Chapter 3: The Dark Shadow

"It's okay, Lao Wang, just talk about it." Saying that, Wu Shaodong took out Liqun with a smile and handed another one to Wang Mazi.

Wang Mazi took it, took out a disposable lighter from under the pillow tremblingly, first helped Wu Shaodong light a cigarette, then lit it for himself, took a few deep breaths and began to speak:

That was three years ago, and I think it's about the same time as now.

I usually don't sleep much, I often can't sleep at night, sometimes I can't sleep in the middle of the night, I like to wander around the street alone, rummaging through the garbage heap and picking up some scrap to sell or something, I don't know why I want to do this, I always feel that there is something to do, and I can sleep more steadily when I look back.

On that day, I couldn't sleep again, thinking about going to the streets around the Ladies Market, rummaging through the ways to find out if there were any drink bottles, rigid paper, etc., which could be sold for some money for some wine and food.

Thinking to myself, I put on a coat, picked up a flashlight, left the house, and started strolling around the Ladies Market. This women's market is surrounded by shanty towns, and small alleys are dotted like a maze in this residential area, not to mention outsiders, even local residents may not know all the small roads.

In the first few years, I often wandered around and got lost, walking alone in the dark alleys, and I was still a little scared, that is, after living for a long time, I began to slowly become familiar with it.

I wandered around aimlessly for an hour and a half, and only picked up a few bottles. Now the drink bottle is worthless, it used to be a dime, now it is only three points, alas... I have to go through this day......

I looked at the three or two empty bottles in my hand, and thought about it, I've been shopping for so long, I can't go back empty-handed, and at worst, I have to change two steamed buns tomorrow morning to eat. Alas... Now the price of steamed buns has risen, 3 yuan a year ago, now a dollar a piece, and it is getting smaller and smaller, I remember that at that time, 5 cents could buy a big meat bun.

I've been sweeping the land for more than ten years, and my salary is still 2,500, and I don't know what meat tastes like anymore......

I just thought about it and continued to wander aimlessly. As I walked around, I stumbled upon the door of an abandoned factory. I vaguely remember hearing the old man talk about this factory, which used to be used by the street to house laid-off workers and specialize in making gloves, but then the efficiency was not good, and it closed down many years ago.

In the first few years of the factory, I heard that there were still a few big bosses who came to see the factory, but I don't know why it has not been rented out, and it has been empty for so many years. I looked at the rusty iron gate of the factory, thinking that it had been abandoned for more than ten years, and I guessed that there was nothing of value left for me, so I wanted to leave.

Just as I turned to walk back, I suddenly faintly heard a mobile phone ringing from the factory. I heard the ringtone from the little daughter-in-law's mobile phone downstairs, and I heard her say what kind of Apple brand mobile phone it is, it is too expensive, and I can only buy one without eating or drinking for more than half a year.

I wondered how there could be a mobile phone ringing in this broken factory in the middle of the night, could someone be inside? But after thinking about it, it's impossible? Who came to this place in the middle of the night? But I seem to have vaguely heard that this area is zoned into the old area for renovation, could it be that who came to see the factory during the day and accidentally dropped it?

The more I thought about it, the more likely it was, my heart was a little uncompromising, and I thought about whether I picked up the phone and returned it to the owner, and asked him if it was better to sell it for a few hundred yuan. So I licked my dry lips, turned on a flashlight and struggled to find a few scrap bricks from the weeds in front of the factory, dragged my lame legs and laboriously moved to the factory wall, and tried to climb the bricks several times.

Riding on the top of the factory wall, I found that the factory is not big, and about 5 meters away from the wall, I can see a dilapidated factory building. I took a flashlight on the wall and took a picture of it, but I didn't find anyone inside, and I was even more sure that someone had dropped the phone in the factory. So I struggled to climb down the wall, and carefully began to look for it by the light of the flashlight.

I searched for about a few minutes, but I didn't find the so-called mobile phone, and I wondered if it wasn't in the factory compound? Inside the factory? But the factory should be locked, and the windows are so high, I can't climb into it so easily as a cripple, and I don't have the right tools at hand to pick the lock.

I sighed and thought I might as well give up and try my luck tomorrow night with my tools. Just as I turned around and was about to go back the way I came, I suddenly heard my phone ringing again, and this time I could clearly hear the ringtone inside the factory. I was excited, and excitedly limped to the factory with a flashlight. I thought about him, I must find a way to get this phone today.

