Chapter 7: First Encounter

The child looked only about one year old, with chapped skin and purple lips. The most terrifying thing was his pair of empty, white eyes.

He grinned and said, “Big sister, can you play with me?”

Except for the year when I was sixteen and had endless nightmares, I usually never dreamed of demons or ghosts.

The fortune-telling old Taoist priest said that my birth chart was all Yang, naturally restraining evil, and ordinary dirty things wouldn’t dare get close to me.

Was this a dream or reality?

I tried to calm my fear and wanted to curse it away, but I couldn’t open my mouth at all.

Crap, sleep paralysis.

He got closer and closer, climbing onto my chest, like a thousand-pound hammer pressing down on me, making it hard to breathe.

“Hee hee… play with me, Mom won’t play with me, she leaves me alone in a cold room, with only snacks and toys, it’s so boring…”

I felt panicked and wanted to curse him to get lost.

Great-Grandma said that ghosts are also afraid of evil people. The more afraid you are of dirty things, the more they will cling to you. Righteousness and courage can scare away useless ghosts.

But the little ghost in front of me had obviously become powerful, and I couldn’t shout, so he kept climbing up the quilt.

Bang—

Just as the little ghost’s hand was about to touch my neck, he seemed to be bounced away by something, making a shrill scream, and flew off the bed.

In that instant, I felt relaxed all over, suddenly opened my eyes, and sat up.

Damn, my head was splitting, and I was covered in cold sweat.

“Xiao Mai, what’s wrong with you?” It took me a long time to hear the concerned voice from the lower bunk.

Pinching my temples, I met the four eyes standing under the bed rail, and said blankly, “Why aren’t you sleeping?”

“Of course, we’re checking on you! You were humming loudly in your sleep, we were all woken up by you! Your face looks terrible, did you have a nightmare?” Peng Fei stood on the bed ladder, looking worried.

I shook my head: “I just had sleep paralysis.”

Sleep paralysis, explained from a scientific point of view, is the awakening of the subconscious, but the nerve center that controls the muscles has not fully awakened.

Everyone was a college student of the new era who accepted scientific education, so they wouldn’t think of dirty things. They all cared and said that I had too much pressure from the thesis defense, and that I was affected by Lin Miao’s affairs during the day.

I nodded and said yes, telling them to go back to sleep.

After the lights were turned off again, I stretched my hand under the pillow and my fingertips touched a rough circle – it was it that protected me just now.

This was the bracelet that Great-Grandma gave me in the year I was sixteen, had a high fever all night, had endless nightmares, and suddenly had sensitive hearing.

I couldn’t tell what kind of material it was made of. It was dark and rough, with shallow lines engraved on the surface, like some kind of totem, or like a few randomly drawn lines.

Great-Grandma didn’t say what the effect was, just told me to carry it with me. The magic thing was that after putting it under my pillow, my high fever subsided, the nightmares disappeared, and all the voices whispering in my ears disappeared.

Because the circle was too big, it always slipped off when worn on my wrist, so I put it under my pillow at night and in my bag during the day, carrying it like a talisman.

After this incident, I wasn’t fully sleepy. I clutched the bracelet and drowsily survived until the sky turned white. When I got up the next day, I felt weak all over and listless.

In Peng Fei’s words, it was like my Yang energy had been drained by a goblin.

I napped for a while in the morning, then got up to clean up. Peng Fei insisted on putting makeup on me, saying that she wanted me to have a good spirit and look, so as not to be disliked by the tycoon employer on the first day of work.

Now that we had a little money in our hands, I invited her to eat a hot pot, and she didn’t stand on ceremony and ordered a lot happily.

Peng Fei’s home was in Xicheng, and her parents were in government jobs. Her family had already arranged a job for her.

Although I wasn’t from Xicheng, I was currently staying here and would come and go often in the future, so we didn’t feel sad about graduating.

During the meal, she kept cursing Lin Miao and told me to be careful of her.

