“What…” Takagawa Ayaka felt a chill run down her spine and instinctively moved closer to Gu Zhan. “What are you saying?”
Gu Zhan didn’t explain. He walked to the window and drew the curtains.
Takagawa Ayaka was even more terrified by his actions, curling up and trembling.
After confirming that the outside couldn’t see inside, Gu Zhan took out the wooden box.
The box was originally supposed to be neat but had become this way after years of erosion from the sea wind and water.
However, the contents inside were well-preserved.
The wooden box seemed to serve as a seal; Gu Zhan didn’t plan to open it. He simply told them, “Haizhu Village has been offering sacrifices to an evil god with human blood, but it seems they were later backlashed by the evil god. This should be the evil god they were worshipping…”
Takagawa Ayaka was completely terrified and exclaimed towards the wooden box, “Don’t! Don’t take it out!”
Gu Zhan paused for a moment, saying, “I don’t intend to open it. This box seems to have sealing properties, which is why the scale could be preserved inside for so long.”
Upon hearing about the sealing, Takagawa Ayaka finally calmed down a bit.
But she quietly asked, “But what’s the use of bringing it back?”
It was just a scale; it couldn’t possibly relate to the evil god outside.
Could it be used to summon the evil god?
Just thinking about this possibility made Takagawa Ayaka tremble all over. She whispered, “Why don’t we return it? It’s dangerous to keep it here.”
Miyamoto Satoshi, however, held a different opinion: “Returning it wouldn’t help. When we went to Haizhu Village, didn’t you hear the knocking sound too?”
Takagawa Ayaka fell silent.
After a moment of silence, Gu Zhan’s phone suddenly rang.
It wasn’t his phone; it was Chishima Kei’s.
He took out the phone and saw it was a call from the client.
Their trip to Haizhu Village seemed not to have affected the flow of time here, but since they returned a bit late, it was already past midnight.
“Answer it,” Miyamoto Satoshi said. “They’re probably calling to urge us to send the video.”
Nakano Asaka nodded. “What’s the client’s relationship with Haizhu Village? Why are they so eager for us to hold the summoning ceremony here?”
However, Gu Zhan hung up the phone.
“You… why did you hang up?” Takagawa Ayaka instinctively wanted to reprimand him, but as the words left her mouth, she realized she had no right to do so.
Gu Zhan said, “He just wants the video. We can send it to him.”
In a few moments, Gu Zhan sent the videos they had previously recorded to the client.
The client went silent immediately.
After a long while, he sent a message: “Well done, continue tomorrow.”
As soon as he said this, Nakano Asaka couldn’t help but exclaim, “Why do we have to continue tomorrow? Didn’t you say we only needed to film three times?”
Miyamoto Satoshi replied, “Chishima Kei said a minimum of three times.”
Gu Zhan began typing a message to the client: “We have already completed the three shoots as agreed. We are leaving now.”
The client quickly responded: “Leaving?”
“Yes, this place is very dangerous, and we don’t want to stay here any longer,” Gu Zhan replied.
The client sent a sticker that showed a laughing clown, with a wide-open mouth that looked very eerie upon closer inspection.
He said, “You think you can leave? Haven’t you realized? You’re already trapped in Haizhu Village! Unless you summon a true deity, none of you will leave that place!”
As soon as he sent that message, a noisy sound suddenly erupted outside the house, as if something was crawling up the roof. Immediately afterward, a slow, steady knocking sound began at the door, spreading from the entrance, crawling up the walls, and reaching the rooftop…
In just a few breaths, the knocking had engulfed the entire house.
It felt as if countless eyes were watching from outside, as if something was silently urging them…
Open the door, hurry up and open the door.
“Ah!!!”
A scream came from deep within the room, startling everyone.
Takagawa Ayaka was the first to react, “It’s Chishima Kei!”
Chishima Kei had been in poor mental condition, so Takagawa Ayaka had let her rest in the room. When Gu Zhan and the others returned, Chishima Kei hadn’t shown herself.
Gu Zhan dashed towards the room and pushed the door open forcefully, but it was already too late.
Chishima Kei was lying on the bed, her long black hair cascading down from the bed and spreading across the floor.
Her eyes were wide open, her skin pale and dry, and she had clearly lost her breath.
Beside her, the clay pot had already been…
“How… how could this happen…” Takagawa Ayaka, who had arrived a little later, saw this scene and widened her eyes, breathing rapidly.
Miyamoto Satoshi sensed that something was wrong and shouted, “Nakano, quickly take her away!”
Nakano Asaka forcibly pulled Takagawa Ayaka away, but even then, it didn’t change the fact that her sanity points were steadily decreasing.
Once back in the living room, she curled up in a corner, muttering Chishima Kei’s name and occasionally asking Nakano Asaka if she was going to meet the same fate.
The eerie knocking sounds continued, sending shivers down Nakano Asaka’s spine.
With Takagawa Ayaka acting this way, he felt even more creeped out and turned away, not wanting to look at her.
Otherwise… he might not be able to preserve his own sanity either.
Meanwhile, in the room, Gu Zhan approached Chishima Kei.
She had probably just died, as her body still felt warm, but her bizarre death was clearly not caused by humans.
The pot on the ground had tipped over, and the liquid inside was spilling out. Although it had a strong smell of blood, Gu Zhan knew it was not human blood.
At least, not entirely human blood.
The liquid was very transparent, appearing to be a puddle of red liquid... but it was much darker than before.
Despite knowing it was impossible, Miyamoto Satoshi still held onto a glimmer of hope and approached Chishima Kei’s body, confirming that she was indeed dead.
He stood still, looking up at Gu Zhan, seeing the confusion in his eyes.
It seemed he wanted to ask, “What should we do?” but he knew that asking that question would sound powerless, so he stopped himself before speaking.
Gu Zhan turned back to the living room, where the black wooden box was still on the table.
As if sensing the dejected mood of everyone in the room, the knocking sounds outside grew even louder.
“Bang bang bang…”
“Bang bang bang…”
Gu Zhan grabbed the box on the table, and suddenly, all those sounds disappeared.
Even Nakano Asaka was surprised: “What did you do?”
Gu Zhan didn’t reply; he just waved his hand, signaling everyone to gather around.
Everyone sat at the dining table, and Gu Zhan placed the box in front of them, saying, “That thing really wants what’s inside this box.”
“What thing?” Nakano Asaka still didn’t understand the situation.
Gu Zhan explained, “The deity that has been worshipped here... or rather, the deity that has been sealed here.”
“What?”
“Haizhu Village has a tradition of picking up deities from the sea for worship. This scale was probably collected from the sea as well, but it’s not a real deity… or rather, the deities they worship are all different.”
“But the wooden box has the function to seal the scale. Maybe the people of Haizhu Village didn’t know, or perhaps they did it intentionally. In any case, the scale was left here, and that thing has been trying to retrieve it. However, it’s strange that such an important object is lost outside.”
Gu Zhan spoke calmly, narrating his speculation.
“I believe that it was originally in a very weak state, which allowed humans to take its scale. Sacrificing and using human blood is a means to help it regain its strength.”