The house is money, the story is life

I heard that wandering footsteps again.

It was as if someone was going back and forth in the living room, the soles of their shoes beating rhythmically on the marble floor, walking to his door again and again, silent for a moment, leaving sadly, and then continuing to wander in the living room.Every tiny movement was magnified by the silence of the night, hitting his heart one after another, each one was extremely heavy.

Xie Shaosong was nestled under the blanket, tightly clutching a plain silver hairpin with plum blossoms in his hand.

"Haiqin?" He called softly.

No one responded to him.The sound of footsteps approached the closed door again, and the person outside the door—if that could be considered a "person"—temporarily stopped moving.Everything fell into an eerie silence.Xie Shaosong imagined a pair of empty eyes staring blankly at the door, and felt cold sweat rolling down his back.

A thin layer of door panels became the only barrier to protect him.And he didn't know when this barrier would be breached.

After an unknown amount of time, there was finally movement outside the door again—the footsteps gradually faded away, lingering in the living room, forming a seemingly endless loop.

Xie Shaosong curled up deeply, listening to the sound of heels stepping on the marble, again and again, again and again.

He felt like he was going crazy.

Xie Shaosong couldn't remember when he fell asleep.

But what is certain is that he didn't sleep well—it seemed sleepless and dreamy all night, and the repeated footsteps were blurred in his memory, making it hard to tell the truth from reality, but the palpitations were deep. It was deeply engraved in his consciousness, making him hesitate and uneasy.Heavy dark circles appeared on his fair face, and his eyes were bloodshot. Xie Shaosong stared blankly in front of the mirror for a long time with his toothbrush in his mouth. He almost didn't recognize the haggard man in the mirror.

Sighing, he decided it was time to put moving on the agenda.

Whether it's superstition or cowardice, there is definitely something wrong with this house, and he doesn't want to live in it anymore.

It just so happened that last month's manuscript fee has already arrived in the account, plus some of his own savings, it should be enough for him to find another house to rent.The only problem is that his current house has three months' rent in advance, and there is still one month's rent due, and the current landlord is overseas and cannot be contacted, and the deposit for renting the house may not be returned for a while... …

who cares.As long as you can move out, you can lose some money. Life is more important than money.

After hastily washing up, Xie Shaosong casually took yesterday's leftover donuts from the refrigerator for breakfast and started to eat them. Then he tidied up the messy tabletop, his gaze unconsciously passed over a silver hairpin placed on the corner of the table, and he couldn't help but move. a meal.

Haiqin...

I silently recited the name again in my heart, followed by a burst of needle-like pain.Xie Shao bit his lower lip tightly, took a deep breath, and solemnly put the silver hairpin into the compartment of the backpack.

Five minutes later, Xie Shaosong, carrying a backpack, hurried out the door, his hair curled up randomly, and some icing sugar was still on the corner of his mouth.Sensing that there might be something on his face, he wiped it casually with the back of his hand, and then jumped on the barely stopped bus. The destination was a housing agency one street away.

In fact, there is a well-known real estate agency within a 5-minute walk from his home, and it is very easy to find a house by renting a house these days.However, this housing agency was strongly recommended by Xie Shaosong's most trusted senior after hearing about his experience, saying that the person in charge here not only sells houses, but also looks at Feng Shui and faces.

According to the senior himself, he had a Mercury retrograde for a while, and he couldn't even find a job. In the end, he was so poor that he had to sell his house.One day he stumbled into the agency, talked with the person in charge for an entire afternoon, and got a wooden bead bracelet in a daze. When he came out, he was possessed like a koi carp, and the day turned around. The family had already rejected his offer. The company hired him again, and things went smoothly after that. After the Mercury went retrograde, the house didn't need to be sold.

Xie Shaosong originally sneered at this story, and he didn't even want to look at the wooden bead bracelet that the senior carried around like a baby.But to this day, I can only reluctantly believe it.

A few minutes later, Xie Shaosong got out of the car, counted the house numbers all the way to find it, and finally found those few thin gold characters squeezed together among the colorful signboards——Weiqiu Intermediary.

It's just a real estate agency, why do you have such a literary name?Xie Shaosong shook his head amusedly, and suspected that he had found the wrong place—in his impression, real estate agents should densely paste house information all over the glass, creating a honeycomb effect, but the glass in front of him was It was empty, and a boy who looked like a primary school student could be clearly seen inside, reading a book on his desk.

Noticing his gaze, the little boy in the blue shirt raised his head and glanced at him, then walked over and opened the door, asking, "What's the matter?"

