The Fang residence, seven in the evening.

The Fang family had a two-story duplex in the most exclusive landmark building in City A.

When Fang Qian’an returned from Beijing with his gloomy father, they abandoned the other houses and immediately took up residence here.

In his opinion, there was nothing to dislike here. In any case, a well-known designer was hired for the building. The house was very well-decorated, with large swathes of black, white, and gray. The place didn’t look lived in, devoid of human touch.

But today, in this humanless house, the uncommon aroma of food wafted through.

“Qian’an, what’s wrong? I see you’ve barely moved your chopsticks. Does the food today not suit your tastes?”

A slightly fawning female voice sounded at the large dining table.

Fang Qian’an raised his head from his phone and sent a cold glance at the young woman.

Even the facial features brimming with artificiality couldn’t hide the abundant collagen on the woman’s face. Fang Qian’an thought she looked a bit familiar, and distractedly checked online. Sure enough, she was a little star. According to the web page, she was…..not a few years older than him.

But such a woman had become his father’s female companion.

Fang Qian’an’s eyes turned toward the tall man at the end of the dining table, and it was very difficult to hide the ridicule in his eyes.

But he could probably understand the woman’s choice — although in Fang Qian’an’s eyes, that man was just an old fuck, the other’s appearance did have a distinct advantage compared to other wealthy entrepreneurs of the same age. Coupled with the wealth and power represented by the Fang family, it was no surprise that the man made others stick to him like a moth to flame.

As for the woman who had appeared at the table now, she was not the same as those voluptuous, heavily made-up ones from before. She looked faintly like a good wife and mother…..

Well, the old man had reached the age where he couldn’t take all the women crowding around him and was thinking about maintaining his health.

No wonder he even brought someone home.

Thinking aimlessly, Fang Qian’an said nothing.

The woman observed the indifferent young man at the other end of the table, a trace of anxiety flashing through her eyes. She knew better than anyone how important this “dinner” tonight was for her, and couldn’t help but make overtures toward Fang Qian’an at this time.

“Qian’an is still a student now, and is using his brain more. Come, eat some sea cucumber, it’s good for your health…..”

The woman’s tone was extremely loving and gentle, as if she truly regarded Fang Qian’an as her own child.

But this “gentleness” fell into Fang Qian’an’s ears and directly had the opposite effect.

There was a fishy taste in Fang Qian’an’s mouth, and he felt entirely nauseated.

“Don’t put this plaything in front of me. It disgusts me.” He finally spoke, but his tone was incredibly rude.

The woman’s face immediately paled.

His father, Mr. Fang, raised his head at once to give his son a warning glance. “Fang Qian’an, where has your good upbringing gone?”

The moment the man finished speaking, Fang Qian’an suddenly stood up and overturned the entire table.

The expensive slate fell to the floor with a deafening sound. The stone imported from Italy at an astronomical cost shattered everywhere, the expensive bone china tableware was smashed to pieces, and the equally expensive high-end ingredients were mixed into a mess of soup and water on the floor.

The woman was frightened, and ran away screaming to her benefactor.

The live-in housemaid and the security personnel also rushed out from where they were resting in the housemaid’s room and surrounded the dining room in an instant. Then everyone exchanged confused looks at this chaotic scene.

After having done all of this, Fang Qian’an stood up and kicked over his chair, looking at his father with his hands in his pockets.

“I don’t know where my good upbringing has gone. I only know that, well, someone with a good upbringing probably wouldn’t bring the mistress he found home while his wife is still alive, right?” He tilted his head, looking straight at the man. “…..By the way, it seems you and mother haven’t gotten divorced yet. You asked me where my good upbringing went, and I also want to ask you, Fang Chengke, where has your moral integrity gone?”

He finished speaking with a cold sneer. Immediately afterward, he saw his father stand up as well.

The man was in the prime of his life and had a robust figure. And Fang Qian’an’s amazing height was also inherited from Fang Chengke.

“Little beast…..you’re asking for it again.” Fang Chengke’s expression was extremely ugly.

“Heh, humans beget humans and beasts beget beasts. If I’m a little beast, then doesn’t that make you an old beast—”

With a pa, Fang Qian’an’s voice was interrupted by the man’s slap.

“You’re crazy, just like your deranged mother.”

