Chapter 8: Charm Against the Ill-Natured

Liu Xiaodan's eyes lit up some more as he saw her smile. He then tried his best to return it as he sat next to her. It had been a while since they were last seen together, and not to mention no one could actually have seen them together tonight.

"Why did you ask me out so late tonight? Can't it wait tomorrow?" Liu Xiaodan warmly mused at her image, his normally boring eyes showing so much gleam of happiness upon seeing Chuan Nayi so close right now.

"I don't think it should. I've already avoided you for so long." Chuan Nayi made a bitter grin as she admitted the fact that she was avoiding him.

She then fished for something from her little pouch. She pulled out what looked like a bracelet with weird wood carvings strummed together by a strange rope. She dangled it between their faces, in front of their eyes. "I have something for you!"

Chuan Nayi then held out a hand as if collecting his. She soon received his left hand since it would probably hurt his wrist when he writes if placed on the other. The girl left it suspended in the air so she could put the bracelet around it.

The girl pulled on an end to make the bracelet wider before placing it on his hand and soon tugging on a different end to fasten it. She made a happy noise when she noticed it blended with Liu Xiaodan's image so it was not noticeable at all.

Chuan Nayi clapped in delight. "It suits you a lot!" She then watched Liu Xiaodan inspect the bracelet. "It's a charm Li Feng made. I asked him to make two so it couldn't hurt you as well."

"What?" Liu Xiaodan dropped his arm slowly, locking his gaze at the woman before him. His mouth continued to gape after so, but his face mask was keeping it hidden from Chuan Nayi. He then saw her fish another one from her pouch and handed it to him. "You want me to put this on you?"

"It's boring if I do it myself!" Chuan Nayi stuck her tongue out with a giggle. She suspended her left hand before Liu Xiaodan, and the man placed the bracelet like how she did it. She then stared at the charm. "I'm so sorry, Xiaodan. I was so scared when I realized you were so fond of me…"

A faint blush ran across the man's cheeks. His heart started thumping in nervousness again. Then again, her bitter grin made him forget about the fuzzy feeling for now.

"I thought about what you said last Sunday." She held the bracelet closer to her chest. "I got so worried it might go after you. Staying away from you was the first thing I thought of doing so I went with it. I have no idea how to deal with malicious spirits until Li Feng started talking to me."

"So you weren't dating Li Feng?" Liu Xiaodan immediately covered his mouth after he said that. He then added some more words before Chuan Nayi spoke what her frown meant. "I mean, I thought he asked you out and you went with him since… I saw you… going home with him."

"That was one time!" Chuan Nayi puffed and pouted. However, she just vanished it with a chuckle. "He told me what he can do for me since I was being followed by a malicious spirit. It seemed that he also believed what I said about the boy I saw that time."

She ran her hand through her hair to hook her fringe behind the ear, the side closer to Liu Xiaodan. "He said he can make a charm to protect me from its touch." She glanced at him once. "In reality, I want you to be safe around me more than me being safe any time… so I ask if he could just make one for you. He insisted on making two then."

Chuan Nayi turned to Liu Xiaodan, both of their faces reddening under such pale light from the sky. She smiled. "It took him three days so I had to avoid you for three days more." She reached out to cup a hand against Liu Xiaodan's face. "I'm so sorry if I made you feel bad."

"Thank you for clearing it up, Nayi!" The man smiled widely under his face mask. It might not be visible, but the way his eyes curved told Chuan Nayi his feelings. He then looked down a little, trying to hide such an ecstatic face from him.

He knew he had to remain cool, and so he cowered in front of her. "I couldn't help but wonder what I did to make yourself so distant. I tried to talk to you, but you kept on avoiding me."

He lifted his face to regain his composure, but Chuan Nayi didn't plan on letting him recover. The moment he lifted his face up, she leaned closer for a kiss. Since he was wearing a face mask, it was barely a kiss.

However, it was a thin one, so he still managed to feel the softness and the shape of her lips against his.

His eyes widened, and his cheeks burned likewise Chuan Nayi's. The girl turned away with a satisfied smile before getting up from her seat.

"Now that we're good, we should head back!" The top student stretched and stayed in her spot, still talking to him despite not facing him at all. "I'll see you tomorrow, Xiaodan!"

She ran off back to her dorm.

"She… she…"

The kiss broke Liu Xiaodan. His ability to process stopped for a while.

