Chapter 4 Chapter Three

I've never seen myself in the mirror like this: disheveled hair, stubbled face, sunken eyes. Inside the dark eye sockets, several red blood threads were secretly surging. I took a closer look and found that they had begun to spread from the eyeballs. The trend was like a burning lead, leading to the nose, ears, throat, and through To the sky, to the heart... bang!This face was instantly torn apart! However, when I withdrew my fist, I found sadly that there were more of the same faces reflected in those bloodshot shattered lenses, the same faces that were neither human nor ghost, they had no expression, and were laughing silently I, laugh at the world.

"Xin Jie, half a month has passed, where are you?" The voice came out of his hoarse throat, but there was no response.I lowered my head, looked at the fragments of the mirror scattered in the washstand, and reached out to wash them away, but suddenly found something: a lipstick, with a red casing, standing beside the faucet.I grabbed it, stared at it, and kept thinking: Where did this lipstick come from?When was it put here?Maybe you don't know why I am so obsessed with a lipstick, because, I know one thing very well, Xin Jie has never used lipstick, and has never bought lipstick.I grabbed the lipstick and walked out of the bathroom, turned on the lamp, and looked at it carefully.Faintly, I feel that there is some connection between Xin Jie's disappearance and the appearance of this lipstick.But what exactly is the connection?No clue.

I scratched my head, a few hairs slipped from my fingers to the floor, and I suddenly remembered something else.right!The long hair that Ling Zhijie found in the bathroom half a month ago!Like this lipstick, that hair also appeared out of nowhere, and it also does not belong to Xin Jie! At that time, I didn't care about that long hair, and I was still immersed in how to find my wife in the first place. And in the next half month, in the repeated hope and disappointment, I felt more and more that this kind of thinking was gradually turning into despair, which invaded my bone marrow little by little, making me miserable.

The appearance of lipstick undoubtedly gave me some kind of hope.I began to suspect that there might be something hidden in the lipstick, such as a small note or something.But when I wanted to take it apart, I suddenly thought of one thing: I should ask Ling Zhijie to do a fingerprint identification first, so that I might be able to find the real owner of this lipstick. But I have already touched it, I don't know if it will affect the identification?Anyway, let Ling Zhijie give it a try.I dialed Ling Zhijie's cell phone and turned it off.I called his office, and someone told me that he was out of the police, and I couldn't tell when he would return to the police station, so I asked that person to leave a message and wait for Ling Zhijie's call at home.

While waiting, I suddenly thought of something wrong, which was the length of the hair.At that time, Ling Zhijie was holding it and kept his arms fully stretched, which meant that the length of that hair was about 1.8 meters, which was about 20 centimeters taller than the height of an ordinary woman!Just think, how many people still have such long hair now?If it really belonged to a certain woman, what was the origin of this woman?How could it appear in my bathroom? And this lipstick, does it also belong to this long-haired woman? Thinking of this, a cold feeling suddenly emerged, and I remembered some strange details of staying at home during this period of time: for example, when I was in the shower, I suddenly felt someone touch my neck; when I opened the refrigerator, I saw A vague shadow flashed in the reflection of the refrigerator door; when I woke up in the middle of the night when I was sleeping, I always felt that there was a figure squatting at the end of the bed... I didn’t dare to think about it anymore, and that made me dare not think about it The thought is: Is there another person living in this house?Or is it living in another thing?

I stood up, looked around the bedroom, and suddenly realized that since Xin Jie disappeared, the room has become dirty, dark and damp, with a musty smell everywhere. I opened the curtains, trying to let the light in, but found that the sky outside the window was almost as dark as the inside of the house——before I knew it, it was the evening of another day. When will the rain end?Ever since Xin Jie disappeared, the moldy and rainy weather seemed to have never stopped. I was a little hungry, so I decided to have something to eat first.When I opened the refrigerator, I deliberately observed it from the reflection of the refrigerator door, but I didn't find anything.Perhaps, it is outrageous to really find such a person on purpose.Because, there is no one who has lived in your house for half a month, but you have never seen her. Is this possible?

