Mitternachtsböse - Kapitel 21
She turned on all the lights in the room, placed a stool on the mattress, and stood on it to carefully examine the ceiling.
The ceiling was still so white, just like when she first moved in.
However, it doesn't seem so smooth anymore. What are those bumps?
Fang Qing leaned in and looked at it for a long time.
Before she could react, she stumbled and fell off the stool. Her head hit the headboard, and she immediately lost consciousness.
Those were several human faces.
The four protruding pieces on the ceiling are human faces!
Fang Qing was awakened by the ringing of the telephone.
She felt her mind go blank, her head throbbed, and she couldn't remember anything clearly. Instinctively, she answered the phone: "Hello..."
"Xiao Qing, why haven't you come to the company yet? Are you not feeling well? Manager Li is waiting for your report and is almost going crazy."
It was Meilin's voice on the other end of the phone.
"Sister Mei, I..." Fang Qing didn't know where to begin, her mind a complete blank. "I think I'm still half asleep, I'll get up soon..."
"If you get sick, I'll help you get a sick day, and then I'll come and pick up your medical report."
"No, it's nothing..." Fang Qing said as she struggled to sit up.
Suddenly she felt a resistance, as if something was pulling at her scalp.
She slowly turned her head and saw a pale, angular face on the wall beside the bed. A strand of her own hair was being held between the lips of that face.
Deadly.
Fang Qing screamed and yanked hard, her lips clenched so tightly that her hair was pulled off her scalp.
She scrambled out of bed, crying so hard she could hardly breathe.
"Xiao Qing, what's wrong?" Mei Lin's anxious voice came from the other end of the phone.
...
Half an hour later, there was a knock on the door.
Meilin arrived. As soon as they met, she was embraced by Fang Qing, who looked utterly haggard.
"Stop crying, tell me what happened?"
Fang Qing said in a hoarse voice, "This house... is haunted!"
"No way!" Meilin was skeptical, even wondering if Fang Qing had taken some kind of medication.
Looking at her red and swollen eyes, Meilin felt a pang of heartache; this little girl must have suffered a lot.
When Meilin saw the faces that appeared on the wall in Fang Qing's bedroom, she was also stunned.
Although it seems unbelievable, the facts are undeniable.
===============Ending 1===============
Sitting on Meilin's sofa, drinking hot tea, Fang Qing finally calmed down a bit.
"Sister Mei, do you think I should call the police?"
Merlin seemed thoughtful: "Don't rush to call the police. Let me think about it..."
Just then, Fang Qing's phone rang.
"Hello! Is this Ms. Fang? I'm Deng Chao from Honest People's Agency."
Fang Qing finally found the culprit: "Deng Chao? What... what kind of house did you sell me?"
"What's wrong? Wasn't that house quite nice? You saw it before and said it suited your taste. Are you not satisfied with living there?"
"Satisfied? How dare you use that word? What you sold me was... a haunted house!"
Deng Chao's tone became somewhat anxious: "What haunted house... Ms. Fang, you've been listening to the neighbors' nonsense. I'm just calling to conduct a customer satisfaction follow-up... In our line of work, service is paramount. If there really are any quality issues with the house, we can mediate according to the contract. But if it's just some unfounded rumors, I'm afraid it won't be convincing..."
Fang Qing was so angry she was incoherent: "You say there's no basis... Fine... you swindler. You... you dare come with me to my house and take a look!"
The person on the other end of the phone hesitated for a while before saying, "Okay, I'll come over after get off work. I'll be at your place at 7 o'clock."
Meilin accompanied Fang Qing.
When I got home, Deng Chao was already standing at the door.
As they entered the room, Fang Qing hurriedly whispered, "Don't turn on the lights yet, there are eyes on the bedroom ceiling!"
The three of them went into the inner room, but saw nothing.
Fang Qing had no choice but to turn on the chandelier.
To her astonishment, not only were the eyes in the room gone, but even the faces on the wall had vanished.
"How could this happen?!" Fang Qing was speechless.
Deng Chao kindly comforted her, "Is it because you live alone and are too nervous and scared, causing you to hallucinate? It's okay! It's normal for girls to be timid."
Merlin, however, remained silent. She carefully examined and touched the section of wall where she had discovered the face during the day. She had some doubts in her mind, but said nothing.
Fang Qing couldn't believe her eyes and grabbed Mei Lin, asking her to be her witness.
But Merlin shook her head: "I don't know what happened either."
Before leaving, Deng Chao gave each of them a business card: "If Ms. Fang is really not satisfied with this house, I can help you sell it."
Upon hearing this, Fang Qing felt as if she had discovered a new solution: "Really? But can I still sell the house I bought with a loan? How much can I get for it?"
"Of course, our company can advance you some funds to pay off the mortgage before you sell the house. As for the price, I'll discuss it with my superiors and then give you an answer."
Fang Qing still didn't dare to stay at home alone, so Mei Lin had no choice but to take her back to her own home.
The two of them saw Deng Chao off downstairs. They ran into Granny Li on the second floor.
