Qing Kuang

on’t turn on your phone.” 

“Huh?” Huo Ran felt that something was off from his voice.

“Smell.” Kou Chen said quietly.

 

“Did you fart?” Huo Ran immediately held his breath, “How childish are you?”

“I smell barbeque, you idiot.” Kou Chen said in his air. 

Huo Ran hesitated, before taking a small sniff.
He indeed smelled firewood, but…

“It’s not that unusual,” Huo Ran said quietly, “Someone lit the fire a few hours ago, around dinner time.”

Kou Chen stared at him.

“Trust me,” Huo Ran said, “I was starting fires in the wild before you were in middle school.” 

“I eat barbeque every day.” Kou Chen said.

“That’s coal, this is wood, idiot.” Huo Ran said.

Kou Chen didn’t say anything, still staring at him.
After a while, he suddenly raised his head and looked behind him.

Behind him was a long stretch of hallway, Huo Ran suddenly felt like a fridge opened behind him.
He straightened up, reflexively scooting forward. 

Kou Chen stared at him, his expression was unclear, but he could still see a laugh flash across his face.

“Don’t worry,” Huo Ran said, “I am a little afraid, but I won’t leave.”

“Call for me if you’re scared,” Kou Chen said.
“You’re too scared to even look back, why don’t I walk behind you?”

“No.” Huo Ran said immediately. 

“I’m not gonna poke you out of nowhere.” Kou Chen said.

“I don’t believe you.” Huo Ran gestured with his head, “You go first.”

Kou Chen laughed as walked down the hallway with Huo Ran behind him.
He could just about see the hallway turn, planning to circle around to check things out first.

With Huo Ran’s ‘everyone’s scared of ghosts they’re just pretending they’re not’ logic, he was sure Kou Chen was also scared, but Kou Chen was too used to putting on airs, he could only walk so calmly because he was just too into the act. 

He was more true to himself.
He was scared, but he could take it.

Besides, he had his buddies.

 

Buddies… Huo Ran looked behind him.
There was only one path from the field to the haunted building, and from the first floor to the third, so right now, Xu Zhifan and the others could only be behind him.

But what made Huo Ran uneasy was the fact that there were no signs of movement behind him.
Any noise made came from in front, it was a problem with this building no matter how you thought about it. 

As he was thinking about where his buddies were and if he should text them and ask, a creak sounded from above him.

Kou Chen, who was carefreely walking in front, stopped, and Huo Ran stopped as well.
He turned so that his back was towards Kou Chen.

There has to be someone at his back, there can’t be nothing there.

This building was like the one they had classes in, with wooden floorboards.
It wasn’t weird for it to creak, but it still had to have a certain amount of weight on it, furthermore, that sound… 

“Did you bring your friends?” Kou Chen asked from behind him.

Huo Ran was very embarrassed, but he didn’t let it show in his words: “You’re the one that brought friends…”

“Xu Zhifan!” Kou Chen yelled.

“Fuck.” Huo Ran turned around. 

“Jiang Lei!” Kou Chen continued, “Hu Yi! Come on down, let’s play cards, the five of us, loser has to give the winner a massage.”

Huo Ran did have faith in Xu Zhifan’s intelligence, but Jiang Lei and Hu Yi aren’t as reliable.
With what Kou Chen said, there really was a chance those two would come out… He suddenly didn’t want to speak.

But after Kou Chen spoke, it was still deathly silent.

“There’s someone upstairs.” Kou Chen said. 

“Mhm.” Huo Ran suddenly felt like those three really didn’t come.

 

The inside of the security office was so bright it was like the daytime, the air smelling of smoke and instant noodles.

But the atmosphere was still the same. 

“You guys really are going jogging? Jogging in the middle of the night on the school field?” The security guard sighed, slowly sipping the tea in his mug.

“We really were having a late night run.” Xu Zhifan said.

 

“We’re even wearing running shoes,” Hu Yi lifted his leg, showing off the new shoes he bought that summer, “Just for jogging.”

“You students wear those shoes all the time…” The security guard glanced at their feet. 

