Chapter 2: Myself in the Computer

  "Back off." An old voice suddenly appeared out of thin air, and the female ghost stopped her movement abruptly, shaking her head under her long hair, as if thinking. After a moment, she let out a cold laugh, and in a burst of white mist, she suddenly disappeared.

  That wriggling blood line also turned into a wisp of air and dissipated the moment it touched Hong Jun's shoes.

  "Ugh." Xu Ming struggled to squeeze out a breath from his throat, collapsing onto the ground. Hong Jun's body was also able to move again, and he too fell onto the ground with a thud.

  "Hey, do you need help?" The unusual behavior of the two caught the attention of a traffic police officer on duty by the roadside. A bespectacled and slender traffic police officer walked over, asking with concern, "Are you uncomfortable? Have you fainted from heatstroke? Do you want to go to the hospital?"

  "No need. Thank you, comrade traffic police, we're just a bit tired, and resting for a while will be fine." Hong Jun said weakly.

  "Where are you staying? Do you want me to inform your relatives?" The traffic police were particularly enthusiastic.

  "No need, no need, you go ahead, our dormitory is just over a hundred meters in front, rest for a while and it's fine." Seeing the traffic police officer insisting on helping, Hong Jun struggled to get up, pulled Xu Ming from the ground, thanked him while stumbling towards the dormitory. Behind them, a tall and thin traffic police officer in his thirties was left standing alone, looking dazed.

  "What's going on, anyway?" With a lack of energy, Xu Ming escaped back to his dormitory, discovering that the last bit of strength in his body had been exhausted. He barely managed to grab the cup on the desk, tilted his head back, and unknowingly swallowed the remaining half cup of tea water. His right arm trembled, and ultimately failed to put the quilt back on the desk. The stainless steel cup made a sharp, ear-piercing sound as it hit the cement floor with a "clang".

  "Who's going?" Hong Jun sighed, ran to the kitchen, and stuck himself under the faucet. The icy tap water gave him a shock, and his head finally cleared up a bit: "A small coffin, a pool of moving blood, a female ghost wearing a Japanese devil's uniform... what's going on here?"

  "Female ghost? What are you talking about?" Xu Ming licked his lips and asked.

  "Huh? That female ghost, was going to grab me with her hands, wearing a military uniform commonly seen on TV during Japan's invasion of China..."

  "I didn't see it, brother, don't scare me, I can't take it." Xu Ming's voice started to tremble. Hong Jun was puzzled, that female ghost, Xu Ming didn't see?

  "Thud", a footstep came from the living room, and the two people who were already nervous immediately got goosebumps. Had the female ghost followed them home? Hong Jun couldn't help but think of grabbing the chair beside him to defend himself, but then he thought that if it really was the female ghost, the chair probably wouldn't be of any use either, and would only enrage her even more, leaving no room for maneuvering. It was better not to grab anything at all.

  "Who? Who is it?" Xu Ming didn't think of these things, he grabbed a book from the table and held it in front of his chest, looking at Hong Jun and asking with a trembling voice.

  "Pick up the broken pieces." A sharp voice came from the living room.

  "What the f**k is wrong with you? You scared me to death!" Hearing this voice, Xu Ming immediately became much taller and started cursing loudly.

  "What's with the huge anger? Did you eat gunpowder?" Along with the vibration of the floor, a fat man squeezed into the bedroom, saying "squeeze" because this fat man was indeed a bit too fat, 1.6 meters tall but weighing around 270 kilograms, his horizontally long body squeezing through the narrow door of the bedroom, it really had a sense of squeezing in.

  "Hey, two brothers, why are you both so down? Did you guys get dumped? No, that can't be it, Jun Ge doesn't even have a girlfriend. Is it because of work? Did you mess up and get your salary deducted?..." The fat guy's name was Chen Qing, he was coworkers with Hong Jun and Xu Ming, the four of them lived together in one dorm room. He was from Heze, 27 years old, had been working in Bin Hai for many years, gave people a feeling of being kind-hearted and willing to help others, always smiling and laughing, but nobody's perfect, Chen Qing also had his flaws, that was he was too fat, not the type who eats and drinks excessively, just purely belonged to the type who gets fat from drinking water. Because of this, until now, he still hadn't found a girlfriend, he participated in several matchmaking events organized by the TV station, but all the girls would run away after seeing him, which made him very puzzled, later on, he finally managed to grab hold of one girl, and used his stubbornness to not let her go, forcing her to spit out the truth: "You're so fat, if we were to do that, wouldn't you crush me to death? Who would dare be with you?" Chen Qing was furious, yelling loudly, "Do you have to say it like that?"

