XG 2- Web novels... they were genuinely addicting

Telling others to get in first, since Chen Jiang An had sent the barcode ticket to their WhatsApp group chat, Wong Xue Guo moved to the side to answer the call. Instead of going in, her two friends choose to follow her, their ears strained in concentration to eavesdrop on the conversation.

“Mother?”

Unlike her usual calm and composed mother, the woman from the other end of the line let out a few emotional sobs, like a person that had lost someone important.

The worried expression on Wong Xue Guo’s face changed into anxiousness. “Mother, what’s wrong? Did something happen to father?”

The only person that could make her mother this emotional in this world was her father. Not even her maternal grandparents could make her mother this zealous when it comes to the matter of emotions.

“Guo Guo… Guo Guo…”

Hearing that heart-wrenching cries, Wong Xue Guo was even more certain something must have happened to her father. “I will come back now.”

The eavesdropping duo who had heard the conversation were also concerned on her behalf. Both of them planned to follow Wong Xue Guo to go back and see if they could help.

“Yes… No! Don’t go anywhere, baby!”

Wong Xue Guo had just taken a step when the ‘baby’ word stopped her tracks. She wondered if her ears were playing tricks on her. Her mother had never called her by any form of endearment, and the most intimate was her nickname, Guo Guo.

“Baby,” Suzie Yap no longer sounded hysterical and returned to the poise lady that Wong Xue Guo was familiar with, except for calling her ‘baby’. Was her mother possessed? “I remember you are at the new shopping mall now with your classmates for a graduation party. Which floor are you on?”

Although she was curious about what happened, she still answered her mother’s question. “The top floor, outside the cinema gate.”

“Okay. Guo Guo, baby, listen to mummy. Go and hide at the last cubicle in the washroom on your current floor. Mummy will come to you quickly. Don’t come out of the cubicle no matter what happens, understand?” Keys clicking and door slamming could be heard at the other end of the line.

Resisting the goosebump rising from the sudden affectionate words and tone, Wong Xue Guo became even worried. For her mother to warn her to this degree, the problem must not be simple.

“Mother-”

“Guo Guo, listen to mom, okay? It’s all your idiot father’s fault." The sound of the car engine starting was loud behind her mother's words. "Don’t trust anyone, and hide in the cubicle until I reach you, okay? Half an hour, okay, baby? Go now.”

It took her by surprise to hear her mother calling her father, the man she viewed as someone that could do no wrong, as an idiot. But she did not go against her mother’s words anymore after knowing it was related to her father, not in a way her father was in a hospital for serious injury. He must have gotten himself into some problem, due to his occupation as a shady pharmacy chain owner, even if everyone in the family tried to hide it from Wong Xue Guo.

There was once Wong Xue Guo gotten kidnapped by someone that her father had offended, but was luckily rescued by a kind grandparent that happened to pass by. She had also experienced some close call in getting kidnapped again and no longer dared to go anywhere alone or without some self-protection items.

“’kay, I will wait for you.” Ending the call with a confused look, her eyes met Nurul Hanani and Low Lin Ya’s. "I need to leave. There's something back home…"

"Do you want us to accompany you?" Low Lin Ya asked. This was the chance to escape watching the zombie show which would have gore, disgusting scenes. She could never stand watching such a violent show.

Wong Xue Guo quickly shook her head. She was not going to tell them she will be hiding from her father’s enemies and get them involved with her problem. "No, it's alright. Go and hang out with others. I will be going now!"

She jogged away, pretending to look at her wristwatch as she did so. With her act of haste in leaving, she managed to escape and headed straight in the direction of the washroom. On the way, she suddenly remembered there were two washrooms on each floor, each in a different direction.

Wong Xue Guo: ‘…’

She will tell her mother which washroom she was hiding in later.

When she passed by the sundry shop, she went to purchase a surgical mask to help her handle the smell inside the washroom. Luckily, this shopping mall was new and the odor was not overly strong with the cleaners doing well with spraying perfume of some sort that worked to cover up most of the smell.

She was about to check out when she saw a bunch of umbrellas at the side of the cashier. Thinking she needed something as self-defense, she grabbed one and paid for her purchases. Unfortunately, she had not taken her pepper spray given by her father, as it was a school day.

When she entered the washroom, she thanked the lucky stars that it was not fully occupied and she swaggered to the last cubicle, locking herself in. Applied with the face mask, she started cleaning the toilet seat cover with a wet napkin so that she could sit while waiting.

She pulled out her phone and messaged her mother. ‘Mother, I’m in the north washroom.’

It would take at least forty-five minutes from home to the mall if the traffic was not condensed. But right now, it was nearly seven-twenty in the evening, and the majority of the office workers should have clocked out and no longer swarmed the highway to head back home.

It would not be a long wait, but she still needed something to entertain herself.

Fortunately, this internet addict young miss always carried two small power banks to school to charge her mobile phone. Even if she never got the chance to use her second power bank, she still dutifully carried it to comfort her heart for any emergency that might arise.

