Feng Bujue was already by the side of the well, but he did not get too close; he merely lowered his body and used the advantage of his vantage point to peer as deep into the well as he could. He did not poke his head directly into the well.
He recited the first line of the song word for word. “Save him, save him… Stuck in the well, unable to go home. Don’t look, don’t look… or the well will gain a new soul.”
The hint could not have been clearer. Feng Bujue had no doubt that once he glanced at thing at the bottom of the well, he would trigger an event that would cause his death. He did not wish for some supernatural energy to drag him down the well and, in the blink of an eye, lose all his Life Points.
“Er, whoever you are… how about I drop a rope down the well for you?”
Several seconds later, the reply came. “I… cannot climb so far… alone…”
When Feng Bujue heard that, he was suddenly struck by inspiration. He asked probingly, “Then… how about I go down and carry you up?”
The voice in the well answered simply, “Okay…”
“I’m not familiar with this school, do you know where they might keep the rope?” Feng Bujue asked directly. He wanted to test and see how far the voice would go to provide him with hints.
However, this time, the voice did not answer. It merely repeated, “Save… me…”
In response, Feng Bujue said, “Wait for me. I’ll be back soon with the rope.”
The voice did not say anything else, other than its continued pleas for help. Feng Bujue was a bit curious about what would happen if he just wandered away and did not return. But after giving it some thought, even if the thing inside the well did not crawl out to haunt him for revenge, eventually, he would have to return to finish the quest.
Leaving the well, Feng Bujue jogged to the storage room for exercise equipment. He had been meaning to explore the space when he passed it earlier. This time, he traced the route in his memory and used the wrench to smack down the lock and found his way in. It did not take long for him to find a thick rope that was probably used for tug or war. He yanked it several times to test its tensile strength. After giving it his approval, Feng Bujue shoved the rope inside his backpack and returned to the well.
When he got close, the sound of pleading started again. Feng Bujue pretended not to hear it and rushed past it. He found the tree with the thickest trunk, wound the rope around it, and tied a dead knot. Then, he walked to the well and tossed the other end into it. At most, he believed that the well would be ten meters deep. Most likely, it was only seven meters deep, so the rope would definitely be long enough.
But the biggest problem was the mobile phone. Be it going down or climbing up, Feng Bujue would have to use both hands, the game would not expect him to hold the phone with his mouth, right? If he really did that, what if the phone rang while he was climbing. How was he supposed to answer it? On top of that, if there was an accident, and the phone fell into the well, he would be destined to become the ghosts’ target until he died.
Looking at the time, there were seven minutes until the next call. Feng Bujue believed that there was enough time. The one inside the well was probably the boy who appeared in the death recap. The boy was slender, and his peers were able to haul him up easily, so he should be lighter now that he was a ghost.
Feng Bujue came to a decision and stopped hesitating. After placing the phone on the ground, he grabbed the rope, facing the tree and away from the well, and sat on the well’s edge. Then, he dropped his legs into the well. With his body facing upward, his legs planted on the wall of the well, and his hands gripping the rope, he slid down as fast as he could. From the beginning to the end, he never once looked down into the well, exposing his back to something that he was ninety percent confident was a ghost.
“Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are…” Since Feng Bujue was sliding down the well facing the sky, all he could see was the sight of the night sky from the mouth of the well. Inspired by the beauty of nature, he could not help but start humming. However, he quickly stopped himself, mumbling, “F*ck… this is all the scenario’s fault for reminding me of a children’s nursery rhyme. Thankfully, no one’s around, or I’d be so embarrassed…”
Feng Bujue’s legs landed on soft, muddy ground. He stood facing one side of the wall and still did not turn around. “Where are you? Get on my back…”
Before he finished, two bloody arms reached around Feng Bujue’s shoulders and circled his neck. At the same time, he felt ’half a person’ climbing on his back. Feng Bujue had confidence that even if a weak player was tasked with this quest, they would be able to carry this ghost because this ghost was very light, or rather… he was physically incomplete.
“Hmm…” Feng Bujue opened and closed his lips. Out of habit, he wanted to point out the anomaly. The words were already on his lips, but after giving it some thought, he decided not to. Under the circumstances, if he pointed out the differences that the thing on his back had compared to a living person, it might cause a negative development. Questions like “If you’re agile, why don’t you climb up the well on your own?”, “Why is the skin around your arms so decayed?”, “How come it feels like there’s nothing below your waist?”, and “Is your body leaking?” were all taboo.
In many ghost stories, the main characters would say to someone who looked like a person, “I just saw a ghost, they looked…”
The replies that they got were roughly the same. “Did they look like this‽”
Then, they were killed.
Feng Bujue did not want to take that unnecessary risk. After all, the ghost had his arms right around his neck. What if the ghost was suddenly reminded that he was a Specter? Then, it would definitely kill him, so these were definitely things that he could not mention.
“Hold on tight, I’m going to start climbing up now.” Feng Bujue ignored the heavy hints like smell and sound and ignored the two bloody arms right below his chin. He carried the ghost and started climbing.
When he was going down the well earlier, he did not look down, so he had technically been walking backward. When he was going up, he was walking forward, so his speed this time was much faster. On top of that, the thing on his back weighed nothing at all; it was barely a burden.
Going up and down this old well took at most four minutes. Feng Bujue climbed out of the well and slowly adjusted his breathing. He still did not dare lower his guard. He did not hurry to pick up the phone but instead pulled out the wrench and told the thing behind him, “We’re out. You can go home now.”
The voice came from behind Feng Bujue, and it felt like a chilling breeze caressing the back of his neck. “Go… Home…”
That was followed by a stifling silence.
“Thank you…” said the ghost.
When Feng Bujue heard that, the chill around him disappeared, and the sensation that he was carrying something went away as well. Right then, he let out a long sigh and turned his head around.
Under the silvery moon, the well had already changed. The mouth was no longer open but was blocked by a slab of cement. The rope in Feng Bujue’s hands had one of its ends still tied around the tree, but the other was dropped next to the edge of the well, not inside the well.
Perhaps Feng Bujue had not gone down the well at all… but he went someplace else, and he rescued that boy from that place.
…
The article in Passing Rain’s hands said this.
1998, Fall.
A student’s parents hired a Yin Yang Master to conduct a ritual. When everything was done, the master said that he only managed to injure the spirit, but with his power, he was unable to help the spirit move on to a better place.
When pressed, the master replied, “Do you expect me to go ’there’ to carry him out?”
Then he left in anger and indignation.
After that, the well was resealed, and everything had been peaceful since then.