Translator: Xena
Editor: cottoncat
“….Are you feeling better?”
Jian Xie raised his head and saw Jing Chen standing in front of him, seemingly worried about his absence yesterday.
The midterm exams were approaching this week, so even during breaks, most students were still sitting at their desks, studying. The class president’s voice was very low as he was worried about disturbing the other students, but the girl sitting in front of him still looked back at Jian Xie with concern after he spoke.
Everyone in the class arrived at the conclusion that he was in poor health.
Especially now. Although the shadows under his eyes had lightened a lot, his face had not gained any color even after a day of rest.
“I’m fine,” Jian Xie said. He stopped spinning his pen and looked up at him. “I’m feeling better now.”
“That’s good.” Jing Chen let out a sigh of relief.
But after saying this, he didn’t leave immediately, and instead looked a bit hesitant. “Um…”
He took a deep breath in front of Jian Xie’s desk, as if trying to gather his courage for what he was about to say next.
“Can you review with me?” The class president said cautiously, “It doesn’t matter if it’s paid or unpaid, I’ve hired tutors before and it didn’t work, but when you explained the problems to me last time, I understood quickly, so could you…”
“Alright.” Jian Xie interrupted him, then paused, “But I don’t have much time after class. If you have any questions, you can ask me.”
This was just a small matter.
However, as soon as he finished speaking, a fierce gaze suddenly came from outside the window.
Jian Xie immediately turned his head to look, but saw a figure that shouldn’t be here. He frowned slightly. When the other person noticed him looking over, they showed a timid and shy smile, then turned his back and leaned against the corridor, continuing to look towards the homeroom teacher’s office.
“……”
“Who is that?” Jing Chen asked curiously, his gaze falling on the other student’s uniform that was from a different school. “How did he get in?”
The girl in the front row looked puzzled. “Who are you talking about?”
Before she could finish, Jian Xie stood up abruptly, startling both of them.
“Go back to your seat.” He put his pen back in his pocket, his expression cold. “I’ll be right back.”
It wasn’t until the class president sat back down that he realized, in a state of confusion, that he had unconsciously obeyed Jian Xie’s command. The latter had already left the classroom and approached the unfamiliar student, who seemed completely unsurprised by Jian Xie’s arrival and merely gave the class president a sinister look.
Through the window’s reflection, his previously clean and handsome face could be seen suddenly becoming grotesque, as if the truth had been exposed in that instant—
This was an ugly creature wearing a human disguise.
The class president suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, his whole body stiffened, and he was unable to move.
“——”
“Jian Xie.” Seeing the person arrive, the neighbor withdrew his gaze and obediently glanced at him. His appearance was no different from that of the students around him.
Jian Xie stopped walking when he was half a meter away from him. “How did you get here?”
“Someone told me to come over… to see mom.” The neighbor once again looked in the direction of the office, his eyes obscure and unclear. “Because… I haven’t been here in a long time.”
Although it was a simple sentence, it was filled with deep meaning and conveyed a lot of information.
“I-I didn’t expect your class to be here. I watched you for a while during your lecture… and you seemed very happy.”
Upon hearing this, Jian Xie frowned, quickly piecing together the meaning of the other person’s words in his mind.
“You are… the homeroom teacher’s son?”
The neighbor slowly nodded.
Could there really be such a coincidence? If that’s the case, why did the other become his neighbor?
As far as he knew, the homeroom teacher’s family should be quite well-off, but the neighbor lived in the same old neighborhood as him and he had never seen the homeroom teacher appear there either. The only thing he could identify the other party with was the words “Xicheng No. 2 Middle School” on his school uniform, which was a prestigious private high school.
It was just as unusual for the neighbor to suddenly appear here.
Moreover, while they were talking, no one else seemed to notice that the neighbor shouldn’t have been there, and they continued to go about their own business.
Except for one ordinary person, Jing Chen, who had once seen a Special A-level monster and had narrowly escaped death.
“Mn. Did she not tell you about me?” The neighbor pointed to the school badge pinned to his jacket, which had three characters written on it—“Zhou Zheyu.” His voice was tinged with a sense of loss. “Not even once…?”
“She doesn’t chat with me.”
This was natural. Although the homeroom teacher paid attention to every student in the class, she rarely mentioned her own family.
“I see.”
