Artes antiguas y maravillosas

Capítulo 7

He Ming smiled wryly: "You really stumped me." After saying that, he closed his eyes, relaxed his mind, and soon fell asleep.

Three weeks later, He Ming recovered and was discharged from the hospital. He and Lin Hong invited a few friends to a small party at his apartment on Fenghe Road, which served as their wedding ceremony. While the party was being held, Qin Fangcheng was busy arranging schooling for his five adopted daughters, and only sent a bouquet of flowers through Zhao Zhuo as a congratulatory gift. He Ming and Lin Hong officially became husband and wife, and neither of them mentioned the past again.

3)

Lin Hong and He Ming's honeymoon was perfect and blissful, because the little pig lived with them.

After He Ming was discharged from the hospital, he remained very weak, and Lin Hong had to do many things at home, which was very inconvenient. However, in order to take care of He Ming's condition, the He family sent their nanny, Xiao Zhu, to help Lin Hong a lot.

Xiao Zhu was just seventeen years old that year. Her family lived in a suburban county of Taizhou. She was somewhat related to He Zhenggang, which was why the He family hired her as a nanny. She helped with cooking and cleaning. The work wasn't much, and the pay was enough to support her younger brother's continued education, so Xiao Zhu worked diligently. Farm children are naturally hardworking, especially farm girls, who are particularly good at housework. If it weren't for her, Lin Hongzhen, who was used to living alone, wouldn't have been able to handle so much housework.

Little Pig's real name wasn't Little Pig. It was just that this girl was chubby and had thick, pouty lips, so He Zhenggang always jokingly called her Little Pig. Over time, Little Pig really became her name. Lin Hong never thought to ask what her real name was. Since the nickname Little Pig was affectionate and fitting, she was happy to keep calling her that.

Every morning, Lin Hong would help He Ming, who was not yet fully recovered from his illness, take a slow walk on the lawn upstairs. Xiao Zhu would then carry a large shopping bag to go out to buy groceries. She especially enjoyed this task, and Lin Hong would intentionally give her a little extra money each time so that she could save it up to buy herself a nice dress.

Xiaozhu's daily life is very regular. She gets up early to go to the morning market to buy vegetables. The vegetables at the morning market are fresh and tender, and the prices are cheap. Then she makes breakfast, calls He Ming and Lin Hong to get up and eat, and after breakfast, she helps He Ming go for a walk. Then she makes lunch, and they take a nap. In the afternoon, she mainly spends her time cleaning the room. Then she takes a ball of yarn she bought and goes downstairs to sit with a few nannies she knows, knitting and chatting. In the evening, the three of them sit in front of the TV and watch TV.

Little Pig really enjoys watching TV at He Ming's house because neither He Ming nor Lin Hong used to watch TV; the vulgar programs on TV made them nauseous. Now, they can only sit in front of the TV and follow Little Pig's preferences. Little Pig loves watching Hong Kong and Taiwan dramas, and He Ming and Lin Hong watch them too. But when they were at He Zhenggang's house in Taizhou, Little Pig didn't have the right to choose what she liked; she could only watch those outdated opera films with the elderly couple, He Zhenggang and his wife.

When watching TV, Lin Hong always liked to chat with Xiao Zhu, but Xiao Zhu's mind was completely on the drama, and she couldn't answer a single question if asked. For a while, she was obsessed with "Romance in the Rain," crying every day until her eyes were red. Lin Hong was dumbfounded when she saw this girl crying with her face covered in tears; she couldn't believe that such a low-quality drama could fool people.

Just like at He Zhenggang's house, Lin Hong and the others also gave Xiaozhu a room, respecting her greatly and letting her arrange it however she liked.

Normally, Lin Hong and He Ming never entered Xiao Zhu's room. Firstly, they respected Xiao Zhu, and secondly, they didn't care what Xiao Zhu was usually busy with in his room. But one day, Xiao Zhu went to the morning market to buy groceries and didn't return for a long time for some reason. Lin Hong got up to go to the bathroom and suddenly heard some noise from Xiao Zhu's room. She was puzzled; she clearly heard Xiao Zhu leave. So she tentatively called out, "Xiao Zhu, are you in your room?"

