Chapter 20 end
Ji Ning's family, together with Doudou, stood in front of the graves of grandma and aunt.White chrysanthemums and calla lilies are placed on the two tombstones respectively.
"It's agreed, no one is allowed to cry today." Mom said.
Ji Ning and Doudou nodded together.Dad said to Mom. "Let's talk about it."
Mom squatted down and called softly: "Mom, Huiyun, we are here to tell you a piece of good news - Doudou's last test result came out, he is healthy and has no virus. Huiyun, you can Don't worry. We will raise Doudou as our own son..." His voice was choked up.
"It's done." Dad reminded from the side.
Mom stood up slowly, covering her red nose.
"Doudou, it's your turn." Dad patted Doudou on the shoulder.
Doudou is holding two paintings in his hands, which are "family portraits" that he did not want to be seen by others and failed many times before he finally succeeded.He spread the paintings in front of the two graves and pressed them down with two stones.
"Mom, grandma, look, we are all here. You will not be alone..." He didn't cry, tears were all over his face.
Standing silently on the top of the mountain for a long time, they descended along the rugged path.
Walking to the foot of the mountain, a gust of wind blew from behind and hit the back of Ji Ning's neck. He looked back inadvertently...
His expression froze, and his footsteps stopped.
Mom turned around and asked, "Ji Ning, what's wrong?"
"Nothing." Ji Ning stared deeply at the distant hill. "Just the wind in the face."
(End of "The Medium")
There is not a single pause or mistake in Lake's storytelling, and he delivers this chilling story methodically, with an unexpected and evocative ending.The whole process went so smoothly that it made people doubt what he said before. "This story called "The Spiritual Medium" was really improvised by you just now?" Beidou was the first to ask, obviously not quite convinced. "As I said, it's not completely improvised. I thought out the general framework of the story, only some specific plots in the middle and the final ending were improvised." Lake replied. "Even so, it's quite remarkable." Ryoma said, "Chris is right, you are indeed not an ordinary person." Lake frowned, he wasn't sure if what Ryoma said was a compliment or aimed at him. Ryoma saw Lake's distress, and quickly explained: "Don't get me wrong, I don't mean anything else, I really think this story is very good." "Then, let's start scoring." Arakishu said. Same scoring process.In the end, Lake's story got a score of 9.0, becoming the highest score so far.But he did not show joy.It seems that as long as he can play the game smoothly without fouling, it is his greatest wish. Nan Tian recorded Lake's score. Lake's storytelling was relatively slow, and it was almost eleven o'clock now.As the next storyteller, Dark Fire seemed a bit stressed.He went to the cabinet to get some food and water, and said that he would not come down during the day and would concentrate on preparing his story in the room.After finishing their "work" tonight, everyone returned to their rooms to rest.It seemed that nothing special happened this night, so it was going to be passed in a dull manner. Nan Tian was lying on the bed, thinking about a problem—from all the signs so far, the story told by Lake was not fouled from any angle—it was neither the same as the three stories he told before, nor was it similar to the previous three stories. Anything that happens now crashes. In this way, Lake really figured out a way to avoid fouling?Could it be that the people behind can only escape in this way? Of course, there is a second possibility. The organizer obviously won't make himself foul. As soon as this idea came into being, Nan Tian shook his head slightly and rejected it—Lake is now the fourth storyteller, if he is the only one who didn't foul and everyone else did, it would be too much Suspicious.It's not in the style of that dodgy sponsor. But——Nan Tian thought again—it is still too early to judge whether the storyteller will foul or not.Maybe the more this game progresses, the more cautious everyone will be... The development of the situation is unpredictable, and we can only take one step at a time. Thinking about it, Nan Tian felt sleepy.He closed his eyes and soon fell asleep. This converted abandoned prison was apparently built in an inaccessible place.Every night, is the silence of death.Although each room is relatively soundproof, this extraordinary silence still manages to carry some sound into their ears. Nan Tian didn't hear this sound at first, he was sleeping soundly.Later, the voice became louder, and he was dragged out of his sleep. Someone is walking, or...running.Nan Tian discerned carefully, and heard that the voice came from the hall downstairs. Nan Tian sat up from the bed vigilantly.He pricked up his ears and listened carefully for a while—yes, it was the sound of human footsteps, fast and slow.If the sound were in a gym, it would be the normal sound of jogging; but on this particular occasion, it seemed very eerie. A series of questions quickly