Only I Can See

In an instant, the skin opened its eyes. With slightly dark brown irises, a faintly curled corner of the mouth, and a straight bridge of the nose, the features on the skin were exactly the same as Song Xiaoyu's own.

"Hehehe..."

The familiar laughter that had startled Song Xiaoyu awake emanated from the mouth of this eerie face. The white skin's mouth split open; it had no teeth, yet through the gap, one could see the waste paper at the bottom of the trash can behind the skin.

The trash can was filled with long, black hair spread out, along with a ghastly pale face—and this face, identical to her own, was staring directly at Song Xiaoyu, smiling eerily.

This scene caused Song Xiaoyu, who was in a state of extreme terror, to shudder subconsciously. Before she could even let out a scream, her consciousness rapidly faded away.

Time ticked by, second by second.

Song Hao usually had a habit of snoring after falling asleep, and his wife, An Lifen, had long since grown accustomed to the sound. This time, however, Song Hao was shaken awake forcefully by An Lifen.

Knowing his snoring had likely disturbed his wife, he turned over, intending to go back to sleep.

An Lifen shook his arm again.

Song Hao opened his eyes, bleary with sleep, and asked in an annoyed tone, "What is it?"

An Lifen's voice was very low, as if she had been awake for a while. She leaned toward Song Hao's ear and whispered, "Someone was in our bedroom just now!"

"Ah!" Song Hao was startled, his sleepiness instantly vanishing by more than half.

"Who?"

He lifted his head and looked left and right. Although light filtered in from outside the room, the bedroom was dim, and anything more than a meter away from the bed was obscured in darkness.

Therefore, Song Hao didn't quite believe that An Lifen could have seen someone in the room.

"That person was standing right by our bed just a moment ago." An Lifen's body was trembling slightly, and her voice shook as well. "I didn't dare move, so I had to pretend to be asleep."

Hearing his wife's description, Song Hao felt a sense of dread and lingering fear. He quickly sat up and turned on the bedside lamp. The two of them immediately scanned the bedroom, but they saw no sign of anyone.

"Maybe a burglar broke in," Song Hao guessed, his expression suddenly shifting. "I wonder if our daughter is alright?"

With that, he stood up immediately, grabbed a flashlight from the bedside table, gripped it tightly, and said to An Lifen, "Keep your phone ready!"

He then walked quickly to the bedroom door, only to find that the door, which had been closed, was now left ajar.

His heart skipped a beat. Song Hao slowly approached the door, and just as he was about to pull it open, it was pushed wide from the outside. Song Xiaoyu walked in quickly, her face deathly pale.

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

Song Hao immediately pulled her into an embrace and glanced at the hallway behind her. Finding nothing unusual, he let out a sigh of relief and asked, "Did you notice any burglars in the house?"

Song Xiaoyu shook her head.

Song Hao turned back to An Lifen and said, "Did you see wrong?"

An Lifen stared at Song Xiaoyu for a moment, looking thoughtful, then nodded. "It's possible... I might have seen wrong."

"It's alright, Xiaoyu. Go back to your room. I'm going to walk through every room to make sure."

After telling Song Xiaoyu to return to her bedroom, he checked the living room, kitchen, walk-in closet, study, as well as Song Xiaoyu's bedroom and the bathroom. He found nothing out of the ordinary and checked the door locks; they were all intact, with no signs of having been tampered with.

By then, Song Xiaoyu was already lying in bed, seemingly asleep.

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

"There's no one else in the house. You were probably just groggy from sleep and saw wrong," he muttered while pulling the summer quilt over himself.

Suddenly, he noticed An Lifen's body was trembling. He turned to look at her, puzzled.

An Lifen stammered, "Just now... after seeing Xiaoyu... I became certain that before you woke up, it was her... who had been standing by our bed."

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

As soon as he got home, he called Shen Xing, stating that he wanted to treat him to a meal—partly to thank him, and partly to pick up the half-body wood carving of his father he had commissioned.

Shen Xing had already prepared the second half-body carving.

The meal was set for seven in the evening at Yue Man Lou Restaurant in the old town. Choosing this location made it convenient for Shen Xing to bring the carving, while the Hongs would be driving over.

At seven in the evening, the sky was still bright; in Yungu City, during the summer, nightfall usually didn't arrive until after eight.

Because of the time needed to order and prepare the food, the Hongs arrived at the restaurant before Shen Xing. The table was filled with a lavish spread—seven dishes and one soup for three people—though to Shen Xing, it felt a bit wasteful.

In the private room, while eating and drinking Baiqu Sauce Liquor, Shen Xing inquired about Hong Bin's health.

Having been away on a trip for a few days, Hong Bin seemed to be in high spirits and was acting completely like a normal person. According to Hong Anjie, his father had not shown any of his previous abnormal behaviors since.

After eating for a while, Shen Xing opened a video on his phone—the one sent to him by Ma Jinlong, the deputy head of the Missing Persons Unit at the Public Security Bureau—and handed it to Hong Anjie.

"This is the last footage of Ye Ting that the Public Security Bureau found. Could you take a look and see if there's anything noteworthy?"

He did this because he wanted to test Hong Anjie to see if he would witness that eerie scene he had seen himself while watching the video.

To avoid the possibility that watching it together might prevent the strange phenomenon from occurring, he stopped Hong Bin, who was curious and wanted to watch the video with his son.

"Uncle Hong, let Anjie finish watching first, then I'll show you."

Hong Bin nodded, raised his glass, clinked it with Shen Xing's with a smile, and downed it in one gulp.

It was clear that the old man had a good tolerance for alcohol and likely decent physical health; if he hadn't been worn down by the Fake Hong Bin a while back, he wouldn't have been fainting so easily.

Throughout this time, Shen Xing had been observing Hong Anjie's expression. Halfway through the video, Hong Anjie's brows furrowed, clearly feeling a sense of disbelief.

Once the video finished playing, Hong Anjie remained motionless, still clutching the phone, before looking up at Shen Xing. "Are there any other videos?"

"No," Shen Xing shook his head. "Play it again for Uncle Hong to see first, then we can talk."

He feared that Hong Anjie's words might create a certain level of psychological suggestion for Hong Bin, who had yet to watch the footage, so he intended to ask for their thoughts only after both had seen it.

Hong Bin took the phone and began to watch it intently.

It had to be said that during this process, the expressions of this father and son were cut from the same cloth; they were identical.

After Hong Bin finished watching the video, Shen Xing took the phone back and asked Hong Anjie, "What part of the video do you find the strangest?"

Hong Anjie replied, "When Ye Ting is talking to the air outside the window, and making hand gestures—I completely fail to understand that part."

He, Shen Xing, and Ye Ting were all university classmates and had been very close, so Hong Anjie was equally worried after Ye Ting went missing.

Moreover, Hong Anjie knew Ye Ting's personality well; such abnormal behavior from her seemed truly inconceivable to him.

Hong Bin remarked in surprise, "Is this girl talking to thin air? I thought she was shouting across to someone in the building opposite, but looking at the way she's speaking, she doesn't seem to be raising her voice at all!"

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

"No," Hong Anjie shook his head. "It feels like Ye Ting is conversing or negotiating with someone, but making those kinds of gestures toward the window is just strange."

Shen Xing nodded impassively. He knew that neither father nor son had seen the eerie scene he had witnessed in the video.

In other words, up to this point, he was the only one who had seen Ye Ting suddenly look toward the direction of the camera lens in the video.