“Li Xiu, are you trying to anger me to death—”

The vehicle slowly began to move as Teacher Xu drove.

The first thing to sound in the slightly shaking vehicle was the roar of the former school bully: “That was a ghost, okay? You still recklessly let that thing brainwash you? Have you used up all your IQ solving math problems?!”

Fang Qian’an stared, eyes wide, at the youth on the seat corner who was silently biting his lip. One of Fang Qian’an’s hands was still holding the other boy’s wrist, which was so thin that it seemed as if it would break.

Li Xiu felt a stabbing pain spreading from his sternum, as if there was an invisible person on his chest. The 1.9 meter tall boy himself was still unknowingly shaking due to excessive tension. 

Only Fang Qian’an himself knew how terrified he was.

They had obviously been so close…..

He had obviously sworn that he would protect Li Xiu through the thick fog no matter what.

But when they arrived at Teacher Xu’s car and were about to get in, he felt Li Xiu’s hand slip out of his palm like a fish.

No matter how he called Li Xiu’s name, the youth continued to turn a deaf ear and walk quickly into the depths of the fog.

Even now, Fang Qian’an could feel his heart beating wildly. Half of his soul still hadn’t been recovered.

“…..We’ve been through this before, but you didn’t even raise your guard! That thing used your grandmother’s appearance to confuse you, and you stupidly followed it! I always wondered who could be so stupid in those horror movies, but that person is right next to me!”

Li Xiu lowered his head and said in a choked voice: “But it was Grandmother…..”

“That thing turned your grandmother into a zombie! You saw it yourself!”

Fang Qian’an’s voice suddenly rose, and he shouted fiercely at Li Xiu: “How about you wake up a little!”

“I’m awake!” Li Xiu shouted at Fang Qian’an. He raised his head, tears streaming down his face. “I know it was Lord Hong in disguise and I shouldn’t have been deceived, but…..I’ll never see my grandmother again! My grandmother is dead!”

When Li Xiu heard news of his grandmother’s death in his hospital bed, he could barely maintain his outward composure, and didn’t start crying until the others left.

Now, Li Xiu could no longer control himself, and wailed loudly in front of Fang Qian’an.

“My grandmother is head. Don’t you understand that I don’t have a grandmother anymore…..wuwuwu…..why did you scold me so loudly? I know I was stupid, but…..that was my last chance to see Grandmother…..”

Fang Qian’an, who was yelling at Li Xiu one second, was utterly panicked the next.

“You…..you went too far and made me cry…..”

In a fluster, he looked into Li Xiu’s reddened eyes, wet with tears, and froze.

“S-Sorry!” 

A moment later, the former school bully began to stammer out an apology: “Hey, d-don’t cry…..just now, I…..that is, I was just so worried. That’s why I spoke loudly, I didn’t mean to scold you…..pei, actually, I’m angry with myself…..”

Fang Qian’an was alarmed by Li Xiu’s sobbing.

He wanted to wipe away Li Xiu’s tears, but couldn’t find a tissue for a long time.

He subconsciously started to pull up the hem of his T-shirt, but as soon as he raised his hand, he put the shirt back down again — his clothes were stained with ash and blood from their escape, and looked so bad that he was reluctant to wipe Li Xiu’s face with it.

“I’m sorry, it’s all my fault. Please don’t cry.”

In the end, Fang Qian’an had to gently wipe Li Xiu’s tears away with his fingertips. His palms were wet with the youth’s tears, and the heat of them made his chest ache. 

It was Teacher Xu who smoothed things over.

He gestured for Qiao Yang to find a few packages of napkins in the storage compartment and hand them to the two high school boys behind them. Once Li Xiu had calmed down somewhat, Teacher Xu coughed a few times and said: “Cough, Classmate Fang, who are you to say anything about Classmate Li Xiu? Do you think you’re so great? Rushing out like you did, we were scared to death.”

