(Time: Early morning of the fourth day of departure)

  The cruel dawn finally arrived in its usual cold and unyielding way. When the first extremely weak ray of gray light, like milk diluted countless times, struggled to penetrate the thick fog and the hole in the roof and quietly slipped into this dead and abandoned house, I almost woke up from a numb state on the verge of collapse.

  It's not accurate to say I woke up. I haven't closed my eyes since the terrifying "ghost pressing on me" last night. In the second half of the night, I was like a statue frozen by fear, holding tightly to the stick that was better than nothing, staring at the endless darkness around me with bloodshot eyes, letting fear, fatigue and coldness wash over my fragile nerves like a tide.

  My body was as stiff as a cold stone, and every joint was sore. The tension and fear of the whole night had exhausted my last bit of strength. My head was splitting, my eyes were black, and my stomach was empty but I had no appetite. I only felt a sickening nausea.

  But what is more torturous than the physical pain is the mental confusion and doubt.

  Was the experience last night true or false?

  At this moment, I felt as if a strong hand was tightly grasping my neck. The suffocating horror, the clear, cold and smooth touch like snake scales, and. the huge white outline that I could vaguely see hovering above me in the dim vision. Was it really just an extremely realistic nightmare? Was it a mental hallucination woven together by the fear and fatigue of the past few days and the psychological suggestion of the "White Snake Granny" legend?

  How I wish it were so!

  But. it felt so real! Especially the cold and slippery touch. Even now when I think back on it, I can still feel that creepy sliding on my cheeks!

  I frantically, almost neurotically, checked my body and my surroundings again.

  I checked my cheek carefully and found no marks, no redness, no scratches, not even the slightest bit of unusual coolness.

  I checked the tent carefully inside and out. The zipper was intact. There was no unusual slime or scales on the tent fabric (although I had no idea if snake scales would shed). There was no sign of any large object on the ground that had been there or moved.

  Everything.seemed so normal. So normal.it was despairing.

  Could it be.Is it really that I am overthinking? Is it really that there is something wrong with my mind?

  A deep self-doubt came over me. Perhaps the scariest thing about this village is not the external sounds or phenomena, but its ability to silently distort your perception, destroy your sanity, and make you struggle on the border between reality and illusion, and eventually be swallowed by fear itself?

  I sat down dejectedly, feeling that all the strength in my body had been drained away. The scenery in front of me seemed to be shaking slightly, and there seemed to be a buzzing sound in my ears.

  No! Li Xue! You can't just collapse like this! You must find evidence! Prove what happened last night! Or. prove that it was just a nightmare!

  Evidence… Evidence…

  My eyes once again fell on the recorder that I had dropped once but was still working tenaciously.

  That’s right! Recording!

  Last night.when I felt like I was in a state of "ghost pressing on me", the recorder.should have still been working!

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Even though I couldn't make any sound or move at the time, if. if there really was "something" that entered the tent, or made any special sound. maybe the recorder could capture it?!

  This thought was like a shot of adrenaline injected into my body! I almost crawled over using my hands and feet, and picked up the cold recorder with trembling hands.

  I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm down, carefully recalling the approximate time when I fell into that state of terror last night. It should be around. two or three in the morning?

  I opened the recording file list, found last night's recording, and dragged the timeline to the second half of the night. Then, I put on my headphones again, turned up the volume, held my breath, and began to listen carefully, second by second.

  The first thing that came through the headphones was the "familiar" horrific background sounds of Fengmen Village at night - low sobs, monotonous chanting, tiny scratching sounds. They were like an invisible net, covering everything.

  Then, I heard my own breathing gradually become steady and then heavy. Obviously, my consciousness had already begun to sink into the abyss of exhaustion.

  I stared nervously at the time display on the recorder screen and waited patiently.

  Time passed by minute by minute. Apart from the constant background noise and my breathing, it seemed. there was no special sound?

  Is it really a dream?

  Just when I felt a little disappointed and even began to doubt my mental state more deeply.

  Sudden!

  From the earphones, there was an extremely faint but unusually clear. "hissing" sound?!

  The sound was very light and low, not like the sound of wind or the noise of electricity. It had a special texture, cold, slippery, and full of biological feeling! Like. like the sound of scales rubbing against the ground when some large reptile crawled slowly close to the ground?!

  My pupils suddenly contracted! All the blood in my body seemed to freeze in an instant!

  “Hiss…hiss…”

  The sound continued, intermittently, sometimes strong and sometimes weak, as if that "thing" was wandering around my tent!

  I held my breath, turned up the volume to the maximum and listened carefully to the source and changes of the sound.

  The sound seemed to be. getting closer?! As if. as if it had already come to my tent?! Even. coming inside?!

  Just when I was so nervous that I almost suffocated, the "hissing" sound.suddenly stopped.

  What followed was a creepy, several-minute-long silence? No, not complete silence! Amidst the background noise, I seemed to hear an extremely faint, suppressed sound of airflow, like the heavy breathing of a giant?! It seemed. right above my head?!

  The terrifying association instantly hit me! It was during this period of time! It was during this period of time that I felt the suffocating pressure and the cold touch!

  Could it be. Could it be that the recorder really recorded the voice of that "White Snake Grandma"?!

  I continued to listen. The heavy breathing continued for a while, and then. another faint "hissing" sound was heard. This time, the sound seemed to be. fading away?

  Finally, the hissing sound completely disappeared. All that was left in the headphones was the monotonous and terrifying background noise, and. my own violent coughing and heavy breathing - that was the sound after I broke free from the "ghost pressing on me" state!

  I suddenly pulled off my headphones, my body was shaking violently and my face was pale.

  Not a dream!

  It’s definitely not a dream!!

  The recorder clearly recorded the abnormal "hissing" sound! That cold, slippery, biological sound was definitely not something that could be produced by a natural environment or my auditory hallucination!

  Last night.something really came! A huge, perhaps snake-like thing, quietly approached my tent and may have even entered it, hovering above me and touching my cheek with its cold scales!

  A complex mixture of extreme fear and a strange sense of "relief" hit me. The fear was that the terrifying existence was so real and it had already set its sights on me. The relief was that. I could finally be sure that my senses had not deceived me, and my mind. might not have been completely insane.

  But this sense of relief was short-lived, and was replaced by even deeper fear and confusion.

  That "thing". is it really the "Grandma White Snake"? Why did it come to me? Is it just playing with me? Or. is it a warning? Or. has it already regarded me as its prey?

  I looked at the small recorder again. It recorded the sound faithfully but could not tell me the answer.

  I saved this horrifying recording and marked it as important. This is the strongest evidence I have ever obtained to prove the existence of supernatural forces here. But this evidence is also like a double-edged sword, proving the reality of the horror and pushing me into a more dangerous abyss.

  I leaned against the wall tiredly, looking out the window at the still gray sky and rolling fog.

  Instead of resolving the doubts, they became more numerous.

  The terrifying true face is still hidden deep in the fog.

  And where should I, a tiny seeker, go?