Ghost Breath - C27
The summer seemed to have ended early, especially at night, when the temperature dropped abruptly.
This was a seaside city with a five-kilometer-long seaside beach. Due to the free opening of beach and some recreational leisure projects, it can attract a lot of tourists.
It was late in the night and the people on the beach had gradually thinned out. The remaining people were all rushing to leave, but there were still three figures slowly walking along the beach.
Of the three, two were male and one was female. Of the two men, one was called Lee Xu, the other was called Xiao Yi, the woman was called Chen Jie.
Lee Xu looked very common. His skin was dark and a little fat. Xiao Yi was upright and upright, and looked quite refined with his glasses on. Chen Jie, on the other hand, looked a bit more outstanding than the two men. Her eyes were bright, her cheeks were rosy, her legs were long, and she had a refined aristocratic air about her.
The three of them had been classmates in university and had a deep friendship with each other. Xiao Yi and Chen Jie had just gotten married.
Today, when Lee Xu returned to his hometown, he immediately thought of Xiao Yi and Chen Jie, his two best friends, so he invited them to a restaurant by the sea.
After the meal, Lee Xu and Xiao Yi drank too much, so they decided to take a walk by the seaside to cool the ocean.
“You too, you actually didn’t even come when we got married, I really admire you.” From eating until now, Chen Jie had always been making fun of Lee Xu.
“Didn’t I say it already? I’ve been too busy doing business over the past few years, running all over the country. Otherwise, how would I dare to miss out on your wedding?” And I admit that I was wrong, so I’ll treat you guys to a meal as soon as I get off the plane.
“I don’t believe it.” Chen Jie laughed.
The sea breeze was so strong that it created ripples and they were walking along the shore, so they were occasionally hit by the water droplets.
“When I thought back to when we went to university, there were quite a few good classmates. In the end, only the three of us were still in contact with each other. Sigh …” Lee Xu suddenly felt deeply moved.
“Yeah, I wonder what the others are doing, and how they are doing.” Being reminded of the past, Chen Jie was also somewhat sad.
“Chen Jie, don’t you remember? I chased you first then. Xiao Yi helped me out, but in the end, Xiao Yi caught up with me instead. I was so angry at the time, I almost lost all friendship with Xiao Yi. ” Lee Xu said.
“There’s no other way. Some things are destined to happen.” Chen Jie said.
“Then are you still angry at me?” Xiao Yi asked Lee Xu jokingly.
“What’s there to be angry about? It happened so many years ago! I only think that you got lucky and stepped on some dog shit luck! ”
As they spoke, the three of them laughed.
After pausing for a moment, Lee Xu asked Chen Jie, “Speaking of which, Chen Jie, if… I mean, if there wasn’t Xiao Yi at that time, would you be with me? ”
Chen Jie blushed and replied: “You drank too much, what nonsense are you spouting?”
“I’m not spouting nonsense, I’m seriously asking you.”
“I don’t want to answer.” Chen Jie pretended to be angry and turned her head away.
Lee Xu laughed and waved his hands, signalling to them to stop this awkward conversation.
After chatting for a bit, Chen Jie saw that there was a convenience store not far away. She was thirsty, so she went to buy mineral water.
Taking the chance while Chen Jie was walking away, Xiao Yi suddenly asked Lee Xu: “You’re purposely not coming to my wedding, right?”
“What do you mean?” Lee Xu was startled.
“Alright, I understand. It’s been so many years, and you still haven’t put Chen Jie down at all. ”
Lee Xu’s heart was broken. He could only smile and shake his head, and did not reply.
“Let’s not talk about this anymore. “How is it? I heard that you’ve finished your business outside, and will be staying in the country peacefully, right?” Xiao Yi changed the topic.
“Yes, that’s why we can come out often and drink and chat. It’s not bad too.”
“That’s true. However, you should quickly find a girlfriend and solve your own problems first. ”
“Alright!” One day, ask Chen Jie to introduce her to me. ”
While chatting, Chen Jie returned and asked the two of them what they were laughing about. Xiao Yi said that she was talking about Lee Xu’s life.
The sky was getting darker, and there was almost no one on the beach. The three of them were finally ready to leave.
