Chapter 3: A Calamity Befalls Him

  "Hey! Nie Yu, you're not bad at all. You're really something. I was walking back to the dorm with Wu Shi Rong after dancing and saw you and your dance partner sitting on that bench facing each other and chatting away, looking pretty cozy. That girl is quite a standard beauty, we watched for half a day, how did you two hook up so quickly?" Wang Xue Bing said with a mischievous grin, chuckling as he looked at me.

  "Don't talk nonsense, that girl is just an ordinary friend I knew before, and coincidentally met her here. By the way, she's also a classmate of ours, she's my good friend, take care of her more in the future!" I looked at his expression, feeling very annoyed inside.

  "Alright, alright, if you treat me to a meal every day, I'll try to put in a good word for you. You can pursue her, but if you don't treat me to meals, I'll have to say something unpleasant...!" Damn it, this kid actually dares to threaten me, I silently scolded him but couldn't help feeling amused.

  "I don't have money to treat you to a meal, I can barely feed myself, say whatever you want!" I replied half-heartedly.

  "Boring! I was just joking with you. Look at yourself, can't you be more manly?" Wang Xuebing walked away with a serious and uninteresting face.

  "What's all the fuss about? Go to sleep!" Li Lin suddenly jumped out of bed like a madman and turned off the light.

  This damn Li Lin seems to be fearless, my feet haven't been washed yet and he turned off the light, I hurriedly turned it back on. He saw me turn on the light and immediately covered his head with the quilt, covering himself up...

  The next day in class, I saw Zhao Yuer sitting in the front row at a table with another girl. After lunch, there were two more advanced math classes, but I didn't have the heart to study, and seeing Zhao Yuer made me think of my uncle, aunt, and little sister again.

  "What are you thinking about? Hey?" Zhao Yuner walked over and waved her hand in front of my eyes.

  "No, nothing, just a bit sleepy!" Just thinking about the content of Ershu's book, I was startled without realizing it.

  "Class is over, silly! Everyone has left and you're still sitting there by yourself. Let's go! We agreed to have dinner together yesterday. You must eat this meal or I'll get angry!" Zhao Yu'er pretended to be angry as she took two steps back and stood up straight.

  "I'm going, isn't that enough? I didn't say I wouldn't go. Let's go now!" I said, picking up my book and walking out of the teaching building with a pretentious air of confidence.

  As soon as I walked out of the school gate, Zhao Yuer hailed a taxi. To be honest, there were no taxis in my second uncle's village. I got into the taxi and looked around, feeling very fresh.

  "Nie Yu, what are you looking at with that thieving expression? What's so interesting that you've never even taken a taxi before?" Zhao Yuner seemed to see right through me.

  "Who hasn't taken a taxi before? I thought the coastal city was quite big. How many people live in this coastal city? Look at how crowded it is!" I deliberately changed the subject.

  "It's just a few million, I haven't checked but it's definitely not a small number, at least it's a prefecture-level city haha, why do you want to check the household registration and ask how many people, are you from the Family Planning Commission?" Zhao Yuer also started joking with me.

  "I'm just a family planning committee, by the way, where are we going to eat? It's been so long and we still haven't arrived?" I looked around and saw that the surrounding buildings were getting taller and grander, I counted several times but couldn't figure out how many floors there were.

  "We're almost there! I can still sell you off, and besides, you're not worth much!" Zhao Yuer smiled, seemingly becoming more familiar with me.

  "Driver, stop!" Zhao Yuer got off the car, and I followed suit.

  This is a business district, with all sorts of tall buildings. Zhao Yu'er was walking towards a large restaurant called "Xiyan Hotel". I followed closely behind her. Looking up, this hotel was over thirty floors high.

  "Welcome, miss! Welcome, sir! This way, please...... As soon as they entered the restaurant's entrance hall, the manager hurried over with a smile."

  "How come you have so much time on your hands? Don't you go home for dinner at night?" I was taken aback, that hall manager actually knew her.

  "Oh, never mind, I have a friend who's my buddy, I'd like to invite him for dinner, bring the menu over, Aunt Liu!" Zhao Yuner skillfully took over the menu.

  "Zhao Yuer, why did you just call her Liu Yi, do you know her?" I thought that Liu Yi was her real mom.

  "Oh, this restaurant is a branch opened by my dad, the closest one to our school is here, so we came here. By the way, Nie Yu, take a look and see what you like to eat, choose for yourself." She said as she handed me the menu.

  "You order, I'm fine with anything, ladies first. If you make me order, I won't eat at all. And we can't waste food either, just the two of us ordering too much and not finishing it!" I looked at the menu full of idioms and was really confused, so I thought forget it.

  "Alright, Aunt Liu, this one, and that one, and..." I stood there in a daze, it turned out that Zhao Yu'er's dad was so rich, he must be some kind of big boss!

  "By the way, what does your dad do? This huge restaurant is just one of his branches. How much money would it take to buy this building?" I was so shocked that I could swallow a whale.

  "Idiot, eat your meal! These are adult matters, what's it got to do with you? My dad is some kind of big shot, how much money he has I have no idea. The money isn't on me anyway. Let's just say this meal is to repay the debt for saving my life, my great benefactor, come and eat!" As she spoke, Zhao Yuner picked up a large crab with her chopsticks and handed it to me.

