In the opulent top-floor apartment, only Jiaozi was home.
"Darling, I thought you'd abandoned me for the past few days!" As Jiaozi opened the door and let Su Tang in, she threw herself into Su Tang's arms with a pale face.
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"How could I! My master is too strict with me, I really couldn't get away!" Su Tang gently patted Jiaozi's back, her eyes carefully surveying the apartment.
Nothing seemed to have changed much; it was the same as the last time she visited. Yet, there was an indescribable mess. It wasn't the mess of a place not tidied for days, but rather a mess that seemed deliberately created.
"Su Tang, I'm telling you, my house is haunted!" Jiaozi shivered, her tongue thick, and whispered.
"What are you talking about? Where are your parents?" Su Tang asked.
"They're on a business trip!" Jiaozi said breathlessly, "Their phones have been unreachable since noon yesterday!"
"What? No contact for 24 hours?" Su Tang's heart skipped a beat. This was not good news, especially with the case happening in this neighborhood, and the infrared sensors on the balcony still unaccounted for! Could it be—
"So we can only video chat!" Jiaozi's small face was tense, looking wronged.
"—" Su Tang wanted to cry but had no tears. Big sister, can you please stop creating such an atmosphere!
A completely hairless small dog trotted slowly downstairs. Perhaps it had seen Su Tang before, as it lowered its head to sniff her, wagged its tail, and lay on the ground.
"How's the dog?" Su Tang still felt a little disgusted and involuntarily took two steps back.
"Much better! Yesterday evening, it finally managed to expel something, and now its stomach feels comfortable, it's eating well, and the dog is energetic again!" Jiaozi petted the dog's head and casually tossed something enclosed in a plastic bag from the table to Su Tang.
"What's this?" Su Tang held up the plastic bag and found a small plastic tube inside. One end of the tube had bite marks, and the other end was slightly thicker, as if a plastic cap had been fitted onto it.
"Oh, it's what the dog pooped out!" Jiaozi said dismissively.
"Eww!" Su Tang, who was about to bring the object closer to her nose, quickly threw the bag onto the table.
"Alright, didn't you say on the phone that someone wanted to kill you? Why are you saying it's haunted now? Aren't your parents coming back? Didn't you tell them?" Su Tang sat casually on the sofa, saying, "Let me tell you, I don't have much time. If I'm late, my master will kill me!"
"Listen to me. After you left that day, didn't someone die in the neighborhood? The next day, my parents went to the company early, saying there was a murder case in the neighborhood and the company had to hold an emergency meeting to discuss countermeasures." Jiaozi said. At first, she didn't take it seriously, thinking, who would want to kill an underage girl like her? But she never expected something to happen the night her parents left.
That night, after video calls with her parents and her dog at the pet hospital, Jiaozi went up to her bedroom on the second floor, jumped rope on the balcony for a while, and then went to bed to watch Korean dramas.
She watched dramas until past 1 AM. Just as she was about to go to the bathroom before sleeping, she inadvertently noticed that the usually closed glass door to the balcony had a gap of more than a meter. With her thick nerves, she didn't think much of it and closed the door. When she came out of the bathroom next door and reached her bedroom door, she almost died of fright! Because through the half-open door, she saw a black cloth fluttering in the air.
"Only the bedside lamp was on in the bedroom at the time, but I clearly saw a long black cloth floating around inside the room. I wanted to shout but dared not. I backed away to the first floor and hid in the safe room where we kept valuables." Jiaozi said, "I don't know how long it was in the safe room before I drifted off to sleep. When I woke up, it was already daylight. I boldly returned to my bedroom and found nothing out of place in the room, and the balcony door was closed."
After such an incident in the middle of the night, Jiaozi tried to comfort herself, thinking she had watched too many Korean dramas and her eyes were playing tricks on her, or perhaps she had a dream and sleepwalked! Thus, she stayed home for another day without any strange occurrences. In the afternoon, the pet store called, saying the dog had passed something, its stomach was comfortable, and it could be brought home. So she asked the pet store to send the dog back.
The second night, perhaps with the dog for company, Jiaozi was not as scared. She continued watching Korean dramas until 2 AM before falling into a drowsy sleep in bed. However, she didn't sleep deeply. About half an hour after she fell asleep, she suddenly heard the sound of the glass door opening.
