Lu Yanli returned to "his" own residence.
They were assigned to an old residential building, four stories high, with red brick walls covered with ivy, which made them feel cold and damp as soon as they walked in. A glance showed water stains on the yellow walls, and tiny ants crawling around. After being fumigated by the wormwood, they disappeared into the cracks in the wall.
"I've been back to the south recently, and my legs are aching all the time." The old man fumigating the wormwood turned around and asked with narrowed eyes, "Xiao Lu, are you having nightmares again?"
Lu Yanli showed a gentle face: "No more."
"That's good, that's good." The old man squinted his eyes and looked at him carefully. He seemed to remember something, and came closer and lowered his voice and said, "I'm going to tell you something. I'm only going to tell you one thing. Don't tell anyone else about it."
"You say."
"Although we advocate the use of science, sometimes science cannot explain some things. In your case... it's like you're possessed. There are those that are effective, those... you know, right? You can go and have a look." The old man was still laughing. After he finished speaking, he patted him on the shoulder, slowly turned around and left.
Lu Yanli said hello and watched him walk across the threshold. The old man was old and his steps were a little stiff. When crossing the high threshold, he first stood sideways, put his hands on one leg and put it straight across, and then did the same to move the other leg across the other side of the steps.
"What are you looking at?" His shoulder was patted, and Fang Ping came down from upstairs with two other young men. Lu Yanli remembered the names of the two men and greeted them.
"You haven't said anything yet. What were you looking at just now? There was no one there." Fang Ping asked doubtfully, holding an enamel cup in his hand.
"No one?!" The old man clearly didn't go far! No... Lu Yanli looked back and saw that the old man was gone. He rushed to the door and looked outside, but he didn't see anyone either.
Seeing that Lu Yanli looked upset, Fang Ping's expression became more serious: "What's wrong? Did something happen again?"
Another young man named Zhou Qi also said: "You look pale, did something happen to you? Don't think too much about it."
Lu Yanli quickly calmed down and shook his head: "It's okay, I just ran into an old man and chatted with him for a few words."
“Old man?” Fang Ping’s heart tightened. He looked at the two people behind him and shook his head implicitly.
Most of the people living in this building are young people, and the oldest is only about 40 years old. Where did the old people come from
"It's good that nothing happened. Go to bed early." Fang Ping said.
Zhou Qi was bold. Seeing that Lu Yanli looked haggard, he guessed that something had happened. He rolled his eyes and said, "Brother Lu, my room is leaking. If you don't mind, I can sleep in your room and squeeze in with you, okay?"
Lu Yanli also guessed it, but since they wanted to hide it, there was no need for him to expose it.
"good."
Zhou Qi filled a kettle with hot water and carried it upstairs. Lu Yanli followed behind him, watching him secretly.
The walls were yellow and covered with mold, and there was a damp, musty smell. People lived on every floor, and the corridors were full of clothes hanging and dripping. A few men in vests were talking to each other and carrying basins of water to go downstairs.
"Hey Xiao Lu, you came back early today?"
"Xiao Lu, you don't look very well, take more rest."
"Xiao Lu, Fang Ping said you still want to go to the tomb?" A man with a cigarette in his mouth walked through the crowd. He was of medium height, with sharp eyes. He patted Lu Yanli's thin shoulder with his big hand, "Take care of yourself, don't be so impatient."
"It's okay, Captain Yang." Lu Yanli knew that his complexion might not be very good, so he simply said, "I can feel that the source of the nightmare is in the tomb. Why not go down and take a look."
Captain Yang frowned and smoked his cigarette. Lu Yanli let him look at him with a firm and calm look.
After a long while, he said, "Okay, let's try it first. If it doesn't work, come up quickly. Do you hear me?" Then he shouted to the back, "Knife! Come here!!"
The man nicknamed Daozi, or Daoge, had a scar on his face, which was said to have been caused by a fight with tomb robbers. Hearing the voice, Daozi quickly came over and said, "Captain, what are you doing?"
Captain Yang patted him on the shoulder and said, "We'll go to the tomb tomorrow. Xiao Lu will be in your care. Keep an eye on him."
Daozi glanced at Lu Yanli's pale face and grinned: "Okay."
Everyone was very friendly to Lu Yanli, but he didn't believe it.
After accepting it with a gentle face, he kept thinking in his mind how to get out of the predicament.