Just as they were making their way back, they suddenly realized that there was a sandpit under their feet, causing Lee Xu to almost fall inside.
If they looked closely, they would see that the sandpit was in the shape of a human being, a full-grown man.
They suspected that someone who had come to the beach today had left them here on purpose.
There were many situations like this on the beach. Many people liked to bury themselves in the sand, or draw pictures, or even write a few words. Imprinting human shapes and such wasn’t that rare.
However, the problem was that the human shaped sand pit was very neat and deep, unlike the simple outline of a person lying in the sand.
Xiao Yi also noticed this, so he asked with furrowed brows, “It’s so difficult to create this humanoid sandpit, how did he do it?”
“Yes, the sandpit is very deep. I feel that we can at least let two people down. If he were to dig a hole first and have someone lie down inside, it would be difficult for him to do so. The wind by the sea was especially strong, yet the pit was not disturbed by the wind, and its contours were especially neat. “It really is difficult …” Lee Xu also didn’t understand.
Xiao Yi squatted down and touched the edge of the human shaped sandpit with his hands.
What made him even more confused was that the edges of the sandpit were unusually smooth, and did not seem to be man-made at all.
“Let’s go, let’s not study anymore.” Chen Jie looked at her watch and urged the two on.
Xiao Yi nodded, but just as he was about to stand up, a suction force from the sandpit suddenly sucked Xiao Yi in.
Before Xiao Yi could react, he fell into the sandpit with his face towards the sandpit and his back facing Chen Jie. He screamed in shock and struggled desperately. However, sand continued to flow into the sandpit at an unbelievable speed!
Chen Jie and Lee Xu were dumbstruck, and did not react for a long time. When they wanted to extend their hands to pull Xiao Yi away, Xiao Yi was already completely submerged by the sand.
Chen Jie kept on shouting out Xiao Yi’s name, and together with Lee Xu, they dug into the sand, but miraculously, Xiao Yi had disappeared without a trace. In the end, they dug a sand pit that was even larger than before. Chen Jie even dug until her fingernails were broken, but she was still unable to find Xiao Yi.
Xiao Yi was engulfed by the sandpit and disappeared without a trace!
Chen Jie panicked to the extreme. She couldn’t believe it, but she also couldn’t accept it.
She kept on crying and dug more than ten sand pits on and on, but Xiao Yi had really gone missing, as if he would never be able to come back.
Lee Xu was more calm, he immediately called the police, they came quickly, but when the police heard about the strange happenings, they were all confused and did not know what to do.
In the end, because there was no evidence, the police did not agree with Chen Jie’s description of the incident, and could only leave it at that.
Chen Jie and Lee Xu also understood that no one would believe in this matter, and even if they did, they did not know how to resolve it.
But Chen Jie did not give up, and after three times of urging her to go home first, Chen Jie still called upon everyone who was willing to help, including her and Xiao Yi’s family. Thus, they continued to search the entire beach, even searching the surrounding area.
After two days and two nights of struggling, Chen Jie and the others had already searched through the entire area, but still could not find anything. Xiao Yi disappeared as if she had turned into air.
When Chen Jie fainted due to overwork, the search also came to an end.
For a period of time after that, Chen Jie’s life became dark without any daylight, and she remained muddleheaded throughout the day. Her family and friends often comforted her in various ways, but there were still no clues regarding Xiao Yi’s whereabouts.
Until one day, she received a call from Lee Xu.
“Chen Jie, have you paid attention to the latest news?” Lee Xu asked over the phone.
“What is it?”
“Did you know, other than Xiao Yi, there were two other people who went missing on the beach?”
“Huh?” Chen Jie’s heart trembled.
“That’s it. I think there’s something wrong with the beach. ”
“But what’s wrong with the beach?”
“Sigh …” “I don’t know, but I have a friend at the newspaper office. I’ll have him try to report this matter to see if he can attract more attention. Maybe someone will find a way. After all, it’s more people’s strength after all, don’t you think?”
“Alright.” Chen Jie replied indifferently.
She was very clear that it had been more than two weeks since the day Xiao Yi went missing. Even if she really found Xiao Yi, it would not be easy.
“Don’t give up, we will definitely still have a chance!” Lee Xu said at the end.
