Chapter 1

A woman in white with short hair was sitting at the desk, her back turned to him.

It was nighttime, and the moonlight hung like a veil; the woman's hands were splayed across the desk, motionless.

There was no light, no sound.

The surroundings were deathly silent.

Lin Sheng lay in bed, his head wrapped in his quilt, watching the woman at the desk from the side.

He felt a sense of unease. He remembered going to bed at nine-thirty, and judging by the sky, it was at most three or four in the morning.

This was his bedroom; he had woken up to find a woman sitting at his desk.

Where did this woman come from?

He squinted, but with his vision of nearly five diopters, he could only make out that it was a woman in white, who appeared to be quite young.

But where would a woman in white come from in his house? His mother never wore white, and his sister was away at college, always wearing her school uniform.

The silence around him was terrifying.

Lin Sheng frowned, blinking hard, trying to see who the woman sitting there was.

But it was too dark at night to see anything clearly.

And what terrified him even more was that he couldn't move his body!

In a daze, he seemed to hear people talking, chatting. The voices were right behind him, right by the side of the bed where he slept, in a place outside his field of vision.

The voices were inches away, as if the speakers were staring at him while whispering right against his back.

He could almost imagine two people staring at him with eerie, cold eyes, chatting away in words he couldn't quite make out.

Lin Sheng felt goosebumps erupt all over his body.

Click.

Another crisp sound rang out.

It sounded like the bedroom door had opened; someone had come in.

In an instant, all sound vanished. Lin Sheng snapped back to reality and saw the woman in white by the desk slowly and silently stand up, remaining motionless with her back to him.

Her long white sleeves were like those of a gown, loose and empty. Her movements were as stiff and precise as a machine.

"I..."

Lin Sheng wanted to speak, but he discovered with horror that he couldn't make a single sound.

His body felt as if every muscle were cramping, uncontrollably tense and trembling. A cold sweat soaked through his shirt, and he felt his teeth chattering violently against his will.

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

Crisp footsteps sounded again from the doorway. They walked to the foot of the bed and stopped, as if the person had stood still.

Lin Sheng was terrified. He tried to shrink into his quilt, tried to relax his body as much as possible, tried to lie flat, hoping to make the intruder and the woman in white fail to notice someone was in the bed.

He thought that if he just lay flat enough, perhaps they would think the bed held nothing but a thick quilt.

But his body wouldn't budge. His legs and back were cramping so severely that he had to use all his strength just to suppress the trembling and the pain.

Tap, tap, tap.

He heard the footsteps moving toward the head of the bed.

The fear in Lin Sheng's heart reached its peak.

He wanted to close his eyes to avoid seeing what was about to happen, but an inexplicable terror made him unable to even blink.

Thump!!!

Suddenly, a pair of ice-cold hands reached into the quilt and grabbed his feet.

"Ah!!!!!"

Lin Sheng bolted upright in bed, drenched in sweat, his face deathly pale, his eyes wide and bloodshot.

Haa, haa, haa, haa.

He hung his head, gasping for fresh air.

"I had that dream again." He pulled his legs up and touched the spot where the cold hands had grabbed him.

There was nothing there, just as always—no marks, no pain.

But the sensation from just moments ago remained vivid and exceptionally clear.

Outside the window, the morning sun was bright and clear; it was already fully light.

Lin Sheng rolled out of bed just as someone knocked on the door.

Knock, knock, knock.

"Were you shouting just now?"

His sister's voice came from outside the door, sounding worried.

Lin Sheng wiped his forehead with both hands, covered in sweat. He took a deep breath.

"It's nothing, just had a nightmare."

"As long as you're okay. You've been so jumpy lately, is something going on at school?" my sister asked again.

"Nothing. Really, it was just a nightmare," Lin Sheng replied after a brief silence.

"Breakfast is ready. Get up and drink some hot milk, you'll feel better," my sister comforted me before turning to leave.

Lin Sheng sat on the edge of the bed, replaying the dream in his mind.

This wasn't the first time he had this dream.

For three days in a row, it had been the exact same dream. The ending was always the same: his feet would be grabbed, leaving him unable to move.

Subconsciously touching his feet, Lin Sheng stood up, walked to his desk, and yanked the curtains open.

Blinding sunlight instantly illuminated the entire bedroom, revealing even the dust motes dancing in the air.

He was just an ordinary high school student who had spent three years at Huian High School and was about to face the college entrance exams.

His father ran a grocery store, and his mother was a kindergarten teacher. Their combined annual income didn't exceed one hundred thousand.

His sister was still away at university and would be leaving in a few days; she was just back home for a short visit.

"So, most of the time, I'm still the only one at home."

Lin Sheng remained silent as he reached out to open his bedroom door.

Outside, the hallway was bright and bathed in sunlight.

The sound of his sister busy washing dishes drifted from the kitchen—a crisp, melodic clattering.

Lin Sheng walked into the kitchen, picked up the hot milk from the counter, and downed it all at once.

His sister, Lin Xiao, never liked to dress up. She was always in a white T-shirt and jeans—not the tight kind, just simple, loose-fitting trousers.

