Chapter 048 Shadow Man-4
The four little paper figures began to become jealous of each other, and Jiang Yan felt very complicated.
Finally he held up three more fingers.
"Okay, one for each of you."
Jiang Yan said this with a stiff expression.
"Mommy...that's great...we are also...good babies..."
Jiang Yan's four fingers were held by the little paper man. He saw the little paper man put his head on his fingertips and made a small sound from his mouth. When he listened carefully, it seemed to be a "slurping" sound.
He was actually sucking his fingers.
“…”
Fortunately, these four little paper figures don’t have real mouths, otherwise his hands would be covered with saliva.
"How should I distinguish your faces?"
Both sides of the little paper figures looked exactly the same, and Jiang Yan had no idea when they were facing him and when they were facing away from him.
The little paper figurines were happy to answer Mommy's questions. The thin paper figurine who spoke most fluently answered first: "Mommy, feel it. The convex part is the back of our heads, and the concave part is our faces."
The thin man touched his face and the back of his head with Jiang Yan's fingers. Jiang Yan could feel it, but...
What would happen if he folded the little paper man?
Teenagers are always curious, Jiang Yan thought, as he poked the sunken face of the little paper man with a finger.
The little paper man stepped back repeatedly and covered his head, "Mommy, it hurts...I poked my eye."
Jiang Yan withdrew his hand when the little paper man screamed. He felt a little embarrassed and changed the poking action to comforting. "I'm just curious. Sorry."
The little paper man shook his head after hearing this, and then stepped forward and grabbed Jiang Yan's finger, "Mommy, just poke me... We are happy..."
"Mommy...can we play ball..."
The tall paper man took a ball of waste paper and placed it at Jiang Yan's feet. He hesitated for a moment under the expectation of the four little paper men, then picked up the ball of paper on the ground and threw it gently out.
"Ball..."
The four little paper figures ran away in a mess, shouting, chasing the shadow of the paper ball.
This scene reminded Jiang Yan of a deceased puppy, a stray puppy he met in the community many years ago.
At that time, Jiang Yan had just been adopted by a relative and because he was too lonely, he became friends with a stray puppy.
The puppy is very well behaved. It won't bite anyone and will find a sink to wash itself clean.
One time, Xiao Jiangyan secretly brought the puppy back home, but was caught by his cousin and reported to the police. As a result, he was scolded by his uncle and aunt and was not given any food for two consecutive days.
After that, the puppy knew that Xiao Jiangyan’s family didn’t like him, so he was very obedient and never followed Xiao Jiangyan into the residential building again.
But later, when little Jiang Yan was hit with a toy by his cousin in the community, the puppy still talked back to his cousin, and his cousin reported Jiang Yan to his parents, and then Jiang Yan was punished again.
This is also one of the reasons why my cousin asked people to bully Jiang Yan at school. My cousin is very vengeful and hates both the dog and Jiang Yan.
Later the puppy disappeared.
His cousin laughed at him and said that the dog was finally dead, and the reason why the body disappeared was that it must have been thrown into the trash can by someone. After all, the dog was just unwanted trash like him.
But Jiang Yan firmly believed that the puppy had just wandered off to another place, because he knew that if he stayed in the community, his little master would always get hurt, so he left on his own.
That's a very good little dog.
When he returned to his senses, he realized that the paper ball had been found by a small paper man. However, Jiang Yan, who was sitting on the bench, did not take the paper ball and throw it out immediately. Instead, he stared at the small paper man in a daze.
He saw the shadow of the puppy in the little paper man. He and the puppy played the ball throwing game in the same way a long time ago.
Until a little paper man pinched the dazed mother's fingers and said in a baby voice: "Mommy...what's wrong..."
Jiang Yan came back to his senses and shook his head, "Nothing, let's continue playing."
Time passed quickly. People in the park came and went, one group after another. The street lights made the shadows of the people in the park longer and longer, and the cicadas hidden in the grass began to chirp.
Jiang Yan glanced at his phone and it was time to go home.
At this time, my cousin should be playing games in the room, and my uncle and aunt should be watching TV in the living room with the lights off. But they are traveling today, so they may rest early.
Jiang Yan just stood up from the bench, and his eyelids twitched. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but he always felt that someone was looking at him.
In fact, Jiang Yan had felt that something was always staring at him since a long time ago, whether he was in an orphanage, at a relative's house, or at school, whether he was eating, sleeping, going to the toilet, or taking a bath. He always felt that there was always a gaze on his back.
But every time I looked back, there was nothing behind me.
Jiang Yan felt that his hallucinations were becoming more and more serious. Perhaps the four little paper figures in front of him were also the result of his imagination.
But it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter whether he is crazy or not, and no one will care. He just needs to make himself happy.
Now the existence of these four little paper figures makes him quite happy, at least he is not alone anymore.
Jiang Yan squatted down and placed the four little paper figures back in his palms. "Are we going to... go back into the hat again..."
"If you want to stay in my palm, you can. I will spread it out, but you have to be careful not to fall off."
"Okay...then stay here...and don't go back into the hat..."
"Mommy's palm... is so warm..."
