I shook my hand, and the matchbox fell to the ground.

"Hehehe..."

The sound came again.

This time I heard it clearly, the sound was coming from under the table...

My heart was pounding violently, feeling like it could explode at any moment.

My legs seemed to be frozen, standing still on the ground.

I wanted to run, but I couldn't lift my legs at all. I wanted to speak, but I was too scared to say a word.

It was only a few seconds, but it felt incredibly long to me. I held onto the table with both hands, slowly lifted my legs, and took a step back.

"Hehehe..."

The sound from under the table came again.

Although the room was dim, I could still see...

A pair of pale, slender arms suddenly stretched out from under the table, grabbing my ankle like pincers, and pulled it down forcefully.

In just an instant, I was pulled down to the ground by those hands, feeling like I was sinking into an endless black hole.

"Ah ah ah ah ah!"

I screamed in fear, grabbing onto anything around me without hesitation.

With a sharp sound, I woke up suddenly and found myself sitting on the edge of the heated brick bed,

and it was already dawn.

Xiaoyong was naked, covering his crotch, looking bewildered at me.

"Brother, what... what are you doing?"

When I lowered my head, I saw that I was holding onto Xiaoyong's underpants.

At that time, our family was facing difficulties, and Xiaoyong wore the same underpants until they became discolored and the fabric had decayed, and I had torn them into pieces.

I quickly threw the torn fabric on the ground, looked around the room, everything was normal, and I realized that what happened last night was just a nightmare. I breathed a sigh of relief, wiped the sweat from my forehead, and smiled at Xiaoyong:

"Um... I bought you some new underpants from the city, so you don't have to wear these anymore."

"You bought me underpants as soon as you came back from college?" Xiaoyong said disdainfully.

"And some cream-filled cookies from the city, here you go."

I stood up from the bed, but my legs gave way and I fell to the ground.

As soon as I tried to get up, cold sweat poured out of me as if by agreement.

Xiaoyong was frightened and quickly jumped down to help me.

"Brother, what's wrong with you?"

My heart was pounding, I couldn't catch my breath, everything went black in front of my eyes, and I didn't know anything anymore.

When I woke up again, it was already noon the next day.

I had a fever, but the intravenous drip and injections didn't work.

My forehead was burning, but my feet felt like they were stepping into a freezing river in winter, trembling with cold.

My mother brought a basin of hot water for me to soak my feet in. My feet were almost scalded, but I still felt cold.

After being scalded by the hot water, a pair of black marks gradually appeared on both of my ankles.

Anyone could tell.

These were the marks left by two hands.

My mother suddenly burst into tears.

"They never let our family go, never!"