Chapter 3 - Task (1/2)

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.