Looking at the old woman's sinister face, neither of us knew what to do. She didn’t appear to be anything particularly terrifying, but there was an eerie vibe to her, something unsettling about her presence.

"I want it, give me a can!" Xiao Xing eagerly grabbed a can of Red Bull from the old woman, paying her immediately. However, he didn’t drink it right away—he just held it in his hand. When he opened it, the liquid inside was the same color as blood and smelled faintly of a metallic odor.

After selling the Red Bull, the old woman didn't linger; she quickly moved on to another vending machine where she began selling snacks.

At that machine, there was a burly man. The old woman spent the longest time with him, but the man seemed too busy playing a game to care. Not long after, the old woman left on her own.

The old woman was short and frail, almost as small as Xiao Xing. She was even shorter than a chair, which likely contributed to why she wasn’t easily noticed.

She didn’t leave the internet café but wandered among the customers, talking to some for only a few moments, while engaging others in long conversations.

I quietly approached the burly man and asked what the old woman had said to him.

At first, the burly man didn’t want to answer, but when I offered him 100 yuan, he reluctantly spoke.

“This crazy old woman told me she wanted my flesh—10,000 yuan per kilogram. I’d be a fool to even listen to her, she’s definitely escaped from a mental asylum, right?” the burly man rolled his eyes and said.

I was taken aback. What did that mean? What was the old woman planning to do?

The burly man explained that the old woman had told him he didn’t have to do anything—just nod his head, and she would give him a basket full of cash. She had offered him money without asking for anything else.

The burly man laughed and said that he wasn’t stupid enough to fall for that, and it was just too creepy.

I understood what he meant, but then it hit me. The first fat man who died—wasn't that what had happened to him?

He had been getting thinner and thinner, but his wealth had been growing rapidly. I had heard Old Zhang mention how strange it was, but now I finally understood.

The burly man refused, but that didn’t mean others wouldn’t accept. For someone who was fat and poor, the offer would certainly seem tempting.

It seemed like some kind of dark magic was at play. What could this old woman be involved with?

There were plenty of such occult practices: the Southern and Northern shamanism, the witchcraft from the north and south, the poisonous Gu from Miaojiang, and so on. But this old woman’s actions seemed more sinister.

I quickly went back to discuss with Xiao Xing, who immediately slapped his forehead when he heard the story.

“Little Boss, no need to ask anymore. This must be a Yellow Skin Fox!” Xiao Xing said.

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I frowned. A Yellow Skin Fox?

“Yeah, this creature is very cunning. It doesn’t dare to act openly, so it comes up with sneaky ways to get what it wants,” Xiao Xing continued. “In theory, this is a willing transaction. The Yellow Skin Fox isn’t directly harming anyone. It’s just playing a very clever game.”

When Xiao Xing explained it, it all clicked. I looked at the frail old woman again and suddenly had a chill run down my spine. I never would’ve guessed that she was a Yellow Skin Fox.

The people in the internet café probably had no idea that the person they were talking to wasn’t even human.

Just then, the old woman appeared behind us, her face shadowed and sinister. She smiled for a moment, but then quickly turned her expression cold. I noticed her face twitch, as though something inside it was moving.

A chill ran down my spine. Could it be that the old woman was a Yellow Skin Fox wearing a human face, walking around in disguise? She didn’t even have the ability to fully transform into a human.

Xiao Xing seemed to notice it too. He was more scared than I was, trembling as he looked at the old woman’s shifting face.

“We—we weren’t talking about anything,” Xiao Xing stammered, “Just, uh, discussing... discussing the... games!”

“Really?” The old woman smiled eerily. Her eyes turned a deep red, and her pupils began to flicker, shifting from distant to near in an unnatural way.

I stared into her eyes and suddenly felt dizzy. My head grew heavy, and the world around me started to spin.

The next moment, everything in front of me turned blurry, and I saw a colorful road appear in the distance. But the road was dark, and I faintly saw a woman in a white dress carrying a lantern walking ahead.

“Half of the night wears a human skin, buys flesh from the world. Anyone who blocks me will be my enemy. Souls return to the Yellow King.”

The woman in the white dress was only a silhouette, holding a lantern and walking ahead, chanting this eerie verse as she went.

As I heard the words, my body seemed to lose control. I began walking behind her, unable to call out to Su Qing, my mind clouded like I was drunk.

The road seemed endless. I walked behind the woman in the white dress for what felt like an eternity, not knowing how far or how long we had walked, until we reached a rusted iron gate.

Without thinking, my body moved on its own and pushed open the gate. It creaked, like something was scratching at my ears.

After entering the gate, the woman in white vanished, and everything around me turned green. I took a few steps forward, and suddenly—bam—I collided with something hard. The sharp pain in my body brought me back to my senses.

“Ouch, damn, that hurts,” Xiao Xing groaned, lying on the ground in pain. With his body, it wasn’t surprising that he was knocked over.

I quickly helped him up and asked if he was okay. He shook his head, saying he was fine.

I looked around and realized we were in a courtyard overgrown with weeds, tall and thick, hiding us from the outside. It looked familiar... Wasn’t this the place Old Zhang talked about, where he encountered the "ghost wall"?

But Old Zhang had said there was no abandoned house, no courtyard—just an old, decrepit temple.

What was going on? How had we ended up here? We had been in the internet café just moments ago!

Xiao Xing said we must have fallen under the Yellow Skin Fox’s spell and were now trapped in a hallucination, leading us to this cursed place.

Rumor had it that the Yellow Skin Fox’s eyes were extremely powerful. If you stared into them, you would be mesmerized. Since we had both looked into her eyes, we were now trapped.

We were in big trouble. Su Qing hadn’t come with us, and she was still asleep in the internet café.

What if the Yellow Skin Fox intended to kill us here?

Terrified, both Xiao Xing and I started running. But just like Old Zhang had said, we couldn’t escape the courtyard—the thick weeds acted like a wall, trapping us inside.

Eventually, we followed Old Zhang’s advice and tried closing our eyes as we walked, but it didn’t help. Instead, we stumbled upon a pile of skeletons in the weeds.

That was when it became clear: many had died here, and few had made it out alive.

I thought back to Old Zhang. How had he managed to escape this place? He must’ve been luckier than us. We had tried everything he did, but we still couldn’t break through the ghost wall.

Just then, I heard Su Qing’s voice calling out our names.

Xiao Xing and I were overjoyed and immediately ran towards the sound. But suddenly, a pair of hands grabbed us from behind. When we turned around, it was Su Qing.