Chapter 1
“La-la-la—”
Passersby of all kinds held up colorful umbrellas and walked through the streets wetted by the accumulated water. The dripping rain enveloped the entire Lantai city in a layer of white haze, adding a rare beauty to this northern city.
The light and ethereal singing voice mixed with the hustle and bustle of the city hits the eardrums, so thin that it seems like a momentary illusion.
The clean-looking boy holding an umbrella with a bamboo leaf pattern was only wearing a thin dark green sweatshirt in the drizzling weather. Fortunately, it was not yet deep into autumn in Lantai, so even on rainy days, the heat was still a bit overwhelming.
Gu Qingming didn't feel cold, but just a little tired. After all, the heavy schoolbag behind him seemed to be able to crush him.
My fingertips gently stroked my ears and I took off the Bluetooth headphones that were still humming a song. The thin and soft singing voice followed the wind and disappeared in the rain, and no trace of its existence could be found anymore.
"Strange...I clearly didn't have insomnia last night..."
Gu Qingming muttered to himself, but his eyes were fixed absentmindedly on the taxi-hailing app on his phone.
It must be an auditory hallucination... No, it must be an auditory hallucination.
A green and white taxi braked suddenly in front of the boy, interrupting his chaotic thoughts, and the rear wheels splashed traces of rain in the puddles.
The uncle driving the online taxi was silent and did not speak first. Gu Qingming suppressed the fluctuations in his heart and shouted four numbers to the driver outside the car window. After hearing the driver's affirmative response, he opened the door of the taxi.
The boy quickly folded his umbrella and got into the car, but suddenly paused as he stepped into the car.
Through the intersection of traffic, in the bushes in the green belt on the side of the road, Gu Qingming saw a clear white shadow, which flashed by like a ghost, like a human figure with a folded and twisted body crawling.
"It seems that Lantai City has good greening."
Gu Qingming murmured to himself, trying to convince himself again.
He would rather treat the white shadow as some kind of wild animal than think of the matter in some horrible way.
After all, his decision to leave the city where he had lived for many years and transfer to Lantai No. 1 Middle School was partly related to those terrible and strange things.
You can definitely escape from those terrible things.
Gu Qingming told himself this.
"Classmate? What happened?"
Seeing that the passenger didn't move for a long time, the taxi driver couldn't help but turned around and asked in Mandarin with a strong Lantai accent.
"Ah, sorry to have worried you, it's just that the umbrella is a little difficult to fold and it just got stuck."
Gu Qingming responded quickly, quickly put the umbrella into the translucent umbrella bag, and fell into the back seat of the taxi.
He looked out the window. The continuous rain was falling like tears from the sky.
In the rain, the scenery flashing quickly outside the window made this new city so mottled that it was almost blurred.
Gu Qingming suppressed his emotions and forced himself to shift his attention from the two strange things that had just happened to his new school, Lantai No. 1 Middle School.
Lantai No.1 High School is located in the southern part of the city center of Lantai, which is in line with its distinguished status as the first key high school in Lantai City. As the destination is approached, the flow of people around can even be seen to increase significantly.
Countless parents in Lantai City and its surrounding counties have been frantically looking for tutors and enrolling their children in cram schools since elementary school, just so that they can wear the "ugly" black and white pocket school uniform with the words "Lantai No. 1 Middle School" printed on it after the high school entrance examination.
The reason why Gu Qingming was able to make an exception and enter Lantai No. 1 Middle School as a transfer student was not because of his connections or money, but because of his only advantage: his academic performance.
The taxi turned in front of the gate of Lantai No. 1 Middle School and stopped soon. The driver was a man of few words, but he also reminded Gu Qingming not to forget his cell phone and other things. The young man in the dark green sweatshirt thanked him repeatedly and stepped onto the streets of Lantai City again.
It is now lunchtime and the students of Lantai No. 1 Middle School are gathered together noisily, pushing their bicycles or electric bikes to go to the snack street behind the school for lunch.
Gu Qingming walked through the crowd in the rain. Under the big words "Lantai No. 1 Middle School", he saw through the rain dripping from the edge of the umbrella a handsome boy wearing a gray jacket over his short-sleeved school uniform.
