It was 1:40 AM.
This was the Xiangxuehai high-end villa community, located in the southern outskirts of the provincial capital.
A cold crescent moon hung in the sky, and a gentle night breeze blew.
Here and there, lights twinkled in the distance, and the chirping of insects rose and fell in waves.
The whole world had slowly slipped into sweet dreams.
Only the security personnel, responsible for the safety of the community, patrolled almost continuously around the complex.
After all, those who could live here were either wealthy or noble. The property fees were outrageously high, so of course, they deserved the highest standard of property services.
In short.
Since its establishment, the Xiangxuehai Villa Community had never experienced any external incidents.
This allowed the residents to fully relax at night and wander in their dreams.
Villa Number Eight, Row Three.
This was the villa of Bai Ziyan, the CEO of Ziyan Technology.
Due to her particular潔癖 (jié pǐ -潔癖), her preference for solitude, and her being a lesbian, she lived here alone.
In the master bedroom on the east side of the second floor.
Bai Ziyan, with a tranquil expression, wearing a pure cotton white bathrobe, lay on her side with her back to the door, deep in a peaceful slumber.
Suddenly!
An extremely unpleasant odor, like invisible fingers, stirred her olfactory nerves, waking her from a beautiful dream.
"What's that smell?"
"How could there be such a smell in my bedroom?"
"Has my sense of smell gone wrong, or am I dreaming?"
Bai Ziyan instinctively thought this and slowly opened her eyes.
Her vision was completely dark; she could see nothing.
Her bedroom had a night light.
And as her consciousness became clearer, the unpleasant smell grew stronger.
Her sensory nerves quickly identified something and immediately sent information to her brain's central processing unit: "Master, there is something on your face! That corpse-like odor is emanating from this thing."
There was something on my face?
Bai Ziyan instinctively raised her hand and touched her face.
Then she felt a piece of cloth.
With a casual flick, Bai Ziyan saw the soft light emitted by the night light.
"There is indeed something on my face."
As Bai Ziyan stared at the night light, her entire body's nerves suddenly contracted!
Her heart skipped a beat!
Because—
She could clearly feel a cold draft blowing on the back of her neck.
"There's someone by the bed!"
"This person is blowing cold air on the back of my neck!!"
"Who—"
"Who could break through the security system I meticulously designed, without triggering the alarm, and sneak into my bedroom!?"
As Bai Ziyan thought of this, cold sweat broke out on her forehead.
She believed that with her skills, close to those of the hacker Lai Wo Liu, the security system she designed for this villa, even if it was very carefully done to avoid triggering the alarm, could not escape the surveillance cameras!
Unless he wasn't human.
But there were no ghosts in this world at all.
"So, is the person standing by my bed human, or a ghost?"
Just as cold sweat trickled down her forehead and Bai Ziyan's muscles stiffened, making her unable to move at all, she heard a very faint, very eerie laugh from behind her: "Heh heh, Bai Ziyan, return my life to me."
A ghost.
It was a ghost!
It was someone who died by my hand, who had become a ghost and had come to claim my life!!
Bai Ziyan's heart pounded again. Overwhelmed by an indescribable fear she couldn't bear, her vision went black, and she fainted.
Scared unconscious.
But she didn't stay unconscious for long before she vaguely woke up.
Then she felt a wet hand, devoid of any warmth, yet exuding a corpse-like odor, brush across her face.
A ghost hand!!!
That icy-cold ghost hand, like a mother's hand caressing an infant, traversed her entire body.
Then—
"Bai Ziyan, return my life to me."
As that eerie, light voice echoed again, Bai Ziyan felt a cold lip touch her face.
A cold tongue, like a viper, hissed and licked her cheek, her neck, her collarbone, her shoulders.
Bai Ziyan's body stiffened.
The indescribable fear made her wish she could faint again!
But she just couldn't faint.
She could only feel cold fingers reappearing on her face.
