Chapter 34: The Strange Incident at the Internet Café
A month later, I saw Cui Meixi again—but not at the tattoo shop. This time, it was on the street.
I had just bought some fruit with Xiao Zi Xing, and as we were walking back, a figure suddenly appeared in front of us. It was Cui Meixi.
She had become even more beautiful, so stunning that one could describe her as "a beauty that could topple a nation." Her face was perfect, flawless to the extreme. Any man who saw her would surely be captivated.
But she was no longer the Cui Meixi I remembered. It was as if she had become a completely different person. She smiled at me, but there was something eerie about her smile, something familiar too.
Wait, I suddenly remembered—this face, this smile, wasn’t it the same as the one on the ghost’s face in the "Face-skin" tattoo?
The thought sent a chill down my spine. I called out, "Cui Meixi!" but she didn’t react at all, as if that name meant nothing to her.
Cui Meixi was wearing a sexy halter dress with an exposed back. As she turned to walk away, I saw the tattoo on her back—the "Face-skin" tattoo I had given her.
Xiao Zi Xing tried to brush it off, suggesting that maybe I had mistaken her for someone else. But when I saw the tattoo on her back, I knew for certain that it was her, Cui Meixi—though her face had changed. Her body, however, was exactly the same as I remembered. I could recognize it instantly.
As I looked more closely at the tattoo on her back, I felt my scalp tingle.
The tattoo had fully fused with her skin, like blood vessels running through her back. And the face on the ghostly hand of the tattoo had now changed to Cui Meixi's ugly face.
Could it be… that Cui Meixi had already…?
Xiao Zi Xing and I stared at her back, unsure of what to do.
Was this still Cui Meixi, or had she already turned into the ghost from the tattoo?
Just then, Cui Meixi turned around and said to me, "Thank you. Without you, I wouldn’t have come out. Also, my new name is Lin Xiaowei."
Lin Xiaowei? That was the name of the ghost in the "Face-skin" story. Had she really replaced Cui Meixi?
After saying this, Cui Meixi turned and walked away. At that moment, I suddenly heard a faint cry for help—it sounded like the voice of the face in the tattoo.
"Master Tang, help me, help me…"
The voice grew weaker and weaker, until it finally stopped when Cui Meixi disappeared from sight.
We rushed to catch up with her, but she was gone. No matter how much we searched the street, we couldn’t find her.
From that day on, I never saw or heard from Cui Meixi again. I wasn’t sure if she was playing some sort of trick on me, or if her body had truly been taken over by the ghost from the tattoo.
The "Face-skin" tattoo was incredibly sinister. I had only performed it once, and after that, countless women came to me asking for the same tattoo. But I turned them all away.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
The desire for beauty is natural, but sometimes, when it’s pushed too far, greed takes over. Even beauty can be consumed by it.
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Back to the present: just after Cui Meixi thanked me and left, another person arrived.
It was a man named Zhang, the owner of an internet café. He asked us to call him "Old Zhang."
Old Zhang had heard about our ghost tattoos through a group. Recently, Xiao Zi Xing had been doing quite well with the promotions—posting about it in forums, groups, social media, and various online stores. He had also started reaching out to old clients, and business was slowly picking up.
As soon as Old Zhang entered, he asked me, "Can tattoos ward off evil spirits?" He was an outsider, unfamiliar with this kind of thing. He had tried monks and priests before but had no luck, so he had come to us as a last resort, hoping we could help.
I reassured him, "Don’t worry, our ghost tattoos are top-notch. They’re 100% real and effective. We don’t deceive anyone."
I was confident in our "Yang" tattoos, which worked wonders for exorcism and had never caused problems.
I told Old Zhang to explain his situation, and I would help him choose the right tattoo.
Old Zhang began to tell me something so bizarre that I could hardly believe it. The severity of what he described seemed more like a nightmare than real life.
His internet café had been doing well, with a steady stream of customers. There had never been any problems—until about a month ago, when a strange old woman started selling snacks at the front of the café.
The front desk already had a designated area for selling snacks and other items, so having someone set up a stall was directly competing for business. The staff immediately asked the woman to leave. However, this old woman was odd—she frequently appeared late at night and would wander among the machines like a ghost. As soon as the staff came to check on her, she would disappear. When they weren’t paying attention, she would reappear.
In the end, they didn’t know what to do. The woman was old, and they didn’t want to make a scene. If they forced her out, she might collapse on the ground, and they’d have to deal with the consequences. It was a minor issue, and they didn’t want to call the police over something so small. So the staff ended up just looking the other way, since not many people were buying from her.
Things were quiet for a while, but recently, the staff noticed something strange. One of the regulars, a fat man, had started to lose weight rapidly.
This wasn’t normal weight loss. The man, who used to weigh around 200 pounds, had shrunk down to about 80 pounds in just a month. His bones were visibly sticking out, and he looked sickly—pale, with dark circles around his eyes. He didn’t seem healthy at all.
Old Zhang was curious. "A man who weighed 200 pounds, losing 120 pounds in a month? That’s impossible," he said. He decided to check the security footage.
It turned out, just as the staff had said, that the man’s transformation was clear.
At first, he had been a regular who didn’t spend much. He would come in, play games all night, but would never buy a drink or snack. He was dressed poorly, smoked cheap cigarettes, and looked like he was struggling financially.
But soon, things started to change. He appeared wealthier—wearing designer clothes, smoking expensive cigarettes, and casually ordering things at the café. He even brought a few women with him to the café and would spend hours with them.
The most obvious change, however, was his rapid weight loss. In just a month, he had become skin and bones, but he still came to the café to play games.
Old Zhang found this increasingly strange. He started reviewing all the footage of the man’s visits.
Eventually, he noticed something even stranger. The man seemed to be conversing with the old woman, the one who sold snacks. Every night at around 3 AM, she would appear beside him. The man didn’t buy anything, but the two of them would talk, and the man’s mood seemed to change. As he grew thinner, he became more and more agitated, even showing signs of frustration.
On the final day of the footage, the man was barely recognizable. His body had become like a skeleton, and when the old woman appeared, he dropped to his knees, seemingly begging her for something. But she ignored him and kicked him to the ground.
After watching the footage, Old Zhang was puzzled. But the next day, the man returned—but he was no longer the man they knew. He had become a living skeleton, all his flesh had wasted away, leaving only bone.
The man sat down at a computer but didn’t seem interested in playing games. He was glancing around, seemingly waiting for someone. Old Zhang knew who he was waiting for—but the old woman didn’t show up.
At 7 AM, Old Zhang suddenly heard a painful scream. He rushed to see what happened, only to find the man collapsed on the ground. Old Zhang immediately rushed him to the hospital, but it was too late—the man was dead.