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Chapter 18 File 1: Ten People's Night Party ([-])
[-]. The sound of marbles upstairs

"Tap...tap...tap...tap..."

A series of crisp marble beating sound woke me up from my sleep, I opened my eyes angrily, and the time displayed on the alarm clock was exactly twelve o'clock in the middle of the night.

Ever since I narrowly escaped death in that black blast furnace, I have suffered from a dark phobia, and it is difficult to fall asleep if I am awakened in the middle of the night.But the guy upstairs actually likes to drop beads on the floor at twelve o'clock every night. The first time, I just thought it was an accident, but the second night came again, and the time happened to be twelve o'clock in the middle of the night. I'm starting to suspect he did it on purpose.

This is the third time tonight. As the saying goes, "You can bear it when you go down, you can't bear it when you go up." If I don't "educate" him tonight, he will probably develop a habit.

I angrily ran to the third floor. The house was quite old, and the wooden stairs creaked as soon as they were pressed up, as if they were about to fall apart.

When I first rented this place, I pictured it as dilapidated, with cyan exposed brick walls, red wooden windows with round arches, and pointed tile roofs, giving it the atmosphere of a haunted house.But when I moved in, I found out that there are really no good products that are cheap.In addition to the poor sound insulation effect of the wooden floor, the landlord is also very stingy.In such a huge house, the stairs and corridors are not even equipped with a single lamp.Walking through it with a flashlight at night is like touching gold in an ancient tomb, which is very special.

"Open the door!" I slammed on the door of No. 303. The sound of "dong dong" shook the entire third floor, but there was no reaction in the room.

"Come out, you bastard, I know you're inside!" The other party's silence fueled my anger even more, but until my hands hurt from the beating, there was still no reaction from inside.

I couldn't help but feel a little discouraged. No matter how passionate a person is, there is no pleasure in yelling into the air.Is there no one inside?Otherwise, under the attack of my vicious words, as long as the other party is still a man, he should stand up.

I put my eyes on the keyhole and looked in. This kind of ancient door lock has a large keyhole, which is often used by waiters in black and white movies to peek at female tenants changing clothes.But it was pitch black inside, and the lights were not even turned on.

He probably won't sleep anymore, even if he did, he should have been woken up by me just now.He must have been afraid to turn on the light and pretend no one was in the room.

"Boy, if you dare to throw a bead into the ground again, I'll stuff it into your mouth, you hear me clearly!" I had nothing to do when I encountered such a reckless opponent, so I had no choice but to throw down a cruel sentence, and retreated to the room in dismay. .

Lie back on the bed, but the awakened nerves refused to go back to sleep again, and I barely fell asleep until it was bright, and I was awakened by the landlord's knock on the door again.

"Who did you quarrel with upstairs last night?" The landlord asked me immediately, "Woke up the neighbors, and they all complained to the neighborhood committee."

"You should ask the guy on the third floor why he throws things on the floor in the middle of the night every day." He came just in time, and I wanted to complain to him.

"Someone dropped something?" the landlord said in surprise, "but there is no one upstairs."

"Why is there no one?" I said angrily, "Isn't there someone renting it upstairs?"

"Someone rented it," the landlord nodded and said, "but he went home about half a month ago, and when he left, he told me not to touch the things in his room."

"Going away?" I just remembered at this time that the sound insulation effect of the wooden floor of this house is very poor, and I used to hear footsteps upstairs.But after I came back from a trip this time, I really didn't hear anyone walking upstairs for a few days.

"Impossible," I said suspiciously, "Then who made the noise I heard these nights?"

"Maybe it's rats?" The landlord saw my complexion, so he comforted me and said, "It's normal for old houses to have rats. I'll give you some rat poison tomorrow. It's fine."

"Leave it to yourself!" I didn't bother to talk to him anymore, there were indeed rats in this house, but it was impossible for the rats to get up on time at twelve o'clock in the middle of the night to play marbles!

I'm beginning to feel that this matter is a bit interesting, so I'd better stay and investigate for myself.

I went back to my room and pretended to call someone, "Well, okay, I'll be right over!" I said it so loudly that anyone upstairs would have heard it.Then when you go out, close the door a little louder.

But instead of going down the stairs, I climbed up to the third floor lightly.I suspect that there are other people in this room. Maybe he wants to hide for some purpose from others, but as long as he is alive, he must carry out basic activities such as eating and bathing.When I am "absent", it should be the best time for his activities.

I quietly walked to the door of 303 and looked in through the keyhole again.Even though it was daytime, the room was still very dark, and the curtains were drawn tightly. If I stayed inside, I would definitely be so depressed that I couldn't breathe.

