Street

Dachang City Pedestrian Street.

Around five thirty in the morning, the sky was just beginning to brighten.

It was still too early. The usually bustling, prosperous shopping street was deserted. Every shop had long since closed, and it was not yet time to open for business.

The streetlights overhead had not gone out yet and still cast their glow.

And yet, at that moment.

The rows of streetlights on the pedestrian street had originally emitted white light, but at that instant, the light suddenly turned scarlet, giving off an eerie red glow. Reflected on the round bulbs within the lampshades were red eyes, as though they had been printed there like a pattern. The only unusual thing was that the eyes seemed to have come alive, turning slightly.

Yet this bizarre scene had appeared abruptly and vanished just as quickly.

The streetlights flickered with a faint sizzling sound.

Everything returned to normal.

The red light disappeared, as did the eye patterns on the bulbs.

But strangely, seven people had suddenly appeared on the previously empty pedestrian street. There were both boys and girls among them, all quite young and seemingly still students. Yet every one of them looked abnormal, their faces pale, their bodies trembling, their eyes filled with terror, as if they had been badly frightened before this.

"This isn't the school. Where are we?"

The pain in Yang Jian's body, as though he were about to split apart, gradually faded. He collapsed onto the ground and leaned against the glass door of a roadside shop, gasping for breath.

It had been far too dangerous just now. A little later, and they would all have died in that Ghost Domain.

Fortunately, at the critical moment, he had opened his own Ghost Domain.

The others had yet to recover from their shock. They looked at one another, their terrified eyes frantically scanning their surroundings, afraid of seeing the darkness swallow everything around them again. But when they saw the bright streetlights and the sun slowly rising in the distance, the joy of surviving a disaster surged into their hearts.

That joy gradually replaced the fear in their hearts, allowing them to calm down quickly.

"It... it looks like the pedestrian street."

Miao Xiaoshan crouched on the ground and cautiously raised her head to look around, sounding uncertain.

"It is the pedestrian street. I've played here since I was little, I can't be wrong. My home is nearby."

Zhang Wei hurriedly said, "We survived. We got out of that school. Look, the streetlights are on, the sky is bright, cars are passing over there, and I can even hear horns honking."

He looked excited. Never in his life had he felt that these things he had grown tired of seeing every day could be so wonderful.

"It really is the pedestrian street. We got out of the school."

Zhao Lei's hands were still trembling. He could hardly believe what he was seeing.

One moment ago, they had clearly still been in that dark school. He had only felt darkness flash before his eyes, followed by light. How had they ended up on this pedestrian street?

Yang Jian still surveyed the surroundings warily. After confirming it, he was certain that he had indeed left the school and the Ghost Domain. As for why they had appeared on this pedestrian street instead of outside the school, there was no need to think about it anymore.

In any case, surviving was already a stroke of tremendous luck.

Everyone sat on the street for a full two hours before they accepted what had happened, and only then did the fear in their hearts begin to subside.

But it was clear from their expressions that this haunting incident at the school had left an enormous shadow in their hearts.

"The others should all be dead, right?"

After a long silence, Zhang Wei, who was sitting on a bench resting, slowly spoke.

The others chose to remain silent. They still could not accept it.

No one answered Zhang Wei. Wang Shanshan looked at Yang Jian and asked nervously, "Yang Jian, what should we do now?"

At this moment, Yang Jian was the backbone of the group. The few people who had survived almost unconditionally followed his lead.

After all, Yang Jian had led them out alive.

Yang Jian touched the wound on his arm, which had already healed and vanished. He could feel something shaped like an eye hidden beneath his flesh, something that could emerge at any moment.

That strange sensation told him that everything that had happened last night was not a dream. It had been very real.

"What else can we do? Since everyone survived, left the school, and wasn't injured, naturally we should go home and rest so our parents won't worry."

"Yang Jian, we're just going home to sleep?" Zhao Lei stood up somewhat agitatedly and asked.

Yang Jian glanced at him. "Otherwise, what were you planning to do?"

Feeling Yang Jian's gaze, Zhao Lei looked somewhat afraid. He lowered his head unconsciously and said nothing more.

"Yang Jian is right. This isn't something we can deal with. It wasn't easy to survive." Miao Xiaoshan said.

"So we're really just going back to sleep?" Zhang Wei was stunned.