Contrary to his indifferent tone, an aura of extreme hatred emanated from the young boy of the same age. The aura of resentment around him almost solidified into a tangible form. His gaze never wavered, fixed on the office, yet it also exuded an overwhelming sadness that was hard to conceal.
“If that’s the case, why didn’t you study here? We could have been classmates.”
Jian Xie interrupted his contemplation, and the dark aura around Zhou Zheyu suddenly stilled, causing him to blink in confusion. “Classmates…?”
If one’s parent was a teacher, studying at the same school as them would mean receiving more attention.
“You would think so too, right?” After coming to his senses, Zhou Zheyu’s face slightly contorted, and his emotions gradually became agitated. “I begged her, then… I begged her again after that, but she thought that if we were in the same school, I would become even weaker, so she just encouraged me to face it on my own!”
Jian Xie spoke, “Zhou Zheyu.”
He called out his name, and the latter realized his own indiscretion. Calming down, he muttered to himself, “No, she’s a good mother, it’s all my fault.”
Qin Zhuo looked on coldly for a moment, and then clicked his tongue.【This isn’t human.】
He could feel it.
If he thought his neighbor was weird before, today it seemed like he was close to giving up on himself. Jian Xie didn’t know what exactly he had gone through.
A Special A-level monster?
No, if we follow the saying [Monsters come from the eighteenth level of hell], then the neighbor couldn’t have been the homeroom teacher’s son because they were from two different worlds.
It was precisely this misconception that led Jian Xie to initially believe the other person was just abnormal, not a monster…
Or was the monster in front of him lying?
“I-I really let her down.” Zhou Zheyu muttered to himself, then suddenly turned to look at Jian Xie. “I know you’ve never had friends, and in that respect, we’re very similar… so I’m really happy that you moved in next to me…”
The air gradually became tense.
It was as if countless lips in the void were echoing this sentence, eerily whispering and repeating the words “really happy.”
“……”
His gaze fell on the class president inside the classroom, and his entire face suddenly darkened as he asked, “But why do you have other friends now?”
Faced with his question, Jian Xie paused for a moment. “…Jing Chen doesn’t count as my friend.”
“So, am I your friend?”
This gaze seemed to have penetrating power as it stared at him intently, not missing any of his micro-expressions.
Jian Xie was silent, not knowing what to say.
His definition of a friend was different from that of a normal person. In his view, not everyone who could get along and have fun together was considered friends. Whether it was because he had a strong sense of morality or because he was indifferent, he didn’t really consider the people around him as friends, but rather as companions of various kinds.
“I’m glad you didn’t choose to lie.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Zheyu’s eyes disappeared, instantly turning into two deep, hollow black holes. At the same time, thick, black liquid gushed out of his seven orifices. He grabbed his face, and his entire skin collapsed in the blink of an eye. In just a few seconds, he had transformed into a blood-soaked monster.
The bloody teen grabbed his heart. “How sad, that person actually said the truth.”
‘That person’—this was the second time he mentioned the existence of a third person.
Jian Xie frowned. Since the other party appeared, he had felt that everything was filled with a sense of incongruity. Especially now, when he listened to the other party’s words, it was obvious that he was following someone else’s instructions.
The bloody holes in his face turned towards Jian Xie. “I hate everyone.”
Immediately afterwards, the blood-covered teen exploded. The blood was blocked by a barrier just as it was about to splash onto Jian Xie’s body. Meanwhile, the neighbor’s original body turned into countless insects whose limbs crawled on the ground and piled up together, enough to cause anyone with acrophobia to suffer a heart attack on the spot. The insects scattered throughout the corridor—
In an instant, darkness enveloped the entire school!
At the same time, the buzzing sound of insects flapping their wings filled Jian Xie’s ears.
【But he’s not a monster either.】 Qin Zhuo said thoughtfully, clicking his tongue. 【Interesting.】
There were simply too many insects, and their small size meant their movements were extremely agile. After hearing Qin Zhuo’s words, Jian Xie only paused for a moment before seeing the tide of insects rustling and disappearing into the cracks of various walls.
And just across the window, several students, who had become disoriented after witnessing the swarm of insects, screamed in the classroom.
“Insects—”
“What are these…”
“What disgusting bugs!”
Because of the frequent bursts of collapsing screams, the office door suddenly opened, and the homeroom teacher’s face appeared in front of Jian Xie. She saw him standing at the door and was immediately surprised. “Why aren’t you in class? I need to prepare for the lesson—what happened in class?”
