Chapter 56: Happy Birthday
A text message.
“Got home? Did you see the birthday present I sent you? It’s already midnight, happy birthday to you—”
Bai Cha had a very good memory. This phone number was the one she had just seen in the call history, the contact for that half-hour call.
She was thoughtful.
This person had no note, she didn’t know who it was.
But they knew she had arrived home.
When Bai Cha bent down to pick up the package, she looked at the other rooms next door.
There were four households on this floor. The situation at the doors of the other apartments was similar to the one she rented, all with faded Spring Festival couplets pasted on them. After all, it had been a year, and there were countless small advertisements.
She stood up and took out the keys from her body.
The sound-activated light overhead wouldn’t turn on no matter what she did, so she had to use the flashlight on her phone to illuminate the keys.
At the same time, she kept looking around with her peripheral vision.
The stairwell had completely fallen into darkness.
It was the middle of the night, and the surroundings were very quiet.
The whole world was silent, with only the occasional clinking of the keys in her hand and the rustling of her clothes.
That feeling of being watched appeared once again.
It was as if that person was standing in the darkness staring at her, behind her.
While Bai Cha twisted the key, she glanced at the comment section.
[This atmosphere is so scary, the streamer is so calm]
[Holy crap, the place I live in reality is almost like this, and I live alone too]
[Ah, this, then you should move, it’s really creepy, there are murders in real life too]
[But then again, this is a horror instance. Does anyone know what kind of ghosts or monsters are in this instance?]
[This instance has ghosts and monsters? Isn’t there just a killer?]
[Don’t know…]
The door opened, the old anti-theft lock being pushed open with a heavy sound, very loud in the silent night.
The sound-activated lights downstairs all turned on.
Bai Cha walked in with the package and found the switch in the entryway to turn on the light.
When she turned around to close the door, she could finally take a look at the family opposite her.
The couplets on their door had long since fallen off, and the “fortune” character pasted in the middle was about to fall, revealing the peephole.
Bai Cha slowly closed the door and locked it.
She also saw the peephole on her own anti-theft door.
The “fortune” character outside her door was still properly pasted. Therefore, she couldn’t see outside through the peephole, only pitch black.
[Why is she staring at the peephole? I’m so scared of peepholes]
[Streamer, talk to us, there’s no one around now]
[Exactly, a player next door has already started interacting and even inquired about your information. I’ve already told him about your situation, streamer]
Bai Cha ignored them.
She first went to close the curtains on the balcony, then placed the package on the table.
To be honest, the package felt quite heavy when she held it just now.
She shook it a bit but couldn’t guess what was inside.
The sender’s name was Mr. Qi.
The phone number was different from the one that sent the text message.
The address was also in City A, Wenyue Building, 100 meters east of the intersection of Lotus Street and Jinsha Road.
Bai Cha picked up her phone and searched for the address.
It wasn’t too far from her place, probably only about twenty minutes by electric scooter.
Oh, it wasn’t too far from her company either, coincidentally also about twenty minutes.
Bai Cha put down her phone, found scissors on the table, and cut open the package.
Inside the package was a carefully wrapped gift box.
Bai Cha took out the gift box and opened it.
It was a crystal music box.
Quite large and quite heavy.
Inside the crystal was a very girlish pink and white castle, with pink roses entwined around it.
In front of the castle were several small animals holding hands and spinning in a circle.
They were a little sheep, a little dog, a little cat, and a little rabbit.
Turning on the switch at the base, bright lights lit up inside the crystal ball, and fine snowflakes began to fall. The four small animals started to rotate, and at the same time, music began to play.
The scene inside the crystal ball was very warm, but the music seemed a bit sad.
Bai Cha listened to the music very carefully, but unfortunately, she knew nothing about music.
She even found it difficult to remember the melody.
The crystal ball stopped after playing the first time.
Bai Cha turned it on for the second time.
She had no musical sense, so it was difficult for her to memorize a song. Even though her memory was actually quite good, and she could easily remember other things, music was a real weakness!
The third time, Bai Cha finally became familiar with the melody.
However, just as the third play was about to end, the music suddenly became low and muffled, with a sound like a cassette tape getting stuck.
The lights in the room seemed to dim for a moment, as if the voltage was unstable, but they immediately returned to normal.
[Holy crap, that scared me]
[Hiss, I wanted to say it just now, listening to this music in the middle of the night is actually quite eerie, and the streamer played it three times in a row]
[The key is that it changed. Did the streamer notice something was wrong from the beginning?] [Alright, don’t ask anymore, this streamer ignores people]
The rotation of the music box also became jerky, as if something was stuck in the gears.
The rotation of the four small animals began to become strange.
The fine white snow fluttering inside had somehow been dyed red.
Bai Cha kept her identity in mind at all times. The moment the music had a problem, she had already been startled and reached out to turn off the switch. But several times, due to being too nervous, she failed to turn it off.
She even let out a short scream.
Especially when the snow turned red.
She stood up in fright, wanting to run, but then looked at the music box still playing strange music and had to lean closer.
The heads of the four small animals inside suddenly fell off.
With a click, the music became even more stuck, repeating a syllable with a crackling sound.
Bai Cha screamed and pushed the entire music box to the ground. The crystal ball fell to the floor, immediately making a crisp sound.
Red blood began to flow from the heads of the small animals. It was as if the shattered crystal ball was injured and bleeding, quickly staining a large area of the floor.
Wind seemed to be howling outside the window, and the voltage of the lights in the room fluctuated again.
Bai Cha, mental breakdown, picked up the scissors on the table and rushed into the room, burying herself under the covers.
She was still holding her phone, her hands trembling so much that she couldn’t type out words several times.
[gbx]: Help!
[gbx]: Are you still there?
[gbx]: So scary!
[gbx]: I don’t know what to do.
[gbx]: Are you there?
Darling Yuqi rarely didn’t reply instantly.
In the silent space, besides her breathing, there was only the sound of the wind blowing against the window outside.
She lived on the top floor, and when the wind slid past the window, it made a whimpering, strange noise, which, combined with the sound of knocking on the window, sounded as if some unknown monster was crawling on the window, peeking in.
And, in the living room, that crystal music box started playing its mournful music again.
Even though she was covering her head, the music sounded as if it was ringing in her ears, or perhaps in her mind, in her ears, so clear.