“Indeed.” Qiao Yang couldn’t help but say, “You didn’t even listen when I called out to you. Li Xiu didn’t see it, but you also rushed out. If not for good luck, we might have all gone out and fallen one by one—”

Li Xiu’s eyes were still red as he blew his nose. When he heard what Teacher Xu and Qiao Yang said, he glanced at Fang Qian’an.

Fang Qian’an scratched the back of his head in discomfort, and his voice was pitifully weak as he defended himself: “I…..I was in a hurry, so I didn’t think.”

Teacher Xu and Qiao Yang said nothing to this. The car grew silent.

Li Xiu lowered his head and held back his tears.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“It’s alright.” This time, it was Teacher Xu who responded. “Ghosts can confuse the eyes and captivate the mind. These things always target the weaknesses in people’s hearts. Classmate Li Xiu, you’ve done well. If it were an ordinary student, they would have been too frightened to move if something like tonight happened.”

Qiao Yang concurred: “Yes, ah. I’ve never seen anything like what happened tonight. Even in foreign zombie movies—”

It was better not to mention it. When he brought up what had happened that night, everyone’s moods became heavy again. The night fog was still thick outside the windows. The four of them were not completely out of danger.

Li Xiu calmed down and asked in a hoarse voice: “Teacher Xu, what should we do next?”

Teacher Xu clicked on his phone to set the navigation.

The voice navigation overlapped with his reply: “…..The City A Martyrs Cemetery is near here. We’ll go there first.”

[“Ready to start. The route is 2.5 kilometers and will take around seven minutes. After thirty meters, turn right—”]

“Ah?”

“Martyrs Cemetery?”

“Teacher, wait, a cemetery?”

The other three people in the vehicle were a little dumbfounded.

Only Teacher Xu still appeared calm: “En, a cemetery…..the Martyrs Cemetery is full of revolutionary martyrs. These martyrs are extremely heroic, and are the best at restraining evil spirits. They should be able to protect us for one night.”

After hearing Teacher Xu’s explanation, the three others finally breathed sighs of relief.

The Martyrs Cemetery in City A was actually an upscale public park, so it really wasn’t that far from the building where Fang Qian’an lived. If not for special circumstances, with Fang Qian’an’s strength, he could get there in less than ten minutes even while carrying Li Xiu on his back. But they were driving—-

However, as time passed little by little, they still failed to reach their destination that was right around the corner.

“Teacher…..is the car starting to drive slower?”

Qiao Yang, sitting in the passenger seat, had a bit of cold sweat on his forehead.

He glanced at the dashboard and found that the car was going 60.

However, he didn’t know whether it was only the fog outside the window that gave no reference for their forward movement. Seated in the car, he only felt that the vehicle had slowed to a stop.

“Teacher?”

“It’s alright. This is just a method to disturb people’s hearts. Don’t be afraid,” Teacher Xu said word by word.

But before he could finish speaking, the car’s radio, which had been collecting dust for who knew how long, suddenly buzzed.

“Zizizi…..for you tonight…..zizizizizi…..we have City A’s overnight weather forecast…..zizi…..Sleepless Night Talk Radio…..will you come tonight…..”

A noisy radio station and snippets of songs that were no longer popular mixed with the harsh electric sounds. The bizarre noise lingered in the vehicle, startling everyone but Teacher Xu into looks of fear.

Because they all heard the hoarse whisper within that electric noise that was impossible to ignore.

[“A-Xiu…..”]

[“Come, follow me…..”]

[“My A-Xiu, ah, why are you crying so sadly?”]

[“I will kill them all, okay?”]

There was a click.

The expressionless Teacher Xu had reached out to turn off the radio.

It was unknown what method he used, but there was a small spot of blood on the dial.

And the disobedient radio finally stopped blaring.

But this short term peace didn’t last long at all.

Because in the next seconds, cell phone ring tones sounded one after another inside the car.

The phones automatically connected.

An elderly voice came from the receiver.

