Chu Banyang said he wanted to run for election, and he really went up.
He stood on the podium, propped up his hands, and said in a rather calm tone: "Hello everyone, my name is Chu Banyang, and the position I am running for today is the study committee member..."
Yao Gou was stunned: "Wow! He is also a ruthless person!"
Wu Runzhi, who was crying his heart out, was also confused. He probably didn't expect that Chu Banyang would sneak in among his classmates.
Chu Banyang continued, "I have been an excellent student since childhood. I have participated in various competitions since elementary school. The awards I won include first place in the city's Mathematical Olympiad, first place in the Youth Programming Competition, and first place in the primary and secondary school student science and technology competition..."
He listed more than a dozen awards in a row, each one different.
Then he added: "I also did very well in junior high school, and continued to participate in various competitions, including the Hua Luogeng Mathematics Competition, the provincial 'Chinese Language Cup' competition..."
There are more than a dozen different awards, all for first place.
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
It was more than ten years ago, but Chu Banyang can still recite those awards by heart and can easily win them.
We must have rehearsed it secretly many times at night!
What kind of persistence does he have to have to make him remember it till now!
The classmates in the audience were also confused and stared at Chu Banyang blankly.
Chu Banyang: "In addition to studying, I also have a wide range of extracurricular activities. I got the Grade 8 certificate in piano when I was in primary school. I also learned horse riding, Go and chess, and specialized in tennis and golf..."
He went on talking without pausing for half a second.
Judging from his serious and earnest expression, the ups and downs of his voice, and his firm and strong attitude, he seemed to be analyzing a case in front of all the exorcists of the Qingdeng Society, rather than participating in the election for class leader.
He wanted to continue speaking, but the teacher next to him coughed and said, "Student Chu, everyone only has 5 minutes to present themselves. Your time is up."
Chu Banyang paused with a look of unfulfilled desire, straightened his collar, and said elegantly, "My speech is over. Thank you everyone."
After saying this, he walked down the podium with his head held high, feeling quite like a sword being sheathed.
Everyone was stunned.
After a long while, there were rustling and hesitant applause.
"A..." The teacher didn't know how to comment, "Ah, our student Chu is very outstanding. Not only does he have excellent grades, but he is also well-balanced in all aspects. So, are there any other students who want to run for the position of study committee member?"
The class was in a state of panic.
The teacher asked several times, but no one responded. Everyone was stunned by Chu Banyang's brilliant performance.
So the teacher said, "Okay, let's congratulate Chu for becoming the study committee member of our class!"
Everyone applauded in bewilderment.
Chu Banyang nodded slightly and politely expressed his gratitude to the people around him, with satisfaction in his eyes, as if he was saying "you guys are connoisseurs".
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
He once again felt deeply moved that Chu Banyang was completely hopeless, and his obsession with being the "first place" simply surpassed everything.
Just like that, a class meeting ended.
"Ding-ling-ling—"
The bell rang for the end of get out of class, and the students packed up their things and prepared to leave.
Fang Yu also put his hand on Wu Runzhi's shoulder and said, "Old Wu, shall we go play ball? Those guys from Class 3 said they want to play a game with us today."
Wu Runzhi was stunned for a few seconds, then nodded with a sour look in his eyes: "Yes. If you want to fight for a long time, we will fight for a long time."
"Why are you so straightforward today?" Fang Yu patted his shoulder. "You have cured your mother-in-law and mother-in-law by getting sick once. I have another good news for you." He whispered mysteriously into Wu Runzhi's ear, "Jiang Ruoyun will also go today."
Jiang Ruoyun is Wu Runzhi's secret crush.
He never said "I love you" until the very end.
Wu Runzhi was stunned again, and then Fang Yu took his arm around his shoulders and walked straight to the playground.
Yao Gou scratched his head and asked Lu Yingjiu: "What should we do? Should we follow them?"
"Let's follow and take a look." Lu Yingjiu said.
When we got to the playground, it was bustling with people coming and going.
Except for the students in Class 2, the other students were just black silhouettes with mist all over their bodies and no expression.
When Lu Yingjiu walked through the figures, he tried to touch them. His fingertips felt cold, the mist dissipated, and the entire figure disappeared.
Yao Gou found it curious and bumped into several dark shadows on the road, making them disappear.
—Only the people from Class 2 died and remained on campus.
The others are not even ghosts, they are just part of the background.
No matter how realistic it looks, it cannot conceal the fact that it is an illusion.
The basketball game was about to begin. A group of boys and Wu Runzhi were crowded together, and five or six black figures stood opposite them.
A whistle blew!
The basketball flew over the blue sky!
Three-pointer, block, dribble, fadeaway jumper…
Wu Runzhi fought and cried again.
Beaten and crying.
Crying and beating.
