Chapter Eighteen: Xiao Rui (Part Two)

  This is an unexpected gain, and Old He seems to have a good impression of this promising kid. Although he can't recall his name, he still clearly remembers the time he came here. I roughly calculated that the first time he came here was not long after he rented my old mansion, which has since been demolished, and the second time he came here was just a few months before his death.

  Apart from the painting in my bag, this is probably our only gain on this trip. Although now it seems that this gain may be useless. I looked at Erliang and wanted to ask if he had anything else to say. Erliang stood up and said: "Today we can't move, my foot injury is not light or heavy, apply some medicine and we can set off tomorrow. Arui, let's stay in the old house tonight."

  I knew he was reluctant, I wasn't clear what his idea was, but I couldn't persuade myself to take out that painting and look at it with him, I didn't know what I was afraid of. Maybe it was guilt, I didn't object, "Okay."

  Under the gaze of He Lao and others who almost worshipped me, I supported Er Liang as we slowly re-entered the old mansion.

  Er Jiang reluctantly searched the entire old house from top to bottom, even ignoring his foot injury and re-entering the dark room to climb into that dry well again. I knew he wasn't suspicious of me, but was afraid I might have accidentally missed something, so he wanted to check it himself with a professional eye.

  Unfortunately, he was disappointed again because the only thing in the well was in my bag. That night neither of us slept well, Erliang was because of unwillingness, and I was because of guilt. The footsteps and creaking sounds that startled us the night before never appeared again.

  The next day, Erliang urged me to return, and after bidding farewell to He Lao, Erliang picked up a tree branch and walked slowly along the way. I didn't know why Erliang was so disappointed that he even felt heartbroken. Several times, I gritted my teeth, wanting to take out that painting to show him, but ultimately gave up because I didn't know how to explain everything to him.

  The whole way was particularly dull, so I had to put all my energy into rushing on the road. Although Erliang's foot injury hadn't healed yet, the time it took to return was almost the same as when we left. At a roadside inn, Erliang didn't even wash up before going straight to bed. I wanted to comfort him with a few words, but didn't know what to say, so I just sighed and went to bed too. Both of us were preoccupied with our thoughts, and neither of us could sleep soundly.

  The next day, it was Erlang who woke me up again. I opened my eyes in a daze and was startled by Erlang's appearance. In just one night, he seemed to have lost weight, his eye sockets sunken. I quickly got out of bed, not even caring about the bad breath from not brushing my teeth, and said: "Erlang, you can't go on like this." I gritted my teeth, no matter how Erlang would blame me later, I had to tell him about that painting.

  I hadn't even spoken when Er Lang said: "It's okay, I thought about it all night and there are other ways."

  "What's the solution?"

  Er Liang possibly thought he had misspoken, and hastily changed the subject: "Quickly go wash up, you stink to death. Today we must hurry back home, I have work tomorrow."

  When I and Er Liang arrived home, the sky was already dark. We were tired and hungry all the way, so we hastily ate something on the side of the road and then went back home to rest. We agreed that if there's anything urgent, we would contact each other by phone the next day.

  I returned to my residence, turned on the living room light, and was still met with that white wall. I stood at the door and took a look around, feeling no unusual sensation, no longer sensing someone watching me in the house like before. I let out a sigh of relief, thinking maybe I had finally been freed.

  I put down my bag, but instead of taking a shower immediately, I opened it carefully and took out the painting. As I spread it out on the table, the person in the picture seemed to be smiling at me. At that moment, I suddenly felt like there was someone else in the room watching me silently. I quickly turned around, but behind me was still just the white wall.

  There was no one else in the room except me, I knew that many days ago, but every time I still couldn't help turning around to look, and without exception, every time I looked, there was nothing, only that white wall.

  I shifted my gaze to the painting on the table, and even for someone like me who knows little about painting, this is absolutely a rare good painting. Although it was painted with a brush, unlike traditional Chinese paintings that only emphasize spirit, it also has the realistic style of Western painting, so this painting is simply like a photograph, but also more vivid than a photograph.

  The left lower corner of the painting is the signature, a two-character seal commonly used in traditional Chinese painting. It doesn't indicate the time or place, nor does it include any poetic phrases that match the scene. It's just two simple characters written in an extremely free and easy style, but for someone like me who isn't deeply familiar with calligraphy, it's really hard to make out - I can barely tell that these bold and cursive characters seem to be: "Chi Ren" (foolish person).

  I don't know who this "fool" is, nor do I know what will happen after I've gone to great lengths to visit that old house and discovered this painting. After sitting down and thinking quietly, it seems like everything isn't something I'm doing on my own initiative, but rather drifting with the tide, helpless. To use the words of an editor who rejected my manuscript: "There's no central idea, you don't even know what you want to write."

  I'm getting a headache, these things are really not something I can figure out. Just then the phone rang, it was my mom calling, she said: "Finally got a signal, I asked for that girl's phone number, when are you going to invite her over for dinner?"

  I had told my mom that I would be going out and might not have a signal on my phone. Because I was too tired, and also had something on my mind, after getting home I hadn't called back yet. At this time, receiving my mom's call, my heart involuntarily warmed up, saying: "Okay, you tell me over the phone."

  My mom gave me a phone number and I jotted it down on a piece of paper, saying "I'll get in touch with her and we can set up a time to grab dinner together."

  Mom still didn't forget to say to me: "Son, go for it! This little girl is not bad, if someone competes with you for her, just kill one if there's one person, kill a pair if there are two people, and kill them all if there are three."

