Chapter 3 The First Story (Three)

  For several days in a row, Wang Qiang was busy looking for new jobs, but it was difficult to find one that he was satisfied with. Sun Xiaohong had already learned about his dismissal and didn't take it to heart.

  Wang Qiang sighed and said, "I've thought about it too, but creating something isn't an easy task." Sun Xiaohong said, "How do you know it won't work if you don't try? Why not write one first, and if it doesn't work out, we can think of another way." Wang Qiang thought for a moment, and since he had nothing to do these days anyway, he agreed to give it a try.

  Xiao Hong leaned against Wang Qiang, looked up at him and asked: "What are you going to write?" Wang Qiang thought for a moment, shook his head and said: "To be honest, I really don't know what to write." Xiao Hong said carefully: "How about I tell you a story and you write it?"

  Wang Qiang's body shook, and he sat up straight from the sofa, staring at Sun Xiaohong and asking: "What did you just say?" Sun Xiaohong saw Wang Qiang's face change greatly, and even his voice trembled with fear, softly saying: "I, I didn't say anything, I was just telling you a story to write down."

  Wang Qiang's mind flashed with the words on those scraps of paper, he stared at Sun Xiaohong and asked word by word: "Did you really hear any sounds in the room that day?"

  Sun Xiaohong's face changed greatly, and she trembled with her voice: "I, I certainly didn't hear it."

  Sun Xiaohong patted her chest with her hand, gave Wang Qiang a white eye, and said: "You're not allowed to scare me like this again. Now sit well, I'll tell you a story."

  When Sun Xiaohong finished telling the story, even Wang Qiang couldn't help but admire its appeal. Although it was just a simple ghost story, the plot twists and turns were so captivating that they left him breathless, making him want to hear more. Despite knowing it was just a story, Wang Qiang only realized after finishing listening that he had broken out in cold sweat all over his body.

  Wang Qiang held Sun Xiaohong tightly in his arms and asked, "This story is indeed attractive, who told you?" Sun Xiaohong heard Wang Qiang's praise and smiled sweetly at him, saying, "No one has ever told me these things, and I don't know why they appear in my mind. You write it down first, next time I'll tell you another story."

  Wang Qiang murmured, pulling Sun Xiaohong closer, and after a moment of stunned silence, he asked softly, "Xiaohong, I want to ask you something." Sun Xiaohong closed her eyes and replied, "What?" Wang Qiang hesitated for a moment, his tone somewhat unnatural, "Do you still remember our first... that day?"

  Since the two confirmed their romantic relationship, they have been intentionally avoiding what Wang Qiang did that day. When Sun Xiaohong first heard Wang Qiang's question, she was taken aback for a moment, then immediately understood what he was referring to, her face suddenly turned bright red, and asked: "What thing?"

  Wang Qiang asked: "I remember that after I left that day, I heard you say 'it was him all along', what did you mean?"

  Sun Xiaohong's face turned even redder, and she buried her head deeper, saying: "You might not believe it, but when I was a kid, one evening I was playing alone at the entrance of our house. Then there was this person who came to ask for a drink of water, and as a thank you, she told fortunes for each member of my family. We had never seen anyone tell fortunes so accurately before. She said that I would definitely go through a great calamity in the future, and that this person would be my husband."

  Wang Qiang smiled and said, "You're really a silly girl, believing in something like this."

  Sun Xiaohong sat up and said: "It's true, everything she calculated has come true."

  Wang Qiang pulled Sun Xiaohong into his arms and laughed: "Okay, okay, it's true. What does this master look like and where does she live? I also want to ask her to help me figure out when I'll get rich and when I'll become a dad."

  Sun Xiaohong suddenly trembled and Wang Qiang asked: "What's wrong?"

  Sun Xiaohong was stunned for a moment, saying "Nothing." But she involuntarily leaned against Wang Qiang's body and continued: "At that time I was already five years old, I remember very clearly that she wore a very long dress, wrapped her head up, and even wore a mask on her face. It was impossible to see what she looked like, but the voice was that of a very young woman."