The noise in the room immediately disappeared.

Lin Hong muttered a few words, thinking that she was probably just half asleep and had misheard, so she went back to bed.

After that incident, Lin Hong forgot about it. She was busy contacting her former colleagues every day. Although He Ming's company was declining, it had not reached the end of its road. If it could find a suitable financier, it might turn its fortunes around.

For some reason, He Ming's condition was not serious, but he never recovered properly and often relapsed. One night, he suddenly fainted, which frightened Lin Hong so much that she kept shouting "Little Pig!"

Hearing Lin Hong's panicked screams, Xiao Zhu ran out of her room wearing only her underwear. She gritted her teeth and pinched He Ming's philtrum hard with her thumb. Lin Hong watched in horror as Xiao Zhu pinched He Ming's philtrum until it broke and black blood flowed out. After a long time, she heard He Ming groan and wake up.

Since He Ming fainted that time, his body has become weaker and weaker. He would feel dizzy if he walked in the sun for a little while, and his face was pale and bloodless. Moreover, the chances of fainting became more and more frequent. Eventually, he would faint almost every day. Sometimes it was while watching TV, sometimes it was while walking on the street, and once he even fainted in the bathroom.

Lin Hong and Xiao Zhu took He Ming to the hospital for a checkup. Strangely enough, after all the tests, nothing was found except that He Ming had low blood sugar. The doctor suspected that He Ming had an electrolyte imbalance, but there was no data to support this from the blood test.

Even more strangely, Lin Hong felt her mental state deteriorating. She suffered from poor sleep every night, plagued by frequent nightmares. These dreams were often bizarre, filled with images from outside her daily life. For example, she frequently dreamt of enormous turtles staring at her with eerie, green-glowing eyes, terrifying her to the point of breathlessness. Other times, she dreamt of being in darkness, surrounded by people intently studying her. She couldn't see their faces, only hear their whispers, and felt sticky hands groping her body – a truly terrifying experience. Yet, she couldn't find any reason for these nightmares in her daily life.

There was one thing that always displeased her: the food that Little Pig cooked always had a slightly bitter taste. The first few times, she asked Little Pig about it in a strange way, but later, she gradually got used to the taste. However, she would always involuntarily frown when eating.

As He Ming's condition worsened day by day, Lin Hong's mood deteriorated as well. Laughter gradually faded from the house, and it became deathly still all day long, as if they were in a tomb. The silence was as despairing as the thick layers of rock on the ground.

That day, Lin Hong and Xiao Zhu were listlessly helping He Ming take a walk downstairs when a lawyer friend called her, asking her to bring He Ming's company documents to the law firm, saying that they might find a turning point there. Lin Hong immediately perked up, told Xiao Zhu to take good care of He Ming, and hurriedly ran to the roadside to hail a taxi.

The taxi had already stopped, but Lin Hong suddenly remembered that she hadn't brought the legal documents the lawyer needed with her. She could only smile apologetically at the taxi driver and go home to get the materials.

As she approached the door, she was rummaging through her purse for her keys when she suddenly heard a sound coming from inside. It sounded like someone was walking around the room and rummaging through things. Lin Hong looked up in surprise. Sure enough, it was her own house. There was no one in the house, so why was someone rummaging through it?

She pressed her ear against the door with suspicion, and sure enough, there were voices in the room. She heard the bedroom door being slammed shut, things in the kitchen crashing to the floor, and a muffled, giggling sound. For some reason, that cheerful laughter had an eerie, ghostly quality, sending chills down Lin Hong's spine.

4)

Lin Hong took two steps back, rubbed her ears, and leaned closer to the door again to listen carefully.

The room suddenly fell silent, followed by a loud tremor that startled Lin Hong, who took two steps back. She dared not open the door, screamed, and ran out of the building. Downstairs, she encountered Xiao Zhu helping He Ming back. She immediately grabbed Xiao Zhu's hand and cried out in terror, "There's someone in our house! There's someone in our house! I heard someone inside when I went upstairs!"

