Volume 1 - CH 7

Atlantis — 5:30 PM

It was currently dusk.

After experiencing a whole day similar to a horrific nightmare, I was currently standing outside my house.

In fact, I didn’t know how I got back to my house. About a second ago, I remember senior telling me to close my eyes, afterwards, I felt the wind whistling by for a few seconds. But when I opened in my eyes, I was already outside my house.

If I wasn’t holding on to the folder of the elective courses form, I would really have thought I had met a ghost.

“Why are you standing in front of the door?”

A voice suddenly called me from behind. When I turned around, I immediately saw my older sister standing behind me with an expression of someone looking at an obstruction on the road, “Either you go in quickly, or get out of the way. Don’t just stand there and block the path.” On her hand, was her bag of swimwear. It seemed like she had an appointment to go out for some water sport today.

I’m so jealous. Today I actually went to a strange school and was being made fun of.

A small gift box was suddenly placed in front of me.

“Take it.” A box of cake appeared in Ming Yue’s hand, which was also from one of the famous dessert houses that was introduced by newspapers and magazines, “Ma had something to do in the evening, she’ll buy something for dinner later. You can eat this first.” She then walked passed me, opened the door, and walked into the house.

I looked at at my sister’s back, and then glanced down at the box of cake. It was white, and on top were some silver curls, which kind of looked like senior’s hair.

I’m home. There was a feeling of being relieved. I quickly followed inside, and closed the door after entering the house.

The house decorations were just the same as it was in the morning when I went out, with absolutely no changes.

“Why do you have such an exhausted expression?” My sis turned her head to look at me, she then threw her bag onto the sofa and headed to the kitchen to make tea, “It can’t be, was your orientation today had something to do with running in the field?”

I’d prefer running in the field.

But if I said I was surfing on an open space while chasing after my classroom, no one is going to believe me. Chances are, in addition to having ‘Unlucky Star’ as my nickname, I’ll have ‘Delusional’ added to it.

However, I felt like the time flew by really quickly today. Running and chasing, and in just an instant, it was already in the past.

When did my time pass by so quickly? Even during school hours, everyday was the same boring process.

“Is the school alright?” Ming Yue came out of the kitchen, holding on to two cups of honey lemon tea. She left one cup in front of me, for me to drink while I was eating cake, “Ma was mumbling the whole day about being afraid that as soon as you start school, she’ll receive news of you being seriously injured. She spent the whole day right next to the phone or waiting for her cell phone to ring.”

I looked at Ming Yue while opening the box of cake.

Indeed, I was almost seriously injured, but maybe it was because of senior, who was next to me the whole day that, today set a new record for having the most scares, but I was totally unscathed.

I was very surprised.

Inside the box was a pudding cake, the sweet scent of the maple syrup filled my entire nostrils. It’s only now I realized that after being frightened for the whole day, I’d not eaten anything. I only had a couple of drinks at the assistant’s place, so I was feeling extremely hungry.

“Yang Yang, you… aren’t planning to drop out, are you?”

*Pthu!* I was swallowing my first bite when I heard my sis’s question. I almost choked to death.

I was wrong. Even if I’m not in school, there’s another ghost at home. After being frightened, I totally forgot about it, “I-I’m not!”

Actually I was, but there was no way I will admit it to my sis.

“You’d better not. Although the tuition fee was cheap, but it’s still money. You better not waste money.” Ming Yue narrowed her eyes and stared at me while snorting twice.

At that moment, I saw the image of the sis and senior overlapping. In fact, it would make much sense if she was senior’s reincarnation!

* * *

Two days had passed after the school orientation, and my daily life as an unlucky person was unusually calm.

I originally wanted to call my mom to quickly help me drop out of school, but for some reason, after what my sis had said, I dared not mention it to my mom, not even one word. All because I was very afraid my sis would strangle me to death.

“Yang Yang, go and help me buy a packet of salt.” My mom, who was currently tidying the lunch dishes in the kitchen, hollered at me.

