CH 6

Laird babbled a few more words, and Sean nodded hesitantly, indicating that he would pay more attention.

Sean thought for a while, then asked, “What about Jerry? Is he going to leave here too?”

Jerry was still on the phone outside the house, presumably he didn’t want the other person to hear that there were so many strangers in the house.

Laird glanced at the door and said, “I was about to talk about Jerry. Sean, don’t tell Jerry what I just said.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Jerry lives here, this is his home, he can’t move out for a long time, he won’t want to. Even if he wants to, he has to explain to his parents… More importantly, from what I know about him, The more people tell him ‘don’t do it,’ the more likely he’ll be curious to try it, and if you want him to not do something, you’d better ignore it yourself.”

Sean sighed: “That’s right, Jerry is that kind of person.”

Laird added: “When I was a kid, the ‘door’ had already appeared in this house twice, and in the last month, it had appeared twice… Come to think of it, in the past dozen years , maybe it appeared a few times, but Jerry and his parents didn’t notice it. Everyone’s perception is different, and the three of them are probably slow, as long as the ‘door’ is not in a place that is particularly obvious and can’t be ignored , I guess they can’t detect it at all. As long as they can’t detect it, they won’t be in danger. But Sean, you’re not the same, you were the first to sense the abnormality just now. You may be a little sharper than Jerry, A sharper person, maybe attached to danger.

Sean said: “Even so…what if the thing really shows up in a very obvious place again? Like on the day of the party, it appeared on the wall outside the toilet, and it was hard to see it.”

Laird said: “If that’s the case, Jerry’s first reaction must be to contact you, Levi Karadzer. He’ll wait until we’re all there, and when Levi’s get the whole crew and let him A group of people marching in might with video equipment, preferably live broadcast, he has to be in the camera…He definitely wants to do that. It’s safer, at least he won’t sneak in silently.”

Probably imagining that scene, Sean was amused: “Okay, I probably understand. Don’t worry, I’m not stupid, I’m just an ordinary student, not as brave as you think…”

At this time, Jerry came back from the phone. He only heard the last two sentences.

“What are you going to do?” he asked excitedly. “Are you going to take a picture of Sean entering the ‘door’? If he doesn’t want to, then I’ll…”

“Of course not,” Levi said quickly. “These things have to be planned in detail by the producers and directors, and the crew has to prepare first.”

“Oh…speaking of this,” Jerry said apologetically, “Mr. Karadzer, about what we said on the phone earlier—you can stay at my house for two days and observe the paranormal phenomenon by the way…maybe not now. Because there is an emergency, I can’t entertain you.”

Levi said, “It’s fine, I should have stayed outside. But . . . is there something wrong?”

Originally, Levi did plan to live at the Cates house. Anyway, the Cates couple would not come home for a long time, and Jerry had the final say. This is not to save money, but he thinks that the door will still appear, and he hopes to see it with his own eyes for the first time.

On the phone, Jerry was not suspecting this stranger, and immediately agreed to his request for staying overnight.

Probably because many horror movies are played like this: Ghostbusters or documentary photographers carry a lot of equipment and live in the client’s house. The first night is calm, and then it starts to be infinitely high…

Jerry shook his phone: “My dad called just now. He suddenly returned to China and just got off the plane. He has to go to the factory first, so he can’t get to Squirrel Town yet. He said he will be back for dinner tonight. He’ll be back Home…I can’t let him see you here.”

Sean looked at Jerry in disbelief: “Wait, you’re working with Deep Dive and your parents don’t even know?”

Jerry said: “Of course they don’t know, they hate supernatural topics the most… Besides, I was having a party at home and my dad was very upset, and there was a disappearance case that day. If I tell him again that I found someone to investigate ‘The door in the wall’, he must think I’m crazy too, like…”

Having said that, Jerry glanced at Laird and swallowed the second half of the sentence.

Laird himself had no complaints, and still looked kind. “It’s okay, Jerry,” he said with a smile. “It’s true. You’re right, we can’t stay here.”

After speaking, he turned to Levi: “Levi, let’s go to the hotel to open a room?”

Levi ignored him and spoke only to Jerry: “I’ll just go find a motel nearby. But Jerry, you see, I’m a stranger, and I shouldn’t be staying here abruptly, and What about Laird? Can’t he stay in his own home?”

Jerry was a little embarrassed, at a loss for words. Laird took the opportunity to speak up:

“What’s the matter, Levi? You don’t want to stay with me? We were together last time, when we investigated the ‘Fence Wall’, and there was only one big bed left in that hotel. house……”

Levi refused to answer him, just kept looking at Jerry: “Your brother finally came home, maybe your father wants to see him too?”

Jerry said, “Oh, no, my dad said he didn’t want to see him.”

