175: Chapter 175 Sadako Yamamura

It was an extremely pale yet exquisitely delicate face.

There was no sign of the festering or gloominess of being soaked in well water common in horror movies; instead, her features possessed a gender-transcending, pitifully cold beauty.

Her iconic long black hair cascaded over her shoulders like a waterfall, and her eyes held a heartbreaking melancholy.

Sadako Yamamura (Yukie Nakama)

Qin Ming's hand holding the water cup suddenly paused.

If it were anyone else, they might only sigh in their heart, "This girl is really beautiful."

But in Qin Ming's mind, another complete flow of information instantly exploded:

This was the prequel to "The Ring," or perhaps the original Sadako Yamamura from "Sadako 3D" before she was thrown into the dry well.

Now, she should have just arrived in Tokyo from her hometown on Izu Oshima, carrying her humble dreams and preparing to join the theatrical troupe named "Flying."

Qin Ming narrowed his eyes. "Sadako Yamamura?"

"Ah... I, did I scare you guys?" Sadako's voice trembled; she seemed extremely uncomfortable with such direct eye contact.

Qin Ming quickly retracted his probing, aggressive gaze, replaced it with an innocent smile, and tilted his head to point at the exaggerated pile of luggage at her feet. "No, I just think your name sounds very nice. With all these bags, are you moving?"

Hearing Qin Ming's compliment, an extremely faint blush appeared on Sadako's pale face.

This kind of social courtesy seemed to be something she hadn't experienced in a long time.

In her hometown, on that island full of gossip and prejudice, no one thought her name was nice; everyone just called her a "monster from the sea" behind her back.

Under the gaze of Robert, a highly approachable and "sweet-but-clueless" father figure, and Qin Ming, who looked like a harmless little boy, she finally let down her guard a bit.

"I... just graduated from high school," Sadako said softly, holding the water cup. "I wanted to leave my hometown and come to Tokyo to find a job. I saw that the 'Flying Theater Troupe' here is recruiting new members. I originally planned to find a cheap hotel to stay in tonight and go for an audition first thing tomorrow morning."

As she spoke, she looked out at the pitch-black night outside the window with a somewhat dim gaze.

The confrontation with those three thugs just now made her realize that this big city wasn't as friendly as she had imagined.

Hearing this, Robert's fatherly sympathy immediately surged. "Coming to the big city to make a living? How inspiring! To leave home all by yourself at this age really takes a lot of courage."

Qin Ming sat to the side, his mind racing with calculations.

The current Sadako was not yet that evil spirit who crawled out of the television, but a person with peerless talent as a healing and precognitive esper.

If the plot were allowed to proceed, she would join that troupe, be targeted by jealous people, beaten to death, and then injected with the smallpox virus and thrown into a dry well by her mad father, Heihachiro Ikuma.

Instead of letting her walk that old path into the abyss, why not...

"Robert," Qin Ming suddenly spoke.

"What's wrong, Ming?" Robert turned his head.

"Look at Sister Sadako now; she has nowhere to stay. Besides, we just moved here. You have to go to the branch office every day for meetings and handovers, and Emma and I need someone to look after us at home."

Qin Ming proposed seriously, "How about we ask Sister Sadako to stay and be our nanny? We have plenty of guest rooms anyway. This way, she'll not only have a place to stay but also a steady income to support her dreams."

Robert was stunned for a moment, then his eyes suddenly lit up. "That's right! That's a genius idea! Miss Sadako, what do you think? I can pay you a generous salary, and the work is very simple—just help with some light cleaning and spend time with these two children when you're free."

Sadako was stunned.

She looked at these two foreigners, especially the boy named Qin Ming.

For some reason, sitting next to Qin Ming, the irritability she felt year-round due to psychic overload actually vanished.

A faint aura emanated from Qin Ming, like a heater in winter, giving her heart an unprecedented sense of comfort.

"Is... is this really okay?" Sadako was somewhat in disbelief.

"Of course. If you agree, you can move your luggage to the guest room on the second floor right now," Qin Ming said with a smile. "The bedding there was just changed this afternoon. Sister Sadako doesn't have a place to stay yet, right? Staying in a home is much safer than those messy hotels outside."

Sadako looked at Qin Ming; in that instant, she seemed to see a compassion and tolerance in his eyes that surpassed his age.

To the current Sadako, this "warmth" was like the only piece of driftwood a drowning person could grab.

She nodded very slightly. "If you don't mind... I, I'm willing."

Late at night.

After settling Sadako in, Qin Ming lay on his bed, the moonlight spilling through the gaps in the curtains onto the wooden floor.

Emma seemed to be sleeping soundly in the room next door.

But Qin Ming knew that in this house, there would never be absolute peace.

In a daze, Qin Ming felt the temperature in the room drop abruptly.

That cold wasn't the chill of a natural winter wind, but a bone-chilling dampness that smelled of moist earth.

"Uh... uh..."

A faint bubbling sound rose from the bedside.

Qin Ming snapped his eyes open.

Standing right by his bedside was a small, thin figure.

It was a little girl about five or six years old, wearing a long white dress.

Little Sadako.

To be precise, it was the suppressed evil consciousness within Sadako that had quietly slipped out at midnight.

She seemed full of hostility toward Qin Ming, the "intruder" possessing Holy Light Power.

As she approached, a viscous black liquid began to seep from the ceiling, looking like rotting blood.

Qin Ming sighed. "Larry," he called out softly, rolling over.

The next second.

The screen of the tablet on Qin Ming's nightstand lit up silently.

In that ghastly blue screen light, a pale, twisted figure—Larry—crawled out of the screen in an extremely bizarre posture.

Little Sadako was stunned.

She had probably never seen a supernatural creature on the same frequency as her, one who was even more of a "shut-in."

"Play with her for a while," Qin Ming muttered softly, closing his eyes. "As long as you don't tear down the ceiling, you can play as long as you want. Remember to play hide-and-seek."

Larry tilted his head as if trying to understand his master's command.

Then, his unnaturally long arms suddenly reached toward Little Sadako. Just as she was about to unleash her psychokinesis in a rage, Larry suddenly shrunk back into the screen.

"Zzt—"

The image flickered, and Larry vanished.