Сказка о принцессе Сонг в Хэйан-кё

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Li Yu frowned and reluctantly pushed Gao Xiaoyuan away: "Xiaoyuan, what's wrong with you? Why are you suddenly acting all cute?"

"Mom, I'm scared, don't leave me."

"Xiaoyuan!" Li Yu looked at Gao Xiaoyuan with a hint of reproach: "You should know that your mother doesn't like children who act spoiled."

Gao Xiaoyuan froze, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Xiaoyuan, Daddy doesn't like children who cry easily either. You need to learn to be strong so that you can stand on your own two feet in society when you grow up, so that you can..."

Before Gao Lin could finish speaking, Gao Xiaoyuan wiped away her tears forcefully, lowered her head, and said firmly, "I'm fine."

Li Yu and Gao Lin exchanged a glance, and finally Li Yu said, "Then go to bed early, Dad and Mom are going on a business trip tomorrow."

Gao Xiaoyuan said nothing and lay on the bed with her back to her parents.

Li Yu and Gao Lin walked out, and the moment the door closed, tears welled up in Gao Xiaoyuan's eyes again.

"I'm fine, I'm fine..." Gao Xiaoyuan buried her head in the blanket again and continued to cry, the more she cried, the more upset she became, and the stronger the sense of loneliness in her heart became. From childhood to adulthood, her parents had always taught her this way, and she had no idea what warmth was, but deep down she really wanted to feel warmth, even if it was just for a moment.

A shadow suddenly appeared on the blanket through the light.

Gao Xiaoyuan gasped, staring at the blanket in horror.

The shadow seemed to be right beside her.

Who is it?

After hesitating for a moment, Gao Xiaoyuan peeked her head out from under the covers. She then saw someone sitting on the edge of her bed. Just as she was about to scream in fright, the person covered her mouth.

"It's me." Hearing that cold voice, Gao Xiaoyuan knew who it was.

It's Xu An.

Xu An released her grip, and Gao Xiaoyuan took a deep breath before asking softly, "How did you find my house?" She didn't look at Xu An; she was still angry with him.

"I'm sorry." Xu An looked straight at Gao Xiaoyuan.

"Why did you do that?" Gao Xiaoyuan couldn't find a reason to forgive Xu An.

“I have my reasons, and I will tell you later, but for now you have to come with me to a place.”

Where are you taking me?

"Concert hall".

A dim little lamp was lit on the stage.

Teacher Xia died mid-air on the stage, and Gao Xiaoyuan always felt a chill run down her spine when she stood in front of the stage. Xu An stood beside her, and she didn't understand why he had brought her here again in the middle of the night. Had he discovered something?

"Why did you bring me here?" Gao Xiaoyuan asked.

Xu An didn't say anything. He suddenly jumped onto the stage, looked around with his head down, and then stopped in the middle of the stage, staring at the ground with a deep frown.

"What's wrong?" Gao Xiaoyuan walked over, and when she looked down at the floor, her face froze, because she realized the floor looked familiar, as if...

"It's that floorboard!" Gao Xiaoyuan exclaimed!

Xu An glanced at Gao Xiaoyuan, said nothing, and took an MP4 player out of his pocket. Gao Xiaoyuan stammered, "So...so you have one too..."

“This is yours. I was there when you were scared, so I saw it.” Xu An squatted down and looked at the floor, saying, “There must be something down there!”

Gao Xiaoyuan nodded firmly, then squatted down as well, but her body was half-hidden behind Xu An, as she was really worried that the floor would suddenly crack.

Before Gao Xiaoyuan could react, Xu An stood up and went to the corner of the stage to look around. Finally, he found an axe and came back: "Move back a bit."

Gao Xiaoyuan obediently took a few steps back. Xu An picked up the axe and chopped hard at the floor. Gao Xiaoyuan quickly closed her eyes.

A few blows of the axe smashed a hole in the wooden floor, and a musty smell immediately wafted out. Gao Xiaoyuan covered her nose, while Xu An, also covering his nose, squatted down and peered inside. After only a few glances, he jumped down into the hole. Gao Xiaoyuan walked over and squatted at the entrance: "What's in there?"

"I'm watching." Xu An bent over and kept crawling inside.

From Gao Xiaoyuan's perspective, she could only make out a space beneath the floor, large enough for half a person to stand in. It seemed to be filled with dust. Beyond that, the view became blurry; she could only hear the sound of Xu An crawling forward. Suddenly, the sound stopped.

"Did you find anything?" Gao Xiaoyuan felt an inexplicable tension.

After a long pause, Xu An finally managed to say, "Come down and take a look."

With a mix of trepidation and excitement, Gao Xiaoyuan jumped into the cave. She could vaguely see the direction Xu An was in, so she crawled towards it. Once she reached Xu An's side, she asked softly, "What's there?"

Xu An didn't say anything, but simply turned his body to the side, trying to make Gao Xiaoyuan see what was in front of him.

Gao Xiaoyuan peeked out, using the light streaming in from the cracks in the floor above her head to look at what Xu An was looking at. But as soon as she saw him, her face turned very pale: "This..." Gao Xiaoyuan quickly turned around and covered her mouth, but made a vomiting sound.

Before Xu An lay a stiff skeleton, its face so decayed that it was unrecognizable. Its hands were outstretched, pressing against the floor, and it was wearing the same school uniform as Gao Xiaoyuan and Xu An. Its beautiful long hair still shone under the light.

