In late summer of 2004, the cicadas’ chirping in the heat brewed a rainstorm that would last for days. Thunder roared in the gloomy and heavy clouds, and the wind tore the jasmine flowers in the courtyard apart. A petal was blown out of the French window on the second floor.
The petals fluttered silently in front of Song Shu through the glass, and they were full of traces of being damaged by wind and rain.
This is the first night that Xiao Songshu moved into the house in the city.
According to the original plan, they were supposed to come here a few days later. But after a thunderstorm forecast, Song Shu was suddenly informed that the trip should be advanced.
Before she could come to her senses, she had already arrived at the house.
Qin Lou did not show up.
Song Shu could sense that everything in this house was abnormal. The few servants were in a hurry, with serious expressions, as if some terrible disaster was about to happen.
And all this is related to Qin Lou.
"Auntie has brought you dinner. Can you put it on the table?"
"… "
A voice came from the room behind her. Song Shu's eyes slowly moved away from the petals. She turned her head and looked towards the middle of the room.
Unlike the dark and gloomy world outside, the lights in the house were bright and warm. After entering the room, the person standing by the table was the auntie Qin Liang specially arranged to take care of her daily life, named Lin Yaqi.
Lin Yaqi has a warm smile and looks. After spending some time with the Qin family, Song Shu likes her a little. But even this gentle woman still has an unconcealable restlessness in her eyes tonight.
Song Shu lowered his eyes, walked over, sat quietly at the table and started eating.
She was not a child who liked to explore other people's inner world. She was never very curious and was rarely aroused by other people or things.
She doesn't like asking questions actively.
One of the reasons why Song Shu likes Lin Yaqi is that she will explain things to her in a gentle and soft voice, and will not be impatient or dissatisfied because of her temporary silence.
But Lin Yaqi is different tonight.
After collecting Song Shu's used tableware, Lin Yaqi stopped at the door before leaving the room for the last time.
She paused for about five seconds, then turned back and said, "."
Song Shu looked up from the table.
Lin Yaqi said: "It might thunder tonight, you know?"
Song Shu nodded.
"Then after the thunder, no matter what kind of sound or movement you hear, don't come out, just lie down in bed - okay?"
"… "
Song Shu looked at Lin Yaqi quietly.
When Lin Yaqi thought the girl would not speak and was about to leave, she heard Song Shu ask, "Whose voice is that?"
Lin Yaqi was stunned. This was the first time she heard Song Shu ask a question on his own initiative. Then she heard the second sentence:
"Is it Qin Lou?"
At this point Lin Yaqi finally came to her senses, and a rare look of embarrassment appeared on her face. On a deeper level, there seemed to be some fear and avoidance.
"Auntie knows that you have a good relationship with Master Qinlou, but he..." Those words that might be a bit vicious to a child did not come out of this gentle woman's mouth. Lin Yaqi shook her head, "Promise Auntie that you will not care about any noises or things you see tonight, and do not go out, okay?"
The girl was silent.
After a long time, she nodded slowly.
"I see."
Lin Yaqi smiled with relief, turned around and left the room.
The thunder sounded in the middle of the night.
At first it was very far away, and then, one after another, the distance got closer.
Song Shu climbed out of bed. She didn't turn on the light. The room was dark. In the darkness, the girl sat in the middle of the bed, hugging her knees silently.
She is waiting.
No matter whether it was a sound or an event that was about to happen and was related to Qin Lou, she would wait.
Because it is Qinlou.
Then she waited.
The magnificent symphony and the sound of heavy rain hitting the window glass, mixed with the roar of thunder and the hoarse laughter of a young boy - just like the opening moment of a grand giant-screen performance - all the huge sounds tore open the dark night outside the window.
Song Shu shuddered suddenly.
She jumped out of bed, stepped on the cold floor, and ran to the window. She pulled open a corner of the heavy blackout curtains, and the heavy rain hit the floor-to-ceiling glass window in front of her.
In the courtyard on the first floor, dim lights were on under the circular patio corridor.
