(1)
“Who would be so unlucky…?”
“Xiao Jing, it’s you.”
“Huh? When did you put it behind me? Xiao Ying, why didn’t you warn me!”
“It’s the rules of the game.”
“I haven’t thought of any story to tell at all…”
An Jing grimaced as she picked up the silk scarf that had been thrown onto the back of her chair.
But there was no time to hesitate, because the other students started clapping and cheering.
“Damn, you did that on purpose…”
“Xiao Jing, hurry up and tell a story~!”
“Fine, I’ll tell a story about a little eunuch. His name is… Fang Qiang.”
“Shit, that’s personal revenge!”
“Who told you to throw it behind me?”
“Since I know you best…”
Fang Qiang scratched his head with a dry laugh.
“Tsk!”
An Jing raised her middle finger, her mind racing.
“Once upon a time, there was a big eunuch. He thought a palace maid liked him, so he eloped with her. But after they ran away, a famine hit, and the maid sold him to a human meat dealer. So that big eunuch became the filling for human meat buns…”
Everyone was silent, looking at each other.
“That’s it?”
“Too short!”
“There’s no rule that it has to be long!”
An Jing said with righteous indignation.
“Is this considered a horror story?”
Yuan Lanque asked quietly.
“Probably… it counts… just not much detail content.”
“Ahem, for the first time, we’ll let it slide. But from now on, stories must be told in detail. At least five minutes’ worth.”
“Wow—”
Many people got nervous. After all, not everyone could casually tell a story for five minutes.
And to avoid embarrassment, it had to be logical and well-organized.
“Alright, now the person who had the silk scarf thrown at them must get up and choose someone to throw it to.”
So everyone clapped their hands again like kindergarten children and sang the song of “Drop the Handkerchief.”
It was childish, but when so many people did it together, it became fun.
An Jing first walked quickly, then started running fast. After that, she pretended to casually drop the scarf on the back of Sun Wei’s chair.
But Sun Wei was quick to react. As soon as An Jing sat down, he noticed the scarf on his chair back, and then he started sprinting around the circle.
Then, he threw it behind Zhang Qiqi.
“Hehe, got it.”
“Qiqi, it’s you…”
Zhu Ying gently patted Zhang Qiqi’s shoulder.
“Huh? When did you put it there? That Sun Wei guy…”
Zhang Qiqi glared at Sun Wei, gently grabbed the scarf that was about to slip off the chair back.
“Fine, I’ll tell one. I just thought of an interesting story.”
“Tell us, tell us~!”
Zhu Ying got excited, her expression especially focused.
Zhang Qiqi cleared her throat and stood up from the chair.
“It was a quiet night, the sky was deep blue, the city was asleep. The busiest pedestrian street was desolate, every shop closed. A girl named—An Jing.”
“Hey, why me? And why a girl!”
Zhang Qiqi glanced sideways at her without answering, just suppressing a smile as she continued in a low voice.
“An Jing suddenly heard a painful cry from an alley around the corner. Her heart tightened, and she carefully walked in step by step. Gradually, the sound became clearer…”
Zhang Qiqi’s horror story was very logical, even including many scenic descriptions, making it feel very immersive.
A few girls were already rubbing their arms as if they had goosebumps. As for the boys, they were a bit noisy, several whispering and joking about the story’s content with their neighbors.
But An Jing, who had once been a boy, knew that they weren’t not scared; they were just using this method to ease their fear.
Simply put, they used jokes and contempt to make the horror story’s plot less frightening.
“‘Save me, save me…’ The voice came from inside the wall. It was a girl’s voice. The dim streetlight flickered. An Jing slowly turned around and saw blood seeping out of the wall. Then, a blurry outline of a face appeared…”
“Whoa!”
Yuan Lanque couldn’t help but scream, but quickly covered her mouth.
Wang Xinru hugged her own arms and unconsciously leaned closer to An Jing.
As for Zhu Ying, she looked thoroughly entertained.
“Xiao Jing, don’t squeeze my hand so hard, okay?”
“Huh? Am I squeezing hard?”
“Yes, very hard.”
An Jing awkwardly let go of her hand and shifted her gaze to the dancing flames.
Zhang Qiqi’s story gradually came to an end—that night, the protagonist escaped with their life, but had nightmares all night. When they woke up the next day, it was already evening.
The TV was playing the evening news.
“The news said that a girl whose hands and feet had been cut off was sealed in a concrete wall and suffocated to death. After that, that commercial street became deserted. No one goes there anymore. But if you happen to pass by, you can still hear cries of ‘Save me.'”
“So scary.”
Yuan Lanque vigorously rubbed both her arms.
“I’ve got goosebumps all over.”
“Is it really just a horror story?”
“I feel like I’ve seen a similar news report…”
“I heard that there was a school where students sealed a teacher in concrete.”
“The version I heard is that the teacher killed a female student…”
The atmosphere became lively, but the chill in the air still made people shiver.
