Do you dare enough to make up even more outrageous lies?

Strictly speaking, what Bai Ke called "seeing" was not a common occurrence, because he was not affected by factors such as the brightness of light. Whether it was day or night, sunny or cloudy, he always saw nothing more than the dark silhouettes of people against a heavy black background.

He himself wasn't sure exactly what he saw. Souls? Or something similar?

But one thing was certain, whether it was people or objects, their changes were minimal. There was never a situation where the figures were so dim one day that they were almost indistinguishable, and then clear as day the next. It was the same in reverse.

Even Bai Zixu, who was relatively unstable, only fluctuated between slightly dim and slightly bright due to the degree of his madness. For most people and things, they remained stable in brightness, showing little change over the years.

But tonight, when Bai Ke walked into the corridor carrying Bai Zixu on his back and stood in front of the dim staircase, he already felt something unusual.

Normally, even with his eyes closed, Bai Ke could see the shadows of the staircase railing in the corridor, faint and blurry, no brighter than the black background, but enough for him to confidently ascend the stairs by following these contours. Over the years, there had been no change, even when he hurriedly descended the stairs earlier, everything was the same.

However, this time, as Bai Ke entered the corridor and took a moment to gather himself, all he saw was pitch darkness. If it weren't for himself and the faint glow emanating from the hand hanging around his neck, he might have thought he had gone blind again.

For the first time in his life, Bai Ke somewhat envied a flashlight. Unfortunately, neither he nor his unreliable father on his back was capable of illuminating the corridor even slightly.

So, after standing there for a while with no change, Bai Ke reluctantly opened his eyes.

Actually, truth be told, Bai Ke didn't particularly resist opening his eyes. Although that old lady Chen had caused him quite a bit of psychological trauma when he was young, after a few years, it had faded a lot. It's just that in his daily life, Bai Ke could manage perfectly well with his eyes closed, rarely encountering situations as pitch-black as today, so he didn't need to open his eyes to make things difficult for himself.

But today was different.

If it was just him alone, groping around for a while even if he bumped into things wouldn't matter, but with a load like White Zixu on his back, blindly fumbling upstairs would likely cause a commotion in the entire building before they even made it to their destination.

However, as soon as he opened his eyes and adjusted to the darkness, the contours of the staircase railing indeed emerged. Without hesitation, Bai Ke strode forward, step by step, steadily making his way upstairs.

Just as he reached the second floor and turned around to continue upward, Bai Ke lifted his head and was stunned by the scene before him.

"... "

What's going on?

What were all these little lights fluttering around like moths? What were they... chaotically fluttering about, almost bumping into Bai Ke's face; he shouted, "Watch out, danger ahead!"

Of course, that was something only Bai Zixu would do. These scattered lights in the corridor were obviously much brighter than usual, but they flew around aimlessly, in a state of confusion and unrest.

Bai Ke tried to recall the last time he had opened his eyes in this corridor and what he had seen, but then he somewhat helplessly realized that he had never actually opened his eyes here. Even during the two years he was most curious, he never seemed to have wanted to find out what he could see in this corridor.

But even without any memories, Bai Ke didn't think it was a normal phenomenon to have so many lights scattered in the corridor. After all, every time he saw these lights, they were scattered around the figures of people who had passed away.

"Has someone else passed away in the building? Or is it from the old man Wu who passed away a month ago?" Bai Ke muttered to himself.

But there were no elderly people living in the households upstairs...

Bai Ke hesitated for a moment, but ultimately continued to step upward. Not for any other reason, just because when he was very young, so young that he could barely remember, it seemed like someone had advised something: "When you feel danger, go home." This seemingly ordinary saying inexplicably stayed in his mind, he couldn't remember who said it, the voice, or the scene at the time, but he remembered this sentence.

Actually, strictly speaking, this saying wasn't entirely correct, but people were always especially influenced by certain deeply ingrained childhood memories, so Bai Ke, as he grew older, whenever he encountered something unusual or uncomfortable, his first reaction was to go home first, even he sometimes found this habit inexplicable.

 

However, at this moment, he was still adhering to this sentence, not only because of his subconscious reaction, but also because of Bai Zixu on his back.

But as he continued upstairs, the floating dots of light became more numerous and moved more chaotically.

Bai Ke's brow gradually furrowed, and his steps slowed down slightly.

