Chapter 23 home ghost
She dared not act rashly.
But staying in the room did not seem like a safe choice.
The world outside, painted with neon lights, was the safest place.
But… if she went out, would she run into a monster outside?
Shirley Lai held her breath and sat in front of the computer desk.
Her father had passed away when she was in junior high school.
But in her memory, her father’s occupation was related to feng shui.
More importantly, the computer she had was left behind by her father.
Perhaps there was a way to deal with the fierce ghost in it.
With this in mind, she turned on the computer on the desk.
Although this computer was old, it still started up quickly.
She usually didn’t use this computer, at most for making spreadsheets or documents.
So, most of the things inside had not been touched.
While praying, the young girl browsed through the computer’s folders.
The computer contained many electronic documents about feng shui and worship.
And these documents might be the key to surviving here.
The young girl opened the documents. In addition to books, there were also many photos.
Many of them were organized randomly, including her father.
In this document, there were even photos of her as a child.
Shirley Lai had looked at these photos countless times, but this time, she suddenly saw that in addition to these commemorative photos, there was an extra photo in the document.
This photo was very blurry, and it was difficult to make out what was inside.
Through the thumbnail, Shirley Lai could vaguely see that it seemed to be a selfie of her father.
She clicked on the photo. In the lens, she saw the face of a man with a weathered face.
He was facing the camera, holding a baby girl in his arms, with a happy smile on his face.
But for some reason, the environment in the photo was late at night, and the room was not lit, which made her father’s face look inexplicably strange.
Even the smile he gave to the camera made her hair stand on end.
The more she looked, the more Shirley Lai felt something was wrong.
As far as she remembered, this document did not have this photo. Where did it come from?
Under the influence of unease, the young girl slid the mouse, preparing to close the photo.
However, even after hovering the mouse over the red “X” for a long time, she could not close the photo.
It was as if the computer had suddenly frozen.
She looked at the photo in front of her in disbelief. More bizarrely, she could vaguely feel that the man’s face in the photo seemed to have changed.
It had become extremely unfamiliar, and the wrinkles on his face had increased…
Until finally, the man in the photo had turned into a complete stranger of an old man!
This old man’s eyes had been dug out for some reason, leaving only two dark holes, staring at Shirley Lai maliciously.
“Ah!”
The young girl let out a scream, and the chair she was leaning against fell backward.
She fell hard, and her head buzzed.
But she didn’t dare to gasp for breath on the ground and quickly got up.
However, when she stood up again, she saw out of the corner of her eye that the old man in the photo on the computer screen had disappeared, leaving only a grim and dark room.
Shirley Lai stared at the computer screen in astonishment, her body trembling uncontrollably.
Where was the old man in the photo?
Or had he entered the room?
If that was the case… where could he be hiding?
Shirley Lai swallowed her saliva.
Because her father was a feng shui master, he had pasted a yellow talisman and hung a mirror in this room.
Facing the computer, the young girl slowly backed away to the wall with the talisman pasted on it.
Under the current circumstances, only this talisman could give her a little comfort.
Leaning against the cold wall, facing an empty bedroom.
The surroundings were so quiet that it could drive a person crazy.
“Creeek…”
Just then, Shirley Lai felt a very hot sensation next to her, and she turned her head to look.
She found that the talisman that was originally pasted on the wall had inexplicably caught fire.
The talisman was turning into ashes bit by bit at a very slow speed.
This was not the most terrifying thing. The most terrifying thing was that the mirror hanging on the wall reflected a hunched figure.
Because the distance was a bit far, Shirley Lai could not see very clearly, but she could be sure that this figure was the old man she saw on the computer!
The old man, just like in the photo, was sitting on the bed, looking at her with a smile.
The image reflected in the mirror was much more real than the photo, and ten thousand times more terrifying than the photo.
She looked at the bed in terror.
The bed was empty, and although there was no one there, there was an indentation on the quilt as if someone had sat on it…
If Shirley Lai had not watched many horror movies and had a relatively strong psychological quality, she would have been scared to death by what she had just experienced.
