Strange Tales Stirring Trouble

Gao Yang had a nightmare and broke his leg?
Ye Yu was stunned. She had originally planned to go find Gao Yang to cause trouble in a couple of days, but now it seemed unnecessary.
Recalling that Wu Xi had come out of Gao Yang's dorm balcony last night, an idea quickly flashed through Ye Yu's mind: could it be Wu Xi? No, even if Wu Xi was there at the time, it couldn't prove that Gao Yang's incident was Wu Xi's doing. To take a step back, even if Gao Yang's incident was Wu Xi's doing, what did that have to do with her? That black cat couldn't possibly be avenging her, could it?
Ye Yu only felt that her fleeting thought was a bit ridiculous, even a little self-important.

However, Zhao Yan Chun immediately sent several more messages:
"Not only did Gao Yang have a nightmare and break his leg, but a few days before that, three male students in our department also suffered fractures due to hallucinations."
"They said they were walking normally on the street when they suddenly tripped over something, as if someone pushed them from behind. Not only were their elbows and knees scraped, but their noses also bled. But when they turned to look, there wasn't even a small stone on the ground."
"Then they called a taxi to the hospital. On the way, while waiting for the car, they suddenly saw a gasoline tanker, as if driven by a drunk driver, swerving wildly towards them. They were so scared that they jumped aside to dodge, breaking their arms and legs. Yet, passersby who came to check on them said they didn't see any gasoline tanker at all."
"Finally, they were picked up by an ambulance. Coincidentally, those three experienced hallucinations, and Gao Yang had a nightmare. All four broke their legs. Gao Yang was in the school dormitory, while the other three incidents happened on the roadside not far from the school gate."
"Additionally, last night, around the time Gao Yang's incident occurred, someone discovered a tree had fallen in the forest behind the male dormitory. Last night was calm, with no storms or thunder, and the tree itself was very healthy, yet it suddenly snapped in half."
"I feel that these three incidents are too coincidental. I suspect it might be strange tales stirring trouble. The two Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters you know are very experienced investigators, so I want to ask for your help in guiding them to investigate. If it's just my imagination, then fine, but it's better to be safe than sorry."

Because the part-time job she had worked so hard to find was gone, Zhao Yan Chun was currently resting in her dorm, her face serious as she sent messages to Ye Yu. She didn't know the three male students from her department and didn't care about Gao Yang's life or death. She was only worried that the emergence of strange tales at Jinyang University would affect her and those around her.

Ye Yu read the messages Zhao Yan Chun sent, her heart skipping a beat.
Ye Yu: "I've been at school these past few days too, I didn't expect so many things to happen. Do you know those three male students? If we want to investigate, we have to find them and ask for details."
Zhao Yan Chun claimed not to know them. One of the three, the administrator of the confession wall, had forwarded his experience, and she just happened to see it. As for last night's incident, her roommate had told her about it as gossip after chatting with her boyfriend who also attended the school.
Ordinary people would glance at such trivial news and forget it immediately, but Zhao Yan Chun had just come into contact with the world of strange tales. It was precisely when she was prone to associating any strange occurrences in daily life with them, and her personality was extremely keen, which was why she sensed a hint of abnormality.

