Chapter 268

The time in the dream was chaotic. Ning Zhe didn't know what season Vanessa Castle was in at this moment, but when Spencer, Cynthia, and others strayed into the castle, it was just at the turn of autumn and winter.

The down jackets worn by these missing university students were all down jackets. The covering skin Ning Zhe used to cover the corpse-oil lamp before was made from the hood of a down jacket.

Aurora's current body was also wearing a bright red cashmere coat, with a knitted sweater inside, and a close-fitting thermal underwear inside the knitted sweater. It could be said to be quite thick; even if it snowed a little, she wouldn't catch a cold.

But Ning Zhe felt cold now.

Ning Zhe reached out and touched his chest. There was a dark red stain on the off-white knitted sweater. That was the wound pierced by the spear tip when Aurora committed suicide in the lecture room. The bloodstains on it had already dried, but the heart that had been pierced by the spear tip in the chest cavity was beating bizarrely, dong dong, dong dong.

Seeing this scene, Ning Zhe couldn't help but think of Bai Zhi, who was mercury-poisoned at the gas station before. Her situation at that time was very similar to Aurora's now.

Kela... Kela...

The pulley set turned slowly, pulling the hanging basket he was sitting in to continue to rise. Wrapping himself tightly in his coat, he lowered his eyes to look at the clear texture of the stone bricks on the wall and lightly exhaled a breath of white air.

There was no wind in the vertical shaft. In the closed small space, there was not much air circulation. Theoretically, it should be less likely to feel cold, but at this moment, Ning Zhe was sitting in the constantly rising hanging basket, but the body temperature was even lower than in the open outdoors. As the height rose, the temperature was gradually becoming lower.

"How... is this?" Ning Zhe felt a bit puzzled. Some details he hadn't paid special attention to before now seemed to have new meanings when recalled.

Crack.

The mechanism stopped.

Ning Zhe looked up and saw that the hanging basket hadn't risen to the highest point. The iron chain pulling the mechanism seemed to be stuck by something, stopping in the middle of the vertical shaft and no longer rising.

Did the mechanism malfunction? Or did Geza, who was pushing the mechanism downstairs, have an accident?

Ning Zhe knocked on the iron chain a few times without getting a response, but he didn't dare to shout loudly here. Using a rope to tie the cross iron spear to his waist, Ning Zhe stood up shakily in the hanging basket, clamped the iron chain with his legs, and began to climb upward with his hands and feet.

Aurora's physical strength was not bad; she was a housewife who could lift a lawnmower with one hand. Ning Zhe climbed along the iron chain all the way up, barely climbing to the end of the vertical shaft before his physical strength was exhausted.

Outside the vertical shaft was a circular small room with a curtain. Pulling the curtain and walking out, it was the banquet hall on the second floor. Two rows of quiet candle flames flickered on both sides of the wooden long table, and human shadows appeared and disappeared in the firelight, men, women, old, and young, all of them, tall, short, fat, and thin.

Ning Zhe untied the iron spear and held it in his hand, looked up at the wooden door with a crack open at the end of the long table, took a deep breath, lifted the curtain, and walked out of the small room for serving dishes.

The candlelight in the banquet hall was dim. Ning Zhe crouched down and hid in the shadows of the wall corner, following the gaps of the moving shadows, lifted the tablecloth, and quickly drilled under the long table.

"Hmm?"

A light sound of surprise, as if coming from a narrow gap not belonging to this world. A slender, transparent shadow suddenly stopped, turned its head mechanically, and stared at the place Ning Zhe had just passed without moving, seemingly having noticed something unusual. The other shadows beside it also gathered around without exception.

"Calm... calm." Ning Zhe gripped the iron spear in his hand tightly, knelt on one knee, his gaze quietly watching the red carpet on the ground through the gap in the tablecloth, and the pairs of feet stepping on the red carpet.

The time passing minute by minute was like a frozen ice cube. A drop of cold sweat slid down Ning Zhe's temple. After a long pause, the feet on the red carpet finally moved, took a step, and disappeared from Ning Zhe's sight.

