The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 159: Signs

The moment the chalkboard eraser stopped, the air stilled, and silence filled the classroom. It was chilling, like something terrifying was lurking in wait around them.

“I, I have had enough!” Huan Huan was the first to stand up. “I’m going home!”

Zhou Jing grabbed her.

She looked back at her friend. “What, Zhou Jing...”

Zhou Jing didn’t say anything. With her head lowered, it was difficult to make out her expression.

“Why don’t we call it a day, Sister Zhou...?” Niu Xuan couldn’t bear staying seated.

Gao Yang wasn’t actually that scared, but it still made his hair stand on end to witness something this eerie. He was just about to say something when he noticed something wrong.

“Let go of me, Zhou Jing. It, it hurts...” Huan Huan struggled to break out of Zhou Jing’s tight grip around her wrist. Her face became flushed with effort while her fear drained it of color.

Finally, Zhou Jing slowly looked up.

Her face was pale, and her eyes rolled back toward her skull as her lips twisted into a strange smirk, her voice rough and eerie. “It is easy to summon a spirit...but not to send it away...”

Her neck snapped to the side, her face contorted. “You. Will. Die...”

“Ahhhhh the ghost!”

“Fuck! Help!”

Screams rang through the classroom, the loudest among the voices belonged to Niu Xuan. He fell off the chair and scrambled out of the classroom, never even sparing a glance for his friends.

Cucumber and Fat Hu were in no better condition. They screamed and rushed out of the classroom, their belongings completely forgotten.

Huan Huan shrunk into the corner, holding onto her head with both hands. “Don’t, don’t kill me, don’t kill me...”

And Can had held onto Gao Yang’s waist at some point. She whimpered with her eyes closed, “Captain Seven Shadow! Protect me, protect me...”

“You. Will. All. Die! Hahahahaha...” Zhou Jing continued to exclaim like a woman possessed, and she lunged at Gao Yang with her arms extended.

Gao Yang stayed seated without even attempting to move away.

Zhou Jing’s hands stopped before wrapping around his neck.

“Why don’t you keep going?” Gao Yang smiled.

Zhou Jing paused, the terrifying look wiped off her face in an instant. “Shit. How did you know?”

Gao Yang hadn’t noticed until a moment ago.

His reasoning was twofold: first, the lack of Luck points acquisition bonus told him that he wasn’t in danger, and second, when he volunteered to rotate the chalkboard eraser, he noticed that it was a little heavier than he remembered, which meant that it was likely to have been tampered with.

Then he thought back to the way Zhou Jing rotated the eraser.

Her other hand was left under the table. It was difficult to notice since Huan Huan had been playing the part of a distraction well.

Gao Yang concluded that it must have been a trick played with magnets.

Instead of going into his reasoning, he complimented her, “You’re a great actor. I was almost fooled.”

“Of course!” Zhou Jing placed her hands on her hip. “I’m an acting major!”

Huan Huan had stopped crying. She went up to them with a smile. “Haha, it’s so much fun. The three of them were so scared.”

“You!” Can finally caught on. “You were playing a prank! Why didn’t you tell me beforehand? You’re mean!”

“You’re clumsy, Orange. You would’ve exposed us!” Zhou Jing huffed and added after a moment like she had just remembered, “By the way, what did you call Gao Yang earlier? Something shadow? Captain?”

“My ID in games,” Gao Yang hurriedly explained.

“You really are an addict, Orange!” Zhou Jing gave Can a sympathetic look. “If this goes on, you’re gonna end up getting shock treatment.[1]”

She then turned to Gao Yang with a hostile look. “Are you part of Niu Xuan’s posse?”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Gao Yang responded honestly. “I don’t really hang out with him.”

“Good!” Zhou Jing crossed her arms, fuming. “That bastard cheated on my close friend! I planned this to get revenge for her!”

“Yep! We recorded him making a fool of himself!” Huan Huan happily approached the podium to retrieve a hidden camcorder under it. She brought it over and said, “Here, let’s have a look. We’re gonna post it online tomorrow...”

