Twenty-ninth day (1) Midnight Female Ghost

  Tick-tock, tick-tock.

  Tick-tock, tick-tock.

  What is damp?

  I struggled to open my eyes, listening to the raging wind outside, wailing and howling, and for a moment, I was disoriented and didn't know where I was. With great effort, I got out of bed and saw the neatly packed suitcase on the floor. After thinking for half a day, I wondered where I was.

  Tick-tock, tick-tock.

  Tick-tock, tick-tock.

  The sound of water is still there, I took a glance outside the window, outside the strong wind is raging, it seems that a storm is approaching, walked over and pushed the window, the icy window frame made my hand shrink back, surprisingly cool, even in the coldest winter month, the window wouldn't be this cool.

  Tick-tock, tick-tock.

  Where did the sound of water come from?

  I followed the sound and looked around, but it wasn't in the bathroom or kitchen, nor was it anywhere with water.

  But this voice is right next to my ear, and I can feel that damp air all around me.

  Tick-tock, tick-tock.

  I still can't pinpoint this sound, every time I follow the sound to find it, the sound disappears, and then it will ring out in another place.

  Tick-tock, tick-tock.

  I turned on all the lights and looked everywhere, but the sound of water droplets remained, just around me.

  I stood in the middle of the room, closed my eyes, and listened to the sound changing around me. Suddenly, I felt that this sound was alive, it was wandering in my room.

  But I just can't see her.

  I looked around again, shrugged my shoulders. As a person with a rich imagination, I've had many days where I scare myself. When writing books to the very end, hallucinations and auditory illusions emerge, and I've seen many strange things, but they're all products of my own imagination.

  I'm used to it, I don't know if it's my own illusion, I let out a sigh of relief and didn't care if the voice was in front or behind me, left or right, anyway, everyone got up.

  Go pee.

  After relieving myself in the bathroom, I felt more at ease, and the sound of dripping water seemed to have disappeared. I washed my face under the faucet and stood in front of the mirror to take a look at myself.

  Still so handsome.

  I played a joke on myself and suddenly felt different from usual.

  How did your hair suddenly grow so long?

  I'm a homebody and rarely go out for haircuts, so I've gotten used to my hair being a bit long, but as a man having hair that's past my shoulders is a bit too much.

  I wiped the mirror with my hand, and indeed there were some long hairs behind me, but they didn't grow on my head. It was clear that these hairs were separate from me.

  Just stick close to me.

  I heard the sound of water droplets again.

  Tick-tock, tick-tock.

  Right behind me.

  My body shuddered, and I slowly turned my side, the movement was very light, very slow. I saw a woman slowly appearing in the mirror, wearing a fiery red dress, with long hair all over her head. She was tightly attached to my back, her hair dripping wet, as if she had just emerged from the water.

  It turns out I've been carrying her all along!

  At this angle I couldn't see her face, which was just covered by her wet and messy long hair. I didn't want to look at her face either. I stood there, not daring to move, unclear what it was that I had on my back.

  She seemed to have sensed something, her head slowly turned around, so stiff, like a wooden puppet.

  Her hair covered her face, and I could only see her eye, just one, which was also bright red, with a hint of blood.

  She also saw my face in the mirror, as if it were an illusion, and I felt her smile.

  Then she suddenly swept up her long hair with her hand and exposed her face. I saw that eye, but no longer saw anything else on her face.

  This face has nothing but one eye!

  But I heard a shrill voice, seemingly coming from her, the sound was sharp as if a knife was scraping against glass, she shrieked loudly, don't go to the ancient village!

  I shuddered violently and sat up in bed all of a sudden.

  It was just a dream.

  A loud thunderclap sounded, I looked out the window and it was already pouring heavily outside. My window was blown open by the wind, rainwater poured in, and the room was filled with damp air.

  I hastily closed the window and carefully turned on all the lights. When I walked into the bathroom, everything seemed normal.

  The feeling of palpitations was still in my body, I didn't even dare to go to the toilet, closed the bathroom door, and then pushed a chair against the door, blocking it.

  It's just a comfort to one's heart.

  I let out a sigh of relief and sat back down on the bed, picked up my phone to check the time, it was just past one.

  This dream is too scary, and I don't dare sleep again. Anyway, tomorrow... no, today I have to take a train for several hours, I'll just sleep on the train.

  I didn't dare turn off the lights, so I held onto my phone and started reading, planning to stay up until dawn.

