MNL Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Another Encounter. You’re Often Careless.

“I heard that our school was a mass burial ground many years ago. People were buried alive, dismembered, and had their bones scattered. In the end, they all came here. Every night, this place is full of wandering souls.”

Cha Fei’ang was excitedly telling his ghost stories again. This was the seventh version Xu Jing had heard from him in recent days.

After a moment of silence, only Zheng Tong gave him face and responded, “And then?”

“And then…” Cha Fei’ang drawled out the ending, his eyes sweeping over Xu Jing and Zhou Ji, and said in a ghostly tone, “When No.1 High School was first built, you could hear the wails of vengeful spirits every night. It was really scary.”

“Oh? Is it like, this kind of wail ~~Aahhh~~~”

“…Seriously?”

An even more eerie voice suddenly came from behind, startling Cha Fei’ang so unexpectedly that he fell straight from his chair into Zheng Tong’s arms.

“You’re so cowardly, yet you try to tell ghost stories,” Wen Yi said, tapping Cha Fei’ang’s head with the math homework she was holding, a fierce look on her face. “Lu Hui said you haven’t turned in your homework twice already. Hurry up and do it!”

“I’ve already finished it,” Cha Fei’ang said with a smile, handing over his homework from the bottom of his drawer with both hands, trying to please her. “Beautiful Wen, please don’t write my name down.”

Wen Yi smiled as well. “Dream on.”

“No, Beautiful Wen, Sister Wen, Miss Wen!” Watching the person heading towards the office, Cha Fei’ang was on the verge of tears.

At this moment, Zhou Ji coughed softly and raised his head with a sincere expression. “I think your horror stories are pretty good.”

“Really!” Cha Fei’ang’s eyes lit up again. “Xu Jing, what do you think?”

Xu Jing didn’t even bother to look up and commented, “The hypnotic effect is not bad.”

Cha Fei’ang: “…”

Utter humiliation.

The space in Class 104’s classroom wasn’t as large as other classes, and the desks were close together, making it easy to bump into each other. Therefore, Liang Yin separated the boys and girls the next day. However, Zhou Ji sometimes focused too much on his homework and would unintentionally touch Xu Jing, which Xu Jing found annoying.

When Zhou Ji’s leg crossed the line again, Xu Jing was about to move to the side when he heard Cha Fei’ang call out very affectionately behind him, “God Yan.”

Xu Jing was slow to react for a couple of seconds.

Ever since that time with the medicine, he felt uncomfortable whenever he saw Shen Yan. That feeling that spread all the way down his shoulder blades made Xu Jing’s back tingle whenever he thought about it.

Shen Yan’s gaze slowly moved away from the two pairs of school pants separated by zero distance. “What?”

“Someone posted your photo on the forum, and now students from other grades are asking me for your contact information,” Cha Fei’ang asked. “Should I give it out?”

Shen Yan’s gaze lingered on the person who was focused on writing his homework. Seeing that Xu Jing was completely oblivious to what was happening around him, he replied with “Whatever” and left.

“Whatever? What does that mean?” Yan Zhe asked Xu Jing. “Brother Jing, should I give it?”

Xu Jing’s tone was very unfriendly. “How would I know.”

Yan Zhe’s sensitive nose immediately detected a hint of gunpowder, and without saying a word, he turned his head and kept quiet.

Zhou Ji didn’t care about such things. He was about to change his pen refill when he accidentally saw the answer Xu Jing had written down.

“Xu Jing, why did you fill in this option for this question? Didn’t Teacher Zhou explain it in class?”

The next second, he realized that looking at other people’s answers was extremely impolite and quickly added, “N-n-not that I meant to look.”

Xu Jing glanced at the question again, and after two seconds, changed it to the correct answer.

In fact, Cha Fei’ang had been so enthusiastic about telling ghost stories these past few days because he had seen a registration announcement online. A certain entertainment organization was holding a competition that required participants to tell scary stories on stage, and the audience would vote for the top three, who would receive rich prizes.

It was rare for Cha Fei’ang to be embarrassed. He stammered out the reason, almost blushing.

“So, what are the prizes?” Zheng Tong asked after listening.

“Dream Girl.” Mentioning this, Cha Fei’ang immediately became radiant. “The one with the most votes gets a 3D model of Dream Girl. You can’t buy it even if you have the money.”

“What… Girl?”

Before he could finish speaking, Cha Fei’ang gave Zheng Tong a warning look. “Her name is Dream Girl! Don’t disrespect my goddess!”

“So you want us to be the audience?”

Xu Jing’s tone was somewhat incredulous when he asked this. He didn’t expect anyone to be bored to this extent.

“If you guys have time…”

The three of them said in unison, “No time.”

Cha Fei’ang: “…”

·

The event was held on Saturday afternoon. Xu Jing played two games and saw the admission ticket on the table, as well as Cha Fei’ang’s messages and crying emoticons filling the screen. In the end, he changed into a white short-sleeved shirt and went out.

The admission ticket stated that the location was in the city center. When Xu Jing arrived, it was close to the start of the event. People were still streaming in, making the already small venue even more crowded. Xu Jing frowned and was about to find his seat when something happened behind him. He heard someone say apologetically, “S-s-sorry.”

The familiar voice surprised Xu Jing. He turned around and saw Zhou Ji with a red face.

