Up the Mountain
“I don’t know what’s going on these days, I feel like I’m always having nightmares at night.”
“Huh? You too?”
“Yeah, I woke up several times last night in fright, and I felt chilly all over my body.”
“No, no, I’ll come to sleep with you tonight, I’m scared of being alone…”
“Eh, really? Okay~”
The sound of the two girls sitting in front of them discussing quietly in class kept drifting to their ears, and Bian Shengjian couldn’t help opening his eyes and reaching out to tap on the table twice lightly.
The murmur disappeared immediately.
“What’s wrong?” Lu Shen looked at him, “Didn’t sleep well last night?”
“Mn,” Bian Shengjian pinched the bridge of his nose wearily, “I haven’t slept well these days.”
“Are you tired during the day?” Lu Shen said as he touched his leg, “I’ll knead your head and neck when you go back to the dormitory tonight.”
“It’s okay, it’s just that I don’t feel at ease when I sleep these few days.” Bian Shengjian frowned, “Don’t worry, it should be fine in a few days.”
“Okay.” Lu Shen replied.
The two of them stopped talking after finishing this topic. Bian Shengjian closed his eyes and continued to catch up on sleep, while Lu Shen was still earnestly taking notes with his pen for him.
In fact, since that day, there had been some subtle changes in the atmosphere between the two of them, which Bian Shengjian could feel very keenly.
Perhaps it was because the last barrier between them had suddenly been torn apart, and still felt a bit uncomfortable. In short, compared with before, the way he and Lu Shen get along at present had become unconsciously more taciturn.
But no matter what, he firmly believed that this change must be developing for the better.
“Who is on duty today? Come up and wipe the blackboard.” Old Tan patted the chalk dust on his hands and ordered.
“Oh, it’s me.” Bian Shengjian replied before slowly standing up, rubbing his eyes before walking to the podium.
In other words, it was really a tormenting thing not having a comfortable sleep….. No matter how much he catched up on sleep during the day, he still felt a little groggy.
Just as Bian Shengjian squinted his eyes and was about to reach out and wiped the blackboard with chalk writings, there was a sound of glass breaking on the ground behind him, accompanied by an exclamation.
“Ah!”
“Xiao Hui!” A girl covered her mouth and screamed.
“What’s the matter?” Bian Shengjian turned around abruptly, and saw a girl lying on the water-soaked floor at a glance, and several people beside her were trying to pull her up.
“Oh my God! How could she have suddenly fainted?”
“Here!” Bian Shengjian rushed up to help her up without any second thoughts, and asked calmly, “Why did she faint?”
“I……We don’t know, we just saw that she went out to fetch water and came back, then fainted when she couldn’t stand still.” There were several girls surrounded by her, their faces turned pale with fright, “What should we do? Should we call 120?”
“It might be hypoglycemia.” Bian Shengjian quickly looked down at Xiao Hui’s pale face, frowned and said, “I’ll take her to the infirmary first.”
“Let me carry her.” Someone suddenly interrupted.
“No need.” Bian Shengjian glanced at Lu Shen, picked her up and ran downstairs neatly, “But come with me to also have a look.”
“Okay.” Lu Shen paused and followed quickly.
The two rushed all the way to the school infirmary, Bian Shengjian didn’t look sideways the whole time, and even took off his coat very thoughtfully and put it on the wet spot on Xiao Hui’s chest. As soon as he entered the door, he shouted, “Big sister! There is a girl in our class who fainted, take a look at her.”
“What? Then put her on the bed first.” The school doctor quickly followed, and after a brief examination of Xiao Hui, she breathed a sigh of relief. “Don’t worry, she’s fine, it should be hypoglycemia……I’ll just hang a bag of glucose for her.”
“That’s good.” Bian Shengjian also breathed a sigh of relief.
“Aren’t you children under too much pressure from studying recently? Look, she is a pretty girl but has such a haggard face.” She muttered while administering the medicine, “Which class are you in? Please register later……….”
“Okay.” Bian Shengjian glanced at Wang Hui’s face, and found that her face was indeed very haggard, especially with those two deep dark circles hanging under her eyes. It could be seen that she didn’t have a good rest at night.
“Sorry to trouble you.”
“It’s no trouble.” The school doctor waved her hand, “If there is nothing else, you two can go back first, and I will just watch her here.”
“It’s okay, I’ll sit down for a while.” Bian Shengjian said and sat down on the small bench next to him.
“Why? Is she your girlfriend? You care so much.” The school doctor looked at him with a smile.
“What…she’s not.” Bian Shengjian was stunned for a moment and waved his hands, still a little embarrassed, “The girls in our class should be coming down soon.”
