Butterfly II

  Mimi opened her eyes as if she had been frightened, meowed, arched her back in fear, staring at a certain place, ready to fight or flee at any moment.

  Four small feet with sharp claws stretched out, firmly grasping Su Ying's leg, the sharp claws pierced into her flesh, causing unbearable pain. However, she didn't feel any pain at all, as her entire attention was shocked by the terrifying scene in front of her.

  She followed Mimi's gaze and saw the portrait of Baizhenye hanging on the wall. The portrait, which was originally smiling like a Buddha, now furrowed its brow, gazing at her with infinite worry, and its lips moved slightly, uttering three words: "Save her."

  A bone-penetrating gust of cold wind hit her in the face, and she involuntarily shivered. The air was so cold it seemed to be on the verge of solidifying.

  Mimi let out a mournful meow and scurried away.

  Su Yingzhen only felt her hair stand on end, as if Grandpa's sorrowful gaze had locked onto hers, and she couldn't escape. Mimi suddenly jumped out from the corner, leapt up, and recklessly charged towards Grandpa's portrait.

  With a "bang", the portrait and the cat both fell to the ground.

  "Mei Mei!" Su Ying Zhen took a swift step forward and scooped up Mei Mei in her arms.

  Mimi was trembling violently in her arms, as if she had been shocked to the extreme, and struggled uncomfortably, then let out another mournful meow, and choked back a sob as she broke free from her arms and ran away.

  Su Yingzhen was shocked and stared at the photo of her grandfather in trepidation, seeing that he had tears streaming down his face.

  Su Yingzhen's face turned pale, the fear in her eyes had condensed into a cold icy lake, slowly, slowly she squatted down, stretched out a finger and lightly touched Grandfather's face with a slight tremble. A chilling and disgusting feeling like a venomous snake wrapped around her neck from her fingertips, tightly wrapping around her throat, making it hard for her to breathe.

  She clearly saw that her fingertips were stained with a teardrop. Round and strange, it stayed on the tip of her finger.

  Su Yingzhen was so frightened that she let out a loud cry, turned around and ran into Bai Xue's room, stumbled and fell to the ground, heavily closing the door behind her, leaning against the icy cold door and slumping softly to the floor.

  The computer suddenly flashed and went black. Bai Xue turned her head back and saw Su Yingzhen with a panicked face, asking in confusion: "What's wrong?"

  Su Yingzhen was speechless, pointing to the outside of the door. Bai Xue looked at her in shock and was unknowingly affected by her emotions, becoming tense. She mustered up the courage to go to the living room, and a few seconds later, the sound of her mournful cries echoed from the living room. The door was violently slammed open, and Bai Xue's pale face rushed in, quickly locking the door behind her and using her back to firmly block it, as if afraid that something terrifying would rush in.

  "Did you see it too?" Su Yingzhen's voice was a little shaky.

  Bai Xue nodded heavily.

  Two girls stood still.

  The whole house suddenly plunged into an endless silence, an unsettling silence.

  It was a long time before Bai Xue spoke up: "I had told mom not to hang the ancestral portrait, but she insisted on hanging it. Every day when I see that black and white photo, it's like seeing the unpredictability of life and death, it scares me to death. But mom said that having an ancestral portrait in our own home can bring peace and safety to our household. Now look what's happened, we're haunted."

  "How did you know it was haunted?"

  "How can Grandpa's mouth move if he's not a ghost? And...he's crying!" She said, her eyes filled with fear.

  Another eerie silence.

  "Let's just play computer, otherwise the more I think about it, the scarier it gets." Baixue was always carefree and didn't like having burdens on her mind. She sat down at the computer desk, only to find that the screen had gone black. The two girls had been fiddling with it for half a day but couldn't get it working. Baixue said helplessly: "It's just like when it rains, the roof leaks, and now we can't even play computer, making things even harder to bear."

  Su Yingzhen suddenly heard the faint sound of footsteps slowly approaching the door, and she quickly put her finger to her mouth in a silencing gesture. Bai Xue also heard it, and her normally rosy face turned pale, her eyes wide with fear as she quietly drew closer to Su Yingzhen, afraid of startling whoever or whatever was outside. She clung tightly to Su Yingzhen's body, trembling with fear.

  The footsteps outside the door disappeared, and the two of them looked at each other in dismay, asking with their eyes, but there was no answer.

  Bai Xue patted Su Ying's hand and let her see the door lock. The door lock was silently rotating.

  The two of them felt as if they were standing on an iceberg, their entire backs chilled to the bone.

  Su Yingzhen slowly approached the person standing at the door.

  The door opened quietly.

  Su Yingzhen exerted all her strength to push the door, and it closed again with a thud. Before they could even celebrate, a cry of "Ah yo" came from outside the door, which was White Snow's mother's voice. The two quickly opened the door, and White Snow's mother was sitting on the ground rubbing her head, with a red patch on her forehead.

  "Mom—" Bai Xue was really angry and stomped her foot, saying: "How can you be so scary? We're almost scared to death by you!"

