Chapter 52

  The Seventh Night, Return of the Soul

  11:50

  The night wind is biting. All around is silent. The moonlight is obscured by a large mass of dark clouds, and the city's prosperity is drawn into an endless abyss by the deep darkness. The gloomy wind gathers in the desolation, and in the darkness, huge flowers of loneliness bloom.

  A black cat in the corner let out a long, mournful wail.

  In the dark corridor, a cluster of ghostly fire illuminated the resentful face. Mrs. Zhang crouched beside the brazier, where paper money was constantly being fed into it, producing a faint green flame. The entire hallway was filled with an increasingly heavy ash. The murmured incantation full of resentment indifferently traversed the severe space.

  "Son, come back! Go avenge your killer! Ox-Head and Horse-Face, please show him the way home."

  A voice like weeping and complaining, extending into an infinite long line, pulling the soul from somewhere, slowly returning.

  The old building stood silently, shrouded in the dark and chilly night air, resembling a solemn coffin. The coffin slowly creaked open. A hand emerged from the coffin, pointing towards the way home.

  A gust of gloomy wind swept through the entrance, carrying a foul odor. The administrator on duty curiously poked his head out and saw the unmanned elevator door slowly open by itself, as if welcoming someone, then slowly close again.

  The caretaker muttered under his breath, "This old elevator is always breaking down." He then withdrew his head and continued to lazily guard the unguarded old building on this desolate night.

  The red digits of the elevator jumped one by one, like a powerful heart.

  The elevator stopped on the sixth floor. The muffled sound of the door opening, Mrs. Zhang, who was burning paper money in the corridor, looked up and gazed over.

  No one came out. The elevator doors closed silently.

  In the cool place, the slowly spreading mist gradually enveloped the entire space. The air like smoke and fog flowed slowly on the ground, submerging the brazier and the feet wearing slippers. Mrs. Zhang stood up, she opened her arms, tears streaming down, choking with sobs: "Son, is it you who has come back? Let mom hug you."

  A yellow figure appeared at the end of the corridor, slowly walking towards her. The figure walked very slowly, as if dragging heavy shackles, and its outline was stiff like a corpse in the backlight. The sound it made while moving was very awkward, a unique frictional sound of plastic.

  "Baby, is that you?"

  Mrs. Zhang excitedly called out to the figure, and was answered by a child's giggles, which were so cold that even the air trembled.

  That figure suddenly stopped, clapped the leather ball in his hand, and a voice sang happily: "Presenting the sinking package, presenting the sinking rice crispy bun. Winning the left food fragrant mouth glue, wanting to eat bean paste package."

  Mrs. Zhang was a little disappointed. This wasn't her son's voice. It was a little girl's voice.

  It's so late, what is this little girl still playing?

  She was too lazy to bother with the child, and squatted down again to continue burning paper money, then paper-made toys, houses, etc. She wanted her precious son to live well in the nether world.

  Besides, she won't let her son die in vain! The Yous killed her son! She wants the family to pay back with blood!

  Mrs. Zhang gritted her teeth and thought, the flabby flesh on her face twitched with excitement, experiencing the thrill of avenging a great grievance, hot blood rushed to her eyes.

  She heard a child from down the hallway bouncing a ball and asking, "Want to play together?"

  She ignored it. After everything in the fireplace had been reduced to ashes, Mrs. Zhang turned around and walked back into the living room. Before entering, she glanced down the corridor, where the little girl in the yellow coat had vanished at some point.

  But in the corridor, there was still the sound of a bouncing basketball echoing.

  Mrs. Zhang closed the door. She sat on the sofa in the living room, staring blankly with her eyes unfocused and gazing at the floor. Suddenly, she saw something and straightened up abruptly.

  Under the dim light, only a row of wet footprints were seen on the floor, from the door straight to the TV before disappearing. Mrs. Zhang immediately looked around, clutching her chest which was beating wildly with excitement. These were a child's footprints. It was her precious son who had come home.

  The ceiling fan above slowly rotated and brought down a sorrowful wind.

  "Son, is that you? Is that you? Answer Mom! Mom has been waiting for you so anxiously!"

  Mrs. Zhang called out anxiously. In the empty room, the mother's call to her son echoed for a long time.

  As if in response to her call, the TV suddenly sprang to life with a loud crackle.

  Mrs. Zhang gazed intently at the TV screen.

  A group of children appeared on screen, shoulder to shoulder, happily playing a train game.

  Chugging along, chugging along, the little kids imitated the sound of a train, one after another.

  They were all lovely children. Mrs. Zhang thought of her own baby boy and couldn't help but shed two tears, her heart aching with sorrow, piercing her like a sharp pain.

  Huh? That kid seems...

