"Just bear it until the get out of class is over. Even in nightmares... there are classes that end, right..."
Li Xiu murmured softly as if talking to herself, her voice shaking so much that it was almost out of tune.
Fang Qianan didn't say anything, but Li Xiu could see that the muscles on the tall boy's back were constantly cramping due to the extreme tension.
Now, Li Xiu was even more certain that the unruly and powerful Prince Fang was actually really afraid of ghosts.
But Li Xiu had no time to laugh at him. Everything before him was too beyond comprehension, too terrifying, too bizarre. Not only was Fang Qianan frightened to the point of madness, but even Li Xiu, who considered himself emotionally indifferent and completely uninterested in ghosts and gods, was on the verge of mental collapse.
Is everything in the classroom really a nightmare?
If this was truly a dream, why did everything he felt and knew seem so real? So real that Li Xiu couldn't ignore the growing stench of decay in the air, nor the creepy crunching sound.
That's the sound the wire makes when it's being pulled tight little by little.
"Crack—"
That sound rang out again.
No matter how much he didn't want to see, Li Xiu still caught a glimpse of the new movement from Ouyang's side out of the corner of his eye.
The corpse hanging in the air turned around on its own in the windless classroom. Now, Ouyang's toes slowly pointed in the direction of Li Xiu.
["Wow… I… can't breathe… It hurts so much…"]
The corpse let out a miserable groan of pain like a mosquito's hum.
"I know I was wrong. I won't do it again… Please forgive me… It hurts so much… I can't breathe… Woo woo woo… My neck hurts so much…"
The voice seemed to have substance, wrapping around the pale and thin boy.
The sound is getting closer and closer.
Finally, a swollen head slowly hung upside down in front of Li Xiu's desk.
No wonder "Ouyang" kept crying and complaining that his neck hurt.
Li Xiu had never seen a corpse transformed like this before. Ouyang had been stretched to the point of being nearly transparent, his head hanging like a fire hose without water.
The dead man's feet could even kick it on the back of the head.
Ouyang's gray, dead eyes remained motionless, staring straight at Li Xiu's gaze.
"I'm sorry, please forgive me."
He repeated.
The moment he met Ouyang's eyes, Li Xiu let out a muffled groan.
He quickly raised his hand and covered his mouth with force.
The young man bit the edge of his palm fiercely, because only in this way could he muffle his screams of fear. In his excessive mental tension, Li Xiu left deep teeth marks on his hand. His mouth was filled with the taste of blood, but he could not feel it on his palm.
He didn't feel any pain, perhaps because it was a dream, or of course, it could also be because his brain was completely shut down.
Can't be discovered by these things... I found that I had noticed something unusual.
Absolutely not.
This was the only thought in his mind.
"A Xiu, are you okay? What happened? You look so bad."
Just as Li Xiu was trembling, he heard the worried and concerned voice of a classmate behind him.
Li Xiuqiang tried to hold back the tears of fear in her eyes.
Without even turning his head, he pretended to be calm as much as possible and said perfunctorily: "I'm fine, I-"
Li Xiu's voice stopped abruptly.
Suddenly he reacted.
wrong.
Li Xiu's seat was clearly in the last row of the classroom.
So, where did the "classmates" behind him come from?
"But you're sweating a lot."
A pair of hands, dry and pale, with no nails on the fingertips, only long-dried blood, rested on Li Xiu's shoulders.
A suffocating chill spread down Li Xiu's back.
Li Xiu lowered her head and looked at her desk.
Under the fluorescent lights in the classroom, a large shadow fell on Li Xiu's desk. At this moment, whatever was standing behind Li Xiu must be very tall.
Perhaps, it was already high enough to casually carry the corpse of a human male and swing it in the air.
"Don't you like it?"
"It" asked, and the hands that definitely did not belong to a living person moved up along the side of Li Xiu's neck, almost gently wiping away the cold sweat on Li Xiu's face.
All the skin touched by it became frozen and icy cold to the bone.
A smell mixed with earth, dust and rotting flesh seeped over.
"Why don't you like it?"
The thing kept asking in a strange tone.
Li Xiu's lips were trembling, and now he couldn't make any sound even without covering his mouth with his hands.
I was so scared that even the muscles of my vocal cords were automatically locked.
What's more, he didn't understand what it was saying at all.
[…Ah, Xiu really doesn't like it.]
Without getting a response from Li Xiu, "it" said it in a flat voice.
