The night of March 7th this year is a special day, a day I will never forget.
Because the next day was Women's Day, we had a day off. Late that night, maybe around 1 a.m., I couldn't sleep because I thought I could sleep in the next day. It was very late at night, but I was still in front of the computer, reading posts on the chat board.
In March in the south, after it rained during the day, the night became a little cold, damp and chilly.
I always have many windows open. At that time, I had just become the moderator of the chat forum, and I was also the moderator of two other forums. I also applied for a blog and two other collections. Every time I go online, I will habitually open these windows to check posts and friends' messages. In addition to these windows, there is another place I must go to, that is the chat room "Forty Feelings". Although I often don't have much time to chat, I still have the habit of posting my ID on "Forty" so that friends can see me here when they come in. Another reason is that I have become accustomed to checking here to see if my good friend Rongrong's ID is there. As long as her ID is there, I know she is doing well. If I haven't seen her for a few days, I will feel empty in my heart.
During that time, the man went out for training, the children had already gone to bed, and the lights in the building opposite had long been turned off.
The night is quiet and cold.
In the chat room, besides my ID ymxccy, there were several other names: me, him, her, you, the prison boss, visitor 6318, and visitor 2361. During this time, no one would use the microphone to talk. When no one used the microphone, I always liked to use the microphone to play songs. At that time, I was crazy about Zhang Dongliang's "Who Do You Think of When You Are Lonely", and I could listen to it over and over again for more than ten times.
At that time, I just set the player to loop play and listened to the song over and over again. Maybe it had been playing for an hour.
When I finished reading the chat board, it was already 2 a.m., so I went to Sina Library to find some articles. When I opened the Sina page, I stretched and clicked on Forty Feelings to take a look. It was still the same people. I suddenly clicked on my own video and saw that I was in a relatively good mental state in the video, not too tired or haggard, so I went back to Sina to read the article.
It was a very sad essay, and the music was gentle and melodious, both of which suited my taste. After a while, I was completely immersed in the sad and gloomy atmosphere created by the article, the music, and my own heart.
"Coo, coo" Suddenly the music in the headset stopped, and then there were two sounds like the call of a toad after the rain, and the call came from a very deep pool. I was stunned for a moment, and before I could react, the music started again.
I didn't care and continued reading the article.
"Coo, coo" After a while, the music stopped again, and the toad's call hit my eardrums again. I stopped reading the article and turned on the player. Zhang Dongliang was still singing his loneliness in a somewhat sad way. I couldn't tell anything wrong from the player.
I was confused, muttered to myself, and went back to reading the article.
"Ah–" Suddenly a shrill scream pierced through the dark night, through the headset, and straight into my eardrum. Along with the scream , I seemed to scream at the same time. In fact, to this day, I am not sure whether I screamed at that time, but I also opened my mouth, this is certain, because the scream was short and shrill, and when the sound disappeared, my mouth was still open.
When the sound disappeared, I closed my frightened mouth. This time, the music did not sound again. Silence.
Quiet, deathly quiet.
When I woke up from the panic, my first reaction was to take off the headset, then turned on Forty Feelings, cursing fiercely: "Who is the bastard who played such a sound in the middle of the night? It scared people to death and he didn't have to pay for it…"
I clicked on the 40th Feeling, and my god! The microphone is still in my hand.
I glanced at the chat room rankings again. I was still at the top, and below me were: me, him, her, you, the prison boss, visitor 6318, visitor 2361. There was no change.
I wondered where the sound came from. I opened other windows and checked them one by one. I wondered if I was still in other chat rooms. After I checked them all, I found that I was not in other chat rooms. I checked the two QQ accounts again. All the avatars on QQ were gray, giving people a feeling of no life. Of course, I was not chatting with anyone on QQ.
Although I was a little nervous at the time, I was still calm. I took the headset off my head with one hand and operated the mouse with the other hand. I closed the open windows one by one, including QQ and the player, leaving only the Forty Feelings window.
There was deathly silence again.
"Ding-ding-ding" Suddenly, the computer speaker made the sound of a big clock telling the time. I looked at the clock at home and it was exactly three o'clock in the morning.
Suddenly, along with the sound of the time, seven video screens popped up in the Forty Feelings Room at the same time. The screens were all full of images of long-haired evil spirits with bloody pale faces and long tongues hanging outside their thick black lips, swaying back and forth, with strings of blood dripping down as they swayed.
The headset in my hand also let out a scream, “Ah——”
"Snap!" At this moment, the window next to me suddenly closed! Oh my god! It was not the kind of window that could be pushed outwards, but an aluminum glass window that could be pushed. I watched the window close automatically!
"Ah——" The next scream came from my mouth. I'm sure that this time I really screamed and threw the headset in my hand away.
