Chapter Eighteen: Timely Rain

  If this is a smile, then it must be the most frightening and terrifying one in the world.

  Su Tong's eyes were wide with fear, her heart racing with terror that made her want to scream, but she seemed to have lost her voice, unable to utter a single sound. Her two hands clutched the pillow tightly, shaking uncontrollably.

  She saw the blood baby clutching the sofa, struggling to climb up. Su Tong was extremely frightened and subconsciously threw the pillow in her hand at the blood baby with great force. However, she had already been scared stiff, losing more than half of her strength. Moreover, the pillow was originally soft, so when it hit the blood baby's body, it only made its head tilt slightly and its body sway a little.

  The blood baby was hugged and slammed, seemingly angry, it opened its mouth wide and let out a piercing scream, the two sticky small hands loosened their grip on the edge of the sofa and waved in mid-air. Su Tong hurriedly covered her ears to prevent her eardrums from being shattered by that scream, she discovered that on each palm of the blood baby's hand grew an eye, just like the one that appeared on TV earlier, with clear black and white colors, more black than white, the two eyeballs were still rolling around wildly, the two hands in mid-air looked extremely eerie.

  That blood baby seemed to be enraged by Su Tong's action of hugging the pillow, it let out a shrill cry, and the dark red thick blood that was originally spreading on the ground seemed to be summoned and controlled by its cry, gathering towards the sofa, finally all gathering at the blood baby's feet. The TV was still bubbling with black blood inside, those sticky but still can be called ** blood reached the blood baby's feet, as if it had become a platform that could support its small body, it stood in the blood, being lifted higher and higher, although slowly, but at this rate, it would be able to rise to the height of the sofa in less than a minute, and then crawling towards itself would be easy.

  Su Tong wanted to run, but suddenly found himself as if he had been struck by a acupuncture point, his whole body stiffened and couldn't move at all. Except for his two eyes that could still turn around, the rest of him was completely out of control, filled with despair in his heart.

  Knock knock knock——.

  A knock at the door! Su Tong's heart skipped a beat, and his previously dark mind was suddenly lit up like a lamp being turned on. He must not have misheard it - that was definitely a knock at the door! If there was another knock, it meant the door was still there and hadn't really disappeared! As long as someone outside could come in or he could get out, there was still hope, and maybe he wouldn't be buried in this little monster's clutches tonight after all!

  "Help! Save me! Help!" Su Tong didn't know who was outside the door, but she couldn't care about that now. After discovering she could make a sound, she used all her strength to shout loudly, "I'm trapped inside the house! It's very dangerous! Please find someone to unlock it for me! Save me!"

  Knock knock knock——. Knock knock knock——.

  It was as if in response to her cry for help, the knocking sound became more urgent. Su Tong shouted for help while staring intently at the blood baby, afraid that the monster would suddenly pounce on her when she was completely defenseless. She could now make a sound, but her body was still unable to move, as if nailed to the wall.

  It's unclear if it was just his imagination, but Su Tong noticed that as the knocking sound suddenly came, the originally fierce and menacing Blood Baby seemed to have weakened a bit. The knocking sound continued to ring out urgently, and the Blood Baby gradually withered away in Su Tong's line of sight. The TV stopped bleeding black blood, and the black blood on the ground seemed to seep into the floor and slowly disappear. The Blood Baby also disappeared along with the black blood, and just as it vanished, Su Tong's body suddenly relaxed, almost falling off the couch.

  At the same time, the mysterious door that had just disappeared and couldn't be found no matter what, reappeared.

  She trembled all over and ran to the door at the fastest speed, almost rolling and crawling, without even looking to see who was outside. This was the first time in her life that she was so excited to be able to see the door and touch it. Su Tong opened the lock with one hand and pushed the door open, using too much force, causing the person standing outside to stumble. She didn't have time to see who it was, and stumbled out of the house, her legs weakening, and fell onto the floor of the corridor, panting heavily, her heart racing as if it were about to burst.