Ever since Xiaozhu woke He Ming from his coma by pinching his philtrum, Lin Hong subconsciously regarded Xiaozhu as her pillar of support, turning to him whenever something happened. He Ming, the head of the household, had become a burden instead.

After hearing Lin Hong's words, Little Pig's expression suddenly turned very strange. Her lips twitched, and she forced a smile: "Big sister, you must have misheard. The door was locked properly when we came out. How could anyone have gone in? It's impossible."

“Isn’t that right?” Lin Hong said blankly, “The lock on the door was still in good condition, but I clearly heard someone ransacking our house.”

"Then, big sister, please help my brother up while I go up to check on him." Little Pig turned her head away so that Lin Hong wouldn't see her face, and hurriedly went upstairs, leaving He Ming behind. Her footsteps could be heard in the stairwell, and a moment later, the sound of a key opening a door could be heard. Then Little Pig called out, "Big sister, please help my brother up. He's alright."

Lin Hong helped He Ming upstairs. Once inside, they checked carefully and found nothing amiss, except for a pot lid lying on the kitchen floor. Xiao Zhu explained that she had accidentally knocked it over before leaving and forgotten to put it away. Hearing this explanation, Lin Hong was finally relieved.

After the false alarm, Lin Hong became more and more confused. She clearly heard one or more people walking around in the room. Could it be that she was hallucinating because she was too tired?

That very evening, Xiaozhu prepared dinner and served it. As usual, the food still had a bitter taste. Lin Hong frowned and forced herself to eat it. Then Xiaozhu cleared the dishes, and she and He Ming sat in the living room, watching TV while she told He Ming about her lawyer friend's opinion on He Ming's current situation during the day.

As they were chatting, Lin Hong suddenly felt her neck stiffen, and a sudden, inexplicable fear gripped her. She sensed someone watching her from somewhere, and the pressure from that eerie and cold gaze was too much for her fragile heart to bear.

Lin Hong turned around in surprise. Behind her was a wall, and not far away was the door leading to the balcony. The door was shaking slightly. For a moment, Lin Hong almost stopped breathing. She called out in a weak voice, "Little pig, little pig!"

The little pig was washing dishes noisily in the kitchen, but no sound could be heard coming from her.

The balcony door was still trembling, the trembling becoming faster and faster. Lin Hong groaned; she felt like she was about to faint from fright. With almost all her strength, she suddenly let out a strange scream:

"piggy--!!!"

With a loud crash, the little pig was startled by Lin Hong's sudden shout and dropped a bowl, shattering it on the floor. Ignoring the broken pieces, she hurriedly wiped her hands on her apron and ran out of the kitchen, crying, "Big sister, big sister, what happened?"

That dark gaze seemed to weigh a ton, making the sofa beneath Lin Hong creak and slump so hard she couldn't move. With all her might, she raised a hand and pointed to the balcony door: "Outside, little pig, there's someone outside."

"How is that possible?" Little Pig looked at Lin Hong in surprise. "The balcony is enclosed; it's impossible for outsiders to come in." Without waiting for Lin Hong's reply, she walked over, pushed open the balcony door, looked out onto the balcony, then turned back and shrugged at Lin Hong, as if to say: See, I was right, wasn't I? Nobody's here.

Lin Hong shook her head blankly. In just a short while, her clothes were soaked with sweat, and the fear had seeped into her heart. She knew she was right; there was someone in the house, or rather, something in the house, something that had been lurking in the shadows, watching her! Although the little pig was standing on the balcony, trying to bolster her courage, the feeling of being spied on did not lessen in the slightest.

A woman as beautiful as Lin Hong would have an exceptionally keen sixth sense. Before she met He Ming, she always felt uneasy whenever she returned to her apartment, as if someone was watching her from somewhere. But no matter how hard she looked, she couldn't find anyone. However, she was convinced that her intuition was right, so she called a few friends to help her search. As a result, they actually found a hidden camera behind the desk lamp. It turned out that the landlord, who coveted her beauty, had secretly installed it in the room when she was not around.

