Haunted by the Toxic Curtain Chapter 8

In the morning, when Jasper Luo and Ethan Ye went downstairs to buy something, they realized how destructive the fog was yesterday. The walls of the residential apartment buildings were corroded to different shades, and the window glass of each house was no longer as smooth as before, as if it had been scratched and had marks all over it. The property management's phone was almost blown up, so they issued a notice that they would repair it completely that day.

The trees and lawns in the flowerbed downstairs were a mess, and the cars parked downstairs were in a terrible state; they all had to be repainted.

Jasper Luo patted his chest and said thankfully: "Fortunately, I parked your car in the garage yesterday."

Ethan Ye reminded him: "What about yours?"

Jasper Luo was stunned for a second and then had a seizure.

"Fcuk! I haven't driven it for several days, I just left it downstairs!" He was so heartbroken that he wanted to jump up and down: "Fcuk, I just bought my beloved car a year ago! No, I have to go back tonight and drive to get a facelift tomorrow."

Ethan Ye raised his eyebrows and looked at him from behind his glasses: "Do you want to stay here for a few days?"

...

I didn't feel anything special in the residential area, but once I entered the supermarket, I saw a huge crowd of people. It seemed that many people were traumatized by yesterday and felt that they didn't know when the end would come, so they were all shopping like crazy.

They put boxes of mineral water, instant noodles, canned food into the shopping carts, as if they were relying on these to survive if there was fog again and they couldn't go out.

This kind of situation has been encountered from time to time in the past few years. People have rushed to buy salt, water, and medicine... In an increasingly uneasy environment, people are like frightened birds. Once they encounter abnormal phenomena, they begin to hoard items like squirrels for the winter.

Ethan Ye pushed the cart and threw the things he wanted to buy into it. From time to time, he asked Jasper Luo if he wanted to buy anything. Occasionally, he helped some middle-aged women to get things from high places. Even in a crowded crowd, he seemed calm and at ease.

However, he still heard every word of the conversation between the clerk and the aunt.

"Hey, did you hear that a lot of people died on the road ahead yesterday? Among them, there seemed to be a young couple living in our building. Before I left, I saw their parents crying and packing up their things. It was so sad to see them."

"Eh? Didn't they say that there were only a lot of injuries and the few serious ones were rescued?"

"Where did you hear this?"

"My niece is a nurse at the hospital on North Street. She told me. I saw such a big thing yesterday, so I called her to ask how she was doing. She said she was too busy to handle it and would call me back today. And she called me this morning to chat for a while."

"But in our building, parents can't just cry for nothing, right?"

"Then I don't know. Maybe it's not a hospital."

"The nearest hospital is..."

...

"Did you watch the news this morning? The list of confirmed deaths at the end."

"Yeah, I saw it. If you ask me, these days, the most unlucky people are still soldiers. Who would be willing to get involved in such a life-threatening situation? They are all recruited from the army, oh yeah, and from the hospital."

"Yes, I felt sorry for those children today, but I always felt that the number of people on the list was too small. There must be more than just two pages of people who died in the country."

"How many more pages do you want?!"

"No, I want a few pages. I wonder if the report is too little..."

"Tsk, I don't know. Well... Anyway, it's good enough if the government can control the fog."

...

Ethan Ye frowned when he heard this, and remembered the phone call he made to Liam Xia before leaving.

Usually when something like this happened, Liam Xia's personal cell phone was turned off, and Ethan Ye would always call him the next day to ask about his safety.

He used to talk about something related, but this morning he was extremely vague.

Anyway, Ethan Ye's purpose was just to confirm that he was okay. After learning that he was not directly involved in the rescue this time, he did not ask any more questions. But now that I think about it, it seems...

Seeing that he was in a trance, Jasper Luo patted his shoulder and said, "Do you need anything else? If not, go and check out."

"Huh?" Ethan Ye was stunned for a moment, collected his thoughts, nodded, and pushed the cart towards the cashier.

Until the moment Ethan Ye entered the house, his mind was still on Liam Xia's vague words. But when he put the things on the dining table and turned back to the living room to get a glass of water, he suddenly heard the sound of the doorknob being turned.

At first he thought it was Jasper Luo, but when he turned around he saw him standing by the shoe cabinet at the door, changing his slippers, and the door was already closed.

Ethan Ye paused for a moment and finally reacted. He turned to face the study with a somewhat stiff movement.

The study door that had been closed all night was opened from the inside. Holden Nie stood at the door with his eyes lowered, one hand on the door frame and the other hand stroking his face twice. He looked very tired.

Ethan Ye opened his mouth, but his throat felt dry and he couldn't say anything.

A fine layer of sweat appeared on the palms of his hands, and his chest felt as if it had been hollowed out, with a slight chill in the air.

Facing the unconscious Holden Nie, he remained calm as if he were treating a stranger, but when this person actually stood in front of him, he was speechless.

It seemed that all the feelings that had been suppressed under the calm appearance in the past few years began to overflow and become uncontrollable the moment he saw Holden Nie again.

He finally realized how unbearable it was for him to have this person leave.

Holden Nie seemed to have not figured out where he was. He frowned and looked a little annoyed.

He rubbed his eyebrows and finally raised his head. At a glance, he saw Ethan Ye standing in the middle of the living room, facing him.

He was stunned for a moment, then opened his eyes wide in disbelief and stood up suddenly: "Ye, Ethan Ye?!" His voice was a little hoarse, as if because of fatigue, or because he carried too many emotions.

Ethan Ye still stood there stiffly, his hands clenched into fists, his face expressionless, his eyes hidden behind his glasses, his emotions obscured by the reflection from the window.

"Ethan Ye..." Holden Nie staggered over and called out again. His face was thinner than before and he looked even colder, but because his eyes suddenly turned red, they were full of tenderness.

He walked up to Ethan Ye, lowered his head slightly, and held Ethan Ye in his arms as if she were a treasure, then held her tighter and tighter: "I, I miss you so much..."

He buried his head in Ethan Ye's neck, motionless, his voice choked with sobs: "Ethan Ye... I miss you so much."

The moment Ethan Ye was hugged by him, his eyes felt a little hot, and when he felt the wetness on his neck, he almost reached out to hug him back.

But the hand he stretched out eventually rested on Holden Nie's chest.

He pushed Holden Nie away and punched him hard in the stomach, causing Holden Nie to stagger and trip over the leg of the coffee table, falling onto the sofa.

Ethan Ye strode over, leaned over and tightly grasped Holden Nie's collar, gritted his teeth, and said in a hoarse voice: "If you have the guts, don't show up in front of me again! Since you disappeared without a trace without a word that year, just get out of here completely! Who are you now?! Huh? Don't tell me that you happened to see Liam Xia and happened to fall here! Do you think that if you call out your name and say I miss you, I will pretend that I didn't exist in these years?! Fcuk you... Fcuk you..."

Holden Nie saw that he was frowning and his eyes were red, and in the end his voice was so hoarse that he couldn't continue speaking.

He let Ethan Ye grab his collar, rubbed his eyes with his thumb, opened his mouth, and finally whispered: "I'm sorry."

His eyes were the same as before, with emotions so strong that they could not be ignored. Ethan Ye frowned, let go of his collar, and sat up on the single sofa beside him.

Ethan Ye took two breaths, calmed down, and then said in a deep voice: "Give me a reasonable explanation, or get out."