Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Class Reunion
“Thump” “Thump” “Thump”
Mom swept away the dust that was completely invisible in the room while muttering and cursing incessantly.
The sound was just loud enough for Xiao Xiao hiding in the bedroom to hear, but not so loud as to be heard by the neighbors. Occasionally mixed in were the sounds of her angrily throwing the broom or cloth onto the floor and table:
“You’re so old, and all you do is stay in your bedroom playing games every day.”
“You don’t even clean your room—it’s a complete pigsty. How could I have a son like you? You’re exactly like your father, that good-for-nothing…”
“You’re destined to amount to nothing, rotting away in that room!”
“…”
Xiao Xiao clutched his ears in pain, his body trembling slightly.
He couldn’t remember when this life had begun, only feeling as though his head was splitting apart, as if his brain was being cruelly torn to shreds.
Starting four years ago, he frequently experienced this excruciating headache, accompanied by intense dizziness that made everything around him seem distorted and elongated.
The objects before his eyes seemed to lose their reality, twisting and writhing like earthworms.
He could hear the thunderous drumming of his own heartbeat, each interval stretching out as if it lasted several minutes.
In this state where the surrounding environment would occasionally become extremely unreal and distorted, he couldn’t even concentrate, his thoughts like fragmented mirror shards, reflecting twisted and bizarre light.
He tried to accept it and control himself, but clearly, his family could no longer accept it.
“Buzz buzz…”
The phone suddenly vibrated slightly, and this sensation made Xiao Xiao’s symptoms ease a little, bringing a faint sense of returning to reality.
“Don’t forget about the class reunion, Minghe Hotel, private room on the second floor.”
The message came from a high school classmate named Jiang Cheng.
Actually, Xiao Xiao hadn’t been in contact with his former classmates for a long time. Over these four years, he rarely left home, but seeing this message, he decided to go out anyway.
Even though that headache similar to panic disorder had just struck, he wanted to go out, probably because he had been cooped up for too long and wanted a temporary escape.
“Why won’t you stay home properly? Where are you running off to again?”
“Go, go!”
“If you’re so capable, then die out there and never come back!”
“……”
When Xiao Xiao casually grabbed a hoodie and headed out the door, his mother’s curses suddenly grew louder, as if no matter what he did, he could always hit upon the point that infuriated her.
“Thud thud thud……”
She spoke while forcefully chopping some unidentifiable meat on the cutting board, her eyes fixed dead on Xiao Xiao, the knife in her hand coming down with such violence that it seemed she wished she could chop him to pieces in the next moment.
Xiao Xiao was frightened by that gaze, feeling a chill run through his entire body as he fled out the door.
Night had fallen, and the narrow alley had no streetlights. Xiao Xiao had escaped the sound of his mother chopping meat, yet he constantly felt as though something was watching him, as if some enormous creature had been staring at him intently all along.
“Woof woof woof…”
The three vicious dogs in the neighbor’s yard let out threatening growls upon hearing him approach.
The iron chain around its neck was stretched taut in a straight line, emitting the unbearable sound of metal fatigue. Dark red eyes stared fixedly at him, and drool dripped steadily from between its grotesquely bared teeth.
He walked close to the outer wall corner, but suddenly a strange, distorted sound hung down from above his head. Behind a window on the second floor, the sound of an old phonograph wailed and sobbed.
The invisible tension made him walk faster and faster, yet he was suddenly drawn by the piercing sound of an electric saw. Through the blurred, grimy window, he saw a tall butcher holding an electric saw, cutting something.
“Whoosh!”
The butcher and the thing being cut suddenly turned their heads at the same time, looking toward him outside the window.
Xiao Xiao felt an overwhelming sense of terror. He stumbled backward, quickened his pace, and ran until he passed through the alleyway, only then catching his breath heavily under a streetlight.
Looking up at the bustling street, a dazzling tide of sensation flooded into his mind.
Brilliant neon lights erupted like lava across the sky above the city, and the car horns emitting piercing shrieks sounded like herds of steel monsters roaring and rushing past before his eyes.
The searchlight on the rooftop swept across the night sky, as if trying to illuminate the entire darkness, yet it could only fail to light up the shadowy corners of the city and the sewage-filled alleys.
Scattered on the ground, newspaper headlines reported in large print that the serial killer who had been stealing hearts was still at large, and that the girl gang who had bombed the school not long ago had publicly challenged the Security Bureau and other such news.
Black text on white paper, forming a perfect unity with the temperament of this city.
“Have I been cooped up indoors for too long?”
Xiao Xiao took a deep breath of the cold, damp, and salty air, forcing himself to calm down.
He looked up at the city, feeling it extraordinarily unfamiliar. At some point, the city had transformed into something with a completely different temperament.
He didn’t know where this shadow-like feeling came from, but thinking of his four years of persistence, he wrapped his coat tighter around himself and slowly made his way toward the gathering place.
……
……
“Xiao Xiao is here?”
