"": 200,
"": "",
"": "At those words, Luo Bin's heart leaped into his throat.
Indeed, everything about this village felt wrong.
Just moments ago, Luo Feng, the original owner's father, had nearly stabbed him to death. He had only escaped by pretending to faint.
If Xu Kaiguo knew the village's secrets, that was wonderful!
Turning around, Luo Bin searched the room and soon found a claw hammer in the desk.
He pulled out the nails on the right side of the wooden slats one by one, pocketing them so they wouldn't clatter to the floor. Soon, all the nails on that side were out, leaving the slats hanging precariously.
Xu Kaiguo's face was almost pressed against the window. Eyes wide, he urged, "Break the middle slat, and you'll be able to pull the window open."
Luo Bin did as he said and wrenched the middle slat aside.
His hand reached the window handle, and he was just about to pull!
"What are you doing?!"
The deafening roar made even the window shake.
Luo Bin had only just registered it and turned around.
Luo Feng charged up to him like a raging bull, seized his shoulders with both hands, and hurled him toward the bed!
His feet left the floor, and he slammed into the edge of the bed. The searing pain drew an anguished groan from him.
Footsteps followed as Gu Ya rushed into the room, crying shrilly, "Luo Feng, what are you doing?!"
Luo Feng dragged Gu Ya over to the window. His face livid, he stared at Luo Bin while speaking in a low voice.
Luo Bin couldn't hear what Luo Feng was saying, but years spent bedridden had taught him a skill: lip-reading.
From the slightest movements of their lips, he could discern the true state of his illness as doctors discussed it with his family.
Luo Feng was saying, "Something's wrong with him!"
"He was opening the window! Everyone in the village knows you can't open windows at night. Evil spirits will slip inside and kill us. He wanted to let them in!"
"He definitely isn't Xiao Shan!"
Luo Bin read Gu Ya's rebuttal from her lips. "You're talking nonsense again. Xiao Shan would never do that..."
Luo Feng pointed at the window and said, "Look for yourself."
Gu Ya's face went white.
Luo Bin's heart beat faster.
Without warning, several images flashed before his eyes.
The village chief, a bearded man with a square face, warning them to keep all doors and windows shut at night and light the oil lamps.
Gu Ya saying that once evil spirits entered a home, they left no survivors.
Keeping the windows shut at night really was one of the village's rules!
In an instant, sweat drenched Luo Bin's back. Beyond the overwhelming fear of what he had nearly done, an even more obvious problem lay before him!
He had made a mistake no normal person could possibly have made...
At that thought, Luo Bin endured the pain and propped himself up, rasping, "Mom... why are you both standing by the window? I noticed the slats had come loose and the nails were all over the floor. I was picking them up to nail them back in when Dad rushed in and shoved me away... it hurts so much."
With that, Luo Bin took out several nails and the claw hammer.
Gu Ya's expression immediately relaxed. She hurried to the bedside and asked anxiously, "Are you hurt anywhere?"
Luo Bin immediately shook his head and said cautiously, "I'm okay... but we need to nail those slats back in right away."
Luo Feng strode forward and picked up the nails and claw hammer.
Returning to the window, he secured the slats with a few loud hammer blows.
Gu Ya pressed her lips together and looked at Luo Feng in displeasure. "You've been overreacting all day. Now look, you've hurt our son."
Luo Feng turned around, his brows deeply furrowed.
"Mom, don't blame Dad. I'm really fine. He was probably afraid the evil spirits had opened the window. Now that the slats are fixed, I feel better too." Luo Bin cautiously tugged at Gu Ya's clothes and said, "Get some rest, both of you. Don't wear yourselves out."
Gu Ya froze, her eyes reddening.
The next moment, she stepped forward, grabbed Luo Feng's arm, and pulled him out of the room without another word.
Luo Bin finally let out a long breath of relief.
But as the two reached the doorway, Luo Feng suddenly stopped. Turning his head, he gave Luo Bin a searching look and said, "The evil spirits took the nail from your little finger. By all rights, you should have become one of them, but you survived."
