Too Weak to be an Enemy

His body froze, just as his mind did. Liu Xiaodan, a man who had seen the paranormal since he was five, had never ever seen one so close. He managed to keep his distance from them for so long. However, right now, she was almost against his face.

The dead student's mouth opened as she tried to talk again. A certain smell came out, along with the smell of death. Liu Xiaodan slid his hand up his face to cover his nose, but his reaction confirmed a fact to the dead student. He was aware she was there.

A smile soon came, and the dead student hoped to grab onto any part of Liu Xiaodan. Her arms' movements were swift, but Guangru was swifter. The child, who was allergic to fellow ghosts disturbing his father, threw the woman away through their door.

She made no sound despite the scream she would have done. However, Liu Xiaodan's blanket flew towards the door since it got caught in her fingers.

A loud sharp gasp came from Liu Xiaodan, an involuntary gasp he made in fear. Even though it was virtually inaudible in a large room like theirs, the stillness of the night made it rather loud. Along with the creaking of his bed as he tried to sit up to see where the dead student went.

Wen Taio was the first to be awakened by the sounds he made. The big brother peered past his bed frame to see Liu Xiaodan so afraid and staring at the door. His blanket was also on the floor towards it. "Xiaodan!" He called out as he got up and crawled to get to the ladder.

His explosive voice woke up the other two; Liu Xiaodan's name being uttered gave them more reasons to get up from their berths. Xu Disung only stared at the scene while Ruan Jin crawled to get down as well.

Wen Taio took the blanket from the floor and shook it before walking back to Liu Xiaodan. "What's wrong? You look like you had a nightmare."

"I, uhh, yeah, I guess I did—" His breath hitched and cut off his words. Liu Xiaodan's eyes grew wider as the dead student crawled back inside the room.

The night lights that were turned on started flickering madly. Ruan Jin dove towards Liu Xiaodan's feet as if hiding there. Xu Disung got up as well to get near them and joined Wen Taio in observing the lights. However, the former noticed that Liu Xiaodan's eyes were fixed at the door.

Silent screaming was all the dead student did as she grew hostile. She made the lights flicker, and soon, even the berths started shaking. With Wen Taio standing near Liu Xiaodan, she could not get any progress in coming closer. Since the bracelet started reacting, Wen Taio had no reason not to believe that a certain entity was with them.

"Hey, whoever you are, get away from Xiaodan!" The bear growled, swiping his hand around as if provoking the ghost to eye at him instead. "Go away! You don't belong here anymore!"

The sound of his voice told her where he was. She then started moving around the dorm room to try and hit anyone with anything. She came across the chair and tried to hurl it towards them. However, the chair only rattled in place.

Wen Taio and Xu Disung stared at the chair which moved like being possessed by a bad spirit. It was lifted five centimeters from the ground, and it was shaking furiously with its wheels hitting the floor that caused a loud disturbing noise.

Liu Xiaodan then got back into his senses. He turned to his side, only to find Guangru not next to him anymore. He figured it was because Wen Taio went to him.

However, he could still feel malice coming from somewhere else. He looked up around the ceilings and saw his son on Wen Taio's bed. He was glaring at the sight before his father.

"What is happening!?" Ruan Jin cried as he almost grafted his face to Liu Xiaodan's leg. He could feel that he was losing years of his life just listening to the rattling chair.

Before Liu Xiaodan could say something again, the dead student darted her gaze behind her and vanished. The chair—which the ghosts were fighting—over suddenly got thrown to the wall, smashed into multiple pieces.

Someone just barged into the room in his sleepwear, only to stare at the people inside who were huddled at one berth. Li Feng then looked up at where Guangru was sitting.

"Li Feng? What are you doing here?" Wen Taio frowned at the upperclassman who just barged in the room.

As if he was ignored, Li Feng did not answer. He just kept on staring at the top berth on the other side of the room. The child returned his gaze and locked himself with a short staredown with Li Feng. His stomach churned so badly that Li Feng couldn't stop his dinner shooting up his throat.

The other Year Four students who followed Li Feng went to console him. He just started vomiting all over the floor uncontrollably.

