After opening the door, I didn't go in immediately. Instead, I first checked the incense ash I had arranged at the entrance.

By observing whether there are footprints or signs of disturbance, one can determine whether someone has entered the house.

Although I'm not a spy, I still offended that richest man in China.

He might have sent someone to sneak into my house.

Fortunately, the incense ash on the carpet was exactly the same as when I left, so no one should have come in.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps because of the curse, I was a little paranoid.

I walked into the living room, turned on the lights, and everything was exactly as I had left it.

The sofa was messy, the coffee table was piled with clutter, and the talismans pasted on the wall were intact.

However, we can't be completely at ease, because nowadays people can enter through more than just the door.

I checked the windows and balcony door again to make sure that the plaster I had applied to the gaps before I left hadn't been touched, and only then was I completely relieved.

After returning from the mountains, even though Luo Tianhe and I took turns driving, we were both exhausted and our backs ached. We just wanted to collapse and sleep right away.

I forced myself to stay awake, quickly washed up, and then buried myself in bed.

I don't know if it was just my imagination, but I felt a bit cold in the room, so I instinctively covered myself with the blanket and tucked my hands and feet inside. Suddenly, I remembered a ghost story I had read before.

There was a child who was afraid that his hands and feet would be eaten if they were exposed, so he tucked them into the blankets. Then his head was eaten.

I laughed at myself for being silly. What's wrong with me?

Normally I would be snoring by now, but now I can't help but overthink.

I rubbed my temples, a wave of exhaustion washing over me. The room was quiet, with only the soft sound of my own breathing.

But as time ticked by, I still couldn't fall asleep; my nerves remained on edge.

"Damn it, I'm really impressed!"

Being so sleepy but unable to fall asleep—anyone who's experienced this knows how unbearable it is...

With no other option, I could only pull out my phone and scroll through videos, hoping to get so sleepy that I couldn't stay awake any longer and then fall asleep.

I mechanically swiped my phone screen: funny clips, food reviews, boring plot edits...

The content flowed across my retina like water, but couldn't penetrate my brain at all.

"Damn it, what kind of crap is this? It's not as interesting as my ghost-catching videos."

I'm getting annoyed; these photos are so poorly made.

But seriously, would it be worthwhile to make some ghost-catching movies?

The police leadership in our city is aware of the situation, so it shouldn't be like other places where they simply block out feudal superstition.

Ordinary electronic devices can't capture ghosts, and people would probably think we're acting, just attention-seeking clowns.

"Forget it," I clicked my tongue in annoyance, my thumb unconsciously continuing to swipe upwards, the screen's brightness making my eyes sting.

I turned the brightness down a bit, but it was still a little glaring, so I closed my eyes for a while. I felt more and more irritable, and the room seemed even colder. Even though I was wrapped tightly in the blanket, the chill seemed to seep into my bones.

It's probably just psychological, I tried to convince myself.

At that moment, I couldn't help but feel a little regretful. I should have gone to my master instead.

Although my master goes to bed early, it would be a bit impolite to disturb his rest, but given the current situation, I probably won't be able to sleep all night.

And my master will understand me.

After letting my mind wander for a while, I realized I was really uncomfortable lying down, so I decided to change my position.

I've been lying on my side scrolling through my phone for too long, and half of my body is starting to feel numb.

My phone was almost fully charged, so I unplugged the charger, slowly rolled over, and the mattress made a slight creaking sound.

My movements as I rolled over were very slow, almost like moving frame by frame.

To put it bluntly, even a tortoise could turn over faster than me.

Perhaps it was exhaustion, or perhaps it was a kind of wariness of darkness that he himself was unwilling to admit.

Just as I turned halfway around and my cheek was about to touch the unwarm pillow on my left, I suddenly caught a glimpse of light out of the corner of my eye.

It wasn't the streetlight shining through the window; my curtains were drawn tightly shut.

After all, I know how unpleasant it is to be woken up by the sun the next day if the curtains aren't drawn tight.

It was a familiar, cold white light, the light coming from a mobile phone screen.

Damn it, there's someone next to me, and they're still playing on their phone!

In that instant, my heart felt as if it were being gripped tightly by an icy hand.

My blood seemed to freeze in that instant, then surged to my head in the next second, and I heard a buzzing in my eardrums.

I kept my head up, not touching the pillow, for almost half a minute.

It wasn't until the muscles in my neck started to ache that my eyes, like rusty gears, struggled to turn toward the source of the light.

There was a person lying on the other side of my bed, also lying on his side with his back to me.

We were so close that I could even see the pattern on the blanket covering him!

It's exactly the same as the one I'm wearing; it's the blue Gwent air conditioning blanket I bought on sale at the supermarket last year for only 19.9 yuan.

He was curled up in bed like me, one hand held up in front of him scrolling through TikTok.

A cold, white light emanated from the screen, and I could see his face reflected on it.

That face, those contours, the occasional twitch of the corner of his mouth as the video content unfolded—every detail was so familiar it sent shivers down my spine.

That was me.

Back then, I would see that face in the mirror every day.

I opened my mouth but couldn't say a word. This scene was too damn eerie. I didn't know whether I should be afraid or what.

He just lay there, quietly scrolling through his phone.

My mind went blank; I couldn't comprehend the absurd scene before me.

The extreme horror was like countless venomous snakes crawling wildly up my spine, gnawing at my sanity, making my scalp tingle and every hair on my body stand on end.

"It's a hallucination, it must be a hallucination, I'm just too tired."

I tried to comfort myself, then turned my body back, and then suddenly turned it back again!

But he, or perhaps it should be "I," is still here!

I stubbornly kept spinning it several more times, and my initial hope was shattered.

This is truly bizarre, like the mother of all evil opening the door to evil itself. It's incredibly bizarre.

I felt numb, my gaze fixed on him.

Suddenly I realized that I was still holding my own phone in my right hand!

The screen was also lit up, playing the next video.

The same video audio was coming from my phone across from me!

It's some kind of upbeat and popular background music, along with the streamer's loud and boastful voice.