“F-Fang-ge? What’s the matter? You’re suddenly looking for me…..Lao Wang? What’s wrong with Wang Rongfa? Fang-ge, why do you suddenly care about him…..”

Inside the lounge, a boy’s slightly nervous voice sounded from Fang Qian’an’s cell phone.

The boy’s name was Jiang Jun, and he was one of the very few younger brothers who could directly call Fang Qian’an by name.

The assets of Jiang Jun’s family could only be considered moderate, but he himself was an out-and-out social butterfly and could greet every brother with a smile. Strictly speaking, he had basically organized the small circle around Fang Qian’an, and even Wang Rongfa was brought into the fold by him.

“Hey, that guy Lao Wang is thin-skinned. He must not be able to keep his face after you taught him a lesson yesterday. His cell phone has been turned off since then, and nobody can contact him. I heard he didn’t go home last night, so there’s no telling where he went to clear his head…..but don’t worry, Fang-ge, that guy is just like this and bows his head when he gets sulky. He definitely doesn’t dare to confront you, haha. I’m not trying to blame you. Fang-ge, I actually think that guy is a little annoying. With the little money his family has, it’s only because of Fang-ge’s good temperament that you let him follow you so shamelessly. Fortunately for him, he was pulled a step up. He actually thought he was someone. Fang-ge, your lesson yesterday actually made him calm down a bit…..”

When he heard that Fang Qian’an was just asking about Wang Rongfa’s whereabouts and had no intention of mustering troops to investigate, Jiang Jun’s tone instantly became lighter. He diligently flattered the other party on the phone, unaware that Fang Qian’an’s face on the other side was getting worse and worse.

The Wang family were truly nouveau riche. Their only method of raising children was to give them money, so Wang Rongfa had the overbearing character of a bully. It was not uncommon for him to spend the night out.

If things were normal, Fang Qian’an wouldn’t care about the fate of such a person at all, but after these two days of bizarre encounters, he had a very bad premonition as soon as he heard that Wang Rongfa had disappeared.

Fang Qian’an firmly interrupted Jiang Jun’s chatter to ask: “…..And you?”

“Has anything happened to you in the past two days?”

“Ah? Fang-ge, what are you referring to?”

Jiang Jun’s tone was terribly confused.

Fang Qian’an’s brow knitted together. He swallowed a mouthful of saliva as he thought about what he had experienced, and began to break out in a cold sweat again. 

The question “have you ever encountered a ghost” stuck in his throat and couldn’t be squeezed out for a long while.

Li Xiu noticed that something was wrong and looked up at Fang Qian’an’s expression. His forehead twitched slightly.

Waving a hand in front of Fang Qian’an’s eyes, he mouthed a sentence silently—

“H-have you encountered anything weird or frightening?”

When Jiang Jun heard this question on the phone, his expression became increasingly confused.

“No, nothing, ah. Fang-ge, why are you asking this out of nowhere?”

Jiang Jun secretly considered his bad luck. He had finally received an unsolicited call from Fang-ge, but his phone had little power and kept buzzing as if it was malfunctioning. Fang Qian’an’s voice sounded very faint, and odd accentuations could be heard.

After hearing that nothing had happened to Jiang Jun, Fang Qian’an narrowed his eyes in great displeasure and asked about the situation of the others. “What about the others? Has anyone who was there that day encountered anything?”

As a result, Jiang Jun was even more bewildered.

“That, ah? Fang-ge, what…..are you talking about?”

Fang Qian’an was momentarily speechless.

“The haunted house.” He gave Li Xiu an unnatural look and lowered his voice subconsciously. “We were in the haunted house the other day…..and found Li Xiu…..to cause trouble…..what happened to the people who were there?”

“Fang-ge, cough, are you thinking of the wrong person?” Jiang Jun stuttered a bit when he spoke. “It was my grandma’s birthday the day before yesterday. I went home really early and didn’t go to the haunted house.”

He did know that Wang Rongfa was going to cause trouble for Li Xiu that day, but he had never liked that sort of thing, so he avoided it intentionally or otherwise.

In fact, he was a little surprised. He had thought Fang Qian’an wouldn’t go with them, because he could vaguely feel that he actually didn’t like Wang Rongfa’s little group very much.