Even though it was May, the forest night was still a bit cold…
“So, Xiao Ying, do you feel a little scared?”
“A little, but it wouldn’t happen in real life, so I’m not that afraid—in reality, you’d already be dead by the time you were sealed in a concrete wall.”
“Right, the real news is that the body was found as soon as it started to smell.”
“But it’s still a bit bloody.”
“Xiao Ying likes this kind of thing, right?”
“Hmm… weird things get me excited, but as for liking them, I wouldn’t say so.”
Beside her, An Jing breathed a sigh of relief for some reason.
The game of drop the handkerchief started again. This time Zhang Qiqi threw it, and then—the scarf landed on the back of An Jing’s chair.
“Damn, why me again?”
“I suggest that whoever gets the scarf should stand up.”
“Agree!”
“Even in bad light, she looks like a real beauty.”
“Yeah… but how the hell is An Jing a guy?”
“What a waste.”
“Exactly!”
An Jing thought she had already lost all face at the restaurant, but she didn’t expect the evening campfire story session to make her lose even more face…
“I’ll choose a topic to ask!”
An Jing’s eye twitched. Whatever topic Zhang Qiqi came up with would definitely be bad. In comparison, she’d rather tell a lousy fairy tale.
“The topic is—how many times have An Jing and Xiao Ying kissed?”
“Huh!?”
An Jing and Zhu Ying both blushed.
“How could I possibly remember that!”
“Damn, meaning it’s been many times?”
A boy exclaimed.
“Shit, so jealous!”
“Have you ever kissed Xiao Ying while wearing girl’s clothes?”
“I—huh? Eh?! That’s a different topic! You can only ask one!”
An Jing shouted in panic.
“What a pity. I should have asked that from the start~”
“What a vicious woman—”
The game of drop the handkerchief continued.
This time An Jing threw it. She threw the scarf to Zhou Zhao.
The latter told a beautiful fairy tale about a fox and a cat overcoming difficulties together in winter.
Then, she started throwing again, and this time An Jing was prepared.
As expected, Zhou Zhao threw the scarf onto Yi’s chair back. Yi quickly jumped up, grabbed the scarf, and threw it to someone else. After a few rounds, An Jing still got caught in the end—Zhou Zhao threw it again, this time dropping the scarf under Yi’s chair. Then she pretended to be innocent and ran two laps. By the time Yi noticed, it was too late.
“Damn, are you targeting me!”
“An Jing, as a girl, you should be ladylike.”
“Awei, shut the hell up!”
“Cough, even though it’s similar to usual An Jing, I still feel like there’s no sense of a guy. Is it because of the clothes?”
Fang Qiang scratched his head.
“A Qiang, your eyes are lecherous. You’re not really interested in guys, are you?”
“What the hell are you saying! You’re more perverted than me!”
“Exactly, Sun Wei is the most perverted.”
“Damn, I just look like this!”
And so, An Jing’s another story began.
She really couldn’t come up with any other story, so she simply told a small story she had heard from the elders when she was a child, about the Anhai Deity.
“The Anhai Deity is a god on an island, a real belief. There are several islands in that sea, and one of them is my hometown. I heard that during the Republic of China era, the Anhai Deity manifested for the last time. My grandfather said he saw it with his own eyes…”
…
(2)
In the apartment living room, on the small sofa, Yu Minghui rested her head on Yu Mingfei’s lap, letting the latter gently comb through her long, black, waterfall-like hair.
“Feifei, do you remember that story Grandpa always tells?”
Yu Minghui looked at the fluorescent light on the ceiling and smiled softly.
“Hmm?”
Second Sister carefully rubbed Big Sister’s ear.
“Which story? Oh, that one, right? About the Anhai Deity’s manifestation, and how he said he saw it when he was a kid.”
“Yeah, a lot of people from Grandpa’s generation also said they saw it.”
“How could there really be an Anhai Deity… nonsense.”
“I don’t think it’s necessarily nonsense.”
“Huihui, do you think the Anhai Deity exists?”
“No, I mean—it might be a collective hallucination. For example, back then food was scarce, everyone was hungry. So when one person said they saw the Anhai Deity, others also had the same hallucination because they wanted to be saved. Plus, later, maybe for some other reason—like catching a lot of fish, which helped everyone get through the toughest times—that hallucination was remembered very clearly. And then, it became like it was real.”
“Such a scientific explanation.”
“I watched a documentary today, and it happened to talk about that.”
“That’s quite possible. After all, Grandpa tells the same story every time. It doesn’t seem entirely made up. Speaking of which, is that little brat asleep by now?”
“It’s rare for him to go out with so many classmates. Tonight must be lively, right?”
“Ahh~ I miss it. But the first time I spent the night out with the whole class was during the summer of my sophomore year of high school. That summer felt even more indulgent than the summer after graduation…”
“Reminds me of back then.”
“Yeah, Huihui sneaked in too…”