Chapter 138: The Lifelike Paper Crane

Upon seeing Lin Hexiang, the woman’s crimson lips curled into a grin, revealing her pale teeth, half concealed and half exposed.

“Come.”

As she spoke, she extended her hand.

Lin Hexiang was nearly paralyzed with fear.

Though it was broad daylight, the series of strange encounters made Lin Hexiang feel as if he had met a ghost, his calves twitching involuntarily.

His corpulent frame, which usually left him breathless after a few steps, now felt utterly drained, powerless from sheer terror.

Though it had only been a fleeting glance, Lin Hexiang noticed the unusually pale woman’s teeth seemed unusually pointed.

Do human teeth have sharp points?

He recalled from nine years of compulsory biology education that flat teeth belong to herbivores, while pointed teeth are carnivorous traits.

Before humanity wielded powerful tools, their diet was primarily plant-based, so few possess prominent canine teeth.

Lin Hexiang tried to convince himself that the pointed teeth were merely prominent canines, but... could someone really have a mouth full of sharp, fang-like teeth?

“Come.”

Seeing Lin Hexiang hesitate, the woman repeated coldly, her face void of expression, voice devoid of emotion.

Yet inexplicably, Lin Hexiang shuddered.

He felt an aura emanating from her that filled him with dread and confusion, compelling his mind to obey her silent command.

Like a puppet, Lin Hexiang entered the dilapidated two-story building.

Inside, no lights were on; the windows on the second floor were completely sealed, leaving the interior shrouded in darkness.

What followed, Lin Hexiang could not recall.

He only knew he had taken out his phone to transfer money, and amidst a tinkling, silvery laughter, a coolness spread across his neck.

...

When Lin Hexiang regained consciousness, he was sitting in his car.

He realized he had lost weight.

Checking the time, he saw that from the moment he entered Dawacun Village at 11:23 to now, barely over two hours had passed.

It was now 1:35.

Not daring to linger, Lin Hexiang fled in panic.

He originally thought this bizarre and uncanny weight loss episode would be a one-time record in his life, and he would never again set foot in the sinister Dawacun Village.

Yet, upon returning home, exhaustion overwhelmed him, and all he wanted was endless sleep.

After struggling to drive home safely, Lin Hexiang collapsed onto his bed and fell into a deep slumber.

In his dreams, he felt a cool sensation emanating from the two blood-stained holes on his neck.

Surprisingly, the feeling was oddly pleasant.

Happy, Lin Hexiang dared hope that perhaps this time he could finally be with Ouyang Ran.

But he hadn’t anticipated that Ouyang Ran disliked only the overweight; not every slim, tall, and tidy young man caught her eye.

Still, Lin Hexiang resolved to work harder, hoping to change for the better.

After a few days, he noticed the blood holes on his neck showed no sign of healing; they occasionally bled anew.

That was not the worst of it.

Half a month later, Lin Hexiang was horrified to find that his once-vanished belly fat had returned.

This threw him into a panic.

---

But Lin Hexiang had no desire to relive the terrifying, uncanny scenes of Dawacun Village.

Yet that very night, he dreamed again of the woman with the ghostly pale face, her hand extended, pointing at him as she uttered the word:

“Come.”

The word held an immense, inexplicable power.

For several consecutive nights, Lin Hexiang was haunted by the same dream.

As his belly grew larger by the day, and the pale-faced woman tormented him nightly in dreams, Lin Hexiang was consumed by fear.

Finally, gritting his teeth, he resolved to return one last time.

One final time.

If losing ten million yuan by shedding weight was the cost, Lin Hexiang could bear it.

But clearly, it was far beyond a mere ten million yuan.

He approached his father’s secretary, who used his influence to extract ten million yuan from his father’s company.

Then Lin Hexiang ventured back to Dawacun Village.

This was the second time.

The third time was just days ago, when Lin Hexiang borrowed money from his decadent friends to cover the previous ten million debt.

Yet now, not only was he exhausted, but even more terrified.

The reason he came to Lin Yi for help was that after the second time, and then again just a few days ago, he had only maintained his weight loss for around ten days before regaining the fat.

The intervals were shrinking.

The first time, the weight loss lasted half a month.

The second time, ten days.

