Geisterreich

Kapitel 3

"You've got it wrong," I said after the police left.

“No,” he said firmly, “it’s impossible for me to be wrong so many times in a row.”

That's true, and I'm a little confused too. I suddenly remembered that Li Yuntong seemed to have drunk a can of beer at dinner.

"Drink less in the future," I said.

He gave a wry smile, took the flashlight from my hand, and shone it on the lake. Goosebumps appeared on his face, and I didn't know if it was from the cold or something else. His tone became very strange: "She has already sunk."

These words sent a chill down my spine. I quickly looked around—the lakeside was completely quiet, the shadows of the trees were still, and there was no movement whatsoever. I felt both cold and scared. Although Li Yuntong was shivering from the cold, he still seemed unwilling to leave. I dragged him to the road, hailed a taxi, and shoved him into the car.

“She really sank.” He said it again before starting the car.

"Alright, let's go." I waved to him.

"That sounds pretty creepy," Xu Xiaobing said, having somehow ended up standing at the bathroom door. "Could he have seen a ghost?"

"I don't know," I said.

"Did he get your cotton-padded coat wet?"

"yes."

"So you also took a taxi back?"

“No, I don’t have that much money in my pocket,” I started to put on my clothes.

Xu Xiaobing stopped talking and turned to walk back to the living room. When I finished dressing and came out of the bathroom, I found her sitting on the sofa in a daze, seemingly waiting for me. Hearing my footsteps, she turned around and looked at me. I originally wanted to go back to my room to read, but seeing her looking at me like that, as if she had something to say, I naturally sat down next to her.

“Do you think he’s seen a ghost?” she said.

"I didn't feel that way," I said.

"Do you believe in ghosts?" she asked.

"I don't believe it."

She didn't say anything more, her head down as if she was thinking about something. I waited for a while and then said to her, "I'll change the channel." She didn't answer, so I switched the TV to CCTV-10, which is my favorite channel. It was the time for the "Discovery" program.

"Did you watch this channel yesterday too?" she asked me.

I nodded.

"But when I turned on the TV today, it was the entertainment channel. What's going on?" she asked.

"Really? That's strange," I said absentmindedly.

Xu Xiaobing sat silently beside me for a long time without saying a word. I glanced at her from time to time, feeling uneasy. It seemed that something was brewing in her silence.

After a long time, when the program was almost over, the TV screen suddenly went black, and the TV was turned off. I turned my head and saw Xu Xiaobing holding the remote control. I looked at her, puzzled. She threw the remote control on the sofa and said, "Stop watching. I have something to tell you."

"What did you say?"

"It would be better if we talked outside."

"Outside?" I was even more puzzled. "It's already..." I wanted to say it was almost midnight, but before I could finish, she had already turned and walked out, standing at the door waiting for me. Judging from the situation, I had no choice but to go out. I was a little hesitant—I'd only known Xu Xiaobing for a day, and we'd only really spent a few hours together. I didn't know her at all. In the middle of the night, in a strange city, going out with a girl who was practically a stranger—should I do this or not? I was undecided.

"Hurry up," she urged.

“I don’t want to go out,” I said.

"Let's go sit in the coffee shop across the street. There are still a lot of people there, so don't worry," she said with a smile, noticing my hesitation. This made me a little embarrassed, and I didn't say anything more, so I quickly put on my coat and went out.

“There’s no need to turn off the lights in the living room,” Xu Xiaobing said, “so we don’t have to look for the switch when we come in.”

After closing the door, the light from the living room shone through the crack in the door, slightly illuminating a small area near the entrance. Xu Xiaobing turned on her flashlight and led the way, with me following behind. We descended the stairs under the cylindrical light. When we reached the second floor, I noticed room 202 again. The door to that room was still open, and the room was pitch black inside, without a single ray of light.

"This family is strange, why do they never close the door?" I said.

“It’s always been like this; I’ve never seen them close the door,” Xu Xiaobing said.

"What do they do?"

"I don't know, I've never seen them."

We arrived downstairs as we spoke. Yun Sheng Street was eerily quiet; the lights in the houses on both sides were off, everything shrouded in the dark night. Only a faint light shone from a house across the street. Few vehicles passed on the wide road. Xu Xiaobing and I calmly crossed the street, moving from one side of darkness to the other. Everything before us seemed like a shadow, only its general outline visible. The city appeared very deep in the darkness; even Xu Xiaobing's face was just a blurry white, her eyebrows and eyes completely indistinct. I remembered my mother's advice when I left my hometown: be wary of strangers. Yes, be wary of strangers, and those who are almost strangers. In such a dark and quiet place, if Xu Xiaobing wanted to do something to me, I would probably find it very difficult to defend myself.

She continued walking forward, and I stopped.

“Let’s go,” she said.

“I’m not going,” I said. “I’m scared.”

"Didn't you say you didn't believe in ghosts?" she said mockingly.

“I’m not afraid of ghosts,” I said. “I’m afraid of people. What if I encounter bad people?”

"Don't worry, I'm here."

“What if you were a bad person too?” I said.

Xu Xiaobing looked at me. I couldn't see her expression, but I could sense her surprise. She laughed and said, "My God, okay, you wait here for me. I'll go in first. If things don't go well, you can run away." She walked forward laughing. I felt my face burning and almost impulsively followed her, but my mother's warning came back to mind, making me stay where I was.

It's very close to my place, so if anything happens, I can run back quickly.

But what's the point of running back? I don't know anyone on this street. What if something happens? Who can I call for help? Even the rented apartment isn't safe. If Xu Xiaobing is really a bad person, she has the key.

What should I do if something really happens?

