Chapter 22: Don’t Believe Anyone
“Shirley, help me put away the cured meat.”
As evening approached, in a residential house in an urban village in Jiangliu City, Shirley Lai heard her mother’s voice.
“Just a moment, I’ll go after I finish this episode.”
“You’d better hurry, or the rain will wet the cured meat if it starts raining.”
The woman’s voice downstairs spoke unhurriedly.
Shirley Lai didn’t pay much attention and decided to go to the rooftop to collect the cured meat that was dried on the iron rack after she finished watching the TV show.
“Beep beep beep!”
Just as she was enjoying scrolling through her videos, a message from an unknown source suddenly appeared on her phone, which read:
“Be safe, don’t believe anyone around you! Not even your loved ones!”
“Close the window, turn on the light, and don’t open the door, no matter who it is outside!”
Looking at this unsolicited text message, Shirley Lai was a bit confused.
“What is this?”
Her mood for watching the show was interrupted, so she casually swiped away the message and prepared to go upstairs to collect the cured meat.
This residential house had three floors, it was the self-built kind.
But the third floor was not inhabited; it was usually used for drying clothes and storing miscellaneous items.
She walked up the stairs and entered the room where the cured meat was hung.
“Strange… why are there only three pieces left?”
Shirley Lai had collected the cured meat yesterday as well, so she was quite sure that there were five pieces of meat hung here.
How could two pieces be missing all of a sudden?
Shirley Lai searched every room on the third floor but couldn’t find the whereabouts of the two pieces of cured meat.
Did the rats steal them?
But upon closer thought, it didn’t seem quite right.
Although the pieces of cured meat were not large, they were still quite heavy for a rat without being dried.
If it wasn’t a rat who stole them… could it be the lonely old man next door?
This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened. Previously, when Shirley Lai’s family was drying fruit preserves on the first floor, quite a lot had been taken by him.
And because it was next door, with the two buildings close together, it was very likely that he could climb over from the top floor balcony to steal the meat here.
Thinking of this, Shirley Lai went to the stairs and shouted down to the first floor.
“Mom! Two pieces of cured meat are missing!”
“…”
Shirley Lai’s voice echoed in the quiet stairwell.
She waited for a long time, but there was no movement from the first floor.
Instead, there was a rustling sound behind her.
Shirley Lai was startled and quickly hid.
She had thought maybe a cat or dog had jumped in, but when she turned her head, a figure suddenly appeared in the room where the cured meat was dried.
The sun had already set, so Shirley Lai couldn’t see what the person’s face looked like.
But she could tell that the person was short, stooped, with messy hair, and seemed to have climbed in from the balcony.
Was it really the old man next door who came to steal the meat?
Just as Shirley Lai was wondering, she saw the old man walk directly towards the cured meat hung on the iron rack. Strangely, he didn’t take the cured meat away, but grabbed it and stuffed it directly into his mouth.
Shirley Lai, who had intended to jump out and stop the person, was stunned by such a bizarre scene.
After a while, the old man, perhaps having eaten his fill, turned and jumped down.
Keep in mind that this was the third floor, and this was not the agility expected of an old man.
Shirley Lai started to panic.
She quickly ran downstairs to find her mother to tell her about this.
After going down to the first floor, Shirley Lai quickly walked into the kitchen.
Fortunately, her mother was still cooking at home, and she said repeatedly.
“Mom… the old man next door directly ate our cured meat!”
“What nonsense are you spouting, you girl?” To her surprise, Mom Lai didn’t believe her at all. “That old man next door is ninety years old, he has trouble walking, how could he possibly climb over to steal our cured meat to eat.”
“I’m not lying, it’s true!”
“Alright, alright, you just read too many supernatural novels and scare yourself. Go upstairs and take a bath first, then come down and get ready for dinner.”
Mom Lai dismissed her daughter and continued to busy herself in the kitchen.
Seeing that her mother didn’t believe her, Shirley Lai began to doubt if she had seen incorrectly.
After all, there were indeed mice on the third floor.
She scratched her head and returned to her room on the second floor.
The young girl’s bedroom was very clean and tidy, with many horror movie posters on the walls.
However, for some reason, the posters that she usually didn’t pay much attention to now seemed a bit creepy.
She tore down the posters, lay on the bed, and prepared to watch some TV shows to pass the time.
The strange message from before did not attract Shirley Lai’s attention.
Because of big data recommendations, as a fan of horror movies, she often received similar text messages.
Without thinking much, if she clicked on them, nine out of ten would be spam game ads like “If you’re a brother, come and hack me.”
But now… she had a feeling that the message was actually true.
“Knock knock knock…”
At this moment, someone knocked on the bedroom door.
“Shirley, come out for dinner, we’re having fish tonight.”
“Why are we having fish?”
Shirley Lai’s expression was a bit displeased. She hated eating fish from the bottom of her heart.
Because of this, they never bought fish at home, even during Lunar New Year.
Her mother definitely hadn’t bought fish for a long time, so why suddenly have fish?
“The uncle next door sent us some fish, it’s quite a big one. Come and eat quickly.”
“Okay…”
Shirley Lai reluctantly got up from the bed. She reached for the door handle, ready to go out.
But at that moment, she suddenly remembered the message she had swiped away.
And the most important point was… her mother usually called her downstairs directly for meals, and it was almost impossible for her to come up to the second floor to knock on the door.
The young girl felt a bit uneasy, so she spoke to the outside through the door.
“Mom, you eat first. I’m not hungry yet, and Mom, you know I can’t eat fish.”
“Oh, but this was given by someone else, we can’t waste it. Just put up with it for tonight.”
“No, no, I’m not hungry yet.”
“You’re still growing, you need to eat more.”
The woman’s voice outside was very gentle, but the gentler it was, the more terrified Shirley Lai felt.
Shirley Lai slowly retreated to the bedside. Outside, her mother was still persistently urging her to open the door.
At one moment she said she wanted to come out for dinner, and the next she said a classmate was looking for her. Her logic was completely incoherent, and her voice sounded increasingly eerie.
Seeing that the situation was becoming more and more bizarre, she could only take out her phone to find the message she had swiped away earlier.
Finally, she found the message from earlier.
But the sender was a jumble of garbled characters. She tried sending a message to them, but it displayed three large red words.
“Undeliverable…”
Looking at these three words, Shirley Lai felt goosebumps all over her body.
The knocking sound outside the room also stopped.
The person outside seemed to have left.
What should I do now…
Should I go out?
