Chaos

The sudden voice swelled into a huge wave of sound, startling Luo Yan.

As he looked around in confusion, the cashier said, "Here's your change, kid."

When Luo Yan turned back, the cashier had become an ordinary woman. She wasn't the scar-faced woman from before.

The old granny beside him was on the phone, probably chatting with her grandchildren. A smile spread across her face.

The cashiers behind her were busy checking out customers, occasionally calling, "Next!"

In the distance, a little girl hugged her young mother's leg and begged for a cat-shaped pillow.

Everyone in the supermarket was busy with their own work. Not a single person had looked this way.

That huge voice from before.

It was as if it had only been Luo Yan's hallucination.

He remained bewildered until he walked out of the supermarket.

When he got home.

"Mom, I bought everything."

Luo Yan put the dumpling wrappers and the rest on the table, then ran to the stairwell and shouted, "Chen Yingjun, I'm back! Come downstairs and help make dumplings."

A voice from upstairs cursed irritably.

"Don't change my name! You're so annoying. Are you still in elementary school?"

Chen Jun came down the stairs in a pair of slippers, slapping them against the steps.

As soon as he got close, Luo Yan suddenly caught a strange smell.

It was like fish left out on the road to bake in the summer sun—a foul, fishy stench.

Luo Yan couldn't help taking several steps back.

"What are you doing?"

Chen Jun was holding a bag of Xizhi jelly snacks and tossed it to Luo Yan.

Luo Yan caught it. By then, the strange smell had disappeared. He shook his head. "Come inside."

He entered the house and said, "Mom, Chen Jun's here. He'll eat dumplings with