The call was quickly connected, and the voice of Li Xin’s Mother came through the receiver.
“Hello, who is it?”
Her voice was groggy, indicating he had woken his Mother from her sleep.
But hearing his Mother’s voice made him feel much better.
“Mom, it’s me.”
“Son?”
His Mother on the other end of the phone immediately sobered up, suddenly sitting up from bed, her voice becoming anxious and full of worry.
“You, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”
Li Xin knew his Mother had misunderstood; his sudden late-night call would indeed cause his Mother to overthink.
This misunderstanding made him feel a bit sore, because in his parents’ eyes, he was someone who loved to cause trouble.
This was also true, but he had already resolved to change for the better.
He quickly explained, “Mom, don’t worry, I’m fine, I just missed you.”
“It’s good that you’re fine,” his Mother on the other end of the phone breathed a sigh of relief.
“Then why are you calling in the middle of the night? How have you been recently? You need to work hard.
You stay there for now, your father and I are trying to find connections to get you another job.
You haven’t caused any more trouble, have you?”
Li Xin sighed, “No, don’t worry, Mom.
I’ve changed; I’ll never cause any more trouble, never again.
I just missed you all; how have you been recently?”
“Sigh,” his Mother sighed, hesitating to speak, and finally said, “We’re all fine, you don’t need to worry.”
Although his Mother said so, Li Xin knew very well that his parents couldn’t be doing well now.
They were also constantly worried that if one day someone recognized their Son as a murderer.
Then, they would have to move to another place again.
After chatting with his Mother for a few moments, Li Xin’s eyes became moist; hanging up the phone, his heart remained incredibly heavy.
All of this in his family was caused by him.
He not only ruined his own life but also implicated his parents.
If he had another chance, he would never dare to kill again.
But life doesn’t restart; all he could do was turn over a new leaf.
This was also why he named himself Li Xin.
He turned off the light, preparing to continue sleeping.
But for some reason, old memories kept surfacing, swirling in his mind.
Jiang Jie’s face constantly appeared in his mind, it was Jiang Jie’s appearance before he died, distorted and terrifying.
He had clearly forgotten it for a long time, but today, he just couldn’t stop thinking about it over and over again.
He couldn’t help but feel annoyed, suddenly sitting up from the bed and cursing.
“Damn it, why do I keep thinking about these annoying things!”
He probably wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight, so he picked up his phone, preparing to check the time.
As soon as he lit up the phone, he saw a distorted face appear on the phone screen.
It was a boy with a face full of blood, his cold eyes staring intently at him.
He was startled and hurriedly dropped the phone, which fell onto the bed and flipped over.
“How could this be?”
His heart pounded; he remembered that photo, he had taken a photo with his phone when they killed Jiang Jie.
But that was a phone he used years ago, long since discarded; the phone he was using now was only bought a few months ago, how could it have old photos.
Furthermore, he had absolutely never set such a terrifying photo as his phone wallpaper.
“Did I see it wrong?”
He cautiously reached out his hand and flipped the phone over.
On the phone screen was a youthful and beautiful girl, which was his actual phone wallpaper.
He breathed a sigh of relief, he must have been overthinking just now, which caused him to see it wrong.
It was already 3 AM, and he had to go to work at 9 AM, so he had 6 hours left.
But unfortunately, no matter what, he couldn’t fall asleep.
He wasn’t in the mood to play on his phone, so he just sat on the bed in a daze.
His hand moved, pressing down on the bed, and he felt as if he had pressed something, so he quickly withdrew his hand.
Realizing what happened, he reached out again to feel the object on the bed; it was a smooth piece of paper, and the texture in his hand made him feel as if it was a photo.
He didn’t remember ever putting a photo on his bed.
He immediately turned on the light, and the dazzling light filled the entire room; he squinted until his eyes fully adjusted to the light.
He finally saw clearly what was in his hand; it was indeed a photo.
A very old photo, with three people in it: him and his two classmates.
Back then, it was these three who killed Jiang Jie.
But he hadn’t been in contact with those two for a long time, and now he couldn’t reach them at all.
In fact, if not for this photo, he wouldn’t even remember their faces.
“How can there still be such a photo? Didn’t I throw it away long ago?”
He took out a lighter, preparing to burn this photo.
He didn’t want to see anything that reminded him of his past.
As soon as the lighter ignited the photo, he suddenly noticed that there was another person in the photo.
