Chapter 25: He is not my brother!
Tang Cuo and Bi Xingyi left the Special Management Committee together. On the way, Bi Xingyi talked to him about a lot of work-related matters. Tang Cuo was naturally reserved, and he could hardly respond with more than nods and gestures, leaving a vague impression: being a high school teacher is not easy.
Although there were only 18 fresh graduates from the Second Middle School participating in the “Sea Area” examination this time, there were a few difficult-to-manage prominent figures among them that gave Bi Xingyi a headache. Tang Cuo listened to Bi Xingyi’s complaints as if he was listening to a story, making the journey somewhat enjoyable.
Bi Xingyi’s family was very quiet, and Bi Fan’s bedroom door was tightly closed. Bi Xingyi went to knock on the door and turned the doorknob, only to find that Bi Fan had locked the door from the inside. “Fanfan, Mr. Tang is here; don’t go to sleep.”
Tang Cuo sat in the living room, feeling somewhat uneasy. Inside the bedroom, Bi Fan didn’t respond, and it took a while before he came out in a wheelchair.
“You lock your bedroom door while sleeping at home?” Tang Cuo asked casually.
Bi Fan’s eyes flickered, and she quickly glanced toward the kitchen. Bi Xingyi was preparing dinner in the kitchen. “I locked it without thinking,” Bi Fan whispered. “Why are you here?”
“Your brother invited me,” Tang Cuo briefly explained his encounter with Bi Xingyi and also mentioned that he worked in the Crisis Management Office’s Psychological Adjustment Department. Hesitating for a moment, he quickly typed a message on his phone.
[Is your brother not treating you well? You seem to be afraid of him.]
He held up the phone for Bi Fan to see.
Bi Fan looked at the phone and shook his head after a moment.
“What are you looking at?” Bi Xingyi came out with a plate of fruit and asked with a smile.
“I have a colleague in our department, and their spirit animal is a small cat.” Tang Cuo quickly switched from the memo app to his photo album. “I really like it.”
For some reason, he had a vague feeling that there was something strange about the relationship between Bi Xingyi and Bi Fan. Bi Fan’s fear of Bi Xingyi was hard to hide, and Tang Cuo didn’t believe that Bi Xingyi hadn’t noticed.
“Oh, that’s really cute,” Bi Xingyi said, looking at a photo of a sand cat. “Fanfan’s spirit animal is also a cat, but she’s not in a good mood right now and can’t let it out.”
Tang Cuo was taken aback. “A cat?”
Just as he was about to say something, his phone suddenly rang.
While Bi Xingyi turned to answer the phone, Bi Fan suddenly reached out and discreetly tugged on Tang Cuo’s shirt.
Tang Cuo was momentarily unsure whether she was afraid of him or expressing some form of affection. He felt awkward and nervous. But soon, he noticed that the girl’s nails had turned white due to the force she was applying; she was trembling.
“There’s an issue with one of the students on campus, and I need to rush over now,” Bi Xingyi hastily grabbed his backpack and said to Tang Cuo, “I’m sorry, Mr. Tang, maybe…”
“I’ll stay and chat with Fanfan,” Tang Cuo quickly said, “Is it related to the sentinel’s response at Second Middle School? I saw my colleague mention it in our group chat.”
“He got into a fight with students from another school,” Bi Xingyi quickly opened the door, “I’ll handle it and be back soon. Mr. Tang, please make yourself comfortable. Fanfan, don’t be silent, and take good care of our guest.”
With that, the door closed.
Bi Fan suddenly seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, no longer holding onto Tang Cuo’s shirt. Instead, she immediately turned her wheelchair and went to the balcony in the bedroom. Tang Cuo followed her and found her gazing at the road in the residential area.
After a moment, the figure of Bi Xingyi appeared. He hurriedly ran down a small path and disappeared in the direction of the entrance.
Tang Cuo thought to himself, was that a farewell? It seemed like they had a close sibling bond.
Beside him, Bi Fan suddenly grabbed his hand with an unusually strong grip, her fingers tightly pinching Tang Cuo’s wrist, but she couldn’t stop trembling.
“Tang Cuo… help me…” Every word that Bi Fan spoke required an enormous effort, and as she spoke, her gaze kept shifting to the road below, as if she was on guard against someone coming back. “I don’t know him…”
Tang Cuo was shocked. “What?!”
“He’s not my brother!” Bi Fan’s voice was hoarse. “I didn’t even know him a month ago!”
Bi Fan had only graduated from New Hope University as a fresh graduate last year and worked as a freelance designer. She had started using a wheelchair about a month ago due to an accidental fracture.