If this is impossible, then the only person I can doubt is myself - a psychiatrist who has suffered a severe mental breakdown after his wife disappeared inexplicably. This is my current situation, which is really terrible. The refrigerator is almost empty, and a lot of things that Ling Zhijie purchased earlier have already been stuffed into my stomach.It seems that I have to go out, otherwise, before I find Xin Jie, I may have starved to death in this room. When I went downstairs, the door of 502 just opened. Luo Xianmei was obviously taken aback when she saw me, and shouted loudly: "Oh! Isn't this Xiao He? Why are you like this? I don't even recognize you! "

I reluctantly grinned at her and continued walking downstairs.Unexpectedly, she chased me all the way down, grabbing my arm and going to her house.I stood still and asked her hoarsely why she was dragging me. "Xiao He, don't ask anything, come to my house first!" "No, I want to go down and do some shopping." "What did you buy? Didn't you eat? Come to my house to eat!" "Sister Mei, I have a friend who invited me to dinner. I'm really sorry, but thank you very much!" She stared at me for a few seconds, finally let go, then looked at me with a very apologetic expression, and wanted to say something more.

At this time, an old male voice came from her house: "Amei! The food in the pot is burnt! Where did you go, you old woman?" Luo Xianmei turned her head back and replied bitterly: "What's it called? You don't know how to fry your turtle eggs?!" After finishing speaking, she gave me a sorry look, "Well then, you'll be back later Come to my house sometime, I have something to tell you!" I was slightly taken aback, what can this woman have to say to me?However, in today's society, for those of us who are accustomed to seeing the warmth and coldness of human relationships, the enthusiasm and concern shown by the eldest sister downstairs really touched my heart of despair and loneliness at that time.

I went downstairs and entered a canteen. The proprietress was lying on the counter fiddling with her mobile phone without even looking at me.I took a few packs of instant noodles, and when I was about to pay, I suddenly found a familiar face on the TV behind the proprietress—it turned out to be Ling Zhijie! Surrounded by a large number of microphones, he raised his hand to cover his face from time to time. No matter how the reporter asked him, he didn't speak, but squeezed out.At this time, the camera turned to a reporter, "Everyone, as you can see, the scene is very chaotic. The police have not said anything so far. Let's go over there to see the specific situation."