I stood there, lost in thought, as Yun Sheng Street lay silent in the darkness. I realized how utterly alone I was. In this unfamiliar place, if I were to disappear quietly, no one would notice. Even the landlord would probably only discover I'd been gone for half a month when it was time to collect the rent at the end of the month. And I'd never even seen the landlord's face… I felt the power of the darkness, or rather, the power of this world, and I felt like an ant, easily wiped out without a trace by any force.

Random thoughts raced through my mind, while Xu Xiaobing, along with that bright, cylindrical beam of light, had entered a house filled with light. She deliberately shone her flashlight on the eaves of the house, revealing its sign—"Hidden Coffee Shop"—quite a unique name. When Xu Xiaobing pushed open the coffee shop door, strong light leaked out, and some figures moved around inside. Xu Xiaobing waved to me from the doorway.

I hesitated for a moment, my mother's admonition and my own will clashing fiercely in my mind, but in the end my own will prevailed.

After all, I don't have any friends in this city, and Xu Xiaobing is willing to have coffee with me. Maybe she will be my first friend.

I walked into the dimly lit coffee shop.

4

Later, I recalled that night many times, over and over again, as if flowing through my mind like water. The dark and silent long street, the dense and blurry houses, and the music cafe that shone with warm light, everything was so vivid, as if it had never disappeared. Even Xu Xiaobing seemed to still be sitting there quietly, just like that night, with a smile I had never seen before, waiting for my arrival.

That night, when I entered the dimly lit coffee shop, there were still a dozen or so customers scattered throughout the lobby, chatting quietly. The sound of bubbling water came from the bar near the entrance, and the aroma of steam and rich coffee wafted up together. A boy in a black bow tie smiled quietly, while Xu Xiaobing sat at a table not far from the entrance, smiling at me. I nervously walked over and sat opposite her. She asked what kind of coffee I wanted. I glanced at the menu on the table; every coffee was expensive, the cheapest over twenty yuan. Although my nose and tongue loved the taste of coffee, my empty pockets rejected the price.

“I don’t drink coffee,” I said.

"You've never had it before?" she asked with a curious look.

I took a deep breath: "I don't drink coffee before I get paid."

She laughed and said, "Okay, I'll buy you a drink. What would you like?"

"Cappuccino." I smiled too.

After ordering coffee, Xu Xiaobing asked me, "Is this your first time traveling to another city?"

"yes."

"Just graduated?"

"Hmm." I glanced towards the bar; it seemed I'd have to wait quite a while. "And you? Is this your first time here too?"

She didn't answer my question: "What do you do for a living?"

"Advertising planner, what about you?"

"Advertising planning? Is that what you studied?"

"What do you do for a living?" I asked again.

She looked up at the bar: "It'll be a long wait." She smiled at me, picked up an artificial flower from the vase on the table, and started playing with it. "Where are you from?"

"And you?" I asked.

The coffee arrived at that moment, and she began stirring it, remaining silent. I stirred my coffee while watching her, but she didn't look at me. After a few minutes, I couldn't help but ask, "What do you want to say to me?"

She was silent for a moment, took a deep breath of the rich steam rising from her coffee cup, looked up at me, and said, "The house."

"oh?"

"I want to tell you about our house."

"What's wrong with the house?" I started sipping my coffee.

She placed her hands on the table: "Yesterday, another woman's long hair was found in the bathtub; this morning, there was blood; and the TV channel was different from the one you last watched. Don't you find these things strange?"

I scratched my head: "It's inexplicable, but it's not strange either."

Why isn't it strange?

I can't answer that.

“It’s strange that some things appear where they shouldn’t,” she said. “Besides, there’s no reason for them to appear at all.”

I think she has a point, but I still feel like she's making a mountain out of a molehill. She noticed this and smiled: "Besides, this isn't a one-off thing; it happened before you moved in."

Amidst the rising steam of the coffee, she slowly told me about what had happened these past few days.

Xu Xiaobing moved to No. 6 Yunsheng Street a month before me. When she moved in, there were no other tenants in the apartment. Apart from the room she rented, the other two rooms were locked. For the first two weeks, everything was normal. Nothing happened, and the days passed by in an ordinary way, until the night two weeks ago.

"Guess what happened the night two weeks ago?" she asked me in a low voice. Her mysterious expression made me move closer to her, almost touching her head.

"What happened?" I also lowered my voice, and the music in the cafe flowed like water, making our voices almost inaudible.

“That night, I went to bed early. Before getting into bed, I checked all the doors and windows, locked the door from the inside, and placed a chair behind the door,” she explained, noticing my gaze. “A girl living alone in an unfamiliar place has to take some precautions to protect herself.” I thought this made a lot of sense and nodded. She continued, “If anyone came in, I would definitely hear them. After doing all that, I went into my room and locked the door from the inside—the lock was an old-fashioned one; if it was locked from the inside, even with a key, it couldn't be opened from the outside. Then I sat on the bed reading until after eleven o'clock, when I felt a little sleepy and put the book down—guess what I saw?”

"What?" I asked nervously.

“I saw that the door to the room was open,” she said, her eyes wide with fear.

"Oh?" I responded with disappointment. After my appetite had been whetted, I was met with such a mundane story. It was all bark and no bite.

"Didn't you notice the problem?"

"What's the problem?"

"I started reading as soon as I got into bed and didn't get out of bed until after 11 o'clock. Have you ever wondered who opened the door to the room?" she asked with a mysterious and surprised expression.

"Oh? Yes, who opened it?" I asked quickly.

“That’s what I thought at the time, because I was the only one living in the house and I didn’t hear anyone come in, so my first thought was that I must have forgotten to close the door,” she said.

"Yes, yes, that must be it." I gulped down a big mouthful of coffee, emptying the small coffee cup more than halfway.