“Okay, then please watch her for a while, I’ll make a record first.” The school doctor said with a smile, but that smile made Bian Shengjian feel more and more awkward the more he looked at it.
Bian Shengjian felt that someone had gently scratched his palm twice, he turned his head only to meet Lu Shen’s calm eyes, “What’s wrong?”
“……nothing.” Lu Shen shook his head.
“Is this kind of vinegar worth eating?” Bian Shengjian frowned, but still reached out and rubbed his back, “You know I can’t be interested in her, be obedient.”
“I’m not jealous.” Lu Shen said, “I’m just a little upset why Zhou Li isn’t here today.”
“Didn’t he just ask for sick leave today?” Bian Shengjian sighed, “Okay, okay, next time I won’t hold them in my arms and instead use my back to carry them, okay?”
“Let’s not have a next time.” Lu Shen’s gaze shifted back to Wang Hui’s face, “She hasn’t had a rest for many days, right?”
“En.” Bian Shengjian replied and was about to speak, when there was a chattering sound outside the door, probably because the girls in the class had run down one after another. When they came in, they surrounded the person lying in the bed. “How is it? How is Huihui? Is it serious?”
“It’s not serious, just take some glucose and get some sleep.” Bian Shengjian felt a little headache from the noise from all directions, “Keep it down, she’s still resting.”
The surrounding voices instantly quieted down, but there were still a few girls who grabbed Bian Shengjian and asked persistently, “Then she……”
Suddenly there was a sound on the bed.
As soon as Bian Shengjian turned around, he saw the person who was lying on the bed slowly sitting up, with eyes that were still a little hazy.
“Huihui! How do you feel?”
“Yeah, why did you faint all of a sudden just now? It really scared us to death!”
“Thirsty? Do you want a drink?”
Wang Hui seemed to ignore these voices of concern, and just stared straight at the white sheet covering her body.
“…Huihui?”
Seeing that Wang Hui wasn’t responding, the girls next to her became even more flustered, and went to grab her hand, “What’s the matter? Is there anything else that feels uncomfortable? You…”
The moment Wang Hui was touched, she suddenly raised her head, but to everyone’s surprise, she closed her eyes and let out a scream.
“Ah!!!”
“Damn, what’s the matter?” Bian Shengjian was taken aback, and quickly took a few steps forward.
The school doctor was also called over by the screams, with a panicked expression, “What happened? What happened to her?”
Wang Hui was still screaming until someone grabbed her hand forcefully and the voice gradually died down, but her eyes were still staring at the crowd in front of her in horror. ” No….don’t.”
“Xiao Hui! It’s us!” A girl cried out immediately, “What’s wrong with you?”
Bian Shengjian pursed his lips and stared at her face, not noticing that Lu Shen, who was standing beside him at the moment, was frowning more and more tightly–
“I……” Wang Hui was stunned for a long time before she seemed to wake up, and finally sobbed and shed tears, “Mengmeng………..Yihan……I’m afraid…”
“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, we are here, we are with you.” The two girls held her tightly in their arms and comforted her, “It’s okay, it’s okay……Did you have another nightmare just now?”
“Yeah.” Wang Hui sobbed and nodded.
“Nightmare?” Lu Shen seemed to have grasped the key question, took a step forward and asked, “Has she been having nightmares these days?”
“Yes……Yes……” Han Yimeng was stared at by him, and nodded a little shyly, “We live in the same dormitory with her. Hui didn’t sleep well these past few days, saying that she had nightmares as soon as she closed her eyes.”
Bian Shengjian also came to his senses, remembering that he had heard the girls in the front row discussing this issue in class before, and frowned accordingly, “Since when?”
Nightmares?
“It’s been a while…Maybe a week ago?”
“What about you?” Lu Shen asked immediately.
“We seem to have nightmares during this period of time in the dormitory.” Xiao Yihan said in a low voice, “We thought it was a bit strange before.”
“Do you still remember what you dreamed about?” Lu Shen asked.
“This………” Xiao Yihan suddenly hesitated, and secretly glanced at others before saying, “I don’t remember, but it was really terrible!”
“…I see.” Lu Shen let out a faint breath, and Bian Shengjian quickly caught the gloomy expression on his face. “What’s wrong?”
Lu Shen shook his head, and signaled with his eyes that he had something to say but was inconvenient to say here.
Bian Shengjian was stunned for a moment, suddenly, as if remembering something, the whole person bounced up.
Abnormal.
Very abnormal.
“Collective nightmare, what can you think of?” Lu Shen asked softly.
“…I don’t know.” Bian Shengjian’s voice was somewhat difficult.
“Later after school,” Lu Shen breathed, “come with me to the mountain to have a look.”
