My organs are too abstract.

At four o'clock in the morning, the outline of Yanjiang City was blurred into a misty ink painting in the rain.

Wutong District was still asleep, with a net of drizzle intertwining with a thin mist. The halo of streetlights blurred in the damp and cold air, and the crisp sound of rain hitting the bluestone slabs was mixed with a few faint chirps of insects.

"Tap...tap..."

Footsteps approached from afar, shattering the silence of the street.

Xu Yuan jogged slowly along the street, the cold raindrops seeping into the back of his neck, sending a chill through him, but he was oblivious, his gaze fixed on a new, unfamiliar message that had just popped up on his phone screen—

Do you believe in love?

Xu Yuan stopped in his tracks under a streetlamp, staring at the inexplicable words, frowning in thought: "What does it mean?"

The message was sent by an unknown ID; the profile picture was gray.

He doesn't have many friends, and he knows exactly who his friends are, but he can't remember when this person snuck into his contact list.

However, one thing is certain: sending such nonsensical messages in the middle of the night is completely illogical.

It's either an incredibly boring prank, or it's a deliberate attempt to flirt and bait people.

Although he didn't have much personal experience, he had heard his roommates talk about these tricks quite often.

"Fine, fine," Xu Yuan sneered inwardly, "This kind of thing has fallen on my head?"

"Asking someone to believe in love without even a photo is just plain rude and disrespectful."

As a righteous college student, how could Xu Yuan sit idly by and watch this unhealthy trend?

Thinking of this, he quickly typed a line: "I'm sorry, I only trust the country and the people."

Edit, send—all in one go.

After doing all that, Xu Yuan stuffed his phone back into his pocket and quickly forgot about the little incident.

He looked up at the gray sky, his brow furrowing again, a sense of worry creeping into his heart.

"The rain is getting heavier and heavier, and I don't know when it will stop. If this keeps up, my morning run plan will be completely ruined!"

Like many other fragile college students, Xu Yuan used to lie down rather than sit, and staying up all night was the norm for him.

But ever since that sudden, strange illness a month ago, he has come to realize that health is the foundation of everything, and has been forced to consciously start exercising.

That's why, at four in the morning, when most people are still resting, he has already started his daily morning run.

Thinking of that strange illness, Xu Yuan's thoughts drifted away unconsciously, his left hand fingers rubbing together without his conscious attention. It took him a while to come back to his senses.

"I don't want to think about it anymore, I'll just run away first."

Pulling on his hood and tucking his slightly restless left hand back into his pocket, Xu Yuan was about to take a step when his phone in his pocket started vibrating continuously.

"Buzzing—"

The vibrations sounded particularly jarring on the excessively quiet streets.

"Hmm? Did that person reply to the message?"

Xu Yuan took out his phone, and the light from the screen made him squint slightly.

Contrary to expectations, the message did not come from that unfamiliar ID, but from the class group chat.

"Tsk, still up so late, what a bunch of night owls."

Xu Yuan shook his head and sighed, casually swiping the screen as his eyes quickly scanned the jumping characters.

[Chen Fei: "Warriors who are still awake, a visual feast is here! Click to see [Xingding International - Spider Woman on the Exterior Wall - High Definition and Uncensored] ↓"]

[Chen Fei: "A woman in white, carrying someone, was climbing up the exterior wall of a building. That was so exciting!"]

"Spider Woman?" Xu Yuan raised an eyebrow, and just as he was about to open the video, the message had already scrolled up quickly.

[Liu Wei: "Holy crap, is this for real? I just watched it. That posture and speed are beyond human capabilities. It's too unbelievable!"]

[Deng Xing: "? You guys are still awake? Then why didn't anyone answer me when I asked you to order something from Bingxixi?"]

Sun Minglei: "Holy crap, that scared me to death! I was going to go relieve myself, but now I'm too scared to get out of bed. Oh well, I guess I'll just pee in my pants."

Zhao Xiaogang: "You actually believe that? It's obviously fake, it's definitely a composite."

[Deng Xing: "Copy and open Pinduoduo, help me cut a slash!"]

[Deng Xing: "Hey guys, give me a hand, click this!"]

