I Want to be Alone, Beautifully

"...I just want to ask, what did you send me?"

between classes.

Standing outside the teaching building, Xu Jiao purposely avoided the passing traffic, stood beside a willow tree, and dialed back the "home" number that she received last night. The person who answered the phone was the original owner's Father Xu Dashu.

"You will know if you take it apart and have a look. The master said that it was something that his son wore next to his body when he was alive. If you wear this, that person will know that you are his wife and will bless you in the ground. Maybe. ...In the future, when you work, your boss and superiors will appreciate you, and the teachers in the school will also like you..."

What followed were some long-winded feudal fantasies, Xu Jiao moved the phone away from her ear, and looked up at the willow tree next to her.

It is the end of spring and summer solstice, and the city is still a bit cold. It seems that it will never be shrouded in the scorching heat until the summer solstice. The streets are full of people dressed in disorder. Some people cool off in short-sleeved shorts early. people passing by in fur coats.

The willows have sprouted new buds, and the catkins fluttered over half of the campus in the past two months. Now they are much more honest, only the branches occasionally show a little white, and the rest are graceful and fluttering emerald green, which is very springy.

Looking at the luxuriant willow tree, Xu Jiao heard that the brainwashing voice from the phone was a little weaker, she put the phone to her ear again, and interrupted impatiently:

"What are you wearing?"

"Did you send it wrong, why did I receive a tablet from a woman?"

Xu Dashu babbled and asked her not to be disrespectful to his "dead husband", since he took his money and wanted to do things for him, halfway through the conversation, he heard Xu Jiao's impolite interjection, and he was about to teach him a few words in the air , suddenly realized what he heard.

"You, what are you talking about?" The man's rough and vicissitudes of life came from the phone.

Xu Jiao repeated her words unhurriedly: "I said, why did the courier I received was a woman's tablet? It said her surname was Zheng, and her name was Zheng Zhiyu."

"The surname is Zheng. That family is also surnamed Xu. The son was only eighteen when he died. Where did the surname Zheng come from? Don't talk nonsense to me!" The voice on the phone became a little irritable for no reason, as if feeling Xu Jiao was lying to him.

Xu Jiao didn't know what happened to the old father, and she didn't bother to explain to him, she just said indifferently: "Since you didn't send it here, then I will send it back to that address as it is."

"You don't want to send me that kind of weird thing. I will refuse to accept it next time. If you want to make money, you can earn it honestly. What kind of skill is selling your daughter? I'm not your wishing well."

She still spoke in that flat tone, without much emotional ups and downs.

However, in Xu Dashu's ears, this daughter who has always been silent and stubborn suddenly learned to resist somehow. She was just a book reader and didn't care about other things. She was as quiet as air at home. Talk back?

"...I just said that girls shouldn't read too many books at home, you are hard-winged when you go out now, and you don't listen to my words—"

"beep."

Xu Jiao raised her hand and yawned, set the phone that was hung up to silent, blocked the number just now, and prepared to go back to the classroom with the corners of her moist eyes.

She thought about the money left in her meal card.

There are still 20 days before the end of this month, and there is only 100 yuan in the card. I remember that the money in the bank card is saved by doing part-time jobs. If you have to pay tuition fees, it is definitely not enough to eat and drink...

Perhaps it was because she had never lived a poor life in the previous few worlds, Xu Jiao found that she had no way to make money for a while.

Frowning, she was about to walk towards the side road and follow the road back to the teaching building, but suddenly stepped on the roots of this lingering tree, and a sudden chill came from the back of her neck.

Based on the skills she had left in the previous few worlds, Xu Jiao instinctively lowered her body, dodging the whistling wind above her head, and before she had time to distinguish what it was, she heard another blast coming from the sky. movement.

Her eyes quickly looked there, ready to dodge according to the source of the attack, but because of the hypoglycemia caused by skipping breakfast all the year round, just squatting together, the field of vision suddenly went dark, and then a golden star filled it. Come.

