Chapter 109: Restless Night

This was the first time Xia Yubing’s parents had accepted an offering in front of me, although I had just nervously placed the cake on the altar.

Did this mean they promised not to trouble me?
I didn’t know.
I could only go and ask Mo Qingyan for advice tomorrow.
So, I lit another stick of soul-pacifying incense before leaving uneasily, also closing the master bedroom door.

After that, I was restless even when copying homework, completely unable to concentrate.
And to make matters worse, I didn’t know if it was upstairs or downstairs, but someone was still watching TV with the volume turned up very loud.
And I didn’t know if the building next door was trying to be confrontational, but they also started playing music, heavy metal rock, which made me feel irritable.

Later, they even started yelling at each other across the windows.
I couldn’t block out their shouting even after closing the window.
They were yelling things like “I’m going to kill you!” and “If you have the guts, come over here, and I’ll rip your head off!”

After a torturous time, I finally finished my homework.
The sound of arguing and the TV music from outside had also quieted down.
I was already so mentally exhausted that I didn’t want to do anything else.
I simply washed up and went to bed.

It was still early, only around ten o’clock.
Not long after I got into bed, while still in a daze, I heard the sound of a lock being opened in the house.
It wasn’t the main door, but a room door, and from the sound of it, it seemed to be the master bedroom door.

I was instantly wide awake, my heart beating so fast it felt like it was going to jump out of my throat.
The room was very quiet, with no footsteps at all.
But after a while, I heard the sound of the main door being unlocked.

The two sounds were very different.
The bedroom had a wooden door with a knob lock, while the main door was a metal security door.
And because I didn’t feel safe, I would double-lock the door with a key when I went out, and also use the deadbolt when I was at home.
I heard the sound of the deadbolt being pulled.

Something had gone out.
But I didn’t dare to open the door to look.
Instead, I shrank under the covers, trembling.
Not long after, I heard a knock on a door.

It was already past ten o’clock, and the knocking was very clear in the quiet environment.
But I didn’t know if the occupants of that apartment were home; they didn’t open the door.

But the knocking didn’t stop.
It continued, not too loud and not impatient, but at a very steady rhythm, as if the person knocking was very patient and knew that someone was definitely home.

After about two or three minutes, as I continued to listen to the knocking, the person inside finally lost their patience and came to the door, shouting, “Who’s knocking so late at night? Ah! Landlord! What are you doing here?”

Then I heard the sound of a door opening.
Although it was some distance away, I could still hear it.
It was a vaguely familiar female voice, which seemed to be the same woman who was at my door that day.
She had said she lived in apartment 12-1.

“Mr. Xia, Mrs. Xia, why are you here so late?”
“And you even brought a gift, you’re too kind.”
“Isn’t this a cake from Xiyuan? Thank you.”

“Um, the rent, I haven’t gathered it all yet.”
“I’ve already spoken with your daughter.”
“I’ll definitely give it to you in a few days.”
“How about I give you half first?” the woman said, sentence by sentence.
I had to strain my ears to hear what she was saying.
But the terrifying thing was, from beginning to end, I could only hear her voice, as if she were talking to herself.

Then, a notification sound came from Xia Yubing’s phone.
I was so startled that I quickly took it out and muted it.
I saw a transfer notification on the chat app.
The sender of the transfer was a Ms. Liu, and the amount was three thousand yuan.

Then, the woman didn’t seem so nervous anymore and made some polite remarks.
Of course, I still couldn’t hear any reply.
Finally, she said, “Goodbye.”

The door to apartment 12-1 closed.
Then, my door also made a closing sound, and this time I heard the sound of the deadbolt being locked.
They were back.
Although there was still no sound, I could feel that something had entered the house.
I prayed desperately in my heart that they wouldn’t come to my room.

Perhaps my prayers were effective.
The next sound was the closing of the master bedroom door.
Then everything fell silent, and there were no more movements.

I didn’t dare to move for a long time.
By now, I was covered in sweat, and I couldn’t hold my bladder any longer.
The extremely tense environment made me want to urinate even more.
I had no choice but to get up and go to the toilet.

I turned on the light.
Everything in the room was as it was.
There were no ghosts, and nothing had been moved.
Only the sound of the doors opening and closing proved that something had gone out and come back in.

In the end, I still braced myself and went into the master bedroom.
The soul-pacifying incense in front of the incense holder had burned out again, and the candles were burning quietly.
They hadn’t been lit when I went out.

The two paper figures were placed quietly inside the incense holder, as if they hadn’t gone anywhere.
I went to the incense holder again and bowed earnestly a few times.
As long as they didn’t come to find me, I would kowtow to them.

I didn’t dare to extinguish the candles either.
I just let them burn there, for as long as they wanted.
I would go and buy more candles tomorrow.

My pajama pants were soaked with sweat, and I didn’t have a change of clothes.
I had no choice but to take them off and sleep naked.
Perhaps I had been too tense just now, and now I was mentally exhausted.
Although my heart was still filled with fear and worry, my consciousness soon couldn’t hold on, and I fell into a deep sleep.

I slept very soundly that night.
I didn’t hear any sounds of climbing stairs or walking.
When I woke up in the morning, I couldn’t wait to pack my schoolbag, ready to go to school and ask Mo Qingyan what was going on.
And I didn’t want to stay in this house for a moment longer.

When I went out, I happened to leave at the same time as Fan Yuxuan, and we entered the elevator together.
As soon as we got in, Fan Yuxuan asked, “Did your parents come yesterday?”

“Yes, did they go and find you too?” I asked.
After a night of calming down, I had roughly figured out what had happened, but I still had no clue as to why they did it and what their purpose was.

“Yes, they also brought me some melon seeds and peanuts.”
“They said you just moved in and asked me to take care of their daughter if anything came up.”
“They were too polite,” Fan Yuxuan said.

As expected, Xia Yubing’s parents had visited all three families.
The melon seeds and peanuts were also offerings I had bought, the best kind.
And what they saw were real people, not paper figures like I did.

“Speaking of which, your parents only went to visit the Liu family after ten o’clock last night.”
“Why so late?” Fan Yuxuan asked.
He had heard the commotion at that time too.

“I, I don’t know either.”
“Maybe they thought Ms. Liu wasn’t asleep yet?”
I said with a dry laugh.
Visiting at ten o’clock was indeed a bit strange.

“I heard that the Liu family seems to have some problems.”
“She seems to have a gambling habit and is also behind on rent.”
“It’s best if you don’t have too much to do with her,” Fan Yuxuan said.