"I'm a little sleepy...but I don't want to sleep yet...I want to stay with Mommy a little longer..."
"Gurgle... I'm hungry again..."
Jiang Yan curled his lower lip slightly, and a smile blossomed at the corner of his mouth that he himself was not even aware of. Then, he kept his palms flat and turned to walk towards the residential building.
The street lights beside him stretched and shortened his shadow, and when he focused his attention on his palms and the road ahead, his shadow began to move freely and strangely.
The shadow seemed to be tired of maintaining one posture, and began to stretch its arms and move its limbs. In short, it was very flexible, like a living person sealed in the ground.
Just as Jiang Yan was about to walk out of the range of the street lamp, the shadow suddenly extended to a length that was impossible according to physics knowledge. It touched the shadow of the street lamp, and then "wow" and ate the shadow of the street lamp!
It happened almost in an instant, and then the shadow quickly retracted to Jiang Yan like a spring rope. A breeze blew up the dust on the ground, and the surroundings returned to their normal state.
It's windy.
A drop of rain fell on the tip of Jiang Yan's nose, which made him feel a little itchy. He scratched his nose with his other free hand and looked up at the sky again.
It's going to rain tonight.
Jiang Yan thought. At the same time, the four little paper figures in his palms howled as if they had seen a ghost, "Ah... wet... pain..."
Paper figures are very fragile things. Too much water can easily destroy them. For them, water and fire are both deadly weapons.
Seeing this, Jiang Yan quickly used his other hand to cover the heads of the four little paper men, while speeding up his pace.
Before the drizzle turned into a downpour, Jiang Yan had already rushed back to the unit door.
Through the door, Jiang Yan could clearly hear the sound of actors reciting their lines on TV and the sound of his cousin cursing after losing a game.
Jiang Yan took a deep breath in the corridor, then opened the door with the key, closed it very gently, and finally tiptoed back to his small room from the living room.
The uncle and aunt were watching TV very attentively. The bright light from the screen reflected the faces of the two people on the sofa. They stared at it intently and did not notice anyone entering the house at all.
When passing by his cousin's room, he heard the sound of something being smashed inside. Jiang Yan didn't even pause for a second. It was obvious that he was used to this scene.
Finally returning to the room, Jiang Yan closed the door and locked it.
The little paper figures in the palms were still a little wet by the drizzling rain, so they couldn't wait to jump down when they passed by the bed.
Three of the little paper people rolled into the quilt and tried to dry themselves because being wet was really uncomfortable. Another little paper person was so sleepy that he almost fell asleep on the bed.
Jiang Yan didn't close them, but closed the window.
The heavy rain hit the window, the sound was getting louder and louder, almost covering up the sound of the TV and the voice of his cousin outside. But compared to the sound outside the room, Jiang Yan was more willing to listen to the sound of the rain.
"Mommy...I want to hear a bedtime story..."
Jiang Yan went out to wash up again. When he came back, he saw that the little paper man on the bed was still awake and was looking at him eagerly.
Bedtime story?
Jiang Yan thought that he had never heard of it in his entire life, but one day he would be able to tell it to others.
"Mommy..."
As if they were afraid that Jiang Yan wouldn't tell them, the three little paper figures who were still awake shouted again in a wronged tone.
Jiang Yan's eyebrows twitched a few times. After a mental struggle, he said with difficulty: "...Okay."
Actually, if possible...you don’t have to call him mommy.
"But I have a premise." Jiang Yan thought about it. Even if these four little paper figures were just a dream he imagined, he still felt that he needed to correct his common sense. "I'm a man. It would be weird for you to call me mommy. If you really want to, you can call me daddy."
"But... I already have a daddy..."
Jiang Yan opened his eyelids and said, "Got it? Then why don't you let him out?"
As he finished speaking, a black area on the window moved.
Except for the one who was already fast asleep, the remaining three little paper figures looked at each other, and seemed to be very confused. Finally, the three little paper figures shook their heads in unison, "You are Mommy..."
Jiang Yan smiled and said, "Then tell me, how am I like your mommy?"
"Because... you have... neinei..."
“……”It’s better not to answer.
"Forget it, whatever you want."
Jiang Yan didn't want to talk anymore. He had to go to class tomorrow, so he had to sleep, otherwise he wouldn't be able to get up.
"Go to sleep... no... tell a story first..."
Jiang Yan had just laid down on the bed when the three little paper figures ran to the pillow and whispered in his ears.
"No, you are all hiding something from me, so I won't tell you."
“Cry…”
"There's no use crying."
It's clear that he is a heartless "mother".
Out of sight, out of mind. Jiang Yan closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep.
In the dim room, only a ray of moonlight poured in through the hazy rain mist. Outside the window, heavy rain was pouring down, and the damp and cold air flooded the entire room.
Jiang Yan also felt the cold and his body trembled twice. When he opened his eyes and wanted to take out the blanket from the closet, his sight suddenly met a huge black shadow on the wall in front of him.
If it was an ordinary shadow, Jiang Yan would have mistaken it for furniture or tree shadows projected on his wall by the light, but the key point was that the shadow on the wall in front of him was——
Have eyes!
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