"Nothing." Pan Linkai shook his head, hiding the fear in his eyes, and stepped into the living room.
However, he still stood at the back of everyone, as if avoiding something.
Lu Fei noticed his abnormal behavior but didn't show it.
The house was decorated in a style from twenty years ago, a small two-bedroom apartment, filled with a deep sense of sorrow.
Guo's mother clutched the clothes her son once wore, sitting blankly in the bedroom, looking dazed.
Guo's father was slightly stronger, forcing himself to receive everyone.
"Children, thank you, thank you for coming to see my Hai Tao! Please sit, sit down," Guo's father was very moved and offered to get everyone water.
"Uncle Guo, please don't be so formal, Hai Tao is our classmate, this is what we should do," Wang Feng handed the envelope to Guo's father.
"We came in a hurry and didn't prepare much, please accept this as a token of our respect."
"Your presence is more than enough, why all this?" Guo's father insisted on not accepting it.
"Uncle Guo, this is our way of showing our respect for Hai Tao, please accept it on his behalf."
Wang Feng, who had been a class president, was indeed skilled at speaking and managed to hand over both envelopes to Uncle Guo.
"Haitao, that foolish child, if we had known he had such good classmates, he wouldn't have felt so desperate!" Uncle Guo wiped away his tears.
"We are also very saddened by this. Uncle Guo, you and Auntie must take care of yourselves." Wang Feng quickly patted him on the back.
Xia Yiyi also offered her condolences beside them.
Everyone was curious about why Guo Haitao had attempted to take his own life, but seeing the elderly couple in such deep sorrow and exhaustion, no one could bring themselves to ask.
"Children, I know what you want to ask. It was Haitao's own fault; he broke up with his girlfriend and couldn't handle it,"
After a while, Uncle Guo wiped his tears and spoke with a hint of frustration.
Is that how it is?
Everyone sighed in sympathy.
But why did he choose to commit suicide in the haunted school building?
Lu Fei couldn't help but look at Pan Linkai again.
He kept his head down, silent and with a worried expression, lost in thought.
"Life is never smooth sailing. We've made him too fragile to even accept a little setback. Kids, don't ever be like him," said Mr. Guo, heartbroken and distressed.
"Nonsense! You're talking nonsense!" Mrs. Guo suddenly rushed out of the bedroom, her voice hoarse as she shouted at Mr. Guo, "Haitao is a good boy; he would never commit suicide!"
"The forensic examiner has already confirmed that he jumped on his own. You need to face reality. If you hadn't spoiled him every day, how could a boy be so delicate?"
"Haitao has always been sensible. The day before he died, he told me that after getting his paycheck, he would take us out for a meal. Why would he commit suicide? He was lured there by that woman!"
"The police said that he and Lingling had broken up long ago. She never invited him to the school; it was all in his own head..."
"Why do you believe outsiders rather than your own son..."
Seeing that the two elders were about to start arguing, everyone quickly separated them.
Wang Feng comforted Mr. Guo in the living room.
Lu Fei stayed in the bedroom to comfort Guo's mother. To his surprise, Pan Lin Kai had also followed along.
"Aunt, please take care of yourself. If Haitao were still here, he definitely wouldn't want to see you like this," Lu Fei said softly.
"Do you also think Haitao committed suicide?" Guo's mother glared at Lu Fei coldly.
"I don't know about that, but I do know that Haitao was always very cheerful and optimistic. When we were in school, we shared a dormitory and often ate and went to classes together.",
"You were his good friends?" Guo's mother's eyes softened a bit.
"Yeah." Lu Fei nodded.
Pan Kalin hesitated for a moment, then nodded as well.
Lu Fei continued, "Aunt, could you tell me what exactly happened? Did Haitao encounter some difficulties?
"His father cared less about him than any of you do." Seeing that someone understood her, Guo's mother began to speak.
"Haitao had a girlfriend named Lingling. That night, she sent a message to Haitao asking him to meet her at the school. As Haitao was changing his clothes to go out, he left his phone on the table, and I just happened to see it."
"That night, he never came back. We only found out from the police that he was gone..."
Mrs. Guo shed tears again.
"Auntie, did you tell the police about the text message?" Lu Fei asked.
"Yes, we did. They said they couldn't find the text on Haitao's phone, and there was no record of it at the telecom company either. That Lingling also denied it. My poor Haitao had a really hard life, encountering such people."
To be honest, hearing this, Lu Fei found it hard to believe Mrs. Guo. If that text message really existed, the police could not have failed to find it.
"Child, look, this is Haitao's phone. How could they not find that text message?"
Mrs. Guo, with shaking hands, took out a phone with traces of blood stains still on the edges, her tears flowing uncontrollably.
Lu Fei looked at the phone and was immediately startled.
There were faint traces of an eerie presence on the phone.
Could this phone be an evil object?
But the evil objects Lu Fei had encountered before were either ancient antiques or creatures like snake sheds, and he had never seen an electronic product become an evil object before.
"Auntie, can I take a look?"
"Child, help Auntie find out where the text message is hidden."
As soon as Lu Fei got his hands on the phone, he felt an icy chill to the bone.
The phone was unlocked. He turned on the screen and found the message section, which only contained some advertisements and other messages, but there was no information about inviting Guo Haitao to the school.
He then repeatedly checked the phone, and apart from it being tainted with yin energy, he couldn't really tell what the problem was.
But he noticed that Pan Kailin's face was showing a frightened and uneasy expression, and her forehead was breaking out in cold sweat.
This guy definitely knew something.
"Auntie, maybe the phone has a malfunction. If you trust me, I can take it to get repaired for you," Lu Fei said without showing any emotion.
"This…" Aunt Guo was very reluctant.
"It's okay, Auntie. Contact me again when you've made up your mind." Lu Fei gave Mother Guo a business card and a folded talisman, saying it was for her safety.
Everyone comforted the two elders for a while longer before leaving.
As they walked out of the residential area, everyone was rather silent.
"Uncle and Aunt are so pitiful. Let's visit them more often in the future," Xia Yiyi said with red eyes.
"Yiyi is right," Wang Feng sighed. "In the end, Haitao just didn't cherish his own life enough. He got his release, but it's his parents who are suffering."
"Someone who doesn't take responsibility for their own life, one visit from us is enough. If he doesn't even care about his parents, why should we?" Huang Junkun waved his hand dismissively.
"Haitao wasn't that kind of person!" Pan Linkai, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up, carefully looking around, "Haitao has just left, you'd better watch what you say."
"What do you mean? As if he can still hear us!" Huang Junkun rolled his eyes in disdain.
Pan Linkai did not reply, but looked behind Huang Junkun with a strange expression in his eyes.