"I was terrified! I thought, is that thing back again? But why isn't the dog barking? If the dog isn't barking, am I dreaming again?" Jiaozi said, harboring doubts about whether she was dreaming, she secretly turned her head to look. Indeed, she saw the black cloth again, wantonly fluttering in the bedroom...
Jiaozi didn't know when the black cloth disappeared, nor when the glass door was closed. When daylight came, Jiaozi shakily sat up in bed and looked at the small dog lying on the floor, and let out a loud cry!
"Su Tang, I've been calling people all day, everyone I could, and my parents said they can't be back until noon tomorrow at the earliest, and they said I was out of my mind, that there are no ghosts! I called my maternal grandfather, but he's busy too. Later, I wanted to go out alone, but I didn't know where to go!" Jiaozi said, "Su Tang, if you don't come tonight, I really don't know what to do!"
"If there really are ghosts, the two of us tied together wouldn't be enough for them to eat!" Su Tang said. "Although you've described it so thrillingly, and I really want to investigate, my master said that at my age, I don't have the ability for adventures yet, so I'm not going to help you keep watch! But you can come stay at my place!"
"That wouldn't be good, would it!" Jiaozi said a bit shyly. "Actually, I was afraid you wouldn't come tonight, so I've also called a few 'big brothers' from the streets to help me!"
"Big brothers? What big brothers?" Su Tang noticed something unusual from Jiaozi's expression.
"You know, those who charge money. I met them secretly at a disco. They're really generous; as long as they're paid, they'll help with anything!" Jiaozi said, "Su Tang, please, stay with me. I really don't dare to stay home alone, and after calling those big brothers, I'm already regretting it a bit!"
"Pack your things, let's go with me now!" Su Tang's right eyelid twitched erratically. She clearly felt something was wrong and forced Jiaozi to pack quickly while she herself went upstairs to take a look.
Just like the last time she visited, the bedroom on the second floor showed no signs of anything strange. Su Tang shone her flashlight by the glass door, carefully observing. She discovered traces of suction cups on both sides of the glass door. She then went to the balcony and saw that the marks on the wall from last time were still clear, and there was nothing unusual on the ground.
"What is this theatrics?" Su Tang glanced at her phone and saw it was already 7 o'clock. She decided that she absolutely had to ask her master to take a look tomorrow.
Just then, the loud shouts and laughter of several men echoed from downstairs. Su Tang frowned—"This brainless Jiaozi!"
In the living room downstairs, four thugs dressed in bizarre clothing were sitting on the sofa, chatting with Jiaozi. When they saw Su Tang coming downstairs, the thugs couldn't help but whistle.
Trouble! Su Tang warily approached Jiaozi, tugged at the somewhat dazed girl, and said, "Let's go, someone's picking me up downstairs!"
"Hey! Where are we going! Isn't it just about catching ghosts? Do you know my online username? Daoist Big Bird! Hahaha, specializes in dealing with ghosts! And female ghosts!" one of the thugs leered at Su Tang.
These four thugs were all under twenty. They used to work as security guards at a disco. Recently, there had been a severe crackdown on organized crime in Hechuan City, leaving them temporarily "unemployed." Without alluring young girls or tips from guarding the venue, these individuals had been living a "poor" life. Jiaozi's phone call had brought them all here. Seeing Jiaozi's adorable appearance and Su Tang's tall, imposing figure, they couldn't help but harbor wicked intentions.
"Five thousand for the night! Don't worry, sisters, no one will disturb us!" another thug said. "What ghosts are there? Tonight, big brothers will make you two scream like ghosts!"
"Hahahaha!" A lewd laugh erupted. Su Tang frowned, and Jiaozi was on the verge of tears.
"May I ask which area you brothers are from?" Su Tang, finding herself increasingly cornered, suddenly asked with a smile.
"Oh, little sister, are you one of us too?" The older-looking thug, who seemed to be the leader of the four, said arrogantly, "My boss is Mian Tuan! So what!"
"Oh, do you have any contact with Brother Heshang?" Su Tang suddenly asked. In fact, she had accidentally encountered a man who looked like a thug while accompanying her master shopping. That thug, named Heshang, had bowed respectfully to her master. She didn't know if mentioning him now would be of any use.