  I rolled my eyes and said helplessly, "Mom, what TV show have you been watching lately?"

  "Triad Underworld!"

  I hung up the phone and couldn't help but laugh, Mom will always be a little immature, but I like that.

  I hesitated whether to call her, if I hadn't seen this painting, I would have gotten her phone number by hook or by crook, but since finding the woman in the painting looked like her at the bottom of the well, I always felt a little uneasy.

  In the end, I still sent her a text message, saying something like "I was introduced by Er San from next door" and some other nonsense, and asked for her name. As I was sending it, I thought to myself: They say heroes can't withstand the beauty trap, let alone someone as insignificant as me? This must all just be a coincidence.

  The text message arrived, but it wasn't from her, but rather from Er Liang. I was surprised because Er Liang usually wouldn't send me a text message and would just call directly if he needed something. Opening the message, he said: "A Rui, there's something I couldn't say to your face, so I had to use this method. I was thinking, could you move out of my house first? I'm not kicking you out, you can live in my new house, I want to move back into the old one."

  I recall that day when I asked Er Liang if he had found anything strange in this house, he stared at the white wall with an eerie gaze, my heart skipped a beat, and my eyes involuntarily looked towards that white wall.

  Just then, another message came. Opening it, it was the little girl responding: "Hello, you can call me Xiao Rui from now on. Where are you right now? I heard Auntie talk about you and think you're very interesting, want to see what kind of person you are."

  It's not that the girls nowadays are too proactive, but every time my mom finds someone to introduce me to a girl, she always exaggerates about me until I'm unrecognizable. In her words, a person like me who doesn't have a proper job is an unconventional and extraordinary individual who is refined, elegant, family-oriented, and has excellent writing skills - essentially the reincarnation of Pan An and Song Yu, with the spirit of Li Bai and Liu Yong. Adding to that, we have a self-built house in the city with one to five floors. With these conditions, plus my mom's eloquence honed from watching countless TVB dramas and reading romance novels, it's no wonder she has attracted many innocent girls.

  I knew it was definitely Mom's doing again, so I smiled wryly and sent a text message: "Don't listen to my mom's nonsense, where are you? I'll come find you."

  "No need, I'll come find you."

  It's a pleasant thing to have a beauty come looking for me, I didn't persist, sent the address to her, my heart was tense and jumping non-stop, took a look at the house, hurriedly threw all sorts of messy things including that painting under the bed, waiting for Xiaohui's arrival.

  After about ten minutes or so, the doorbell rang. I opened the door to find a little girl standing in front of me wearing a red dress and with long hair draped over one shoulder. She looked at me with a hint of shyness but still stretched out her hand and said: "You're Mao Rui, right? I'm Xiao Rui."

  I got a bit flustered, and the real Xiaohua was even more beautiful than in the photos. Xiaohua saw my tense expression and burst out laughing, saying "So nervous, am I that scary?"

  I stuttered an apology as I invited her in, a beauty is indeed a calamity. My eloquence, honed from countless experiences with women and capable of making even my mother surrender, had suddenly deserted me. As I asked her to sit down first, I rushed off to boil some water.

  Xiaohui put her hands behind her back, enthusiastically touring my place. Just then, the phone on the table rang again. Xiaohui looked at me with a hint of teasing in her eyes and said: "A beauty is calling you."

  I hastily explained: "No, no, don't believe me, you can see that message for yourself." I knew very well that there wouldn't be any beautiful woman coming to find me, so I was quite confident.

  Xiao Rui said: "Then I really saw it?"

  "I said loudly: 'Just look.' I didn't think it was abrupt for Xiaorui to do so, but instead felt very pleased in my heart, thinking that this seemed to bring us closer together."

  Xiao Wei suddenly exclaimed: "Who is this Er Liang?"

  I rushed out of the kitchen and asked: "What's wrong?"

  Xiaoyi raised her mobile phone: "He asked if you were angry, but he also said that he had a bitter intention and must move out. What's wrong with you?"

  It was really embarrassing to be told to move out in front of the girl I had a crush on, and even though I knew it wasn't Er Lang's fault, I still felt a bit angry and humiliated. So I ended up telling Xiao Hua about it while we were chatting, but of course I didn't mention anything about the old mansion or the ancient paintings.

  Xiao Wei listened to what I said, suddenly became serious, didn't say a word, lowered her head and sank into thought. After a while, she asked: "You said you always feel like someone is watching you here?"

  I thought to myself, "Oh no", originally with my experience in the old house, telling some ghost stories to scare people, usually little girls would be frightened and cling to me, although this time I really didn't have any ill intentions, but out of habit, as soon as I saw the pretty little girl, I couldn't help myself, what if I scared her so badly that she wanted to leave me immediately, wouldn't that be a loss?

  But I could only nod, and then my mind quickly turned around, just wanting to think of a way to explain it, when Xiao Rui suddenly lowered her voice and said: "Your words reminded me of a story."

  I was taken aback. What story could she be talking about at this time? But as long as she didn't leave, thank goodness! I hastily followed her words and asked: "What story?"

  Xiao Rui looked at the wall and said slowly: "In the past, there was a house. Everyone who lived in it felt like someone was watching them. One day, he couldn't bear it anymore and tore down the house. As a result, they found a dead person inside the wall."

  My hair stood on end and I turned my head along with it, staring at that white wall.