He actually performed quite well and scored several goals in a row.
Just like in class, no matter how hard he cried, no one thought it was wrong.
The ghosts didn't notice that he was crying, nor did they notice that he had already become a thirty-something man, nor did they notice that there were decades of time, life and death between them.
There was a girl in white standing at the edge of the playground. She had a ponytail and was holding an unopened bottle of iced mineral water. Her eyes followed Wu Runzhi with interest.
Lu Yingjiu sat on a bench in the playground and said to Jing Xian, "Look, that must be the Jiang Ruoyun they were talking about."
"Yeah." Jing Xian nodded and lowered his eyes slightly, "It seems that they have a mutual crush on each other."
He held the furry ball that had just escaped in his arms and scratched its chin, making the little animal hum comfortably.
Then Jingxian stood up and raised the ball of fur—
Before Lu Yingjiu could stop him, he saw Jing Xian threw the hairy ball out in a standard pitching posture!
Maotuan: “Ouch?”
It flew through the air, went accurately into the basket, then fell to the ground and bounced several times, looking confused.
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
Jing Xian just turned around and said with a bit of pride: "Look, my ball skills are pretty good... ah."
He was hit hard on the head by Lu Yingjiu.
Jing Xian subconsciously touched his head and said, "Didn't you throw it out before?"
"I was forced to do that. I didn't throw it away for fun like you did." Lu Yingjiu glared at him, "Pick it up quickly."
Jing Xian had no choice but to get up and pick up the furry ball that was running around. He felt like he was being scolded for taking care of a child.
Wu Runzhi was still sweating profusely over there.
After a long intermission, he took the water from Jiang Ruoyun and took a few sips. He wanted to say something to her, but in the end he didn't take a sip.
Then he was back on the field.
It was also because of his good performance today, scoring goals one after another, that we won by a large margin in the end, a beautiful victory.
Lu Yingjiu and Jing Xian wandered around the school and returned to the classroom, where they saw Wu Runzhi had also returned.
He sat in the classroom, holding Fang Yu tightly and not letting him leave, muttering a lot of things.
There was a basketball game medal on the table. He had just cried so hard that his eyes were still red.
Chu Banyang also came, holding a class list in his hand.
Lu Yingjiu glanced at the list and found that he had actually ranked the students and even circled the last five names, noting that they needed tutoring.
He immediately assumed the role of a study committee member, fulfilling his duties and doing his best. If Chu Banyang had been given a little more time, he would have personally tutored the students, and he would have made sure that the average score of the entire class would be the highest in the grade.
As soon as the three of them entered the classroom, Wu Runzhi turned around and said to them, "You are finally here!"
"How is it?" Lu Yingjiu sat down in front of him.
Wu Runzhi asked hurriedly: "I want to know, when will this illusion end? How long do I have left to stay with them?"
Lu Yingjiu pointed to the wall and said, "The calendar shows March 21st. I read the news and the accident happened on March 24th. In other words, it must have happened in March at the latest."
He added: "Also, the flow of time in the fantasy world is often faster than in reality. According to real time, you may only have about 1 hour."
Wu Runzhi was stunned for a while, and then continued to ask: "Is there any way we can save them? For example, stop them at No. 24 and prevent them from getting on the bus? That way they won't die."
“… It’s impossible.” Lu Yingjiu shook his head. “It’s just an illusion. There’s no way to change the past.”
The light in Wu Runzhi's eyes dimmed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Chu Banyang said calmly: "I want to remind you that this illusion is very unstable. It carries too many ghosts at the same time. It may not even last for the 1 hour you mentioned."
Wu Runzhi raised his head suddenly: "What should I do?"
"... We can only try our best to maintain the stability of the scene." Lu Yingjiu leaned against the window and overlooked the campus.
Chu Banyang continued, "Also, your classmates cannot die before the 24th. The departure of every ghost will cause great disturbance to the illusion. If they all dissipate, there will be no salvation."
Wu Runzhi looked at them and said, "I don't know much about exorcism. Can you... can you help me?"
He continued, "Since they asked me to come back in their dreams, they must have some unfulfilled wishes. Whatever their wishes are, I want to buy some time to figure them out and then help them realize them."
His voice was tearful again. A man in his thirties was as fragile as a child today.
Lu Ying sighed drunkenly.
Then he said, “Well, I’ll try.”
Chu Banyang also snorted softly, which was considered as his agreement.
Wu Runzhi kept thanking them, and finally he and his good brother Fang Yu put their arms around each other and prepared to go to the dormitory.
…
After Wu Runzhi left, Lu Yingjiu and Li Jingxian prepared to take another close look at the campus.
For most of the exorcism commissions, he is about breaking through illusions and inner demons.
It was also his first time to protect the illusion, so his experience was inevitably insufficient.
It was almost dusk.
