Don't come home late at night, he says.
He was wearing a black coat and trousers. The sleeves were tightly fastened around his neck, and the collar was unbuttoned only the top button, so that he was completely enveloped in his clothes. But the garment was so wobbly that it seemed his body could not support it at all.
He was so thin that a gust of wind could lift him up to the sky.
But it was such a man, standing behind her, saying in a sullen, resounding tone, "Don't come home late at night." She turned suddenly upon hearing the voice, and the man's pale face fell into her eyes. Before she could even sense fear, a chill rose from her back. But before the chill had spread, the man's hand covered her mouth and shut her scream back.
The skinny man had arms as hard as stone.
Her lips touched a touch of coolness, which was contained in a soft texture. It was a strange feeling. How could coolness and softness have anything to do with this lean man?
But she had no chance to find out the result. She passed out.
She is now lying in his arms, and he is holding her, standing on the sidewalk by the street. At this time, many people began to run in panic in the streets, as if they had suddenly emerged from underground. The ground shook again, and the buildings along the street gave low moans. Some of the glass was broken and fragments were scattered and hit some people. Those people screamed and fled a little faster.
Where could you run, thought the skinny man in black, even if you run as fast as death?
When he thought of Death, the muscles at the corner of his mouth moved, and if you looked closely, you would find that he actually smiled. His smile was stiff, the upper part of his face motionless, only the corners of his mouth curled up.
Death is everywhere, he thought. He looked down at the woman in his arms, and the muscles at the corner of his mouth moved again. I am her death God, and her life is now in my hands. Thinking this way, he became somewhat smug and impatient about what was to come.
The thin man in black carried the woman on his shoulder and walked slowly to one side of the street.
He walked slowly, for he seemed to think before taking each step forward, but he took a considerable distance, so he moved quite fast.
If it were any other day, even in the dead of night, it would be unusual for a man as thin as a ghost to carry a young woman dressed fashionably along the street. But tonight is clearly different. There is an earthquake, and many things that are usually considered strange can be seen on the streets. And in this sudden disaster, the only clear consciousness is to find a safe place, so almost everyone ignores the strange behavior of the man in black.
The man in black, carrying a young and fashionable girl, soon disappeared from our sight.
Kelly had planned to go to Haokelai for steak after work, but as she walked out of the building, she still felt a bit strange. Kelly is a bold girl, and this inexplicable nervousness has left her at a loss. She was walking down the street, wondering whether to go to a luxury guest or just call a friend out.
Her final decision was to go home right away.
Although the house was a rented two-bedroom apartment, it had a "Wangli" brand security door at the entrance and no security net on the Windows, but she didn't believe someone would break in through the window on the eleventh floor.
How could you have thought that someone would break in? Back home, Kelly sat on the sofa, lost in thought. A lot of strange things happened today. First, she felt a cold wind in the elevator, then she was willing to give up a good evening and came home early, and finally she was still in a state of unease when she was alone in the familiar house. Kelly didn't want to think about the skinny man she had met in the elevator at noon. Why did she think about him? He was just a little thinner, and he was a man who lived outside of Kelly's life, only that one chance they met in the elevator. We don't know how many such people we'll encounter in a lifetime, and only a very few of them will be connected to our lives. Kelly thought that the skinny man was rather pitiful and that she shouldn't have made such a blatant joke of him.
But Kelly thought, since he had already made fun of him, let him make fun of it. What did it matter?
Kelly thought about it for a while and got a little angry about his unusual behavior today. How could I pass the long, boring night when I got home so early?
Kelly found something to eat in the kitchen, a few slices of bread that had been kept for three days, and a bottle of salad. She spread the salad on the slices of bread and cut a plate of "Rainrun" sausage, ready to simply finish her dinner like that.
The slices of bread were so tasteless that Kelly threw them all into the dustbin halfway through. Eating less for dinner won't make you gain weight, she consoled herself.
Just as the clock on the wall pointed to half past seven, Kelly looked at the clock and had a hideous expression on her face. It was a terrible day to come back so early. She was tempted by the idea that her friends must be eating and drinking at some tavern at the moment.
At around eight o 'clock in the evening, Kelly, unable to stay any longer, made a call to a man named Xiao An. Xiao An's father was a contractor and he was big and burly, but Xiao An was pretty and handsome, and graduated from a prestigious university. He was well-mannered and liked by many girls.
Xiao An was singing with a group of people in "All kinds of colors", and the voice on the phone was very loud. Kelly only heard Xiao An asking her to come over. She wanted to ask which room they were in, but Xiao An had hung up on the other end.
Kelly thought as she went out, "What does it matter if I don't know which room? There's no waiter who doesn't recognize Xiao An." But when she thought about it, she felt a bit sad that Xiao An hung up too quickly.
Take a taxi out and head straight for Fenglin Road under Defeng Bridge. The air conditioning was on in the taxi, and Kelly felt the cold wind swirling around her from somewhere, so she instinctively hugged her arms tightly. Her arms had turned cold in a short time.