"Here you are. Where are you going?" Zhou Qi knew where he lived. Seeing him walk past, he quickly pulled him aside. "The floors above the fourth floor are all young ladies. What are you doing there?"
"Sorry, I didn't notice."
Lu Yanli followed him and stopped in front of a copper-green door. He felt around and found a bunch of keys, and simply handed them to the other party. Zhou Qi didn't doubt it and took it and opened the door.
On the large window opposite the main door of the room, there was a poster of a woman, blocking out the light. That face... Lu Yanli was extremely familiar with it.
Zhou Qixian stepped in and looked around: "Your room is still a little damp, open it up for ventilation."
During the return of the south wind, the walls were damp and water seeped out, leaving yellow wet marks. Even the posters had curled edges due to the moisture.
"You're right. Can you help me tear down the poster? I want to get some sun."
The pair of eyes on the poster kept following him, and Lu Yanli felt very uncomfortable, but he didn't want to tear it up rashly, so he tested Zhou Qi.
Zhou Qi scratched his head in confusion: "Don't you like her very much?" Having said that, he still rolled up his sleeves, moved a stool to stand on it, and tore it off along the edge bit by bit.
The woman's face was always smiling at Lu Yanli. The iron-framed windows were already rusted. As Zhou Qi moved a little more, the rust and water stains soaked the back of the paper. Looking from the front, two lines of blood were flowing from the woman's eyes.
Lu Yanli had been standing by the door, and only walked in after confirming that everything was alright. The bed in the room was divided into upper and lower bunks. It seemed that this person usually lived in the lower bunk, and put some sundries on the upper bunk.
Lu Yanli said, "You sleep on it, I'll sort out my things."
Before Zhou Qi could refuse, he had already cleared the upper bunk and wet a rag with water, apparently intending to wipe it.
The bed was not big, so Zhou Qi thought it was fine. He took the rag from his hand and said, "I'll do it. You're not well yet. Captain Yang said to take care of you."
Lu Yanli didn't insist on doing the work, it would be great if someone could take over. He thanked them and walked to the window to look outside.
The glass was blurry, old and rusty, and the sunlight shining through was dimmed. Lu Yanli turned the latch a few times and pushed hard - with a "creak", the window was pushed open.
On the other side, across the street, was a lush forest. When the wind blew, the moisture from the green leaves blew over, mixed with the occasional noisy conversations of the people below.
Lu Yanli kept looking, he wanted to find the exit of this world. Maybe it was an object with modern colors, maybe it was a familiar person, maybe... He looked for a long time, but couldn't find it.
Just when he was about to look away, Lu Yanli's eyes suddenly focused and he immediately turned his head to look!
He saw—
On a branch of a tree stood a woman wearing a blood-red robe and with a hideous face. Her long hair was hanging down, covering half of her face with bulging veins. She was staring at Lu Yanli!
Seeing that Lu Yanli had discovered her, the woman slowly grinned, revealing her sharp fangs. She stretched out her hand and slowly pointed in the direction of Lu Yanli.
Lu Yanli was very sure that he had not seen that figure just now. He turned his head to call Zhou Qi, but when he looked over, the man had disappeared.
"What did you see?" Zhou Qi, who was called by him, was puzzled. He stuck his head out, but everything looked normal, there was nothing.
"It's okay, I was mistaken." Lu Yanli said calmly.
But he was sure that tonight would not be peaceful.
After washing up, everyone turned off the lights and rested early, preparing to continue working tomorrow. Lu Yanli followed the crowd and lay down on the bed early, closing his eyes to rest. He could sense the sound of Zhou Qi tossing and turning on the upper bunk. After tossing for a while, he also fell asleep, and his snoring could be heard from the upper bunk.
The whole building gradually became quiet, with only the whistling wind that passed through the long corridor and hit the window frames. They blew in through the cracks in the windows, making a sobbing sound like a woman crying.
Lu Yanli was not asleep. He was wearing clothes that allowed him to get up and run away at any time. He did not take off his shoes and lay on the bed, covered with a damp quilt, with his eyes closed.
He heard... footsteps in the corridor.
"Tick, tick, tick..."
The woman in high heels walked up the stairs slowly and entered the corridor. Her footsteps gradually became clearer in my ears. Then... she stopped in front of the door.
There was a knock on the door.
Three soft sounds.
Naturally, no one opened the door. Zhou Qi was sleeping so soundly that he didn't hear anything, and there was no way Lu Yanli would get up to open the door.
Lu Yanli heard the sound of the bolt behind the door being slowly opened.