popped up in Nan Tian's mind - who is it?Who would walk or run downstairs in the middle of the night?What happened? Nan Tian cautiously got off the bed and slowly approached the door.He pressed his ear against the door, and the voice became clearer—someone was really running in circles downstairs, or running in place. Nan Tian couldn't figure out what was going on.He thought it was a bit ridiculous—in the current situation, who would have the pleasure of exercising?Even if it is, you shouldn't come out to run in the middle of the night.Thinking about it this way, he felt a little unusual, and a sense of fear arose spontaneously. Nan Tian really wanted to push the door open immediately to see what was going on.But he was afraid that this was a trap, that his rashness would bring unexpected danger. Just when he was hesitating, the sound of running stopped abruptly.Nan Tian's heart trembled. For the next few minutes.He heard nothing more. Nan Tian went back to bed, thinking about this unusual incident.He had mixed feelings—annoyed that he didn't open the door to see what happened, and comforted himself that maybe staying in the room was the right choice. In the end, he thought it was always right to be cautious.After all, there were still 12 people in this place, and he was obviously not the only one who heard the voice. When he asked everyone tomorrow morning, he might know what was going on. The next morning, Nan Tian got up very early.Thinking of the strange things last night, he lost all sleepiness, and glanced at the time, it was only less than 7 o'clock.But he couldn't hold back anymore, he opened the door and walked out. On the second floor, he saw that there were already several people downstairs in the hall—these people got up earlier than him.This made Nan Tian immediately think that the reason they got up early might be to talk about what happened last night. Sure enough, as soon as Nan Tian went downstairs, Sha Jia quickly walked over to him and asked, "Nan Tian, did you hear that strange footsteps last night?" Nan Tian nodded, Sajia let out a low cry, then turned around and said to the others: "Nan Tian heard it too!" Nan Tian walked over and asked, "Did you all hear that?" Lake nodded first. "Yes." Then Xu Wen, Sajia and Gott also said that they heard footsteps at night. Nan Tian noticed that there were Xiahoushen and Araki who were standing here, and the two of them did not make a statement. He asked, "Mr. Xiahou, Mr. Araki, did you hear that?" Xia Houshen said: "I didn't hear any strange noises at night, but I heard some of them discussing early in the morning, so I came down from upstairs." Nan Tian looked at Araki Zhou: "What about you? Teacher Araki?" Araki Zhou looked away and said arrogantly: "Of course I heard such an obvious voice." He paused, "But I don't think there's anything to make a fuss about. Maybe it's just that someone can't sleep at night and just walks around. Anyway Everyone has not arrived yet, and when the rest of the people wake up, it will naturally become clear." "To be honest, Mr. Araki, I don't think so." Gott said, "The strange sound was because of the strange sound last night—it was a burst of footsteps that were fast and slow, and suddenly there was no sound at all. There was no more sound. If someone came out to move around, then this person should always go back to the room after walking for a while, why did he stop suddenly? I felt at the time that the person seemed to stop at the same place, Then I didn’t move again—it’s really weird to the extreme.” "That may be an illusion, or a false impression." Araki said, "Young man, don't trust your feelings too much." Nan Tian asked: "Did none of you go out to see what's going on?" Sajia said, "I'm a little scared, and I dare not go out to see it." Goth even said bluntly: "Whether I hear any noise or not. I will never open the door at night. Living in such a ghostly place and encountering such weird events, if I don't learn how to protect myself, That would be so unwise." Xu Wen and Lake lowered their heads and did not speak, and it was obvious that they were also for the same reason. At this time, another person came down from upstairs——Chris.Obviously he also heard the footsteps last night.He asked directly, "What do you think the footsteps are about?" Nan Tian spread his hands. "I don't know, what do you think?" Chris looked at the few people in front of him, and said in a mysterious tone: "I think there is a reason for everything that happened here. No matter who walked below last night, there must be some special reason— — will never be a senseless act.” Maybe because he felt that Chris's opinion was different from his own, Araki said sarcastically: "It sounds like you don't dare to open the door to see, you can only make some guesses." Chris said calmly, "I don't have to open the door to see. There must be no one outside." Chris spoke surprisingly, and several people stared at him with wide eyes.Nan Tian asked: "What do you mean by that? If there is no one outside, where did the footsteps we heard come from?" Chris smiled