When the headset fell to the floor with a clang, the images of the seven evil spirits in the chat room disappeared at the same time.
quiet.
I was probably petrified. After a while, when I came to, I found that there was nothing in the Forty Feelings chat room. I was still holding the microphone, and there were still those people hanging below. I blinked hard again and shook my head, "What the hell?" I asked myself softly.
I'm not a coward, but I don't know how I could have seen something like this. I got up and rushed to the bathroom, washed my face with cold water, calmed myself down, and then sat back in front of the computer.
The room was still so quiet, as if nothing had happened, the player was turned off, and there was no sound. I looked back at the window, but it was closed!
I was wondering in my heart, "Dang——" suddenly the heads of seven evil spirits jumped out again, still with long hair, black lips, long, soft and bloody tongues. The difference this time was that the seven heads all had ghostly smiles, and at the same time, a ghostly laugh of "Hey-hey-hey" came from the earphones.
"Turn off your video, quickly, quickly." Suddenly, a magnetic male voice came from the computer speaker, with a quick and kind tone.
I didn't react for a moment. At this time, the seven avatars were slowly retreating. Seven thin and pale hands appeared on the screen. Seven hands slowly stretched out towards me, accompanied by a "hehe" ghost laugh.
"Hurry, turn off your video." The male voice came from the computer speaker again, and this time the tone was not only urgent, but also nervous.
I seemed to be suddenly awakened by the video and quickly turned off my video camera. As I clicked, the images of the seven evil spirits disappeared.
I sat in the chair in fear, not daring to move.
"Okay, they're gone. Don't be afraid. Everything's okay." The male voice from the computer speaker appeared again, caring for me affectionately.
"Then, then… who are you?" I asked tremblingly.
"My name is Hao, and I'm your old chat friend. Don't be afraid, it's over, and you're safe now, there's no danger." His tone became gentle and loving, "No matter what happens, don't be afraid, I won't let you get hurt."
"Hmm." I still didn't wake up and I didn't know what was going on!
"Look out the window. There are your favorite stars in the sky, and a few magnolia flowers have bloomed by the window." He still had that extremely steady and kind tone.
I turned my head to look at the window, only to see that it was slowly pushed open by an invisible hand. Through the open window, I really saw the stars, and then I smelled the fragrance of magnolia.
A gust of wind blew in from the open window and blew on me, making me shiver. At this moment, I realized that I was covered in sweat, and the wind felt cold.
"Put on a coat and be careful not to catch a cold." The computer speaker continued to speak.
I found a coat to put on, coughed twice to give myself courage, and then said, "Okay, you can tell me what's going on now."
"Put on your headset, turn on your video, and I'll talk to you slowly."
I glanced at the headset on the ground, hesitating.
"Don't worry, I won't scare you, haha." He laughed.
So I put on the headset and clicked on the video. I saw him. He looked like a man who was just over 40 years old. He had sharp features and looked tough, but his face was a little pale. He smiled at me in the video and started talking.
"Time flies by fast. Before I knew it, you have been in the Forty Feelings chat room for two years. Forty Feelings was originally in TOM. After TOM cancelled the chat room, Long Lao Da moved here. This group of friends is pretty good. They have always been here, which shows that this is a good place for leisure and entertainment, and that everyone is destined to be together. I started to notice you when you were in TOM. I like to listen to the tone of your voice, especially, haha."
"Really? A lot of people say that. Maybe Cantonese people just have a weird tone when speaking Mandarin." I laughed too, because quite a few people have said the same thing to me.
"No, the tone of your voice when you speak is very special and has a lot of flavor." He said seriously, "In the past two years, I have been hiding down there. I have never said a word. I often just hang around and listen to you guys chatting while working. In fact, you are also old, but you are still like a child when you are naughty." He laughed softly again. I didn't feel that he was talking about me. It was rather like I was listening to him telling someone else's story.
"I can feel that you have more happy days than unhappy days. At the beginning, you were always very arrogant in Forty Feelings, and you liked to tease this and stun that. It was very interesting." He continued, "If you hadn't made up those stories, perhaps many things would not have happened later. I mean that you wrote stories using the ID in Forty Feelings. I know that those stories were all imagined by you. Originally, there is nothing wrong with writing stories, as long as they are well written. But you just wrote about love and hate, and the worst thing is that you also wrote some hot emotional scenes vaguely, vaguely, and seemingly there. As the plot deepened, some problems began to be exposed."
He paused and continued, "Later, someone told you through someone else not to mention her (his) ID in your article. Even though you may not be familiar with those IDs, or you may not have considered including them, someone always reminded you. Do you still remember?"
What he said was indeed true, and this was what happened at that time.
