Chapter 52.2 Sister
Song Qingluo’s breath suffocated, and his expression suddenly changed. He stared at the empty cabinet door for a while, and suddenly sneered: “Are you worthy of snatching someone from me?”
Lin Banxia didn’t know what happened. When he regained consciousness again, he found that he was not on a soft bed, but in a small, dark space surrounded by walls. Lin Banxia groped around, and when his fingers touched a hard object that he thought was a wall, he suddenly realized where he was – he was locked in a small cupboard.
Because the cabinet was too small, he couldn’t even stand up. He could only try to push the cabinet door in front of him to get out of here, but just as he was doing this, the sound of footsteps suddenly came from outside. The sound seemed like someone was approaching him. Lin Banxia reflexively wanted to shout for help, but suddenly there was a sound in his ears. He remembered a familiar voice.
“Don’t talk, you will be discovered.” The voice was young and soft, belonging to a young girl.
Lin Banxia’s eyes widened. He would never forget the owner of this voice. There was a hint of trembling in his voice, and he called out her name in a low voice: “Xiaohua.”
“I’m here, I’m here.” Xiaohua’s voice was very soft, like the sweetest toffee Lin Banxia had ever tasted. She said, “Don’t be afraid, I will always be with you.”
The footsteps were getting closer and closer, and he could hear that it was about to reach the cabinet.
Although Lin Banxia didn’t know what it was, he became inexplicably nervous. He wanted to ask about the current situation, but He Xiaohua shushed gently in his ear, signaling him to be silent. Lin Banxia knew that she would not harm him, so he shut up obediently.
The footsteps stopped in front of the cabinet. Lin Banxia vaguely saw the person standing outside through the small crack in the cabinet door. The woman’s figure was a little blurry, but he could vaguely see a pale face. Below her, an overly exaggerated mouth was drawn with blood-red lipstick. She actually had no eyes. She seemed to be searching for things by her sense of smell. Her nose was constantly twitching, which looked scary and weird. However, the most terrifying thing was that from Lin Banxia’s angle, he could see the sharp kitchen knife in her hand. The blade reflects a penetrating white light, which passed through the narrow gap and hit Lin Banxia’s cheek. He held his breath involuntarily, trying to hide his presence. However, the woman seemed to smell something. Her overly wide mouth slowly opened, revealing her dark throat, and she said, “I know you are inside.”
Lin Banxia’s breath was held. He watched helplessly as the woman stretched out her hand, grabbed the cabinet door, and then pulled hard…
However, the cabinet door did not open. Lin Banxia took a closer look and found a lock hanging on the cabinet door.
The woman cursed loudly, her voice getting louder and harsher, which reminded Lin Banxia of someone…his aunt. His aunt was like this, irritable and short-tempered. Whenever she was in a bad mood, she would take it out on Lin Banxia.
The woman couldn’t open the cabinet door, so she finally noticed the lock hanging on the cabinet door. She smiled ferociously, raised the blade in her hand, and slashed at the lock.
When Lin Banxia saw this scene, his heart beat wildly, but the only thing he could do was huddle up in the cold cupboard.
Once, twice, the lock, which was not very strong in the first place, was soon smashed by the woman. The woman let out a harsh laugh and was about to make the final blow, but there was the sound of the door being opened behind her, accompanied by children. The sound of crying and running seemed to be a child staggering out from behind her.
When the woman heard this voice, she immediately stopped what she was doing, turned around, and stalked after her, leaving Lin Banxia behind for the time being.
Lin Banxia saw her walking away and stretched out his hand to push open the cabinet door in front of him. However, as soon as he stretched out his hand, he felt something was wrong. When he looked down, he found that his arms were as thin as firewood sticks. They were clearly the hands of a child.
How come?! Lin Banxia was shocked and had a strong premonition in his heart, but he didn’t dare to waste too much time here, so he slammed his body against the cabinet door. After hitting it several times, the lock finally fell off and the cabinet door opened with a click. Lin Banxia staggered and fell out of the cabinet. He stood up in a hurry, looked around, and finally discovered what the problem was. He had actually become smaller, and the whole world seemed to be looming in his eyes.