Just at this moment of pause, the sound of the wind howled to the side of her face, and then, the burning pain spread from the right side of the face near the ear, all the way to the neck.

Xu Jiao gasped.

She raised her hand to touch the side of her face, waited for the gold in front of her eyes to dissipate, looked up again, and found that there was nothing in front of her, the blue sky and white clouds were still above her head, and the big willow tree with branches fluttering in the wind.

Using the phone with a black screen as a mirror, Xu Jiao glanced at her appearance on the screen, and found a red mark from the right side of her face to her neck. It's like the whip is pulled out.

Can cause this kind of injury...

She squinted her eyes and looked at the willow tree in front of her.

Some legends about willow trees suddenly appeared in my mind.

There is a saying that the willow trees planted by the river are useful for warding off evil spirits, and the willow branches can also ward off ghosts. Soul lock, those dirty things like to live on willow trees.

Xu Jiao touched the skin near the wound on the side of her face, and couldn't tell for a while whether the two slaps just now were because the tree in front of her saw her bad luck recently and wanted to help her exorcise her, or it was because of some other reason, playing a prank on her.

Anyway.

Her face hurts.

Feeling the burning sensation on half of her cheeks, Xu Jiao stepped out of the grass with no expression on her face, and made a decision——

The culprit that caused her such unhappiness.

She will never let it go.

……

"My God, Xu Jiao, what happened to your face?"

"Do you want to ask for leave to visit the school doctor's office? I just heard from your roommate that you fell off the bed last night... Your dormitory has been too unlucky recently, right?"

"That's right, Xiao Li just went to the infirmary with Qian Ai, why don't you ask the teacher for a leave of absence?"

After returning to the classroom, because it was a small professional class, all the classmates were sitting in the classroom. The marks on Xu Jiao's face were too obvious, and the girls easily noticed them, so they all surrounded her with concern, and treated her Play friendly classmates love.

She blinked her eyes, and originally planned to make do with another class, but when she heard what they said between the lines, she couldn't help frowning: "What's wrong with Qian Ai?"

While talking, Xu Jiao looked around at the old wooden tables and chairs. The classroom was only a few dozen square meters, and twenty or thirty people were easily caught in her eyes, but she did not see Qian Ai and Zhou Qili.

"You don't know yet?" A girl sitting in the front row turned her head, and she was secretly eating bread during the break, but now she gestured to her: "Just now Qian Ai went to the toilet, the toilet in this building is not It's very old, one way leads to the regular flushing, and the result... I heard that Qian Ai accidentally twisted his foot, stepped into the pit, and fell inexplicably. Fortunately, he just rushed through the water and came out It wasn't too bad when…”

As she spoke, she picked up the bread she had put in the belly of the table again, but somehow lost her appetite, so she had to put it back.

Xu Jiao's face changed again and again, she thanked the female classmate, and then walked to the podium, because the injury was so obvious, the teacher who was lecturing was shocked, and when she heard that she was going to ask for leave, she hurriedly criticized her. He also told her to be careful when walking, so as not to get hurt again.

Xu Jiao thanked the teacher, returned to her seat, threw the notes into the schoolbag, and when she threw the schoolbag over her shoulder, the strap of the schoolbag dropped down inexplicably, as if it contained something heavy and solid.

The girl naturally noticed this. When she walked out of the classroom, the class bell rang just in time, and there were no more classmates in and out of the corridor. Xu Jiao counted the stairs and went down, all the way to the open space outside the teaching building, opened her schoolbag, and No matter how you turn it over, you will see a corner of familiar wood.

It was the wooden tablet that she deliberately left under the bed in the morning and didn't bring it out.

Xu Jiao: "..."

She pushed the book away, stared at the dark tablet, and said suddenly: "The thing that whipped me with a wicker just now, is that you?"

The rectangular piece of wood didn't move, and it wasn't known if it didn't want to interact with her, or it couldn't respond.

Xu Jiao was not in a hurry, she stared at this piece of wood for a while, then stood in the middle of the road and said slowly: "The wood used for this memorial tablet looks pretty good, it must be able to burn for a long time if it is used as firewood?"