“It’s finished already?” I quickly ran down from my room upstairs, and saw my mother wiping her hands while taking out a five hundred dollar* bill and passing it to me.

[T/N: $500TWD (New Taiwan Dollar) is a approximately $17 USD]

“It might not be enough for dinner, so go and buy a few packets. If you want to buy some popsicle, buy one for your sister, too.” After she finished giving her instructions, she went back into the kitchen and began her preparations.

My Ma loves the kitchen, and loves cooking even more. I’m not bragging, but her cooking’s a lot better than famous chefs.

“Ah, right, Yang Yang.” Ma, who had already took out a bag of flour, suddenly called out and stopped me at the entrance, “I found a cell phone in your dirty clothes a few days ago. Whose cell phone is it?” Hanging on her hand was that free of power-charging cell phone that was similar to senior’s, and the battery bar was still rather full.

Immediately rushing towards her, I quickly took back the phone, “It’s nothing, and this belongs to my school’s senior. A few days ago I borrowed it to make a call and forgot to return it.”

Mom gave a puzzled look, “Who’s so careless that they can forget to take back their phone?” However, she hadn’t planned on asking about it any further. After returning the phone to me, she went back to her kitchen to continue her big project.

“Hahaha…” I gave a hollow laugh; I’d totally forgotten about the matter of having this cell phone, “Right, where’s sis?” I haven’t see the devilish woman for the entire day.

“I heard she went for movies with her schoolmates.” My Ma said from the kitchen..

“Oh.”

That’s nice. These few days I’d been hard at work reading the school manual, but the more I read, the more frightened I became.

I don’t really want to study any more… I don’t really want to use my life to study any more… It’s too horrifying.

Suddenly felt this world was extremely cute. I wasn’t sure exactly how many times I’d been thinking this way in the last few days.

After wearing my shoes, I opened the door. There was someone standing outside my door and it wasn’t my sis.

It was a man in white clothing, with neat and short black hair. He gave me the creeps with his perfectly straight and long bangs, and under it were a pair of gray eyes, which were horrifyingly cold; as cold as ice. Even his completely white clothing that covered his whole body looked like what a person would wear after they were reborn.

The person did not even smile, giving of a feeling of a lifeless doll.

I started having goose bumps. So my next action was, slamming the door shut.

There are especially more weirdoes this year!

* * *

“So you are Chu Ming Yang.”

Just as if the voice was just brought out of the freezer, it floated from behind my head. So cold that my scalp was tingling.

“Whoaaah—!” When did he follow me in!?

I stared with bulging eyes at the ghost (for now, let’s address as such) who was standing behind me. He stood at the entrance with his cold eyes looking at me. I felt the hair on my body standing like pins and needles.

This person was more like a ghost compared to senior!

“Yang Yang, why are you shouting outside?” My Ma’s voice was coming from the kitchen.

That’s right! Ma was still at home!

I was afraid that she will get frightened, and then I opened the door and rushed outside. Sure enough, the ghost followed me out.

“Yaaaah—!” I met a ghost again! I met a ghost again! Damn it. Why is it that not only am I unlucky, I still have to encounter ghosts on so many occasions. What kind of unluckiness is this?!

I broke off in a stride. I desperately ran I ran with my life depended upon it. However, the white clothed ghost was nonchalantly running beside me without any effort. The main point was his expression did not change even a little!

Or is it because its face was covered with quick-dry glue, making it so that it can’t even have cramps on its face!

After using the fastest speed I could muster in my entire life to run for five minutes, I turned at a corner and came to the bridge on top of the drainage. There was a person walking across it from the other direction; the lucky student who was admitted into the engineering school.

“Ming Yang!” As he soon as he saw me running towards him, he happily raised his hand and waved at me.

I’m sorry dear student, but I’m not looking for you!

Just as I was intending to run past him in a straight line, the lucky student suddenly grabbed hold on me, “You’ve run too far off, are you being chased by a dog or something else again? Do you need me to help you chase it away?” He kindly asked me, who stopped and was currently panting hard.