"Well, I want to rent a house." Xie Shaosong said honestly, and glanced at the cover of the book in the little boy's hand - "Substitute Empress".

... Children of this age.

Noticing his gaze, the little boy threw the book aside without changing his expression: "Don't get me wrong, this is not mine."

"I haven't said anything yet." Xie Shaosong scratched his head with difficulty, and asked again, "Is your lord here?"

"Otherwise, what do you think?" The little boy said blankly, opened the door a little more, and signaled Xie Shaosong to come in quickly.

Xie Shaosong walked into the agency in a daze, only to find that there were adults inside—a young man in a vertically striped long-sleeved shirt was lying on the sofa reading a book, The Naive and Sentimental Novelist ".Next to the sofa is a potted cypress tree, looking in from the angle Xie Shaosong just saw, the sofa was just blocked by the cycad tree, so that Xie Shaosong didn't realize there was someone here, and was taken aback when he entered the door.

"Yo, hello, guest." The young man lying on the sofa got up lazily, took out a wooden business card from his pocket and handed it over, "Welcome to Weiqiu Agency, I'm Zhou Tang, Can I help you with anything?"

"Well, hello." Xie Shaosong reached out to take the business card, and he couldn't help but look at it a few more times due to the unusual material.The wood chips are polished smooth and light, like paper, with complicated textures on the surface, elegant but natural.Glancing at the content on the business card again, it was nothing more than regular names, positions, contact information, etc., Xie Shaosong took a rough look, put the business card away, raised his head and said to Zhou Tang, "I want to..."

"Don't be in a hurry, drink some water first." Zhou Tang led Xie Shaosong to sit down at the desk, handed him a glass of water, and asked casually, "Is Mr. Xu Yan okay?"

Xie Shaosong almost spit out a mouthful of water: "He told you that I'm coming?"

Xu Yan is exactly the name of Xie Shaosong's senior.But he remembered that he did not tell him that he was going to come to this agency.

"No, I guessed it. Your breath tells me that you should know each other." Zhou Tang smiled gently and politely. Xie Shaosong only felt strange when he heard it. He suspected that this guy was playing tricks, but he still couldn't help asking: " Xu Yan said that he had received help from you..."

"I don't dare to help or something. I just acted as an audience and listened to him tell some stories. Modern people have nothing else, but they are under a lot of pressure. Just express it." Zhou Tang said with a smile, "I People don’t have any other hobbies, they just love listening to stories.”

"But he said you gave him a string of transport beads."

"It's just a worthless gadget. Because his name is 'Yan', I thought of 'wood makes fire', so I gave it to him. As for whether it is useful, who knows?"

Zhou Tang took a sip of tea in a leisurely manner, and looked at Xie Shaosong thoughtfully: "Why, you want it too?"

Xie Shaosong looked away in embarrassment: "Uh, actually I..."

"It seems that you have also encountered some troublesome things." Zhou Tang interrupted him calmly, and looked over curiously, "Do you want to talk about it? No matter how long the story is, I will listen to it Yes. In return, if there is anything I can do to help, I will definitely not be stingy."

Although it is very polite, but in essence, you still want to pry into privacy, right?Xie Shaosong thought suspiciously, but his mouth seemed to have his own consciousness, and he started talking on his own: "Actually, I just rented a house, and there have been strange noises recently..."

"It's not just these." Zhou Tang was still smiling, but there was a hint of coaxing in his smile, "Is this really the story you want to tell the most? Is there nothing else... Is there anything else you want to tell?"

Xie Shaosong stared blankly at the smiling man, only to feel that the dark fox eyes seemed to contain the darkness of the night, evoking a haze, growing from the depths of consciousness, making the whole person drowsy.

"...is my girlfriend, Haiqin." Xie Shaosong heard himself speak slowly, "Lu Haiqin, she, she is my ex-girlfriend. She treats me very well, and I love her very much..."

Lu Haiqin is four years younger than Xie Shaosong, and he is still a college student. His hobby is playing cosplay, and he is still a little famous in the circle.

The two met at a comic convention.Lu Haiqin's COS became the heroine in Xie Shaosong's comics, wandering around with friends, unconsciously passing by Xie Shaosong's side, his clothes were fragrant, and immediately took away half of Xie Shaosong's soul - at that moment, he almost thought he was The goddess of the pen really came alive.

But in fact, Lu Haiqin doesn't like Xie Shaosong's comics. It's the kind that I read occasionally on a whim, and post a blog post after reading it-"It's bloody and abusive, so I return Mary Su. Probably only junior high school students like it." Right." She always commented on Xie Shaosong's works like this.