But even so, her heart was filled with extreme fear.
Looking at the burning talisman, Shirley Lai’s mind was racing.
Perhaps this talisman could protect her from leaving this place. Once it burned out, she would die even if she hid in the room!
So, with a heart of determination, the young girl immediately tore down the yellowed talisman and held it in her hand.
Then she opened the bedroom door a crack.
When she entered the bedroom, the lights outside were on.
But for some reason, they had all been turned off, plunging the entire house into darkness.
This kind of eerie darkness made the young girl instantly lose all her courage.
She closed the bedroom door again.
Her heart was filled with immense pressure.
The talisman was burning very slowly, but before it burned out, she had to find a way to escape.
Thinking of this, the young girl took out her mobile phone and first dialed 110, but it was a busy number…
She then dialed the number called “Mom.”
After anxious waiting, the call was finally connected.
A familiar voice, along with the clinking sound of mahjong tiles, came from the other end.
“Shirley, what’s wrong?”
“Mom! Why aren’t you back yet?”
“I’m playing mahjong outside. I’ll be back around eleven. Make yourself something to eat if you want.”
Hearing this call, Shirley Lai was almost crying.
The talisman couldn’t last until eleven. At most, in an hour, she would die here!
“Mom, please come back quickly! There’s a ghost at home!”
“I told you not to watch so many horror movies, but you didn’t believe me, and now you’re being suspicious… Mahjong!”
Before Shirley Lai could say anything more, the call was hung up.
Shirley Lai tried calling several more times, but there was no answer.
At this moment, the young girl’s face was filled with despair. She now knew two things very clearly.
One was that the “Mom” in her house was not her mom.
And the other thing was… no one would come to save her now.
“What should I do…”
Shirley Lai didn’t have many friends. She searched and finally set her sights on Deng Xiaolin’s number.
Without any hesitation, she immediately dialed it.
Chapter 23 Home Ghost
“The sky is blue, waiting for the rain, and I am waiting for you…”
After a long wait, the call was finally connected.
“Xiaolin, where are you now?”
“What’s wrong?”
“I… there’s a ghost in my house, please come and save me.”
The young girl’s voice was already tinged with a hint of crying. Now, she could only place her hope on Deng Xiaolin.
Upon hearing this request, Deng Xiaolin on the other end of the phone let out a very strange laugh.
“You’re scared by the horror movie again and can’t sleep, right? I’ll be there immediately. Stay put in your room. Remember to open the door for me~”
Shirley Lai, who thought she had caught a life-saving straw, heard this voice and her heart sank.
Deng Xiaolin had never made such a strange laugh before.
More importantly, Deng Xiaolin would never emphasize opening the door when coming to her house.
Why did she emphasize this?
Could it be that she… was not the Deng Xiaolin she knew at all?
In such a desperate situation where calling heaven and earth yielded no response, Shirley Lai’s fear grew.
She stared intently at the text message that someone had sent her.
“Stay safe and don’t trust anyone around you! Not even your family!”
“Close the windows, turn on the lights, and don’t open the door no matter who it is outside!”
Looking at this message, Shirley Lai felt like crying but had no tears.
Of course, she wanted to hide in the room and wait it out, but was that realistic?!
There was a ghost sitting in her bedroom, and another ghost wandering in the house.
“Someone save me!”
She replied to the message again, but the prompt she received was still three big red characters.
Undelivered.
The talisman was only half burned. Seeing this, Shirley Lai knew that she couldn’t wait in the room any longer.
She opened the room door again, confirmed that there were no other “people” outside, and rushed out with the mirror.
In such a situation, the faster the better. Once discovered by the wandering ghosts in the house, it would be truly over!
The house was so quiet that the fall of a needle could be heard clearly.
Passing through the living room, the air was filled with the smell of cured meat and the aroma of grilled fish.
However, Shirley Lai dared not linger. She rushed to the staircase and ran downstairs.
In many horror movies, ghosts could sense people’s locations, so instead of walking slowly, it was better to run outside as fast as possible.