The sky is the junction of orange-red and dark purple. The rich colors spread out on the edges, and with the clearly layered clouds, it looks like an oil painting.
Jing Xian took out two bottles of ice drinks from his dimensional backpack and handed one to Lu Yingjiu.
Lu Yingjiu took it and looked at the playground under the setting sun.
The noise of students and the collision of basketballs could be heard. They stood among the people coming and going. Although they knew that everything was an illusion, they still felt for a second that they were in a real campus.
Lu Yingjiu recalled that he had seen similar scenes many times when he was in school.
At that time, he sat by the window of the classroom and looked out. A huge sunset fell between the buildings, and the warm light painted the glass. Students were running on the playground, and the wind blew through the old trees in the school, shaking them.
The dusk is very beautiful.
But after nightfall, shadows devour everything and ghosts become active.
Every time he would subconsciously touch the longevity lock on his chest - it had almost become his habit, as if by doing so, he would encounter fewer ghosts tonight.
At this time, Lu Yingjiu recalled the past and suddenly realized that he had not touched the longevity lock for a long time.
As per his habit, he still wore it every day.
But when he was thinking and hesitating, his first reaction was no longer the same.
But...
Lu Yingjiu turned his head to look at Jingxian with a soft expression.
Jing Xian was staring at a few male classmates in the distance. Those classmates were sitting on a bench and chatting. Each of them held a bottle of energy drink and threw it forward violently. The water flow rotated and created a small vortex in the bottle.
Jing Xian stared at them for a while.
Lu Yingjiu whispered in his ear: "Why? Haven't you seen it before?"
"I haven't seen it before." Jing Xian said, tilting his head to rub against Lu Yingjiu intimately, "Why don't you teach me?"
"What's there to teach you?" Lu Yingjiu said, "Just push the bottle forward and the water will start to swirl on its own."
Jing Xian heard this and did as he said.
Sure enough, a small vortex appeared in the bottle.
Lu Ying was drunk: "Yes, you will learn it now, right?"
Jing Xian turned it a few more times and said to him, "This is not fun, not exciting enough. Let me show you a way to play in the ghost world."
He unscrewed the bottle cap and gently reached out—
A gust of cold wind arose, stirring the water to spin in the air, flexible and alive. He hooked his finger again, and the water condensed into a few small fish, which flicked their tails in the air and swam around the road to greet the wine.
Lu Yingjiu touched a small fish, and the ball of water turned into a blooming flower.
The petals bloom layer by layer, and the water has a warm luster under the light, bringing a unique crystal feeling.
Lu Yingjiu said: "Your trick would be very effective in picking up other people, especially girls, who should like it."
He sighed casually, but Jing Xian immediately became alert: "I won't pick up other people!!"
Road to welcome wine:
Jing Xian became visibly panicked, and with a wave of his hand, all the small fish swam back into the bottle.
Then he held Lu Yingjiu's hand tightly and assured her, "My love for you is as endless as the surging river and as firm as the distant green mountains. I will never use such a trick to seduce others!"
Road welcomes wine:?
Lu Yingjiu: "... Don't be so nervous, I really just said it casually."
Jing Xian: "No, all the novels I read tell me that if you just say that casually, you must be suspicious of me. The next step is to break up, and then chase your wife to the crematorium, and you may even change your boyfriend directly!!"
Road welcomes wine:
He had never seen anyone block a shot on his head like that.
He was full of confusion and said: "Jingxian, what kind of novels do you usually read... Calm down, this is what I really mean, I don't have the habit of using subtext..."
Jing Xian still pulled his hand excitedly: "You don't like flowers, right? Then I won't show you anything better. Don't be angry, I'll show you something better! I guarantee you'll like it!"
He snapped his fingers, and the water in the bottle gushed out again.
Next, the water flowed horizontally in the air.
Jing Xian snapped his fingers again, and balls of water flew out, hitting the wall of the playground!
For a moment, the only sound in Lu Yingjiu's ears was the sound of bullets.
Dust was flying in front of me, the whole place was in a mess, and the white wall was riddled with holes from the water bullets. The water was rushing past like a machine gun, extremely violent!
Jing Xian showed off the water machine gun and turned back to look at him: "Do you like this?"
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
Seeing the holes on the wall and the stunned students, he quickly picked up Maotuan in one hand and Jingxian in the other, and fled the scene of the accident with his family.
As soon as they turned the corner, Lu Yingjiu started hitting Jing Xian's head.
Jing Xian felt a little aggrieved, and hugged him tightly as soon as he got in touch with him, and asked, "Now you don't misunderstand me, right?"
"I never misunderstood!" Lu Yingjiu knocked him, "Read less novels in the future!"
Jing Xian continued to hug him, and as he hugged him, his hands became less stiff and he pinched his waist.
