697 No. 4

 

“Are you ready?” The old lady held the doorknob. The words on her face trembled as she did. “No matter what you see, I hope you can remain calm. Remember, do not show fear to him.”

The old grille slowly opened. The room was dark. It was unlike an apartment for the living but a lair for a monster.

“Do not step on the things on the ground. It took me a lot of effort to beg for these talismans.” The old lady kept her head lowered. Ever since she entered the room, she deliberately fixed her gaze on the floor lest she accidentally met something’s gaze.

“If they are useful, you wouldn’t have to worry so much.” Han Fei grabbed the hilt of Rest in Peace. His palm started to sweat. The atmosphere was strange.

“Shush. The Demon Gods can hear you. You can not believe them, but you can’t disrespect them.” The old lady waved urgently at Han Fei and said sternly. She carefully moved through the living room and pulled off the paper rope made from talismans. She glanced at the innermost bedroom. The door covered in yellow talismans was closed. Five bowls were placed before the door. They contained paper human limbs and a head. The old lady slowly retreated when she saw the things inside the five bowls.

“What’s wrong?” Han Fei was confused.

“He hasn’t had his fill. We shan’t disturb him.” The old lady mumbled nervously.

“Are these the things you normally feed him? Where is the nutrition without vegetables and meat?” Han Fei thought the old lady was possessed too. Even if the boy had been possessed, he needed a normal diet.

“The bowls contain ashes and medicine from senseis.”

“Wonderful. It’s really thanks to the ghosts that your grandson is still alive.” Han Fei shook his head. After regaining his memory, he was certain of one thing. Under most situations, only ghosts could deal with ghosts. He didn’t believe in senseis and the like. He wanted to ask the old lady to ask the sensei over so they could talk about this in detail.

“The ‘human’ in the bowl is food for the thing on him. Only when that thing is fed and asleep that my grandson can temporarily return to normal.” The old lady didn’t want Han Fei to get too close. He pulled Han Fei to the couch. “We’ll wait for a moment. That thing will sleep around noon.”

“Granny, how are you so sure that your grandson is possessed? Have you seen it?”

“If he’s not possessed, why would a child do something like that?” The old lady had Han Fei intrigued.

“What did he do?”

“I can’t remember when it started. The child had tried more than once to kill the people inside this room, including his parents and me.” Once the old lady spoke, the talismans in the room fluttered. They rustled noisily. “When you were asleep at night, there’d be this strange feeling. You open your eyes, and the child will be squatting beside your bed. His face would be close to your face, his eyes looking right at you.

“When you ask him what he’s doing, he doesn’t say anything. He will only smile. The child likes to smile, but it’s wrong to say that he’s a smiling dummy. When he was young, he could recognize many insects and animals. He even once dissected an insect using a plastic knife that came with a cake. These were relatively normal, but his actions became more… inexplicable.” The old lady glanced at the room and only sighed in relief when she saw that the bowls and chopsticks hadn’t moved.

“But there has to be a reason why he suddenly changed, right?” Han Fei studied the old lady’s expression. He wanted to know why Dream chose No. 4.

“Actually, this is my fault.” The old lady continued, “My son is a bastard. He was spoiled since he was young. He had a bad temper. He isn’t good at anything, but he’s an addicted gambler. He met my daughter-in-law at the casino. When you hear them arguing, you’d think my grandson isn’t his biological son.

“Parents rarely blame the children when they are arguing, but both of them treat the child as an argument device. My son would hit my grandson for no reason. The mother didn’t stop him. Sometimes, when she was beaten, she would beat her son.

“At first, my grandson didn’t do anything. He smiled and cried. When he was older, he would mumble some strange curses at his parents. No one knew what he meant and what the purpose was. In any case, whenever he did that, his parents would beat him harder.

“Everything changed when he was five. My bastard son purposely dropped my grandson somewhere far away. He wanted to abandon him, but the child would always find his way home.

“But every time he returned, he would carry something extra on him. He would talk in voices that didn’t belong to him. He would hide in the corners at night.

“Seeing his son like this, my son became even more enraged. He whipped him with his belt. About one week later, my son and daughter-in-law were asleep when they heard movement beside their bed. He opened his eyes and saw their son standing beside their bed with a knife.

“My bastard son was afraid for the first time. He had taught his son the worst thing in life, and my grandson picked it up very quickly. After that, my son kept feeling that my grandson wanted to kill him. Without letting me know, he sold his biological son to a private orphanage.”

At this point, Han Fei frowned. Most of the children at the orphanage were orphanage. But No. 4 was sent there by his biological parents. It was also his biological parents who ruined his life.

“What happened after that?”

“The private orphanage found a few families for my grandson, but in the end, they sent him back.” The old lady thought the orphanage wanted the child to be with his family, but Han Fei knew the truth. The orphanage didn’t really care about No. 4’s well-being. They wanted to send the child into deeper despair, and the best solution was to send him back home. The orphanage looked like they had done something, but they only made things worse.

“Can I see the child’s parents?” Han Fei wanted to teach them how to be a parent.

The old lady’s lips pursed. After a long time, she said, “My son was killed by the thing inside my grandson. He bit him to death. Tell me, how would a human do that? It’s the thing inside my grandson!” The old lady was loud. She wasn’t willing to accept this truth, so she insisted that her grandson was possessed.

“What about the son’s mother?” Han Fei’s red strings surfaced with curses. He didn’t communicate with Xu Qin, but Xu Qin felt the danger and grabbed Han Fei’s hand.

“That woman? She was around a few days ago, but she suddenly disappeared. I can’t remember where she is. But she should be in this house somewhere.” When the old lady said that, strange voices came from three different bedrooms. It sounded like nails scratching on the doors.

“Three bedrooms and one mother?”

The mutation started. The talismans on the innermost bedroom started to bleed. The door trembled. The head inside one of the bowls fell to the ground. The layer of glue around it burst, and strands of black hair oozed out.

 

Happy Lunar New Year. I'll be busy for the next few days so I apologize for the lack of update.