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墨書 Inktalez
On the morning of the twenty-first, something strange happened.
Early in the morning, there was a knock on the door. Ye Xiaohan mumbled and turned over, pulling the blanket over her head to ignore the sounds outside.
The knocking paused for a moment, and everything around her fell silent. With the quietness returning, Ye Xiaohan comfortably drifted back into a daze.
Unexpectedly, the knocking resumed immediately, accompanied by a voice calling out, "Xiao Han, are you in there? Are you okay? Wake up!"
"Sister-in-law, get up quickly! Something's happened at home!"
"Sister-in-law, Osmanthus Cake didn't steal anything."
Ye Xiaohan felt annoyed by the noise and curled up in the center of her bed, covering her ears with a frown.
The voice of Liu Bei grew louder and sounded somewhat anxious. "Xiao Han, I'm coming in!"
Liu Yang chimed in from the side, "Big Brother, hurry up and check what's going on. We can't let anything happen!"
Liu Bei took a step back to gather strength, preparing to break down the locked door. Just as he moved, the door swung open, revealing Ye Xiaohan with her messy hair from sleep, glaring at them angrily.
"What madness is this? Disturbing my dreams so early in the morning! Don't you fear someone cutting your wires in the middle of the night?" Ye Xiaohan shouted irritably. Anyone who disturbed her sleep in the morning was her enemy!
Liu Yang rushed forward, staring at her nervously. "Sister-in-law, you really are okay? We called for so long without an answer; we were scared to death!"
Ye Xiaohan reached out and knocked on his head. "Can't you see what time it is? It's not even bright yet! You usually don't get up this early!"
She switched from knocking to pulling: "Look over there! Is that the lingering night or is it still evening?" Turning her head, she glared at 6 Bei, "Why are you acting up too? Aren't you old enough for this?"
"No, sister-in-law, we didn't mean to wake you up with our antics. There's really something going on!" 6 Yang pulled his head out from under Ye Xiaohan's grasp, fixing his disheveled hair. It had just been neatly arranged, but now it was a mess again. When would his sister-in-law's habit of resorting to violence over trivial matters change?
Seeing Ye Xiaohan come out unscathed, 6 Bei let out a sigh of relief. But then, for some reason, anger flared up suddenly: "If nothing's wrong, why didn't you come open the door sooner? Do you know how worried we were?"
Ye Xiaohan's previously calmed anger ignited again like a spark catching fire: "What could possibly be so urgent that you had to wake me up at this hour? Can't it wait a bit? Am I going to get into trouble? What could happen to me in my own home? Are you out of your mind?"
In her agitation, familiar modern phrases slipped out of Ye Xiaohan's mouth without her noticing.
6 Bei had been tense all along, and after finally relaxing, he needed an outlet for his frustration. His tone lost its usual calmness and became somewhat impatient: "We knocked for half an hour; people down the street must have heard us. How could you not react at all? How can we not be anxious?"
"What could possibly happen to me? Don't think too highly of me! Even if something happened on this street, I'd still be just fine!" Ye Xiaohan retorted defiantly. She simply couldn't stand 6 Bei shouting at her like that; everyone else could do it, but not him!
No, wait, everyone else shouldn't do it either!
Fuming, Ye Xiaohan stood by the roadside, her thoughts wandering off somewhere she couldn't track.
Fearing they would escalate their argument further and truly start fighting, 6 Yang quickly stepped between them to intervene: "Big brother, sister-in-law, stop arguing! Let's sort this out first."
"Sister-in-law, we didn't mean to disturb you. There was a burglary at our house last night! Big brother was worried that you might have fallen victim to the thief's schemes, which is why he was so anxious. Please don't be mad at him." 6 Yang explained their strange behavior.
Ye Xiaohan was taken aback: "A burglary? How is that possible? We just moved in; we can't even remember where we put our things. How could those thieves figure it out?"
6 Bei scoffed: "It's not thieves; it's ghosts! I've felt something off about this place for a long time. The previous owners never stayed long; there's definitely something wrong with this house!"
Ye Xiaohan shot him a glance. "Children shouldn't talk about strange forces and supernatural beings. These are just made-up stories to scare people. Only the uneducated country folks would believe such nonsense, right, Liu Yang?"
Liu Yang, who had been called out, felt stuck. He couldn't afford to offend either his older brother or his sister-in-law. "Big Brother, calm down. It's good that Sister-in-law is fine, isn't it? Sister-in-law, it's not that my brother thinks it's a ghost; it's just that this situation is too bizarre."
Liu Yang pointed towards Qi's room. "Sister-in-law, come look. Something's gone missing from Qi's room."
"Hmm?" Ye Xiaohan followed him over, with Qi trailing behind her and Liu Bei wearing a gloomy expression as they all entered Qi's room.
Ye Xiaohan was puzzled. "Qi's room hardly has anything in it that she could trip over. What could possibly be stolen?"