Based on her work experience, she knew that such screams were not the result of students playing around.
“I don’t know.”
Through the gap in the door, Jian Xie looked into the office and was not surprised to see that it was empty.
There were steaming cups of tea, open textbooks, and even a pen that had fallen out of thin air and landed on the ground. All the other teachers who should have been there had disappeared, adding a sinister and terrifying atmosphere to the cold and gloomy morning.
The homeroom teacher followed his line of sight and saw the scene. Her initially puzzled expression suddenly changed to shock.
“T-this… but, there were others in the office just now…” She became somewhat incoherent.
Then, the homeroom teacher ran towards the classroom.
On the other hand, Jian Xie, who should have been equally panicked, walked expressionlessly towards the corridor. He leaned on the railing and looked outside. All the people who were taking physical education classes in the school field had disappeared. Only the desolate and empty playground was left after the sudden loss of people. Coupled with the yellowish dark tones in the sky, it exuded an extremely eerie atmosphere.
They were probably trapped here.
……
After roughly searching the entire school building, Jian Xie returned to the classroom alone.
Not all the school buildings were there. Only the building he was in was left, and only the students in his class were pulled in. So it seemed that what he was facing now was a predation field. After all, its function was to be able to selectively capture food and buildings.
The neighbor’s ability was not as strong as he thought. If it were Jian Xie himself, he could probably incorporate the entire school into the [Eight Cold Hells].
The most troublesome thing was not how to solve this matter, but that Jian Xie was now in the presence of his classmates.
One must know that he wouldn’t be able to act as he pleased like he did in front of that group of investigators, he must take into consideration the psychological endurance of ordinary people… Otherwise, how could he continue to maintain his invisible persona? Tch, troublesome.
Qin Zhuo’s previous words had been making him uneasy.
Why did he say that the other party was neither human nor monster…?
【No need. Just ask me directly.】 Qin Zhuo curled his lips, his voice lazy. 【He looks like he’s merged with some kind of abnormal entity.】
“A human?” Jian Xie was startled.
A body that transformed into black pus and a swarm of insects dispersing… it didn’t look human at all.
【A corpse.】
“……”
When Jing Chen saw his figure appear at the back door of the classroom, he immediately rushed over and stood less than a meter away, looking anxious. The homeroom teacher’s eyes also showed concern. They both breathed a sigh of relief after seeing that he didn’t show any abnormality.
“Where were you? Everyone was so worried!”
“Nothing, I just went out to take a look.”
There were more than seventy people in the class, all trembling with fear and huddled together, trying to stay as far away from the blackboard and the podium as possible.
Jian Xie followed their line of sight and saw that the blackboard had been covered with disgusting insects at some point, which were constantly wriggling and occasionally falling to the ground due to their precarious position, filling the otherwise silent environment with the sound of plopping. Those with weak psychological resilience had even vomited in disgust.
“Who would worry about him?” The English class representative looked disgusted. “Running around like that at a time like this, it’s your own fault if anything happens!
He was the only person sitting in the front, and at the same time, displaying a disdainful expression towards his classmates who were afraid of the insects.
As soon as he finished speaking, a string of insects fell from the blackboard and landed at his feet.
“Don’t say that.” The homeroom teacher immediately stopped him, frowning. “You are classmates, you should help each other.”
He also saw the angry glances from the rest of his classmates directed at him. The English class representative couldn’t bear it and, in a fit of rage, stepped on the insect that was struggling on the ground. The sound of liquid bursting under the sole of his shoe was thick and intense, with a peculiar texture. His mouth couldn’t help but twitch. He suppressed his nausea and moved his sneakers away, only to pull up a thick green silk thread.
“Damn it!” He swore, “What the hell is this!”
It was like the opening scene of a horror movie!
At the sight of this, Jing Chen’s face turned pale, and he couldn’t control his expression, shivering all over.
“It’s so disgusting…”
Jian Xie wasn’t afraid of these things, and he had seen even more disgusting scenes before, so his facial expression remained unchanged.
He also didn’t bother to pay attention to the English class representative.
Most people had never seen such a scene before. They had already fallen into a deadly panic when everyone except their class had disappeared. A timid boy was seen hiding his head behind the chair, muttering over and over, “I must be dreaming…”
Low sobbing sounds could be heard in the air. In this surreal situation, everyone was panicking, but no one dared to be the first to step out.
