Geister des alten Grabes

Kapitel 21

What comes next?

Ghost? Human? Demon? Monster? None of the four? It might just be a pair of eyes, or just a pair of hands typing.

There might not be anything at all; that Xiaohua is a madwoman.

Li Xu struggled internally, but in the end, he told himself: that Xiao Hua is a madwoman, and there's nothing behind her at all.

Although that's what he thought, at this moment, Li Xu, apart from not daring to look behind him, hoped to use his hearing, smell, touch, and even taste to perceive the secret behind him.

But at that moment, his hearing told Li Xu a fact—there was breathing behind him.

"Gu Xing," Li Xu called out.

The breathing continued, but there was no response.

Li Xu raised his voice again, saying, "Open it up!"

Zhang Da

Still, no one agreed.

Li Xu even ridiculously shouted out: "Yang—Mian."

The night was quiet, as quiet and dark as usual, but Gu Xing, Zhang Da, and Da Kai were sleeping even more soundly than usual. Li Xu called them several more times, but they didn't wake up, and no one answered him, including the people in the next dormitory and—the thing behind them.

This was torture, mental torture. Li Xu had the courage to die, but not the spirit to look back.

After a while, Xiaohua's words came through the screen again.

"You're sweating, what are you afraid of?"

When Li Xu saw the words above, he realized he was now covered in a cold sweat.

"I'm going offline and shutting down my computer," Li Xu thought to himself.

Just as I was about to make a move, another message came in: "Aren't you going to leave without saying goodbye? How rude of you."

You can get rid of her by simply saying, "I'm logging off, goodbye."

That's what Li Xu was thinking. He immediately started typing to say goodbye to her.

The Wubi input method for "I'm logging off now, goodbye" is: qs gh xg b, gmf mqb. Li Xu quickly typed these letters on the keyboard, but what he typed out was: I didn't mean to leave, let's chat some more.

Li Xu broke down and immediately logged off and shut down his computer.

When Li Xu pressed the shutdown button, the computer did not respond.

Li Xu then pressed ALT+F4 and followed it with Enter.

Blue screen...

Staring at the eerie blue light emanating from the monitor, Li Xu's tears mingled with sweat, dripping from his face onto the table. He felt utterly helpless, death seemed so far away, yet terror was right beside him.

Yes, terror is more terrifying than death.

Li Xu focused all his hopes on the index finger of his left hand and pressed and held the POWER key on the computer.

Four or five seconds later, the power was cut off, and even the only thing in the dormitory that could make a faint sound, the CPU fan, stopped. At this point, Li Xu could only hear his own heartbeat and the breathing of the thing behind him; he could hear no other sounds.

As the saying goes, things reach their extremes and then reverse. Li Xu was a little angry. He wanted to look back, silently counting in his mind: One... Two...

"three"

"Four...five..."

Li Xu didn't know how long he would have to count. When he reached sixteen, the breathing behind him grew closer and closer, accompanied by a few giggles.

Li Xu gritted his teeth and turned around.

Behind them was darkness, emptiness, and not a soul in sight.

Happy? Delighted? Confused? Or should he continue to be afraid? Li Xu didn't know. He felt that if he had seen a monster, he might have felt better, but he saw nothing afterward.

Yes, there's nothing there, absolutely nothing...

He felt a strange sensation in his mind, expanding and becoming clearer, then exploding like a bomb, buzzing...

He felt even more afraid.

It was past 2 a.m. Li Xu nudged Gu Xing, who was sleeping on the bed, but Gu Xing did not wake up. Li Xu shouted in his ear again, but he still did not wake up. Apart from still breathing and having a heartbeat, Gu Xing was no different from a corpse.

The surroundings remained silent. Da Kai and Zhang Da were fast asleep. Li Xu lay down on his bed, feeling helpless and fearful.

The bed frame was cold.

Li Xu didn't close his eyes. He leaned against the inside of the bed and looked around.

Suddenly, something flashed through Li Xu's mind, then disappeared. Was it a feeling? Or an image?

He tried hard to recall what had just flashed through his mind.

Li Xu finally found it; it turned out to be a name—Xiao Hua (Little Flower).

The fear enveloped Li Xu once again, intensifying and haunting him like a ghost.

Time passed by, and everything was so quiet. Li Xu remained motionless, like a corpse.

