“Why is this house open?”

Wang Congshan stood in front of a residential house’s courtyard gate, her brow furrowed slightly.

The house was located by the roadside, with a courtyard, red tiles and white walls. An electric pole stood outside the courtyard wall. It looked ordinary, no different from the surrounding buildings.

But only this one’s courtyard gate and front door were open.

Standing on the street, looking into the house, one could clearly see the entrance hall and the corridor connected to it.

“I don’t know,”

Li Ang shook his head, “But judging from this, it’s hinting at us to go inside.”

He gripped the Xin Yuan Staff, strode forward, and pressed the doorbell in a fake and serious manner, then knocked on the courtyard gate.

After confirming there was no response, he pushed the gate open and walked into the entrance hall along the stone path in the courtyard.

The layout of the house was nothing special. To the left of the entrance hall was the reception room (with wooden floors instead of tatami mats, usually used by the homeowner to entertain guests, a Western-style “Youshitsu”);

In front of the reception room was the living room, similar to a sitting room, directly connected to the balcony, with tatami mats on the floor and a large television in the corner.

To the left of the living room was an L-shaped corridor leading to the second floor;

Opposite the living room were the washroom, sink room, and bathroom.

Behind the L-shaped corridor were the master bedroom and the kitchen-dining room.

The dining room was connected to the backyard through a small door. The backyard had a clothes drying rack and a wash basin, with some flower pots and potted plants in the corner.

“Looks pretty normal.”

Li Ang and Wang Congshan exchanged glances. In this strange village, the more normal the house looked, the more wrong it felt.

“Underneath the wooden floor of the entrance hall, on the stone surface, are placed leather shoes, slippers, and children’s shoes.”

Wang Congshan said in a deep voice, “Judging from the style, color, design, and shape of the shoes, there are at least two adults and one child.”

“Probably a couple and their son.”

Li Ang nodded and reached out to pull open the door of the shoe cabinet in the entrance hall.

Squeak—

The shoe cabinet door opened, and Li Ang looked inside.

However, the next second, an unexpected change occurred!

A pale white child’s arm stretched out from the darkness inside the shoe cabinet,

With a snap, it firmly grasped the door of the shoe cabinet.

Wang Congshan’s heart jumped, and she instinctively raised the pistol made from the Cardinal Cube.

She didn’t fire, because the arm only gripped the shoe cabinet door, pulling it back forcefully.

What strength.

Caught off guard, Li Ang, who was pulling on the outer handle of the shoe cabinet door, took half a step forward.

He immediately reacted, adjusted his center of gravity, and pulled the shoe cabinet door outward, while simultaneously propping one end of the Xin Yuan Staff against the shoe cabinet doorway.

Wang Congshan also held the gun in her right hand and extended her left hand to help Li Ang pull the door.

The two sides were deadlocked for less than half a second, when the child’s arm that had emerged from the dark shoe cabinet suddenly increased its strength.

With a bang, the wooden door handle of the shoe cabinet snapped and broke.

The shoe cabinet door slammed shut, and the Xin Yuan Staff, which was supposed to block the shoe cabinet door, was knocked away, rolling and falling into the corridor.

“…”

Li Ang held the broken wooden door handle of the shoe cabinet, his brow furrowed.

The door handle was connected to the door with screws, not screwed in with threads.

Therefore, after breaking, there were no holes in the shoe cabinet door panel, and the scene inside could not be seen.

“Just now that was…”

Wang Congshan hesitated. Although their attribute values had been weakened, they were still two well-nourished teenagers.

Judging from the strength they experienced during the tug-of-war just now, the arm in the shoe cabinet possessed strength far beyond that of a normal adult.

“Similar to Toshio Saeki’s brat.”

Li Ang said succinctly.

In the instant of the tug-of-war deadlock just now, he used the light to clearly see a child’s face in the shoe cabinet.

That face was extremely pale, without any blood color, eyes facing down, mouth facing up.

In other words, the head was rotated 180 degrees.

Judging from the already small volume of the shoe cabinet, even a child could not possibly lie in the shoe cabinet in such a bizarre posture.

