Horror post

An inn, two stories high, very old, with cobwebs in the corners of the rooms, and the owner was an old man.\ One summer night, dark and windy, the inn lit up, the candlelight dim and yellow, and the windows reflected the old man's shadow. A rumbling thunderclap sounded, and a sudden downpour began, with rain as big as beans, pouring with the wind and hammering the window paper.\ 'Innkeeper, please open the door, I want to stay.' The voice was even more urgent than the raindrops, presumably forced by the rain.\ The old man was calm, slowly got up, and staggered to the door to open it. A scholar in white clothes stood at the door, already soaked, hair sticking to his face, rainwater sliding from his nose into his mouth, holding a bundle in his arms. As soon as the door opened, the scholar slightly bowed and stepped inside.\ The old man revealed a very strange smile, fleeting, very sinister. The scholar didn't notice, busy squeezing the rain from his body, not looking up, and said, 'Innkeeper, prepare a room for me. Do you have clothes for me to change into? My clothes are completely wet.'\ 'Yes, guest, please go upstairs first. The first room on the left of the stairs, I'll bring the clothes up shortly.' The old man's voice startled the scholar. The voice sounded like scraping broken metal. The scholar looked up at him in surprise, and the old man looked back. Feeling rude, the scholar said, 'Then I'll go upstairs first.' He reached the middle of the stairs, looked back, and said, 'Please also prepare some food.' The old man nodded in agreement.\ The scholar went to the second floor, found the room, opened the door and immediately smelled a musty, damp odor. Covering his nose and waving his sleeves, he slowly stepped in and lit the lamp. The room gradually brightened, the environment basically still clean, though simply furnished: a table, two chairs, and a bed. On the table was a painted vase holding an orchid. The scholar did not expect such elegance here; he wanted to smell the fresh scent of the orchid, but approaching it, he discovered it was a fake flower and lost interest immediately. 'Guest, is this flower nice?' the old man suddenly said from behind. The scholar shivered; the voice had come too suddenly. Composing himself, he turned and said, 'It is nice, but after all, it is a fake flower.' The old man shook his head, put down the clothes, and turned to leave.\ The scholar found the old man somewhat strange, but his clothes were cold and wet, so he did not think much and first changed into the dry clothes.The clothes fit perfectly. When the scholar put on the clothes brought by the old man, he felt extremely comfortable. After finding a place to hang his wet clothes, he opened his bundle and found that besides a little silver, there were three books. The books were easy to hold in his arms, with only a few wet pages. As he flipped through the books and laid them on the table to dry, he glanced at the vase and his eyes froze. On the vase was painted a bleeding orchid, and beside it lay a person in white, eyes wide open, bleeding from seven orifices, the right hand stiffly pointing at the orchid. The scholar took a deep breath, feeling something eerie about the inn, and hurriedly looked up, silently chanting: 'Buddha bless, Buddha bless, bless me on my journey, pff! No, bless me a smooth journey, turning misfortune into fortune, great luck and prosperity. Just now I said pff to myself, not to you. Buddha bless.'

Phew, the window was blown open by a strong wind, extinguishing the oil lamp. Raindrops rushed in and struck the scholar's face. He felt darkness before his eyes and something cold hit his face, frightening him so much that his legs went weak and he screamed, falling to the ground: 'Buddha bless, Buddha, you have to bless me.' Shouting, the scholar curled up on the ground, his body shaking like a sieve. After a while, everything became quiet, hearing only the wind and rain outside. Once his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he realized that the cold thing was just rainwater from outside, and he breathed a sigh of relief while scolding himself for being timid. As he shakily stood up to close the window, he noticed someone walking toward the inn. The scholar leaned forward to look closely, and just then the person lifted their head. A bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, revealing a face covered in blood facing the scholar. The scholar rolled his eyes, didn't even make a sound, and fainted…

'Hey, guest, wake up.' The old man patted the scholar's face and called out. The scholar gradually woke, shook his head, and opened his eyes, seeing the old man's gaunt face. Suddenly recalling the blood-covered person, he got up and grabbed the old man, shouting: 'Innkeeper, there's a ghost, there's a ghost nearby, did you see it? The ghost looks terrifying.'

The old man looked at the scholar in confusion and said: 'Guest, don't talk nonsense. I've lived here for twenty years and have never seen a ghost, don't ruin my reputation.'

