Taking a deep breath, Yang Xiao inserted the key into the lock and slowly opened the door. In the dim light, the room still looked the sa, except now it had an additional person.
An old man in a worn cotton coat sat on the broken wooden chair with his back to Yang Xiao. His disheveled hair had gone white, and his frail body hunched together. The dim yellow light cast his shadow on the ground, a small and miserable bundle that looked heart-wrenching.
Yang Xiao didn’t speak; he dared not disturb the old man and rely tried to move closer. He saw an old red telephone sitting forlorn in front of the man.
"Zzz..."
"Zzz...zzz..."
From on top of the cabinet next to the television, an old radio crackled with noisy static, seemingly due to a poor signal.
"Who are you?" the old man asked with a hoarse voice, without turning his head.
As expected, the other party could see him. Yang Xiao cald himself and began to fabricate on the spot, "Old man, I’m a good Samaritan. I heard you’ve run into so trouble."
"Zzz..."
No sooner had Yang Xiao finished speaking than the static noise from the radio ceased, replaced by a woman’s sweet voice, "Hello to all listeners, welco to tonight’s Midnight Tales... Tonight’s story is quite special, a tragic event that happened in reality, within an apartnt in our city."
The female host’s sweet voice suddenly took on a sinister tone, "According to insiders, a person pretending to be a good Samaritan sneaked into the ho of a lonely elderly person with ill intentions. After being discovered by the wary old man, a fierce scuffle ensued. During the struggle, the old man used a kitchen knife to hack the intruder to death, leaving the scene awash with blood, too ghastly to behold, and the intruder’s face unrecognizable."
Yang Xiao was stunned, but what sent chills down his spine was that sohow, the old man had stood up and was walking towards the dining table in a daze, where a shiny kitchen knife lay.
Yang Xiao acted first, grabbing the kitchen knife, but then the sweet voice on the radio changed, "Sorry, there was incorrect information. According to another insider, it was the intruder who first stole the kitchen knife from the old man’s dining table, but afterward the old man took up a cane and smashed the intruder’s head in."
Yang Xiao watched as the old man, as if soulless, staggered towards a corner of the room where curtains hung, concealing sothing unknown.
Yang Xiao dashed forward, yanked the curtains aside, and sure enough, there stood a tal crutch, rusted but seemingly quite functional.
"Huh—" With a kitchen knife in one hand and a crutch in the other, Yang Xiao felt a lot safer.
"Zzz..."
"Ah, my sincere apologies, a third insider has corrected that the second insider’s information was incorrect. The real situation is that the old man, using his familiarity with the house, found a shotgun hidden in the bedroom closet and blasted the intruder’s heart into pieces."
Yang Xiao, barely catching his breath, imdiately rushed into the bedroom and, before the old man arrived, preemptively took the shotgun shells.
"Zzz..."
"According to a fourth insider, the sleazy impersonator pretending to be a good Samaritan wasn’t killed by the old man with the shotgun; he cunningly stole the old man’s bullets, but in his arrogance, he didn’t count on the old man’s bravery. The old man actually lifted the shotgun and bludgeoned him to death, truly proving the old saying, ’Evil cannot overco the righteous, virtue is rewarded.’
Yang Xiao: "??!"
At that mont, it was already too late for Yang Xiao to try to take the shotgun. The old man, as if possessed by superhuman strength, lifted the shotgun and swung it down at Yang Xiao, who narrowly dodged, smashing the table behind him to pieces.
Yang Xiao turned and ran out of the room while locking the bedroom door behind him.
But it was as if the old man had the strength of Ultraman; one punch put a hole through the wooden door, leaving Yang Xiao dumbfounded. Then ca another kick, and another large hole appeared in the door.
Battling the valiant old man was a dead end, and Yang Xiao thought of the cursed radio, he imdiately ran over, trying to turn off the radio, but all the buttons on top were nonfunctional.
In a fit of rage, Yang Xiao intended to lift the radio and smash it to pieces, but the damned thing seed to be soldered onto the desk, impossible to lift.
"Sizzle..."
"Speaking of which, this elderly gentleman is rather pitiful, having lost his beloved wife. He had a pact with her that even in heaven, she would give him a call. Since then, the old man has been constantly by the phone at ho, waiting for his wife’s call."
"That telephone had beco the old man’s sole comfort, but sadly, it was long out of repair, and the wires at the back had loosened, incapable of ringing ever again."
"At this mont, we can’t help but lant the stark contrast between the old man’s radiant humanity and the invaders who pretended to be kind-hearted, with their vile appearance."
"Let us all shout, evil shall not overco the righteous, justice endures forever!"
The Ultraman-possessed old man had already torn off the door entirely and hurled it at Yang Xiao, who luckily had been rigorously trained by Zhu Yina and narrowly avoided it with an inelegant move, or he would have been either dead or maid.
Yang Xiao, getting up, scuttled to the phone on all fours. He imdiately checked the wires at the back, and indeed, found one loose.
Just as Yang Xiao had reconnected the loose end, the old man had reached him from behind, lifting a shotgun, ready to blow his head off.
"Ring-a-ling..."
The mont the loose wire was connected, the phone rang. Before Yang Xiao could even catch his breath, he was grabbed by the old man and thrown aside.
"Bang!"
Yang Xiao landed hard on the ground, nearly breaking his back, while the old man dropped the shotgun, unable to wait to pick up the phone.
"My dear..." The old man stuttered, unable to utter a complete sentence, but it was clear he was extrely agitated.
At that mont, the previously chatterbox radio also fell silent and, with a "click", the buttons popped out, shutting itself off.
"Alright, you... don’t worry, make sure you take good care of yourself over there, don’t worry about , I will be fine."
Finally, the old man spoke more and more fluently, very emotional, and at that mont, Yang Xiao noticed that the old man’s pallid complexion had finally returned to normal.
"Yes... it was a kind visitor who fixed the telephone for . Yes, I know, I will be sure to thank him." The tears stread down the old man’s face as he gripped the phone tightly, trembling, "Rest assured. You make sure to call again, I’ll be waiting, I’ll be waiting for you..."
After hanging up the phone, the old man turned his head towards Yang Xiao and choked up, "Kind-hearted person, thank you for fixing the phone, allowing to hear my spouse’s voice once more."
"Tell , what can I do for you?" The old man asked earnestly.
"Old man, may I ask you about sothing?" Yang Xiao wasn’t going to miss this opportunity, "Are you familiar with the two managers of this apartnt?"
Upon hearing this, the old man was taken aback, then nodded slowly while looking at Yang Xiao, "You’re talking about An Shouji and his wife Zuo Qiu Shude, right?"
"Ah, they are a pair of unfortunate souls." The old man seed to recall sothing, shaking his head and letting out an involuntary sigh.
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