The only thing slightly unique about her was her waist-length black hair and her gentle, quiet temperament.

Lin Sheng set down the milk glass and picked up a piece of warm bread, taking small bites.

"Mom and Dad aren't here today, so I'm in charge of cooking. But I'm leaving tomorrow, so make sure you manage your life properly. Don't always make people worry about you."

My sister turned to take off her apron and sat on a high stool by the cabinet. She picked up her own glass of milk, taking a sip while muttering to herself.

"Yeah," Lin Sheng replied, not knowing what else to say.

"Is your allowance enough? I earned some money working part-time during the break, so it should be fine. If it's not, remember to ask me." His sister, Lin Xiao, was always prone to worrying—worrying about this, worrying about that. She had been like that since they were kids.

"It's enough."

"Hmm." Lin Xiao thought for a moment. "Do you want any local specialties? There was an exhibition at school recently, and I went to check it out. It was quite nice—specialties from Kongxi. If you like, I can mail you a porcelain doll. They say the craftsmanship there is exquisite; many of my classmates love them..."

Lin Xiao started rambling again.

Lin Sheng listened silently, only offering a quiet response after she had been talking for over ten minutes.

"I don't want anything."

"Alright. Don't be so gloomy all the time. When you have time, go out and socialize more. If you keep acting like this, no girl is going to like you," Lin Xiao said helplessly.

Like her friends in the dorm, she placed great importance on family, and her brother, with his perpetually sullen personality, had become her biggest concern.

Whenever she thought of her friend's older brother—who was forty and still couldn't find a wife because of his gloomy personality—she felt a sense of urgency.

"I know." Lin Sheng had always been this way.

The two fell silent for a moment, simply looking down and eating their breakfast.

The bread on the plate was soon gone, and the milk glasses were quickly emptied.

My sister set her hand down and looked up at Lin Sheng.

"Chenchen, I have my own part-time job at university, and I have enough money. If you're really struggling, you can call me."

"I know, Sis," Lin Sheng replied, keeping his head down.

"Chenchen." Lin Xiao suddenly reached out and pressed her hand onto Lin Sheng's left shoulder.

Chenchen was Lin Sheng's childhood nickname, used only by those closest to him.

"When I'm not here, you're the man of the house. Help Mom and Dad out more; things haven't been easy for them lately. Something happened at Mom's kindergarten recently—a child went missing from the class she was in charge of. They're still dealing with the aftermath. Even though Mom is fine, she was held partially responsible and had her pay docked."

Lin Sheng nodded.

"Don't worry, Sis, I'm fine here."

"Then why does your complexion look so bad?" Lin Xiao asked, worried.

"Is my complexion that bad?" Lin Sheng was taken aback.

"Go look in the bathroom mirror and you'll see," Lin Xiao said helplessly, letting go of his shoulder.

Lin Sheng turned and quickly left the kitchen, heading into the bathroom.

As he looked up, the mirror reflected his current appearance.

A pale, bloodless face with gray lips and a haggard expression.

"Didn't you sleep well last night? Why don't you go back and get some more rest?" Lin Xiao's concerned voice drifted in from the bathroom doorway.

Lin Sheng touched his lips, feeling only a dry, chapped texture.

"I had a nightmare last night. It's nothing, I'll be fine in a moment."

He didn't want his family to worry, even though the nightmare had felt incredibly real. Still, his tone remained understated.

"Alright, I'm heading out now; I have some things to take care of. When you get back from school, just heat up the food yourself for lunch. Don't worry about me. Mom and Dad went to see Grandpa today, so you're the only one home. Remember to take your keys when you leave."

"Got it," Lin Sheng replied calmly.

Soon, the sound of the door closing echoed behind him.

The entire house fell silent at once.

Lin Sheng stood alone in front of the mirror, looking at his own face. For some reason, he suddenly felt that last night's nightmare wouldn't pass so easily.

I hope it was just an ordinary dream.

Lin Sheng turned and left the bathroom, walking into the living room.

On the long wooden table in the living room lay two one-hundred-yuan banknotes.

The green paper shimmered with different iridescent hues depending on the angle.

Lin Sheng reached out and pinched the money in his hand, saying nothing.

Because this was his allowance for the next two months.

Previously, his allowance had been one hundred yuan a month, with meals and everything else taken care of by the school.

But now, these two hundred yuan had to last for two months. That meant twenty-five yuan a week, which averaged out to just over three yuan a day.

"I can only spend three yuan a day; I'll have to be frugal." Lin Sheng stood up and headed toward his room.

He changed into his school uniform in his room. On the left chest of the blue-and-white patterned uniform was a pinned school badge—a simple design of a rooster standing on one leg, with the two large characters for Huian written below.

Lin Sheng packed his schoolbag, changed into a pair of matching blue-and-white sneakers, and hurried out the door.

He walked out of the residential complex, mingling with the elderly men and women heading to the market, and boarded an old bus at the stop by the main gate.

After a bumpy ten-minute ride, he squeezed his way out from among a crowd of office workers, jumped off the bus, and sprinted toward the school, managing to slip into the classroom just as the bell rang for class.