Xiao Li’s small and straight back was frozen. The man pressed against his shoulder and maintained this distance. Then he leaned down and pulled Xiao Li’s hand away from the door handle. “It isn’t yet time to go in.”
His voice was gentle without a single hint of aggression. It could even be described as ‘harmless.’ However, Xiao Li noticed that after the appearance of this person, the nearby suffocating darkness stagnated in place and then dissipated. Was this a person or a ghost?
Xiao Li moved his shoulder and wanted to turn around to see the man’s face but the man effortlessly held him in place. He finally had to give up this idea and asked, “Who are you?”
Was he the dean of this learning facility or a genius perverted scientist? Was he looking around for children? The young man’s clear and crisp original voice now had a bit of childishness and sounded very young.
The man laughed. “Secret.”
Xiao Li warily speculated on the identity of this man. A human? The ghosts he previously encountered didn’t seem so dynamic and interactive. However, if it was a person then who was this person?
The man behind him asked again, “Now child, tell me, do you live here?”
The other person slightly paused when saying ‘child’, as if this title was somewhat vague. Xiao Li’s height was currently only up to the other side’s waist. There was no way to escape and he could only play along. “Yes.”
“What room do you live in?”
“…503.” Xiao Li didn’t say his real room. He spoke the room number of a room that hadn’t been selected.
The man paused subtly before bending over to grab Xiao Li’s waist, picking him up and holding Xiao Li in his arms. “Liar.”
Xiao Li, “………”
He felt like shouting, ‘Come over here, there is a pervert!’
The man held him with one hand and covered Xiao Li’s eye with the other. “Still, high vigilance is a good thing.”
He touched Xiao Li’s head and Xiao Li took this opportunity to see the man’s face. However, he couldn’t see anything, as if a layer of fog was covering his eyes. The man didn’t do too much to challenge Xiao Li’s limits. He took a few steps with Xiao Li in the child’s state and put him down in a certain place. “This is the place where you should come.”
Meanwhile, if Xiao Li could see clearly and was holding the little yellow book then he would find a line of words: 【 …I shouldn’t have done this but I can’t help it. 】
The next second after the writing appeared, it was fleeting as if erased by some power. Xiao Li stood on the ground and stared around for a moment. The man had completely disappeared without a trace, completely hidden in the darkness.
He was currently standing in front of the door to the toy room. The black-haired child raised his neck high and his flashlight moved over the bloody sign. Before going in, he once again pulled out the little yellow book and wrote tentatively, “Who is that person? Do you know him?”
The little yellow book’s answer was quick. 【 I don’t know him. 】
There was a pause before it added: 【 Stay away from him. 】
His second sentence made Xiao Li retract his guess. He refolded the little yellow book and walked into the toy room.
Xiao Li wasn’t worried that the unknown man wanted to harm him. ASs far as the situation was concerned, the man hadn’t become smaller while Xiao Li had become smaller. A person who could do this (or a ghost) would have thousands of ways to harm him. The most important thing was that the toy room was here, just in front of Xiao Li.
The toy room was covered with carpet and the carpet was covered with an unknown black mucus. Facing the door was a huge mirror. It was rusty and written in red liquid on the mirror was: Go to hell! Die for me! This is the place that shouldn’t exist!
The middle of the carpet contained some toys that couldn’t be seen clearly. They were all piled together like a huge garbage dump. Xiao Li could barely distinguish a teddy bear.
The teddy bear was missing an ear and the button that served as the eye was half hanging in the air. The mouth was sewn together in a twisted manner and the body was covered with red paint. It was appalling.
The toy room was for the children of the orphanage to play games together. It was a very happy thing for the children to have such a room but now it looked like a haunted house.
Xiao Li glanced around and finally looked at the most conspicuous teddy bear. He picked it up and lifted it out of the abandoned toys pile. The teddy bear floated in the air for only a moment when a sound was heard. An object fell from the body of the teddy bear and hit the carpet, making a dull noise.
Xiao Li shone the flashlight on the unknown object and found that it was a Rubik’s Cube. It was a strange Rubik’s Cube engraved with many unknown symbols. Xiao Li picked it up and took a closer look. He put down the phone that was used as a flashlight and started twisting the wheels of the Rubik’s Cube.