I went to the door of the factory, shone a flashlight on the iron door, and was surprised to find that the iron door was not locked. I didn't think much about it, but happily pushed open the iron door and walked into the factory. With the flashlight, I looked around the factory and began to search for the phone.

Just when I was looking for my mobile phone, I inadvertently swept the flashlight and saw a black shadow, which was squatting in the corner of the factory and didn't know what it was doing.

Someone? I shuddered, and the flashlight flickered, and swept over the black shadow again, alarming him. The black shadow seemed to notice me, looked back at the light, slowly got up, carried something in his hand, and turned to walk towards me.

My mind went blank, and I thought as if something terrible had happened.

The shadow was getting closer and closer to me, and I could faintly smell a faint aroma mixed with the smell of blood wafting towards me as he was a few steps away from me. This fragrance is very special, smelling like the perfume used by the big girl and the little daughter-in-law outside, but the smell is a little different, and the bloody smell mixed with it, I can't say it for a while.

The shadow continued to walk unhurriedly towards me, and although I couldn't see his face clearly, the pressure on me was increasing. I felt a little weak in my feet, and I couldn't take a step.

Just as I was trying to control my body and turn to run away, I suddenly found that the black shadow had already walked to my side, and I immediately stopped trying, for fear of angering him. But strangely enough, he didn't do anything to me as I thought, and walked straight past me.

At this time, I didn't know what was going on in my head, and I was inexplicably curious about what he was carrying. So with a trembling hand, he took the flashlight and shone it on the thing that the black shadow was carrying.

This photo almost didn't drop my soul, only to see him in the light red transparent plastic bag in his hand, faintly seeing a whole set of bloody internal organs, I don't know why I always feel that it will be in the human stomach.

It may have been that my flashlight had angered him, and the shadow slowly turned to look at me. I was startled and immediately put down my flashlight, and lowered my head and didn't dare to look at him. Although I didn't look at him, I had a feeling in my heart that he was staring at me, and that gaze could penetrate my body, and I felt cold all over.

Just when I was wondering if I was saying something soft and begging for mercy, a hoarse voice suddenly floated from the dark shadow, "You're so lucky, I'm not interested in you." After a few seconds, I noticed that there was no movement, so I tried to raise my head in fear and look at the shadow, but for some reason, he had disappeared into thin air.

Suddenly my heart was relieved, and I sat on the ground with my butt on my head, panting heavily. After a few minutes of slowing down, I got up boldly, and I didn't give up trying to find my phone again, so I shone my flashlight at the place where the black shadow had been squatting.

Through the light of the flashlight, I saw that the area was a shallow pit, and the dirt in the pit was faintly mixed with a dark red thing that looked like blood. My scalp was numb, and I suddenly remembered the plastic bag that the black shadow was carrying, and the words he said to me, so frightened that I threw away my flashlight and ran out of the factory.

I don't know how long it took, and I don't know how I got back home, so I lay in bed in a daze and fell asleep. For the next few days, I was afraid that something would happen, but for a few days nothing happened, and gradually I forgot about it.

Just when I was about to forget about it, in the middle of the night last night, for some reason, I couldn't sleep again. I wanted to go out and pick up something, but I found that it was raining lightly. The rain was not heavy or small, it was falling intermittently, and it seemed that I couldn't go out tonight.

I sighed, went to the window, lit a cigarette, and looked out the window at the street below, thinking that I must not go down again when I go to work tomorrow, otherwise it will be better.

Just as I was standing in front of the window and thinking, I suddenly saw a somewhat familiar figure passing by under my window. My heart pounded, and I don't know why I suddenly remembered the dark figure in the abandoned factory three years ago, and I felt that the two figures were very similar.

I shook my head slowly, telling myself that there was such a coincidence, but I was a little uneasy. So I poked my head out of the attic window and peeked at the back.

The figure seemed to be carrying a plastic bag in his hand, because it was in the middle of the night, and it was far away, so I couldn't see what it was. Just as I was about to stick my head out to take a closer look, the figure suddenly turned around and looked at my window.

Although I didn't know if he was looking at me or not, it scared me into a cold sweat. I quickly extinguished my cigarette, closed the window, and went back to bed in a daze.

Early this morning, as usual, before the Ladies Market opened, I went out to start the day's work. Then I found those internal organs in the garbage heap next to the toilet on Jinxiu Road, and remembered the back I saw in the middle of the night last night and the black shadow three years ago, I always had a hunch that the internal organs were on people, so I called the police.

After telling the story of the dark shadow of the relationship, Wang Mazi said with a long sigh of relief: "You all know about the future, and I don't have anything to say."