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墨書 Inktalez
"Grandma, please don't scare Ziya. She's a new guest and very beautiful!" Severe Cold said hurriedly as he pulled Ziya away towards the stairs. Ziya kept glancing back at the seemingly dazed old lady, finding her words quite strange.
Ziya was settled in a bedroom on the second floor. "You’ve been to that room," the grandmother had said. "The owner here has already moved out! The previous owner passed away six months ago," Severe Cold added.
Ziya quickly took out her laptop and began recording everything she had seen today. Unfortunately, the signal here was terrible, so she could only save her drafts in a document. Before entering Severe Cold's home, Ziya had decided to return to A City early the next day, but the old lady's astonishing words piqued her curiosity.
As night fell and it was time for dinner at Severe Cold's house, Ziya met his parents, two elderly people with hair as white as snow. "Grandma, this is my friend, Ziya," Severe Cold said with a smile as he introduced her to his mother.
"Hello, Auntie," Ziya greeted politely with a smile.
To Ziya's surprise, Severe Cold's mother seemed very happy and reached out to stroke Ziya's hair. This seemingly ordinary gesture caused Severe Cold to tense up. Seeing that Grandma only touched Ziya's hair without crossing any boundaries, he subtly let out a sigh of relief.
"Hello, Uncle." Before Severe Cold could introduce the middle-aged man, Ziya guessed that he must be Severe Cold's father.
"Alright, let's eat!"
The group gathered around an oval dining table for dinner. The grandmother sat next to her son and grandson, while Ziya sat beside Severe Cold's mother. In no time, Ziya's bowl was piled high with dishes, almost all served by Severe Cold's mother.
"Okay, you can eat by yourself; you'll scare the little girl like this," Severe Cold's father said, looking at his wife. Ziya remained silent; she really didn't like others serving food for her—partly because it felt unsanitary and partly because there was no way she could finish all that food.
Severe Cold watched his mother's actions with a worried expression, paying close attention to everything she did. Severe Cold’s mother ignored her husband and son and continued to serve more food into Ziya’s bowl… which led to an amusing incident.
"Come on, sweet girl, let Mommy add some rice for you…" Severe Cold’s mother poured all the rice from her bowl into Ziya’s already overflowing bowl, scattering grains all over the table. This left Ziya feeling quite embarrassed; she wanted to spit out the food in her mouth when she saw the rice being dumped into her bowl—it made her feel quite nauseous.
“Grandma…” Severe Cold shouted loudly.
Ziya and the others stared blankly at Severe Cold's mother, who slammed her chopsticks down on the table. She grabbed Ziya and cried out, “Be good, Mommy will protect you… you are my best daughter.”
“Honey, you need to take your medicine. Look at how scared you’ve made Ziya,” Yan Han's Father said as he stood up and went into another room to quickly fetch the medicine. Ignoring his wife’s struggles and frantic movements, he wrapped one arm around her neck and forced the pills into her mouth while Severe Cold hurriedly handed her a glass of water.
The blind grandmother seemed unfazed by the commotion; she paid no attention to her daughter-in-law's shouting and continued to randomly grab food with her chopsticks. Whatever she picked up went straight into her mouth, all of it having been served to her by Severe Cold earlier.
At that moment, Ziya lost all appetite. She looked down at the mess in her bowl, then over at Severe Cold Mother, who was still gasping for breath despite being restrained. She wondered silently what stories lay behind this family. It seemed that Severe Cold's mother had a slight mental illness; when she glanced at the blind grandmother, the old woman was oblivious to everything around her, devouring food without pause.
This family was truly strange. With no desire to eat, Ziya hurriedly nodded to them in apology and quickly stepped away from the dining table, heading to the washroom to splash some water on her face.
“Are you okay?” Severe Cold asked as he followed her, noticing her unhappy expression.
“It’s nothing. Your family… sigh! I don’t even know what to say. Do you want to tell me something?” Ziya said as she applied some moisturizer to her face without turning back to look at him.
“If you don’t mind, I can tell you about my family’s situation.”
“Sure,” Ziya replied, surprised that he would share his story so easily.
The two stepped out onto the kitchen platform outside, watching as the night gradually enveloped everything in darkness. Severe Cold lit a cigarette and began his tale.
He had a clever sister named Min, and the two siblings shared a close bond. They were busy working on the slopes and in the fields all year round when Min suddenly stumbled out of the house in a rush.
"Seeing her daughter's pale face, the mother hurriedly set aside her work. The daughter stared at her mother, and then suddenly collapsed into her mother's arms. 'Min, what's wrong? Wuwu...' The mother was horrified to see blood gushing from her daughter's mouth, and she cried out in panic.
The father rushed in upon hearing the commotion, kneeling on the ground as he embraced his already deceased daughter, shouting to the heavens, 'Why? Why must this happen to my daughter?'
'So... what did your sister die from? Was it an illness or some other emergency?' Ziya nervously swallowed and looked at Severe Cold, a big man who was already teary-eyed. She quickly pulled out a tissue and handed it to him, wiping away her own tears as she waited for him to compose himself before asking again.
'She drank the pesticide we used for spraying herbs at home.'
'Suicide?' Ziya was taken aback. How could someone so young be so extreme?
'It wasn't suicide. I later heard that she was possessed. Several children died in our village around that time,' Severe Cold said anxiously.
'How could that be? Is there a reason for it?' Ziya became increasingly confused. Didn't the deaths of several children raise any alarms?
'There were reports made, but they all concluded it was either suicide or accidental death, with no useful leads. In the small bedroom where the landlady stayed, her daughter died the same year as my sister. Those twin sisters hanged themselves with the curtains on the curtain rod.'
'Stop... stop talking...' Ya suddenly felt very cold. The nightmare from that night resurfaced vividly in her mind as Severe Cold spoke about the deaths of those twin sisters. It was like a woman draped in a raincoat, with claw-like fingers and a cold gaze filled with resentment... Just thinking about it sent chills down her spine."
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