I felt a prickling sensation on my scalp, my heart pounding wildly, and I was struggling to breathe. I knew there couldn't be anyone behind me, but the feeling of being watched was extremely uncomfortable, like needles pricking my back. I couldn't help but turn around quickly and shout loudly, "Who's there!"
Behind me, there was nothing but emptiness, silence, so quiet that it was hard to breathe, with no one, or rather, nothing, responding to me.
The apple couldn't have fallen on the road, nor could it have been stolen by someone. The only possible explanation was that it was taken by some "non-human" thing. I knew it wasn't a good idea to run out immediately. If that invisible thing wanted to harm me, I couldn't run away. Running out with my courage gone would be even worse, scaring myself to death. If that thing didn't want to harm me, I didn't need to run. What was most important now was to stay calm.
After thinking it over, I tried to stay calm and said to the air, "I don't care about one apple. I don't want to offend you, and I hope you won't bother me. I'm just a poor scholar with integrity, nothing to gain, so you might as well go bother someone else."
"Hahaha"
It seemed like a woman's laughter was coming from somewhere, like it was downstairs or on the roof, faint and indistinct, from no specific direction.
A cold chill rushed from the soles of my feet to the top of my head, making goosebumps all over my body. A female ghost? A fox spirit? A white bone spirit? It's really terrifying that it can even laugh.
I regained my composure and listened carefully again. The sounds of night insects outside were rising and falling, occasionally the wind rustling the willow trees made a "shushing" sound, and distant dog barks could be heard. Where was there any woman's laughter? Maybe it was just a hallucination caused by too much tension.
After hesitating for a while, I still decided not to leave immediately, but if there were any more abnormal sounds or strange things, I would leave immediately. Face is important, but life is more important. I continued to organize my things, while counting the clothes, books, and daily necessities I brought. I didn't find anything else missing.
As I was almost done organizing, I suddenly raised my eyes and was instantly petrified. There was an apple core on the table!
The doors and windows were closed, and I had been in the room the whole time. How could the apple core appear? I was so nervous that my hands were trembling, and I turned my stiff neck around a few times, looking around the room. There was no one and nothing out of the ordinary. When I looked at the table again, I found that there wasn't just an extra apple core, but there was also an egg in the water cup, which wasn't there before. I hadn't even brought an egg!
I looked towards the bed, and the apple I had taken out earlier was still there. Clearly, the apple core on the table was the one that had disappeared earlier. I approached and took a closer look. The apple core had some tooth marks on it, looking like it was eaten by a person, very cleanly eaten.
Should I go to Old Chen's house for the night?
I hesitated for a long time and finally decided not to, maybe the "peace declaration" I made earlier took effect, so that thing returned the apple core to me and even gave me an egg as compensation, representing a clean slate. Regardless of what it was, a ghost, a devil, or a monster, since it expressed the sincerity of coexisting peacefully, it wouldn't harm me anymore.
Although I didn't want to admit it, there was really a bit of pride and face issues, so I didn't choose to run away.
I didn't touch the apple core or the egg, quickly made the bed, pulled the blanket over myself head to foot, feeling much safer this way and could also block the mosquitoes' attack. I didn't turn off the light, as having it on would also increase my sense of security. Besides, I wouldn't be paying the electricity bill.
In such a strange and bizarre situation, how could I possibly sleep? Every time the wind passed over the roof tiles, making a "shushing" sound, my nerves tightened, and every time the distant night bird calls reached my ears, I jumped in fear. I recited poem after poem, counted sheep over and over, but still couldn't sleep.
Around midnight, I faintly heard a distant crying sound. I held my breath and listened carefully, and indeed, someone was crying, like a young woman, sobbing and lamenting, but the words were unclear. Unless it was someone who had suffered a great injustice, they would never cry in such a heartbroken and desperate way. I listened for a while and felt a bit teary-eyed, my heart heavy with sorrow, and I actually wanted to comfort that person to stop crying.
I don't know how I ended up getting out of bed, walking to the window, and opening it. The sound became clearer, indeed a young woman's voice: "Wu wu, I don't want to accept it, I don't want to accept it, wu."
At that time, I wasn't afraid. I stuck my head out of the window to find the source of the crying. Soon, I saw a woman with long hair coming from a distance, her features not very clear, wearing a shirt with a floral pattern and green military-style pants, and dragging what seemed to be a rope in her hand.
Although I wasn't afraid, there was something off in my subconscious. At midnight, where did this woman come from? Why could I only see her and not the other scenery? And why did it suddenly become so cold that my body was almost frozen.
The woman suddenly appeared at the window and rose to my height, extending her hands: "I am in so much pain, I am unwilling, can you help me?"
By this time, we were very close, but I still couldn't see her face clearly. Although it felt very wrong, I felt sorry for the woman and was about to agree to help her when there was an angry roar from the roof, like a mother cat's cry when her kitten is threatened.
The woman suddenly looked up, also letting out an angry howl, like a voice choked with a rope. In that instant, I saw her face, which should have been very delicate and beautiful, but was now as pale as paper, with bloodshot eyes bulging out, her mouth wide open, and a long tongue hanging out, a rope around her neck.