She paused, her expression befuddled. “Hm? Why is there...no recording?”

“Let me check!” Zhou Jing grabbed the camcorder from her and made a few clicks. “Huh, there really isn’t. This can’t be! I remembered clicking on the record button...”

“Ugh, what a shame!” Huan Huan was disappointed.

“Forget it. We’ve had our revenge.” Zhou Jing wasn’t too hung up on it. She flipped her hair and said, “Come on, let’s go home. I can’t pull another all-nighter, or my skin condition is gonna get worse.”

Gao Yang smiled resignedly and took out his phone to message Niu Xuan, Cucumber, and Fat Hu on WeChat: Stop running. You’ve been pranked. It’s all an act put up by Zhou Jing.

He followed the three girls out of the classroom and down the stairs, returning to the shaded path. As they walked, Zhou Jing and Huan Huang had been going over their prank the entire time, still feeling excited.

“Why don’t we add each other as contacts, Gao Yang?” Zhou Jing took out her phone. “You seem like a good guy, and you know Orange. We should be friends.”

“Sure.” As soon as Gao Yang took out his phone, it rang.

Cucumber called. He picked up.

“Gao Yang! Hurry here!” The boy sounded panicked.

“What’s wrong?”

It was Fat Hu who responded, “Something’s wrong! Young Master Xuan is acting strange...”

“Don’t panic,” said Gao Yang. “Where are you?”

“The flagpole platform on the running track! Come here...”

In the silent campus at midnight, the three girls could hear his voice even though Gao Yang hadn’t put the call on speaker.

“Haha,” Zhou Jing said with obvious schadenfreude. “Did the scare loosen a few screws in his head?”

Huan Huan was feeling somewhat regretful. “We did go a little overboard. Shit, we aren’t going to get sued, are we?”

“Let’s go check first,” Gao Yang said and added without thinking too much of it, “Maybe the three of them are planning to prank you to make it even.”

“Makes sense.” Zhou Jing smirked. “But we aren’t that easy to scare.”

Gao Yang and the three girls turned back to walk to the running track. It was unusually quiet without any of them speaking.

Can sidled closer to Gao Yang unconsciously. “Actually, I’ve been thinking that the school is strange for a while. Didn’t you notice?”

“No.” Zhou Jing seemed entirely unfazed as she led the way.

Huan Huan shook her head too.

“It’s too quiet, isn’t it?” Gao Yang asked.

“Yeah, it’s May already, and it’s quite hot. There should be cicadas chirping or frogs croaking.”

“Oh, right.” Zhou Jing realized what they were getting at, but she continued ahead without dwelling on it.

The running track was right ahead of them.

“Gao Yang!”

Cucumber and Fat Hu panickedly rushed over. “Come on, Gao Yang! There’s something really wrong with Young Master Xuan!”

Gao Yang followed them. As they walked, Cucumber continued to explain, “Fat Hu and I were gonna head for the gate after running out of the classroom, but Young Master Xuan came this way instead, and we had no choice but to follow him. Then we received your message and were going to tell Young Master Xuan to go, but he just stood there, acting real strange. He never responded to us when we called out to him...”

Gao Yang frowned slightly, looking at the flagpole platform in the front of the running track. Facing the track, Niu Xuan was doing aerobics[2].

“Niu Xuan!” Gao Yang called out while keeping a certain distance from him. “Stop fooling around. Time to go home.”

Niu Xuan continued with his exercises like he hadn’t heard Gao Yang.

There were no other people around. The running track was silent save for Niu Xuan’s steps and heavy breaths as he exercised, as well as his murmurs.

“One, two, three, four. Two, two, three, four. Three, two, three, four. Four, two, three, four...”

1. In China, there are facilities claiming to cure internet addiction, and one of the methods used is electric shock. Yang Yongxin, a psychiatrist, is a well-known advocate for such treatment. ?

2. There’s a tradition in Chinese school where students have to do aerobics during a class break. It can be daily or every few days. ?

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