NO.1
I am an editor of a newspaper. My daily job is to collect some supernatural or horror stories online, and occasionally write some myself. These days, there are more people writing novels online than reading novels, but not many of them are well written, and even fewer of them are horror novels. Therefore, I often worry about not receiving satisfactory manuscripts.
One day I was typing on the computer when my cell phone suddenly rang. It was an unfamiliar number.
"Hello, is this Editor Song from the Supernatural Files section of S News?" came a woman's anxious and slightly frightened voice.
"Well, I'm editor Song Shuang. May I ask you…"
"Can you come over here? I have a manuscript for you. My home is…" She interrupted me eagerly before I finished speaking and told me her home address. I wrote down the address casually, and my intuition told me that this woman must have encountered some problems!
I turned off my computer, grabbed my bag and rushed to the place the strange woman on the phone had mentioned. I instinctively smelled a hint of danger, and that familiar feeling made me feel excited and nervous.
Room 201, Building C, Garden Community. I rang the doorbell, and a young woman with long hair, a slim waist, and a white cotton dress opened the door.
"Hello, I'm Editor Song from the Supernatural Archives section of S Newspaper…" I said. "I know! Come in!" She dragged me into the house. I tripped on the threshold and almost fell. Before I could scream, I heard the door slam shut.
What was she going to do? I was secretly surprised, and my hands involuntarily looked around for "weapons".
"Don't be nervous, I'm not a bad person. I'm scared, I want to talk to you about something…" She twisted her fingers hard, a little incoherent. "What is it? Don't be scared, talk slowly." I sat next to her on the sofa, holding her hand and comforting her.
"Do you… believe that there are ghosts in this world?" she asked suddenly looking up, her pale lips trembling slightly.
"Haha, what a ghost , I'd rather believe you're a female ghost." I held her hand tightly and joked. Her fingers were dry and cold. "Although I collect horror stories every day and write them myself, I can tell you responsibly that those stories are all imagined by the authors, purely fictional, and just to entertain the public. I've written so many horror stories, but I've never seen a ghost."
"I know no one will believe it, but it's true… it's true… there is a strange woman in my room, I can feel it. Every night after eleven o'clock, there would be a 'rushing' sound of water in the bathroom, and the next morning there would be a blood-red lip print on the bathroom mirror. I initially thought it was an illusion caused by my neurasthenia, but it turned out not to be the case. Because I clearly saw the lip print on the mirror, but the next day a ghost would appear in the same place, and the shape was different every day. In order to prove that it was not an illusion, I took a few photos with my mobile phone, if you don't believe me, look…" She took out her mobile phone and showed me the photos.
It was a group of lip prints of various shapes, some with slightly parted red lips, some with rounded cherry lips, and the lips were plump and very tempting. I looked up at the woman opposite me and found that she was actually quite pretty. Although her face was pale and without makeup, it was hard to hide her natural beauty.
"Well…oh, I don't know what to call you yet." I handed the phone back to her. "My last name is Zhu, you can call me Qing'er."
"Well, Qing'er," I laughed, "the sound of water might have come from upstairs or the house next door. As for the lip prints on the mirror…" I touched her lips with my fingertips. It was probably left by you while sleepwalking.
"Impossible! I never sleepwalk, and I always only use light-colored lip gloss and never buy bright-colored lipstick."
"Do you live alone?" I asked after thinking for a while with my head down.
"Well. This house was bought by my boyfriend. He never came back after we broke up a year ago. I have nowhere to go, so I have lived here alone for more than a year. Recently, I encountered these strange things." She twisted her fingers, and there was no trace of blood on her pale face.
"Why…why did you break up with your boyfriend?" I asked cautiously.
"He hooked up with my best friend! That bastard!" She gritted her teeth, a strange smile appearing on her delicate face. "I even tried to commit suicide by cutting my wrists because of this, but luckily I'm lucky and survived. I'm going to wait here for him to come back and ask him why he is so cruel!" She bit her red lips with her pearly teeth and said hatefully.
I held her hand and whispered a few words of comfort.
"Oh, I forgot one thing." She stood up and walked to the table and took out a stack of manuscript paper. "This is a horror novel I wrote. I forgot to tell you that I am an online writer and often write horror novels. I really like your stories in the supernatural archives, especially yours. I thought you must have had special experiences, so… I didn't expect you didn't believe such things either." She put the manuscript in my hand. "These are all real things I encountered recently. If you don't believe it, just treat it as a story."
