Bang bang bang—

There was a continuous knocking on the door.

“Let me out, I know it was wrong…..I’ll never do it again…..wuwu…..mama…..I know it was wrong…..”

Indistinct sounds came from behind the door, a child’s pleas for mercy mixed with terrified sobs.

This villa was different from what Li Xiu remembered.

The floors were clean and bright, all of the furniture had been wiped spotless, and the walls were covered in pale pink rose vine wallpaper in a nostalgic classic style. There were also antique vases filled with imported roses and jasmine that were delivered every morning.

An elegant fragrance lingered in the air.

Uniformed servants walked to and fro on the second floor, silently maintaining the luxury and elegance of the house.

Yet that crying still remained in the villa.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…..I won’t do it again…..”

The cries grew gradually weaker.

Li Xiu’s brow furrowed. He didn’t understand how he had appeared in this inexplicable place. Even moreso, he didn’t understand why nobody was paying attention to the crying coming from the door.

The child’s voice was completely hoarse, his breathing even weaker…..wasn’t he about to collapse?

As an ordinary high school student, Li Xiu had never liked children. But as a human being, his body would feel an instinctive alarm when he heard such wailing. No one other than a sadist could endure a child suffering such abuse so close at hand.

Li Xiu automatically began to move. However, his body was surprisingly heavy at this time, and his feet seemed to be stuck in a wintery swamp. Every step he took required a lifetime of energy. But the desperate cries echoing in Li Xiu’s ears were like whips continuously lashing him, urging him to open the door quickly and rescue the poor little thing.

Finally, with great difficulty, Li Xiu came to the door.

He placed his hand on the doorknob.

But for some reason, when Li Xiu went to open the door, he felt his hair stand on end.

Some kind of unexplainable instinct streaked down his spine and caused the dazed young man to freeze in place, unable to move.

[“What are you doing? Do you intend to release that bastard before his time is up?]

At this moment, an unfamiliar sharp voice sounded. Li Xiu turned around and his eyes widened in horror. 

He saw a woman whose entire body was bloated.

The woman had walked out of the master bedroom and was currently standing at the door, staring at Li Xiu with her completely clouded eyes.

She was already long dead.

The rot blurred her facial features. A few strands of hair remained on her scalp, and a piece of scalp easily fell from the bone with her movements, hanging loosely at the back of her neck.

But the woman was completely unaware of this. As she spoke, densely packed pale yellow maggots crawled around her exposed chest and distended abdominal cavity.

Li Xiu shrieked.

He backed away in a panic, but there was only the closed door behind him.

And at this moment, he suddenly heard a very strange voice whispering cautiously beside him.

[“But, Madam, this is already the third day. If the confinement continues like this, the child may not be able to endure…..”]

Li Xiu turned his head with a gasp, trying to see who was speaking, but there was nothing to see.

[“Before he was imprisoned, did he not steal food from the kitchens? A bastard brought back from outside is just like this. He has the same temperament as that lowly person, only knowing how to steal other people’s things.”]

The woman who already had the lofty viewpoint of a giant didn’t seem to notice Li Xiu at all. She was talking to herself, every word squeezed out of her rotten throat with incomparable malice.

[“Truly, if they aren’t disciplined well, things born of such a lowly person will only bring shame to the family.”]

As she spoke, the woman staggered toward Li Xiu…..no, it should be that she was heading toward the door.

Li Xiu gasped for breath, frightened to the extreme as he tried to escape from the door.

He couldn’t, however, because there was a pair of hands stuck firmly to his shoulders.

[“Shh…..”]

A dark, creeping voice spoke in Li Xiu’s ear.

Li Xiu began to tremble all over.

The scene in front of him seemed to have happened in the past, Li Xiu thought.

He froze on the spot, transfixed. His heartbeat grew rapid, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up one by one.

Don’t look.

Don’t look, don’t look, don’t look…..

Don’t look back.

The voice in his head got louder and faster.

However, no matter how he tried to avoid it, Li Xiu still caught a glimpse of that “thing” that was right next to his face from the corner of his eye.

The eyes on the inhuman thing’s blue-gray face were bloodshot. The corners of his mouth grinned from one side to the other in a terrifying, satisfied smile.