Moreover, the sound insulation of such residential houses was not very good, and there were neighbors nearby. Perhaps the footsteps could attract their attention?
Perhaps heaven was looking out for her, as she rushed all the way without encountering any fierce ghosts wandering in the house.
Running from the second floor to the first floor, passing through the entrance, and rushing into the outside world, Shirley Lai almost collapsed.
Extreme fear also led to rapid exhaustion of physical strength.
Her deliberately loud footsteps echoed far away.
But strangely, no lights were on in the surrounding residential buildings.
It was as if she was the only living person left in the entire world.
A cool night breeze blew, and the silver moonlight fell on the young girl, making her breathe a sigh of relief, and her spirits improved a lot.
She should be safe now, right?
Looking at the dark residential buildings and the deserted streets, Shirley Lai dared not gamble.
She decided to find a place with many people.
For example, an internet cafe…
Although she was tired, she still used all her might to run to the internet cafe.
The moment she rushed into the internet cafe, the receptionist looked at her with confusion, seemingly confused by Shirley Lai’s appearance with a mirror in her arms and a talisman in her hand.
Listening to the noisy sounds inside the internet cafe, Shirley Lai finally breathed a sigh of relief.
No matter how rampant the ghost at home was, it couldn’t possibly come to such a crowded place to kill people, right?
But what about her mom?
Shirley Lai dared not go home now, nor did she want her mom to go home.
After all, there was really a ghost in that house. She would rather sleep in a bar for a night than go home.
“Anyway, I should call first.”
Shirley Lai took out her phone and prepared to call her mom.
But when she took out her phone, she saw that the text message that previously had garbled sender information now had all the garbled text removed.
And the real number was revealed – Deng Xiaolin.
Realizing this, Shirley Lai quickly dialed back.
“The sky is blue, waiting for the rain, and I am waiting for you…”
It was still the familiar ringtone, and Shirley Lai’s heart was very nervous.
“Hello?”
But the voice on the other end of the phone was an unfamiliar man.
The man’s voice was deep and magnetic, but compared to the strange laugh before, it was indeed very reassuring.
However, she needed to find out who the other person was and why they were using Deng Xiaolin’s phone number.
“Hello, hello, are you a friend of Deng Xiaolin?”
But the man did not answer Shirley Lai’s question. He retorted.
“You encountered a ghost? Cūnqí lín 9, bà ⒌ sìmó ⒏ ní qī”
“Yes, yes, yes!”
Although she didn’t know who the other person was, hearing someone finally believe in ghosts made Shirley Lai want to burst into tears.
And because of this warning message, she naturally trusted the man on the other end of the phone very much.
“Are you still at home? I’m on my way.”
“I’ve already escaped to the Ai Shang Internet Cafe not far from my house… Who are you?”
Although the other party might be a feng shui master like her father, for safety reasons, she still had to inquire about the other party’s origin.
People’s hearts are unpredictable, so she couldn’t let down all her defenses.
“Liu Haoyu, Deng Xiaolin’s friend,” the man’s voice was very calm. “I’ve arrived downstairs at the internet cafe. Wait a moment, I’ll be right up.”
“Okay…”
Shirley Lai put down her phone and repeated Liu Haoyu’s name.
She seemed to have some impression of this name, as if she had heard it somewhere before.
“Are you Shirley Lai?”
As the young girl was thinking, the man’s voice rang out beside her.
The young girl subconsciously turned her head to answer.
When she turned her head, she saw a man with a haggard face and a blank expression.
He had empty hands and did not look like a feng shui master.
In fact, she felt that his appearance… was a bit sinister.
Shirley Lai nodded her head stiffly.
“I am.”
“That’s good,” the man said indifferently. “Let’s go.”
“Uh…”
Shirley Lai was stunned.
“Where?”
“Didn’t you say there was a ghost in your house? If we don’t go to your house, how can we get rid of the ghost?”
Hearing this, Shirley Lai immediately recoiled, looking at the man’s pale, deathly face, and felt that something was wrong.
