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Chapter 1
Full Charm Points Attract Filth
“Shen Junxing, are you there?”
The reply came almost instantly from the other side of the chat app.
“What’s wrong, Xiaoyu?”
Curled up under his blanket, Tang Yu stared at the cold glow of his phone screen. The light reflected off his pale blue eyes — eyes that flickered with nervousness and a trace of madness. His fingers trembled as he typed rapidly.
“There’s something I need to tell you. It sounds ridiculous, but everything I say is true!”
His words were rushed, disjointed. The person on the other side replied gently:
“Xiaoyu, I’ll always believe you. I’m here with you.”
Just that calm, steady message was enough to soothe Tang Yu’s taut nerves a little. He could almost picture Shen Junxing’s gentle and dependable face, hear his unhurried voice.
Shen Junxing — his childhood friend. The one who’d always looked after him, solving every little problem in his life. He was the warm light shining into Tang Yu’s shadowed existence.
Tang Yu took a shaky breath.
“Lately, I keep feeling like someone’s watching me. No matter what I’m doing, no matter where I am — even when I go back to my room, pull the curtains, and hide under the blanket — that gaze doesn’t go away. It’s like something’s following me everywhere.”
His shoulders quivered slightly. Every muscle along his spine was drawn tight under that unseen gaze. Beneath his pale skin, the elegant lines of his bones seemed to stand out even more sharply.
“I’m not being paranoid, I’m not having a breakdown. I can tell — there really is someone following me!”
As he typed, his blue eyes flicked restlessly around the darkened room. Red veins webbed across the whites of his eyes. Pulling the blanket tighter around himself, he typed with trembling fingers:
“This morning, when I woke up, I couldn’t find the socks I took off last night. I muttered to myself about it, then went to wash up. But when I came back — the missing sock was lying right there on my bed.”
“Before I went into the bathroom, I checked the bed! I even stripped the whole thing and remade it — there was nothing there!”
The fabric wrapped around his intertwined legs. His bare ankles, almost too white, peeked out from his pant cuffs; his toes curled unconsciously.
“I wanted to run out of the room right away, but I was afraid whoever it is might be hiding in the living room. So I checked the bedroom first. You know my room — you can tell at a glance if someone’s here. The wardrobe’s divided into small cubbies — no way anyone could hide inside unless they could shrink themselves. The bed’s so low, even a cat couldn’t crawl under it. And the curtains are short — if someone were behind them, I’d see immediately.”
“There was no one. So I locked the door from the inside.”
“Then I called the police. They said they’d be here soon.”
His long eyelashes trembled uncontrollably, a feverish flush staining his eyelids. He looked as if he might cry at any second.
“But then… that feeling came back again. The feeling that someone’s in the room with me.”
“Shen Junxing, I don’t know what to do anymore…”
He gripped his phone as though it were the last piece of driftwood keeping him from drowning. Oh, how he wished Shen Junxing could appear right beside him right now.
Ding!
His phone vibrated suddenly. A new message popped up.
Shen Junxing:
[Video]
A strange video.
Dim lighting. A high, overlooking angle. A bed — and under the blanket, a human-shaped lump. The curtains on the left side of the bed were drawn tight. The wardrobe on the right stood wide open.
Tang Yu’s neck creaked slightly as he turned his head to the right, movements mechanical, doll-like. His empty blue eyes stared at the all-too-familiar yet foreign scene on the screen.
Shen Junxing:
[Video]
The next video was nearly black and white. Scattered bits of junk — a paper ball, a hanger, a snack wrapper. At the edge of the frame lay a pair of slippers, tossed carelessly aside.
That was the view from under the bed.
The bed was so low it was almost impossible to clean underneath. Tang Yu himself had never seen the space so clearly before.
Shen Junxing:
[Video]
The same dim light, the same room — but from another angle. From this one, you could see the rise and fall of the blanket on the bed.
Shen Junxing:
[Video]
Another angle.
Shen Junxing:
[Video]
A messy bathroom, wet footprints stamped on the floor.
Shen Junxing:
[Video]
A bright living room — a sofa with a jacket thrown over it, a coffee table with flowers, a dining table with a glass of milk.
Shen Junxing:
[Video]
A spotless kitchen.
Shen Junxing:
[Video]
A small balcony, clothes on hangers swaying gently in the breeze.
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
The phone kept chiming, the shrill notification sounds filling the small bedroom. Tang Yu’s nerves stretched to the breaking point.
Then — movement.
In one of the videos, the blanket on the bed stirred. Slowly, a face emerged.
Under the dim light, that face seemed to blaze with impossible color — beauty so sharp it hurt to look at.
If you covered the upper half — the bulging veins at the temple, the furrowed black brows, the bloodshot blue eyes — the curve of the lips alone looked almost like a smile.
His slender neck trembled, as though it couldn’t bear the weight of all that emotion. The corners of his mouth twitched — up, then down — and finally froze into a fragile smile that looked one breath away from breaking into sobs.
Shen Junxing:
“Xiaoyu, don’t be afraid.”
Across dozens of different video feeds, Tang Yu saw the same figure — the man curled under the blanket — staggering to his feet. Wrapped in white bedding, he stumbled, fell, then dragged himself up again. Pale feet slipped free from the tangled sheets.
Shen Junxing:
“I checked for you. There’s only you in the house.”
He watched that figure, wild and desperate, lurch out of the bedroom.
Shen Junxing:
“Really — only you.”
Tang Yu’s lips parted; his teeth clenched tight. The skin along his throat fluttered with his heavy breathing, as though there were a frenzied heart beating beneath.
His childhood friend. The righteous, sunny Shen Junxing.
That watchful gaze.
That shadow hiding in the dark.