Scarlet lips formed a stark contrast against the corpse’s bloodless face.

It smiled as it stared at Li Xiu, its neck stretched out so that it could put its face right in front of him. Now, Li Xiu could no longer escape its gaze.

That morbid gaze was as real as ever, licking Li Xiu’s skin.

Cold arms wrapped around Li Xiu’s body like a python constricting its prey, and the youth fell backward uncontrollably. At this time, Li Xiu discovered that the originally closed door had been opened. 

Countless pale, emaciated figures poked their heads out of the room. Their nailless fingers were as soft as the tentacles of a sea anemone, but each touch imbued the aura of death deep into his bones.

All of Li Xiu’s screaming and struggling was trapped in the sticky, cold, foul darkness behind the door.

[“A-Xiu…..so good…..”]

A familiar murmur dripped from the monster’s wet tongue.

Li Xiu only felt like there was a rope tugging fiercely at his body.

You shouldn’t have opened this locked door—

In the darkness, a shrill, hoarse voice screamed to Li Xiu deep in his heart.

*

“…..You little students, ah, your brains are really mixed up, aren’t they? We usually have to pay people to come here, but no one is willing. Yet look at you guys, still trying to kill yourselves by running over here.”

“I know I was wrong, Teacher. I’ll accept the punishment alone when the time comes. My classmate fainted and I need to take him to the infirmary now.”

“Now that your classmate is unconscious, you understand how dangerous this place is? What’s the use of such urgency now? This house has been in disrepair for so many years, and there’s no telling what could go wrong. You two ran in and bumped into something. Who is responsible for this? The school has given you instructions and countless warnings more than once, right? You were told not to come to this place, and you turned a deaf ear, didn’t you?”

“Apologies, I—”

“Wait a minute, don’t go anywhere. Teacher Xu has already checked on your classmate, and there’s nothing wrong with him. Don’t always use him to get out of things. Right now the most important thing is, why are you two here?! Do you think this is an ordinary violation of school rules and discipline? Let me tell you, strictly speaking, you are trespassing on private property, which is simply illegal!”

When Li Xiu awoke from his nightmare with a splitting headache, the first thing he heard was the continuous scolding from several people.

And Fang Qian’an’s voice would respond to those people from time to time, sounding extremely strange.

In his impression, Li Xiu had never heard Fang Qian’an spoken to in such a forbearing and almost condescending voice.

Of course, after spending the last few days with Fang Qian’an, even though he was feeling dizzy, Li Xiu could sense that beneath Fang Qian’an’s calm voice, there was a gradually uncontrollable anger.

“If there’s nothing wrong, then why is he still unconscious?”

“Don’t worry, if Teacher Xu says he’s fine, then he must be. Besides…..how could it be possible for him to wake up so soon…..”

The spirited voices of middle aged men made Li Xiu even dizzier.

He still vaguely recalled the terrifying scene from before he fainted.

“Fang Qian’an……”

Before his reasoning was in place, Li Xiu had already instinctively stretched out his hand in an attempt to find the tall boy.

At this time, Li Xiu didn’t notice the other people looking at him in surprise the moment he made a sound.

“A-Xiu! Thank god, you woke up!”

An elated cry exploded in his ears. Immediately after, Li Xiu felt like he had been hit by something — before he could recover, he was being hugged into someone’s arms.

Just now, some memories from the nightmare suddenly came to his mind. Li Xiu shuddered, his body tensing uncontrollably.

It was fortunate that in the next second, the youth’s hot body temperature and the near-deadly stranglehold woke Li Xiu up completely.

“Cough, l-let go of me.”

Li Xiu smacked Fang Qian’an on the back several times before the other let him go.

After taking a deep breath with difficulty, Li Xiu realized that he was lying on the lawn in front of the Xiao family villa. Fang Qian’an was hugging him with Li Xiu’s head resting on his knees. Seeing Li Xiu wake up, Fang Qian’an was just short of being moved to tears.

And not far from them were several middle-aged men.

