Chapter 3 - Task

Chapter 3: Task

Tonight was naturally filled with more excitement than usual. The boys who no longer needed to attend evening class were excited and cheering loudly in the darkness almost like werewolves howling constantly during full moon.

Outside, the storm brew heavily as lighting flashed and thunder crashed. In such a setting, a ghost story session is naturally a good choice.

The four men shrank into their beds and took turns telling stories. They deliberately lowered their voices such that it could barely be heard in the darkness bringing along with it added fear and tension. Listening to this naturally made their scalps feel numb.

The stories were old-fashioned and couldn’t be considered very scary. The key point, however, was the atmosphere that was created by the people themselves. At this time, if there was a sudden noise it would easily surprise the people present.

Huang Shao liked to add little gimmicks as he told his story. As he talked, he felt the need to use his phone light to illuminate the bottom of face, casting eerie shadows across it. He even deliberately added creepy laughter in and, reaching the end of the story and its’ climax, he suddenly roared out loud while making a slashing gesture…..

The dormitory room was eerily silent and no one reacted.

“Crazy.”

“Retard.”

“Stupid.”

Although the three gave him face and responded, Huang Shao pouted with a face of dissatisfaction and slicked his tongue: “How boring. None of you guys reacted. Xiao Xin? Are you not afraid at all?”

(KKnotes: Xiao (小) is a prefix often added before someones name to show intimacy. Very commonly used amongst friends and families. Also, please keep in mind that Xiao (肖) in Xiao Yuxin is different – It’s just his surname)

Xiao Yuxin slept below Jiang Yang’s bed and in the darkness you couldn’t see his expression clearly. He tightened his lips as his hands that are concealed in his blankets trembled but he still did his best to keep himself calm. Pushing up his glasses he said with a face of seriousness: “It’s all fake so what is there to be afraid of? As for you, stop moving around like that. You might fall off.”

Huang Shao who slept on the upper bunk of the bed next to him leaned over the railings and looked down only to see Xiao Yuxin still wearing his glasses. He asked curiously: “It’s so late already, why are you still wearing your glasses? We’re not even in class.”

Xiao Yuxin said evasively and perfunctorily: “Used to it.”

Huang Shao was also just asking out of curiosity and had no intention to continue asking about it. Xiao Yuxin breathed a sigh of relief. In fact, the reason why he continued to wear his glasses was because it you could easily have your imaginations go wild when your vision is blurry and mistakenly see things. Luckily, Huang Shao had clothes hanging off his railings otherwise it would have looked like a person hanging in mid-air.

Xiao Yuxin is afraid of ghosts but with the other roommates acting so calm he felt too ashamed to admit it and did not say anything.

They continued this until midnight before Xiao Yuxin felt that it was enough and used his class leader authority to tell them to be quiet and go to sleep since they still have class tomorrow. Gradually, the entire dormitory room quietened down to just a few occasional conversations.

At about one o’clock, the majority of the students had fallen asleep and the shallow sound of breathing, and even some loud snores, could be heard in the darkness of the dormitory building.

Jiang Yang who laid in bed impatiently pulled at his blankets and had the urge to toss and turn. However, thinking of the other students who had probably already fallen asleep, he supressed his inner irritation.

A mechanical sound had be chanting in his mind for the past half an hour and annoyed him to the point that his head hurt and he had an immense urge to slam his head against the wall.

System: “Random task: Please help cover Qin Xu with a blanket. To demonstrate your friendship, you shouldn’t let him catch a cold at night.”

The moment Jiang Yang heard this, a big fuck you flashed in his mind.

Is Laozi his mum?  Why do I need to help cover him?!

[KKnotes: Laozi (老子): an arrogant way of a man referring to himself]

Jiang Yang fiercely pulled his blankets up to cover his head and tried to ignore the annoying sound in his mind but the sound continued persistently. It was as if it would not stop until he completed the task. Finally, no longer able to take it anymore, he grabbed onto the railings and poked his head out to gauge the situation on the lower bunk of the bed next to him.

The moonlight shone through the glass balcony doors onto the bed and floors allowing him to faintly see Qin Xu’s appearance. His sleeping posture really wasn’t very good; he had kicked all his blankets to one side and was sprawled across the bed with his head buried into his pillow.

He slept like a dead pig.

Jiang Yang who saw this felt even more enraged. He was awakened by that rowdy system yet this guy here is sleeping so pleasantly! Internally he had a strong urge to kick that pig awake.

After thinking about the pros and cons, Jiang Yang could only try and calm himself down. Isn’t it just covering him with a blanket? You could just randomly throw it over him or something. What’s most important is to hurry up and shut the system up so that he could have a good night sleep. He climbed down the metal ladder at the end of the bed and glared at that guy in the dark for a moment. Turning towards the bathroom he thought: It’s just going to the toilet in the middle of the night and covering him with a blanket along the way. In passing!

Jiang Yang walked to the bathroom and habitually turned on the lights. The lights that suddenly turned on forced him to squint his eyes in discomfort before he realised that the power was back.

Realising this, his mood got a little better. Although it is now September and the end of summer, you would still feel sticky and very uncomfortable if you slept at night without the air conditioner on.

