After changing his clothes, Jian Xie sat back at the desk in the room.
Senior year of high school, it was a critical period in one’s life, both the homework and the learning content were quite heavy.
He picked up the backpack hanging on the back of the chair, then took out his weekend homework and pencil case. Suddenly, his line of sight moved to the Pikachu doll on the bedside.
“……”
It was actually deformed.
Poor Pikachu.
He vaguely remembered that it was a gift from a classmate. He was in a hurry to go home so he accepted it, said thank you, and put it beside the bed without paying anymore attention to it.
He didn’t know how it offended that one.
This thought just flashed through his mind quickly, then he shook his head, picked up the pen in his pencil case and started doing his homework.
Before he could immerse himself in the sea of questions for long, Jian Xie received a text message.
——From Cheng Li.
When he sent him back last night, Jian Xie also told Cheng Li his number so that he could contact him if he had any questions later.
He opened the text message and saw a link to a website that looked a bit like a scam website. Therefore, he did not click on it immediately, but instead cautiously replied with a text message.
Jian Xie: [What is this?]
Cheng Li quickly responded: [Data for review.]
Seeing that Jian Xie was slow to respond, he sent another message: [Just fill in your experience, family situation, etc., and you can take the test after it’s reviewed. Six insurances and one savings fund, very reliable.]
As for what the extra risk was, everyone knew.
As an investigator in a high-risk profession, personal accident insurance must be arranged.
Cheng Li was originally waiting for the other party to continue sending text messages to ask about the data, but after a moment, Jian Xie suddenly changed the subject and asked a question that caught him off guard.
Jian Xie: [How do monsters appear?]
Just this one question made Cheng Li fall into deep thought. He frowned and looked at his phone for a long time.
He couldn’t help but recall the information he had seen before.
How exactly do these monsters appear in everyday life?
…This seems to be related to a game that once emerged.
Only those who were in a near-death state would enter that game, just like the legendary eighteen levels of hell that people fall into after death.
There, the Shura Palace would judge the ghosts based on the crimes they committed during their lifetime. The game divided the entire game field into eighteen areas based on the torture methods, and the players who entered them were tortured into corresponding monsters.
Only a few people could pass the levels.
But now, these creatures that only existed in hell have been integrated into reality for unknown reasons.
On the other hand, some game rules seem to have been retained, which was why only people who have been on the verge of death could have something like insight value. After all, they would’ve entered the game if it hadn’t crashed.
As for the others,Cheng Li’s level was not high enough and he couldn’t access more documents.
But, he vaguely saw the words “Eighteen Evils” appearing repeatedly in the records of those players who had fallen into madness, as if it was some extremely terrifying monster.
The Eighteen Evils, literally speaking, refer to a vicious and evil ghost that even the eighteen levels of hell could not accommodate.
It was said to be the Ruler of Hell.
Once this evil creature appeared in the world, even the Special A-level monsters rated by the Management Bureau would be like children in front of it; not even worth mentioning.
But that seemed to be just a legend. He didn’t dare to imagine what terrible consequences would occur if It really showed up.
After a while, Jian Xie finally received Cheng Li’s long-thought out reply.
[……I have no idea.]
It seemed that he was reluctant to draw conclusions directly.
Jian Xie frowned.
However, before he could comment on this, Cheng Li sent him another message, and this time it came with an attachment. Because the loading process consumed a lot of traffic, he was unable to refresh it at first.
Fortunately, Jian Xie connected to the wifi of his kind neighbor next door, otherwise he would probably have to pay for his phone bill here.
[Here is some information about monsters. If you’re interested, you can take a look at it in advance.]
While he was staring at the text message, a call request popped up in front of him, interrupting his boring wait for the file to download. Jian Xie paused in spinning his pen and squinted at the name on the phone screen.
When he saw the name clearly, he was stunned for a moment, then put down the pen in his hand and answered the phone.
Apart from the managers of several restaurants where he worked part-time and Cheng Li from the Supernatural Management Bureau, he only gave his phone number to two other people.
One was his homeroom teacher, which made it convenient for her to contact him at any time and also convenient for Jian Xie to take leave occasionally.
The other one was the class president, but they only exchanged contact information because of some class matters.
Jian Xie would not give his contact information to others casually, even though many people asked him for it. As for why the class president had it, it was because of the not very coincidental change of class officers which happened right when Jian Xie’s transferred.
Although he himself had no interest in being a class officer, he was unexpectedly elected as the new arts and literature officer after being voted by his classmates.
Fortunately, even in a private high school with a relatively relaxed atmosphere, seniors still focused more on academics. Therefore, apart from being added to the class committee group, there was no difference between Jian Xie being the arts and literature officer or not. It was just a title.
And the person who was calling him now was the class president.
In fact, they didn’t talk much during normal times. The other person seemed obsessed with learning. He was one of the most diligent students in the class. He almost never left his seat so he could study during the ten-minute break. He was very hardworking.
But the cruel thing was that despite this, his grades were only average in the class.
Although Jian Xie answered the call fairly quickly, no other sound came from the other end at the first moment apart from the strange crackling sound of static.
“Hello?”