Li Xiu stared at them nervously and found that all of these people looked unfamiliar. Oh, they weren’t all complete strangers. Li Xiu knew the chubby man standing in the back. He seemed to be the vice principal of Qiming Secondary School.

Li Xiu had only met the vice principal once before. The way the other party appeared as if he was an emperor on tour had made a deep impression on him. Only then did he remember that round, rosy face.

However, the vice principal who appeared before them now didn’t look as majestic as before. His back was hunched as he cautiously took up a position behind the others that could almost be called groveling.

And those few people who could humble the vice principal like that didn’t seem to be anything special.

At least, they didn’t possess the style of “leadership” that Li Xiu was familiar with. In fact, they looked like ordinary men who could be found on the street. Some of them were very young and appeared to be only in their twenties, while others were in their late fifties and full of vigor. And among this group of people was a man in his thirties, who vaguely appeared to be the leader.

The man was very thin, his appearance a very delicate and ordinary sort that could disappear instantly among a crowd. There was a pair of gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose, a slightly antiquated dark blue suit on his body, and a pair of nondescript sneakers on his feet. 

This person had a temperament similar to a Chinese language teacher or politics teacher. Moreover, as Li Xiu was half awake, he seemed to hear the others call this man “Teacher Xu.”

…..Was this a teacher from Qiming? 

Li Xiu was a bit uncertain.

After experiencing the previous fright, Li Xiu’s mind still felt a little dull. And as he was in a daze, Fang Qian’an had already grabbed his hand and pushed him toward Teacher Xu.

“Teacher Xu, w-will you take another look at him?”

“Hiss, Fang Qian’an, be more gentle.” Li Xiu couldn’t help but kick Fang Qian’an with a frown.

Once Fang Qian’an calmed down a bit, Li Xiu subconsciously pulled the other party behind him. Then he raised his head as he stood in front of the man and revealed a skillfully obedient smile. 

“Hello, teachers. Hello, Vice Principal.”

Unlike other students, Li Xiu had never been timid when going through the motions in front of teachers.

Sure enough, when Li Xiu spoke, the incredibly tense atmosphere between the teachers and Fang Qian’an relaxed at once.

“You are…..Li Xiu, correct?”

The vice principal was originally just listening to these “teachers” as they unceremoniously scolded Fang Qian’an, his whole person as restless as an ant in a hot pot. He knew how powerful they were and didn’t dare to refute them, but the student being scolded…..that student wasn’t ordinary either, ah!

When he heard Li Xiu speak, he felt instantly relieved. While taking out a handkerchief to wipe the cold sweat on his forehead, he quickly changed the topic.

“How are you now, ah? Does anything hurt?” Having said this, the vice principal said condemningly, “Why are you here instead of attending class obediently, ah? You were warned before, a demerit will be given if you come to the Xiao family villa—”

Before the vice principal could finish speaking, Fang Qian’an interrupted him: “It had nothing to do with him.”

Ignoring Li Xiu’s gaze, Fang Qian’an stepped forward to shield the boy with a face as dark as the bottom of a pot.

“I dragged him here by force. If you want to write a demerit, you’ll remember me too, right? Anyway, I don’t want to go to this shitty school anymore.”

“Fang…..”

The vice principal’s face turned colors when he was criticized by Fang Qian’an, and he was momentarily speechless.

“Oh. What did you plan to do when you dragged him here?”

Teacher Xu fortunately spoke up at this time and questioned Fang Qian’an mildly. 

“……”

This time, the person who fell into silence with a complicated expression was Fang Qian’an.

Li Xiu reflexively turned his head to look at the boy beside him. His mind was in a state of disorder, and he was a little unsure whether to speak up about what they had encountered.

Before Li Xiu and Fang Qian’an could communicate with their eyes, Teacher Xu spoke again with a sigh.

“You young students, ah, you really don’t know what’s going on. Clearly, as long as you study hard and well, you will be immune from all evils. But no, you came to a place like this and scared yourselves silly. When your heart and soul are unstable, it’s easy to be bewitched and possessed by evil spirits…..”

Li Xiu raised his head in astonishment to meet Teacher Xu’s clear, gentle eyes behind his lenses.

---

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Chapter 31 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 33