The white light of the flashlight was the only light source in this room. It shone over a strange picture. A jade-like child was facing away from the mirror, bowing his head to the Rubik’s Cube.
This Rubik’s Cube wasn’t difficult to solve. Xiao Li turned it a few times and it was completely finished. The black-haired child pushed the finished Rubik’s Cube towards the teddy bear, solemnly looking like he expected the bear to really respond to him.
The teddy bear’s paws were less than 10 cm from the cube but it didn’t move. The time in the toy room seemed to freeze. It wasn’t until Xiao Li blinked that the Rubik’s Cube returned to its original messy appearance and the teddy bear that was facing him now had its back to Xiao Li and facing the door!
The back of the teddy bear was scratched by a sharp weapon and a small piece of paper was hidden in the gap. Xiao Li reached out and pulled the note from inside. It had a poem written on it:
“It is lovely every day,
seasonal flowers bloom outside the room,
aromas inside and outside,
There is such a person,
ghosts are afraid to approach,
quickly move,
running is a sport!”
Looking at the poem’s contents, it was incongruous and was more conceptual than a concept. Yet Xiao Li’s gaze was deep. “It is Buddhist style poetry.”
The beginning of each line was linked together: there are ghosts in this room, quickly run! (This is based on the Chinese characters and sentence structure) This was a warning to people who came to this room.
Xiao Li returned this note to the teddy bear’s back and then looked down at the cube. It was tidy and no longer messy, like an invisible ghost was setting here. Seeing that Xiao Li had finished the Rubik’s Cube, the ghost was upset and redid it themselves, while leaving a note to warn his playmate to go quickly.
“Then you play by yourself. I will come back tomorrow.” Xiao Li left these words for the teddy bear and walked in a natural manner towards the door.
He was just about to arrive at the door when the Rubik’s Cube rolled up to Xiao Li’s feet. He bent down and picked up the Rubik’s Cube, stating briskly, “Thank you.”
Then Xiao Li left the toy room. Shortly after he left, a terrible friction noise approached the toy room.
The dormitory building.
The shadows originally hidden in the fog had disappeared at an unknown time.
This time Xiao Li didn’t walk towards the window. He directly entered from the main door of the dormitory building. His footsteps had always been light but this place was too quiet. All the reincarnators had no interest in talking which led to every little movement being captured by the people.
Just then, they heard the sound of footsteps slowly approaching. The reincarnator living in the first bedroom on the first floor had already started to sweat. He held still and prayed that the footsteps must not stop in front of his room, never…
Then the footsteps moved forward again and he sighed with relief. This process continued until the last room. Sun Ang was inside. He had closed the window and was lying sleepily in bed. The reason why he hadn’t completely fallen asleep was that the doll left by Xiao Li on the chair made him somewhat uneasy.
The chair might’ve stopped swaying but this doll gave him a stranger feeling. Thus, he was always uneasy and unable to completely fall asleep. He was thinking about throwing it away tomorrow when he heard the sound of footsteps.
In the corridor, the light and orderly footsteps approached him, instantly scaring away his sleepiness. Sun Ang was a bit nervous. He prayed in his heart that the footsteps should stop before his room, go upstairs or perhaps turn back…
Then he heard the footsteps getting closer and closer, finally stopping in front of his dormitory like a death sentence. The door handle was tilting downwards—
The ghost chose the room and it was entering. Perhaps once it entered, he would die. The fat man didn’t know where he got the strength from but he jumped out of bed and tried to hold the door handle. He quivered and said, “Ghost master, I am wrong. Spare me and change to another—”
His movements were slowed by fear and Xiao Li had already pushed the door in. The black hair was reflected clearly in Sun Ang’s eyes. The creaking of the door covered the beginning words of the little fat man and Xiao Li only heard the ending words. He closed the door and whispered, “Change rooms? It is a little late now. Talk about it tomorrow.”
The little fat man, “…”
He wasn’t dead! This person broke the taboo and went outside in the middle of the night. Not only didn’t he die, but he also came through the door in a lively and arrogant manner, even speaking something plausible. Was he a devil?
The author has something to say:
Tan Li: Why has this fat man been staring at me? Xiao Li, why aren’t you coming back? I am a bit nervous.
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