Opening my eyes, I saw Du Xiaolan sleeping soundly with her head on the table, drool flowing out of her mouth.
I distinctly remember lying at Uncle Bi's house before sleeping, but suddenly finding myself on the table made me puzzled. I turned my head and looked around, and when I saw dozens of paper-mache figures, I stood up at once.
This is Ning Junhao's paper-mache shop, and we unexpectedly ended up in this place.
I quickly woke up Du Xiaolan. She opened her eyes and, still drowsy, asked me why I had disturbed her when she was having a good dream. I told her not to dream for now and instead look at where we were.
Rubbing her eyes, Du Xiaolan said, "Aren't we in Uncle Bi's house? Huh, how did you end up in my room?"
I nervously asked, "Do you think this is your room?"
After looking around, Du Xiaolan suddenly screamed and looked at me in panic, asking, "Mingyang, what's going on? Weren't we in the village? How did we end up here?"
I was also extremely unsettled, and, looking at the tightly shut rolling shutter door, said sullenly, "We must be dreaming. We didn't go to Uncle Bi's house, nor did we encounter that drowned ghost at the reservoir. We just slept in the paper-mache shop."
"A Midsummer Night's Dream?" Du Xiaolan asked in confusion. "But this dream feels too real."
I remained silent, as the sound of the key turning from outside the rolling shutter door reached my ears.
With a 'swish,' the rolling shutter door suddenly opened, and when the sunlight entered the shop, it made me squint my eyes.
I expected Ning Junhao to appear, but to my surprise, a chubby middle-aged man wearing glasses stood before me, looking startled as he saw us.
"What are you doing in my shop?" the man asked warily, as he casually picked up a flower wreath stand from the side, keeping an eye on us.
I had no idea what was going on, and my mind couldn't make sense of it. I asked, "Is this your shop?"
"Of course, isn't it mine? Is it yours?" the man responded warily. "Tell me quickly, what are the two of you doing in my shop? Otherwise, I'll call the police."
"Wait, wait, wait," I quickly gestured, "We were invited by someone named Ning Junhao, but we fell asleep here and when we woke up, he was gone."
"Are you kidding?" the man said, already reaching for his phone.
If the police were called, this would be really hard to explain, so I quickly explained, "I'm not kidding, I can call Ning Junhao and have him come over to explain everything in person."
"I am Ning Junhao!" the man said, looking at me and asking, "Brother, are you seeing a ghost?"
"I absolutely didn't see a ghost," I said. I can still distinguish between humans and ghosts, and Ning Junhao is definitely human. Suddenly, I narrowed my eyes and asked the man, "Hey, are you two playing a trick on us deliberately?"
"What am I to you guys?" The man snorted and said, "There's been something going on at home for a while, so I hadn't closed the shop for long. When I came back and saw you two in my store, you actually accused me of playing you?"
This person is definitely not Ning Junhao!
I was sure of this thought and quickly took out my phone, telling the man not to get agitated. If I made the call, Ning Junhao would hurry over.
Looking at the call history, I was relieved to see the call records between me and Ning Junhao over the past few days. With this, I can prove that the time at Uncle Bi's house wasn't a dream. But why we returned in such a state hasn't been figured out yet.
I dialed Ning Junhao's number, and almost the next second, a cell phone ringtone came from the man in front of me.
I didn't stop; the man looked at the incoming number and said to me again, "So, it was you who was calling me all these days."
I was taken aback, hung up the phone, and the man's phone ringtone instantly disappeared.
At that moment, I was utterly dumbfounded.
The man seemed to be thrown off by this too, weighed his phone, and asked, "You've been calling me these days but not saying anything. Are you playing me?"
How did this turn into 'playing' again? I hurriedly explained, "This number was given to me by someone I know, Ning Junhao, and I've been talking to him these days."
The man sneered and said, "Nonsense. I've always kept this phone on me, and no one else has touched it."
"But then who was the person talking to me?" I swallowed hard, and things were getting more and more confusing.
"I wouldn't know," said the man in a bad mood.
I turned to look at Du Xiaolan, who looked utterly confused, and wondered aloud, "What is going on?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing!" The man gave me a disdainful look and asked, "What does the man with the exact same name as me look like? Let me see if I know him."
I thought for a moment and quickly described Ning Junhao's appearance.
But as I spoke, the man's expression became even uglier.
Just as I was extremely puzzled, he suddenly put his phone in his pocket, walked over to me, and said in a low voice, "Brother, I won't hide it from you, you've really seen a ghost."
"Absolutely not," I shook my head repeatedly.
"Take a look at this," the man said, walking past me and coming right to the center, where a paper figure squatted in front of me. As soon as I saw the paper figure, I gasped for air, and Du Xiaolan beside me grabbed my arm tightly.
The appearance of this paper figure was exactly the same as Ning Junhao!
"This..." I was so shocked that I couldn't speak. Glancing down, I saw a black paper car on the ground, with an Audi A4 logo on it, the interior of the car matching Ning Junhao's Audi A4.
At that moment, even without looking in a mirror, I knew my face was absolutely pale.
The man took a deep breath, looked at me, and said, "Brother, do you believe it now?"
I nodded mechanically, murmuring, "Could it really be a ghost? Is that Ning Junhao actually this paper figure? But how do we explain the village we went to?"
The man did not answer my question and looked at Du Xiaolan, saying, "Miss, your friend is crazy."
"I'm not crazy," I quickly shook my head, recalling the events of the past few days in my mind. When I looked at the two cups on the table, I suddenly turned to Du Xiaolan and said, "Xiaolan, we have wandered into someone else's path. We have been in this shop all these days."
Du Xiaolan anxiously asked, "But how do you explain the situation with Uncle Bi?"
I licked my lips, "That was our spirits!"