The Beauty with Terrible Luck Falls in Love with a Ghost - Chapter 6

Zuo Lihua’s communication with Ning Dongbang was anything but smooth. Ning Dongbang seemed preoccupied with something, answering her questions absentmindedly and agreeing to everything she said in a perfunctory manner. When she asked if the workers could come today, he insisted it was too late and that they should discuss it tomorrow.

Zuo Lihua was furious. How could it be considered late at this hour? But Ning Dongbang remained firm. Whether she liked it or not, she had no choice but to wait. Frustrated, she hung up the phone angrily.

Just as she was about to turn around, a blood-curdling scream erupted from behind her, as if someone had seen a ghost.

Startled, Zuo Lihua snapped to attention and saw a figure rolling out from behind the landscape under the window. The person was dressed in black, wearing a black hat, and was not very tall. His face was pale with fear, and he clutched a camera in his hands.

Having been an idol for several years, Zuo Lihua immediately understood what was happening.

Pursing her lips, her eyes cold, she took two steps forward, bent down, and seized the opportunity while the person was still in shock to snatch the camera from his hands.

The paparazzo let out another scream, scrambling to change direction. After crawling a couple of steps, he turned his head and locked eyes with Zuo Lihua.

He froze, unconsciously letting out a sigh of relief, and stopped moving.

Zuo Lihua examined the contents of the camera. When she saw Ning Dongbang’s panicked retreating figure, her anger surged.

This was only the first half of the video. She had no idea how long this person had been secretly filming. Now that she was no longer a member of the Zuo family, if any scandal broke out, she could no longer rely on the family’s influence to suppress the heat.

“Give me back my camera!” the paparazzo shouted, his voice trembling slightly as if he were afraid of something. Though anxious, he didn’t rush forward.

Zuo Lihua lowered her gaze and replied unhurriedly, “Sure, I’ll give it back to you.”

With that, she raised the camera high with one hand and, under the paparazzo’s stunned gaze, slammed it forcefully to the ground.

Crack!

The camera shattered into pieces instantly.

As if he hadn’t expected Zuo Lihua to be so ruthless, her slender frame capable of such an uncompromising act, the paparazzo nearly choked on his breath, his eyes bulging in disbelief. Pointing first at Zuo Lihua and then at the broken camera, he stammered, “You… you…”

He couldn’t get another word out, though inwardly, he was seething with rage.

Just a pretty face who can’t do anything but look good! She doesn’t even know how to behave, first becoming someone’s mistress, then seducing her own manager, a woman who climbed her way up using her body. How dare she smash my camera?!

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He could barely restrain himself from rushing forward and slapping Zuo Lihua across the face.

But just as he was about to make a move, he caught sight of a face behind Zuo Lihua.

The face looked as if it were pieced together from thick, dark smoke. He could vaguely make out its features, which bore an uncanny resemblance to the ghostly face that had been standing behind him earlier.

The paparazzo’s mind went blank, his breath catching in his throat. Staring at the ghostly apparition, he felt as if his throat were clamped shut, unable to make a sound.

Noticing the shift in his gaze, Zuo Lihua followed his line of sight, puzzled.

The moment her eyes swept over the spot, the ghostly figure vanished.

The paparazzo’s pupils contracted. Seeing Zuo Lihua’s confused expression, he suddenly understood something.

He let out a dry laugh and said, “You still don’t know anything, do you? Don’t get too cocky. Your days are numbered!”

Without giving Zuo Lihua a chance to speak, the person scrambled to their feet and dashed outside as if they’d be devoured alive if they lingered a moment longer, even leaving the camera behind.

Zuo Lihua frowned in disapproval.

What was wrong with paparazzi these days? Getting caught taking sneaky photos and then resorting to curses? Could they really not handle the game?

She bent down to pick up the camera but noticed a two-inch photo tucked between the cracks in the floor tiles. Out of curiosity, she picked that up as well.

It was a picture of a young girl. What stood out most were her blue eyes, reminiscent of the deep sea. Her black hair, slightly wavy, cascaded over her shoulders like seaweed from the ocean depths. With delicate features and a finely shaped chin, her expression in the ID-style photo was somewhat aloof, yet Zuo Lihua couldn’t help but be captivated.

Zuo Lihua was a sucker for good looks, but only for those who were either more attractive than her or matched her specific taste, such as icy beauties. If they were both more beautiful and aloof, that was even better. However, as a wildly popular star known across the country for her looks, how many people could actually surpass her? The bar was set too high, so she rarely found anyone who met her standards.

But the person in the photo perfectly fit her aesthetic criteria, a stunning, cold beauty even more attractive than herself!

Feeling a bit dazed, Zuo Lihua carried the photo inside, thinking she’d ask Ning Dongbang tomorrow if he knew who this person was. If possible, she wanted to befriend her!

As she reached the doorway, she casually tossed the camera into the trash bin by the door. The broken pieces landed on the garbage with a dull thud.

After all that commotion, Zuo Lihua had completely lost her appetite. The plate of fried rice still sat on the table, with the shadow of the window frame casting a dark line across the center. From a distance, the golden grains appeared deep brown.

She patted her stomach, deciding she didn’t want to eat anymore.

Standing in the living room for a moment, she glanced at the photo in her hand. Weathered by sun and wind in the yard, it had faded slightly. Under the dim light, the beautiful girl in the picture seemed to lock eyes with her.

