Charlas nocturnas en cuentos extraños

Capítulo 7

"Ahem! Sorry, I'm... not feeling well today." Scratching his head, the fat man chuckled, reaching into his pocket with his left hand and pulling out a handful of lollipops. "Boss, Ade, want some? It's a new flavor!"

Originally uninterested in sweets, Xi Yuan remained silent upon seeing the fat man's almost tearful laugh. He reached out and grabbed a candy, but when his fingers touched the fat man's hand, the man's hand suddenly trembled, causing all the lollipops to fall. A few landed on the chair, but the rest leaked through the gaps in the park bench.

The chairs here were strangely designed; from the outside, they looked like unsealed boxes, with only a gap of about twenty centimeters at the bottom, enough to put a hand in. Xi Yuan bent down, placing one hand on the chair seat and the other reaching under the chair, his gaze darting around. Xi Yuan thought, "I just hope I don't touch anything bad, like dog poop..."

The area under my palm felt damp and cold. I touched a plastic bag and a few rotten leaves... but I couldn't find a single lollipop.

“I can’t find it, don’t bother with it.” Xi Yuan said, looking up at the fat man.

Just as he was about to pull his hand back, Xi Yuan's eyes widened the moment he touched something! He leaned down to look under the chair.

A small child was huddled inside, looking at him with big eyes. His hand was firmly held in the child's small wrist. Xi Yuan noticed that the candies that had been scattered in the chair were now all tightly held in the child's hand, a large handful.

Xi Yuan suddenly laughed and shouted into the distance, "Little guys, come here, you're the last ones." Watching the group of children running over happily, Xi Yuan smiled at the fat man, then pulled the child out from under the chair with a soft "Caught a ghost."

The little guy was filthy. It was amazing that he would think of hiding in a place like this. He was covered in dirt from head to toe, with only his big eyes visible.

"Huh? This person isn't Big Head. Big Head's head is so big, he definitely can't fit into that chair, haha!" The children who ran over laughed, and after a while, a boy behind them shouted, "We caught a ghost!" Then the children ran back again.

After a while, a group of children suddenly ran up to Xi Yuan and his group, excitedly saying, "Big brothers, why don't you be the ghost catchers?"

The little guy was quite something; he ran off as soon as he finished speaking, giving Xi Yuan no chance to refuse. Xi Yuan shrugged, glanced at Ade, and the two of them actually started playing with the child.

"We've caught a ghost."

"We've caught a ghost."

"We caught another one!"

"..."

Children kept getting caught, but the "ghosts" who were caught weren't discouraged. They would happily help Xi Yuan catch more "ghosts." However, the game wasn't over yet. A few women came over and, with shouts and drags, took the little ones away.

"Hehe, the ghosts are fake, but the mischievous little devils are real." Looking at the little ones, Xi Yuan laughed heartily.

“But it seems there’s still one we haven’t caught…” Ade scratched his head.

"He was probably called away by his mom too..." Xi Yuan sighed, not taking it to heart, and stood up, dusting himself off. "Shall we have another good meal and then go back?"

We were out for far too long today, usually never more than a day. But once the delicious food was in our mouths, the school, along with its terrible student cafeteria, was completely forgotten by the group of big kids.

When the three of them finally arrived at the station after a grueling journey, the train was already waiting there. For some reason, there were an unusually large number of people today, a sea of heads, all rushing to catch this subway. Xi Yuan, being tall and strong, easily got on, while Ade, short and agile, squeezed in as well. Only the fat man was still struggling at the entrance.

Suddenly... a sharp pain shot through his wrist! The next second, the fat man found himself being pulled to the ground by that force!

"Damn it! Who pulled my...?" This anger completely dispelled the eeriness from before, but...

The waving fist suddenly stopped, and the fat man's gaze fell on his wrist, that bruise... it looked just like the one he was dragged out of his dream!

Thinking about it carefully, not only the shape and size, but even the force were similar! Goosebumps rose on his skin. The fat man stared wide-eyed into the car, and amidst the surging crowd, his gaze suddenly fell on a tall, thin old man…

Grandpa! The fat man was stunned.

At this moment, the elderly man standing in the car, holding onto the handrail with a serious expression, who else could it be but the grandfather I had seen in the photos?!

The old man stared back at him, his face ashen. The subway doors slowly closed. Everyone found their place in the crowded train. The grandfather's body gradually disappeared from sight, but his knife-like, warning gaze remained etched in the fat man's heart.

Suddenly remembering something, the fat man's expression changed! "Boss! Ade! Get down! Get down now!" If that was a warning! If it was a warning from his deceased grandfather, and his grandfather wouldn't let him get on the car, then the consequences of getting on...

Finally, he saw Xi Yuan's tall figure through the car window. He seemed to see him too, and tried to reach out the window. Just as he leaned down, the fat man, who saw something, suddenly turned pale!

"No! Oh my god..." With no strength left, the fat man stared blankly at the subway that had finally accelerated out of control, and slumped to the ground. The wind blew along the side of the train, piercing through his heart.

