Jian Xie tried to open the door.
But the door was stuck. He pushed hard but it didn’t budge.
“……”
He tried again, but still got nothing. Instead, his chest hurt. He coughed softly a few times and had to let go temporarily.
Jian Xie couldn’t exert much strength.
He put his ear against the door, and could hear the sound of the door lock clicking, probably because the classroom door was deliberately locked from the outside.
School bullying.
For a small number of students, this was not an unfamiliar word, especially in key high schools where academic pressure was increasing.
Teenagers could sometimes turn into the cruelest beasts and in order to vent, they would choose to transfer their pain to other students.
Before this, Jian Xie was the focus of the entire class.
He has excellent academic performance and a handsome and exquisite face. Even when walking to school indifferently, there were always people who couldn’t help but look back when they passed by him.
Although it was the school uniform, it appeared particularly neat and eye-catching on him.
He never attended physical education classes, didn’t participate in extracurricular activities, and didn’t like to go to dinner parties with classmates. He seemed quite mysterious.
Generally speaking, such a person would not be called the “chosen one”.
But Jian Xie knew the reason why he was.
Both his parents had passed away and his family was in financial ruin. He was able to transfer to this private high school purely because of his excellent grades.
It was unknown who spread the news, exaggerated it, and fabricated some dirty information which made him a target of deliberate ostracism by a group of students in his grade during this time.
Although Jian Xie didn’t care about these childish tricks, pretending to be a well-behaved student was also fine.
But not today, he has to go tutor at 7 o’clock and couldn’t be late.
Jian Xie thought with a bit of annoyance that after he got out, he would find a way to make this group of people not dare to bother him again.
With an expressionless face, he took out the pin hidden in his sleeve and poked it into the door lock. With a slight “click”, the door that should have been tightly locked, opened.
But the moment he saw clearly what was outside the door, Jian Xie frowned and subconsciously took a step back vigilantly.
——The classmates who were supposed to be blocking the door and laughing at him had disappeared.
In place were corpses leaning against the wall in the corridor, met with a tragic death.
The victims were bleeding from all seven orifices, their limbs were broken, and their eyeballs were bulging as if they had seen something extremely horrifying. They had tried desperately to escape but were unable to do so and could only face death in horror and helplessness.
…It was obviously not a normal way to die.
At the same time, Jian Xie heard a panting sound coming from the corridor, but there was no figure in sight. Only the sound of fluid dripping from the ceiling indicated that a monster was approaching.
He took a deep breath, looked up, and met the eyes of the huge monster on the ceiling.
It has long, narrow limbs, three pairs of fly-like compound eyes, fishy yellow saliva dripping from the corners of its mouth, and the smell of a dirty toilet emanating from its body.
As if it realized that Jian Xie could see it, it tilted its neck and stared at him with all six eyes. They reflected the slim human figure in the corridor.
This action seemed cute, but combined with its ugly appearance, the overall effect was very spicy to the eyes.
“Human? You… can see… me?”
“…”
Jian Xie had a blank expression on his face, wondering if he could just pretend that he didn’t see it and was just passing by.
Nearly a year ago, when the car accident that killed his parents occurred, Jian Xie was in the back seat of the car.
Although he was miraculously unharmed, he suffered from a strange disease that could not be explained to outsiders——
He could see all kinds of strange looking monsters mingling among the crowd.
Especially when he occasionally passes by some supernatural sites, or sees an unsolved horrific murder case on TV.
Oftentimes, there would be a dark aura lingering around the bodies of the victims, but the police and other people never seem to notice it.
The doctor speculated that he might have hit his head in the car accident. Moreover, the human brain is far more sophisticated and complex than any precious instrument.
So, although modern medicine cannot give an answer, it is very likely that his damaged nerves caused him to have persistent hallucinations.
However, these hallucinations cannot simply be attributed to mental illness. Therefore, traditional treatment was ineffective and he was discharged from the hospital.
Having heard the explanation, Jian Xie had pondered for a moment before saying slowly, “In short, I am now a legal fugitive patient from a mental hospital?”
Doctor: “…You could say that. I suggest you take your medicine on time and actively cooperate with the treatment in the future.”
Anyway, it wasn’t hard to pretend not to see it. It was just like ignoring other people.
Ever since his parents unexpectedly passed away, Jian Xie decided not to ask for anything anymore and just live an ordinary life as the most inconspicuous person.
However, this was the first time he saw a monster that killed people on its own initiative.
Normally, they just pass through the human body like jelly or plasticine, so Jian Xie didn’t take them seriously.
But the thing in front of him was clearly physical. It could climb on the ceiling and could speak.
And, the most important point—
It ate people.