Tablet: "...!"

It vibrated violently in Xu Jiao's schoolbag, as if irritated by her words, and wanted to protest something.

Seeing that it could respond, Xu Jiao immediately raised her eyebrows and did something that seemed unbelievable to others. She communicated with the tablet in a low voice: "Is it you who whipped me with a willow stick just now? Shake it once, not just shake it twice."

The tablet shook.

After Xu Jiao got the answer, she saw a student coming from a distance, walking in a hurry, as if she knew the teacher was going to call roll, so she rushed over from the dormitory, she didn't pay much attention to others, and just zipped up her schoolbag , put the original owner's dirty backpack back on his back, and followed the location of the school doctor's office in his memory.

When there was no one around, she slowly patted her schoolbag with her backhand, and said in a low voice:

"Don't come out with me next time."

"You're so heavy, it's tiring to carry you."

A tablet that has received strong dislike: "..."

……

"Xiao Xu...what are you, hiss, this... on your face?"

In the school doctor's room.

Zhou Qili, who had just accompanied Qian Ai to deal with her foot injury, just came out when she bumped into Xu Jiao who was coming this way. Her eyes were filled with joy at first, and then she saw the shocking line from her right cheek to her neck. Wound.

Xu Jiao herself didn't seem to have anything to say, but Zhou Qili didn't know what she was thinking, her pupils shrank suddenly, her whole body trembled in broad daylight, her jaws knocked together tremblingly, she took Xu Jiao's hand, and held her Pulled to a more secluded place nearby, looked around nervously, moved his throat, and said again:

"Xu Jiao."

"Yes, did we yesterday... yesterday afternoon..."

Maybe it's because the following content can give people great fear. Zhou Qili couldn't tell the story of Bi-Xian, as if she was afraid of being heard by some creature, and then gave her fear according to the script she gave.

Xu Jiao understood what she meant, and raised her other hand to pat her shoulder, with neither light nor heavy force, as if to comfort her. At the same time, she stared into Zhou Qili's eyes and replied seriously:

"No."

She said: "There will always be changes in people's fortunes. It just so happens that Ai Ai and I have been unlucky recently. Don't think about it too much."

If Zhou Qili and Qian Ai hadn't been kind to the original owner, Xu Jiao wouldn't have tried to comfort them at all, especially when speaking in a normal tone, the facial muscles were involved a lot, which always made her feel the pain on her face was more obvious.

Zhou Qili grabbed her hand uncontrollably and increased her strength. After Xu Jiao's words fell, she shook her head and repeated: "No, no, you don't know..."

"Ai Ai told me that she didn't have slippery feet at all. Something grabbed her feet and dragged her down when she was going to the bathroom. Outside, I heard someone rushing in and pulling her out..."

Zhou Qili's voice was extremely suppressed and collapsed, and she was afraid that she would draw the attention of others by speaking too loudly, but the fear that climbed up her back made her unable to hold back her voice, as if the fear accumulated in her body If she finds an outlet to vent out, she will be crushed to death by this mountain of emotions.

Her nails unconsciously pinched into the back of Xu Jiao's hand, causing Xu Jiao to look down. Before she could stop her, she heard Zhou Qili crying and asking in fear:

"It was you first, and now it's Ai Ai. Is it my turn soon?"

"I shouldn't have dragged you into playing this game out of curiosity. In horror, people who attract ghosts usually die. I'm still young, and the p I'm chasing doesn't have he yet. I don't want to die..."

Xu Jiao originally wanted to comfort her again, but when she heard the second part of her words, her whole expression became =. =

She pulled away Zhou Qili's hand pinching the back of her hand expressionlessly, and then said casually, "Don't worry, it won't happen."

With tears in her eyes, Zhou Qili asked her, "How do you know?"

Xu Jiao pulled her sleeves, took her to the medical treatment room where Qian Ai was, and replied casually: "Because in the hospital, the person who encounters a ghost may also be the protagonist, and the routine of completely destroying the protagonist group is not popular now." , we must he."

