Li Xiu didn't know why she cared so much about that short and silent voice.
To put it bluntly, that cry of "Help" was probably just a software bug. Fang Qian'an was still standing in front of him, so there was really no need for him to be so nervous. But even so, Li Xiu still felt a subtle chill enveloping him, seeping into his body bit by bit.
"I'm so scared."
He heard Fang Qianan talking nervously.
"The thing in the Xiao family haunted house has really set its sights on us. It won't let us go..."
The boy's voice gradually became vague and strange.
"Calm down. Things might not be that serious."
Li Xiu had no choice but to bite the bullet and comfort the tall boy in front of him, but he was definitely not the type to comfort others. Not only was his words unconvincing, they also sounded particularly weak.
"I can't calm down."
Fang Qianan lowered his head and spoke softly.
"A Xiu, I want to go take a look at the Xiao family haunted house."
Suddenly, he spoke.
"What?"
Li Xiu looked at Fang Qianan in surprise.
Although he knew in his heart that all the bizarre events he had encountered recently were closely related to the Xiao family haunted house, Li Xiu never expected that Fang Qianan, who had been frightened to the point of crying, would actually take the initiative to ask to go to the haunted house to investigate.
"Are you not afraid of ghosts anymore?"
Li Xiu took a bite and asked dryly.
Fang Qianan was silent for a long moment before he opened his bloodshot eyes and muttered, "Wang Rongfa has lost contact, and Song Cheng...Song Cheng is dead too."
"What? Song Cheng is dead?!"
Li Xiu looked at Fang Qianan in disbelief. The latter looked at him straight, his face pale, but his eyes seemed particularly empty.
"Yeah. Actually, it's spread throughout the group. Song Cheng is really dead."
"…"
"It might be us next."
Fang Qianan said.
Li Xiu didn't say anything for a long time.
He was still in shock. He had always been a lurker in various class chats, but now he had to pull himself together, trying to catch every word from others in the constantly refreshing campus chat room.
After confirming that the body taken away from the Xiao family haunted house this morning was Song Cheng, Li Xiu's wrist suddenly lost strength and his phone almost fell to the ground.
Fang Qianan suddenly reached out, grabbed his cell phone and handed it to him.
"A Xiu, if I really have to die, I also want to be a clear-headed ghost. I always feel that only by going to the haunted house can we find a solution to all this."
Maybe because he was really scared, Fang Qianan grabbed Li Xiu's hand again while speaking.
"But..."
"A Xiu, go ahead."
"…"
"I can't stand it anymore, Xiu. I really can't stand encountering ghosts like this anymore... I'm so scared..."
The boy lowered his head and kept repeating similar words. His voice became weaker and weaker, but the strength he held on to Li Xiu became stronger and stronger.
Li Xiu uttered a cry of pain: "Fang Qianan, let go, you're hurting me!"
"A Xiu... please... please..."
Li Xiu stared at the top of Fang Qianan's head and bit his lip.
"I've always thought that people who run to a haunted house even though they know there are ghosts in the mountain are mentally ill." The boy said to himself.
"A Xiu——"
"Okay, let me go!"
Li Xiu shook off Fang Qianan's hand, then picked up her phone and started sending messages.
"What are you doing?"
Fang Qianan looked at Li Xiu like this, and after enduring for a few seconds, he asked in a panic.
Li Xiu's face was tense. He glanced at the boy beside him, took a deep breath, and then said quietly, "Ask the teacher for leave."
"ah?"
"Didn't we say we were going to the Xiao Family Haunted House?" Li Xiu said irritably, with a hint of self-abandonment. "We have to go there sooner or later anyway. If we delay, I guess the school's barbed wire fence will be installed by then. By then, it will be much more troublesome to go there than it is now, right?"
"A Xiu..."
"Besides, it's been several days now, and because of these things, I haven't been able to concentrate on my studies. This will delay things too much."
As he spoke, Li Xiu stood up and walked downstairs.
"So, let's go check out the haunted house."
Fang Qianan suddenly reached out and grabbed the corner of Li Xiu's clothes.
Li Xiu turned around and looked at Fang Qianan in confusion: "What's wrong?"
Fang Qianan's pupils were a bit like a cat's. At this moment, they appeared round, large, and extremely black, with only a thin layer of gold inlaid on the edge of the pupils.
"A Xiu, thank you."
The tall boy said word by word.
"Without you, there's no way I could go back there."
Li Xiu didn't know that he frowned unconsciously.
He always felt that Fang Qianan was a little strange today, but if he really asked him what was strange, he couldn't tell.
Fortunately, at this awkward moment, Fang Qianan's cell phone rang again.
Those were messages of condolence from others.
[Mr. Fang, are you really okay? You looked so bad when you left.]
"I've asked around, and it seems the Songcheng incident was just an accident. You don't need to take it too seriously, Mr. Fang."
[Boss, I'm sorry. Next time I'll check carefully before bringing you anything...]
…
Fang Qianan tilted his head slightly and stared at the phone screen for a long time, but did not reply to anyone's message.
*
In the lounge, the boys who were skipping classes without any psychological burden put down their phones and sighed in unison.
"Mr. Fang didn't reply..."
