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In the red deer's field of vision, the broken mirror trembled like a lake where someone had cast stones, and a circle of ripples spilled outward. [Latest chapter reading.]

The handsome green-eyed man's face in the shards became clearer, though the fragmented face was much paler than that of the red deer himself.

I'm afraid of you. 】

Fugg said quietly.

Red Deer's eyelashes twitched, and he furrowed his eyebrows arrogantly.

"Oh, my dear Fugg, my dear little liar......" Red Deer smiled slightly maliciously at him in the mirror, "why don't you speak?"

The face of the man in the mirror suddenly became strange after hearing Red Deer's words.

[Silence?] Fuge spoke in shock, [...... Can't you see 'him'?]

However, Red Deer did not answer Fugg.

A moment later, Fugg let out a long sigh, with a certain hint of helplessness and sadness.

He was clearly aware of that—the red deer couldn't see the shadow, the opposite of him, the self behind the door.

Believe it or not, everything I'm doing is for that purpose, for Calvin—and you're putting everyone in danger. 】

He said in a muffled voice, the strength that sustained him was waning.

"Click-"

A small piece of glass shard fell from the mirror. Then came another slice.

A few seconds later, the shattered hula suddenly collapsed.

"Tick ......"

Red Deer frowned slightly, he raised his hand, and a drop of red blood slowly appeared between the fingers that had just held the mirror.

He seemed to smell a bitter smell of myrrh.

Fugg seemed to have something strange just now, and this drop of blood also-

Just as Red Deer was trying to clear his mind, there was a loud noise from downstairs, and an exclamation that he would never mistakenly recognize.

"Calvin!"

Honglu's face changed, and he rushed directly downstairs.

******

Fifteen minutes ago—

Calvin awkwardly turned in front of the bathroom mirror, glancing at the wound on his back.

There were already tiny yellow dots on the red, swollen scar, which Calvin knew were signs of festering. The place where the blood had oozed before had condensed into a dark red scar, and some transparent yellow water overflowed.

Calvin wished he could have completely ignored the two scars that had tormented him and went to bed peacefully, but he didn't want to wake up to a worse wound - the inflammation of the wound would cause a high fever, which meant he had to stay with Reed in Vicili's house for a while.

Thinking of this, Calvin stood up with what little willpower he had left, his arms flexed, and he applied some gel to his back through the mirror.

And it was at this time that he heard that voice.

"Da Da Da ......"

Small, coherent footsteps.

Calvin subconsciously thought it was Reed at first, but he soon realized that it was impossible for a man as large as Reed to have such light and fast steps.

The footsteps were familiar, and Calvin was in a trance.

It's the kind of sound that a child in a pair of hard-soled shoes makes when he half-jumps and half-runs down the hallway—

At the back of the Cross Bar, in the hallway to the staff quarters, Isha would often run forward like a fawn, and then she would turn around and grin as Calvin slowly approached her.

"Da Da Da ......"

Just when Calvin thought he was hallucinating from a high fever, he heard the voice again.

Is there anyone else in this house?

Calvin subconsciously dismissed this possibility.

He cautiously walked out of the bathroom, and the voice sounded ...... It's like coming from a hallway across the door.

"Whew...... Whew......"

In a trance, you still seem to be able to hear the slightly heavier breathing that is characteristic of little girls, after a slight exercise.

"Who?"

Calvin asked in a low voice.

His hand pressed against the doorknob.

"Crunch—"

He opened the door.

Not far away was the master bedroom, the dark chestnut door ajar, and through the crack in the door came the faint sound of running water, which was the sound of Reed taking a shower.

Outside Calvin's door, although it was a little old, the hardwood floor, which was still shiny under careful care, was polished. Calvin froze, was it delusional? He thought, goosebumps from the cold appeared on the skin of his arm.

After a few seconds, however, he felt the sound come again.

"Dada...... Da ......"

The hard-soled shoes don't support the soles of a child's feet, but they're cheap and beautiful on the look—you can get little red faux leather shoes with bows and sparkling ornaments for just a few dollars. Isha also looked accustomed to those hard shoes. She had many pairs of these shoes, and when she stepped on the concrete floor of the hallway, she would make such a sound.

Calvin pressed his temple hard, his wound burning in his back.

