Sinister Shadow, Part 1

1 "Yi Yi."

"Yi Yi."

A faint call awakened the little girl in bed from her dream.

It was a dark night.

In the small, square bedroom, a little girl with long black hair was sleeping on a yellow wooden bed.

A gray-white quilt covered her to her shoulders, vaguely revealing the faded lotus lace of her nightgown.

The little girl looked only seven or eight years old, with delicate features, a slightly high nose bridge, and two red pimples on her chin. She looked to be at the age when she was just beginning to understand things.

Hearing the sound, she slowly opened her eyes from her sleep, straightened her upper body, and looked around.

The room was dark, with only a faint moonlight projected in from the window, dimly illuminating the foot of the bed.

At the foot of the bed.

There.

Stood a black figure.

The upper half of the figure was dark, and the face was blurred.

But she could feel that it was quietly watching the little girl.

"Mom?"

The little girl asked cautiously.

She clutched the quilt tightly with both hands, her expression nervous, vaguely feeling something was wrong.

The surroundings were silent, only her voice was particularly harsh and conspicuous, echoing slightly in the room.

"Remember... Yi Yi, no matter what sound you hear, you must hide in the secret altar, and don't come out until the white stone turns black."

The figure said softly.

"Whatever you do."

"Don't come out."

After saying that, she slowly turned around and walked silently towards the door, step by step.

The wooden door opened silently, and the darkness outside seemed to welcome her, quickly engulfing her completely.

"Mom! Mom!!" The little girl seemed to have a premonition of something, and suddenly lifted the quilt, got up and wanted to chase after her.

Bang!!! A loud noise, along with a huge vibration, suddenly rang in her ears.

Hiss!!! The little girl suddenly opened her eyes, arched her chest from the bed, and took a deep breath.

It turned out to be a dream just now.

Her eyes were terrified, her pupils dilated, and her consciousness slowly awakened from the drowsy dream.

Bang!!

Another loud crash.

The entire room seemed to be trembling and shaking.

The wooden door of the room trembled violently, emitting a series of impacts, as if a giant beast was frantically ramming it from the outside.

Bang! Bang! Bang!!

The massive impact seemed about to shatter the wooden door completely.

Fine cracks were also slowly appearing and spreading across the surface of the wooden door.

The little girl suddenly came back to her senses, recalling the voice she had heard in her dream just now.

"Mom..." For some reason, tears instantly filled her eyes, and an indescribable pain rose in her heart.

But hearing the loud noise and recalling the words just now, she immediately threw off the quilt, jumped out of bed, and glanced at the movement of the wooden door.

Crack!

The wooden door was suddenly broken open, and shattered wood splinters flew inward, landing on the brown mud floor.

The little girl's whole body bristled, her heart pounded violently, her face turned pale, and she quickly bent down and crawled under the bed.

She crawled a few times under the bed, found a hidden black mud slab, grabbed the pull ring, and struggled to pull it open upwards.

Under the mud slab was a small square space just enough for her to curl up in.

Inside the space, the four walls were inlaid with white stones of various sizes.

These stones were of different shapes, but they all had one thing in common: their surfaces were engraved with complex red symbols.

The little girl quickly crawled in, covered the mud slab above her head, and as darkness enveloped her, she trembled and hid in the small space, huddled tightly into a ball, listening to the movements outside.

Strangely, after she hid inside, the crashing sounds outside completely disappeared.

It was as if everything she had heard just now was an illusion.

Quiet.

Silent.

The entire surroundings were filled only with the sound of her own breathing.

The little girl tightly covered her mouth, afraid that her breathing would be too loud and cause her to be discovered by whatever was outside.

The exhaustion brought on by immense fear and tension slowly invaded her petite body.

As time passed.

Slowly, the girl fell asleep.

She didn't know how much time had passed.

An hour, or two hours.

"Yi Yi..." A familiar voice calling her name woke the little girl from her sleep.

She moved her body, seemingly wanting to curl up more comfortably.

"Yi Yi?"

"Yi Yi, where are you? Mommy's back."

The sound from outside faintly came again.

Gentle and familiar.

The fear in the little girl's heart seemed to have lessened a lot because of a nap.

Hearing the sound, she moved quickly, wanting to go out.

But suddenly she remembered something, looked at the white stones inlaid on the wall, and with the faint light coming in through the air holes in the mud board, she found that they had not turned black.

According to what her mother said, it would only be completely safe when the white stones turned black.

The girl's original intention to go out suddenly stagnated.

"Yi Yi, it's dawn outside, it's okay, you can come out."

The voice sounded again.

"Don't worry, there's light, those things dare not come in. Mommy is here, you can come out."

The little girl calculated the time, and usually at this time, her mother should be back.

Every time she hid in this small space, after a nap, she could see her mother when she came out.

This time the time was almost the same, so it should be no exception.

As for the white stones inlaid on the wall, it should just be that too much time had passed, and the white stones were also white during the day.

The little girl thought for a while. Then she looked up again, looking out through the mud board vent.

She found that there really was a faint white light outside.

It really was dawn.

This time, she finally felt relieved.

"Coming!"

She responded.

"Mommy, I'm coming."

She began to move her body, her little hands facing upwards, to push the mud board above her head.

Soon, she pushed open the mud board, and laboriously poked her head out of the small space, returning to under the bed.

Then she looked outside.

"!!??"

Outside.

It was still dark.

Wasn't it supposed to be dawn?

The little girl's scalp went numb.

Knowing something was wrong, she gritted her teeth and quickly squatted down, trying to shrink back into the small space.

Pat.

Pat.

