Seeing the words on the exam paper, Yang Jian’s pupils constricted. It was as if a sudden flash of inspiration had struck him, some crucial point flickering through his mind. He raised his head and said to Zhang Xianguang,
“These past few days, I’ve felt very strange. I keep feeling that my actions and the things happening around me are all wrong. This feeling is like being in...”
“Yang Jian!”
A dull voice interrupted Yang Jian’s thoughts.
He looked up and saw Yang Xiao standing at the classroom door, holding a newspaper in front of his face. Beside him was still that big black dog.
“Dad? Why did you come to school?” Yang Jian was a little surprised. Why would his father suddenly appear here?
Yang Xiao walked in and stood opposite Zhang Xianguang.
“Teacher Zhang, Yang Jian’s mother is ill. I need to take him home.”
Zhang Xianguang silently stared at the newspaper in front of Yang Xiao’s face, his gaze burning bright.
After a long while, he turned to Yang Jian and said,
“Go. Take good care of your mother, and don’t forget to review what we just went over.”
“Oh, okay. Thank you, teacher.”
Yang Jian got up and followed his father out of the classroom.
But what he did not notice was that the writing on the exam paper on his desk was slowly disappearing, and densely packed large characters were beginning to appear on it.
“There’s a ghost!”
After walking down from the teaching building, Yang Jian silently followed behind his father.
“This feeling... it’s here again. Every time I’m about to grasp some crucial point, something suddenly happens and interrupts me.”
The two of them passed by the school’s great Buddha statue. Just then—
“Snap!”
It sounded as if something had fallen from the top of the Buddha statue. Yang Jian looked toward the source of the sound. It was a piece of glass, standing upright as it pierced into the soil.
Because it was some distance away, Yang Jian could only vaguely see that inside the glass, there seemed to be someone shouting loudly at him. That person also seemed to be bald...
“Glass?”
Yang Jian’s brows knitted tightly. Things were becoming more and more wrong. It seemed as if he had subconsciously overlooked something.
Yang Xiao’s voice came from behind the newspaper. “What are you looking at? Your mom is still waiting for you at home.”
“Oh, coming.”
Yang Jian quickly caught up with Yang Xiao.
After returning home, Yang Jian went straight to his mother’s room.
Zhang Fen was lying on the bed, covered with a thick quilt, her face extremely weak.
Yang Jian asked worriedly, “Mom, are you all right?”
When he had gone out that morning, his mother had still been perfectly fine. How had she become this seriously ill in less than a single morning?
“I’m fine... Maybe I’ve been too tired recently, and I caught a chill from the wind this morning. I’ll be all right after resting for a few days.”
Yang Jian turned to look at Yang Xiao.
“Dad, let’s take Mom to the hospital.”
Yang Xiao’s voice came from behind the newspaper.
“We’ve already been to the hospital. The doctor prescribed some medicine. She’ll be fine after taking it for a few days.”
They had already been to the hospital?
A trace of astonishment flashed through Yang Jian’s heart. He had only been at school for barely half an hour.
And the drive from home to the hospital alone would take more than ten minutes. A round trip would already be half an hour, not to mention the time needed to register and see a doctor. On top of that, Yang Xiao had even settled his mother at home before going to school to pick him up.
The timing did not match at all...
Yang Jian slowly said,
“Dad, why have you been staring at that newspaper the whole time?”
It was too strange. Yang Jian suddenly realized that he had never remembered his father being this obsessed with newspapers before. Moreover, his mother was already this ill, yet his father was still holding the newspaper and refusing to put it down. Everything was far too abnormal.
“It’s nothing. Look after your mother. I’m going out for something.”
After Yang Xiao finished speaking, he turned and left. As for Yang Jian’s question, he did not seem to want to explain.
Yang Jian stood up, wanting to chase after him, but then he looked at his mother lying pale on the bed. In the end, he sat back down.
Zhang Fen said weakly, “Yang Jian, don’t blame your dad. His temper has always been strange. Just stay here and keep Mom company.”
Yang Jian nodded.
“Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll stay right here. If you get hungry, tell me. I’ll cook some noodles for you.”
“Okay.”
Zhang Fen turned her head to the side and slowly fell asleep.
Seeing that his mother had fallen asleep, Yang Jian prepared to get up and cook something.
Just as he raised his head, he happened to see the wedding photo of his mother and father on the wall at the head of the bed.
A chill instantly surged up from the soles of his feet. In the photo, his father was actually also holding a newspaper in front of his face.
Yang Jian stared in shock at his father’s figure in the photograph.
“How is that possible? How is that possible? He was even holding a newspaper at his wedding?”
“That’s right... What does my father look like? Why can’t I remember at all...?”
Yang Jian immediately got up and began rummaging through the room.
Household register, photo albums, driver’s license.
In every photo where Yang Xiao appeared, without exception, he was holding that newspaper in front of his face!
His back was already soaked with cold sweat. Yang Jian realized that perhaps he had fallen into some terrifying truth, yet he himself had completely failed to notice it.
A thread of moonlight shone in through the window. Yang Jian abruptly turned his head.
He had been home for less than half an hour. How could the sky have turned dark already?
Just then—
“Knock, knock, knock.”
An extremely regular knocking sound rang out.
Yang Jian looked toward the door in terror.
“Who! Who’s there!”
“Creak—”
A familiar face appeared behind the door.
Yang Jian was somewhat surprised. “Teacher Zhang?! Why are you at my house?”
Zhang Xianguang strode in, drew the curtains shut, and casually sat down on the stool opposite the bed, as if he was very familiar with the environment here.
“It seems you’ve come to know a group of reliable friends. They’re giving you hints.”
Yang Jian stared coldly at Zhang Xianguang, his eyes filled with vigilance. Everything that had happened today was far too bizarre.
His hand had already gripped the desk lamp on the bedside table. As long as this newly arrived homeroom teacher showed the slightest abnormality, Yang Jian would knock him down without hesitation.
Yang Jian said coldly, “What do you mean? Why are you in my house?”
“I’m your father.”
“What?!” Yang Jian nearly rushed at him.
Zhang Xianguang took out an old photograph from his coat pocket and asked, “Take a look. Who is this person in the photo?”
Yang Jian leaned over. By the dim light, he could vaguely see that the photograph showed a man in his thirties.
But after Yang Jian saw the man’s face clearly, his expression changed. Apart from looking somewhat more mature, the man in the photograph actually bore a seventy to eighty percent resemblance to himself.
“Do you remember anything?”
Seeing that Yang Jian did not react, he placed the photograph beside his own face.
Yang Jian suddenly discovered that this homeroom teacher’s face was actually exactly the same as the person in the photograph.
Yang Jian was so shocked he could not speak. Why had he never noticed something so obvious? Why had the people and events around him been so strange these past few days, revealing abnormalities everywhere?
The room instantly fell into silence. The man seemed to be waiting for Yang Jian’s response, sitting there and quietly gazing at him.
After a long while, Yang Jian raised his head and looked at the man.
“I’m still dreaming.”
“...Before entering this dream, Lin Bei, Xiaoyuan, and I were in the car... The source ghost of this dream was right behind me. I was attacked...”
The man nodded and praised,
“You’re far more outstanding than I imagined.”
Yang Jian looked coldly at the man before him.
“Are you human, or a ghost?”