“I heard Wang Wenyuan got possessed by something evil.”
Luo Song’s face was practically glowing with gossip as he recounted the story in such vivid detail that he sounded as though he had personally witnessed the entire incident.
“After the exam results came out, he suddenly started running around the school like a madman. He even fell down a flight of stairs and nearly dislocated his shoulder, and he sprained his ankle, too. Physically, he wasn’t seriously hurt, but something seems to have gone wrong with him mentally. He keeps insisting that a ghost has attached itself to him…”
Li Xingchuan said, “He’s putting on an act, isn’t he?”
Luo Song replied, “So what if he is? Life is a stage, after all… But honestly, I think he just did badly on the exam and doesn’t want to face reality, so he’s making a whole drama out of it to get himself some extra attention.”
Li Xingchuan said, “If he’s got that much time on his hands, he might as well repeat his final year.”
“Exactly!”
The two of them were in complete agreement on the matter.
As for how much truth there was to Wang Wenyuan’s supposed possession, there was no way to know.
But beneath the blazing summer sun and amid the endless sweat of those sweltering days, the most carefree summer vacation of the boys’ final year of high school was finally drawing to a close.
As expected, both Li Xingchuan and Ji Wangcheng were admitted to Yucheng University, in the computer science department.
On the day the admission results became available online, his maternal grandmother was so delighted that she couldn’t stop smiling. Previously, she had only gone square dancing twice a week to keep herself fit. Now, she began showing up at the entrance of their residential compound at the same time every evening, attending with the determination of someone striving for a perfect attendance record.
Before long, half the residents in the compound knew that Li Xingchuan had been admitted to Yuda.
Li Xingchuan’s father, Zheng Yuan, eventually learned the news through a chain of acquaintances: a neighbor’s relative’s friend had somehow passed it along to him. He was absolutely overjoyed with paternal pride and transferred an additional twenty thousand yuan to Li Xingchuan as a reward for getting into university, hoping that a little more money might help repair their father-son relationship.
Li Xingchuan wasn’t the type to make a fuss over something like that. There was no reason to refuse pocket money that his cheap excuse for a father had handed over for free. Once the money arrived, he went straight to find Ji Wangcheng and invited him out for a meal.
As for Li Xingchuan’s mother, Ms. Li Shuhui, she naturally made no gesture of acknowledgment whatsoever.
The marriage between Li Shuhui and Zheng Yuan had been a powerful combination of a love-struck woman marrying beneath herself and a man from humble origins marrying into a wealthier family. Zheng Yuan was a live-in son-in-law. His name had been added to the property deed, a car had been bought for him, and their son had even taken his mother’s surname.
After Li Shuhui had essentially finished providing targeted financial assistance to the man she had married, their marriage inevitably took an unexpected turn and fell apart.
In truth, Zheng Yuan had never cheated on her during their marriage. Their relationship had simply broken down beyond repair.
Li Shuhui, however, was suspicious by nature. She stubbornly believed that some seductive woman outside their marriage must have bewitched her husband’s eyes and stolen his heart. In desperation, she sought out a master renowned for his extraordinary accuracy in reading marital fortunes, hoping the woman could perform a ritual to keep her husband from leaving.
The master took one look at their fate and announced that the marriage between Li Shuhui and her husband had reached the end of its road and was beyond saving. However, she also observed that Li Shuhui seemed to possess an unusually strong spiritual intuition and was a natural prodigy in the study of metaphysics. For a tuition fee of fifty thousand yuan, the master offered to take her on as a disciple.
After that experience, Li Shuhui devoted herself to the world of mysticism and embarked on the path of becoming a spiritual medium.
Her journey toward becoming a self-proclaimed spiritual master began with tormenting her own son. Li Xingchuan had suffered more than enough of her antics when he was a child, and those experiences had nurtured a strong rebellious streak in him. He grew to despise metaphysics and, by extension, anything associated with it.
Astrology, for instance. Tarot cards, too. He wouldn’t even share one of those lucky koi fish pictures on his QQ Space.
Although Li Xingchuan had long known that Li Shuhui didn’t care about him in the slightest, the extent of her indifference still left him feeling a subtle, lingering sadness.
The feeling even distracted him while he was playing games at Ji Wangcheng’s house.
After an entire summer vacation and more than fifty accumulated hours of gameplay, they had finally managed to complete the game for the very first time.
Ji Wangcheng asked, “Why are you sighing?”
Li Xingchuan replied, “I’m thinking about something.”
Ji Wangcheng asked, “What?”
“Hmm…” Li Xingchuan improvised, “Do you think we might end up being roommates?”
Ji Wangcheng answered with unruffled composure, “We will.”
Half a month later, it was time to register for the new semester.
As it turned out, Li Xingchuan really did end up becoming Ji Wangcheng’s roommate.