Gao Xiaoyuan recognized the long hair; it belonged to Peng Zhi.

That night 71 years ago

Peng Zhi tried to escape; perhaps she tried to push against the floor with her hands, hoping to break through and escape, but she was ultimately trapped here. But how did she get trapped here?

Gao Xiaoyuan finally stopped vomiting, but her body was still trembling. Xu An didn't say much, but took off his school uniform and draped it over Gao Xiaoyuan's shoulders.

“She is Peng Zhi,” Xu An said calmly.

"How could she be here?" Gao Xiaoyuan couldn't figure out the reason at all. She suddenly remembered that Xu An hadn't finished speaking last time, so she asked, "You said last time that your sister was leading Class 0 of Grade 11 in rehearsal that night a year ago, what happened after that?"

Xu An hunched over and stared blankly at Peng Zhi's remains, saying softly, "That night, right here, all the students in Class 0 of Grade 1 disappeared. No one knows where they went. Everyone thought they were reduced to ashes in that fire."

"Fire?"

"A fire broke out in this concert hall that night."

Gao Xiaoyuan blinked. The place didn't look like it had been in a fire, and Peng Zhi's body didn't show any signs of being burned.

"The fire was quickly extinguished, but the students of Class 0, Grade 11 disappeared and were never found again."

So, no one knows what actually happened that night?

Xu An nodded.

"Have you found out who set the fire?"

Xu An gave a wry smile and remained silent.

"So... we're just going to let this go like this?"

Xu An's gaze suddenly became somewhat distant: "My sister is the only one who survived. Although she didn't perish in the fire, she died because of what people said."

"Your sister...she should know what happened back then!"

Xu An shook his head: "Although my sister survived, she didn't know how the fire started. She went to buy food for the students and when she came back, the concert hall was on fire. Although the fire was put out in time, the students were all gone. Later, rumors spread in the school that my sister had murdered those students and that she had accidentally started the fire. The rumors spread more and more fiercely, and eventually my sister tied the strings of her piano to the stage and committed suicide."

"Just like Teacher Xia?" Gao Xiaoyuan exclaimed.

Xu An let out a cold laugh.

Suddenly, a soft sound came from outside, and Xu An and Gao Xiaoyuan both instinctively shut their mouths. They glanced at each other and looked in the direction of the sound—the concert hall doors.

Someone is coming.

8. She is her, but who is he?

The footsteps were very light, as if afraid of disturbing others.

"Is anyone there?" Upon hearing this voice, Gao Xiaoyuan and Xu An exchanged a glance but remained silent.

Footsteps sounded again, seemingly approaching the stage: "Teacher Xia, rest in peace here. Whether there are ghosts here or not, I hope you can calm down. Let bygones be bygones, and we should all forget what happened that night a year ago."

Gao Xiaoyuan suddenly recognized the voice. She had heard it on her first day of school; it was the school's female principal. Gao Xiaoyuan quickly climbed to the entrance of the hole and poked her head out: "Principal Chen!"

Principal Chen, who was about to leave, was startled by the call and then turned around.

Gao Xiaoyuan quickly crawled out of the hole: "Principal Chen!"

“You…” Principal Chen was very surprised and looked at Gao Xiaoyuan with some panic.

"I am a freshman in Class 3 of the first year of high school."

How did you get here?

"I want to know what exactly happened that night a year ago."

"You shouldn't be here. This place is going to be sealed off soon. Don't come here again!"

"Principal Chen, you must know some things from back then. Did Teacher Xia know too, which is why she died? Why did she die? What exactly happened?"

Principal Chen fell silent. She sat helplessly in the seat closest to her, tears streaming down her face. "Teacher Xia didn't mean it."

Gao Xiaoyuan listened quietly.

"That night, the concert hall suddenly lost power. Teacher Xia brought candles to provide light for the children, but unexpectedly, that fire broke out."

"But this place doesn't look like it's been burned."

"The fire was quickly extinguished, but they..." Principal Chen could no longer control his emotions, "Their bodies could not be found, and they may have already turned to ashes. Teacher Xia had been feeling guilty all year, but I never expected that she would still choose to commit suicide in the end."

"But we just found Peng Zhi's body, and there were no signs of burning on her body!"

"You? Who are you with? Where is the body?"

“Here…” Gao Xiaoyuan knelt on the floor and peered into the hole, only to find that Xu An and Peng Zhi’s bodies were gone.

"Why is there a hole in this floor? Is something inside?"

Gao Xiaoyuan couldn't say a word.

Was it all a dream? Why did Peng Zhi and Xu An disappear at the same time...?

Gao Xiaoyuan opened the desk drawer and took out the photo frame. Although the glass was broken, the photo was still there; Peng Zhi's smile was still radiant, while the faces of the other classmates were still blurry. Gao Xiaoyuan scanned the photo, and suddenly her gaze stopped on one person's face.

She was these students' teacher. She had a bright smile and looked very kind, but she was actually Teacher Xia!

Gao Xiaoyuan was stunned. It turned out that the homeroom teacher of Class 10 in the first year of high school had not died a year ago. So why did Xu An say that? Moreover, Xu An had once said that he was the younger brother of the homeroom teacher of Class 10 in the first year of high school...

What exactly happened?

Gao Xiaoyuan suddenly realized that what happened back then was not so simple.

Early in the morning, Gao Xiaoyuan searched the entire school, but there wasn't a single male student named Xu An from the first year of high school to the third. When she took out the photo frame again, she found that another person's face in the photo had become very clear.