  "Just kidding, I just wanted to try my real skills, who knew you would take it so seriously." Baixue's mom stretched out her hand to signal for her to get up, but Baixue turned her head and ignored her.

  Su Yingzhen felt a bit embarrassed and pulled her up: "Auntie, I didn't mean to."

  "So what if it was intentional? We almost got scared to death just now." Bai Xue said with a pout.

  "What's there to be afraid of in your own home? Besides, Grandpa is here to protect you."

  "Don't mention Grandpa anymore, it's him who is scaring us. Just now, Grandpa in the photo was crying and talking, it scared me to death."

  Bai Xue's mother looked at Su Yingzhen with a mixture of trust and doubt, and Su Yingzhen nodded.

  The three of them entered the living room, and White Snow's mother suddenly stopped in her tracks, trembling all over, with a look of terror in her eyes, clearly frightened by something terrifying.

  "Mom—" Bai Xue called out softly: "What did you see?"

  "Your grandfather, he's glaring at me fiercely, asking why I didn't teach you well, not even a bit obedient, and saying that tonight he'll go to your room to give you a good scolding." White Snow's mom said with a mysterious tone, rolling her eyes.

  "Oh no—" Bai Xue was so scared that she knelt down on the ground with a thud, knocking her head like pounding garlic: "Grandpa, please don't scold me anymore, I promise to listen to Mom's words from now on."

  "Alright, from now on you're not allowed to go online." Baixue's mom said sternly. A hint of a smile flashed at the corner of her mouth, caught by Su Yingzhen who had been quietly standing beside her, and she smiled saying: "You don't have to scare Snow."

  Bai Xue heard this and got up from the ground with a huff: "Am I really your biological child? Why did you scare me like that?"

  Bai Xue's mother said: "It was you who made up a story and scared me first."

  "I didn't make it up, you can see for yourself." She pointed timidly at grandfather's portrait.

  Bai Xue's mother picked up the old photo, her breathing suddenly stopped. In the picture, Grandpa's eyes seemed to be moving.

  "My goodness, Grandpa is really crying!" exclaimed Baixue's mother.

  Bai Xue hastily hid behind her mother and stole a terrified glance at her grandfather's portrait.

  Bai Xue's mother suddenly laughed: "You're really two timid children, afraid of everything. This is clearly the mist in the air covering it up. You said it was crying, and you were scared like this!" After finishing, she looked at them with disdain.

  "No, I just saw Grandfather frowning." Su Yingzhen said beside him.

  Bai Xue's mother used a tissue to wipe the portrait several times, wiping off the moisture on it. She suddenly stretched it in front of Su Yingzhen, who was caught off guard and felt a chill in her heart, retreating several steps back.

  Bai Xue's mother burst out laughing: "How can you be a policeman with such a small gut? Take a good look, is Grandpa crying or smiling? Just now it was the water vapor on the glass that refracted and made the photo inside look different from usual. You've even been to college, yet you don't know this, scaring yourself like that."

  "But just now grandpa was still talking." Baixue is still very scared, her mother's words did not dispel the doubts in her heart.

  "What did I just tell you?"

  The snowflakes fell silently. At that time, she didn't quite hear what Grandpa said, and now she can't remember what he said either, maybe... it was just her own illusion. Thinking of this, her heart felt at ease, and a smile crept back into her eyes.

  Su Yingzhen also calmed down and smiled slightly.

  Bai Xue's mom had dinner ready the moment Bai Xue's dad got home, don't be fooled by her love of joking around, when it comes to household chores she doesn't mess around.

  Four people sat down at the dinner table. Bai Xue's parents kept putting food into Su Yingzhen's bowl, and soon it formed a small mountain.

  Su Yingzhen was worried, she couldn't finish eating even if she burst her stomach, but when visiting others' homes, it's not good to leave rice uneaten. She was in a dilemma and suddenly thought of Mimi, her heart lit up, and she kept calling out its name, scanning the room with her eyes. It had been a long time since she saw it appear.

  "Huh? Where's Mimi? I haven't seen her since I got back all this time." White Snow's mom was somewhat puzzled.

  "Mimi seemed to have been frightened just now and hid," Su Yingzhen explained.

  "It's just hiding now, and it should come out when it smells the fishy smell." Bai Xue said. Her mother cooked a plate of braised carp today, and the aroma is overflowing.

  "When you're hungry, it will come out naturally." said Baixue's father.

  Everyone stopped talking about the cat and shifted their attention to Su Yingzhen.

  Su Ying's heart and spirit were not as one, often answering questions irrelevantly. Even the delicious food in her mouth tasted bland and flavorless. A kind of terrible feeling lingered in her heart.

  After dinner, she sat for a while and then bid farewell to go home. The Bai Xue family saw her off to the elevator entrance, waiting for the elevator to stop on the 18th floor, as soon as the door opened, Su Yingzhen walked in, turned around, and made a final farewell with the enthusiastic family. In the moment when her line of sight intersected with theirs, her smile froze on her face...