  I chatted with Zhao Yuner about a lot of things from the past, including what happened at my second uncle's house and her family situation. Gradually, I felt that this girl is really great, optimistic, generous, and comes from a wealthy family. If we became good friends, at least I wouldn't lose out. Thinking back to what she went through in our village, an indescribable feeling rose up in my heart.

  "Are you full? Nie Yu, don't pretend, I'm not an outsider, eat quickly!" I was already stuffed to the point of bursting, but she still kept piling food into my bowl.

  The sky gradually darkened, and the road outside was filled with flashing car lights. The neon lights outside flickered constantly, and Zhao Yuer also occasionally joked with me, it's been a long time since I've felt so happy, I looked up and down at her. Zhao Yuer is too beautiful, looking into her eyes gives me an indescribable sense of familiarity.

  "Something's wrong, something's happened! Nie Yu, you'd better get back to your dorm quickly! Wu Shi Rong is gone!" Suddenly Wang Xue Bing called me.

  "Alright, wait for me, I'll be right back!" I said as I hurriedly hung up the phone.

  "What's wrong? What happened to Xiao Yu?" Zhao Yuer asked anxiously as she looked at me.

  "Nothing, thanks for dinner, it was really delicious. Next time I'll treat you. Beautiful girl, I have something to do and need to go first, I heard the school is going to inspect the dorms!" I lied and quickly ran downstairs.

  "Be careful and take care!" Zhao Yuer came downstairs to see me off, I got into the taxi, turned back to look at her and felt warm in my heart.

  Less than twenty minutes later, I arrived at school. When I returned to the dormitory, I found that it was dark inside. I cursed in my heart: Li Lin has turned off the lights again, just you wait and see how I'll deal with him. "Bang!" I angrily pushed open the door of the dormitory.

  "Nie Yu, you're finally back! Li Lin and I searched the entire dormitory building and classroom but couldn't find any trace of Wu Shi Rong. Who knows where he went? Don't you have some kind of book that can predict good or bad fortune? Calculate it and see if he's gone to an internet cafe for an all-nighter or something's happened to him!" Wang Xue Bing anxiously looked at me.

  "It's okay, you help me find it!" Li Lin was still lying in bed playing with her phone in the dark.

  "He can't have gone to the internet cafe, yesterday when we had dinner together he only had three yuan left in his pocket, this bookworm must have gone to the library." I was quite certain of my guess, because for the past few days Wu Shi Rong hadn't gone to the internet cafe after class, he always emerged from the library.

  "The library? We didn't look there, but that library had no electricity either, it seemed like the power line was cut off for maintenance. What's he doing there?" Wang Xuebing's words brought a bad premonition to me.

  I picked up Second Uncle's yellow cloth bag to be on the safe side, and took Wang Xuebing with me to head towards the library. Outside was already pitch black, and it seemed like all the students in the dormitory building were asleep. Occasionally there would be a couple or two who were being affectionate, but nothing out of the ordinary. When I arrived at the library with Wang Xuebing, however, we found that the door was actually locked.

  At this time, the school gate had been closed and Wu Shi Rong was not allowed to enter from outside. Wang Xue Bing and I circled around the library and finally found a glass window on the east side that was slightly ajar, which opened with just one push.

  "Here can open, how two jump down go!" I and Wang Xuebing jumped into the library.

  "My god, we've entered the wrong one! This is the old library, not the new one!" Wang Xuebing suddenly became tense.

  "How did you know? Have you been here?" I haven't actually come to the library from the start of school until now.

  "Yes, I knew that. After lunch today, I saw a pretty girl and followed her from behind all the way to this library. Later, I found out that it's an old library that is going to be demolished soon." Wang Xuebing bent down in fear of being seen by the patrolling teacher outside.

  "Wu Shi Rong! Where are you? Wu Shi Rong!" I and Wang Xue Bing felt our way forward in the dark stairwell on the first floor.

  This library is very large, from the east window on the side we just entered to the west, it seems that there are more than 30 doors exposed in the long corridor. Suddenly a gust of cold wind blew onto my face, which was icy cool. I was startled and felt something was off! There must be evil spirits at work here! Based on my experience with Second Uncle in driving out evil spirits, how could this enclosed room have such a strong gust of wind, and just now when we entered, the windows were already closed?

  I hastily took out Second Uncle's Bagua mirror and hung it on my chest to prevent unexpected events, and also took out two talismans and gave one to Wang Xuebing and stuck one on myself. Continuing along the corridor, I suddenly saw a figure at the corner of the stairs on the first floor, and Wang Xuebing and I rushed over.

  The thin figure at the corner of the stairs looks like Wu Shi Rong.

  "Wu Shi Rong, wake up!" It was indeed Wu Shi Rong, his face pale and foaming at the mouth as he fainted. I quickly pinched his people's pulse, then took out a cinnabar pen from my pocket and dotted it on his forehead, and in just a few minutes Wu Shi Rong came to.

  "Save me! Don't catch me, I don't want to die, save me!" Wu Shi Rong looked at me as I pinched his hand and desperately ran towards the corner of the wall.

  "My god, what are you running from? I'm Nie Yu, he's Wang Xuebing!" I hastily shouted at him. Then I took a look at myself and Wang Xuebing, and was shocked as well. I was wearing my school uniform, an all-white suit with white pants, while Wang Xuebing was wearing his black pajamas, even with a sleep cap on his head - he must have thought he saw the Black and White Impermanence!