Jian Xie glanced at his phone. There was a signal, but no one had thought of sending a message. They must have been too frightened to even think of this.
The classroom door was closed tightly once more, as if everyone was on guard against the monsters that might appear in the corridor.
Jian Xie turned around, opened his phone, and sent a text message to Cheng Li.
[You said that investigators visited my residential area before. Can you send me the original report?]
After putting down his phone, Jian Xie fell into deep thought.
The neighbor appeared without warning, and then uttered some incomprehensible words, and now he had dragged the homeroom teacher and her students into his predation field.
What on earth was he trying to do?
Apparently, for Jian Xie, he wasn’t the kind of… monster he had encountered before.
If possible, he didn’t want to deal with him so brutally, especially after Qin Zhuo had said that, he wanted to try to avoid some things from happening before the Investigation Department arrived.
After noticing that Jian Xie took out his phone and then put it down, the English class representative snorted coldly. Although he had only thought of bringing his phone out at this moment, he still put on an act and pretended that he hadn’t forgotten about it due to being shocked, and took out his phone to dial the emergency number.
“……”
He did not notice the English class representative’s one-man show. He found that the homeroom teacher was leaning against the window, staring at a place in a daze, as if she was lost in memories. Jian Xie walked to her side quietly and said softly, “Teacher, may I ask you a question?”
She suddenly came to her senses after hearing his voice.
“What?”
“Do you know ‘Zhou Zheyu’?”
Hearing the name, the homeroom teacher’s breathing suddenly paused, and her expression became confused. “How, no, how could you know this… He’s…”
Jing Chen, who had been paying attention to Jian Xie, also heard this sentence, and his face changed, subconsciously saying, “I’ve seen this name before, it was one of the teenage corpses mentioned in the newspaper about the fire. I heard they were friends, but does this have anything to do with what’s happening now…?”
Friends.
It now seemed that Zhou Zheyu had an almost obsessive attachment to this word.
Jian Xie didn’t look at Jing Chen, but instead said to the homeroom teacher, “We first met at the entrance of the residential area. When you heard that I moved here from elsewhere and might have to drop out of school, you kindly told me about the school’s scholarship program, which allowed me to continue my studies.”
“If it weren’t for you, Teacher, I probably wouldn’t have returned to school.”
Upon hearing this, Jing Chen looked surprised, as it was the first time he had heard about Jian Xie’s experience.
“…I don’t know how you found out about him.” After a moment, the homeroom teacher revealed a wry smile. She rubbed her thumb against her index finger and slowly said, “He was my only child, but because I didn’t have enough energy to spare, I didn’t notice his aversion to school in time. I also didn’t know when he started hanging out with a group of young people from the community, demanding a lot of money, often not returning home for several days, and when he did come home, he would be covered in wounds, which I assumed were from fights with others outside.”
Although the homeroom teacher said this, Jian Xie didn’t think Zhou Zheyu was the kind of person to do such things, and the nervousness he displayed when facing him wasn’t fake.
“Later, I received news from the police that he had died in a fire. That day, I wanted to go… to see him, but I didn’t expect to meet you.”
The body, charred and turning to ashes at the slightest touch, bore no resemblance to his former self.
According to the police, when they arrived, the only thing left on the corpse was scattered insects.
According to common sense, there should never have been a fire of such magnitude, nor should so many insects have gathered. This was beyond known reality, and even the police couldn’t provide a reasonable explanation for it.
She fell into a trance. The events had unfolded so suddenly that she couldn’t accept them, but on that day, she unexpectedly met Jian Xie, who had also lost his parents, and so she felt compelled to help…
It was indeed a coincidence, but she had never told Jian Xie about this, so she didn’t know how he had learned of it.
“Ah—”
Suddenly, a scream broke the conversation between the three.
Jian Xie immediately turned his head to look and saw the insects that had been scattered on the blackboard suddenly began to rearrange themselves, constantly moving their limbs. Everyone stared intently, hearts pounding, not wanting to miss a single word until they formed a complete sentence.
[Choose one of your friends to die, or you yourself will die]
Translator Xena’s other works: https://ko-fi.com/xenatl/gallery
– Just click the pictures and the link will show <3
