"Aunt Cuihua." The next afternoon, Su Qing heard a knock on the door. When she opened it, she saw Aunt Cuihua had come over.

After they returned from the Pond yesterday, Cheng Beilin had been fine during the day. Su Qing had cooked the fish they’d caught, making a braised black carp and a steamed silver carp. The two of them had enjoyed a wonderful meal. But that night, Cheng Beilin had a nightmare. The day’s events must have given her a bit of a scare, because when she woke up this morning, she was listless and lacking energy.

Seeing Cheng Beilin so lethargic, Su Qing decided not to go out. The two of them stayed home to rest.

She hadn’t expected Aunt Cuihua to show up in the afternoon.

"I didn’t see either of you over at the Pond, so I figured you weren’t going to watch the commotion," Aunt Cuihua said as she entered the house. Seeing how pale Cheng Beilin’s face was, she asked in surprise, "Oh my, Xiao Lin, what’s wrong with you? Didn’t you sleep well last night?"

"It’s nothing, I just didn’t sleep soundly." Cheng Beilin gave Aunt Cuihua a small smile and asked, "Aunt Cuihua, what’s the situation over at the Pond?"

Su Qing chuckled. "You had a nightmare last night, and you still dare to ask? Aren’t you afraid you’ll have another one tonight?"

"What, you had a nightmare? Got a fright?" Aunt Cuihua asked, looking at Cheng Beilin. She stepped forward and felt Cheng Beilin’s forehead. Finding it wasn’t hot, she relaxed and said, "You young girls are just too timid. Your auras are weak, so you get scared easily."

"It’s fine, just a little." Cheng Beilin was a bit embarrassed, her face flushing slightly.

Aunt Cuihua laughed. "You’re good friends with this girl, Su Qing. You should learn from her. Su Qing used to be timid too, but now she’s gotten really brave. Have her teach you how to be bolder." 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Listening from the side, Su Qing smiled. "If you ask me, wicked people are scarier than any ghost. If you’re not afraid of them, you won’t be afraid of ghosts."

"Exactly!" Aunt Cuihua slapped her thigh and pointed toward the Old Su Family’s house next door. "Those people in the Old Su Family are more vile than ghosts, every last one of them. It’s a good thing you’re not afraid of them anymore."

Su Qing just smiled. Cheng Beilin, standing to the side, didn’t know the specifics of the situation between Su Qing and her neighbors. However, watching them talk, she guessed they must be relatives who were now on bad terms. But Cheng Beilin was convinced that Su Qing was the best person she knew, so she immediately branded the Old Su Family as villains. ’I’ll have to find a chance to help Su Qing get even,’ she thought.

"Aunt Cuihua, have they started salvaging at the Pond?" Su Qing asked.

When Aunt Cuihua heard Su Qing’s question, she slapped her thigh again. "Ai, speaking of which, it’s a good thing you two didn’t go this afternoon. You wouldn’t believe it. Everyone who went to the Pond today got scared, one way or another. Even me! When I first saw it, my heart was just THUMP-THUMP-THUMPING so fast."

Hearing this, Cheng Beilin forgot all about the Old Su Family next door. Her eyes widened as she asked, "Aunt Cuihua, hurry and tell us what’s going on at the Pond! Was it that scary? Tell me, let me work on my courage."

"Alright, but if I tell you, you’d better not have another nightmare tonight." Aunt Cuihua had come over today specifically to share gossip with Su Qing and Cheng Beilin. But seeing that Cheng Beilin had been frightened the night before, she hesitated, unsure if she should say anything, afraid of scaring her senseless.

"I won’t, I won’t!" Cheng Beilin shook her head vigorously. Su Qing also looked at Aunt Cuihua, eager to know what exactly was happening at the Pond.

"Let me tell you." Aunt Cuihua began to recount the situation at the Pond. "Today, the police sent people into the water. And guess what? They pulled a woman’s body out of that hole in the ice, just as expected. Oh my, you should have seen it. She was so swollen from being in the water, all bloated up so you couldn’t even recognize her face anymore. And there’s more! Her body was all tangled up in a thick mess of aquatic weeds. The scariest part was, she had several large stones tied to her. TSK TSK TSK, you can’t imagine how tragic it was. She looked young, too. I wonder whose daughter she was. What a sin!"

As she spoke, Aunt Cuihua sighed. She might be a gossip, but she had a good heart. Seeing such a tragic sight had naturally stirred her compassion.

"Ah, so they really pulled her out!" Cheng Beilin suddenly felt a tingling numbness spread over her body. She instinctively hugged Su Qing’s arm. Though she was scared, her curiosity got the better of her. "And then what? Did the police say anything?"

"No." Aunt Cuihua shook her head. "The police took the body away. Oh, you girls are lucky you weren’t there. A lot of people threw up afterward. It was truly a bit horrifying."

"Aunt Cuihua, you seem fine though." Cheng Beilin noted that Aunt Cuihua’s complexion was still good, not at all like someone who’d had a scare, and she couldn’t help but say it with admiration. Thank goodness she hadn’t run off to watch the commotion today. She figured if she had, she probably wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight. As it was, just listening to Aunt Cuihua’s story was sending chills down her spine.

"I’m fine. I was just a little unsettled at first, my heart was pounding a bit fast. But I’m much tougher than the others. My dad was a pig butcher. I saw a lot growing up, so I’m fine, I’m fine." Aunt Cuihua waved her hand, looking quite proud. Seeing that Su Qing also looked completely unfazed, she laughed and said, "If you ask me, Su Qing would probably be fine if she saw it, too."

Su Qing smiled. ’Of course I wouldn’t be scared. In my past life during the apocalypse, I saw countless zombies. Those zombies were far more terrifying—missing arms and legs, with their intestines spilling all over the ground. That was a common sight. It was a level of horror people in this era could never imagine.’

"Speaking of which, that girl was so pitiful. I wonder who murdered her and threw her in that hole in the ice. And because of that, Little Heizi ended up drowning in there too." Su Qing felt quite sorry for the drowned child. Who could have imagined that he would go out to play and end up losing his life?

"Ai, it’s true." Speaking of the drowned child, Aunt Cuihua was full of sighs. "I heard that Little Heizi’s mother had five daughters in a row before finally having him, her precious boy. She doted on him for eight or nine years, and then he was just... gone. Anyone would find that hard to bear. I heard that Heizi’s mother hasn’t been right in the head since she went back yesterday. She’s accusing everyone she sees of being her son’s murderer and demanding they pay with their life."

"Ah!" Cheng Beilin was shocked. "That’s so pitiful."

"Isn’t it?" Aunt Cuihua sighed. "Heizi’s family had people go to the Pond today too. They were begging the police to make sure they catch the murderer and get revenge for their child."

"I wonder when they’ll be able to catch the killer," Cheng Beilin said. "With all this ice and snow, I imagine it’s hard to collect evidence like footprints or fingerprints. It’ll probably be difficult to catch them."

"Huh? What are fingerprints?" Aunt Cuihua didn’t understand such things and looked at Cheng Beilin with a blank expression.