Translator: Yuzu
Xiao Chen opened his eyes in a daze, and his body was a little weak.
“You’re awake?” The girl cried out in surprise. She stood up from the chair next to her, her eyes revealing some joy.
Xiao Chen silently glanced at her and slowly crawled out of the blanket. He took his hand out of the blanket in disgust and couldn’t help but frown.
This room was shabby, the quilt was stitched together, and even the tool used for lighting the room was just a flickering candle.
The girl didn’t notice his small movements and bashfully lowered her head, saying, “That, my name is Jin Hong.” She glanced up at Xiao Chen and then hurriedly lowered it again, “Originally, we were planning to go down the mountain since it was getting dark, but there was the fog again, and we didn’t know the way, so we came back! When we got back, we saw you lying there.”
The girl seemed to recall some horrible images. Her face was a little pale, her voice was very small, and she looked a little timid throughout, “Then there are too few rooms, so I can only wrong you to be in a room with me.”
Xiao Chen still didn’t speak.
“Ah!” The girl suddenly felt something fall onto her neck. She touched it and felt something numb to the touch. Her eyes widened, and she screamed out in shock.
It was a spider.
The spider was huge, almost the size of a girl’s palm, and the moment the girl touched the spider, it was like the spider had a spirit, climbing right up her hand and not falling off no matter how much she shook it off.
“Oooooh!” The girl desperately cried out, and her whole body froze in place like a fool.
Xiao Chen squinted and climbed up from the bed, intending to help, but before he could do anything, the spider nimbly jumped off the girl’s hand, then slipped into a crack in some nook and disappeared.
The girl was frightened and couldn’t stop her tears. She could only nod her head vigorously and repeatedly said, “Thank you, thank you.”
Xiao Chen ignored her. His eyes instead stared thoughtfully at the direction the spider left.
“Are you afraid of spiders?”
“Not afraid.”
“What about one this big?” The boy made a super-sized shape with his hand on his chest.
The boy, who was even smaller than him, blinked and said, “Not afraid.”
The boy was a little discouraged, “Then what are you afraid of? How can I protect you if you’re not afraid of anything!”
The little boy laughed and put both arms around the other, “Because you’re here, I’m not afraid of anything! I know that you will protect me!”
Xiao Chen snapped out of his memories and silently walked straight to the window, looking at the scenery outside.
This window looked dirty, piled with a thick layer of dust. There’s no telling how long it had been since it was last cleaned.
It was dark outside the window. Without a streetlight, it was impossible to make out anything but a few rural house buildings.
Xiao Chen’s left hand couldn’t help but touch the necklace hanging around his neck. It was long with a sickle pendant, but the pendant wasn’t made of gold, silver, or stone; it was off-white and not plastic. This pendant was almost close to his heart. He didn’t take the necklace out of his collar but gently touched the shape of the pendant through his clothes.
Tan Jun…
Xiao Chen closed his eyes and mouthed the words in his heart.
‘I’m here.’
Xiao Chen opened his eyes abruptly and looked around in disbelief.
Apart from him, the only other person in the entire room was that Jin Hong, who hadn’t recovered from what had just happened.
Did he hear something just now?
The wind from outside was scraping the window, and the sound of the wind rustling could be faintly heard.
Xiao Chen endured the horror in his heart and slowly evened out his breathing, which had suddenly become a little faster.
He didn’t know what he was thinking and attached his hand to the glass of the window. As as soon as his hand was attached, the initially unbearably dirty glass became as clean as new at a pitiful speed, as if it was afraid that he would get his hands dirty.
Xiao Chen couldn’t help but curl his hand into a fist. He swallowed in disbelief and looked back at Jin Hong, who hadn’t noticed what he was doing.
His hand touched the dusty seat next to him again, intending to sit on it as if to verify something. This time, again, before he could do anything, the dirty chair became clean as well!
Xiao Chen pursed his lips, and a bold idea had been unable to restrain itself from forming in his brain.
As if he had thought of something, his hand once again touched the necklace hanging from his chest and asked, ‘Tan Jun?’
Silence.
No one answered.
Xiao Chen’s originally joyful expression instantly went cold, and he felt somewhat ridiculous.
‘I’m here.’ Clear and plain.
This voice was somewhat hoarse, no longer a slightly childish baritone in his memory, but a voice that only a matured man would have.
It was strange and familiar.
Xiao Chen’s eyes were a little moist and swollen with pain.
‘Tan Jun.’
‘I’m here.’
‘Tan Jun.’
‘I’m here.’
Xiao Chen shouted these two words tirelessly, like two children playing a conversation game.
‘You’ve lost weight.’
