Li Xiu, are you deliberately trying to piss me off to death—"
The vehicle started slowly under the driving of Teacher Xu.
"That's a ghost, okay? You're still foolish enough to let that thing brainwash you. Did you use all your IQ to solve math problems?!"
The first sound that rang out in the trembling carriage was the angry roar of the former school bully.
Fang Qianan stared with his eyes wide open at the boy who was biting his lips and not saying a word in the corner of the seat, one hand still holding the latter's wrist which was so thin that it seemed like it would break if bent.
However, while cursing Li Xiu madly, this 1.9-meter-tall boy himself was still shaking unconsciously due to excessive nervousness.
Only Fang Qianan himself knew how scared he was.
It's clearly pulled so tightly...
I clearly swore that I would protect Li Xiu in the thick fog no matter what.
But when they arrived at Teacher Xu's car and were about to get in, Fang Qianan felt that Li Xiu in his hand suddenly slipped away from his palm like a swimming fish.
No matter how he called Li Xiu's name, the boy turned a deaf ear to him and instead walked quickly and blankly into the depths of the thick fog.
Until now, Fang Qianan could still feel his heart beating wildly, and at least two souls and five spirits out of his three souls and seven spirits had not been completely recovered.
"...It was already like that, and you didn't even raise your guard. That thing used your grandmother's appearance to deceive you, and you foolishly followed it! I used to watch horror movies and wondered who could be so stupid as to do that. And now, that person is right next to me!"
"But, that's grandma…"
Li Xiu lowered her head and replied with a choked voice.
"Your grandma has been turned into a zombie by that thing! You saw it yourself!"
Fang Qianan's voice suddenly became much louder, and he yelled at Li Xiu fiercely.
"Wake up, please!"
"I'm clear-headed!" Li Xiu suddenly raised her face and cried out to Fang Qian'an, tears streaming down her face. "I know it was Master Hong pretending to be me. I shouldn't have been deceived, but... but I can't see my real grandmother anymore! My grandmother is dead!"
When Li Xiu heard the news of her grandmother's death while lying on the hospital bed, she was able to maintain her composure on the surface and only started crying after everyone else had left.
As a result, Li Xiu could no longer control herself and burst into tears in front of Fang Qianan.
"My grandma is dead. You know, I don't have a grandma anymore... Woohoo... Why did you yell at me so loudly... I know I'm stupid, but... that was my last chance to see my grandma..."
Fang Qianan, who was yelling at Li Xiu in the previous second, was completely panicked in the next second.
"You, why are you crying so easily..."
He looked at Li Xiu's eyes, which were wet and red with tears, in panic, and was completely stunned.
"Yes, I'm sorry!"
After a moment, the former school bully stammered and began to apologize to Li Xiu.
"Hey, you, stop crying. I just... well, I was just too anxious, so I was so loud. I didn't mean to scold you... Bah, actually, I was mad at myself..."
Fang Qianan was frightened by Li Xiu's crying.
He wanted to wipe away Li Xiu's tears, but he couldn't find any tissue after searching for a long time.
He subconsciously wanted to roll up the hem of his T-shirt, but just as he raised his hand, he put the clothes down awkwardly - his clothes were covered with dust and blood from when he escaped, and they looked very dirty, so he was reluctant to use them to wipe Li Xiu's face.
"I'm sorry, it's really my fault, please don't cry."
In the end, Fang Qianan had to carefully wipe away Li Xiu's tears with his fingertips. His palms were wet from Li Xiu's tears, and they burned his whole chest.
In the end, it was Teacher Xu who smoothed things over.
He gestured for Qiao Yang to retrieve a few boxes of napkins from the storage compartment and hand them to the two high school boys behind him. After Li Xiu calmed down a bit, Teacher Xu coughed a few times and said, "Ahem, Fang, you really don't have the right to criticize Li Xiu. How good do you think you are? You just rushed out like that and scared us."