“I, I’m being chased by a person!” I opened my eyes wide, the ghost had stopped just beside that classmate.

“Person?”

“Right next to you!” I yelled out loud, pointing at the right side of him.

“Next to me?” That classmate turned towards the place I pointed to, with an extremely puzzled look and then he slowly turned his head back to look at me, “Ming Yang, did you see it wrongly? There… is no one next to me?” A completely incomprehensible tone.

“Huh?” ‘It’s clearly right beside you.’

Just as I was thinking the thing that was chasing me was actually really a ghost and my classmate would naturally not be able to see it, the strange ghost had already stretched out his hands towards me.

I heard the lucky student’s voice becoming further and further away, as if we were separated by layers of film.

That face was already stuck right in front of my eyes. Under the black hair, I saw that dead gray eyes staring straight at my eyes, his pupils started enlarging right in front of my eyes.

Then, I saw… There were actually two pupils in each of his eyes!

Damn it he really was a ghost!

“Ming Yang?” That classmate’s voice floated over as if we were one galaxy apart.

‘Stop calling me! Because I can’t really hear you properly!’ I wanted to yell out these sentences but, I was completely unable to bring out my voice.

According to manhuas, light novels, television, movies, etcetera, this was definitely the crime scene where one was being possessed by an evil spirit.

I couldn’t even move an inch. I could only burst out in cold sweat while staring at the four pupils. What the hell do you want to do?!

“Found you.” The mouth of that face that was stuck in front of me, opened and closed while spitting out cold breath and also…

It stinks!

Damn you dead ghost, how long have you not brush your teeth!

“Found you… offspring of the Dark Cult Clan.”

* * *

I heard a loud scream coming from that classmate, sounding really far away, and the distance between me and the ghost’s pupils that was in front of me, was slowly being pulled apart. To simply put it, I understand I was currently falling down.

That damn four pupil ghost pushed me. I started falling backwards off the bridge while noticing the figure of the ghost and my ex-classmate was gradually getting smaller.

I remembered that the water in the drainage was seriously contaminated and also very smelly. I wondered, if I get sent to the hospital this time, will I be splashed with disinfectant first?

Being very experienced in this, I forcefully closed my eyes, waiting to hit the smelly water and inhale the horrible smell, in addition to getting injuries due to being washed away by the water. I’ve always been unlucky each and every time…

Just as I felt the pressure of the smelly water floating on top of my head, the surrounding wind seemed to have quieted down.

I knew what was going on, the legendary “many years of my life flashing by” had appeared with a dazzle.

Then I opened my eyes, getting ready to wave to my grandmother, who had passed away a few years back and was always floating on clouds, waving at me, and then we’ll start by greeting each other.

A pair of purplish gold-coloured eyes was suddenly reflected in my eyes.

It was a child. A very white and tender little child.

Shortly cut black hair, a very classical facial feature, exquisitely set in that tiny white face. Under his face, he was wearing an Ancient China robe. On the top half, he was wearing a Scholarly robe with long sleeves, and on the bottom half, was similar to an armor Warriors normally wore.

Don’t ask me why I knew this. I knew because my grandmother loved opera so I did some reading regarding it.

The child was standing on the wind, while I was awkwardly hanging upside down in the air.

The landscape around us suddenly turned grayish-white in color. Everything in the surrounding had become colorless, even the bridge and my ex-classmate had been drained of their color. They had all became silent and unmoving.

To be truthful, seeing this kind of situation in a manhua didn’t give me much of a feeling, but seeing it in real life and seeing a human fading in color was really disgusting to the max.

“I have set a barrier, so don’t worry about it.” The small child spoke with a milky voice, a very old-fashioned way of speaking, “Please hurry up and get ready to engage with the enemy.” Both his hands were hanging at his side, his long sleeves reaching up to his knees, just like the lengthy sleeve of an actress in an opera.

[T/N: The way the child said “I” is very archaic. Similar to Middle and Old English: ik, ich, ic, ih.]

I wonder what this child would do when he needs to use his hands.

