Mom recounted curses as she cleaned the completely invisible dust in her room.
The sound was just loud enough for Xiao Xiang, who was hiding in the bedroom, to hear, but not so loud that the neighbors could hear, occasionally interspersed with the sound of her slamming the broom or rag on the floor and table in anger:
"How grown-up, you just know to nestle in your bedroom and play games every day."
"The room is not even cleaned up, as messy as a pigsty, how could I have a son like you, exactly the same mold as your ghostly father ..."
"Doomed to do nothing and rot in his room!"
"..."
Xiao clamor painfully covered his ears, his body shivering slightly.
He forgot when he started this life, and only felt a splitting headache, as if his brain was being brutally churned out.
Starting four years ago, he would often have this kind of splitting headache, accompanied by a strong sense of dizziness, making him feel that everything around him, was twisting and elongating.
It was as if the things in front of his eyes became no longer real, twisting and writhing like earthworms.
He could hear his heart beating like a drum, and each interval seemed to be a few minutes long.
In this state where every now and then his surroundings would become extremely unreal and distorted, he couldn't even concentrate, his mind was like a thin lens, reflecting interlocking strange lights.
He tried to accept it, and control himself, but it was clear that his family couldn't take it anymore.
"Buzz ..."
The cell phone suddenly vibrated slightly, the sound making Xiao clamor slightly less ill, with a feeling of being slightly back in reality.
"Don't forget the class reunion, Minghe Hotel, second floor private room."
The one who delivered the message over was a classmate from high school, whose name was Jiang Cheng.
In fact, Xiao clamor and his former classmates, hadn't been in contact for a long time, and during these four years, he rarely even went out, but after seeing this message, he still decided to go out.
Even if that panic attack-like headache had only just hit him, he wanted to go out, probably because he had been holding it in for too long and wanted to escape for a while.
"Where are you going to run wild again instead of staying at home?"
"You go, you go!"
"If you're capable, you'll die outside and never come back!"
"..."
When Xiao clamor casually grabbed a hoodie and went out the door, mom's cursing voice raised violently, as if no matter what Xiao clamor did, it could always poke the point of her anger.
"ping ping ping ping ..."
As she spoke, she chopped the unknown meat on the board with great force, her eyes staring at Xiao clamor with a deadly stare, and the knife in her hand that was chopping down with deadly force seemed to be itching to chop down on his body the next moment.
Xiao clamor was frightened by this look, only to feel cold all over his body, and fled as if he had walked out of the door.
Night has already fallen, there is no street light in the narrow streets and alleys, Xiao clamor fled from the sound of his mother chopping meat, but he always felt that there was something watching him, as if a certain behemoth had been staring at him dead in the face.
"Oooooooo ..."
The three vicious dogs in the neighbor's yard heard themselves approaching and let out a low growl of menace.
The chains around their necks were wrenched taut into a straight line, making an unwieldy metallic fatigue sound, and their dark red eyes stared at him dead in the face, gluttony dripping down from between their grimly crisscrossed teeth.
He walked close to the outer corner of the wall, but suddenly the slightest hint of a strange change of tone dangled above his head, the sound of an old record player sobbing behind one of the second-floor windows.
Invisible nervousness made him walk faster and faster, but then he was suddenly attracted by the shrill sound of a chainsaw, and through the blurry, dirty window, he saw the tall butcher, holding a chainsaw and cutting something.
"Swish!"
The butcher and the thing being cut suddenly turned their heads at the same time, looking towards him outside the window.
Shaw only felt unusually alarmed as he stumbled back and ran at a faster pace until he crossed the street, only to catch his breath under the streetlight.
A tidal wave of dazzling dizziness flooded his brain as he looked up at the traffic-laden street.
Brilliant neon spewed over the city like lava, and traffic with piercing honking horns roared like a horde of steel monsters as they sped before him.
The searchlights on the roofs of the buildings looked into the night sky as if they were trying to light up the entire night, but they could not illuminate the dark corners of the city and the sewage-filled streets.
On the covers of the newspapers scattered on the ground, there were large reports that the serial killer who stole the heart had not yet been caught, and that the girl gang that had bombed the school not long ago had openly challenged the security office.
The black letters on a white background perfectly harmonized with the city's aura.
"Has it been too long since I left the house?"
Xiao clamor took a deep breath of the cold, wet and salty air and forced himself to calm down.
Looking up at the city, he only felt unusually unfamiliar, not knowing when this city had all turned into a different kind of temperament.
He didn't know how this shadow-like feeling came about, but after thinking about the perseverance of these four years, he still wrapped up his clothes tightly and slowly, walked towards the location of the party.
...
"Xiao clamor came?"
