The Beauty with Terrible Luck Falls in Love with a Ghost - Chapter 10

Zuo Lihua clutched the remote control, frozen in place as if petrified, unmoving for a long time.

The Ling Mengwei before her eyes seemed to overlap with the Ling Mengwei from the apartment a few days ago, even the way she cried was identical.

Zuo Lihua couldn’t quite articulate her emotions. Anger, resentment, fear, numbness, perhaps all of them, or perhaps none. She simply stared at the familiar face on the screen and suddenly felt nauseous.

She thought she would cry, but in reality, her eyes remained dry, devoid of even the slightest agitation.

She only knew that her face must look ghastly pale.

[“Miss Ling, what are your plans for the future?”]

[“I don’t know. I need to ask Lihua. I want to know why she did this. We’ve been through so much together, and I’ve always been grateful to her. She comes from a good family, has a great personality, and is beautiful. I’ve always been happy to have a friend like her. Even though fate hasn’t given me much, it gave me such a wonderful friend. I’ve always been content. But why did she hurt me like this? I can’t find her now…”]

Ling Mengwei’s face was streaked with tears, her eyes and nose red, exuding a fragile beauty that seemed as if it would shatter at the slightest touch. The faint shimmer of glitter at the corners of her eyes amplified the innocence and vulnerability even more.

Zuo Lihua lowered her head and retched dryly. She recognized that eyeshadow, it was a custom-made product she had specially commissioned from a master and personally gifted to Ling Mengwei. It was expensive, designed to grow more beautiful with moisture, and unavailable on the market.

Zuo Lihua had very few friends, and Ling Mengwei was her closest confidante.

And now, her best friend was using the makeup she had given her to play the victim, plunging a poisoned dagger into her chest with tears and slander, intent on destroying her without leaving any room for redemption.

How ironic. It turned out she never had a friend to begin with.

A sharp, twisting pain shot through her stomach. Unable to bear it, she crouched down, clutching her abdomen, gasping for breath with her mouth wide open.

No matter how she tried to adjust, the pain showed no sign of easing. Instead, it grew increasingly intense. Cold sweat dripped from the tip of her nose, and her vision began to blur intermittently.

The remote control fell to the floor, its edge chipping upon impact, unnoticed by anyone.

A shadowy figure seemed to stand beside her, but Zuo Lihua had no energy to pay attention. Struggling, she crawled forward a couple of steps before her vision went completely black, and she lost consciousness entirely.

…

Zuo Lihua felt cold.

Everything before her eyes was hazy, her consciousness drifting along with it. She couldn’t comprehend what was happening. Her limbs were restrained, immobile, and her body was freezing, as if trapped inside a massive block of ice.

Someone was arguing nearby. She strained to open her eyes wider but could only make out two blurry figures. She couldn’t see their faces clearly but could vaguely discern that they were a man and a woman.

Who were they?

Zuo Lihua’s head throbbed with a piercing pain, making it impossible to think. She struggled violently, and a strand of black, seaweed-like hair slipped from her shoulder and fell in front of her.

The two figures seemed to notice she was awake and turned to look at her simultaneously.

“Damn it, hurry!” someone snapped harshly. Before Zuo Lihua could process what was happening, a large, dark object came hurtling toward her face.

In that split second, she caught sight of a sofa leg and the familiar pattern of the sofa cover.

A sickening thud echoed, accompanied by the sound of liquid splattering, followed by a dull, unbearable pain she had never experienced before.

Zuo Lihua felt as though her face had vanished. Along with the pain came the loss of her sight, or rather, it wasn’t just sight she had lost. It seemed she had lost her visual organs entirely, as if her eyes were gone.

A whooshing sound echoed in her ears, and dark objects seemed to keep falling heavily, one after another, each impact bringing fresh waves of physical agony.

She couldn’t bear it, screaming silently, but no sound came out, her throat seemed to have been crushed as well.

Zuo Lihua jolted awake.

“Stop!!!” she shouted, sitting up abruptly.

The world suddenly brightened, and a sense of redemption, as if she had returned from hell to the human world, enveloped her.

Trembling with fear, Zuo Lihua lifted her head and found herself in her bedroom. Across from her, Han Hai’er sat motionless on her legs, her eyes fixed on Zuo Lihua, as if she had been watching for a long time.

Zuo Lihua’s mind was still in chaos. She raised both arms, pressing them against Han Hai’er’s shoulders for support, and bent her head, breathing heavily.

Sweat dripped from her chin and the tip of her nose, falling onto the cool quilt and spreading into dark, flower-like stains.

“You…” Zuo Lihua gasped for breath, opening her mouth to speak, but when she saw the other’s indifferent expression, she suddenly remembered something and froze.

Han Hai’er tilted her head slightly, as if puzzled.

[“Damn it, hurry!”] The voice she had heard in her dream suddenly flashed through her mind. In the dream, she hadn’t had time to think, but now, recalling it, she almost immediately recognized whose voice it was.

She had heard that voice countless times. Just yesterday, she had spoken on the phone with its owner.

Ning Dongbang…

Zuo Lihua lowered her eyelids, biting her finger in confusion and helplessness. She needed to think carefully. What if she had misheard? What if it wasn’t him?

But how could she mistake the voice of someone so familiar?

Despite trying repeatedly to stop herself from thinking in that direction, Zuo Lihua’s mind raced ahead of her emotions, piecing everything together.

Why had Ning Dongbang strongly recommended she move here? Why was the rent for a fully furnished villa so cheap? Why had he fled in such a panic after dropping her off? His abnormal evasiveness, the signal jammer, the severed internet cable, Sun Xiaoyang’s lack of contact, if what she heard in the dream was true, then all these pieces connected and made sense.

“…Sorry!” Without another thought for Han Hai’er, Zuo Lihua got out of bed and rushed downstairs, not even bothering to put on her slippers.

Han Hai’er’s vacant eyes watched her disappear through the doorway. She floated up, her toes barely touching the ground, and followed.

Zuo Lihua dashed to the single-seater sofa on the first floor and dropped to her knees with a thud.

Her bones hit the floor with a dull thud, but she didn’t notice. Trembling, she reached out to touch the nearest sofa leg.

The only clear scene from her dream flashed through her mind.

The exact same sofa leg, the exact same sofa cover.

She keenly noticed a dark stain on the sofa cover’s pattern, looking eerily like an unwashed bloodstain.

Zuo Lihua felt as if she were going insane. Almost as if possessed, she gripped the sofa leg and lifted the sofa with all her strength.

Beneath the sofa leg, on the floor, was a patch of dried, dark bloodstain!

As if all her strength had been drained, Zuo Lihua let go.

The sofa leg fell back to the floor.

A shadow fell beside her. Zuo Lihua turned her head dazedly to find Han Hai’er crouching next to her, silently watching.

“Is it you?” Zuo Lihua’s voice was hoarse, so faint it seemed never uttered.

Han Hai’er remained silent, one hand braced on the ground as she slowly leaned her upper body closer.

Zuo Lihua stayed motionless, like an exquisitely crafted doll devoid of life.

Moments later, a pair of cool, soft lips pressed against her dry yet warm mouth.

A hand pressed down on her shoulder, applying slight pressure to push Zuo Lihua onto the floor.

As her garments were gradually removed, a chill enveloped her entire body. Staring at the ceiling, Zuo Lihua’s eyes reflected utter despair and confusion.

When the intrusion came, she heard the voice whisper, “It’s me.”