Jiang Yang pulled up his pants, washed his hands and turned off the bathroom lights before casually glancing outside into the darkness. It was so dark that nothing could be seen. Jiang Yang felt the hairs on his back stand and couldn’t help but recall the ghost stories that they had shared earlier.

With the lights off, the room became even darker and he had the urge to rush back into bed. Behind him he heard a sudden movement which scared him and caused his heart to pound very rapidly. He stepped back into the room quickly as if the moment he crossed the line, he would be safe.

Letting out a deep breath, he pulled out his phone and prepared to turn on the air conditioner. It was also at this moment that he realised that the sound he heard earlier was probably the sound of water dripping and he was just scaring himself with his wild imaginations.

The air conditioner started operating with a beep and the fan blades became to turn. Cool air was blown out along with a soft sound which sounded deafening loud in the quiet night. Jiang Yang subconsciously looked back at Qin Xu afraid that he would be woken up by the sound and he wouldn’t be able to do his next task. Deep inside he also felt deep regret. He should have covered him with a blanket first before turning on the air conditioner.

However, despite stiffening his body up and staring at him for a while, the other roommates were all sleeping very deeply and showed no signs of waking up.

Jiang Yang breathed a sigh of relief and returned his phone into his pocket. He walked very slowly and carefully towards Qin Xu’s bed.

Nearing the bed and with the help of the moonlight shining through, Jiang Yang could roughly make out his sleeping face; small strands of black hair covered his eyebrows and half his face sank into the pillow slightly deforming his mouth as he breathed evenly through slightly parted lips.

Of course, Jiang Yang wasn’t in the mood to appreciate this and just impatiently and secretly cursed at him. He really wanted to let the people who have said that he is handsome see his current stupid state. Like a moronic dead pig.

Jiang Yang gritted his teeth. It was better to hurry and get things over with. Although helping cover his enemy with a blanket was very embarrassing, but for the sake of a good night sleep, he could only surrender to this temporarily. The other party won’t know about it anyway so a quick battle with quick resolution will be good.

Despite mentally being able to accept this, emotionally he was very reluctant and so his actions were very awkward.

He roughly grabbed the blanket and threw it over his head, burying his entire body underneath. Just as he wanted to go, he hesitated for two seconds and felt that it wasn’t very ethical of him to suffocate the other with a blanket. After all, this is just a task assigned by the system and Qin Xu is innocent….No that’s not right, how is that guy innocent? Every second and every minute he is deserving of a beating!

Although Qin Xu didn’t provoke him this time but just looking at his face make him feel unhappy. He couldn’t help but push his irritation at being unable to have a good night sleep onto him.

Jiang Yang unwillingly pulled the blanket back down to Qin Xu’s shoulder. He couldn’t care less anymore so he turned around while yawning and proceeded to get back into his bed.

With the task finally completed, the annoying system had stopped bothering him and he could now sleep well.

Perhaps because the air conditioner is on and the temperature in the room is cool and comfortable, or because he was exhausted by the pestering system, Jiang Yang very quickly became drowsy and his breathing gradually became more and more even.

At this time, a soft rustling was heard from a bed below and someone cautiously got up before slowly walking to the balcony.

Jiang Yang vaguely heard this sound while in a half asleep and half awakened state. Feeling no movement from his end, it was probably from the opposite bed….Could it be Qin Xu? Luckily he had moved fast. If he was covering him with the blanket now and the other person woke up, how awkward would that be?

He thought this while in a state of drowsiness and very soon fell into deep sleep.

It was also because of this that he did not see Qin Xu who had walked to the balcony turn around and look in his direction with a complicated expression.

Earlier Qin Xu was asleep but was awakened by some sounds nearby. He casually opened his eyes to check only to see Jiang Yang get out of bed and head to the bathroom. Seeing this, he closed his eyes again without a care.

But after a while, Jiang Yang had returned and turned on the air conditioner but did not return immediately to his bed. Instead, he walked towards him and he could clearly feel his black shadow move over him. Qin Xu was very puzzled; what does this guy want?

Then, his blankets moved and slammed over his head.

Qin Xu’s heart started beating wildly. The sound was seemingly several times louder than usual in the pitch black darkness and shocking his eardrums. His entire body stiffened up and he almost forgot to breathe.

Is this guy possessed?! Does he want to smother me to death?!

Qin Xu suddenly recalled the ghost stories they had shared earlier. One of it was about a sleepwalking killer lurking in the dormitory. For a moment, Qin Xu who had been sleeping very soundly earlier couldn’t tell if he was dreaming or if it was reality.

But at the next second, Jiang Yang’s action made him even more confused.

Jiang Yang helped cover him with his blanket up to his shoulders and even patted it down as if he was afraid that he would kick it off the next second.

Qin Xu’s heart: “…….????”

This guy must be possessed!

The author has something to say:

Qin Xu is scared: This guy wants to kill me!

Jiang Yang: …….

Qin Xu is scared to death.

Main character is dead, the story is finished EHEHEHEHE~

Xiao Xin was afraid that his roommates would find out that he is afraid of ghosts but he didn’t know that the other three are also cowards and just good at acting.