  At this time, the mobile phone rang, still an unfamiliar number. I thought it was a harassing call, watching it ring and planning to ignore it, but didn't expect it to be so persistent, ringing one sound after another.

  My hands started shaking and I basically don't have any friends that I can call in the middle of the night, a midnight phone call is definitely not good news for me.

  I picked it up and heard a woman's voice inside, sharp as a knife scraping against glass. She yelled, "Don't go to the ancient village."

  Then the phone hung up, and when I called back, it was still an empty number.

  Lightning flashes and thunder rumbles!

  I caught a chill and the remaining drowsiness instantly dissipated.

  Am I still dreaming?

  Or maybe it was never a dream at all?

  I glanced at my phone, time was ticking away coldly, and with every second, I could hear the sound of my life slipping away.

  I opened my eyes, and the sky was already bright. I pushed open the window, and the air after the rain was exceptionally fresh. It seemed that I had a very strange dream yesterday. In the dream, I was carrying a woman in red clothes on my back, and I received a mysterious phone call.

  The sunshine swept away all the gloom, I let out a sigh of relief and smiled to myself.

  It seems I was too tense, got scared yesterday, so had this ghost dream in the middle of the night, two of them.

  I tidied myself up, picked up the prepared luggage and patted my pocket to find that I hadn't brought my phone. When I picked it up, I saw a text message on it.

  "Don't go to the old village."

  I had a chill, flipped through my phone records, and indeed I received a call in the wee hours.

  That phone call was real, so what about the woman in red?

  I dialed the number of the message again, and as expected, it was an empty number.

  I stood in the middle of the road with a suitcase in hand, unable to move forward or backward.

  If this is true, whether I go to the ancient village or not, I only have twenty-nine days of life left, and every second is decreasing. If this is false, then who else is playing a joke on me?

  Whether it's true or false, I couldn't wait for death here. I gritted my teeth and made up my mind for half a day.

  Go, what's the point of not going, going is death, not going is also death, going still has a glimmer of hope, if not...

  Are you sure that red-clad female ghost won't come looking for me again at night?

  Although I don't have a girlfriend, but... such a woman is also beyond my reach.

  Anyway, that's just my personality, can't say I'm bold, but not small either. Plus, being used to making jokes online, I don't distinguish between occasions and can come up with some dry humor. At critical moments, telling myself a joke actually relaxes me quite a bit.

  I calculated the time, and it was quite relaxed. However, I felt a bit uneasy at home, so I grabbed my luggage and ran out to the train station, looking for crowded areas to sit in. As expected, being among many people made me feel more at ease. I sat there dazed until boarding time, and only when I found my seat did I finally put my mind at rest.

  I don't dare tell my parents about this. They've been worried about me for half their lives, and I can't scare them with something that's not even real.

  As for the ancient village, my impression is really vague.

  In my memory, my father mentioned several times the ancient village. There was an ancient temple in that place, which used to be called Ancient Temple Village. Later, during the destruction of the Four Olds, both "ancient" and "temple" were considered old things and were abolished, and it was renamed Red Flag Village. After the Cultural Revolution, the two words "Red Flag Village" had too much color from that time, Chinese political activities are all wave after wave, you finish singing and I take the stage, Red Flag Village was renamed again.

  Originally intended to change back to Gu Miao Village, but the temple became a classroom and was gone, leaving only an ancient character called Gu Cun.

  That's all I know about the old village, everything else is just a vague memory. When I was young, people in the village loved to tell stories, one day they'd encounter ghosts and the next day they'd encounter monsters, it all sounded so mysterious, as if that place was some kind of spiritual realm.

  Our family had never encountered anything, when I was ten years old, my father came home and collected Grandpa's remains, brought back the ashes, and then the title of "ancient village" disappeared in our family.

  If I hadn't gone back home to move the grave at the age of ten, I wouldn't have known where Gucun was. That trip left a deep impression on me, and I vaguely remembered that Gucun was below Qinghe Town. At that time, it took several hours by horse-drawn carriage, which seemed very far away then. Now thinking about it, if we had taken a car, it would have been just an hour's drive at most. Actually, it's quite close to the town.

  However, I have some doubts about whether the ancient village can accommodate cars. In my impression, there are mountains all around, and there is no place that is not a mountain. When I was young, the biggest job for my father and other strong laborers during their spare time was to repair roads, and it was the kind of road repair that involved digging into mountains. There really was a mountain that was dug open, and when I passed by the tunnel at the age of 10, my father proudly told me, "Look, son, this is what your dad has accomplished."

  Endless mountains, this is my deepest impression of the ancient village, and probably also the only one now.