The keyhole has limited visibility and all I can see is a laptop sitting in front of the window.There are some things on the floor that are shining slightly. They are glass beads. I heard it right. It is indeed the sound of marbles falling on the ground.

This discovery strengthened my confidence, and I patiently waited in the keyhole, waiting for the figure to pass by.But I waited for a long time, but there was no movement on my face.

It seems that I was wrong in my judgment. There is indeed no one in this room, otherwise it would be impossible for him to remain silent for such a long time.But if there is no one, who threw the beads in the middle of the night?

Could it be that someone sneaked into the room, dropped the beads, and then left?If so, what was he doing it for?Questions filled up like smoke, and I felt that this matter was getting more and more interesting.

It is also easy to prove this hypothesis. I tied a small fishing line on the landing of the stairs. The fishing line is transparent, and it is impossible to see it on the dark stairs if it is not known in advance.There was a little bell attached to the end of the line, and whenever someone touched the line, the bell would ring and I could catch him right away.

I went back to the room and quietly closed the door.All day, I listened intently to the movement of the stairwell.But until after eleven o'clock in the evening, the bell still didn't make any signal.

I was bored and poured water on the supernatural forum, looking at the posts of all kinds of weird experiences posted by netizens on the forum, I suddenly wondered curiously, has anyone else encountered a similar situation?
So I typed in the words "the sound of marbles upstairs" in the search engine, and as soon as I pressed Enter, a lot of results came out immediately.

Have you heard the sound of marbles upstairs?
I also often hear the sound of marbles falling on the floor upstairs in the middle of the night, "Da... da da da da..." I have never been able to figure out why...

The sound of marbles in the middle of the night is haunted upstairs
Most people will think it should be the children upstairs playing when they hear it for the first time, so they don’t take it too seriously. However, if your damn curiosity makes you delve deeper, I’m afraid you won’t be able to sleep well at night... …

The unimaginable sound of marbles
It's hard to describe this kind of sound, but I believe everyone has heard it. Whenever I hear the sound of marbles upstairs, I usually don't think too much about it, lest I don't sleep well.

There's the sound of marbles coming from upstairs again

I have moved many times, and I often hear the sound of glass beads falling on the ground upstairs when I sleep at night, and suddenly my scalp feels numb...

I was surprised to find that so many people have heard the sound of marbles upstairs, and the situation is surprisingly similar: first, there is no activity upstairs; second, it usually happens in the middle of the night; third, it is extremely The feeling of horror.

Netizens have many speculations about the source of the sound of marbles. The scientific explanation is the damage and extrusion of the floor, the thermal expansion and contraction of water pipes and steel bars, but these theories cannot explain what happens on time every day.And the most popular one is naturally the exciting supernatural theory-there are ghosts upstairs!
But all guesses are just guesses. Almost all the witnesses admitted that they did not have the courage or ability (the door above was locked) to go upstairs to find out.I don't really believe in the "haunting theory". I have lived here for so long, if there is really a "threat" upstairs, my instinct will tell me.

The real answer may be revealed in a few minutes!Seeing the time gradually approaching twelve o'clock, I also began to get nervous.If someone really sneaked into the third floor in the middle of the night, he should have come now!
I held my breath and listened to the sound outside. The second hand on the alarm clock was only one step away from twelve o'clock, but there was still no movement.I breathed a sigh of relief, and I didn't know whether it was happiness or disappointment.If he didn't come at this time, he probably wouldn't come.As soon as the second hand reached twelve o'clock, there was a sudden "click" from upstairs!
There was a "boom" in my head, like a bomb hit my forehead.

"Tap...tap...tap..." A series of beating sounds of marbles hit my nerves. There are a series of question marks in my mind, why is there still sound?

I rushed out of the door almost in a gust of wind, and I took a look with the flashlight, and the fishing line was still there. When I touched it lightly with my hand, the bell made a "ding ding" sound.It is true that no one has ever gone up to the third floor, so who made the sound just now?

Is it really like the netizens said, there are ghosts upstairs?I just feel a chill rushing straight into my heart!

Impossible, I trust my intuition, but could someone be imprisoned on the third floor?If someone is tied up all over, of course there is no other way to make other noises, so he flicks the beads in the middle of the night to call for help!

The tenant on the third floor was only seen once after I moved in, and it was late at night. This guy never seemed to show up during the day.When I thought of his pale, bloodless face and dull and indifferent expression, I felt that he looked more like a pervert.

Maybe he locked someone in the room, but he ran away. After a month or two, when the landlord felt that something was wrong and went in for inspection, he might only see a rotten and smelly corpse.

When I think of this, I can't hold back any longer, and I must get to the bottom of this matter tonight!
I set foot on the third floor again and came to the door of Room 303.When I was a child, I learned how to pick a lock from the crippled locksmith in my neighborhood. I only need to take a piece of wire to open this kind of simple in-line door lock.