That strange feeling arose again, as if some part of her body had been hollowed out and all her innards were hanging inside. And in her subconscious, she seemed to be eager to do something, but it was so vague that she couldn't figure it out no matter how hard she tried.
The car stopped at the crossroads, and Kelly's eyes drifted out of the window by accident. She saw another car, right next to the one she was sitting in, also come to a stop, and a thin, thin shadow was reflected in the window.
She opened her eyes wide in an instant, and a look of terror appeared on her face.
It was the thin man, and she was certain that the man she saw at this moment was exactly the black-clad one she had seen in the elevator at noon. But when she pressed her head close to the window to see more clearly, the car window beside her was completely dark and there was no one in sight.
It is a basic common sense that the lights in the car next door are not on, and the light from the street lamps outside the car falls on the window glass, only reflecting the outside scenery on the glass, and you cannot see what is in the dark window at all. But Kelly was convinced that she actually saw a skinny man at that moment.
The skinny man, though he had only met once at noon, was deeply imprinted in Kelly's mind. Kelly immediately looked around in the car. There were many people on both sides of the car, but not the skinny man in black she was looking for at all.
Kelly didn't know whether she should feel relieved or disappointed at this moment.
The car went on and Kelly looked back through the rear window. Just now, her hands and feet were icy cold, and some very subtle force, from a certain part of her body, swelled and spread rapidly, taking over her entire body in an instant. At this moment, as the car left the crossroads, her body was still a little stiff, and she felt a layer of sweat on her body, a feeling of extreme fatigue.
She gasped heavily, and only then did she remember that feeling was called fear.
What was she afraid of? Even if she had just met that skinny man in black, it would have been just another coincidence in the day, and the result would have been the same as at noon, another passing encounter. The man in black won't show up in her life and won't have any effect on her.
But she was still afraid, as if there was some kind of evil power in the man in black.
Kelly opened the car window, and the air conditioning in the car would deepen her fear. The warm breeze blew over and quickly dried the little sweat on her body. The warm breezes made her feel a little more at ease, along with the noisy voices on the sidewalk outside, the dazzling neon lights and the brightly lit shops, all these familiar scenes became familiar at the moment.
Why think of that thin man? Xiao An was waiting for her in the "All kinds of Colors" not far ahead, and she could now imagine how deafening the music was in the dimly lit private room, how the beer was swirling from the bottle to the goblet and passed from hand to hand. The gentle Xiao An, moving among the beauties, always kept his humble smile, his graceful dance, and his hand on the girl's waist would tremble gently with the music, making those with itchy waists itch all the way to the heart.
Kelly smiled, and the fears that had just been dispelled from her heart.
Most of the waiters in "All Kinds of Colors" really recognized Xiao An. Kelly just said Xiao An's name, and a little boy in a vest led her to a private room door. Kelly pushed the door open and saw that it was filled with people she didn't know.
"Xiao An isn't here. You must be Kelly. He asked you to come and wait a moment." A pretty little girl said.
Kelly didn't ask where Xiao An had been, for one thing it was normal for Xiao An to attend several events in one night, and for another Kelly had no right to inquire about Xiao An's affairs. Since Xiao An asked to wait, just wait. After all, she's already out and there's nowhere else to go.
Xiao An didn't come back until the very end of the night. Kelly, who was not familiar with the others, could only sit quietly in the corner. By the time it was past twelve o 'clock, she was drowsy. The noisy music, though still deafening, was far away from her. Later, when one of Xiao An's followers patted her on the shoulder and said she was going back, she looked at her watch and realized that so much time had passed. She wondered if I had fallen asleep just now, and she admired herself for being able to fall asleep in such an environment.
It didn't matter much that Xiao An didn't come back. Anyway, she had spent the night. But as she left "Wan Zi Qian Hong", she felt a faint sense of disappointment. But she did not want to think about what was disappointing. She needed some mental strength to live firmly.
There are only a few taxis left at the entrance of "All Kinds of Colors", and Kelly remembers that every night there should be a long queue of taxis here. But it didn't matter much. When they came out in groups, they split into several groups and Kelly just managed to get a car. She didn't say goodbye to the others when she got into the car and just told the driver the address. The driver turned around and the car sped onto the road.
It was so late and the temperature was not high, but the driver had turned on the air conditioner in the car, and Kelly got goosebumps as soon as she got in. She looked at the driver, an unkempt fat man with only the bottom button on his shirt, revealing a bulging, white belly. The fat driver, with a towel hanging around his neck, wiped his sweat as he drove. Kelly thought, "It's not easy to be fat."
Kelly gave up the idea of having the fat driver turn off the air conditioner. Although she felt a bit cold, sitting next to the fat driver, she subconsciously felt a sense of security. She knew she was thinking of the skinny man in black again, so she was annoyed with herself. What's going on today? I'm so worried about someone I've only met once.
