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墨書 Inktalez
Sister Sun had been suffering from a terrible headache lately, and the cause of her distress was Xu Lei's child, Xu Yan, who would cry incessantly at exactly eleven o'clock every night, without fail.
The two of them would pick up the child and rock him back and forth, but he continued to wail. No matter how hard they tried or what methods they employed, nothing seemed to work.
Then Sister Sun heard that a child's crying could be due to a lost soul.
So she boiled two eggs, holding one in each palm, and that evening she sat at the front door calling for the soul in a long-short rhythm.
However, the next day, the child still cried at eleven o'clock.
With no other options, Sister Sun followed someone's advice and steamed the child's clothes in an aluminum pot. She did this for an entire week, but it was of no use. The child still cried, and it was always at eleven o'clock sharp.
Since Xu Lei had to go to work, Sister Sun was left alone to care for Xu Yan, who would inevitably cry every night.
After enduring this for some time, Sister Sun could no longer cope and decided to hire a nanny to take care of Xu Yan.
The first nanny was a young girl from the countryside. She seemed quite young and had come to earn money to support her younger siblings' education due to having too many brothers and sisters at home. She was introduced to Sister Sun's family as a nanny.
During the day, Xu Yan was very obedient; he babbled and stumbled around as he learned to walk. It was normal for him to be teething and drooling.
But come eleven o'clock at night, even if he was asleep, he would wake up crying right on time. No amount of soothing seemed effective, and Xu Lei had no choice but to stay overnight at his company, unwilling to return home.
Xu Lei's absence only angered Sister Sun further, especially with the child's constant crying. Frustrated, she took it out on the young nanny, blaming her for not knowing how to care for the child, and dismissed her under false pretenses.
After the young nanny left, Sister Sun found it challenging to manage the child alone. Reluctantly, she went back to the agency and hired an older woman as a nanny.
Sister Sun was quite meticulous; when the new nanny arrived, she made sure to send her for a health check at the hospital and verified her identification thoroughly.
This was not as reassuring as a recommendation from someone familiar.
She had seen plenty on the television news and in real life.
There were cases of nannies abducting children, stealing from their employers, and even abusing the kids—countless incidents had occurred.
After a thorough examination and careful observation by Sister Sun, she found that this nanny suited her well. Not only could she take care of the child, but she also cooked delicious meals.
She was quick on her feet and handled tasks without causing any worry.
Sister Sun thought to herself that Xu Lei should be able to relax now!
However, by evening, Xu Yan was still crying uncontrollably.
Having heard that a nanny had been hired who could cook well, Xu Lei had just returned home from working overtime at the company. Before he could even settle down, the child started wailing again.
Xu Lei picked up the child and exclaimed, "What’s wrong with you? Why are you crying? Your mother has worked so hard for you."
The child was still very young and couldn’t speak yet; all he knew was to cry loudly, his face smeared with snot and tears. He even cried so hard that his whole body trembled, resembling a seizure, which was quite alarming.
Xu Lei felt overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do, so he made an excuse about work at the company and left again.
Sister Sun thought to herself: What does Xu Lei think he’s doing? The child is your own flesh and blood; why should I be the one taking care of him alone? Naturally, she didn’t want Xu Lei to leave and continued to argue with him outside.
Some tenants in the building couldn’t stand it anymore and came over to mediate.
In the end, however, Xu Lei still left.
That night, Sister Sun smoked a lot and drank alcohol, then stayed up with the nanny by the side of the crying child until four in the morning. Only when the rooster crowed did the child suck on his little hand, tears streaming down his face, finally falling asleep.
The nanny was exhausted and didn't even want her wages. As soon as dawn broke, she made an excuse about something at home and left.
Sister Sun was distraught.
During the day, the child was fine, but at night, he would cry. What kind of situation was this? The child ate her food, wore her clothes, and she had spent an untold amount of money on him. Xu Lei still brought money home but had not contributed as much as she had.
Moreover, Xu Lei used the excuse of the child's crying to stay away from home, lodging at the company instead.
Sister Sun felt that Xu Lei must be hiding something from her; perhaps he already had someone else.
This only made Sister Sun less inclined to take care of the child.
No, she needed to hire another nanny.
This time, Sister Sun was wiser; when looking for a nanny, she first explained that the child cried a lot. However, to her surprise, after several days, no one was willing to come to her home to look after the child.
The child continued to cry and cry.
Sister Sun was on the verge of breaking down.
One day, a woman approached her. She had heard that Sister Sun was looking for a nanny to take care of a child and had come forward to offer her services.
The woman was not very old, of average height, and looked quite young.
However, her attire was rather plain—half rubber shoes, grayish long pants, a faded shirt, short hair, yellowish skin, and her features were fairly decent. She just didn’t talk much; it was better that way so she wouldn’t get distracted while working.
The woman said her surname was Wang, and her name was Wang Ce.
Sister Sun remarked that her name was hard to pronounce, so she decided to call her Little Wang.
Little Wang was truly skilled at taking care of children. She worked diligently, even better than the previous one who could cook and do housework.