"Lao He——"
Gu Qingming waved his hand, and He Song, who was looking around, instantly locked onto his friend from the crowd. His eyes seemed to light up at that moment.
He ran forward in two steps, pulled Gu Qingming's shoulder exaggeratedly, and gave a big hug to his long-lost friend.
"Old Gu! It's been a long time since we last met!"
When He Song saw Gu Qingming from afar, he couldn't believe his eyes. After confirming that it was indeed him, he smiled a smile that was so bright that it was a little silly.
"Don't be so excited, Lao He."
Gu Qingming pushed his black square-framed glasses, and his expression, which had seemed a little dull to outsiders, finally showed a hint of a smile.
He Song was Gu Qingming's childhood classmate for three years in junior high school. Later, due to Gu Qingming's parents' work, the two separated in high school, but they still kept in touch. At the same time, He Song was also one of Gu Qingming's few acquaintances in Lantai City.
For these two people who have a very good relationship, the separation during the first semester of high school was almost like a year. He Song looked at his friend who he had met again after a long separation, and just when he was about to say something, he heard a burst of exclamations from the surroundings, interrupting him.
Gu Qingming turned his head following He Song's action and met a pair of light grey eyes.
The boy who climbed over the school wall had shoulder-length gradient hair, and his movements were chic, with a coolness that didn't care about the dean's life or death. At first glance, he was the most famous prickly-headed student in the grade. He was carrying a dark blue shoulder bag, and his long hair was blurred in the drizzle, looking unreal, like a character that only appears in some boys' comics.
"Oh my god - Chu Zhongyuan, this big shot, climbed over the wall in public again. Is he really not afraid of punishment -"
He Song put on the hood of his coat to keep out the rain. He raised his head slightly and looked at the crowd that passed by like the wind, causing a burst of cheers. The boy who was also wearing a black and white school uniform made a sound of "tsk tsk" and said:
"As expected of him."
"This is……"
Gu Qingming moved the umbrella towards He Song, frowning slightly.
For some reason, the moment he made eye contact with this "Chu Zhongyuan", he felt a very uncomfortable feeling surrounding him.
Gu Qingming's favorable impression of this gentleman instinctively dropped by half a degree.
"Then I must introduce you to it."
He Song put his arm around Gu Qingming's shoulder and walked towards the school gate with him, introducing himself to Gu Qingming in a low voice.
"This gentleman, Chu Zhongyuan, is a well-known outrageous figure in the second grade of Lantai No. 1 High School. As a former member of the student union, he took the lead in doing a series of outrageous things, including but not limited to eating instant noodles during exams.
But what makes this gentleman so famous is his roller coaster-like outrageous grades. For example, in these two exams, he was ranked seventh in the last grade, but in the next exam, he immediately dropped to the bottom of the grade, more than 1,500. He was the first in almost every exam, and he would do well in one exam and badly in another. He was more accurate than the weather forecast. I suspect he was eyeing the few hundred yuan for the improvement bonus..."
What a cow cat.
Upon hearing this, veteran cat lover Gu Qingming successfully turned this legendary cat into a cat in his mind.
He could even imagine the innocent smile on the face of this grade legend after he had done those insane things.
Even the half-degree favorability that had just dropped rose by 1.5 degrees.
If He Song knew what his childhood friend was thinking, he felt that he would definitely make a sharp explosion on the spot.
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t know him now. Anyway, with his outrageous behavior, you will have to be familiar with him after you come to Lantai No. 1 Middle School, Lao Gu.”
He Song, who knew nothing about it, shrugged his shoulders and looked at Gu Qingming's silence. He thought that this was just a good student with excellent character and academic performance who was speechless about such a conspicuous bag, so he stopped talking.
He took Gu Qingming and prepared to go back to school together, intending to let his friend who had come from afar put down his heavy schoolbag first, and go have lunch after completing the enrollment process.
Taking advantage of the lunch break, Gu Qingming quickly reported to the Academic Affairs Office and received a thick stack of textbooks.
The class division for the first semester of the second year of high school is coming soon. Gu Qingming has already completed the class division test before coming here. The director of studies Zhang Yiwei simply arranged the new student into Class 7, which has the smallest number of students, to help him through a short transition period.
