Smoke and Fire [GL] - Chapter 1

“Folks, what you’re seeing now is the once-in-a-century biggest storm surge!”

The scene cuts, and the content creator, who calls himself “Brother Tian,” excitedly gestures in the live stream room: “Send up those little rockets, folks! Brother Tian is taking you for a close-up look!”

The camera swings, pointing vaguely at the sea, blurry and indistinct in the heavy rain.

“What is this person sending? Look behind? Look behind at what…”

Suddenly, the man’s voice trails off, as if he has seen something that defies all rational explanation, “Ay, holy cow, holy cow!!”

“Ahhhhhhh!!”

…

Luo Yao tapped the screen, and the screaming stopped abruptly.

Her slender eyelashes were slightly lowered, and for the umpteenth time, she dragged the progress bar, trying to capture that one blurry frame in the shaking footage.

But soon, she sighed silently.

Ten-odd seconds later, the video began a new loop: “Folks, what you’re seeing now is the once-in-a-century…”

“Oh, my God.”

As if hearing the familiar opening line again, a girl beside her climbed up from her seat and said faintly, “Luo Yao, you’ve been watching this the whole way, aren’t you tired?”

Hearing this, Luo Yao looked up from her screen and smiled sweetly.

“Did I disturb your sleep?” Her voice was very gentle, though the content wasn’t exactly kind, “Fine, when we hand in the report back at school, you can remove your own name.”

“…”

The girl instantly flipped over and latched onto Luo Yao’s arm, “Don’t be like that, beautiful big sister~ I’m relying entirely on you to pass this time, I’d be fine with three days without sleep for you~”

The beautiful big sister smiled and pushed her away.

As if catching a key phrase, two light sneers came from the back seat: “Yi An, aren’t you just relying on a dice roll to not fail?”

Yi An: “…”

Objectively speaking, there wasn’t much wrong with that statement.

Luo Yao, Yi An, and the two girls in the back were all second-year undergraduate students in Folklore Studies at Baihua University, and they were also roommates. But Yi An actually disliked the two in the back very much—the reason was simple, they were just too fond of being sarcastic.

It was like they had a vendetta against the entire world.

Compared to them, Luo Yao seemed exceptionally gentle and considerate; even though she would mercilessly snatch away Yi An’s cheat sheet during closed-book exams, she would also wait for her outside the retake exam hall, hand her a cup of milk tea without ice, and smile, saying, “Try to remember this next time.”

If this trip to Yunshan Village was only with Luo Yao, Yi An would be more than willing, after all, Luo Yao’s smile was absolutely captivating, and she always smelled nice. So, after lying in the beautiful big sister’s arms for a while, Yi An completely forgot the unpleasantness from earlier.

The old, rattling bus finally screeched to a halt with a “squeak—” just as Yi An was about to be shaken back to sleep.

“We’re at Wulian Temple, those getting off hurry up.”

The driver’s voice came from the driver’s seat.

Cangzhou City had just experienced the storm surge claimed to be once-in-a-century, and the coastal area was completely impassable to traffic, so they were dropped off at Wulian Temple, two kilometers away from Yunshan Village.

The bus left in an instant, as if afraid to linger.

Yi An breathed in the humid air of the outskirts and found the air so damp and cold it felt like it was sticking to her skin, which was very uncomfortable.

She picked up her phone, checked the time, and complained, “It’s almost seven. Let’s hurry up and book a hotel. I need a bath—the humidity by the sea is terrible, I’m so uncomfortable.”

Luo Yao’s slender fingers paused, and she looked up from her phone at Yi An, slowly saying, “But we’re not staying in a hotel this time.”

“…?!” Yi An nearly passed out on the spot, turning sharply to the two culprits who had just gotten off the bus: “Si Yin, Tan Tan, explain yourselves?”

The two who were cued looked up at her in unison; one continued applying makeup, choosing selective deafness.

“Explain what, do you have an objection?”

—And the other, though not deaf, might as well have been; it was Si Yin, who had openly mocked her on the bus, maintaining her usual level of sarcasm.

“Are you here to do research or to vacation? I booked the closest guesthouse to Yunshan Village. Come on, recite the purpose of our visit to Yunshan Village this time?”

“…Five days ago, a content creator approached the storm surge disastrously and filmed a figure in the center of the storm, suspected to be the Sea God worshipped in Yunshan Village, and then went missing,” Yi An said dryly. “And so we came. The research results will count towards our final grades.”

“Oh, you still remember?” Si Yin feigned surprise. “I thought you were here for tourism. If you have an objection, you can sleep on the street. I don’t know about others, but I don’t mind.”

Si Yin was not ugly; on the contrary, she had a certain heroic quality that common girls lacked, but combined with her mouth, she practically carried an aggro-harvesting buff.

Yi An was so angry that sparks were flying from her hair; she was just thinking that no one could stop her today, when she suddenly heard Luo Yao speak up beside her: “Alright, we haven’t even reached the place yet and you’re fighting. Si Yin, control your temper.”

Si Yin snorted but surprisingly said nothing.

