Chapter 6: A False Alarm

  "Wooden puppet?" The voice of the thin grandma suddenly became loud, much louder than I expected, and I was somewhat puzzled as to what was wrong with her.

  "Tell me, what kind of wooden puppet is this? Where did it come from? You little girl (that's how we old folks address younger girls), you've gotten yourself into something."

  Based on my experience of staying with my grandmother for several years when I was young, the tone of her words implies that what I've done is not trivial.

  I didn't believe in this kind of thing before, but now it's different from the past. Now I hear Xiaoniang say that my heart, which had just calmed down, is hanging in my throat again. Anxiously, I explained to Xiaoniang:

  "I was introduced by Wang Shifu, and a wooden puppet was brought from his hometown. Unexpectedly, the puppet actually moved on its own. I immediately called my older cousin, and he said that the puppet wanted to have children with me. He told me to light 18 white candles in the house, but this method didn't work on the puppet. Later, I set fire..."

  I didn't finish speaking, and immediately on the other end of the phone came Grandma's fiery temper:

  "Who told you to light white candles? Where is it used to deal with dirty things with white candles? You are so stupid and hopeless, why don't you think about it, white candles are for the dead, only increasing yin energy. Your big brother spends all day online or eating, what does he know? And you still ask him? It's even more shameless to say that Mu Ou wants to have children with you, at your age, really shameless..."

  Grandma said, probably also realizing that now is not the time to scold me, so she softened her tone and said to me:

  "——You've set the fire now, right? That's fine too, wood is most afraid of being burned. Now hurry up and go take a look at what's going on! If the fire has been extinguished, then that would be troublesome."

  Xīnǎinai's fiery temper has never changed, I was scolded by her so badly that I really had the urge to dig a hole in the ground and hide. But Xīnǎinai asked me to take a look at something, even if I didn't want to open the basement door, for the sake of survival, I still followed Xīnǎinai's words and did it.

  Before I pushed open the door of the basement, all sorts of terrifying thoughts flooded my mind. I even thought it was like in TV shows where as soon as you push open the door, a pair of huge and terrifying eyes would suddenly appear from behind the door! Nobody understands this kind of suffering, it's ten times more frightening than watching horror movies...

  I closed my eyes, and all the muscles in my body tensed up. I grabbed the door handle and pushed it inward, and a large patch of bright yellow flames immediately burst through my eyelids into my eyes. Opening my eyes, I saw a large patch of yellow fire burning on the floor of the basement. My hanging heart finally put down a bit, but still being cautious, I continued to lock the door and told my wife that it was still burning, and the fire was very big.

  My grandmother listened to me finish speaking and also put her mind at ease a bit, asking if Mu Ou had done anything to me, such as taking my clothes or leaving a handprint on my body.

  I suddenly thought of the wooden puppet holding my head and kissing me just now, and I felt a little awkward. Originally, I wanted to tell Xi Nainai about it, but then I thought of the scene where Xi Nainai scolded me earlier. If I told her that I kissed the wooden puppet, she would definitely scold me until I was speechless, so I said nothing to Xi Nainai.

  After Grandma Xiao confirmed that I was fine, she started nagging me nonstop. It wasn't until almost dawn that she hung up the phone and told me to call the fire department to report the incident. By now, the fire has probably burned out.

  The basement was nothing but some worthless lumber and my simple furniture and household items, there's nothing else, just burn it and let it extinguish itself, no need to bother a large group of people.

  I finally relaxed, leaning my back against the door to take a rest. The door was warm and cozy, which felt great on such a cold day. My icy hands were still comfortable touching it. Suddenly, I realized something terrifying:

  Why has it been burning for so long, but the iron gate is still warm, rather than scalding?!

  My breathing suddenly became heavy, a terrible thought sprouted in my mind, and inexplicably, my hand slowly took out the key, trembling as I unlocked it, and gently pushed open the door to take a look!

  What a relief!

  The room was pitch black, and everything was burnt to a crisp. Not only were the wooden puppets gone, but even pieces of wood as big as half a person had vanished.