["Next time, next time I'll prepare something better for you—"]
Before he finished speaking, a school bully next to Li Xiu finally broke down and went completely crazy.
"Ah ...
A loud bang, mixed with Fang Qian'an's shrill screams, echoed. Then, to Li Xiu's shock, Fang Qian'an lifted the heavy desk and slammed it down onto the hanged male teacher's deformed, slender body. Ouyang flew out, his rotting corpse exploding like a rotten orange under the impact of the desk, transforming into a black, red, gray, and yellow slurry all over the ground, with internal organs splattering everywhere.
The huge noise made everyone in the class turn their heads.
Their blank eyes, with only whites and no pupils, were all fixed on Fang Qianan.
"Ka."
The bones wrapped in soft flesh made a dull sound of joint friction.
The creatures, which were not human but had a subtle resemblance to humans, shook their bodies and stood up from their seats. They staggered towards Fang Qianan.
"Hehe…Hehe…"
"Ka…"
…
The "classmate's" lips were slightly open, but a sharp breathing sound came out of it, which is only made by a dying person who is lacking oxygen.
Behind them was Ouyang, who was knocked to the ground by the desk. His head was still touching the ground, but his deformed, slender body began to wriggle little by little like a snake.
*
The school bully, gasping for breath and pale with fear, just stood there, looking at the "things" gradually approaching him, his eyes a little out of focus.
"Huh…Huh…Huh…A Xiu…"
Fang Qianan turned his head and looked at Li Xiu with a crying voice.
Li Xiu never knew that when a person is extremely frightened, his face will turn blue.
"...Didn't you say that the core socialist values and scientific laws are useful for this kind of thing?"
Fang Qianan murmured to Li Xiu.
Li Xiu could only stare blankly at Fang Qianan. After a long pause, he spoke incoherently, "But, maybe math is more useful?"
…
"Oh."
Someone seemed to laugh softly in his ear.
In the next second, before Li Xiu could react, he felt a huge force coming at him. He was practically being dragged away from his seat. By the time he could react again, Fang Qianan had grabbed him tightly and was running towards the classroom door.
"Justice, the rule of law, patriotism, dedication, integrity, and friendliness. The general formula for two arithmetic progressions and geometric progressions, the N term, and hydrogen, helium, lithium, and beryllium—"
Fang Qianan ran while shouting with his almost broken voice.
At the same time, a long, continuous ringing sound rang out.
"Ding-ling-ling—ding-ling-ling—"
At first glance, it sounded like the bell for the end of get out of class, but the bell for the end of get out of class in reality was definitely not as harsh as the sound lingering in the ears of the two people at this moment.
The ringing was deafening, and it never stopped. It kept ringing, as if it would never stop.
Li Xiu was originally worried that the things in the classroom would chase him out, after all, that's how it happens in all horror movies.
However, after stumbling for a while, both of them realized that the corridor had been empty the whole time.
The "classmates" did not chase after him.
In similar classroom after classroom, the "classmates" were just standing straight, side by side in front of the classroom windows, looking expressionlessly at the two people who were desperately running away in the corridor.
Li Xiu staggered as he ran, glancing inadvertently in their direction. Then, he shuddered suddenly, forced himself to swallow his sobs, and shifted his gaze to the front.
wrong...
No, no, no, no, no, no...
Those "classmates" are simply not right.
He bit his lips tightly and said nothing, but the screaming in his head never stopped from beginning to end.
Even if it was a ghost, it shouldn't be like this.
Although they look similar to humans, the eyes on their faces are all left or right.
The positions of some of the "people"'s facial features are extremely chaotic and random.
What are they...
What on earth is this?!
"Wow grass——"
At this moment, Li Xiu suddenly heard Fang Qianan in front of him uttering a frightened and panicked curse.
The boy braked suddenly and Li Xiu was caught off guard and bumped into his back.
Covering his nose, Li Xiu stuck his head out from behind Fang Qianan and saw something that made Fang Qianan stop in an emergency.
Just ahead of them, where an escalator should have been on the real campus, now stood a thick brick wall.
The wall was covered with black mold caused by moisture, and there were layers of faded talisman paper stacked on top of each other.
The talisman papers were densely covered on an entire wall. The moisture melted the red cinnabar on the talisman papers, turning them into countless crimson marks that slowly flowed down the wall.
In the very center of the wall is a small door painted red.
The door looked as if it was for pets. It was only half the size of an ordinary door, and the paint on the door panel was bumpy and had fallen off in many places.
"Fuck, isn't this the wall in a haunted house? Are you kidding me..."
