Haunted by the Toxic Curtain Chapter 1

"What a pity! There is one less attractive man in the company. How are we going to live in the future?"

"Huh? Someone resigned again?"

"What? You don't know about this big news?!"

"Please, I've been in the hospital for more than a month and just got back from vacation this morning. How can I know where to go?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Hey... it's Ethan Ye. I heard he submitted his resignation last week and has almost finished handing over his work these days."

"Ah? Ethan Ye resigned?! Why--"

The elevator nearby stopped at the first floor with a ding, interrupting the chat of the two receptionists. They immediately stood up straight and put on professional smiles facing the elevator.

Ethan Ye, who was still being talked about by them the last second, walked out of the elevator carrying a computer bag, nodded to the front desk as a greeting, and then strode out of the company gate.

The huge LED screen on the opposite corner of the street is playing an advertisement that is played countless times every day - "The latest protective clothing, made of super elastic fiber, coated with three layers of protective material, light and breathable, and fits snugly! Breathable protective clothing, so you don't have to worry about foggy days!"

While waiting for the red light at the crosswalk, Ethan Ye watched expressionlessly as the screen gradually dimmed and switched to an advertisement for multi-use masks.

These advertisements started to appear after the nightmare fog three years ago, and they have been continuously updated generation after generation. People flocked to buy them, but people continued to die in the intermittent foggy days during these three years. The survivors still did not give up and bought the new models, hoping that this one might work.

No matter how big the effect is, it is at least a kind of psychological comfort.

What people lack most nowadays is peace of mind.

Following the crowd across the street and heading towards the subway entrance under the LED screen, Ethan Ye was about to step onto the escalator when he felt someone tap his shoulder and a hearty laugh rang out beside him: "Ha! Ethan Ye!"

Ethan Ye was stunned for a moment when he heard the voice, and turned around: "Xiao Chen?"

Jasper Luo's mouth twitched: "Damn! How many times have I told you not to yell like that? Will you die of exhaustion if you yell one more word?"

Ethan Ye nodded: "Yes."

Jasper Luo: ...

Jasper Luo was Ethan Ye's roommate when he was a graduate student. When the school arranged dormitories, there were four people in one room, three of whom were from the School of Finance, and only Jasper Luo was studying psychology. I thought it would be a little awkward, but I didn't expect that this person was naturally unrestrained and outgoing, and he quickly got along with others, and even turned Ethan Ye, who was the most sarcastic, into a close friend.

However, no matter how great a person is, there are some points that cannot be touched, because if touched, he will be distorted - such as Jasper Luo's name.

It is said that Luo's father heard people say that a smaller name would make it easier to raise the child. Considering that it is easy for people to die but difficult to live nowadays, Luo's father simply stuffed the word "small" into the name. However, Jasper Luo grew rapidly during puberty and liked to work out. He accidentally grew into a man of nearly 1.9 meters in height. With that name, there was a sense of incongruity.

When he was still in his rebellious period, what annoyed him most was his name. He once thought of changing his name when he reached adulthood and had full civil capacity. He even thought of a new name, not a big change, just changing Jasper Luo to Luo Shaochen.

Of course, when he really became an adult, he became calm and only protested verbally when Ethan Ye called him "Xiao Chen".

"Why are you here?" Ethan Ye made way for the crowd that kept pouring in from behind and followed Jasper Luo to the side of the street.

Jasper Luo raised the file bag in his hand: "I am doing psychological training for a company here. In big cities, the work pressure is high and the pace of life is fast, so few people have psychological problems. Moreover, so many people have died in the past two years, which has made people panic. People are changing jobs and resigning at the slightest provocation. The company's boss is almost crazy. You can imagine that people are the same nowadays, changing jobs and resigning without thinking! Oh, by the way," he nodded at Ethan Ye, "you got off work so early today? Weren't you working overtime all day and nowhere to be seen?"

Ethan Ye shrugged: "I quit."

Jasper Luo: ...

The LED screen above my head is still looping the protective clothing advertisement: light and breathable, close to the body without feeling -

"Haha," Jasper Luo laughed dryly, "Listen to this commercial, it looks like a sanitary napkin."

Ethan Ye: ...

"No, buddy. Why are you quitting your job? Don't tell me you were scared by the poisonous fog. I don't believe your nerves, which are as strong as steel." Jasper Luo dragged Ethan Ye towards the hot pot restaurant in front. "Let's go, let's go over there and talk while eating."

This hotpot restaurant has always been known for its good environment. Its decoration is more in the style of a Western restaurant, with uniform warm lighting, and it is lively but not noisy. Even in these uneasy days, business is still good, and there are often long queues waiting for a table outside the door.

Fortunately, it was not yet time to get off work, and there was still some time before the peak period. When Ethan Ye and his friends entered the store, there were still empty tables. The waiter handed over the menu with a smile, and Ethan Ye handed it directly to Jasper Luo: "You order, I don't care." Then he put his computer bag on the empty seat inside, took off his scarf and coat and put them on the back of the chair. He was wearing a smoky blue pinstripe shirt and dark gray suit pants today. The tailoring was perfect, and it wrapped around his body and made him look slender and tall. After pulling out the chair and sitting down, he unbuttoned his cuffs and turned his shirt to his elbows. He was always meticulous in his work, and his every move revealed a gentle temperament.

Jasper Luo pouted as he took the menu and ordered the dishes skillfully. He was used to eating with Ethan Ye, so he was very familiar with this routine. Although he always said it was up to him, he was actually the most picky one. If you asked him to order dishes, he would probably hesitate for a long time before he could reluctantly order a few. It would be better for him to wait until you ordered all the dishes and then pick the ones he liked.