‘Wait a moment! What did he say just awhile back?’

“The enemy has arrived.”

‘Engage the enemy!?’

I looked up and saw the only thing that didn’t fade in color: the evil spirit jumping downwards and rushing directly towards me, “What am I supposed to use to engage the enemy with!?” ‘My shoes?’

My whole body, from top to bottom, the only thing lethal was the shoes under my feet, because I could take it off and throw it.

With a boom, the evil spirit had landed on the air-platform we were standing on. I saw the invisible air under our legs vibrating for a moment, almost causing me to fall down.

“This is the Ghost King’s underling. Please determine the course of action to engage the enemy.” The child, who floating in mid-air, looked at me with purplish-gold colored eyes, “I have already set up a barrier so it wouldn’t affect the surrounding people and things, do not worry.”

‘Then why did you not just isolate yourself with him!’ I was screaming inside my mind. ‘And what the hell is a Ghost King?!’

Not giving me any time to think, the evil spirit stood right in front of us, using his four pupils to stare at us gloomily. His mouth twisted into a big smile, a really big smile, because the edge of his mouth was slit opened all the way to the bottom of his ears. Thick black blood flowed out from his opened mouth, the entire space was filled with a foul smell. The smell was worse than the water in the drainage.

The child raised one of his hands, and I saw the phone that was in my care, floating in front of his sleeve. A ringing sound could be heard. The phone actually started to automatically dial by itself!

“Chu Ming Yang doesn’t have the ability to fight back. In the midst of dialing for a black robe.”

I wasn’t really in the mood to find out whether the child had dialed to find someone to have a chat with because the evil spirit’s mouth was opened wide, revealing numerous white teeth. With his hands and legs on the ground, he started issuing a whirling and strange panting sounds while staring at me.

It was not a human’s posture, it’s a bestial action.

“You, you, you, you, you, you—… go away!” My voice was quivering waving my hands. Suddenly, I felt that being bitten by wild dogs was so much better. No matter what, I don’t want to be bitten by a wide open-mouthed man.

I absolutely had no idea what was happening at the moment. And here I was thinking that I could live peaceful life in Taipei after returning from school, even for just a short period of time.

However,… What’s this thing? It was obviously not a damn human!

“Hu… huhu…” The evil spirit beast man (for now, let’s address him as such) was squatting on the floor and issuing a sound similar to a perverted guy who calls during midnight, with all his four pupils were staring at me.

I was very scared.

The child suddenly turned around, and it was obvious he had already finished talking on the phone. The purplish-gold eyes looked a bit weird.

“Readying for ghost swallowing, three, two, one.”

I did not have the time to realize what the ghost child was trying to do. In about half a second, I saw something I shouldn’t have seen.

“Ma ahhh—!”

That ghost child with purplish-gold eyes suddenly opened his mouth wide, opened, his, mouth, wide. His whole mouth was bigger than the width of the bridge.

I was scared silly, and I believed the evil spirit beast man was also scared silly.

“Swallow.” As soon as the command was issued, I witnessed the evil spirit being eaten by the ghost child.

Everything looked so natural.

“AHHHHHH—!!” I don’t want to play any more!

After the ghost child had swallowed the evil spirit, he licked his lips and his mouth turned back to its original size, “Enemy annihilated, removing barrier.”

Removing? Wait a minute, the drainage is right below!

At that moment the ghost child disappeared with a pop, like a bubble, right in front of me. It didn’t take half a second to immediately prepare myself to fall into the drainage. But the strange thing was, I didn’t drop into the drainage with a “plop”, lost consciousness, or was sent to the hospital to wake up to a room filled with the smell of disinfectant. I fell onto the ground and I heard the cry of the lucky student from far away.

Opening my eyes, I was surrounded by soft green grass. The place was some distance away from the bridge, somewhere upstream. The place was less smellier and the whole area was covered with grass.

The wind blew, bringing the smell of green grass.

“Was it fun?”

Following the sound, I turned around and looked across. Unsure of when senior arrived, but he was already standing there, waiting for me.