Wan Jie Hospice Care Company

The last "No!" was blood red, and the font filled half the page, looking fierce and almost as if it was about to break free from the diary. Xiangyu's eyelids twitched as he read it.

It was right that Anling didn't come; if she had seen this, she probably wouldn't have been able to sleep at night.

Although theoretically, after what happened yesterday, I definitely wouldn't be able to sleep.

"Phew, I've finished reading it." Xiang Yu closed the diary and put it back in its place.

"What...is written inside..." An Ling asked, shrinking her neck.

"It's basically like this... nothing happens in the morning, and then in the evening your neighbor knocks on your door, and then you realize you don't have any neighbors." Xiang Yu tried to describe what he had just seen in less scary language, "You realized something was wrong, so you didn't open the door for him."

"Someone scratched at your west-facing window last night, making a lot of noise and scaring you so much that you couldn't sleep all night."

"...That's all."

Xiang Yu summarized it.

After listening, An Ling's expression stiffened.

"what……"

"What's wrong?" Xiang Yu sensed something was amiss.

An Ling's lips moved slightly, and she murmured, "I have neighbors."

"?"

"The neighbors moved in a few years ago. I remember it was a young couple." Anling's face turned pale. "I even greeted them. They said the house was bought for them by the man's parents."

"..."

Xiang Yu was also stunned when she heard this information. According to the usual plot of horror movies, shouldn't it be like in the diary, where a neighbor knocks on the door, only to realize that there is no neighbor and break out in a cold sweat?

How come it's reversed?

"So... is there anything special about your neighbor?" Xiang Yu asked again.

"Is it special?" An Ling pondered deeply, but couldn't think of anything for the moment. "Maybe it's because they haven't had children since they got married?"

Xiang Yu stroked his chin. If it were twenty years from now, and a couple hadn't had children for a long time after getting married, they might indeed be childless by choice or simply didn't want them, which is perfectly normal. After all, societal attitudes are changing, and young people aren't as concerned about carrying on the family line as the older generation.

In this day and age, in a small county town where there are hardly any tall buildings, DINK (Double Income No Kids) families are a rare breed that would be the subject of gossip among neighbors for three years.

However, this little bit isn't enough to constitute evidence, so let's just make a note of it.

"Alright, that's about all the clues we have. Why don't we go to sleep? These next few days are bound to be turbulent, so a good rest is necessary," Xiang Yu said.

"……Um!"

An Ling nodded vigorously. She didn't know if she could fall asleep tonight, but with Xiang Yu by her side, she could at least feel relieved.

So Xiang Yu prepared to sleep on a makeshift bed in the living room, but at An Ling's insistence, he slept in An Ling's parents' room instead.

Every light in the room was on.

After such a tumultuous and terrifying day, Anling said she really couldn't sleep with the lights off.

However, Xiang Yu didn't care about these things. His mental energy had been exhausted to the limit today. After his head hit the pillow, the fatigue that he had suppressed with coffee immediately crept up his eyelids. He took a deep breath and began to recover his energy.

The night passed peacefully.

……

When Xiang Yu woke up, An Ling had already woken up as well. She seemed to be in the kitchen, and the aroma of stir-fried dishes wafted over.

This girl seems quite used to living alone.

Seeing this, Xiang Yu also brought up his own control panel.

Name: Xiang Yu

[Character Level: E]

Character Attributes: Strength: E; Agility: E; Constitution: E; Spirit: D

[Points: 5]

We need to think about where to focus our efforts on these five points.

With holes everywhere, we can't hold onto our points; we must quickly convert them into combat power that can be used to save our lives.

His ability to escape is particularly strong; his ability to break through enemy lines and fight is not weak. His main weakness is his mobility.

The chances of drawing skills are too high. If you end up drawing three combat skills, then all five points will be wasted.

An E-rank advancement of one level costs five points, a D-rank advancement of one level costs ten points...

After much hesitation, he added points to Agility.

Agility: E → E+

Xiang Yu suddenly felt his body light up, especially his legs, as if there were springs under his feet.

The unfamiliar power within his muscles stirred a sense of exhilaration within him. He instinctively took a couple of short jogs, then suddenly leaped into the air—

"Smack."

His head hit the ceiling of Anling's house.

The roof of the residential building is about three meters high, and if you deduct the thickness of the ceiling, it is about two and a half meters high.