"Today we have this party good, both called in a few years time does not go out a step of the house god Xiao clamor, but also met four or five years did not contact with any classmates of the goddess Yang Jia ..."
"Being able to call Xiao Xiang, who is ready to stay at home until he dies, is really a big deal ..."
In the box, the faces of one of his classmates piled up with smiles and began to overlap with the vibrant looks of one of Xiao clamor's memories, also pulling him back to that sunny memory from four years ago.
This caused his frantically beating heart to be slightly quieted.
In four years' time, they had all gone to college and started a different kind of life.
But he himself was different, because of that serious headache problem, it was as if his life had been locked up in a cage for four years.
Already some sense of alienation had appeared, but Xiao clamor still felt happy, after all, this seemed to be the normal feeling and a normal group of people.
"What are you guys talking about?"
At that moment, someone smiled and spoke, interrupting the discussion.
A bright girl who was talking on the phone outside the door walked in, she had a slender figure with clean and delicate features, immediately attracting the attention of everyone present.
The students at the table also immediately changed their smiling faces and said, "It's fine, Yang Jia, you're coming back this time and staying in Black Gate City, right?"
"..."
She was the center of attention in this class reunion, and the most beautiful girl recognized by everyone.
Even Xiao Xiang's memories could clearly find her shadow, the prettiest girl in high school, and she had excellent grades, was good at sports, and appeared to be outstanding in all aspects.
On top of that, there was also some mystery that couldn't be accurately described.
It was said that she was originally from a big family in one of the big cities in the north, and that she had originally transferred here for some special reasons back then, and then left after only one semester as well.
"Will stay here for a while."
Yang Jia replied with a smile: "But how long I will stay is yet to be determined."
She seems to have always had that kind of temperament, gentle but with a sense of distance, obviously not caring, but always becoming the focus of everyone's attention.
"She doesn't seem to be like everyone else..."
Xiao Noisy didn't even know when he felt attracted to Yang Jia.
It's not because she's beautiful, it's that her body always exudes a feeling that is difficult to describe in words, a sense of real existence.
Only by looking at her did he seem to be away from the vertigo that permeated the unreal feeling, and his nervousness was slowly subsiding.
Perhaps, the previous discomfort and panic were just the effects of his headache, and he was just too nervous and became paranoid.
"Hey, Xiao Noise, what are you looking at?"
But at this moment, a cold voice suddenly woke Xiao up.
He raised his head and saw Jiang Cheng looking at him with creepy eyes, holding a cigarette in his hand, and grinning at the corner of his mouth was a little unnatural, but his eyes shot a chill light.
Another student, with a knife in his hand, was poking the meat on the plate vertically one by one, one after the other, but as he did so, his eyes were staring at Xiao Shen's face.
Someone on the other side pulled the chair hard, making a shrill manic sound, and then leaned back in the chair, smug at Xiao Noisy.
At this moment, Xiao Yansheng felt as if he had suddenly become the object of everyone's hatred.
His heart suddenly began to beat wildly uncontrollably, the slower it became, and Xiao screamed that his nerves tightened uncontrollably again, and cold sweat oozed from his forehead layer by layer.
The feeling of vertigo came again, and everything around him seemed to become unreal.
He could even feel that these people seemed ready to jump explosively at any moment and stab the knife in their hands viciously at him.
"They all want to hurt me..."
This thought suddenly rushed out of his mind, and Xiao Wei himself was also taken aback.
He stood up in a panic: "I'm going to the bathroom!"
Running away as if leaving a hotel room, he could still feel that behind him, countless pairs of creepy eyes were staring at him.
"What the is wrong with me?"
A handful of cold water was poured on his face, and Xiao Xiang closed his eyes in pain.
He didn't know why he was like this, his mother at home, pedestrians on the road, and even his familiar classmates would inadvertently show a hatred that he wanted to commit suicide.
So, is it really he himself who is sick?
Four years ago, a person starts having headaches, and the whole world becomes distorted and unreal.
You've been exercising in your bedroom for four years and feeling better, but you don't, and it's gotten worse?
...
...
"How long have you been awake?"
Just as Xiao was asking himself in some pain and confusion, a calm voice sounded.
Xiao Weapon was taken aback, and hurriedly turned his head to see that Yang Jia had actually appeared behind him at some point.
She leaned against the wall, a slender cigarette between her fingers, and looked at her with a cold look in her eyes.
"I ..."
Xiao Xiang was a little hesitant to explain, he just said that he needed to come to the bathroom.
But Yang Jia suddenly interrupted him and said, "Let me ask you, how long have you been awake, and why have you attracted so much hatred?"
"Hate intent?"
Xiao was noisy and even a little incomprehensible, looking at Yang Jia, his eyes were a little confused.
"Don't you realize?"