—— Xie Shaosong only knew these things after the two got together.At this time, Xie Shaosong couldn't do without Lu Haiqin.

And he has always believed that Haiqin still likes his works very much, but because of a certain attribute called "tsundere", he shyly refuses to admit it-even though Lu Haiqin has repeatedly stated that he is purely brainwashed. Make up for it.

"Haiqin is good at everything, but she has a bit of a temper. She is an Aries girl..." Xie Shaosong was completely immersed in his own memories, "I know, she is actually like a big child, it's a big deal, It's over after coaxing, I know it all. But I, I know this...why do I have to quarrel with her! "

It was really a trivial matter, and Xie Shaosong couldn't remember the specific situation. He only remembered that Haiqin was making a lot of noise at the time, and he was struggling to catch up with the manuscript, and his attitude was also very bad.The two choked several times back and forth, and Haiqin finally slammed the door angrily and left.After finishing the manuscript, Xie Shaosong calmed down and wanted to apologize to her, but he couldn't get in touch.He only thought that Lu Haiqin was still angry, so he went to the store and ordered a silver hairpin with plum blossoms exactly like the heroine he wrote as an apology gift - he said it was the hairpin of the heroine, but it was actually designed for Lu Haiqin .He doesn't understand romance, but he subconsciously thinks that Haiqin will like it.

A few days later, he went to apologize to his girlfriend with the hairpin, but only found the dead body of his sweetheart.

Lu Haiqin, 22 years old, was found dead in front of the vanity mirror in his room by his roommate and boyfriend who returned from a trip two days after his death. The cause of death was a heart attack.

"A good person, how can you say that you are gone!" Xie Shaosong buried his face in his palms in pain, "I don't know what to do, I can't stay in my own house, my mind is full of eyes It's all her. I, I have no choice but to move..."

But just after the move, strange things happened.

Every night there would be strange footsteps, lingering in the living room, stopping at the door of the bedroom several times, but never coming in.Xie Shaosong thought it was a thief or a prank at first, he once yelled and opened the door to look out, or hid behind the door and peeped through the crack of the door, but he saw nothing.

"I once tried to spend the night in the living room, and there was no movement all night, but as soon as I returned to the bedroom, the footsteps would sound again..." Xie Shaosong said solemnly, "I have been thinking, wondering if it might be Haiqin is looking for me..."

"Of course not." Zhou Tang interjected calmly, and poured him another glass of water, "Your girlfriend must also love you, so why would she do such a thing that distresses you?"

"Then, that voice..."

"Probably some mischievous spirit." Zhou Tang said as a matter of course, completely ignoring how unbelievable the topic sounds, "Believe it or not, there will always be some restless things in this world. But you, the guest, Don't worry-"

When he said this, he paused for a moment, took a look at the small note on the table, and continued, "The door is for protection but also for rejection. As long as you don't open your mouth to invite, nothing can cross your threshold."

...Hey, what's the matter with this feeling of reciting lines?Are you really not a liar?

"My boss asked me to tell you these things." Zhou Tang was still calm when he was discovered after reading the cheat sheet, "He will know the future."

Xie Shaosong: "..."

Playing tricks, it's weird.But perhaps because he has been immersed in the imaginative world of comics for too long, Xie Shaosong found himself accepting this statement easily, and felt a sense of relief—although this ease may also come from the catharsis in his heart Maybe.

"In short, everything is not as bad as your guest thinks, and please don't worry too much, lest you die before you grow old." Zhou Tang stared at the water glass in Xie Shaosong's hand, "Guest, you must have dry mouth after talking for so long Right? Come on, please drink some water to moisten your throat, and then leave through that door, please believe that everything will be fine."

Under Zhou Tang's gaze, Xie Shaosong unknowingly picked up the water glass.The sweet liquid slid down his throat, and Xie Shaosong felt that something was gently washed away the moment he swallowed it.

He stood up and walked out in a daze until he walked out of the gate.The warm sunlight fell on his face, making his eyes white. Xie Shaosong suddenly woke up, looked back at the agency, and then looked down at himself. He clearly remembered everything that happened just now, but when he thought about it carefully, it seemed like a dream.

"It's getting late, why don't you leave?" A childish voice came from the side, Xie Shaosong tilted his head, and saw the little boy sitting on the steps reading a book - of course it was the book "Sad Love: The Substitute Princess" ".

Looking closely at the boy's facial features, Xie Shaosong felt that there seemed to be something different about him, but he couldn't say exactly what was different.