"This should have caught your attention, but you were too playful to think about it carefully. You just continued to make up your imaginary story." He continued, "Later, the protagonist of the story, Tianxing, finally couldn't stand the gossip of some people and left Forty Feelings."
"Tianxing? Rumors?" I was very curious.
"Yes, some people have said a lot about him, saying that he is lucky in love."
"No, I asked for his opinion before writing. He said I could make up the story however I wanted, so I dared to write his." I was a little confused.
"He didn't care about these things at first, but then someone said you were a flirtatious woman, and he didn't want others to say that about you, so he chose to leave Forty Feelings."
This time I was really shocked. When Tianxing left Forty Feelings, he just told me that the way of playing in Forty Feelings was not suitable for him and he wanted to find a place that suited him. After he told me that he was leaving, he really left and never came back.
"Forty Years is a very good place, but it's a pity that some people bring some bad things," he continued.
"Bad things?" I didn't understand.
"Yes, for example, distorted emotions, jealousy, arrogance, vanity, dirty words, etc., all these things finally merged into an invisible dirty thing, and the power became stronger and stronger, and finally turned into the pictures that appeared in front of you tonight. When these dirty things are rampant, they will stimulate the nerves of some netizens, making some people nervous and particularly sensitive, and they will be suspicious of others, causing tension among everyone. In serious cases, some people with weak wills will jump off buildings, commit suicide, etc."
"Ah!" I was startled again.
"How do you know this?" I asked.
"Don't be afraid. I've been hanging out at Forty Feelings all the time and I'm very familiar with what's happening there. Before the Spring Festival, I went out for a social event and drank too much. I really wanted to come back quickly to listen to you guys chatting, but I had a car accident on the highway." He stopped here.
"You…you are a ghost?" I stared at his pale face, and suddenly thought of the scene where the window opened automatically just now. My whole body suddenly tensed up, my scalp went numb, and my upper teeth chattered with my lower teeth when I spoke, and my voice was vague.
"Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you." His tone suddenly became urgent again, full of love and compassion, and his face showed an anxious expression. He kept saying, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. Calm down, calm down."
After about five seconds, I took a long breath, calmed myself down, gritted my teeth, looked at him and said, "Go on."
"Okay, but don't be nervous." He also took a long breath and continued with confidence: "Yes, I died on the spot. The one talking to you now is indeed a ghost, but don't worry, I'm a good ghost." He smiled and said, "According to the rules, my soul should go to heaven after death, but before going to heaven, I couldn't help but run back to the Forty Feelings room and took a walk around. When I came back, I saw those dirty things. Those dirty things were circling around Forty Feelings' old friend. Maybe it's because I came back as a soul, I can see those dirty things. I saw them circling around you, and I was worried about you, so I stayed."
"But I'm a new ghost, and I don't know how to stop those dirty things. So, I went to many places, such as martyrs' cemeteries, public graves, and even mass graves. I met many ghosts and asked them for ways to stop these dirty things. Finally I learned that in order to stop them, you must let them into the video or headset to watch, and suddenly cut them off, they will no longer have life. So, this is why I asked you to cut off the video just now. It was my first time doing such a thing, and it was very successful." At this point, a smug expression appeared on his pale face.
"Okay, this is the situation. You can play without worry from now on. There won't be any dirt. However, you stay up too late surfing the Internet. It's not good for your health. You should be careful in the future and go to bed early." After he said that, he waved at me.
"What about you?" I asked.
"My mission is accomplished and I can go to heaven," he smiled.
"Oh." I wanted to say something, but then I heard him say, "Log off and go to bed."
Then, with a click, the computer shut down automatically.
I lay in bed, but of course I couldn't fall asleep. I kept thinking about what had happened, but I still didn't seem to understand what was going on. However, I was really too tired, so I fell asleep after a while.
Later, I didn't go online for two consecutive days because of something. When I went online again, the video of Forty Feelings was cancelled due to the website's problems. Since then, I still hang out on Forty Feelings, chat, play songs, but I have never seen the ghost named Hao again. I think he may have returned to heaven. He should be very happy.
postscript:
I thought the matter was over, but on the night of June 12, the Forty Feelings video was reopened. That night, looking at those cameras, I felt a strange feeling, and I didn't want to chat, I just stared blankly. After a while, I clicked on my own video.
Oh my god! The pictures in the video are not mine, but Hao's!
"Hi." Hao greeted me with a smile, and then said, "Happy birthday!"
I was dumbfounded: "You, you, you, how did you know that today is my birthday?"
"Don't forget, I'm a ghost." He laughed.
“Didn’t you go to heaven?” I asked.
"I'll go. God says that loving souls are free. I can move around."
A loving soul is free, and I smiled too.