Chapter 27: Escaping from Death

  What's the feeling of my left hand being held by someone? I grasped Xiao Lu's hand and asked, "Xiao Lu, help me see why my left hand feels like it's being held by someone. Is it just my imagination or..." "Hmm, it's our young master holding Miss's hand!" A woman's voice whispered in my ear. I lifted the red cloth to find that the person sitting next to me wasn't Xiao Lu but her.

  "Where's my friend?! What have you done to my friend?!" I glared at her fiercely, "That girl was scared and left a long time ago!" The woman's voice exploded in my mind, Xiao Lu had left, she just abandoned me like that?! I was stunned for a moment, then suddenly burst out laughing. Why should anyone wait for you to die?! Coming to the Is-Not Mountain Villa was also my suggestion, encountering all these things was also what I deserved.

  I felt my left hand being gripped tightly, and the icy feeling made me feel very oppressed. So I stretched out my right hand to try to untie the cloth strip, but before I could untie it, the woman pinched my neck: "With so many things, you'd better die quietly!" Her eyes suddenly turned white, and she glared at me with a fierce expression. I was shocked and pushed her away, "We're here!" The people in front of us holding lanterns looked back at me, and more than a dozen pairs of eyes with only whites stared at me and smiled eerily. I followed their gaze to the front, where a narrow valley lay before us, and the cold wind blew towards me, making me involuntarily step back: "What is this place?" "Ghost Valley, the closest place to hell." The woman laughed and continued, "Okay, throw down the sedan chair!" What? Throw it down? I hastened to untie my wrist from the cloth strip, and managed to free myself. The sedan chair was already placed at the edge of the valley.

  It seemed like I was going to fall off the cliff at any moment, and I grabbed the woman's hand with my right hand: "I have nothing to do with you, let me go!" The woman smiled silently, her foot lightly kicked the sedan chair, and I started falling down the mountain with the sedan chair. Fortunately, it wasn't a vertical valley, but rather a slope.

  The speed of the fall began to accelerate, and I grabbed a protruding rock with my right hand, secretly observing the movement above. After a while, there was no sound from above. I took a breath and couldn't help but mutter to myself: "Why didn't I use my left hand?!" "Wife, because your left hand is being held by your husband!" When I heard this voice, I slowly turned my head towards my left hand, where the charred corpse was, now just a skeleton, tightly grasping my left hand.

  "Ah!" I let go of my right hand and slid down the mountain again, the slope getting steeper and steeper, not a good sign. When my right hand grabbed onto another rock, I started kicking off the skull that was holding onto my hand with its teeth. The smell of blood filled the air, but I ignored it, finally managing to pry its grip loose. I let out a sigh of relief. Just as I was about to climb back up, it seemed like my left leg wasn't working properly, and when I looked down, it was still clinging onto my calf, refusing to let go.

  "Get out! Get out!" I don't know if it was fear or anger, but I kicked it with my right foot like a madman. A sharp pain shot through my calf, but I didn't care. My right foot kicked again, faster and harder this time. Then I heard something roll down. I took a deep breath, composed myself, and started climbing up the cliff face. As I climbed, I looked up, wondering why it seemed so far away. Maybe I was distracted, but my foot suddenly slipped, and I began to tumble downwards at high speed. My two hands desperately tried to grab onto something, but all I could do was slide down further. I closed my eyes, waiting for the inevitable, when suddenly I stopped falling. When I opened my eyes, I found myself on a small rock that could only fit one person. I trembled and looked down, seeing a blue glow flickering in the valley below, like ghostly eyes staring at me. I hugged my legs and curled up, looking up again, feeling helpless against the cliff face, unsure of what to do next.

  The chilly wind blows through the valley, and from time to time, a few ghostly figures float out of the valley, staring at me with a straight smile. I hugged my arms tightly, lowered my head and thought about what to do. "Living is dead, dead is living, clean is dirty, dirty is clean." A childish voice came from below the valley, with an eerie breath, as if it was an invisible hand that choked your throat, watching you struggle helplessly until death.