Like a flickering candle flame, struggling, trembling, and fluttering in the rain, thunder, and magnificent music.
In the middle of the courtyard, the boy was running, laughing, and jumping wildly under the rain. Thunder and lightning roared above his head, tearing the sky into cracks. The tragic and magnificent symphony was his beat and background music. The boy held a long stick in his hand and hit the upside-down metal barrels in the courtyard heavily.
"Bang! Bang! Bang—"
The dull and harsh sound of metallic vibrations merged into one in the rain. The noise that seemed to be rubbing against the eardrums was mixed with countless thunder and rainstorms, like the screams and wails that could only be heard in hell.
And in the midst of the screams and wails, the only "actor" under this huge curtain was laughing wildly amid the thunder and heavy rain.
He laughed so hard that he trembled, so hard that his face became hideous, so hard that he became hoarse, and so hard that he laughed hysterically.
He laughed until he was exhausted and rolled around in the mud washed by the heavy rain, covered in dirt, but he was still laughing.
Who says there is only crying
The boy in the rainstorm was laughing painfully.
Like a madman, like a devil.
Completely and hopelessly.
It was only at this moment that Song Shu was extremely shocked and realized deeply that he was different from everyone else in this world.
The adults were right, he was not normal.
…How could it be more than abnormal
He was laughing like crazy in the rainstorm, as if he was on a deserted island.
Song Shu could hear it.
He is not smiling.
He is crying.
He is not smiling.
He is shouting for help.
――
He is going to die.
Who will save this madman
No one responded and no one paid any attention to him.
It was as if Song Shu was the only one who could hear it in this huge world.
Song Shu loosened her hands of the curtain that she had unconsciously clenched so tightly that it was almost torn apart. She turned and ran towards the door without even bothering to put on her slippers.
The corridor was so quiet - when all the speakers in the house were roaring and blaring amid deafening thunder and wild laughter, all the servants were as quiet as if they were living in another world - no sound could be heard and no one could be seen. Song Shu stumbled down the stairs alone.
She fell on the carpet, bruised and bruised all over, but she couldn't remember the pain, she only remembered to run away -
The only madman who had ever held her tight when she was trembling, he was calling for help.
But no one paid any attention to him.
Everyone avoided him like the plague and everyone just thought he was a lunatic.
How desperate must he be to laugh like this
Song Shu kept running, and finally stumbled down the stairs and ran through the living room. She pushed open the hall door with all her strength and climbed over the patio fence.
She rushed into the roaring thunder and heavy rain.
She stopped beside the young man lying on his back in the heavy rain and mud.
She squatted down.
The young man lying on the ground had already lost all his strength.
He closed his eyes, he had never been so quiet before. He lay there pale, like a puppet whose spring had been pulled out, like the clown who died in the center of the stage after the audience left.
There were heavy rains and roaring thunders, and everything was lifeless.
The iron rod fell next to his hand, and the metal bucket next to the iron rod was dented and dented by him while he was laughing crazily.
All those metal barrels fell over.
Revealing a dark, man-eating, bottomless hole.
Just enough to accommodate a child.
If the child is six or seven years old, he can even hug his knees and be completely trapped in the airtight metal barrel.
There is no escape...
He returned to the most desperate darkness.
The thunder that could tear a person apart, the sound of rain clattering on the barrel, the laughter of countless malicious devils, the sound of countless iron bars hammering around the barrel as if hitting him, the lonely hysterical cry and cry for help...
In the darkness, everything is magnified.
Only fear and despair remain.
No one in this world will come to save him.
Past, present, future...
No one will save him.
Fear and despair can eat up a simple and innocent child without leaving a single bite.
Then leaving behind a madman who will live in a nightmare forever.
Endless torture, torn wounds and blood, dried tears, malicious smiles, and a cold and numb heart that was pushed off a cliff.
They made up his world before he was brought back to the Qin family.
It's not like hell.
It is hell.
On every thunderstorm night, the devil imprisoned in hell would walk out of his memory and knock on his door with a hissing laugh.