Something this huge had happened, and they were going home to sleep? Wasn't that a little too carefree?

Yang Jian said, "If you're not going home, are you planning to return to school for morning reading?"

Go back to school?

Everyone felt a chill in their hearts. They had already made up their minds that they would never return to that school for the rest of their lives. They would not even go near it.

Some had even begun considering transferring schools and leaving Dachang City.

The college entrance exam, university—screw all of it.

At worst, they could spend the rest of their lives being useless layabouts.

"I'm really sleepy. I'm going home to sleep first. Call me if anything comes up."

Yang Jian yawned. He felt exhausted in both body and mind, as though he could fall asleep the moment he hit the ground.

"Oh, there's something I need to tell you. About that old man at the school, you'd better spend less time online lately, especially don't go on this forum to read ghost stories." He took out his phone and showed them the post.

"See the audio file here? Remember, whatever you do, don't click it. That audio file is the sound of knocking, exactly the same as what Qian Wanhao heard on his phone before. Whoever hears it, that old man will come looking for them."

Then he scrolled up a page, revealing a photo of the old man.

"Take it away! Get it away from me!"

When Zhang Wei and the others saw the old man's photo, they backed away in terror.

Yang Jian said, "The photo is fine. I tested it. The scary thing is the audio file. The post still hasn't been taken down. At least tens of thousands of people across the country have read this story and clicked that audio file. If I'm not mistaken, in the time ahead, that old man will wander between major cities, knocking on doors one by one."

"In other words, what happened yesterday will keep happening all over the country. Only, we won't be the main characters anymore."

"Could you not say something so terrifying? I'm still a child." Zhang Wei looked at him in horror.

Yang Jian said, "Then I won't. Here, take your phone back."

Zhang Wei hurriedly shook his head and backed away several steps. "I don't want the phone anymore. Hurry up and throw it away. What if that number starting with 138 calls again?"

"This is an iPhone X that just came out not long ago. Didn't you say you bought it for over nine thousand?" Yang Jian said.

"Good brother, at a time like this, I don't want to hide anything anymore. My true identity is actually that of a hidden rich second-generation heir. See that row of shops on the pedestrian street? They all belong to my family. I, Zhang Wei, don't care about this little bit of money. I'll have my dad buy me a Nokia later. No, a pager would be safer. That way, the call won't be able to get through."

Zhang Wei said seriously.

"If your family is so rich, why not carry a radio station around with you?" Yang Jian said.

"That's a good idea. I'll consider it."

When the others heard Zhang Wei mention that terrifying phone number beginning with 138, they were so frightened that they did not dare keep their phones either. They threw them away as though they were tossing away the plague.

"Give the phones to me if you don't want them. What a waste to throw them away," Yang Jian said.

"Y-you still dare to take those phones? Ghosts have called them. What if they come looking for you again?" Miao Xiaoshan stared at him with wide eyes.

"Poverty makes me fearless. Besides, if I can't use them, can't I sell them?" As he spoke, Yang Jian picked up the phones they had thrown away. Then he asked, "You really don't want them?"

"No." Everyone answered in unison.

Yang Jian said, "You're all rich. I'll sell them all as secondhand phones later. Don't worry about the money from the sale. I won't give you a single cent. Even if there's another group meal next time, you'll be treating."

"..."

"I'm leaving."

He carried seven or eight phones and turned to leave.

"Y-you, take me with you." Wang Shanshan was still afraid and wanted to follow Yang Jian.

"I'm going home to sleep. You want to follow me home to sleep?" Yang Jian asked.

Wang Shanshan said quietly, "I wouldn't mind staying at your house for a few days."

"Hm?"

Everyone, including Yang Jian, widened their eyes.

Wang Shanshan might not have been the prettiest girl in class, but she was not bad either. She had trained in dance before, and her figure was undeniably good—slim waist, long legs, and a large chest. But what did that have to do with a nobody like Yang Jian? They were neither close nor particularly familiar with each other. How had Wang Shanshan become so attached to Yang Jian after only one night?

The others did not know, but Yang Jian understood.

Of course Wang Shanshan had not fallen for him because of that. It was because of the Ghost Infant incident.

She was still terrified and did not dare stay alone.

Some typos in the text would be corrected from time to time. I'll be taking half a day off today and only updating one chapter.