Their dormitory was on the fourth floor. Li Xingchuan politely declined his grandmother’s offer to help carry his belongings upstairs, intending to make the trip himself, one load at a time.
Before he could get very far, however, two big, burly guys suddenly appeared out of nowhere. With broad smiles on their faces, they announced, “We’re the movers Ji Wangcheng hired,” and then proceeded to carry Li Xingchuan’s luggage upstairs along with their employer’s, leaving him no room to refuse.
Only then did Li Xingchuan realize that Ji Wangcheng’s parents hadn’t come to see him off, either.
Still, he didn’t ask about it. Whenever the subject of his parents came up, Ji Wangcheng always spoke in vague, evasive terms. Li Xingchuan could understand that much. Even a kid from an ordinary family like his own had more than enough ridiculous family drama to fill a book. The situation on Little Ji’s side was probably even more outrageous.
As for the two other roommates who had been assigned to them, they were normal in some respects and strange in others.
The roommate sleeping in the bed directly opposite Li Xingchuan was named Li Xuanzhi. His name sounded rather like that of an accomplished Buddhist monk who had attained enlightenment. He looked somewhat mature, and his temperament was equally steady and composed. At a glance, he appeared to be approaching thirty.
The moment he stepped into the dormitory, he gave off the impression of a doctoral supervisor visiting an undergraduate dorm to offer some guidance.
The man, who looked every bit like a doctoral supervisor, introduced himself in a calm, measured voice. “I’m Li Xuanzhi.”
He then handed each of them a can of saffron, explaining that it was a local specialty he had brought from home.
However, this man’s behavior was the complete opposite of what his name and dignified appearance might suggest.
After finishing making his bed, Li Xuanzhi set up a phone stand and began watching female streamers on Douyin with unwavering concentration.
Of course, Li Xingchuan wasn’t the sort of person who had the bad habit of peeking at what his roommates were watching. But when someone openly played videos at full volume, blaring out a song that went, “Come on, let me act all cute in your arms~ Oh meow, meow, meow, meow, meow~,” it was practically impossible not to know what they were watching. Between the hypnotically repetitive background music and the woman’s voice, Li Xingchuan would have had to be deaf not to notice.
After thanking him for the gift, Li Xingchuan discovered something else. Although Li Xuanzhi was staring so intently at the female streamer that his eyes barely moved, his hands were busy rolling a string of sandalwood prayer beads. A glass of chrysanthemum tea sat beside him, and his expression remained completely impassive.
Beautiful women passed before his eyes, yet the Buddha remained seated in his heart.
The contrast was so bizarre that it was difficult to describe.
As for the other roommate, his name was Shan Bai.
This time, the person was indeed a perfect match for his name. He was fair-skinned and clean-cut, and two little plastic figurines that Li Xingchuan couldn’t identify sat on his desk.
Shan Bai reminded Li Xingchuan of a chubby younger male cousin. He had a pair of lively, bright eyes and seemed incapable of sitting still for even a moment. There was something unmistakably youthful about him. Put him in a school uniform, and he could have blended seamlessly into a junior high school classroom. If someone claimed he was only fourteen or fifteen, Li Xingchuan would have believed it.
“I’m Shan Bai. Shan, as in the word for ‘simple’ or ‘pure.’ You can call me Egg White, too.”
Shan Bai had also brought gifts for his roommates: beautifully packaged flower pastries.
After distributing them, he suggested, “How about we all go to M’s for dinner tonight? There’s one right outside the school.”
It was an entirely natural suggestion. Breaking the ice in a dormitory often began with sharing a meal. The very next second, Shan Bai pulled out his phone, opened the McDonald’s ordering mini-program, and said to Li Xingchuan with complete seriousness, “I heard the new Big Mac meal they’ve just released is pretty good.”
Li Xingchuan took a look. It was a family-sharing meal, and purchasing it came with a little toy from a collaboration with a certain game.
For some reason, he began to suspect that Shan Bai was more interested in the promotional gift than in the food itself.
“Sounds good to me,” he said.
Li Xuanzhi added, “I’m fine with it, too.”
All three of them turned to look at the only person who hadn’t yet expressed an opinion.
Perhaps it was just Li Xingchuan’s imagination, but both Li Xuanzhi and Shan Bai seemed a little nervous, as though they were wary of something.
Ji Wangcheng calmly nodded.
The McDonald’s outside the school gates was packed with people. In the end, the four of them ordered takeout and divided up the meal back in their dormitory.
When the food arrived, Shan Bai’s face was full of anticipation.
The moment they began unpacking it, he looked positively eager.
But once everything had been opened, Shan Bai’s smile gradually disappeared.
“……..”
Li Xingchuan explained, “The promotional gifts are only available when you dine in.”