“What?” Bian Shengjian looked at him blankly for a moment, then leaned back against the wall unconsciously.
Up the mountain?
What mountain?
…..Crap, isn’t there only that dark mountain behind the school?
“The mountain behind.” Lu Shen said, “I need to confirm something.”
“I see.” Bian Shengjian took a deep breath, calmed down and looked at him, “It’s a resentful spirit.”
“Yes. “
Lu Shen’s breathing was a little rough, he glanced at the time and simply pulled him back and turned away, “Forget it, I’m afraid there won’t be enough time. let’s just skip the next class directly.”
“Okay.” Bian Shengjian answered simply and neatly, feeling that it was a little difficult to breathe, “Why……did this happen suddenly?”
“Remember what I mentioned to you before?” Lu Shen’s brow was dripping with cold sweat, “Resentful spirits will release their grievances within a certain period of time, in order to invade people’s dreams and make them lose their conviction……eventually leading to suicide or a series of other serious consequences.”
“I know,” Bian Shengjian cleared his throat, “but didn’t you also say that the bell…..has a restraining effect?”
“Therefore I’m going to confirm now,” Lu Shen said halfway through, his voice suddenly becoming a little hoarse, “…whether the Soul Bell has been artificially damaged.”
Bian Shengjian followed him all the way forward, and his mind became a little confused, “The remaining resentful spirits…..aren’t there only two?”
“Mn, they have been dormant for several months.” Lu Shen frowned, “Have you heard any strange noises recently?”
“No.” Bian Shengjian shook his head.
Lu Shen didn’t speak any more afterwards. He walked very fast along the way, as if he wished he had wings and flew towards the mountain…..
Bian Shengjian also remained silent, all he could do at this time was to follow him closely, until he finally came to the steps leading to the back mountain before eventually stopping to take a breath. However, he looked at the several yellow warning tapes in front of him and was a little dazed, “This……”
“The back mountain was closed off a long time ago, its security has only been loosened in the past two years.” Lu Shen bent down and sneaked under the cordon as he said, “Come on, hurry up.”
“Okay.” Bian Shengjian gritted his teeth and slipped under the cordon, only to feel a gust of wind blowing in front of his face when he raised his head again–
The mountain at the back of the school was indeed very gloomy.
It might be because of the shade, but the light here was already very dim during the day, and because no one had managed it for a long time, both sides of the steps had been crazily overgrown with weeds and shrubs of various colors. The gaps had been occupied by the roots of plants and had gradually stretched open. Some surfaces were still covered with sticky moss, and if accidently stepped on, one would fall.
“Be careful.” Lu Shen warned in a low voice.
“Are you going to the top of the mountain?” Bian Shengjian stared at the soles of his feet, swallowed and asked.
“No,” Lu Shen walked another step before stopping, and began to climb up in another direction, “This way.”
“Why the hell are you not taking the steps……” Bian Shengjian said with disgust, stepping on the ground covered with a thick layer of fallen leaves. There was a slight clicking sound on the ground, and under the naked eye, he could see groups of black insects crawling along the gaps on the humus formed by the fallen leaves.
It’s a bit disgusting.
“There is a small road here.” Lu Shen said.
Bian Shengjian endured the sticky and soft touch of the soles of his feet and followed Lu Shen halfway up the mountain. Surrounded by trees growing all over the place, it seemed that they had strayed far away from the steps, “Hey……We won’t get lost, will we?”
Lu Shen finally stopped at this moment, his back seemed a little stiff.
“What’s the matter?” Bian Shengjian said as he leaned closer, also becoming frozen on the spot afterwards.
There was actually a small place similar to an ancestral hall in the ghostly place like the back mountain of the school, but it seemed that it should have been abandoned a long time ago, leaving only a few broken pillars and ruined walls being exposed under the wind and sun.
“…sure enough.” Lu Shen sighed softly.
Bian Shengjian followed his gaze, and found that there were some metal fragments scattered on the ground in the corner of the ruins of the ancestral hall. The texture should be similar to bronze, and some torn pieces of yellow talisman paper that was already twisted into a ball and soaking wet in the ground could be vaguely seen on the edge.
“These fragments should be the Soul Bell?” Bian Shengjian frowned, “Who did it?”
“I don’t know.” Lu Shen’s face was very dark, “It may be a robber or a thief, smash it and sell it for money.”
“Which idiot would f*cking come here to steal it? And f*cking sell it for money?” Bian Shengjian frowned even more, “…..Then what now? What should we do?”
“We must find the remaining resentful spirits as soon as possible,” Lu Shen said, “otherwise, the whole school’s dormitory may be in danger.”
“…Fuck…” Bian Shengjian gritted his teeth hard.
