Chapter Seven: The Desolate Mansion

  "My goodness, this place is too scary!" Although Wang Li usually appears to be carefree and fearless, at the end of the day, she's still a young woman in her twenties. Her bravery only goes so far, and when she actually walked up to the old building and courtyard, she couldn't help but feel a little intimidated. She clutched Su Tong tightly and gazed at the dilapidated structure in front of her. "What was this place used for before? Don't tell me it's some rich family's vacation villa! With so many good locations to choose from, why would they build it in such a gloomy and damp spot that gets no sunlight? It must be freezing cold and humid here - anyone who lives here for long will get moldy and grow mushrooms all over their body! Honestly, looking at the house, it's got some age on it. I wonder if some idiot really did build a villa here back in the day, then went bankrupt because of their stupidity, and couldn't sell the house, so they had to pack up their family and leave?"

  "Go ahead and spout nonsense!" Su Tong was teased by Wang Li into laughing, stretching out her hand to poke at her forehead. "Where do you get so much strange imagination all day long? I've lived until now and never seen anyone with mushrooms growing all over their body! If it's true, we'll have to go see for ourselves! Let me tell you, I investigated this place, it was an orphanage before liberation, later on who knows what year, during the war-torn period, no matter if they were adults or children, those who could escape did so, and nobody took care of anything. When things calmed down afterwards, someone thought of this place again, only to find that there was only one broken-down empty house left standing here, nothing else remained."

  "My goodness, if it's like this, this house has been standing here for years, how come nobody planned to renovate or demolish this 'illegal building'? What's the point of leaving it here? Is it for film crews to come and shoot horror movies?" Little Wang thought that in the beautiful scenery of Changqing Mountain, there was such a dilapidated and gloomy old house, which really spoiled the view.

  "You yourself just said it, with this geographical location, people can grow mushrooms, who would want to buy here? Who would be willing to buy a place like this?" Su Tong shook his head, thinking Wang Li's idea was unrealistic, and casually let go of Wang Li's hand that was holding onto him, walking towards the gate, "If you're afraid, just wait for me outside, I'll go take a look, then we can leave."

  Wang Li didn't make a sound, and quietly followed behind, making a ghostly claw shape with her hand, rushing straight for Su Tong's neck. She even deliberately pinched her throat to produce a chilling, eerie voice, softly saying: "Little girl... you're really... beautiful! Stay tonight, and keep Ghost Grandpa company till the wee hours!"

  Su Tongming knew it was Wang Li trying to scare people, but being touched by her icy fingertips on the back of his neck still made him shudder, breaking out in goosebumps all over his body. He didn't know if it was because of that eerie and desolate voice disturbing him or if the atmosphere here happened to evoke the heart-pounding experience from before, but his heart felt a creeping sense of dread.

  "Oh, stop it!" She rolled her eyes in exasperation. "I'm not going to bother with you, you silly guy!"

  "I'm not kidding, you just said it yourself, maybe only ghosts would want to stay here!" Wang Li chuckled and withdrew her hand, but she didn't plan on following Su Tong into the courtyard either. Joking was one thing, but that three-story small building with all those dark broken windows still made her feel a little uneasy deep down.

  Su Tong was wearing Wang Li's high heels, so she walked relatively slowly. She stepped step by step towards the gate of the courtyard. To be strict, there wasn't even a gate here, only two stone pillars that were mottled and worn out but still intact, which could be considered as the "gate". When she crossed the threshold, a gust of wind suddenly blew up. The wind was strange, it didn't seem to come from anywhere, nor did it have a fixed direction. It seemed to be swirling around, yet at the same time, it just blew randomly. The wind wasn't strong, but it was very cold. When it blew on her skin, it felt like it could seep into the gaps between her bones, making people feel very uncomfortable.

  "It's windy, are you cold?" Su Tong shrunk his neck and turned to ask Wang Li who was waiting outside the yard.

  Wang Li looked at Su Tong with an inexplicable expression: "Where's the wind?"

  Su Tong glanced at the forest behind Wang Li, the leaves only slightly trembling, it didn't seem like there was any wind blowing, so she didn't say anything else and began to look around the yard.

  Just now outside, all attention was drawn to that slightly gloomy little building, and the situation in the yard was not noticed. Now walking in and taking a look, Su Tong feels that something seems a bit strange. At first, she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was, but after a while, she realized that even on this side of the mountain, where the sun doesn't shine much, there were already many sprouts growing on the ground outside the yard, and the surface was covered with a layer of tender green. However, inside this yard, although there was no cement or anything like that laid down, just plain earth, for some reason, unlike the vibrant spring atmosphere outside, the soil in this yard was bare and dry, without a single blade of grass growing.

  It's said that not a single blade of grass grows here, but in fact, it's not entirely accurate. There is still a tree growing in this courtyard, with a thick trunk and towering height, its canopy almost level with the top of the three-story building. However, this tree looks half-dead, while trees outside the courtyard are already lush with green leaves. This tree only has sparse, tender shoots emerging from its branches, with most of it still being bare twigs. The bark is dark and dull, exuding a lifeless aura.

  As she thought of the child who was found with his head on this big tree, Su Tong walked towards it, wanting to see if there was anything special around. As she approached, she saw that the trunk of the tree near the roots was covered with many mosses. These mosses were not like the ones that could be seen in humid places, walls and corners, but were dark green or light green. The moss on this tree showed a strange dark red color, which looked like solidified blood blocks from a distance. Only when you got closer could you see the shape of the moss. These mosses didn't look like blood blocks, but Su Tong smelled a faint smell of blood when she got close, not like soil or fish, but like blood.

