Chapter 2 Probably Ran Into a Ghost in the Dead of Night

Chapter 2: Must Have Run into a Ghost in the Middle of the Night

The dark mountain forest was a tangle of thorns and brambles.

An Zhixia dared not relax for a second, moving forward on autopilot.

It wasn't that she wasn't tired—her legs had gone numb from exhaustion. The drug in her system kept washing over her mind, relentlessly assaulting her nerves.

She had no idea where she was, only that she was surrounded by trees and weeds.

The sounds of her pursuers had vanished, but she kept running desperately.

A vine underfoot tripped her, and An Zhixia slammed hard into the ground, her head colliding with a warm chest.

Blood flowed from her nose, and the pain briefly cleared her head. Her half-teary eyes opened, and the pained grunt from beneath her gave her a vague awareness that there was a man under her.

Her last shred of willpower completely gave way—she truly couldn’t hold back anymore…

Pei Jing was also having a terrible night. He had chased a criminal deep into the mountains only to be surrounded by a pack of wolves.

After barely escaping with his life, he had just collapsed here, exhausted, when a woman fell on him, nearly knocking the wind out of him.

Pei Jing cracked open his eyes to look. The woman before him was disheveled, her hair a tangled rat's nest, half her face smeared with blood, making her the spitting image of a ghost.

In the middle of the night, deep in the mountains—goddammit, could he really be this unlucky? Had he run into a ghost?

His chest had been clawed by a wolf and was still bleeding. Running on pure willpower alone, he warily watched the "female ghost" before him.

This ghost was also a horny one—her claw-like hands pawed clumsily at his chest, and her blood-smeared face pressed messy kisses against his neck, not even caring how filthy it was.

"Get off!"

Pei Jing grated out through clenched teeth.

The next moment, his eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at the woman mauling him.

"You goddamn let go of me, let go…"

Pei Jing swore he had never seen such a brazen woman in his life. The only reason he could tell she was human was her body temperature—unnaturally hot, unlike a normal person’s.

From this, he deduced that she wasn’t in her right mind at all.

If he hadn’t lost so much blood and been severely weakened, Pei Jing wouldn’t have been powerless to resist even when she grabbed his weak point.

An Zhixia was completely out of it, operating purely on instinct.

After a while, she seemed to realize something. Lifting her head, she stared blankly at the man, her eyes showing a flicker of disdain despite herself. "Are you even a man?"

Even like this, he still hadn’t reacted.

Boom!

It was as if her words had flipped a switch.

Pei Jing’s entire being recoiled, and in that moment, he fell right into An Zhixia’s trap.

An Zhixia had no experience either, which meant both of them suffered…

The sky was still dark. An Zhixia opened her eyes in confusion, looking at the man still lying unconscious beneath her, a flicker of guilt flashing in her eyes.

She hated that bald old man, but she herself had also forced someone. Although it wasn't her intention, she still felt... quite sorry for him!

Shouts echoed from afar. An Zhixia scrambled to her feet in a panic and started running, but her legs gave way, and she fell to the ground, rolling several times over.

When it rains, it pours. An Zhixia tumbled down the slope and lay in the grass for who knows how long before finally waking up.

By the time she opened her eyes, the sky was already light.

She lay on the ground, her face covered in blood, her eyes hollow as she stared at the sky.

After a long, long time, she finally burst into laughter, rolling on the ground until the pain from her injuries made her writhe in agony. Only then did she stop.

She had survived. She had truly survived...

...

Another deep night.

An Zhixia had spent the entire day trudging and scrambling until she finally arrived here.

At Old Lady Zhou's house in Zhou Village, the front door was being hammered.

"A ghost..."

Zhou Jianye, the son of the second branch, went to open the door but was scared out of his wits, scrambling back inside on all fours.

A short while later, An Zhixia had washed her face clean and was sitting on a wooden stool in the Zhou family's main hall.

Facing her were the entire Zhou family—her own grandmother, Old Lady Zhou, and her two uncles and aunts, along with their sons and daughters, who were now questioning her.

"What evidence do you have to prove that what you're saying is true?" The eldest uncle, Zhou Donglai, stared at An Zhixia with a complicated expression.

Anyone would feel unsettled if a girl suddenly showed up at their home, claiming to be their sister's biological daughter, while the girl their sister had raised with her own hands was not actually related but had been switched at birth. His emotions were anything but calm.

The blood and dirt on An Zhixia's face had been washed away, but due to long-term abuse, the 18-year-old girl was short, sallow and waxen, and appeared thin and frail.

Yet, on that thin face, her large eyes were clear and bright, fixed on them with a gaze that showed no trace of timidity.

"My face should be the best proof."

In her previous life, during the years she had lingered as a ghost near An Meiyun, she had often seen her biological mother, Zhou Nan. Her own face was not a spitting image of Zhou Nan's, but it had a seventy or eighty percent resemblance.

Otherwise, the Gao family wouldn't have been so afraid of others recognizing her, keeping her locked in the courtyard year after year and, as soon as she came of age, hastily marrying her off to some remote mountain family, claiming she had been wed.

Blood ties were the best evidence. An Meiyun also bore some resemblance to her biological mother, about thirty to forty percent, but since they lived far apart, no one had ever noticed.

Although the Zhou family wished desperately that her words were false, An Zhixia knew she had already struck a chord with them.

It was just that they were having a hard time accepting it all at once.

Old Lady Zhou let her stay with the Zhou family temporarily. As for whether her story was true or false, it would have to be verified by her biological parents when they arrived.

Although the two Zhou sons had already divided the household, both households still lived in the same courtyard. Old Lady Zhou lived with the eldest son's family.

An Zhixia was arranged to sleep in the same bed with Zhou Zhizhi from the eldest uncle's family. Zhou Zhizhi gazed at An Zhixia curiously. "Are you really my aunt's biological daughter? You're not lying to us, are you?"

An Zhixia stayed calm and asked her calmly, "So, do you think I look like your aunt?"

"Yes, so much alike." Zhou Zhizhi did resemble her aunt Zhou Nan, but compared to An Zhixia, the resemblance seemed trivial.

Moreover, if it weren't for the fact that the other girl bore such a striking resemblance to her aunt, Zhou Zhizhi was certain that An Zhixia would have been driven out by her grandmother and father the moment she started talking nonsense.

In the main room, Old Lady Zhou's wrinkled face was a mix of complicated emotions.

Her younger son, Zhou Xifeng, spoke up, "Mother, elder brother, should we really believe what that girl said?"

Everyone knew that even if this were true, eighteen years had passed, and both children had grown up. Revealing this now would be devastating for both families.