[“A-Xiu, ah, it’s so late. Why haven’t you come back home, ah…..”]

It was his grandmother.

“A-Xiu, be good. Come home.”

As if there was interference, the elderly whisper was eerily drawn out.

“Your gege is hungry…..”

“Hee…..A-Xiu…..it’s time to come home…..time to give your gege something to eat…..”

The voice gradually changed in pitch.

Sometimes it sounded like the voice of an old woman, and sometimes it sounded like the hushed whisper of a young man.

Little by little, an unspeakable chill spread inside the car along with the sound.

Li Xiu felt his body tremble involuntarily, and everything before his eyes was out of focus.

In his daze, he could even feel that there seemed to be a pair of cold hands stroking his neck.

His hair immediately stood on end. He felt nauseous. 

Grasping the steering wheel with both hands, Teacher Xu stared ahead of the car and said word by word: “Everyone smash their phones.”

Qiao Yang was holding a cell phone he had just bought, and was stunned upon hearing his teacher’s words. But without waiting for him to finish comprehending, a hand reached out from teh back seat and snatched his phone.

“Huh? Ah, ah—”

Fang Qian’an was expressionless as he held everyone’s cell phones in his hands. As easily as breaking a chocolate bar, he snapped each phone.

“I’m still making installments on that phone, ah!”

Qiao Yang held the remnants of his phone after Fang Qian’an tossed it back to him, his expression even uglier than when he had been frightened by ghosts previously.

“The new model is being released next month,” Fang Qian’an informed him with zero sympathy, then turned to look at the silent Li Xiu: “Do you like the style of the Xueli ProMax?”

Li Xiu was still staring at his disabled phone in a daze and didn’t react right away.

“Ah?”

Fang Qian’an took a deep breath and smiled at the boy next to him: “When this is all over, I’ll give you a new cellphone. Your crappy one should have been replaced a long time ago.”

After speaking, he reached out and rubbed Li Xiu’s hair vigorously.

“Don’t refuse. I’m older than you, you should call me ‘ge’. As your ge, I should buy a phone for my didi.”

Before he could finish his sentence, the car shook violently. Everyone jerked forward simultaneously and were then slammed back into their seats by the seatbelts. Their chests hurt.

“Damn—” Teacher Xu cursed.

The car had stalled.

A thick fog tightly enveloped the stationary vehicle.

Without the roar of the engine, their surroundings became eerily silent.

Ding-ling—

The copper bell hanging in the upper left corner suddenly gave a soft jingle.

Li Xiu subconsciously shrank toward Fang Qian’an. He still remembered Qiao Yang’s explanation that the copper bell hanging in the car cabin would only ring when it sensed yin energy.

He couldn’t help but look out the window again. There was still only the thick fog, seemingly no different from before.

Ding-ling—

But in the next second, the bell rang again, this time a bit more urgently than before.

Ding-ling—

Ding-ling—

Ding-ling—

Just as Li Xiu was thinking about this, the copper bells hanging at all four corners of the cabin jingled in unison. Teacher Xu in the driver’s seat frowned with increasing tension. His originally very pale face seemed to have lost all color, and his lips had even turned grey. 

Accompanied by the deafening jingle of the copper bells, within the fog that was so thick that a person couldn’t even see their fingers, many rigid shadows appeared.

Just like that, bit by bit, those vague shadows gathered toward the only bright light in the thick fog. And right next to Teacher Xu’s hand, the old Nokia phone that was bent into a ‘V’ suddenly gave a navigation announcement.

[“Ready to start…..zizi…..the route is 2.5 kilometers…..zizi…..will take around seven minutes. After thirty meters, turn right—”].

Everyone in the car stiffened at once.

After driving for so long, the navigation had never changed.

They had been in the same place all along.

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The Author Has Something to Say: 

Xiao Fang: I can buy a new cellphone for A-Xiu. Heh, unlike some people (ghosts), who can’t offer anything except fear (yin and yang). (Smile).

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Chapter 53 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 55