Yi An instantly forgot what she had just been thinking, about to hug Luo Yao and cheer, “Lady Knight is the best,” when she saw the Lady Knight sister turn to her and say, “However, Si Yin is right. Forget about staying in a hotel.”

Yi An: “…Woe.”

The four of them walked away laughing and scolding along the overgrown dirt path.

But no one seemed to notice something vaguely flashing through the mulberry bushes by the roadside.

Because of the timely suppression of the argument, the group arrived at the guesthouse later than expected. The sun was only a sliver, casting a gloomy light.

The guesthouse was originally called “Ligui Guesthouse,” but perhaps due to years of disrepair, the “麗” (Li) and “瑰” (Gui) characters’ radical lights were broken, leaving the remaining three characters to flash on and off intermittently, which looked a little spooky.

“I-is anyone there?”

Yi An rubbed the goosebumps on her arms, bracing herself to look into the dark interior.

“Give me a break, you’re so brave.” The last girl, who hadn’t said much, scoffed, tossed her long hair, and casually threw her bag into Yi An’s arms before stepping inside.

“…Crap,” Yi An was caught off guard and nearly dropped to her knees, swallowing her irritation, “Tan Tan, what do you have in your bag, it’s so heavy…”

“Makeup, duh.” Tan Tan’s voice came from the hallway, sounding muffled.

Si Yin also went in with her luggage, but Luo Yao leaned against the door, only retracting her gaze when Yi An entered.

“If you’re scared, stand behind me,” she said softly.

Yi An turned back into a blubbering mess, this time out of pure gratitude.

Maybe it was just a feeling, but although Yi An wasn’t good at Feng Shui, she felt something was very wrong the moment she entered the building—at the very least, a long corridor directly facing the main entrance is called a “Heart-Piercing Evil” (穿心煞), which is a major taboo.

“Hiss…”

She shivered. Even though it was May, it was unusually cold inside this house. In fact, she had felt uncomfortable ever since getting off the bus.

Coupled with the “creak, creak” sound of the old floorboards, she felt uneasy and subconsciously leaned closer to Luo Yao, only to find that Luo Yao felt colder than herself.

“Luo Yao, are you very cold?” Yi An was too preoccupied with fear. If she had been more sensitive, she would have felt that “Luo Yao’s” limbs were a little stiff and lacked her familiar body fragrance.

“Y-yes… ah…”

A soft whisper sounded in her ear: “I’m so cold… accompany me… come and accompany me…”

No matter how slow Yi An was, she realized something was wrong. Her entire body from her toes to the crown of her head exploded with fear, and she let out a gut-wrenching scream: “Ahhhhhh, holy crap—!!”

Just then, she suddenly bumped into something. She instinctively pushed it away but heard an extremely familiar voice.

“What’s wrong?” Luo Yao’s beautiful eyebrows furrowed slightly, her right hand guarding Yi An’s head, or else Yi An would have hit the wall the next second.

“I, I…”

Strangely, the moment Luo Yao appeared, all of Yi An’s strange feelings vanished. The house instantly became a normal guesthouse, and even the previously dim lighting warmed up significantly.

In this situation, Yi An wouldn’t even believe herself if she said she had just bumped into a ghost, especially after catching the mocking glances of Si Yin and Tan Tan.

Can’t let them look down on me!

“…I-I just saw a mouse,” Yi An stammered for a long time before finally uttering.

Si Yin said coolly, “I thought she was going to say she saw a ghost, she’s more dedicated than a screaming chicken.”

Tan Tan let out an undisguised laugh.

“It’s good that you’re okay.” Luo Yao brushed off the wall dust that had rubbed onto Yi An and then looked towards the counter covered in dust. “Is the owner here?”

After a moment of silence, a slightly overweight middle-aged man walked out from a small door behind the counter, squeezing himself behind the counter and saying repeatedly, “Ah, yes, yes.”

“We booked two rooms online,” Luo Yao said.

“Ay, just a moment.” The owner squatted down, fumbled around in a cabinet, and finally pulled out two rusty keys, placing them on the wooden counter.

Yi An was about to reach for them but was blocked by Luo Yao.

Yi An heard her ask calmly, “Sir, don’t you need to check the records?”

It wasn’t a mistake; the owner’s body tensed slightly when Luo Yao asked the question.

Only then did Yi An feel that, for someone who supposedly lived long-term by the sea in abundant sunlight, this owner seemed overly pale.

“You are the only ones who have come to Yunshan Village recently,” the owner’s eyes shifted, looking directly at Luo Yao, but the latter remained unmoved. “The great flood drowns, the pale spirits resent… you have great courage.”

Luo Yao smiled: “Is your place this superstitious, too?”

“Alright, Luo Yao, we have the keys, let’s go.” Si Yin interrupted the conversation between the two. For some reason, her tone was slightly higher than usual.

With that, she ripped Yi An, who was clinging to Luo Yao, off and practically dragged her up the stairs.

Therefore, Yi An didn’t see that the moment they stepped out of the corridor, the “owner’s” eyes became extremely malicious, and his face began to show blue and purple-interlaced corpse spots. His body swelled and bloated—

—Just like someone who had drowned.