Liu Xiaodan looked at the child who just faded away. It was as if he knew that Guangru could be responsible for Li Feng's violent convulsion.

Wen Taio and Xu Disung begrudgingly went to help out the poor honor student. The latter went to the bathroom to fetch their mop to deal with the mess, hitting the light switch on to provide a brighter room.

Wen Taio walked over his mini-fridge and got him a water bottle. He popped the cap open and handed it to the man who managed to stop. "You better explain what happened, or else I'm sticking your face into that."

"Give me a moment." Li Feng controlled his breathing before sitting on the floor and drinking the water given to him. He wiped his chin clean with the back of his hand and scanned the image behind Wen Taio. "Uh, he left…"

"He who?" The other asked, but Li Feng only shook his head and drank again.

Xu Disung came with the materials to clean the mess, but he was unsure if Li Feng would do it himself. All he wanted to do was to shoo the onlookers that had gathered outside their room.

Li Feng must have run loudly in the middle of the night, two floors down from his room. He was even barefoot like most of the Year Four students with him.

Back at Liu Xiaodan's berth, he was consoling Ruan Jin who had his back facing most people in the room. He was on his panic attack control phase, grasping the other guy's hand so tightly he might even leave marks. He was whispering assurances to himself, too fast and too incoherent even for Liu Xiaodan's hearing.

"It's gone, Jin," Liu Xiaodan whispered, earning the other guy's gaze. He then watched Xu Disung asking the others to leave while Li Feng was still on the floor finishing the entire water bottle.

With no one else in the room aside from the five of them, Li Feng got up and started cleaning what he did to the floor. However, he spoke as he moved, "I'm sure Chuan Nayi had that made for Liu Xiaodan. Why are you wearing the bracelet?"

He did not say the name, but his question was directed to Wen Taio, who did show him his wrist when he handed the bottle.

The bear scratched his head as he sat down at Xu Disung's berth. "Xiaodan said I could have touched a ghost's blood so he had me wear it for tonight." He sighed as he looked at the broken chair Xu Disung was taking care of at the moment. "What could have done that?"

"There were two of them here earlier." Li Feng somewhat snorted. "They woke me up in the middle of the night, fighting two floors down." He finished cleaning and would be washing the mop soon. He just took a break by standing and breathing deeply. "Stupid Huang already got killed, and Chuan Nayi was being followed. That thing whatever it is… it's causing trouble…"

"Wait, you know what killed Huang Kun?" Xu Disung twitched as he heard him say something about the incident last Sunday. "And it came here?"

"Yep! It was right there." He pointed at Wen Taio's bed and sighed as he looked around the room, looking at their faces. "I just really have this stupid reaction when I see spirits. It makes me nauseous. The stronger they are, the worse I would throw up. Sorry about the floor."

"If this was another day, I would have punched you to next week." Wen Taio ruffled the hair on the back of his head. "This is too much to take in."

He glanced at Ruan Jin and Liu Xiaodan who were still in the bottom berth. "We'll just talk about this again soon. Go back and get some rest; I'll take care of that. Thanks for making it go away."

Li Feng only stared at them before nodding. He left the room slowly, showing his weakness.

"That guy is really so weird." Xu Disung hummed as he collected the dirty mop. "First, he was trying to be cool and annoying, and now he's like an actual caring person." He then shrugged as he went to the bathroom. "Yeah, didn't he say there were two of them?"

"Can we just talk about this tomorrow?" Wen Taio shook his head and sighed. He then went to the other two. "How's Jin?"

"I think he's sleeping." Liu Xiaodan glanced at Wen Taio before looking at the man who had his face pressed against the other's bent leg.

"Did you see it?" Wen Taio asked as he went on the bed as well, helping Liu Xiaodan lay Ruan Jin on the wall side, giving him a better sleeping position. He got off after, still not hearing an answer from the magic one. "Did you see that thing that follows Chuan Nayi?"

"I only saw shadows earlier. I'm not sure what I was seeing, really." Liu Xiaodan chose to lie before skidding to a further side of his bed to not jostle Ruan Jin to the wall. "Can I go to sleep, too?"

