Only I Can See It

In an instant, the skin face opened its eyes. Its slightly dark-brown irises, faintly upturned lips, and straight nose were all exactly like Song Xiaoyu's.

"Hehehe..."

The familiar laughter that had woken Song Xiaoyu came from the eerie face. Its white lips parted, revealing no teeth. Through the open mouth, she could see the wastepaper at the bottom of the bin behind the skin face.

Black hair sprawled across the full wastepaper bin. A deathly pale face—the exact likeness of her own—stared at Song Xiaoyu and laughed eerily.

The sight made Song Xiaoyu, already terrified, shudder instinctively. Before she could scream, consciousness slipped away.

Time passed, second by second.

Song Hao usually snored in his sleep, and his wife, An Lifen, had long since grown used to the sound. But this time, An Lifen shook him awake.

Knowing his snoring might have disturbed her, he rolled over and was about to go back to sleep.

But An Lifen shook his arm again.

Song Hao opened his sleepy eyes and asked irritably, "What is it?"

An Lifen spoke in a hushed voice. She seemed to have been awake for a while; she leaned close to his ear and whispered, "There was someone in our bedroom just now!"

"What?" Song Hao jolted, suddenly half awake.

"Who?"

He lifted his head and looked around. Light filtered in from outside, but the bedroom was already very dark. Anything more than a meter from the bed was impossible to see.

So Song Hao doubted An Lifen could have seen anyone in the room.

"That person was standing beside our bed the whole time." An Lifen's body trembled, and her voice quavered. "I didn't dare move. I could only pretend to be asleep."

Hearing her description, Song Hao felt a wave of fear and unease. He sat up at once and switched on the bedside lamp. The two of them immediately scanned the bedroom, but saw no one.

"Maybe a thief got in," Song Hao guessed. Then his expression changed. "I wonder if anything happened to our daughter."

As soon as he said it, he stood up, grabbed a flashlight from the bedside table, and gripped it tightly. "Get your phone!"

He hurried to the bedroom door, only to find it ajar, though it had been closed earlier.

His heart lurched. Song Hao slowly approached the door and was about to pull it open when someone suddenly pushed it from the other side. Song Xiaoyu hurried in, her face deathly pale.

"Dad, I'm scared! I think... I had a nightmare!"

Song Hao immediately put an arm around her and glanced down the hallway behind her. Seeing nothing unusual, he let out a breath and asked, "Did you see a thief in the house?"

Song Xiaoyu shook her head.

Song Hao turned to An Lifen. "Did you see wrong?"

An Lifen studied Song Xiaoyu for a moment, seeming lost in thought. Then she nodded. "Maybe... I did."

"It's okay, Xiaoyu. Go back to your room. Dad will check every room, just to be sure."

After sending Song Xiaoyu back to her room, he checked the living room, kitchen, walk-in closet, study, Song Xiaoyu's bedroom, and the bathroom. He found nothing unusual. He also checked the locks; they were intact, with no sign anyone had opened them.

Song Xiaoyu was already lying in bed, seemingly asleep.

Song Hao closed her bedroom door and returned to the master bedroom. Then he got back into bed.

"No one else is in the house. You were probably half asleep and saw things," he muttered, pulling the summer quilt over himself.

Suddenly, he noticed An Lifen trembling. Puzzled, he turned to look at her.

An Lifen stammered, "Just now... after I saw Xiaoyu... I was sure. Before you woke up, it was her... standing beside our bed the whole time."

Two days later, Hong Anjie returned from his trip with his father, Hong Bin.

As soon as he got home, he called Shen Xing and invited him to dinner, partly to thank him and partly to pick up the bust of his father he had commissioned.

Shen Xing had already finished the second bust.

Dinner was set for seven that evening at Yue Man Lou Restaurant in the old city. They chose the place so Shen Xing could bring the wooden carving along, while Hong Anjie and his father drove there.

At seven in the evening, it was still bright out. Summer nights in Yungu City usually didn't fall until after eight.

The Hong father and son arrived before Shen Xing so they could order and have the food prepared. The table was loaded with dishes—seven dishes and a soup for three people—which Shen Xing thought was a bit wasteful.

As they ate and drank Baiqu Sauce Liquor in the private room, Shen Xing asked about Hong Bin's health.

Hong Bin seemed to be in good spirits after their few days away. He was completely back to normal, and according to Hong Anjie, his father hadn't shown any of the strange behavior he'd exhibited before.

After they had eaten for a while, Shen Xing opened the video on his phone and played the footage that Ma Jinlong, deputy head of the Missing Persons Unit at the Public Security Bureau, had sent him. Then he handed the phone to Hong Anjie.

"This is the last footage the Public Security Bureau found of Ye Ting. Take a look and see if anything stands out."

He wanted to test Hong Anjie and see whether he would notice the strange moment Shen Xing had seen in the video.

To make sure the strange occurrence wouldn't be prevented by two people watching together, Shen Xing stopped the curious Hong Bin from watching with his son.

"Uncle Hong, you can watch after Anjie finishes."

Hong Bin nodded, raised his glass, and smiled as he clinked it against Shen Xing's. He drained it in one go.

The old man clearly had a good tolerance for alcohol and seemed in good shape. If Fake Hong Bin hadn't worn him down some time ago, he wouldn't have kept fainting.

All the while, Shen Xing watched Hong Anjie's expression. Halfway through the video, Hong Anjie furrowed his brow, plainly baffled.

When the video ended, Hong Anjie still held the phone motionless. He looked up at Shen Xing. "Are there any other videos?"

"No." Shen Xing shook his head. "Play it again for Uncle Hong, then we'll talk."

He was afraid Hong Anjie's comments might influence Hong Bin before he'd seen the video, so he planned to ask what they'd noticed after both had watched it.

Hong Bin took the phone and watched carefully.

It was hard to deny that the father and son had exactly the same expressions as they watched, as if they'd been cut from the same cloth.

After Hong Bin finished watching, Shen Xing took back the phone and asked Hong Anjie, "What seemed strangest to you in the video?"

"When Ye Ting was talking to the air outside the window. She was gesturing, too. I couldn't make sense of it at all," Hong Anjie replied.

He, Shen Xing, and Ye Ting had all been college classmates and had known one another well. After Ye Ting went missing, Hong Anjie had been just as worried.

He also knew Ye Ting's personality, so her unusual behavior seemed incomprehensible to him.

Hong Bin looked surprised. "Was that young woman talking to the air? I thought she was calling out to someone in the building across from her. Though she didn't look like she was speaking very loudly."

"Did you notice anything else?" Shen Xing asked.

"No." Hong Anjie shook his head. "It looked like Ye Ting was talking something over with someone, but doing that toward the window was strange."

Shen Xing nodded without showing what he was thinking. He knew that neither father nor son had seen the eerie moment he'd noticed in the video.

So far, he was the only one who had seen Ye Ting suddenly look toward the camera.