It was clear that Fang Qian’an’s behavior had caused Fang Chengke to lose face in front of his young lover, and the man was furious.

With a command, Fang Qian’an was directly shoved to the ground. That was Fang Chenke’s security personnel that he had hired at a high price. Even though Fang Qian’an could be considered invincible in a school fight, he was ultimately defeated by the well-trained professionals.

There was sharp pain in his knee and elbow joints as Fang Qian’an half-knelt on the ground with his head pressed down.

The timid housemaid came forward tremblingly and gave Fang Chengke a belt.

The belt was not cheap goods, and was very heavy.

The tall man wrapped the belt around his wrist and stuck the remaining part in his palm. The other end of the belt hung down from his hand, swaying slightly like a black python.

Fang Qian’an stared at his father and wanted to scream: You old waste of oxygen. If you have the ability, let me go and fight me one-on-one.

But his voice stuck in his throat, and he found that he couldn’t say a word.

In fact, the two people behind him really hadn’t used much force. After all, Fang Qian’an was still the sole heir of the Fang family, and no one would dare to be truly ruthless. 

If he struggled like his life depended on it, Fang Qian’an knew that he could still break free of their control.

But in reality, he could only kneel motionlessly under the control of the security personnel. The moment Fang Chengke had taken out the belt, he was instantly unable to move, as if a spell had been placed on him.

Fang Chengke didn’t miss the fleeting fear on Fang Qian’an’s face, and the man instantly felt at ease.

He raised his arm high, fiercely swinging the belt toward Fang Qian’an.

With a crack as the air split, the belt hit Fang Qian’an hard.

The first thing that registered was not the pain, but the force of impact. Then, an intense, burning agony began to ignite his nerves like flames.

Fang Qian’an was beaten heavily on his back and arms — Fang Chengke was very experienced in beating him, and would never leave marks in conspicuous places.

Fang Qian’an struggled for a moment, a fishy taste in his mouth. He raised his head and glared at Fang Chengke.

The pain was obviously great, but he couldn’t help but smile with a twisted expression. “How about you just beat me to death and fulfill your dream.”

Under Fang Qian’an’s provocation, Feng Chengke hoisted the belt again.

Pa—

“You’ve lost your mind!” The man cursed. “I should have put you and that demented woman in the mental hospital together.”

“How could you let me go…..cough…..if you sent me away, how could you take advantage of my mother’s money…..”

“If I had known you were such a little beast, I would have let you die.”

Pa—

“It’s exactly as the experts said at the outset, you deserve to die in a mental hospital. You were born to die early. I tried my best to fucking raise you up, but it turns out that I just raised a bearer of ill luck. I haven’t seen anything good about you as you’ve grown up, and I let you ruin my good fortune…..”

Pa—

In the luxurious, modern dining room, the sounds of a heavy beating lasted half an hour.

Seeing the pale-faced Fang Qian’an covered in cold sweat yet still silent, Fang Chengke’s expression changed unpredictably and he put the belt down, panting.

“One day you’ll be staying in the same place as your mother…..lunatic…..”

Fang Chengke looked at his son on the floor. That face clearly resembled his own. But he seemed to see that woman in it too, that woman who was, strictly speaking, his “wife.”

That woman who was as emaciated as a skeleton, like a monster, had looked like this back then. Had fallen to the floor expressionlessly, not looking in any particular direction.

[Fang Chengke, he won’t let us go.]

[I know…..he will definitely come back to find us….wuwuwu….]

[It’s our fault. Chengke, we really did something wrong. How could we treat a child like that? And Xue Lin, we owe her too…..]

[But what can I do…..wuwu…..sorry, Xue Lin, I’m so sorry…..but Xiao An, Xiao An is my child, there was no other way…..]

[Chengke, I know you think I’m crazy, but I’m not…..heehee…..I know this better than anyone else. Look, that child Xue Lin is always watching us…..haven’t you seen? He said he would make our lives worse than death, falling into hell forever…..]

[We can’t escape, Chengke…..]

[No one can escape.]

The babbling words his wife had repeated before her mental breakdown seemed to ring in his ears again.

Fang Chengke felt an inexplicable chill, but very soon, that trace of cowardice that flashed through his heart gave rise to an increasingly powerful anger.

