Welcome to the Bizarre Games

Chapter 45 Friends
Just as Zhou You was lost in thought, a bell suddenly rang in his ears.

It's "Ode to Joy".

It took him about ten seconds to realize that it was his own phone ringing.

"Damn, these last few dungeons have made me forget that technology even exists in this world."

Zhou You frantically searched around, and after a long while, he finally found his phone in some hidden corner.

The call connected, and a familiar voice came from the phone.

"Hey? Old Zhou? Are you still alive?"

Upon hearing the voice, Zhou You paused for a moment, then couldn't help but smile.

He knew the person on the other end of the phone.

The other person was his college roommate, and they had a pretty good relationship. Unlike him, this person came from a well-off family. His father was a small contractor. After graduation, he didn't look for a job but followed in his father's footsteps and traveled around. He only recently returned.

"Isn't this Li Sanli, Li Da Nao? You're such a busy man, weren't you off building your own business empire? What brings you to call me?"

The other person let out a dry laugh.

"I just missed you guys, brothers. I've been hanging out with the civil engineering guys on the construction site for too long, and I'm starting to wonder how my sons are doing. By the way, when are we guys free to get together again?"

The other person rambled on about a bunch of unrelated topics, just like an ordinary old friend chatting about everyday things. However, Zhou You still noticed that, for some reason, there was a hint of unease in Li Sanli's words.

Half a day later, the other party hesitantly revealed their true purpose.

"Hey Lao Zhou, I remember your grandfather used to study folk culture, right?"

Zhou You was taken aback.

His grandfather did like these things, and he had mentioned them to his roommates when they were chatting. But the problem is that the old man was just an enthusiast at best, and he has passed away now, so why is the other person asking this?
Li Sanli immediately said.

"Well, since you're studying folklore, you should know some experts, right? Could you introduce me to one?"

Zhou You didn't answer directly, but instead frowned and asked a question in return.

"Why are you looking for an expert? Is it haunted?"

There was a pause on the other end of the phone, followed by a wry laugh.

"—Yes, you're right."

"I've really been fucking haunted lately."
-
The next day, noon.

In a Starbucks near the university, Zhou You had an iced coffee in front of him and was looking hesitantly at someone.

In Zhou You's memory, this roommate was slightly overweight (according to himself), weighing around 220 pounds, and his body shape had always been oval.

But in just a short time, he had become so thin that he looked like a willow tree in the wind, and he seemed about to collapse just by standing there.

"Um, you're Li Sanli, Li Da Nao, right?"

To prevent himself from misremembering, Zhou You asked again to confirm.

"What, you can't even recognize your own roommate?"

That's what the other person said, but after looking at himself, the bitter smile on his face deepened.

"Well, what you're thinking isn't wrong. I probably wouldn't even recognize my own father now."

Seeing the other person's sighing expression, Zhou You couldn't help but ask.

"What exactly has happened to you lately? What do you mean by 'encountering a ghost'?"

The man first took a deep sip of his iced coffee, savoring the bitter taste in his mouth, before lifting his extremely haggard face and saying, "Hey Lao Zhou, you remember I got a girlfriend a few months ago, right?"

Zhou You nodded.

That's true. Back then, that fat guy bragged about it to them for several days, with a smug look on his face. Zhou You had also seen the girl's photo. Although she wasn't a beauty that was one in a million, she was definitely above average.

He and his other roommates lamented for a long time about how it was like a beautiful flower stuck in cow dung; this fat guy had incredibly good luck to have gotten such a beautiful girl.

But what does this have to do with ghosts?

Seeing his puzzled expression, Li Sanli continued with a bitter face.

"Actually, this ghost sighting is related to my girlfriend."

"Did you hook up with a female ghost?"

".no."

"Is your girlfriend coming after you to kill her?"

“.Not really.”

"Why is that?"

Li Sanli, with a bitter face, carefully considered his words for a while before speaking.

"Well, Xuanxuan is perfect in every way—gentle, considerate, beautiful, and kind—she's practically the ideal girlfriend." Seeing Zhou You's rather unfriendly gaze, Li Sanli quickly stopped his public display of affection in front of the single guy. "However, she does have one flaw: she's particularly fond of supernatural and ghostly things. She always likes to buy things like witchcraft and sorcery. Before, nothing ever happened, so I didn't pay much attention, but the problem is..."

"—It seems she managed to buy the real thing a while ago."

"What do you mean?"

Upon hearing Zhou You's question, Li San continued with a bitter expression.

"About three months ago, she asked someone to get her a table, supposedly something left over from a murder scene. I found it quite creepy, but I didn't say anything about her hobby. Then, just a few days later, she suddenly came to me and told me that she had seen a ghost."

“You know, people who frequently come into contact with these things are often a bit neurotic. I was busy with work at the time and thought she was just being a little sensitive, so I casually comforted her and told her to just throw away that table and forget about it.”

"But just two days later, she suddenly came to me, looking terrified, and told me that the table had come back."

Li Sanli swallowed hard, and fear appeared on his face.

"I was baffled. How could something that's already been thrown away come back? A broken table can't possibly have legs, right? So I temporarily put down what I was doing and helped her throw the table away again. Then we lived together for a few more days. Nothing happened at first. Just when I thought the matter was over, one morning I suddenly saw that the table had reappeared in the room."

"We were both terrified. We quickly threw the table away, but then it started coming back more and more frequently, and strange things started happening in the house. Even though no one was touching it, the lights would suddenly turn on, we could occasionally hear laughter from somewhere in the hallway, and even bloody handprints appeared on the windows—"

"—Later I found out that once someone takes this thing home, it will cling to them and refuse to leave, and if you want to return it, the seller has already run away."

"So you didn't ask anyone to take a look?"

Zhou You suddenly interrupted Li Sanli's increasingly neurotic speech.

The other person paused for a moment, then gave an even more bitter smile.

"I've been looking for him ever since that table first came back. Who would have thought that all those so-called eminent monks and virtuous masters were just empty titles, each one more useless than the last. One of them even got so scared that he ended up in the hospital. Otherwise, I wouldn't have risked my life to come to you and see if the old man knew any extraordinary people in his life."

"I'm sorry, but my grandfather used to be quite withdrawn. Let alone experts, apart from his coworkers, I've hardly ever seen any relatives come to visit me growing up."

Li Sanli's disappointment was palpable. He sighed and was about to go to the front desk to pay the bill when Zhou You suddenly stopped him.

"Although we don't have any experts, we do have a close friend. How about I go with you to take a look first?"

(End of this chapter)