Dragon Clan: Avoid the College Entrance Examination to Slay the Dragon

Chapter 5 Elevated (Part 1)

The remaining rainwater on the rooftop dripped down the rusty drainpipe, and the lead-gray clouds were torn into pieces by the wind, revealing the sky with a cold glaze color after being washed by the rain.

Gu Yi turned up the collar of his jacket to block the cool breeze from reaching his neck. Beside him, Lu Mingfei, in his sneakers, kicked up the gravel on the road for the third time.

"I say—" He yawned, "What are two internet-addicted teenagers doing hanging out on the street instead of going to the internet cafe to save Azeroth?"

Gu Yi's eyes swept across Lu Mingfei's raised alopecia: "I don't want to fight today, walk with me."

"No, buddy," Lu Mingfei hurriedly took two steps to walk side by side with him, then rubbed his arms exaggeratedly, "We are both men, why are two men walking around the street? What are we going to say if those people in the class see us?"

Gu Yi suddenly pointed to the street corner, where climbing roses peeked out their blood-red petals from the cast iron fence, entwining the "White Night Cafe" sign.

"Find a place to sit." He knocked on the brass door knocker, waking up the tabby cat that was napping on the cash register.

Pushing open the glass door, the brass doorbell jingled, a warm aroma of caramel and cedar washed over him. Gu Yi walked straight to the dark green velvet booth in the corner, and Lu Mingfei followed suit and sat down.

The waiter came over and asked, "What would you two like to drink?"

Gu Yi closed the menu, "Two cups of cappuccino."

Until the sound of the waiter's shoes disappeared behind the bar, Lu Mingfei finally spoke: "We haven't had a good chat in the past two months. You always avoid me. I understand that you have such a big change, but if you want to talk..."

"Does this sound like the development of a BL comic, or does it mean that Master Lu is finally planning to take action against me?" Gu Yi suddenly interrupted him, the corners of his mouth curved as if suspended by invisible threads.

“Fuck!” Lu Mingfei grabbed his disheveled hair and slammed himself against the back of the chair. “I shouldn’t have cared about you!”

His nails unconsciously picked at the coffee stains on the tablecloth, and his voice suddenly dropped. "I heard from others that the bus overturned that day..."

Gu Yi's fingers, twisting the cup, suddenly tightened, and the brown liquid rippled around the rim. A tram dinged outside the window, its bells dinging as the light and shadow on the glass wall cut through his pale profile.

"That wasn't a car accident." He said calmly, "That day..."

---

The early spring sunlight coated the highway like melted honey. Gu Yi huddled in the second-to-last row by the window, his school uniform zipper hitting his chin. The car's air conditioning blew his hair loose, revealing the pale blue veins at his brow.

My grandfather's purple clay thermos cup was stuffed in the net pocket on the back of the front seat, with wolfberries floating in the light brown liquid.

"Xiao Gu, try this." A hand wearing a jade bracelet reached out from the front, and the brown paper bag rustled. Aunt Du, wearing a dark green cheongsam, turned her head and said, "Your grandfather insisted that you like hazelnut crisps."

"Du Ruoheng, don't spoil him." Grandpa Gu Huaiyuan was annotating the title page of "Selected Poems of Li Shangyin" with a fountain pen, his silver-rimmed glasses sliding to the tip of his nose. "This kid just stole half a bottle of Bamboo Leaf Green from me yesterday."

Good-natured laughter filled the carriage. The elderly members of the poetry club were wrapped in colorful cashmere shawls. The clinking of thermoses and the crackling of nuts alternated. The driver, Old Yang, hummed along with the radio. The amulet hanging from the rearview mirror swayed slightly with the bumpy ride, its cinnabar-lettered words, "Safe Entry and Exit," faded from the sun.

Gu Yi broke the hazelnut biscuit in half, letting the icing drip into the folds of his school uniform pants. A scattering of wildflowers flashed across the distant median strip, their lavender petals trembling like butterfly wings in the wind. He was about to close his eyes for a nap when a drop of water suddenly hit the car window, creating ripples that reflected his grandfather's suddenly straightened back.

"What the hell?" Old Yang slammed the wiper button. "The weather forecast says it's going to be sunny all day!"

Leaden clouds devoured the sky at a visible speed. In just three breaths, the rainstorm descended like a silver basin poured from the heavens. The wipers traced chaotic arcs across the windshield, a milky white mist rose from the asphalt, and the entire world seemed to be stuffed into a frosted glass jar filled with water.

"Turn around! Turn around now!" Mr. Zhou, an old man in a Mao suit, pounded on the seat. "My old bones can't stand the rain!"

"Everyone, don't worry. There's a ramp two kilometers ahead." Lao Yang's voice suddenly caught in his throat. The instrument panel needle was shaking wildly at the 80-yard mark, but the kilometer sign passing by the window was moving backwards at an eerie speed - EXIT 47, EXIT 46, EXIT 45.
"Why are we getting further and further away?" Aunt Du yelled. Everyone watched as the ramp that should have appeared vanished. The highway stretched endlessly forward like a black ribbon cut by invisible scissors. Even stranger, there wasn't a single car in the open space beyond the divider! This main road leading to the suburbs was as silent as an abandoned cemetery.

"Wow——"

The moment a baby's cry pierced the rain, Gu Yi saw the veins bulging on the back of his grandfather's hand. The sound of the cry drifted in and out, sometimes seeming to seep from the ground, sometimes seeming to cling to the car window. Grandma Zhao, dressed in a rose-red Tang suit, suddenly screamed and pointed toward the rear of the car. Her cloudy eyes reflected the dense handprints on the windshield—countless small, dark blue palm prints spreading from the edge of the glass toward the center, as if an invisible child were patting the window.

"Hallucinations! They're all hallucinations!" Mr. Zhou's hands trembled like autumn leaves in the wind as he took out the fast-acting heart pills. "Close your eyes! Close your eyes!"

The sharp thud of tires scraping against the ground ripped through his eardrums. The moment the weightlessness hit him, Gu Yi threw himself at his grandfather, the old man completely cradled in his arms. Metal twisted and glass shattered simultaneously, the world tumbling and shattering into a kaleidoscope of colors. He heard Aunt Du's jade bracelet shatter on the car roof and saw Mr. Zhou's bag fly past him.

When the bus finally rolled over onto the slope of the roadbed, Gu Yi's collarbone pressed against the twisted metal handrail. The smell of blood mixed with gasoline filled his nostrils. He fumbled with his grandfather's seatbelt, and the broken glass scratched his palms, leaving shallow bloody marks, but within ten seconds, the wounds healed as before.

"Yiwazi" Grandpa's bloody hand suddenly grabbed his wrist with astonishing strength, "Run east, don't worry."

A shrill roar drowned out the last sound. Gu Yi looked up and saw a monster's head poking through the gap in the windshield—it had the swollen belly of a pregnant human, but its neck twisted into a snakelike S-shape. Slime seeping from the cracks between its scales rose into plumes of smoke in the rain. More dark shadows climbed up from beneath the roadbed, their finger bones piercing the skin, transforming into sharp, white blades that scraped against the car's hull.

"Grandpa, let's go!"

Gu Yi kicked open the deformed security door, the cold rain waking every nerve in his body. The shadows paused for a second, then suddenly turned to look at him, dozens of pairs of molten gold pupils gleaming like will-o'-the-wisp in the rain.

(End of this chapter)