The atmosphere in the box was lively, but it gave people a distinct sense of division.
Chen Ling clearly felt that when the excitement reached him, it was as if it was blocked by an invisible hand. His corner was quiet and out of place with everyone else.
Someone handed me a glass of wine. It was a beautiful girl.
Jiang Yu: “No, thank you.”
The girl pouted in disappointment, her eyes passed over the good-looking exchange student and fell on Chen Ling. She touched his arm and whispered, "Your name is Jiang Yu, right? I told you because you're a new classmate. You'd better stay away from the person next to you, or you might get affected."
Jiang Yu raised his eyes and looked over. Although there was no emotion in his eyes, it made the girl feel cold all over.
Knowing that her kindness was taken for granted, she dared not speak out, moved away, and pulled her best friend to complain: "What does Jiang Yu mean? I kindly reminded him not to get close to the disaster star, but he didn't listen, and he glared at me."
"It's none of your business whether others love or die." Her best friend stuffed a beer into her hand and said, "Come on, let's drink."
"Everyone, don't just think about yourselves, talk to Chen Ling too." Yu Feng stood up and filled an empty cup. He walked around the coffee table and came to Chen Ling. "Chen Ling, haven't you always wanted to be friends with us? If you are friends, drink this cup."
Chen Ling looked at the bubbling beer and frowned, "I'm not very good at drinking."
"You don't give me face, do you?" Another classmate also stood up, "If you want to fit in, you have to follow our rules. Come on, drink and we'll be brothers from now on."
Chen Ling stared at the two people in a daze, and a glimmer of hope suddenly emerged in his heart. He really wanted to be friends with them, but behind the hope there was a little bit of rejection.
—True friends will not force you to do anything you don’t want to do.
"Yes, Chen Ling, drink it." Those people who had never spoken to him before suddenly shouted at him.
The noisy box became extremely noisy. The voices became sharper and sharper, drilling into his ears wantonly. Someone even leaned over, grabbed a glass of wine from somewhere, and forcefully stuffed it into his hand.
"Enough." Jiang Yu growled impatiently, and all the sounds disappeared.
After a while, Chen Guang returned to his seat with a wine glass and called on everyone to start playing a game. The game was very simple, just flipping the big ghost and the small ghost.
Those who flip to the big and small ghosts stand up and perform.
Chen Ling didn't want to participate, but was dragged in. In less than two rounds, he got a big ghost.
Others choose what to perform voluntarily, but in his case, everyone decides what to perform.
One boy stroked his chin and said, "I heard that the bathroom is unlucky. Why don't you go there and ask a ghost to take a look. Let us see if you are really that evil."
Chen Ling never knew that he was a weird person. He stared at the boy blankly and forgot to react.
Seeing that he didn't move, the others began to chatter and urge him: "Right, you can communicate with spirits, so let everyone see it. If you want to integrate with us, you have to let us know that you are an interesting person. Otherwise, it will be boring."
"Can I communicate with spirits?" Chen Ling murmured, looking up at Jiang Yu, "Can I communicate with spirits?"
Jiang Yu pulled the man into his arms and covered his ears with his hands: "That's not psychic communication, it's just a talent given to you by God. It's an ability to protect yourself, not a performance for them to watch."
"So will I really do that?" Chen Ling's eyes sparkled in the colorful lights of the box, but dimmed in an instant. He was not a fool and could hear the malice in those words.
In the eyes of those people, he was just a monkey who could perform acrobatics.
Chen Ling was still sitting in his seat, with no intention of leaving. Everyone couldn't hold back any longer and swarmed over, putting their hands on Chen Ling and pushing him towards the bathroom.
The bathroom was dead silent. A stick of sandalwood stood in the corner, emitting faint green smoke.
Chen Ling was at a loss, not knowing what to do. He turned around to look at the crowd, but Jiang Yu was not there.
Where did he go
"Relax, don't be afraid." Jiang Yu was standing behind him. He didn't know when he came. He put his hands on the young man's shoulders and said, "As long as you want, I can appear by your side at any time."
Chen Ling's face turned a little red, and even the anxiety caused by being stared at by those pairs of eyes faded.
"I don't know what to do," he whispered.
Jiang Yu grabbed his hand, clasping his long fingers together, "Close your eyes, your heart will tell you what to do."
Chen Ling really closed his eyes, but the next second, a birthday song suddenly sounded in the bathroom, and he vaguely felt someone walking over and stopping opposite him.
He opened his eyes and saw a cart with a birthday cake on it.
Chen Guang smiled and said, "Happy birthday, Chen Ling. You are nineteen years old now."
Chen Ling moved his gaze away from the cake with candles in surprise and scanned the smiling faces. Their eyes were so sincere and their expressions were so joyful, as if he really was a popular person.
A trace of fear emerged in his heart, and a voice told him that it was fake, all fake!
"But my birthday is not today." Chen Ling was confused and didn't understand.
