—Li Shiqi noticed something was wrong with her mom on the third day.
Peeking through the crack in her bedroom door at her mom, who was sitting on the Sofa in the living room watching TV, she carefully swallowed.
Recently, her mom seemed a little strange.
As a sixth-grade elementary school student who earned the Three Good Student certificate every year, she had been the kind of child other people compared their own children to since she was little. Her family was fairly well-off, her parents rarely argued, and she herself was clever and quick-witted—someone many envied.
But not long ago, she suddenly discovered that something strange was happening at home.
At first, it was when she slept at night. She would always hear footsteps coming from the living room. They were not loud, but they were very clear, lasting for several minutes each time before abruptly disappearing.
At first, she thought it was the noise her parents made when they went to the restroom at night, but later she remembered that her parents' bedroom had its own restroom.
As an honorable Young Pioneer born under the red flag, raised in the spring breeze, and wearing a bright Red Scarf over her chest, her naturally curious self was determined to get to the bottom of it.
So one night, when she heard the footsteps coming from the living room again, she did not hesitate to open her bedroom door and investigate.
But the instant her door opened, the footsteps stopped dead.
...There was nothing in the living room.
It was not just once. It happened several times. Whenever she shut the door and returned to her room, the footsteps would start up again.
Someone else might have given up or gotten scared in the face of something like this... but