There was no response. Jian Xie took the phone away from his ear and glanced at the top of the screen.
His signal was full, then it was the other side who has a problem.
“What’s up?” He spoke again.
“……”
After a while, there was finally a sound of deep inhalation from the other end of the phone, accompanied by the rustling of fabrics. “Jian Xie, are you free after 4 o’clock tomorrow afternoon?”
The class president’s voice was a little low, as if he was deliberately covering the receiver and guarding against something.
“Probably.” Jian Xie thought about his schedule. He didn’t have a part-time job this Sunday. “Is there anything the class committee should do?”
“…Well, it’s sort of our group activity.” The monitor gasped a few times, his tone stiff. “It’s because the English teacher fell down the stairs and is now in the hospital. I would like to organize the class committee to visit the teacher and bring her some flowers.”
Although Jian Xie didn’t want to see the snob who made things difficult for him everywhere, he had this feeling that the other’s fall down the stairs had something to do with him. This was what his intuition told him.
…It’s better to go and take a look.
So, he swallowed the words of rejection that were about to come out of his mouth.
“Okay,” Jian Xie said, “where shall we meet tomorrow?”
“R-right in front of the hospital?” The class president reluctantly said, “Please do come!”
Jian Xie replied with a “Mn”.
After waiting for a while, seeing that the other party had nothing more to say, he politely said goodbye and hung up the phone.
Coincidentally, the attachment sent to him by Cheng Li has finished downloaded during the call. Jian Xie clicked it to read it.
……
The signature tone for a call being hung up sounded.
The class president had just breathed a sigh of relief when the door of the bedroom in front of him was suddenly pulled open with great force, startling him.
In an instant, the dark room in which he had deliberately drawn the curtains and turned off the desk lamp was filled with the orange light from the living room.
However, this light, which should have been warm yellow, elongated the shadows of two figures standing at the door, making them as cold and creepy as slender ghosts and casting a terrifying shadow on the sheets which gave people an extremely heavy feeling of oppression.
The class president completely huddled himself into the quilt. Even with his back to the door, he could still feel two pairs of venomous snake-like eyes staring at his back.
His hands holding the phone were shaking helplessly, his whole body was soaked with cold sweat, his lips trembled uncomfortably, and his legs were numb and losing feeling.
“Chen Chen, was that your classmate?” A female voice from behind asked.
“Was that your classmate?” The male voice repeated the last few words.
He slid further into the covers.
No movement.
They didn’t leave.
The class president bit his lip, closed his eyes, and said in a trembling voice, “Y-yes. We’re going to visit our English teacher who is in hospital.”
The female voice said, “Be safe.”
The mimicking male voice did not even change it’s pitch, “Kh, ke… be safe.”
After a while, footsteps approached.
However, the class president didn’t dare look back. He didn’t even dare to breathe. The air he breathed into his lungs was nauseating.
He knew what kind of nightmare that was… The stench became stronger as the two already rotten corpses approached. A pitter patter sounded each time, which could be the sound of the fishy yellow corpse fluid flowing on the floor with each step, or it could be the sound of maggots sliding out of the body and struggling.
Tears welled up in his eyes and slid down silently. The feelings of regret and resentment completely overwhelmed him.
It would be nice if there was no…
The smell of decay hovered on the covers as slippery, corpse-oil-filled hands gently stroked the class president’s hair that was exposed outside the quilt, frightening the latter to the point of almost fainting.
“Is there a student…. named Jian Xie among you?”
*
At three o’clock in the afternoon, there were very few people walking outside the block, probably because most didn’t want to go out in the hot sun.
In the lobby of a mental hospital, Jian Xie lowered his eyes and looked at his cell phone. No one was answering his call.
He chewed the pills he took out of the small glass bottle he carried with him, his eyes filled with sleepiness due to sleeping late. He then felt the faint sweetness spreading in his mouth.
After a few calls, the phone still showed busy.
Jian Xie simply put away his phone and walked familiarly to the front desk, where a lady was sitting, packing documents with her head down.
“Hello.” He tapped the table lightly to attract the other person’s attention. “Excuse me, is Dr. Li here?”
The woman who was busy packing was a little annoyed. After being disturbed, she raised her head impatiently, but was stunned when she saw Jian Xie’s face.
…She just, just couldn’t get angry with him.
Jian Xie has a very refreshing appearance. Even at three o’clock in the afternoon, the hottest time of day, there were only a few beads of sweat gathered on the tip of his nose, which looks cool and particularly pleasing to the eye.
In fact, he didn’t want to come out to bask in the sun in the afternoon, but when he finished his homework, it was already this time.
“I’m his patient.” Jian Xie said calmly, “I have something to ask him.”
Cheng Li had asked him to fill out documents for a mental health certificate, which finally reminded him of the vitamin candy in his pocket.
As a result, he was now a Schrodinger’s psychopath.
There were two more things Jian Xie also wants to know.
Why was the guy so scared of him? What about that questionnaire?
When the woman heard him speak again, she came back to her senses. When she looked at him, her expression softened.
“Doctor Li? Do you have an appointment?”
Jian Xie nodded calmly and lied, “I have.”
The author has something to say:
Dr. Li is in danger