  I took another look at the time on my phone, and for some reason, since I made up a terrifying hundred-day story for myself in my heart yesterday, I can always hear the ticking sound of time passing by.

  You listen.

  Tick-tock, tick-tock.

  It's as if there is a countdown bomb spinning wildly inside my brain.

  And I always subconsciously look at the time on my phone, really afraid that it will suddenly shut down, and then I... have no then.

  My destination today is Qinghe Town. I don't have the courage to go directly to the ancient village, I don't know what it looks like now, and I don't know what's waiting for me there.

  I want to get close to the ancient village in the town first, and ask around if there are any strange things about the ancient village. I am a non-famous writer, and what I am best at is collecting materials, and then reasoning out a thread in between.

  I need to know what I've offended at least, and what's cursing me. Then, no matter if it works or not, first search for something like a crucifix, holy water, peach wood, Buddhist beads on Baidu, or watch a few episodes of "Supernatural", prepare some salt and fire, dig up a corpse in the middle of the night, and burn it by the roadside...

  Anyway, my mind is a mess, I've unintentionally worshipped the nine heavenly gods and goddesses, whether it works or not will be seen in the future.

  This train is the slowest, now in China there are very few trains as slow as this one. There's no other way, Qinghe Town is a very small place and only this kind of slow train that stops at every station and gives way to oncoming traffic can reach that small town.

  I got on the bus, and for a full half hour, it didn't move. There were many empty seats on the bus. I saw from afar a group of young people chattering and running over. This group was different from me; they were full of youthful energy, not dull and lifeless like me.

  They seemed to be my opposite, full of expectation for this trip. Looking at these young people sitting around me, I didn't mind much. I took out Garcia's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" from my bag and prepared to spend the long journey with it.

  The book had just been taken out when a girl said, "You're reading Garcia too."

  I let out a sound, looked up and saw a girl standing behind the seat in front of me, her white neck stretched out, turning to look at me, her face full of youth and vitality, black hair falling on her shoulders, skin as white as snow. The light shining through the window cast a bright halo around her, just like she was wearing a colorful cloak of light, making me, who was already feeling dizzy, feel even more stunned.

  I let out an "oh", and the girl seemed very interested. She raised the book in her hand and said, what a coincidence, I'm also reading One Hundred Years of Solitude.

  What's the fuss about? Recently, Garcia passed away, and many people who didn't know who he was scrambled to read a few of his books, just like when Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize in Literature and his books became a national reading sensation.

  This has become a habit on my trip. When I saw girls taking out this book too, I smiled and said, isn't it popular?

  I've actually read "One Hundred Years of Solitude" four times, this is the fifth time. As long as I'm away from home, I'll definitely read it again and put myself in that world. Each time feels different. But my personality isn't very good at socializing, people who aren't good at socializing are simply not good at bragging.

  The girl shrugged and said, let's chat for a while.

  This train ride is quite relaxing, the seat opposite me is completely empty, and all around are young people who came up with a girl, I hummed a sound, smiled, maybe it's been too long since I've lived alone, I've already forgotten how to communicate with women, I stiffly lowered my head, opened the book, the girl giggled and said, "Your book is upside down."

  I let out an "oh" and felt a bit of heat on my face, turned the book over and found that it was actually upside down.

  It was just now that the girl cheated me, I raised my head and found that the girl had already sat down.

  Maybe they thought I was boring so they made a joke, I casually flipped the book to a page, adjusted myself into a comfortable posture, and started reading wholeheartedly.

  A good book is really a pleasure, watching the joys and sorrows of the people in it, I actually forgot my own little troubles, and didn't know how long I had been reading, until the ticket inspector came over and called out to me several times before I snapped back to reality, hastily handing over my ticket.

  The ticket inspector was very impatient and asked as he took the ticket, "Where are you going?"

  I hastily said, Qinghe Town.

  The other party carefully looked at the ticket again, then looked at me, as if I had just thought of escaping with a ticket, and handed it over after sizing me up.

  I took it and put it in my bag, then buried myself in a book again.

  In a daze, I felt someone sitting across from me. I lifted my head and took a glance, it was that clean and neat girl from just now, next to her was one of her friends.

  She is also a girl. Most of her hair is black, but the front has three strands of hair dyed red, yellow and blue, hanging down in front.

  I may be too traditional, I have a kind of rejection to this colorful hair from the very beginning. I turned my head and took a look at the girl, smiled at her.

  The girl stretched out her hand and said, "Si Yao".