  Wang Qiang loudly shouted "What did you say?!" and jumped up from the sofa, his eyes staring at Sun Xiaohong, his face extremely tense. The attire of the mysterious person that Sun Xiaohong had just mentioned was exactly the same as the messenger that Li Jie had encountered that day.

  Wang Qiang immediately realized his mistake. He was afraid that Sun Xiaohong would worry, so he quickly sat back down and said nonchalantly: "Nothing, I just think this person is too strange."

  Sun Xiaohong saw that Wang Qiang was fine, let out a sigh of relief, and continued: "There's something even stranger. After she helped us calculate our fortunes and stood up to leave, my family offered her money but she wouldn't accept it, saying that just having another cup of tea would be enough. At the time, I was small in stature and standing right in front of her. I saw her lightly lift her mask and take a sip of water. It was at that moment...I saw..." As soon as she got to this point, her whole body began shaking violently, and she tightly hugged Wang Qiang: "Let's not say any more, okay?"

  Wang Qiang tightly hugged Sun Xiaohong, softly comforting her: "It's okay, I'm here, it's okay, keep talking, don't be afraid." He couldn't bear to see Sun Xiaohong being tormented like this, but this mysterious woman was related to those mysterious manuscripts, and he had to get to the bottom of the truth.

  Sun Xiaohong gradually stopped trembling, stared blankly for a while, and then continued in a soft voice: "I saw her lift the corner of her mask to drink water. Although it was just a corner, I saw... I saw her teeth."

  Wang Qiang tightly grasped the landlord Sun Xiaohong and asked: "What's wrong with her teeth?"

  Sun Xiaohong's hands tightly grasped Wang Qiang's arms, and her whole body began to tremble again, as if she had seen the scene of that day. She said in a trembling voice: "Her teeth... Her teeth were all blood red!"

  Wang Qiang only felt a chill all over his body, Sun Xiaohong's words were really beyond his expectation. At this moment, even in his heart, he couldn't help but produce a thread of fear. He tightly hugged Sun Xiaohong and softly comforted her: "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, maybe you saw it wrong. Come on, let's go to sleep."

  All night, Sun Xiaohong clung tightly to Wang Qiang, and even in her sleep, her body would involuntarily tremble. Wang Qiang kept his eyes open, staring at the ceiling, and as soon as he closed them, it was as if a mysterious woman wearing a windbreaker and mask appeared before him. It wasn't until who-knows-when that they finally fell into a daze and drifted off to sleep.

  When Wang Qiang woke up, the sky was already bright. Sun Xiaohong was sitting in front of the computer, and the printer on the table made a humming noise. When Sun Xiaohong heard Wang Qiang wake up, she turned around with a smile: "I saw that you were too tired, so I helped print out yesterday's story for you. Don't laugh at my level."

  Wang Qiang looked at Sun Xiaohong's smiling face, completely without the panic and confusion of last night, and felt a sense of relief. He had not intended to send out this story, but was afraid that Sun Xiaohong would be heartbroken, so he casually dropped it into the mailbox when he went out, and didn't think about it again.

  Unexpectedly, on the third day, the two received a call from the magazine company. The article was accepted with a payment of 1,000 yuan per thousand words, and Wang Qiang was immediately asked to contribute another piece. The payment for one article was even higher than Wang Qiang's original monthly salary, which made the two extremely excited. So they continued, one telling stories and the other writing and editing. In just two months, Wang Qiang's reputation soared because of his articles. His original magazine company repeatedly invited him to continue working there, but Wang Qiang was no longer interested in that meager salary and refused outright.

  He also deeply knew that he could achieve today's achievements because of Sun Xiaohong. Wang Qiang also tried to write his own stories and submit them, but the result was not only that the story was not liked by people, but also that he was said to be a shameless fake. Therefore, in the end, he also gave up his creative ideas and cooperated with Sun Xiaohong wholeheartedly. But it's strange to say, Sun Xiaohong only told supernatural stories, if Wang Qiang asked her to tell another genre, she couldn't say anything no matter what.

