Class Reunion

"Bang," "Bang," "Bang."

Mom was cleaning the room, which was already spotless, while muttering complaints.

Her voice was just loud enough for Xiao Xiao, who was hiding in his bedroom, to hear, but not so loud that the neighbors could. Occasionally, the sounds of her angrily dropping the broom or rag on the floor and table punctuated her words:

"You're so old, and all you do is hole up in your room playing games all day."

"You don't even clean your room; it's a pigsty. How did I end up with a son like you? You're just like your good-for-nothing father…"

"You're destined to amount to nothing, rotting away in that room!"

"…"

Xiao Xiao covered his ears in agony, his body trembling slightly.

He'd forgotten when this life had started. All he knew was that his head was splitting, as if his brain was being cruelly churned.

This excruciating headache had been happening frequently for the past four years, accompanied by intense dizziness that made everything around him seem twisted and elongated.

The things before his eyes seemed unreal, writhing and squirming like earthworms.

He could hear his heart pounding like a drum, each beat separated by what felt like minutes.

In this state, where his surroundings would become extremely unreal and distorted from time to time, he couldn't even concentrate. His thoughts were like shattered pieces of glass, reflecting bizarre, intersecting lights.

He tried to accept it and control himself, but it was clear that his family couldn't accept it anymore.

"Buzz…"

His phone suddenly vibrated slightly, and the sound eased Xiao Xiao's symptoms a little, giving him a sense of returning to reality.

"Don't forget the class reunion, Minghe Hotel, second floor private room."

The message was from a high school classmate named Jiang Cheng.

Actually, Xiao Xiao hadn't been in contact with his former classmates for a long time. In the past four years, he had rarely even left the house. But when he saw this message, he decided to go out.

Even though that panic attack-like headache had just struck, he still wanted to go out. Maybe it was because he had been cooped up for too long and wanted a temporary escape.

"Instead of staying home, where are you running off to again?"

"Just go, go!"

"If you have the guts, just die out there and never come back!"

"…"

As Xiao Xiao grabbed a hoodie and headed out the door, his mother's cursing suddenly intensified, as if no matter what Xiao Xiao did, it would always hit her anger trigger.

"Bang, bang, bang…"

While speaking, she vigorously chopped some unknown meat on the cutting board, her eyes fixed on Xiao Xiao. The knife she was wielding seemed like she couldn't wait to chop him up with it in the next moment.

Xiao Xiao was frightened by her gaze, feeling a chill all over his body. He fled out the door.

Night had fallen, and there were no streetlights in the narrow alleyways. Xiao Xiao escaped the sound of his mother chopping meat, but he still felt like something was watching him, as if some enormous creature was staring intently at him.

"Woof, woof, woof…"

The three vicious dogs in the neighbor's yard heard him approaching and let out threatening growls.

The iron chains around their necks were stretched taut, making sounds of metal fatigue. Their dark red eyes stared fixedly at him, and saliva dripped from their menacing, jagged teeth.

He walked close to the outer corner of the wall, but suddenly, strange, distorted sounds descended from above. From behind a window on the second floor, the sound of an old record player wailed mournfully.

The intangible tension made him walk faster, but he was suddenly drawn in by the piercing sound of a chainsaw. Through the blurry, dirty window, he saw a tall butcher holding a chainsaw and cutting something.

"Swish!"

The butcher and the thing being cut suddenly turned their heads at the same time, looking at him through the window.

Xiao Xiao felt an abnormal terror. He staggered backward and quickened his pace, running until he passed through the alleyways and stood panting under a streetlight.

Looking up at the bustling street, a wave of dizziness flooded his brain.

The dazzling neon lights spewed like magma across the city's sky, and the ear-splitting honking of traffic roared past like a pack of steel monsters.

The searchlights on the rooftops scanned the night sky, as if trying to illuminate the entire darkness, but they only failed to illuminate the city's dark corners and sewage-filled alleyways.

On the scattered newspapers on the ground, large articles reported that the serial killer who stole hearts had not yet been caught, and that the Maiden Gang, who had bombed the school not long ago, had publicly provoked the Guard Hall.

Black words on a white background formed a perfect unity with the city's temperament.

"Have I been out of touch for too long?"

Xiao Xiao took a deep breath of the cold, damp, salty air, forcing himself to calm down.

Looking up at the city, he felt an unusual sense of unfamiliarity. He didn't know when the city had taken on this different character.

He didn't know where this persistent feeling came from, but thinking of his persistence over the past four years, he tightened his coat and slowly walked toward the gathering place.

"Xiao Xiao's here?"

"This reunion is great. We've got Xiao Xiao, the homebody who hasn't stepped out in years, and Yang Jia, the goddess who hasn't contacted any of us in four or five years…"

"To be able to get Xiao Xiao, who was preparing to rot at home until he died, to come out is really something..."