There was only a little light left in the setting sun, and the scattered light gently brushed the soft black hair of Passing By Yingjiu, leaving a few strands of soft light.
The orange-red color also fell on his side face, outlining his delicate eyebrows and eyes. His skin was smooth, and you could imagine its delicate touch just by looking at it. There were bright shadows in the hollows of his shoulders and collarbones.
There was no one else in the corner except them.
Students seldom passed by here. They were like a pair of young lovers who were afraid of being discovered, hiding in the farthest corner of the campus.
The two looked at each other.
At that moment, Lu Yingjiu looked at Jing Xian and thought of many things.
He thought of the longevity lock, the time when the ghost would linger, the text message sent by Old Lady Chen, the photo Zhang Nianyun took of him secretly, and the moment Chu You grabbed Chu Banyang's hand before he died and asked him if he knew Lu Yingjiu.
He thought of the temple built by Chu Qianju, and the ghost exorcist in white clothes with slender fingers in the mural, who turned out to be his previous life. He thought of the curse of the Peacock God and Chu Qianju, and how they could never be together, and could only fight each other and wait for the next reincarnation.
He thought of the huge eyes beside him, mixed with lightning and thunder, summoning the servants on the road, and the blood flowed like a river on the road, like purgatory...
All kinds of disturbing images flashed through my mind.
Finally, his consciousness returned to the mind and he saw Jing Xian's deep eyes.
Jing Xian hugged him and whispered in his ear: "What else do you want to see? I'll show you."
"Goodbye," Lu Ying said drunkenly, "I'm really afraid that you will tear down the whole school."
Jing Xian was about to say something angrily, but Lu Yingjiu had already pulled down his collar, made him lower his head, and kissed him.
The last ray of light in the sky lengthened their shadows and fell on the white wall.
The evening breeze was so comfortable that they both kissed passionately.
While kissing until he was dazed, Lu Yingjiu thought that he didn't need the longevity lock at all because Jing Xian was right beside him.
When Jingxian retreated, the last light happened to be swallowed up by the horizon, and the sky became dim.
He looked down and greeted the wine.
Lu Yingjiu's expression of emotions was far less outgoing than his. At this moment, all emotions were in her eyes. Jing Xian only felt that her eyes were still sparkling, bright and beautiful, and the brilliance in them would never set.
That was a light that he would never see in the ghost world.
It was also his only salvation.
It was getting darker and darker. Lu Yingjiu said in a low voice, "Let's go. There will be no one in the playground."
“… Yeah.” Jing Xian nodded.
Lu Yingjiu walked a few steps and said, "Don't play with your drink machine gun from now on, and don't shoot basketballs with the wool balls."
Jing Xian: “Hmmmm.”
As perfunctory as always.
Lu Yingjiu said: "Let's go check on those students again. As long as we don't let them die, there will be no problem."
Having said that, he didn't think it was a big deal.
As long as it is the 24th, if there is even one ghost left in the class, the illusion will end smoothly.
Although the illusion is different from reality and anything can happen, but in school, no matter how suicidal or unlucky you are, it is impossible for a class of 20 people to die in three days, right
Just as Lu Yingjiu was about to think about it, she saw a boy from Class 2 running quickly over on the corridor on the first floor.
As he was running, he suddenly covered his chest and fell down with a look of pain on his face.
"Ah!" he cried, his tone devoid of emotion, like a stick, "I'm having a heart attack! I'm dying!"
Road to welcome wine:
Before he could react to such a dramatic speech, the boy's eyes rolled up and he turned into a ball of gray mist and disappeared.
Road welcomes wine:?
Just one person died
The phone buzzed and he picked it up with full of doubts. Yao Gou's panicked voice came: "What should I do! I was on the stage, and a classmate said he wanted to perform a backflip for me, but he flipped right down the stairs!"
Lu Yingjiu: "...dead?"
"I'm on the 10th floor. Do you think I'm dead?!" Yao Gou was still panicking. "Do you think 2 seconds is enough for a person to grow wings?!"
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
He had a very bad feeling.
Just after I calmed Yao Gou down and hung up the phone, another call came in.
The one who came back was Chu Banyang.
Chu Banyang was silent for a while, then said, "Two people just died in the dormitory."
Lu Yingjiu took a deep breath and asked, "How did he die?"
"They were secretly using an induction cooker to cook hot pot in the dormitory, and the cooker exploded, killing them suddenly."
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
He seemed to be seeing a ghost version of Death Coming.
Lu Yingjiu asked: "How many people are there in this class?"
Study committee member Chu Banyang answered quickly: "Including Wu Runzhi, there are 24 people in total."
"I have some unfortunate news for you: in the past five minutes, we have lost four good classmates." Lu Yingjiu said, "and we still have three more days to go."
Chu Banyang: