Lu Li drifted to the window on the second floor, and through the mottled glass he saw a faded long skirt busy with its back to the wall, as if an invisible silhouette was wearing it.
The illusory outline faded away, and Lu Li appeared in the other world through the curtain of reality, looking at the gray room with no outline and no clothes.
The world in the ghost reflects everything except life. The faded dress does not appear, which means that it is a kind of life in itself.
When Lu Li returned to the real world, he happened to turn around in his faded dress and spotted the ghost peeping outside the window. He was so frightened that he floated out of the room.
Peng——
The sound of slamming doors shook the windows.
Lu Li fell back onto the street and continued to walk into the town with Sniffles and the other suffering people.
A faint warm light shone from the window of a house in front. Lu Li and the others came to the window and saw three pieces of clothing surrounding the dining table with candles, a gray linen jacket, a faded loose skirt, and a children's clothing.
"Good friends say they are talking." Sniffle said at this time.
"What did they say?"
Snot said with envy and longing: "Dad said to wish my beloved little Justin a happy birthday, and mother said that little Justin has grown up."
In front of the dining table behind the window, the child's clothes with a body shape similar to a snot raised his sleeves and ran around the dining table. It was as if he could vaguely see a warm family of three celebrating their birthday.
"Mom said stop running away and come back for dinner. The boy said yes."
The child's clothes climbed onto its seat, grabbed the knife and fork with the sleeves of the linen coat playing the father, cut on the dinner plate that could not be seen clearly, sent it to the dinner plate in front of the child's clothes, and then continued cutting to the person playing the mother's long skirt. In the collar.
From this, Lu Li saw that what was crossed was a piece of cut cloth, and he thought of the mountain of clothes seen in Kazvovo Town.
Is that the "slaughterhouse" for clothes?
"The child said there was someone outside the window——"
At this time, the kid holding the fork suddenly raised his empty cuffs and pointed at the window.
Lu Li and the others were discovered.
"Dad" left his seat and came to the window while Lu Li watched calmly.
Hula——
It drew the curtains to block out prying eyes from the street.
That's all.
The clothes seemed indifferent to their intrusion,
It has no response to the breath of humanity, and even ignores the evil spirit of suffering people.
Their reaction made Lu Li change his mind and knocked on the door with runny nose.
There was a sound of clothes rubbing against the glottis, and then the door opened. The light of the candle spilled onto the porch, and the linen coat stood behind the door. The loose long skirt and children's clothes beside the dining table looked curiously at me.
"Dad, who do you think you are?" Nose continued to translate.
"We came from the outside world and wanted to know what happened in the town." Lu Li answered.
The sleeves of the linen coat pointed toward the depths of the town.
"Dad said you go find the mayor yourself, and mom said the mayor will help you."
"Do they have a tone?"
"What's the tone?" Sniffle tilted his head and asked, seeming to get an answer from his good friend, "My good friend said that my father was impatient and disgusted, and my mother was friendly and curious."
It's like the reaction of the man and woman of the house to strangers.
"Thanks."
Lu Li's apology made them stunned, and it wasn't until Lu Li returned to the street with a runny nose and a linen coat that he closed the door.
"You guys wait for me here."
Lu Li approached the window where the dim candlelight shone through the curtains, floated up, passed through the wall of the house and entered the second floor.
A neatly covered children's bed is placed in the corner of the attic with a sloping roof, and a wooden staircase leads from the bright downstairs to the attic.
The sound of the waves was blocked by the wall, and the house was silent. There was no lively birthday party for a family of three.
In the eerie silence, Lu Li checked the bedside table, under the bed and under the pillow, and finally found a diary on the window sill.
"Justin's Diary"
The cover of the blank notebook is scrawled with slanted fonts.
Up in the attic, Lu Li opened his diary and read the notes of a boy named Justin with his own dim light.
It records Justin's daily life, and the carefreeness revealed in everything clearly belongs to the old era - children in the weird era did not play around, go to the beach to pick up shells, or go to the port to accompany their father at work.
The diary only occupies half of the notes, and it ends abruptly after a certain day, as if something happened.
Lu Li knew what was happening: a strange era was coming.
Maybe the three pieces of clothing downstairs are the three members of Justin's family?
But not sure yet.
What he saw in the old days allowed Lu Li to imagine countless possibilities, such as the clothes playing the role of Justin's family of three, or the clothes stealing their souls and memories.
After all, there’s always a reason why weirdos don’t dare to set foot in Twin Towns——
And these activated clothes are the key.
“Are we wearing our clothes, or are our clothes wearing us?”
Staring at the candlelight seeping towards the end of the stairs, Lu Li put the diary back in its place, left the attic and returned to the street before the plants grew out of the cracks in the boards.
They moved on and entered the center of the town.
The "flower season" is temporarily suspended, the sea breeze blows away the bloody dandelions, and clothes gradually appear on the streets.
They are not surprised by the three figures of ghosts, weirdness, and evil spirits, as if they think they are humans, they think they are all humans too.
Since the clothes were not surprising to Lu Li and the others, Lu Li was not surprised by them either. He approached a crotcheted linen shirt and asked about the situation in the town as if he were asking the residents.
Sniffle relayed what a good friend said: The old man welcomes their arrival. This town welcomes outsiders. It is a safe harbor away from danger. The flower season is a nasty thing floating from the bloody forest to the west of the town, but you can go to the mayor to get clothes.
, covering the flower season like an umbrella that blocks rain.
Lu Li did not go to the mayor, nor did he receive any clothes. Following the chaotic and fragmented dream memories of the uninvited guests, Lu Li walked through the town and came to a tower-style building with a sloping roof.
"Where is this?"
"cemetery."
Lu Li's gaze jumped over the rusty fence and fell to the tombstone standing crookedly in the darkness.
The broken memories of the uninvited guests resurfaced again, and Lu Li allowed them to emerge one after another like inspiration without annihilating them with the crown of knowledge.
When no more memories emerged, Lu Li flew over the fence with snot in his nose.
The suffering people climbed over the fence, letting the fence pierce their flesh and blood, leaving the rust in their bodies.
"Is there anyone you know here?"
"No."
Lu Li wanted to confirm a possibility.
A shadow now appeared at the edge of the cemetery.
The businessman brought the blood-erased notes. Lu Li turned to the wrinkled last page, and the penultimate line that had been covered with blood emerged:
【We are nothing...nothing, it is keeping us captive...】
There are no substantial clues, the only confirmation is that the owner of the note and the clothes mountain are indeed the food of the clothes.
Lu Li continued to wander around the dark and desolate cemetery, and stopped in front of a low, slender, molded tombstone.