"Well, that's all." Jasper Luo handed the menu to the waiter, "I want the shabu-shabu pot, and lemonade for drinks." The waiter brought lemonade from the table nearby and filled them up for the two of them, then brought the shabu-shabu pot.

"The spicy one is this way." The waitress turned the pot around and Ethan Ye nodded at her: "Thank you."

"Okay, tell me, why do you quit?" Jasper Luo crossed his fingers and rested his chin on them, looking like "Come and let my confidant brother enlighten you."

"You have an occupational disease?" Ethan Ye smiled and leaned back, thinking for a moment before putting away his smile. He bent his index finger and tapped on the table, "It's nothing, actually. Do you remember the new vice president I told you about last time?"

"Oh - the one we met at dinner?" Jasper Luo pointed at a point under his shoulder with his palm flat on his face: "He looks almost fifty, so tall, and he's balding?"

"Well, you remember it very clearly."

"That's right," Jasper Luo raised his eyebrows, "Everyone is like you, face-blind and can't recognize people. What did the vice president do? Was he jealous of your good looks and made things difficult for you, or did he happen to like men and S3xually harass you?"

Ethan Ye took a sip of lemonade and nodded calmly, "Yes, the latter one."

"Fcuk, I guessed it right!" Jasper Luo was horrified, "Then what happened to you?"

Ethan Ye raised an eyebrow: "Shouldn't I ask him what happened to me?"

Jasper Luo snorted and said, "Forget it, I don't know you yet."

"Okay," Ethan Ye spread his hands, "I broke both of his wrists."

Jasper Luo: ...

"I thought about it," Ethan Ye continued slowly, "Although this job pays well, it's too intense. If I continue doing it for a long time, I'll either go bald or become overworked. And now I've offended such a person. I might as well quit. I plan to take a break for a while, recuperate, and then find a new job."

"Well, that's right. In this situation, we may all be doomed one day. Why make things difficult for ourselves... Um, by the way, let's go to YZ. They are now a state-designated protective equipment sales company. Other companies' performance has plummeted these days, but this company's performance has been rising." Jasper Luo became more and more excited as he spoke. "Oh, I tell you, if you are in jail, the first thing you must do is to suggest that the company change its advertising slogan! Lightweight, breathable, non-sense, close-fitting, and breathable protective clothing is really stupid. It must be a plagiarism of other sanitary napkins' advertising slogans."

... Ethan Ye saw the waiter pushing the food cart with dishes over. He probably heard Jasper Luo's words and was standing there trying to hold back a smile. He stood up and said without turning his head, "I'll go get the sauce."

Jasper Luo howled in the back: "By the way, help me do it too!"

Ten seconds later, Jasper Luo looked at the whole bowl of bright red hot sauce in front of Ethan Ye, then looked at the equally red bowl in front of him, and froze.

So it’s okay to embarrass yourself, but you must not drag Ethan Ye into the embarrassment with you.

After re-preparing the sauce, Jasper Luo added some vegetables to the pot while shaking his head: "People who like spicy food should have a masochistic tendency. Why do you do the opposite?"

When the two finished their meal, it was already dark. The weather had been getting worse over the past two years. It wasn't very bright during the day, let alone at night. Ethan Ye and Jasper Luo parted ways at the subway station. Jasper Luo lived in the city further east, quite far from here, but Ethan Ye was only two stops away.

The subway station where Ethan Ye got off was built at the entrance of a primary school next to a residential area. Recently, the school was reported to have poor quality teaching buildings, so it was renovated and rebuilt, and it was also expanded. There were construction sheds on the side of the street, and all the street lights along the way were dug out for the expansion. The whole road was dark and eerie except for the light coming from the subway entrance.

Public security has been very chaotic in the past two years. In addition to the frequent heavy fog that always causes a lot of people to go to the hospital, and most of them are directly dragged to the funeral home, there are always people disappearing inexplicably. Therefore, unless they are particularly busy, few units will work overtime at night. This is also the reason why there are always people resigning from Ethan Ye's company recently.

At the end of last semester, the students of this primary school were all moved to another primary school a few blocks away. It did not affect the teaching progress for the time being, so the construction team spent more than half a year building it leisurely. At night, it was dark and quiet. Occasionally, someone threw a beverage bottle upstairs during the day, which was blown by the wind and fell down, hitting the scaffolding and making a clanging sound, which made people's hair stand on end.

Ethan Ye was a very courageous man. Jasper Luo once teased him that he looked like an elite with gold-rimmed glasses, a shirt and trousers. If he put on a white coat, he would look just like the perverted doctor in novels who wandered around the morgue at night and cut people into pieces without batting an eyelid.

Just as he was walking through the dark streets towards the east gate of the residential area with the cold expression that Jasper Luo described, he seemed to see something flash by inside the open gate of the construction site shed.

It's like - a pair of blood-red eyes.

Ethan Ye paused, stared at the door of the shed for a few seconds with a frown on his face, then walked towards it.

He stood by the open door and looked inside. Apart from a few buildings covered with scaffolding that had just taken shape, he could only see the dark shadows of construction materials piled up in a mess on the open construction site. There were no human or animal outlines, let alone any blood-red eyes.

After scanning twice more to make sure that nothing unusual was found, Ethan Ye sighed, shook his head and laughed at himself for being too suspicious. He hadn't slept well for several days and was starting to have hallucinations. He turned around and walked back to the community.