After I traveled through the book, I gained a humanoid pendant

A short, amiable woman in an apron opened the door.

"Oh, why are you still shopping so late? Just tell me next time and I'll bring it when I come."

Ni Yangzhou tried his best not to show any reaction and responded, "It's okay."

I picked up my things and went into the house, and saw a woman wiping the table and sweeping the floor skillfully.

It turned out that she was the nanny hired by the original owner's mother.

Ni Yangzhou went back to the bedroom and took a look. Nothing had been moved and the nanny didn't bring any ingredients for cooking. She probably only took care of hygiene and the original owner had to prepare the meals by himself.

"Auntie."

"Hey, tell me."

The nanny had a slight accent, but generally I could understand her.

The salary is good, the work is not much, the nanny's job is easy and she speaks very politely.

"When are you coming over next time?"

The nanny wiped her sleeves and said with a smile, "Every Monday afternoon and every Wednesday evening. That's the time you gave me before. The next time will be Monday afternoon."

“Oh, well, it’s been a while and I forgot.

Starting next week, please come on Monday afternoons. Bring some vegetables and fruits and bring receipts for reimbursement. Your salary will remain the same. I will talk to my family about it.”

"Oh, okay. You decide. Are there any dietary restrictions?"

"Anything but celery."

"Okay!" The nanny felt that the job was a little easier and cleaned even harder.

Ni Yangzhou returned to bed, listening to the mopping sounds in the living room, wondering if the original owner had anything to do every Wednesday afternoon.

Why should we ask the nanny to clean the house so late at night?

Is anyone coming to the house on Wednesday afternoon?

There was nothing unusual this afternoon.

Ni Yangzhou tossed and turned in his bed, and suddenly felt something was wrong.

There was no light on in the bedroom, and an old cell phone was pressed under the pillow. Except for a little light coming through the crack of the living room door, the room was completely dark.

Ni Yangzhou suddenly felt like he was being watched.

It was as if there were a pair of eyes in the darkness, silently watching his every move.

Ni Yangzhou didn't dare to turn over again. His limbs gradually became numb and his eyes looked around calmly.

The window curtains were drawn, and no moonlight could get in. The pens I had just used were scattered on the table, and there was nothing under the table. The wardrobe was tightly closed, with a smooth surface and each door was closed tightly.

There was no place in the house to hide.

That kind of gaze was like being suddenly located in a noisy crowd, crushing a dead leaf in the woods with the autumn wind, or being dazzled by the bright light of the slanting sun in the silent snowfield.

Subtle but hard to ignore.

When his eyes swept over his feet, he dared not move his feet. When his eyes swept over his legs, he dared not move his legs either. He looked up inch by inch. Ni Yangzhou was like a stone pier poured with cement. He was so stiff that he couldn't help holding his breath.

I can't bear it any longer.

Ni Yangzhou couldn't stand this weird atmosphere and didn't want to scan upwards anymore. He took a deep breath, jumped up suddenly, picked up a thick dictionary, rushed to the closet and opened all the doors one by one.

It was empty inside, except for some clothes that the original owner often changed.

Ni Yangzhou held the dictionary tightly in his hand, let out a long sigh, walked to the curtains, checked the windows, and found they were all locked.

At last……

Ni Yangzhou turned around and looked at the bed.

The bed is a closed box bed, without a bed bottom.

Ni Yangzhou tried his best to walk lightly, walked slowly to the bed, and lifted the mattress.

……

Nothing.

The original owner didn't even put anything in the bedside cabinet.

When I opened it, I could still smell the unique wood smell of furniture.

Ni Yangzhou finally breathed a sigh of relief, put the bed back in place, and sat there blankly thinking.

Where did that feeling of being spied on come from just now?

When I stood up to look for it, the strange feeling disappeared.

Ni Yangzhou rubbed the goose bumps on his arms, trying to comfort himself that he was just mentally sensitive. In fact, maybe there was nothing wrong and he was just thinking too much recently.

"Knock, knock, knock." There was a knock on the bedroom door.

Ni Yangzhou's nerves trembled and he looked towards the door.