  Since Wang Qiang started working from home with Sun Xiaohong, he didn't have to go out for work, so naturally, they spent more time together. Gradually, Wang Qiang began to feel that there was something strange about Sun Xiaohong. For example, every month, she would find an excuse to get rid of him and leave herself alone at home, or she would find a reason to go out by herself for the whole day. At first, Wang Qiang didn't pay attention, but as time went on, he started to feel that every time they were apart and then met again, Sun Xiaohong seemed to have an inexplicable feeling about her, as if even when she walked, there was no sound. Thinking back to the cat's meowing incident, Wang Qiang's unease grew stronger.

  This Wang Qiang was entertaining outside until late in the afternoon, and although he had drunk a lot of wine, his mind was still very clear, but his footsteps were a bit unsteady. When he walked to the second floor, he suddenly remembered the scene when he first met Sun Xiaohong. Although he now thinks that Sun Xiaohong is a bit strange, in all fairness, she has always been true to him, and almost everything he owns today can be said to have been given by Sun Xiaohong. It can be said that having Sun Xiaohong as a wife is every man's dream. Thinking of this, Wang Qiang felt a warmth in his heart, and involuntarily looked towards the position where he first saw Sun Xiaohong, but found a woman standing in that corner.

  The woman was wearing a long red dress, with her back to Wang Qiang. From her height and build, she looked like Sun Xiao Hong. Wang Qiang called out "Xiao Hong", but the woman didn't respond. Wang Qiang walked forward and called out again, this time the woman reacted, slowly turning around. In front of him, the woman hung her head low, with a long hair covering her face, making it impossible to see her features. Her hands were hanging straight down at both sides of her body, swaying gently from side to side. There was a hole on top of her head, and fresh blood kept flowing out, streaming down her hair to the ground.

  Wang Qiang was so frightened that he let out a loud cry, took several steps back, and almost fell down the stairs. This fright completely sobered him up, and when he looked again at that place, there was nothing there, just a straight staircase as before. Wang Qiang blinked his eyes hard, patted his head, and thought to himself: Could it be that I've had too much wine and my eyes are seeing things? He shook his head, lifted his legs, and continued walking up the stairs.

  As he walked to the fifth floor entrance, just as he was about to take out his key to open the door, a sudden meow came from inside the house. The cry echoed in the empty building, extremely mournful. Wang Qiang stood at the door, his body trembling uncontrollably. This time he heard it clearly: that meow was not an illusion.

  He was just about to open the door and take a look, hesitated for a moment, then pulled out his phone from his pocket and called his friend, asking him to call Sun Xiaohong and tell her that Wang Qiang had been in a car accident. He saw the home phone number on his phone and dialed it again, telling her to rush to the hospital immediately. After finishing the call, Wang Qiang took a few steps back and hid in the attic, so he could observe Sun Xiaohong's every move from above.

  After a while, the door opened and Sun Xiaohong rushed out with a look of anxiety on her face, holding a wallet. Wang Qiang waited until she was far away before coming down from the attic and carefully searching every corner of the room. He couldn't forget that meow and wanted to know what Sun Xiaohong had hidden from him, so he searched especially thoroughly.

  As he walked into the kitchen, Wang Qiang's nose caught a strong smell of blood. His heart began to beat faster and his hands started to tremble slightly. On the floor of the kitchen, there were faint bloodstains that extended all the way under the cupboard. Holding his breath, Wang Qiang used a broom to sweep under the cupboard, feeling the broom hit something. He carefully swept out the object with the broom and took one look before he couldn't help but bend down and vomit.

  What was swept out was a dead cat, with a rope around its neck, its tongue sticking out, its two eyes had turned into two blood holes, and its belly was cut in half, with intestines spilled all over the floor.

  After vomiting for a while, the feeling of nausea in Wang Qiang's heart dissipated, but what followed was his fear of Sun Xiaohong. He thought about countermeasures while slowly getting up, and when he was halfway up, his body suddenly shook, his eyes fixed on the wall opposite him, and his whole person became stiff.