The young man was called Shen Haoran. One month ago, he had gathered with his

friends for drinks. As they were all young and inebriated, they began to play the dare game. He couldn’t remember who had suggested 

the

 idea, but in the end, they all went to the famous haunted house in the area. 

T

hat night, all of them were drunk. No one remembered what had happened. 

When they 

woke

 up, they found their entire bodies covered with scratches

. It seemed

 like some dog or cat had attacked them with 

its

 claws. They thought it was fr

om a

 stray cat, so they didn’t pay attention. 

As they had 

left

 the haunted house intact, they took in the fresh air and felt it was really exciting. 

Then, when he came to this part of the story, Shen Haoran seemed to recall something

. H

is hands holding the cup trembl

ed

. “We thought we would go to that haunted house one more time the next week. And,

we agreed not to drink this time to see who would be scared the 

most

! But th

en, 

something happened to Orange…

“Orange is a girl who 

had

 just turned eighteen. She dropped out of school after junior high. Every night, she would hang out with us at the bar. But 

one

 night, she didn’t come. We thought it was strange

. T

hen, Orange’s mother, a 

single mom

, came to us and told us that Orange 

had turned

 crazy! We were worried

 and

went

 to her house. We saw Orange with ruffled hair

. She was 

holding a painting. She stroked the painting and looked so obsessed with it. It seemed the painting 

had

 some magic,” said Shen Haoran. 

I suddenly had a strange feeling. However, it soon disappeared. I nodded

 and asked 

Shen Haoran to continue. 

“Master Zhang, you don’t know 

it, but

 Orange’s face looked so horrible at that time. She didn’t have a bit of color on her face

, and h

er eyes had rolled to the back of her head. 

Do y

ou know Sadako from The Ring? Yeah, she looked like that ghost.” Shen Haoran took in a deep breath. 

“What painting is that?” I asked. 

“

The situation

 scared the 

crap

 out of us. We didn’t

 have a clear look

 at the picture, but I know 

there was some 

ancient calligraphy,” answered Shen Haoran. 

It was 

a

 picture Orange 

took 

from the haunted house. They didn’t think it was a big matter. Unexpectedly, bad things had happened afterward. 

Li Mazi’s eyes sparkled. He 

had

 the same idea 

as

 me. That picture was an otherworldly item. 

“What happened after that?” Li Mazi couldn’t wait

 and urged 

Shen Haoran to continue. 

“Orange’s mother saw that her daughter has been admiring the painting all day long without 

eating or drinking. She soon

 turned as thin as a skeleton. She made up her mind and hit her daughter until she fell unconscious. She took the painting and burned it…” said Shen Haoran. 

“Burned it?” I frowned. All the otherworldly items had a spirit and that spirit would never let someone burn it easily. Was that painting not an otherworldly item? 

I knew it wasn’t that simple. Otherwise, Shen Haoran wouldn’t have come here to ask for my help. 

Indeed, after pausing for a moment, Shen Haoran continue

d,

 “

It wasn’t just 

Orange’s mom, but we also thought that everything would be all right if we burned that painting. However, when Orange woke up the next day, she became crazy

 and rushed 

out of the house to find the painting! She kept mumbling something indistinctive. But she didn’t 

avoid

 the vehicles on the street. She 

was

 almost run over many times. Her mother was so worried. She kept watching her daughter. However, bad things still happened…

One night, at around midnight, Orange’s mom thought that her daughter was sleeping, so she also 

went

 to take a short nap. However, when she opened her eyes, Orange was gone. Orange’s mom 

went

 to the streets to find her. Eventually, she found 

Orange 

at that haunted house

. She was bleeding, so she took

 her to the hospital. Until 

now

, Orange hasn’t 

woken

 up yet.”  

Except for Orange, Shen Haoran also said that they 

had

 another friend called Along. 

H

e 

was

 a

lso acting

strangely these days

. He didn’t come out to meet them. Every day, he locked himself in his roo

m and

 didn’t even want to pick up 

his

 phone. 

Shen Haoran was worried that they were bein

g pestered 

by something, so he 

had come to 

ask for my help. 

My heart froze. These young people didn’t 

pay attention to

the

 dangerous games they were playing. If they didn’t seek death, they wouldn’t die! 

They had probably

 provoked 

a

 powerful otherworldly item. That

 wa

s why all of them got pestered this time. 

Usually

, if I could ignore this sort of otherworldly item, I would ignore it

, e

specially 

because

 I had just 

gotten

 married. 

Shen Haoran got on his knees again

. He pounded 

his head on the ground to 

beg

 me. My heart softened. I agreed to 

go

 and take a look. 

Li Mazi and I sorted our bags then left. We would drive our car.

When I walked out of the shop, I didn’t know why but my intuition told me to grab the painting I had 

placed

 on the counter

. I put 

it 

in

 my bag. 

When the car drove off of 

Wuhan’s highway, the road became worse. Shen Haoran felt much better 

as

 Li Mazi had 

told

 him dirty

adult jokes 

along

 the way. He 

was even in

 the mood to tease Li Mazi. 

While driving, I carefully assessed Shen Haoran through the rearview mirror. Shen Haoran was a handsome young man with a 

well-built

 body. His hair was dyed blonde, and he had an 

ear-piercing

. At first glance, he looked like a Korean movie star from a magazine. 