"They'll probably pay special attention to you. You must be extremely careful! Once night falls, there are no normal people outside the doors or windows, only evil spirits that kill! Don't let them fool you!"
"Enough. Last night is behind us. Stop bringing it up. What if someone hears? As long as we light the oil lamps, we'll be fine." Gu Ya pinched Luo Feng's waist, then looked at Luo Bin with concern and said gently, "Xiao Shan, get some sleep. I'll stew some meat for you tomorrow."
"Okay." Luo Bin nodded. The door closed behind them, and their footsteps faded into the distance.
Silence returned to the room.
His lower back still ached.
Enduring the pain, Luo Bin walked over to the window.
Where the nails had been hammered back in, the wood was almost warped, and the nail heads were barely visible.
A chilly breeze brushed his face.
Why was there wind inside the room?
Luo Bin looked at the edge of the window and shuddered.
There was actually a gap!
The window had already been opened, and neither Gu Ya nor Luo Feng had noticed!
Luo Bin forced his hand into the gap between the slats, but he couldn't reach the window handle.
Overcome by panic, he immediately turned to search the room. At last, he found a clothes hanger, hooked it around the handle, and pulled the window firmly shut.
By the time he finished, his back was soaked with sweat.
Judging by what Gu Ya, Luo Feng, and the village chief had said, evil spirits could charge inside and kill people if the doors and windows weren't properly shut at night.
But the window really had been opened. Even if Luo Feng had caught me opening it and stopped me, why hadn't any evil spirits rushed in to kill them?
Could it be that whoever was outside the window wasn't an evil spirit at all?
That's right... Xu Kaiguo was my attending physician. We'd known each other for five or six years. Wouldn't I know whether there was something wrong with him?
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a red plastic-framed dressing mirror on the bedside cabinet, the sort every household had owned in earlier years.
The mirror reflected an utterly unfamiliar face: hooded double eyelids, slightly sunken sockets, faintly dark circles, and thick, bushy eyebrows.
So this was the original owner, Luo Shan?
Luo Bin touched his cheek, goosebumps rising over his skin.
I don't even recognize this face. How could Xu Kaiguo recognize it?
The sudden contradiction tangled Luo Bin's thoughts into knots.
Everything that had happened earlier flashed through his mind, scene by scene.
During all those years of paralysis, Luo Bin's brain had been his only useful organ.
His memory was extraordinarily good. He never forgot anything he saw and could even "replay" it in his mind.
Luo Bin calmed himself and recalled the events carefully.
There was an old-fashioned clock on the wall. Its once-faint ticking now became exceptionally clear.
The hands had been pointing to 8:31, but suddenly jumped to 8:22, with the second hand pointing to the twenty-seventh second.
Everything before his eyes abruptly changed!
Luo Bin's view returned to the window.
"Break the middle slat, and you'll be able to pull the window open." Xu Kaiguo's face was almost pressed against the glass, his eyes wide and his expression urgent.
Luo Bin pulled the slat aside and grasped the window handle.
The window did indeed open a crack!
"What are you doing?!"
At the instant Luo Feng's furious shout rang out.
Luo Bin's shoulders were seized, his feet left the floor, and he was hurled away!
In that instant, Luo Bin's heart clenched!
Xu Kaiguo was slipping something through the gap in the window. It was a slip of paper. Once pushed inside, it fell silently to the foot of the wall!
Luo Feng hurled Luo Bin into the edge of the bed!
Everything before his eyes settled back into stillness.
Tick, tock.
Amid the ticking, the wall clock resumed its normal movement.
Struggling to calm his racing heart, Luo Bin looked down at the foot of the wall opposite the window. A slip of paper lay flush against the baseboard.
Swallowing, Luo Bin picked it up.
Unfolded, it revealed a simple sketch of a woman with a beauty mark at the corner of her eye. Beneath it were the words-save her in three days.
His head buzzed.
I haven't even figured out what sort of being Xu Kaiguo is.
And he's actually asking me to save someone?
Before you continue