  The chill rising from the valley floor made me dare not stay here any longer. I looked up at the top, although it was out of reach, but if I stayed here, I would also be frozen to death. I tried my best not to look at the valley floor and stood up to feel for solid rocks that could support me to climb up. Don't give up, Ning Die! I encouraged myself, trying hard to endure the pain in my hands, slowly stepping on the protruding cliff, climbing upwards. The cold wind whizzed past my face, sometimes almost falling off, but fortunately, I was able to grab onto the cliff each time, still lucky. As I climbed, somehow my face became wet and soggy all over. I touched my face with my right hand, only to realize that I had been crying.

  I didn't dare to look down, and I couldn't muster the strength to climb up either. I was stuck in place, unsure of what to do next. My mind grew increasingly muddled, my vision blurry, and I even wondered if I was dreaming again. In that moment of daze, my hand loosened its grip, and I plummeted straight down into the valley. The sharp pain felt all too real, but I was too weak to think about anything else. Closing my eyes, I let myself roll down towards the valley below.

  "Hey! Still sleeping?" I felt someone constantly shaking my shoulder, and I slowly opened my eyes to see a pair of purple pupils in front of me: "You're that vampire, looks like I'm really dead. Even you can see me." He impatiently stared at me and said: "Stop calling me 'vampire' all the time, I have a name, it's Zi Yu."

  I struggled to my feet and looked around, still in this forest. Zi Yu sat down beside me and said, "Don't think about it, you're not dead yet! I saved you!" I stared blankly at the distant sun, suddenly unable to hold back a loud wail, scaring Zi Yu half to death. "Hey, are you okay? Or did you get knocked silly?" I felt so wronged, my heart was too wronged. As soon as I thought about how I almost died in the valley last night, and how Xiao Lu threw me down, and Li Xiangyu and Ye Zikuo, my heart ached.

  I sobbed and said, "Thank you! But you won't save me just to kill me, will you?!" Zi Yu patted my head, "What are you thinking?! Your wounds were all bandaged by me!" I continued crying as I looked at my arms and legs, which were indeed wrapped in bandages. I couldn't stop crying, the eerie wedding, the eerie skull, and that valley that almost took my life - everything was terrifying to think about now.

  "By the way, that wound on your back is probably going to leave a scar." When I heard this, I wiped away my tears and cursed: "You're despicable!" Zi Yu looked at me with an innocent face: "I was just trying to help you bandage your wound, and you're scolding me like this." I calmed myself down and finally held back my tears to ask: "What kind of person are you, anyway? Why did you save me?" "Yi Feng Mountain Villa is my master's, and I'm taking you there, aren't I?" Zi Yu pulled me up and said. "Is that true?" I was a bit skeptical. "Hey, your companions have arrived." Following Zi Yu's gaze, I indeed saw Ye Zi Ke and the others standing not far away, and I was at a loss for what to say.

  "Can you still walk?" Zi Yu asked me, I shook my head. "Then I'll carry you!" Before I could even react, Zi Yu had already picked me up and said to them: "Don't doubt my identity, if it weren't for me, she would have been dead long ago. Follow me, I'll take you all to the Shi Fei Mountain Villa."

  I didn't see the expressions of the three, I just buried my head in Zǐyǔ's back and pretended to be asleep. After a long time, Zǐyǔ suddenly stopped and whispered to me: "Hey, stop crying, my clothes are all wet." I looked at the water stain on his back, awkwardly wiping away tears and said: "I just accidentally fell asleep and drooled, sorry about that!" Zǐyǔ chuckled and said: "Forget it, I've seen your bare back, we're even now!" Xiǎo Lǜ's voice floated over softly: "You... you guys..." I turned my head to smile at Xiǎo Lǜ and said: "Ah, don't listen to him talking nonsense!" But looking at Yèzǐ Kē, Lǐ Shān Yǔ and Xiǎo Lǜ's strange gazes, I continued to pretend to sleep. "If you keep talking nonsense, I'll strangle you to death!" I threatened Zǐyǔ in a low voice, but Zǐyǔ calmly asked me: "I think the problem now is not with me, but your companions are more troubling for you, right?" After hearing this sentence, I didn't say anything else and dared not look back at the people behind me, because I really didn't know how to face them.