He kicked the weakened Fang Qian’an to the ground, then turned his head to regard his female companion.

“Xiao Mei, you change clothes and we’ll go out to eat.”

After this experience, the woman was so frightened that her face was ashen, and she could barely stutter.

 “B-but…..” She looked at Fang Qian’an, her tone panicked.

“Be obedient.”

Fang Chengke’s face darkened. The woman fell silent for a moment, then obediently snuggled up to his side and left the room with him.

After watching the elevator descend with that man and counting the floors to the first floor, the live-in housemaid who had been caring for Fang Qian’an rushed to him in a fluster.

Aunt Su, the housemaid, watched the boy stand up from the floor unsteadily and said with an expression of distress:  “Young Master, oh heavens, how are you, ah? Why are you so obstinate? You know Mr. Fang has a bad temper, don’t just confront him head-on, ah. Look at your injuries, ai, wait for Auntie to get you medicine…..”

“No need.” Although his body felt like it was on fire, Fang Qian’an resisted the urge to grimace, and pretended to be calm.

“I’ll just go to my room and apply it myself. The medicine from last time hasn’t been used up yet.”

As he spoke, Fang Qian’an turned and headed for his room on the second floor. 

With a face full of awkwardness, Aunt Su followed two steps behind him.

But Fang Qian’an didn’t look back. He forced himself to rush into the room, then slammed the door.

As soon as he closed the door, Fang Qian’an could no longer control his facial expression. He cried out in pain and sat on the ground. “Fuck, it hurts to death…..”

After a long period of gasping for air, Fang Qian’an finally regained some strength. Hunched over, he went to the attached bathroom and gingerly removed his clothes in front of the mirror.

As a young man, he had an excellent body shape with broad shoulders and well-defined muscles.

However, such a body that should be pleasing to the eye was actually covered in deep and shallow bruises and scars of different colors. Some had begun to turn yellow and fade away, while others were still a shocking purple. As for the ones that had just been left on his body, each one was still bright red.

Fang Qian’an didn’t pay much attention to the bruises. He turned slightly sideways and observed the side of his waist through the mirror. After making sure that there were no traces of the beating near the thirty-centimeter surgical scar on his side, his tense expression softened a fraction.

“Old beast—” Fang Qian’an cursed with a distorted face. “That kick was no good. You dared to kick laozi in the waist…..”

Fang Chengke’s kick before he left was so sudden that Fang Qian’an could protect that area. It had almost scared him to death. 

Fortunately, the man hadn’t kicked this area.

Once his mind relaxed, the pain became less bearable.

While Fang Qian’an was enduring hard, there was a knock on the door from Aunt Su.

“Qian’an, ah, you didn’t eat anything tonight. Auntie made you some midnight snacks. If you’re hungry, you can pad your stomach.”

Knowing Fang Qian’an’s character, Aunt Su left after setting the food tray on the floor.

And once Fang Qian’an ensured that there was no further movement at the door, he opened it quickly and dragged the food tray into the room.

He was really starving to death—

It should be known that today at noon, he had gone to the cafeteria with his followers to eat. He didn’t know why, but the chef who was said to have been hired from a five-star hotel went crazy today.

The food he made tasted terrible.

In addition to being given a severe fright in the morning, Fang Qian’an promptly gave up on eating after one chopstick-full. He had been famished until now, and his stomach was practically tied in knots.

Fang Qian’an picked up the cup of soup first. Aunt Su was from the south, and the soup he had drank since childhood tasted particularly delicious.

However, just as the thick and delicious fish maw chicken soup entered his mouth, Fang Qian’an could only retch.

Disgusting.

In fact, it still tasted like chicken soup, but Fang Qian’an could inexplicably taste a fishy flavor.

Just like when he was eating in the cafeteria at noon.

Fang Qian’an instantly lost his appetite.

If these were normal times, Fang Qian’an would certainly not wrong himself, and would certainly find a way to get someone to get something for him to eat. But now his whole body hurt everywhere, and he was no longer in the mood to enjoy it.

Forget it, he felt like sleeping.

As Fang Qian’an thought, he lay on his bed. His back burned with pain as he laid down helplessly. He rolled back and forth in bed for a while, unable to fall asleep. Finally, in order to divert his attention, he had to look at his phone.