"Damn it, nowadays people just throw around names of bosses and claim to know them! You know Boss Heshang, does Boss Heshang know you?" the leader of the thugs retorted.
"Why don't you call him and find out?" Su Tang boldly said.
"I don't have Boss Heshang's number. Hehe, little sister, stop talking nonsense. The weather is so hot, why don't you come take a bath with big brothers?" another thug said lecherously.
"I'm warning you, you'd better find out. If you dare to touch us, I'll make you regret it!" Su Tang, unable to stand such blatant provocation, said with a blush.
The thugs fell silent. One of them walked over, looked at Su Tang, and slapped her across the face.
Never having been insulted like this before, Su Tang's ears buzzed, her cheek felt hot and numb, and a gush of blood flowed from her nostrils. Touching her face, she found a shallow scar bleeding.
"Don't hit her, don't hit her! I'll pay! I'll pay fifty thousand! Don't lay a hand on them! You can leave! Or we can leave too!" Jiaozi, who was stunned, quickly shielded Su Tang.
"Slap!" Another slap. Jiaozi, lacking Su Tang's strength, was directly sent flying.
"Grandma! Ever heard of it being easier to invite a god than to send one away?" the leader of the thugs said with malice, slowly standing up.
ID Card - 563743675
"Five hundred thousand!" A thug who had been sitting on the sofa without speaking suddenly grabbed his leader's arm. He had just seen Su Tang, unnoticed, retrieve a small saw from a toolbox behind her.
"Don't come any closer, we'll go down together if we have to!" Su Tang, her eyes red, raised the saw.
"Brother, the situation is tense outside. Let's just make money, not take lives! These two young girls aren't much fun, let's forget it!" The thug who shouted "five hundred thousand" walked over to Jiaozi, pulled her up, and said, "Go get five hundred thousand, and then write a two-million-yuan IOU. We'll leave then!"
Trembling, Jiaozi took one of the thugs to her parents' study to get the money. The leader of the thugs looked at Su Tang with admiration and said, "Not bad, girl, what's your name?"
"You'll know in the future!" Su Tang raised the saw slightly higher and said, "The humiliation I've suffered today, I will repay tenfold!"
"Hehe!" The leader of the thugs laughed carelessly.
This was, after all, the home of corporate executives. They casually produced seventy to eighty thousand yuan in cash.
"Boss, we're rich!" After a while, the thug who went to get the money came back with a large bag of cash.
"How is it, is the IOU ready?" the leader of the thugs asked.
"It's ready! I even took a nude photo of the little girl! Hahaha, not bad, she's quite well-endowed. I almost couldn't resist! How about taking one of you too?" the thug who got the money said, looking at Su Tang.
"Forget it! It's enough! With the IOU and the nude photos, people who live in houses like this must have the means. Perhaps their money isn't clean, and they won't dare to call the police!" The leader of the thugs waved his hand, and the four of them left triumphantly.
Su Tang watched the four thugs leave with her own eyes. Her strength seemed to drain away. Gritting her teeth, she ran to the study and saw Jiaozi, completely undressed, slumped on the floor.
"Jiaozi!" Su Tang called out and picked up the clothes on the floor to drape over Jiaozi.
"Su Tang, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I never expected it to turn out like this!" Jiaozi sobbed into Su Tang's arms.
Holding Jiaozi, Su Tang suddenly felt a searing pain on her face. Was she too young? Why couldn't she handle this situation properly? Knowing that she had summoned the so-called "big brothers," why didn't she warn Jiaozi not to open the door in advance? In the face of absolute power, did she only have courage and integrity? Jiaozi was bullied right under her nose! Would the scar on her face not heal properly...
"Overestimating yourself! You dare to catch ghosts without even understanding people!" Su Tang finally understood why her master hadn't let her come. It was because she truly lacked sufficient ability.
Regardless, she had to call Hei Dou quickly. Her master could probably handle the matter of the thugs.
Having calmed down, Su Tang quickly took out her phone, but found there was no signal!
"Jiaozi, is your house's signal bad?" Su Tang asked, not knowing why, but her heart grew more uneasy even after the thugs had left.
"No, the signal in my house has always been good!" Jiaozi gradually recovered from her shock and slowly began to get dressed.