He was clearly in bed in the hotel just now, why was he here now? Lin Banxia really couldn’t figure it out for a while.
At that moment, the clicking footsteps came from outside the door again, and along with the woman’s sharp curses, Lin Banxia immediately realized that the terrifying woman from just now was back. He took a deep breath, turned around and ran outside the house, not daring to look back, and left the house as quickly as possible. The moment he rushed out of the house, Lin Banxia glanced behind him. He saw that the neat furnishings in the house were exactly the same as the old house where he once lived.
Although he discovered something fishy, Lin Banxia didn’t dare to stop. He almost rolled and crawled out of the yard and threw himself into the weeds on the roadside.
As soon as he left, the woman came back. She was carrying something in her hand. Lin Banxia couldn’t see clearly, but from a distance, it looked like a child. The woman carried the child into the house. Lin Banxia stood up in fear, wanting to get closer to see the child clearly, but his eyes were suddenly covered by a pair of cold hands.
“Don’t go back, don’t go back…” The owner of the little hand had a childish voice. It was He Xiaohua who Lin Banxia was thinking about. She said, “Run quickly, Xia Xia, run quickly.”
Lin Banxia gently pushed away the little girl’s hand. He turned his head and finally saw that familiar face. He couldn’t help but his eyes were hot, and he reached out and hugged her heavily: “Xiaohua…Xiaohua!!! I missed you so much.”
“Why are you back?” He Xiaohua said, “Didn’t you promise me you wouldn’t come back?”
Lin Banxia was a little confused: “What did you say?”
He Xiaohua looked at Lin Banxia with a sad look in her eyes. She stretched out her hand and gently wiped away Lin Banxia’s tears: “You shouldn’t have come back.”
Lin Banxia said: “Why?”
He Xiaohua did not answer, but carefully made a shushing gesture and pointed into the distance.
Lin Banxia looked up and saw countless black shadows appearing on the dark mountain road. These shadows looked like people and other things. As they got closer, Lin Banxia realized that he couldn’t see their faces clearly.
“I’ll lure them away. Remember to run home.” He Xiaohua said, “Be careful, don’t fall into the river…”
Lin Banxia still had many questions to ask him, but now was obviously not the right time.
He Xiaohua stood up and ran towards the distance. The sound of her running seemed to attract those strange black shadows, and the black shadows immediately followed her. Lin Banxia gritted his teeth, decided to listen to He Xiaohua’s words, and ran towards home, but as soon as he took two steps, he suddenly realized that he didn’t know where his home was.
His aunt’s home was not his home. As a child, he had no such thing as a home.
Even so, Lin Banxia didn’t want to sit still and wait for death. He glanced at the direction where Xiaohua disappeared and decided to run away in the opposite direction to avoid those dark figures. Thinking like this, Lin Banxia did just that. He ran up the thin field ridge, which was covered with mud. There was no moon or stars in the sky, and the whole world was as dark as if it was covered by a curtain.
Lin Banxia was running aimlessly on two thin legs. He could not see anything or hear any sound. The surroundings were vaguely like the gloomy reflection of monsters, and it seemed that the whole world was distorted. He didn’t know why he was here, nor why he became a child, but the forgotten memories of his childhood began to revive as he ran.
It seemed that one cold night, he was in the same place, hiding from the terrifying pursuers behind him.
What was chasing him? Lin Banxia suddenly felt something. He suddenly stopped and turned around. In the darkness, he saw several cold lights. The lights were mixed with human voices. There were the voices of men and women. Their faces faded under the lights. Now, every face looked like an evil ghost.
Lin Banxia suddenly started to tremble all over, and his heart started to beat wildly. The fear that he could not feel before now enveloped his whole body like a tide. He didn’t know why he was so scared, but his body reacted one step faster than the conscious reaction.
Lin Banxia started running again. He didn’t dare to look back and ran forward with almost all his strength.
However, he was just a child at this time. Even if he tried his best, how could he outrun an adult? The evil ghosts behind him were getting closer and closer to him. He had no choice but to move forward regardless, but the strength in his legs became less and less. Finally, he staggered a few steps, stepped wrong with one foot in the dark, and suddenly lost his balance, falling from the ridge into the paddy field next to him.