Jian Xie knew that he should feel panicked and scared at this moment because it was obvious that the monster had observed that he posed no threat.
Its wings covered with smelly mucus spread out and trembled, splashing juice and blood on the surrounding walls. It was assuming the posture of a predator about to attack.
But Jian Xie was not afraid of this kind of feeling at all.
It was as if all his intense emotions and painful feelings had disappeared together with the car accident.
After learning the news of his parents’ death, many people apologized to him, but Jian Xie was not as heartbroken as they thought.
On the contrary, his heart was strangely calm, as if he was watching someone else’s story and the time before the car accident was just a memory stored in his mind.
“Hungry… so hungry…” The monster’s voice was hoarse and sharp, like long fingernails scratching on a blackboard. “You smell so good, so fragrant, I want to eat you…”
Jian Xie’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound, causing him to come back to his senses and narrow his eyes.
It was about to attack.
Sure enough, the next moment, the monster spit out a long scarlet tongue like a frog, and spread its wings as long as four meters. It pushed down the walls on both sides of the school corridor with a loud bang, and buzzed towards Jian Xie’s figure.
But to its surprise, the first attack did not directly hit the fragile human.
Jian Xie turned over nimbly and it barely brushed his shoulder.
Although he was prepared to avoid the heavy blow from the long tongue, his body had become extremely weak after the car accident and would not be able to withstand a second blow.
Strangely enough, ever since the car accident, he had become extremely sleepy and physically exhausted. He would also often become distracted in class and unable to concentrate.
There was even one time when the homeroom teacher privately called Jian Xie to the office and told him earnestly that even if he loved studying, his health was the capital of revolution, and if he continued to stay up late, his body would not be able to bear it and it would not be worth it in the end.
But Jian Xie always went to bed at ten o’clock and never woke up in the middle of the night, so his sleep quality should be very good.
However, it was precisely because of this disadvantage that he saw the monster approaching but had no way to avoid it. He could only grit his teeth and endure the painful blow.
“Bang!”
The expected pain did not come. Jian Xie opened his eyes and looked up, only to see the monster’s huge body crashing into a non-existent barrier in the air. It was as if an invisible hand had strangled its neck, forcing it to be stuck in mid-air and begin to twist and scream in pain.
“What— you’re, you’re… a predator, predator!!”
With its body trembling with fear, it opened its eyes wide in horror and looked at Jian Xie, who was leaning against the wall with a puzzled look on his face.
The six scarlet compound eyes squeezed and expanded. It struggled in horror as if to retreat, but the strength that could easily have knocked down steel bars and concrete seemed useless, leaving it unable to fight back.
It was like being roasted on fire.
Its screams were too heartbreaking but there was clearly no visible attack. Its limbs twitched helplessly in the air.
It seemed as if it was being punished simply for the action of “getting close to Jian Xie”.
Jian Xie paused, then tentatively took a few steps towards the monster while holding on to the wall.
At the same time, its screams became louder as it begged for mercy, “S-Sorry… Sorry, I didn’t recognize it as yours, ah——”
Jian Xie, who had just walked a few steps, paused. “…………”
I reasonably suspect that you are committing fraud, but I have no evidence.
The monster seemed to be in unbearable pain. When its compound eyes saw Jian Xie just a few steps away, a trace of resentment suddenly flashed in its eyes. It let out a sharp scream and tried its best to attack the opponent again.
As long as this human being is killed—
The change came abruptly!
With a short and shrill scream, the skin of the monster hanging between the ceiling and the non-existent air barrier began to melt at an alarming speed.
The scales on the surface of its skin began to peel off, and within a few breaths, its originally huge body had shrunk to the size of a tumor.
Then in the blink of an eye, it completely disappeared into the air. The area around Jian Xie instantly fell into deathly silence…
The monster had vanished completely.
The blood drops that had not yet completely dissipated suddenly whizzed down like a rainstorm while the air above Jian Xie’s head acted like a transparent umbrella.
Even when the entire corridor was dyed red with blood, his school uniform remained clean, and even his white sneakers were not stained with a single drop of blood.
Immediately afterwards, all the bloodstains flowed toward the soles of Jian Xie’s shoes then disappeared without a trace as if swallowed by the unknown.
The dark atmosphere disappeared, the entire corridor suddenly became eerily clean, and the originally broken wall miraculously remained the same as before.
…Was it an illusion?
But the three grotesquely dead bodies were still in the same spot.
Just as Jian Xie was standing there thinking, a contemptuous, annoyed, yet unexpectedly strong nasal sound rang in his ears.
【Tch.】
Jian Xie was silent: “…………”
After a moment, he calmly took out the mobile phone in his school uniform pocket and made a call.
——Hello, doctor, are you there? My condition has worsened.
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