MNL Chapter 58

Chapter 58: Unveiling – I’m His Fan

Cha Fei’ang appeared fearless on the surface, but in reality, he was terrified of this kind of thing. Shen Yan and Xu Jing didn’t live at school, and even if they did, they wouldn’t agree to stay up all night to stake out the place. Zheng Tong was also timid. After thinking it over, he could only choose this netizen named Chunxue.

Linhe No.1 High School finished evening self-study at 10:40 PM. Cha Fei’ang even took the time to fix his hair before heading to the meeting.

It was just as Zheng Tong had said: this guy was either meeting a netizen, or on his way to meet one.

At 11:00 PM sharp, Chunxue showed up on time.

Cha Fei’ang looked at the boy walking towards him and felt a sense of familiarity, as if he had seen him somewhere before.

“Chunxue?”

Lu Haichuan sized up Cha Fei’ang for a moment, his lips twitching slightly. He hesitated before saying, “…I’m Dashuaige?” (Big Handsome Guy)

“That’s right, I’m Cha Fei’ang. No, bro, you look really familiar.”

Lu Haichuan raised an eyebrow. “You look familiar too.”

Cha Fei’ang flipped his hair a couple of times and said, “Really? Where have you seen me?”

Lu Haichuan said truthfully, “As Edward from One Piece.”

“…” Cha Fei’ang thought to himself: What the hell.

Lu Haichuan wasn’t interested in anything else, so he cut straight to the chase.

“I have absolutely no interest in that boring thing you mentioned, but I can go with you, provided you give me Shen Yan’s contact information.”

“Wait.” Cha Fei’ang was completely bewildered, and asked doubtfully, “If you’re not interested, then what was the point of you posting that thread?”

“Oh.” Lu Haichuan shrugged with a look of disdain, as if he had just remembered something. “I just wanted to see how many idiots would actually do such a boring thing.”

“…” Cha Fei’ang recited “harmony brings wealth” in his heart several times, and continued to ask, suppressing his temper, “What’s your relationship with Yan Shen? Do you have some kind of conflict with him? If that’s the case, I can’t agree to you, and our deal is off.”

Lu Haichuan looked at him, his tone half mocking, half amused. “The idiot’s actually pretty righteous.”

Cha Fei’ang felt a real urge to punch him.

“You still haven’t answered my question.”

After a moment of silence, Lu Haichuan said, “I’m his fan.”

“Huh?” Cha Fei’ang obviously hadn’t expected this answer, and his voice rose several octaves. “You like our Yan Shen?”

“How is that possible!” Lu Haichuan frowned and said, “You’re not only boring, you’re also stupid.”

“But you said you’re his fan? What kind of fan doesn’t like the celebrity they’re following? My girlfriend really likes Jeff Chang, she listens to his albums every day.”

Lu Haichuan closed his eyes speechlessly. “Appreciate, understand?”

“I meant appreciate in a liking kind of way, what else did you think?”

Lu Haichuan didn’t bother to speak.

In less than five minutes, he felt that he and this guy couldn’t even agree on a single sentence. Cha Fei’ang also felt that Lu Haichuan’s tone was unfriendly, and he wouldn’t try to be nice when his advances were met with coldness. The two unanimously decided to go back to their respective dorms and meet up again late at night when the rain got heavier.

As luck would have it, the dormitory supervisor, who usually came to check on the dorms at 12:00 AM sharp, didn’t come tonight. The rain outside was getting heavier and heavier. Cha Fei’ang, who usually fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow, wasn’t sleepy at all at this moment. He threw off his blanket and quietly left the dorm.

The entire dormitory building was silent. Occasionally, a few claps of thunder echoed through the sky. The stormy weather made the atmosphere somewhat eerie. The corridors were fitted with voice-activated lights, which flickered on and off, making Cha Fei’ang’s nerves tense.

Outside the window at the end of the corridor was an old, withered tree. In autumn, the leaves had long fallen off. Every time lightning flashed, the shadows of the branches appeared on the window, their shapes grotesque, like wild beasts baring their fangs and claws.

Cha Fei’ang’s heart was beating fast, and he didn’t dare approach at all. He stopped seven or eight meters away, cursing under his breath.

It was already 12:30 AM, was this guy asleep? Cha Fei’ang usually hated people who didn’t keep their word the most. At this moment, he had already cursed Lu Haichuan’s ancestors eighteen generations over.

Another clap of thunder flashed, and Cha Fei’ang took a deep breath.

“So cowardly.”

The sudden voice almost made Cha Fei’ang jump out of his skin. “Holy shit!!”

Cha Fei’ang turned around, looked at Lu Haichuan in his pajamas in front of him, and lowered his voice with a face full of anger. “How the hell do you walk without making a sound? Are you trying to scare me to death!”

Lu Haichuan scoffed: “Boring and cowardly.”

Cha Fei’ang chuckled and said, “You’re late and you still have the nerve to talk about me? Could it be that you were scared and that’s why you came so late?”

Lu Haichuan looked like he hadn’t woken up yet and was too lazy to argue with Cha Fei’ang. He pointed at the window, “So?”

“Who knows what’s going on.” The corridor, which was normal during the day, now looked like something out of a horror movie. The longer Cha Fei’ang stayed, the creepier he felt. He rubbed the goosebumps on his arms and said, “How about we just forget it and go back?”

Lu Haichuan rolled his eyes.

“There’s no such thing as all that nonsense in this world.”

“Are you saying that the boy was just making things up? Why would he do that?”

“Because he’s just as boring as you are.”

