68 Give me my bones

Assistant Xu didn't pay attention to the figure but the mottled figure's dark eyes that were like pits of hell were locked on his back. Maybe it was his own intuition but Assistant Xu shivered and peered over his shoulder, his eyes nervously looking around in his hallway but he was a step too late, the figure already his itself in the darkness where he couldn't see it anymore.

Ignoring the impulse to turn around and spend the rest of his night in a hotel room, Assistant Xu stripped off his suit's jacket and rolled up his sleeves revealing his jade-like forearms, preparing to cook his dinner. What was a man's delight, after all? It was eating a home-cooked meal after a day of work, though there was no one to cook for him at the moment, Assistant Xu knew that one day he too would have a beautiful wife who will cook his meals for him.

Ah, how wonderful it would be when he would come back home and his wife would be waiting for him with a home-cooked meal for him.

While he was daydreaming his hands never stopped moving as he chopped the green onions that were on the cutting board but just as he was on the last bud that he needed to chop for his dinner--- A strange eerie music started to play behind him.

Assistant Xu's hands paused as he put down the knife and walked towards the room from where the tune was coming from, the door of the room was closed and so were the lights. As he pushed open the door, he was surprised to find that the French window to his balcony was open and the wind chime was tinkling with the wind coming through the open window.

He frowned as he strode inside his bedroom and pulled the windows closed. Did he forget to lock them today? But how can that be? He was really careful, to begin with, and never made forgetful mistakes like this, so how did this happen?

Once he pulled close the window, the eerie tune stopped and his gaze fell on the wind chime that was still tinkling. A weird feeling rose in his heart when he received this wind chime in a package from his sister, he thought that it was pretty and lightweight even though the tune that it played was nice to listen to, that was why he kept it for so long.

But over time, the tune that the wind chime played started to change over time and became more and more sad and melancholic. Sometimes it even played a strange tune that caused him to feel heartache as if he was longing for something but couldn't have it.

Many times he thought of pulling the wind chime down but then he couldn't bring himself to, he didn't know how to explain it. It was weird and he knew that he what he was thinking was nonsense but this was the only way he could explain it to anyone else. Every time he raised his hands to get the wind chime off the nail on which it was hanging, he would feel a sense of sudden loss like he was losing something really important.

And he would drop the idea, just like right now. He wanted to pull the wind chime down but he couldn't do it, thoughts like it will be such a same and what a huge loss to keep this pretty chime in the cabinet came to his head and he once again dropped the thought of taking off the wind chime.

He turned his back to the pearly white wind chime and then walked out of the room before closinging the door.

Once the door of the room was closed, the window that has been closed was slowly pulled open to just an inch of the fraction.

That night dinner was a hectic feat for Assistant Xu, he kept having a feeling like he was being watched from behind but at the same time when he looked over his shoulder, there was nothing behind him. But his instincts were telling him that there was something behind him.

Throughout the night, Assistant Xu kept looking over his shoulder. It was as if he was waiting for something to pounce on him but nothing happened, and there came a time when he was like just ' Kill me if you are going to!' the wait was even worse than the instant kill.

In the end, while he was watching the news he smacked the remote on the recliner and shut down the television. And walked out of the hallway, maybe he should just go ahead and sleep, there was no point if he kept overthinking. If he continued like this he might just go crazy.

He changed into his nightsuit and went to sleep, tucking himself in the bed. It was better to just go to sleep then wait for something to happen, maybe he was just being paranoid because of the things that Song Yan said to him.

Once he got in the bed, he silently pondered over what he has been doing. To think that he spent most of his evening thinking about this and that, because of a few words that made no sense. No wonder everyone said that superstitions turned one's mind rotten.

While he was thinking about that, his eyes closed because of the exhaustion that has been weighing on his shoulders. Assistant Xu must have closed his eyes only for a few minutes but then suddenly his consciousness returned to him, he felt like his chest was being pressed by something big and hard.

His air passage started to clog in and he started suffocating, like something was choking his throat.  Assistant Xu snapped his eyes open and what he saw made every hair on his body to stand up straight.

His mouth dropped open in a silent scream as he tried to shout for help --- on how chest was a woman. Or something that has been a woman once before she died and became what she was right now, She was wearing a white Yqian with its seams and front covered in dried blood.  Her eyes were empty and haunting like she was going to devour his soul and yet the most haunting thing was that she was missing many bones in her body!

It was like she died while her bones were being extracted. Assistant Xu flailed his hands or more like he tried his best to move his hands but then again no matter how hard he tried he couldn't even raise one finger much less his hands. It was as if something invisible was binding him so that he wouldn't be able to move.

" Give me back my bones!" whispered the woman, she didn't shout or scream. She just whispered in a deadly voice, and that alone was enough to make all the blood in Assistant Xu's body turn cold.

Bones? Where will he get human bones now?

He was an apt assistant and whenever there was any problem that was troubling his boss, he would do his best to come up with a reasonable solution and never had he failed in that before but right now, his entire being was in a state where he couldn't even think straight much less come up with a solution to escape from this situation.

" GIVE ME BACK MY BONES!" repeated the ghostly figure of the woman before she raised her hands and lunged at his throat. Assistant Xu shut his eyes prepared for a painful death, now he understood where this ghostly woman was going to get her missing bones.

She will take it from his body!

However, just as Assistant Xu was prepared to die,  there was a flash of golden light and then came the scream of the agony of the ghostly woman. He opened his eyes and hurriedly opened his eyes and looked at the ghostly woman whose hands were burning. He blinked his eyes and tried to think of a reasonable explanation as to why this happened but then he remembered something and his gaze fell on the yellow talisman that was tied around his neck.

The once bright yellow paper was now a shade less vibrant and half of it was burnt. He finally understood why the Second madam gave him this talisman, she knew that something like this was going to happen. Once he realised that the key to his life was in the talisman that was tied around his neck, he immediately clutched it in his hands and made a run for it.

Behind him, he heard the roar of the ghostly woman, she was clearly upset that her prey has escaped from her clutches.

While he was running for his life only in his nightsuit without even wearing his shoes on his feet, he couldn't help but wonder why the ghost woman came looking for him? The building was newly built and he didn't bring anything weird into his house either, so why was that woman doing in his house?

Behind him the window of the bedroom was once again pulled open and the once silent wind chime started playing that strange eerie tone once again.

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