Seeing that his friend was in the same class as him, He Song pointed out an empty seat in the classroom for Gu Qingming, then leaned on the door frame and sighed, "I didn't expect that we could be together at this last minute. To celebrate, I'll go to the message room now to help you find English newspapers and test papers for various subjects!"
Gu Qingming: ...Your way of celebrating is a bit unique...
Without waiting for Gu Qingming's answer, he skipped out of the classroom alone, as if he had encountered a great thing today.
Gu Qingming shook his head in amusement. He put down his heavy backpack at the place designated by He Song, opened the book stand, and neatly stacked the equally heavy textbooks in his hands in the book stand.
After tidying up his seat, Gu Qingming stood up and stretched his muscles. He looked around. Because it was the lunch break, Class 7 classroom was empty. No one was there, whether day students or boarding students. Fine raindrops sprinkled on the window lattices, making a pleasant "tick-tick" sound.
This is a brand new environment.
Looking at the clean and tidy podium, the sanitary corner with mops and brooms neatly arranged, and the rows of tables and chairs piled with bookends and test papers, Gu Qingming was in a trance, feeling as if all the strange events that happened a few days ago were just his own imagination.
Good, his life returned to normal.
Gu Qingming took a deep breath, and opened He Song's math textbook, ready to see how far the teaching of his weak subject had progressed. He was startled by He Song who rushed in with a large test paper.
Some of the old classroom doors made an unbearable "creaking" sound as He Song opened and closed them vigorously. He Song moved back and forth at an incredibly fast speed and handed the folded test papers in his hand to Gu Qingming, and took out a black package about the size of a B5 notebook from behind.
"Here's your package, Lao Gu. I'm going to help the old man in the message room deliver the discarded textbooks tied with plastic ropes. Check yourself to see if there are any problems. If there are, be sure to tell me."
He Song didn't notice anything unusual. After giving a few instructions, he found a roll of plastic rope from the podium and rushed out of the classroom again.
"express delivery?"
Gu Qingming frowned. He didn’t send anything to No. 1 Middle School in advance. Could it be the work of his new guardian, Mr. Lu Ze?
Gu Qingming had a lot of thoughts in his mind, but his hands did not slow down at all. He used the tip of his pen to cut open the thin layer of express parcel paper, and a black notebook broke out from the parcel paper.
It was an old notebook, the whole thing was a simple brown-black color, and due to its age, it was almost falling apart. Only the six-digit metal combination lock was shining with a silver light, without a trace of aging.
What shocked Gu Qingming the most was the name signed on the cover of the notebook.
The leather material that was sewn to cover the place was torn off, revealing the three words "Gu Nanfeng" written in neat and beautiful handwriting underneath.
Gu Nanfeng, this was his mother's name. And he would never mistake the handwriting, it was his mother's own handwriting.
This was the same strange notebook that had suddenly and inexplicably appeared in his room a month ago, and was the origin of all the strange things.
More than ten days ago, Gu Qingming's normal high school life encountered a drastic change when his parents were identified as missing persons in a mountain flood.
Gu Qingming, who had no relatives or friends, had no other choice but to struggle through more than ten extremely dark days. Fortunately, after that, a kind distant relative took over his guardianship and helped him transfer to Lantai City to start a new life.
It was on the day when his distant uncle Lu Ze confirmed his guardianship of him that this strange notebook came to his door and has since become a shadow that Gu Qingming could not get rid of.
The nightmares that keep appearing, the white shadows that can be seen everywhere, and the terrifying sounds that only appear at night...
With the help of Lu Ze, he transferred to another school and left the city where he originally lived, but he still couldn't escape his fate of going around in circles and was caught up by this notebook again.
And this time, the leather patch that was sewn on the notebook was also torn off, revealing his mother's name underneath, which Gu Qingming had never thought of before.
Things started to get weirder and weirder.
Who sent him this notebook? What is the relationship between this special notebook that seems to have its own "life" and his mother?
In an instant, countless terrible conjectures flashed through Gu Qingming's mind. Facing this strange yet familiar notebook, his intuition seemed to be frantically warning him not to touch the world in this notebook. It was as if it was a towering cliff. If he took a wrong step, he would fall into an abyss and an endless fall.
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