There was a group on his app that had been flashing a lot today. It was originally a group specially established for each school class to facilitate communication. Usually, other than the teachers who posted announcements and the like, nobody spoke on here at all. But today, Fang Qian’an glanced at it and found that the zombie group was actually a fake corpse. When he clicked in to have a look, there were countless people chatting at a rapid pace as the chat scrolled. Before he even finished reading a sentence, tons of new messages popped up below.

What was going on here?

Fang Qian’an concentrated his attention, and when he took a closer look, he realized that the reason for the group’s livliness today was because of an incident at school.

To be precise, something had happend to the much talked about celebrity English teacher — he had directly sent a voice message to each class group.

The conent was unclear and incoherent. At first listen, it sounded like a madman talking to himself after a complete mental breakdown.

In this voice message, Ouyang-laoshi directly confessed that he had been thinking of ways to molest, abduct, and have sex with minors since he was young. It sounded a bit like a confession, because Ouyang kept apologizing and saying, “I was wrong, I’ll never dare to do it again.” But if his conscience had really discovered repentance…..why was there so much wailing and crying in his voice?

As if to prove the authenticity of the message, Ouyang had also uploaded many unsightly photos to the group.

It was unknown if it was intenetional or not, but every photo was more or less overexposed and out of focus. The victims’ faces were obscured by blurred and distorted light and shadow, but Ouyang’s proud face appeared exceptionally clear.

The the most astonishing were the last few.

Judging by the automatically generated electronic dates on the photos, these ones had been taken today. In the photos, the no longer handsome man was haggard and warped, standing in a dark environment. The lighting was all due to the camera flashes, so he was deathly pale, but the surroundings were so dark that it was impossible to identify the location. The man’s face was entirely distorted by panic, his eyes slightly bulging, as if they would pop out of their sockets in the next second.

He was holding a noose in his hand, and his pose in the photo showed him putting his head into it.

Fang Qian’an’s hand shook as he quickly flashed through the remaining photos, connecting them together like an animated picture.

Ouyang raised his head to look desperately at the viewers outside the photos.

Then he seemed to kick off the stone he was stepping on.

The rope tightened.

As he dug his hands into the noose, his neck seemed to suddenly become very long. And his face. His face took on a strange, deep purple color.

His mouth grew so big that even the corners of his mouth split open, blood oozing out.

And his tongue squeezed out of his mouth. The red and purple ball of meat didn’t look like an organ belonging to a human being, but instead like a parasitic monster crawling out of Ouyang’s throat.

In the photo, Ouyang opened that mouth in a high, silent scream.

Then…..

Thud.

The phone fell from Fang Qian’an’s sweaty palm.

Fang Qian’an was stunned for several seconds before he returned to his senses and picked up the phone again. But this time, when he clicked into the group, the photos and voice message that were there just now had been deleted.

Apparently, the school officials had discovered that something was amiss and took remedial measures. It was a pity that they were too late, and almost everyone had seen those things.

The group’s scrolling speed was even faster than before.

There were also many people poking Fang Qian’an in his private messages. It seemed they also wanted to use this hot topic to strike up a conversation with the school’s renowned prince.

However, Fang Qian’an had no interest in gossiping with others. On the one hand, it was because he was a little frightened by Ouyang’s last few photos, but on the other hand, it was because he suddenly thought of Li Xiu’s unconcealable stiffness and resistance when he saw Ouyang in the complex that morning.

That scumbag Ouyang…..had he ever had thoughts about Li Xiu?

Fang Qian’an’s mind was suddenly in chaos.

It was as if an invisible hand had tightened around his heart, so suffocating that he almost forgot about the pain in his body.

And when Fang Qian’an reacted, he found that his cell phone was already on a call — to Li Xiu.

“Hello? Who is this…..”

Li Xiu’s voice on the other end was a little hoarse, with the slight nasal sound of having just woken up.

Fang Qian’an had his ear to the phone. Hearing that person’s unexpected whisper, his face suddenly felt a little hot.

“It’s me, Fang Qian’an.”

“…..Fang Qian’an? Why do you have my number…..what do you want?”

Li Xiu’s voice was suddenly on guard.

