After painting the last touch of color on the canvas and seeing that the overall effect of the painting was okay, Ruan Wanna yawned and glanced at the time. There were still a few minutes until twelve o'clock. She looked at herself reflected on the window glass. appearance.
Ruan Wanna touched her cheek, which was slightly baby fat, and said to herself with a wry smile.
"Tomorrow is Saturday, so you don't have to deal with naughty kids or submit manuscripts."
"You should be able to pamper yourself a little, eat some snacks and stay up late to watch TV shows."
Ruan Wanna took her wallet, locked the door, and walked out of the doorway, suddenly feeling a little regretful.
The moonless night sky, the cold autumn wind, the several street lights in the community that were broken a week ago have not been repaired yet, and the most important thing is that the community where Ruan Wanna lives is halfway up the mountain, and she wants to go there To buy groceries in the supermarket at the foot of the mountain, you have to pass through an old shanty town where houses intersect with woods.
The current situation of street lights in the community where I live is so dilapidated. It is even more impossible to expect the old shanty towns to be brightly lit at night.
After taking a look at the woods that rustled in the wind in the old shantytown, Ruan Wanna felt fearful and decided to go home immediately and be a good baby who would go to bed early and get up early even if tomorrow was Saturday. , but at this moment, my stomach made an unsatisfactory sound due to hunger.
Faced with the choice between fear and hunger, Ruan Wanna successfully defeated her fear, and then lost to her hunger with peace of mind...
After walking down the not too long steps outside the community and walking a short distance, Ruan Wanna entered the old shantytown.
Although tonight is a moonless night, fortunately at this time, there are still scattered houses with lights on in the shanty towns, so that Ruan Wanna's path is not blinding.
Rows upon rows of houses of varying heights, slightly sloping roads with potholes, weeds beside the road, and the occasional street lamp that has not yet been removed, apart from being rusty, have long been covered with unknown vines.
Looking at the street lamp whose existential significance is far greater than its practical significance, Ruan Wanna, an art teacher and illustrator, suddenly felt that this dilapidated street lamp had an indescribable beauty.
She took out her mobile phone and prepared to take a photo of this street lamp. Ruan Wanna, who was using it as a painting material, had just focused on it and was about to press the shutter. Next to the empty street lamp in the lens, for some reason, the screen of her mobile phone flickered unsteadily for several times. After that, two yellow-edged boxes for face recognition appeared.
Ruan Wanna couldn't figure out what was going on, so she subconsciously zoomed in on the camera. For a moment, she seemed to see two blurry faces in the face recognition.
Just when the slightest chill of fear filled her heart, several dog barks came from the house next to her, waking Ruan Wanna from her dazed state. When she looked at the phone screen again, facial recognition and The two blurry faces disappeared together.
"You must have seen it wrong, you must have seen it wrong."
After comforting herself in a low voice, Ruan Wanna continued walking towards the supermarket, but what she didn't notice was that after she saw two blurry faces in the face recognition, next to her The dogs barking in the house never stopped.
After experiencing this incident, Ruan Wanna obviously became cautious, but what made her extremely devastated was that after walking through two corners and appearing on the road in front of her, none of the houses on both sides had lights on.
Whether to continue walking or turn around and go back immediately, no matter which choice it is, Ruan Wanna still has to walk alone in this shantytown that now makes her worried.
After a brief inner struggle, Ruan Wanna decided to continue walking to the supermarket. She felt that after finishing her shopping, it would be much faster to take a ride home than turning around and walking home.
With this thought, before Ruan Wanna took a few steps, she felt her foot hit something. Before she could react, she only heard a "clang", as if something was kicked to pieces by Ruan Wanna.
Taking out her phone and turning on the flash, Ruan Wanna saw a broken brick-red tile basin on the ground.
I don’t know whether it was due to the dark environment or the previous experience that reminded Ruan Wanna. Two days ago in the community, I heard the old ladies talking about the memory of the funeral of Mrs. Zhang who died in the shanty town. It was very inappropriate. , appeared in Ruan Wanna's mind.
Could it be that...this is what the old man said that when the old man died and the funeral was held, the filial son and grandson threw the pot at the door of the house?
After this thought appeared in her mind, Ruan Wanna, who was stiff with fear, didn't even have the courage to look back, let alone immediately turn around and run home.
The road ahead was still so dark, and the cold wind that blew up from unknown time kept making roaring sounds, the rustling woods, and the constant barking of dogs along the way. At this time, Ruan Wanna felt her own There is a little bit of moisture in the corners of the eyes.
Fortunately, the scale of this shanty town was not very big. Ruan Wanna, who was extremely tormented, walked out in less than ten minutes. Looking at the city that was still brightly lit at this time, Ruan Wanna, whose whole body was tense, exhaled heavily. One breath.
After shopping, Ruan Wanna walked out of the supermarket and looked at the sparsely lit old shanty town and her home halfway up the mountain. With lingering fear, she hailed a taxi and got in without hesitation.
Ruan Wanna, who was sitting in the taxi, looked through the front windshield at the shanty towns getting closer and closer. Perhaps because she was accompanied by the driver, she no longer felt the slightest fear.
But just when the taxi entered the shantytown, after the taxi bumped violently, the normal radio broadcast started to make continuous "sizzling" electromagnetic noise. The driver, who didn't think much, After turning the knob a few times, the radio was turned off.
The driver who turned off the radio wanted to chat with Ruan Wanna who was sitting in the back seat, but after taking a look in the rearview mirror, his expression changed.
Seeing that her phone's battery was less than 10%, Ruan Wanna put her phone in her trouser pocket and was about to look through the car window to see how far it was to get home, but she found that the driver kept looking at her through the rearview mirror.
Ruan Wanna felt something was wrong, and combined with the various unforgivable behaviors of individual online hailing drivers who appeared on the Internet towards female passengers, Ruan Wanna's already relaxed body became tense again.
After the taxi arrived at Ruan Wanna's neighborhood, she paid and got out of the car immediately, but as if it were a cliche horror movie plot, the taxi driver's voice suddenly appeared behind him.
"Girl, wait a moment, I have something to tell you."
