Visit

"Ahhh~~~~~!" Zhang Chen suddenly sat upright in bed, his back drenched in cold sweat. Yet he did not feel afraid. The dream had simply felt far too real. When the Mistress stared at him, it had been like falling into a bottomless abyss, cold sweat pouring from him.

"What the hell, what's going on? Could it be that every dream I have is replaying things that happened in this house before?" Zhang Chen checked the time. It was 3:21 a.m.

"After I dreamed yesterday, that little thing appeared in the bathroom. Could it be today..." Zhang Chen immediately got up and opened his bedroom door.

After checking that nothing was unusual outside, he slowly walked to his parents' bedroom door. He raised a finger and lightly knocked on it. When there was no response, he slowly opened the door. Seeing that his parents were both sleeping soundly, he let out a sigh of relief.

Then, afraid of waking his sleeping parents, he slowly closed the bedroom door. Once he calmed himself, he turned around and headed straight for the bathroom.

"I'm only a fourteen-year-old middle school student. Why am I the one running into this sort of thing? I wonder if that little thing is still in there." Zhang Chen took a deep breath outside the bathroom door, swiftly twisted the handle, and pushed the door open.

This time, there was no hellish scene from before, only ordinary darkness.

Zhang Chen used his Left Hand to feel for the light switch on the wall. The bathroom's ceiling light flickered twice from unstable voltage before steadying. Dim white light illuminated the entire bathroom. Aside from that icy presence, everything in the bathroom was normal.

Just as he let out a sigh of relief and prepared to leave the bathroom—

"Knock, knock, knock~~~~" A series of knocks against the wall came from behind Zhang Chen. The sound was neither too loud nor too quiet, just enough to reach his ears.

His heart trembled as he slowly turned around, but there was nothing terrifying behind him. Listening carefully, he realized the knocking came from inside the wall. Its source was the very wall the baby had struck with its Hands last night.

"Could it be..."

"Knock, knock, knock~~~~" Before Zhang Chen could think further, another round of knocking sounded. This invisible terror made his back go numb.

"This... I should just go back to sleep. This is getting seriously scary." After backing away two steps, Zhang Chen spun around, ran out of the bathroom, shut and locked his bedroom door, then leaped onto his bed and pulled the blanket over his entire body.

"What's inside that wall? Is it that baby? No, that baby jumped into the toilet last time. Whatever's in the wall must be something else."

"Wait, that baby kept striking that wall yesterday. Could his father be inside? In other words, the wife killed both her husband and son, threw her son into the toilet, then sealed her husband inside the wall? All because her husband's relationship with that other woman had escalated?"

Zhang Chen immediately connected what had happened with his dream and came up with his own theory. Yet the more he thought about it, the more something felt wrong. Had he overlooked something?

"Something's still not right. What exactly was written on that white paper? And why was that other woman able to live in the woman's house for so long? She must have had an unusual relationship with the Mistress. I should ask that old lady about the details tomorrow before analyzing it further." Zhang Chen cleared his mind and gradually fell asleep.

Early the next morning, Zhang Chen groggily opened his eyes and heard his parents talking. He looked at the black-and-white Ruojia beside his bed. It was only seven thirty. After getting up and dressed, Zhang Chen opened his bedroom door and saw his parents eating breakfast at the small table for four.

"Son, you're up so early today? Mom will get you some soy milk and fried dough sticks. Your dad's feeling better today. He went out early this morning to buy breakfast. That thing the old master gave you really worked." Mother Zhang was especially happy as she went into the kitchen to bring Zhang Chen his breakfast.

"Dad, are you really feeling better?" Zhang Chen looked at his father. At the same time, he noticed that the icy presence around him had weakened considerably. He also looked at the pouch on his hand, which did not seem to have changed.

"I feel much better. For the past few days, I had no strength at all, and I felt sleepy every day. But after getting up today, I feel much more energetic." His father smiled as well, clearly believing in the pouch hanging from his hand.

