Chapter 137: Nightmare
It was late at night.
Yu Fan had woken up around 6 p.m. and then went home by himself.
Li Mu had dinner and then went back to his room to sleep early. Xiao Jing, wearing headphones, was watching TV shows and variety shows on Li Mu’s computer. She even used twenty yuan of Li Mu’s money to buy a VIP membership.
Zhang Hui was sitting on the living room sofa, with a thin blanket next to him.
All the lights in the living room were on, and the TV added some noise and a feeling of company. Still, he felt a bit scared.
“It’s fine. There are no ghosts in this world. It’s just my imagination,” he mumbled to himself, trying hard to calm his nerves. “Besides, Li Mu lives here too. If something was wrong, he would have noticed it.”
And come on, how could a ghost just show up in the living room and casually watch TV?
Even though… that girl really did look a lot like his cousin, the one who died in a car accident years ago.
He kept reassuring himself, but suddenly felt he needed to pee.
He looked toward the bathroom without thinking and instantly felt nervous.
It was that same bathroom. Last time, while looking in the mirror, his reflection suddenly came to life and told him to get out in the exact same voice as that little girl earlier.
Not only the voice, but the tone and words were basically the same.
“Maybe it was just Li Mu playing a prank to make me leave?”
“Come on, I just finished military service! I’m tough! What’s so scary about some little ghost? If anything, she should be scared of me!”
“Okay, I was only a logistic support soldier, but still…”
He kept trying to talk himself into being brave. Slowly, the fear in his heart faded.
The main thing was, if he didn’t go to the bathroom soon, he was going to pee his pants.
He stood up carefully and walked toward the bathroom, alert. He turned on the bathroom light and looked again at the half-body mirror.
Nothing.
It must have been a prank from Li Mu last time.
He let out a sigh of relief and hurried to pee as fast as he could. Then, feeling like a ghost might be chasing him, he ran back to the sofa in the living room at full speed.
The bright lights in the living room made him feel much safer.
He had a job interview in the morning...
He checked the time and knew he needed to sleep soon.
He turned off the light, turned off the TV, and made sure the front door was locked. When he got back to the sofa, the only light came from the hallway lamps outside the window.
He could still hear the faint sounds of kids playing in the neighborhood. Even in the dark, he could see about three to five meters ahead.
He lay down on the sofa and pulled the blanket over his stomach, then closed his eyes.
The scene of that ghost encounter appeared in his mind again.
He could hear the voice yelling “Get out!” once more.
He tried hard to push those images and sounds out of his head. Instead, he focused on what to say and do at the interview tomorrow.
Slowly, he started to fall into a light sleep...
“Click!”
A sudden sound woke him up with a start. His eyes flew open.
When he looked up, Li Mu's bedroom door was open, and he could just see someone coming out.
It was probably his cousin getting up to use the bathroom.
He yawned, and his nerves began to relax again.
Wait a minute! That height doesn’t look like Li Mu at all.
He asked, “Xiao Jing?”
He didn’t know the little girl’s name for sure, but he remembered that Li Mu called her that.
And just like before, he heard that hauntingly familiar voice again.
“This is my home.”
“I don’t like you staying in my house,” the girl said as she slowly walked toward him.
Zhang Hui’s heart was full of panic, but he forced himself to stay calm. His voice trembled a little as he replied, “I have a job interview tomorrow. If I get the job, I won’t come back.”
He swallowed hard and looked up at the girl’s figure.
No ghosts. No ghosts. It’s all fake.
“I don’t like you,” the girl said softly, with a hint of complaint in her voice. “Yu Fan is okay, he’s my sister’s boyfriend. Ren Tianyou is okay too, he's been coming here for years and he treats my sister really well…”
“Sister?”
“But who are you? I don’t know you.”
Zhang Hui suddenly had a bold guess.
Could it be that his cousin’s home had become a ghost house? That Li Mu was no longer really Li Mu, but a ghost had taken over his body?
He felt chills all over and didn’t dare think any further.
“You have to leave tomorrow, okay? And don’t come back,” Xiao Jing’s voice was soft and cute, but to Zhang Hui it sounded creepy and cold.
He forced a small smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll do great in the interview tomorrow.”
Damn it, he should’ve just slept on the streets!
Something is definitely wrong with this girl! Really wrong!
He swallowed again. His hand had already grabbed the stainless steel thermos on the table without thinking.
As the girl walked closer, he was horrified to see a large stitched wound on her forehead.
He froze. Then, without caring about his pride, he raised the thermos and threw it at her.
The girl quickly dodged to the side, and the thermos flew right past her ear.
But her body wasn’t fully adjusted. After all, she hadn’t used it in years. Though she dodged sideways, her feet got tangled, and she fell straight to the floor.
The back of her head hit the ground hard, bounced up like a ball, and then rolled away.
“……”
Zhang Hui almost stopped breathing. A chilling fear froze his heart in that instant.
He looked at the headless body… then at the head, which seemed to glow faintly green in the dark.
He felt a sudden, strange twitch somewhere, then his awareness went dark, and he collapsed weakly onto the sofa.
A moment later, the headless body slowly got up, picked up the head, and walked to the sofa.
“You scared yourself,” Xiao Jing said with guilt and a wronged tone. “I just wanted to remind you to leave early.”
“Don’t tell my sister about this, okay? Otherwise, she’ll yell at me again.”
She turned her head toward the bedroom to check. Seeing that Li Mu hadn’t woken up from all the noise, she finally let out a breath of relief. Then, holding her head in her arms, she ran back into the room with quick, bouncy steps.
……………………………………………
Morning.
Zhang Hui opened his eyes in a daze.
The next second, he jumped up and looked around. All he saw was a beam of sunlight shining through the window onto the floor of the living room.
The warm sunlight filled the room, and he could clearly feel the cozy heat on his body.
“Did I… really see a ghost last night?”
He scratched his head in confusion. “Maybe it was just a nightmare?”
“Cousin, I’m heading to school,” Li Mu came out of the bathroom at that moment. A slight flush was on his cheeks, but his tone was cold. “I left the key on the table. Don’t go into my room, and don’t use the bathroom.”
“Ah, got it.” Zhang Hui looked up at his increasingly good-looking cousin but didn’t have the mood to admire his beauty. “Hey… is your place really haunted?”
“How could that be?” Li Mu frowned, turned around, and shut the bedroom door firmly. He repeated with emphasis, “Don’t go into my room.”
That actually made Zhang Hui a little curious, but he still nodded obediently. “Alright.”
"Then I'm leaving."
“Wait, what about that little girl?”
Li Mu paused for a second, then answered without looking back, “She left early this morning.”