However, there were only nine steps in total, and he had to reach the top no matter how slow he was... So, Bai Ke turned around the corner of the corridor and stood in front of the stairs leading to the third floor.

With a glance, he could see his own door, but what surprised him was that, in addition to the familiar but dim silhouette of the security door, there were two people standing beside the door.

The silhouettes of these two people were unexpectedly bright, much brighter than most people Bai Ke had seen, even comparable to Auntie Pang and Zongzi, with clear facial features. Even though they were still some distance away, Bai Ke could see the expressions on their faces — slightly... twisted.

Due to being naturally blind, Bai Ke had only been able to truly see the features of a very few individuals in recent years, and even fewer could he read the expressions on their faces. Therefore, when it came to "expressions," Bai Ke didn't quite understand. He could only grasp simple emotions, and anything more complex would be categorized as twisted in his eyes.

However, this "twist" was only fleeting. If it weren't for Bai Ke's peculiar way of seeing people, their expressions wouldn't have been so obvious against the pure black and white contrast, and any ordinary person passing by might not have noticed anything.

The two individuals almost immediately put on a polite and smiling demeanour, bowing their heads towards Bai Ke at the foot of the stairs and saying, "Hello."

Bai Ke was somewhat surprised, and coupled with the momentary "twisted" expressions of the two individuals just now, he became wary of them. However, despite his thoughts, he still maintained his usual calm appearance on the surface, nodded expressionlessly at them, then lowered his head slightly in the dim corridor, steadied Bai Zixu, and climbed the stairs step by step.

The floating dots of light around him became more and more numerous. Finally, as Bai Ke stood in front of his own door, he finally discovered the source of these dots of light.

These seemingly chaotic, noisy and bustling dots of light were all emanating from the chest of the shorter of the two individuals. This person was standing slightly behind, and half of his body was hidden behind the tall and thin figure, making it difficult to notice unless one approached. Of course, if it weren't for Bai Ke, any other person wouldn't have noticed even if they were right in front of the shorter individual.

However, at this point, what attracted Bai Ke's attention was not these dots of light, but the three peculiar things that had been blocked by these two individuals behind them.

They were called peculiar things because they were about half a person tall, with hair dragging on the ground, and where their faces should have been, there were two pairs of eyes visible. From the moment Bai Ke noticed them in front of the door, those eyes remained fixed on Bai Ke, staring at him blankly, as if looking at a corpse or something lifeless. But what was most chilling was their sharp, pointed teeth. Bai Ke felt that even a cow wouldn't withstand a few bites from such teeth. Moreover, their contours were even clearer than those of the taller and shorter individuals, and even surpassed Auntie Pang and the others.

In front of such monsters, Bai Ke felt that it didn't matter if he completely closed his eyes or not. Even if his eyes were frightening, they wouldn't be scarier than these three creatures. Besides, they were only half-open...

Whether it was innate courage or innate calmness, in front of such a strange scene, there was still no obvious reaction on Bai Ke's face, as if he only saw two people smiling kindly.

"Excuse me, can you let me through?" Bai Ke pretended to be stupidly asking the tall and thin person standing conveniently in front of the door lock.

In fact, he really needed to get into the house quickly because Bai Zixu on his back was not light at all. If he lingered here, Bai Ke wouldn't be able to bear it.

However, the tall and thin person showed no sign of giving way. Instead, he politely pointed to the next door and said to Bai Ke, "Hello, little brother, we're here to see your neighbors in room 302. We're their distant relatives. My sister is getting married this time, and we happened to pass by to deliver an invitation. But it seems they're not at home, no one answered when we knocked at the door for a long time. Do you know where their family went?"

As he spoke, the tall and thin person seemingly naturally reached out and patted Bai Ke's shoulder, while at the same time, he moved aside, allowing the short individual behind him to move naturally closer to Bai Ke's side.

"Are you their distant relatives?"

"Yes, my brother and I run a small business in Xiucheng. We're here on a business trip, passing by."

Through his half-opened eyes, Bai Ke glanced at the two individuals who had conveniently crowded in less than an arm's length away from him, then glanced at the three creatures standing behind him who ordinary people couldn't see. With the movements of the two individuals, Bai Ke also stood up one after another, as if he was just going along with them, and the three monsters surrounding Bai Ke remained silent...

"..."

Relatives?

Business?

Business trip?

Do you dare enough to make up even more outrageous lies?

 

Translator : DarNan