Suddenly, a pair of fair feet wearing her mother's cloth shoes walked to the edge of the bed and stopped.

"Yi Yi, my good daughter, where are you?" A soft and familiar voice came again.

The little girl didn't dare to make a sound, tightly covering her mouth, tears streaming down her face.

But she didn't dare to move. At such a close distance, any slight movement would make a sound in the silence and be discovered by the other party.

She suddenly remembered that her mother couldn't not know about the small space under the bed.

So her mother could never ask her where she was.

At this time, she realized that she might have been deceived... Pat.

Pat.

Soon, without receiving a response, or perhaps the girl in the small space had responded too quietly, the other party didn't hear.

The feet slowly left the bedside, calmly left, and went to other places.

The other party walked very slowly, without making much noise. Soon, with a soft closing sound, they disappeared.

Everything returned to silence.

The little girl kept enduring, enduring.

She didn't know how long had passed, but she hadn't heard any movement. She slowly exhaled, relaxed, and shrank back down.

The long-term tension made her body weak, her ears faintly buzzing, and her eyes a little blurry.

At this time, she couldn't hold on any longer. She leaned against the inner wall of the small space, gasping for breath.

Finding that there was no danger, the little girl waited for a while, making sure there was really no movement, before struggling to climb out of the small space, crawling out from under the bed little by little.

Poof.

Suddenly.

Her shoulder touched something.

The little girl's body stiffened, and a bad feeling surged into her heart.

She slowly, slowly raised her head and looked to the upper right.

A long-haired woman in a tattered white dress was sitting quietly on her wooden bed, her left leg hanging down, resting on her right shoulder.

The woman's long hair covered her face, and she looked down at her. Through the refraction of the moonlight, she could see the rotten traces on her pale mouth.

Whoosh!!

The woman's rotten face instantly approached and magnified.

"I didn't die this time."

From the darkness, a vague voice drifted.

It seemed to be a woman.

"Still alive, huh? Just injured, body's very weak. Not that I'm saying anything, but you always bring people back from the forest outside. We don't have much to eat here, and you have to support a sick person's food and drink all by yourself..." the woman said.

"N-no... it's okay... Mom... Mom... told me..." At this moment, another young female voice, stuttering badly, chimed in.

"Don't mention your mother. Just listening to you talk makes me tired. Alright, I've stitched up the wound for you. Just be careful not to get it wet afterwards, or it'll get infected. I'm leaving now." The woman seemed to be packing things up with rustling sounds.

"Th-thank you..." The stuttering girl let out a gasping, silly laugh.

"Don't thank me. If it really doesn't work out, remember to drag him out and leave him outside the door. He should be gone in one night," the woman said helplessly.

"Only... you... help..." The stuttering girl said gratefully.

"That's how it is in this world. Everyone's struggling to get by, no one has the energy to take care of others. It's just you. Anyone else would probably have thrown him back into the wild," the woman said.

Yu Hong slowly gathered his strength, and in the darkness, tried hard to open his eyes.

He saw a small girl, dirty all over with messy black hair, talking to a middle-aged, yellow-skinned woman.

The yellow-skinned woman wore glasses and a long-sleeved gray-white shirt, covered in stains and various marks.

He only remembered that he was tired from work, went home, and fell asleep. As a result, he suddenly heard some noisy sounds in the middle of the night, followed by a pain in his forehead, and then he knew nothing.

"Where... is..." He opened his mouth to speak, but found his throat felt like it was being cut by a knife, unable to make a sound. Only a series of hoarse gasps came out.

At the same time, he could feel that his forehead was very hot, his body was feverish, and the corners of his eyes were filled with dry, hard eye discharge.

Inflammation, there must be inflammation somewhere in my body, possibly in my throat.

"Medicine..." At this moment, the girl's voice came.

After a clear sound of a door closing, everything became quiet.

The dirty girl moved with difficulty, and took out a dark metal box from the corner of the room.

"Take medicine... get better." She took the medicine and walked to Yu Hong's side.

With a click, she opened the lid. Inside the metal box were many pieces of charcoal. In the middle of the charcoal, three pale yellow capsules were wrapped in paper.

However, the surface of these three pills had grown fine mold spots, and green mold fluff could be seen on the light blue mold spots.

"This medicine, can't be eaten, right..." Yu Hong's face froze as he looked at the other person. Now that he was awake, his throat seemed to be much better, and he could speak more smoothly, but it still hurt.

"Besides, what kind of medicine is this? I don't even know what's wrong with my body, what disease I have, and you're giving it to me to eat. It won't cure me."

"You tell me first, who are you, where am I? What exactly is going on?"

The girl was a little dazed holding the medicine. She opened her mouth, making goo goo gaas sounds, a little anxious, but unable to make a sound.

Now that he was closer, Yu Hong could see the other person's appearance clearly.

Her skin was dark, covered with patches of dull yellow stains. She was wearing clothes from many seasons - summer, autumn, and winter - all piled together. The collar was black, greasy, and he could smell a strong odor of sweat.

This is a beggar.

Perhaps many beggars are cleaner than her.

From a distance, she looked like a moving black clothes cart.

Only up close did one realize that the girl's body was somewhat deformed. One of her legs was lame, and she had a large tumor on the back of her right shoulder, the clear outline of which could be seen even through her clothes.

She was less than 1.5 meters tall, short and dirty, and moved very slowly.

But her eyes were like clear gemstones, with very few impurities.

Finally, the book is open. As usual, around 5 p.m. If there are any delays, it has nothing to do with me~ haha.

This time it's a terrifying and cruel world, I hope everyone likes it.