MNL Chapter 57

Chapter 57: Strange Happenings: Do you know Shen Yan? He’s my big brother.

Chapter 57 Strange Happenings: Do you know Shen Yan? He’s my big brother.

Although Xu Jing seemed indifferent to many things, he never gave up on anything he was determined to do. So he started burning the midnight oil, working through the English materials Shen Yan gave him. He studied grammar before bed, memorized vocabulary in the morning, and spent every spare moment during the day reading. There were even times he stayed up for several nights straight to understand a few types of questions. Xu Jing never thought he would be like this. Things he previously thought impossible were actually happening because of Shen Yan.

To expand the selection pool, the province announced an increase in the number of participants. Linhe No.1 High School was allocated two more spots. After discussions, the Academic Affairs Office decided to organize a comprehensive mock competition to select the two most outstanding students from among the candidates, including Xu Jing. The exam was scheduled for Saturday morning.

That morning, Shen Yan personally cooked breakfast. Xu Jing finished washing up and sat at the dining table, reciting English compositions. His focus surprised Shen Yan, who had just come out of the kitchen.

“Eat first.” Shen Yan placed the noodles on the table.

“Mm.”

Xu Jing’s eyes remained glued to the book until someone couldn’t stand it anymore and closed it.

“Eat first; it’ll get cold.”

Xu Jing silently recited a few advanced vocabulary words in his head, and only after confirming that he had memorized them perfectly did he take the chopsticks from Shen Yan.

“Confident?”

“Seventy percent, maybe.”

“That’s enough.” Shen Yan put a piece of chicken from his bowl into Xu Jing’s, saying, “Just perform steadily in the other subjects. As long as you get 115 in English, you’ll be fine.”

“As long as.”

Xu Jing ate his noodles expressionlessly. Shen Yan saw through his thoughts immediately, and added, “It’s okay if you fail.”

“It’s not okay.” Xu Jing paused eating. Shen Yan looked up, waiting for him to continue, but realized he had no intention of saying more.

“Alright.” Shen Yan chuckled softly, simply saying, “Then I’ll await your good news.”

Only the senior students were attending classes at the school, so the teaching building was relatively quiet. Shen Yan accompanied Xu Jing to the exam location, like an inseparable guardian.

“It’s hot outside; go back.”

“Okay.” Shen Yan looked at Xu Jing and said, “Good luck.”

Xu Jing turned and waved, his figure calmly entering the classroom.

Besides the two proctors, there were five other students in the exam room, all usually ranked in the top ten in the school. Xu Jing neither knew nor cared about them. He sat in his assigned seat and waited for the exam to begin.

The first exam was English. Xu Jing was unexpectedly nervous when he received the test paper. Shen Yan had been explaining problems to him until two or three in the morning every day for the past few weeks, and he had been studying day and night. So this exam wasn’t just for Shen Yan. Xu Jing thought he should also give himself an account.

After a grueling English exam, Xu Jing realized his palms were sweaty. This paper was a bit easier than the ones Shen Yan usually gave him, but it still had many tricky questions. Fortunately, he handled the subsequent exams with ease.

The second subject was physics. The proctor suddenly walked down from the podium, circled around the first few students, and was about to stop looking when he noticed Xu Jing’s already-filled physics paper.

With half an hour left before the end of the physics exam, the physics teacher’s expression became intriguing.

…

The sun was high in the sky as the four-hour exam finally ended. The other students looked unwell as they walked out of the exam room. Xu Jing didn’t have that sense of defeat, but you could still tell from his slightly disheveled hair that the exam was indeed challenging.

Xu Jing walked out the door, rubbing his sore lower back, and looked up to see someone waiting for him in the hallway.

“…”

The scorching sun made it feel like a steamer outside. Xu Jing was startled and quickly walked up.

“Were you here the whole time?”

Shen Yan put away his phone and handed Xu Jing a soda, saying, “No, I sat in the security room for a while.”

Xu Jing took it. The condensation on the can slid down his fingertips and quickly disappeared on the ground.

“How was it?”

“Not bad.” Xu Jing took two sips of the soda, adding, “But I should be fine. Some of the questions were very similar to the types you taught me the other day.”

When Xu Jing was writing those questions, he almost suspected Shen Yan had stolen the test paper. How could someone predict the questions so accurately?

“Once you understand something deeply enough, you can handle even the most complex content with ease,” Shen Yan said. “Especially something as simple as an exam.”

“I didn’t steal the test paper, though,” Shen Yan added with a smile.

“…”

He was used to Shen Yan’s mind-reading abilities.

“I’m so sleepy. What should we have for dinner?”

“What do you want to eat?”

Xu Jing yawned and said, “Udon noodles.”

Shen Yan smiled and put his arm around Xu Jing’s shoulders. “As you wish.”

