Chapter 5 The Second Story (1)

  "Dong——Dong Dong Dong Dong..."

  "Dong——Dong Dong Dong Dong Dong……"

  The new house is great, the price is cheap, and there are not many people living around, I heard that most of them were bought by speculators in previous years, now the country is regulating, and for a while, there are fewer people buying houses, so there are almost no one living in the community, this is what Lao Chu likes the most.

  Lao Chu was a loner, never married and didn't like to socialize with people. He fell in love with the environment here at first sight and bought this house with all his savings. He was satisfied with everything, but there was one thing that was not quite right - every night, he would hear a "ding ding" sound coming from upstairs, as if a glass ball had fallen to the ground. The glass ball bounced a few times and then rolled slowly for a distance before another glass ball fell down, making the "ding" sound again.

  It was the same for two consecutive nights, and on the third night, Lao Chu finally couldn't bear it anymore. He looked at the time, and it was just past 12 o'clock again. Every time it was like this, as soon as it passed 12 o'clock, there would be a "dada" sound from upstairs. Lao Chu himself had some moderate insomnia, and now he couldn't sleep even more. He got out of bed, put on his clothes, and went upstairs.

  Lao Chu's house was on the 8th floor. It was summer, and standing on the stairs felt very comfortable with the cool breeze blowing. Lao Chu arrived at the entrance of the 9th floor, stretched out his hand to press the doorbell, but no one came to open the door. The "da da" sound inside the house continued uninterrupted.

  Lao Chu waited for a while and saw no one paying attention to him, so he couldn't help but add some strength to his hand. This time, he didn't press the doorbell again, but directly slapped it on the door panel.

  Before this palm had fallen, the 'door' suddenly opened silently and soundlessly. There was no one in front of him, just a dark expanse. Lao Chu was caught off guard and startled. Seeing that the house was also pitch black, he softly called out: "Is anyone home?"

  There was no one answering in the house, and Lao Chu carefully lifted his foot to enter. As soon as he took a step, it seemed that his hand touched something extremely soft. Lao Chu's heart, which had just calmed down, was frightened again, and he hastily lowered his head to search. Only then did he discover that there was a five or six-year-old little girl at his feet, with long hair draped over her face, staring up at him with wide eyes. However, because she was too short and wore a black nightgown, coupled with the fact that she had been keeping her head down earlier, her long hair covered her cheeks, so he didn't notice her at first, but instead frightened himself.

  The one who opened the door was a little girl. Lao Chu felt embarrassed to scold her, and this little girl looked really cute, with big eyes that were very likable. Since they had already come up, Lao Chu thought he might as well meet her parents and remind them, so he asked: "Are your dad and mom in? Can I see them?"

  The little girl didn't say a word, just nodded and turned to walk into the inner room. Old Chu followed behind her, seeing that she always walked with her head down, his heart was moved. He himself had been introverted since childhood and didn't like talking to people. Seeing the little girl's appearance, he couldn't help but think of his own childhood. So he took a step forward, bent down and gently held the little girl's hand, saying: "Uncle will hold you."

  Only when he walked into the house did Old Chu realize why everything inside looked black from the doorway. It turned out that a large black screen had been placed at the entrance, blocking all the light from coming in.

  Going around the screen, there was no light on in the house, only a few candles were lit. Although the lighting was still not very good, at least it was no longer pitch black and nothing could be seen.

  There are few people living in the neighborhood, but the electricity has never been cut off. Lao Chu had just turned on the light in his own room and knew that the power was indeed working. Seeing the candles lit in the house, he thought that the fuse on this floor might have blown, and didn't think about anything else. He looked down and asked, "Where are your dad and mom?"

  The little girl still didn't say a word, just shook her head and sat down on the sofa alone with her head hung low in silence. Old Chu was an introverted person himself, so he didn't think there was anything wrong with the little girl's behavior. He thought to himself that perhaps the girl's parents had gone downstairs to check the fuse box, and since he rarely interacted with people, if it weren't for the noise of the glass ball keeping him awake, he probably wouldn't have even known someone had moved in upstairs until now.

  Thinking so in her mind, she decided to wait here for a while, and said a few words to the little girl. Seeing that she didn't open her mouth, she stopped teasing her and turned to observe the decoration of the room instead.

  Because of the light, I didn't pay much attention to the interior environment of the room at first. Moreover, it's very impolite to look around casually in someone else's home. At this time, Lao Chu couldn't care about so many things and waited for the person. Only then did he carefully look around and find that there was nothing special about the decoration in the room, and there wasn't much furniture either. The walls were painted with all sorts of colors, which gave a somewhat abstract painting feel at first glance.

  Lao Chu was once interested in Western art, especially abstract painting. In his opinion, any famous abstract painter must be extremely introverted, otherwise they wouldn't express their thoughts through such distorted and exaggerated methods. Seeing the colors on the wall now sparked his interest, he took a few steps back and looked at them under the dim light of the candle.

  It was just some ordinary colors, nothing else, this was Lao Chu's conclusion after careful study. He was about to move his eyes away when he suddenly stared for a moment, rubbed his eyes, and no mistake, it seemed that something could be seen from the colors on the wall.

  Lao Chu narrowed his eyes, and this time, he finally saw clearly the things in these 'colors'.

