My Family Is Very Odd

Li Xiao Gui: "Waiting for me?"

Li Xiao Gui stopped in her tracks. She had been chatting with the Mirror Ghost and was about to go after Chen Hong.

The empty restroom was damp, the dark ceiling looming low. Li Xiao Gui's face was shrouded in shadow.

It felt sticky and humid.

Mirror Ghost: "Or, do you know each other?"

Bzzzt--

Li Xiao Gui's phone vibrated, lighting up in the darkness.

It was a WeChat message from Shen Chen.

Shen Chen: Where are you? Are you done? I'm here to pick you up.

She had only been in school for a little over a week and hadn't made many friends besides Shen Chen.

Li Xiao Gui blinked.

As she typed, she replied to the Mirror Ghost, "I don't think so."

But almost at the same time, Li Xiao Gui recalled that strange feeling of being watched that she had been experiencing for the past week, from the start of military training to its end. It was always there, faint but impossible to ignore.

But every time she looked around, she couldn't find a single suspicious ghost.

Mirror Ghost: "Do you want to come in and hide?"

Li Xiao Gui: "Can I even come in?"

She was surprised. This was the first time she had heard of a human being able to enter an inanimate object.

The Mirror Ghost scratched its head. "You might have to be dead first."

Li Xiao Gui said seriously, "Then I think I can hold on a little longer."

Li Xiao Gui continued, "Don't underestimate me, I'm a ghost hunter!"

The Mirror Ghost kept scratching its head. "But there's a human outside."

Li Xiao Gui blinked.

Li Xiao Gui: "Oh."

She silently took a step back. She understood.

But she wasn't really scared. It seemed like her heart had always been a little stronger than others. At least, that's what she thought.

The Mirror Ghost suggested, "Why don't you hide in the stall? If he comes in, I'll scare him away!" The Mirror Ghost made a fierce expression.

Li Xiao Gui nodded and grabbed a mop from the corner, then hid in the farthest stall.

Just as Li Xiao Gui closed the door, she heard cold, hard footsteps outside.

"Thud."

Li Xiao Gui paused and calmly lowered her head. She methodically held her phone with one hand. She had just sent a message to Shen Chen, and now she was calling her family. Her ghost parents could come through the phone; it would be faster.

But soon, Li Xiao Gui realized that her phone had no signal. When did that happen? She was sure her phone was working; she had just used it to send a WeChat message to Shen Chen two minutes ago.

Li Xiao Gui clicked back to her chat with Shen Chen and confirmed once again that her previous message had been sent. So there was no problem just now.

The problem only started when that person came in.

Li Xiao Gui silently tightened her grip on the mop, her face expressionless.

In the darkness, the first thing the person who came in did was to set their eyes on the mirror, which seemed quite eerie to ordinary people. The Mirror Ghost kept chanting silently: See me, see me, see me…

It kept emitting waves of resentment.

But then it saw the person in the darkness smile at the mirror.

Mirror Ghost: "…"

The Mirror Ghost, having gotten its wish, felt a chill in its non-existent heart.

It seemed that the person could indeed see it, but not in the way it had hoped.

The footsteps moved slightly away from Li Xiao Gui's stall. Where was he going? Li Xiao Gui frowned. The confined space limited her senses.

Suddenly, there was the sound of breaking glass. Li Xiao Gui's body jolted, her palm tightening around the mop handle.

What happened?

He went to smash the mirror…

Li Xiao Gui's delicate brows furrowed.

She didn't know when her shoelace had come undone, and it was uncomfortable under her foot, but she didn't have time to care. Li Xiao Gui calmed down, pursed her lips, and prepared herself.

He should be coming over next.

"…Creak"

The sound of the stall door opening.

One, Li Xiao Gui counted in her heart. There were five stalls in the restroom, and she was in the last one.

"Creak."

…Two.

"Creak."

…Three.

The footsteps were getting closer. It was the sound of leather shoes on the floor, not high heels or soft shoes. Hard shoes.

"Creak."

…Four.

Man? Or woman?

The air seemed to stand still. She waited for the person to come closer, but the sound stopped.

The mop handle creaked as she gripped it tighter. She looked up at the white door in front of her.

"Bang!"

Her heart jumped violently, as if it were trying to break free from her chest.

"Bang!"

"Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!"

Li Xiao Gui felt like her heart was beating so loudly that people outside could hear it.

But Li Xiao Gui remained calm, constantly thinking of her ghost dad, ghost mom, ghost brother, ghost grandpa, ghost grandma, and oh, Shen Chen. Shen Chen, who always remained calm and expressionless no matter what happened. She puffed out her small chest.

Her heart was filled with infinite courage, as if she had become them through imagination.

And so, the slight trembling in her cheeks disappeared, replaced by a calm, expressionless face.

If her ghost parents saw Li Xiao Gui now, they would definitely want to beat Shen Chen to death. Because her current calm and expressionless face looked exactly like Shen Chen's usual expression.

One takes on the color of one's company.

Their precious little cabbage, raised by ghosts… had finally been swayed by the Shen family's pig.

The footsteps outside suddenly stopped. He didn't go to the fifth stall. Why? What happened?

Li Xiao Gui thought about many possibilities, but there was still no sound outside. Sometimes, in a silent and narrow space, a sudden stop was even more terrifying than complete silence, especially when one was trapped in a small, square room, unable to see what was happening outside.

"Thump-Crack-Bang!"

