Chapter 6 Chapter Six

Aunt Ateng cleaned up the food table that A Ling had eaten and put it in the sink.The surrounding area was very quiet, and there were two small feather insects beside the seat lamp, and the humming of their wings could be heard clearly. The house faces the waterway, so there are more feather insects than the Takadaya dormitory.Aunt Ateng said that the mosquito net should be hung up a month earlier than before, and she also whispered worryingly: Although the water is cool, there must be a lot of mosquitoes. Such a thing is often an invisible cost.When she said this, she was puzzled: "Why did you choose this kind of house by the water to open a shop?" These times always make Ah Ling feel uneasy.

A-Ling stood up, thinking to herself, it would be good to visit Aunt's side before going to bed.Grandma should keep accounts in the back room. At this time, Ah Ling suddenly noticed someone standing at the door of the kitchen.Although I only saw a figure, but couldn't see the face clearly, it seemed to be a woman from the bun. She thought it was grandma at the moment. "Mom." A-Ling yelled, and Aunt A-Teng, who was standing in front of the sink with her back to A-Ling, also turned her head and looked at where A-Ling was watching. "Miss Boss?" the aunt also called out.

Ah Ling blinked.The figure I saw just now has disappeared.The dim light of the seat lamp barely reached the kitchen door, but the dirt floor outside the kitchen was dark.The darkness of spring nights is always particularly thick. A gust of warm wind blew in the darkness, whistling into the room and brushing A Ling's cheeks.The flame of the seat lamp flickered. "A-Ling, the proprietress is in the tatami room." Aunt Ateng said while wiping her hands with a rag. "Well, but I seemed to see someone over there just now." "Is Ah Li coming back from the bathhouse?"

"Really? Then I'm going to say good night to my mother." Ah Ling walked out of the kitchen and ran along the corridor. Mother's small tatami room was behind the stairs leading to the second floor.It was a small tatami room with four and a half seats. There was a low table, an abacus, and an account book inside the lattice screen of the accounting room. In the corridor, there is only a single tile lamp at the head of the stairs, and there are no other lights.When guests come to the door, this earthen lamp will be replaced with candles, because the earthen lamp burning fish oil will destroy the aroma of the dishes and make the banquet atmosphere look poor.After the guests go back, the tile lamps will be lit again.Aunt Ah Xian once told Grandmother: Saving money in such a small place is the most important trick of running a shop.

For Ah Ling, Aunt Ah Xian is equivalent to a grandma, but she is more than ten years younger than Grandpa Qibingwei, so she is embarrassed to call her grandma, so A Ling always calls her "Aunt A Xian". Ah Ling put her hand on the paper door, and heard a conversation in the small tatami room, it was Father and Mother.Ah Ling listened attentively, they seemed to be discussing the menu of the banquet. "So wrap it in tofu skin like this..." "It's okay to wrap it up and send it out, but it's not good if it's inconvenient for the elderly to eat." "Even if it's an ancient wedding banquet, if every dish is soft food, the other guests will not enjoy it."

The two discussed it enthusiastically.Ah Ling decided not to disturb them, quietly turned and went back down the stairs. Suddenly, she heard the sound of someone walking up to the second floor. There are only storage and futon rooms and two tatami rooms on the second floor.A Ling's family of three lived in the room on the east side downstairs.Ateng and Shuta commuted from the Takadaya dormitory to the Funaya, and there was no room.The three-seat room where A-Lü lives is next to the tatami room of A-Ling's family.Who the hell is on the second floor at this time? Ah Ling hurriedly went under the stairs and looked up at the second floor, vaguely seeing a pair of slender and snow-white children's feet running up the stairs to the tatami room.

Ah Ling blinked, unable to believe what she saw just now.Who is that?Apart from me, there should be no other children in this family. At this time, it was as if someone clapped her hands in front of her eyes, and she suddenly remembered something.By the way, it's the kid who made faces.That girl who doesn't know who it is.Is it her? Ah Ling ran upstairs.The second floor was pitch black, and the tile lamp downstairs could no longer reach the second floor.Ah Ling is usually afraid of the dark, but now she doesn't care about being afraid, she just wants to catch up with her as soon as possible.

