A Mixer Matters More Than Ghost Stories

Fang Xian thought back over the eighteen years of his life.

Apart from that one time, he had never encountered a ghost story.

So he could hardly imagine it.

Ghost story sites dotted the entire city of Jiangzhou.

How could there be so many?

Was this even the same country?

If that was true, wouldn't society descend into chaos?

Or was it...

Fang Xian suddenly remembered how, before he had smashed Liu Changgui's bald head, he had followed Yao Hui and screamed his lungs out at the door. Not only had Yao Hui failed to hear him, but the neighbors had acted as if they were deaf too.

Could that be why?

He looked closer and found that the vast majority of the so-called ghost story sites were quite dim.

Perhaps they... hadn't been activated and were merely lying hidden?

Fang Xian quickly changed his approach. He sorted them by distance first, then thought better of it and sorted them by danger. After glancing at the yellow-toothed, chibi-style bald head on another screen, he switched to an overall ranking.

Only three bright spots remained.

[Ghost Story Compendium]

[Search Engine Page]

[Kuaiting Premium memberships on sale now...]

[Buy phones on the Chaole platform...]

[1. Going Home: A child covered in injuries wants to go home. Her parents have waited far too long.]

[Ghost Story Level: Lingering Dread]

[2. Activate Missed-Call Alerts: A man pinched every penny. He was so miserly that he missed his mother's final call before she died...]

[Ghost Story Level: Lingering Dread]

[3. Murder Weapon (Dangerous): On rainy nights in Jiangzhou, he tries to satisfy his vile, twisted desires through one killing after another.]

[Ghost Story Level: Trembling with Fear]

The phone app showed only an approximate area for each ghost story. Both [Going Home] and [Activate Missed-Call Alerts] were in Xinlin Subdistrict, east of the school. As for [Murder Weapon], that was something else.

Its range spanned all six districts of Jiangzhou.

How the hell was he supposed to find that?

And...

This was Fang Xian's first time seeing other ghost story levels.

[Lingering Dread], followed by [Trembling with Fear].

That was a little odd.

He hesitated for a moment.

Couldn't they just use low, medium, and high?

This way of ranking them could easily confuse people.

There was no rush. His remaining lifespan was already in such bad shape that it hardly mattered anymore.

He closed the app and opened WeChat.

Group chat: [Family of 514].

All three of his roommates had decided the photo of legs in black stockings he had sent earlier was from the internet, or at least photoshopped. Fang Xian snorted but didn't care.

They had no classes this morning, so those bastards wouldn't leave the dorm. They'd end up asking their dear father to bring them food, wouldn't they?

He would ignore them for a bit and remind them who their real father was.

[Zhang Yuhang: Holy shit, Xian, get back here! @Matching with an evenly matched opponent]

[Zhang Yuhang: Wang Dashan asked a girl out tonight.]

[Fang Xian: ?]

[Fang Xian: What the hell does that have to do with me? I wore myself out plowing last night.]

[Fang Xian: Hurry up and tell me what you want to eat.]

Zhang Yuhang was a chubby guy from Nanzhou. Fang Xian thought every dorm ought to have someone like him.

[Chen Kang: Chicken cutlet rice.]

[Chen Kang: She went to high school with Dashan. I think he's been chasing her for ages.]

[Chen Kang: That's not the point. The point is, he's arranged a mixer with her dorm tonight.]

[Fang Xian: (frowning) I'm not going. You like being a third wheel?]

Chen Kang was a Jiangzhou local and looked respectable enough.

Wang Dashan joined the chat.

[Wang Dashan: Song Yizhou is my high school classmate's roommate.]

[Fang Xian: I'm coming back right now.]

[Fang Xian: (smiley face) Chicken cutlet rice, extra chicken cutlet.]

[Fang Xian: I know you best.]

[Wang Dashan: Mm. (aloof)]

In the dim activity room,

Fang Xian calmly set down his phone.

In this day and age, holding a vote for the campus beauty was hopelessly tacky.

But a beautiful girl was like fine wine tucked away in a deep alley: word of her would always get out.

There was no such thing as a hidden gem of a girl.

When a true gem stood before you, you knew how precious she was at first sight.

The School of Literature's most famous beauty among the freshmen was Song Yizhou.

Her military training photo had gone viral on Tremble.

People called her a fairy descended to earth.

They sounded like guys who had never seen a woman.

Tch. What a pain.

Fang Xian sighed faintly.

He had originally planned to hunt down a ghost story tonight and take in one of the wild starter trio waiting for him.

He stood and bowed toward the oil painting of a young woman from the Republican era above him.

Then he slung on the backpack concealing the Fire Axe and left the activity room.

"See you next time, poster girl."

The Campus Hospital.

A break room.

"Cousin... did the police take the suspect into custody?"

A delicate-looking young woman sat before Yao Hui, her brows drawn together.

Calling her pretty was an understatement.

To be precise, she was beautiful. Exceptionally beautiful, right down to the finest detail.

Yao Hui swung her long legs clad in black stockings. "Of course. That damn baldy... I don't even want the apartment anymore. I've already arranged to terminate the lease, and I'm planning to move over to Garbage Street."

"As for that damn baldy, I'm going to sue him into the ground. Bastard."

In front of Song Yizhou, Yao Hui was hardly the gentle, sophisticated older woman.

Song Yizhou looked at her cousin. "Then... what about the boy who saved you yesterday?"

Yao Hui said, "I took him back. How should I put it..."

Yao Hui pictured Fang Xian, that young guy with erectile dysfunction.

He had been a little harsh with his words.

But he really had saved her.

Without Fang Xian, she would have been done for last night.

Yao Hui remembered something and hurriedly looked toward the trash can. Fortunately, she hadn't thrown it away.

"What's that...?"

The girl asked.

Yao Hui looked a little smug. "That guy's WeChat ID. See? Don't underestimate Huihui's charm."

Song Yizhou nodded.

Quite a few people pursued her cousin Yao Hui, mostly promising young men from Jiangzhou. She wasn't wrong.

Yao Hui looked at the neatly written numbers on the slip of paper.

She suddenly remembered Fang Xian smacking the bald man in the back of the head with a firefighter's uniform last night.

So handsome.

How could he be that handsome?

But wait...

Was the back of that baldy's head made of iron?

How did that hit seem to do nothing to him?

She put the question out of her mind.

Yao Hui turned to the girl. "Yizhou, didn't you say we'd have dinner tonight? Why aren't you coming? Are you standing your cousin up?"

Song Yizhou looked apologetic. "Sorry, Cousin. My dorm is going out to eat tonight. I heard some guys from another dorm are coming too. One of them went to high school with my roommate."

Song Yizhou clearly didn't want to go at all.

But beauty could be a burden.

If she wanted to fit in quickly, she had to go along with the group now and then.

"A mixer, huh? Yizhou, keep your eyes open."

Speaking as though she had plenty of experience, Yao Hui earnestly advised her, "Especially with those young guys. Your cousin has dated plenty of them. I know exactly what they're like."

"Be sure to look after yourself. Call me if anything happens."

Song Yizhou remembered that her cousin had never dated anyone. It didn't matter, though. She was smart enough to nod obediently and say she understood.

A clever girl also knew when to let someone save face.

Huihui was very pleased.

She settled into a comfortable position and opened WeChat.

She entered the numbers.

Searched.

Tapped Add.

Then—

[The other person declined your friend request.]

In an instant, Huihui was furious.