  Mrs. Zhang hadn't seen it clearly, the screen flashed by, and the ending advertisement appeared on the screen. She suddenly slumped to the ground in disappointment. However, her mood quickly became excited again.

  Because the TV repeated the same advertisement again.

  A group of children playing train in the woods.

  Rumble! Rumble!

  Just like a slow-moving train, the advertisement screen also started playing slowly. Mrs. Zhang felt her heart tighten and a fierce pulse beating in her chest. She excitedly stuck her face close to the fluorescent TV screen, her eyes fixed on the smiling faces floating by one by one on the screen.

  Then, her tense face suddenly burst out a smile.

  It's my son! She wasn't mistaken just now, her son is among these children! Mrs. Zhang burst into tears, she stretched out her hand to gently stroke the TV screen, a weak electric current radiating from her fingertips, like a protective wall separating the mother and son who were separated by life and death.

  The TV screen was moving very slowly, and the little fatty in Mrs. Zhang's eyes was happily leaning on the shoulder in front of her. Suddenly, the little fatty turned his head around, staring straight at Mrs. Zhang with a painful expression on his face, his grayish-white eyes filled with a sense of injustice, his mouth opening and closing as if he wanted to say something, even though Mrs. Zhang had turned up the TV volume to its maximum, she still couldn't hear the little fatty's cry for help.

  Oh, son! My baby! What grievances do you have? Tell Mom all about it!

  Mrs. Zhang hugged the TV and wailed in grief. The painful expression of her son on the screen was like a sharp scalpel cutting through her chest, taking out her heart. Suddenly, she had an intense impulse to hug the TV tightly and lift it up wildly. She wanted to smash the TV!

  In this way, the soul of the son who was imprisoned will be released from inside!

  But she immediately thought that if the TV was smashed, it would make her son's soul disappear into thin air.

  Mrs. Zhang ultimately didn't dare do anything to ruin her rare reunion with her son.

  The TV screen continues to play the next grid.

  Xiao Pang's scene passed. Mrs. Zhang sat down with a thud, the floor bearing her plump buttocks. The blood seemed to have drained from her body, and her face was pale. But in the desolate wilderness of her heart, a bean-sized lamp still lit up the boundless darkness.

  She expected her son would show up again.

  Mrs. Zhang narrowed her eyes, her gaze tightly grasping every slight movement on the TV screen. In the room sealed by the dark night, a sense of danger and eeriness blurred the dim light, making it seem like an isolated island in a vast city, desolate and far away.

  The sultry summer night cracked open in the humid southern climate, revealing one strip after another.

  Suddenly, Mrs. Zhang's eyes bulged out, her breathing stopped abruptly, and a chill ran through her entire body.

  The child who was originally following Xiao Pang, the last child in the line, wearing a yellow raincoat and barefoot, suddenly pulled his hand away from Xiao Pang's shoulder and stopped.

  And the other little friends left the screen like a slow-moving train.

  The forest was left with only that little kid.

  Although the weather on TV was sunny, the raincoat on it kept dripping water droplets, as if it had just floated up from the river. A strange aura emanated from its body in waves. This aura continuously seeped out of the TV and gradually filled the entire room.

  Mrs. Zhang felt her heart racing and her mouth dry, producing a choking bitter taste. She held her breath and tried to wipe away the fear, but the terror in her heart was catalyzed to grow even more luxuriantly, spreading through every corner of her body along the blood vessels and nerves in an instant.

  The little kid in the yellow raincoat stepped out with small feet, swaying and staggering as he walked, his posture like a walking corpse. Mrs. Zhang thought it was going to crawl out of the TV, just like the female ghost Sadako from that horror movie "Ringu" many years ago. The same indistinct face. Although it didn't have Sadako's long black hair, it had 4 raincoat hats on its head.

  Its face was like a dark cloud hiding in the shadow of the hat. A few faint and sinister laughs escaped from the shadows.

  Mrs. Zhang was so scared that she quickly left the TV and felt afraid and helpless. Just like when she found out her husband had a woman outside, she was wrapped in a deep sense of loneliness. The whole world abandoned her. She stood in the living room, dazed and at a loss.

  At this time, all the electrical appliances in the room seemed to have been given life and suddenly started automatically. The rice cooker, microwave oven, juicer... Thousands of volts of electric current whipped their bodies, and even the ceiling fan spun wildly.

  A strong gust of wind blew through the room, messing up Mrs. Zhang's hair, and she looked nervously at the TV.

  The child in the yellow raincoat is walking very close now, his figure almost filling the entire screen.

  It slowly stretched out its hands, as if it had grasped her neck. Mrs. Zhang desperately scratched her neck with her fingernails to pull away those invisible hands, but all of this seemed to be in vain. She felt almost suffocated and her consciousness gradually became blurred.

  Then she vaguely heard a "bang" sound. Something broke. The wind came crashing down. Update first.