Chen Guang said: "We all had a holiday on your birthday. We celebrated for you two months in advance. You should be happy."
"Yes, we planned to have the social gathering today just for you."
"Look how good we are to you."
"We are good friends now, right?"
There was a buzz of chatter all around, and that unbearable noise came back.
"What are you standing there for? Make a wish and blow out the candles!" a female classmate suddenly urged, then lowered her head and took out a cake cutter and many disposable small plates from a paper bag. It seemed that she was going to share the cake with everyone after blowing out the candles.
"Oh, okay." Chen Ling came back to his senses, closed his eyes and made a wish, but his mind was blank and he couldn't remember a single wish.
After a moment, he opened his eyes and blew out all the candles in one breath.
The female classmates had already distributed disposable plates to everyone, almost everyone had one, and before the birthday person could even cut the cake, someone had already quickly cut the cake and distributed it to everyone.
Those who got the cake first did not eat it. They held it in their palms and waited leisurely.
Chen Ling still felt something was strange and even wanted to run away, but Jiang Yu blocked him from behind.
The man held his hand tightly. "Escape is not the solution. You have to face them."
"No, I'm scared, I... I..." Chen Ling's voice choked. He closed his eyes tightly and pinched the man's fingertips with his backhand. "Jiang Yu, can you take me away? This place is too weird. I don't want to stay here for a second."
Jiang Yu stroked his face, his thumb resting on the corner of his eye, where a drop of hot tear oozed.
He wiped away his tears with a distressed look and shook his head: "You can't run away."
"Chen Ling." Someone called out. Chen Ling turned around in panic and saw a dark-skinned boy smiling at him sinisterly, "Why are you unhappy? So many of us have agreed to be your friends. Come over here and say thank you to us."
"Yeah, why are you hiding?"
"We came here specially to celebrate your birthday. We are so kind to you, shouldn't you thank us?"
"It was you who told the counselor that we isolated you. After the conversation, we reflected deeply and realized that it was wrong. We apologize to you for what we did before."
"You just want to make friends. Why are you still reporting to the teacher when you are old?"
“I didn’t…” Chen Ling felt his vision blurry and dizzy, and suddenly he felt that these people in front of him were so scary.
She was smiling at him in a friendly manner before, why did she become so hideous in the blink of an eye
"How could you not have it? Would we have been questioned if it wasn't for you?" Chen Guang suddenly stood up, very angry at Chen Ling's denial. "How dare you complain that we isolated you and used cold violence against you? Don't you see what kind of person you are? Anyone who comes into contact with you will be in trouble. Didn't Sun Yanyan from the next class have a meal with you and had a high fever the next day? And Zhang Yao from our dormitory, if you hadn't brought some dirty things back from outside, how could he have been scared and dropped out of school!"
Were the empty beds in the dormitory occupied by someone
A face emerged in Chen Ling's fuzzy mind. It was handsome and delicate with a pair of glasses. Because his family was rich and he was spoiled by his parents, Zhang Yao had a bad temper and was a playboy.
"He was scared and dropped out of school because he did something wrong. It has nothing to do with me!" Many images flooded into Chen Ling's mind. He was stunned for a few seconds and quickly denied it.
He remembered that Zhang Yao forced him to go to sweep the grave that day, and he kept muttering to himself and looking around on the way, as if he was on guard against something.
When they arrived at the cemetery, he forced him to go and pay his respects.
The object of worship is a strange girl. The girl is beautiful and has a peaceful smile, but the time of her death on the tombstone is last year.
Zhang Yao muttered to himself at the tombstone, "Xu Yaoyao, don't bother me anymore. I brought you a new friend. He can see you. Go play with him."
Chen Ling couldn't believe his ears.
After Zhang Yao finished speaking, fearing that he would leave, he quickly grabbed his arm and said, "Don't leave. Just consider it as a favor for me, okay?"
"No!" Chen Ling's face turned pale.
He didn't want to come to such a place in the first place. It was Zhang Yao who lied to him and said that they were going to the video game arcade, so he followed him out. Who knew that he suddenly changed his route halfway and came to the cemetery.
"Chen Ling, when you said you saw a senior sister fall to her death in the mountains, no one believed you except me." Zhang Yao acted compassionately, "I treat you as a friend, shouldn't you give me something in return?"
"If you really consider me a friend you wouldn't make such a request!" Chen Ling was so angry. With his broken body, he started to encounter ghosts for unknown reasons since he turned eighteen. He lived in fear every day. In order not to affect others, he rarely had physical contact with others and often kept to himself.
Zhang Yao sneered as if he didn't hear anything, then let go of her hand and went to burn paper for Xu Yaoyao: "When we broke up, you jumped off the building because you couldn't bear it. I am indeed responsible, but now we are two different paths, and you make some noise all day long, which really bothers me. Now you have a new friend who can see you, which is good."