So, she decided to go home later, take a bath and then go to bed immediately. She slept until dawn and completely forgot about that thin man in black the next day.
But it wasn't easy to get home. The car sped along the middle section of Hailian Road because there were few cars on the road. All of a sudden, the car crashed into one side of the curb, and Kelly in the car could see the sparks coming out from the left side of the car at that moment, and at that moment, there was a loud bang on the tire, clearly a blowout. The car lost control and skidded forward for several dozen meters before coming to a stop. Kelly and the driver in the car were knocked into a mess. The fat driver was a little better, strong and stuck firmly, but Kelly was in a bad situation, her forehead hitting the front of the glass, twice in a row. No need to look, she knew in her heart that there would be a bruise on her forehead tomorrow, and there might even be a bump.
When the car stopped, Kelly and the fat driver didn't move for a long time. After recovering, Kelly began to scold the fat driver again and again, asking him how the car was driven. The fat driver looked aggrieved and said he had no idea there was a big stone on the flat road.
The troublesome stone had been crushed to pieces by the car, but there was no way to investigate how it could have appeared on the road.
Kelly and the fat driver could only consider themselves unlucky. The fat driver was even more frustrated than Kelly because the car was severely damaged, not only with a flat tire, the exhaust pipe falling off, but also with a severely deformed chassis. The fat driver, with a sullen face, stood by the side of the car, cursing the man who threw the stone on the road. Kelly knew that the fat driver was the biggest victim, and that her complaints about him just now were subconscious actions. Now that she had calmed down, she paid the fare and left the fat driver on her own.
It was not far from where Kelly lived. It was less than a ten-minute walk and the road was wide all the way. Kelly walked along the sidewalk, oblivious to what was going to happen. At that moment, she felt the air getting stuffy and the clouds in the sky getting thicker and thicker. Behind the clouds, there was a faint, bluish light that was about to burst forth, making the clouds seem transparent. It was a strange sight. Kelly had been in the city for three or four years and had never seen such clouds before.
What a strange day, Kelly sighed in his heart and quickened his pace.
There were still some people on the street in the dead of night, far away from Kelly, but she could still make out that they were bag-carrying outsiders, bare-chested, drunk street boys, and heavily made-up, extremely seductive courtesans. They moved within Kelly's line of sight, yet kept a considerable distance, which made Kelly feel at ease. And because she was so close to her home, the idea of taking a bath and going to sleep was immediately realized, so Kelly's mind was very simple at this moment, and she had no idea of what would happen next.
A rat, more than a foot long, sprang out from her feet and rushed towards the opposite side of the road. Kelly let out a scream of terror, and goosebumps rose all over her body. The greyish rat seemed to turn its head back as it fled, and green light burst from its tiny eyes, as if a string of extremely disgusting things had been thrown into Kelly's heart. Kelly stopped and felt nauseous, her heart still beating with a thump.
Then the whole street shook, so suddenly, without a hint of warning. Kelly's instinctive reaction was to squat down and hug her arms. She lacked the basic ability to adapt to this sudden change, but her feminine nature taught her to protect herself first, and the way to protect herself was to crouch down and curl up as much as possible.
The shaking of the street vanished as quickly as it had come, and Kelly crouched down quietly, thinking of the news of an impending earthquake that had been spreading all over the city recently, and thinking that an earthquake was really coming. The thought scared her, and beyond that, she thought of her own bank passbook and some of her favorite things that she would feel extremely heartbroken if she lost them because of the earthquake.
Just then another strange thing came, a feeling that was more painful than the loss of possessions, and a deep fear. She did not know what was happening, but in an instant, she felt the presence of fear, and her body tightened in an instant. She did not dare to look, did not dare to move, as if she were crouching alone on a cliff about to fall, and any move could send her into an irreversible situation.
Then some cold wind blew slowly, and it was fine, just brushing against her neck. And that little coolness gradually became bone-chilling, as if some force was sneaking into her body. Her whole body was soon as cold as ice.
-- Don't come home late at night!
She heard a deep, hoarse voice at the back of her neck.
She turned her head and saw a pale, somewhat sad face, a face that seemed familiar, surely seen somewhere. Then she saw a black dress and a body as thin as a bamboo pole.
Don't come home late at night.
The skinny man in black repeated. Some searing force burst out in Kelly's mind, a sign of losing one's mind after reaching the point of fear. The searing power then spread all over her body, and she opened her mouth, eager to scream out loud, in order to give the power an outlet. But the thin man in black covered her mouth with one hand.
The skinny man had arms as hard as stone.
Her lips touched a touch of coolness, which was contained in a soft texture. It was a strange feeling. How could coolness and softness have anything to do with this lean man?
She was no longer able to explore the mystery in her heart. At this moment, she felt the whole world trembling and shaking, and then the darkness of the sky pressed down and soon concealed her.