Fang Qianan kept muttering to himself, and stood in front of Li Xiu tremblingly. He seemed brave, but from Li Xiu's perspective, she could clearly see the tears flashing in the boy's eyes.
In fact, they had seen that wall in real life. If one had to say, Ouyang, who had already died in the classroom, and the "classmates" sitting around them who had no idea what they were were the real horror.
However, standing in front of the wall at this moment, Li Xiu felt a fear that was even colder than what he had felt in the classroom just now.
There is something behind the door.
Without any reason, Li Xiu could feel this in his heart.
Moreover, he also knew that the "Him" behind the door was eager to come out.
He heard that sound.
"Rustle, rustle—"
The ringing sound in his ears was still as loud and piercing as before, but the fine scratching sound of nails rubbing against metal coming from the other side of the door directly drowned out the ringing sound and pierced Li Xiu's eardrum deeply.
Unconsciously, the bell ringing throughout the teaching building became more and more rapid and harsh.
As if urging something.
Or maybe it's a reminder of something.
At the same time, Li Xiu's body became heavier and heavier, and his body became colder and colder. He used all his strength to grab Fang Qianan's wrist.
The boy's body now became stiff and cold in fear, just like a zombie.
"Fang Qianan..."
Li Xiu's lips moved, and the sound he made was so thin and weak that he himself didn't expect it to be.
"We have to escape."
The boy muttered almost absentmindedly.
Fang Qianan stared at the wall in a daze, allowing Li Xiu to lead him little by little to the railing of the corridor.
"rustle--"
The scratching became sharper.
The ringing and scratching sounds overlapped. Li Xiu's body was so stiff from the extreme cold that he could hardly even lift his arms.
But he still gritted his teeth, hugged Fang Qianan, who was so frightened that he was stunned, and pushed him over the railing.
It was not until this moment that Fang Qianan suddenly came to his senses.
He instinctively grabbed Li Xiu's hand.
"A Xiu?"
"You said we were just having a nightmare."
Li Xiu murmured to Fang Qianan.
"I've heard of a method that if you want to wake up from a dream, all you have to do is jump down from a high place."
Fang Qianan's pupils shrank slightly.
He held Li Xiu in his arms and jumped onto the railing much more easily than before.
"That's what you said."
As he spoke, Fang Qianan glanced downstairs and his voice suddenly stopped.
Li Xiu felt Fang Qianan's muscles suddenly tense up.
"If, and I'm just saying if, we weren't dreaming, our deaths would be pretty ugly if we jumped from this height."
Fang Qianan smiled at Li Xiu in a forced manner, but that smile was uglier than crying.
Li Xiu took a deep breath and was about to respond when the school bell that was ringing in his ears suddenly stopped.
The boy's breathing paused.
"Crack—"
In the school that suddenly became quiet, the sharp friction sound of the old door opening was particularly clear.
In great fear, he could only hold Fang Qianan tightly.
Similarly, Fang Qianan also hugged Li Xiu.
The two looked at each other, and then, with a hint of despair, they fell over the railing together.
They jumped from the building.
In the last moment before jumping off the building, Li Xiu looked at the door that had been pushed open.
Maybe it's an illusion.
It could also be an illusion added by the nightmare itself.
Li Xiu saw a dry, nailless hand stretched out from the darkness behind the red door, and then waved in his direction.
*
It's like saying—
See you next time
*
"Bang--"
Fang House, first floor.
While Aunt Su was making breakfast, she heard her young master's shrill screams and a loud bang from upstairs.
The shock was so great that it made people think Fang Qianan had demolished his own room.
Aunt Su was startled and quickly turned off the fire and rushed to Fang Qianan's room on the second floor.
"Qian'an? What's wrong? Did something happen?"
Aunt Su asked in panic while knocking on the door.
After a long time, so long that she was already considering whether to call the police, Fang Qianan's door was finally opened from the inside.
"…I'm fine."
Fang Qianan held the door handle and looked at Aunt Su with a strange look for a long time. Then he spoke slowly, word by word.
"I just had a nightmare."
[As long as I wake up from the nightmare, everything will be fine...right?]
The author has something to say:
Proud Ghost Brother: Ah Xiu, do you like this hanged teacher Ouyang, or this maggot-spitting little dog leg?
Huh? I don't like any of them.
It's okay, brother will find you some new bad guys to kill.
Really, our Ah Xiu is good in every way except that she likes to act like a spoiled child.
This is what a brother should do. Look at you, why are you crying out of joy?