An old photograph

"I'm looking for Li Xiumei. Is Li Xiumei home?"

Hearing that voice again, I was no longer angry.

My legs barely obeyed me. I practically crawled back to my bedroom and locked the door.

This was already the third time!

This time, she had actually come straight to my home!

I crawled back into bed, hid under the covers, and wrapped myself up tight.

But even that did nothing to dispel the terror inside me.

Alongside the nine parts terror, there was one part confusion.

Who exactly was this girl?

Was she the mummified corpse we had dug up in that house?

Her clothes were almost identical to those on the corpse.

Meng Yifan and I had briefly discussed it, suspecting that this girl was that corpse.

But if she was the corpse, then who was Li Xiumei?

Had Li Xiumei killed her? Was that why she kept coming back, again and again, looking for the person she wanted revenge on?

But we didn't even know Li Xiumei. Why had she followed me all the way home?

Clutching my phone, I hurriedly turned on the screen, ready to call Meng Yifan.

But when the screen lit up, I saw that my phone had no signal at all.

I always had full bars at home. The signal had never dropped before.

Suddenly, I remembered the first night. When this girl first knocked on the door, I had taken my phone into the bathroom, and it had also had no signal.

But I hadn't thought much of it then. I had assumed the reception in that residential complex was just poor.

Now it seemed the problem wasn't the reception, but the girl. Whenever she appeared, my phone lost its signal.

I felt myself starting to fall apart.

The girl was still knocking, louder and louder. She was forcing me to open the door!

But how could I dare open it? I didn't even dare answer her.

And of all times, my phone had no signal now. I couldn't reach Meng Yifan.

What was I supposed to do?

What if she got tired of knocking and came straight in? What would I do then?

I felt as though I might not survive the night.

My will to live gave me courage. I forced myself out from under the covers, hurriedly opened my bedroom window, and shouted to the neighbors above and below.

"Help! Is anyone there?"

"Please call the police for me!"

It was humiliating, but I couldn't worry about that now.

After shouting, though, I waited almost half a minute, and no one upstairs or downstairs answered.

I quickly stuck my head out to look, only to discover that not a single apartment in my building had its lights on.

It was only midnight. Plenty of young people lived in this residential complex, and young people these days liked staying up late. Why had everyone gone to bed so early tonight?

Unwilling to give up, I shouted twice more.

"Please! Call the police for me!"

"I live in apartment 1302!"

After I shouted, there was still no movement around me. The silence was frightening.

I was shouting so loudly, and the girl kept knocking on the door. Could no one hear us?

Panic set in, and I climbed straight onto the windowsill.

If that girl broke in, I might jump from there.

Just as I settled onto the sill and instinctively looked down, a girl in a long black dress entered my field of vision, as though she had appeared out of thin air.

She stood at the foot of our building, looking up at me.

I looked closely. It was the girl knocking on my door!

Our eyes all but met. Even with thirteen floors between us, I could clearly make out that pale, bloodless face.

That familiar stench of a corpse seemed to hang in the air.

I was so frightened that I nearly toppled out. Luckily, I caught hold of the windowsill. Otherwise, a fall from the thirteenth floor would have smashed me to pieces.

Once I steadied myself, I hurriedly climbed back inside, shut the window tight, and drew the curtains.

I hid under the covers again. They were the only thing that gave me even the slightest sense of safety.

The knocking was still going on. It had never stopped.

I froze.

The knocking hadn't stopped...

That girl had clearly been downstairs just now. If she was downstairs, how could she be knocking on my door at the same time?

How many ghosts were haunting me?

If there was more than one ghost, only that girl was looking for Li Xiumei. How could she block my escape downstairs while knocking on my door upstairs?

I gave in to despair.

I hid under the covers, praying that time would pass faster.

The knocking outside never stopped. It tormented me for hours.

At last, I made it to dawn. Although it wasn't very light yet, that dreadful knocking finally stopped.

I threw back the covers. I looked as though I had been soaked in water, and my pajamas were drenched in sweat.

I picked up my phone and checked. The signal that had vanished was now back at full bars.

I hurriedly found Meng Yifan's number, ready to call him.

But before I could dial, Meng Yifan called me first.

"Chen Mo, get over here right now. We're in trouble!"

On the phone, Meng Yifan sounded frantic, and his voice trembled a little.

I thought he meant the lawsuit, so I quickly said, "Forget about the lawsuit for now. I have something more important to tell you..."

Meng Yifan cut me off. "Who the fuck said anything about the lawsuit? We're in real trouble! Get out the door, right now!"

He gave me an address and hung up immediately.

Had someone dug up our ancestral graves or something? First a lawsuit, then ghosts, and now something else had happened?

From Meng Yifan's tone, it sounded urgent. I didn't dare delay. I hurried into the bathroom for a quick shower, changed into clean clothes, and got ready to leave.

While showering, I looked in the mirror. My face was so pale that I looked seriously ill. I wondered whether it was because I had spent the whole night terrified.

When I reached the door, I didn't even dare open it right away. I checked through the peephole first.

I was like a startled bird now. I had even developed a fear of doors.

But then I thought that even a ghost probably wouldn't dare appear in daylight.

When I opened the door, I didn't see a ghost, but a photograph caught my eye.

It had been left right outside my front door. I had no idea who had put it there.

I picked it up and looked. It was an old photograph, so old that it had yellowed, and the faces were difficult to make out.

It seemed to show a family of three: a young man, a young woman, and a little girl of about five or six.

I froze, my hands trembling.

The young woman was dressed exactly like the girl who had come knocking on my door.

A long black dress, red high heels...