After Zhang Chen washed his face and brushed his teeth, he returned to see Mother Zhang placing soy milk and fried dough sticks on the table. The emptiness in his stomach surged forth at once. He hurriedly sat down and wolfed them down. Three fried dough sticks and two bowls of soy milk were in Zhang Chen's stomach in less than a minute.

In the past, Zhang Chen would have been full after eating half that amount. But now, even after eating so much, he had only barely filled his stomach, and he still felt somewhat hungry.

"Even puberty shouldn't make someone eat this much. Am I on my way to becoming a pig?" Zhang Chen rubbed his stomach and helplessly shook his head.

After watching his parents clean up and leave for work, Zhang Chen took his phone, fished out the ten yuan in internet fees he had saved over the past week from his pencil case, added the ten yuan in spending money his parents had given him today, and set off on his journey.

Xiashui Village was on the other side of Jinxi County, and he had to cross the Jinxi River to get there. By bus, it was basically a ride from the starting stop all the way to the final stop.

Zhang Chen boarded the Route 7 Bus, the same bus he had taken every day into town before his family moved into the county seat. Watching the bus leave the urban area and travel past the Jinxi River, Zhang Chen felt somewhat sentimental. Ever since he was little, his family had been poor, and they had lived outside the county seat. Being able to enter town once a week had made him very happy.

"I haven't left town in ages. Nothing outside has really changed." Zhang Chen sighed as he looked at the old, single-story houses outside the window.

As the scenery outside continued to change, the bus announcement sounded.

"Three-Way Junction has arrived. Passengers heading to Xiashui Village, please get off."

Zhang Chen snapped back to his senses and hurried off the bus. He followed the two-meter-wide country path toward Xiashui Village. Before long, he saw the Xiashui Village committee office.

The building housing the village committee appeared to be a new house the villagers had built in recent years. Zhang Chen did not know exactly where Ms. Wen lived, so he jogged over to the entrance of the village committee office.

He walked up to a room and knocked on the door. Before long, a white-haired old man in his sixties slowly opened the wooden door. The hand that opened it was covered in calluses, while a trace of kindness showed in his eyes.

"Young man, what brings you to our village?" the old man asked.

"Hello, Grandpa. I need to find someone from your village, but I don't know the way, so I came to ask you." Zhang Chen spoke respectfully.

"Tell me who it is. I've got nothing to do this morning, so I'll take you there." Seeing how polite Zhang Chen was, the old man warmly offered.

"I'm not sure of the exact name. She's the mother of a lady surnamed Wen, and she lives at Number 11, Group Five in the village." Zhang Chen recalled.

The moment he finished speaking, the old man's previously welcoming face darkened. After heavily sighing, he said,

"That family really has a hard fate. Who knows what sins they committed in a past life. Young man, what do you need with them?"

Zhang Chen was also surprised by the old man's expression and immediately replied, "My family bought Ms. Wen's secondhand house. There's been a small problem with it lately, and my parents are busy, so they sent me to ask about it. What happened to their family?"

"It's a ten-minute walk from here to their house. Let's talk as we walk." After saying that, the old man closed the door and led Zhang Chen into the village.

The old man clasped his Hands behind his back and slowly began telling Zhang Chen the story.

"The Ms. Wen you mentioned is called Wen Juan. Her mother is Yu Xiafen. Their family also had Wen Juan's younger sister, Wen Jing, who was one year younger than Wen Juan."

"That family truly had a bitter life. Before Wen Juan was even five, her father, the breadwinner of the family, died in a car accident. Their mother raised the two girls all by herself. Wen Juan had always been strong. She began helping her mother with chores at a very young age, studied well, and grew up pretty and graceful."

"But the younger sister, Wen Jing, was very naughty. She refused to study properly and only wanted to play. Later, Wen Juan went to college, found a good job, and married a good husband. Only then did the family slowly begin to improve."