Peng Fei, like me, was carefree, but a little timid. Every time it was she who instigated the whole dormitory to watch ghost movies, but she covered her eyes the whole time. She was the type who was both bad and liked the thrill.

Sometimes she was so scared that she wanted to squeeze into the same bed with me, hugging me and saying that she felt very safe, while her hands were not idle, turning into a female pervert, touching me up and down.

So, I didn’t tell her about the sleep paralysis yesterday, for fear of scaring her.

In the afternoon, I went to the supermarket to buy a lot of daily necessities, preparing to bring them back to the mansion that had fallen from the sky.

The sky was dim, the dark clouds were thick, and a storm was coming.

Walking to the entrance of the residential area, thunder rumbled in the sky, and the sky became even darker, as if the turbid Yellow River water was about to pour down.

I quickened my pace. There was a young master in the mansion who was afraid of thunder! I wondered if he was home now.

Pushing open the door and entering, there were no lights in the house. Hadn’t he come back yet?

I turned on the lights and made noise on purpose, gently shouting towards the master bedroom: “Excuse me, is anyone inside?”

There was no response for several seconds.

“Ahem… I’m coming in.” Holding the doorknob, I tiptoed and opened the door, worried that the young master was sleeping.

The bed was neat, with no signs of anyone lying on it. So, he hadn’t come back yet.

Whoosh, whoosh… whoosh, whoosh…

I caught a faint sound of wind blowing.

Whoosh, whoosh… whoosh, whoosh…

No, it seemed to be muffled breathing.

Listening carefully, it was coming from my room!

The entire mansion was silent except for the subtle whooshing sound, empty, making me inexplicably uneasy.

I nervously swallowed. The young master wouldn’t be in my room, would he?

Crossing the huge living room, I picked up the vacuum cleaner in the corner of the kitchen, preparing for both hands. What if it wasn’t the young master, but a robber breaking into the house?

Standing at the door of the room, I communicated with the person inside: “Young Master, are you inside? My name is Le Xiao Mai, I’m your family’s nanny, well… I’m coming in.”

Whoosh, whoosh… The breathing became clearer, and now I was 100% sure that someone was in my room.

The moment the door was pushed open, a black shadow flashed past. My wrist holding the vacuum cleaner went numb, and the heavy machine fell to the ground.

The force gripping my wrist was great, a warm hand.

Before I could see the owner of the hand clearly, a light suddenly appeared in front of me, and the barrier that had bounced the little ghost away in my dream last night reappeared.

With a muffled pain, the owner of the hand was bounced away, and I was brought forward by him!

When I reacted, we were already in the position at the beginning of the article – I was straddling a strange man with furry ears.

Then I flew out again and fainted.

Boom—crack!

I didn’t know how long I had been unconscious. I didn’t know if I was woken up by the cold or by the thunder outside.

I only felt cold all over and everything hurt, especially the back of my head.

After reacting for a few seconds, I panicked and touched my lower back – Whew, my kidneys were still there!

Sitting up, I realized that I was still lying in the same place.

Outside, night had fallen. Interlaced blue-purple lightning shot in from the gaps in the curtains, briefly illuminating the room slightly.

A figure was curled up in the corner of the bed, making a whirring sound.

Thinking of his ears and tail, I picked up the vacuum cleaner on the ground, far away from him, in a defensive position.

“You, are you a human or… a monster!” I mustered up the courage to communicate, trying not to show fear, but my voice was still shaking.

“Are you the young master of this house?”

Whoosh whoosh… There was still only breathing, no answer.

Crack—

A lightning storm that seemed to split the heavens slid across the sky.

I was so frightened that I shrank my neck, and faintly saw that he seemed to be… trembling.

“Come here…” he finally opened his mouth.

Hoarse, weak, and trembling, but inexplicably pleasant to hear, and even very pure, the kind of purity that hadn’t experienced the beatings of society.

I trembled and dared not go forward: “You, are you human or a monster? Why do you have ears and a tail?”

There was a long silence, only breathing, heartbeats, and thunder.

He chuckled softly: “You’ll know if you come over and see…”