Chapter 84: Post: The Thing Outside the Window

Long after the Children's Home incident ended, the Living Apartment returned to normal. No supernatural events had occurred for the time being.

Gao Tian lay on the soft, spacious bed in Room 313, scrolling on his tablet. Outside the window, a misty drizzle fell with a refreshing, rhythmic patter. It was the perfect weather to stay indoors and steal a moment of leisure.

He was staying put in the Living Apartment, unwilling to go out and invite trouble.

Through the internet, he kept up with the drastic changes taking place in the outside world.

A massive number of anonymous posts had appeared online, recounting various supernatural events people had encountered in their daily lives. Each story was vividly detailed, making it impossible to distinguish truth from fiction.

Netizens had exposed some of these posts as lies fabricated by the original posters for attention and self-amusement. However, many more were incredibly realistic in certain details, and the posters would even reply to questions. The strange thing was that most of those posters quickly went offline or even directly deleted their accounts, turning their profile pictures gray. This led the users following the threads to flood the comments, saying, "This doesn't look staged."

In this era, the supernatural was reviving. Ghosts were appearing with increasing frequency.

Just lying at home reading these posts carried a certain risk to one's life.

It wasn't entirely impossible for some ghosts to follow the network cables to kill someone. Other supernatural events carried intense Meme contamination. Just looking at a picture or a piece of text could invite fatal disaster.

To Gao Tian, however, these taboos were of no concern.

Reading these posts from inside the Living Apartment meant he didn't have to worry about such things. If any ghosts had the guts to follow the connection to his door, the Apartment would dispose of those reckless, filthy things for him.

Gao Tian had already scrolled through hundreds of posts today.

Here was another one.

[The Thing Outside the Window]

Main Post Content:

Evening Breeze Falling on Shoulders:

Is anyone there? Can any experts out there help me?

I'm home alone, and I'm really scared.

1st Floor:

Evening Breeze Falling on Shoulders:

—

This all started about a week ago. Because of my job, I work overtime every day and don't get home until eleven at night. By then, I have absolutely no energy to do anything besides wash up and sleep. I moved recently because the company changed locations. Normally, I'd pass out as soon as my head hit the pillow, but this week, I've found it increasingly difficult to fall asleep. I suffer from insomnia every single night, and my energy levels at work during the day are terrible.

Later on, I tried to figure out the cause of my insomnia, and it's almost laughable. Right around eleven o'clock every night, a strange noise starts up outside my bedroom window. It sounds like a rhythmic hai-yo, hai-yo, hai-yo, almost as if someone is jumping rope out there. After hearing it for so long, I actually got used to it, completely unaware that I was living with constant noise and that the racket was keeping me awake.

Because I'm sensitive to light, I hung very thick curtains in my room. Under normal circumstances, I never open them, so I couldn't see what was making that noise outside my window.

2nd Floor:

Evening Breeze Falling on Shoulders:

Late another night, after I got home, I was lying in bed, half-asleep and just about to drift off. As if deliberately trying to mess with me, that strange sound started up again. Hai-yo, hai-yo. This time, it was exceptionally loud—even my noise-canceling headphones couldn't block it out.

I consider myself a pretty good-tempered person. I rarely get into conflicts with people outside. But this time, I couldn't tolerate it. I climbed out of bed, rushed over to the curtains, and yanked them open, wanting to see exactly what was making all that noise.

Outside the window was a bizarre old man, so thin he was nothing but skin and bones, yet his eyes were extraordinarily large. It reminded me of a hamster I kept back in my hometown that accidentally got crushed by an electric scooter; when it died, its eyes popped out. That old man gave me the exact same feeling.

It was him. Every night, he was bouncing up and down right outside my window, striking very strange poses while constantly letting out that noise.

I really couldn't bear it anymore. I told him, "Old man, I have to work tomorrow. If you want to exercise, go do it at your own house."

The old man just looked at me. His gaze was incredibly strange and profoundly meaningful. He didn't say a word; he just shook his head, turned around, and left.

Free from the disturbance of that weird sound, I lay back in bed, quickly fell into a deep slumber, and had an exceptionally deep dream.

4th Floor:

Evening Breeze Falling on Shoulders:

When I woke up the next morning, because I had slept so well the night before, I didn't hear my alarm and was almost late. I hastily washed my face and rushed out the door. While waiting for the elevator in the hallway, I groggily recalled the old man I had seen outside my window last night.

Suddenly, just as the elevator arrived at the tenth floor, all the blood in my body rushed to my head.

—

Because of the move, I had forgotten one detail.

I currently live on the tenth floor of a high-rise!

That old man who was bouncing around "in the empty space outside my house" last night—how could he possibly be exercising ten stories up in the air?

Did he climb up the wall and stand on the external AC unit brackets?

5th Floor:

Netizen A:

Keep making things up.

You live on the tenth floor, and when you opened the window, you forgot you were up in a high-rise? You couldn't even remember something like that?

Obviously fake.

6th Floor:

Evening Breeze Falling on Shoulders:

For the entire morning at the company, I kept thinking about this. That thing outside my window making that hai-yo sound... was it human?

9th Floor:

Netizen C:

I don't know if this is real or fake, but if you really can't stand it, just break the lease and rent somewhere else.

10th Floor:

Evening Breeze Falling on Shoulders:

I already paid a year's rent. I can't leave.

Being poor is far scarier than ghosts.

11th Floor:

—

Netizen D:

If this is fake, I hope it's real.

If this is real, I hope it's fake.

Instead of complaining online to a bunch of strangers who don't know you, why don't you call the police?

Have the cops come over and take a look. That's way better than any advice you'll get from netizens.

12th Floor:

Evening Breeze Falling on Shoulders:

I'm home.

As soon as I walked through the door, that strange hai-yo, hai-yo sound started up outside the window.

It's louder than all the previous times combined. It's so deafening that it's shaking the whole room.

I'm truly terrified, but I no longer have the courage to go over and pull the curtains open.

—

13th Floor:

Netizen A:

Heh.

If it's so deafeningly loud, wouldn't your upstairs and downstairs neighbors poke their heads out to see what's going on?

Just more proof that you're making up stories.

14th Floor:

Netizen E:

OP, hurry up and call the cops!

Just sitting at home reading these posts is giving me the creeps.

15th Floor:

Evening Breeze Falling on Shoulders:

—

—

I've already called the police. The person on the phone told me to stay in the house and not make any unnecessary moves. Someone should be here to meet me within fifteen minutes.

I'm going to log off for now. I hear knocking at the door. It should be the cops.

17th Floor:

Netizen F:

Hang in there, OP.

No matter what happens next, remember to come back to the forum and let everyone know you're safe.

18th Floor:

Netizen G:

OP, are you still there?

It's been half an hour since you went to open that door.

19th Floor:

Netizen H:

A week has passed. Why hasn't the OP replied?

Are they actually dead?