The Haunted

After Chi Yan and Jiang Tian entered, they couldn't find Alex and Emily, and they couldn't even see any familiar faces. They could only walk aimlessly around the venue with their wine.

The venue of this reception was bigger than Chi Yan imagined.After entering the door, there is a large banquet hall in the middle, and there are four side halls on both sides of the main hall.

There is a band playing soothing music in the corner of the main hall, and a dining table is placed on the other side. From time to time, waiters deliver new dishes, fruits, desserts and drinks.Well-dressed men and women of good looks roamed the venue lazily and casually—they all seemed to know each other well.There are also some young boys and girls who are about the same age as Chi Yan, most of them stand near the edge, with their social circle.

It was seven o'clock in the evening when they arrived, Chi Yan and Jiang Tian wandered around the venue boredly until after eight o'clock, and found that the only thing that attracted them was the dining table over there, but they were embarrassed to keep getting something to eat.

Jiang Tian put the empty wine glass in his hand on the dining table at one side, pointed to the side hall on the right and said to Chi Yan: "Ruler, I'll go over there to have a look, and find Alex and the others by the way. I don't know about this either." How long will the reception last, and when can we get to the point.” It can’t be like this all night, just for people to hold wine and talk to each other, right?

"Okay, I'll wait for you here, and text me if there's anything to do." Chi Yan watched Jiang Tian's back disappear, and took out his phone to play, since no one would notice him anyway.

But he was wrong. He had just played the game for 10 minutes when a man walked up to him and said, "Why are you here alone? Who brought you here?"

The man looked very young, but 27 or [-] years old.Chi Yan didn't know the other party's identity and intentions, so he could only politely put away the phone, and replied with a smile: "I'm a student at AHU, and my classmate sent me an invitation to bring me here."

"Well, you're still a student... If your classmates don't play with you anymore, how about you come with me tonight?" The man smiled and offered the invitation.

Chi Yan always felt that the man's words and tone were a bit weird, so he refused with a stiff smile: "No need, I won't be able to stay very late and I will go back. My classmates will take us back together."

He pretended to take out his mobile phone to check the time, nodded to the other party and said: "I think it's almost time, I should go find them."

As Chi Yan said, he put away his phone, turned around and looked in the direction where Jiang Tian left.If Jiang Tian came back and couldn't find him, he would definitely call or send him a message, so don't worry about missing him.

The man didn't stop him, but just looked at his leaving back with a smile... Go back early?This lovely child probably doesn't know where he came from...

Chi Yan had just taken two steps in that direction when someone grabbed his wrist. Alex patted him, and said as if he was relieved: "Thank God, I finally found you. Where's Kevin?"

"He went looking for you? Didn't you see it?" Chi Yan asked back.

"So..." Alex muttered and shook his head, "Then leave him alone, you are enough, and go find him later." Then he pulled him towards one of them. hall.

Chi Yan tried hard to pull out his hand, but it couldn't be seen from the outside, but Alex was so strong, his hand seemed to be welded by iron tongs, and he couldn't break free.Thankfully Alex noticed his struggle and let him go.

Chi Yan rubbed his left wrist: "Why do you say that I'm enough? Do you want to do something?"

"...playing cards." Alex looked back at him. "Poker, will you? If not, we can teach you."

"Yes, but I don't necessarily know your rules, but I should be able to learn it quickly." Chi Yan followed Alex to the side hall, and sat down on a dark red round sofa in the far corner.

In addition to the two of them, there are five other people, including Simon and Judy, and the others are more or less familiar, and they are all friends who often play with Alex.

Chi Yan sent a message to Jiang Tian, ​​asking him to find them at the sofa in the side hall on the left, then raised his head and asked, "Where's Emily? Why isn't she here?"

"Don't worry about her," Alex said with a casual smile, "she should already be familiar with this kind of occasion, let her play by herself."

This side hall is very quiet. After closing the door, the noisy conversation, music and footsteps outside are completely isolated. Only a few young people gathered in front and talked quietly.

After playing the cards, the time passed very quickly. After three hands, Chi Yan took out his mobile phone and saw that it was already 58:[-] p.m. on the screen.

"It's been more than an hour, why hasn't Kevin come here? Could it be that he was fascinated by some beautiful woman?" He teased jokingly, and put the cards in his hand on the low table in front of the sofa, "I Go out and find him."

As he spoke, he stood up and was about to go out, but the other six people all stood up at this moment, faintly blocking his way.