Zuo Lihua blinked, suddenly feeling exhausted and ready for sleep.

So, she placed the photo on the entryway cabinet and headed upstairs to the second floor.

In the bedroom with the large balcony, the sheets and duvet cover were already laid out. The mattress was of moderate firmness and emitted a faint fragrance. The only downside was that the sheets were made of satin, cool and smooth, while she preferred soft, plush fabrics that felt gentle against the skin.

She figured Ning Dongbang hadn’t asked Sun Xiaoyang to help when preparing the villa. Though Sun Xiaoyang seemed careless on the surface, she was actually incredibly attentive, a rare and excellent assistant who knew Zuo Lihua’s preferences inside out. If she had been in charge, the sheets would definitely have been the soft, skin-friendly kind she loved.

As she pushed the door open, something bumped into her. At the same time, a chilly, damp breeze blew in through the open window.

Zuo Lihua turned to look but saw nothing. Her own hair got in her eyes, and as she brushed it aside, she rubbed her sore shoulder, utterly puzzled.

Had she developed rheumatism? But she was only in her twenties, still far from thirty.

What should she do!

Suddenly alarmed, Zuo Lihua grew more anxious the more she thought about it. Out of habit, she pulled out her phone to look up the early symptoms of rheumatism.

In her panic, she forgot there was no signal.

Zuo Lihua: !

She finally began to feel flustered.

She walked out onto the balcony, holding up her phone, trying to catch a faint signal. With the second floor unobstructed, the view was a bit broader, but disappointingly, the signal bar remained completely empty, so clean it was as if someone had installed a signal jammer in the villa, giving the signals a thorough year-end cleaning.

Zuo Lihua sighed dejectedly as she put her phone away. At that moment, she deeply understood the convenience that technological progress had brought to human society and swore that when she moved to a new house someday, she would connect to the power grid immediately.

Unlike now, where aside from sleeping and preserving her health, she could do nothing.

…But hadn’t she come upstairs just now intending to sleep?

Zuo Lihua drew the curtains, lay down on the bed, and stared expressionlessly at the ceiling light.

She had been incredibly sleepy just moments ago, but now that she was lying down, sleep eluded her. The satin beneath her seemed to draw the warmth from her skin, leaving her wide awake. Yet her body felt lazy, unwilling to move, and her phone was useless now.

Usually, she fell asleep watching cartoons…

…Cartoons.

Wait! Maybe it wasn’t impossible after all!

Zuo Lihua’s eyes lit up. She rolled over in bed, grabbed her phone from the nightstand.

How could she have forgotten!

It wasn’t like she couldn’t watch anything. She had downloaded a bunch of cartoons back when the internet was down during filming, and she hadn’t finished them yet!

[“You’re all bullying me! I’m telling the village chief!”] A familiar voice and scene played from her phone, and Zuo Lihua smiled contentedly. Nothing was better than Pleasant Goat!

The curtains blocked out the light perfectly, not a single ray seeping through. To enhance the atmosphere for watching cartoons, Zuo Lihua reached out and turned off the light.

In the pitch-black room, only the faint glow from the phone screen illuminated Zuo Lihua’s face, deepening the hue of her pink eyes.

Behind her, her shadow, cast away from the light, stretched long and gradually merged with the darkness.

A section of the bed edge sank inward. A few seconds later, another spot a little further forward also dipped, overlapping and slowly approaching Zuo Lihua, as if an unseen person were climbing onto the bed.

Then, this person lay down beside Zuo Lihua.

Unaware of what was happening behind her, the faint light outlined Zuo Lihua’s graceful curves, creating an indescribable sense of ambiguity.

A black, withered arm, like a branch, crept up her waist. The sudden chill made her shiver.

Without turning around, she kept her eyes fixed on the screen, reaching back with one hand to grope around until she found a corner of the blanket, then tugged hard.

Halfway through pulling it, she felt something weighing it down, making it impossible to move.

No matter, this wouldn’t stump Zuo Lihua.

She took a deep breath and pulled with even greater force. A dull thud! sounded behind her, but with the rustling of fabric in her ears, Zuo Lihua didn’t hear it.

The room was eerily quiet, filled only with the cheerful sounds from the phone, adding a trace of life to the gloomy space.

The shadowy figure climbed up from the floor, slithering like a snake across the floorboards, moving around to the front of Zuo Lihua. It repeated its earlier motion, climbing up along the hanging bedsheet, pressing close against Zuo Lihua through the blanket. A withered hand stealthily crept up to her neck.

Just as a funny moment played in the cartoon, Zuo Lihua burst into unrestrained laughter, her throat vibrating slightly.

The hand paused for a moment before slowly withdrawing.

A moment later, a semi-transparent, ink-black plume of smoke began to rise, curling into Zuo Lihua’s embrace. Engrossed in her phone screen, she remained completely oblivious to the movement beside her due to the darkness.

The smoke coalesced into a small, solid mass facing the phone, then transformed into a bloodshot eyeball. It rolled around once before fixing its gaze on the screen.

Had anyone else been present to witness the scene, they would have surely fainted from terror.

A stunningly beautiful blonde girl, so lovely one might resent the unfairness of creation, was hunched over a charred, skeletal figure. One of her arms hung limply, as if cradling the skeleton in her embrace. The skeleton’s single remaining eye was fixed on the phone alongside hers, and the girl occasionally let out cheerful giggles, sending chills down the spine of any observer.