.
The singing had already lost effect on her so she started observing the stage to catch anything out of the ordinary but after a long while, she didn’t see anything.
The only people on stage were the thin youth and the singing old man.
Four figure puppets were moving on screen but only the old man was manipulating them, making his proficient skills evident to the eye.
Ning Meng couldn’t figure it out, why would they commit such wrongdoings?
As if having perceived her thoughts, Shi Qi raised his eyes and glanced at the stage, saying lightly: “You reap what you sow.”
His words didn’t contain any emotions, even sounding a bit cold.
Ning Meng didn’t understand what he meant nor did she know who he was referring to. She could only guess that he was saying someone would meet their retribution.
As the conclusion of the show approached, the old man on stage sang faster and faster.
The youth stood behind him, staring worriedly at the old man in front, muttering constantly in worry: “Grandpa…”
He knew the current situation must have reached a dire extent, otherwise, his grandpa wouldn’t have increased his speed all at once.
The originally slow singing became faster and faster, the drums almost couldn’t keep up, filling the entire auditorium with two mixed sounds.
Ning Meng had another candy in her mouth.
She didn’t know where Shi Qi had gotten it from, but he had popped it into her mouth while she wasn’t paying attention.
As for its effect, it had probably broken the hallucinations she had been having. At the very least, she didn’t think the singing now sounded good, instead, her ears were suffering.
It was at this moment, the singing had suddenly stopped.
Ning Meng looked at the stage and saw that the dark white curtain was suddenly dyed red, as though it had been splashed with a dye.
The boy cried out in shock and rushed forward: “Grandpa!”
The drum sounds suddenly stopped.
Ning Meng only saw the rear curtain being pulled open and a group of people ran up.
Suddenly, the stage lights were bright, and somebody had knocked down the screen, the scene behind it was exposed, revealing the sight of the singing old man with his eyes closed, unconscious.
The young man was squeezed to the side by the others, and the puppet figures fell all over the floor. Some were even pinching the old man, unfortunately, they were still unable to wake him up.
Ning Meng thought it strange. She turned her head and found Qiu Keke next to her, tilted on the chair, her eyes were closed as though she was asleep.
But she knew that she was not asleep at all, because everyone behind her looked just like Qiu Keke, they all had their eyes closed and were slumped down on their chairs.
A word flashed in her mind: hallucinations.
Ning Meng abruptly turned her head to look at Shi Qi. Seeing him sitting properly with an inexplicable smile on his mouth, she knew that he was alright.
Shi Qi tilted his head to look at her, “They’ll wake up soon enough.”
The system also said: “It’s just an illusion. The old man didn’t finish singing so nothing’s going to happen. They also won’t know what had just happened when they wake up.”
This was a normal result of being entranced.
Ning Meng heaved a breath of relief before sneakily leaning towards Shi Qi and asking in a low voice, “Did the old man just vomit blood?”
The people on stage didn’t pay attention to the two of them at all, they were still arguing, perhaps because they were too self-confident that everybody would have been entranced.
Shi Qi responded in a low voice, “Yes.”
Seeing her appear bewildered, he explained softly: “He used too much force that it recoiled back at him. He would be lucky if he was able to survive.”
That miserable?
However, committing something such as sucking the souls of people and suffering the retributions so miserably made her feel as though something else was amiss.
If this old man wanted the soul of a person, why didn’t he do so when she was in the auditorium before, instead, he had warned her not to come.
Looking at it now, there seemed to be something wrong.
Ning Meng thought for a while, and a thought popped out from the bottom of her heart: “Could this old grandfather be controlled by those ugly people?”
The old man vomited blood out, spraying the curtains with them. Naturally, those people had seen the same and were checking whether he was pretending or not.
The stage had turned into a disarray like ants on a hot pan.
A middle-aged man with a scar on his face grabbed the thin young man and asked fiercely, “What’s wrong with this damn old man? Why don’t you try and wake him up!”
The youth’s face was covered with tears as he was flung towards the old man’s direction.
He saw the blood trickling out the corners of his mouth, and wailed, “Grandpa… don’t scare me… don’t scare me…”
A person next to him pushed him away, cursing: “I know you were gonna cry! What’s the use of crying! You’re just gonna be depressed all day long!”
The people let go of the unconscious old man and started discussing amongst themselves.
“Let’s take the finished shadow puppets and go. This old man won’t live long anyways, we’ll just look for other people later on.”
“But he only managed to sing halfway and we only have two paper dolls. They won’t have much use since they’re too few.”
“Two is still better than nothing. f*ck him, why did he have to have something happen to him right now. He just watched and let the opportunity slip through his fingers!”
The few people gathered and looked at the audience below.
These were all people, people they can take souls from, to fill paper dolls which would carry out whatever commands they give.