The tears that Xiao Chen initially forced himself to withdraw once again came out of his eyes when he heard this. He hurriedly wiped away his tears and pretended to look at the scenery from the window to hide the turbulence inside his heart.
Xiao Chen struggled to control his emotions.
‘I’m sorry.’ Xiao Chen held his eyes strong and didn’t close them, afraid that the tears would just flow down.
This time, it was like Xiao Chen felt something hug his waist and something like a head rubbed against his neck.
‘Don’t say you’re sorry,’ Xiao Chen felt his neck tingling, something was stroking there, and he heard the man’s say, ‘I volunteered for all this!’
‘I told you I’d protect you!’
‘No matter how many more times! I’ll always protect you!’ It always has been, it always is, and it always will be!
Good thing you’re back. I would have gone crazy if you hadn’t come back!
No, it’s not right! I’ve already lost my mind!
—
“Tsk tsk,” the boy trailed off, his eyes landing on Xiao Chen and Jin Hong with some mischief in his eyes, teasingly poking fun at them, “Did you get a good night’s rest? Hahaha.”
“You,” Jin Hong’s face was flushed red with anger, unable to even say a complete rebuttal.
Xiao Chen was still wearing a turtleneck sweater, but it had been changed to a dark green color, covering his mouth and nose as usual.
“Hmph,” the boy sneered, “Who knows what intentions you have, and even helped someone into your room to spend a night together. It’s hard for people to not think about it more, right?”
Jin Hong seemed to have been pierced by some small thought and stomped her foot a bit, “Don’t you dare spill blood!”
Before the boy could continue to say anything sarcastically, the man next to him, who looked much older than everyone else, stopped and shook his head at him, “Don’t say anything. The priority is to get out of here as soon as possible.”
The people around him looked at each other and nodded. Surprisingly, there was a tacit agreement on the matter, with a bit of fear in their eyes, as if they had encountered some trouble after he fainted last night.
Also, Xiao Chen quickly noticed that the old man’s body in the living room had disappeared, and even the residual blood on the floor had been disposed of cleanly. However, everyone here did not look shocked, and likewise, Xiao Chen also observed that everyone’s nerves were tense. Their eyes were somewhat stiff as they looked around as if they were afraid.
Xiao Chen touched the necklace and felt more than clear.
Tan Jun.
It was clear outside, but there was no sun in the sky, and it was dreary, even revealing a bit of gloom.
“Um,” the boy who had just made things difficult for Jin Hong began to break out in cold sweat on his forehead. His eyes were a little weak, and his hands were clenched into fists, “Have you noticed that our cell phones have no signal?”
The others were startled. They pulled out their phones and looked at each other, reading a bit of fear in each other’s eyes.
It was still the big brother, the man with a cold face, who directly took his phone back into his pocket, looked at the faces of everyone, and said sternly, “It seems we don’t have a way to contact the people outside to pick us up. How about this, we people move separately, look for any transportation in the village, and gather back here at noon!”
The man looked at Xiao Chen, “You’ll be in a group with Jin Hong, and I’ll be in a group with Ma Hang.” The man pointed at the boy who had just made a sound, “The remaining three will team up!”
No one refuted.
Xiao Chen squinted his eyes, scrutinizing the man’s face carefully, then swept a glance at the boy called Ma Hang.
As if confirming something, he then glanced at his head and hooked his lips.
Heh, so it’s you guys.
–
“Hey,” the boy stopped Xiao Chen, his gaze fierce. Behind him stood someone even smaller than Little Xiao Chen, crouching fearfully behind the stake, showing only two eyes.
“Give me what you’ve got to eat!” The boy made a threatening noise and appeared to be ready to just grab it if Xiao Chen didn’t give it.
He’s been hungry for too long! How could he not be excited when he saw that Xiao Chen had food in his hand.
Little Xiao Chen was so much shorter than the boy that he took a somewhat fearful step back. He hugged the dead fish he had just picked up from the river that was no more than half the size of his hand tightly in his arms and tried his best to say out loud, “No.”
The boy curled his mouth and planned to go straight for it, but a rock flew from nowhere and directly hit the boy’s head.
Tan Jun rushed out and directly protected Xiao Chen in his arms, like a lone wolf protecting a cub. His eyes were dark, and his tone was cold, glaring at the boy, “You dare to try to touch him!”
The only thing that keeps me alive as a walking corpse is my belief that you’ll be back!
As soon as you get back! I’ll never let you have a chance to leave me!
–
The author has something to say: In fact, you may not believe me when I say this but I am a person who does not watch horror movies _(:з”∠)_. The last time I watched a serious horror movie should be last year. I watched only a few movies because I am a coward!