"I'm going to be taken by the little ghost."
Just as Bai Ziyan subconsciously thought this, Li Qianfan puffed out his cheeks.
In his mouth, he had the plain boiled water ice cubes that Chu Yazhi had prepared for him in advance (brought in a small cotton quilt).
His tongue was already numb from the cold.
But this was the only way to achieve the effect Li Qianfan wanted.
Didn't he see this beautiful banded krait trembling uncontrollably?
Even—
There was the smell of urine beginning to spread rapidly in the once fragrant bedroom?
"The effect has been achieved; I can't continue like this. Otherwise, this snake's courage might truly be scared away."
Feeling that the timing was right, Li Qianfan withdrew his hand and said grimly, "Bai Ziyan, turn around and see who I am."
Following his eerie voice, Bai Ziyan, like a puppet, slowly turned her head.
Then.
Under the soft glow of the night light, she saw Li Qianfan standing by the bed.
Li Qianfan, exuding a corpse-like odor, with a deathly pale face, was filled with a sinister smile.
As he wiped the corner of his mouth, dirt was still rustling down from his sleeve.
Bai Ziyan's dazed eyes stared intently at him, and she involuntarily trembled, saying, "You, you are Yang, Yang Fan."
Li Qianfan smiled and nodded—
"Yes, I am Yang Fan."
"Bai Ziyan, I have no enmity with you. And that night when we were racing, I even helped you defeat your rival."
"But you suddenly made a lethal attack on me when I was caught off guard."
"I am only seventeen this year."
"Just because I knew that you sometimes turned into a biker chick at night."
"You are so cruel."
"Even the King of Hell feels that my death was tragic and innocent."
"That's why he allowed me to come to the mortal world to seek justice from you."
"Heh heh—"
Amidst Li Qianfan's sinister laughter, he bent down and opened his mouth: "Hoo."
A gust of icy air blew directly onto Bai Ziyan's face.
She didn't react at all, just stared blankly at Li Qianfan.
"I will take you with me, to a place with no sun, no wind, no sky, no earth, only darkness, the smell of blood, and screams—hell."
Li Qianfan cackled eerily, and his cold fingers lifted Bai Ziyan's chin: "I will make you suffer eternally, tormented at all times."
"I will also absorb your yang energy."
Li Qianfan's cold-breathing mouth slowly moved towards Bai Ziyan's lips.
"No!"
Bai Ziyan suddenly screamed, her eyes rolling back, finally fainting as she wished.
"Stupid bitch, you have the guts to kill, but not the guts to face the person you killed."
Li Qianfan placed his finger on her wrist, confirmed she had merely fainted from fright, and then cursed her contemptuously.
He had played enough.
Li Qianfan extended both hands, his knees unbent, and hopped silently to the dressing table. He picked up a lipstick and wrote a line on the mirror.
Bai Ziyan, return my life!
After writing, Li Qianfan, wearing rubber gloves (to avoid leaving fingerprints and to enhance the chilling effect), hopped out of the bedroom.
While he wasn't a super hacker, he knew how to avoid things that could trigger alarms.
He just needed to hop like a zombie to come and hop like a zombie to go.
He believed that when Bai Ziyan woke up, she would immediately check the home surveillance footage.
Seeing him hopping away into the moonlight.
It was unclear how much time had passed.
Bai Ziyan, who had fainted from fright, finally woke up vaguely again.
Daylight had broken!
The morning sun was rising in the east.
A white dove landed on the balcony window and cooed.
The bedroom was quiet, with no sign of ghosts except for her, but the smell of corpse decay permeated the air.
"Am I dead, or alive?"
Staring blankly at the window, Bai Ziyan finally murmured to herself before sitting up abruptly as if reanimated.
Then, she saw the words on the mirror.
She saw—
The two-piece outfit she had intended as a burial item for Li Qianfan was right beside her.
Exuding a strong corpse odor.