My Family Is Very Odd

"I'm here! I'm here! Come catch me!"

"Catch me! Come catch me!"

"Don't run!"

"Ah! They're chasing me! Ah, help! Hahaha!"

During physical education class, the children were chasing and playing on the playground, their high-pitched voices trembling on the ground.

Li Xiao Gui sat alone, crouched in a square enclosure of soft sand, forming small sand mounds with her little hands, patting them rhythmically.

"Why aren't you playing with them?"

A sudden voice startled Li Xiao Gui, causing her to shake her hands, and the sand spilled all over the ground. She turned her head to find her older sister in a red and white gradient dress standing beside her.

Li Xiao Gui raised her round chin and replied, "Because I'm building sand mountains. I want to create a big one."

The woman asked, "Is it because they don't want to play with you?"

"I overheard them saying mean things about you." The woman continued.

"Oh." Li Xiao Gui blinked, then turned her head back to continue piling sand, and huffed, "Well, they're mean, so I don't want to play with them either."

Li Xiao Gui spoke with a childish tone, but there was no sign of hurt on her face, as if it were just a minor matter.

Li Xiao Gui asked, "Do you want to build sand mountains together?"

"..." The woman seemed to have something to say, but Li Xiao Gui's sudden invitation interrupted her. She looked directly into Li Xiao Gui's sincere eyes, and slowly crouched down.

She squatted and stared for a few seconds, then scooped up a spoonful of sand and sprinkled it on top of the sand mound.

The chilly sand grains fell on Li Xiao Gui's hand back.

She said earnestly, "As long as we keep doing this, one day, we'll be able to build a mountain."

The woman's hand paused, her mouth twitched twice, but she didn't say anything and just continued piling the sand.

Layer by layer, the sand rolled down, while the children on the edge of the playground laughed and ran around in circles, their sweat dripping one by one. The wisps of hair at the corners of Li Xiao Gui's forehead and temples swayed gently in the wind.

Suddenly, a slightly taller, new child among the others joined the running group, and they all stopped in turn.

"The class is almost over. The teacher asked us to gather!" The newcomer announced.

The children looked at each other, expressing regret in prolonged voices, and followed him as they walked away.

The last girl to leave turned back hesitantly to look at Li Xiao Gui. She frowned, hesitated, and shuffled her feet on the ground several times.

"Yuanyuan, let's go!"

Someone called her, and she quickly responded, "Okay!" as she walked towards the group, still not turning back.

The playground quickly emptied as everyone left, but Li Xiao Gui remained in a nearby sandpit, still piling sand alone.

"Little student, why are you all by yourself here?" A man stepped on the edge of the sandpit and struck up a conversation with Li Xiao Gui.

Li Xiao Gui looked up at him. He was a teacher from the kindergarten, often walking around the area with a bunch of crying girls trailing behind him. However, Li Xiao Gui didn't like him because of that.

She blinked her eyes, not understanding why he said she was alone when she had a sister with her, but she had no intention of talking to him.

She looked around and saw that the playground was indeed empty.

Li Xiao Gui felt a bit anxious.

"Your classmates have already gathered, and I saw them leaving without you. Is there any misunderstanding between you? Tell the teacher about it," the man said with a smile.

Li Xiao Gui nervously stood up and quickly replied, "Then I'll go join them. Goodbye, teacher."

She hurriedly spoke and bypassed the man, running towards the gathering spot, avoiding him.

"..."

The woman in the red and white dress continued patting the sand, again and again.

By the time Li Xiao Gui reached the gathering spot, everyone was already in line, and she quickly found her place and stood there.

The physical education teacher didn't say much, just lightly reminded Li Xiao Gui to be careful next time, not to run too far during physical activities, as it would be hard to find her during gatherings.

At the end of the day, after school hours…

Li Xiao Gui sat obediently at her desk, waiting for her father to pick her up.

Her classmates played and laughed on both sides of her.

"Yuanyuan!"

Someone called that name.

The girl in front of Li Xiao Gui stood up and responded before walking out.

Not long after, the Young Ghost arrived and, as usual, took Li Xiao Gui away in front of the teacher.

...

Yuanyuan and her mom walked along the usual route they took home every day. When they passed a bridge, Yuanyuan's mom bumped into an acquaintance and got engrossed in a long conversation.

Yuanyuan disliked this situation the most because every time her mom started chatting, it would take a long time.

However, she didn't dare to urge her mom, so she went off to find some fun to pass the time.

She walked around feeling bored and ended up at the bridge, squatting on one side to look down.

The river was crystal clear, reflecting the glimmering rays of the evening sun. Yuanyuan felt an itch to go down and play. She used to catch crabs in the ditches and rivers... but recently, it was not allowed. Both her teacher and parents warned her not to play in the water, and Yuanyuan didn't dare to defy their instructions.

As she gazed, Yuanyuan felt a strange sensation, a chill creeping up her back. She turned her head and saw a woman.

The woman was wearing a white dress with a red hem and no shoes.

"What are you looking at? Is it beautiful?" The woman asked softly when Yuanyuan turned her head to look at her.

Yuanyuan was scared by the woman's unnaturally pale face and didn't want to engage with her, feeling a bit uneasy.

Then, the woman asked again, "Why didn't you call her to join the gathering today? Weren't you notified for the physical education class assembly? Why didn't you notify her? Why did you leave her behind?"

The woman asked each question in a chilling tone.

Yuanyuan was puzzled for a while, and then she realized that "she" referred to Li Xiao Gui. Was she someone Li Xiao Gui knew?

How strange.

The woman continued, "Are you all excluding her?"

"I hate exclusion the most..."

"I hate exclusion the most."

"I hate exclusion the most!"

The woman repeated these words three times, her pace of speech getting faster, and her head getting closer to Yuanyuan's until there was barely a blink of distance between them.

It was too close!

Yuanyuan was frightened by the woman's enlarged face, but what terrified her even more was that she found herself unable to move her body!

She trembled her little mouth in bewilderment, too scared to make a sound.

"By the way," the woman suddenly slowed down her speech, moving her head a few centimeters back. Her all-black eyeballs trembled in their sockets as if they were about to pop out at any moment. She shifted the topic to something eight hundred meters away and asked, "Do you think I look beautiful?"

Her entirely black eyeballs stared into Yuanyuan's eyes, trembling in their sockets, as if they were about to jump out.

Then, the facial features below her eyes began to change slowly.

Yuanyuan: "..."

She was stunned, and then her little face turned pale bit by bit. Finally, she couldn't help but scream.

She saw a large gash open in the center of the woman's face, revealing fresh red flesh. The woman's head extended outward, legs bent, and blood dripped from her mouth, falling onto her dress.

The woman asked, "Tell me, do I look beautiful?"

Yuanyuan screamed in despair, but nobody paid attention to her. Her mom was still chatting with someone not far away.

As she screamed and pleaded for her mom, tears flowing, it seemed like she could faint at any moment.

"It's so noisy! So noisy! Since you won't answer me..." The woman slowly extended her hand toward the little girl.

The girl's eyes widened in fear, full of horror. It was the first time she felt such despair and couldn't understand why she was going through this!

"What are you doing?" Suddenly, a young voice interrupted.

The woman's extended hand stopped, and not only that, her entire body froze, standing there stiff like an awkward stone.

Li Xiao Gui suddenly intervened, making the scene even stranger.

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