“This gathering is great today. We’ve managed to get Xiao Xiao, the homebody god who hasn’t stepped outside in years, and we’ve also seen Yang Jia, the goddess who hasn’t contacted any classmates in four or five years……”
“It’s quite a big deal to get Xiao Xiao, who was prepared to stay home and never leave, to come out……”
In the private room, the smiling faces of classmates began to overlap with the vibrant images in Xiao Xiao’s memory, pulling him back into that sunny recollection from four years ago.
This allowed his frantically racing heart to finally find some peace.
Over the past four years, they had all gone to university and started a different kind of life.
But he was different, because of the severe headaches, his life seemed to have been locked in a cage for four years.
There was already some sense of distance, but Xiao Xiao still felt very happy. After all, this seemed to be what normal felt like, and these were normal people.
“What are you all talking about?”
At that moment, someone laughed and spoke up, interrupting the discussion.
A bright and beautiful girl who had been on the phone outside the door walked in. With her slender figure and clean, delicate features, she immediately captured the attention of everyone present.
The classmates at the desk immediately changed their expressions and smiled, saying one after another: “It’s fine, Yang Jia, now that you’re back this time, why don’t you stay?”
“……”
She is the center of attention at this class reunion and is unanimously recognized as the most beautiful girl among everyone.
Even in Xiao Xiao’s memory, he could clearly find her shadow—the most beautiful girl during high school, with excellent grades, skilled in sports, and outstanding in every way.
Besides that, there was also some mysterious quality that was difficult to describe accurately.
It was said that she came from a prominent family in a major city in the north, and had transferred to this school back then for some special reasons. Later, she only stayed for one semester before leaving.
“I’ll stay here for a while.”
Yang Jia smiled and answered, “But exactly how long I’ll stay hasn’t been decided yet.”
She always seemed to have that kind of temperament—gentle with others, yet maintaining a sense of distance. Seemingly indifferent to everything, yet always becoming the center of everyone’s attention.
“She seems quite different from others…”
Xiao Xiao didn’t even know when he had started feeling drawn to Yang Jia.
It wasn’t because she was beautiful, but rather because there was always an aura about her—a genuine, tangible feeling that Xiao Xiao found difficult to put into words.
Only by looking at her did he seem to distance himself from that dizzying unreality, and his tense emotions gradually began to fade.
Perhaps the previous discomfort and panic were merely the effects of his headache, merely the result of being too nervous and overthinking things.
“Heh, Xiao Xiao, what are you looking at?”
But just then, a cold voice suddenly jolted Xiao Xiao awake.
He looked up and saw Jiang Cheng staring at him with a sinister gaze, a cigarette between his fingers. His mouth curved into an unnatural smile, but his eyes were shooting out a chilling light that made one’s blood run cold.
Another classmate was holding a dinner knife, stabbing vertically at the meat on the plate, one stab after another, but while doing so, his eyes remained fixed dead on Xiao Xiao.
Someone across from him pulled a chair with force, producing a harsh, grating noise, then leaned back against the chair and gave Xiao Xiao an ambiguous smile that was neither quite a smile nor quite a frown.
In that instant, Xiao Xiao felt as though he had suddenly become the target of everyone’s hatred.
His heart suddenly began to race uncontrollably, and yet it seemed to beat slower and slower. Xiao Xiao felt his nerves tighten involuntarily once again, and cold sweat seeped out from his forehead in layers.
That dizzy sensation washed over him once more, and everything around him seemed to become unreal.
He could even sense that these people seemed ready to suddenly leap up at any moment and viciously stab him with the knives in their hands.
“They all want to harm me…”
When this thought suddenly burst forth from his mind, Xiao Xiao was startled by his own thinking.
He scrambled to his feet in panic: “I’m going to the restroom!”
He fled the hotel private room as if escaping, yet he could still feel countless eerie gazes behind him, fixed on him relentlessly.
“What on earth is wrong with me?”
A handful of cold water splashed across his face, and Xiao Xiao closed his eyes in agony.
He didn’t know why this was happening, but his mother at home, the pedestrians on the street, and even his familiar classmates would all inadvertently reveal expressions as if they wished they could kill him.
So, was it actually myself who got sick?
Four years ago I started getting sick, with splitting headaches, and the entire world would become distorted and unreal.
I’ve been cooped up in my bedroom exercising for four years, feeling a bit better, but actually not, and instead my symptoms have gotten worse?
……
……
“How long have you been awake?”
Just as Xiao Xiao was asking himself in pain and confusion, a calm voice rang out.
Xiao Qi was startled and quickly turned his head, only to see that Yang Jia had somehow appeared behind him.
She leaned against the wall, a slender cigarette held between her fingers, her gaze indifferent as she looked at herself.
“I…”
Xiao Xiao hesitated somewhat, wanting to explain that he had just said he was going to the restroom.
But Yang Jia suddenly interrupted him, saying: “I’m asking you, how long have you been awake, and how did you attract so much hatred?”
“Hatred?”
Xiao Xiao was even more confused, his eyes somewhat bewildered as he looked at Yang Jia.
“Haven’t you noticed?”
In the wisps of smoke carrying a faint hint of mint, Yang Jia’s eyes seemed somewhat mysterious as he spoke softly: “This city is fake, you see…”
“We are surrounded by evil spirits…”