Erica stopped and looked towards the yard. The two red wooden doors were chained, but there was a gap big enough for a child to pass through.
She wasn't sure, but she seemed to see a figure flash by just now.
But upon peering at it carefully, she could see nothing.
Thinking that she might just be seeing things, she shook her head. After all, it was in the daytime. Although it was a bit gloomy, ghosts would not appear at this time of the day.
Hyatt paused and looked at her in perplexity. He was waiting for her to continue walking.
A few moments later, they continued. After passing through a long corridor, Erica saw a lot of apricot flowers blooming over the wall of another small yard. She said to Hyatt, "Wait a minute. I'll take a few photos here."
Hyatt nodded and went to the steps nearby to wait for her.
After taking enough photos of the flowers outside the wall, Erica walked into the yard through the threshold. There, she discovered a small apricot farm.
There were more than twenty apricot trees. Their flowers were already a little sparse because of the new season. Many petals that fell off from the trees covered the ground.
She took two steps back and waved at Hyatt. "Come here! There are many apricot flowers here, too," she called out.
Hyatt followed her in. But all of a sudden, his face turned pale as he exclaimed, "Oh, my gosh!" He caught sight of a figure that scared him and made him freeze.
Erica was also frightened by his reaction. She tilted her head and asked in confusion, "What's wrong, Hyatt?"
She then followed his gaze and saw a woman in a long white dress standing in front of an old, broken window.
The woman was dressed like the way she had dressed when she tried to frighten Matthew in his study the other night but ended up scaring his subordinates instead.
She was wearing a pair of white embroidered shoes. Her face looked so pale, and her long black hair fell over her shoulders. Everything about her scared both Erica and Hyatt to death.
But despite her fear, Erica plucked up the courage to shout, "Hey...you! Are you a human or a ghost?"
The woman didn't answer her but slowly walked towards them. As she got closer and closer, Erica heaved a sigh of relief.
She heard her footsteps and saw her shadow on the ground. It only meant that she was not a ghost but a human.
However, what the woman did next was beyond their expectation. With a creepy smile that suddenly appeared on her pale face, she rushed towards them while shouting, "Go to hell! All of you go to hell!"
Even though Erica used to like watching horror movies, she was indeed terrified by her appearance.
Fortunately, before the woman could pounce on her, Hyatt blocked her body and waved his arm in the air. "Go away! Go away!"
But the ghost-like woman was unexpectedly strong. She just pushed Hyatt away, and he was thrown to the side.
She then turned to Erica again and stared at her bulging belly. With the creepy smile still on her face, she shouted, "You are pregnant. I want the baby in your belly!"
Erica was alerted. She stretched out her hands and made a fighting stance. "Don't act recklessly. I know martial arts! If you dare to come over, I will surely beat you down."
Now, she regretted coming into this palace without bringing her bodyguards along.
The ghost-like woman just turned a deaf ear to her. Instead, she laughed crazily and said, "Ha-ha! Finally, my baby has come! Baby, Mommy is coming."
She pounced on Erica, grabbed her clothes, and pulled her closer to her.
Erica lifted the camera from her neck and smashed it to the woman's body. As expected, the woman was surprised by the sudden pain and loosened her grip.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Erica turned around and ran away.
But the woman was quick to recover and grabbed her long hair.
Hyatt was already able to stand up, so he trotted to the woman and punched her in the face. "Let her go! Let Erica go!"
The woman was still grabbing Erica's hair, so she couldn't use too much strength to break free. She told Hyatt, "Smash her with the camera!" If she weren't pregnant, she would have kicked this crazy woman away. But with her current condition, she couldn't do anything too violent.
"Okay!" Hyatt picked up the camera and smashed it on the woman's face.
The woman screamed in pain and covered her face with one hand. But her other hand was still grabbing on to Erica's hair tightly.
At this moment, a man rushed over quickly and grabbed the woman's hand while shouting, "Let her go!"
He was so strong that the woman groaned in pain and let go of Erica's hair immediately.
The man then kicked her hard. She lay on the ground and cried, "My baby! My baby!"
Erica smoothed her hair and heaved a sigh of relief. She thanked the man who was pressing the woman on the ground with one hand. "Thank you, Watkins!"
"Don't mention it," Watkins replied. Then he ordered, "Call the person in charge and ask him to send more people here."
"Alright." Erica quickly took her phone out and contacted the person in charge of the event through WeChat.
Soon enough, a few security guards arrived. When they saw the woman on the ground, they immediately understood what happened. One of them said, "I'm sorry for causing you this trouble. Is everyone all right? This woman is a patient in the mental hospital next to this palace. She has escaped several times and came in here to cause trouble."
With confusion written all over her face, Erica looked at the security guard and asked, "There's a mental hospital near here?"
The security guard pointed at the high red wall not far away and replied, "Yes. It's right across the road from that wall. She often sneaks out and crawls in through the hole in the wall. We are already planning to cover the hole, but unfortunately, she is here again before we can start fixing it."
The other two security guards pulled the crazy woman up from the ground. One of them kicked her and cursed, "Damn it! It's daytime, and yet, you are scaring people again! You're such a lunatic!"
Watkins said to the security guards with a frown, "Do you know who she has scared today? This lady is pregnant. If I hadn't arrived on time, even your boss couldn't afford to take the responsibility."
One security guard immediately apologized, "I'm so sorry, sir. Our boss thought that the hole is a historical and memorable thing because the ancient people made it in the past, so he didn't want to cover it at first. But since this crazy woman has sneaked into the palace several times already, he finally ordered some people to cover the hole. We assure you, this incident won't ever happen again. I'm so sorry."
Erica suddenly asked, "Does this yard connect to other yards?"
The security guard thought for a while then pointed in a direction. "Yes, ma'am. There is a door behind this yard connected to the yard of the Harmony Hall. I suppose you saw this woman at the gate of the Harmony Hall."
She nodded. Now she realized, she wasn't just seeing things earlier. The figure she saw was this crazy woman.
"Again, we are so sorry for what happened. We'll send her out right now." The security guards grabbed the woman, who was still struggling and shouting and left the yard.