“You came even though you thought it was boring.”

Lu Haichuan shot him another eyeroll.

There was no movement, and the voice-activated lights in the corridor went out. The two stared at each other in the dark for almost five minutes. Cha Fei’ang was starting to feel sleepy and thought that this was probably just the boy making up stories. He yawned and said, “How abou-”

But before he could finish speaking, there was a sudden “bang” at the end of the corridor, as if something had hit the window, interrupting Cha Fei’ang’s words. The two quickly turned their heads.

“Oh shit, no way.” Cha Fei’ang instinctively hid behind Lu Haichuan, his eyes wide as he looked towards the end of the corridor.

The rustling sound from the legend really appeared, exactly as the boy had described. But the end of the corridor was a dead end, and it was all black. They could only vaguely see something slowly approaching them.

Lu Haichuan wanted to grab a flashlight, but he realized that he was wearing pajamas, and the flashlight was in the clothes he had worn during the day. At the same time, Cha Fei’ang was still grabbing onto his clothes, wishing he could stick to him.

“What do we do, what do we do? Should we run? I don’t want to die yet.”

“What the hell are you so afraid of.”

The sound was getting louder and louder. Cha Fei’ang felt his legs going weak. He wanted to run, but he couldn’t move. He could only hold on to Lu Haichuan tightly.

Lu Haichuan swallowed hard. It would be fine if he could see clearly, but he had no idea what it was.

Cha Fei’ang cursed, “Are these damn lights in the corridor broken?!”

Not good, it’s rushing over!

Realizing this, Lu Haichuan was about to pull Cha Fei’ang and run, but at this moment, the sound finally reached a critical point. The voice-activated lights turned on again. Cha Fei’ang hadn’t even fully opened his eyes. In a blur, he only saw a black mass suddenly jump over Lu Haichuan and pounce on him.

“Holy shit!!!”

Cha Fei’ang screamed, almost fainting on the spot. Lu Haichuan was also stunned, staring at the thing in front of him and not reacting for a long time.

At least he didn’t expect it to be…

If you called it a cat, it really was too scary looking. A large area on the top of its head was bloody and mangled. It was covered in a layer of black plastic sheeting, dirty and smelly. Messy fur covered its features, and all you could see was a mouthful of incomparably sharp fangs, as if they could bite people to death.

It pounced straight at Cha Fei’ang like that. Cha Fei’ang’s heart rate soared, and he unleashed a set of completely chaotic Dragon Subduing Eighteen Palms. But the cat didn’t seem to want to hurt anyone. It just snatched the half-eaten sausage hidden in Cha Fei’ang’s pocket, and then ran back the way it came, looking like it was fleeing in a panic. A black shadow disappeared into the corridor with a “whoosh.”

“…”

Neither of them had expected this outcome. Lu Haichuan was also shocked by the dramatic scene that had just happened. He saw Cha Fei’ang in front of him, dumbfounded, completely frightened.

“Are you okay?”

Cha Fei’ang blankly shook his head, then quickly nodded.

“It was… a cat?”

“Yeah.”

“It just took the sausage I didn’t finish eating.”

“Just a stray cat.” Lu Haichuan said, “Now that this is cleared up, give me Shen Yan’s contact information. QQ, WeChat, phone number, anything that can reach him.”

He couldn’t stop talking about this. Cha Fei’ang felt that Lu Haichuan was really cold-blooded. It was as if the cat hadn’t pounced on him, and he wasn’t the one who had been scared.

Oh well, who told him to always be a man of his word.

So Cha Fei’ang gave Lu Haichuan Shen Yan’s WeChat, and the two parted ways.

At 2:00 AM, Shen Yan had just come out of the bathroom after taking a shower when he heard his phone on the table make a sound. He thought it was a message from Xu Jing, but he found a friend request from a stranger, without any note. Shen Yan frowned and deleted it without hesitation.

In the next few days, the boys were all discussing the howling they had heard outside that night. Cha Fei’ang’s dorm was no exception. Whenever he heard this, Cha Fei’ang would look guilty and quietly walk away.

Originally, these unfounded rumors wouldn’t have caused much of a stir no matter how they spread. But on the fourth day after the boy who had spread the rumor asked for leave to go home, a huge turning point occurred.

Students at Linhe No.1 High School suddenly began to develop fevers. The number increased rapidly, like cells dividing. Everyone initially thought it was caused by the recent change of seasons, but in just a few days, nearly a third of the students had symptoms of a cold. The grade group held an emergency meeting and decided to let all the students go home first.

Liang Yin said amidst the constant coughing, “Everyone, don’t panic. It seems to be the flu. Currently, four students in our class have already developed fevers and gone home. If you feel that you have early symptoms of a cold, such as a runny nose or itchy throat, go back and buy medicine after school. If you haven’t felt any discomfort yet, be sure to take protective measures. Also, remember not to have close contact with others, don’t communicate face-to-face, and don’t eat anything that others have eaten. And remember to wear a mask!”

The sudden holiday caused the entire school to erupt.

But the noise quickly died down, probably because the teachers were entering the classrooms one after another to assign homework.

“Damn, we’re getting a holiday just like that? That’s awesome.” Cha Fei’ang rubbed his hands and turned to Xu Jing, who was drinking water, and said, “Let’s play games when we get back, Brother Jing.”

Xu Jing hummed in agreement, packed his things, and said to Shen Yan, “Let’s go.”

However, let alone playing games, Xu Jing never expected that he would actually catch the flu, and he burned in bed for three days and three nights.