Chapter 21: The Cost of Using the Diary
Of course, these few short sentences also revealed some important information:
First, the diary didn't include Zhang Haoran on the list of survivors, as if this person didn't exist in the world.
Second, the name of the Blood Hand Ghost seemed to be [Blood Hand Ghost].
Lastly, Chu Jiang's guess was correct. If things continued like this, he would die, like someone who had a terminal illness, not knowing when death would come.
With a gloomy expression, Chu Jiang wanted to turn to the next page of the diary to see what was recorded on September 18th.
Just like before, since he was already cursed, he didn't care about this page or the next.
But what surprised Chu Jiang was that the diary wouldn't open?
What in the world was this? Before, it couldn't be opened, and one could say it was because the content of the diary didn't change. He had died on September 17th, so there was no future.
But Chu Jiang now clearly knew that it was already September 18th, so it was impossible for there to be no future, right?
Or... was it that the conditions for looking through the diary were not as simple as Chu Jiang had imagined? Did he have to pay a price every time he turned a page?
So, when Chu Jiang opened the cover, what price did he have to pay?
Chu Jiang thought for a moment and almost immediately came to a conclusion: his life.
To be precise, after opening the cover, Chu Jiang's life was mortgaged to the black diary.
For the price of one life, he gained the ability to know what would happen that day, but only in a brief sentence or two.
It had to be said, most of the time, this deal was not worth it at all.
Fortunately, the diary should be bound by some kind of rule, as it could not directly kill its owner and must rely on others.
Otherwise, the diary would have already swallowed Chu Jiang, and it wouldn't have been so kind to him, waiting until he was on the brink of death to take action.
And that was because Chu Jiang's life was pawned to the diary, so when Slender Man wanted to devour Chu Jiang, the diary would take action on its own. It wouldn't allow any ghosts or monsters to take food from its mouth.
After understanding this, Chu Jiang frowned because he only had one life. Now it was pawned but not yet given back. So, did that mean he would never be able to see the contents of the second page?
Isn't this too disappointing?
The first note before was so well-spoken, asking how to use it and all. Did it have any value now that it was being used?
Hmm... no, that was not right. There must be another way to continue using the diary, assuming both notes were not lying.
Chu Jiang thought for a moment and quickly came up with an answer: using someone else's life as payment...
Then he shook his head, he wouldn't do that.
If Chu Jiang really did it, then he would be just like those people in the stories who were tempted by the devil, becoming a tool for killing in the hands of the devil.
Don't say that it only kills bad people. At first, it was only meant for the very worst, the unforgivable ones. But slowly, you would settle for less and start including ordinary criminals in the list.
Later on, when regular people made a small mistake, you couldn't help but catch them and feed them to the diary, all for the purpose of knowing the future.
This was a process of slowly falling into corruption. If your determination was not strong enough, it was very easy to become corrupted.
And Chu Jiang never thought that he had the right to judge the whole world, he wasn't like Light Yagami (from "Death Note").
Thinking about this, Chu Jiang realized that this was the true meaning of the first note, right?
If you had a diary that could predict the future...
How would you use it?
Remembering this, Chu Jiang smiled. He was able to resist temptation, and there was also a reason why the diary's predictive effects were not too abnormal.
He had previously watched an animated series called "Future Diary".
The diary in there was truly abnormal, the one in the hands of the male protagonist, Yukiteru Amano, was called the "Indiscriminate Diary".
As the name suggested, his diary recorded in great detail everything that was about to happen around the protagonist, with each ten minutes as a checkpoint.
However, this diary had a flaw because it was written from the perspective of the male main character, so there were some incomplete parts in the records.
But at the same time, the female main character in the animation, Yuuno Myouga, had a diary called the "Snow Radiance Diary".
As the name suggested, her diary recorded in great detail everything that was about to happen to Yukiteru Amano.
Therefore, in theory, if the male and female main characters joined forces, they would have the ability to completely predict the future.
Of course, it was only in theory...
Focusing his thoughts, Chu Jiang turned his attention back to the diary in his hand.
Chu Jiang didn't plan to name this diary "Future Diary", calling it "Ghost Diary" would be more fitting.
And predicting the future was probably just one of its abilities. If Chu Jiang guessed correctly, it also had the ability to seal other spirits.
The Blood Hand Ghost from before was sealed inside the cover of the diary.
But when Chu Jiang opened the diary, it seemed to trigger something, and the ghost inside started to wake up and wanted to escape.
Later on, Chu Jiang was killed by Slender Man, and the diary started to devour people.
During this process, something unclear happened to Chu Jiang. Although the Blood Hand Ghost managed to escape, it didn't gain freedom. Instead, it entered Chu Jiang's body.
At the same time, Chu Jiang wasn't devoured by the diary, but instead, he unexpectedly came back to life.
Chu Jiang could only understand it as the Ghost Diary having a problem and temporarily failing.
"I won't give you another chance," he muttered.
Since he couldn't temporarily foresee the future, was there any way to seal the ghost back into the diary?
Wait a minute! Chu Jiang thought of another possibility: If he fed another ghost to the diary, would it count as paying a price?
Chu Jiang felt a little guilty about killing people to feed the diary, but if he had to catch ghosts to feed the diary, he wouldn't feel guilty at all.
The more Chu Jiang thought about it, the more excited he became. If this trick worked, he could become a ghost hunter in the future.
Wait, that's not right. Why am I thinking about these things when I'm on the verge of death...
Chu Jiang's excitement faded suddenly. He should first find a way to deal with the hidden dangers on his body before anything else.
Besides, ghosts weren't so easy to catch. If every ghost was as twisted as Slender Man, he might as well find a block of tofu to run into and die quickly.
Putting away the diary, Chu Jiang walked over to the full-length mirror in the room.
He was just an ordinary high school student, with an average appearance. He wasn't ugly. It was just that his face had turned a bit pale and he looked a bit like a pretty boy after being possessed by a ghost.
He looked down at his right hand and silently made a decision.
He began to pack his clothes and belongings in his room.
Yes, Chu Jiang was getting ready to leave this home.