Xu Yuan's scrolling fingers paused, because the next message came from someone who rarely posts.

Wu Feng: "Whether it's true or false, it's really hard to say."

Wu Feng: "Let me tell you a personal experience. A few nights ago, when I came home, I saw a woman standing in the fire escape, facing the wall, not moving at all."

I mustered my courage and called her name twice, but she didn't respond at all. I tried to sneak past her, but suddenly she started crying and laughing, her voice terrifying. I was so scared that I turned and ran away, too afraid to even go home. I simply found an internet cafe and stayed there until dawn.

Sun Minglei: "Oh no, my stomach was hurting a bit just now. I finally mustered up the courage to go to the toilet, but now I'm even more afraid to go. Oh well, I'll just poop on the bed."

[He Xiaohui: "I've learned my lesson. Next time I stay out all night, I'll explain it to my family the same way."]

[Xu Liang: "@Wu Feng, is she still there?"]

Wu Feng: "?"

[Liu Wei: "[Shocked image] Dude, what do you want?"]

[Xu Liang: "I have a bold idea."]

"Wow," Xu Yuan, who had been a little nervous watching, was amused by the conversation. "This Xu Liang is quite something."

[Wu Feng: "@Xu Liang, I advise you to put your thoughts aside. I'm not joking, this is true! That thing is definitely not normal!"]

[Zhao Xiaogang: "It's not that mysterious. Maybe it's just a mental patient having an episode."]

This time, Wu Feng did not reply immediately, seemingly considering his words. He sent his message a while later.

Wu Feng: "If that's how you understand it, that's fine, but I still advise everyone: if you encounter anything strange, stay far away. This world isn't as simple as you think."

Xu Yuan, who was spying on the screen, saw this warning message and frowned slightly as if he had thought of something.

Just then, the avatar of administrator Su Nian popped up.

[System notification: The administrator has retracted a member's message.]

[Su Nian: "@Chen Fei, are you sick? Why are you posting such a scary video so late at night?"]

[Su Nian: @Everyone, go to sleep early, stop chatting.]

Chen Fei's desire to share was clearly not extinguished, and new messages stubbornly popped up:

[Chen Fei: "The administrator is pretty fast, but you can't suppress breaking news! I heard that several people have recently hanged themselves in Wutong District. The deaths were particularly gruesome. I've got high-resolution original photos of the scene. I'll post them!"]

[Chen Fei: "Brothers, are you ready for the soul-shaking impact? Three countdown!"]

Chen Fei: "Three!"

Chen Fei: "Two!"

Chen Fei: "One..."

[System notification: Chen Fei has been banned from speaking by the administrator for 24 hours.]

[Su Nian: "Alright, quiet down, everyone. Go to sleep, stop cultivating immortality."]

[Deng Xing: "Why are you all ignoring me?"]

[Deng Xing: "Please, brothers, click it! I'm just a few hundred percent away from withdrawing!"]

[System notification: Deng Xing has been banned from speaking by the administrator for 1 hour.]

[Su Nian: "Everything's alright now, goodnight everyone."]

The group chat fell silent, but Xu Yuan was lost in thought.

He stared at the words "suicide" and "Wutong District," his fingers pausing slightly.

Wutong District... isn't that where he lives?

He was a little worried and was just about to switch to his private chat window with Chen Fei to find out what was going on when a message popped up.

"Hehe, I think I've found my own love."

—It's a message from that stranger.

"Is this never going to end?" Xu Yuan thought to himself, annoyed, and immediately retorted, "So what?"

The other party seemed stunned by the sentence. The system kept displaying "The other party is typing," but no message came for a long time.

A while later, a new message popped up:

"I confessed my love to my ceiling fan. It was hanging on me, and my face turned red. Is this what it feels like to be in love?"

Xu Yuan chuckled: "I think you completely misunderstand the basic principles of hanging yourself."

"Theoretically speaking, ordinary household ceiling fans are lightweight designs, and their load-bearing capacity is generally only a few kilograms, which is not enough to support the weight of a person."

"Therefore, this is a lie!"

After the message was sent, the other party got stuck in a long "typing" state and didn't respond for a long time.

Xu Yuan didn't pay attention and was about to delete the other party when, with a "buzz," a picture popped up.