Fang Qian’an was silent for a moment.

“Heh,” he scoffed with an angry laugh. “You’re saying you weren’t there? You obviously—”

Halfway through his words, Fang Qian’an’s voice suddenly cut off.

Because he found that he actually…..actually didn’t remember Jiang Jun being among that group of people.

In his memory, the faces of the boys around him were very blurry. That attentive, flattering tone made him think Jiang Jun was with those other losers.

But, if he thought about it carefully…..did he really know those people?

“Fang-ge? Fang-ge, what’s wrong? Are you okay—”

Fang Qian’an abruptly hung up the phone.

His breathing grew uncontrollably fast, and goosebumps appeared on his arms.

“Fang Qian’an, what’s wrong?”

Li Xiu seemed to be calling out to him, and with this, Fang Qian’an recovered with a gasp from his terrible panic.

“A-A-Xiu.”

Before Li Xiu could react, Fang Qian’an grabbed his wrist.

The shirtless boy was like a frightened cat, and couldn’t wait to stick his entire body to him. The scent of body wash mixed with his high body temperature and spread over the youth. Li Xiu shivered all over, automatically trying to push the other away. But in the next second, he found that Fang Qian’an was shaking slightly.

Inexplicably, Li Xiu didn’t remove his hand where it was pressed to Fang Qian’an’s chest.

Then, he heard the slight sobbing tone in Fang Qian’an’s voice.

“A-Xiu…..they weren’t right…..the people in the haunted house that day…..really weren’t right…..”

Because of what happened to him as a child, even though Fang Qian’an didn’t really like those hypocritical doglegs around him, he wouldn’t actually drive them away. Of course, he also wouldn’t throw his arms around their shoulders and be affectionate with the group.

He just needed the presence of someone next to him.

But in Fang Qian’an’s memory, the abandoned room of that haunted house had been very crowded that day.

“That’s why I hid on the windowsill and played with my phone.”

After a long while, Fang Qian’an finally calmed down in Li Xiu’s stiff embrace. Only then was he able to muster his energy and analyze the situation.

“But there were so many people in the room…..when I left, there were literally only five people around me.”

Fang Qian’an’s face turned a bit gray as he spoke of this.

“Until just now, I didn’t think there was anything wrong.”

When did the “crowd” in the villa disperse? Fang Qian’an found that he had no impression of it at all. He hadn’t even thought it was strange.

This was simply not a thing humans could do.

When he thought of the fact that he had been in the same room with countless ghosts unknowingly, not even realizing it, Fang Qian’an felt like he was about to pass out. He reflexively looked toward Li Xiu to try to draw some courage from the calm and indifferent young man next to him, only to find that Li Xiu’s face was extremely pale at the moment.

“……I…..don’t remember either.”

Li Xiu’s lips quivered slightly, his voice urgent and fast.

Yes, he just now recalled that he didn’t seem to have seen the faces of those “people” closely at all.

The room was full of a stale, dusty scent, and the light was unusually dim at dusk. In his panic, he only felt that those people were frightening and strange.

Fang Qian’an wrote down the few people he could confirm were present on a notepad.

At that time, Song Cheng was the one taking pictures with the cell phone.

Wang Rongfa and Amazi were leaning down next to Song Cheng, grinning widely and constantly uttering all kinds of obscene and insulting words.

Fang Qian’an had initially just watched the farce before his eyes, half annoyed and half amused, but then he unknowingly joined in. With others firmly trapping Li Xiu’s hands and feet, he came forward and moved his hand.

Then who was beside Li Xiu, using cold and twisted limbs like pale vines to bind him?

Who was behind the young man, laughing wildly and taking him into his arms?

Fang Qian’an. Li Xiu.

Song Cheng and Amazi.

Because his hands were shaking, the names were jotted down crookedly. It looked extremely comical, but neither of the two people sitting on the sofa cared. 

Fang Qian’an stared at the names he had listed, breathing very rapidly: “We left you in the room and went out…..so it was me, Wang Rongfa, Song Cheng, and Amazi. That’s four. But I remember clearly that there was another person when we left…..”

When they left, the sunset fell upon that group of people.

Five shadows were cast on the ground.

