When Li Xiu transferred to Qiming Secondary School, he noticed a large swathe of desolate land covered in weeds behind the campus. 

As the default top school for the entire upper class in City A, Qiming’s location was right in the city center, where every inch of land was valuable. And yet, such a large piece of unused land was empty. People not in the know would really feel that it was a pity when they saw it.

However, the locals of A City were not surprised by this scene.

After all, on that land…..was the Xiao Family Haunted House.

To put it plainly, the land behind Qiming Secondary School was not really a wasteland in the true sense — many years ago, the Xiao family was the most prestigious family in City A, and built a large villa complex for the family at a high cost.

However, not long after they moved into the Xiao Family Gardens, the family encountered a bizarre massacre that shocked the entire country.

Ever since then, the land had been completely empty.

Likely because of its “inauspicious reputation,” in an era where real estate development was in full swing, the Xiao Family Gardens took up so much land, but no one took over its development.

The Xiao family villa still stood there to this day, and in that majestic structure, one could still see the beauty, luxury, and style of those years.

However, after so many years of neglect, no matter how luxurious the Xiao Family Gardens were, it had become the terrifying and dilapidated “Xiao Family Haunted House.” As for the courtyard around the villa, it had long been covered by wild vegetation.

There were layer upon layer of dense, wild trees, and even at noon in the summer, it was difficult for the sun to penetrate into the forest through the dense branches and leaves. Combined with the various horror legends about this place, the Xiao Family Gardens always seemed dark and damp, and it seemed as if there was always an inexplicable and imposing aura of death.

At least, the fearless, hot-blooded boys of Qiming Secondary School were not afraid of the rumors and gloomy atmosphere of the Xiao Family Gardens.

The school was not strictly managed, and some particularly unruly students would sneak into the Xiao family villa to find places to smoke during recess……but Li Xiu had nothing to do with that sort of thing.

Li Xiu had always instinctively hated that sort of gloomy place.

If possible, he would never step foot into the Xiao family “haunted house” in his life.

But currently, Li Xiu was being held down and pressed directly onto the floor of an abandoned room in the Xiao family villa. 

—Thud.

A muffled sound.

The odor of dust and mold poured into Li Xiu’s nose. He put up a struggle, and was hit hard in the back.

“Why are you flailing around?! It’s come to this point, and you’re still trying to run away?!”

Someone curses in a rough voice over his head.

“Pfft, Wang Rongfa, why are you so nervous? He’s a cripple. If you let go of him and let him run, is it possible for him to actually run away?”

Immediately after, another boy scoffed.

The boy named Wang Rongfa pressed harder on Li Xiu’s back.

“Song Chen, you don’t know, but this cripple is very cunning. If it weren’t for our Fang-ge this time, I would have almost let him get away—”

As he spoke, Li Xiu suddenly broke free and raised his arm, elbowing Wang Rongfa. Taking advantage of the boy’s pain, Li Xiu abruptly ran toward the door.

However, as the boys surrounding him had said, Li Xiu’s lame leg truly made it difficult for him to maintain his balance. A normal person might have had a chance of escaping, but Wang Rongfa’s friends caught up with him before he could even take two steps. He was punched in the stomach and thrown back onto the dirty floor.

“Fuckfuckfuck—”

Wang Rongfa covered his face and cursed several times in one go.

“I’m telling you, you deserve a beating—”

He rushed forward and kicked Li Xiu violently.

Lying on the ground, Liu Xi’s body suddenly arched up as the terrible pain came. A trace of blood overflowed from his lips, but he clenched his teeth and didn’t even groan.

Such a tough reaction even made the boys who hit him issue sounds of surprise.

“This sissy good student can still handle pain pretty well,” someone muttered.

In the shadows deep in the room, Li Xiu hunched over. The skin exposed outside the school uniform was so white that it seemed transparent. His jet-black hair was the black of crow feathers and messily stuck to the fine, cold sweat on his face, covering his eyes. 

