The sky was getting dark, and we were preparing to stay in the haunted house from now on. Huang Xiaotao asked the two policemen guarding the haunted house to go buy some food, drinks, and three sleeping bags, and then they could get off work.
There were no other buildings around this place. As soon as it got dark, there was an immediate sense that it had become deep into the night, and there was no moon tonight either. A car would flash by on the road only every few minutes.
The three of us laid out the sleeping bags in the room where the deceased had lived and sat on them. Wang Dali kept rubbing his shoulders with his hands and asked, "Song Yang, are you sure you want to spend the night here?"
Huang Xiaotao said, "How many times are you going to ask? Annoying. Let's eat first!"
She opened the box of hot instant noodles, stirred the sauce with her chopsticks, and I also nibbled on some bread. Wang Dali said, "Damn, you two can even eat anything in this kind of environment? You're really something."
It was mainly boring to stay here. I didn't dare play with my phone for fear of running out of battery and losing contact with the outside world. Huang Xiaotao was long used to this. She often had to squat in a car for several days to keep an eye on a suspect.
Wang Dali said he wanted to go to the bathroom and insisted that I accompany him. Huang Xiaotao ridiculed him, "Are you still a man? It's to the left when you go out."
"Then... then call for me if anything happens!" Wang Dali's tongue was a little tied up.
After Wang Dali left, I took a new mug out of my bag, "Oh, right. To make up for the mug you broke last time, this is to replace it."
Huang Xiaotao laughed and said, "You really don't know how to talk. Why not just say it's a gift for me? Since you're so sincere, big sis will accept it with a smile."
She poured some green tea into it, took a sip, and then handed it to me, "You haven't had water for a while, have a sip."
I declined at first but still took it. There was a faint sweet smell of Huang Xiaotao's lipstick left on the rim of the cup, which made my cheeks flush again. At this moment, Wang Dali suddenly screamed, and we hurried out.
When we got to the bathroom, we saw Wang Dali staring blankly at the toilet with a deathly pale face. He said that when he had just sat down, it felt like a icy cold hand had groped his butt, scaring him so much that his anus tightened and he nearly shit himself in fear.
Huang Xiaotao covered her mouth and scolded, "You're so disgusting!"
Wang Dali wailed with a sad face, "Fuck, can you have some sympathy? This kind of thing is so creepy!"
I stared at the toilet for a while and said, "It was probably a rat. The toilet is connected to the sewer, and no one has lived here for a long time, so rats can crawl out unscrupulously."
"No, no, I swear to God it was a hand, so scary!" Wang Dali shook his head vigorously.
At this moment, there was suddenly the sound of bouncing a ball downstairs. Wang Dali screamed in fright. I wasn't scared by the sound, but he startled me. Wang Dali chattered his teeth and said, "It's the ghost of that kid!"
The sound of bouncing the ball was sometimes far, sometimes near, and sounded very real. In the silent, dark old house, it was especially creepy. Even Huang Xiaotao was so frightened that her face turned pale.
I signaled with my eyes, "Let's go see!"
"Are you sure?" Wang Dali was shocked.
"Seeing the strange without fear defeats the strange itself. In a place like this, the most terrifying thing is not ghosts, but your imagination!" I said.
Huang Xiaotao frowned, "What if it really is haunted?"
"So what if it is? Ghosts are nothing more than a kind of spiritual energy lingering in the world of the living, like a video recording, they can't hurt people." I explained.
Huang Xiaotao went to fetch a flashlight, and we went downstairs together to check it out. I say together, but the two of them were clinging tightly to my clothes behind me. Forget Wang Dali, how could Huang Xiaotao be so timid as well? She pouted and argued that the environment here was too oppressive, making people afraid for no reason.
I thought to myself, a frightened Huang Xiaotao is also quite cute!
As we went downstairs, the old stairs creaked, and Wang Dali was shocked. When we got downstairs, I shone the flashlight around, the room was empty, and I said, "There's nothing here..."