The slightly minty billowing smoke, Yang Jia's eyes looked a little mysterious, and she said softly: "This city is fake...
"There are evil spirits all around us..."
"Fake? Devil? "
Yang Jia's somewhat mysterious and lazy voice made Xiao Huan sober up, and there was a biting chill of falling into the ice lake.
And Yang Jia in front of her, the mysterious and cold girl, just looked into his eyes and said softly: "Do you feel that everyone around you has an inexplicable and strong hatred for you." "
"Do you feel that all of them want to kill you and eat you?"
"..."
Xiao Huan suddenly looked at her with some horror, and unreasonably gave birth to some gratitude in his heart.
Because this woman actually accurately said what he felt just now.
But then, Yang Jia sighed softly and said, "I can tell you that it's all true." "
"The hatred they showed for you was true just now in the room, but if you left the room later, they would kill you, and that's true."
"..."
At this moment, Xiao Huan only felt that his scalp was slightly numb, and the world behind him seemed to collapse silently.
After a long time, he asked in a low voice: "Why?" "
"The reason is simple."
A slight mint-smelling smoke floated in front of Yang Jia's face, and he said softly:
"Everything around us is just the same as you remember, and they have long been unknowingly replaced by false monsters."
"You're out of tune with the world, like a nail stuck in the clock."
"The world is disgusted with you, hates you, and wants to kill you completely..."
"..."
Xiao Huan couldn't describe the feeling when he heard these words, he just looked at Yang Jia blankly, her calm and beautiful face gave herself a strong madness.
"I ..."
He didn't know how many questions he wanted to ask, but Yang Jia got up quickly, put his palm on his shoulder, and whispered in his ear: "Don't talk, they're coming." "
Xiao Huan's heart was still filled with a lot of confusion, and he was inexplicably shocked.
In the corridor, I saw that Jiang Cheng had already walked over with a smile, and he was still looking at him with that gloomy look just now, but at this time, it seemed that he was a different person, and said with a smile on his face:
"I said why you two have been gone for so long and haven't returned, it turns out that you are whispering here."
"Can you let me hear what you're talking about?"
"..."
Xiao Huan's heart was full of vigilance at this time, but Yang Jia had already replied with a smile very easily: "It's just a little interesting to talk about." "
Jiang Cheng glanced at Yang Jia, and then looked at Xiao Huan, his expression seemed to be a little dissatisfied, he just smiled and waved his hand, and said, "Okay, okay, everyone is in a hurry." "
But as he spoke, he suddenly turned his head to look at Xiao Huan again, and said, "Yang Jia, you go back first, I have something to tell Xiao Huan." "
Looking at the moment when he just turned his head, a touch of yin seemed to flash in his eyes.
This made Xiao Huan instantly vigilant in his heart, and subconsciously looked at Yang Jia, of course he didn't want Yang Jia to leave, but unexpectedly, she just nodded obediently and turned around to leave.
It's just that the moment she turned around, she suddenly approached Xiao Huan's ear and said quickly: "The first commandment of a stranger: don't let yourself look weak. "
"If you don't want to be killed by him, you have to kill him."
"..."
"Kill him?"
Xiao Huan was frightened by these words, and looked at Yang Jia with some horror.
But Yang Jia had already turned to leave, still with a business as usual expression on her face.
It was Jiang Cheng who saw Yang Jia's expression of whispering in Xiao Huan's ear, and it seemed that this made him feel extremely dissatisfied.
Seeing Yang Jia leave, the little smile on his face had suddenly retracted.
When he turned his head to look at Xiao Huan, he was already full of coldness and anger, and suddenly pulled Xiao Huan by the hand and pulled him into the bathroom.
Holding Xiao Huan's arm in his hand, he used so much force that he had already pushed Xiao Huan against the wall of the bathroom, and the glass realm shattered with a bang, and the fragments splashed all over the ground.
There was also a distorted and resentful coldness in his voice: "You are also worthy?" "
"You ..."
Xiao was taken by surprise and pressed against the wall by him, instinctively a little flustered, and subconsciously asked, "What's wrong with you?" "
"I know that this party was gathered because I met Yang Jia."
"I know that I like Yang Jia."
"I know that Yang Jia is mine, and you deserve to rob me? You deserve to look at her too? You deserve to go outside and whisper to her? "
"..."
Jiang Cheng's expression was cold and roared, the anger made the earthworm-like blood vessels on his forehead bulge high and twisted, at this moment, Xiao Huan felt a strong threat in him, that undisguised anger, let him have a sense of panic that he couldn't control, he could feel Jiang Cheng's anger, as if it was not contained, and the blood strands that spread like spider webs quickly crawled all over the eyeballs.
He was so angry, hatred and resentment erupted in substance, and even used too much force, and his mouth suddenly cracked.
