"Dad, why did you sneak in? Mom must have thought it was a burglar or a robber!"
In Chu Chu's bedroom, Chu Xuelin, with a distorted face, sat on the bed, constantly letting out pained groans. Jiang Xiaofen was busy at his side, dressing the wound on his head.
"I wanted to surprise you, but who knew your mom would be up at midnight and attack me..." Chu Xuelin, touching the wound on his head, complained grumpily.
"Dad, we encountered something strange today…"
Chu Chu recounted the incident of hanging Li Tian's body on the tree and the subsequent disappearance, without omitting any detail. Jiang Xiaofen, no longer hiding anything, laid bare all the terrifying experiences of the past few days.
After recounting these successive bizarre events, the atmosphere in the room grew heavy.
Chu Xuelin lit a cigarette, deeply furrowed his brows, and fell into deep thought.
Chu Chu and Jiang Xiaofen, also sleepless, watched him with grave expressions. He was their pillar of strength; in their eyes, there was nothing he couldn't solve...
After a while, Chu Xuelin slowly stood up, looked at Jiang Xiaofen, and spoke in a deep voice, "First, regarding the MMS, as long as they have your phone number, they can simply get a few SIM cards to send you harassing messages. That's simple and something any kid can do, not surprising at all. Second, regarding Li Tian you encountered during the day, you were frightened by his hanging ghost mask, leading to great mental distress and failing to observe his face closely. I guess he definitely wore a mask. Such hanging ghost masks can be bought in any toy store. His reason for scaring you in the street was actually to lead you to the rooftop to see the photos he deliberately left there, so he could further execute his malevolent plans. Third, regarding Li Tian's body hanging on the tree and then disappearing... So let me ask you, how far were you from the body's face when you inspected it? Are you sure it was Li Tian?" Chu Xuelin approached Jiang Xiaofen, gently supported her shoulder, and asked.
Recalling the scene, Jiang Xiaofen said, "I was very scared, but I really wanted to see if it was Li Tian, so I took a flashlight and went up to the body. Although I didn't observe in detail because of fear, I'm certain it was Li Tian! Especially the red mole at the corner of his mouth, it's unmistakable evidence!"
"Are you sure it wasn't a dummy, but the real body of Li Tian?" Chu Xuelin paused, then continued to inquire.
"Absolutely a real person! I can still distinguish a real person from a dummy. It was definitely a human body!"
"Well, this is more complicated," Chu Xuelin muttered to himself, his right hand stroking his chin. "The only scientific explanation is that Li Tian had an accomplice!"
"An accomplice?" Jiang Xiaofen and Chu Chu exclaimed in unison. His reasoning sounded more and more like a detective movie...
"That's right," Chu Xuelin continued, stroking his chin, "They cooperated tacitly to complete this scare tactic: they prepared in advance, and when you showed up, the accomplice timely hung Li Tian on the tree. Li Tian endured the pain of suffocation, and when you got close, he made a terrifying appearance of a hanging ghost. But such a state of being hanged couldn't last, so when you looked back, Li Tian's accomplice had already quickly rescued him from the tree and then fled. You were all in extreme terror at the time, so it was impossible to spot their flaw..."
Jiang Xiaofen and Chu Chu listened blankly to Chu Xuelin's deductions, quickly recalling the scene in their minds. His reasoning wasn't without merit...
"So, I need to ask you a key question." Chu Xuelin again focused his gaze on Jiang Xiaofen's face, "When you ran to Li Tian's body, did you notice what kind of rope was strangling his neck, or what kind of knot it was?"
Under Chu Xuelin's expectant gaze, Jiang Xiaofen slowly shook her head: "I didn't notice. At that time, I just saw Li Tian's miserable death and almost fainted..."
"Oh, that's a pity..." Chu Xuelin sighed disappointingly, then looked at his watch and spoke more relaxedly: "Anyway, you should believe that there are absolutely no ghosts in this world! From now on, rest easy! If Li Tian has any more tricks up his sleeve, let him come! I, Chu Xuelin, would like to see what else he can do!"
After saying this, he stretched out his arms and patted both his wife and daughter on the shoulders.
"Alright, everyone should rest."
After some more murmuring, Chu Chu was finally persuaded to return to her room to continue sleeping, and Chu Xuelin and Jiang Xiaofen also went back to their bedroom.
Nestled in her husband's broad chest, Jiang Xiaofen finally felt safe.
"You know, if you had come back two days later, I might have been tortured to madness, maybe even gone to the police station to confess..."
Jiang Xiaofen murmured, and suddenly Chu Xuelin covered her mouth forcefully with his hand, his eyes becoming stern, "Don't mention confessing! Understand? No matter what happens, we must never confess! Otherwise, we are all finished! Got it?"
Seeing her husband's stern look, Jiang Xiaofen nodded weakly.
"Alright, you've been too tired these few days when I wasn't here. Rest well." Chu Xuelin let go of his hand, stroking his wife's fair face with a gentle tone.
"Mhm." Jiang Xiaofen obediently responded and closed her eyes.
Chu Xuelin also turned off the bedside lamp, ready to sleep.
Thump, thump, thump...
Just then, the sound of something being hit rang out again like a ghostly presence!
Jiang Xiaofen shuddered in fear, tightly hugging Chu Xuelin's body, and whispered, "Listen, that sound... it's back..."
Chu Xuelin, of course, also heard this strange sound. It was so clear, as if it was right beside them.
He listened intently for a while, then frowned and said to his wife, "It sounds like knocking on glass."
Glass... the window?
The couple's gaze simultaneously turned to the window on the right side of the bed.
The window was covered with orange high-grade curtains, looking calm and unremarkable.
If there was anything strange, it would have to be outside the window. But this was the second floor, and this room had no balcony...
Chu Xuelin turned on the bedside lamp, quietly got out of bed, walked to the window, grabbed the orange curtains, and yanked them open!
Outside the window glass was the pitch-black night sky. Empty, with nothing there.
Chu Xuelin breathed a sigh of relief, about to comfort his wife with a few words, when Jiang Xiaofen suddenly screamed!
"Ghost!..."
In the silent night, her hysterical scream was eerily loud and strange…