Even if he couldn’t compare to the strong, tall boys next to him who were holding cigarettes and had reached the end of puberty, revealing their adult figures, for a teenager this age, Li Xiu’s figure could be said to be overly delicate.

Compared to his peers, Li Xiu obviously looked much thinner. However, the body shape that should be undesirable, paired with an almost beautiful face, created a subtle and indescribable attraction — at least for the girls of Qiming Secondary School.

There could be no doubt that as a taciturn transfer student from a poor family, Li Xiu became rather popular with the girls when he arrived at Qiming. It had nothing to do with ambiguity between innocent boys and girls. As long as Li Xiu sat in the classroom, the girls would inevitably show him unconscious preferential treatment and affection.

After all, few girls would dislike a quiet, pretty, and intelligent adolescent boy with an obvious physical defect. 

However, this special kind of tenderness was an extreme eyesore to some foolish and reckless boys.

*

Li Xiu’s body involuntarily spasmed, and his vision went a little dark. There was a fishy, metallic taste in his throat. He panted silently with his mouth slightly open, trying to recover from the biting pain in his stomach and back. 

At the same time, hearing the ugly shouts from Wang Rongfa and his lackeys, he felt a bit irritable.

He never wanted to have a conflict with such idiots.

The reason Li Xiu transferred to Qiming at this time was purely so that he could get the school’s top scholarship.

In the early years, Qiming followed the path of international schools, and there was no need for a multitude of students to vye for a narrow, single-plank bridge. However, national policies had changed drastically in the past few years, and even students from Qiming Secondary School had to take the university entrance exam. In order to improve admission rates, Qiming recruited top students from other schools.

Li Xiu was among those who were recruited by Qiming for money.

Yes, Li Xiu’s grades were very good, so good that the people in Qiming’s admission office could ignore his inconvenient right leg. According to the signed agreement, Li Xiu would receive a substantial “bonus” as long as he achieved the required high scores in the school exams, the unified city exam, and the university entrance exam.

Li Xiu did the math. With this money, he would not have to borrow money to pay for his university living expenses from relatives and friends he had long lost contact with, and also would not have to worry about the money for his grandmother’s hospital medical treatment.

From the moment he entered the school, he knew that he was not from the same world as the group of elite children there. 

He only came to Qiming to get money, and never thought about making friends with these people.

He originally intended to just peacefully wait until the university entrance exams were over, and based on his results, take the money and leave. As a result, Li Xiu never could have expected that he would become a thorn in Wang Rongfa’s side after just answering a few questions from girls at the same table.

In fact, things weren’t so bad in the beginning. After all, when Wang Rongfa cursed at him initially, Li Xiu simply held himself back and ignored him. But one time in the men’s room, Wang Rongfa seized the opportunity to try to take Li Xiu’s pants off in front of his friends, saying euphemistically that it was to see if Li Xiu was a boy. Li Xiu was unable to hold back, and with absolutely no expression on his face, directly grabbed the mop in the corner and laid into them. 

Then came the part that Li Xiu was not unfamiliar with — a stupid school bullying scene.

It was still fine during class. Although there were very few teachers at Qiming who strictly managed this group of students who came from wealthy families, with Li Xiu’s grades and body, even the coldest and most snobbish teachers had to be somewhat considerate.

But after school, Wang Rongfa summoned his gang of scoundrels to chase after Li Xiu.

Sometimes Li Xiu could find a way to escape, and other times…..he would be caught by Wang Rongfa and his gang. Just like today.

It was unfortunate that today, Wang Rongfa seemed to be more agitated than before. It was unknown if his brain, which was as small as a mung bean, had squeezed out some new ways to give him a hard time.

Li Xiu felt the severe pain spread throughout his body and pondered indifferently.

In the past, the methods of bullying Wang Rongfa thought up were nothing more than dragging him into a corner and pouring cold water on him, or elementary school tricks such as deliberately dirtying his desk and pouring some garbage into his school bag.