Just then, the lights in the house flickered, and the smart remote-controlled curtains began to close slowly.
"Jiaozi, did you close the curtains?" Su Tang asked quickly.
"No! I don't even know where my phone is!" Jiaozi looked bewildered.
"Quick! Jiaozi, let's get out of here! Something's going to happen!" Su Tang said, looking at the closing curtains and the darkening sky outside, feeling anxious.
The two of them quickly went to the living room and tried to open the door, only to find it wouldn't budge.
"The anti-theft system has been activated. Wait, I'll look for my phone!" Jiaozi said, searching the living room for her phone. Soon, she found it, but discovered it had no signal at all, and the house's Wi-Fi was also stubbornly refusing to connect.
"We're in trouble, we can't get out!" Su Tang said, looking at the increasingly flickering lights in the living room, feeling flustered.
"No way, these are all smart controls!" Jiaozi said, "Even if we can't get out, no one can get in!"
"Are you stupid! Did you forget about the black cloth that haunted the house?" Su Tang grabbed Jiaozi and headed for the second floor. Her only hope was that it was still light outside and Hei Dou was waiting downstairs.
In the bedroom on the second floor, the curtains were indeed drawn. A sliver of sunset light filtered through the glass door, creating a beautiful scene. At this moment, Su Tang naturally had no time to admire it. She dragged Jiaozi to the glass door and pushed with all her might, but the glass door, now powerless, was completely locked by the anti-theft system and couldn't be opened.
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It was still light out! Why did the other party act so early? Were they also in a hurry like me?
After pushing the door for a long time, it remained immobile. Panting, Su Tang collapsed on the floor to catch her breath. "Don't be afraid, it's just a quarter of an hour until 8 o'clock. The people I brought won't see me come down. If they can't reach me by phone, they'll naturally come looking for me!" Su Tang glanced at Jiaozi and saw she was still trembling uncontrollably, so she quickly comforted her.
"But in another quarter of an hour, it will be completely dark!" Jiaozi said.
Yes, as the light in the house grew weaker and the sun was about to set, she had to think of a solution. She had to leave before dark.
Although she wasn't sure what would happen after dark, her instincts told Su Tang that she had to do something now.
Looking at the glass door, Su Tang suddenly thought of something.
"Jiaozi, wait here, I'm going downstairs to get something!" Su Tang said and hurried downstairs. She remembered there was a hammer in the toolbox she had used for self-defense earlier.
Holding the hammer, Su Tang returned to the glass door, examined its structure, raised the hammer, and smashed it down hard.
As the sun began to set, Hei Dou, who had been resting with his eyes closed in the car, precisely opened his eyes at 7:50 AM. He looked up at the building entrance and, seeing that the little girl hadn't appeared, took out his phone to call Su Tang.
"Huh!" Discovering that the other party's phone was "out of service area," Hei Dou felt a bit strange. After thinking about the peaceful instructions he gave her before leaving, he quickly got out of the car and walked towards the building entrance.
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"Brother Ping'an, Su Tang's phone is unreachable, and she hasn't come downstairs at the agreed time. I'm going up to check. Do you know which unit she went to?" Hei Dou said to Ping'an on the phone while waiting for the elevator.
"The top-floor apartment has a direct elevator. I remember it's the one on the right!" On the other end of the line, Ping'an also felt something was amiss and quickly told Hei Dou to go and check.
"Uh oh, this elevator is locked!" Hei Dou said to Ping'an on the phone. "I'll take another elevator up to see. Don't worry, maybe we're overthinking it!"
After ending the call, Hei Dou took another elevator to the 20th floor and then took the fire escape stairs to the 21st floor, successfully arriving at Jiaozi's doorstep.
"Knock, knock, knock!" A series of urgent knocks echoed.
"Su Tang!" Hei Dou called out anxiously from outside the door.
On the second floor of Jiaozi's house, Su Tang, exhausted after hammering at the door for a long time and only managing to create a small gap, suddenly heard Hei Dou's voice.
Although they had only been apart for a short time, after what she had experienced, Su Tang was overjoyed to hear Hei Dou's familiar voice and pulled Jiaozi downstairs.
"Uncle Xiao Hei!" Su Tang's voice came from inside, separated by the security door. Hearing Su Tang's voice, Hei Dou finally breathed a sigh of relief and replied, waiting for them to open the door.