He could even feel an itch - maybe the wound from the previous one was bleeding again, blood running down his back.

The footsteps sound so distinct, but the auditory hallucinations also sound very vivid in many cases, so vivid that they are reality. Calvin felt more and more like throwing up, and his whole body was cold.

He looked in the direction where the footsteps had come from, and at the end of the hallway was a staircase leading to the first floor.

The little girl he had imagined was running briskly down the stairs with cheap hard-soled shoes. Calvin's body shook a little, and he held on to the railing and slowly walked towards the stairs.

The stairs were empty.

Auditory hallucinations are gone.

Calvin's ears suddenly fell silent, and behind him, there was the intermittent voice of the red deer, perhaps on the phone, but Calvin didn't pay much attention.

He stood stiffly at the top of the stairs, feeling that everything was so absurd, that fantasy and reality were intertwined in his mind. He stared at the bottom of the staircase, from where the right corner connected the dining room and kitchen of the Virgili house, the beige carpet on the first floor looking unusually soft.

There's no way someone would have stepped on such a material like that—

Calvin said to himself.

But every nerve of his was taut close, and he had a hunch, or rather an intuition, that in the corner of the corner, it seemed as if someone was standing quietly, waiting for his arrival.

"Crunch—"

Calvin slowly stepped down the stairs. He went downstairs, and after taking a deep breath, he suddenly turned to face the kitchen.

The well-decorated kitchen was thought to be clean and fresh, and every spotlight was carefully calculated. The marble island is adorned with decorative lamps that emit soft light, the floor is made of wooden blocks with classical patterns in diamond-shaped lattices, and the stainless steel sink is shiny. On the other side of the wall, the luxurious two-door refrigerator was running, emitting a humming sound that was almost completely inaudible without careful listening.

Calvin breathed a sigh of relief. He tried to keep his spirits and checked every nook and cranny of the living room and kitchen, proving with reality how neurotic he was - there really was no one here, and there was no intrusion.

"It's stupid. ”

Calvin gave himself an evaluation. He believed it was the mental oppression that Reed had inflicted on him, the antipyretics, and of course, the immune cells that were fighting in his body that had made him so neurotic.

His throat was a little thirsty from the previous nervousness, so he walked towards the refrigerator and opened the door.

"Click-"

The beer bottles in the refrigerator made a soft crash the moment he opened the door.

Calvin looked at the empty refrigerator and removed a bottle of ice-cold, purified water from the deep drink shelf.

"Click-"

Something was touching again, and the voice came again.

Calvin didn't pay much attention to it, he closed the refrigerator door, turned around, opened the cap of the bottle of pure water, and poured a large gulp of ice water.

"Click-"

Calvin's movements froze.

He put down the water bottle and turned slowly.

Well, he's finally found the source of that unsettling feeling.

That refrigerator.

The refrigerator was shaking in a very subtle way, as if someone was struggling to push the heavy tin box.

Calvin's back wound hurt so much that a spot of light appeared in front of his eyes again.

Calvin paused for a few seconds, but he quickly jumped up and walked slowly to the front of the refrigerator. At first he tried to move the refrigerator out, but it was as heavy as a coffin filled with corpses (perhaps because Calvin was too weak now), and the only thing he could do was push it out a short distance. A gap appeared between the side of the refrigerator and the counter, and Calvin turned sideways and squeezed in, his heart beating frighteningly, and sweat slid down his forehead.

Calvin breathed in small gulps, pacing his own body, and after getting ready, he slowly put his head behind the refrigerator......

"Whew...... Call...... Whew......"

Wispy...... The sound of breathing came through the crevices behind the refrigerator.

A skinny little girl stood facing the wall.

Her body was as thin as a firewood, and she stood up straight, as if her spine had been replaced with a steel pipe, and she was caught straight between the refrigerator and the wall in that abnormal way.

From Calvin's point of view, only the little girl's expressionless face could be seen, and her hair was glued into strands of blood.

She breathed heavily, her forehead hitting the wall again and again.

It was this action that made the refrigerator shake slightly.

"Isa?"

Calvin asked, trembling.

The girl's movements stopped abruptly.

Slowly, slowly, she twisted her head through the crunchy gap.

...