"Isn't he always like this? It's normal for him not to reply to our messages."
"Why do I feel like he's been terribly frightened by Song Cheng's death?"
"No way…"
Amidst the complicated and meaningless discussion, a boy suddenly noticed something strange about Jiang Jun.
"Jiang Jun, are you okay? Why are you so distracted?" He then glanced curiously at the boy's phone. "Ah, come to think of it, you didn't say anything in the group chat? What's wrong? Did you offend Young Master Fang?"
He asked tentatively out of habit.
Jiang Jun then shuddered as if waking from a dream and shook his head violently.
"No, nothing. I just think Master Fang might not like us disturbing him." Jiang Jun said a little stiffly. At the end, he added as if talking to himself, "Speaking of which, when we were in the bathroom today, did you think Master Fang's smile was a little strange?"
"What smile?" asked the companion in confusion.
As Jiang Jun recalled the smile he saw when he passed by Fang Qianan, he began to sweat again.
"I don't know. I really don't know."
Jiang Jun murmured softly.
He only knew that he was... very afraid of Fang Qianan like that.
He clearly looked like he was frightened by the news of Song Cheng's death, but why did that person look subtly ecstatic?
*
"Wait a minute, Fang Qianan, I heard that you can order takeout during class time?"
As they were walking downstairs shoulder to shoulder with Fang Qianan, Li Xiu suddenly stopped the person next to him and asked.
"Ah, yes, we can. What's wrong?"
Fang Qianan asked.
During this time, Li Xiu kept pressing the phone.
"Great, then, I'll leave it to you to buy these things."
Fang Qianan's cell phone rang. He clicked on the list sent by Li Xiu and his eyes flashed slightly.
"Glutinous rice? Salt? What's this for?"
"Something to ward off evil spirits."
Li Xiu said indifferently.
Fang Qianan raised his eyebrows: "...Did your grandmother tell you this?"
Li Xiu shook his head bluntly: "No, I just looked it up online." After a pause, he added, "My grandmother never likes me to get involved in these things. She always..."
"A Xiu, why are you doing this?"
"Our Ah Xiu, you don't have to do anything and don't be afraid. Your brother will protect you."
"When has grandma ever lied to you? As long as you deliver meals to your brother, nothing in this world can hurt you."
…
Li Xiu lowered her eyes to hide the trace of annoyance that flashed across her eyes.
Fortunately, Fang Qianan didn't seem to have the mind to ask more questions. Not long after receiving Li Xiu's ridiculous list, he received the package from the delivery boy.
Fang Qianan handed the bag to Li Xiu, and watched Li Xiu with a stern face as he took out the iodine-free sea salt and glutinous rice and put them in his arms. His expression seemed a little strange.
After Li Xiu took all the things, he took out another item from the bag that was not on his list, a bottle of wine.
"liquor?"
Li Xiu took the bottle and looked at it for a few seconds. Fang Qianan took the wine from his hand, then unscrewed the lid and drank it himself in front of him.
But after drinking just half a bottle of wine, Fang Qianan stood there in a daze for dozens of seconds. Li Xiu was a little scared and quickly went over to take a look. Suddenly, the other party shuddered and slowly exhaled a long breath.
"Wow—"
Fang Qianan let out a low sigh.
"It's worthy of being called Erguotou. It makes me feel sober all of a sudden."
Li Xiu stared at Fang Qianan's face, which had finally regained its rosy color, and hesitated before speaking: "...Minors should not drink alcohol."
"Drinking gives me courage. Besides, I'd be freezing to death if I didn't drink. My whole body is cold. You didn't know just now, but my mind was completely blank when I was talking to you." The boy muttered, and finally added, "Besides, who told you I was underage?"
"ah?"
Fang Qianan suddenly grinned and smiled at Li Xiu.
"I just turned eighteen a week ago."
Li Xiu said "Oh", and then she felt Fang Qianan's warm body pressing against her.
"What's wrong? Why do you look like that? Ah, yes, come to think of it, Ah Xiu, you should actually call me brother, right?"
Li Xiu frowned and avoided Fang Qianan's slightly drunken mouth.
"roll."
The boy said to the boy beside him expressionlessly.
"I was just thinking, you're so old."
There was no other meaning behind Li Xiu's words.
Eighteen years old is indeed a bit old for a high school sophomore.
"Well, what's the old age thing? How can eighteen be considered old..." Fang Qianan rubbed his nose and secretly glanced at Li Xiu, "I have a reason for this, okay?"
Fang Qianan didn't know why he suddenly wanted to explain all this to Li Xiu.
"I was in poor health when I was little and was hospitalized for many years, so I started school much later."
He explained uncomfortably.
After the words fell, seeing that Li Xiu still had an indifferent expression, Fang Qianan simply lifted the hem of his clothes and exposed his muscular abdomen directly in front of the boy: "Come, come, take a look, you must not have looked carefully just now, right? Here, this scar -"
Fang Qianan pointed to the wound on his waist and asked, "Do you know what this is?"
Li Xiu stopped and looked at Fang Qianan helplessly.
"What?"
"This is the scar from a kidney transplant." Fang Qianan put down his clothes and said word by word.
The author has something to say:
The old man that high school students talk about is eighteen years old.