Xiang Yu is 1.8 meters tall, which means that his light jump was at least 1.1 meters. Moreover, since his head hit the roof, he was probably far from his limit, which was probably around 1.2 meters.

Back then, Jordan's vertical jump was only about 122cm. After adding some points, his ability in the "speed competition" sport reached the standard of a top athlete.

Hearing the sound of the wall hitting the wall, An Ling hurriedly ran out of the kitchen and immediately saw Xiang Yu, whose head was covered in white dust from the impact.

"Brother Xiang, are you going out?"

"Okay, I'm going to run a lap downstairs, then I'll be up in a bit."

"You have a great habit of jogging in the morning, that's very determined!" Anling winked while holding the spatula.

Xiang Yu nodded.

Actually, I just started this good habit recently.

An Ling chuckled: "People who can stick to a habit are really amazing... When I go to university, I'll also stick to jogging every morning!"

Don't worry, you won't be able to stick with it.

"Brother Xiang, remember to come back for dinner in twenty minutes!"

"it is good."

After going downstairs, Xiangyu walked into the residential area.

This old residential compound was tiny, with only a small courtyard and a few old trees that had lost all their leaves. There was no room to run around, so he simply strolled to the sidewalk outside the gate.

So he came to the sidewalk at the entrance of the community. There were already many people taking a walk around, and occasionally a few middle-aged people who had been shopping at the morning market were carrying vegetables home.

He followed the flow of people for a while, and not far ahead was a small square where people were doing their morning exercises. Several energetic old men were competing on the equipment.

One of the elderly men, in particular, did a giant loop on the horizontal bar, spinning around several times, which drew cheers from the crowd.

Xiang Yu ignored him and walked straight to a flat area in the square, where a running track was drawn in chalk, indicating that this place had probably been used as a competition venue.

In a small county town without a sports field, holding a sports meet requires utilizing every available space.

He looked at the track, which was exactly one hundred meters long.

He slowly bent down, just as he was about to start running, when a voice sounded beside him.

"Dude, let's go together, we can each be each other's running partner."

Xiang Yu turned his head and saw a high school student wearing a tank top.

Aren't you cold?

"I happen to have brought a stopwatch." The young man shook his watch. "The physical exam is in March, and I come here every day to practice the 100-meter dash... This is the first time I've seen anyone here who isn't taking the physical exam."

"Let's do it together then." Xiang Yu took a deep breath and began to bend down.

To be honest, Xiang Yu hadn't really learned how to run sprints, so he turned his head and roughly observed the posture of the physical education student next to him, then imitated it.

The physical education student, seeing that Xiang Yu was an amateur, didn't mock him. He simply said, "First time running seriously? It's okay, just copy my form."

"Three, two, one..."

The physical education student took the lead and dashed out. He felt he was in great shape today, and the wind was also slightly tailwind-like, which made him even more powerful.

"OK, let's try to break the record in one go!"

His record is 11.4 seconds, just a little short of the 11.3-second perfect score for the physical education exam, which is also the level of a national second-level athlete.

Today, given both our current state of mind and the current environment, we have a very good chance of reaching that point!

Sprint! Sprint! Charge!

Just as he exhausted all his strength and lunged toward the finish line, out of the corner of his eye, a figure strode past him and plunged into the finish line before him.

He instinctively pressed the stopwatch.

After he crossed the finish line, he looked down at Xiang Yu's score and his own score.

9 seconds 98.

11 seconds 25.

"..."

Holy crap.

"Hey bro, wanna join our team as an athlete...?"

"Hey, where is everyone?"

The physical education student looked up blankly, only to find that Xiang Yu had already vanished without a trace.

……

Xiang Yu returned to the corridor of An Ling's house. He had just tried it out and found that his level of "speed and agility" was almost the same as that of a professional athlete.

Although it's still a bit short of human limits, in actual combat, if he's facing a human, he can definitely run away if he wants to.

Although most of the people you might encounter are not human...

He slowly walked up the stairs, and just as he was about to return to Anling's house, he turned his head and saw the iron gate of Anling's neighbor's house.

It looks quite normal... except for the lack of couplets.

Hmm? No couplets posted?

Xiang Yu frowned; not putting up couplets was not a common occurrence.

But we can't just conclude that the neighbor is the problem. What if they're just stingy and can't bear to part with those two cents?

Xiang Yu thought it over and over, then slowly approached his neighbor's door and gently pressed his ear against it.