Fang Qianan, stop talking nonsense... Who asked you to stay for me... Woo..."
Li Xiu hugged Fang Qianan. It was the first time in his life that someone protected him like this.
Before he knew it, a large area of the school bully's neck was wet with tears.
Noticing that Li Xiu seemed to have started crying again, Fang Qianan finally stopped panting.
"call..."
The sound of Fang Qian'an's breathing and Li Xiu's stifled sobs echoed through the corridor. But other than that, everything seemed the same as before.
The impotent rage of the former school bully did not attract any attention from demons or monsters.
The darkness is still so heavy.
The corridor is still as long.
Fang Qianan and Li Xiu still haven't found the exit of this road.
Only a tiny streak of candlelight remained, on the verge of going out. But at this point, neither Fang Qianan nor Li Xiu said anything. Li Xiu didn't even struggle to get off Fang Qianan's back. On the contrary, he used all his strength to cling to the trembling boy beneath him.
In silence, both of them stared intently at the faint candlelight.
Now that things have come to this, all they can do is wait quietly, waiting for the final moment...
…
["…A Xiu."]
At this moment, an extremely old voice suddenly came from the darkness.
Li Xiu was startled and looked up at the front in astonishment.
"grandmother?"
A hazy yet familiar shadow slowly emerged at the other end of the corridor.
The old man stood in the distance, trembling and leaning against the wall, holding a candle only the length of a thumb in his hand.
But the light from the candle could actually illuminate half of the corridor.
Grandma stretched out her hand and greeted Li Xiu.
"Why are you still playing outside so late? You kid, what a mess..."
"A Xiu, follow grandma."
The old man's shadow appeared extremely thin and hunched, and his wrinkled face looked pale and vaguely eerie under the candlelight.
Fang Qianan shuddered with fear when the old man appeared. He held Li Xiu tightly with caution and took a step back uncontrollably.
"grandmother?"
Unlike Fang Qianan, Li Xiu stared at the extremely familiar figure and shouted.
"Fang Qianan, don't be afraid, that's my grandma...that's my grandma! Oh right, it's my grandma who came to pick me up, she understands all this! She must have found a way to find me!"
Li Xiu murmured and pushed Fang Qianan.
The feeling was very mysterious. After experiencing so many times of being blinded by ghosts, Li Xiu had already become like a frightened bird.
However, the moment he saw his grandmother, he had a strong intuition in his heart - that person was his grandmother.
"A Xiu, is this really your grandma? Are you sure?"
After hearing Li Xiu's assurance, Fang Qianan was still extremely alert. His face was tense and his body was trembling slightly. It was obvious that he was very scared.
"I'm sure."
Li Xiu subconsciously touched Fang Qianan's shoulder gently to calm his fear.
"...Besides, choosing now wouldn't be any worse."
Li Xiu's tone suddenly became firm.
After hearing his words, Fang Qian calmed down.
"All right."
He said.
The boy pushed Li Xiu upwards with force, and then staggered towards the old man.
"Hello, grandma."
In the flickering firelight, Li Xiu heard Fang Qianan greet his grandmother tremblingly.
"I'm Ah Xiu's friend. I just cursed a few times because I was angry. Don't take it to heart."
Li Xiu: "…"
…
Grandma did not respond to Fang Qianan's confusing greetings.
In fact, there was always a distance between her and Li Xiu. No matter how fast Fang Qianan walked, she held the candle steadily and stood in the same position not far away.
The only change was the candle in her hand, which burned brighter and brighter, and gradually became shorter and shorter.
Puff——
At this moment, the last piece of candle in Fang Qianan's hand finally went out.
However, there was still a faint light in the corridor.
It's the candle in grandma's hand.
["…A Xiu, hurry up, it's time to go home."]
Grandma waved to Li Xiu, signaling him to continue walking forward.
*
"Ding Dong——"
Qiming Middle School, comprehensive building.