Just as I finished speaking, something touched Huang Xiaotao's foot, and she jumped up in fright. Looking down, it was a ball.
She picked it up and exclaimed in surprise, "How is there a ball here? We didn't find it when clearing the scene before!"
"It's true! It's really haunted!" Wang Dali panicked and wanted to run away.
"Can you two stop making the atmosphere so scary." I scolded.
Just then, there was suddenly a loud banging on the door upstairs, mixed with some strange sounds, which sounded like a woman laughing. The two of them screamed again and again, as if they had been electrocuted. I angrily said, "Making mischief, I'll go take a look!"
I rushed upstairs to find that a door that had been closed in the corridor was now open. I walked in alone, flashing the flashlight around, when there was suddenly a rustling sound from the ceiling above, as if something had crawled down. A voice whispered in my ear, "He killed my son, should he die or not? You tell me, should he die or not?"
When the voice was speaking, there was no air flow at all, which made my back break out in a cold sweat.
I had asked Wang Dali to buy me a bag of purified salt earlier, which can exorcise evil spirits. I turned to get it, when suddenly a hand was placed on my shoulder, and it seemed a face was slowly approaching!
I didn't dare look back. I knew ghosts like to pat people on the shoulder from behind, and the moment you turn back you blow out the yang fire on your own shoulder. I said solemnly, "You're already dead, lingering in the world of the living has no meaning at all. Hurry up and reincarnate."
The hand stayed on my shoulder for a while before disappearing without a trace. These kinds of things are all cowardly bullies, as long as you're not afraid of them, they don't dare touch you!
At this moment, my phone suddenly rang. I knew from the ringtone that it was Huang Xiaotao calling, because I had set a special ringtone for her. I wondered why Huang Xiaotao was calling when she was just downstairs, had something happened?
Accompanying the ringtone was the sound of bouncing a ball again. Had that little ghost appeared again?
I rushed downstairs to see Wang Dali bouncing a ball there. I scolded, "What's wrong with you? Of all things to play with, you play with this?"
"You bounce one, I bounce one, two little kids sitting on a plane, you bounce two, I bounce two..." Wang Dali ignored me and sang a nursery rhyme in a shrill voice. A chill went down my spine as I thought Wang Dali might be possessed.
But his expression was very strange, he kept pouting and winking at a certain direction, with tears shimmering in his eyes.
"Song Yang! Song Yang!" A faint voice was calling me.
Looking back, I saw Huang Xiaotao shivering and hiding behind a pillar, constantly beckoning to me.
I was about to go over when Wang Dali suddenly grabbed my sleeve and shook his head vigorously.
I glanced at Huang Xiaotao again, not knowing what Wang Dali was implying. Could Huang Xiaotao be a ghost in disguise? I didn't believe ghosts had that kind of ability!
In a very low voice, Huang Xiaotao shouted, "He's not Wang Dali, stay away from him."
I shook off Wang Dali's hand. He was still bouncing the ball, looking as if he was about to cry, and said in a low voice, "Sister Xiaotao, there's a woman behind you, you didn't see her?"
With his reminder, I looked at Huang Xiaotao again and found that there was indeed a woman in white floating behind her. Disheveled hair, blood on her cheeks, and a bloody dagger in her hand, the dagger was held against Huang Xiaotao's neck, but she was completely unaware of it.
I suddenly understood that the female ghost was holding Huang Xiaotao hostage and forcing Wang Dali to pretend to be her son.
I immediately recited: "A cup of yellow wine toasts heaven and earth, two sticks of incense pay respect to gods and ghosts. Waving the lantern sweeps away the dark night, washing away injustice redeems Song Tixing."
The two were greatly shocked, probably thinking I was also possessed. As I recited, I walked in front of Huang Xiaotao and pointed my fingers like a sword, shouting, "A descendant of the Song family is here, all evil disperse!"
"Ah ah ah ah!"
The woman let out a scream and dispersed like fog.