Before he knew it, Chuan Nayi was already gone. He would look around, but the dim lights could only give him so much; he could not even see ten meters away. He only got up and stroked at the face mask that she kissed. His ears had gotten red as well.

"Baba," Guangru called out and stayed two meters away from him. He sounded disappointed.

"Guangru." Liu Xiaodan turned to his direction and noticed the unusual distance he had with him. He then looked at the bracelet and pointed at it. "So this works?"

He received nodding from the child. "Can I keep on just for the night and while I'm in class? I'll take it off when Nayi won't see me not wearing it."

"Is Mama okay now?" Liu Guangru tried to smile, but his glare seemed to overpower his response.

"I guess, but we still need to be careful. Remember what I said. No more killing." Liu Xiaodan brought his arm down. He wanted to pat the obedient boy, but he did not want to remove Chuan Nayi's gift. He was a little sure that Liu Guangru knew what it meant to his father so Liu Xiaodan kept the bracelet.

The night soon turned into day, and it was once again Friday. They only had classes in the morning, but some classes could get rescheduled in the afternoon if the teacher said so or if someone skipped a class and asked to reschedule anything in the afternoon or even night.

Either way, it was almost the start of the weekends for the students.

Ever since the footage from last Sunday spread throughout the school, some students had claimed to have similar videos. Some had the guts to try and ghost hunt in school at night.

Most of them were either circumstantial or faked, and so the horsemen were still focused on the housekeeper lady's case or on Liu Xiaodan's relationship with Chuan Nayi.

Unlike the housekeeper lady's case, the one involving Chuan Nayi and Liu Xiaodan had reached a conclusion. The man greeted his roommates with what happened last night but deleting the part where she kissed him.

They all knew that the two were back in good terms, and so the shining smiles of the star closer than the sun—known as Chuan Nayi—graced the classroom again. Some guys even crowded around them to ask Liu Xiaodan for the real story.

Of course, they came up with a lie; Chuan Nayi agreed to use that lie as well.

The classes were over, and the horsemen managed to plead the housekeeper to talk to them about the video. Instead of just talking in the lobby, they talked to her in the pavilion next to the small garden the girls took care of during their stay. She had been interviewed by a lot already, but she kept on saying it was not a flying table that disturbed her.

"It was a child's voice. I don't really remember what he said, but he was asking for his mother." The housekeeper hummed as she tried to recall. "It was so quiet by then so hearing anyone out of nowhere freaked me out."

She then sighed. "I don't know how that footage got out, but there shouldn't be anything worth investigating about it."

"Mei Niang,"—Xu Disung pressed his palms together and tried to smile and flatter the housekeeper—"can we ask more questions? You usually handle the night shift here in the girls' dorm, right?"

"Oho, stop it." The housekeeper laughed as she got called charismatic. She then hummed and agreed since the four were very respectful, unlike the rest. "Okay, but no favors."

"Have you ever caught a guy coming in the girls' dorm at night?" Xu Disung followed his question as he forced a grin to not look suspicious at all. "I mean, we just wanted to confirm rumors about Chuan Nayi and Huang Kun."

The housekeeper gasped and almost puffed in sadness. She looked around to see if there were other students around. She then pressed a hand against her cheek. "Well, no, I haven't, but Chuan Nayi is very good with escaping from her room. She stays on the fourth floor, and yet she could leave and enter the dorm as she pleases.

"I also heard what happened to Huang Kun. I never saw him with her at any time, but I catch Chuan Nayi from time to time when she gets back minutes after ten.

"I know I should punish her, but she always begs for my mercy and lies about her wonderful dates." Mei Niang chuckled bitterly. "She would say how she likes going out with those other guys, but she cares too little when they come and fetch her during weekends. I also think she goes out at night because she doesn't want to get seen."

"You mean they meet somewhere else?"

The interrogation continued, and Liu Xiaodan was a little disappointed at what he was hearing. A lot of thugs had been making Chuan Nayi's life very hard; to think that Guangru was adding up to it.

Moreover, he should at least thank Li Feng for the bracelet. He had to wear the bracelet if ever they ran into Chuan Nayi while being in the girls' dorm. However, it was not her cute girl that was going near him by then.

Like the boys' dorm, the girls' dorm also had resident ghosts. Sometimes, they would force Liu Xiaodan to notice them. There was this dead student who was standing outside the pavilion, disappearing and reappearing at Liu Xiaodan's line of sight whenever she could.

