“You’re really back…..”

Or perhaps he never left.

I can’t say how I feel when I hear the answer outside the door, but I find that I’m not surprised at all.

It turns out I had guessed it early on.

People’s hearts are difficult to know. Although I can’t understand Mingcheng’s heart, he is the person I know best. Perhaps one day, at a certain time, I would have realized that he was not Mingcheng.

That my bed partner, my husband, was replaced before I knew it.

But today, I have to face the truth at last.

I bury my face in my hands and take a few deep breaths. The sky is beginning to darken at this time, and the space I’m in also begins to become dim, as if a nightmare drama is about to begin.

In the coming time, it will be performed with great fanfare in this house. There is no telling when it will end, and there is a high probability that it will never end.

I raise my face. My tone is actually calm: “Now that you’re back, why aren’t you coming in?”

The man outside speaks in an equally calm voice, and I actually hear him chuckle: “It’s so sad, I forgot to bring my key.”

This is a lie, and we both know it. But I still want to tear apart this superficial peace: “I know you brought it. You keep your keys in your handbag every day.”

The “person” outside the door doesn’t respond to me immediately. In the silence, I hear the sound of men’s leather shoes falling on the ground again. The sound is neither fast nor slow, like a leisurely stroll in the garden, or the light and relaxed steps when pulling me to the garden after a meal.

But when I hear this sound, I take two steps back and stare at the door warily.

Because just now, I heard the steps coming toward me. He had taken a step forward, closer to me.

There is the sound of knuckles rapping against the door twice in front of me. “Then will A-Zhen let me in?”

The two short knocks echo in the room.

He clearly knows that I’m aware of everything, but he still asks me this, which is a blatant provocation. Like a cat playing with a mouse before eating it.

I stare at the door. “Maybe you can prove to me that you can open the door and enter the house with a key.”

“That’s a pity. I can’t get in. You…..put a little something inside, didn’t you?” His speaking voice is light and airy, but this light voice can clearly pass through the thick red date wood door. It’s as if he is standing behind me and speaking into my ear.

I even suspect that he is leaning over me, but I can’t see him. This kind of suspicion makes my hair stand on end.

He no longer intends to pretend.

“What are you?!”

“Why are you pretending to be my family member?!”

I shout out the questions I’ve been holding back for a long time. The tail end sounds a bit shaky due to my agitated emotions, but in fact, this is not the most important thing.

What I care about most is: “Where is Mingcheng? Tell me, where is the person you are impersonating?”

…….Is he still alive?

Is he already……dead?

There is silence outside for a long time. Perhaps several minutes.

And within these few minutes, the sun sets.

Night falls.

Darkness drives out the light, pouring into the room like un-meltable ink, rushing to engulf me.

I am particularly afraid of the dark now, so I quickly flip the switch for the main light in the room.

The light is back, exclusively indoors.

“I am Mingcheng.” The ‘person’ outside the door finally answers my question.

“I know you’re not!” I don’t want to entangle any further with this unknown thing. I just want to know if Mingcheng is alive or dead.

Perhaps my rebuttal makes him angry, because his tone of voice loses its smile.

“I am Mingcheng. I am the master of this house. I am your new husband. Open the door for me, A-Zhen. Don’t you love me very much? Be good…..let me in. I will have dinner with you. After dinner, I will accompany you to paint and watch TV. No matter what you want to do, I will accompany you. Open the door for me.”

“No.” I notice that he is fed up with waiting, so I back away cautiously. Fortunately, the glass bowl on the floor is intact and should last for a while. “Don’t come in, I don’t love you…..”

My words are interrupted by a loud bang on the door.

I am horrified to find that the glass bowl on the floor is making a buzzing sound. The water in the bowl begins to form a vortex, and the voice of the “person” outside the door sounds monstrous.

“Have you forgotten? You told me several times that you love me. If I come home late, you are worried. You bring me food and clean my clothes. At night, our bodies press together and when you are in my arms…..”

“Shut up!” I just can’t help but fall apart. His words are sweet between me and my lover, but now I just feel horrible.

I shared a bed with something that isn’t human, and had intimate contact with it. I feel goosebumps appear on every inch of skin it had touched.

After this sharp scolding, the atmosphere is quiet for a long time.

“……I want to kill the person who instigated this dissension.”

“I want to kill the person who gave you bad advice.”

“You can’t stop me from entering the room.”

My eyes widen at once. When he says this, his tone is dark and severe, with anger and strong murderous intent.

“The same method won’t work on me twice. You have at most an hour.”

I slowly take two steps back, then quickly turn around and run.

And he says with a smile behind me: “Follow what that old man said and find the doll. I hope you succeed…..”

The Golden God Attendant told me that this was the early form of his existence in this world, and at this time, he would be subject to various constraints and be forced to abide by some rules of the human world. If I can discover one or two of them, there might be a chance of survival. The most important one is—the Black Nanjia.

As long as it is still in my home, he will enter the house sooner or later. The only possible way to stop him is to find the Black Nanjia and send him away again.

I have to find it within this hour.

This house has three floors, with a total of twelve rooms on the first and second floors, and a huge attic on the top floor.

I work hard to search through all the rooms on the first floor. The living room, study, cloakroom, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms.

It takes more than forty minutes and I achieve nothing.

Like a patient having an anxiety attack, I throw everything in sight to the floor. I empty every drawer and scatter the clothes in the closets, but find nothing.

In the last ten minutes, there is still no sound at the door. I know he is holding himself back on purpose, or maybe he’s making fun of me.

The prey’s struggle before death, so pitiful and powerless.

I give up.

In the last few minutes, I take refuge in the attic on the top floor. 

This house covers an area of 500 square meters, and the attic is 400 square meters. Because there is no electricity, I look into the depths and everything in my vision is darkness. There seems to be no end to the dark night.

There is the sound of shattering glass downstairs, followed by the sound of the door opening.

“Are you hiding?”

“I’m coming to find you.”

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Chapter 10 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 12