It was 6:12 AM. The night was almost over. Zhang Da didn't get up to go to the bathroom as usual, and Da Kai didn't snore as usual. At this moment, Li Xu, amidst extreme terror, surprisingly fell asleep.

He had a dream.

In his dream, he was sitting at the computer desk again, frantically typing on the keyboard.

A burst of laughter followed. Li Xu wanted to turn around to look, but he couldn't help himself. He could only hear the voice getting closer and closer.

He suddenly stood up, wanting to turn around and take a look, but felt powerless.

Just then, everything in front of him vanished, replaced by a dark road. Without a second thought, Li Xu sprinted forward, running all the way to the street, the voices still following him.

He ran desperately for a long time, trying several times to look back at what was behind him, but he couldn't. He could only run forward, but he couldn't turn back or go backward.

He didn't feel tired; he ran for a very, very long time...

I ran from night to day, and then from day to night, for a long time.

He kept running for 365 days and nights. Each day and night is 24 hours, and each hour is 60 minutes. Every minute, Li Xu ran more than 300 meters. He ran another 300 meters, then another minute passed, then another hour...

Li Xu ran for three whole years.

His hair had grown very long, and the soles of his shoes were gone. The sound behind him had been running after Li Xu for three years.

Finally, he ran into a house. As soon as he entered, Li Xu closed the door behind him, but the sounds from behind the door continued to come.

There were no windows in the room, so Li Xu felt safe. He locked the door and went into another room.

Li Xu had been running for three years, but he didn't feel tired. However, he was tired of walking.

Li Xu sat on the bed, thinking about the scene three years ago when he ran out of the dormitory.

Suddenly, the door opened.

Li Xu stood up in surprise and saw a little boy enter from outside, an uninvited guest.

"Who are you? Why are you in my house?" the little boy asked in surprise.

The uninvited guest was actually Li Xu himself.

Li Xu said apologetically, "I'm sorry, my brother was chased here by bad guys and came in."

The little boy seemed to believe him and nervously asked Li Xu, "Where are the bad guys?"

"Outside the door."

The little boy turned and left, and Li Xu followed him out. When he saw the boy walk to the gate, Li Xu was afraid that he would open the gate, so he walked to his side.

The little boy was just listening to the sounds outside the door, which made Li Xu feel a little relieved.

"There are people laughing outside."

Li Xu nodded, then said, "That thing has been with me for three years."

As they were talking, the door was slammed once, twice, three times...

Li Xu and the little boy both became frightened.

The door was about to be kicked open when the little boy pulled Li Xu up and said, "Brother, come with me to my room. It's safe there."

The two rushed into a room, and the little boy struggled to close the door. Li Xu then realized that the door was more than a meter thick, which explained why the little boy said this was the safest place.

The door closed securely, and there were no windows in the room. They were safe. Li Xu and the little boy both breathed a sigh of relief and sat on the bed.

The room was decorated with lovely pink wallpaper, a small bed, and a computer in front of the bed.

Li Xu looked at the little boy and asked, "Where are your parents?"

“They’re divorced,” the boy said, looking a little unhappy. “My mom only comes to see me once a week, gives me some money, and then leaves.”

"This is too much!" Li Xu exclaimed, slapping the bed.

The boy remained silent, and Li Xu remained silent as well; several hours passed in this manner.

"Brother, let's go out and take a look."

Although he was a little scared, he couldn't stay here forever. Li Xu made up his mind, took the little boy's hand, and walked out of the room into the hall.

The door was not forced open.

Li Xu and the boy sat on the ground with peace of mind.

"Brother, are you hungry?"

"I am a little hungry."

The little boy led Li Xu to the kitchen, where they saw a large refrigerator. When they opened it, it was filled with food, enough to last a week.

Li Xu and the boy started eating next to the refrigerator.

"Brother, my mom is coming to see me in a week. Why don't you stay until then?"

Li Xumeng ate his bread, drank his juice, and nodded.

After they finished eating, the boy took Li Xu to another room.

"This is the room my mother sometimes stays in when she comes back. You can stay here."

Li Xu thanked them for a while, then looked around and saw that the room was furnished in a very high-end style, and there was a very nice computer. He thought to himself that the owner must be a very rich person.

Li Xu settled in with peace of mind, but dared not go outside the house. She spent her days playing games online with the boy and slept in the boy's mother's room at night.