If a thief really had entered, would they have stumbled around blindly into Qi's room?
"Sister-in-law, look at this," Liu Yang said as he led her to the table, pointing at the empty surface.
Qi had started to learn; when Ye Xiaohan designed her room, she had specially ordered a long table against the wall that could serve as a desk.
To prevent the child from getting hungry too quickly, she usually placed some fruits and snacks on it.
Now the table was completely bare. Ye Xiaohan looked closely and realized, "The Osmanthus Cake I prepared for Qi last night is missing, along with the plate?"
"Exactly!" Liu Yang pointed to a corner of the yard. "That plate is over there. I noticed something was off earlier and went to find it."
Qi raised her head to declare her innocence. "I didn't steal two pieces; the Osmanthus Cake ran away by itself!"
Ye Xiaohan had set a rule that Qi could only eat one piece when she wasn't very hungry to prevent her from overeating and affecting her regular meals.
A group of people arrived at the corner of the yard, carefully examining a plate on the ground. The plate was flat and neatly placed on the grass, as if someone had gently set it down. The morning dew was heavy, and a series of droplets clung to the smooth glaze.
Ye Xiaohan stared intently at it for a while before standing up. "What's so strange about this? It's just a piece of pastry; maybe a cat came in during the night and dragged it away."
Li Qian nodded. "The cat took it away."
Li Yang disagreed. "If a cat dragged it away, the plate wouldn't be sitting here so neatly. Besides, if it were a cat, it wouldn't bother taking the plate; it would just eat the pastry. I remember that cats don't even like Osmanthus Cake."
"The world is vast and full of wonders. Perhaps this is a cat that enjoys Osmanthus Cake, is tidy enough to take the plate along, and is polite enough to return it to its owner after eating?" Ye Xiaohan's explanation grew more absurd, even she didn't believe it anymore, but she insisted, "There's always a possibility!"
Li Yang looked at her with an indifferent expression.
"Alright, you’re right; it can't possibly be an animal's doing." Ye Xiaohan raised her hands in surrender. "It seems like there really was a thief last night. But how strange is this thief? Coming into someone else's home just to steal snacks?"
It's worth noting that her house had one of the tallest walls in the area. To prevent theft, Ye Xiaohan had even scattered some broken stones on top of the wall; anyone trying to climb over would likely cut themselves. There was also a net at the bottom of the wall, with bells hanging from it; if a thief touched it, the bells would ring loudly.
If all they wanted was something to eat, why go through such trouble? They could easily sneak into nearby houses instead, which would be more convenient and less likely to get caught.
Li Bei watched their various speculations but remained steadfast in his opinion. "This isn't a thief; it's a ghost."
Li Bei explained his reasoning: "If it were a thief, I would have sensed someone here, but I didn't hear anything last night. This isn't human; something unclean has appeared."
Ye Xiaohan completely ignored this opinion as if she hadn't heard it. "This is indeed strange; everyone should keep an eye out. If there really was a thief, it's not just about fearing them stealing; it's worrying if they have their sights set on us. That would be troublesome."
She glanced at the sky; after such an incident, dawn had fully broken, though the sun had yet to rise, casting a soft glow across everything. "Li Yang, hurry up and go to school! What time is it? If you’re late again, you’ll get your hand slapped!"
"Hey! I'm leaving now!" It seemed that this matter couldn't be resolved anytime soon. With his sister-in-law and older brother at home, Liu Yang ran off to the private school.
Ye Xiaohan held Liu Qi's hand and returned to their room to freshen up. Liu Yang was always the first to wake up in the house, followed by Lubei, who would get up to make breakfast. Today, Lubei passed by Liu Qi's window and sensed something was off, so he went inside to check. Hearing the commotion, Liu Yang came along to find Ye Xiaohan.
Lubei insisted that the place was haunted and spent breakfast trying to persuade Ye Xiaohan to move again, but she completely ignored him.
"Forget it, I'm not moving. We just moved in; there's no need for such nonsense," Ye Xiaohan stated firmly, hoping to dissuade Lubei.
The two parted ways unhappily, and Ye Xiaohan went to her shop without acknowledging Lubei.
However, this matter still weighed on Ye Xiaohan's mind. Aside from the safety of her family, she genuinely liked this house and didn't want anything to happen that would force her to leave.
It would be better to uncover the truth as soon as possible; that way, Lubei wouldn't keep pestering her, and everyone could feel at ease.
In the following nights, Ye Xiaohan tried to stay alert while sleeping, no longer dozing off as deeply as usual. She kept her ears perked up for any sounds outside.
For two consecutive nights, there was no movement. Ye Xiaohan remained vigilant, patiently waiting for something to happen. Even if it were a ghost, she intended to catch it and make it spit out whatever it had consumed!
On the third night, just as Ye Xiaohan was drifting into a light sleep, she heard a noise outside.
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