At first glance, it seems like there's no problem.
Looking at Tang Yue again, she had initially listened to the class monitor sing with hopeful eyes, but now she was numb, frozen in place, unable to come back to her senses for a long time.
Xiang Yu felt that she had a tough time.
"Hey, class monitor," Tang Yue asked him, "Are you in the choir?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Hmm..." Tang Yue made a very pertinent suggestion: "I suddenly feel like I've sung enough solos. As for choral singing... Class monitor, why don't you be the class's choral director this time? It's a waste of your talent to be hidden in the choir."
Tang Yue thought to herself, "God is indeed fair; he leaves the doors wide open but seals the windows shut."
"Sure." Gu Chen usually agrees to other people's requests as long as they aren't excessive.
The chorus of Class 2 chose a medley of songs, none of which were difficult, and the results were evident after just two days of training.
The dean even watched it once during the visit and praised them after hearing the song.
The last period on Friday is a class meeting, after which we go to self-study.
With midterms just over and the workload suddenly lightening, not many people are seriously studying on their own.
Xiang Yu overheard someone in the back row whispering something, mostly Wang Zehao's voice, when Yang Shuhuan interrupted them.
"Why don't you ever learn your lesson? The worse you are at the game, the more you like to play?"
"Didn't we have an NPC last time?"
Wang Zehao was unhappy when he was told that he loved playing games even more than he was bad at them. He couldn't stop talking and his voice was too abrupt in the quiet classroom. The class monitor in the front row knocked on the table and warned him.
"Mouse, be quiet," Gu Chen said in a low voice.
Seeing Gu Chen turn around, Wang Zehao made another suggestion.
"Brother Chen, let's go exploring tonight."
"Huh?" Gu Chen asked, puzzled. "What kind of adventure?"
"That abandoned residential building in the suburbs," Wang Zehao said in a low voice. "They say it's haunted. Shall we go check it out tonight?"
"Wait a minute." Gu Chen glanced at him, then turned around and rummaged through his desk drawer. Xiang Yu saw him rummage for a while before slapping a flyer on Wang Zehao's desk.
"What?"
"Take a look." Gu Chen gestured with his chin.
Resisting superstition starts with teenagers.
"..." Wang Zehao casually folded the flyer twice and stuffed it into his desk drawer, continuing as if he hadn't seen it, "No class tomorrow, go check it out tonight, after dark."
Gu Chen replied decisively, "I'm not going."
Seeing that he couldn't persuade Gu Chen, Wang Zehao poked Gu Chen in the back. When Gu Chen turned around, Wang Zehao pleaded, "Daddy, let's go take a look together, just in case."
Gu Chen slapped away the hand that was clinging to the back of her boyfriend's chair and looked at him: "Rat, you're something else. Did you think that just because my deskmate went, I would follow her?"
"Sigh." Wang Zehao touched the tip of his nose after his intentions were exposed. "Isn't that just how it is?"
He continued, "If nothing happens when we go, it will be a good opportunity to clarify the rumors and combat superstition."
"What rumor?" Xiang Yu asked casually.
"It's said that some people saw ghostly figures swaying on the third-floor windowsill when they passed by there at night, along with sounds of crying and laughing." Wang Zehao shuddered as he said this. "They all disappeared when they looked over, but someone turned around and secretly took a picture with their phone, and guess what?"
"Damn, hurry up and say it." Yang Shuhuan, having just imagined the whole thing, got goosebumps all over and urged him on.
“In the photo, there was something peering at him through the second-floor window, but when the man turned around, there was nothing there.” Wang Zehao swallowed hard. “The man turned and ran a few steps in fear, but then, driven by curiosity, he turned back again, and…”
"As it turned out, the thing had moved to the first-floor window and was watching him. When he realized something was wrong, he turned and ran, but then he heard footsteps behind him."
[Author's Note: Xiang Yu: Do you have a misunderstanding of what "general" means?]
Chapter Forty-Eight: You Deserve It!
Chapter 48 A Corner: You Serves You Right for Being Punished.
High school students have boundless enthusiasm that they can channel anywhere, and they can find energy in any direction.
Wang Zehao used every trick in the book, pleading and cajoling, before finally transforming the "Haunted House Adventure Team" from the previous amusement park trip into the "Believe in Science Working Group."
The group name was changed strictly according to his brother Chen's requirements. He explained everything clearly before we went in, and we were to leave after just one visit, without lingering.
After dinner, as it was getting dark, Xiang Yu wanted to borrow Li Yifan's electric scooter, but Li Yifan pressed him for details, so in the end, Xiang Yu had no choice but to ask someone else.
Although it's called the suburbs, it's actually just the edge of the development zone. It's not far from the city center. Xiang Yu sat on the electric scooter, and Li Yifan drove it at breakneck speed. The time it took to get there was even less than the time it took to get to No. 1 Middle School.
The surrounding area was full of gravel and sand, with hardly any weeds growing. The dilapidated walls did not obstruct the view. The most conspicuous thing was the abandoned residential building in the very center. It was originally slated to be demolished and replaced with a new building after the original residents moved out. However, the original company suddenly withdrew before the demolition was completed, leaving only this one building behind.
There are many theories about the reasons for the work stoppage, with the most popular being the most bizarre.
It's haunted.
Wang Zehao heard the latest edited version, which was said to have pictures and evidence online at the time. Unfortunately, it was deleted from the entire internet before it could be seen. The official explanation was to resist superstitious information.