Luckily, she had packed a small sling bag for today's trip after school and was able to ditch her school bag in her driver's car. It saved her from lugging her school bag around the shopping mall, especially when today was the last day of clearing out all her books from school.

"Time for reading~" Wong Xue Guo hummed and clicked on the google chrome icon. It was also a plus that this toilet has good reception of mobile data, except that the calling bar seems to be lower.

Last night, she managed to find a good zombie apocalypse novel and was only able to read the first five chapters before needing to sleep for school tomorrow. With the holiday starts, her mother will no longer restrain her bedtime!

This novel has a strong but worn-out female main character that came from a parallel world and a nurse male lead that took care of her as they deal with the apocalypse that was brought over from the parallel world, with romance growing slowly with a good rhythm.

Wong Xue Guo was not averse to romance, just that she preferred to enjoy romance together with spicier, paranormal elements that will make the story much more interesting.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Wong Xue Guo flinched sharply, her finger nearly clicked the close button. She raised her head to look at her cubicle door, her heart thumping wildly from surprise after being brought back to reality abruptly.

"Hey, can you finish quickly? You have been inside for a long time!" A woman yelled at the other side of the door with impatience.

"Sorry…" Wong Xue Guo made her voice softer, with a hint of weakness revealed, as if she was in pain. "My stomach hurts…"

"... Okay. Never mind, there's a free one!" The woman hurried away and snatched the recently unoccupied cubicle before it was taken by others.

Wong Xue Guo sighed. Her parents made her lie about something this embarrassing! But she also finally remembers she had forgotten to inquire more about this hiding issue from her parents.

Web novels... they were genuinely addicting.

Opening her chat interface, she asked where her father was now, and what happened. She does not want to disturb her mother in case she was driving the car herself. Her father had hired a private female driver for her mother, but she disliked using the driver and preferred to drive herself.

In the end, the driver was lent to Wong Xue Guo to send and pick her up from school.

She also sent a message to a person on her contact list, telling him that her mother will pick her up and closed the chat page without waiting for a reply. Nurul Hanani and Low Lin Ya might have told him that she left, but he might think too much and assumed she was tricked by a kidnapper or something.

She went back to stare at the chat page with her father, which showed the message was successfully sent out by the one tick beside her message box. It then displayed the second tick, indicating that the message was received by the other party. Both ticks barely gained blue color from their previously gray shade when her phone vibrated energetically.

It was an incoming call from her father.

Wong Xue Guo: '...'

She had thought she would be ignored, as per usual, so why the sudden calling?

Luckily, she had not switched her phone from vibration to sound setting to avoid getting captured by teachers in school, allowing her to keep her lie of having stomach pain intact.

Keeping her voice down, she answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Where are you?" Her father's smooth, velvet voice that would be popular in the dubbing industry traveled into her ears. But his tone was cold and unfriendly, yet this type was somehow popular nowadays.

Strangely, there was a loud, spinning sound coming from his other end. Was he inside a helicopter?

"Toilet."

"...Shopping mall?"

Looks like her mother had kept her father up to date with their daughter's itinerary. She had thought they never bothered, unless necessary. Darn, her father must have been involved with a very serious problem this time.

Was he involved in drugs?!

Wong Xue Guo was no longer a twelve-year-old girl that regarded her parents to be faultless and perfect in everything.

She decided to stop the time-wasting question-and-answer session, or else her father will get annoyed for wasting his time. "Mother is coming for me."

"Any weapon on hand?"

Wong Xue Guo eyed the umbrella resting on her leg. She had not even ripped off the plastic covering yet. "... Does an umbrella count as one?"

"Passable," answered her demanding father. Someone was speaking to him from the background, something like they will be setting off. "Rip apart the umbrella, keep the ribs and shaft. Remember, stab their heart until your weapon emerges at the other end. Listen to your mother and don't run around."

What the bloody f*ck? Σ(O_O)

But her father had already ended the call, leaving her in confusion and suspense. Was her father teaching her how to kill those people that will be coming for her? Did he not care about the law anymore?!

Her phone vibrated, and she saw it was a notification that Low Lin Ya had started a live stream on Instagram. Was she not supposed to be watching the movie with others? She was not the type to illegally record movies in the cinema.

Tapping her finger on her knee, her nerves tight with tension, she clicked on the notification that will directly bring her to the live stream. She will just watch for a bit what the content was.

The video was shot at the place right at the exit of the cinema, which means Low Lin Ya had left without watching the movie till the end. But what made Wong Xue Guo's hair stand was the protagonists of the streaming.

A skeleton thin woman was grabbing onto a crying girl that was screaming for help. No, the skeleton woman was not grabbing, but gnawing onto the crying girl’s bloody arm like a savage dog.

Wong Xue Guo: ‘...’ What the bloody f*ck, Low Lin Ya! Why are you still streaming instead of running! ((╬◣﹏◢))