Zhou Qili: "...?"

For some reason, hearing Xu Jiao's words, she somehow felt less flustered.

At this moment, Xu Jiao glanced back at her, seeing that this obsessed and unable to extricate her little roommate became normal for a little bit, suddenly felt a little funny, and couldn't help but wonder if there were any readers like Zhou Qili among her readers in real life. Type of.

That is to say, "My life may not be sweet, but the p I knock must be happy."

After thinking about it, Xu Jiao added a more reliable reassurance: "Don't be afraid, even if there is something dirty, you must first look for me, and you two will be fine."

Zhou Qili didn't understand and asked, "Why?"

A bit of coldness flashed in Xu Jiao's eyes: "Because I plan to wipe them out, and now I'm trying to stabilize their hatred."

Zhou Qili: "!"

I don't know why, it obviously sounds like a sentence full of death, but seeing Xu Jiao's expression at the moment, Zhou Qili actually felt an inexplicable admiration in her heart.

She thought with horror, is this the real Xueba?Proficient in all trades, can catch ghosts across trades?

……

When Qian Ai saw Xu Jiao, he felt a sense of desolation as if he had seen a brother in distress.

When she stayed with Zhou Qili before, both of them were filled with panic, and they didn't dare to go to a place where no one was there for a moment, so she insisted on sitting in this treatment room for a long time, even though the doctor and nurse had told her After doing it many times, there is nothing wrong with her feet, mainly a little bruises and excessive shock, and she didn't even hurt her bones.

But Qian Aiquan pretended not to hear, took out his mobile phone and sat there cheeky, feeling the feeling of being surrounded by popularity, finally suppressed the fear in his heart a little, and regained a little thinking ability.

She remembered that she had relatives in the city, and thought about all the weird things in the dormitory recently. Qian Ai didn't dare to live in the dormitory anymore, and she was flirting with her relatives. She was going to hide outside the school, trying to skip classes and go to temples, etc. Burn incense in the place, watch a few rituals and calm down.

After Xu Jiao came and applied some colorless ointment on her face, Qian Ai told her and Zhou Qili this thought, and whispered:

"Really, I heard that the temple outside the city has been revived... We have hit the devil. The normal channels will definitely not work. We need a little faith occasionally."

Xu Jiao looked at her, "Is it because Marxism-Leninism is not fragrant enough, or the core values ​​of socialism are not long enough?"

Qian Ai: "..."

She was dumbfounded by the question from Xu Jiao's soul, clasped her hands together and made a gesture of forgiveness to her: "Xu Xueba, you have seen our miserable situation these past two days. What does it mean? It means that some things of our Marxist-Leninist Party are not within its jurisdiction, and we have specializations in the art industry, and we should entrust specialized personnel to do such things.”

Zhou Qili was beside her in a daze: "Can you stop engaging in academic debates on this kind of thing?"

Qian Ai immediately returned to the main point: "In a word, I think living in the dormitory is too evil. I want to live off-campus temporarily. Will you follow me?"

A little hesitation appeared on Zhou Qili's face. She had to say that in front of Xiaoming, such things as losing face with her classmates to eat and drink with relatives were no longer in her consideration.

She looked at Xu Jiao's complexion expectantly, and urged in a low voice: "Xiao Xu...?"

Xu Jiao answered her calmly: "You can go if you want, I will live in the dormitory."

Zhou Qili took a breath, looking a little anxious, and wanted to persuade Xu Jiao to say something, but when the words came to her lips, Xu Jiao had already raised her hand to stop them, and said lightly:

"I'm serious."

"You can go out and live without any psychological burden. This is my choice, and I will bear the corresponding consequences—"

"Since we are playing the game together, we are also playing the game together. No matter what happens, we must be mentally prepared."

A few words stunned both Zhou Qili and Qian Ai.

When they went back to the dormitory to pack their things and left, they looked at Xu Jiao with a strange sense of worry and guilt, as if they had already affirmed that her life would not be easy in the future.