"Later, I don't know what happened, but a year ago, Wen Juan returned to this old home alone. Not long after, she hanged herself in the house. Her old mother stopped speaking all day long and shut herself up at home. That younger sister, Wen Jing, never came back. I don't know what kind of heart that girl has. Her sister, who treated her so well, died, yet she didn't even come back to take a look. Now only the mother is left in that house. What a tragedy."

"She had a younger sister, but she never came back after her sister died?" Zhang Chen listened intently and stored the important details in his mind.

Before long, a standard two-story farmhouse appeared before Zhang Chen. Its doors and windows were tightly shut, while the courtyard was piled with dust and fallen leaves. It looked not only deserted, but also carried a mingled aura of death.

"This is the place. That old woman Yu is often a bit deranged now too. Once you've handled your business, head back early. I'll return to the village committee office first." The old man's face was still filled with helplessness.

Zhang Chen nodded, thanked him, and walked to the house door. After hesitating for a moment, he raised his Right Hand and knocked as he spoke. "Grandma Yu, I'm Zhang Chen, the one who called yesterday about the house in the county seat. Please open the door."

Yet after knocking and waiting for a long time, the door remained completely still. Zhang Chen assumed Grandma Yu had not heard him, so he raised his Right Hand to knock again. Just as that hand was about to fall upon the door—

With a creak, the door slowly opened. Behind it stood an elderly woman with a withered face, sparse white hair, and an earthy yellow garment. What made Zhang Chen's heart tighten most was that her right eyeball had turned white.

If it were anyone else, they'd probably have been scared off already. Why does this have to be so terrifying in broad daylight? Zhang Chen silently complained.

"Hello, Grandma Yu. I'm Zhang Chen, the one who called you yesterday."

"Come in," the withered old woman said.

Zhang Chen nodded and followed her inside. The house was strange. Even in broad daylight, all the windows were shut, allowing little light to enter. The entire room was rather dim.

He followed the old woman to a bamboo chair and sat down. Looking around, he saw that the television, electric fan, and coffee table were all covered in dust. They had probably not been used for a long time.

"Grandma Yu, I actually came to ask you about your daughter." Zhang Chen went straight to the point. He also watched the old woman's expression. What puzzled him was that when she heard him mention her daughter, her expression did not change in the slightest.

Zhang Chen continued, "Did your daughter have a child?"

Upon hearing this, the old woman suddenly rose from her chair and burst into wild laughter.

"What child? Just a bastard, hahaha. If not for that bastard, how could my daughter have died? No, and that man too. They were the ones who killed both my daughters."

"Both daughters? They both died? Grandma Yu, the grandpa at the village committee said your younger daughter was living elsewhere, didn't he?"

"Dead. They're both dead. That child and that man killed them both. My Wen Jing might not have been good at anything, but she truly cared for her sister. Hahaha." The old woman's mental state was extremely unstable.

"Could the other woman in the dream have been Wen Juan's younger sister, Wen Jing? The man the old woman mentioned must have been Wen Juan's husband." Zhang Chen suddenly recalled the dream from last night.

"Grandma Yu, do you know where that man is now?" Zhang Chen also wanted to learn some information from Wen Juan's husband.

"Could that man still be alive? Hahaha, he died long ago." The old woman laughed even more crazily.

Zhang Chen felt he had asked enough. If he continued, he feared the old woman would not be able to bear it mentally, so he immediately said, "Grandma Yu, may I take a look at your daughter's room?"

The old woman, who had been laughing madly, suddenly calmed down. In a very gentle tone, she said, "It's the room on the far Left Hand side of the second floor. Go take a look yourself."

Zhang Chen did not think much of the old woman's sudden shift in mood. After all, she likely suffered from mental illness.

However, just as Zhang Chen walked toward the second floor, the old woman behind him, her face like dry firewood, covered her mouth and secretly laughed...