I took the manuscript, smiled guiltily and said, "I'm really sorry that I couldn't help you. You should hang out with your friends more often. Staying at home all the time is not good for your body and mind. Your skin is too pale, you need more sun. Don't always read horror novels when you're alone at home. It's easy to have hallucinations if you stay alone for a long time."
"I know you won't believe it, but it's not an illusion! There really is a woman… in my room…"
"Okay, okay! Take a shower, change into nice clothes, go shopping or date, stop thinking about and watching those horror stories. Have a good sleep at night, and if those strange things happen again tomorrow, I will come to accompany you tomorrow night." I patted her small face and said with a smile. To be honest, she was born very lovable, and I really don't know how her boyfriend could bear to leave her.
"Really?" A hint of surprise appeared on her pale face, "You will come to accompany me tomorrow?"
"Well, the premise is that you have to go out for a good walk. Have a good sleep at night, and you will find that nothing will happen the next day." I comforted her. Haha, she is really a little girl who has not grown up.
She said goodbye to me at the door, and I gave her a big hug. She leaned on my shoulder and said, "Sister Song, you must come to see me tomorrow." An old lady from upstairs came downstairs to take out the trash. She looked at me with a weird look for two seconds, then threw away the trash and ran back in panic. It was like she had seen a ghost.
"Ignore her!" Qing'er said dissatisfiedly, "The people in this building are weird. Every time I say hello to them, they ignore me." I smiled and waved goodbye to her.
No.2
As soon as I got back to my place, I received a call from my good friend Yu Yan: "Song, where are you now? I want to see you! I've encountered something strange recently…" I was stunned. I just encountered one strange thing and I haven't dealt with it yet, and I encountered another one. I am just a writer who occasionally writes horror novels, not an expert in the supernatural. Why do I always find me when there is a strange thing? It seems that I need to change my career.
Ten minutes later, Yu Yan rushed to my place (it was rented, so it couldn't be called home) and drank a large glass of water in one breath: "I'm so unlucky! I saved up money for several years to buy a house, but I didn't expect that this house is not clean!"
I forgot to introduce my friend. She is working in a big hotel now. In order to earn more money to buy a house, she often does some part-time jobs after get off work, so she often goes home very late. She is a natural beauty, with bright eyes, white teeth, white skin, and especially charming lips. Unfortunately, the words coming out of her mouth are often not so beautiful.
"If it's dirty, just clean it up!" I joked.
"You know, I'm talking about… haunting!" she sputtered. "There's a woman in my room!"
"Puff~" I spit all the water on the coffee table, "It's a woman again! Haha, there are two women in my room, one for you and one for me, that's two of us! You don't stay at home reading horror novels every day, why are you so suspicious?
"I'm not kidding you, I'm telling the truth! Every night when I came back, I found that things in the living room had been moved, but nothing was missing. The bathroom was always wet, and there was a special smell, like soap. But there was no soap with that smell in the bathroom. There were always a few long hairs on the bathtub, and they were definitely not mine! You know, I have always had short hair! One time when I came back at night, I heard a noise in the empty room. I quietly walked to the door, but heard a woman crying softly from inside. But I pushed the door open a crack, but found nothing."
As I listened, I scratched my head with a pen in my hand, "Hey, this is a good material for a novel."
"Little hoof, are you tired of living?" The goblin stretched out his Nine Yin White Bone Claws and grabbed me, "I'm telling you something serious, how dare you not take it seriously!"
"Please spare me this time, sister!" I laughed so hard that I almost choked because of her tickling. "Give me your address and I'll visit you some other day. I want to see what kind of evildoer is so bold as to lurk in the house of the evildoer Yu Yan and cause trouble."
I felt a slap on my forehead. Yu Yan hurriedly tore off a piece of paper and wrote down her new home address, folded it and handed it to me. I put it in my notebook.
"I have something else to do, so I won't chat with you anymore. If you have time, please come visit me. I'm going crazy!" She grabbed her bag and left, not forgetting to take an orange from me.