The corners of both sides of the mouth were torn apart by the twisted muscle force, and then the chest suddenly split apart, and the surface of the body was like a broken eggshell, and twisted tentacles bloomed from the inside of the body.
Round suction cups and inverted tooth spikes squirmed and shook off the slime.
"You unenterprising garbage, you deserve to die in your bedroom..."
In a vague and resentful voice, Jiang Cheng's slimy barbed arm, or tentacles, stabbed at Xiao Huan's heart.
At this moment, Xiao Huan's eyes suddenly widened.
He looked at the disgusting and terrifying tentacles, drilling into his heart, and the tension instantly reached the extreme, and there was a feeling that the blood in his whole body was being squeezed into his brain by an invisible force.
The panic that had been piling up for a long time also flares up at this moment, instantaneously, and it is menacing, stronger than any panic he has ever experienced.
"Is this real, or is it an illusion?"
He ... Turned into a monster? "
"..."
With a severe headache and dizziness, he felt that everything around him had slowed down.
Only the angry and torn face of Jiang Cheng in front of him, and the tentacles that squirmed out of his body, and the arm that contained inhuman strength.
How so...
How could such an absurd nightmare come across?
He couldn't understand why, but he felt that the sound of his heart beating was unusually clear, but the interval between each beat was infinitely widened.
Ever since he'd endured the panic he'd been bothering him for four years and had struggled to get used to the feeling of having a flare-up, he'd had had it all the time.
The more tense you get, the slower everything around you becomes, almost stopping.
In the same second, he can think more things, feel more information, as if the world is stagnant and only his own mind is exploding.
In the past, this feeling brought only pain and suffering, but now it seems to have played some unexpected role.
Minds are overloaded like an explosion.
It took him less than a second to figure out what it took him to figure out.
...
...
"Jiang Cheng in front of him has become a monster, and he is full of hatred for me, he thinks... Kill me. "
"Should I run away?"
"No, I can't escape, this monster is too close to me."
"So, if I want to protect myself, there's only one way left..."
Xiao Huan thought of the sentence that Yang Jia whispered just now: "If you want to live, you have to kill him." "
Killing people is naturally not good, Xiao Huan has never killed chickens since he was a child, let alone a person, but the thing in front of him is a monster, and it is hurting itself, so how can he have any other choice?
So, the question is, how to kill?
And when such a question flashed in his heart, Xiao Huan, whose mind was running like an explosion, tried his best to capture all the details around him, and in this slow motion that almost stopped time, he saw Jiang Cheng's cracked skin and hideous flesh and blood and tentacles, and saw the unknown flesh and blood tissue in his body, and the dark red heart in the center of the cracked body, which was slowly bulging out to compress blood.
I also used the peripheral vision of my eyes to see the shiny fragments on the ground, which were the mirror fragments that Jiang Cheng shattered when he pushed himself onto the mirror.
So Xiao Huan's heart gradually swelled with new courage.
...
...
"Bang!"
Jiang Cheng, who was in a rage, turned into tentacles in his arms, and slammed towards Xiao Huan's chest.
This speed was already a little amazing, but he didn't expect that at the same time as his tentacles slammed forward, Xiao Huan was pressed against the wall's body, and suddenly slashed to the side, and then squatted.
The tentacles instantly slammed into the tile wall of the bathroom, and the tiles were splashed with debris.
Jiang Cheng was a little surprised, he couldn't imagine that Xiao Huan, who was weak in panic and had no power to resist, could actually avoid this blow, but he immediately roared, and more tentacles churned and grabbed Xiao Huan.
But Xiao Huan, who dodged the first volley, moved surprisingly fast... No, it's not fast, it's precise.
I just thought about it many times and observed it for a long time, and the action was efficient, decisive and precise enough.
As he crouched down to dodge the volley, he reached for the ground and grabbed a long, knife-sharp lens.
He even picked a piece that was long enough and sharp enough.
Before the tentacles on Jiang Cheng's body slammed into him again, he tightened his grip on the lens, got up, and stabbed down on his chest.
"Whew!"
Xiao Huan's wrist passed through the sticky tentacles and passed into Jiang Cheng's open heart, and the lenses of the pointed mirror pierced directly into Jiang Cheng's frantically beating heart.
The heart was like leather, and it seemed to be tougher than expected, but Xiao Huan also used all his strength this time, and it was still pierced directly, and directly pierced into his heart to a depth of ten centimeters.
Jiang Cheng's waving tentacles suddenly became soft.
He staggered back, his face partially split into his unbalanced eyes with an unexpected, frightened glow.
And Xiao Huan clenched the blood-stained mirror fragments and stared at him deadly.
He took a deep breath, then crouched down again, and stabbed the heart hard.
Two knives.