The bracelet was holding her away from him for at least two meters, like what it does for Guangru. However, the spirit was desperate, forcing herself to get inside the bracelet's protection.

Smash! A pot just flew towards Liu Xiaodan to which he dodged by dropping from his seat. The rest of the group was alarmed by the sudden movement and sound. Wen Taio got up and scanned the area like a curious bear of 180 centimeters tall, only that he was also furious.

Xu Disung went to look around as well while being seated, and Ruan Jin attended to Liu Xiaodan who probably had to slide his butt down the stony seat. Mei Niang only held her hands over her chest, scared of what would happen next.

Liu Xiaodan knew the housekeeper must be familiar with an angry ghost who throws pots at people. However, he was the only one who could see her standing just outside the pavilion, eyes red in rage. She would hurl another pot, but she already got what she wanted.

Then again, she had no voice so she just kept on screaming without noise coming out of her throat.

The bracelet kept on shaking against Liu Xiaodan's skin as he watched the ghost forcing her way to get near him. She was so angry for not being heard; she was eyeing another pot. She held her hand out as if reaching for it before she stopped moving.

Liu Xiaodan's eyes widened as he watched the ghost calm down in one moment. Then, she held on her own face, only to use her awfully sharp nails to claw at it with utter force. After so, she cried without a sound again, drizzled blood on the ground, and vanished into thin air.

As if he knew, Liu Xiaodan panned his vision towards the closest potted plant, seeing Guangru standing there with Liu Heima against his chest.

Since the ghost was not killed, the child thought he did something correctly by then. He smiled at his father and waved his hand as if saying 'hi.' He was also considerate enough not to force himself inside the bracelet's protection.

The father, who was shocked a little, managed to curl his lips a little before hiding it from his friends.

"Ugh, what is this?" Wen Taio called out to the people in the pavilion.

"Oh, shit." Liu Xiaodan could not help that cuss as he realized Wen Taio just touched the blood of the ghost. He got up and joined the others who would try to smear the reddish liquid against their hands as well. He stopped the other two. "That looks disgusting; don't touch it."

"It looks like blood." Xu Disung took a closer look at the smear on Wen Taio's finger. He then chuckled in mischief. "Xiaodan, hold your hand out. If you get itchy, it's blood."

"What?! Piss off!" Liu Xiaodan protested. It was not easy to heal the hives. Most of it had not even healed after a full week of medication. Then again, he grabbed Ruan Jin's hand that was about to touch the ground. "Jin, that could be from a ghost, you know."

"Ghosts bleed?" Wen Taio raised a brow. "So what happens if you touch a ghost's blood?"

"Normally, they will haunt you." Xu Disung answered as if he was an expert on it. "But I haven't heard of an actual person who touched a ghost's blood and told the tale."

"No matter what it is, I'll just clean it up." Mei Niang decided to get back to work and end her interview with the boys.

...

The four horsemen went back to their dorm. They hoped to see Chuan Nayi, but she was taking a nap, they said. Liu Xiaodan ended up looking around a lot as if spotting a certain ghost from trying to hurt his friends.

All he could see was Liu Guangru who kept on following them, keeping the distance between them. The father's heart was pricked a little, soon thinking about a gift he could get his son for being such an obedient boy.

Night arrived, and the four were about to sleep after several rounds of the card game. However, it did not sit well with Liu Xiaodan because Wen Taio would be sleeping outside the two-meter protection zone of the bracelet. That was the only time when Liu Xiaodan told them about the bracelet Chuan Nayi had made for him.

He was too worried the ghost might attack Wen Taio, who was almost a big brother to everyone in the room. Since Wen Taio understood the sentiment, he borrowed the bracelet for the night and slept tight like everyone else.

In their dark-lit room, Liu Xiaodan kept his eyes open. He still could not wipe off the fact that the dead student was an aggressive type. He then turned to his side, where Guangru slept next to him as if missing his warmth since last night.

Then again, the child suddenly moved and reached out against something above his father. Liu Xiaodan quickly turned to the other side, only to see the dead student looming her face above him.

Her eyes had been damaged so she could only see from a very near distance. Her face was inches away from Liu Xiaodan, but Guangru had held her to a stop. Liu Xiaodan could only stare at the hollow space between the dead student's slit eyeballs, not making a sound to alarm anyone else.