Fang Qian’an gave a faint cough, quickly suppressing his messy thoughts as he told Li Xiu about Ouyang.

Although he was not very close to Li Xiu, Fang Qian’an had a strong intuition that a “good student” like him who only cared about studying would definitely not bother paying attention to gossip in the group.

Sure enough, after hearing Ouyang’s confession and seeing the shocking behavior in the photos, the boy on the other end of the line fell into a long silence.

“Hey, A-Xiu, are you still listening? I…..I just thought you should know about this.”

Li Xiu said nothing, and Fang Qian’an became inexplicably nervous.

“En, I already knew.”

At last, Li Xiu spoke. His tone was a bit strange, but he sounded calm.

“Before, that scumbag…..I mean, I saw that he went to find you today—”

Fang Qian’an hadn’t finished speaking when he was interrupted abruptly and bluntly by Li Xiu.

“The matter of Ouyang-laoshi will be handled by the police. Fang Qian’an, it’s really loud on your side. Before you call next time, comfort your girl so she doesn’t cry again. I’m really tired today. I’m going to bed. Hanging up.”

“Wait, what’s so noisy? I’m the only one here — A-Xiu?!”

Fang Qian’an put down his phone, dumbfounded, and looked at the screen. Sure enough, the call had ended.

“Damn, you want it like this, ah, classmate Li Xiu?”

The young bully’s face was a bit unsightly.

As he looked around, he was pretty sure that his room was silent.

After all, it was a first rate duplex villa high in the sky, with no neighbors around it. There were usually very few people at home. The cleaners and the live-in housemaid had also undergone rigorous training and basically didn’t make too much noise. Not to mention the second floor where Fang Qian’an was, there was no way someone could come up without authorization.

So, before he hung up the phone, why had Li Xiu said it was “really loud?”

Why had he told him to comfort his girlfriend so she wouldn’t cry?

What Li Xiu heard…..was crying?

A chill instantly spread up Fang Qian’an’s back.

He was hit by shivers, and it took him a long time to calm down.

He was a second away from calling Li Xiu back to ask for details, but when his fingertip was about ot press the button, Fang Qian’an let out an irritated three-character curse and threw the phone back onto the pillow, falling heavily onto the bed.

“Don’t think that I’ll be scared once you’ve figured out my weakness. Damn, do you really think I’m that timid?”

Fang Qian’an said this to himself, deciding to treat Li Xiu’s last words as a stupid horror joke.

After such an episode, Fang Qian’an didn’t even bother to look at his phone, just planning to sleep.

When the lights were turned off, darkness enveloped the entire room.

Fang Qian’an closed his eyes, and then…..

[Wuwuw…..wu…..]

He found that there seemed to…..seemed to be crying.

There was a faintly discernible cry, as thin as gossamer.

And once he noticed the sound, it seemed to become more obvious.

It was a woman crying.

Fang Qian’an stopped breathing. His body had already pulled up the quilt before his brain could react, then he opened his eyes and looked in the direction the crying was coming from.

The stars over the city were dim.

Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the light reflected in the room was the unique reddish illumination caused by urban light pollution. 

And in this sheen of red light, Fang Qian’an clearly saw a faint shadow in the corner of the room.

A woman.

She was standing in the corner with her head bowed. Her long black hair hung down, covering her face. The continuous sound of crying came from behind that dark mess of hair.

Fuck—

Fang Qian’an stared blankly at the shadow.

Once he confirmed that it really wasn’t an illusion, he hooked the quilt with trembling fingers, then held his breath and carefully pulled it over his head.

Inside the quilt’s darkness, his mind went blank.

However, even such a high-end silk quilt couldn’t block out the woman’s crying.

“Wuwu…..”

“Wuu…..”

In fact, the sound of crying became even clearer.

Wait.

The crying was getting clearer?

When in terror, the human brain became slow.

It took a while for Fang Qian’an to realize what the increasingly clear crying meant.

The shadow was approaching him.

He didn’t know if it was his fear that caused poor blood circulation.

But he could indeed feel that as soon as the crying grew louder, a biting chill spread along his spine.

“Wuwu…..”

Even through the quilt, Fang Qian’an could imagine that woman with her lowered head slowly walking toward him in bed, step by step.

Fang Qian’an thought he might be losing his mind.