Lost in thought, the boy didn't notice a pair of feet appearing behind him. "Gotcha." A hand gently landed on the fat man's shoulder. Turning around and seeing the person's face, the fat man turned deathly pale.

Chapter Five: The Mysterious Brief Message

"Boss, what do we do? That idiot Fatty hasn't gotten on yet!" The car was already going full speed, and the scenery outside the window could no longer be seen. Ade squeezed next to Xi Yuan and said worriedly.

"What else can we do? He's not a child anymore. Let him take the next bus. He can't possibly miss it again, right?" Xi Yuan didn't seem to care much. It was true, the three of them often got separated, and it was usually the chubby guy who was always a beat slow to react.

“How about we go back and tell that coward Chen Jiaming that ‘Fatty is missing’ to scare him?” Ade suddenly became excited. Xi Yuan listened to his suggestion, slightly twitched the corner of his mouth, and didn’t say anything.

I don't know what's wrong with today, why are there so many people? Even though Xi Yuan is tall, he can still stick his head out to breathe some fresh air, but it's still very uncomfortable.

The exhaust fan above my head was humming loudly, and next to me were the sounds of students muttering vocabulary words and people blasting their headphones, all mixed together, making me irritable.

"My finger hurts so much!" Xi Yuan habitually touched his right pinky. There was a silver ring on it, which he had found by chance one day, and when he woke up the next morning, he didn't know why he was wearing it, and he couldn't take it off no matter what he did.

At first, it was quite annoying, but after getting used to it, it became a habit: when he was upset, Xi Yuan would keep turning the ring with his left hand, as if that would make him feel better. Suddenly…

"Big brother, you can sit here." Xi Yuan pursed his lips. These days, teachers' education is really successful. They say that good children should give up their seats to the elderly, weak, sick, disabled, and pregnant. But even on such a crowded bus, there are children giving up their seats. Is he still very young?

Xi Yuan was lost in thought and didn't pay much attention, but his pants were suddenly tugged a few times. Xi Yuan hurriedly looked down and saw a little boy looking up at him. "Big brother, can you sit here?" the little boy pointed to the seat he had given up.

"No need." Which eye of yours saw me as "old, weak, sick, or disabled"? Frowning, Xi Yuan looked at the little boy, who was probably only in elementary school age, but did not swear.

"Boss, sit down!" Ade couldn't help but push Xi Yuan into a seat, then stood in front of Xi Yuan himself. "Phew! That's more comfortable now. Thank you, little brother."

The little boy just smiled shyly, then climbed onto a woman sitting next to him and called out "Mommy." Seeing that an adult was watching her, Xi Yuan sat down with peace of mind. The woman's mother was clearly also puzzled that her son had given up his seat for a young man. The little boy whispered a few words, and the woman gave Xi Yuan a strange look before turning away.

The car stopped and started again, guests came and went, gradually decreasing in number. Xi Yuan wanted to take a nap, but he couldn't fall asleep no matter what he did.

The little boy next to her was being noisy and kept staring at her, then inexplicably smiling at her. It wasn't until the little boy covered his mother's eyes with his hands that the woman snapped, "Stop fooling around! Sit down properly!" that the little boy finally sat down obediently. The woman then gave Xi Yuan, who was looking in her direction, an apologetic smile.

Xi Yuan nodded, then stopped turning his head, but the conversation between the little boy and his mother clearly drifted into his ears.

"Mom is so stingy, she won't even let me cover my eyes for a moment."

“If I cover my eyes, Mom won’t be able to see, of course she’ll be angry.”

"No way, even if you're blindfolded, people can still see you, look..."

"Shut up, you brat!" the woman snapped, and the little boy finally quieted down.

Xi Yuan closed his eyes. Tch! That woman should have taught her son a lesson long ago, shown him what it means to shut up…

After two more stops, Xi Yuan suddenly felt the space next to him empty. After a while, he opened his eyes and saw that it was a woman standing up, preparing to get off the bus with her child. "Goodbye! Goodbye!" Outside the window, the little boy waved and smiled at him.

Xi Yuan frowned. As the car slowly started moving, the little boy and his mother finally disappeared from sight.

"Wake up, boss! We're almost there..." The phone suddenly vibrated, and Ade, who had been dozing off with his eyes down, suddenly opened his eyes wide. Wow! The area around them was almost empty. Looking at the station displayed on the LCD screen on the bus, they were about to reach the final stop, which was also where they were going to get off.

Xi Yuan merely frowned, his eyes still closed, though he wasn't sleeping soundly. "Never mind, there's still some time, I'll wake him later..." Ade thought for a moment, then suddenly remembered his vibrating phone, so he took it out of his pocket.

"It's a new message!" Ade opened his phone, frowned when he saw the densely packed number of text messages, and read the sender's name... "What on earth is that Fatty up to..."

While complaining, Ade still started checking the text messages one by one.

"Get off the bus immediately!"

"Get down here quickly!"