Out of an inexplicable psychology, the two roommates took out all the snacks they had packed at the bottom of the box, as well as the fresh fruits they had just bought, and said to her, "Xueba, it's troublesome for us to take these away, and they will expire after a long time." Now, eat them all if you have time."

Xu Jiao looked at the snacks on the table dumbfounded, wondering if the two of them made her feel like a full ghost?

But she didn't stop her, she just nodded casually, and after the two of them left, she also left the dormitory, headed all the way outside the school gate, and walked to the bus stop.

Still carrying an old-fashioned faded schoolbag, the people in the car didn't even look at her, and just let her go to one of the most famous local attractions.

……

At the end of spring and early summer, it is a good time to visit the garden. The breeze blows across the lake, causing waves of ripples. The shimmering light blows over it, and the graceful and enchanting willows on the embankment. The sky is blue. , the water is clear, the willows are green, the flowers are red, and there are beautiful scenery everywhere.

Xu Jiao squinted her eyes due to the wind, and instead of going to crowded places, she walked all the way to those remote places along the embankment. After avoiding the tourists, she carried her schoolbag to the front, unzipped it, Decided to make rational use of the wood on hand.

"The willow branches by the river can fight ghosts, you know that?"

"Help me pick a useful tree. I'll just break a thin willow branch. Hurry up."

Mu Mu remained motionless and ignored her.

Xu Jiao looked around, and found that she was stepping on a piece of compacted soil, and there was a tall bush nearby, so she squatted down, groped in the middle of her schoolbag, found a lighter, lit it with a click, and put it on. At the corner of the tablet, innocently said: "What will happen if my hand shakes?"

Tablet: "!"

If it could talk, it would definitely call Xu Jiao a f***ing despicable, what kind of ability would it be to threaten it!

It trembled in humiliation, trying to jump away from Xu Jiao's hand and stay away from the fire source. When Xu Jiao put away the lighter, it flew towards a nearby willow tree and lay there motionless.

Xu Jiao followed clearly: "This one is okay?"

……

It was noon when we returned to the dormitory.

Xu Jiao deliberately pulled up the curtains, and did not turn on the lights. Even if the windows can fall to the direction of the sun, now that the doors are closed and the curtains are covered, it is half dark. There is a quiet atmosphere suitable for sleeping. It makes people feel a little cold.

After all, it is a dormitory building halfway up the mountain. The students in the dormitory can still sleep in this room covered with quilts when it is almost summer. It is because the dormitory building is warm in winter and cool in summer. Now the winter cold has not yet passed, and the heat outside is not enough. There was still that chill in the room.

Xu Jiao glanced around the room, saw the half-open cabinet doors, stacked boxes and so on, she didn't care, instead she went straight to her bed, put her schoolbag under the bed, and the people followed Lying down in it, I just closed my eyes and prepared for my lunch break.

I do not know how long it has been.

A gleam of red suddenly appeared on the old-fashioned embroidered quilt, and the red quickly spread, covering the entire quilt, and when it reached the top, black and snowy colors appeared again, outlining a slender waist women come.

Obviously being pressed down, Xu Jiao in her sleep didn't feel uncomfortable at all, as if she didn't have too much weight on her body, until the biting cold invaded near her face.

The person with closed eyes didn't move at first, but just when the woman in red was about to get down, he suddenly opened his eyes, and then, the hand under the quilt moved, and was about to pull it out——

The woman in red held her wrist firmly through the quilt, as if she had the ability to penetrate objects, and she knew her plan at once.

The next moment, Xu Jiao suddenly felt that the person on her body had a weight on her, which made her unable to move for a moment.

The other party moved close to her neck, preventing her from seeing her face clearly. The cool breath made the goosebumps on her neck come out. She moved her lips and said calmly:

"who are you?"

The other party didn't answer this question, the voice was like cold moss, spread out near the skin under her injured ear, in a low voice, only two words:

"Burn me?"