Ghostly_Apples

Chapter 2：A Tale of School Days and Supernatural Intrigue

What's the difference? " Dragging me to the front door, he said: Even if you are rich, it is good for you to know how poor people live. We don't want your life."
Oh my God, I'm going to be in trouble with this group of unreasonable people.
This party was indeed a riot. Killian's house is right behind the school gate, and his family won't be back for some time so we have the whole place to ourselves. These boys and girls are constantly messing around in the kitchen, each one of them buying ingredients with great eagerness to show off their skills. Of course I'm an exception; this person who has never been interested in cooking was kicked out on account of being in the way.
It was late at night, and we were bored. Finally, we started telling ghost stories until after 11 o'clock when everyone left in a happy mood. My home is on the same direction as his, so I went back with him.
"It's so cold." He shivered and said, "How can it be this cold in September?" I looked out, and there was a thin mist on the road. It is unbelievable that such weather would occur in summer nights of plains areas! Just as I was about to enter Nan Street where I met the red-clothed woman last time, she stopped me with an entreaty tone, saying, "Let's take the main road today."
It seems that Nan Street has power outage again. The mist is rolling at the street corner, revealing a chilling coldness. This eerie feeling makes me shiver involuntarily. "Okay." I turned my head and rode towards the main road.
The weather tonight is indeed very cold. The yellow lights on the main road blend with the thin fog, always making people feel a little eerie. We both speed up without saying anything.
"Be careful!" Suddenly he screamed. I looked out in confusion, and saw a 2- or 3-year-old child not far from me. He came out of the fog on his left side and fell down on the road. So the child started crying, looking at me who was about to run over him. Then suddenly he smiled innocently.
I gripped both brakes tightly, and the car suddenly stopped. However, due to inertia, I couldn't hold on to the handlebars for a moment, and was thrown out from in front of the bike, falling heavily onto the ground.
"Are you okay?" He asked me worriedly and helped me up.
"I have nothing, look at that child quickly. Did I hit him?" I tried all my joints and it seemed there was no big problem. Only my right arm was scratched.
"Yes, that child...". Turning around suddenly froze.
"What are you doing? Is he okay?" I turned around and looked back in dissatisfaction. Oh my God! There was no child's shadow on the road behind us, but it was empty.
"What's going on? What happened?" She trembled all over with fear and asked me tremblingly. I shook my head,
He didn't say a word and helped her get up. "Let's go." After a long time, he pushed her away from his arms. I did not ride my bike again but just walked with it.
He walked slowly beside me, his breath quickened and he dared not say a word. I moved my feet with countless thoughts in mind, only two footsteps echoed in the silence of night on this vast road.
I have no idea. Did that kid walk away by himself? But he was just a child who couldn't even get up after falling down, right? It's only 30 seconds from when I found him and threw him out to looking back at him. How could such a small child move so fast? No! Even an extremely fit adult would find it difficult to leave our sight in this short time?!
I shook my head to get rid of doubts. But what I didn't know was that there were more shocking things waiting silently ahead on this seemingly endless road...

