The Doorbell at Three

Renata wakes to a soft chime on her phone: motion detected, front door. It is three in the morning. The short video clip shows nothing but the porch light and an empty step.

雷纳塔被手机里一声轻轻的提示音叫醒：检测到移动，前门。现在是凌晨三点。那段很短的视频里，只有门廊的灯光和一级空荡荡的台阶。

No one is there. This has happened four nights in a row now, always at almost exactly the same time.

门外没有人。这已经是连续第四个晚上了，而且每次几乎都在同一时刻。

The first night, she assumes it is a cat, or a fox from the woods behind the house. The second night, she checks the porch herself with a flashlight. She finds nothing disturbed, not even a leaf out of place. By the third night, she has started sleeping with her phone turned to silent. The interruption still wakes her, as if her body has learned to expect it.

第一天晚上，她以为是猫，或者是房子后面树林里跑出来的狐狸。第二天晚上，她拿着手电筒亲自去门廊查看。什么都没被动过，连一片叶子都没有挪位。到了第三天晚上，她已经开始把手机调成静音再睡觉。可那阵打扰还是会把她弄醒，仿佛她的身体已经学会了等着它。

Over coffee, she tells her neighbor Felix about it, half-joking that the doorbell might be haunted. He laughs, but then goes quiet for a moment. "Actually," he says, "we installed a new Wi-Fi extender last week. It's on the wall closest to your house." He admits he hadn't thought the two things could be connected.

喝咖啡的时候，她把这事告诉了邻居菲利克斯，半开玩笑地说门铃可能闹鬼了。他笑了，随后却沉默了片刻。“其实，”他说，“我们上周装了一个新的Wi-Fi信号放大器。就装在离你们家最近的那面墙上。”他承认，自己之前没想过这两件事可能有关联。

That evening, Renata reads the doorbell's manual properly for the first time. It is something she probably should have done when she first set it up. The manual explains that the motion sensor can occasionally be triggered by strong nearby signals. This is especially true for devices broadcasting on a similar frequency close to the camera. A powerful new Wi-Fi extender, aimed straight at her porch, fits the description exactly.

那天晚上，雷纳塔第一次认真读了门铃的说明书。其实她刚装好门铃的时候就该读的。说明书上写着，附近的强信号有时会触发动作传感器。尤其是在摄像头附近、频率相近的设备发出信号的时候。一台功率很大的新信号放大器，正对着她家的门廊，完全符合这种情况。

She messages Felix, who apologises and offers to angle the extender away from her house. That night, for the first time in almost a week, her phone stays quiet until morning.

她给菲利克斯发了消息，他连声道歉，并提出把放大器的角度调开，不再对着她家。那天夜里，将近一个星期以来第一次，她的手机一直安静到天亮。

Renata still finds it a little strange. A piece of technology from one house could quietly disturb another, without either owner noticing for days. If someone had told her a month ago that her neighbor's Wi-Fi equipment would cost her a week of sleep, she wouldn't have believed them. Yet here she is, sleeping soundly again, all because of a few degrees' difference in the angle of a small white box on Felix's wall.

雷纳塔仍然觉得有点奇怪。一户人家的一件科技设备，竟然能悄悄地干扰另一户人家，而两边的主人好几天都毫无察觉。要是一个月前有人告诉她，邻居的Wi-Fi设备会害她一个星期睡不好觉，她是不会相信的。可现在她又睡得安稳了，全是因为菲利克斯墙上那个白色小盒子的角度差了那么几度。