At this moment, the scar-faced man suddenly looked at the first row.
He aggressively stepped forward and asked in disbelief, “Why are you guys still awake?”
All of the others had clearly lost consciousness.
He originally had an evil countenance, but because he had a scar on his face, it only made him look even more terrifying.
Seeing the two people look well and awake, several men reacted simultaneously: “Just tie them up and wait for the old man to wake up and turn them into paper dolls.”
The group of people agreed in accord.
Ning Meng looked at them as though they were mentallly retarded. Shi Qi was the male lead of this book. How could he let himself be captured by them and be turned into a paper doll?
The men didn’t care whether they were dealing with the old or the young. They jumped down, intending to seize Shi Qi but the moment they touched his arm, they were immediately flung back.
They all crashed against the stage, emitting a loud noise.
When Ning Meng opened her eyes to take a look, the hands of people who touched Shi Qi were burned, their skins peeling off, revealing flesh and blood.
The scarred man’s face turned completely malevolent and he silently screamed something.
Shi Qi stood up abruptly, pulling the confused Ning Meng to his side, telling her calmly, “Don’t move.”
A miserable scream suddenly rang from behind.
Ning Meng quickly turned to the source of the sound and found that the sound had come from the direction of her chair.
And the one who was screaming was the first paper figure she had met in the beginning, the one who had come to life when its eyes had been painted on.
At some point, the paper doll had arrived by her side, sticking close to the back of her chair, its white eyes spinning in circles.
At this moment, its body was twisting around, looking extremely scary.
Ning Meng gulped as she silently leaned closer towards Shi Qi.
The thought that she had been leaning on this paper doll all night, and that the paper doll could still move, made her feel numb all over, her blood running cold.
Shi Qi suddenly lowered his head and said, “It only arrived just now.”
Ning Meng was stunned for a moment until she realized that he was telling her when the paper doll had arrived. She felt relieved and her heartbeat slowed down a little.
This shadow play troupe was really…
The paper doll ultimately became distorted from bottom to top, gradually shrinking, and finally bursting into fire, forming a ball of flame and burning into ashes.
The ball of ashes could still move, until it was finally blown away again and had completely disappeared.
This scene left the people who were injured, secretly stunned.
Paper dolls with souls were different from ordinary paper dolls. Not only did they listen to orders, they could also make money.
They didn’t know how the old man made these paper dolls. When they forced him to paint eyes on them that day, the paper doll had suddenly come to life.
This paper doll was able to follow their orders and had just been manipulated by the scar-faced man.
The few people left on the edge of the stage did not dare to come down for a while.
Ning Meng hid behind Shi Qi, clutching the corner of his clothes, and was silent so as not to disrupt the atmosphere.
A cold glint flashed through Shi Qi’s eyes as he rubbed his fingertips at a place she couldn’t see, powder gradually falling from his originally clean fingers.
There was always a price to pay for one’s actions.
Ning Meng stared at the top of the stage innocently, widening her eyes slightly.
She saw a gap formed by the pulled curtains and two paper dolls crawling over with twisting bodies, the expressions on their faces were very scary.
In the end, they had all stuck to the man in the middle, scar-face.
The man originally didn’t notice anything at all, he was still hurling curses at them, but he didn’t dare to step forward, wary of what had happened just now.
At this moment, two paper figures attached to his back suddenly crawled to the front, covering his face.
The people next to him saw this and shouted: “Big Brother! Big Brother!”
Scar face waved his arms, trying to tear off the paper figure stuck on his face, but he didn’t expect them to stick tighter and tighter, cutting off his oxygen supply.
It was as though the paper doll had become a part of his face, unable to be extricated regardless of what.
As time continued to pass, he was like a fish on land, flopping up and down until he finally stopped and made no movements.
Several people went over to shake him with quivering hands.
The paper man finally floated up, slowly rising from the man’s face, and emitting a small voice that made one’s scalp numb.
“Ah!” The person next to him screamed and backed away.
They saw the paper doll rip the skin of the man’s face with their own eyes leaving the scar-faced man’s face bloodily unrecognizable that one could even see the veins on it.
Ning Meng stood on her tiptoes, just passed Shi Qi’s shoulder, intending to take a look at what was happening because she was curious as to why they were screaming with such terror.
But before she could even see the sight, a hand blocked her view, covering everything.
＊＊＊＊＊
She’ll definitely be scared.
I can’t let her see this.
——”Shi Qi’s secretly hidden little diary”
The author has something to say:
Ning Meng: Why can’t you let me see it, I’m not afraid at all!
Wanna smack her again. She’s a scaredy cat yet she’s so curious. Smh
Like you wouldn’t curious as well if you’re her.
Why is great grandson so sweet~