Today was a long day, the rain was falling non-stop, the wind blew through the window with screeching sounds, making one's heart and soul sink deeply into emptiness and loneliness.
The gray mansion on the high mountain, situated in a prime spot at the top of a slope, was surrounded by immense forests. Despite the passage of time, it nevertheless retained its majestic and splendid appearance, reflecting the golden age of its original owner. No matter the time of day or night, this location was perpetually shrouded in white fog, lending it a sense of mysticism and magic.
This mansion was unlike any other, literally, it did not have a splendid garden, flowers, or a fountain, on the contrary, its color adornment was from all the exorcism silk strips hanging around the fences, coupled with crooked and confused lines of lettering, adding to the mansion's dread.
So far, no one has dared to approach, nor has anyone ventured to explore the neighboring areas, they all tried their best to avoid accidentally offending a certain big character and bringing disaster to themselves, thus, the mansion was completely isolated from the rest of the world.
Today was another day when the sunshine did not touch the ground, birds did not sing, and the air was filled with the grief and loneliness of the mountains. The mansion did not lend any vibrancy to the environment either, today, everywhere in the mansion, white silk strips were crossing the two sides of the wall, hanging down to touch the floor. Each wind swept them back and forth as if they were singing a sorrowful, cold, mourning song.
A woman appeared, her hands were still holding a large heavy wooden box, her face was also pale and sorrowful. She gently walked up from the dark basement, lit only by a glimmering candle, slowly closed the door, then carried it towards the room upstairs.
Suddenly, a flash of lightning struck down, so powerful and so blinding that made the candlelight feel ashamed, followed by a sound that was even louder than a cannon, startling this woman, resulting in the box she was carrying to slip from her hands and fall down. The contents inside of the wooden box were also scattered all over the ground, it was some powder along with items used for daily grooming such as combs, elastic bands, small mirrors, and so forth.
The woman panicked, followed by grief and tiredness, her voice trembling as if she wanted to cry, she sat down heavily, picked up each item one by one, placed it back in the box, and sadly complained to herself.
“Oh, no... Why is this… the mirror… also broken…”
Outside, through the large glass window, the rain still didn't recede, the storm raged and grew louder, as if the sky was crying for the happening plight of the mansion.
This whole place was in mourning.
In a nearby room, there lay a boy with a scholarly appearance, a slender, slim physique, and a very handsome, educated face. His thick eyebrows exuded a strong youthful aura, while his thin lips, long eyelashes, and high nose bridge demonstrated masculinity as well as delicate grace. Everything about this young man was exceptional. However, the only unexceptional thing was that this young man never opened his eyes, making people take pity, if those eyes were to open, his face would undoubtedly be even more lovely.
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His body was completely drenched, he should have been changed into another attire, not to lie down in this state. This made everyone else ache just by looking, except for the boy himself, who can no longer feel the cold when wet garments touched his skin for so long, which couldn’t be regarded as a good thing or a bad thing.
The aunt was still busy cleaning up the mess she had just made; she thought to herself.
"Why haven't the master and second young master come back yet, how long will the deceased have to wait?"
Unexpectedly, when that line of thought had just receded, a thunderous rumbling along with that extremely bright light struck down again, both of which came at the same time, proving that the lightning was right next to where she stood.
“Bang!!! Boom!!!”
She instinctively covered her ears, shut her eyes tightly, and shrieked.
Only a few seconds later, when the aunt could no longer detect any more sounds, she cautiously opened her eyes and found that the lightning had receded; surprisingly, it didn’t even hit any single tree around here nor left a total chaotic aftermath. She just couldn't believe such horrifying lightning could come and vanish so quickly without leaving any traces behind, as if it wasn't meant to appear here in the first place. It really gave her a heart attack.
The aunt worked quickly to finish the remaining cleaning. She set the box aside and then went to fetch the new things to replace the old. As the items had scattered on the ground, it should not be used on other people, especially the deceased, that would be a great disrespect.
She walked away again, not knowing that, in the other room, a pair of eyes had opened, as bright as the morning light.
…
The last scene that Binh An saw was the figure of the uninvited guest starting to fade away, in the corners of his eyes, the black shadows quickly encircled his body, and after that, his eyes went completely blind.
Binh An seemed to be lost in eternity, his whole body was suspended in space, and he could not see the way out nor was he able to move freely. Until he noticed something suddenly appeared, he found out that it was merely a sequence of distorted sights and weird sounds, writhing in his ears like ants crawling and crows cawing.
Time was frozen, like a puddle engulfing everything, making his lungs suffocate and his head spinning, Binh An's mood became extremely uncomfortable and resentful.
Binh An couldn't remember how long he's been floating like this, couldn't remember what he has seen, only knows that his head was getting more and more painful as if someone was crushing his skull, tightening it bit by bit until it reach the point where he finally lost it and screamed out loud all the pain he was suffering.
At that point, his entire body rushed to consciousness, his upper body jerked right up, started gasping for air, his chest constricting so harshly to the point of hurting himself…
It was not for long before his body lost all its strength, forcing him to lie back down again.
He felt like he had just been strangled, his head hurt like it's been hammered, now there was a sudden rush of air into his lungs, making him unable to adapt, a convulsive shudder ran through his whole spine, temporarily turning him into a millipede. The foreign water drops that got into his eyes were very painful. He was so cold, his whole body couldn’t stop shaking violently.
Is this the punishment of the Depths of Hell?