Hearing the sound of the elevator from afar, two young teachers hurriedly ran towards the elevator from the other end of the corridor.
Unfortunately, they didn't catch this elevator, so they could only complain and press the down button next to the elevator door while looking at the time.
"I'm so annoyed. What the hell is going on in school lately?!"
The teacher muttered anxiously to his colleagues.
"It's exam time, and they're banning people from entering or leaving the complex or using the elevator after 7pm. Do you want to do this job?"
"Haha, it's been a turbulent time recently. Several students have been in trouble."
The older teacher knew some of the gossip circulating in Qiming. His expression was a little unnatural at this time. He just laughed it off casually, but his eyes were fixed on the time on his mobile phone.
It's six forty-five in the evening.
"Fortunately, there are still fifteen minutes left, so we can definitely make it to closing time—"
She breathed a sigh of relief and was about to talk to her colleagues when the elevator rang again.
"Ding Dong——"
The metal elevator door slowly opened.
Immediately afterwards, two students fell towards them, which scared the teachers.
The two boys were obviously not in good condition. Their faces were as pale as dead people, without a trace of blood, and their lips had begun to turn gray.
"Help..."
The teacher only heard a faint moan from one of the boys, and then they both fell to the ground and fainted.
*
A week later—
A City First People's Hospital.
In a clean, bright single-bed ward, a frail boy in a light blue hospital gown sat on the bed with his eyes downcast. The bed wasn't particularly spacious, but when he sat on it, he looked so thin that the thin blankets seemed to swallow him up.
"Thank you, Teacher Chen."
Li Xiu looked at the class notes and exercise books on the bedside table and whispered to the person who was visiting the patient at the bedside.
The young female teacher frowned slightly, looking at Li Xiu lying on the hospital bed with heartache. She tried to adjust her tone and spoke as calmly and cheerfully as possible, "Alas, there's nothing to thank me for. As a teacher, seeing my student working so hard, I'm overwhelmed with joy." After a pause, she couldn't help but add, "But, Li Xiu, your top priority right now is to recover. Your grades have always reassured the teachers. If you fall behind for a week, I believe you'll catch up soon. Just take a look at these notes and exercises. Don't exhaust yourself trying to catch up..."
Listening to Teacher Chen's nagging instructions, Li Xiu forced a smile at her.
"Yeah, I know. I don't feel tired... In fact, I feel more relaxed when I'm doing the questions."
After hearing Li Xiu's answer, Teacher Chen wanted to persuade her again, but when she thought about what happened to this student, she didn't know how to start.
Just then, there were several knocks on the door.
After receiving permission, a thin, gentle, middle-aged man walked in. Teacher Chen turned and saw the man, and a flicker of unease crossed her face. She had vaguely heard some bizarre rumors recently, and had also witnessed the usually arrogant school leaders groveling before this "teacher" who practiced feudal superstition.
Seeing Xu Qinghe coming, Teacher Chen hurriedly said goodbye.
Li Xiu's expression was somewhat complicated when he saw Teacher Xu. He greeted her softly and then pursed his lips. Compared to the first time he met Teacher Xu, Li Xiu was much more silent this time.
Seeing Li Xiu like this, Teacher Xu showed a faint bitter smile on his lips.
He pulled out a chair and sat down next to Li Xiu.
"How are you feeling today?"
He asked softly.
Li Xiu was silent for a few seconds before answering sullenly, "...It's okay, it's not as cold as before."
Upon hearing this, Teacher Xu stretched out his hand and made a few vague gestures on Li Xiu's forehead, shoulders and wrists, then sat back in his original position as if relieved.
"Indeed, the Yin energy has dissipated a lot. Now the main thing is to regulate my body."
"Um."
"I was most worried about you, but I didn't expect you to recover even faster than classmate Fang. Judging from the current situation, you might be able to be discharged before him."