Ever since that incident, Lin Hong knew that her intuition was more reliable, so the more Xiao Zhu proved that there were no outsiders in the house, the more frightened she became.

She urged the little pig to pick up the kitchen knife, turn on all the lights in the house, and search carefully in every possible place, but found nothing. However, she felt increasingly strange. She kept hearing some faint noises, as if there was a person with mobility issues in the house, constantly walking back and forth in the room, but she could not see this person at all, which puzzled her greatly.

As night deepened, the little pig felt tired and yawned with its mouth wide open. Lin Hong, not wanting to pester her any longer, had no choice but to return to the bedroom with He Ming.

As soon as He Ming's head hit the pillow, he immediately fell asleep. Lin Hong was about to lie down when she suddenly remembered that there was a room she hadn't yet visited.

The pig's private room.

She had a strong feeling that the mysterious voice was coming from Little Pig's room. But she still hesitated. Although Little Pig was a country girl and her status in the family was only that of a nanny, she respected Little Pig. To doubt Little Pig without cause would be an insult to Little Pig's personality.

However, she wouldn't be able to sit still until she saw Little Pig's room with her own eyes and confirmed that there really wasn't a break-in. After thinking it over, Lin Hong finally put on her slippers, got out of bed, walked into the living room, turned on the light, and called out, "Little Pig?"

No one answered her. The pig's room was deathly silent. Lin Hong felt like a solitary figure in a prehistoric desert, the empty world filled with endless void. That near-desperate loneliness was driving her almost insane.

"Little Pig, are you there?"

Overwhelmed by extreme fear, Lin Hong heard herself scream in terror.

Her terrified screams echoed alone in the space, without even a sound echo. The entire world around her was filled with eternal silence. Her cries were like birds flying in a vacuum, silently swallowed up by the stillness.

5)

The next morning, Lin Hong woke up to find herself dressed only in her pajamas, having slept on the sofa in the living room all night, covered with a towel blanket. She wondered where the blanket had come from; it was probably something her son had put on her when he went to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

She lay motionless on the sofa, unable to understand how she had fallen asleep last night. She remembered calling the pig's name again and again, banging on the pig's door, but there was no sound from the pig's room. It was like an empty house, which made her heart pound.

What exactly happened? Why wouldn't the little pig open the door for her? Why did no one pay attention to her shouting? Lin Hong could barely think straight now; her head throbbed with pain whenever she tried. It was a bizarre situation. How could her body be so weak?

After breakfast, she made an excuse to go to the bathroom, secretly making a phone call to Qin Fangcheng and Zhao Zhuo. Then, pretending nothing was wrong, she came out and, together with Xiao Zhu, helped the weak He Ming downstairs. While they were walking, Zhao Zhuo and Qin Fangcheng arrived and called her from their car some distance away. So, Lin Hong made an excuse, telling Xiao Zhu to stay with He Ming while she and her two friends quietly went to her doorstep.

Upon meeting, Qin Fangcheng looked surprised: "So fast? We've only been married a few days and things have already gotten complicated."

Qin Fangcheng looked unwell, which was understandable; suddenly having five daughters had given him a lot to worry about, from their food and clothing to their shelter. The five girls were well-behaved, but the biggest headache was still Fu Xiuying. She was convinced that Qin Fangcheng was the husband Guanyin had betrothed to her, especially since Qin Fangcheng doted on the five children. This gave Fu Xiuying a glimmer of hope, and she longed for the day Qin Fangcheng would accept Guanyin's arrangement.

Zhao Zhuo suggested that they simply sue Fu Xiuying for kidnapping and extortion, sending this superstitious woman to prison and solving the problem once and for all. Qin Fangcheng couldn't deny this idea; he had it almost every day. But whenever he saw the children's tearful eyes, he couldn't help but sigh and resign himself to his fate.

