Chapter 24 Chapter 23 The Sound of Nails

On the first night of living in the new house, Su Tan felt very quiet, probably because of the remote location and few vehicles passing by. The only thing he could hear was the intermittent crowing of frogs in the reeds. That summer three years ago. Although it has just entered summer, people in this city have felt the scorching heat in advance, which may indicate that there must be a difficult summer this year. Su Tan and Li Kui talked very well. Li Kui opened a calligraphy and painting shop in Beijing. Because it had just opened, it was in urgent need of calligraphy and painting. At an art exhibition, Li Kui saw Su Tan's flower-and-bird paintings, and it was love at first sight. He planned to cooperate with Su Tan for a long time, and he gave him a good reputation.Of course Su Tan was very happy, so he decided not to go back to his hometown in Henan during the summer vacation. Instead, he rented a house near the Academy of Fine Arts and painted for two months. By the time school started, he might become a rich man.

Soon, he found a cheap and suitable house, which was Room 301 in the old building - the legendary haunted house.Of course, the building was not deserted at that time, and Su Tan didn't know that 301 was a haunted house. All he cared about was the cheap price. "Two hundred a month!" said the landlord. "Okay, I'll rent it." Su Tan hesitated and said. "I haven't finished yet. Two hundred a month, if you want to rent, you have to pay for a year first." The landlord added. "Why? I'll pay for half a year at most." Su Tan felt that the landlord was a little dark, so he said it rudely.

"No! Can you rent such a cheap house elsewhere? This is a single room!" The landlord was tougher than Su Tan. "Okay. But I only have a thousand with me." "That's it." The landlord didn't insist anymore. The landlord is a thin old lady in her fifties, surnamed Sun, who lives next door to 301.She opened the door of 301, and Su Tan walked in.The room is much more spacious than imagined. There is a bed and some simple furniture in the room. It looks very clean, as if it has just been cleaned. Su Tan is very satisfied. He turned around in the room and found that there was an extra door in the room, and the door was locked. Looking in through the crack of the door, it was so dark inside that he didn't know what it was.So Su Tan asked Mrs. Sun in puzzlement, "Why is there still a room here? Why is it still locked?"

The landlord said calmly: "Yes! It's just a small room, and some of my useless sundries are stored in it. I usually lock it." Su Tan nodded and asked, "Then when can I move in?" The old lady smiled and said, "Anytime!" The next day, Su Tan found a few classmates to help him move, among them was the monitor Shao Pengniao.It is said to be moving, but in fact there is nothing to move, except for those pens, ink, paper and inkstones, the biggest piece of furniture is a black high-back swivel chair.The chair was very old, it was given to him by a fellow of Su Tan when he moved, and Su Tan was not willing to throw it away.The chairs are old but really comfortable to sit on.

The house was finished soon, Su Tan sent the students downstairs, and said to the class monitor Shao Pengniao: "Squad leader, I will tidy up in a few days, and I invite everyone to have dinner." Shao Pengniao said with a strong Shandong accent: "My good boy, no problem, I will buy you some wine then!" After seeing off his classmates, Su Tan walked up the stairs wearily.Go to the corner of the stairs, and quickly walk down a person from upstairs.Su Tan raised his eyes and saw a beautiful girl. The girl also saw Su Tan, so she slowed down and passed him. At this moment, a faint fragrance floated by, and a subtle feeling surged in Su Tan's heart. He vaguely felt that something would happen to him and this girl.

This wonderful fragrance made Su Tan's nerves a little confused, and he instinctively turned his face to look at her back.Unexpectedly, the girl was also turning to look at him.The two pairs of eyes looked at each other for a moment, but Su Tan felt that a century had passed. The girl is indeed very beautiful, with delicate features and fair face.Especially those eyes, like a pool of clear water, yet bottomless, made Su Tan feel a sense of mystery and an extraordinary aura. At that time, Su Tan had a long ponytail, and a pair of eyes under the thick eyebrows showed a kind of aloofness and laxity.At that time, he was high-spirited and full of confidence.

The girl smiled at Su Tan, and spoke in a sweet voice: "I've seen you before, you are a painter." Su Tan is introverted and rarely interacts with the opposite sex. At this time, facing such a beautiful girl, he felt very uncomfortable and said, "Yes. You..." "I saw your photo at an art exhibition. I also like to draw, but I'm not good at drawing. Now I'm learning how to mount pictures." He lowered his head, embarrassed, and looked at his shoes. "You know how to mount paintings!" Su Tan was a little surprised, "I can ask you to mount paintings in the future!"