I suddenly got an ide

a and blurted

, “Hey little Shen? Are you in love?”

Shen Haoran was dumbstruck at my sudden question while 

he was joking

 with Li Mazi. 

H

e shook his head. 

“Do you like some girl?”

Shen Haoran nodded, but then shook his head. 

I didn’t get it. 

Shen Haoran then explained that he liked a girl from an upright, classy family but that her family didn’t agree to let them be together. 

I smiled and stopped asking

 and focused 

on driving. The road soon became quite rough. It felt so bumpy. I had to put all of my concentration 

into

 driving. That

 wa

s why I didn’t know what Li Mazi and Shen Haoran were excitedly discussing 

in

 the 

back

. 

Later, 

Li Mazi tried his best to push me 

from behind

 and take the wheel

. That was when I

 suddenly 

woke

 up. 

“Little 

B

rother Zhang, are you crazy? I asked you to stop!” Li Mazi shouted at me hysterically as if his life was being threatened. 

I was bewildered, but as he had shouted at me, I instinctively stepped on the brake. 

When the car 

stopped, I recognized that I had almost hit someone’s house on the side of the road. I was scared. 

Then, I realized something

. There was a flat and 

white face stuck on the windshield. It seemed this white face had made me drowsy and almost crashed my car! 

The face looked flat like a piece of paper. There was no nose or mouth, but 

a

 pair of open eyes 

that gazed

 at me. 

I felt my legs 

turn

into

 jelly 

as I was facing

 the white face. Sweat 

beaded over my

 forehead. Li Mazi didn’t look good, either. His eyes opened wide in fear

 as he looked 

at the windshield. 

His

 temper 

from earlier 

was gone… 

Shen Haoran was completely frightened. He shoved his body into Li Mazi

. Hi

s face at the other’s crotch. 

I didn’t have the strength to care about him.

 The instant

 I wanted to draw my whip, I found that the bag I had put on the passenger seat was gone. 

I didn’t have 

enough 

time to think. I pulled the 

prayer

 beads I hung in my car and held 

them

 in my hand. 

That white face wasn’t simple to deal with. I had been bewitched inadvertently. If it weren’t for Li Mazi’s quick wit, the three of us would have died in a car crash! 

I felt strange. These days, it was rare to encounter 

a

 ghost or evil spirit in the city area, let alone a very powerful one. 

Was

 this the spirit Shen Haoran and his friends had provoked? 

Could it be that it

 wanted to 

deal with

 us before we could 

reach

 the place to meet up with it? 

“Little Shen, is your house far from here?” I asked but didn’t turn 

around

 to look at Shen Haoran. 

Shen Haoran shivered. “There

’s a

t least half an hour more.”

My heart sank. It seemed this white face wasn’t the spirit Shen Haoran had encountered. 

“Little 

B

rother Zhang…”

Li Mazi and Shen Haoran huddled together. Li Mazi’s voice choked with sobs. “What should we do now?”

I didn’t answer

 and held 

onto the Buddhist 

prayer

 beads. If my memory 

was

 correct, this chain of 

prayer

 beads had been blessed. It was the only sacred item we had now. 

That flat, white face was still on my windshield

. It 

didn’t even wiggle

 and continued to gaze 

at me. 

I started the car’s engine and slowly drove a few meters. The face disappeared. I slumped 

i

n the seat. 

Right as

 I exhaled in relief, a murderous aura wafted toward me from behind. I pulled myself together

 and

i

nstinctively 

lowered

 my head. That murderous wisp 

blew over

 my head

 and flew 

away.

I focused and saw it was a button. I turned my head around to see. It was from Li Mazi! His shirt 

was missing

 a button, and his right hand was still in 

a

 throwing position. 

Shen Haoran was petrified

 and looked 

at Li Mazi. 

At this

 moment, he didn’t even dare to gasp for breath. Let alone him, I was also stunned. 

Seeing me turning around, Li Mazi released a series of low laughs

. It was 

as if he had sputum stuck in his throat. 

I didn’t think much

 and bit 

the tip of my tongue

. I spat 

blood on the 

prayer

 beads. Then, I raised 

them and hit 

Li Mazi

’s 

forehead. 

Li Mazi reacted 

quickly

. He seemed to have read my 

mind

. His body flexibly moved aside. 

At the moment our lives were at stake, Shen Haoran, who had been petrified, suddenly grabbed Li Mazi. 

After the mala beads hit Li Mazi, his body turned soft

. Then, he 

slumped onto Shen Haoran’s back. 

I gave Shen Haoran a 

thumbs-up

. I hadn’t expected that this young man would be of help at the critical moment. 

At this

 moment, I heard 

an

 ear-splitting horn from behind us. I checked the rearview mirror and found that our car was 

parked

 across the street

. It was 

blocking th

e

 narrow street. 

The cars behind us were blocked, too. I immediately turned the wheel to adjust the car. Then, we continued with our trip. 

Through the corner of my eye, I saw my bag on the passenger seat. It 

sat

 there quietly as if it had never gone missing. 

If Li Mazi’s shirt 

wasn’t

 missing a button, I would 

have thought that

 everything that had just happened was a hallucination. 

For

 the rest of the trip, 

no other strange things 

happened. We finally reached the town where Shen Haoran lived.