It's the babysitter who has finished cleaning.

"Hello, I've finished cleaning and left the key at the door for you."

Ni Yangzhou thought for a moment and shouted, "Auntie, put it on the coffee table. There have been thieves in the neighborhood recently, and it's not safe to put it under a flower pot."

"Okay, then I'll come next time..."

"Come after six next Monday and I'll open the door for you at home."

"Okay, the keys are ready. I'll be leaving now."

"Okay, Auntie. Be careful on the road."

The footsteps were getting farther and farther away. Ni Yangzhou turned on the light and stared at the furniture in the room in a daze.

Suddenly, the footsteps came back.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you that when I first came here, I ran into the repairman you hired. He was fixing the bedroom light. I got a fright and walked very quietly.

Don't blame auntie for being nosy. You can't let such unfamiliar people into your house and then leave. Such people might be greedy for money and steal things. It's not safe..."

Before he could finish his words, the door was banged open.

Ni Yangzhou tried his best to keep his tone steady and said:

"Auntie, what was he doing when you came?"

The nanny was startled, patted her chest, and stammered, "I'm just fixing the light, the one in your room." As she spoke, she pointed to the round ceiling light in the bedroom.

Ni Yangzhou walked out of the bedroom, closed the door, and walked to the table with the nanny. He smiled and said, "I felt that the light was still a little flickering just now. I didn't fix it. Can you tell me what he looks like? I have forgotten. I need to go find him."

"Oh, okay, he was wearing a mask so I couldn't see his face clearly. You were so young that you didn't remember it, so I didn't take it too seriously.

Um... He's quite strong, like a man, stronger than you, with short black hair."

This description is too broad. Now Ni Yangzhou can go out and catch ten similar people on the street.

"Please think about it carefully. Are there any other characteristics?"

"No other characteristics. He seemed like an ordinary person, a little taller and stronger. He didn't say a word and left after the treatment."

"Okay, thank you, you can go back now."

The nanny obediently went out.

Ni Yangzhou stood in front of the table for a while, then went out and turned off the power, only to find a flashlight.

After coming back and standing at the bedroom door, Ni Yangzhou let out a breath, opened the door and walked in.

The flashlight's concentrated light circle was facing the ceiling light, and there was a small black block-like object in the lampshade.

Ni Yangzhou moved the table over, removed the lampshade, and saw a small camera hidden inside.

The technology of that era was not advanced enough. It was said to be small, and in fact it was not that small including the battery. It’s just placed in a tricky position and you can’t see it unless you look carefully.

It cannot transmit remotely and has no night vision. It starts recording after installation and is powered on. There is a memory card on the side, and the memory is not large. It is a high-end product on this timeline.

Ni Yangzhou studied it for a while, pressed the stop button, and began to watch the replay video attentively.

It was pitch black at first, and then there was some noise.

It's the guy who installed the VCR.

I couldn't see the face, only a pair of hands in black gloves, and then I adjusted the video angle. Then there was the sound of a door opening, and the sound of the nanny's footsteps.

The man installing the VCR paused only for a moment and then continued to install the lampshade with ease.

Once the lampshade was installed, the picture became much blurrier, but the portrait was still recognizable.

The aunt was attracted by the sound and asked several questions out of fear. The man said in a calm voice, "The light repairman," and then said no more. He left after he finished repairing the light.

The video camera couldn't capture what was happening outside the door, and the nanny didn't come in. The two of them were always quite far away, so no wonder the aunt said she couldn't see their faces clearly.

The picture remained unchanged for a long time until I returned home.

Ni Yangzhou watched himself in the video, wearing a blue and white school uniform, walk into the bedroom, turn off the lights and go to bed to rest, then be silent in the dark, suddenly stand up, search around, walk out of the room after hearing what his aunt said, then come back to get a flashlight to dismantle the lamp.

The last few seconds of the video show my solemn face.

Ni Yangzhou felt like something was stuck in his throat. He couldn't speak or swallow, so he could only swallow a mouthful of saliva.

If you want to see what's inside, you have to come back and take away the VCR.

Ni Yangzhou recalled the creepy feeling of being watched in the darkness.