  For this, Chen Qing was ridiculed by Hong Jun and others for several months. He hurt his self-esteem and simply stopped attending matchmaking shows. Let's see the fate, this thing can't be forced. Chen Qing comforted himself, reminding Hong Jun of what the blind man in the village said to him.

  Generally speaking, fat people's courage is inversely proportional to their weight. The fatter they are, the smaller their courage. In order to cover up their cowardice or find a few backers, fat people like to call others "brother". Chen Qing was no exception. He actually called Hong Jun and Xu Ming, who were younger than him, "older brother". The two of them happily accepted it and even gave him the nickname "Fat Chen".

  "It's pointless to talk to you, better save some saliva." Xu Ming blinked, and suddenly there was another person in the room. Xu Ming's spirits lifted, and he completely forgot about the strange encounter just now. Hong Jun remembered a joke that Xu Ming often told: "We have Fat Chen, look at his build, if he encounters a bear, he can take it down by himself. If he encounters a robber, even with a knife, they probably won't be able to stab through the fat on his belly. As long as he's around, nothing is to be feared."

  "Fat Chen, come and help me up, I'm going to the bathroom. Damn it, I still don't have any energy at all, can't even get up." Xu Ming's gritted teeth and twisted mouth made Hong Jun suddenly feel a little amused, this guy, isn't he scared?

  Two people went to the bathroom, and in the small bedroom, only Hong Jun was left. He lay on the bed, his eyes fixed tightly on the ceiling, but his mind was a mess. That small coffin, that strange female voice, and that old voice, what's going on? Is it really an encounter with a ghost? Does this world really have ghosts?

  "A faint hum broke into Hong Jun's thoughts, he calmed down and found that the computer on the table had started up. He was immediately frozen in place, because he clearly saw that the computer, which was not plugged into a power source, had started up by itself."

  Self-test, scroll bar rolling, enter the system, open web page... Hong Jun's eyes stared at the computer screen as it booted up and automatically entered a mysterious website. A video program opened and started playing an image. Hong Jun wanted to shift his gaze, but the computer seemed to have some kind of magic that made his eyes unable to move even a fraction of an inch. His eyelids were stiff and blinking suddenly became a luxury idea. He could only stare at the image.

  At this time, a person was standing with his back to the middle of the screen. As the screen rotated 180 degrees, the camera quickly turned to the front of that person. Hong Jun was shocked to the extreme at this time, because he found out that the person was himself.

  He didn't have time to think carefully, but just felt his body lighten, and found himself standing in the middle of the computer screen. He looked around, only to discover that he was in a huge chessboard. The position where he stood was the king's position of the red side. On his left, the knight's position was occupied by Xu Ming, and the bishop's position had a monk standing on it. On his right, the knight's position had a very beautiful stranger girl, and the bishop's position had a Taoist priest. The other positions such as the horse and the chariot were occupied by many people with vague faces. Everyone was waiting quietly for him to give orders, and charge into the black side's territory.

  Hong Jun raised his head to gaze into the distance, and in front of him, above the Chu River Han border, was a thick greyish-white fog that completely obscured the black chess piece on the other side. However, strangely enough, within this fog, Hong Jun could clearly see that there was also someone standing at the position of the Black General, and that person, he was extremely familiar with.

  Familiar with each other's everything at fingertips.

  Because he saw himself standing on top of the black side's commander.

  At this moment, the black-robed self above was sneering at the red-robed self below. He raised his hands, and Hong Jun immediately felt something touching the back of his neck, a hand with icy fingers slowly caressing him, the fingernails scratching his neck painfully.

  "Do you still remember that game of chess sixty years ago? We need your help." The gloomy self commanded this self.

  A faint hum, and Hong Jun shook his head. The room suddenly returned to normal. The computer was still on the desk, not plugged in, nor had it started by itself. He was still lying in bed, and the hand on the back of his neck had also disappeared. Was it an illusion? He smiled wryly, immediately denying his own doubts. The scene just now was so real, especially the hand on the back of his neck, where the fingernails had scratched, still burning with pain, not at all like an illusion. He jumped up from bed and reached out to touch the screen, which was slightly warm. That's right, the computer had been turned on earlier. It wasn't an illusion, it was all real.

  Where did that voice come from? Hong Jun noticed the Buddhist rosary on the table, the one he had bought for 10 yuan from a street vendor. At this moment, the largest wooden Buddha bead had split in two. Although the rosary was cheap, it was blessed by the temple and could ward off evil spirits. Hong Jun remembered what the vendor had said when selling him the rosary. Ward off evil spirits? Had he really seen a ghost? Hong Jun felt dizzy, couldn't breathe, his brain severely lacking oxygen, and lost consciousness.