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..."