Then, the door was gently pushed open, making the teeth-grinding friction sound of an old rusty metal door.
The woman walked in slowly, with the sound of high heels, and stopped beside the bed.
Lu Yanli felt a pair of eyes on his face. He did not move, breathing lightly, pretending to be asleep.
The feeling of being watched did not disappear, but instead became stronger.
Zhou Qi on the upper bunk turned over and mumbled something. Just when Lu Yanli thought he was about to wake up, Zhou Qi stopped mumbling and continued snoring.
Lu Yanli didn't say anything and continued to pretend to sleep without moving.
This is not the first time.
Suddenly, a cold wind blew past his ear, and it felt a little itchy, as if something hairy had fallen on his ear.
Lu Yanli still didn't move. His intuition told him that he couldn't open his eyes at this time.
He smelled the strong smell of blood and the stench of the other person's body. He heard the woman's sigh. Even with his eyes closed, he could imagine what the other person looked like—bending over, with a face close to him, staring at him, with long hair falling beside the pillow.
But he never opened his eyes and remained "sound asleep", and the sound of high heels never came.
The woman stayed in the room the whole time.
Zhou Qi was half asleep and half awake when he woke up because he had to pee. He touched the watch beside his pillow and squinted to see that it was still early and it would take several hours before dawn.
What caught his eye was the leaking ceiling. The marks formed by the water looked a bit strange, but Zhou Qi didn't care. He vaguely remembered that he had gone to Lu Yanli's room to sleep. He almost floated down from the bed carefully and walked towards the toilet at the end of the corridor.
Zhou Qi woke up.
Lu Yanli heard the other person going out. After a while, the sound of light footsteps of high heels was heard in the room and gradually faded away.
But he still had a sense of danger, which made him lie motionless in bed.
Blown by the wind, Zhou Qi became much more awake. There were unknown small insects chirping in the yard outside the corridor, which made him want to shout a few words, but he held it back for fear of waking someone up. He walked to the end of the corridor along the other side of the rows of half-dry shorts and vests. He took out a cigarette and lighter from his pocket, lit it, took a deep puff, and slowly exhaled white smoke.
The rising smoke did not dissipate in the air, but slowly condensed into a face. The face became more and more solid and gradually twisted. After floating for a while, it went into other rooms.
Zhou Qi knew nothing about it. He came to the end of the corridor and walked in.
He felt a little cold all over, especially on his back, and felt as if he couldn't walk. He thought he didn't sleep well.
The sound of dripping water could be heard.
My body is getting heavier and heavier... My back and waist are sore. Is it a stiff neck
Zhou Qi shook himself off twice and put on his pants. He wanted to turn around and wash his hands, but he felt his body getting heavier and heavier, and it was even difficult for him to walk.
What's wrong with me
He touched his forehead and found that he was not sick.
Zhou Qi opened the door with difficulty and walked back. He didn't even notice that the further he walked, the more hunched his back became, as if he was carrying something heavy.
The corridor became very long. Zhou Qi felt that he had walked for a long time, but when he looked up, he was still not far from the toilet door. In the dark night sky, the clothes hanging in the corridor were blown by the wind, just like... like rows of hanged people.
Zhou Qi was frightened by his own imagination. He tried hard to come back to his senses, holding onto the wet and slippery corridor handrail, and slowly walked forward.
Still... can't move...
His back was bent almost 90 degrees, and his whole body was almost bent in half. Zhou Qi had been trying hard to crane his neck to look, but after looking for a long time, he finally gave up and lowered his head.
If you bend down and look between your legs, you will see something different.
Zhou Qi saw two legs belonging to women.
Pale, blue, covered with corpse spots, and wearing red high-heeled shoes.
He finally understood what had happened and reached behind him - he felt a cold body.
"Ugh..." Zhou Qi couldn't make a cry for help, and his eyes widened little by little...
With the crow of a rooster, day broke.
People got up early, and Lu Yanli pricked up his ears to listen. There was a bang outside the door, and a commotion broke out. I don't know what happened. Zhou Qi didn't come back all night. Was... his body found
The door was kicked open and a group of people rushed in shouting his name, followed by a few screams.
Suspecting that he was hallucinating, Lu Yanli did not open his eyes until a hand with body temperature began to shake and pat his face. Only then did Lu Yanli open his eyes.
"You finally woke up." What I saw was Captain Yang's anxious face.
He looked somewhat incredible.