"Yaoyao, be obedient. If we are destined to meet again, we will meet again in the next life."
I'm afraid even Zhang Yao himself doesn't know how fake and ridiculous the sad expression on his face is.
But just after he said this, Chen Ling saw a female ghost with tears of blood squatting beside him.
The female ghost turned around and looked at Chen Ling, then leaned her head on Zhang Yao's shoulder and whispered, "You can't get rid of me. I won't allow you to get rid of me, never..."
From that day on, Zhang Yao had nightmares every night.
Others could not see it, but Chen Ling always woke up in the middle of the night and saw a blurry shadow hovering in front of Zhang Yao's bed, like a floating cloud, sometimes close to the sleeping Zhang Yao, and sometimes standing far away and watching quietly.
Not long after, Zhang Yao dropped out of school. Before dropping out, he pointed at Chen Ling's face and said, "It was you. She should have gone to you! You must have said something to deceive her and let her hurt me!"
Zhang Yao’s departure is a beginning.
Early the next morning, there was a hot post marked in red on the school forum.
The post claimed that Chen Ling was skilled in witchcraft, could communicate with spirits and control ghosts, and could also curse. Otherwise, why did he always stay away from everyone? Why did people occasionally run into him, and when they turned their backs, they would either fall and hit their heads, or get a fever and a headache
The post was very popular for a long time, and soon some so-called "insiders" began to analyze Chen Ling's face, saying that he had little affinity with family, and that anyone who got close to him would be unlucky.
Originally, Chen Ling took the initiative to stay away from the crowd in order not to cause trouble to others, but now he is being excluded.
Everyone who saw him had an expression of disgust and revulsion, as if they had seen a fly or maggot.
The counselor noticed something strange between the students and talked to Chen Ling alone. He said nothing but said that he was a loner and didn't like to have close contacts with others.
There were rumors everywhere in the school, and the number of posts on the forum was high. The counselor didn't believe him at all, and the next day he called everyone in the class in for individual questioning.
After the questioning, the students' attitude towards Chen Ling immediately changed, especially Chen Guang and Yu Feng who shared the same dormitory.
Chen Ling had not established close friendships with anyone for a long time since he turned eighteen. The change in Chen Guang and Yu Feng's attitude towards him made him both happy and nervous.
Fortunately, the surroundings were peaceful during that period, and we didn’t encounter many ghosts, and it didn’t affect our two roommates.
Chen Ling was extremely happy, but he didn't expect that one day, everyone suddenly dragged him to a KTV, saying that they wanted to celebrate his birthday in advance.
Birthday!
The light in Chen Ling's eyes flickered. He woke up from the sudden memory. The moment he looked at the situation around him, his pupils constricted. Those cakes decorated with cream were thrown at him by his classmates.
Jiang Yu pulled the person into his arms and used his back to block the attacks.
The smashed cream cake exuded a sweet smell, but the sweet aroma was accompanied by malicious sarcasm, "You are worthy of being our friend, get lost."
"Look, I say we are all the same." He Xiangxi, who was not supposed to be there, also stood up. He stood opposite Chen Ling with a cold expression, "I am a freak, and you are also a freak. No, they hate me more than they hate you!"
After saying that, he suddenly grabbed Chen Ling's hand hard.
In an instant, the world spun around, and the bathroom that was a mess of cake disappeared, replaced by a shabby little room.
The room was simply furnished with a single bed, a desk piled with books, a shabby door, and cracks on the window glass.
If my guess is correct, this should be the room in He Xiangxi's house.
He Xiangxi let go of Chen Ling's hand and walked towards the bed step by step.
The bed sheets were old, making the young man's pale and haggard skin look extremely fragile, as if it would be punctured with a casual poke.
Chen Ling's mind was in a mess. He turned around and looked around, but Jiang Yu was gone.
"Why am I here?"
"You should ask yourself." He Xiangxi laughed softly, his shoulders shaking and trembling. "This is the most taboo and most fearful place in your heart."
There was a loud bang in Chen Ling's head. He felt that the fog covering his mind and eyes was about to dissipate. Subconsciously, he wanted to find Jiang Yu to verify it.
He Xiangxi saw who he was looking for, and lay down with his head tilted back, his hands resting peacefully on his abdomen, staring at the ceiling and saying, "Choosing to die is a very cowardly thing to do. How could you let him see you being so cowardly?"
Chen Ling felt the other party's inducement and frowned, "I don't have such an idea."
"You will have it. How can you not have it?" He Xiangxi stared at the void without blinking and said, "I have lived a very tiring life. My family is not well off, so I tried my best to climb up. I spent all my time studying. In order to make good use of my time, I didn't socialize or have fun. As a result, no one knew the hard work and dedication behind me. They all said I was sick, alienated me, excluded me, and talked about me behind my back..."
"We are so similar..." He Xiangxi suddenly turned around and looked straight at Chen Ling, "Why don't we leave together?"