The moment he saw that person, he felt as if he had been struck by lightning.
“How could this be? Did I see it wrong?”
He quickly extinguished the fire on the photo, enduring the pain in his hand, and carefully examined the photo.
In the photo, there weren’t three people, but a fourth person.
The fourth person was in the corner behind them, in a very inconspicuous spot.
“How is that possible? He, how could he be in here?”
The person in the photo was none other than Jiang Jie, whom they had killed; Jiang Jie stood quietly in the corner, watching them.
Jiang Jie’s position was very eerie; no matter from which direction he looked, those eyes seemed to be staring at him.
He suddenly felt a chilling sensation.
He carefully looked at the background in the photo, and was once again horrified.
The location where the photo was taken was that forest; they had killed Jiang Jie in that forest.
However, although he had taken photos with those two, he had definitely not taken photos in that forest.
So what exactly was this photo about?
At this moment, he only felt that the entire room had become incredibly eerie.
“Damn it, how unlucky!”
When he decided to start anew, he burned everything from the past completely.
There couldn’t be any stragglers, and even if there were, they couldn’t suddenly appear at this moment.
“This is really damn creepy; I should just burn this thing.”
The entire room became incredibly cold, and that chill invaded his body, making him shiver uncontrollably.
He was afraid.
“There’s nothing to be afraid of; there are no ghosts in this world.
Even if there were, he’s been dead for so long, there’s no reason for him to come seeking revenge now.”
After all, more than 5 years had passed, and he had completely forgotten about what happened back then.
Even the strongest hatred should have subsided by now.
He lit the fire again, preparing to burn that unlucky photo.
But at this moment, the person in the photo changed again.
He and his two friends were still normal; what changed was Jiang Jie, standing in the bottom left corner of the photo.
Jiang Jie in the photo seemed to come alive; blood constantly flowed from him, and his eyes were full of hatred.
Jiang Jie in the photo stretched out his hand, slowly moving, as if trying to grab him.
Seeing this eerie change, he was so startled that he almost dropped the photo in his hand.
His whole body was trembling, and the lighter suddenly went out.
“This photo is too evil; it must be burned!”
He didn’t want to consider whether he was seeing things or had made a mistake.
That wasn’t important; what was important was that this photo had to be burned.
His trembling hand kept trying to light the lighter, but the lighter wouldn’t ignite.
An incredibly terrifying thought arose in his mind, but he tried hard to control his thoughts, absolutely not allowing himself to overthink.
“How can there be ghosts!”
If there really were ghosts in this world, then he would have suffered retribution long ago.
He had killed Jiang Jie, and so many years had passed, but he was still doing well.
Moreover, many people in this world had killed, but who among them had been killed by a ghost?
Furthermore, Jiang Jie was afraid of him when he was alive; dead, he would be even less likely to seek revenge.
Although he repeatedly told himself that this was impossible, that no ghost would come to seek revenge on him, his body still couldn’t help but tremble.
This kind of fear was something he had never experienced before.
When he killed Jiang Jie, although he was afraid, it was far from this level.
Later, when the matter was exposed and he was taken away by the police, he wasn’t that scared either.
Because he knew very well that even if he killed someone, he would never die.
But now, it was hard to say; he sensed danger.
“Burn it, burn it and everything will be fine!”
He trembled as he lit the lighter, but because his hand was shaking so badly, the flame quickly went out again.
He clenched his fist and punched his arm hard; the pain calmed him down.
This time, his hand no longer trembled, and the lighter quickly ignited, the flame swiftly engulfing the photo.
A burning pain also came from his hand, and he hurriedly threw the photo onto the ground.
The moment the photo fell, he seemed to see that he in the photo had changed.
He was covered in blood, lying on the ground, his head seemingly split open from the fall.
But before he could see clearly, the flames had completely consumed the photo.
That eerie photo completely turned to ashes, but he felt that the entire room had become even more eerie.
He felt cold, and quickly returned to bed, tightly wrapping himself in the quilt.
But that coldness could not be dispelled by anything.
Because that coldness emanated from within him, it was his fear.
No matter how tightly he wrapped himself, it couldn’t be dispelled.
“Ah—”
His gaze fell on the bed, and he suddenly let out a scream.
Another photo had appeared on the bed, he didn’t know when.
At this moment, the entire bedroom seemed to have suddenly entered the depths of winter.