"That's right," Qiao Yang couldn't help but interject, "You didn't even listen when I called you, and you rushed out when Li Xiuyi didn't see you. If it weren't for our good luck, we would have had to rely on the Calabash Brothers to save Grandpa, and we would have all fallen into trouble one by one——"
Li Xiu was blowing her nose with red eyes, but when she heard what Teacher Xu and Qiao Yang said, she couldn't help but look at Fang Qianan.
Fang Qianan scratched the back of his head uncomfortably, and even his voice was weak and pitiful: "I... I was in a hurry, so I didn't pay attention."
After the words fell, Teacher Xu and Qiao Yang stopped talking and the carriage fell silent.
Li Xiu lowered her eyes and her tears gradually subsided.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
"It's okay—" This time it was Teacher Xu who took over. "Ghosts blind the eyes and bewilder the mind. These things are meant to prey on people's weaknesses. Li Xiu, you've done a great job. If a normal student came here and encountered something like what happened tonight, they would probably have been frightened to death."
"Yeah, I've never seen anything like this tonight. Even in foreign zombie movies, it's like this—"
Qiao Yang also responded.
It would have been fine if he hadn't mentioned it. As soon as they mentioned what had happened tonight, everyone's mood darkened again. The night fog was still thick outside the car window, and the four of them were still not completely out of danger.
"Teacher Xu, what should we do next?"
Li Xiu calmed himself down and asked in a hoarse voice.
Teacher Xu opened his phone and set the navigation.
The navigation system's voice overlapped with his reply: "...The A City Martyrs' Cemetery is nearby. Let's go there first."
["Get ready to go. The entire journey is 2.5 kilometers and will take approximately 7 minutes. Turn right after 30 meters—"]
…
"ah?"
"Martyrs' Cemetery?"
"Teacher, wait, cemetery?"
The other three people in the car were a little dumbfounded.
Only Teacher Xu remained calm. "Yes, it's the cemetery... The Martyrs' Cemetery is filled with revolutionary martyrs. Their heroic spirit is extremely strong and can best restrain evil spirits. It should be able to protect us for one night."
After hearing Teacher Xu's explanation, the other three finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The Martyrs' Cemetery in City A is actually a public park, so it's not far from the Fang family's building. If there weren't special circumstances, with Fang Qianan's extraordinary physical strength, even if he carried Li Xiu on his back, he could run there in more than ten minutes. Not to mention that they were still driving now -
However, as time passed, they still failed to reach their destination which was so close.
"Teacher...is this car going slower and slower?"
Qiao Yang, who was sitting in the passenger seat, had beads of sweat on his forehead.
He glanced at the car's control panel, which showed that the current speed was sixty miles per hour.
However, perhaps because there was only thick fog outside the window and no reference point for moving forward, he felt as if the car was moving so slowly that it was about to stop.
"teacher?"
"It's okay... It's just a way to disturb people's minds, don't be afraid."
Teacher Xu said word by word.
However, before he could finish his words, the radio in the car, which had been gathering dust for who knows how long, suddenly rang.
"Zizizizi... I have you tonight... Zizizizizizi... Next is the night weather forecast for City A... Zizizi... Sleepless Night Emotional Radio... Zizizizi... Will you come tonight..."
Amidst the noisy radio programs and clips of old songs that had long since fallen out of popularity, there was also a harsh sound of electricity. The strange sound swirled in the carriage, frightening everyone except Teacher Xu.
Because they all heard it, the hoarse whisper that could not be ignored amidst the harsh sound of electricity.
"A Xiu…"
"Come, follow me..."
"My Ah Xiu... why are you crying so sadly?"
"I'll kill them all, okay?"
…
With a "click" sound.
Teacher Xu had a blank expression on his face and reached out to turn off the radio.
I don't know what method he used, but there was a little bright red blood on the round button of the radio switch.
And the disobedient car radio finally stopped ringing.
But this brief peace did not last at all.
Because the next second, cell phone rings rang out one after another in the carriage.
The phone automatically connected.
