Chapter 12 Don't Look

Feng Bujue had arrived at the well, but he didn't get too close. He lowered his body, trying to look straight ahead with a slanting gaze, without sticking his head out to look inside the well.

He remembered the nursery rhyme word for word, "Don't look at him, or you'll be buried under the dry well." This was already a very obvious hint. Feng Bujue had no doubt that as long as he glanced at what was at the bottom of the well, he would immediately trigger a death flag… He didn't want to be suddenly dragged down by some irresistible force, instantly reducing his Survival Value to zero or something.

"Hey, you…" Feng Bujue shouted, raising his voice, "How about I find a rope and throw it down to you?"

The voice from the bottom of the well sounded again after a few seconds: "I… can't… climb up… alone…"

When Feng Bujue heard this sentence, he had a feeling of enlightenment. He tentatively asked, "Then… how about I carry you up?"

The voice from below simply replied, "Okay…"

Feng Bujue simply asked directly, "I'm not familiar with this school. Do you know where there are any ropes nearby?" He wanted to test how far the hints for this mission would go.

But this time, the other party didn't answer. The voice just repeated, "Save… save… me…"

So, Feng Bujue said, "You wait, I'll come back when I find a rope."

The voice didn't express any disagreement, and continued to call for help.

Feng Bujue was actually a little curious about what would happen if he left and never came back, but after thinking about it, even if the guy at the bottom of the well didn't come out to settle the score with him, he would have to come back sooner or later to complete this mission.

Leaving the well, Feng Bujue jogged towards the sports equipment room. He had wanted to go in and scavenge when he passed by there before. Now he returned there easily, smashed the padlock on the door with a pipe wrench, and began rummaging through the cabinets.

Before long, he found a thick rope tangled together, probably used for tug-of-war. After testing its toughness and finding that there were no problems, Feng Bujue coiled the rope and stuffed it into his knapsack. Then he went out and returned to the dry well.

As he approached the dry well, the cry for help from the bottom of the well came out again. Feng Bujue pretended not to hear it, walked quickly, found the thickest tree trunk next to it, and tied the rope firmly to it, making a knot that wouldn't come undone. Then he came to the well and threw the other end of the rope down. He estimated that the well was at most ten meters deep, possibly only six or seven meters. The rope was definitely long enough.

Now the most troublesome problem was the phone. Whether going down or coming up, he would definitely need to use both hands. He couldn't hold the phone in his mouth… Besides, even if he really held it in his mouth, he wouldn't be able to answer it if it rang halfway up. If something went wrong and the phone fell into the well, then he would definitely be chased and killed…

Looking at the time, there were still seven minutes until the next call. Feng Bujue felt that this time was not a problem. The one calling for help at the bottom of the well was probably the boy who appeared in the death segment just now. With that skinny look, even the stronger ones among his peers could lift him up. He should be even lighter after becoming a ghost.

Feng Bujue made up his mind and no longer hesitated. He put the phone on the ground, grabbed the rope, faced the tree, turned his back to the well, and sat on the edge of the well. Then he stretched his legs down separately. Next, he faced upwards, stepped on the well wall with his feet, and alternately gripped the rope with both hands, moving downwards as quickly as possible. From beginning to end, he never looked down, just kept his back to a thing that was most likely a ghost.

"Look up at the sky… the moon is smiling…" After Feng Bujue went deep into the dry well, he kept his back down and looked up at the sky from the well. He unknowingly hummed two lines, and then he immediately stopped and said to himself, "Damn… I accidentally sang this brainwashing melody… Luckily, no one is nearby, I feel so embarrassed…"

After reaching the bottom of the well, Feng Bujue's feet seemed to be stepping on soft soil. He stood against one side of the well wall, without turning his head, only leaving the other party with his back view: "Where are you, I'll carry you…"

Before he could finish speaking, two bloody arms stretched out from both sides of Feng Bujue's head and wrapped around his neck. At the same time, he felt "half" a person sticking to his back. Feng Bujue was sure that even if a female player came down, she could completely carry this ghost, because the ghost's weight was very light, or rather… the limbs were not complete at all.

"Um…" Feng Bujue hesitated, he originally wanted to habitually complain, the words were already on his lips, but after thinking about it, no… in this situation, pointing out some obvious characteristics of the other party that were different from humans might also lead to bad developments. Things like, "Why can't you climb up yourself with such nimble skills," "Why is the skin on your arms rotten," "Why do I feel like you have nothing below the waist," "Is the fluid flowing out of your abdominal cavity water" and the like were all forbidden sentences.

In the endings of countless ghost stories, countless protagonists would say to a guy who looked like a human: I just ran into a ghost, who looked like this and that… Then, what they got was the same response, "Is it like this"! Then they were killed.

Feng Bujue didn't want to take this risk, his neck was still in the other party's grasp. If this ghost suddenly realized that he was really a ghost after his reminder, then it would definitely be a death flag, absolutely not to mention those things.

"Hold on tight, I'm going to climb up." Feng Bujue completely ignored the various strong hints brought by the smell and sound, and also ignored the two bloody arms below his chin. He greeted him and climbed up with the ghost on his back.

When he went down the well just now, he didn't look down at all, and the overall feeling was like walking backwards. When going up, he was moving forward in the direction of his gaze, so he climbed up very quickly. And the thing he was carrying on his back was indeed not heavy, not a very big burden.

It only took four minutes to go up and down in this dry well. Feng Bujue came out of the well and stood still, breathing evenly. He still didn't dare to be careless. He didn't rush to pick up the phone, but took out the pipe wrench again and said to the thing clinging to his back, "You're out now, you can go home."

A voice sounded from behind Feng Bujue's neck, like a cold wind brushing the back of his neck: "Go… home…"

The next few seconds were suffocatingly quiet.

"Thank you…" This was the last response of the ghost.

At the same time as Feng Bujue heard this sentence, the bone-chilling coldness around him suddenly disappeared, and the feeling of something on his back was also gone. At this time, he took a long breath and turned his head back.

Under the silver moonlight, the appearance of the dry well had changed. The well opening was not open, but was sealed with a concrete slab. The thick rope in Feng Bujue's hand was still tied to the tree at one end, but the other end that was thrown into the well was now piled up beside the well.

Perhaps Feng Bujue had never been down this well at all, perhaps he went to… another place. And he rescued the boy from that place.

…………

The last paragraph of the clippings in Si Yu's hand read:

Heisei 10, Autumn.

Some students' parents invited an Onmyoji to perform a ritual. When leaving, the Onmyoji claimed that he had injured the vengeful spirit, but his Daoxing (spiritual cultivation) was still unable to help it attain Buddhahood.

After repeated inquiries by the writer, the Onmyoji left the words "Do you want me to go to 'that place' and carry him out?" and left angrily.

Since then, the well has been resealed with cement, and there have been no abnormalities since.