"Aren't you leaving yet?" Seeing that he ignored him, the little boy repeated it numbly.Xie Shaosong let out an "oh" as if he had just woken up from a dream, and nodded: "Well, it's time to go."

He turned his head to leave, thought for a moment, then turned around and asked, "What's your name?"

"Summer time." The little boy replied, "We are in summer time."

"Xia Shi, let me ask you a question, are you really a home agency?"

"Otherwise what do you think?"

Then why is there no information about the house inside or out, and the boss just now didn't mention the house at all...

——Or this is not a family agency at all, but just wearing the cloak of an agency.The essence is actually a dark shop related to soul selling, doing strange and unknown transactions in private...

——Or, just simply going bankrupt?

Xie Shaosong secretly guessed, using his powerful brain power without hesitation, but the little boy seemed to have guessed his thoughts, and replied: "There is no information, it can only prove that it is not time for you to move. That's all. Don't ask, let's go early, you can meet good things when you go back now." Zhou Xia pointed with his chin, "here, the bus you were waiting for is here."

Xie Shaosong gave a "huh" for no reason, turned his head to look at the bus station, and saw a bus slowly approaching.He squinted his eyes to identify the bus number, and immediately screamed, waving his hands and rushed over.

Zhou Xia shook his head, turned his face to look at his side - at some time, a girl quietly appeared beside him.Long hair shawl, delicate makeup, the boots are modern style, the clothes are snow-white handmade ancient clothes, the clothes are embroidered with plum blossom patterns, which match the style of Xie Shaosong's silver hairpin.

Just when a girl is at her most radiant and beautiful moment, a few dazzling strands of white hair are suddenly mixed into her jet-black hair.Zhou Xia frowned and took a look, then quickly looked away, as if he didn't care.

"Don't love and don't hate, don't complain and don't be angry, the previous life is not false, and the present life is not true..." He hummed casually, and led the girl to the window.The glass, which was originally empty, was filled with all kinds of housing information in an instant—everything from the dilapidated empty houses in the suburbs to the eight-treasure jars that the old Wang’s family next door has treasured for many years.

"Come on, Lu Haiqin, see if there is anything you like."

Until he walked into the stairs, Xie Shaosong still felt a little confused in his mind.The longer it dragged on, the less he could remember what happened in that real estate agency.But one thing is certain—his residence is still unknown.

Sure enough, none of the seniors' recommendations were reliable, and they said that it was not time to move... Now is not the time, so when is it?Is it worthwhile to move directly to the Underworld after being haunted to death?

The confused and inexplicable obedience gradually faded away, and Xie Shaosong started the belated mode of complaining while walking.I also encountered good things... I didn't pick up any wallet lottery tickets along the way...

He climbed up the stairs while shaking his head, and was looking down at the key, when he suddenly caught a glimpse of a strange boy lying on his door, looking in through the keyhole.

"Hey!" Xie Shaosong shouted, "What are you doing!"

The boy was startled and turned around quickly.Xie Shaosong was also taken aback by him - this young man seemed to be only fourteen or fifteen years old, his skin was ridiculously white, his facial features were exquisite, and he was wearing a red shirt.The overly bright colors made him look like a doll.If it wasn't for his Adam's apple, Xie Shaosong would have regarded him as a girl.

People like to look at appearances, Xie Shaosong saw that this child was born good-looking, and his tone could not help but slow down: "Whose child are you? What are you doing at my door?"

"I, I just came to see..." the young man stammered, "I'm not a bad person... My sister's name is Su Xian, and she is the owner of this house!"

"Are you Miss Su Xian's younger brother?" Xie Shaosong frowned.Su Xian is his landlord's name, and he will definitely not remember it wrong.

"Uh...that's right, I am her younger brother, and my name is Su Xia."

Xie Shaosong sized him up and said, "Miss Su Xian has gone abroad..."

"I know." Su Xia said sullenly, "She left me alone in the country. But I lost the keys to my house. I didn't have much money with me..."

"So careless?" Xie Shaosong looked at him amusedly, stepped forward and opened the door, "All right, then come in and sit for a while."

The young man stood outside the door, looked at Xie Shaosong timidly, and asked, "Are you inviting me in now?"

"That's right, so are you coming in?" Xie Shaosong asked again.The boy nodded quickly: "I want it, I want it!"

After speaking, he hurriedly ran in, Xie Shaosong followed unhurriedly, turned around to close the door, and suddenly sniffed.

"Strange, it's summer, where does the smell of plum blossom come from?"