Everyone seemed to have an unspoken understanding, yet no one was willing to talk about it.
My little nephew had been frightened, but boys were brave by nature. Before long, he was cheerful again and even thought the experience could become a legend—that he might be a little superhero.
The atmosphere at home grew stranger and stranger.
I went to that courtyard several times. Once, I even went with my older brother, but we found nothing.
There were no more flashes of lightning or peals of thunder in the courtyard, but the withered trees and broken branches remained where they were. The stone slabs on the ground had been split open, exposing damp soil. Something like earthworms seemed to writhe in it. A dark, damp smell spread through the courtyard, filling people with dread.
I tried to climb over the wall and get inside, but every time I perched on top, I felt that the ground below wasn't ordinary earth. It was a man-eating swamp.
I tried tossing things onto the ground. A broken brick seemed to sink into a lake, swallowed up in a few seconds without a trace.
The house inside the courtyard had also become strange. It had once been full of old-world charm, but now it was dilapidated. The paper on the windows seemed to have rotted, leaving holes everywhere.
I looked through a pair of binoculars and saw that the inside of the house was dim and gray, with plenty of cobwebs clinging to it. I couldn't see any furniture.
I didn't dare enter that courtyard.
I never saw the foreigner again, either.
I was anxious and wanted to do something, but I had no idea what.
Yet part of me wanted to run away. I wanted to get as far from that courtyard as