Although he was talking about something terrifying, no one else showed much emotion besides the man himself. Among Greenleaf's people, only Liu Miao showed a little surprise. The woman sitting by the table didn't even raise her head. She continued stroking the white cat's head, like an autistic person indifferent to the outside world.
The man was practically sobbing. "I don't know how this happened! I hired people to take a look overseas. I hired people to take a look, but none of them could explain it. I tried all kinds of things. They told me and my wife and son to eat things like dried lizard and spider and scorpion, and to smear things on our bodies. I tried all of it! At the worst, I covered myself in blood. I didn't even know what it was from. They tied me up like a mummy, but it still didn't work... My brother-in-law, he... When I found him, he was already..."
The man glanced at the two dolls. His voice trembled. "When I found him, there was no one in his room. There was only a little person, one of those little green toy soldiers. That thing was only this big..."
He gestured with his fingers. The gap between them was less than ten centimeters. His hand shook as badly as his voice, and the distance between his fingers kept widening and shrinking, but never exceeded ten centimeters.
"That little person made a sound... He shouted, 'Yes, sir!' and said something about attacking, retreating... And then... and then that was it..." The man let his hand drop in despair.
"Darling."
"Daddy."
The man shuddered.
The video camera turned slightly.
The two dolls hadn't moved, but the voices seemed to come from their bodies.
Liu Miao stepped into view and touched