ocean-life Chapter 385 You...be careful!
Chapter 385 You...be careful!
As everyone looked ahead, they saw a hunched old woman slowly walking up the stone steps toward the temple.
She was wearing a long, coarse gray-black robe, and her sparse, disheveled white hair fell over her shoulders.
His steps were slow and heavy, each one trembling as if he might collapse at any moment.
But what's most unsettling is her face.
His face was deeply lined with wrinkles, like a dried-up, cracked riverbed.
His eyes were so red and swollen that he could barely open them, and his eyelids were everted, revealing blood-red mucous membranes, clearly the result of years of crying.
Tears kept seeping from her swollen eyes, trickling down her wrinkles.
Occasionally, a suppressed sob would escape from her throat, like a rusty piece of iron scraping against glass, so jarring it sent chills down one's spine.
"Is this...the weeping woman number 24?" someone in the crowd asked in a trembling voice.
The Crying Woman—
[Type of Karmic Obstacle: Karma of Grief and Suffering]
[Description of Karmic Obstacle: Losing her son in life, she was overcome with grief and wept day and night until her death. After death, she transformed into a weeping woman, whose cries trigger the deepest sorrowful memories in the hearts of those who guide her on pilgrimages, causing them to break down.]
The group that drew the "crying woman" card consisted of three chosen ones from South America.
The team leader was a dark-skinned young man named Carlos, from Basil.
He was once a football player in the slums; he was physically strong and quick-witted.
The other two were an Argentine youth named Diego, tall and thin with a melancholy expression.
A Colombian girl named Lucia, in her early twenties, with her long hair tied in a ponytail, was deathly pale and her hands were clenched into fists.
Carlos took a deep breath and lowered his voice to his two teammates:
"I'll lead the way, Diego on the left, and Lucia on the right. Remember, never look her in the eye for more than three seconds."
"If you feel cold, nauseous, or experience auditory hallucinations, immediately recite the mantra silently."
"Also, stay calm."
Diego nodded silently without saying a word.
Lucia bit her lip and responded heavily, "Mmm."
"Walk."
Carlos took the first step.
The three stepped forward and bowed in unison.
Carlos tried to soften his voice:
"Respected pilgrim, we are your guides. Please follow us around the temple three times to cleanse your karmic obstacles."
The weeping woman slowly raised her eyes and looked at the three of them.
In that brief moment of eye contact, the three of them felt as if they had fallen into an abyss of tears—
The grief that surged in from all directions flooded my mouth and nose like a tidal wave, and I even forgot how to breathe.
They hurriedly looked away, no longer daring to meet those eyes.
The weeping woman nodded gently, her voice hoarse and dry:
Thank you for your trouble.
Carlos, Diego, and Lucia forced themselves to calm down and raised their hands in a "please" gesture.
The old woman, her body hunched over, followed slowly and unsteadily.
Just then, another figure slowly emerged from below the stone steps.
The newcomer was dressed in a pale white dress, with long, straight, jet-black hair and a slender figure, giving her a somewhat sickly beauty at first glance.
But when she raised her head, everyone's breath caught in their throats—
Her mouth was abnormally split open to both sides, all the way to her ears, revealing her white teeth and dark red gums.
His face was as white as paper, and his eyes were as black as a dry well.
With each step she took, her long hair swayed gently, and the slit in her hair twitched slightly.
Without a doubt, this is the 19th Kuchisake-onna.
The people in charge of her were Dave, Park Ji-won, and Sergei.
The three people who had just been forcibly hypnotizing themselves now turned deathly pale.
Sergei's Adam's apple bobbed violently, his voice trembling: "This...this is just too much of a sanity drain..."
Park Ji-won's face turned pale, but she was still trying to cheer herself up:
"Don't panic... Just think of it as cosplay. She's definitely a great beauty, it's just that her costume is a bit exaggerated..."
Dave's lips twitched uncontrollably, and he had only one thought in his mind—
How can I sincerely and genuinely praise her beauty when she looks like this?
........................
Studio:
"Dave's team is in serious trouble this round!"
"Can't even utter a single word of praise, let alone genuine compliment? That would be the death of me!"
"You were just saying you wanted to be my wife, now you're probably scared out of your wits!"
Slit-Mouthed Woman: Do you think I'm beautiful? Dave: Beautiful, absolutely beautiful, breathtakingly beautiful. Slit-Mouthed Woman: Then why are you looking like you've seen a ghost?!
"Stop talking upstairs, I'm starting to suffocate!"
........................
The slit-mouthed woman slowly walked up a dozen or so steps.
Dave and his two companions exchanged glances, took a deep breath, and stepped forward to bow.
"Respected pilgrim, we are your guides. Please follow us around the temple three times to cleanse your karmic obstacles."
The Slit-Mouthed Woman looked up at the three of them, a smirk playing on her lips, yet she deliberately adopted a seductive posture, and said softly:
Thank you.
After saying that, she swayed her waist and followed the three of them, starting to walk around the wall.
Before the Slit-Mouthed Woman had gone far, another figure slowly walked up from below the stone steps.
It was Pilgrim Number 6—the Silent Sister.
She was dressed in a black nun's habit, with a nun's hat covering most of her face, and her lips were pressed into a straight line without any curve.
Her hair was completely hidden inside the hat, with only a few dry, yellowish strands peeking out from the brim and sticking to her smooth forehead.
His eyes hung limply in front of his chest, his long eyelashes obscuring the emotions in them, making it impossible to discern joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness. A deathly stillness enveloped his entire being.
The three people who were responsible for guiding her were Lin Feng, Vassim, and Evelyn.
The three men, their expressions calm, stepped forward in unison and bowed slightly.
"Respected pilgrim, we are your guides. We will accompany you around the temple three times to cleanse your karmic obstacles. Please follow us."
The silent nun kept her eyes downcast, her lips tightly pressed together, and she didn't even lift her eyelids.
As if he had long been accustomed to silence, he was indifferent to everything around him.
Lin Feng and his two companions remained calm and patiently waited for a moment, maintaining their bowed posture.
Seeing that she did not make any move, Lin Feng slowly straightened up and gestured for her to proceed.
Surprisingly, the moment the three turned around, the Silent Sister moved.
She kept her eyes down, taking the exact same steps as before, and silently followed.
As Lin Feng and his two companions, accompanied by the Silent Nun, brushed past Xia Ning, her usually cold expression faltered for a moment before she finally couldn't resist whispering a word of advice:
"You...be careful."
Upon hearing this, Lin Feng paused slightly, turned around, and looked at Xia Ning.
As expected of the first wife, memories can be erased, but instincts etched into one's bones cannot be altered.
That concern is a physical reaction that precedes conscious thought.
A ripple of emotion stirred in Lin Feng's heart, his gaze falling on a wisp of hair near Xia Ning's temple.
He suddenly stepped forward, raised his hand, and carefully smoothed it out, his movements intimate and natural.
He then bowed slightly and said, "Thank you for your concern, Guide. I will be careful."
This scene came too suddenly and was too unexpected.
Xia Ning froze on the spot, her pupils dilated slightly, and the coldness on her face faded, replaced by a look of bewilderment and astonishment.
She should be furious and slap the other person across the face to set the record straight.
But at this moment, her body seemed to be frozen, and a warm feeling spread from the hair that Lin Feng had touched to her whole body.
Xia Ning coughed lightly and turned her face away: "Alright... go on, don't delay the important matter."
[Ding, Xia Ning's favorability towards the host increases by 5]
Current favorability rating: 51/100