slightly.Explained: "I mean-if I'm not mistaken-the person who made this sound must have let us hear it on purpose for some reason. In this case, of course he (she) would not It is easy to be discovered by us, and we will not admit that the person who walked out last night is him (her)——doesn’t that mean there is no one?” "Do you think that the person who made this sound is most likely the 'organizer'?" Nan Tian asked. Chris smiled and didn't answer. "Anyway, let's wait and see." Araki Zhou said coldly, "I'll soon be able to verify whether what you said is right, little genius." Now, eight people have gathered in the hall - Nan Tian, Araki Zhou, Xia Houshen, Lake, Goth, Sajia, Xu Wen and Chris.Except for Xia Houshen who didn't hear the voice, the other seven people heard it. After eight o'clock, several people came down from upstairs one after another, namely Beluga, Qianqiu and Ryoma.When I asked them, they all said they didn't hear the voice. The last one to come down was Beidou, and it seemed that he was the most drowsy.When Sajia asked him, he scratched his head in embarrassment and said, "I definitely can't hear it, let alone the sound of footsteps, as long as I fall asleep, I won't be woken up by thunder." Now everyone is basically gathered, and as Chris guessed, no one admitted to walking around last night. "How could such a thing happen?" Xu Wen said inexplicably, "If everyone hasn't come out and walked around, then who made the footsteps last night?" "As I said at the beginning, it doesn't make sense to ask like this," Chris said. "It's like in a mystery novel, the big detective asks 'Who killed the Duchess?' Will someone raise their hand and answer 'It was me' ? "You mean one of us is lying?" Lake said. Chris shrugged his shoulders, making it obvious. "Don't forget, there is still one person short." Arakaki said. "The dark fire is still in the room." "He said yesterday that he would concentrate on thinking about the story in the room, and would not come down during the day." Qianqiu said. "Don't ask him, it's pointless." Chris said, "Besides, even if it was him, he wouldn't admit it." That being said, everyone was a little frustrated.Xu Wen said in confusion, "Why did this person do this? What is his purpose?" Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay—indeed, it was always disturbing that this question was not clear. "Maybe, we'll find out soon." Chris said in a low voice, as if looking forward to it. At night, everyone gathered in the hall on time and sat in their seats.By 6:50, Dark Fire hadn't come down from upstairs. White Dick said, "What's the matter with Darkfire? Does he have a watch? Shall we call him?" "I'll go..." As soon as Beidou made his statement, he suddenly seemed to think of something and hesitated. At this moment, Xia Houshen saw the door of the dark fire room opened, and said, "No need." Dark Huo hurried down from upstairs and sat in his seat, looking a little excited.He told the crowd: "A wonderful story... thanks to this special environment. I spent a day today thinking of a story that I am most satisfied with myself so far!" "That's really great." Qianqiu looked at Dark Fire expectantly, looking very interested. Dark Fire stopped talking and went straight to the topic: "The name of the story is 'The New Tenant.'"
There is not a single pause or mistake in Lake's storytelling, and he delivers this chilling story methodically, with an unexpected and evocative ending.The whole process went so smoothly that it made people doubt what he said before. "This story called "The Spiritual Medium" was really improvised by you just now?" Beidou was the first to ask, obviously not quite convinced. "As I said, it's not completely improvised. I thought out the general framework of the story, only some specific plots in the middle and the final ending were improvised." Lake replied. "Even so, it's quite remarkable." Ryoma said, "Chris is right, you are indeed not an ordinary person." Lake frowned, he wasn't sure if what Ryoma said was a compliment or aimed at him. Ryoma saw Lake's distress, and quickly explained: "Don't get me wrong, I don't mean anything else, I really think this story is very good." "Then, let's start scoring." Arakishu said. Same scoring process.In the end, Lake's story got a score of 9.0, becoming the highest score so far.But he did not show joy.It seems that as long as he can play the game smoothly without fouling, it is his greatest wish. Nan Tian recorded Lake's score. Lake's storytelling was relatively slow, and it was almost eleven o'clock now.As the next storyteller, Dark Fire seemed a bit stressed.He went to the cabinet to get some food and water, and said that he would not come down during the day and would concentrate on preparing his story in the room.After finishing their "work" tonight, everyone returned to their rooms to rest.It seemed that nothing special happened this night, so it was going to be passed in a dull manner. Nan Tian was lying on the bed, thinking about a problem—from all the signs so far, the story told by Lake was not fouled from