Now Lin Hexiang had been to Dawacun Village three times.

How much shorter would it become?

Each time his belly reappeared, the pale-faced woman mercilessly tormented him in dreams.

This time, just after returning from his third visit, if the intervals continued to shrink, wouldn’t he be doomed to suffer nightmares of that woman forever?

What then?

“Master, please save me! I... I truly cannot bear this anymore. I must be haunted by a ghost! Otherwise, how could I have lost weight so suddenly? And... and why does that woman appear in my dreams? Her face doesn’t look human—like a blank sheet of white paper. The more I look, the more it feels so. Master, I am possessed by a ghost. I beg you, please save me, please save me...”

After recounting his ordeal, Lin Hexiang broke down in tears, repeatedly kowtowing to Lin Yi.

Lin Yi had just received a check for ten million yuan handed over by Lin Tian.

Is that a lot of money?

For ordinary people, yes.

For Lin Yi, not so much.

Yet the more Lin Yi listened to Lin Hexiang’s story, the more perplexed he became; this matter was undeniably strange.

If the pale-faced woman truly were a ghost, how could she appear openly in broad daylight?

A ghost like that would logically hide itself.

How could such a place for weight loss exist openly, advertised and charging fees?

What was the meaning of exposing itself so blatantly?

Seeking its own doom?

“Hm, I will save you. Show me the blood holes on your neck.”

Suppressing his inner doubts, Lin Yi instructed Lin Hexiang.

Hastily, Lin Hexiang turned his neck, revealing the two bleeding holes.

Upon inspection, Lin Yi discovered—

---

Indeed, a faint, ominous energy continuously swirled around Lin Hexiang’s neck.

It was this sinister energy that prevented the wounds from healing, causing them to bleed repeatedly.

“I will handle this matter...” Lin Yi began, intending to say that Lin Hexiang should wait a few days until he was free, then they would head to Dawacun Village to resolve the issue.

But at that very moment, a surge of ominous energy erupted from Lin Hexiang’s body, imbued with an inexplicable strangeness.

“Snap!”

With the energy’s sudden burst, a small paper crane suddenly emerged from Lin Hexiang’s collar.

The crane was the kind of origami folded by young lovers to express affection—a tiny, pure white paper crane.

Yet as it appeared, it seemed to swell as if caught in the wind, until it grew to the size of a celestial crane.

Before Lin Hexiang, Lin Tian, and the others’ astonished eyes, the crane circled gracefully above the living room.

“Clack clack clack.”

The sound of old paper rustling was chilling, sending shivers down their spines in the silence.

Ouyang Ran and Lin’s mother were stunned.

Lin Tian and Lin’s mother, originally kneeling, suddenly clung to each other.

Lin Hexiang’s eyes widened in terror as he leaned back, until the three of them were huddled together.

Ouyang Ran, panicked, jumped about before locking eyes with Lin Yi.

She had no other thoughts; faced with such horror and seeing the family embrace, her head spun, and without hesitation, she rushed forward and embraced Lin Yi.

Delicate hands wrapped around him.

“...”

Lin Yi thought, being held by a top-tier beauty like Ouyang Ran was quite enjoyable.

But could she not hold so tightly?

Though Lin Yi was a cultivator, her hands encircling his neck so forcefully made it hard to breathe.

He had no choice but to gently pry her hands down, guiding them to rest on his chest.

Only then did he feel some relief.

Meanwhile, his gaze drifted back to the now enormous paper crane.

Its graceful flight was elegant and beautiful, though its movement was slow, like a slow-motion playback.

As it flew, the paper crane transformed into a true celestial crane.

In an instant, its previously withered form became full and vibrant, as if filled with life.

Lifelike!

Yet upon closer inspection, its feathers were indistinguishable from paper.

At this moment, Lin Yi recognized the ominous energy—it was familiar.

There are countless sinister energy stones in the world; in his small residual realm, Lin Yi had once obtained ten low-grade yellow-level ominous energy stones as rewards from the "Neural Severing" achievement.

But the ones he used most were remnants from the paper-folding masters of the Tang family in the Central Plains—the paper dolls and paper carts he had acquired at the Talented Scholars’ Garden.

At that time, he and Brother Zhang Xu each had one, used to fool the demons and ghosts there.