For some reason, in that instant when their eyes met, Mei Lin clearly felt that Deng Chao and the old woman were deliberately avoiding each other's gaze. When Fang Qing greeted her, the old woman also stiffly turned her face towards Fang Qing.
Doubts spread through Merlin's mind like drops of ink falling into a glass.
Two days later, Fang Qing received a call from Deng Chao. The house was selling for a full 30,000 yuan less than when she bought it a few months ago. Adding in loan processing fees, she would have to pay an extra 5,000 yuan.
"How could that be? It's only been three or four months. Aren't house prices going up all the time? I'm not in it for the money, I just want to sell the house at the original price..."
"Ms. Fang, as you know, your house sale was completed in such a short time that anyone with a discerning eye can see there's something wrong with it. Once people find out, you probably won't be able to sell it for this price. If you want to sell quickly, you should make a decision as soon as possible."
"What's wrong with it? Didn't you assure me last time that there was nothing wrong with the house?"
Deng Chao was momentarily speechless: "I mean, didn't you say that some neighbors were spreading rumors that it was a haunted house? It wouldn't be good if other people heard such rumors when they bought it. So we need to act quickly!"
After hanging up the phone, Meilin also felt the price was unacceptable. A few months ago, she had already spent nearly ten thousand on agent fees and taxes when buying the house. Now she had to sell it at a loss.
So, Meilin and Fang Qing found the phone numbers of several real estate agencies near their neighborhood and called them to inquire.
Surprisingly, each offer was lower than the last. It seemed everyone knew the house was haunted and difficult to sell. Moreover, they needed to advance funds to redeem the house from the bank, a complicated process.
After staying at Meilin's house for more than half a month, Meilin told Fang Qing to go home.
"Don't worry, Sister Mei will definitely help you solve your problem. But you can't stay away from home for too long. Go back first, and I'll ask a friend to help you think of a solution."
Fang Qing knew that it wasn't right or proper to bother Mei Lin for so long, so she moved back home.
Unexpectedly, something bad happened on my first night back home.
She began to smell the stench of decay that lingered in the room again.
In the middle of the night, she heard a man sighing in the room… Fang Qing wrapped herself tightly in the blanket, peeking out with her eyes to peek at the ceiling. She saw nothing.
It's probably... the wind.
She felt a little like she needed to pee, but she didn't dare get up, afraid of seeing something she shouldn't.
But the thought you dare not think about grows stronger, and the more you try not to think about it, the more it haunts you, and the more you try to hold it in, the more you want to pee.
She had no choice but to sit up and reach for the light switch.
In that instant, she clearly saw a line of one-way footprints on the floor, glowing a vibrant green. The footprints appeared out of thin air from the balcony and then moved to her bedside.
They did not leave.
She bit her fist so hard that she didn't scream.
She hid under the covers and started calling Merlin, but her phone was off.
Just as she was about to call the police, a hand suddenly yanked off her blanket, exposing her completely to the darkness.
It was a man, a man whose face was glowing.
Green fangs blatantly protruded from between his lips, and his long fingernails also glowed green.
The sudden turn of events terrified Fang Qing, and she even forgot to call for help.
The man pulled a spherical object from under the bed and threw it next to Fang Qing. Judging from the feel, smell, and dim light, it was a charred human head.
"Ah—!!!!!" Fang Qing completely broke down.
He screamed and then fainted.
The man revealed a smug smile. He picked up the severed head and walked towards the balcony.
He knew that on the right side of the balcony security window, there was a section that had been cut away, and one of the iron bars had been replaced with a hinge. The cut between the hinge and the security window was very well concealed; it was practically invisible unless you were looking closely. This effectively created a "door" at the top of the security window. Normally, this door couldn't be opened by simply tightening the screws at the bottom. Now, he could simply push open this door, climb back up to his apartment on the second floor, and then tighten the screws again.
Just as he confidently pushed the "door," he suddenly discovered that there was an iron chain lock on the door.
What's going on?!
At that moment, the door to Fang Qing's house was opened, and the lights were on.
Several police officers rushed in and, before the man could react, tackled him to the ground.
With the help of the police and Meilin's calls, Fang Qing finally woke up.
"A ghost! Sister Mei, there's a ghost!"
"Xiao Qing, don't be afraid. There are no ghosts! The ghosts have been caught."
To calm Fang Qing down, Mei Lin showed her the three handcuffed men outside the door. One was Granny Li, another was Deng Chao, and the third was a man pretending to be a ghost.
Fang Qing recognized him at a glance; it was the man named "Zhang Tao." He was also the first man to appear in her bedroom out of nowhere.
It turns out that "Zhang Tao" was actually named Deng Hui, the eldest son of Granny Li, while Deng Chao was her youngest son. The three of them used the "haunted house" trick to sell the house four times. Each time, they managed to scare the homeowner into selling it back to them at a very low price. Furthermore, according to Deng Chao, if a man or a couple came to see the house, he would quote a high price; if a single woman like Fang Qing inquired, he would offer a very tempting price. They were luring them into a trap.