·

After studying for this period, he could now answer most of the questions Li Qin asked in class smoothly. This transformation shocked everyone in the class, especially Cha Fei’ang, who hung around Xu Jing all day, wishing Xu Jing would punch him twice and point at him, saying, “I am Xu Jing.”

But Xu Jing couldn’t do that. Faced with Cha Fei’ang’s strange behavior, he didn’t even bother to lift his eyelids. So, Cha Fei’ang would disturb Xu Jing every now and then to show his presence. Xu Jing usually ignored him. But on the few days when he didn’t sleep well and was extremely annoyed, he would kick Cha Fei’ang in the butt, finally making him behave and stay quiet for a few days.

At the same time, a strange incident occurred at school.

It started one rainy night when a male student got up to use the bathroom in the dormitory and heard a strange noise coming from the end of the hallway. He didn’t pay much attention at first, but when he came out of the bathroom, the rustling sound was still there. Listening closely, it sounded like something was sucking bone marrow. Curiosity overcame fear, and the student walked forward, but just as he was about to reach the corner, the sound suddenly stopped. Immediately after, a black shadow flashed past, accompanied by a piercing scream, scaring the student out of his wits.

The incident spread the next day. Cha Fei’ang was always very interested in these kinds of strange tales. He found out the student’s class and name in one class period, and even went to him to learn the specific details.

Xu Jing and Shen Yan both found this behavior ridiculously boring.

“No, why are you both so calm? School, black shadow, strange sound, damn, isn’t that exciting?” Cha Fei’ang became more and more agitated. Zheng Tong quietly approached him. “That—”

“Shut up, let me speak.” Cha Fei’ang thought Zheng Tong was going to steal his thunder and immediately said, “I also heard that a cold wind blew in from the window at the time. He felt dizzy, and then he got sick the next day. Not only that, but he also said he dreamed of the same woman for several days in a row.”

After speaking, Cha Fei’ang finally felt satisfied, waiting expectantly for Shen Yan and Xu Jing’s reactions.

The scene froze for a minute.

Finally, Xu Jing turned a page of his manga and said calmly, “Probably caught a cold.”

Shen Yan didn’t even take his eyes off his problems and commented, “Pretty funny.”

Cha Fei’ang: “…”

“Don’t you think this is strange? And I also heard that this has happened at our school before. It seems that a woman’s body was buried here. This woman lived a very miserable life, so she cast a curse. Everyone who is cursed will get sick first, then frequently dream of her, and finally suffer from mental breakdown and commit suicide. I live in the same building as that student. If it’s really something evil, I’m so handsome, it’ll definitely come for me first, and then I’m done for.”

“Indeed.”

“Right!” Hearing Xu Jing’s agreement, Cha Fei’ang couldn’t have been happier until the next sentence was spoken, and the smile on his face immediately froze.

“Li Qin has been waiting for you in the office for five minutes. You’re indeed done for.”

“What??” Cha Fei’ang frantically picked up his English book and immediately jumped up from his seat. “Why didn’t anyone tell me sooner!”

“Well…” Zheng Tong’s cool voice came again, “You didn’t give me a chance to speak.”

“Damn it!”

In the blink of an eye, Cha Fei’ang had disappeared at the door.

The three of them suddenly felt that their ears were clear.

However, Cha Fei’ang wasn’t the only one paying attention to this matter. Within a few days, the whole school was talking about it. Whether it was during meals or activities, you could almost hear people discussing it. And the only student who had experienced it had already taken leave to go home, because he had a fever and dizziness.

This kind of supernatural claim was baseless. After different embellishments, more than a hundred versions had been circulated. Some people even created a forum specifically to discuss this matter, and gave it a very high-sounding name called “Yizhong Strange Tales.” Cha Fei’ang naturally took the lead and became the administrator, reading those posts with relish every day.

One of the posts aroused Cha Fei’ang’s curiosity. It was posted by a person with the ID “Chunxue.” He asked if anyone would like to team up to try it on the next rainy night.

So, from that day on, Cha Fei’ang prayed for rain every moment. To this end, he also bought a photo of the Dragon King and placed it on his desk, bowing three times every morning and evening. Perhaps heaven was moved by this stupid behavior. A week later, the weather forecast finally showed that there would be thunderstorms tonight.

Cha Fei’ang immediately sent a private message to the netizen named Chunxue, but the other party found it very inexplicable, and replied with a haughty question mark.

Followed by a sentence, “You’re so boring,” which instantly broke Cha Fei’ang’s defense.

[I am a handsome guy]: Do you know who I am? Do you know who my big brother is? You’ll regret it.”

[Chunxue]: Oh?

[I am a handsome guy]: Do you know Shen Yan? He’s my big brother.

After this message was sent, the other party didn’t reply for a long time. Cha Fei’ang smiled with the smug look of a villain.

Five minutes later, he received a reply.

[Chunxue]: Eleven o’clock tonight, meet on the first floor of Building A, men’s dormitory.

[I am a handsome guy]: ???

They agreed?