Wen Taio only sighed and patted the other's head. He yawned as he walked to the light switch, soon seeing Xu Disung drying his hands with a towel. Without words, the two agreed to turn off the lights and go back to sleep.

...

Saturday morning started with Liu Xiaodan finally able to wear his regular shirts. The hives were gone, and even his mouth was back to normal. He had a good smile in the morning, with Guangru watching him get ready for today. The events last night were unforgotten, but it was easier to try and bury it for now.

He decided to take Guangru out to shop for a new toy—as a reward for being obedient for the past few weekdays… and for saving him and his friends last night. It was barely eight, but he wanted to take a stroll instead of taking a cab to the commercial places.

The magic one walked down the stairs with the kid riding on his shoulders, and his older brother on top of the father's head. He was thinking of a new toy when he came across Cheng Fei who was rushing up the stairs. The man grabbed Liu Xiaodan as he was inside his reach.

"Brother! Is everyone else up yet?!" Cheng Fei was shaken. His hold on Liu Xiaodan was tight and trembling, and his breathing was as if he was terrified.

Liu Xiaodan was about to talk when more students rushed downstairs. He heard them gossiping about the back of the dorm. He glared at Cheng Fei. "What happened?"

...

Leaving Cheng Fei to wake Wen Taio and the others, Liu Xiaodan rushed towards the back of the boys' dorm. There was a thick crowd of both men and women. The father hid himself in the crowd in case Chuan Nayi was around. Liu Guangru stayed on his shoulders, and so he was confident she was not around.

The giant tree in the back of the dorm was covered in what appeared to be a red goo. It was the same thing that flooded the stairs the last time. Like the last time, Liu Xiaodan saw another dead ghost… hanging from the branch.

The father took hold of Guangru's left ankle and gave it a squeeze. Normally, he would have lectured the child. However, knowing that the ghost was trying to kill them, he stayed silent. He stared at how heavily bloodied the arms were, and he could only imagine how it felt being shredded by the same fingers. Liu Xiaodan chose motives before consequences this time and just quietly left the area.

"Liu Xiaodan." His name was called by Li Feng who hid in the crowd as well.

By the looks of it, he was being invited by the Year Four student to talk somewhere else. They went to the other side of the dorm, evading all others who would see them. It seemed to be a safe place to talk.

"What's that in your neck?" Liu Xiaodan noticed a choker on Li Feng's neck.

"It's a charm that hinders my ability to see spirits. I was told to wear this in school from now on because of what is happening." He held the choker, only to let it go before taking a deep breath.

"That thing following Chuan Nayi, the one that was in your room last night. It's following you, too." He shook his head. "I didn't tell Chuan Nayi, but I keep on feeling his presence in you."

"Are you trying to scare me?" Liu Xiaodan asked, confused as to why Li Feng was talking to him. "Thank you for watching out for Nayi, but I don't think we have the reason to talk—"

"A mogui attached itself to you. It's a menace. It will kill as long as it wants to, and you won't be able to stop it." He frowned. "It already killed one of my friends, and I am not letting it stay in the school for long. If you're the person who he attached himself to, I might have to need you to be purified."

"Does that kill the mogui?" Liu Xiaodan asked as if he was not even related to Guangru.

"No, but—"

"Then, no." The father frowned. "The mogui might be a menace, but I'm doing my best to keep him from misbehaving. Huang Kun threatened to kill me… just like the two other ghosts you saw.

"I would advise you to stop poking your nose into this, Li Feng. He's not kind."

"What are you saying? What keeping him—?"

Before Li Feng could continue, his choker snapped like something had cut it in two. His eyes stared at the choker that fell into the grass. It was a high-level charm, and it should not be broken by just a normal entity. He brought his gaze to the man before him, seeing the child on his shoulders. "You…"

"Baba doesn't like you, but you help Mama." The child hid half of his face behind Liu Heima. "I won't kill you."

"This is your last warning, Li Feng. Don't talk about this ever again." Liu Xiaodan took a deep breath, trying not to yield to his fear.

Li Feng only froze even until Liu Xiaodan had left with his child. Someone walked into the scene and went to embrace the terrified man.

Li Yunru hummed as she caressed his head. "I told you. Investigation…"