"This house is haunted, the anti-theft system has been activated, there's no electricity, the doors are automatically locked, the windows are closed, and the curtains are also drawn. And there's no phone signal!" Su Tang said.
Reader ID - 563743675
Hei Dou kicked the door with his foot, then checked his phone and found that there was indeed no signal.
"Don't worry, I'll call the police now. You two protect yourselves!" Hei Dou said and hurried downstairs, trying his phone floor by floor, but there was still no signal.
With external help outside the door, Su Tang and Jiaozi inside the house could finally relax.
"Don't be afraid, the police will be here soon!" Su Tang patted Jiaozi's body.
Just then, the small dog from the second floor suddenly ran down, followed by a gust of cold wind from upstairs.
"It's raining outside!" Jiaozi said, lifting the curtain.
"Oh! No wonder there's wind! What! Wind!" An ominous feeling washed over Su Tang. She looked at Jiaozi and saw her trembling all over, tears in her eyes, her mouth opening and closing, stammering for a long time before pointing to the second floor and whispering, "The glass door is open! It's dark! The black cloth, the black cloth is coming in!"
The sky had completely darkened. Lifting the curtain, less than a hundred meters away, lights were on and the area was bustling. Lowering the curtain, the room was pitch black, and only their breathing could be heard.
"Su Tang, did you..." After a long silence, Jiaozi spoke with a crying voice.
"Shut up! If we can get out of here alive, I'll beat you to death if you say another word!" Su Tang finally couldn't hold back either, threatening with a cry.
The sound of rummaging through things could be heard from the second floor from time to time.
In fact, it had only been less than three minutes since Hei Dou had left.
Yes, Su Tang had wet her pants.
The feeling of wetting one's pants was unpleasant, and today Su Tang was wearing silk soft pants. The wetness naturally couldn't be hidden, and the smell, well, it was there too!
"Su Tang..." Jiaozi, having discovered something, suddenly tugged at Su Tang's sleeve.
"Shut up!" Although she tried her best to do something, at only 15 years old, Su Tang's only hope now was for Hei Dou to come and rescue her quickly.
"The black cloth is drifting away," Jiaozi whispered into Su Tang's ear.
"Huh? How do you know?" Su Tang looked at Jiaozi in surprise.
"Look!" Jiaozi pulled open the curtain and pointed outside.
Outside, in the dark sky, a piece of black silk cloth was drifting into the distance.
ID Card - 563743675
"Th-th-this, this, this, this, this is the thing you, you, you, you, you saw?" Su Tang asked, her fingers trembling.
"Yeah, it's gone now!" Jiaozi seemed no longer afraid, her tone normal.
"Let's go! Let's go up to the second floor and take a look!" Su Tang forced herself to stand up. For some reason, she suddenly found the courage and a strong desire to go upstairs and see.
Pulling and dragging, Su Tang dragged Jiaozi and slowly ascended to the second floor.
Upstairs, it was just as dark. Su Tang squatted at the top of the stairs to observe. She found that Jiaozi was unable to move, so she continued towards Jiaozi's bedroom.
Entering the bedroom, everything seemed normal, except that the glass door was open.
Boldly, Su Tang tiptoed to the edge of the balcony, wanting to breathe in the outdoor air. But a corpse with a bloody face and a sinister grin blocked her path.
"Ah!" A scream! Su Tang was stunned by the corpse in front of her.
The corpse was lying on the balcony, its arms and legs twisted into a bizarre posture as if broken. The most terrifying thing was its face, with wide-open eyes, a smiling mouth, and its entire face turned towards the glass door.
Su Tang, who was squatting by the glass door, found herself unable to move. Seeing this scene, she desperately wanted to turn her head away, but for some reason, her body seemed out of control. The more she didn't want to look, the more she was forced to face the corpse's face.
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"Ghost..."
Whether it was an illusion or not, looking at the corpse's face, Su Tang suddenly saw its mouth move, as if it had uttered the word "ghost"!
"Su Tang!" Jiaozi's tragic voice came from outside.
"Don't move! Don't come over! Don't—look!" This cry seemed to pull Su Tang out of her nightmare. With her last bit of strength, she shouted, and then her vision went black, and she fainted.