"A Xiu...it's so late, why haven't you gone home yet..."
An old voice came from the microphone.
It's my grandma's.
"A Xiu, be good, it's time for you to go home."
As if disturbed, the old whisper was strangely elongated.
"Your brother is hungry..."
"Hee... Ah Xiu... It's time to go home... It's time to give your brother something to eat..."
…
The voice gradually changed its pitch.
Sometimes it sounded like an old woman's call, and sometimes it sounded like a young man's low, hissing whisper.
An indescribable chill slowly spread through the carriage, following the sound. Li Xiu could feel her body shaking uncontrollably, and she felt dizzy.
In a trance, he could even feel as if a pair of cold hands were caressing his neck.
My hair stands on end and I feel nauseous and want to vomit.
"Everyone smashed their phones."
Teacher Xu gripped the steering wheel tightly with both hands, staring at the front of the car and speaking word by word.
"Ah? Ahhh—"
Qiao Yang, clutching his newly bought phone, was completely stunned when he heard the teacher's words. But before he could finish his thought, a hand reached out from behind and snatched his phone away. Fang Qian'an, expressionless, grasped the phone in his hand, breaking it into pieces as easily as if it were a bar of chocolate.
"I still have my phone and am paying off the installment!"
Qiao Yang held the remains of the phone that Fang Qianan had thrown back in his hands, his expression even uglier than when he was scared by the ghost before.
"There will be new models next month."
Fang Qianan said to Qiao Yang without a trace of sympathy, then turned to look at the silent Li Xiu: "...Do you like the style of Xueli ProMax?"
Li Xiu was still staring at the discarded phone in a daze. He was unable to react at this moment and looked a little dazed.
"ah?"
Fang Qianan took a deep breath and smiled at the boy beside him: "When this is over, I will give you a better phone. You should have replaced your crappy phone long ago."
After saying that, he reached out and rubbed Li Xiu's hair hard.
"Don't refuse. I'm older than you, so you should call me brother. As an older brother, it's your duty to buy a mobile phone for your younger brother."
Before he could finish his sentence, the car suddenly jolted. Everyone fell forward, then were strapped back into place by the seatbelts, their chests tightening painfully.
…
"grass--"
Teacher Xu cursed.
The car stalled.
…
The thick fog instantly tightly wrapped around the stationary car.
Without the roar of the engine, the surroundings suddenly became terrifyingly quiet.
"jingle--"
The copper bell hanging on the upper left corner of the carriage suddenly rang softly.
Li Xiu subconsciously shrank back and leaned towards Fang Qianan. He still remembered that Qiao Yang had explained to him that the copper bell hanging in the carriage would only ring when it sensed Yin energy.
He couldn't help but look out the car window again. There was still only thick fog, and it seemed no different from before.
"jingle--"
But the next second, the bell rang again, and this time, the sound seemed to be more urgent than before.
"jingle--"
"jingle--"
"jingle--"
Just as Li Xiu was thinking this, the brass bells hanging in the four corners of the carriage rang simultaneously. Meanwhile, Teacher Xu, sitting in the driver's seat, frowned ever deeper. His already pale face seemed to lose even more color, and even his lips had turned a grayish white.
Along with the deafening sound of copper bells, many stiff shadows appeared in the fog outside the car window, which was originally so thick that one could not see one's hand in front of one's face.
Those blurry shadows gradually gathered around the only lighted carriage in the thick fog.
And right next to Teacher Xu, a navigation broadcast suddenly came from the old Nokia mobile phone that had long been bent into a V shape.
"Ready to go... zizizi... 2.5 kilometers... zizizi... About 7 minutes. Turn right in 30 meters—"
…
Everyone in the car suddenly froze.
I have been driving for so long, but the navigation has never changed.
They have always stayed where they are.
The author has something to say:
Xiao Fang: I can buy Ah Xiu a new phone. Haha, unlike some people (ghosts) who can't do anything except scare people (sarcastically) (smile)