"What's the matter? I'm going out to find Kevin, Simon, please let me go?" Chi Yan hadn't realized what was going on at the moment, and didn't understand why they followed him and stood up.

Simon didn't move or speak, just stood there looking at him.The light in the side hall was very dim, and half of his face was hidden in the shadows, outlining a strange smile that was not a smile.

At this time, Chi Yan realized something was wrong.His eyes swept over the few people in front of him, and he became more and more sure—they were deliberately blocking their own way, just like a few malicious cats blocking the path of a little mouse that had nowhere to escape.

Chi Yan looked back at Alex, his throat twitched, and he pretended to smile lightly: "...Are you playing some kind of game? Or some prank I don't know about?"

Alex looked down at the watch on his left wrist and smiled at him: "Jerry, thanks to your reminder, I realized that the time is up."

Subconsciously following his movements, Chi Yan also glanced at his mobile phone. Another 3 minutes have passed, and it is now [-]:[-].

Alex's words "It's time" was like a key to turn on the switch. No one spoke since then, but all six people waited closely for him who was surrounded in the middle with extremely eager eyes.Out of the corner of Chi Yan's eyes, he caught sight of the two people whose names he could not remember, and saw an extremely horrifying scene—in the shadows, the blood on their faces faded away, turning into a lifeless bluish white. What's even more frightening is that there are two long fangs protruding from the middle of their lips.

At that moment, Chi Yan was so frightened that his heart almost stopped, and he quickly turned his eyes. Fortunately, Alex and Simon were still the same, but their skin seemed to be paler than usual—this may also be the reason. Psychological effects are at work, just like the scene just now may be just an illusion caused by light and shadow effects.

The surrounding air became extremely quiet.It seemed that even the beating of the heart had stopped.

Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, they may deliberately create a weird atmosphere to scare you, and want to see you get scared and embarrassing.Chi Yan was trying to cheer himself up, when he suddenly realized a problem in this quiet and secretive atmosphere - he even moved towards Alex's direction without any trace, and felt it carefully.

Immediately, he swallowed involuntarily—it was not an illusion, but from just now, the hearts of all the others stopped.At this moment, I can only feel the beating of my own heart here.

There were seven people present, except for themselves, they were really not human.

Chi Yan's pupils constricted instantly.

Simon seemed to enjoy this moment very much, and he opened his mouth and laughed when he finally found out the truth.He licked his teeth with satisfaction—the long, sharp, gleaming fangs.

Alex comforted him in a reassuring tone: "Don't worry, Jerry, don't be afraid, it won't be too painful, and we won't kill you. Maybe you will still fall in love with this feeling, many Humans also enjoy being sucked blood, like Emily."

Chi Yan's brain quickly processed the words he heard, "pain", "human", "blood-sucking"...they are not human, could they be the legendary... vampires?

This answer completely exceeded his imagination of the real world, and Chi Yan couldn't accept it for a while.

The vampires who held back for a long time didn't give him any more time to react. Under the leadership of Alex, they approached him little by little, gradually shrinking the encirclement.

Chi Yan stood there, too nervous to react, he couldn't imagine what he was going to face at all, all the self-help knowledge he usually read was useless at this time.

"Buck, buckle, buckle—"

At this moment, there was a gentle knock on the door.

Immediately afterwards, the knocker who got no response pushed the door open on his own initiative.

With the sound of the door "squeaking", Chi Yan and the vampires looked back at this person who suddenly appeared at a critical moment.

It was a middle-aged man with gray hair, he was wearing a neat three-piece suit, his hair was combed meticulously, and he had an old gold pocket watch on his chest, engraved with patterns of thorns and roses.

He looked at the scene in front of him calmly, and said in the same unhurried voice: "Sorry, young gentlemen and ladies. Your Highness ordered me to take this gentleman away."

What he used was a declarative sentence, and he didn't mean to ask for other people's opinions, as if he had already obtained the supreme will of this world.

The man looked at Chi Yan, without his explanation, the vampires present knew who he was referring to.

Two vampires looked at Alex, and another looked at Simon, as if waiting for their opinion.Judy wanted to say something, but Simon held his hand tightly.

"Of course," Alex withdrew his fangs and smiled decently at the middle-aged man, "I hope Jerry can satisfy His Royal Highness."

He stretched out his hand and pushed Chi Yan out.

The man nodded, motioning for Chi Yan to leave with him.