Xu Zhifan looked down as well.
At the back, Jiang Lei took a step back.
Xu Zhifan sighed in exasperation, Jiang Lei was wearing skate shoes.

“You guys don’t even need to tell me your names and class,” The security guard jotted something down in his notebook.
“I know you’re Xu Zhifan, you and that basketball captain, you guys come as a set, always together.
I’ll report this to your teacher tomorrow, you can explain to him.”

“Sir, this is…” Jiang Lei struggled.

“Okay,” Xu Zhifan said, “We’ll explain to Old Yuan tomorrow.” 

“Mhm,” The security guard stood up, “I see you guys out, get a ride home.”

“…No need.” The three of them answered at the same time.

No need for that sir, our friend is still in the haunted building.
He can survive for a month on his own in the wilderness but he can’t take twenty minutes inside the haunted building alone.
Sir, let us leave ourselves, we can still go around and climb over the fence to save him.

“Come on!” The security guard shooed them along. 

Xu Zhifan, Jiang Lei, and Hu Yi looked at each other, walking out of the room.

After they walked to the gates with their heads down, Xu Zhifan immediately turned and ran, Jiang Lei and Hu Yi on his heels.
Ten meters later they all turned right, this was the shortest path to the back gates.

 

“Wanna go check?” Kou Chen asked. 

“Check what?” Huo Ran wanted to ask if he was crazy, he clearly knew there was someone upstairs when there shouldn’t be, what, is he gonna go catch him in the act?

“You really didn’t bring your friends?” Kou Chen asked.

Huo Ran hesitated, he really did bring his friends, but he couldn’t say that.
But at the same time he felt that it really wasn’t Xu Zhifan and the others who were upstairs.
But if they went up and it really was them… Then that would be extremely embarrassing.

Right then, something sounded from the ceiling, this time it was a few meters closer to the stairwell. 

“I really didn’t.” Huo Ran raised his head, saying quietly.

There was no way whoever upstairs couldn’t hear them talk, if they still made noise after that, there was no way it was Xu Zhifan and them.

 

There really was someone else upstairs, and that person was making their way to the stairs.

The hairs on Huo Ran’s arm stood on end. 

“Fuck,” You could hear the excitement in Kou Chen’s voice, “Let’s go check.”

Huo Ran stayed standing.

Kou Chen took a few steps forward before stopping: “You wait here, or…”

He pointed at the stairs, saying: “Run down the stairs before that person comes down.” 

When he finished, Kou Chen rushed in that direction, looks like he wanted to catch the person on the stairs.

Huo Ran stood there in the dark, so shocked he forgot to feel fear, before realizing that Kou Chen probably really isn’t afraid of ghosts.

But Kou Chen suddenly yelled out loud: “AH—”

Then he fell back onto the floor. 

The floor cracked beneath him.

Huo Ran rushed over, not knowing if he was trying to rescue him or because he was scared and wanted to find someone to get it together with.
As he reached to pull Kou Chen up, he saw a white figure float out of the platform in the stairwell, disappearing quietly.

“AH—” He also yelled out a few seconds after Kou Chen did.

“Holy shit,” Kou Chen jumped up and ran over, “Was that a person?” 

Huo Ran didn’t know where he got the courage to run over like that, but to save face, he had no choice but to move over slowly: “I didn’t see it clearly.”

“Let’s go,” Kou Chen tugged at his collar, “That really did scare me.”

“Okay.” Huo Ran nodded immediately, he didn’t want to spend one more second in this place.

The two of them went down the stairs, looking around them, but they didn’t see anything that could move. 

What exactly was that?

At the bottom of the stairs, Huo Ran sighed, it’s fine, they left together, nobody won or lost, it was a draw…

 

Kou Chen suddenly stopped, Huo Ran couldn’t do so in time, stepping outside as he watched Kou Chen move back up a step.

“You lost.” Kou Chen said. 

“What?” Huo Ran was shocked.

 

If you want to support us, please download our awesome cultivation game Taoist Immortal!