Although he resented Qin Fangcheng's spineless attitude, Zhao Zhuo knew that this situation was indeed difficult. He had once met Qin Fangcheng's most beloved San Niu. The child was well-behaved and intelligent, with pure, innocent black eyes and a sweet mouth. She could lie without batting an eye, making her exceptionally endearing and causing one's heart to ache. If it weren't for the child's unbearable mother, Zhao Zhuo would definitely have fought with Qin Fangcheng to adopt San Niu.

Zhao Zhuo didn't compete with Qin Fangcheng to adopt Si Niu because he also had his own troubles. His relationship with his wife, Huang Ping, was in crisis. His insistence on having Lin Hong as a bridesmaid at their wedding had upset Huang Ping, forcing him to spend more time with her, which reduced his contact with Lin Hong. This meeting of the three old friends was their first since the last gathering at Hongbinlou Restaurant. Moreover, he had come without his wife Huang Ping's knowledge.

Although Zhao Zhuo and Qin Fangcheng rushed over after receiving the call, they were quite disapproving. Lin Hong was already He Ming's wife, yet she had called them over without telling He Ming, which made them very resentful. Despite this, they didn't say a word and quietly followed Lin Hong to her house.

The three walked down the hallway. Qin Fangcheng complained, "Look at you, you didn't even say you'd wait a few days for me, causing us both so much trouble." Lin Hong rolled her eyes at him, sensing the regret in his voice, but she wasn't in the mood to think about that right now, and just sighed softly. Zhao Zhuo remained silent, constantly looking up at the ceiling as they walked, clearly disliking the job Lin Hong had found for him.

Before the three of them even reached the door, they heard rustling sounds coming from inside the room, and what sounded like someone coughing while covering their mouth. Lin Hong suddenly became frightened and dared not take another step forward.

Hearing the strange noises from the room, Qin Fangcheng's expression changed, and she turned to look at Zhao Zhuo. Zhao Zhuo took the key from her hand without a word, carefully opened the door, and then suddenly rushed in. Qin Fangcheng followed closely behind him, even shouting to bolster her courage.

Lin Hong followed at the back. She heard it all clearly. When they rushed in, a door in the house slammed shut. It was as if someone who had been in the living room had immediately fled back inside upon discovering the intruders. The sound of the door closing was extremely loud, and they heard it clearly.

Which door is it?

Zhao Zhuo rushed in, looked around, and his gaze fell on the door to the pig's room. At that moment, the door was still trembling slightly.

Who was the person who just hid inside?

Qin Fangcheng glanced at Zhao Zhuo, whose expression remained unchanged. Zhao Zhuo pushed the door, but it wouldn't open; it was locked from the inside. He looked back at Lin Hong, took a step back, and suddenly kicked the door.

With a loud crash, dust fell from the wall. Lin Hong quickly waved her hand in front of her eyes, afraid that the flying dust would get into them.

Zhao Zhuo's kick was extremely powerful; the lock on the door snapped open with a crack, and the door swung open.

The room contained only a metal tube bed, a desk, and a chair. The bed was a mess, with the bedding in a strange disarray, making it seem as if someone was hiding inside. Zhao Zhuo snorted and walked step by step toward the bed. When he was almost at the bedside, he suddenly reached out, grabbed the blanket, and yanked it off.

The blanket was empty, there was nothing inside, and Zhao Zhuo was stunned.

Qin Fangcheng, following closely behind Zhao Zhuo, burst into laughter. Zhao Zhuo rolled his eyes at him: "What are you laughing at? Is this something to laugh about?" He then shook the blanket: "Feel it." Qin Fangcheng looked at him, puzzled: "Why do I have to touch it?" Zhao Zhuo didn't answer, just stood there holding the blanket, waiting. Qin Fangcheng, thoroughly annoyed, muttered as he walked over and touched the blanket. Upon touching it, his face suddenly changed color: "This… the blanket is still warm!"