I don't understand why someone came back to peek.

Is it peeping at the original owner? Or is it peeping at oneself?

Recalling the journey back from the grocery store and his performance in the bedroom, Ni Yangzhou scratched his hair in annoyance.

I held the video recorder in my hand, planning to go to an Internet cafe tomorrow to see if I could see some other information on the memory card.

Now the more important thing is...

Ni Yangzhou looked back at the door lock.

No matter what the purpose is, the person who installs the video recorder will come back to get it after a while, but not too long. The memory card is small and can't record for long. It will run out of power and shut down automatically after a few hours.

The windows were locked by themselves, and there were no signs of the door lock being damaged, so he could only have entered by using the key from the front door.

And he knew clearly that he was not at home.

He dared to come in such a short time when he went out to the convenience store, and he didn't change his expression even when he was bumped into by the nanny. His mentality was as steady as an old dog and he was not panicked at all.

He should have been keeping an eye on his whereabouts.

Ni Yangzhou subconsciously went to the window, opened a small corner, and looked down, but there was no one there.

Most of the windows on the opposite building had lights on, and there was no one standing in the windows.

Ni Yangzhou turned around and turned off the flashlight with his sweaty hands.

In the darkness, Ni Yangzhou wanted to call the nanny to ask when the original owner had arranged to clean the house every Wednesday night, but he suddenly remembered that there was no record in the original owner's phone, only a call from the original owner's mother who he had received today.

After taking a breath, Ni Yangzhou looked at the door lock and thought again and again.

Change the door locks? Ensure the safety of the house and keep him out?

Why don’t I go out and find a hotel tonight and get through today first?

still is……

Ni Yangzhou made up his mind and pretended that he didn't notice the VCR. He groped in the dark and turned the VCR back on, only loosening the battery so that it could no longer work, creating the effect of an accidental power outage.

I don’t plan to change the door lock, and the key is still under the flower pot at the door.

Don't alert the enemy, just lure them into a trap.

I have only heard of thieves who can steal for a thousand days, but never prevent thieves the day before. Whoever installed the video recorder did such a thing, even if the lock was changed, he would find other ways to take the camera away.

There is no time to make any thorough preparations tonight.

Ni Yangzhou put the key under the flowerpot outside the door, searched the house, blocked the bedroom door with a chair, and took an empty soda bottle and placed it face down on the edge of the chair.

There was nothing in the house to defend myself, nothing to cook with in the kitchen, not even a knife to be found.

Ni Yangzhou placed the thick dictionary that could knock someone out at once next to his pillow, took out a mop from the bathroom, found a utility knife, and wrapped the blade around the mop handle with layers of tape.

There was a pair of scissors in the schoolbag that could be used. Ni Yangzhou thought about it and put the scissors under the pillow.

I untied another shoelace and tied it around my wrist to ensure that I could find it immediately when I needed to tie something up.

After finishing everything, Ni Yangzhou sat back on the bed and waited silently.

The daily schedule was full, and he had to search for clues. Without the original owner's memory, he felt like crossing a river by feeling the stones, and he was feeling the stones of the Mariana Trench. He always felt that if he stepped carelessly, he would be buried in the sea.

Before, school life was ordinary and routine, and the task progress bar went up and down, which made Ni Yangzhou feel uneasy. After such an experience today, he felt like "Ah, it's finally a suspenseful murder novel."

The boy squinted his eyes to adapt to the darkness, and his vision became clearer as time passed.

Lying on his side on the bed, he reached his hand under the pillow and gripped the cold handle of the scissors.

Suddenly, Ni Yangzhou remembered something and took out his cell phone to check the weather.

It was sunny for the past three days, cloudy on the fourth day, and not a single day of rain.

Ni Yangzhou felt relieved, got up and took out the notebook he used to take notes.

Under the words in the victim column, he quietly wrote his name.

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The persimmon-like orange-yellow moonlight poured onto the tiled roof of the farmer's house. The wandering wild cat disappeared into the night with light footsteps. The breeze blew by, and there was silence.

Meng Ting closed his eyes.