Chapter 1 First arrival in the capital

What you know is what you think you see. We can only know the truth that we can know.

——José Carlos Somoza

25 years ago, I came into this world, very ordinary. There was no thunder and lightning and purple and green smoke when Zhu Yuanzhang was born. There was no such weird thing as being born with eyes open and smiling. My arrival did not alarm anyone in this sleeping world, and I thought that I had brought pain to my biological parents - otherwise they would not have abandoned me to the orphanage.

All in all, I am an orphan. I was three years old when I was abandoned. I remember my birth date, name, and family number, but I can’t remember my parents’ names. It seems that they have never mentioned it in front of me. I haven't heard anyone talk about it either.

In my memory, there is no appearance, personality, or anything about my parents.

Fortunately, my biological parents gave me a look that even women would envy. Perhaps because of this, I was adopted very early.

My adoptive parents are honest farmers. To be precise, they should be farmers in the mountains. Since I was adopted, I have lived with these two farmers who always have honest expressions on their faces in a small mountain village. There is no water or electricity here. To drink water, you have to fetch water from the well in the yard, light an oil lamp when it gets dark, and watch out for wild wolves in the ravines.

When I was a child, I didn’t know how hard life was, and I got used to the hard life without realizing it. I followed my adoptive father into the mountains every day to hunt and chop wood. If I was lucky, I could catch a few tits, and the children would hide aside and roast them. . However, most of the mountains at that time were undeveloped areas, and my family was poor. I couldn’t bear to eat the game I brought. Most of it was actually sold to the county town below the mountain. Only during the Spring Festival could I eat some pork, so in my opinion, Xiao Xiao The tits are also considered a delicacy.

If you ask me why I adopted a son when my adoptive parents were so poor?

Sorry, I don't know either.

When I was not yet in elementary school, I was playing alone at the entrance of the compound and heard several aunts from the same village chatting. I don’t know which aunt or aunt said: "Let me tell you, the couple from the Tang family in Dongtou have been married for ten years and still have no children. Most likely, it is a physiological problem."

Aunt Yan next to her said: "That's not true. People say that the new kid in their family is not his nephew. Our old Liu saw it the day he went to the county town. The old Tang family's daughter-in-law was some kind of street kid at the mountain pass. I stood there and told you, I guess that little kid must be adopted."

Later, when I went to school, I didn’t stay in the mountains very often.

There is a public boarding primary school in the county closest to our village. My adoptive parents spent some money to let me live in the school. They said it was a small amount of money, but in fact they saved it after working hard for several years. They sent me to the school. One day, when I looked at them, my eyes were probably red because I had a sour taste in my heart.

Although they are not biological parents, they spent more effort on me than their biological son.

Without further ado, let’s talk about myself. My name is Chen Xiao. I have worked hard for so many years and finally found a position that suits me at the age of 25. I have been promoted from a young boy in the mountains to a young man in the city.

Before I talk about my career, let me first talk about some supernatural events when I first arrived in Beijing.

Because my grades were not excellent, and to take care of my parents, I still went to college near my hometown. Later, a fellow villager from my hometown took me to Beijing. When I first moved to the capital, I didn’t have much money, so I asked a friend to contact a remote rental house. The rental house is located in an old community. The house is at least 40 years old. The inside of the house is also very old, and there are traces of smoke on the walls.

But I'm greedy for cheap, so I plan to live in it first, and then change houses later when I make money.

Since I had to go to work during the day, I postponed the moving until night. I had already inquired about it during the day. It was found that the family home was an affiliated family home of a nearby factory, and almost all retired workers lived there. When people are old and have hard ears, it is inevitable that there will be some tinkling sounds when moving furniture, which they cannot hear best.

I don’t have much belongings, so I don’t plan to contact a moving company and move alone. However, I heard that there are many elderly people in family homes, and many people have died. Every now and then, you can see a large wreath placed in front of a certain household. I was alone at night and it was quite crowded, so I wanted to finish moving as early as possible.

I used the borrowed car to bring my things downstairs. Everyone on the first floor had their doors closed, and there was no light coming out of the windows. They seemed to be resting.

When I just got out of the car, I suddenly felt a chill on my back. I subconsciously looked back and saw a teenage boy in white standing not far away, looking at me blankly.

Seeing me looking at him, he grinned at me, turned around and ran away. I thought it was a kid who sneaked out in the middle of the night, so I didn't pay much attention.

I didn't see the child again until I finished moving the furniture in a hurry.

There were few stars in the sky, and not a single cloud could be seen in the bright night sky. I rubbed my arms that were shaking from exertion, turned off the light, collapsed on the bed and fell asleep.

The next day, I went to work as usual. That day was Saturday, and all regular employees were enjoying the weekend at home. There were no weekends for my kind of hard work, and the salary was not high. At most, it was enough to fill my stomach. I didn't have any big pursuits at the time. I was used to living a poor life when I was a child, and just being able to survive was enough.

As soon as I opened the door, I was startled. There were two large wreaths placed at the door of the house opposite. The white and yellow bouquets were like two pale human faces, looking at me gloomily. There were bursts of crying from downstairs. I didn't expect someone to die so soon, so I cursed secretly and didn't think too much about it. After all, I don’t know anyone here, and I have learned about the situation in this family home beforehand, and I know that it is very common for the elderly to die.

While I was thinking about whether to return the car first, I walked downstairs with thumping steps. There were also two wreaths placed at the door of the unit, which looked quite grand. There was a table facing the door with a photo frame on it, as if a ritual was being performed. The strange thing is that there is no one here, and the crying stopped suddenly. It is as if no one has ever existed at the empty door.

As I walked past that table, I suddenly felt someone staring at my back. My sixth sense was very accurate. I immediately turned my head and looked back, but there was nothing behind me.

I laughed at myself, turned around and was about to leave, but suddenly I thought something was wrong, and I shivered all over. I nervously looked back at the black and white photo. The little boy in white in the photo was looking at me with a grin.

As I said before, I am very unfamiliar with this family home and have no acquaintances. But at that moment, I suddenly felt that this boy's face was very familiar, as if I had just met him not long ago.

Nothing happened afterwards and I went to work as usual. After this incident, in order to prevent myself from getting into bad luck, I collected red things whenever I saw them. Red is a color that wards off evil spirits. Legend has it that in ancient times, every household posted red paper to scare away the Nian Beast.

It happened that one morning, there was an old man downstairs selling New Year pictures on his cart in the family courtyard. I quickly stopped him and bought a golden picture with the word "福" on it and pasted it on the door.