And Yan Zhe.

Yan Zhe returned Zhou Ji’s dropped vocabulary book and waved his hand. “It’s okay, it’s okay.”

Xu Jing had deliberately worn a baseball cap and mask today because he was afraid of being seen attending such a boring competition. He knew Yan Zhe would definitely recognize him and was about to turn around and leave, but he didn’t expect Yan Zhe’s eyes to be so sharp. He immediately saw Xu Jing not far away and shouted in shock, “Holy crap, Brother Jing, why are you here?”

Xu Jing: “…”

This guy.

If looks could kill, Yan Zhe would have been cut into a thousand pieces by Xu Jing at that moment.

Zhou Ji still looked worried and walked up to Yan Zhe, saying, “This friend, are you r-r-really okay? I’m really sorry for stepping on your shoe. I’ll pay for it.”

“…Huh?” Yan Zhe looked at his shoes and found that they were just dirty. Besides, they weren’t a famous brand. This person was too kind.

Zhou Ji’s face turned red, like a child who had done something wrong. Xu Jing couldn’t bear to watch and stepped forward, saying directly, “He’s fine.”

“Our competition is three minutes away from officially starting. Please, standing audience members, find your seats as soon as possible.”

The host’s sweet voice came from the stage, and the venue gradually became quiet.

Xu Jing’s seat number was 56, which was right in the center. When he found it, the entire row was already full, with only seat number 57 empty.

“Let’s count down five seconds and officially begin our wonderful competition!”

The people below the stage were very supportive, and the excited, high-pitched voices instantly filled the entire venue. Xu Jing had just put on his headphones when the next second, everything in front of him went black.

Xu Jing: “…”

No one had told him that this stupid competition would turn off the lights.

Just then, a voice came from seat 57. The person who came made very little noise and had a faint mint scent, clean and pleasant.

But Xu Jing couldn’t stay for another second. Having him sit in the dark for two hours would be more painful than killing him directly.

“Excuse me, according to feedback from the backstage, considering the tolerance of individual audience members, we will now increase the brightness of the venue by one level.”

The scene gradually brightened up, and Xu Jing stopped getting up, subconsciously looking to the side.

“This event doesn’t allow you to leave after it starts.” Shen Yan leaned over and said softly, “Didn’t you see it written on the admission ticket?”

Xu Jing looked back and found that the door was indeed closed.

Since it wasn’t appropriate to talk in such a quiet environment, Xu Jing could only find Shen Yan’s □□ in the class group and send a private message to ask, “Were you the one who gave the feedback?”

[SY]: Yeah.

[Male]: Why?

The other side didn’t reply for a long time. Xu Jing turned to look at Shen Yan and saw that under the dim light, the corners of his lips were curved with an unclear smile. He bent his hand at Xu Jing, signaling him to come closer.

Xu Jing, who only wanted to know the reason, didn’t think too much and leaned his body over.

“I’m not telling you.”

Xu Jing: “…”

The warm breath slid into his ear along his profile, and Xu Jing felt a little itchy at the base of his ear and couldn’t help but raise his hand to rub it.

Cha Fei’ang still based his horror story on Linhe No.1 High School, as he had originally planned. Xu Jing couldn’t leave and wasn’t interested in listening, so he dozed off against the back of his chair.

Most of the people who came to listen to horror stories were young couples. Everyone knew the purpose. Yan Zhe was sitting diagonally in front of Xu Jing. Next to him was a red-haired girl with a very flamboyant outfit. The two of them leaned close to whisper from time to time. If it weren’t for the occasion, they would have been stuck together. Xu Jing couldn’t bear to watch and didn’t want to admit in his heart that this guy was his friend.

There were armrests between the seats. Xu Jing was so sleepy that when he put his hand on it, he felt a warmth underneath. He suddenly opened his eyes and found that his hand had been placed on Shen Yan’s side.

This person obviously wasn’t listening like him and was playing with his phone, propping his head up. Noticing the movement just now, he raised his eyelids and looked over.

That hand actually moved a little towards him.

Apparently, he was showing an attitude of ‘I’m very generous, you can touch me as you please.’ Xu Jing immediately sent two messages.

[Male]: “?”

[Male]: “It was an accident.”

Shen Yan replied quickly.

[SY]: You’re often careless.

Just looking at the message gave an indescribable feeling. Xu Jing secretly glanced at the person next to him. Under the reflection of the phone’s light, Shen Yan’s face had almost no expression, and even his breathing was as steady as usual.

Sure enough, you can’t trust chatting.

The two hands were very close, but neither of them retracted or moved further. After what had just happened, Xu Jing was much more awake. The piano piece in his headphones looped a dozen times, finally waiting for the host to come on stage.

“The competition has now entered its final stage. Thank you to our twenty-five participants for their wonderful performances. Next, we will have the most important part. Please open our official website link and vote for all participants. Every person who votes may also receive exquisite prizes prepared by our organizers.”

After a thunderous applause, everyone consciously took out their phones. Since they had already come, they hoped that Cha Fei’ang would get the prize. Xu Jing also opened the link, but found that there were only serial numbers and participating works on the voting column, without even the names.

Xu Jing: “…”

His mind had been focused everywhere for the past two hours, except on the stage.