"Why is this house open?" Wang Congshan stood in front of the courtyard gate of a residence, frowning slightly. The residence was located by the roadside, with a courtyard. It had red tiles and white walls, and an electric pole stood outside the courtyard wall. It looked ordinary and was no different from the surrounding buildings, but the courtyard gate and the front door of this house were open. Standing on the street, one could see clearly into the entrance hall and the corridor connecting to it. "I don’t know," Li Ang shook his head, "but it seems like an invitation to go inside." Holding the Heart Monkey Staff, he strode forward, pretending to press the doorbell and knocked on the courtyard gate. After confirming there was no response, he pushed the gate open and walked on the cobblestone path into the entrance hall. The interior layout wasn’t unusual. On the left of the entrance was the reception room (the floor was wooden rather than tatami, usually used by the host to entertain guests, belonging to the Western-style ’洋室’). In front of the reception room was the living room, similar to a lounge, leading directly to a balcony, with a tatami-covered floor, and a large TV placed in the corner. To the left of the living room’s sliding door was an L-shaped corridor leading to the second floor, and opposite the living room were the bathroom and powder room, plus a bathroom. Behind the L-shaped corridor was the master bedroom and the kitchen dining room, connected to the backyard through a small door, where a clothes rack and a sink were placed, along with some potted plants in the corner. "It looks quite normal." Li Ang exchanged glances with Wang Congshan. In such a strange village, the more normal this house seemed, the more unusual it felt. "There are shoes, slippers, and children’s shoes placed on the stone floor under the wooden floor of the entrance." Wang Congshan said in a low voice, "Judging from the style, color, and shape of the shoes, there are at least two adults and one child." "It should be a couple and their son," Li Ang nodded, reaching out to pull open the shoe cabinet in the entrance. Creak—the shoe cabinet door opened. Li Ang glanced inside, but the next second, an abrupt change occurred! A ghastly white child’s arm stretched out from the darkness within the shoe cabinet, and with a snap, it grasped tightly onto the cabinet door. Wang Congshan was startled and instinctively raised her gun made from the Axis Cube. She didn’t fire because the arm merely held onto the cabinet door, pulling it back with great force. Caught off guard, Li Ang took half a step forward while holding the outside handle of the shoe cabinet door. He immediately adjusted his balance, pulling the door outward while propping one end of the Heart Monkey Staff at the cabinet door. Wang Congshan also held the gun in her right hand and reached out her left hand to help Li Ang pull the door. They were locked in a stalemate for less than half a second before the child’s arm from the dark shoe cabinet suddenly increased its strength, and with a loud bang, the wooden door handle of the shoe cabinet snapped apart. The cabinet door slammed shut, and the Heart Monkey Staff intended to wedge it was flung out, rolling onto the corridor floor. "..." Li Ang held the broken wooden handle of the shoe cabinet, frowning. The handle was connected to the door with screws, not screwed in with threads, so after snapping, there were no holes in the cabinet door panel. They couldn’t see inside. "Was that just now..." Wang Congshan hesitated. Even though their attributes were weakened, they were both well-nourished teenagers. Judging by the strength experienced during the tug-of-war just now, the arm in the cabinet far exceeded the strength of a normal adult. "Similar to Zaobei Toshio," Li Ang casually remarked. During that momentary stalemate, with the help of the lamp’s light, he clearly saw a child’s face in the shoe cabinet. The face was exceedingly pale, devoid of blood. Its eyes were facing down and mouth upward, which means the head was rotated 180 degrees. Considering the cabinet’s size, even a child couldn’t be lying in such an odd posture inside it. Is it truly a ghost... Li Ang was exceptionally calm, unscared, even reattaching the door handle. He crouched in front of the cabinet door, cleared his throat, and knocked. "Hello, little friend, could you open the door? I’m just a passerby looking to get some water. I have Ultraman stickers for you in exchange," he said. Wang Congshan widened her eyes beside him. Where had you been hiding Ultraman stickers? No, the point is, why are you so calm? Li Ang waited a while with no response, then continued, "Little friend, are your mom and dad home?" There was still no response. After pondering for a moment, Li Ang decisively pulled out his wallet, took a 1000 yen note, and slipped it into the shoe cabinet door’s gap. "Little friend, if you open the door or tell me where your mom and dad keep their bankbook, I’ll give you this thousand yen to buy snacks," he offered. Li Ang released the cabinet door and inspected other items in the entrance. Above the shoe cabinet, a low flowerpot planted with Narcissus was placed. The water in the flowerpot was relatively clear, showing no signs of having sat for decades. On the ground below the entrance, there was a stepping stone—this kind of stone was usually used to prop the door open to prevent wasting time by putting on shoes when stepping out from the entrance. In the 21st-century reality of Japan Islands, it’s not so common anymore, but considering it was set in the script task’s 1970s, it was rather normal. After searching the entrance hall, the two entered the reception room, a room typically used for entertaining guests in Western style. In the middle was a relatively low table (used for serving tea), flanked by four chairs. Behind the table was a wooden cabinet that held some books, including both traditional Japan Islands literature and books discussing international affairs, as well as miscellaneous books on radio technology and cryptography. Li Ang squatted down, pulled the books from the cabinet, and flipped through a few. He found that whether arranged vertically or horizontally, the text inside all the books was completely blurred, unreadable. "Hey, there are photos here." Wang Congshan picked up two frames from the top of the cabinet and showed them to Li Ang. The first picture in the frame was of a family of four: a couple standing in the back, with two boys who appeared to be seven or eight standing in front. The photo seemed to be taken in summer, with both boys wearing traditional school uniforms in a mountain setting. The second frame was a picture of the couple when they were younger. "The faces in these two photos are blurred too," Li Ang remarked with a frown. The colors at the facial positions seemed to have melted, spreading outwards, completely obscuring their original appearance. Wang Congshan frowned and said, "Is it intentionally to keep us from seeing their faces, or is the blurring tied to the script’s eerie elements?" "Either could be possible," Li Ang replied, looking around the room before moving to the reception room door and pressing the switch on the wall for the light.