Chapter Ten: True Beauty

  I incredulously clutched my waist, which no longer hurt, and stared at the wooden puppet face in front of me with a mixture of fear and gratitude. I hesitated for a moment, taking advantage of the puppet's slight relaxation, grabbed the hem of my skirt with one hand, and crawled to a distant corner like a street rat, wanting to get away from the puppet as much as possible. But what I didn't expect was that just as I was crawling towards the farthest point, my ankle was caught by an icy hand!

  I was stunned, and suddenly I looked back to see the wooden puppet staring at me with a stern expression in its red eyes. The gaze made my heart panic, but more so it scared me. However, judging from the current situation, he doesn't seem to want to harm me for now, otherwise, he wouldn't have brought me all the way here.

  The wooden puppet stared at me, motionless and expressionless. I plucked up some courage, thinking that this matter wasn't entirely without room for maneuver, so I slowly crept closer to the puppet, leaning in close and saying:

  "Is there something you need help with? That's why you came looking for me?"

  The wooden puppet's eyes were fixed on mine, the bright light shining on his face, a sheet of pure white and delicate, just like our Jingdezhen porcelain. Knowing that the wooden puppet had no malice towards me for now, I calmed down a bit, leaned in closer to him, and smelled the faint but pleasant woody scent on his body. Su Huaifeng's white dress was now fitted perfectly on his body.

  I thought the wooden puppet must have been bothering me because it wanted my help, but what I never expected was that the puppet actually shook its head at me, indicating that it wasn't looking for me for this reason!

  That's not the reason, then it must be to harm me! Usually ghosts and monsters only entangle people for these two things! In an instant, my heart became tense again, looking at the wooden puppet in horror!

  The wooden puppet saw me looking at him with a timid and cowardly expression, the serious look in his eyes softened slightly, he supported me to his front, stretched out his hand into my hair which was messed up from struggling earlier, his palm covered my face, holding my chin, his thumb gently stroking the corner of my mouth.

  I don't know what the wooden puppet wants to do, staring at me with its eyes wide open, and my face is reflected in its differently colored eyes, looking at me with a dazed expression. I tense up, stiffening all over, but let the puppet caress my face. When I couldn't think of any way to escape, I could only behave myself.

  "Really beautiful...... really beautiful......"

  A soft and gentle tone, spoken from the mouth of a wooden puppet, I couldn't believe my ears. The puppet was actually talking, and its tone was just like the perfect craftsmanship I had seen before, which made me involuntarily exclaim in admiration. And when the puppet stroked my face and said "true beauty", was it referring to me?

  I admit I'm not ugly, but not so beautiful that men would go crazy and stare at my face, unable to help but say how gorgeous I am. Women are born to be a species that blooms with joy when they hear compliments they like. I don't care if the wooden puppet in front of me is human or not, whether their aesthetic is correct or not. To verify if the puppet was really praising me and also to ease the oppressive atmosphere between us, I immediately asked shamelessly with a shy and questioning tone: "Were you talking about me just now?"

  The wooden puppet was stunned for a moment, as if surprised that I would say such a thing, and withdrew his hand. His face regained its previous calm expression. Seeing me staring at him with excitement, he turned his head to the side, not looking at me. I also slightly tilted my head to see the wooden puppet's face, but there was no hint of danger or malice towards me.

  My whole heart has put down a bit, maybe I thought too much, it's possible that he is a good ghost. My aunt said before that people have good and bad, ghosts also have good and evil. And from the beginning until now, so many days have passed, he hasn't harmed my life, but I still used fire to burn him, yet he didn't hold a grudge. Maybe he really is a kind ghost who was unintentionally brought back by me. One day, when the time is right, I can send him to the broken temple and that will be it.

  "I didn't mean to bring you here, I just like those old carvings from the folk, if you feel I'm disturbing you, I can send you back tomorrow..."

  As I was speaking, the wooden puppet turned its face around, and its gaze suddenly became fierce and terrifying. Looking at this frightening expression, the words that were about to come out of my throat were scared back in, and before I could figure out what was going on, the phone rang in the store.

  "Ding ding ding, ding ding ding......"

  It rang several times, my eyes fixed on the puppet's eyes, wanting to pick it up but not daring to move, until the puppet looked at me with a worried face and nodded slightly, I was like an escaped prisoner, rushing towards the phone to answer it!

  "Hello, I'm Jiang Lingyue!"

  "Xiao Yue, you're indeed at the store, something's happened! Your aunt encountered some dirty things at the hotel. Something's happened, hurry over and take a look!"

  Something's happened!

  This phone call was made by Big Brother, what he said was an accident, I think they must have found out that Su Huaifeng might still be in the bathroom, so they asked me to hurry over!

  But I've passed by, how can I explain everything that happened?!