"Phew—" Ning Zhe breathed a sigh of relief and carefully crawled forward.

The wooden dining table was long and wide. The light and shadow on both sides of the long table were intertwined. From time to time, the sound of whispering and clinking glasses came from between the gaps of the tablecloth. The footsteps coming and going were delicate and soft, as if this grand feast had been continuing from today more than a hundred years ago to the present.

Ning Zhe carefully bowed his body and moved his steps. Under the cover of the tablecloth, he slowly crawled to the end of the long table. A curtain away was the main entrance of the banquet hall.

Lying on the ground with his face against the carpet, Ning Zhe looked out from the gap between the tablecloth and the ground. There was a distance of about 3 meters from the edge of the dining table to the door. This empty distance had no cover. On both sides of the door stood two brass candlesticks one person tall. Once the tablecloth was lifted, he would be directly exposed to the candlelight surrounded by ghosts.

Ning Zhe looked at the tablecloth in front of him, then looked at the iron spear in his hand, and a dangerous idea arose spontaneously.

"I might be able to try to extinguish the candlestick by the table first, and take advantage of the ghosts in the banquet hall being attracted to pull the tablecloth down and drape it over my body, muddling through and rushing directly out of the door."

This was undoubtedly a very dangerous way of doing things, but surrounded by ghosts, Ning Zhe couldn't think of a more comprehensive method in a short time. Now he was too lacking in means to deal with the bizarre. Apart from Taiyi and Jueyuan's rules still being able to run normally, he was basically no different from a mortal.

"Okay, 3, 2, 1..."

Counting down to zero in his heart, Ning Zhe gripped the cross iron spear and threw it hard from the gap in the tablecloth. A heavy sound of metal collision immediately rang out in the quiet banquet hall, followed by a muffled sound of 'dong', and a brass candlestick on the side of the long table fell to the carpet.

The spacious and quiet hall suddenly became noisy. Screaming, laughing, shouting, scolding... rapid footsteps and the sound of glass cups being smashed mixed together, mixed into various noises, like a pot of boiling water. Ning Zhe bowed his body and walked quickly back to the end of the long table, quickly reaching out to the tablecloth, preparing to take advantage of the chaos to escape the banquet hall.

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But suddenly, a snow-white, slender palm passed through the gap in the tablecloth and reached in from outside.

Ning Zhe's body froze in place.

Pushing aside the tablecloth, a head with full blonde hair drilled under the table sneakily, followed by the girl's thin and delicate body. One wanted to drill out, one had just drilled in, and the two looked at each other under the table.

The footsteps in the banquet hall became more rapid. Ning Zhe blinked at the blonde girl in front of him and whispered, "Is Spencer protecting you well?"

Bai Zhi was stunned for a moment. The next moment, the originally blank expression on her pale little face became bright visibly: "Ning Zhe? Is it you? You're back?"

"Follow me." Ning Zhe grabbed Bai Zhi's slender wrist, and a wave of heat rushed from behind. The red carpet on the ground was ignited by the candlestick.

Bright yellow flames jumped on the carpet, ignited the dining table along the hanging tablecloth, and the fire climbed up the ceiling along the light purple curtains, burning off the arched beams on the roof. The heavy chandelier fell straight down like a burning meteor, 'crack' smashed the dining table, and the fire was surging.

Perhaps the scorching firelight covered the light of the candles, or perhaps the surging fire made the ghosts in the hall unable to take care of other things. Ning Zhe pulled Bai Zhi and ran through the fire scene hurriedly, quickly crossing the last distance from the dining table to the main entrance, and rushed out of the banquet hall without looking back.

Bai Zhi pulled Ning Zhe's hand and looked back. A semi-transparent, illusory human figure followed them out, but as the candlestick at the door was swallowed by the fire, the shadow disappeared quietly.

"That's Spencer?" Ning Zhe asked in a low voice.

"Hmm." Bai Zhi nodded.

(End of chapter)