Li Xiu, who had always been very taciturn, finally took the initiative to talk to Teacher Xu after hearing the news about Fang Qianan: "Fang Qianan..."
"Don't worry, he's fine. It's just that the Yin energy in his body is slow to dissipate."
Recalling the person he had just met in the VIP ward of a private hospital not long ago, Teacher Xu's wry smile became more and more obvious.
"...That guy is as energetic as a husky. There's absolutely nothing wrong with him."
Li Xiu finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Then the ward fell into silence again.
Teacher Xu looked at Li Xiu, a trace of guilt flashing in his eyes. "I'm sorry about your grandmother. If I had known it would be so serious, I should have been more careful to keep an eye on you and Fang."
Hearing this, Li Xiu's hand trembled and she accidentally knocked the notebook off the bedside table.
After a long while, he suppressed his emotions and said "hmm".
A week ago, when Li Xiu finally woke up from her coma, the first news she received was... her grandmother had passed away.
An elderly woman with Alzheimer's disease died quietly in her hospital bed due to a sudden heart attack. When the school staff who went to inform her of her condition arrived, the elderly woman in the bed was already cold.
It didn't seem like a surprising death.
But Li Xiu knew very clearly that his grandmother died to save him.
The grandmother who pretended to be mysterious and fooled people turned out to be someone who really understood things... That's why, when he and Fang Qianan were almost left in another world, she chose to appear in that way and take them away.
But why didn't grandma say more at that time?
He didn't even have time to say goodbye to his grandmother.
Li Xiu tried his best to control his emotions. After all, he had cried so many times in the past few days. However, when he suddenly heard his grandmother's name, tears welled up in his eyes.
Teacher Xu sat quietly beside the bed, waiting for Li Xiu to stop her slight and suppressed sobbing.
After a long pause, the older man sighed and stared at Li Xiu, asking word by word, "Logically, I shouldn't be provoking you right now, but the situation is indeed a bit troubling... Li Xiu, I need to confirm with you how long you've been feeding 'that thing' under the bed? Who instructed you to do this?"
"That thing?"
Li Xiu stared at Teacher Xu blankly. It took several seconds before she realized what he was talking about.
"You mean, 'brother'?"
After hearing the name "brother", Teacher Xu's eyes dimmed slightly.
"Yes, that's the 'brother' you support every day."
Li Xiu's breathing became a little faster than before.
He vaguely realized something.
"It started when I was very young." Li Xiu murmured, "I always thought it was just my grandmother's superstition."
Noticing that Teacher Xu looked a little strange, a terrible thought suddenly flashed through Li Xiu's mind.
"Teacher Xu, grandma passed away. Could it be that...what happened to us is related to my brother?"
Li Xiu asked incoherently.
Teacher Xu was silent.
After thinking for a long time, he took out a yellowed photo and gently placed it in front of Li Xiu.
"Do you know her?"
He asked.
Li Xiu took a look at the photo and her pupils suddenly constricted.
The photo showed a young woman. She was very beautiful, with dark eyebrows and eyes, and long hair like a waterfall. Even the terrible pixels of the old photo could not hide her astonishing beauty.
However, perhaps because her pupils were too dark and she had no smile at all, her beauty was mixed with an indescribable gloom: this was completely different from the gentle and sweet her in the illusion.
Yes, this woman was exactly the "mother" in Li Xiu's previous environment.
After recognizing this, Li Xiu's gaze was fixed on the clothes of the woman in the photo for a long time.
He was shocked at his own slowness.
Why didn't you recognize it?
"Mom" is the "guest" who always comes to see grandma.
Although Teacher Xu asked the question, he actually didn't need Li Xiu to answer anything.
"Her name is Li Xuelin, and she is your grandmother's only daughter."
The man observed Li Xiu's expression and took the initiative to explain.
"Li Xuelin has a child whom she named Li Yu. If that child were still alive, you should indeed call him... 'brother'."