The girl smiled and said, "Of course, as long as you're not afraid that I'll ruin your masterpiece." After she finished speaking, she turned around and ran downstairs while laughing. Su Tan stood there in a daze, becoming unable to stop, the faint fragrance still permeated his heart. On the first night of living in the new house, Su Tan felt very quiet, probably because of the remote location and few vehicles passing by. The only thing he could hear was the intermittent crowing of frogs in the reeds. The environment was very strange, and he was a little uncomfortable, especially the lingering faint fragrance in his heart, and the drowsiness disappeared little by little.So he sat up and turned on the lamp, and found a thick book from his schoolbag.

Looking at it, sleepiness came up.Just as he reached out to turn off the light, he heard some trivial voices.The sound came from a corner of the room. Su Tan put down the book, sat up from the bed, and listened to the voice.The sound was faint, like the sound of a hand rubbing against the wall, or rather nails scratching the wall. Soon, the voice disappeared, disappeared without a trace. Su Tan didn't think much, turned off the light and lay down again.When he opened his eyes, it was already daylight. Su Tan put the pen, ink, paper and inkstone on the table, and started his day's work.He worked hard to paint, but his mind was not on the painting, and none of the several paintings satisfied him.

He rubbed his stiff neck and sat down in the high-backed swivel chair.The swivel chair creaked. He picked up a painting of peonies that he had just finished and looked at it, but what he was thinking about was the girl he met yesterday. His mind was in a mess, so he balled up the painting in his hand and threw it towards the door vigorously.The blob of painting bounced off the door, narrowly missing his head.An unknown fire rose in his heart.Just then, there was a knock on the door. Su Tan walked over and opened the door.It turned out to be that girl standing outside the door! She stood outside the door with a smile, making Su Tan at a loss for a while, and didn't know what to say, just smiled, embarrassed.