Netizens are not buying it.
If there's nothing to hide, why would you delete it? You must be feeling guilty.
As a result, the story became increasingly bizarre and outlandish.
No one knows the truth.
Instead of meeting downstairs, Wang Zehao designated the meeting point as behind a dilapidated wall some distance away from the west side of the apartment building's unit entrance.
"Holy crap, so many people?" Li Yifan rode his electric scooter with his headlights on to the crowd. He and Xiang Yu were the last to arrive.
"One, two, three, four, five..." Li Yifan counted down to his cousin and himself, "...six, seven, goodness, so many people catching ghosts? This is quite a group."
“Oh, I was just worried,” Wang Zehao said. “This way, there’s enough yang energy to suppress it.”
“…Then this one?” Li Yifan looked at the only girl in the room.
Wang Zehao said, "Men are yang and women are yin. If there is no yin energy at all, ghosts won't come out."
“…Awesome!” Li Yifan could only say this after holding it in for a long time. Because of his parents’ work environment, he was influenced by materialism from a young age, so he didn’t believe in these idealistic things at all.
"Believe in science, oppose superstition." Gu Chen, a staunch materialist, had somehow moved to the side of Xiang Yu. "We're here to dispel rumors."
The group set off in a grand procession toward the first floor of the residential building. Except for Wang Zehao, the others didn't even carry flashlights. They went up with an air of righteousness that made them look more like they were there to raid the building than to explore.
The interior of the residential building has the old-fashioned layout that you see on TV, with corridors on each floor, and residential and public health areas at the ends of the corridors.
The group first raided the residential area on the first floor, with Li Yifan leading the charge to show off his bravery.
The windows were missing one or were incomplete, and the old wooden door creaked as the wind blew in.
Wang Zehao's heart was pounding so hard it felt like it would jump out of his chest. He secretly clutched the Guanyin pendant that his father had received as a gift from someone when he was doing business.
Xiang Yu was standing at the back when Gu Chen held his right hand. Gu Chen warmed his fingertips with his body heat while his thumb rubbed against his palm.
He got goosebumps all over.
"Stop fooling around," Xiang Yu said in a very soft voice, "It itches."
"Oh, I'm sorry."
It was so dark inside that the faint light from Wang Zehao's flashlight was barely enough for the people behind him to make out their outlines.
Gu Chen's apology sounded quite sincere, making it impossible for anyone to know that he harbored ill intentions. Only Xiang Yu could sense the other party's actions.
He felt a gentle kiss on the spot where he had just felt itchy.
Wang Zehao had already entered the house, and the corridor, now devoid of its only source of light, was plunged into darkness.
In the darkness, Xiang Yu could hear Gu Chen's breathing getting closer and closer.
The next second, their breaths mingled together.
These past two days, Gu Chen has had many opportunities to practice, and his self-taught skills have improved considerably.
Her waist was held tightly by the other person, and some ambiguous sounds could be heard from between them.
Some parts of the other person's body also started to feel strange.
The room was empty, filled with old, dusty, and rotten furniture that hadn't been moved. When Wang Zehao came out with a light on, he saw his brother Chen and brother Yu leaning against a wall, looking at each other.
"What are you two posing for?" Wang Zehao thought it was abnormal for the two of them to be standing more than a meter apart. Before coming out, he seemed to hear a muffled groan. Then, seeing Gu Chen clutching his waist with one hand, Wang Zehao was shocked. "Holy crap, Brother Chen, did my dad hit you?"
"No." The spot where the other person pinched still hurt a little; Gu Chen figured it was probably bruised. "It was too dark; I bumped into something."
"Oh, oh." Wang Zehao thought to himself, "This corridor is just flat walls and a concrete floor. Where did I bump into?"
Nine times out of ten, they got beaten up, but afterwards they didn't dare to say they were beaten up.
Great! Someone who can subdue Brother Chen has appeared.
After searching the first floor, the group went up to the second floor, but found nothing, so they went to the third floor.
The interior of the upstairs apartment can be summed up in one word.
It has everything.
The furniture in the first two floors was practically nonexistent compared to that on the third floor.
Wang Zehao was excited when he saw this.
"Holy crap, did a ghost live here?!"
"Ghosts smoke?" Yang Shuhuan pointed at the cigarette butt on the windowsill and punched him.
"So..." Wang Zehao asked in a daze, "Someone lives here?"
"I don't know if I'll stay here or not, but I should come often." Gu Chen lightly rubbed the sofa with his fingers, and by the light, he could see that there was no dust.
"Hey, so the person that day might have seen this regular?" Wang Zehao, who had been on edge since entering the building, relaxed and acted nonchalantly as if he wasn't the coward he had just been.
"I thought there was some real ghost, but it turns out it was just a human playing tricks." Wang Zehao walked to the other end of the sofa and was about to sit down when someone grabbed him. The nearly 200-pound man's buttocks were suspended in the air, and he couldn't even touch the sofa surface.
I never knew the other person was so strong.
"Sister Xu." Feeling a bit intimidated by her stare, Wang Zehao swallowed hard. "Little brother, what have I done to offend you?"
“She’s afraid you’ll sit on this.” Xiang Yu turned on her phone’s flashlight and shone it on the area under Wang Zehao’s buttocks. There were a lot of discarded syringes on it, most of them still with needles, and some were bent upwards.
If Wang Zehao hadn't been pulled back, he would have plopped down on it.