Ye Yu followed Zhao Yan Chun's instructions and opened Jinyang University's confession wall. Besides confessions, it contained everything: finding student IDs, looking for lost ID cards, reprimanding lunchbox thieves, and even an invitation to watch the agricultural university's pigs run loose. The administrator was a Jinyang University student nicknamed Xiang Xiang. Because the business was doing well, this confession wall was very lively.
The latest news on the confession wall was from yesterday: "Horror! Male dormitories echoed with a man's screams late at night, and soon after, countless shirtless male university students emerged from their rooms!"
"A large tree, as thick as a bowl, failed its tribulation last night and snapped at its roots! Alas, what a pity."
The experience of the three male students was even titled: "Horror! Three male university students broke their legs on flat ground, was it heatstroke or evil spirits?"
Ye Yu: ... This Xiang Xiang must have interned at a sensational news desk? No wonder Zhao Yan Chun said she liked to read the confession wall when she had nothing to do. With such a talented headline writer, this was much more interesting than her high school confession wall.
Clicking to view, they were all anonymous messages sent to Xiang Xiang, asking him to post them according to chat history. What was said there was not much different from the messages Zhao Yan Chun had sent her.
Among them, the doctor diagnosed the three male students as suffering from hallucinations caused by heatstroke, but the male student who communicated his experience to Xiang Xiang insisted that his consciousness was extremely clear at the time. He suspected that he was definitely not suffering from heatstroke, but had encountered a ghost in broad daylight, so he was seeking help on the confession wall to see if any knowledgeable classmates could recommend a master to exorcise evil spirits.
But what about the broken tree? Although she had kicked a tree with the Lan Ni Cloak last night, Lan Ni's strength was only equivalent to that of a real eight-year-old child. How could it kick down a tree as thick as a bowl?
Ye Yu meticulously reread the news on the confession wall. Finally, she let out a long breath, her eyes complex as she looked around her.
Combining these pieces of information, her intelligent brain was enough to come up with an answer: the black cat's actions against Gao Yang were indeed helping her. Not only that, it had helped her once before.
Wu Xi...
Ye Yu silently recited the name in her heart, unable to articulate her feelings. Her mind couldn't comprehend the current situation.
During the cardboard box incident, she could tell he was nearby based on Wu Xi's subtle movements, but after she retrieved the box, Wu Xi made no further moves. For over a month, she had completely returned to her solitary life, and she had originally thought Wu Xi had completely left.
Last night was the first time she had seen the cat again after returning from Jinyang Xiehe Hospital. At that time, she truly thought it was a chance encounter, and even a few minutes before that, she still thought so. She had always wondered what Wu Xi was trying to do by hiding at Jinyang University.
Now she suddenly realized, perhaps that cat had actually never left her side. He deliberately avoided her, making her mistakenly believe he had left, but he had always lingered beside her. It was even possible that he hadn't left her side for a single step. Otherwise, the conflict between her and the three male students was only a matter of minutes; how could he have known about it and intervened to teach them a lesson?
Perhaps Wu Xi's entry into Jinyang University had no special purpose, but simply because... she was there?
But what was the reason? Why would Wu Xi want to do that?
Ye Yu could understand Wu Xi's reluctance to be controlled by others, his eventual betrayal, and his forced解除 (解除 -解除 is "release/lift" in this context, but in the previous sentence it's "forced to lift" or "forcibly dissolved" the binding) of the binding with her. But these recent events made her somewhat unable to grasp the cat's logic.
If he wanted to follow her, why did he leave before? If he had left, why did he still want to secretly follow her?
What benefit was there for Wu Xi in doing this? What could he gain from her?
Ye Yu was accustomed to living alone. She had a strong desire for control and was used to clarifying everything around her, which gave her a sense of security. But now, Wu Xi's inexplicable behavior made her feel a little awkward.

She had sent a message to Zhao Yan Chun, telling her not to worry and that she would handle the matter. Immediately after, she bought a cup of milk tea and leisurely strolled around the campus.
The education zone was originally a suburban area, so Jinyang University covered a vast area with ample greenery. In the distance, one could still see the dense, lush trees on the mountain behind the school.
It was summer, and in the school's lotus pond, large patches of lotus flowers bloomed, just as the poem says: "The boundless lotus leaves reach the sky, reflecting the sun with a unique shade of red."
Unfortunately, due to the scorching sun and the fact that the semester hadn't started yet, there were very few students on campus. At this moment, besides Ye Yu, no one was enjoying the scenery. In the middle of the pond was a renovated pavilion.
Ye Yu seemed to rarely have such leisure and comfort. She drank milk tea while entering the pavilion to enjoy the beautiful scenery. Outside the pavilion was the open water, along with large patches of lotus leaves and flowers covering the surface.
Suddenly, a pale-faced woman, with black patterns on one side of her face, appeared blankly in the water next to the pond. She seemed like a water ghost, emerging half her head from the still, mirror-like surface. Her dark eyes, devoid of whites, stared terrifyingly upwards.
The lotus pond had an irregular shape, and beside the pond was a ring of emerald green grass. On the grass, besides beautiful willow trees, many other tall, dense trees were planted at intervals.
And the tree in front of Hei Jing was the closest one to the pavilion. Unlike the sparse, open willow canopy, this tree had strong, dark green leaves and a dense canopy that formed its own world, perfect for hiding.
And just as Hei Jing looked up at the tree, she happened to see a black tail dangling as if startled, suddenly retracting.
Ye Yu didn't expect her guess to be so accurate, nor did she expect all her previous conjectures to be true—this cat had really been secretly following her all along!
In broad daylight, out of caution, Ye Yu didn't dare to let Hei Jing make any big moves. After confirming that Wu Xi was indeed following her, she retracted Hei Jing and walked towards the tree, staring intently.
"Wu Xi... Come down first."
Ye Yu walked to the base of the tree and looked up at the dense canopy. "Don't hide, I saw your tail. Come down, let's talk."
There was still no movement in the tree. Ye Yu frowned. Impatient, she simply reached out and grabbed, then kicked off the ground and climbed the tree. But when she reached the canopy, Ye Yu's eyebrows furrowed even tighter.
All she saw in the canopy were leaves upon leaves. She pushed aside the dense foliage and saw a small bird's nest on the tree trunk where she had just seen the cat's tail dangling. In the nest, several chicks suddenly saw the covering leaves pushed aside, and a human face larger than their entire bodies appeared before them, immediately chirping in fear. One of them even pooped on the spot out of fright. It was both pitiful and adorable.
"Damn it!"
Ye Yu was so angry that she gritted her teeth. She knew very well that Wu Xi was definitely still nearby, perhaps in some corner, secretly watching her. But she also knew that after Wu Xi recovered his strength, he became even more elusive. As long as he didn't want to appear, she had no way to directly catch him.
But the more Wu Xi acted this way, the more Ye Yu wanted to catch him, and the more she wanted to understand what this cat was thinking.
She suppressed her anger and jumped down from the tree, quickly calculating in her heart: a difference in strength didn't matter; she could find a way to make that cat voluntarily come out...

