Good Friend

Just as Zhou You was lost in thought, a ringtone suddenly drifted into his ears.

It was Ode to Joy.

It took him a good ten seconds to realize that this was his own phone ringing.

"Damn, these last few instances have made me forget that technology even exists in this world..."

Zhou You scrambled around in a panic, and after a great deal of effort, finally fished his phone out from some dark corner.

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

"Hello? Old Zhou? You still alive?"

Hearing this voice, Zhou You paused, then couldn't help but smile.

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

The guy was his college roommate, and they had a pretty good relationship. Unlike Zhou You, this guy came from a decent family; his father was a small-time construction contractor. After graduation, he didn't bother looking for a job, instead taking over the family business and traveling all over the place, only recently returning.

"If it isn't Li Sanli, the Big-Headed Li. You big shot, aren't you supposed to be out building your business empire? How do you have the free time to call me?"

The other side let out a dry laugh.

"I just missed you brothers, that's all. I've been hanging out with the construction guys for too long, and I started wondering how my boys were doing... By the way, when are we all going to have time to get together again?"

He rambled on about a bunch of irrelevant topics, just like an old friend chatting about daily life. However, Zhou You still sensed that, for some reason, there was a hint of unease in Li Sanli's tone.

It wasn't until a long while later that he hesitantly revealed his true purpose.

"Say, Old Zhou, I remember your grandfather... he used to study folklore and cultural traditions, right?"

Zhou You was stunned.

His grandfather did indeed have an interest in those things, and he had mentioned it to his roommates while shooting the breeze back in the day. But the problem was, the old man was at best an enthusiast, and he had already passed away. Why was he asking about this?

Li Sanli immediately continued.

"Well, since he studied folklore, you must know some experts, right? This... could you introduce one to me?"

Zhou You didn't answer directly, instead frowning and asking in return.

"What do you need an expert for? Don't tell me you've run into a ghost?"

The other end of the phone went silent for a moment, followed by a bitter laugh.

"—Yeah, you guessed it."

"I really have run into a damn ghost recently."

The next day, at noon.

In a Starbucks near the university, Zhou You sat with an iced coffee in front of him, looking at someone with hesitation.

In Zhou You's memory, this roommate was supposed to be slightly chubby (by his own admission), weighing around 220 pounds, with a physique that was always developing into an oval shape.

But after not seeing him for only a short while, he had withered away so much that he looked like a willow branch in the wind. Just standing there, he seemed on the verge of collapsing.

"Um... you are Li Sanli, the Big-Headed Li, right?"

To prevent any memory errors, Zhou You asked again to confirm.

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

The man said this, but after glancing at his own reflection, the bitter smile on his face deepened.

"Well, your confusion is understandable. I look so different now that even my old man probably wouldn't recognize me..."

Watching his sighing and lamenting, Zhou You couldn't help but ask.

"What on earth happened to you recently? What do you mean by running into a ghost?"

The man first took a deep gulp of his iced coffee, letting the bitter taste soak into his mouth, before raising his haggard face and saying.

"Tell me, Old Zhou, do you remember that I got a girlfriend a few months ago?"

Zhou You nodded.

That had indeed happened. At the time, this fat guy had bragged to them for days, looking completely smug. Zhou You had even seen photos of the girl; while she wasn't exactly a one-in-a-million beauty, she was definitely well above average.

For that reason, he and the other roommates had lamented for a long time that it was truly a case of a fresh flower stuck in cow dung, and that this fat guy had hit the jackpot to land such a beauty.

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

Seeing his puzzled expression, Li Sanli continued with a pained face.

"Actually... this ghost business has to do with my girlfriend..."

"You hooked up with a female ghost?"

"...No."

"Your girlfriend is trying to claim your life?"

"...Also no."

"Then why is that?"

Li Sanli wore a bitter expression, deliberating carefully for a moment before speaking.

"How should I put it... Xuanxuan is perfect in every way—gentle, considerate, beautiful, and kind. She's practically the gold standard for a girlfriend..." Seeing the very unfriendly look in Zhou You's eyes, Li Sanli hurriedly stopped flashing his relationship status in front of a single guy. "But there is one thing wrong with her: she's obsessed with supernatural and ghostly things. She's always buying stuff like witchcraft or voodoo kits. It never caused any issues before, so I didn't pay it much mind, but the problem is..."

"--A while back, it seems she bought the real deal."

"What do you mean?"

Hearing Zhou You's question, Li Sanli continued with a pained face.

"About three months ago, she managed to get her hands on a table through someone. It was supposedly left behind at a murder scene. I found it pretty creepy at the time, but I didn't want to say anything about her hobbies. Then, just a few days later, she suddenly came to me and said... she saw a ghost."

"You know how it is, people who constantly mess with that stuff are always a bit neurotic. I was busy with work at the time and thought she was just being sensitive, so I gave her a casual pat on the back and told her to just throw the table away, then didn't think much more of it."

"But two days later, she suddenly came to me, her face full of terror, telling me that the table... had come back."

Li Sanli swallowed hard, a look of fear appearing on his face as well.

"I was baffled. How could something I'd already thrown away come back? A beat-up table doesn't grow legs, right? So, I put my work aside for a bit and went with her to toss the table out again. We stayed together for a few days, and at first, nothing happened. Just when I thought the whole thing had blown over, one morning, I suddenly saw that table... back in the house again."

"We were both scared half to death at the time and rushed to throw it out again. Who would have thought it would start coming back more and more frequently? Plus, weird things started happening around the house. The lights would always flicker on even though no one touched them, I'd occasionally hear laughter in the hallway from who knows where, and there were even bloody handprints appearing on the windows—"

"--I only found out later that whoever brings this thing into their home, it just latches onto them and won't leave. And as for returning it, the seller had already skipped town..."

"So, didn't you find anyone to come take a look?"

Zhou You suddenly interrupted Li Sanli's increasingly neurotic rambling.

The other man froze for a moment, then his bitter smile deepened.

"I did. I started looking the moment that table came back the first time. Who would have thought those so-called high monks and virtuous masters were all just empty titles? They were more useless than the last, and one even got scared so bad he ended up in the hospital... Otherwise, I wouldn't be desperate enough to come to you, hoping to see if the old man knew any experts while he was still alive..."

"...I'm sorry, but Grandpa was quite reclusive. To say nothing of experts, aside from his coworkers, I barely saw any relatives visit while I was growing up."

The disappointment on Li Sanli's face was plain to see. He sighed and was about to head to the front desk to pay the bill, but Zhou You suddenly spoke up to stop him.

"However, while there aren't any experts, I do have one close friend. How about I go with you to take a look first?"