The water in the paddy field was not deep, but Lin Banxia was too short. He choked several times and when he wanted to struggle to get up from the field, the evil spirits were already in front of him.
There were strange and terrifying faces, each of them looked exactly the same. They bent down on the field ridge and stared coldly at the poor child struggling like an insect in the paddy field.
The evil spirits let out harsh laughter, and they surrounded Lin Banxia. One of them reached out and grabbed Lin Banxia’s slender arm.
Lin Banxia wanted to break free, but the evil ghost’s hands seemed to be made of iron, and his strength was no different than a cricket shaking a tree.
Just like that, Lin Banxia was forcibly lifted out of the water. He was soaked all over. The horrible evil spirits dragged him in the direction he was coming from like they were dragging garbage.
“Help…” Lin Banxia heard his cry. This cry was not made by him on his own initiative, but rather seemed to be the instinct of his body. He felt that his body was constantly rubbing against the stone. Memories began to emerge, everything was so familiar, and the familiarity made him feel unspeakable despair and fear deep in his heart.
“Don’t…” The child was very light. He was held in their hands like a poor kitten. No one could save him. He was thrown and beaten all the way until the scary low house appeared in front of him again.
Lin Banxia remembered that one night, when he was a child, he was treated so rudely. He ran desperately in the wilderness, was roughly caught, cursed, and beaten, and then was viciously taken home.
No, that place shouldn’t be called home, Lin Banxia thought. That place was not worthy of being called home.
This time, it was a little different from what he remembered. At least Lin Banxia didn’t cry. Although he was scared, desperate, and had no strength, he was still struggling hard, biting, and grabbing with his tiny teeth. He believed that someone would come to save him from these evil spirits.
After being dragged all the way, a small house appeared in front of Lin Banxia. There were lights inside, but it was scarier than hell. Lin Banxia’s body shook uncontrollably. He wanted to calm down, but he couldn’t control his physiological reaction at all. It was as if these emotions were engraved in his bones.
After being caught and taken back to the low house, Lin Banxia saw the dilapidated cupboard again. The knife was still there, but the woman was gone. He was thrown into the cupboard, and then the door of the cupboard was slammed shut, and those things left a lock on the outside.
Lin Banxia failed to escape and was captured again. His body was in pain, as if his skin was covered with dense wounds, and his right hand seemed to be dislocated. He sat quietly in the cabinet for a while, took a deep breath, and began to try to push the cabinet door open.
However, the lock was firmly hung on it, and with Lin Banxia’s current strength, there was nothing he could do. Lin Banxia was a little tired. He hugged his legs and coughed quietly, trying to eliminate the fear in his heart and thinking about how to deal with it.
However, before he could think of it, he heard a loud “bang”, as if someone was slamming the cabinet hard.
A pale face appeared outside the cupboard. His gloomy eyes could be seen so clearly even though there was only a small gap. A sharp and harsh voice sounded, accompanied by curses full of hate. He started to slap the thin cupboard hard.
“Lin Banxia!!! Lin Banxia!!!” someone was calling Lin Banxia’s name, “Just stay in there forever!!!”
Laughter, crying, cursing, countless voices. There were continuous sounds, and countless ferocious faces squeezed into the gaps in the cabinet. Lin Banxia wanted to retreat, but behind him was the cold cabinet wall. He finally realized that he had nowhere to escape. As a young boy, he could only watch helplessly as he was wrapped in despair.
Pain, panic, despair, and countless emotions that did not belong to Lin Banxia poured into his body. The severe pain impacted Lin Banxia’s nerves. At the moment when his consciousness was about to leave the body, Lin Banxia felt his own hand being carefully wrapped in another pair of small hands.
He turned around blankly and saw a girl squatting beside him at some point. The girl said, “Lin Banxia, don’t be afraid, I’m here.”
She gave him a bright smile.
At that moment, Lin Banxia suddenly felt that something was withdrawn from his body, and his soul fell into an unprecedented tranquility.
There is no doubt that this change had become the best change in his life.
The author has something to say:
Song Qingluo: Why did you go into the closet?
Lin Banxia: To…come out?
Song Qingluo:…………
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