Chapter 58: Strained by a Delicate Thread

Xu Dan’s eyes widened in shock. Before she could even cry out, her legs were seized by two small hands and her whole body was dragged swiftly toward the mouth of the tunnel, scraping along the ground. The pull was so strong that no matter how desperately she clawed at the walls, she could not stop herself.

“Aaah—!” By the time her scream burst out, her voice was already echoing from far away.

Qi Yan leapt to his feet, but the sudden movement made him bang his head hard against the pipe above, almost knocking him out. Dazed with pain, he collapsed back onto Dong Ye.

His phone slid aside, its light casting a beam across the tunnel.

“La la la la la~~ Dripping with blood~~ Dripping with blood~~ A red thread makes a flowered dress, ha ha ha ha~~~”

“Qi Yan, save me—!”

Their cries overlapped within the pipe. Qi Yan’s head throbbed from the blow, and his back burned with what felt like fresh scrapes. Dong Ye remained curled up, motionless, deep in unconsciousness.

Qi Yan pressed a trembling hand to the back of his head, tears of pain springing from his eyes. The mad giggling of the little girl echoed in his skull, making his thoughts buzz into a muddled haze.

His face twisted in agony. Forcing one eye open, he saw that Dong Ye had been shifted onto his side, back facing him. On the sleeve above Dong Ye’s elbow clung a fine red silk thread, winding and twisting like a tiny worm.

Qi Yan hurriedly grabbed his phone, shining its light to confirm—it was indeed the same red thread he’d found earlier on the ground.

He plucked the thread from Dong Ye’s sleeve and looked in the direction where Xu Dan and the little ghost girl had vanished. There was no sign of them now, only Xu Dan’s distant screams trailing through the tunnel.

“This red thread… is it linked to her?”

Suppressing the pain, Qi Yan braced himself against the pipe wall and gave chase. He was certain there had been no debris in the tunnel on the way in, just a few recessed joints that needed attention.

As he ran, he tried to snap the red thread, barely more than a foot long, but it was astonishingly tough! No ordinary sewing thread could be so resilient.

With no other option, he stopped, fished out his lighter, and tried to burn the thread. His hands shook so much it took several attempts to get a flame.

Yet, even held to the fire, the red thread would not catch.

“Damn it!” Qi Yan could no longer see how far Xu Dan had been dragged. A sense of helplessness rose so sharply that he roared down the tunnel, “If you’ve got the guts, come for me! Stop picking on my friends!”

“Hehehehahaha…”

It was as though that thing was mocking him, perhaps in the glee of victory, or delighted at having found a new plaything. In the distance, from the tunnel’s exit, the child’s laughter rang out again.

Bang! Qi Yan smashed his fist against the wall, shaking down a shower of rusty flakes and sending a furious metallic hum through the pipe.

What now? What on earth could he do?

It was a ghost—no matter how fast he ran, he could never catch up to it.

He’d finally found Dong Ye, and now his girlfriend had been taken… That shout just now hadn’t been idle bravado; Qi Yan truly wished the little ghost would target him instead. If only…

His head throbbed, his back burned, and now his fist was scraped raw from punching the wall, but all these pains seemed pale in this moment.

Such a cunning little demon… truly, it was too cunning.

Qi Yan forced his leaden feet onward, continuing the pursuit, leaving Dong Ye for now—there didn’t seem to be any further danger for him at the moment, and Xu Dan had just been snatched away.

He gripped the red thread, now his only clue, tighter and tighter.

Qi Yan was so tense and furious that he didn’t notice another recessed joint in the pipe and nearly stumbled again.

He pitched forward, breathing in a mouthful of rusty dust.

“Ptoo! Ptoo!” He spat in disgust. At last, he could see the exit. Xu Dan was being dragged like a rag doll, her fingers gouging desperately at the wall. Even with several fingernails snapped and bleeding, she couldn’t halt her sliding body.

Qi Yan steadied himself. Now, only eight or nine meters separated him from Xu Dan and the little ghost. Even without the phone’s light, he could make out the vivid red dress and the grotesquely stitched doll-like face.

The little girl had stopped moving, simply dragging Xu Dan to the mouth of the tunnel.

Her mouth stretched wide in a grotesque grin, and the button eyes seemed to mock him.

Qi Yan narrowed his eyes, locking gazes with her in that cramped space for a few seconds. Rubbing the red thread in his palm, he began to mutter, his voice as dark and cold as death, “This red thread is yours, isn’t it? No matter how I pull, it won’t break. Not even fire can burn it.”

“A single red thread for a flowered dress? You’re very clever, little ghost.”

“But… even a thin thread can harm, can’t it? This red thread is strong, isn’t it? Perfect!”

Qi Yan stopped chasing. Instead, he pulled the red thread taut between both hands, wrapped it around his neck, and yanked hard.

The thread was fine but unyielding; pressed into the soft flesh of his neck, it was excruciating. When he tightened it further, he released one hand and pulled fiercely with the other.

Because the thread was so thin, it cut sharply, leaving a raw red line across his neck, even scraping the skin.

Feeling the burning, stinging pain, Qi Yan surged forward again, using every last ounce of strength. He hunched low, sprinted several meters, and lunged—finally grabbing Xu Dan’s shoulder, yanking with all his might.

Xu Dan was caught in a gruesome tug-of-war, one pulling her by the legs, the other by the shoulders. Yet all she could do was cry, too drained even to struggle.

The little girl was immensely strong, and Qi Yan, utterly exhausted, could barely compete.

But then—a hand, wrapped in bandages and with bluish, corpse-like skin, suddenly reached in from outside the tunnel. It seized the little girl’s straight black hair and, in the blink of an eye, wrenched her small body out of sight!

“Aaah—!”

This time, it wasn’t Xu Dan who screamed, but the little girl herself. Her shriek was far more terrifying than her laughter, echoing sharply, piercingly, through the tunnel.

The scream continued outside for five or six seconds, then faded, and finally ceased…

Because the little girl had been so abruptly wrenched away, Qi Yan was thrown backward by the sudden release, dragging Xu Dan with him. Both tumbled to the ground about a meter from the tunnel’s mouth, striking the pipe hard enough to make it ring.

Xu Dan was sobbing uncontrollably, three of her nails torn loose, others broken, her hands covered in blood and rust.

Qi Yan was battered all over—his head bruised, his back scraped raw, joints knocked and bruised from several falls, and a raw red stripe around his neck from the red thread, as if he’d been sliced by a razor. But because of this… “Mother” had finally intervened. Since the red thread was connected to the little girl, hurting himself with it was the same as hurting her.

As for what happened to the little girl after she was dragged out—Qi Yan was far too exhausted to see…