Friends

Just as Zhou You fell into deep thought, a ringtone suddenly sounded by his ear.

It was "Ode to Joy."

It took him another ten seconds to realize it was his phone ringing.

"Damn, these last few instances made me forget there's such a thing as technology in this world..."

Zhou You frantically searched around, and after a long while, finally found his phone tucked away in some obscure corner.

He answered, and a familiar voice came through the phone.

"Hello? Old Zhou? You still alive, eh?"

Hearing that voice, Zhou You froze for a moment, then couldn't help smiling.

He knew the person on the other end of the phone.

The other man had been his college roommate, and they'd gotten along pretty well. Unlike Zhou You, he came from a fairly comfortable family. His father was a small-time building contractor, and after graduation, he hadn't looked for a job. He'd gone straight into the family business, traveling around for work. He'd only just come back recently.

"Well, if it isn't Li Sanli, Big Head Li. Aren't you busy building your own business empire? What made you find the time to call me?"

The other man gave an awkward laugh.

"I just miss you guys, that's all. I've spent so long working on construction sites with all those civil engineering bros, I kinda miss seeing how my sons are doing... Anyway, when are the guys free to get together again?"

He rambled on about all sorts of unrelated things, as if they were just old friends catching up. But for some reason, Zhou You could sense a hint of unease in Li Sanli's words.

It took a long while before the other man finally hesitantly revealed his real reason for calling.

"Hey, Old Zhou, I remember your grandfather used to study... folk customs and culture, right?"

Zhou You was taken aback.

His grandfather had indeed been interested in that sort of thing, and he'd mentioned it once or twice while chatting with his roommates. But the old man had only ever been an enthusiast, and he'd passed away by now. So why was Li Sanli asking?

Li Sanli went on.

"Well, since he studied folk customs, he must've known some experts, right? Um... could you introduce me to one?"

Zhou You didn't answer right away. Instead, he frowned and asked, "Why are you looking for an expert? Don't tell me you've got a haunting?"

There was a pause on the other end, followed by a bitter laugh.

"Yeah. You're not wrong."

"I really have run into a fucking ghost lately."

The next day, at noon.

At a Starbucks near the university, Zhou You sat with an iced coffee in front of him, looking uncertainly at the person across from him.

As Zhou You remembered him, his roommate had been a little chubby—by his own admission, around 220 pounds—and his figure had always been developing in an oval shape.

But it had only been a short while since they'd last met, and now he looked almost emaciated. His body had grown as thin as a willow in the wind. Just standing there, he seemed on the verge of collapse.

"Um... you're Li Sanli, Big Head Li, right?"

Just to make sure his memory wasn't playing tricks on him, Zhou You asked again.

"What, you can't even recognize your own roommate?"

The other man said it casually, but after looking himself over, the bitter smile on his face deepened.

"Well, I guess I can't blame you. Even my dad probably wouldn't recognize me like this..."

Seeing how he sighed and lamented, Zhou You couldn't help asking, "What exactly happened to you? What do you mean, you ran into a ghost?"

The other man took a long pull of his iced coffee, savoring the bitter taste as it washed through his mouth. Only then did he lift his extremely haggard face and say, "Hey, Old Zhou, remember how I got a girlfriend a few months ago?"

Zhou You nodded.

It had happened. The fat bastard had bragged about it to them for days, wearing the smug look of someone who'd come out on top. Zhou You had seen the girl's photo, too. She wasn't exactly a once-in-a-thousand-years beauty, but she was definitely above average.

He'd spent half a day lamenting about it with their other roommates. It was like a flower planted in cow dung—the fat bastard had gotten unbelievably lucky to win over such a beauty.

...But what did that have to do with ghosts?

Seeing his confused expression, Li Sanli continued with a bitter look.

"Well... this ghost business is actually related to my girlfriend..."

"You hooked up with a female ghost?"

"...No."

"Your girlfriend came back to claim your life?"

"...No."

"Then what is it?"

Li Sanli grimaced and thought it over carefully before answering.

"How do I put it... Xuanxuan's great in every way. She's gentle, considerate, beautiful, and kind—the perfect girlfriend..." Seeing the distinctly unfriendly look in Zhou You's eyes, Li Sanli hurriedly stopped shining his happiness in the face of a single man. "But there's one thing. She's really into supernatural stuff. She's always buying things like witchcraft and voodoo. Nothing ever went wrong before, so I didn't try to stop her. But the problem is..."

"—A while ago, she seems to have bought something real."

"What do you mean?"

At Zhou You's question, Li Sanli continued with a grimace.

"About three months ago, she got someone to find her a table. Apparently, it came from a murder scene. I thought it was creepy, but I didn't want to criticize her hobby. Then, just a few days later, she suddenly came to me and told me... she'd seen a ghost."

"You know how people who are always messing with that stuff can get a little neurotic. I was busy with work at the time, so I figured she was just being oversensitive. I comforted her a bit, told her to throw the table away, and left it at that."

"But just two days later, she came to me, terrified, and told me that the table... had come back."

Li Sanli swallowed, and fear crept into his face.

I couldn't make heads or tails of it either. How could something you'd thrown away come back? It was just a table, not like it could grow legs. So I put my work on hold and helped her throw it away again. Then I stayed with her for a few days. At first, nothing happened. I thought it was all over, but one morning I suddenly saw that the table... had appeared in the house again.

"We were both scared half to death and hurried to throw it out again. Who would've thought it would keep coming back more and more often? Weird things kept happening around the house. The lights would suddenly turn on even though nobody had touched them, we'd occasionally hear someone laughing in the hallway, and bloody handprints even appeared on the windows—"

"—I found out later that whoever brings this thing home gets stuck with it. The seller had already taken off, so there was no way to return it..."

"Then didn't you get anyone to take a look?"

Zhou You suddenly cut off Li Sanli's increasingly frantic explanation.

The other man froze, then gave an even more bitter smile.

"I did. As soon as the table came back the first time, I started looking for help. Who knew those so-called eminent monks and masters were all just famous in name? Every last one of them was useless. One even got scared badly enough to end up in the hospital... Otherwise, I wouldn't have been desperately grasping at straws and come to you, hoping your grandpa knew someone..."

"...I'm sorry, but my grandpa was pretty reclusive. Experts aside, other than his coworkers, I barely saw any relatives visit when I was growing up."

The disappointment on Li Sanli's face was plain to see. He sighed and was about to go pay at the counter when Zhou You suddenly stopped him.

"Well, I don't know any experts, but I do have one close friend. How about I go with you and take a look?"