The next morning, after getting up, I took out Qing'er's manuscript and read it. She is indeed an online writer, and she writes horror novels better than me. The story is a bit messy, but it is very real… yes, real. Wait! I suddenly remembered what Qing'er said, "These are all true things that happened in my life", and I felt a strange feeling in my heart.
At this moment, the phone suddenly rang. It was Qing'er calling.
"Sister Song, please come here quickly, I'm scared! I…I saw her…"
"Qing'er, don't be afraid. Tell me slowly. Who did you see?"
"That woman! The woman in my room! Last night, I saw… her… she was walking around in the living room… Come here quickly!" Qing'er's trembling voice sounded a little neurotic and hysterical.
I was afraid something might happen to her, so I quickly took a taxi. When I passed by the newspaper office, I handed the revised manuscripts (including Qing'er's) in my bag to my colleague Xiao Wu, "This is the manuscript for this issue of the Supernatural Archives. Please help me take it to the editor-in-chief and ask her to review it and sign it. Please help me with anything in advance. I have something to do…"
NO.3
Qing'er huddled on the sofa, hugging a pillow, her hair was messy, her face was pale and tired. The thick curtains blocked the light outside, making it difficult to distinguish between day and night; and the dim light in the living room made people feel dazed. I think if I stayed in such an environment every day, I would definitely become mentally disturbed.
"Yesterday I listened to you and went out for a day alone. I was very tired when I came back, so I went to bed early. I have always been suffering from neurasthenia, and I have to take a few sleeping pills before going to bed at night. I was very sleepy yesterday, so I didn't take the pills. I don't know when I fell asleep, I heard the sound of a key opening the door… Then the door opened, and someone walked into the living room… There was a rustling sound… I was so scared! She went into the bathroom, and the water was 'gurgling'… I opened the door of the room a crack, and I saw her! I saw a pale face… There was no expression… The white skirt dragged on the ground… There was no sound when she walked… I fainted at that time, and when I woke up, it was dawn, and I was the only one in the room, as if I was dreaming… I ran to the bathroom and saw, God! There was another lip print on the mirror! That was not an illusion, if you don't believe me, go and see for yourself…"
I followed her into the bathroom, half believing and half doubting. It was a half-meter-high makeup mirror nailed to the sink. On it was a blood-red lip print. Maybe it was a psychological effect, the lip print looked very hideous, no wonder Qing'er was so panicked. I looked back at Qing'er, her lips were dry and pale, not like she had applied lipstick and then wiped it off; and… the lip shape was wrong.
I rubbed the lip print with my fingertips and found that it was indeed fresh lipstick mud. There were very clear lip lines on the mirror. It seemed that someone had given the mirror, or the self in the mirror, a real kiss. But that person was definitely not Qing'er, she didn't have such full lips.
I really couldn't find a reasonable explanation to comfort a frightened girl. I had to tell her, okay, I'll stay with you tonight. I also wanted to figure out what was going on. If it was really Qing'er's hallucination, that would be another matter; but if it was true as Qing'er said, there was a strange "woman" in this house, then this woman was either alive, or she had been alive.
Night fell quietly as the two women waited nervously and excitedly for a long time.
In order to stay awake, I have already drunk five cups of coffee, and Qing'er did not take sleeping pills as usual. When the wall clock pointed to 11 o'clock, Qing'er began to look anxious and manic. I asked her to take two sleeping pills and go to sleep, and I was the only one "keeping watch".
11 o'clock passed, midnight passed, 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock… I finally couldn't bear it anymore and fell asleep on the sofa.
"Sister Song, wake up! Sister Song…"
I jumped up in surprise: "What's going on?" I looked at the light coming through the thick curtains and realized that it was daybreak. "Go to the mirror!" I shouted and rushed to the bathroom.
"Why…why is there nothing?" Qing'er murmured. Her expression was very disappointed, as if she was hoping for something.
"Maybe she knew you had hired some help, so that 'woman' stopped her activities?" I said jokingly, "Someone must have seen you living alone as a girl, so they pretended to be a ghost to scare you. Just change the locks next time."
Qing'er nodded gloomily. It seemed that she was not satisfied with the outcome of the matter.
NO.4
After leaving Qing'er's house, I went straight to the newspaper office. The newspaper was printed, and the editor-in-chief was very satisfied with the manuscript of this issue of the supernatural archives.