Cheng Yue’s hand clutching Ji Xu’s leg was trembling slightly. After the buzzing sound in his ears faded, the thunder outside seemed to have stopped as well.
Ji Xu looked down at him, slowly reached out to grip his chin, and spoke in an unusually hoarse voice, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing… nothing…”
Cheng Yue took a few deep breaths. As he tried to stand up by supporting himself on Ji Xu’s leg, Ji Xu held his chin with one hand and pressed down on his shoulder with the other, causing Cheng Yue to lose his balance and end up kneeling on the ground.
Before he could react, Ji Xu’s finger harshly wiped across his lower lip, making him shiver in pain.
Ji Xu, however, was focused on the crimson mark he had made on Cheng Yue’s lower lip, his thoughts drifting somewhat uncontrollably.
Cheng Yue, kneeling on the ground and forced to look up at Ji Xu, licked his lips and appeared a bit dazed. “What’s the matter?”
Ji Xu was momentarily taken aback. He then straightened up and slowly released his grip on Cheng Yue’s chin.
Cheng Yue supported himself on the nearby sofa, stood up, and pouted his lower lip at Ji Xu, complaining, “You pressed on my mouth.”
Ji Xu looked at him with a somewhat complex expression. “You…”
“Why did you press on me?” Cheng Yue continued to pout, reaching up to touch his lip.
“Everyone, hurry up and leave. It hasn’t started raining yet,” Mu Jia, who had come in from outside, called out when she saw them standing in front of the sofa.
“It’s going to rain heavily later. It’s unsafe to leave when it’s thundering and storming.”
“Hmm.” Ji Xu responded, then squinted at Cheng Yue’s reddened lips for a few seconds before speaking. “Let’s go.”
“Oh.” Cheng Yue was more frightened by the thought of thunder and quickly forgot about Ji Xu pressing his lip.
The two got into the car. Halfway through, it began to rain, but fortunately, there was no thunder, which relieved Cheng Yue.
His fear of thunder had been instilled in him when he was a child. Once, he had been punished by his father for making a mistake and was forced to squat in the yard while it was lightly raining. Suddenly, a thunderstorm started, and a lightning strike hit a tree right next to him.
According to his mother, there was no immediate problem, and he cried but still had dinner as usual. However, the next day, he developed a high fever that lasted for a day and night.
Since then, he would shake with fear at the sound of thunder, and also developed some related symptoms, like leg weakness, low fever, and tinnitus.
When the car stopped in the underground parking lot, Cheng Yue, who had been nervous throughout the ride, finally relaxed a bit. He let out a small sigh and followed Ji Xu into the elevator.
“Come here and let me see,” Ji Xu suddenly said.
“What?” Cheng Yue turned his head to look at him.
“Your mouth,” Ji Xu said.
Cheng Yue, reminded by him, remembered that Ji Xu had pressed his lip hard. He touched his lower lip and felt a slight sting, which made him exclaim softly. He then stuck out his tongue to lick it and frowned, saying, “It seems like it’s cracked.”
“Let me see.” Ji Xu, who was in front of him, bent down to examine it closely.
“Don’t press on me next time.” Cheng Yue, trying to make sure Ji Xu could see clearly, even stood on tiptoe to bring his mouth closer, “My skin tears easily and takes a long time to heal.”
Ji Xu examined the small tear on Cheng Yue’s reddened lip and recalled how much force he had used at the time.
Neither of them noticed when the elevator doors opened.
Cheng Yue’s view was completely blocked by Ji Xu, so he didn’t see the person who had entered behind them and continued to complain, “My butt was already sore, and now my mouth hurts too…”
“Apply some medicine when we get back,” Ji Xu said.
Cheng Yue recalled the last time Ji Xu applied medicine to his back, which had left him feeling cold. He immediately rejected the idea, saying, “You applying medicine will only make it worse. Last time, I couldn’t even straighten my back…”
A girl standing in the elevator first appeared startled, then suddenly turned bright red, hopping up and down twice while covering her mouth.