"Get down quickly!"

...

...

His inbox was flooded with these nonsensical text messages from the fat guy. "Seriously! That idiot fat guy, what is he saying?" Ade muttered as he deleted the messages that were inexplicable to him. Even as he deleted them, his phone kept vibrating—new messages were coming in.

"Just how many text messages did Fatty send?!" Ade felt a little bored as his fingers mechanically repeated the actions of "selecting" and "deleting".

Suddenly, a text message caught his eye. "The game isn't over yet, there's still one more person..." Ade frowned, looked at the number, and yes, it was from Fatty's phone. But this message was even more abrupt and cryptic!

"A game...what game? And what's with the other person?" A sudden, inexplicable anxiety gripped Ade. The next second, he dialed the fat man's number and immediately started yelling, "You idiot! What do you mean by sending those random text messages? Are you messing with me?!"

The fat man's phone remained silent.

Ade picked up his phone and checked it again. He hadn't dialed the wrong number; it was definitely Fatty's phone. So he said, "Hey! You fatso, why aren't you saying anything after answering the phone? Hey!?"

"Hehe—" A soft, childlike giggle came from the other end of the phone.

"Huh?" Ad was completely confused.

The voice on the other end of the phone suddenly seemed to have encountered some kind of radio wave, emitting a strange gurgling sound, as if someone was speaking on the other end, but only a piercing frequency could be heard.

"Snap!"

Ade threw away his phone.

"What are you doing?" A yawn came from the side, and Xi Yuan stretched and looked at Ade, his gaze habitually falling on the LCD display.

"What! We've reached the final stop, why didn't you call me... Never mind, let's get off quickly."

Just as Xi Yuan was speaking, the car door opened. Dazed, Ade responded with a "hmm," hesitated for a moment when he looked at his phone on the floor, but eventually picked it up and got out of the car with Xi Yuan.

“Boss, you said…” He hesitated, looking at his phone. Ade originally wanted to ask Xi Yuan, “Are there ghosts in this world?” But he stopped himself. He was known for his courage. If he asked such a question, wouldn’t he be no different from that coward Chen Jiaming in the dormitory?

"What's wrong with you now?" Xi Yuan asked, frowning, yawning widely and rubbing his eyes. He didn't know why, his eyelids kept twitching today; it was probably from playing too many games…

"No! It's nothing..." Ade hurriedly waved his hand, but his eyes remained unfocused. The phone in his hand was like a ticking time bomb; the text message, though brief, was deeply etched into his mind.

What exactly does that mean? And who is the person who answered the fat man's phone...? Ade suddenly remembered that when the subway started moving, he seemed to have seen the fat man anxiously chasing after the train.

The fat man's obese and clumsy body followed closely behind the car, his face pale... as if he were talking to himself.

What are you saying? Of course, you can't hear me through the glass and the crowd.

However, that scene is becoming clearer in his mind now, and Ade instinctively feels that it must have been very important words.

"What are you thinking about? Fatty's matter? That guy is fine, he's a local, he knows the way, he'll probably only be a few minutes later than us. Let's wait for him, he should be on the next subway, that's the last one."

The speaker was Xi Yuan. As the leader of this small group, his words always inexplicably convinced and reassured people. Even though his words were sometimes harsh and rude, he was very loyal to them. Take Fatty for example, that guy was clumsy and not very quick-witted. Every time he made a mistake, even he couldn't stand it, but Xi Yuan never said anything.

Xi Yuan was that kind of person. Even though everyone in school was afraid of him, Ade and Fatty both liked him. Ade would listen to any of Xi Yuan's opinions, but this time, Ade was a little apprehensive. However, even with his apprehension, he still nodded vigorously.

To be honest, he didn't know what else he could do besides nodding.

The subway waiting room for the last train was unusually deserted. Occasionally, a few people could be seen sneaking in to scavenge, but they were quickly chased away by the staff.

There are very few people here.

As a strong gust of wind rushed from the tracks, the two looked up—the train was coming.

The two exchanged a glance, but quickly turned their attention to the crowd emerging from the car. The bright white lights inside the car made their faces appear pale; the people, exhausted from a long day, looked haggard and ghostly, emerging from the car with indifferent expressions. In reality, there weren't many people left, and after waiting for a long time, they still hadn't seen the fat man.

Xi Yuan frowned; to be honest, his brows hadn't relaxed at all all day.

"Didn't that idiot come up?"

Just as he was about to take out his phone to call the fat man, Ade stopped him.

"Um... Boss, I already called him, but his phone is off!" For some reason, he didn't want Xi Yuan to see his phone. His intuition told him that the contents of the phone would likely only make him panic again after he had just calmed down.

"Shut down?" Xi Yuan frowned. "Could he have sneaked home? Tch! Forget it, let's hurry back too. It's getting late, and it'll be terrible if we get caught tomorrow. Let's go back and think of a way to fool Fatty!"

As always, they hailed a taxi at the subway station exit, told the driver Qi Lan's name, and got into the car.