The scholar hurriedly said: 'I'm not lying.' He then went to the window. Lightning flashed across the sky in bursts, illuminating the earth as bright as daylight. The wind outside had weakened, only the rain was stronger than before. There was no ghost at all.“Could it be that I saw it wrong? I've been running around and tired these days, could it be a hallucination?” the scholar thought, tapping his own head and closing the window. www.weyanw.com Ghost Stories Collection\ The old man said, “Sir, I've already brought your meal.” The scholar said "oh" and then saw the vase on the table. He said to the old man, “This vase, why is it painted with such a terrifying picture?”\ “It tells a story, about a story of an orchid that kills. Would you like to hear it?” The old man picked up the vase and slowly caressed it with his thin hands, his eyes emitting a mysterious light.\ Listening to the old man's increasingly low voice, the scholar's hair stood on end, and he forced a smile: “Um, no, that's not necessary, I should eat now.” The old man sighed, put the vase back on the table, and said, “Then enjoy your meal, sir, I'll go out first. Just call me if you need anything.”\ “You can take this vase with you too,” the scholar said before the old man reached the door. The old man stopped at the doorway, without turning his head, said: “This vase can only stay in this room.” After saying that, he went downstairs. The scholar stayed stunned for a while, and placed the vase in a corner. If he left the vase on the table, it would be too frightening for him to eat. The scholar had just sat down and picked up his chopsticks when he heard footsteps going upstairs. The steps reached the second floor and stopped at his door. The scholar gripped his chopsticks tightly, eyes fixed on the door. Then came a crack! His chopsticks snapped in his hand. At that moment, the door creaked open. A man with his head wrapped in white cloth walked in. The scholar, shocked, fell off his chair: “Ghost! You're a ghost! Don't come near, no, don't come near!” The man cupped his hands and said to the scholar, “Brother, I am not a ghost. I'm sorry for scaring you just now. I came specifically to apologize. Because of the rain, the road was slippery, and I fell down the hillside, hurting my head and getting all bloody. Seeing the light here, I came over. I didn't expect to frighten you, brother, I am really sorry. Please forgive me.” The scholar awkwardly stood up and said, “So that's what happened, it's okay, please sit, I was just too timid.” The man sat down and looked at the scholar: “I see that you seem like a scholar, how did you end up in this desolate place?” The scholar said, “I was originally a student heading to the capital for exams. But the journey was too long. Trying to take a shortcut, I lost my way. Unexpectedly, it started raining, and I wandered here in a panic.”"I can see that the inn is filled with heavy yin energy, both inside and out it feels strange. I'm afraid there might be some unclean things here," the man said in a low voice.

The scholar widened his eyes and whispered, "N-no, it can't be. But, the innkeeper here does seem a bit odd."

'The orchid in the vase, your fate meets it; encounter the soul, it will devour, neither alive nor dead.' A sinister, sharp voice came from nowhere, yet it sounded as if it were right next to the two of them whispering. The two froze on the spot. The man moved his eyes, scanning the room, while sweat began to form on the scholar's forehead.

'Neither alive nor dead, neither alive nor dead, neither alive nor dead…' The voice came from all directions. Soon, the scholar's gaze became vacant, and his whole body trembled. At this moment, the man suddenly stared at the vase in the corner, and the voice abruptly stopped. The scholar also stopped, and his eyes gradually returned to normal.

'Orchid fiend,' the man murmured.

From inside the vase, a wisp of smoke slowly rose. From the smoke, a woman in red appeared, her face pale as paper yet breathtakingly beautiful. The scholar could not help but be stunned. The woman's robes floated in the air without any wind. She gave the scholar a slight smile, and the scholar unconsciously smiled back, stood up, and even tried to walk toward her. The man grabbed the scholar with one hand and said, 'Don't go over there, she's not human, she's an orchid fiend.'

The scholar came to his senses but still did not understand the man's meaning, asking, 'What is an orchid fiend?'

The man stood up and said, 'It is a being who died in hatred in a past life and did not enter reincarnation. The accumulated resentment attaches to an orchid, transforming into a demon, surviving by absorbing the souls of living humans.' Upon hearing this, the scholar realized that the woman had just come out of the vase. A chill ran through him, and he said, 'You mean she, she, she's a demon?' Saying this, he hid behind the man.