Just as the footsteps sounded again, a sudden loud noise came from outside, particularly jarring in the silent night.

Li Xiao Gui felt like a startled chicken, clutching the mop, every hair on her body standing on end.

What strength…

Li Xiao Gui looked at her own soft, white hands clutching the mop, her expression a little dazed.

There were still some indistinct, muffled sounds coming from outside.

She could only continue to replay the faces of her ghost family and Shen Chen in her mind to maintain her courage.

In the broken mirror of the restroom, a tall figure was reflected, pinning a taller and stronger man wearing a mask against the door of the fourth stall. Slender fingers easily clasped the man's thick neck, while the other hand swiftly removed his mask.

The broken mirror distorted the face revealed beneath the mask.

For some reason, the man who had almost succeeded felt a chill in his heart when he saw the intense black eyes of the person pinning him down. He kept calling out to his companion in his mind, begging for help.

He knew it could hear him, whether he spoke or not, no matter how far apart they were, because they were bound by a contract.

But for some reason, this time, there was no familiar voice in his head. Before he could dwell on it any longer, the seemingly slender young man struck him with an unexpected force, and his vision went white as he lost consciousness.

After a moment of suffocating silence, Li Xiao Gui heard a familiar voice.

"Xiao Gui?"

Someone was softly calling her name from behind the door, their voice low and steady.

Li Xiao Gui looked up blankly. "Hmm?"

Even with her nerves on high alert, Li Xiao Gui was a little confused at this moment.

Shen Chen?

Li Xiao Gui blinked rapidly, the tense atmosphere broken. She hesitated for a moment, then opened the door with the mop in hand.

"Shen Chen?" Her voice was soft and hesitant.

Besides the damp darkness and Shen Chen standing in front of her, the restroom was empty.

Li Xiao Gui looked at the closed door of the fourth stall, then at the broken mirror. If she hadn't heard the loud noise and seen the shattered glass, she would have thought that the past ten minutes had been a hallucination.

The Mirror Ghost noticed Li Xiao Gui's gaze and, with great effort, managed to display a few words on its broken surface:

I'm okay.

That's good, Li Xiao Gui thought, relieved.

In her nervousness, Li Xiao Gui didn't notice that after writing those words, the Mirror Ghost retreated into the depths of the mirror, no longer as agitated as when it had first spoken to her. It was as if something had frightened it.

In the dim light, Shen Chen saw Li Xiao Gui emerge from the stall and his gaze softened, though his expression was still different from usual.

Li Xiao Gui looked back. It was the first time she had seen him like this, as if a tightly wound spring had finally been released.

Li Xiao Gui's large, light brown eyes stared at Shen Chen. The top two buttons of his usually buttoned-up uniform were undone, his sleeves rolled up to reveal strong wrists. His camouflage uniform was slightly disheveled, his cap missing, and his hair was windblown and damp with sweat.

Li Xiao Gui had never seen Shen Chen look so "disheveled." He was always neat, disciplined, silent, and meticulous, like the greenest, most upright tree in summer.

Li Xiao Gui had always known that beneath Shen Chen's expressionless face lay a gentle heart. He was gentlemanly, polite, and though quiet and serious, he never refused to help others.

He would help her up when she fell, take her to the infirmary, and gently blow on her wounds when she was hurt.

He would patiently tutor her, walk her home, and buy her candy.

But it wasn't anything special. He would also help other girls to the infirmary during PE class, sacrifice his own study time to join the basketball team at the request of his seniors, train every day, and give his all in every game…

That was good, Li Xiao Gui thought. Every time she saw this side of him, she would find her childhood friend very handsome, and she would always go back and proudly share it with the ghosts.

Although they always seemed to miss the point. Li Xiao Gui was clearly praising Shen Chen, hoping to get her ghost parents to agree with her and discuss it together, but somehow the topic would always take a strange turn in another direction.

Hmm.

But, Shen Chen was good, but, Li Xiao Gui thought, he wasn't special.

Under the tall, dense tree, there were many, many people standing.

Until she saw Shen Chen, who was always neat and tidy, suddenly looking a little disheveled. Li Xiao Gui's heart suddenly began to pound, like a firework suddenly going off, catching her off guard.

This was a bit sudden. Was it because she had just been scared and her heart hadn't calmed down yet?

Li Xiao Gui's mind wandered for a moment, and come to think of it--

That time the female classmate tripped in front of Shen Chen, did he run over that fast?

Did he blow on her wounds when he was applying medicine to her? Ah, no, it was the beautiful female doctor who applied the medicine that time. After Shen Chen took the female classmate to the infirmary, he left with her…

As Li Xiao Gui thought about it, her mind became a little muddled, and her heart beat faster and harder.

Something wasn't right. Was she that scared of that person?

"Are you okay?" Shen Chen frowned, his voice low and steady as usual, but with a hint of concern. "Are you scared?"

Li Xiao Gui was stunned for a moment, then nodded and hummed in response. She felt like the air she exhaled was hot. "A little."

Author's Note:

The Ghost Family When Their Daughter Frequently Mentions That Boy at School

Ghost Dad: So annoying.

Ghost Mom: So annoying.

Ghost Grandma: Oh dear.

Ghost Brother: I have a bad feeling about this.

Ghost Grandpa: "…"

In conclusion: Change the subject!!! Save Xiao Gui! Change the subject! #@/#!?

Li Xiao Gui tilts her head innocently: Huh?

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