The girl was very generous, and looked sideways at Su Tan's room with a curious look on her face.She looked at the paintings scattered all over the room, and said with a smile, "You are painting! I—may I take a look?" Su Tan smiled, and turned sideways to let the girl into the room. As soon as the girl entered the room, she seemed very excited, and she was full of praise for Su Tan's paintings.This made Su Tan even more embarrassed. "The painting is not good, there is no decent one..." "You are too modest, so give me one!" "Of course... But these are not good, I will draw a better one for you now." Su Tan said, quickly spread out a piece of rice paper, picked up the pen, and glanced at the girl standing opposite.She was still smiling at him.Su Tan felt a sweet sense of happiness welling up in his heart.This is probably the taste of love, the first time Su Tan has this feeling in his life. Su Tan calmed down and finished the painting in one go.He felt 100% satisfied, and even thought that this was the best painting of peonies he had ever painted.He took two steps back, looked at it proudly for a while, then raised his head and asked the girl, "What's your name?" "Zhu Hui." "Zhu Hui?" Su Tan seemed a little puzzled. "When it is extremely red, it turns to ashes." She looked at Su Tan and read out this poem-like sentence. Su Tan didn't think about it, and with a swipe of a pen, he wrote "Zhu Hui's classmate Ya Cun Su Tan wrote it on Gu Shang". In the painting, a daisy stands alone under the cover of a rock, as if waiting for something. The sun was setting outside the window, Zhu Hui finished the picture scroll excitedly, but when she walked to the door, she stopped smiling, hesitated, and said to Su Tan: "I advise you to live in another place, this place is not very good..." the voice There is a kind of uneasiness in it. Su Tan was baffled, and just about to ask, Zhu Hui ran downstairs quickly. That night, Su Tan was still tossing and turning, he was thinking about Zhu Hui's beautiful smile, and at the same time thinking about the incomprehensible words she said before leaving. I don't know how long it took, when Su Tan was about to fall asleep in a trance, the sound of cracking nails scratching the wall sounded again. Su Tan hurriedly sat up, got out of bed, turned on the light, and wanted to find the source of the sound.But the sound disappeared without a trace the moment the light was turned on. He turned off the light, sat in the dark and listened carefully, but the sound did not appear again. During the long night, Su Tan slept very alertly, and he didn't know when he fell asleep. Early the next morning, Su Tan knocked on the door of the landlord's house, and he asked the old lady of the landlord why she always heard strange noises at night. The old landlady was startled at first, then she had strange eyes, and said evasively: "This building is old, and rats often make noise. It's the sound of rats grinding their teeth." Su Tan returned to his room, thinking about the old lady's words, and felt that she was lying, and mice would not make that kind of sound.Just then, someone knocked on the door. Su Tan opened the door suspiciously.Standing outside the door was Zhu Hui. Zhu Hui carried the breakfast, shyly said: "Yesterday you gave me a painting, today I will treat you to breakfast." Seeing Zhu Hui, Su Tan suddenly felt better. He let her in, took a bite out of a bean bun, and said, "Listen to your accent, aren't you a local?" He swallowed the bean bun in his mouth, looked at Zhu Hui, and said, "Don't keep looking at it." Let me eat, and you eat too!" "Yes, I am not a local, my ancestral home is in Anhui." Zhu Hui said. "Anhui! Anhui's rice paper is very famous!" "That's right! I have a friend who is in the rice paper business. I came here mainly to learn how to mount paintings. After I become an apprentice, I will open my own gallery, and I can also mount calligraphy and paintings by the way." "Okay!" Su Tan said happily, "Then it will be much more convenient for me to buy paper and mount pictures in the future, ha ha!" Two young people who have left their hometowns are smiling happily in this simple house, enjoying themselves happily. After laughing for a while, Zhu Hui suddenly turned her face to the side, looking quietly into Su Tan's eyes.Su Tan looked embarrassed and asked, "Why..." "Did you not sleep well?" Zhu Hui asked softly. "Why, you see..." Zhu Hui looked around, and still whispered: "Your complexion is not very good, you'd better live in another place..." Su Tan smiled, and asked, "What's the matter with living here? Isn't it very good here? By the way, you said that last time, what do you mean?" Zhu Hui's expression became mysterious, and she approached Su Tan and said, "If I told you that someone died in this room, would you still dare to live here?" Seeing Zhu Hui's strange expression, Su Tan suddenly remembered the sound of nails scratching the wall last night, and was startled, and asked eagerly, "I've died! What do you mean? Who did you hear that from?" "I listened to what my master said!" "Who is your master?" "My master is the one who taught me how to frame pictures, and he lives upstairs from you." Su Tan lowered his head and thought for a while, then pretended to be bold, and said, "Which old house never died! But, do you know the reason for the death?" Zhu Hui shook his head and said: "I don't know, the master is also a foreigner, and he didn't live here long. He rented the house here mainly because the rent is cheap. He just told me that 301 is a haunted house." "Haunted house!" Su Tan was a little surprised. "Yes! Don't you think there are very few residents in this building? Maybe it's a haunted house, and the neighbors who knew about it have moved out, so the houses here are mainly rented to outsiders." Su Tan remained silent all this time. He recalled the sound of scratching the wall last night, and felt that the sound seemed to be inextricably linked to the haunted house... After sending Zhu Hui away, Su Tan was no longer in the mood to paint, wandered around the house for a while, and then knocked on the landlord's door again.No one answered after knocking for a long time, so he had to go back to his room. After Zhu Hui left, the sound of "Haunted House, Haunted House" kept ringing in Su Tan's ears, and he felt a gust of wind blowing from nowhere, and he began to feel hairy. A thick cloud gradually covered the sun, the room suddenly became dark, and everything in the room became strange. At this moment, there seemed to be some movement outside the door.Su Tan thought it was Zhu Hui who came back, so he walked over and opened the door.Did not see Zhu Hui, but found a small red ball in front of the door.He leaned over to pick up the small ball, looked left and right, but found no one.He turned around and took the ball back into the house, squeezed