any angle—it was neither the same as the three stories he told before, nor was it similar to the previous three stories. Anything that happens now crashes. In this way, Lake really figured out a way to avoid fouling?Could it be that the people behind can only escape in this way? Of course, there is a second possibility. The organizer obviously won't make himself foul. As soon as this idea came into being, Nan Tian shook his head slightly and rejected it—Lake is now the fourth storyteller, if he is the only one who didn't foul and everyone else did, it would be too much Suspicious.It's not in the style of that dodgy sponsor. But——Nan Tian thought again—it is still too early to judge whether the storyteller will foul or not.Maybe the more this game progresses, the more cautious everyone will be... The development of the situation is unpredictable, and we can only take one step at a time. Thinking about it, Nan Tian felt sleepy.He closed his eyes and soon fell asleep. This converted abandoned prison was apparently built in an inaccessible place.Every night, is the silence of death.Although each room is relatively soundproof, this extraordinary silence still manages to carry some sound into their ears. Nan Tian didn't hear this sound at first, he was sleeping soundly.Later, the voice became louder, and he was dragged out of his sleep. Someone is walking, or...running.Nan Tian discerned carefully, and heard that the voice came from the hall downstairs. Nan Tian sat up from the bed vigilantly.He pricked up his ears and listened carefully for a while—yes, it was the sound of human footsteps, fast and slow.If the sound were in a gym, it would be the normal sound of jogging; but on this particular occasion, it seemed very eerie. A series of questions quickly popped up in Nan Tian's mind - who is it?Who would walk or run downstairs in the middle of the night?What happened? Nan Tian cautiously got off the bed and slowly approached the door.He pressed his ear against the door, and the voice became clearer—someone was really running in circles downstairs, or running in place. Nan Tian couldn't figure out what was going on.He thought it was a bit ridiculous—in the current situation, who would have the pleasure of exercising?Even if it is, you shouldn't come out to run in the middle of the night.Thinking about it this way, he felt a little unusual, and a sense of fear arose spontaneously. Nan Tian really wanted to push the door open immediately to see what was going on.But he was afraid that this was a trap, that his rashness would bring unexpected danger. Just when he was hesitating, the sound of running stopped abruptly.Nan Tian's heart trembled. For the next few minutes.He heard nothing more. Nan Tian went back to bed, thinking about this unusual incident.He had mixed feelings—annoyed that he didn't open the door to see what happened, and comforted himself that maybe staying in the room was the right choice. In the end, he thought it was always right to be cautious.After all, there were still 12 people in this place, and he was obviously not the only one who heard the voice. When he asked everyone tomorrow morning, he might know what was going on. The next morning, Nan Tian got up very early.Thinking of the strange things last night, he lost all sleepiness, and glanced at the time, it was only less than 7 o'clock.But he couldn't hold back anymore, he opened the door and walked out. On the second floor, he saw that there were already several people downstairs in the hall—these people got up earlier than him.This made Nan Tian immediately think that the reason they got up early might be to talk about what happened last night. Sure enough, as soon as Nan Tian went downstairs, Sha Jia quickly walked over to him and asked, "Nan Tian, did you hear that strange footsteps last night?" Nan Tian nodded, Sajia let out a low cry, then turned around and said to the others: "Nan Tian heard it too!" Nan Tian walked over and asked, "Did you all hear that?" Lake nodded first. "Yes." Then Xu Wen, Sajia and Gott also said that they heard footsteps at night. Nan Tian noticed that there were Xiahoushen and Araki who were standing here, and the two of them did not make a statement. He asked, "Mr. Xiahou, Mr. Araki, did you hear that?" Xia Houshen said: "I didn't hear any strange noises at night, but I heard some of them discussing early in the morning, so I came down from upstairs." Nan Tian looked at Araki Zhou: "What about you? Teacher Araki?" Araki Zhou looked away and said arrogantly: "Of course I heard such an obvious voice." He paused, "But I don't think there's anything to make a fuss about. Maybe it's just that someone can't sleep at night and just walks around. Anyway Everyone has not arrived yet, and when the rest of the people wake up, it will naturally become clear." "To be honest, Mr. Araki, I don't think so." Gott said, "The strange sound was because of the strange sound last night—it was a burst of footsteps that were fast and slow, and suddenly there was no sound at all. There was no more sound. If someone came out to move