Ghostly Figures in the Attic

"That won't do!" Ah Cai thought to himself. He smiled at Teacher Yu as if to show that he was alright, and ran towards the sandpit in the corner of the playground. When he got close to the sandpit, he jumped forward and leaped into it. When he landed in the sandpit, he found that the PE teacher who had visited his house yesterday was clearing away rubble next to the sandpit. Ah Cai then remembered that he had PE class in the afternoon.

Teacher Tian beckoned to him: "Come on, help me." Ah Cai had already noticed that Teacher Tian spoke Mandarin very well. He felt that the Mandarin spoken by Teacher Tian was no worse than that of radio announcers.

Generally speaking, when students hear that a teacher needs help, they are usually overjoyed and eager to help, and Ah Cai was no exception.

"What does your father do?" Teacher Tian asked as she bent down to pick up pebbles, as if chatting casually.

"I knew you'd ask that question!" Ah Cai just pulled a strangely shaped little bottle out of the sand table. As if he didn't want outsiders to know about his unexpected find, he subconsciously made a concealing gesture.

"Hey, little guy, you're quite the talker." Teacher Tian felt that this handsome, slightly thin boy seemed to have a bit of an adult air about him. Noticing Ah Cai's little movements, he asked again, "What did you find?"

Ah Cai thought to himself, "How come this teacher has such sharp eyes? He's like a detective!" Ah Cai figured that since Teacher Tian had already seen it, he might as well let him see it. He stood up, raised his hand and stretched it out in front of Teacher Tian. His palm opened, revealing a gourd-shaped white porcelain bottle.

"Does this also have to be confiscated?" Ah Cai was very worried. If he found money, he should naturally hand it over to the authorities.

Teacher Tian examined the small bottle carefully, looked around, and then returned it to A-Cai: "Hide it well, don't lose it. This might be a little treasure. Let me tell you, when I was a child, I once picked up a small copper bowl. Later, the adults found out that it was an antique, and my mother sold it and got a lot of money."

"How much?" Ah Cai asked curiously.

"A bag of flour."

"A bag of flour? What kind of flour? Dan Dan noodles?" Ah Cai was a little confused.

"Flour!"

"Oh, where are you from? Why do you call flour 'noodles'?"

Teacher Tian didn't answer A-Cai's question directly. She just smiled at him and patted his head, saying, "Keep your treasure safe." A-Cai didn't expect Teacher Tian to handle the problem this way. He suddenly felt a strange fondness for this sharp-eyed and pleasant-speaking new PE teacher. He quickly hid the small bottle in the deepest part of his schoolbag.

"Alright, you should go home now." Teacher Tian clapped his hands, rubbing the sand off them. "Otherwise, your mother will worry." He glanced at his watch. "Sigh, I'll take you home!"

"Why are you taking me home? Do you want to explain to my mother?" Ah Cai asked, his eyes wide as he walked, looking up at the tall and imposing Teacher Tian.

"You're smart!" Teacher Tian patted his head.

Hearing Teacher Tian praise him like that, Ah Cai was overjoyed and started skipping and hopping as he walked—only by skipping and hopping could he keep up with Teacher Tian's long strides.

"Have you ever served in the People's Liberation Army?" Ah Cai felt that Teacher Tian had a special masculine quality.

How did you know?

"I guessed."

"Why should I?"

"Your appearance, the way you walk, and your eyes!"

"You're almost a little detective now." Teacher Tian's smile was particularly charming. Ah Cai not only felt a strong masculine aura from him, but also vaguely sensed a fatherly feeling. Walking with Teacher Tian, he felt a strange sense of security.

Ah Cai felt that on his first day back at school after sick leave, he encountered something happy—meeting Teacher Tian, which was truly a joyful occasion. All the gloom that had weighed on his mind before—such as temporarily losing his flag-raising duty and the fright he'd experienced a few nights ago—all those unpleasant memories had vanished!

Near his home, Ah Cai noticed a cotton candy stall suddenly appear on the roadside. It was his nose that spotted it first. Following the enticing aroma, Ah Cai looked over and found the old man selling cotton candy looking in his direction.

Ah Cai looked up at Teacher Tian and noticed that he had also noticed the cotton candy stall. He whispered a reminder: "Don't be greedy, eating too much sugar can damage your teeth!"

To Ah Cai, this sounded like, "Don't be greedy, don't touch those things!"

7

Two days before the strange incident, Ah-Cai noticed that his mother had been acting very strangely lately. Sometimes she would space out by herself, and sometimes she would secretly laugh. Strangely, her complexion was much brighter and healthier than before.

Ah-Cai also noticed something unusual: his mother said that he was old enough to sleep alone in his own bed. Why did she have to do that? He didn't understand, but despite his confusion, he decided to listen to his mother. His father always told him to listen to his mother before leaving the house.

Ah-Cai only made one request: to sleep in the same bed with his mother for one more night.

That night, Ah Cai encountered something strange.

However, Mom insisted that it was just Ah-Cai's hallucination from sleepwalking.

Ah-Cai sensed something strange in his mother's tone. After pondering it for a while, he decided not to press the matter further. At lunchtime, Ah-Cai decided to solve the mystery himself. He suggested to his mother that they move into the small house that night, which faced the empty house with the attic across the hall.

"Are you sure you can do it?" her mother asked with concern.

Ah-Cai gleaned this message from his mother's eyes: "You'd better not move."

“I’m all grown up now,” A-Cai said stubbornly. As he spoke, he secretly considered what to put under his pillow as a weapon. He recalled what had happened that night. His father’s meticulously crafted replica pistol was clearly in the drawer under the living room table, but why did it feel so heavy in the dark? What was that dark figure? What were those strange noises? Could it be that he was sleepwalking again, as his mother had said? If he was sleepwalking and was urinating in the living room as before, then why didn’t he smell any urine when he secretly sniffed around on the floor while his mother wasn’t home? Was his mother lying to him? If so, then his mother must be hiding something from him. But what was it that his mother needed to hide from him?

8

After lunch, Ah-Cai couldn't wait to pick up his schoolbag and go to school.

"Son, it's still early. Can't you stay home and study a little longer?" Mei Fang's tone wasn't very stern, and there was no harshness in it. Ah Cai felt that there was a loophole to exploit.

"I need to get there earlier. I want to be the first person to enter the school gate every day, otherwise I won't be able to be the flag bearer next week." Ah Cai's words were definitely his true thoughts.

Seeing that her son had such a good reason, Mei Fang didn't want to stop him any longer. She thought to herself, "He's ambitious, let him be. I can't just tell him, 'Son, it's okay, as long as you're not late.' If I taught him that, he would definitely become lazy." So she said, "Then don't run around everywhere, just go straight to school."

Ah Cai was overjoyed when he heard his mother's words. It was as if he had received a long-term free pass to the park. He quickly ran out the door.

"Don't panic! Slow down." Mom's words of advice followed me like a bee.

Ah-Cai ran a short distance, then looked back and found that his door was already closed.

Around the cotton candy stall, a group of children who had started school early were gathered. So

……