Shan Bai fell silent.
“…”
On his first night in the dormitory, Li Xingchuan suffered from insomnia.
The new students who hadn’t yet been divided into their specialized majors had all been assigned to Yuda’s main campus in the western part of the city. It was only seven or eight kilometers from his home, a journey of half an hour at most if everything went smoothly.
It was a familiar city, a familiar place. He had even visited the shopping mall nearby several times when he was in high school. And yet, for some inexplicable reason, he simply couldn’t fall asleep.
He tossed and turned from one side to the other. Eventually, unable to resist any longer, he pulled his phone out from beneath his pillow and began bothering Ji Wangcheng.
[Poke]
[Are you asleep? Come chat with me.]
A very soft notification sound came from the bed beside his.
[C]: No.
[What are we eating tomorrow?]
[C]: What do you want to eat?
[Can’t think of anything. Let’s go see what’s available in the cafeteria.]
[C]: Mm.
And just like that, the conversation was dead.
From that utterly ordinary little mm, Li Xingchuan managed to detect a hint of displeasure.
When the night was deep and everything was quiet, people tended to turn things over in their minds and notice all sorts of little details they had overlooked during the day. It was then that Li Xingchuan realized Ji Wangcheng hadn’t seemed particularly enthusiastic ever since they moved into the dormitory.
Ji Wangcheng wasn’t the type who enjoyed talking for the sake of talking. When it was just the two of them together, he would speak a little more. But the moment he found himself around other people, he transformed completely into a mushroom that had taken a vow of silence, growing on the ceiling and looking down coldly upon all living beings.
After knowing him for so long, Li Xingchuan had long since grown accustomed to his personality. It was practically impossible to get more than a few words out of him at a time.
He guessed that the problem was simply that Ji Wangcheng had never lived in a dormitory before.
[Not used to living in a dorm?]
[C]: I’m not used to it.
He admitted it honestly.
A few seconds later, Ji Wangcheng sent another message.
[I don’t want to stay with them.]
The implication behind those words was actually quite easy to figure out.
Unfortunately, Li Xingchuan had a very straightforward way of thinking. It never even occurred to him to interpret the statement in any of the more suggestive ways someone else might have imagined.
He recalled the things their two roommates had done and suddenly understood. He immediately replied to Ji Wangcheng.
[Got it.]
Then he sent another message.
[Yeah, that really is a problem.]
[I’ll remind Li Xuanzhi tomorrow not to play Douyin videos out loud. It really is disturbing everyone.]
“…”
Ji Wangcheng didn’t reply.
The following day, the class meeting was held.
In a science and engineering major, boys made up two-thirds of the class. As was typical, the students gathered in clusters according to their dormitories, with roommates forming the core of each little group.
Their homeroom teacher was fairly young, probably in his thirties. He looked as though he belonged to the same generation as Li Xuanzhi.
He cleared his throat. “Hello, everyone. I’m your homeroom teacher, Chen Chang.”
As usual, the homeroom teacher delivered a speech built around the familiar themes: You’re all the pride of heaven; university life will be rich and colorful, so make sure you study hard; today, you are proud to attend Yuda, and every day from now on, Yuda will be proud of you.
He went on and on, repeating the same empty platitudes in slightly different forms, until he finally made the announcement that mattered.
“Starting tomorrow, your two-week military training will begin!”
“Everyone, assemble at the sports field by the west gate at eleven in the morning…”
The cheerful atmosphere came to an abrupt end. A wave of groans rose from the students below.
Yuda took physical education seriously and enforced strict rules during military training. As a result, the university had earned itself the nickname Yucheng Military Training University, a reputation known throughout the entire city.
Li Xingchuan, however, was worried about something else.
He nudged Ji Wangcheng with his elbow and asked, “Are you really not going to ask for an exemption?”
Ji Wangcheng replied, “There’s no need.”
Li Xingchuan said, “People get heatstroke every day during military training. Don’t push yourself just to prove something.”
Ji Wangcheng answered, “I’m not.” Then, as if to explain himself, he added, “My health is much better now.”
Li Xingchuan didn’t believe him. “But you have congenital heart disease. Aren’t you supposed to be unable to do strenuous exercise at all?”
Ignoring Ji Wangcheng’s attempt to explain, Li Xingchuan made the decision on the spot. That afternoon, he would accompany Ji Wangcheng to a nearby hospital and have a doctor issue a medical certificate for him.
Before they left, Shan Bai asked curiously, “Where are you two going to have fun?”
Li Xingchuan answered, “I’m accompanying him to the hospital.”
For a moment, Shan Bai looked so incredulous that he hesitated before asking, “What are you going to the hospital for—uh, wait, is Ji Wangcheng… not in good health?”
“Not particularly.” Ji Wangcheng spoke without the slightest change in expression. “I have congenital heart disease.”