"Ah!" I screamed in surprise, backing away quickly, but accidentally stepping into nothingness, falling from a high altitude, "bang" crashing onto the wooden floor. I immediately sat up, only to find myself sitting on the bed, and the window was closed.
The room was very cold, a bone-chilling, eerie cold. The wind howled outside, the willow trees below rustling loudly in the wind, and the windows in the adjacent classroom banged noisily. The light bulb flickered on and off, as if the power was low, and after flickering a few times, the light stabilized, the cold feeling gradually subsided, the wind sounds disappeared, everything was silent, as if nothing had happened.
Was it just a dream?
I wiped the cold sweat off my forehead, breathing heavily, finding it hard to believe that it was just a dream, the feeling was too real. My elbows and back still hurt a bit, the result of crashing onto the bed, and during the moment of waking up, I also heard the sound of myself crashing onto the bed. Looking at the blanket covering me and the slippers on the ground, it didn't look like I had gotten out of bed, it seemed just to be a dream where I was overly frightened, my body jumping on the bed and then crashing onto it.
But was it really just a dream? The bone-chilling cold, flickering lights, and howling night wind all proved that something unusual had happened just now!
This time, I was truly scared to the point of wetting myself, I wanted to leave here immediately, but outside it was pitch black, more terrifying than the room, maybe that evil thing was waiting for me outside! Looking at my electronic watch, it was only three more hours until dawn, I had to hold on no matter what.
I lay back on the bed, covered my head with the blanket, I thought I wouldn't be able to sleep after such a scare, but surprisingly, I fell asleep quickly. In a daze, I felt a heavy thing pressing down on me, making it hard for me to breathe. I couldn't tell if it was a dream or if something was really pressing down on me, I wanted to struggle but couldn't, like my body wasn't my own.
Is it a ghost pressing on the bed?
This thought suddenly popped into my mind. Actually, I had similar experiences when I was a child, I thought it was a ghost pressing on people, but later, after reading more books, I learned that so-called ghost pressing on the bed was when a person's consciousness had woken up, but their muscles were still in a low-tension state, the brain couldn't control the body, feeling like they were pressed down by a heavy object, not really being pressed down by a ghost.
But soon I found something was wrong, this time was different from my previous experiences, there was really someone pressing down on me!
This person's body was very soft, with tender, smooth, and elastic skin, exuding a fragrance like orchids and musk. Although I couldn't see anything, I was certain that the person pressing down on me was a very beautiful young girl, otherwise, she wouldn't have this fragrant, soft, and fluffy feeling.
The young girl seemed to be intently observing me, then lightly stroked my face with her hand. Her fingers were slender, round, as soft as boneless, warm and slippery, possessing a magical charm that could bewitch the soul. A strange impulse arose in my heart, a fiery desire seeking a breakthrough, with a severe thirst.
The young girl leaned over, blew a warm breath against my face, filled with a strange, enchanting fragrance. After smelling this fragrance, the fiery desire within my body became even more uncontrollable, my lower abdomen burning hot. At this moment, my whole body was paralyzed, yet that part which I usually couldn't control freely was now rigid as iron, swollen and about to burst.
I seemed to hear light laughter again, and that jade-like hand slid from my face to my chest, moving back and forth across my not too muscular chest muscles, making me feel that something was about to explode.
Suddenly, I thought of something terrifying. The whole school was only me, where did the beautiful young girl come from? This shock was not small, I instantly lost all my romantic thoughts, my hair stood on end, and the rigid pillar that stood like a balloon losing air quickly softened down, but it was frustrating that my whole body was still paralyzed, and I couldn't see anything in front of me, whether it was because the light went out or because I couldn't open my eyes. At this moment, I was about 60% awake, just relying on my instinctive alertness to realize there was a problem, unable to think more carefully or logically.
The young girl made a "hmm" sound, and blew another fragrant breath between my mouth and nose, I felt a surge of hot blood again, and at the same time, her jade-like hand slid down, probing into my pants from below.
I already knew the woman on my body was either a demon or a ghost. After the pleasure, she would suck out my essence and blood, or swallow me alive (perhaps I had read too much of "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" and "Journey to the West"). There was no erotic feeling at all, instead, I found her hand more terrifying than a venomous snake or centipede, scared to the point of sweating profusely, and that uncontrollable desire quickly disappeared because of fear.
My poor brother, after I became an adult, was caught and played with for a while by someone else, but still remained as limp as a dead snake, and made another "hmm" sound, then pulled my hand to press it against her chest. The touch was like solidified fat and soft jade, extremely soft and smooth, large and full with great elasticity, but at this moment, I only felt fear and disgust, how could I have any reaction?
The young girl huffed, possibly a bit annoyed, but didn't do anything else, and suddenly disappeared. I sat up abruptly from the bed, opened my eyes, and found the room pitch black. Outside the window, the sky was slightly white, and the distant sound of a rooster crowing reached my ears.
It turned out it was almost dawn. I reached for the switch by the bed and pulled it, but the light didn't come on, it might have been a power outage. My upper body was drenched in cold sweat, and there was still a faint fragrance around me, clearly, it wasn't just a dream.