  These colors seemed to be a painting, and the painting was of this room. Old Chu even saw himself in the painting, as well as that little girl sitting on the sofa with her head down. The most bizarre thing was that even the flickering of the candlelight was so realistic, and for an instant, Old Chu had the feeling that it was a mirror.

  Just then, a little boy suddenly appeared beside Lao Chu on the screen, grinning from ear to ear at Lao Chu outside the painting. Lao Chu was startled and took a step back with a loud cry.

  As soon as he felt something under his feet, Old Chu hastily turned around, a pale face almost stuck to his own. Old Chu was frightened again and took a step back. It wasn't until then that he realized the person behind him was a man in his 30s holding a flashlight, who looked somewhat similar to that little "girl". He must be her father.

  Lao Chu felt embarrassed and was about to apologize when the man whispered, "Don't make a noise, my son is sleeping."

  Lao Chu hastily nodded and lowered his voice: "I'm a resident downstairs..."

  The man again made a soft "hiss" sound and didn't let Old Chu speak, leaning forward and lowering his voice to say: "What did you see just now?"

  Lao Chu was very unaccustomed to the other party being so close, and he leaned back slightly, turning his head to look at the wall again. Those colorful patterns were still there, but this time he couldn't make out anything. He didn't have the heart to think about these things either, and hastily explained the reason for his visit. The man nodded and said, "It must be my son Xiao Wei, I'll just talk to him and it will be fine."

  Lao Chu saw that the conversation was clear, and he hastily bid farewell and left. He didn't know why, but this place always gave him a gloomy feeling. The little girl saw him leaving and also got up to walk out with him. The girl's father did not come out to see them off, nor did he turn on the lights, and directly walked into the room.

  Lao Chu shook his head, walked to the door and said goodbye to the little girl, turned around and was about to leave, when suddenly his hand felt a chill. The little girl had grabbed his hand. Lao Chu asked: "What's wrong?"

  The little girl looked up with a pale face and an unusual fear in her eyes, asking cautiously: "What did you just see?"

  The father and daughter both asked Old Chu the same question, and for a moment he didn't know how to answer. He naturally didn't believe that anyone's abstract painting could reach such a high level, thinking it was just his own eyes playing tricks on him. So he shook his head and said, "I didn't see anything, go to bed quickly, goodnight."

  The little girl refused to let go, her body trembling more and more, continuing to ask: "What did you see?"

  Lao Chu patted the little girl's hand and said, "Really didn't see anything, go to sleep quickly."

  The little girl nodded and walked into the house. Old Chu stood at the door for a moment, feeling that there was something strange about this father-daughter pair, but it had nothing to do with him, so he went back downstairs to continue sleeping.

  The sound of the glass ball falling to the ground on the upper floor was gone, but Lao Chu couldn't sleep well, feeling that something was in his mind but he couldn't think of it. In a daze, he suddenly woke up and finally remembered what made him so unsteady.

  It's a candle!

  The candles in the house upstairs are all white!

  Candles are usually divided into red and white, local customs, daily household use is generally red, while white is only used when there is a funeral at home, although some people use white candles in inconvenient situations, but few people have as many as the upstairs and use ten or so at once, unless someone has died at home.

  I don't know if there's a dead person upstairs, but judging from the situation, it should be none, otherwise at least they should have 'arranged' for a photo or something to pay respects. Thinking of that man's strange behavior, Old Chu could only attribute it to his unconventional thinking and not caring about these taboos.

  By the time he figured all this out, the sky had already begun to lighten. Old Chu started his "work" outside. His job was simple: he collected trash.

  Lao Chu has an education and abilities, but he ultimately chose to be a scavenger because of freedom, because he didn't need to interact with some "unruly" people. In his heart, he didn't think this was something shameful. Writer San Mao once said she had always wanted to be a scavenger.

  Freedom comes at a cost. The money I earned from other jobs in the past was all spent on buying a house, and now for the sake of living, I have to work even harder. Picking up trash may sound unpleasant, but when luck is good, it can bring in one or two thousand yuan per month, which is enough to make ends meet. However, Lao Chu doesn't earn that much because he has an extra step in his process.

  He likes to take those scraps of paper back home, spread them out one by one, and during his free time, write down the words on each scrap, getting to know and explore those souls he didn't recognize before and wouldn't have recognized afterwards. No one is truly a loner; it's just that they can't find their friends. The owners of these scraps of paper with miscellaneous writings became Old Chu's friends.

  I can't see you, but I know you're there.

  Because of the extra workload, Lao Chu had to work late into the night for survival. As he dragged his tired feet slowly up to the 8th floor, he saw a person at the corner of the stairs.

  This was a strange man that Lao Chu had never seen before, dressed like a migrant worker, looking like a construction worker, sitting at the stairwell between the 8th and 9th floors.

  Lao Chu was stunned for a moment, this was neither the male owner of the upstairs nor his own friend. If it were residents of other floors, there would be no reason to climb here in the middle of the night. The only explanation is that the person in front of him is a thief, perhaps coming to case the joint.

  Lao Chu gripped the iron hook tightly in his hand and stared at the man, asking: "Who are you?"

  The man who looked like a migrant worker saw Old Chu return, immediately walked down from the stairs, stood in front of him, stared into his eyes and asked: "What did you see there?"