At that time, she had just moved to this residential area, coming and going, and she had gotten to know Bi Xingyi, who lived a few floors below. Because both of their surnames were uncommon, Bi Fan made a casual joke, saying something like they must have been from the same family about five hundred years ago.
Bi Xingyi seemed to be playing along, and every time he saw her, he would call her “little sister.”
Seeing Bi Fan with a cast on her leg and using a wheelchair to get home, Bi Xingyi would always lend a helping hand when he returned from work and ask her if there was anyone at home to take care of her. Bi Fan said she was a “North Drifter” and didn’t have any family here, only a few friends who lived far away.
A few days later, Bi Xingyi intruded into Bi Fan’s home.
He had climbed in from the balcony under the cover of night. Bi Fan had clearly locked the glass door of her bedroom’s balcony, but for some reason, Bi Xingyi was able to easily pry it open.
The sound of prying the door woke up the sleeping Bi Fan. Sensing that someone had entered the bedroom, she was so afraid that she couldn’t even breathe, tightly wrapping herself in the blanket and pretending to be asleep.
The intruder sat down and reached out to pat the blanket. Bi Fan was trembling with fear, biting down hard on her teeth, not allowing herself to make a single sound of fear.
—”You poor thing.”
She heard Bi Xingyi’s deep voice.
—”Big brother’s here to take care of you.”
As if thinking that Bi Fan was trembling from the cold, Bi Xingyi opened her closet, took out a thick blanket, and covered her with it.
Bi Fan curled up in bed, almost passing out. She had heard every movement, and it was clear that Bi Xingyi opened her closet and took out the blanket without any hesitation. He must have known the layout of her room already—he had probably been here before.
Perhaps while Bi Fan was out, or maybe while she was in the kitchen or the bathroom, this person had already surveyed her home.
Bi Fan struggled to control herself. She heard Bi Xingyi leave the bedroom and head towards the kitchen.
“…He was cooking.” Bi Fan’s eyes widened, and Tang Cuo could see tiny bloodshot lines in her eye sockets, like tiny reptiles trying to crawl out. “Every time he came in, he was cooking! He always climbed in through the balcony around four or five in the morning, then cooked. After that, he left me a note to remind me to have breakfast and left through the front door.”
Tang Cuo listened in astonishment. A part of his brain unhelpfully threw out a thought: Is this some kind of new urban legend?
“Later, he somehow got a key to my house,” Bi Fan said, her voice trembling nervously, her fingers tightly digging into Tang Cuo’s wrist, and her sharp nails almost scraping his skin. “He started coming in through the front door and even moved into my home. He took away my phone and computer, forbidding me to contact anyone. He tied me up, forbidding me from going out or calling for help. He made me call him ‘big brother,’ but he’s not my brother at all… He’s a monster! His spirit animal…”
Fear made her sob, and her hands shook uncontrollably.
Her sleeves slid up to her elbows, revealing vivid binding marks on her wrists.
Tang Cuo’s mind was in complete chaos. He had to immediately reassure Bi Fan and tell her that he would help her. After finally calming Bi Fan down a little, Tang Cuo asked the first question: “Then why didn’t you call the police? Don’t you have classmates or friends you can turn to for help?”
What Bi Fan was saying was terrifying, but it also left Tang Cuo deeply perplexed.
The first time he saw Bi Fan, she was wandering outside the subway station. If Bi Xingyi was truly restricting her movements, how did she manage to go outside? If Bi Xingyi was truly preventing her from communicating with people, he wouldn’t have been invited, and Bi Xingyi would never have allowed Bi Fan to be alone with him.
Bi Fan let go of his hand. She had a frightened look on her face, like a startled kitten. After covering her ears, she huddled in her wheelchair, muttering softly, “I can’t… I can’t…”
Tang Cuo crouched in front of her, gently asking, “Why can’t you?”
“He’s controlling my mind!” Bi Fan suddenly shouted and leaned closer to Tang Cuo. “He knows everything I think. I can’t… I’m afraid… The moment he looks at me, I’ll tell him everything… He’s really a monster! Can you catch him? Tang Cuo, can you catch him for me? Lock him up!”
She shouted hysterically for a while, then covered her face and sobbed.
Bi Fan’s mental state was extremely unstable, and Tang Cuo remembered that this was something Bi Xingyi had repeatedly emphasized to him. He didn’t know who was telling the truth or lying, so he could only comfort Bi Fan while being baffled by the situation.
“Aren’t you afraid now? If you tell me these things, won’t he know?”