It's colder at night. Is it really September? I pulled my coat and hurried up, "Did we meet a ghost?" I was still trembling with fear.
"Who knows?" I said impatiently. Suddenly, a faint light came from a nearby house. I looked up and saw that there was an open door in one of the houses on my right with many wreaths and paper people piled up at the entrance. There were many people inside the hall, most of them wearing white clothes, and some were crying silently. It seems like someone died again? Such a late night is still holding a funeral ceremony, it must be going to stay up all night. For some reason, I always feel that this ordinary funeral is different from what I have seen before, as if something is missing!
Obviously, she muttered softly, "It's strange. Why didn't this family play funeral music?" My head buzzed and I was stunned. Yes, why did the funeral of this family not have any funeral music? Was it because they were afraid to disturb their neighbors? Impossible, Aerelia people are very particular about being polite to the dead, even if there is a big reason no one will complain about the family who is holding the funeral. What then... what could be the reason that made this family unwilling or unable to play funeral music?
I couldn't help but look at the house more. The innermost part of the hall was the altar, where photos of the deceased were placed. It seemed to be a child about two years old. A child? Didn't you just meet such a big kid before? I shivered and walked over to see it clearly. Oh my God! The more I looked, the more similar he became. That innocent smile, that cute face and demeanor. He, suddenly appeared in front of me as if he had been crushed by myself earlier!
My brain was paralyzed like being struck by lightning. Fear spread in my heart, and that look from the photo smiled at me, and the small mouth of the crescent moon seemed to exude such a strong eerie atmosphere.
"What's wrong with you?" He asked me in a low voice while pushing my stiff body hard.
"Go in and see." I looked at her.
"What are you going to do there?" She held me back, "Don't do anything weird."
I said calmly, "There is a reason. Look at that photo on Lingtai carefully. Don't you feel like this child has met before?" She looked puzzled and suddenly froze in shock. "Is it... Is it the child on the road?" She stammered fearfully.
"I can't be sure, so I'm going to go in and take a closer look. Wait for me here." I walked towards that house. Immediately followed up: "Don't leave me alone here. I am afraid!"
The dim white light was swaying in the wind. The people dressed in white in the hall also seemed unreal under this flickering light. We walked in, bowed to the host and then took a stick of incense and burned it at the altar. I kept looking at that photo. There is no mistake! Now I can definitely say that the child I met just now is him. But he's dead! So who did I see just now? Could it really be...a ghost?
The child was afraid and pulled my sleeve, indicating that I should leave quickly. But I still couldn't believe it when I asked the owner in a testy way: "What an adorable kid! Too bad. Is he an only child?" According to my own thoughts, if this child is twins, then everything can be explained. However, the owner did not answer but nodded slightly.
I left with a belly full of questions when they didn't pay much attention to me.
"You don't know, I met a ghost again when I came home with Cain last night. Oh my God, it's already the second time. That guy is really unlucky!" This big mouth started her first day of school and was whispering to his four idiots there early in the morning.
Killian laughed loudly, "You mean you almost ran over a dead child when you were on the main road and then went to his funeral hall to look at his photo?" But I remember there was no funeral recently along that road!"
"What did you say?" I grabbed him by his collar, "You mean there have been no funerals in that place recently?"
"Impossible!" screamed back, "I saw it that day and went in. Killian, you're a liar."
Don't scare us on purpose!"
"I'm not that kind of person. You can ask Finn and Ziva, they live in that area." Killian looked at me with a tense face and suddenly surprised: "Did Clio say all this?"
I pushed him away and ran out of the door quickly, "I'm sick. Please help me ask for leave from my class teacher today."
There was a strange feeling in my heart. If Killian is right, then the funeral I met last night would be unnecessary. But myself and Mingming have attended that funeral, so could all this just be my imagination? However, I clearly remember what happened on that night!
With my head full of thoughts, I quickly arrived at the place where yesterday's funeral was held. It turned out to be a common grocery store. The owner was an old man with a thin body. Under his strong recommendation, I bought some soda that I didn't like, notebooks that were not practical and a lot of useless garbage. After struggling for a long time under his endless language attack, I finally found a chance to ask breathlessly as if it was unintentional: "Old man, how many people are there in your family?"

The old man said calmly, "It's just me. My wife died two years ago. There are no children or grandchildren below, and they don't know how long I can last."
"So, has anyone borrowed your shop to hold a funeral recently?" I asked breathlessly. Since this owner had no family members, then the funeral held last night was not his own.
"How can this be possible? Lending money to a dead person for funeral, I don't want to do business here anymore." The old man laughed loudly as if he had heard something funny.
I frowned and asked unwillingly, "So no one did funeral here last night?"
"No, no. It's been months since I've seen one. They're all dead and we're just left here."
It's unbelievable. I left the shop in a bad mood, with no clue at all. Did I really see ghosts last night?
"What's up? Did you find anything?" Someone patted me on the shoulder. Turning around, it was Killian and his three friends from school.
"There is no clue. No one held a funeral here last night, of course unless that old man at the grocery store lied." I said with headache. "Then we really met..." She swallowed the word 'ghost' in her mouth hard and fearfully.
"Let's not talk about this. How did you guys follow me?" I looked at them.
"We are a group of five in campus, and how can we not get involved with such an interesting thing?" Killian said with a smile.
"The five people in campus?" Hey, sure enough... I was confused. "So what's your excuse for being absent from school?"
"Diarrhea." Smiling.
"My stomach hurts." Finn said.
"Constipation." Jasper grimaced.
"He's malnourished." Ziva put on a serious face.
"That's a really simple reason. What did you help me think about?" I asked.
They looked at each other and burst out laughing. Laughing red-faced, he said, "It doesn't matter anyway. You'll know tomorrow. Let's discuss last night first."
I stared at their smiles, and for some reason I felt like being teased. But what was that funeral about? Was it someone's joke or a notice or warning? I got confused again.