Lee Xu’s communication with his newspaper friends was very smooth, the newspaper immediately reported the incident where they went missing on the beach in the local evening newspaper, but only placed it in a small corner of the evening paper, which did not garner too much attention, nor did it involve more people as Lee Xu had expected.
The result was that during the following period of time, cases of people disappearing from the beach occurred frequently. The police often received various phone calls about people being devoured by the sandpit, people suddenly disappearing after being buried in the sand, and people talking about humanoid sandpits appearing on the beach.
As people continued to disappear, the beach incident finally broke out. The news media reported it almost daily, and the police did their best to investigate it. However, the person who disappeared was like Xiao Yi, who seemed to have disappeared from the world, leaving nothing behind.
Three months after Xiao Yi went missing, the police did an estimate and that was that there were more than a hundred people who had disappeared from the beach.
The beach was immediately sealed off. Everyone was terrified of the beach.
Soon, there was another photo that caused a sensation. It was a full view of the beach from above. The shocking thing was that the outline of the beach was actually humanoid, almost the same as the human shape of the sandpit!
Since the photo was revealed, the beach has been called a “humanoid beach” or simply a “cannibal beach” and no one has dared to approach it.
Chen Jie had also been paying attention to the follow-up to the incident on the beach. She understood that just like the others who had disappeared, Xiao Yi had been devoured by this human-shaped beach.
After the beach incident had been fermenting vigorously for a while, it had started to quiet down. Who knew that there would suddenly be new developments. It was in a seaside amusement park near the human-shaped beach, also called “Coastal Paradise”. One afternoon, when a few middle school students were playing around in the park, they suddenly heard someone talking in the air. Because the waterfront park was close to the beach, sand was often blown into the garden by the sea breeze. According to several middle school students, they were standing in the middle of the sandstorm, and the voices seemed to come from the sand.
When the news spread, the families who had been killed went to the beach park, hoping to find some new clues.
Finally, one of the fathers first heard his daughter crying in the drifting sand. His daughter had been swallowed up by the human-shaped beach not long ago.
Soon after, others also said that the sound of the sand was that of their loved ones or friends who had been killed. At that moment, the crowd came to a logical conclusion. The victims that had been devoured by the humanoid beach had all turned into grains of sand and were drifting along the shore. But because the beach was sealed off, they had to meet the victims at the Coastal Paradise.
Soon, Binhai Paradise became a place of fashion. The families and friends of the victims came here in droves just to listen to the voices of the victims, and even some unrelated people came to join in on the fun. For a time, Binhai Paradise was packed with people, causing a severe traffic jam.
Chen Jie was naturally one of them, but she didn’t hear Xiao Yi’s voice three times before she came here. It was only on the fourth time, when someone told her that there was an abandoned amusement park’s metal frame that had been built very high up, originally to build a Ferris Wheel. Afterwards, she somehow gave up on this project. Now, as long as she climbed up the metal frame, she would be able to easily hear the human voices in the sand.
Chen Jie decided to try it out.
Because it was very high, she was able to find the iron frame without any problems. However, when she stood before the iron frame, she still sucked in a breath of cold air. It was obvious that this iron frame wasn’t designed for humans to climb up. If they forced their way up, there would be a certain degree of danger.
But at this moment, Chen Jie only wanted to hear Xiao Yi’s voice, and did not care about all this.
Thus, she raised her sleeve and climbed up the metal frame bit by bit. During this period of time, she was surrounded by many people, some of whom even advised her to get down. Chen Jie looked down from time to time, and realized that she was getting further and further away from the ground.
Gritting her teeth and hardening her conviction, she continued to crawl. When her hands were so tired that she felt like she was about to dislocate them, she finally climbed to the top.
Although there were people who would occasionally climb here like her, the top of the iron frame was empty and rather deserted.
Chen Jie tried her best to hold onto a metal pole, and stood still in the wind. Countless grains of sand fluttered in the wind, and landed on her face.
After she calmed down for a moment, Chen Jie started to listen intently. Indeed, the voices in the sand were clearer than the voices below, as if there was a large group of people surrounding her who were whispering to each other.
Suddenly, a voice rang in her ears, causing all the blood in her body to freeze.