As Ye Yu calculated, she walked towards the pavilion, preparing to take her milk tea back to the dorm to plan slowly. But when she reached the pavilion and looked up, she realized that the cup of milk tea she had placed on the table in the pavilion had vanished without a trace!
"Wu Xi!"
Ye Yu's face darkened. She gritted her teeth and enunciated each word of the name.
This guy stealing her milk tea was clearly telling her: "That's right, he's still around, he heard what Ye Yu said, but he's pretending not to hear, deliberately refusing to meet her!"
Before, Ye Yu had felt a secret joy because the black cat had secretly helped her. Now, this mysterious joy immediately turned into fuel, igniting a furious flame in her heart.
Normally, if this happened with someone else, Ye Yu would at most frown. But with Wu Xi, for some reason, Ye Yu was extremely angry, so angry that she wished she could bite that cat.
"Barbecue, Coca-Cola, milk tea every day, you'll get fat and die, just you wait!"
Ye Yu left a vicious curse, then angrily turned and left.
Not long after she left, in the shadows under the pavilion table, a streak of shadow flowed out, transforming into a handsome man with an arrogant face. His large, slender hand held a cup of milk tea. He smugly sucked up the last pearl at the bottom of the cup, then with a casual flick of his hand, the empty milk tea cup accurately landed in the trash can by the pond in the distance.
"Ah, foolish," the handsome man said arrogantly. "I'm not human, how can I get fat?"

*

In Zhao Yan Chun's dorm, her roommate, who had just rushed back from her hometown with luggage, walked through the door, smiling and greeting everyone.
"Hi, I'm back. Did you miss me?"
Tang Nian Ke, Zhao Yan Chun, and another roommate, Sun Yi, were all present. With Wu Na's arrival, the four-person room was now complete. The three immediately welcomed her with smiles.
Wu Na, upon returning, eagerly opened her luggage. "Look what I brought for you guys! Ta-da! My mom's homemade dried beef and the chili sauce you all used to love!"
The other three immediately brightened up, cheering excitedly. They first helped Wu Na unpack, then ate the dried beef she shared. Sitting and lying casually, they chatted about their summer vacation experiences. The four girls talked and laughed, and the atmosphere in the dorm was very harmonious.
Suddenly, Zhao Yan Chun's phone rang. Her phone was old and cracked from a fall, but she didn't feel ashamed using such a phone. She comfortably and openly took it out to the balcony to answer. However, just a few seconds after the call connected, her expression changed.
Tang Nian Ke: "Xiao Chun, what's wrong?"
Zhao Yan Chun tried to maintain her expression. "Nothing, my family called and said there's something going on at home, asking me to go back for a trip." As she spoke, she grabbed her bag and quickly left the dorm.
Wu Na was puzzled: "Why is she leaving in such a hurry? Is there an emergency at home?"
Sun Yi frowned: "Could it be Zhao Yan Chun's father calling?"
Sun Yi had only met Zhao Yan Chun's father once, not at school, but at a fast-food restaurant near the school. At that time, Zhao Yan Chun was working there part-time, and Sun Yi had gone there to eat. Zhao Yan Chun's father, reeking of alcohol, drunkenly stumbled into his daughter's workplace, reaching out his hand to demand money. If she didn't give it, he would even resort to violence, eventually causing such a scene that Zhao Yan Chun was fired on the spot, losing her job just like that!
Sun Yi, who came from a harmonious family, was stunned at the time. How could there be such a father in this world?!
Sun Yi didn't disclose this matter to others, so Wu Na didn't understand the hidden meaning in her words. Tang Nian Ke, who had the best relationship with Zhao Yan Chun, knew a little about Zhao Yan Chun's family situation. So, upon hearing this, a hint of worry immediately flashed in her eyes. She couldn't help but stand up. But remembering Zhao Yan Chun's usual expression of not wanting her to interfere in this matter, she ultimately didn't go out with her.

