Episode 1 Chapter 007: Rage
I was the most surprised one, but I was confused as to why I wore those shoes. My father saw that I seemed a little frightened after hearing this, so he patted me on the shoulder and said that he seemed to be worrying too much. Then he comforted me and told me not to think too much about it, and that this matter should be taken slowly and not be rushed.
Then my dad went out. I was staring at the computer screen but my mind was not on it at all. I saw the thing that looked like a face on the dark screen, which made me feel even more confused. But I continued to stare at the screen. As for the second half of the screen, it was always black. In fact, it was also very puzzling. Why did the light go dark for no reason? When I woke up, the light was on. Even my mother said that she came in to check because she saw the light in my room was on, but I didn't move it at all. Of course, this is what I remember.
The scene suddenly changed when the video was almost at the end, and it seemed like it suddenly moved to the head of the bed without any warning. I was sleeping facing the camera at the time, so the whole video was shot close up of my sleeping posture. I seldom see my own sleeping posture, and it looked a little weird at first glance. After staring at it for a while felt a chill down my spine, and I felt like I was in that eerie and terrifying scene. The last scene was when I woke up, and I got up and turned off the camera.
After watching this video, I just felt like fear had taken root in my heart and could not be shaken off, and I became more and more confused. These things happened too obviously, so obviously that you can actually feel the traces of "it"'s existence, and this is the most fatal part.
Before I could come to my senses, I suddenly heard a clang sound coming from the living room. It was the sound of a door closing, as if someone had come back. At first I thought it was my mom and the others coming back after delivering something, but I only heard the door closing but no footsteps, so I became suspicious and went out to the living room to see.
There was no one in the living room, and there was a strange silence. I saw that the door of the living room was open, and I could just see the corridor outside, but it was still empty. I swallowed, and a bad thought gathered in my mind, but more often than not, someone would come in from time to time when the door was open.
I looked around the living room, then walked to the door and looked outside. There was no one in the corridor and it was quiet. I shuddered and was about to close the door. Just as I was closing the door, I suddenly saw something next to the threshold. So I looked carefully and found that it was a footprint The reason why it could be seen as a footprint was because it was covered with incense ash, and the shape of the footprint was outlined by the incense ash.
And it was facing the door, as if one foot was standing outside and the other foot had already stepped inside. When I thought of this, my scalp suddenly went numb, and then goose bumps all over my body. It was strange that the door to the living room was open. Mom and Dad were not the kind of people who would not close the door. Sometimes I would be scolded if I forgot to close the door, so it was strange that the door was open, not to mention that a footprint appeared outside the door inexplicably.
I just felt my palms sweating, and then I slammed the door shut. After closing the door, I searched the living room floor carefully again, but did not find any similar footprints. Only then did I feel a little relieved. I sat on the sofa and turned on the TV, which was also a way to relieve my fear. I sat for a while and looked at the time. It was almost dark, and my mother and others had been out for such a long time, why didn’t they come back yet? If my mother hadn’t told me not to go out during this period, I would definitely go downstairs to find them.
Just when I was thinking about it, my dad and his family came back. I asked them what had happened that they had been out for so long. Then I saw that they all looked a little strange. Then my dad asked me if I had any ointment at home because my mom had burned her hand with incense. I stood up and asked my mom if she was okay. She said she was just burned. So I got up and took out aloe vera gel from the medicine cabinet. When I saw the burn on my mom's hand, I was shocked. It was so burnt that it was like burning flesh. How did she get burned?
My dad said that if I pressed the incense stick directly on my hand, it would burn the flesh. But my mom said nothing. I applied aloe vera gel on her wound and asked her what happened. Then my dad fell silent. My mom sighed and said that she was more worried about me.
Then my dad and I recounted what happened. My mom was so stunned at the time that she couldn't explain it clearly, but from their respective statements I could sense the weirdness of the incident.
At that time, my father and mother carried the prepared things and went to the side of the road where there were few people to deliver the things. The reason for not having many people was mainly to avoid disturbing everyone and making their work in vain. My mother and the others chose a small dark alley. It was almost dark at that time and there were not many people, so they found a place and started to take out the things little by little.