But this time, Wang Rongfa directly dragged Li Xiu to the abandoned villa in the Xiao Family Gardens.

“Sure enough, just looking at this guy’s face puts you in a bad mood.”

Wang Rongfa kicked Li Xiu, and the harsh cursing drew Li Xiu’s attention back.

“Come on, Lao Wang, you’re just jealous of other good-looking people. Zhang Yan isn’t blind, this cripple’s face is definitely more eye-catching than yours, hahaha…..”

“Hahaha, that’s right. The Zhang family isn’t short of money, so they might just want to raise a pretty boy.”

The group of boys laughed uproariously around Wang Rongfa and the immobilized Li Xiu. In the end, Wang Rongfa’s face turned red. He flew into a rage out of humiliation, shouting to drown out the others as they escalated their mockery.

“Where is that place? Didn’t you say you found a darkroom? I want to see if this guy can still pull off such a blank face when we come back tomorrow.”

Li Xiu’s expression froze as he heard the conversation between Wang Rongfa and the others.

When he noticed Li Xiu’s tension, Wang Rongfa grinned: “Yo, are you afraid now? That can’t be right, ah…..doesn’t your family specialize in this kind of feudal superstition? What, are you really afraid of ghosts?”

Li Xiu continued to remain silent.

*

When Qiming Secondary School was established, the massacre of the Xiao family had already occurred. There was no one in the entirety of the school who didn’t know the legend of this haunted house.

For example, it was said that in the early years, Qiming had evening self-study classes like other schools, but they were quickly discontinued by the principal not long after. The reason was that students who studied at school in the evenings could clearly see the brightly-lit villa in that deserted garden.

Through the glass was covered in cobwebs and dust, they could even vaguely glimpse shadowy figures inside.

On the night wind, there were even faint old songs that had long been outdated.

Some people also said that in fact, the land Qiming Secondary School was built on was originally part of the Xiao family haunted house. After the school was built, the old villa was renovated and used as a dormitory for workers at the school.

As a result, the school janitor didn’t even stay a full week before escaping from the villa in a mess. It was said that every night, this old villa was full of ghosts.

There were clearly only two people in the dormitory, but after waking up in the middle of the night, they would feel that the whole house was so crowded that they could hardly stand.

*

There were countless legends like this.

As for Wang Rongfa’s method of punishing him this time, it was also very simple and crude.

A few days ago, when some of his friends were looking for a place to smoke in the old villa, they happened to discover a very small, closed darkroom with no windows at all. If they locked someone in there for one night, they would probably be frightened to death once they were released.

“……Let’s see how long you can be proud in front of me!”

The thing Wang Rongfa hated the most was Li Xiu’s expressionless face. It was obvious that he was the one being bullied on campus, but when the crippled little sissy boy looked over the crowd indifferently, Wang Rongfa always felt like a contemptible clown.

At last, this time Li Xiu finally showed the panic he wanted to see after hearing his plan.

“Let me go back.”

After such a long time dragging him here, Wang Rongfa heard Li Xiu’s hoarse voice for the first time.

Li Xiu’s face was very tense.

Indeed, Li Xiu was anxious at this moment.

He actually didn’t care much about Wang Rongfa’s clumsy bullying. However, being locked in a place like this was another matter.

If he got home late and delayed doing “that thing”……

He gave an involuntary shudder.

“Tsk, tsk, this is rare, ah. Wait. Cripple, are you really afraid of ghosts?!”

After mocking Li Xiu, Wang Rongfa turned to urge the others on.

“Hey, hey, you still haven’t opened the door?”

The people who had been following him had their butts stuck out as they roughly rummaged through discarded debris that had been piled up in the corner of the room for who knows how long. When they heard Wang Rongfa’s question, they also muttered in confusion.

“That’s weird. Weren’t we here two days ago? That door was really conspicuous…..”