The blankets were still warm, meaning someone had been sleeping in them just moments before. This unexpected discovery terrified Lin Hong. The thought that someone was actually hiding in the pig's shed, spying on her every night, sent a chill down her spine. She quickly hid behind Qin Fangcheng, gripping his arm tightly, trembling uncontrollably. Qin Fangcheng patted her hand reassuringly, "It's alright, we're both here. What are you afraid of?"

Qin Fangcheng's warm and strong hand patted her cold arm, calming Lin Hong's frightened heart. She nodded vigorously, gripped Qin Fangcheng's hand tightly, moved closer to him, raised her head, and scanned the room with her gaze. Suddenly, she froze. On the table, a pair of eyes were coldly glancing at him.

Those eyes, evil and cold, glowed with a terrifying emerald green light, carrying a sinister chill and exuding the eeriness unique to the underworld, coldly glancing at her. Startled, Lin Hong's heart clenched violently, and she almost screamed.

"What is this?" Zhao Zhuo also saw the sinister gaze on the table. He frowned, walked over, bent his knees slightly, and took a closer look. He reached out and picked up a strange object.

It was a turtle. Its head was frighteningly large, and its neck extremely short, too short to retract into its shell. The turtle's head was covered by large, horny scutes, and its jaws were thick and prominently hooked, resembling an eagle's beak. The carapace was oblong, concave in the middle of the anterior edge, flattened at the ridge, with a longitudinal ridge like a sharp blade imprinted on its back. The nuchal scute was extremely short and wide, and the plastron was nearly rectangular, with a flat anterior edge and a concave posterior edge, making it look incredibly bizarre.

This strange turtle had webbed toes and claws. Its thighs and anus were covered in bluish-green, cone-shaped scales. Its frighteningly long tail was ringed with rectangular scales. The turtle's back was brownish-black with striking orange-yellow spots, and several radiating black stripes ran along its vertebral scute. Each costal scute had a small black spot. Most astonishingly, its plastron was olive-green, its carapace reddish-brown, and its belly a bizarre orange-red.

Seeing the strange turtle, Lin Hong shrank back in fear. A simple, childlike voice, ethereal and intangible, seemed to drift into her ears from a distant, dreamlike realm:

The tortoise is thin and doesn't gain weight.

Skin covering hard bones

Four paws and one head

Three years to reach my doorstep

Zhao Zhuo didn't notice Lin Hong's bewildered state, but instead waved to them: "Hey, you two come over here quickly, there are words carved on this turtle's shell."

Qin Fangcheng hurriedly walked over and took a closer look. The turtle was about the size of a palm and was being held in Zhao Zhuo's hand. Its strangely large head was twisting, and its expressionless but somewhat sinister little eyes were staring intently at Lin Hong. Lin Hong couldn't help but choke and quickly covered her mouth with her hand.

She had a terrible feeling; she had seen those terrifying eyes before. The little pig had lived in the house for so many days, yet she had no idea she was secretly keeping such a strange turtle in her room.

Qin Fangcheng and Zhao Zhuo rubbed the tortoise shell with their fingers, trying to decipher the characters carved on it: "What does this say? It's been so long, the tortoise shell has grown so much that it's distorted the characters. It really looks like oracle bone script, maybe it is." The two whispered for a long time before Zhao Zhuo said with a puzzled look, "Look at this character, it looks like the character '朱' (Zhu). It's a person's name, it should be pronounced 'Zhu Bi' (Zhu Bi)." Qin Fangcheng blinked and said, "It looks more like the character '华' (Hua) to me, it's '朱华' (Zhu Hua)."

Zhao Zhuo asked in surprise, "Why are the two characters 'Zhu Hua' engraved on the tortoise shell?"

Qin Fangcheng shrugged: "How would I know? I didn't carve it."

"Forget it," Zhao Zhuo said, his eyes tired from looking at it. He put the turtle back on the table. "Let's just leave it. Lin Hong, you're something else. You could have bought your nanny a Winnie the Pooh or something. It wouldn't have cost much. Instead, you let her keep this big-headed turtle to scare people. Don't you guys find it disgusting?"