In extreme fear, he kept his head covered by the quilt, hands reaching blindly for the pillow. He still remembered that his phone was next to the pillow. If he had his phone, at least he could call somebody for help—

Fang Qian’an’s fingers suddenly touched something wet, cold, and sticky.

Very thin, like twigs wrapped in wet plastic.

He abruptly stopped moving.

For a moment, Fang Qian’an even forgot how to breathe. He couldn’t move. His blood froze, and his mind completely fractured.

In his entire body, the only thing moving was probably his heart.

His heart pounded like a bull against his ribs.

Just at this moment, a glimmer of light flashed in the corner of Fang Qian’an’s vision.

It was the light emitted by the cell phone screen when it automatically detected someone. Fang Qian’an reflexively turned his eyes in the direction of that light.

Then he saw the face.

Strictly speaking, it couldn’t even be called a face, because there wasn’t even a layer of skin intact. The skin still attached to the skull was a strange gray-purple color with corpse spots, and at the edges of the gray skin and flesh, pink bones, muscle, and viscera spread everywhere.

One of her eyeballs had squeezed out of its socket and hung slightly against her chin, connected by nerves and blood vessels. And the other one also looked severely deformed. There was no white to that eye, or the part that was originally white had become bloodshot, with a mass of bruising.

The pupils were covered in gray, and there was no light to them.

Her teeth could be clearly seen below her torn cheek, each one stained scarlet by blood.

[Wuwu…..wu…..]

That crying came through the gap in her cheek, which couldn’t be closed.

She tilted her head slightly, resting her head on the edge of the quilt to stare at Fang Qian’an inside it.

And Fang Qian’an’s hand was pressed to her cold, bleeding palm.

“Ahhhhh—”

Fang Qian’an let out a guttural scream, jumping up from the bed.

In a panic, he tried desperately to hide at the foot of the bed, but accidentally fell to the floor. Although the woolen carpet didn’t hurt him, the fall finally brought him back to his senses.

It was a nightmare.

Fang Qian’an sat on the floor blankly, staring at the silent room, and belatedly regained his mind.

It turned out that he had fallen asleep just now.

But he supposed that what Li Xiu had said about the crying before bed was why he’d had such a terrible dream.

Damn…..

Fang Qian’an cursed to himself, feeling a little embarrassed.

When he stood up, he realized that his entire body was soaked in cold sweat.

Although it was a nightmare, Fang Qian’an still had some lingering fear after waking up.

He planned to turn on the bedside lamp to calm himself, but the light didn’t come on when he pressed the switch.

Fang Qian’an stared blankly. He tried the other lights in the room and got no response.

“Are you kidding me?”

Fang Qian’an was at a bit of a loss. He had never thought that there would be a power outage at his house.

Babump—

Babump—

Babump—

After realizing that it was a power outage, Fang Qian’an’s calmer heart seemed to accelerate again. That inexplicable uneasiness struck once more. He wiped his cold sweat, then put on his nightgown, opened the door, and walked toward the outer door.

The housemaid should know where things like flashlights were, right? Or he could ask someone to deal with the circuit problem….

As he thought, Fang Qian’an walked downstairs.

The power was also out on the first floor. The wide space was shrouded in thick darkness, and even that darkness seemed to have weight, pushing down on Fang Qian’an as he gradually stepped into it.

Fang Qian’an frowned on the stairs.

That’s weird, he thought.

It was still the familiar first floor. 

It was normal for the light to be dim in a power outage.

However…..a strong sense of uneasiness slowly returned.

Turning his head, Fang Qian’an suddenly noticed that there seemed to be a dim light coming from the first floor kitchen.

He hurried toward it, and hadn’t even taken a few steps when he heard a sequential thud, thud coming from the kitchen. Fang Qian’an saw a small person with their back to him, busy in front of the counter.

The person held a stone pestle in one hand, the other hand holding something like a mortar.

As her arms moved up and down, the sound Fang Qian’an had heard previously also sounded.

“Aunt Su?”

The moment he saw the other party, Fang Qian’an reflexively thought it was Aunt Su.

However, he realized in the next second that Aunt Su was not so thin.

The person standing in the kitchen was not at all the Fang family’s live-in housemaid—that was an old woman Fang Qian’an had never seen before.