As soon as the door was opened, a burst of dull air rushed over.Fortunately, there was no corpse or blood smell in the air that I was worried about.

I found the light switch with a flashlight, and when I turned on the light, I saw that everything in the room was neatly arranged, and there was no sign that anyone had touched it.The floor was very clean, except for the beads scattered all over the floor, there was no other debris, and the room didn't look like a person was hiding.

I carefully shone the flashlight under the bed. The bed was empty, and the dust was as thick as copper coins.Where will it be?I cast my eyes on the black wardrobe, which is more than enough to hide a person.

I walked slowly to the closet, holding its brass handle with my left hand, and the flashlight in my right hand was ready to defend and counterattack at any time.As soon as I pushed hard, I pulled the closet door open, and the light of the flashlight shone in.

My worries were in vain again, and the closet was so full of clothes that it was difficult to put another person in it.

How could there be no one?I looked around in a daze, and suddenly my feet slipped, and I fell to the floor with a "bang" on my back. I didn't know where the flashlight flew.The broken house was shaken slightly by my fall, and the chandelier in the center of the ceiling went out with a bang.

I fell into the dark abyss immediately, only hearing the soft sound of "swish, swish" coming from the front.What is this sound?The hairs all over my body stood on end immediately, and my heartbeat accelerated at least five times.But most frightening of all were the associations that could not be suppressed in my mind—was something approaching?
At that moment, I almost ran for the door. "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid!" I tried my best to use my reason to resist the invasion of my demons. Although I couldn't tell what made the sound, the interval speed of this sound was very constant, just like a clock.

Yes, it was the sound of the clock, and I fumbled for the flashlight.As soon as the flashlight was turned on, it was as if I found a piece of driftwood in the ocean, and I finally settled down.I shone the light in the direction of the sound, and saw a black old-fashioned wall clock hanging on the wall, and the pendulum was still shaking.

I remembered that I also heard this sound when I first entered the door, but I didn't pay attention to it because it was too weak.But under the effect of the dark phobia, my sensitivity was multiplied, and the voice became extremely clear.

It turned out to be a false alarm!But I was exhausted and out of breath as if I had escaped from death. Fortunately, I also retrieved the flashlight, otherwise I dare not imagine what the consequences would be.

The doctor gave me some drugs to relieve my dark phobia, but I am too aware of the side effects of these psychotropic drugs, so I hope to rely on my own willpower to overcome it.But the panic just now proved that maybe I should have taken those medicines.

After my emotions stabilized, my thinking began to function normally again, and I discovered something unreasonable: Since the wall clock keeps running, why have I never heard it tell the time?Moreover, the marbles on the ground are basically scattered away from the wall clock. The sound of the beads falling to the ground I heard all started from the bottom of the wall clock and then bounced to other places.

"Beads will fall at twelve o'clock in the middle of the night", my mind flashed, could those marbles have something to do with the wall clock?

I opened the glass door of the wall clock, put my finger on the hour hand and flicked it quickly, the hour hand turned around and returned to the twelve o'clock position.I only heard the "click" sound of the spring inside the wall clock, and then a glass bead fell out of a small hole and jumped on the ground with a "click".

"Sure enough!" I let out a long breath, and all the tension and doubts in my heart disappeared.It turned out that the guy upstairs refitted the wall clock. Whenever the hour hand was on the wall clock at twelve o'clock in the middle of the night, a bead would automatically be released.

This guy is really too perverted to make such a prank to scare people.Fortunately, I still have a little psychological endurance, otherwise I might be scared to death by him.

I got angry right away, and I really wanted to smash the wall clock right away, but as soon as I went to pick up the wall clock, an envelope fell off the wall with a "snap".

There is something hidden behind the wall clock?I lowered my head and picked up the envelope, only to see that it said: "My friend downstairs."

I was taken aback, was this letter addressed to me?Did he deliberately create this mechanism in order to attract me to look for this letter?What is it impossible for him to tell me in person that he must leave a letter in this special way?
But in any case, this ingenious way of leaving a letter has aroused my strong interest, and I couldn't wait to open the envelope and read the contents of the letter:

Hello friends downstairs!
If you're reading this letter, something may have happened to me.I originally hoped that you could attend that party together, but it's a pity that you went out of town.The mainspring of the wall clock can only support fifteen days. If you can break through the secret of the pearl falling in the middle of the night and find the letter within the limited time, then it means that I read you correctly.You are qualified enough to decipher this mystery that I have not been able to solve.

The following content will interest you, but it may also bring unpredictable risks. You can decide whether to continue reading.

(End of this chapter)