The camera switched again, and after a while of shaking, it froze on the edge of a small river.The camera zoomed in, and I saw several people shaking in the picture, some in police uniforms and some in plain clothes, all staring at something on the ground.Although the picture was not very clear, and some water droplets splashed on the lens, I still felt that the ground covered by the rain cloth should be a person, to be precise, it should be a corpse. "Everyone, at this position, we can already see the corpse over there. According to the witnesses just now, like the previous six victims, it was a young woman, no older than 30 years old. As for more The details are not yet known, hopefully the police will..." The reporter’s words confirmed my guess. Just now I thought it was just an ordinary case, but when the reporter mentioned the words “six victims are the same”, I was shocked. It seems that this is by no means ordinary Ling Zhijie is busy with the case. "It's the seventh one. It's really unlucky that so many people died in this weather!" The proprietress said without raising her head, still looking at her mobile phone. I haven't watched TV for nearly half a month, and I don't know what happened outside. Ling Zhijie never told me about this case.I wanted to get some news from the proprietress, but I didn't expect that the proprietress didn't want to say more at all, and was still playing with the phone. After paying the bill, I went back to the building. When I passed 502, I hesitated for a while, but I decided not to disturb Luo Xianmei. I went upstairs, took out the key and was about to open the door, when I suddenly found that the door was unlocked! The first thought that flashed through my mind: Thief! But after thinking about it, this period of time, and such a short period of time, is unlikely, and then my second thought was: that invisible woman living in the house! I was taken aback by the possibility I thought of, and my heart began to pound. If it was really that woman, maybe everything that happened in the past half month could be explained. I quietly opened the door and went in, looking at my room like a thief.As far as the eye could see, there was no one in the living room, including the kitchen with the door open. I entered the bathroom with lighter steps, but there was still nothing. When I turned around, I found the bedroom door was ajar.I clearly remember that I closed it before going out, because I always have the habit of closing the door when I go in and out of the bedroom. I couldn't wait to push the door open, but after a short thought, I gradually calmed down.If it was a thief, there might be a physical altercation.If it's that woman, it's hard to say.So, I decided to take a look at the situation inside through the gap in the door. The light in the bedroom is very dark, and only a rough outline can be seen. The window was opened by me earlier, but at this moment, the rain outside started to increase again, and the sound of rattling completely covered the sound in the bedroom. I pushed the door open little by little, and when it was less than a third of the time, I saw a horrifying scene through the faint light coming in from the window. A black human-shaped thing stood at the head of the bed, with its upper body leaning forward, forming a right angle of ninety degrees. The whole thing looked like an unusually neat and huge number "7", and its head was overlooking The head position I usually sleep in, motionless. My heart began to beat wildly, and this picture lasted for about ten seconds.During these ten seconds, I didn't know what to do, and that thing didn't move at all.Until a sharp ring rang, I hurriedly went to my pocket as if struck by lightning, trying to press this untimely call. However, it was too late.When I hung up the phone and looked again, the weird figure beside the bed had disappeared.I fumbled for the light switch in a hurry, and the pale light illuminated the entire bedroom, but I didn't find anything—the thing just disappeared. I froze for a moment, then rushed to the bay window, poked my head out, looked up, down, left, and right, and suddenly saw a black shadow passing by above my head, and instantly disappeared into the window of 702 upstairs. What it is? ! It never occurred to me that the one in the bedroom was not the thief, nor the woman I expected, but such a dark, quick-moving guy, what was he doing in the bedroom?Why stare at where I usually sleep?What the hell is it looking at?Is this the thing that squats at the end of the bed that I always feel when I wake up in the middle of the night?What the hell is it going to do? To be honest, I tried my best to guess the real identity of this guy, just to alleviate the feeling of extreme terror just now.However, when I think about the movement of that thing carefully, I feel more and more afraid, because that thing is not like a human being, nor is it like an ordinary animal. The dark shadow reminds me of a person who never wants to Admit something - ghosts. But no matter what, before I catch it under the sun and see it clearly with my own eyes, I still can't let myself believe in ghosts, which are also unexplainable things, plus what Luo Xianmei said before about the death of a family of four in 702 and the haunting According to the rumors, I think it is necessary to go up and have a look.Otherwise, that ghost-like thing will come down sooner or later. As for what it will do when it comes down, I can't help it. Of course, I had to find someone to go up with me just to be safe.I picked up the phone and was about to call Ling Zhijie, but unexpectedly, he called first. "What do you want from me? I called you five minutes ago and you hung up again. What do you mean?" The phone was very noisy, and Ling Zhijie had to raise his voice very high. "Zhijie, are you free to come over now?" "No, I'm busy right now." "I know, but I can't handle this matter alone at the moment, I need you to come over." "What's the matter with you? Tell me first on the phone!" "Xin Jie, I found some clues about Xin Jie." "Clues? What clues? Can't you just finish talking? I'm so busy here!" "I can't tell you on the phone, why don't you come over..." Before I finished speaking, I heard the noise on the other end of the phone resume. Ling Zhijie seemed to move away from the microphone, and he could vaguely hear him probably He was sent away by a colleague, and after a few seconds, the phone was hung up, and it seemed that he couldn't come. I sat on the bed for a while, and decided to go to Luo Xianmei to inquire about 702. If possible, I could find a way to get the couple to go up there with me. Of course, it would definitely not be easy to persuade them to go up there. I sorted out my thoughts a bit, went downstairs, and knocked on the door of 502.