“No, you’re from the Psychological Adjustment Department. You can isolate your thoughts, right? He can’t control you,” Bi Fan said, looking straight at him, “Can you do that?”
Tang Cuo was left speechless.
Both Bi Xingyi and Bi Fan were acting strangely. Bi Fan was clearly a guide, but Bi Xingyi claimed that her spirit animal was a cat. The current Bi Fan was obviously not right, and Tang Cuo had a vague suspicion but didn’t know how to confirm it. He felt a strong sense of unease, and while trying to console Bi Fan, he immediately released his own spirit animal.
The panda leaned against Tang Cuo, its eyes fixed on Bi Fan’s dressing table. There was a camera with a lit indicator light.
When Bi Xingyi arrived at the hotel entrance, Xie Zijing and Qin Ge had also just climbed the steps.
“What kind of spiritual power is this?” Bi Xingyi didn’t immediately open the door. There was no one outside the hotel’s main entrance, and a dense white fog permeated the interior. Nothing outside could be seen clearly.
A powerful spiritual aura was emanating from the gaps. It was dry and fiery, and it reminded Qin Ge of the scorching sun and strong winds in the Gobi Desert.
This aura was somewhat similar to Xie Zijing’s pheromones, but it was much milder.
Xie Zijing obviously noticed too. “It’s Bai Xiaoyuan.”
As he opened the door, Xie Zijing let out a sigh or a praise from his throat, “Holy sh*t.”
The thick white fog pervading the entire hotel lobby belonged to a guide. Qin Ge instantly distinguished several powerful spirit animals: butterflies, apes, goats, elks… In the central lobby of the hotel, several young students sat immobilized, looking disheveled from their brawl-induced injuries.
They were trapped by sand cats.
Countless sand cats, only as tall as armrests, sat huddled together in the hotel lobby. Their sharp claws pierced the legs of the young sentinels, causing them too much pain to move. Furthermore, the overwhelming number of sand cats restricted the movement of their mental manifestations, pressing down on two hoofed animals whose appearances were unclear.
Qin Ge looked up at the ceiling of the lobby. Two eagles perched on the branch-like chandeliers, while a beautiful golden-scaled python wrapped itself around the chandelier, its scales glistening as it watched the sand cat army below with caution.
Bi Xingyi attempted to approach his students through the sand cats, but as soon as he entered their range, their claws immediately scratched his pants, rendering him unable to move.
Qin Ge saw Bai Xiaoyuan seated on the wide spiral staircase, holding an unlit cigarette in her mouth, exuding the air of a mafia boss.
“Qin Ge, there are at least a hundred sand cats… no, two hundred?” Xie Zijing followed Qin Ge towards the spiral staircase where Bai Xiaoyuan was seated, asking in a low voice, “Is that possible? Can a vertebrate’s spirit animal create this many at once? What kind of creature is Bai Xiaoyuan…”
“Who’s the creature?” Bai Xiaoyuan spat out the cigarette on the ground and stepped on it.
Only when they got closer did they realize she reeked of alcohol, and an empty bottle of red wine was by her side. Xie Zijing tightly closed his mouth, smiled at Bai Xiaoyuan, and said, “Comrade Bai, you’re amazing.”
“Next, it’s your turn. My little cat doesn’t know how to fight.”
Xie Zijing added, “My big cat doesn’t either.”
He released a Barbary lion.
As soon as the Barbary lion landed, the two hoofed animals that were being pressed down by the sand cats let out low growls, immediately dissipating into a fog. The golden-scaled python coiled tighter around the chandelier and seemed to be making a threat, but after the two eagles disappeared, it too turned into white mist and returned to the sentinel.
“This is bad, isn’t it?” Bai Xiaoyuan seemed to be making herself uncomfortable with her own alcohol breath, pulling Qin Ge and saying, “These teachers can’t control their sentinels at all, so why are they leading the group?”
A teacher walked over with their young sentinels, saying, “They completely refuse our intervention…”
“So you don’t even have the qualifications to lead the group!” Bai Xiaoyuan swayed a bit, cursed softly, and then sat down on the stairs.
The real troublemakers were the sentinels from the Second High School and the owner of the golden-scaled python. Xie Zijing went over to understand the situation, and the sentinel had an arrogant expression with his arms crossed over his chest, and his gaze didn’t sit well with Xie Zijing.
Just as he was about to speak, a sudden flash of gold passed by in front of him: the golden-scaled python had reappeared—it hadn’t returned to the sentinel at all but had blended into the lingering fog in the lobby.
Amid the astonishment of the people around, the Barbary lion raised its paw and fiercely swiped at the rapidly approaching golden-scaled python’s head!