Sister Sun was very pleased; as long as the child didn’t cry at eleven o’clock tonight, she planned to give Little Wang a bonus.
Sure enough, when the tense hour of eleven arrived, Little Wang had the child quiet and sound asleep.
Sister Sun was so excited that she started dancing in the living room.
Recently, she had become fascinated with learning to walk like a model, strutting around the house whenever she had nothing else to do.
Little Wang managed to keep the child from crying.
Everyone was happy, and Sister Sun prepared a feast, eager to share the good news with Xu Lei over the phone.
Xu Lei also wanted to come home to see the child, so he specially bought a gift and a bouquet of red roses for dinner.
The red roses were for Sister Sun; he had been married to her for nearly a year.
The gift was for Xiao Xu Yan.
Since the child was still too young to play with anything, Little Wang took it upon herself to keep it safe.
Sister Sun hadn’t felt this relaxed in a long time, and since she hadn’t spent time with Xu Lei in ages, she indulged in an extra drink. Eventually, Xu Lei carried her to bed, and the couple enjoyed their intimate moments together, lost in each other for quite some time before finally drifting off to sleep.
Clack, clack, clack.
A strange sound suddenly echoed through the house, waking Sister Sun from her deep slumber.
She opened her eyes, and the clacking noise came again, seeming to come from inside the house, yet also from outside the door. In her drowsy state, a chill ran down her spine. Her heart raced as she remained frozen in her sleeping position, too afraid to move. After listening intently for a moment, it seemed the sound had vanished.
Then she placed her hand on Xu Lei's abdomen and tried to go back to sleep.
The clacking sound returned—no, it wasn't just a return; it was undeniably real, like a sound drifting closer, hollow yet resonant.
“Xu Lei, Xu Lei, wake up…”
Sister Sun shook Xu Lei vigorously.
Xu Lei was in a deep sleep, mumbling something unintelligible before drifting off again.
The room was quiet except for Xu Lei's loud breathing.
Sister Sun knew that being so close to him meant that whenever his nose faced her, it felt like a gust of cold wind blowing against her.
She listened to Xu Lei's breathing; it seemed there were no other sounds.
She yawned and tried to sleep again. Just as she lay down, the clacking noise returned. This time she didn’t call out to Xu Lei, but instead listened quietly, wondering if it could be the nanny playing tricks on her.
Perhaps the nanny was pretending to scare them in order to steal money and run away.
Sister Sun remained still, listening intently: clack, clack, clack. Suddenly, an unrelated thought crossed her mind.
It had been a long time since that incident, and now thinking back on it truly felt terrifying.
A year ago, on the night Xu Yan was born, Coral died at eleven o'clock. The sound of her footsteps echoed, clack, clack, as she walked.
Coral always made that noise when she walked, and because of it, Xu Lei often scolded her for not walking properly.
Sister Sun thought to herself, her heart racing to her throat, feeling as if the entire house was filled with that ghostly sound, as if a blood-soaked woman was wandering around the room, making those clacking noises.
“Xu Lei, wake up.”
This time, Sister Sun shook Xu Lei awake.
Xu Lei squinted his eyes, annoyed yet helplessly asked, “What’s wrong?”
“I heard strange noises.”
“Oh come on, there are mice in the house. You should buy a cat tomorrow. That’ll solve the problem. Now go to sleep; I have a business trip tomorrow.”
“Another business trip?”
She had hoped that with little Wang taking care of the child, Xu Lei would spend some quality time with her. But now he was leaving again.
Thinking about it all, and with Xu Yan crying so much, Xu Lei hadn’t been home for a long time. She began to doubt him.
Upon reflection, men were always fickle. Moreover, he was much younger than her; now that he was a manager surrounded by beautiful female colleagues, how could he not be tempted?
After daydreaming for a while, Sister Sun found it hard to sleep. She got up to see what had made the noise earlier and also wanted to take advantage of Xu Lei's sleep to check his phone and see if there was anything unusual in his clothes.
She checked for lipstick marks on the collar and looked for unfamiliar women's phone numbers in his phone.
Xu Lei's phone was a Motorola.
A string of Arabic numbers flashed on the screen, and she couldn't tell which set belonged to a woman or a man; it could very well belong to some office worker.
Sister Sun couldn't find any clues in the phone, so she began to investigate the source of the strange noise she had heard earlier.
She walked around the house without turning on the lights, not wanting Xu Lei to know she was checking his phone.
Sister Sun moved stealthily through her own home with a flashlight, trying not to make any noise as she tiptoed around.
Strangely enough, as soon as she got up to check the phone, that odd clicking sound disappeared.
Moreover, she noticed that the alarm clock at home had stopped at some point. It shouldn't have run out of batteries; she remembered replacing them with the best batteries available. It was impossible for them to be depleted so quickly, right?
There couldn't be any other reason for the alarm clock to break down either. She had bought it new specifically when Xiao Wang came over, worried that her old alarm clock might fail due to its age or laziness on Xiao Wang's part.
Sister Sun began to inspect the alarm clock.
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