The old woman was stooped over, her hair completely gray.

As she pounded the stone mortar hard, her hands exposed outside her sleeves were covered in liver spots, veins as distinct as earthworms under her shriveled skin.

And at this time, Fang Qian’an was finally able to get a clear look at what the old woman was smashing—

It was ashes.

Rows of urns were piled up next to the old woman’s hands, with oval gray-white portraits of the deceased inlaid. 

The old woman opened the urns simply and roughly, pouring the gray-white powder into the mortar in her hand.

Not all of the human ashes were as fine as powder. Many of the ashes had lumps of bones, and the old woman was very careful to grind those large bones into powder bit by bit.

Fang Qian’an’s body was completely frozen in place.

The old woman seemed to be aware of the movement behind her. She tilted her head with a smile, her voice high-pitched and hoarse when it fell into his ears, like steel wire scratching his eardrums.

“Don’t worry, ah, don’t worry. Grandma knows you’re hungry…..Grandma will cook a meal now so that you can eat well…..”

As she spoke, the old woman turned around.

On that emaciated, shriveled body, there was an upside-down face.

“Come and eat.”

She smiled, and her lips parted where her forehead should have been, revealing red gums and a dark throat.

She reached out and grabbed a handful of ashes. 

Then, her arms stretched out to stuff the handful of ashes directly into Fang Qian’an’s mouth.

*

“Fuuuuck—”

Fang Qian’an screamed again and jumped up from the bed.

Although he didn’t fall off the bed like in the last dream, he still lay in bed and retched for a while due to the vivid memory of that nightmare.

Fang Qian’an curled up rigidly in bed.

He stared at the familiar furnishing in the room with dull eyes, waiting for a long time while trembling in fear.

There was no female ghost. 

Of course, there was also no weird old woman grinding ashes.

Fang Qian’an listened for a long time and seemed to faintly hear the subtle sounds of the housemaid cleaning downstairs.

Having already suffered no small amount of fright, his nerves relaxed little by little.

“So what the fuck is with a nightmare within a nightmare?”

Fang Qian’an felt soaked all over, but didn’t want to get out of bed and change clothes at all.

Naturally, because of the trauma of those nightmares, he didn’t dare get under the quilt.

In desperation, Fang Qian’an habitually picked up his phone for a quick look and found that everyone in the class group was still eagerly discussing the Ouyang matter.

[So disgusting. A beast like that deserved to die.]

[He actually decided to commit suicide? Isn’t that too easy?]

[Hahaha, garbage like that should be sent to hell and tortured for eternity.]

[It’s fine, even though he’s dead, he probably won’t find peace.]

Fang Qian’an stared at the various curses popping up on the screen, somewhat distracted.

In his daze, he didn’t know which button he pressed with his fingertips. Only then did Fang Qian’an realize that he had called a number.

Fortunately, this call was to one of Fang Qian’an’s followers. What was his name…..

Fang Qian’an stared at the title [Yellow hair] on his phone, but couldn’t remember the name of his follower.

The result of such a moment of confusion was that when Fang Qian’an started to hang up, the call had already connected.

“Huh?”

“Fang-ge? Why are you suddenly calling me?”

Yellow Hair’s voice was ecstatic. He sounded wild with happiness to have received a call from Fang Qian’an.

“Ah, it’s nothing…..”

Holding the phone, Fang Qian’an actually didn’t know what to say.

To be honest, he didn’t even know why he made the call.

Yellow Hair on the other end didn’t seem to notice Fang Qian’an’s silence, and was still chattering on inanely. 

After a brief moment of absent-mindedness, Fang Qian’an suddenly said: “Do you know the core values of socialism?”

“……”

Yellow Hair instantly fell silent.

He supposed the other was dumbfounded by this nonsensical question.

And at this time, Fang Qian’an came to a realization — his behavior was abnormal, and his words were too strange.

He took a deep breath and let out a sigh.

“Never mind.”

He moved to hang up the phone.

But just before he hung up, Fang Qian’an asked one more question out of nowhere.

“Hey, do you hear any other voices here other than mine?”

Then, he heard Yellow Hair’s answer.

“…..Actually, I was just about to say something. Young Master Fang, that girl over there is crying so noisily.”

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Chapter 17 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 19