Her reaction finally drew the attention of the two in the elevator.
Cheng Yue was startled and looked over with wide eyes.
“I…” The girl’s previously restrained expression was now strangely excited. “You… you guys keep going!”
Ji Xu: “…”
Cheng Yue: “???”
After exiting the elevator and returning to the room, Cheng Yue directly flopped onto the floor in front of the sofa.
“Get up,” Ji Xu said, kicking his leg.
“Eh…”
Cheng Yue sighed deeply, slowly getting up and heading to the room to get clothes and take a shower. He was very upset, thinking that Ji Xu used to complain about him sitting on the sofa with outside pants, but now he wasn’t even allowed to sit on the floor.
After being upset for a while, Cheng Yue forgot his troubles as soon as he was bathed in warm water. He took a quick shower and, finding no one in the living room, immediately ran out and rolled around on the sofa.
Just as Ji Xu was throwing out some trash and opened the door, he saw Cheng Yue rolling on the sofa like a dog with his big white teeth showing.
Hearing the door open, Cheng Yue froze, stood up abruptly as if shocked, and touched his nose, saying in a small voice, “I… I’ll go to bed now…”
Ji Xu looked at his swiftly retreating figure with a somewhat helpless smile and muttered under his breath, “Little lunatic.”
In the first half of the night, Cheng Yue slept soundly with his blanket. However, in the second half of the night, he suddenly had a sixth sense that something was about to happen. He gasped and opened his eyes wide.
He looked at the small light glowing on the bedside. Before he could process what was happening, a deafening thunderclap shook the room.
Cheng Yue jumped out of bed, breathless, and crouched beside the bed, too scared to move.
The thunder continued, and the wind outside grew louder. Cheng Yue, trembling and hugging his head, muttered incoherently.
When the thunder finally began to subside, Cheng Yue’s back was drenched in cold sweat. As he stood up, his legs felt extremely weak.
He sat on the edge of the bed for a while, then realized his throat felt like it was on fire, likely due to swallowing too much saliva.
Cheng Yue hesitated for a moment, looked outside the window, and seeing that there was no more thunder, he slowly made his way to the living room.
When he opened the door, he found the warm yellow floor lamp next to the sofa was on. Ji Xu, who was returning to the room, heard the noise and turned around, frowning at Cheng Yue, who was only wearing underwear and had bare legs. Ji Xu was holding a cup of water, which he had probably just poured.
“You… why are you still awake?” Ji Xu, just waking up, squinted at Cheng Yue, his gaze lingering on Cheng Yue’s exposed legs.
“I…” Cheng Yue tried to appear calm and was about to say he had come out to get some water.
Before he could finish, a thunderclap louder than any before struck. Cheng Yue felt as though the thunder was going to strike right next to him.
His legs seemed to spring up, and he jumped onto Ji Xu’s body.
Ji Xu, holding the person who had jumped onto him, looked down at the water spilled on his feet with a stern expression. His voice, still hoarse from just waking up, said, “Who told you to jump on me?”
Cheng Yue, still shaken, clung tightly to Ji Xu’s neck with one hand and grabbed his hair with the other.
His voice trembled with fear, “It was the thunder…”
“Get down,” Ji Xu said with a serious face.
“I won’t.” Cheng Yue said firmly.
Ji Xu narrowed his eyes, picked up Cheng Yue, and directly turned to walk into his own bedroom.
When Cheng Yue was thrown onto the bed, his ears were still ringing with a buzzing sound.
Then, when Ji Xu was leaning over him, Cheng Yue closed his eyes in fear, thinking Ji Xu was going to hit him.
It wasn’t until something warm and cool was placed in his ears that he slowly opened his eyes.
“Close your eyes,” Ji Xu patted his back. “Don’t be afraid.”
Although Cheng Yue’s ears were still ringing, he oddly heard Ji Xu’s words. As he tried to calm his breathing and say something, soothing light music began to play in his ears.