"Oh? It's finally time to reveal the photos?"

Xu Yuan became interested and decided to criticize the other party first before deleting them.

The loading circle spun for two seconds, and the image slowly loaded, but the content was different from what Xu Yuan had imagined.

This is a photo with low resolution, like it was taken with an old phone. The image is dark, with only one chandelier lit in the living room.

Perhaps due to the shooting technique, the lighting appeared unusually pale, making the entire room feel cold and oppressive.

But these are not the main points.

Importantly, there was a person hanging on the ceiling fan next to the chandelier.

It was a young man, wearing gray-blue plaid pajamas, with his head tilted to one side.

A thin black rope wrapped around the fan head and around her neck, leaving a deep mark. Her toes dangled straight down to the ground, making her look like a suspended puppet.

His face was ashen, his eyes bulged, and the pain of suffocation lingered on his face, but strangely...

He is laughing.

A satisfied smile, the corners of his mouth turned up, his expression serene, as if he had not died a violent death, but had tasted an unparalleled delicacy and seen what he had sought all his life.

Xu Yuan stared at the photo for two seconds, his brows gradually furrowing.

He wasn't concerned about the picture itself; after all, with current technology, it's not difficult to create such a photo, and it didn't scare him.

What really made him feel uneasy was the background behind the photo.

An old ceiling fan, walls with peeling paint, and an old-fashioned wooden sofa.

In the lower right corner of the photo, there is a glass coffee table with a dark green tablecloth underneath, the edges of which are drooping. On the coffee table is a half-empty can of cola and a potted green plant that is about to die.

I know everything about it so well that it's ingrained in my very being.

One thing after another, each event, was telling him the same thing—

That was his living room.

This man—no, to be precise, this corpse—is currently hanging in his house!

"This thing...is in my house?!"

Xu Yuan's eyes widened, and before he could think any further, two messages popped up.

Article 1.

"So you weren't home?"

Article .

"—I've come to find you."

Immediately afterwards, before Xu Yuan could react, photos popped up one after another like a screen being flooded with images, at a speed that was breathtaking.

The first picture still shows the same man hanging himself, but the background has changed; it's no longer indoors, but an outdoor street scene.

It was a distant view, with a man hanging in the distance under a streetlamp at the far end of the photo, his figure blurred.

The second picture shows the same street scene and the same distant view, but the man's figure has moved forward a little and is now hanging under a street lamp further ahead, making him appear noticeably closer than in the previous picture.

The third one is even closer now.

The fourth one, closer still.

The fifth one, the sixth one...

Photos popped up one after another, and the man's hanging figure gradually approached from afar, as if moving rapidly in a certain direction along rows of streetlights—

Move toward him!

"Holy crap?!"

Xu Yuan realized something, turned off his phone screen, and subconsciously wanted to run, but the next second, his pupils shrank and his steps came to an abrupt halt.

A strange sensation crept up his spine, like countless cold, fine needles piercing his coccyx all the way to the back of his head.

"Sizzle... sizzle..."

The streetlights overhead suddenly crackled and flickered.

He slowly raised his head, and the halo of the streetlights twisted and stretched in his vision. In the flickering light and shadow, something seemed to be taking shape.

The phone screen, which was off, suddenly lit up.

A message suddenly popped up, looking particularly jarring.

"I have arrived."

Almost at the same time.

Xu Yuan could clearly see that on the damp bluestone slab beneath his feet, besides his own shadow, there was another long, twisted shadow that did not belong to him, which was swaying slightly.

He slowly turned his head around.

Under the streetlights in the rain, the figure in the gray-blue plaid pajamas was hanging there.

That face, with its eerie smile, looked down at him, its body swaying slightly in the cold wind.

The shadow of the corpse was stretched extremely long by the light, twisting and crawling across the damp ground, all the way to Xu Yuan's feet.

Xu Yuan stared at that smiling face, remained silent for two seconds, and then suddenly sighed.

"I only have one question."

He looked up and met the eerie smiling face looking down at him.

"Don't you have a home of your own? Why do you have to hang yourself in my house?"

"?"

The smile on the corpse's face suddenly froze.