In the middle of the night, I suddenly felt someone touching my foot. When I opened my eyes, I saw a woman dressed in bright red sitting on the footboard of my bed. She was bent over, fiddling with something.
Terrified, I almost screamed. I clung tightly to my blanket, trying to retreat under the covers, but in my panic, I tugged the blanket upward, leaving both my feet exposed. The woman stepped on the edge of the blanket and slowly lifted her head to look at me.
Her hair parted to the sides, revealing a face drenched in blood.
She had no skin.
Her eyes dangled in their sockets like loose glass marbles, rolling wildly.
I was so frightened that I couldn't even scream. It was like I was paralyzed—unable to move, unable to shout. I could only watch in horror as the woman climbed onto my bed and stopped face-to-face with me.
Her gaze roamed across my face, as if she were studying something that used to belong to her, or perhaps contemplating something sinister.
After what felt like an eternity, the woman reached out, cupped my face in her hands, and kissed my lips.
A cold, metallic, blood-like liquid poured into my mouth and down my throat.
I wanted to vomit but couldn't. My body shivered uncontrollably from the freezing sensation.
The woman jumped off the bed, bent down, and picked up something from the floor. Holding it in her hand, she stood beside the bed.
I instinctively turned my head to look—and saw her gripping an object about my size, like a stuffed doll.
Realizing I was watching, she slowly turned around, lifting the object into the air.
It was a human skin stuffed with dry grass.
Despite the withered straw poking out of its facial orifices, I could clearly see that the skin's features were almost identical to mine.
The woman smiled at me, grabbed my hand, and bit my fingertip, drawing blood. Then she pressed my bleeding finger toward the forehead of the human skin.
Before my finger could touch the skin, I heard my grandpa shout, "Stop!"
The woman didn't even glance at him. She smirked coldly and forced my finger onto the human skin's forehead.
By then, I was trembling from the icy liquid in my veins, too weak and terrified to comprehend what was happening.
The woman carried the human skin and turned to leave. My grandpa tried to stop her, but she easily shoved him aside. By the time he managed to get back up, the woman had already opened the door and walked out.
My grandpa chased after her with all his might, but he was gone for most of the night. When he finally returned, he didn't even say a word to me; he rushed straight into the ancestral hall to light incense for the ancestral master. He stayed inside for a long time before stumbling out, looking utterly defeated.
I cautiously asked, "Grandpa, what's wrong?"
At that moment, he couldn't hold it in any longer and hugged me, sobbing uncontrollably.
I wasn't sure if it was because I had been so terrified earlier or if my grandpa's emotions had gotten to me, but I ended up crying along with him.
The two of us wept together for quite some time before my grandpa gradually calmed down.
When I asked him again, he hesitated before finally stammering out, "Don't be scared, child. Grandpa's here—Grandpa's here! As long as I have a single breath left in me, I won't let that fox harm you."
After speaking for a while, he seemed to gather his thoughts and said through gritted teeth, "That fox is ruthless. She used your blood to mark your human skin. From now on, that skin will haunt you like a ghost. You want your skin back, but she wants her body just as much!"
"That fox plans to torment you slowly. Even if you don't get scared to death by that skin, it will keep causing trouble for you. Sooner or later, it'll push you to your doom."
Hearing my grandpa's explanation sent shivers down my spine. Although it was just the two of us in the room, I felt as if a pair of eyes were watching me from behind.
I cautiously turned my head, but all I could see through the window was the empty courtyard outside. When I turned back, the eerie feeling of being watched still didn't go away.
My grandpa noticed me glancing around and immediately pulled out his knife. "Child, did you see something?"
I shook my head nervously. "No… I just feel like someone's there, but I can't see anything."
He hurried over to close the curtains. "Listen to me, child. Earlier, when I couldn't catch up to that woman, I went to beg our ancestral master to save your life."
"The ancestral master told me that the fox has already latched onto you. We need to find a way to save ourselves!"
The ancestral master again? For some reason, I couldn't shake the feeling that my grandpa's so-called ancestral master wasn't very reliable.
Oblivious to my thoughts, my grandpa continued, "The ancestral master said that if you want to break free from the fox, you have to retrieve your own skin and remove her skin. To suppress your own skin, we need to work with the five elements."
"Human skin fears metal and dreads fire. You can't go anywhere with fire or metal. We'll have to find a way to lure it toward wood, earth, and water. That's the only way to catch that skin."
We've caught the human skin, and the ancestor will have a way to exchange your skin back." "You should rest well tonight. At dawn, I'll go buy supplies, and tomorrow night we'll catch the human skin." My grandfather told me to rest well, but I ended up having nightmares all night. Soon, I dreamt of a woman covered in blood, pulling a human skin dressed in my clothes but stuffed with straw, waving at me and urging me to come over quickly. Then, I dreamt of that human skin standing in front of me, its mouth moving as if it were talking to me. But I could only see its mouth moving and had no idea what it was saying. After that, I dreamt of the ancestor's tablet that my grandfather worshipped, swaying back and forth on the offering table, with a pitch-black figure sitting behind it, staring at me. I couldn't see what the figure looked like, but I noticed it had a pair of cold, snake-like eyes. The moment I saw that gaze, I felt a chill run down my spine. I woke up in fright four or five times throughout the night, tossing and turning until dawn, and only managed to sleep a little before waking up to find my grandfather had already left. As I ate the breakfast my grandfather had prepared for me, I reflected on the events of the past few days. My grandfather said he would protect me, but at his age, he couldn't keep up, and he was somewhat naive. Aside from passing on the ancestor's words, he had no ability to subdue demons or catch ghosts; we could only gamble our lives based on the ancestor's teachings. I was genuinely afraid of that human skin. Asking a vengeful spirit for help—let's not even mention that the spirit has no ties to me; why would it help me? Just the thought of that spirit standing in front of me made me question whether I would even dare to speak to it. If I had to deal with those matters, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to handle it. But. The more one fears something, the more it tends to come true!聊天GPT-4o mini"We've caught the human skin, and the ancestor will have a way to exchange your skin back." "You should rest well tonight. At dawn, I'll go buy supplies, and tomorrow night we'll catch the human skin." My grandfather told me to rest well, but I ended up having nightmares all night. Soon, I dreamt of a woman covered in blood, pulling a human skin dressed in my clothes but stuffed with straw, waving at me and urging me to come over quickly. Then, I dreamt of that human skin standing in front of me, its mouth moving as if it were talking to me. But I could only see its mouth moving and had no idea what it was saying. Next, I dreamt of the ancestor's tablet that my grandfather worshipped, swaying back and forth on the offering table, and behind the tablet, there seemed to be a dark figure staring at me. I couldn't see what it looked like, but I noticed it had a pair of cold, snake-like eyes. The moment I saw that gaze, I felt a chill run down my spine. I was startled awake four or five times throughout the night, tossing and turning until dawn, and only managed to sleep a little before waking up to find my grandfather had already left. As I ate the breakfast my grandfather had prepared for me, I reflected on the events of the past few days. My grandfather said he would protect me, but at his age, he couldn't keep up, and he was somewhat naive. Aside from passing on the ancestor's words, he had no ability to subdue demons or catch ghosts; we could only gamble our lives based on the ancestor's teachings. I was genuinely afraid of that human skin. Asking a vengeful spirit for help—let's not even mention that the spirit has no ties to me; why would it help? Just the thought of a vengeful spirit standing in front of me made me question whether I would even dare to speak to it. If I had to deal with those matters, I feared I wouldn't be able to handle it. But. The more one fears something, the more it tends to come true!