“Go to sleep quickly. You have class tomorrow,” Ji Xu said in a hushed voice, his lowered eyes betraying a turbulent emotion he was trying to control.
After Ji Xu managed to get Cheng Yue to sleep, he took a cold shower in the middle of the night.
He was going crazy.
The next morning, when Ji Xu dragged Cheng Yue out of bed, Cheng Yue was still dreaming.
In his dream, someone was pinching his buttocks, and he was running desperately for a long time, unable to shake off the person who seemed to have their hands stuck to his rear.
“You’re going to be late.” Ji Xu threw the blanket off him.
“Ah?”
Cheng Yue, still groggy, glanced at the time on the wall and saw it was already 6 o’clock. He immediately jumped out of bed and rushed to the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth.
When he came out of the bathroom, Ji Xu had already left. Cheng Yue, enduring the strange sensation in his rear, had breakfast and then returned to the bathroom to pull down his pants in front of the mirror.
When he saw the marks on his buttocks, Cheng Yue’s face turned dark.
There were bruises and red marks on both sides of his rear, as if something had pinched him there.
Cheng Yue immediately connected this with the dream he had the previous night and suspected…
He had been haunted by a ghost. Thinking of this made him shiver as he looked at the bruises on his rear in the mirror.
Not having time to think more, and afraid of what might happen if he stayed alone in the room, Cheng Yue quickly grabbed his backpack and rushed to school.
When he arrived at the school, the gates were already closed. A boy was locked out with him.
Upon recognizing the boy, Cheng Yue immediately wanted to turn and leave but was called back.
“Hey, what a coincidence.” Bai Zhen, looking surprised, tilted his head. “Are you from this school? I’ve never seen you before.”
Cheng Yue didn’t want to talk to him. As he glanced at the security guards in the security office, he was trying to figure out how to get in when a car’s screeching brakes came to a stop not far from them.
Bai Zhen looked over and saw three tall men in black vests and sunglasses get out of a black van.
As the three burly men walked over with stern faces, people walking on the roadside quickly changed their paths and dispersed.
Seeing the three men, Cheng Yue took a few nervous steps back.
Bai Zhen glanced at Cheng Yue, then at the three men, and, frowning, subtly shielded Cheng Yue behind him.
“Move aside,” one of the men said roughly, sounding impatient.
“Who are you guys?” Bai Zhen asked coldly, his hand already feeling for his phone in his pocket, ready to call for help.
Cheng Yue swallowed nervously and was also preparing to call Ji Xu.
“Who are we?” One of the men laughed as if he had heard a joke, then pointed at them. “Who we are is none of your business. Move aside quickly, or you might get beaten up.”
“You…” Bai Zhen frowned, about to grab Cheng Yue and run.
Suddenly, the sharp sound of a bell interrupted the tense standoff between them.
They all turned to look. An old man on an old-fashioned bicycle was riding toward them with a stern face.
The man rode quickly. Just as the group was about to move aside, the old man, balancing a stack of documents with one hand and steering the bike with the other, skidded to a stop right in front of them.
The three men, seeing this, furrowed their brows and opened their mouths to speak. “I…”
The old man interrupted directly, pointing at Cheng Yue and shouting, “Why are you late!”
Cheng Yue then realized that this old man was their math teacher.
“You…” One of the men, trying to regain his fierce expression, began to speak, but was interrupted by the old man.
“What ‘you’? Straighten your tongue and talk to me! Who are you guys? Who let you come here? Dressed like this! Little vests and pointed shoes, you’re not allowed to enter our school!”
The math teacher shouted, holding the stack of documents, “What’s wrong with your pants! Fix your clothes and straighten your pant legs!”
The three men were stunned by the scolding and hurriedly helped each other adjust their clothes and straighten their pant legs.
One of the shorter men in a black vest spat on his hands and lowered his head to try to flatten the hair he had carefully styled with hairspray in the morning.
After they had tidied up obediently, and looked up again, there was no one left in front of them.
Only the empty space before them remained, with a gust of wind blowing a few swirling leaves onto their faces.