That person…..who could it be?

In the temperature-controlled lounge that was as pleasant and warm as spring all year long, Li Xiu’s body began to feel cold. 

He and Fang Qian’an stared at each other for a good while.

As they were wondering what to do next, there was suddenly a noise at the door.

Fang Qian’an and Li Xiu were startled, and huddled together unconsciously.

“Hey, isn’t that strange? The door’s locked.”

The two heard someone talking to themself in puzzlement outside the door.

“Is there a mistake? So early in the morning…..”

The combination lock beeped, but because the door was locked from the inside, the visitor failed to open it after several tries.

“Scram.”

When he returned to his senses, Fang Qian’an was agitated by the commotion and couldn’t help but direct a curse toward the door.

“Fang-ge?”

When the other party heard his voice, he was not angry, but happy.

“I was just looking for you, Fang-ge. I’m Xu Luren. There’s going to be a small charity dinner at my house in a week, which is pretty much my personal social event. Fang-ge, do you have time to make an appearance…..”

With a click, the door suddenly opened a crack.

Xu Luren, who was leaning against the door as he tried to shout through it, nearly fell to the floor when his center of gravity changed. When he at last managed to stabilize his body and raised his head again, he saw Fang Qian’an with a pale face and a bare upper body, holding the door handle and looking at him with an icy gaze like he was about to eat him.

“Shut up. Get out of here.”

Fang Qian’an’s voice was cold and gloomy, and every word seemed to be covered in chips of ice.

Xu Luren shuddered in fear, but his eyes paused for the moment on the bruises on Fang Qian’an’s body.

His gaze drifted.

“S-sorry, Fang-ge, did I disturb your rest? I can stuff the invitation under the door for you and wait for you to rest, then you can take a look at it—”

Slam—

The door brushed the tip of his nose as it closed again.

“It’s just an obnoxious guy—”

After sending Xu Luren away, Fang Qian’an was just turning around to explain when a piece of clothing was tossed at his head.

“Get dressed, I’m leaving,” Li Xiu said expressionlessly, his head lowered.

After the small episode just now, the young man seemed calmer than before.

Fang Qian’an’s eyes opened wide in surprise: “What, but…..”

Li Xiu: “It’s pretty much certain now that the problem lies with the Xiao Family Haunted House, but there are still some things I need to think over again.”

Fang Qian’an said in a flustered tone: “Then why do you have to leave so suddenly?”

Li Xiu took a deep breath: “Because morning self-study is about to end, and the first class is about to start.”

The youth’s face was full of restlessness as he scratched his hair vigorously: “There’s no way I can miss class because of the ghost incident.”

Seeing that Fang Qian’an still wanted to speak, Li Xiu raised a hand and blocked his words aggressively. “In any case, come back at lunch break if you have anything else.”

His soft palm was pressed against Fang Qian’an’s lips. The boy’s body temperature was obviously low, but Fang Qian’an felt the place where Li Xiu touched suddenly start to burn.

*

The lounge door opened again. 

“…..You said before that as long as someone memorizes the core values of socialism and mathematical theorems, they can defeat all strange forces. It turns out to be useless.”

“Then don’t you think it’s possible that you haven’t memorized them at all? Hydrogen, helium, lithium and beryllium. You only have these four? Do you think that’s eloquent?”

“Wait, it’s come to this point and you still remember that?”

Xu Luren crouched at the door of the lounge, holding the invitation his mother had told him to deliver no matter what. He raised his head very stiffly to watch the two people walking out of the lounge. 

The flirting between the teenagers abruptly cut off. The moment they saw Xu Luren, the entrance to the lounge fell deathly silent.

“Uh…..”

Xu Luren blinked, staring at the school bully who had finally put on his clothes, and at Li Xiu who was following him. His blank brain idled a couple of times in vain before squeezing out a dry sentence: 

“Fang-ge, I-I was wrong.”

“No wonder you were so angry just now, ah?”

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The Author Has Something to Say:

A-Xiu: I’m not! I don’t! Fang Qian’an, explain quickly! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Dog Qian’an: Well…..that…..it’s just…..not what you think…..（///▽///）

A-Xiu: Why are you blushing! ! ! ! !

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Chapter 22 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 24