As soon as these words were spoken, there was a sudden whoosh, and a red shadow floated before the scholar's eyes. Several rolls of red silk wrapped around the two of them. The scholar screamed, using both hands and feet to try to tear the red silk off. The silk, however, wrapped around him and pulled him toward the woman. 'Ah, my life is over!' the scholar shouted.

The man struggled for a moment and quickly took out a Bagua mirror from inside his clothes. A golden light shot out. The woman screamed, and the red silk immediately retreated. The scholar collapsed to the ground, panting heavily.

At this moment, a voice from outside the door was heard: 'Life and death are determined by fate, wealth and honor are decided by heaven. Some things, once encountered, should just be left be. Why bother to go against them?'The man snorted coldly: "Come in. Shopkeeper, who exactly are you, that you can use the orchid demon to kill and seize wealth on your behalf?"

The old man sighed and walked in, saying: "Kill and seize wealth? I would never do such an unrighteous thing. But as a father, should I just stand by and watch my daughter die?"

"You are the father of this orchid demon," the man said, staring at the old man.

The old man glanced at the man but did not answer. Instead, he looked at the Bagua Mirror in the man's hand and said: "The Qiankun Bagua Mirror... I didn't expect you to be from Kunlun Mountain."

The man spoke loudly: "Yes, I am Song Mingqiao, the eighteenth-generation disciple of Yuling Temple in Kunlun."

"Hehe, what a Yuling Temple," the old man laughed in an unusually eerie tone. Suddenly, with a crashing sound, a large iron cage fell from the roof, covering the two of them.

The scholar and Song Mingqiao didn't react in time and were firmly trapped inside the cage. Just as the two were astonished, something even more bizarre happened: the iron cage began to shrink. In just a moment, the two were immobilized inside, and the Qiankun Bagua Mirror slipped from the hands and fell to the ground.

The old man walked over, picked it up, and slowly wiped the surface of the mirror with his hands, laughing: "This treasure is now in my hands; what can you do about it?"

The woman saw the old man put away the Qiankun Bagua Mirror and float towards the scholar.

The scholar thought the woman was going to absorb his soul and turned pale with fear, his legs trembling uncontrollably.

A faint voice sounded beside the scholar: "He looks too much like him." After speaking, the woman turned to look at the old man and, unexpectedly, spoke.

"Why do you still think of him? If it weren't for him, you wouldn't have become like this. He is extremely evil; you should kill him now," the old man said resentfully.

The woman turned again to the scholar, her eyes moving, and tears began to fall.

The old man sighed to the sky: "Kill him, and forget him."

The woman's tears kept flowing, and the scholar at this moment no longer felt fear. Seeing the woman in sorrow before him, he felt a sense of pity.

The man's palms were sweaty, fearing the woman would suddenly open her mouth and absorb the scholar's soul.

"Let them go," the woman said softly, "I don't want to kill anymore."

The old man suddenly looked at her firmly: "No, if you absorb the souls of four more people, you won't have to rely on the orchid and can survive on your own. You can't just give up like this."The woman looked at the scholar and said: 'I thought that after I killed him that year, I would forget him. But all these years, I have still been missing him, not forgetting him for a single moment. Today, to actually meet him again, even if I die, it was worth it. I don't want to kill anymore.' Fifteen years ago, a scholar named Xue Yu fell in love with a woman named Wen Juan. Xue Yu promised Wen Juan that if he passed the imperial examination with top honors, he would return in glory to marry her. Wen Juan tearfully agreed to see him off and waited for him for three years. After three years, Wen Juan heard that Xue Yu had finally returned. Excitedly, she ran to the street to meet him. But what she saw was not only Xue Yu, but also a large entourage and his beautiful wife by his side. Xue Yu had topped the imperial examination and had already married the daughter of the current prime minister. Seeing Wen Juan, Xue Yu was shocked. He had expected that after three years, she would have married someone else, but he did not expect that she had been waiting for him all along. Yet, with his current high status, how could he marry a simple village girl? Wen Juan wanted to question Xue Yu: why, after waiting patiently for three years, had she ended up with such a result? Seeing Wen Juan, Xue Yu also felt extremely ashamed. He had been vain and abandoned the woman who loved him dearly. But now, it was impossible for Xue Yu to marry Wen Juan. The daughter of the prime minister of the current dynasty and a poor girl from a remote village could never be together.