“Chen Jie… Chen Jie… ”
The voice was light and trembling.
Chen Jie was so excited that she almost couldn’t speak. After a long while, she finally squeezed out a sound from her throat.
“Is it Xiao Yi?”
The voice did not reply, it only repeated Chen Jie’s name, as if it was a patient that was slowly recovering from a heavy injury.
Chen Jie finally could not hold it in anymore and asked loudly: “Xiao Yi, where are you? “Hurry up and tell me.”
In the end, the voice still gently repeated the two words Chen Jie, mixing together with the other people’s voices and the wind. And sometimes far, sometimes close, truly like a grain of sand floating in the air.
Chen Jie could no longer suppress the grief in her heart, and instantly, hot tears filled her eyes. When she heard Xiao Yi repeating her name, she couldn’t help but think of the time they had spent together.
After crying for a while, when Chen Jie saw that the sky had darkened and was about to leave, she said softly, “Xiao Yi, I’m going now. I’ll come see you again next time.”
Xiao Yi, who had turned into sand, became silent. After a long while, he finally said to Chen Jie who was climbing down the metal frame:
“Chen Jie, I’m sorry … Chen Jie, I’m sorry … ”
From then on, Chen Jie would come to Binhai Paradise from time to time just like the other families of the victims.
At first, Chen Jie would only hear Xiao Yi’s voice after climbing onto the metal rack every time he got used to the environment. However, once Xiao Yi got used to it, he would be able to transmit his voice to the ground and he would no longer have to climb on the metal rack.
The two of them seemed to have a tacit understanding to hold “meetings” at a fixed time and place, although most of the time, Chen Jie would only hear Xiao Yi repeating her name.
In the blink of an eye, eight years passed. For the past eight years, Chen Jie had lived alone and she had not remarried.
Coastal Paradise was still there, but the number of people going was getting fewer and fewer. As time passed, the pain of the families of the victims had gradually been wiped away, and they accepted the fact that their loved ones had left as well. Most of the families had set up tombstones for the victims.
As a result of poor management, Binhai Park decided to demolish the land and sell it to a real estate agent as a backup for the development of the coastal area.
In other words, that particular way of communicating with the victims of the human-shaped beach may be at an end.
Perhaps it was time for them to truly bid each other farewell.
Another late summer evening, Chen Jie arrived at the Coastal Paradise by herself. She sat on a bench and looked at the sky.
At first glance, the park was completely empty. Even if it was the daytime, there wouldn’t be many people who would come here.
Suddenly, Chen Jie heard someone calling her name from behind.
She turned around and realized it was the Lee Xu she hadn’t seen for a long time.
Lee Xu was not the only person there, there was also Lee Xu’s wife and child who had just turned three.
In these eight years, Lee Xu’s career had been successful and his family had been complete.
Lee Xu and his wife naturally knew about Chen Jie.
Chen Jie was surprised that Lee Xu would appear here, because it had been a long time since Lee Xu last came to “visit” Xiao Yi.
“What a coincidence!” Chen Jie called out.
“Yeah, I heard this park is about to be demolished. I want to come take a look.” Lee Xu said with a smile.
“Then why did you come at this time?” Chen Jie was suspicious.
“I know you come by this time of week, so I came to see you.”
“Yes, it’s been a while.”
At this time, Lee Xu’s child, seeing that Lee Xu had sat down, started to argue with him to pull his father away. Lee Xu’s wife, upon seeing this, quickly carried his child away, allowing Lee Xu and Chen Jie to chat quietly.
After a moment of silence, Lee Xu asked Chen Jie:
“Can’t let it go?”
Chen Jie shook her head and did not answer.
The two of them chatted for a while. Seeing that it was getting late, Lee Xu was ready to go home. He asked Chen Jie if he wanted to go together, and Chen Jie said that she would sit for a while.
After Lee Xu left, Chen Jie quietly sat on the bench and looked up at the sky.
A strong wind was blowing, sending sand flying everywhere.
Chen Jie closed her eyes and allowed the strong wind to blow against her face. In the midst of the sand, she once again heard that familiar and familiar voice:
“Chen Jie, you can go. Chen Jie, you can go, don’t come back anymore … ”
Oh no!