Inside the private room, the faces of his classmates were plastered with smiles, overlapping with the energetic images Xiao Xiao remembered, pulling him back to that bright and sunny memory from four years ago.

This calmed his frantically beating heart slightly.

In the four years since, they had all gone to university and started different lives.

But he was different. Because of that severe headache problem, his life had felt like being locked in a cage for four years.

A sense of alienation had already begun to creep in, but Xiao Xiao still felt happy. After all, this seemed like the normal feeling, with a group of normal people.

"What are you all talking about?"

Someone asked with a smile, interrupting the discussion.

A bright and beautiful girl who had been on the phone outside walked in. She had a slender figure and clean, delicate features, immediately attracting everyone's attention.

The classmates at the table also instantly changed their expressions, smiling and saying, "It's nothing, Yang Jia. Now that you're back, are you going to stay?"

"..."

She was the center of attention at this class reunion, and everyone agreed that she was the most beautiful girl.

Even in Xiao Xiao's memory, he could clearly find her image. The most beautiful girl in high school, and also excellent in academics, good at sports, and outstanding in every way.

Besides that, there was also a sense of mystery that was hard to describe accurately.

It was said that she came from a large family in a northern city, and had only transferred here for some special reason. Later, she only studied for one semester before leaving.

"I'll be staying here for a while,"

Yang Jia replied with a smile, "But I haven't decided how long I'll stay."

She always seemed to have that kind of aura, treating people gently, but also maintaining a distance. Seemingly indifferent, yet she always became the center of everyone's attention.

"She seems different from the others..."

Xiao Xiao didn't even know when he had started to feel drawn to Yang Jia.

It wasn't because she was beautiful, but because she exuded a feeling that was hard for Xiao Xiao to describe, a real sense of existence.

Only when he looked at her did he feel like he was getting away from the unreal dizziness, and his tense emotions were slowly fading.

Perhaps the previous discomfort and panic were just the effects of his headache, and he was just too nervous and had become paranoid.

"Heh, Xiao Xiao, what are you looking at?"

But just then, a cold voice startled Xiao Xiao.

He looked up and saw Jiang Cheng staring at him with a sinister gaze, a cigarette between his fingers. The corners of his mouth were stretched into an unnatural smile, but his eyes were shooting out a chilling light.

Another classmate was holding a dinner knife, stabbing the meat on his plate vertically, over and over, but while doing so, his eyes were fixed on Xiao Xiao.

Someone across the table forcefully pulled back his chair, making a screeching noise, then leaned back in his chair, giving Xiao Xiao a smile that wasn't a smile.

In that instant, Xiao Xiao felt like he had suddenly become the target of everyone's hatred.

His heart suddenly began to beat uncontrollably fast, and it was getting slower and slower. Xiao Xiao felt his nerves tense up again, and cold sweat seeped out of his forehead in layers.

That dizziness came over him again, and everything around him seemed to be becoming unreal.

He could even feel that these people seemed ready to jump up explosively at any moment, stabbing the knives in their hands at him.

"They all want to hurt me..."

When this thought suddenly burst out of his mind, Xiao Xiao was startled.

He got up in a panic, "I'm going to the restroom!"

He fled the hotel room, still feeling countless sinister gazes staring at him from behind.

"What's wrong with me?"

Xiao Xiao splashed a handful of cold water on his face, closing his eyes in pain.

He didn't know why this was happening. His mother at home, the pedestrians on the street, even his familiar classmates, would inadvertently reveal a look that wished they could kill him.

So, was he actually sick?

He had started getting sick four years ago. His head ached terribly, and the whole world would become distorted and unreal.

He had been exercising in his bedroom for four years, feeling a little better, but actually not. Instead, his symptoms had become more severe?

"How long have you been awake?"

Just as Xiao Xiao was asking himself in pain and confusion, a calm voice rang out.

Xiao Xiao was startled and quickly turned his head, only to see that Yang Jia had appeared behind him at some point.

She leaned against the wall, a slender cigarette between her fingers, looking at him with indifferent eyes.

"I..."

Xiao Xiao hesitated, wanting to explain that he had just said he was going to the restroom.

But Yang Jia suddenly interrupted him, saying, "I'm asking you, how long have you been awake, and how did you attract so much hatred?"

"Hatred?"

Xiao Xiao was even more confused, looking at Yang Jia with a somewhat bewildered expression.

"Haven't you noticed?"

In the swirling, slightly minty smoke, Yang Jia's eyes seemed somewhat mysterious as she softly said, "This city... it's fake..."

"We are surrounded by ghouls..."

Haha, it's great to see everyone again on such a special day!!