  "It's okay, it's okay, I'm here, don't be afraid." The person at the door walked up to Su Tong, squatted down, and put his hand on her trembling arm, the warmth from his palm making Su Tong's heart feel a little more at ease.

  She raised her head and saw that the person squatting in front of her was Tang Ao. Tang Ao's face was very stern, his eyebrows were tightly locked, and his eyes were both focused and concerned, looking very worried about her.

  "I... " Su Tong opened his mouth to tell him about the terrifying experience he had just encountered, but because of the intense trembling, he almost bit off his own tongue. He barely managed to utter a single word before having to close his mouth again.

  "Wait, don't say anything, come with me, I'll make you a cup of tea." Tang Ao saw the situation and stood up without saying a word. He helped Su Tong up from the ground, opened his own front door, settled her on the sofa in the living room, and then turned around to enter the kitchen.

  Don't look at Tang Ao as a home decoration consultant, his own home is very simple. The four walls are white, with several ordinary printed decorative paintings hanging on the wall that don't seem to be anything special. A large bookcase is placed in one corner of the living room, filled with many books. Apart from this, the only furniture in the living room is the sofa under Su Tong and the small tea table in front of him. There is no dining table or TV set. It's so simple that it doesn't look like a place where a young person lives.

  Su Tong didn't have the heart to carefully observe the decorations in Tang Ao's home, she only knew that somehow her own feelings seemed to be off, and the temperature in Tang Ao's home seemed to be much higher than her own, warm and cozy.

  Soon, Tang Ao came out with a cup of tea and handed it to Su Tong: "Drink it, you'll feel better. It's not anything special, just some herbal stuff that can calm your nerves. I think you've had a shock, drink some to warm yourself up and calm down, then we can talk about what's going on."

  Unlike the previous few times when he was warm and polite, he said this to Su Tong with an unmistakable firmness in his tone. Coupled with the fact that Tang Hao appeared again like timely rain at her most fearful and helpless moment, it made Su Tong instantly lose her guard against strangers and gain a kind of inexplicable trust. She nodded, picked up the teacup, and didn't even care that the water was still a bit hot, drinking it in big gulps. The experience just now was really too terrifying, she only felt that from inside to outside, her whole body was chilled to the bone. A cup of hot tea went down her throat, the warmth flowed from her throat to her stomach, and then spread throughout her body. Her previous weak and powerless feeling disappeared, and her heartbeat stabilized a lot.

  "Thank you, thank you!" After calming down a bit, Su Tong opened her mouth with some embarrassment. Her brain had just recovered its normal thinking ability and she began to worry that if she told the truth, Tang Wei would think she was mentally ill. Now, this neighbor who had only interacted with her two or three times seemed like a lifeline to someone drowning, and if Tang Wei thought she was crazy and refused to talk to her again, Su Tong would only feel fear and despair. "I... earlier..."

  "Don't be in a hurry, relax a bit, I want to tell you something, but I hope you won't get too tense after hearing it. If you don't believe me, that's okay," Tang Ao didn't sit down, instead he squatted in front of Su Tong, so he could see her facial expression more clearly, and said cautiously, "I think... there seems to be something unclean inside your house."

  "I believe! I believe you!" Su Tong was so excited that he grasped Tang Ao's hand tightly and spoke in a hurry, "I was fine at home, then the TV... there were children crying in the house, then laughing... no, there were also screams! The door, the door was gone, I couldn't get out! And there was blood, black blood, flowing out of the TV, and a monster covered in blood, with no nose or eyes, just a mouth with sharp teeth! It had eyes on its palms, crawling towards me, I hit it once, and it screamed, then blood, blood..."

  "Slowly, slowly." Tang Ao comforted her and poured some tea from the teapot into a cup, handing it to her. "Think about it, when did things start to feel off? Have you ever encountered such strange things at home before?"