around, then this person should always go back to the room after walking for a while, why did he stop suddenly? I felt at the time that the person seemed to stop at the same place, Then I didn’t move again—it’s really weird to the extreme.” "That may be an illusion, or a false impression." Araki said, "Young man, don't trust your feelings too much." Nan Tian asked: "Did none of you go out to see what's going on?" Sajia said, "I'm a little scared, and I dare not go out to see it." Goth even said bluntly: "Whether I hear any noise or not. I will never open the door at night. Living in such a ghostly place and encountering such weird events, if I don't learn how to protect myself, That would be so unwise." Xu Wen and Lake lowered their heads and did not speak, and it was obvious that they were also for the same reason. At this time, another person came down from upstairs——Chris.Obviously he also heard the footsteps last night.He asked directly, "What do you think the footsteps are about?" Nan Tian spread his hands. "I don't know, what do you think?" Chris looked at the few people in front of him, and said in a mysterious tone: "I think there is a reason for everything that happened here. No matter who walked below last night, there must be some special reason— — will never be a senseless act.” Maybe because he felt that Chris's opinion was different from his own, Araki said sarcastically: "It sounds like you don't dare to open the door to see, you can only make some guesses." Chris said calmly, "I don't have to open the door to see. There must be no one outside." Chris spoke surprisingly, and several people stared at him with wide eyes.Nan Tian asked: "What do you mean by that? If there is no one outside, where did the footsteps we heard come from?" Chris smiled slightly.Explained: "I mean-if I'm not mistaken-the person who made this sound must have let us hear it on purpose for some reason. In this case, of course he (she) would not It is easy to be discovered by us, and we will not admit that the person who walked out last night is him (her)——doesn’t that mean there is no one?” "Do you think that the person who made this sound is most likely the 'organizer'?" Nan Tian asked. Chris smiled and didn't answer. "Anyway, let's wait and see." Araki Zhou said coldly, "I'll soon be able to verify whether what you said is right, little genius." Now, eight people have gathered in the hall - Nan Tian, Araki Zhou, Xia Houshen, Lake, Goth, Sajia, Xu Wen and Chris.Except for Xia Houshen who didn't hear the voice, the other seven people heard it. After eight o'clock, several people came down from upstairs one after another, namely Beluga, Qianqiu and Ryoma.When I asked them, they all said they didn't hear the voice. The last one to come down was Beidou, and it seemed that he was the most drowsy.When Sajia asked him, he scratched his head in embarrassment and said, "I definitely can't hear it, let alone the sound of footsteps, as long as I fall asleep, I won't be woken up by thunder." Now everyone is basically gathered, and as Chris guessed, no one admitted to walking around last night. "How could such a thing happen?" Xu Wen said inexplicably, "If everyone hasn't come out and walked around, then who made the footsteps last night?" "As I said at the beginning, it doesn't make sense to ask like this," Chris said. "It's like in a mystery novel, the big detective asks 'Who killed the Duchess?' Will someone raise their hand and answer 'It was me' ? "You mean one of us is lying?" Lake said. Chris shrugged his shoulders, making it obvious. "Don't forget, there is still one person short." Arakaki said. "The dark fire is still in the room." "He said yesterday that he would concentrate on thinking about the story in the room, and would not come down during the day." Qianqiu said. "Don't ask him, it's pointless." Chris said, "Besides, even if it was him, he wouldn't admit it." That being said, everyone was a little frustrated.Xu Wen said in confusion, "Why did this person do this? What is his purpose?" Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay—indeed, it was always disturbing that this question was not clear. "Maybe, we'll find out soon." Chris said in a low voice, as if looking forward to it. At night, everyone gathered in the hall on time and sat in their seats.By 6:50, Dark Fire hadn't come down from upstairs. White Dick said, "What's the matter with Darkfire? Does he have a watch? Shall we call him?" "I'll go..." As soon as Beidou made his statement, he suddenly seemed to think of something and hesitated. At this moment, Xia Houshen saw the door of the dark fire room opened, and said, "No need." Dark Huo hurried down from upstairs and sat in his seat, looking a little excited.He told the crowd: "A wonderful story... thanks to this special environment. I spent a day today thinking of a story that I am most satisfied with myself so far!" "That's really great." Qianqiu looked at Dark Fire expectantly, looking very interested. Dark Fire stopped talking and went straight to the topic: "The name of the story is 'The New Tenant.'"