Zhao Yan Chun rushed out of school, specifically booking a car on her phone, but she wasn't going home as she said. Instead, she headed straight for Jinyang People's Hospital.
The call just now was from her uncle, informing her that her aunt had been in a car accident. She had been rushed to the emergency room and was now in the ICU. The doctor said her brain was severely injured, and she was currently in a coma, with no way to predict when she would wake up.
Her two cousins were in other places and were currently on their way back, expected to arrive tonight. He wanted to ask if she could come and see her. If the situation worsened... this might be the last time they met.
Zhao Yan Chun's hands and feet instantly turned cold when she heard this on the phone. Her mother had died young. In her family, there was only a father addicted to alcohol, domestic violence, and gambling. And this father had disliked her since she was a child. Yan Chun... Yan Chun... Because she was born in spring and was an unexpected child to him, her name was Yan Chun.
It could be said that she had grown up entirely thanks to the care of her aunt and uncle. If it weren't for her gambling-addicted father, who stubbornly refused to give up her custody rights in order to extort money from her aunt, she might have been adopted by her aunt and uncle long ago.
Therefore, in Zhao Yan Chun's heart, her aunt was her second mother. She had always been very grateful for her aunt's upbringing, which prevented her from becoming extreme and disillusioned with life due to her father's influence.
When Zhao Yan Chun's mother died young, she was still very small and didn't remember anything, but even so, her mother's early death still caused her sadness whenever she recalled it. But now, she was an adult, and she didn't want to lose her aunt again, to lose another mother!
So, as soon as she rushed into the hospital and found her uncle, whose eyes were clearly swollen from crying, Zhao Yan Chun didn't hesitate to give him her bank card and also told him the password.
Zhao Yan Chun knew very well that staying in the ICU for one day cost ten to twenty thousand yuan. Her aunt's family was just an ordinary working-class family, with two children to raise. And because of her, her aunt was suppressed by her gambling-addicted father. To give her a slightly better life, her aunt had to reluctantly give her father a sum of money every month. This draining situation continued until she was fourteen and learned about it. Moreover, it only ended after she smashed a bottle of alcohol over her father's head.
So her aunt's family was not wealthy. Furthermore, her uncle had undergone a major surgery for an illness the year before, and their finances were already thin, so there probably wasn't much left.
"This card has fifty thousand yuan that I've saved. If it's not enough, I'll find a way to get more money. Uncle, promise me, don't give up until the very last moment!"
Zhao Yan Chun tightly held her uncle's hand, staring into his eyes, afraid that he wouldn't be able to bear the pressure and would give up on her aunt.
Her uncle, with red-rimmed eyes, recoiled. "What are you trying to do? I didn't call you here for this. This money is what you've worked so hard to save over the years. Take it back quickly. If you give this to me, what about your next tuition fees? Your father..."
Just then, a middle-aged man's figure abruptly stepped in, his large hand reaching out to snatch Zhao Yan Chun's bank card.
"Well, well, I finally caught you, didn't I? I knew you damn brat were hiding a lot of money. Damn it, fifty thousand yuan, you won't give it to your own father, but you give it to him?!"
This red-nosed, pot-bellied man was Zhao Yan Chun's father, Zhao Zhi, an addict to cigarettes, alcohol, and gambling. If Zhao Zhi still had a semblance of a human being in his youth, now, immersed in the pleasure brought by drunkenness and gambling, sinking deeper and deeper, he was clearly a scumbag.
He reeked of alcohol, his mouth emitting a strong alcoholic stench when he opened it. His clothes were also wrinkled, and it was unclear where he had returned from after a night of drunken gambling.
"Get out!" Although Zhao Yan Chun had endured for several days when facing Gao Yang's subordinates causing trouble at the milk tea shop, facing her scumbag father, she kicked him with a disgusted expression.
Zhao Zhi, whose body had long been hollowed out by cigarettes and alcohol, staggered from the kick. Drunkenly, he immediately became enraged, raising his fist and swinging it towards Zhao Yan Chun: "I'm your father, you don't give me money and you even hit me, that's truly heaven-defying!"