Levi was taken aback. Even Sean next to him was shocked by this frank and cold statement.

Jerry explained, “Because he, he’s…” He gestured at Laird, “he’s… like this. I mean what he wears, what he calls his profession… and he’s all… Let’s not hide it. My dad said not long ago that he would feel a little guilty if he cut off contact with Laird, but he would feel ashamed if Laird kept coming home…sorry Laird, this is what my dad said, I didn’t have to say that to you.”

“I know.” Laird nodded with a smile. “He talked to me about this, and said the same thing to me. Besides, I don’t have a room at this house anymore. It’s better to sleep in a hotel bed than on a sofa.”

Sean gave him a sympathetic look, Laird responded with an exaggerated bow, Jerry tried to squeeze a smile, and the whole living room fell into an awkward silence.

In the end, Levi broke the silence. He stood up and stretched his arms and said, “Okay, I still have something to do. I have to go first. We had a smooth and pleasant conversation today.”

Jerry quickly asked, “Then when are you guys going to shoot?”

“I’ll contact you at any time. If you have any new discoveries, please notify me in time so that we can prepare accordingly. You know, our show always has to prepare a lot of things…”

“Okay, I understand, but my dad is at home these two days, I may not be able to…”

Levi put the travel bag on his back and patted the boy’s shoulder: “Don’t hurry, the producer and director are also very busy, and they have not paid much attention to me recently. Don’t worry, this material is very interesting, I think the producer will be interested, so be patient.”

Jerry happily sent Levi out. Sean planned to stay a little longer, so he waved his hand while lying on the sofa.

Laird followed Levi closely, as if he had been bound as a partner.

Levi opened the door and just put his backpack in the back seat when Laird unceremoniously opened the passenger door and sat in, putting the small suitcase under his feet.

“What are you doing?” Levi bent down, leaning against the door and staring at him.

Laird said as he adjusted the chair, “Okay, I know you’ve been patient in the house, stop it, come on.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“What do you think I’m talking about?” Laird asked rhetorically, “Don’t you have a lot of things to ask me? We were halfway through chatting in the car just now, and were interrupted by an emergency. You must have not had enough time to chat. You always stared at me. Just now, you must have been holding back a bunch of questions. Come on, let’s talk slowly.”

Levi glared at him, got into the driver’s seat, and started the car.

Laird wriggled in the seat. “Your seat belt shoulder pads should be washed… or you should just change them.”

“Don’t break it for me.”

“Is there a lumbar pillow?”

“No.”

“I remember last time! It was the last time I came back from the abandoned circus. I took your car to Nora…”

“It got lost after that.”

“Oh…do you have gum? Regular mints will do.”

“No.” Actually Levi had chewing gum in his vest pocket, but he was reluctant to give it to him. “Will you shut up? You keep talking every time I drive!”

Laird refused to shut up, and even started to command: “Go straight ahead at the intersection, turn right when you see the hospital, turn out, and get on the highway.”

“What are you doing? I have navigation software on my phone, so you don’t have to tell me the way.”

Laird put on his glasses: “It’s still early, I want to take you to a place, you will definitely be interested. It’s not too far away, about an hour, we can have a good chat on the way, and we’ll talk about it when we get there. Let’s have lunch together.”

“Where are we going?” Levi temporarily obeyed the “temporary navigator”, drove to the straight line, and waited for the red light at the intersection.

“We’re going to the Red Oak Sanatorium by Lake Gera. That’s where I lived when I was a kid. Angela Nuño has been in the hospital for a long time now.”

Levi asked, “Who is Angela?”

“My nanny.”

Levi couldn’t help but laugh. Why did she end up in a mental hospital? Back then, she finally pretended not to see anything, and pushed all the madness onto a ten-year-old child…

“Yeah, we’re in the same hospital, it’s not funny,” Laird said. “Levi, you should feel that this time it is different.”

“What’s different?” Levi asked casually.

“We’re getting closer to what we’re looking for.”

Levi said with a sullen face: “You know what I’m looking for?”

“Of course I know,” Laird laughed. “We’ve met so many times and cooperated so many times in the past, and I’ve secretly paid attention to other cases you’re investigating…”

“you still……”

Laird ignored Levi’s unhappiness and forced the finish: “I know, you are just like me… You are also tracking the traces of the ‘Gate of Discord’ for a long time.”

When he said this, Laird had been tossing the car stereo and finally found a radio station he liked. He finally sat back in the seat with satisfaction. There was an old song on the radio, “Hotel California.”

He hummed a few words and said, “Levi, I have a lot to tell you slowly… don’t bother me. I can only cooperate with you, because only you can fully believe me, and also only I know how to help you.”

Levi hummed noncommittally.

The car pulled into the highway, leaving Squirrel Town behind.