After those bare feet ran up to the second floor, Ah Ling felt someone slamming open the paper door of the tatami room on the right.It turned out to be over there!Ah Ling ran over, and the paper door with the hazy moonlight pattern slammed shut right in front of her nose.Ah Ling forcefully opened the paper door. The room was pitch black due to the sliding doors that kept out the rain, but Ah Ling could clearly see the things in the room with ten tatami mats. ——Really, I have become a cat. Ah Ling could actually see things in the dark.Thinking about it carefully, it was strange to see the paper door pattern just now, and there were no lights on the second floor at all.

There was a loud "hum" in my ear. Ah Ling was startled, and turned her head to look in the direction of the sound. "Ghostface!" There was a little girl sitting on the multi-treasure platform in the alcove, her feet dangling, her face pale in the dark making a big grimace at Ah Ling. Ah Ling was dumbfounded and could not make a sound.She stared at the other party intently, the girl put down her hands and stopped making funny faces, but pouted and stared at Ah Ling.That face was exactly the one Ah Ling saw when she looked up from the pillow when she was suffering from high fever.It's the same girl.

"……Who are you?" Ah Ling finally asked.The girl grimaced again instead of answering, this time tearing off the other lower eyelid. "Ghost-la!" The girl is much shorter than A Ling, so thin that only skin and bones remain.She was wearing a dress dyed with small white plum flowers on a red background, but the hem of the dress was ridiculously short, revealing her dead-twig-like calves. "Whose family are you?" Ah Ling took a step closer to the girl and asked, "Where do you come from? Do you live in this house? What's your name?" The girl stopped making funny faces, put her hands neatly on her knees, and looked at Ah Ling with her head tilted.Ah Ling thought to herself, it was like talking to a stray cat: "Come on, don't be afraid, come here, come here and I'll give you food—" But the kitten only backed away step by step with glowing eyes.