Sure enough, it’s a ghost…

Li Ang’s expression was unusually calm, not at all frightened. He even reattached the door handle.

He squatted in front of the shoe cabinet door, cleared his throat, and knocked on the shoe cabinet door, “Hello, little friend, can you open the door? I’m a passing traveler, and I’d like to ask for a bowl of water.

I have Ultraman stickers here that I can trade with you.”

Wang Congshan’s eyes widened. Where did you get Ultraman stickers? No, the point is, why are you so calm?

Li Ang waited for a while, but there was no response. He continued to ask, “Little friend, are your mom and dad home?”

Still no response.

Li Ang pondered for a moment, decisively took out his wallet, took out a 1000-yen bill from his wallet, and stuffed it into the crack of the shoe cabinet door, “Little friend, if you open the door, or tell me the address of your parents’ bankbook, or the safe password, I’ll give you this thousand yen to buy snacks, okay~”

!

Wang Congshan’s eyes widened. You’re instigating a crime, old buddy!

Unfortunately, even though Li Ang had gone to this extent, the shoe cabinet remained unresponsive, as if it had solidified with space.

Li Ang had no choice but to let go of the shoe cabinet door and examine the other items in the entrance hall.

In the low flower pot placed above the shoe cabinet, ornamental daffodils were growing. The water in the flower pot was relatively clear, without any signs of being stagnant for thirty or forty years.

On the ground below the entrance hall was a stepping stone—this kind of stone was usually used by guests to step on when opening the door, to prevent having to put on shoes when coming down from the entrance hall, wasting time.

In the 21st century Japan of the real world, because of the development of urban life, it was no longer so common.

Putting it in a script mission set in the 1970s, it was still considered normal.

“Okay, looks like we have to find the remaining clues.”

Li Ang sighed and stood up, walking towards the reception room.

“Eh?”

Wang Congshan glanced hesitantly at the shoe cabinet door, “This, are we just going to leave it?”

“Can’t do anything about it.”

Li Ang said calmly, “Anyway, we can’t open it. Let’s go take a look around other places first.”

Wang Congshan paused, “Uh, don’t we need to use something to block the door?”

“Judging from the strength when we pulled the door just now, even if we block the TV cabinet in front of it, it could easily push it open, right?”

Li Ang thought for a while, then took the daffodils from the daffodil pot above the shoe cabinet, poured out the water,

And placed the flower pot tilted at the doorway of the shoe cabinet.

This way, if the shoe cabinet door opened, the flower pot would tip over and make a sound, reminding the two of them.

After preparing, Li Ang and Wang Congshan walked into the reception room.

This room was usually used to entertain guests.

It adopted a Western style, with a relatively low coffee table in the middle (for placing tea), and four chairs on either side of the coffee table.

Behind the coffee table was a wooden cabinet, which contained some books.

Judging from the book catalog, there were both traditional Japanese literature, books discussing the international situation, and some miscellaneous books on radio research and cryptography.

Li Ang squatted on the ground, took the books out of the cabinet, and flipped through them randomly, discovering that whether the books were typeset vertically or horizontally,

The handwriting inside the books was all blurred and unclear.

“Eh, there are photos here.”

Wang Congshan picked up two photo frames from the top of the cabinet and showed them to Li Ang.

The first photo frame contained a family of four.

A couple stood in the back, while two boys who looked 7 or 8 years old stood in the front.

The photo should have been taken in the summer, and both boys were wearing Japanese elementary school uniforms, with a mountain in the background.

The second photo frame was a photo of the couple when they were young.

“The character portraits on these two photos are also blurred.”

Li Ang frowned slightly. The color of the faces in the photos was like it had melted, spreading to the surroundings, making it impossible to see what they originally looked like.

Wang Congshan frowned and said, “Is it deliberately preventing us from seeing their appearance clearly, or does the blurriness of their appearance itself have a close connection to the strangeness of this script mission?”

“Both are possible.”

Li Ang glanced around the room, walked to the door of the reception room, and pressed the light button on the wall.