  Su Tong took a few more sips of tea, calming his nerves: "A bit... I don't know if there's any connection between these things. The night before last, I had a nightmare while sleeping and was so scared that I couldn't move. Then the next day when I went to the hospital for an interview, I ran into you in the elevator. That afternoon, I went to Changqing Mountain and twisted my ankle, which turned black and hurt terribly. It was also you who helped me treat it when I got back. Today, nothing seemed out of the ordinary - I went out for an interview during the day and made good progress, and when I returned home, everything still seemed normal... but then suddenly, something just didn't feel right."

  Tang Ao listened to her very seriously, without showing any suspicion, which made Su Tong feel a lot more at ease. After she finished speaking, Tang Ao furrowed his brow and thought for a moment before asking: "Is there anything else? Recall everything that's unusual, no matter how big or small."

  Su Tong thought for a moment, then suddenly remembered two things that he had almost forgotten due to his nervousness. He felt a bit embarrassed and his face turned red before he even spoke: "Last night... while I was taking a bath, I accidentally fell asleep for about 10 minutes. As a result, the water in the bathtub went from hot to lukewarm, like tap water. And last night, I had a weird dream that my palm was scalded, and when I woke up, I found a blister on my palm."

  "Relax your hand a bit and let me take a look." Tang Ao gestured for Su Tong to give him his hand.

  Su Tong only then realized that from just now to the present, she had been tightly grasping Tang Ao's hand. Her face turned even redder as she hurriedly let go of his hand and spread out her palm, which had developed blisters.

  Tang Ao looked at the blister on her hand and frowned, muttering: "It's really a blister, that dream is not just a simple dream, at least it's an illusion, so the things that happen in the environment will be truly reflected on your body. Hot water suddenly becomes cold in a short time... Has your home been cold these two days?"

  Su Tong nodded: "It's cold, I didn't feel it before, but now that I'm here with you, I think it's different."

  Tang Ao thought for a moment, got up and entered the small room he had set up as a study, and after a while came back out again. He stretched out his hand to Su Tong and said: "Let's go, we'll head back to your place and take a look."

  Su Tong didn't dare to agree, and shook his head vigorously: "No no no! Not possible! I don't dare!"

  "Don't be afraid, I'm here." Tang Ao comforted Su Tong, seeing that it had no effect, and could only patiently explain a few more sentences. "Have you ever thought about a question? Just now, why did the monster disappear at such a critical moment? Why couldn't you find the door after searching for half a day, but I knocked on it and it reappeared?"

  Right, I just realized that myself, but after escaping, I ignored it again. That monster did indeed start to weaken after Tang Ao knocked on the door and then disappeared. The invisible door also reappeared at that time. Thinking about it again, Tang Ao helped me miraculously cure my swollen ankle earlier, and Su Tong's panicked heart suddenly became a little more at ease.

  Of course, it's just a little bit, but she was still very afraid to go back to her own home, and staying with Tang Ao all the time was not appropriate. However, what happened at home just now really scared Su Tong out of her wits, fearing that if she wasn't careful, something would happen again. What if Tang Ao was just mistaken this time? Would they be so lucky next time? If they rashly ran back like this, wouldn't it be equivalent to seeking death?

  It was as if Tang Ao had seen through Su Tong's inner worries, and he smiled at her with a slightly mysterious tone, saying: "I'll tell you a secret, but you have to keep it for me. If you reveal it, others will either think I'm a liar or that you're crazy. And when I tell you, you mustn't be afraid of me."

  Su Tong nodded vigorously, concentrating his attention on Tang Ao's explanation.

  "I actually have yin-yang eyes, which I only discovered in the past two years. And I've also tried some small tricks to ward off evil spirits. Previously, out of curiosity, I experimented with them and they were quite effective. That's why I was able to knock on your door just now; if it were someone else, they wouldn't have been able to do it." Tang Ao spread his hands in front of Su Tong, letting her take a closer look. "Your house door was as hot as an iron just now, and it wasn't easy to make a sound when knocking."

  Su Tong took a closer look and saw that Tang Ao's palm was very red, with several shiny blisters on it, just like his own this morning.

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