  Was it that a child fell down here, bled, and stained the moss with blood, leaving a bloody smell? But the hospital checked, none of the seven children had any signs of external injury. Su Teng felt puzzled in his heart, subconsciously picked off a small piece of moss from the tree bark, rubbed it with his fingers, and sniffed it again, only to find that the fishy smell he had smelled before seemed to have disappeared.

  Was it that she was too nervous today, so she had an illusion? Su Tong was a bit uncertain, the fluffy feeling of insecurity in her heart became stronger, she hurriedly brushed away the moss on her hand, wanting to leave this yard as soon as possible, go to a sunny place, bask in the warm sun, maybe it would feel better.

  As soon as he turned around and took a step forward, his foot seemed to be tripped by a protruding tree root, and Su Tong lost his balance without any defense and fell to the ground. Fortunately, both hands supported the ground first, giving his body a buffer, which avoided the embarrassing situation of "face-first landing". At the moment when he hit the ground, Su Tong's left palm felt a sharp pain, and after stabilizing his body, he sat on the ground and hurriedly checked the condition of his hand without getting up. He found that his palm had been pierced by something and had cut a small mouth, bleeding out a lot of blood. The wound was not big, but it hurt a lot. Su Tong took a deep breath and wanted to call Wang Li to ask if she had any band-aids or anything with her. His eyes glanced around and saw that on the ground in front of him, something with a color between milky white and light yellow was exposed in the mud. It seemed that his left hand had just pressed on that thing and was cut open. Su Tong's mind moved, and before he even considered whether this action was appropriate or not, both hands had already unconsciously started to dig up the soil. In a few moves, they dug out the thing that was exposed at the corner. The thing was small, and if you put it in your palm and clenched your fist, it wouldn't be visible at all. It was a small sculpture of a child, with a smooth texture that made it impossible to guess what material it was made of. Although the sculpture was small in size, its craftsmanship was very delicate, and every detail was perfect, whether it was the child's round face or the eyes, nose, and mouth on the small face. It looked like a one- or two-year-old chubby baby, with no flaws at all. If it weren't for the size difference, Su Tong would have thought it was a real little baby if he stared at it for too long.

  "Hey, what's wrong with you? How did you fall?" Wang Li, who was waiting outside the courtyard, only noticed that Su Tong had fallen to the ground and sat there. At this time, she didn't care about being afraid or not, and hurriedly ran in from outside to help her up.

  Su Tong was startled awake by Wang Li's call, came back to his senses from a daze, and subconsciously clenched the small sculpture tightly in the palm of his left hand. With Wang Li's support, he stood up while smiling at her and said: "It seems like I just tripped over a tree root and fell, but I'm fine."

  Wang Li turned her head to look at the ground behind Su Tong, which was flat and even. There were no tree roots or potholes that could have tripped him up. Unable to understand why Su Tong had suddenly fallen, she instinctively blamed the high-heeled shoes he was wearing: "It's all my fault! If I hadn't swapped shoes with you, this wouldn't have happened. You don't usually wear high heels, so it must be because of those shoes that you lost your balance and fell. Come on, let's swap them back."

  "It's nothing, it's my own fault for not paying attention, how can I blame you?" Su Tong stood up with Wang Li's support, but as soon as she took a step, her ankle hurt and softened, almost falling to the ground again. Fortunately, Wang Li held onto her hand tightly, otherwise she would have ended up with a bruised butt.

  "Ah, I knew it! Let me take a look!" Wang Li said, feeling both self-reproach and urgency. She quickly helped Su Tong sit back down on the ground, reached out to lift up her pant leg, and took a look. Fortunately, her ankle didn't swell up immediately, which made Wang Li breathe a slight sigh of relief. She sat down next to Su Tong, taking off her own flat shoes. "You've sprained your foot, hurry up and change back into your shoes! If you keep walking in high heels down the mountain, your feet will definitely be ruined!"

  Su Tong's ankle was indeed very painful, and she didn't continue to make excuses with Wang Li. The two of them changed back into their own shoes, and Wang Li supported Su Tong as they slowly walked out of the courtyard, following the small path they had taken earlier to return to the stone steps on the side of the mountain. Su Tong suddenly remembered that she still had an untreated wound on her hand, possibly because her ankle hurt more, and she almost forgot about it. She was afraid that the blood on her hand would stain Wang Li's light-colored silk blouse, so she hurriedly checked her wound again, but found that the wound in the palm of her left hand had stopped bleeding, and the blood that had flowed out earlier had disappeared without a trace. There was only a small, clean wound left in her palm, as if it had never bled before, and there was no pain at all.

  Since it didn't hurt, Su Tong didn't pay much attention to it and carefully avoided putting weight on his sprained ankle. With Xiao Wang's support, they got down the mountain and hailed a taxi back to the city.

  The evergreen mountain was still quiet, just like it was before they came.

  A gust of wind blew by, and the trees on the mountain swayed their branches in the wind, their leaves rustling softly. The half-dead tree in the abandoned courtyard also swayed its bare branches, but it had no leaves to make a sound. However, as the wind whistled through its branches, there seemed to be a faint, silvery laughter, like the voice of a young child. The sound was very soft, and after circling around the empty courtyard, it disappeared into the forest with the wind.

  The sun sets in the west, and the light becomes even more dim. The quiet mountain shade has only a desolate house with a long, dark shadow.