it, and the ball was soft.He carefully placed the ball on the table, but unexpectedly knocked over the ink bottle.Ink was spilled all over the floor, but fortunately it didn't splash on the body.Su Tan sighed and went downstairs. Today's temperature is not too high, he walked around a lot, bought ink, and bought some fruits.When he was walking back, he accidentally found an antique wooden comb on a stall.He knelt down and picked up the wooden comb.The comb was made of ebony, delicate and simple, and he immediately thought of Zhu Hui's long black hair, so he bought this comb without hesitation. On the way back, Su Tan held the comb and thought again, the haunted house is the haunted house, he doesn't regret it, if he didn't move here, how could he meet Zhu Hui! Su Tan was in a particularly good mood, humming a song while walking upstairs. Go to the door, take out the key, the key is not in the lock, but the door is opened. Did you forget to lock the door just now?He gently opened the door. There was actually a person sitting in the room—a five or six-year-old boy was sitting in Su Tan's high-backed swivel chair, smiling and looking at Su Tan who had just entered the room with a surprised expression on his face. The child was very thin, and he was holding the little red ball in his hand. Sitting in a tall chair, he looked even smaller. "Who are you? How did you get in?" Su Tan asked in surprise. "The door is not locked," said the child. "Then what are you doing here?" Su Tan asked. "Why are you taking other people's things?" the child asked while holding the ball tightly. "I - what did I take?" Su Tan felt very passive. The child raised the small red ball in his hand and said, "Why is my ball on your table?" "I—" Su Tan shook his head at a loss, not knowing what to say. Although the child was thin and weak, his eyes were bright and his face was mature. He didn't look like a five or six-year-old child at all, even with the cunning of an adult.He jumped off the chair, put the little ball on the ground, walked around the room, looked at the paintings on the wall and said, "Are you a painter?" "Yes. Who are you? You haven't answered me yet." Su Tan asked. "Your door was unlocked, so I came in, and I came to get my ball." The child replied calmly. "That's right. I found that ball at the door. I didn't know it was yours." Su Tan said. The child stopped talking about the ball and suddenly said, "Can you draw a portrait of me?" Su Tan smiled and said, "Yes, do you want it now?" The child smiled, with a strange expression and a sense of sarcasm. Su Tan didn't think much, spread the paper, let the child sit on the high-backed swivel chair, and began to draw the portrait.After a while, the child jumped out of the chair and said, "I won't draw anymore!" Su Tan put down his pen and said: "It will be over soon, hold on for a while." While picking up his little ball, the child said, "It's too tiring, it's not fun at all!" "The thread has been hooked, and it's time to dye it." Su Tan was still persuading him. While kicking the ball vigorously, the child said: "Then you can dye it, and I will come back to get it in two days." Su Tan looked helplessly at the children who were playing football. The child was kicking the little ball against the wall vigorously. Su Tan was curious and asked, "Do you like playing football very much?" The kid turned around, shook his head and said, "I hate playing football!" "Then you..." Su Tan asked. "No reason, I just want to kick." The child left with the ball after speaking. He came here inexplicably, and left again, looking at the unfinished painting on the table, with the child's weird smile on it, Su Tan couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart. He walked to the window and looked downstairs, but the child did not appear at the door of the building.He opened the door again and looked upstairs, there was no sound of walking in the corridor.So Su Tan locked the door and strode upstairs until he saw a small staircase on the top floor. Above this staircase is the top floor. He grabbed the handle of the stairs and climbed up with three or two steps.The wind on the roof was extremely strong, and there were many self-made TV antennas strewn all over the place.The child was not found here either.Su Tan looked into the distance, not knowing where the child went.So he turned and walked towards the stairs, accidentally stepped on something, looked down and saw the small black pistol. This time he didn't pick it up, but kicked it. It was a plastic toy gun.Without thinking too much, he went straight downstairs. Soon after returning to his home, Su Tan slowly opened the door and looked around carefully.The room was empty, and he pretended to cough, as if to embolden himself, and as if he wanted to clear away the bad luck in the room just now. He walked towards the window and looked down, hoping to spot the incredible child on the little street below.The child did not appear, but Su Tan saw a familiar person. Three people were standing downstairs talking in low voices. Su Tan recognized one of them at a glance - it was Hui Ye. The other two, one tall and thin and the other short and stout.The fat one looks like a monk, wearing a monk's robe, with a turquoise light on his bald head.The tall and thin man had very long hair, a bun on the top of his head, and a stick inserted in it. He looked a lot like a monk. The monk, the layman, and the three of them were whispering downstairs, not knowing what they were up to.Su Tan was very curious, standing in front of the window and watching quietly. The man who looked like a Taoist priest seemed to be holding a compass in his hand. He raised a finger and pointed to the direction of Su Tan's window, which surprised Su Tan and quickly hid behind the curtain. Then, the monk nodded at the Taoist priest, and seemed to say something, and then the two looked at the master at the same time, and the master did not speak, but nodded vigorously. Soon, the monks turned around and walked towards the gate of the building. The concubine just followed behind in a daze, looking a little dazed. Su Tan walked to the door, lay down on the door and looked out from the peephole, and after a while, he saw the three people slowly walking up the stairs, and suddenly stopped in front of his door. Su Tan's heart began to beat violently. The man who looked like a Taoist looked at the door with a compass, then turned his head to look at the door next door, then frowned as if realizing something, raised his other hand, pointed to 301 lightly, and then turned towards the meeting room. Grandpa nodded and muttered something in a low voice. Guild Master looked haggard and nodded like a log.Then the three of them turned and went downstairs.Su Tan turned his face away, pressed his back against the door tightly, and suddenly felt a chill in his heart.