In my impression, I always thought that this kind of thing was done by the living for the dead to see, and the living people themselves sought psychological comfort, so I never took it seriously. When I was a child, I would take the initiative to burn some silver ingots and paper money during festivals. At that time, it was not to show respect as a junior as my parents said, but purely for fun.
So I watched my parents doing these things , but I never felt that there was any practical effect. After all, I am a highly educated person, and I have been brainwashed countless times by these theories that feudal superstitions are deadly. So when I was in middle school, I always felt that what my parents often did was stupid.
Although I still didn't believe in these things later, I no longer had those thoughts as I did then, and I felt that I was actually ignorant. These were a commemoration of our ancestors and a belief of my parents' generation. That's why I would take the initiative to participate in them during festivals and holidays afterwards.
This has gone a bit far, so essentially, I still don't believe it. After my mother took out these things, she started to start a fire, but the lighter wouldn't light up. I don't know why, but it always wouldn't light up, so she had to change it. Later, my mother said that the fact that it wouldn't light up at that time was actually a sign, but she just didn't pay attention.
When the paper money was burning, my mother threw the pair of cloth shoes into the fire and burned them together with the paper money. Then she took out the incense and lit it. It was at this time that my mother was burned. In my father's words, he was squatting beside her and watching at the time. He saw that after my mother lit the incense, she should have found a place to stick it in the ground, but she hesitated for a moment and then burned the incense head on the back of her hand. My father said that it was a good thing that my mother only lit three sticks at the time. If she had lit a bunch of incense like she did at the sacrifice in her hometown, who knows how bad the burns would have been.
When I heard this, I looked at my mother strangely. Why did she burn the incense sticks on her body for no reason? My mother didn't feel much about this. She said she didn't know what happened. She did it without thinking. It was not until my father pulled her hand away that she felt the piercing pain on the back of her hand.
In fact, both my father and mother knew what was going on, but they just didn't want to say it out loud. Firstly, it's not something that can be said easily, and secondly, they were afraid that I would feel more uneasy after hearing it. But I'm not stupid. Although I don't believe it, I've seen them do and say it since I was a child, so after listening to my mother's story, I knew what they were guessing.
It was not until I got to this point that I really started to get scared, because I felt that I had already implicated my parents. It didn't matter if I got into trouble, the most important thing was that my parents were safe. So the more the situation got to this point, the more I didn't want them to get involved. Therefore, I didn't tell them about the footprints with incense ash at the door.
After applying aloe vera gel on the back of my mother's hand, I found a bandage to wrap the wound. However, my mother said it was not necessary and that it would hinder her work. I told her that since it was so burned, she should just stop worrying about the chores, and there wasn't much chores to do at home anyway, and I could do it myself.
After that, I had an idea. I wanted to persuade my parents to go back to their hometown and let me handle the things here by myself. But in the end, I didn't say anything. They would definitely not agree. Besides, if I went back like this, they would worry about me even more.
When I went to work the next day, because of the incident when the police came to question me before, I pretended as if nothing had happened to avoid some gossipy colleagues making wild guesses, especially the aunties and grandmas in the office. They would gossip about everyone's daily life, so for a long time I felt that the office with them was a place of gossip.
Later, the colleague who gossiped with me yesterday came to me mysteriously and told me about Old Man Liu at the funeral home. He asked me if I knew that Old Man Liu was cremated yesterday afternoon. I was a little surprised, then looked at this colleague and asked how it could happen so quickly, as weren't the police still investigating the cause of his death?
But my colleague waved his hand and asked what was there to investigate. When he said this, he showed a strange look on his face. He told me that his friend at the funeral home got some inside information. It was said that an autopsy had been done, but they couldn't find the cause of death. It was neither murder nor suicide, but more like a natural death.
When I heard this, I immediately retorted and said how could it be possible? Old man Liu was only in his sixties, how could he die of old age? He might have had some acute heart or brain disease. My colleague probably couldn't confirm it, so he didn't say anything. Instead, he said that because he had been dead for too long, many traces were gone. Then he asked me mysteriously if I knew how long the old man had been dead. I tried to say a week, but my colleague shook his head and said half a month.
