The phone suddenly rang, and Yang Xiao’s hand shook, nearly toppling the nightstand. A landline phone that had its power cord removed could still receive calls, the identity of the caller was unmistakable.
Yang Xiao didn’t dare to move, even suppressing his breath to a whisper, until after half a minute, the nacing ringtone finally quieted down.
All around was deathly silent, as if even the sound of wind and rain outside the window had co to a halt, so quiet that Yang Xiao could hear his own heartbeat, so quiet that panic set in his heart.
seconds.
seconds.
About a full minute passed before Yang Xiao took a deep breath, gradually steadied his mind, and then made a shocking move. His left hand slowly picked up the receiver, and his right hand rested on the old plastic keyboard, pressing the redial button.
"Doo—"
It connected.
"Ring-ring-ring—"
Yang Xiao suddenly lifted his head, a cold sweat instantly soaking his back, as he heard a crisp telephone ring, right behind the door!
It rang just once and then the call was disconnected, followed by dragging footsteps echoing down the hallway, like those of a gravely ill old man, shuffling his shoes and scraping across the concrete floor.
The sound was dreadfully eerie, as if even through the door it could freeze him to death, his veins seemingly filled with ice shards. He confird clearly that just now, he was a re step away from death.
The police outside the door were fake.
It was a ghost.
Hearing the footsteps signify the ghost had left, Yang Xiao wasn’t sure if this was yet another trick, and in such unclear situations, it was best not to act rashly: the less you move, the less you err, inaction is without fault.
But ti shouldn’t be wasted, so he used this period to carefully inspect the room. He discovered many novel items that widened his eyes, and under the pillow, he found a notebook with tattered corners. Upon flipping it open, the contents inside made Yang Xiao clench.
With coarse handwriting it listed:
April 17th, Sun, coal tycoon, dumb with lots of cash, light work
April 18th, Zhao, college professor, shy, fond of preaching, frequently impotent
April 20th, Qian, owner of a brick factory, lots of talk and light work, likes to boast, asks if it’s big enough, sneaks dication in the middle
April 21st, Brother Wen, internet writer, poor and crude with many annoyances, neurotic, does not play, conducts interviews, experiences life for new script, tells ghost stories
...
This was a work diary, detailing the daily job of the room’s owner, a man who serviced other n, certainly, for a fee.
Among the listings of custors, there were also the diary owner’s complaints and curses, with a codena ’4037’ being the most frequently ntioned. The diary owner cursed this person as a scoundrel, complaining about him stealing business.
Yang Xiao guessed that this ’4037’ was probably a resident in apartnt 4037, soone doing the sa job as the diary owner.
Apart from the two of them, it seed that quite a few in the surrounding apartnts were engaged in this flesh trade.
Yang Xiao flipped page by page, quickly reaching the last one, which grabbed his attention. The final page had no records of clients, just a few lines of extrely ssy notes:
I heard it!
I heard it!
I heard it!
The sa sentence, repeated three tis, was clearly written in an extrely terrified state, which imdiately brought to Yang Xiao’s mind the question the ghost had asked before. It had inquired whether he had ever heard anything strange at night.
Then the ghost demonstrated with a "bang! bang! bang!" akin to the sound of a at cleaver chopping bones.
If things were as they seed, the diary owner had once heard this bone-chopping sound at night, scaring him into sleeplessness, and his disappearance was related to this sound.
After discovering the issue, Yang Xiao flipped forward, wanting to see what the diary owner had done before disappearing. He quickly found sothing amiss in the later entries; the man’s business had clearly worsened in the last two or three weeks.
Previously, there were almost daily clients, whereas in the last period, it would take 3, 4 days, even 5, 6 days for a single client to visit and then eventually, there were none at all. Strangely, the diary owner seed to have no complaints about this drop in business, instead, there was a pervading sense of fear, as if they were worried about sothing.
"Tap."
"Tap."
"Tap."
...
A succession of footsteps ca from the corridor. Putting down the notebook, Yang Xiao’s heart involuntarily tensed up. He listened carefully, realizing that the footsteps belonged not to one person, but three.
Yang Xiao silently prayed that the footsteps would pass quickly, but to his dismay, they stopped precisely outside his door.
There was no mistake, they were coming for him.
"Knock, knock, knock."
The next second, a knocking sound, neither too light nor too strong, just enough for the person inside to hear, convinced Yang Xiao they had ill intentions.
In this unclear situation, he wouldn’t open the door. In so extre cases, he would rather jump out of the window.
"Knock, knock, knock!"
"Is anyone ho?"
The voice from outside was that of a young girl, quite sweet to hear, comforting, but it was of no use to Yang Xiao. He was an upright and wise man, not susceptible to honey traps.
But imdiately after, his complexion changed. The other side wasn’t knocking anymore; he heard the clear jingle of keys.
These people... actually had keys!!
At first, Yang Xiao still suspected the other side was bluffing, but soon, he could hear the sound of a key being inserted into the lock. At that mont, he couldn’t stay seated anymore. He rushed forward, opened the inner door first, then grabbed the outermost iron door’s handle, refusing to let the people outside open it. Peering through the iron door’s grille, he saw three people standing outside, all in police uniforms, two n and one woman, all quite young.
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