The boys looked at the wall in confusion after the debris was pushed away to expose it to everyone’s sight.

Over the years, moisture had unknowingly infiltrated the interior brick walls, and the lower part of the old, luxurious European-style wallpaper had long been occupied with spots of dark blue mildew. The boys remembered clearly that it was here where they had discovered the strange little scarlet door that was only half a person tall.

It looked a lot like the door to a storage room, although it was a bit strange to have a storage room in this location.

Behind that door was the narrow, airtight darkroom they had told Wang Rongfa about before, which could be locked from the outside.

The boys remembered it very clearly. After all, the door was so strange that it would be difficult to forget it even if they wanted to.

But now that they had been looking for so long, there was only a wall in front of them full of mold and water stains, with no trace of the door at all.

“Are you joking? You really can’t find it?”

“Did you remember the wrong place? There are too many rooms in this shabby house…..”

“How is that possible? There are cigarette butts on the ground.”

“It’s almost like a ghost came.”

A certain boy blurted this out unthinkingly, and everyone suddenly stopped talking.

After a brief silence, their expressions became a bit strange.

No one revealed their true fear, but the atmosphere became inexplicably tense. Only Wang Rongfa, who was still immersed in his resentment toward Li Xiu, continued to holler for the others to keep searching. In the end, this slightly aroused the anger of several of them.

The group of them questioned and cursed at each other in the dilapidated room.

“Ah……”

Then one person’s yawn interrupted the boys’ hoarse shouting.

Wang Rongfa’s voice suddenly got stuck in his throat. At the same time, all of the boys in the room seemed to have received some kind of command, and fell silent. For a moment, everyone focused their attention on that person.

It was a handsome young man with a tall stature.

Unlike Wang Rongfa and the others, he was not wearing expensive and conspicuous fashion brands, and was wearing the suit-style uniform of Qiming Secondary School like a good student. But for some reason, wearing the formal British-style school uniform made by a famous designer still gave him a lingering sense of dissoluteness. 

The color of his hair was very light, the same color as his eyes.

Under the setting sun, the boy’s eyes were light yellow like some kind of feline, with only thin black pupils in the middle.

“Young Master Fang, what do you think—”

Several people swallowed mouthfuls of saliva and carefully observed the expression of “Young Master Fang” when one of them asked this.

When they were beating up Li Xiu, this “Young Master Fang” stayed out of the incident, sitting cross-legged on the window sill of the haunted house as if he was an outsider, immersed in playing a game on his cellphone.

“Fuck, dead again…..is this tower being used as a tomb?”

And it was only then that he raised his head from his phone to frown at Wang Rongfa and his group.

Fang Qian’an complained and tossed the phone aside.

Someone immediately stepped forward to help him put it away.

Fang Qian’an jumped off the window sill and stretched like a big cat. He seemed to finally realize what had just happened here, and glanced sideways at Li Xiu, who was being pressed to the floor with a dust-covered face.

“Hey,” he murmured to Li Xiu, tilting his head.

“Just apologize,” he said.

Li Xiu realized that Fang Qian’an was speaking to him, and raised his head with difficulty to look at him.

Meeting Li Xiu’s gaze, Fang Qian’an yawned again out of boredom.

“Lao Wang doesn’t have any bad intentions. It’s normal for him to be unhappy when seeing someone like you near his goddess. You provoked him so many times after, always making him screech in anger. You don’t bother me, but he’s annoying.” Wang Rongfa moved his lips angrily when he heard Fang Qian’an’s words, but he didn’t make a sound. Fang Qian’an didn’t notice the stiffness of the boy next to him, and continued with that same languid appearance: “Just apologize to him and say you won’t be an eyesore again, and the matter will be over.”

After speaking, he shrugged his shoulders.

“Lao Wang will never trouble you again.”

Li Xiu stared straight at Fang Qian’an. After a moment of silence, the corners of his mouth twitched.

Ptui.

Li Xiu spat at Fang Qian’an.

---

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