Zhao Yan Chun was seething with anger. She shoved the bank card into her uncle's hand, then directly grabbed Zhao Zhi by the collar and rained punches and kicks upon him.
This sudden turn of events caused patients and medical staff around to cry out in fear. Her uncle tried to intervene.
He was a man with relatively traditional thinking, believing that Zhao Zhi was, after all, his wife's brother-in-law, and now that such a thing had happened, he should at least be informed. He had no idea Zhao Zhi would show up, nor did he expect Zhao Yan Chun to have just shoved the bank card into his hand, which Zhao Zhi happened to see.
Zhao Yan Chun was a person of few words when angry. Facing her uncle's pleas, she simply remained silent, raining punches on Zhao Zhi like a downpour. Because of her brutal attacks, blood could even be seen on her knuckles. Zhao Zhi was beaten so badly that he lost a molar, then, terrified, he clutched his head and knelt on the ground, begging for help.
Her uncle was also startled by Zhao Yan Chun's appearance at this moment, and in his daze, he seemed to see many years ago.
Before Zhao Yan Chun was fourteen, he and his wife had to give Zhao Yan Chun's father, Zhao Zhi, a sum of money every year. That year, when fourteen-year-old Zhao Yan Chun heard about this, she smashed a bottle of alcohol over Zhao Zhi's head, causing it to bleed and require eight stitches at the hospital. This not only scared Zhao Zhi but also frightened them.
They feared Zhao Yan Chun would do something extreme again, such as stabbing Zhao Zhi to death, so they stopped giving money to Zhao Zhi. But at the same time, Zhao Zhi, who couldn't get money but still held custody of Zhao Yan Chun, after Zhao Yan Chun graduated from junior high and completed nine years of compulsory education, stopped providing her with tuition and living expenses, intending to throw her into a relative's factory to work.
When they heard about this before, they once again had the idea of taking Zhao Yan Chun home. But the child who, at five or six, called them mother and father, wishing to go home with them immediately, after growing up to fourteen, resolutely refused their invitation.
Zhao Yan Chun took a year off from school. She didn't go to their home, nor did she succumb to Zhao Zhi's arrangements. Instead, she collected trash to sell for money, and at night, she set up a street stall at the night market. She worked hard to earn enough money for her living expenses and tuition. She returned to school once more.
Her uncle was heartbroken by Zhao Yan Chun's hardships at the time. Zhao Yan Chun herself no longer remembered these things. She only remembered that while she was taking a break from school to earn money, Zhao Zhi had repeatedly tried to snatch her money for drinking and gambling. Naturally, she refused, and the two would fight.
Because of his previous experience of being hit on the head with a bottle, Zhao Zhi was afraid of death and didn't dare to go too far. Fourteen-year-old Zhao Yan Chun couldn't beat an adult, but each time she could rely on her desperate ruthlessness to protect her money. However, because of this, her body was often covered in bruises back then.
Ye Yu had once wondered where Zhao Yan Chun's wild fighting skills came from. In fact, it was very simple. Besides fighting the hooligans who tried to force her, Zhao Zhi's daughter, to pay off her father's debts, and the adults who took advantage of her youth to bully her during her part-time jobs, Zhao Yan Chun's father was her longest-standing 'training partner'.
When Zhao Yan Chun was 16, although her life was very hard, she also grew much taller and stronger due to continuous study and labor. From then on, she began to be able to fight with Zhao Zhi, that useless man. And after 18, after she became an adult, she began to overpower Zhao Zhi in fights.
Unfortunately, Zhao Zhi was an alcoholic and gambler who was desperate for money. He didn't remember the beatings; he only remembered that Zhao Yan Chun definitely had money. Every now and then, he would return to Zhao Yan Chun's workplace to cause trouble, trying to force Zhao Yan Chun to give him money, or to make her boss give him Zhao Yan Chun's wages.
Zhao Yan Chun had never thought of giving money like her aunt, to endure for peace. She would occasionally tolerate it, but there were also times when she couldn't control herself and directly fought with Zhao Zhi. Her mobile phone was also dropped and broken in such situations, and she frequently changed jobs precisely for this reason.