At this time, someone behind him called Ah Ling loudly. "Is it Ah Ling?" Ah Ling jumped up.Looking back, I saw Aunt Ateng holding a candle behind her. She was also startled, and said sharply: "A Ling? Is it Ah Ling? What are you doing here?" "Auntie!" Ah Ling almost rushed to Aunt Ateng's side, and managed to stay where she was.She looked back at the treasure platform in the alcove, but the girl was no longer there. "A-Ling, what's the matter? Climbed to such a dark place alone." Aunt A Teng leaned over and grabbed A Ling's elbow a little rudely.Ah Ling was dumbfounded, unable to look away from the table, and asked to herself: "Auntie, did you see that girl just now?" "What?" Aunt Ateng frowned and said, "Girl?" "She was sitting on the table in the alcove just now, wearing a red dress, dangling her feet, and making faces at me." Aunt Ateng held up the candle in her hand, letting the light of the candle shine into the alcove.A circular light circle appeared in the tatami room, and the darkness receded to the four corners. "No one, Ah Ling." "It was still there just now. Didn't Auntie see it?" "I didn't see it." After Aunt Ateng finished speaking, she held a candle and approached the alcove.When the candlelight flickered, A-Ling caught sight of the white and thin feet running away from the corner of the dark room out of the corner of her eyes. "Ah! Over there!" Ah Ling tugged at Auntie's sleeve.The candles fell, and the wax tears fell on the tatami.The flame faltered and shrunk. "Hot hot! Ah Ling, you can't pull me." A-Ling ran to the place where she saw the little feet, but there was only darkness, and A-Ling's feet stepped on the cold tatami. "A-Ling, are you drowsy?" Aunt Ateng said with a smile.Although Ah Ling had a lot to say, she couldn't think of anything that could overwhelm her auntie's hearty laughter. "Come on, let's go downstairs. It's okay to come to this place and be careful to meet ghosts." At this time, Ah Ling also lit a candle in her mind.ghost? "Auntie, is there a ghost here?" A Ling asked as if she was about to throw herself on her chest, "Is this a haunted house? Did Auntie see a ghost too?" The aunt raised her hand holding the candle and leaned back to avoid Ah Ling. "A-Ling, it's dangerous!" "But auntie..." "There are no ghosts in this house. How could there be ghosts? This is the restaurant newly opened by your father and mother. You can't say unlucky words." The aunt scolded her.But when she saw Ah Ling's dejected look, she restored her smile and touched Ah Ling's head, then said: "I said the ghost would come out just to scare you. I didn't expect you to be so afraid. I'm sorry." Auntie stretched out her free hand to hold A-Ling, A-Ling wanted to hold Auntie's hand, but changed her mind and ran to the alcove Duobaotai. "A Ling?" There is no Dongliang on the Duobao platform.Originally designed for decoration, the depth of the table is less than three inches, and at most it can only hold a small vase or incense burner. No matter how thin the girl is, can she really sit here? Could it be that the child is not sitting, but floating in mid-air? Ah Ling felt cold all over, and hurried back to her aunt and grabbed her sleeve. "Oh, what's going on? A-Ling." Aunt A Teng smiled and lit a candle at A-Ling's feet. Ah Ling couldn't sleep that night, thinking about ghosts all the time.What kind of expression does the ghost have, and how did it appear?In the small tatami room where the three of them sleep together in the shape of a chevron, Ah Ling is sleeping between her father and mother at this moment, and she finally has the courage to think about something terrible. Ah Ling once heard some scary ghost stories.When I used to live in the dormitory in Yashang, every time I couldn't sleep on a sweltering summer night, Grandpa Qibingwei would always tell ghost stories under the mosquito net to sleep with Ah Ling.A demon cat, a fox possessed by a fox, a girl who was trampled on a shadow and died, a samurai who was good at swimming was caught by the foot of a drowning ghost who died of hatred... Grandpa Qibingwei is very good at telling stories, once After listening to Ling, she was so scared that she wet the bed that night, and was severely scolded by her mother.When Ah Ling was crying beside the wet quilt, Qibingwei's grandfather sneaked over and said to Ah Ling frequently: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He just bowed his head obediently and was scolded. That night Grandpa took Ah Ling to the night market and said to Ah Ling: You can buy whatever you want.Ah Ling took a fancy to a paper dog that looked like it was smiling, and fell asleep hugging the dog at night.At that time, Ah Ling thought, that paper dog would wake up with its eyes open when Ah Ling fell asleep, and if there was a ghost trying to scare Ah Ling, the dog would bark and drive the ghost away. Ah Ling had never been to an acrobatic or play shed, nor did her father and mother have such a leisurely life, and the family had never heard the horror stories from there.Grandpa Qibingwei said that he had a hanging scroll with a very scary picture of a female ghost on it, but since the bed-wetting incident, no matter how hard A Ling begged, he would not let A Ling see that hanging scroll. Every time Ah Ling asked the adults: What does a ghost look like?Adults always dangled their hands in front of their chests, and said sleepily, "I hate you so much." That kind of ghost is not scary at all.Although I heard that ghosts have no feet, how can they walk around without feet? The girl Ah Ling saw tonight has two feet, not to mention walking, and even running around.She didn't make a look of resentment, and she didn't dangle her hands from side to side.By the way, I've never heard of ghosts making faces. it's wired. It would be very strange if the child was a ghost. But if the child is not a ghost, it will be even more strange.Where did that kid come from? The paper dog that grandpa Qibingwei bought was not brought with him when he moved.Ah, if only that dog was there... I'll ask someone to look for it some other day.If you are still in the dormitory, ask someone to bring it over.The more I think about it, the more frightening it becomes. It's really annoying, and I'm really a little scared. Ah Ling made a face towards the ceiling. "Ghostface, hum." After Ah Ling made a voice and said this, she finally felt a little better.The grandmother who was sleeping on the side raised her body with a "huh?" "A Ling, what's the matter?" Although Grandma raised her upper body, her eyes were tightly closed.Ah Ling held her breath and pretended to fall asleep.After a while, Grandmother lay down again, and not long after, Ah Ling also fell asleep. The snoring sounds of the three parents and children came and went in the narrow tatami room.The walls, the tatami mats, and the ceiling also sleep peacefully together. However, if the paper dog who is good at watching the watch all night is present, it will probably see very interesting pictures at the third quarter of the darkest night (two o'clock in the middle of the night). You will see a thin masseuse dressed in gray sitting at the feet of the sleeping Taiichiro. You will see the figure of a slender woman passing from right to left next to the sleeping Duo Hui's pillow. On the face of Ah Ling who is sleeping soundly, there is a figure of a little girl covering Ah Ling and staring intently at Ah Ling's sleeping face.The girl was wearing a kimono with broken plums on a red background, with bony arms protruding from sleeves that were too short. The girl looked very sad, as if she would cry at any moment.So even if there is a paper dog beside Ah Ling, it might not bark and drive the girl away, because she looks so pitiful. When the eastern sky was stained with fish belly white, the three shadows suddenly disappeared.Disappearing, the masseur murmured in a dark voice: his shoulders are too hard, it will take some work.But the words don't seem to be addressed to anyone in particular.

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