He delivered the words as though he were stating a fact that had absolutely nothing to do with him personally.
The moment those words left his mouth, Shan Bai fell silent.
“…”
Li Xuanzhi, who had been watching a female streamer, turned around. An eerie silence settled over him as well.
“……..”
Their reactions left Li Xingchuan somewhat baffled. Logically speaking, they were all roommates, so surely the other two should have expressed some concern.
But…
Shan Bai’s voice sounded rather unsteady as he forced out a dry response. “Oh, I see. Then you really should get a medical certificate. Don’t push yourself too hard.”
…Why did they both look as though they didn’t quite believe him?
Was congenital heart disease really such an unusual condition?
The following afternoon, several large buses carried all the new students to the military training base.
From the outside, the training base looked much like the university itself. Several buildings clustered around a large sports field, forming a layout that wasn’t particularly different from that of a school campus. However, the accommodation was far inferior to what they had at Yuda. The girls were assigned rooms with six people each, while the boys had to squeeze eight people into a room. There were no private bathrooms, either. Everyone on each floor had to share one large communal shower room.
Their homeroom teacher had already warned them in advance about what to expect. During the entire bus ride, the students had been imagining the military training base as practically a living hell, exaggerating every possible hardship until it sounded like something straight out of a horror story.
When they finally arrived, however, they discovered that the place was actually somewhat better than they had imagined. At the very least, the showers had individual partitions instead of the traditional northern-style communal bathhouse where everyone had to stand around completely exposed in front of one another.
The exterior walls of the buildings looked particularly old and worn, but the facilities inside had been renovated. The place wasn’t nearly as terrible as the older students had described.
On the first day, their main task was to practice standing at attention in military posture.
It was already early September, yet the temperature showed no sign of easing up. The scorching weather seemed determined to demonstrate that it still had plenty of power left as the students stood exposed on the sports field.
Li Xingchuan actually thought the amount of training was manageable. The real problem was that it was unbearably boring. For dozens of minutes at a time, they weren’t allowed to speak or move. They could only stand there like wooden posts, staring into space. If they failed to maintain a straight posture, the instructor would immediately reprimand them.
Li Xingchuan was just under 180 centimeters tall, making him one of the taller students in the class. He stood near the end of the second-to-last row.
From that position, he happened to have a clear view of the students resting beneath the shade of the trees.
Ji Wangcheng was sitting there.
Although he had obtained a medical certificate exempting him from military training, he still had to accompany the main group as part of the supporting cast, so to speak. He ate and lived alongside the other students, got up early in the morning, and had to keep his dormitory space neat and orderly. When training was underway, he simply stood or sat off to the side, watching his classmates go through their drills.
Li Xingchuan glanced over from time to time. And every single time he looked, he discovered that Ji Wangcheng was staring straight at him.
The moment their gazes met, Ji Wangcheng would lower his head again, pretending that nothing had happened and that he had merely been looking around.
This gave Li Xingchuan something entertaining to do.
He tilted his head slightly and occasionally raised an eyebrow at Ji Wangcheng or gave him a playful wink. It brought back the same joy he had felt in junior high, when he used to pull faces at his classmates below while being punished by having to stand at the back of the classroom.
Unfortunately, the military training instructor was no pushover. It didn’t take long for him to notice the sneaky little movements Li Xingchuan was making.
“Oh? Looks like someone’s having a pretty good time, huh?”
The instructor suddenly smacked Li Xingchuan hard between the shoulder blades, nearly sending the entire boy flying forward.
“Having fun flirting with the pretty girls over there, are you? Want me to let you go over and sing them a song, too?”
The male students standing nearby snickered quietly.
Li Xingchuan tried to clear his name. “Instructor, I wasn’t—”
There really were several female students sitting beneath the shade of the trees, taking a break.
But he had been looking at Ji Wangcheng!
“Shut up! Stand properly! If I hear you chatting again, you’ll be running laps!”
The entire class fell silent.
On the second day, several senior students appeared beneath the trees, camera straps hanging around their necks.
Since the university’s military training was underway, the student union’s news department and the publicity departments of the various schools and faculties had decided to seize the opportunity to publish a few promotional articles.
With cameras pointed in their direction, Li Xingchuan knew better than to embarrass himself. He didn’t dare fool around as he had the previous day, and obediently maintained his posture throughout the entire day.
The exhaustion from military training accumulated day after day. The fatigue from the previous day’s drills had barely faded when another round of intense training came crashing down on them. It was difficult to imagine anything more torturous.
In the evening, they were allowed some free time, but they still weren’t permitted to leave through the gates of the training base.
“What difference is there between this place and a prison?” Li Xingchuan complained.
Shan Bai couldn’t agree more. “At least prisoners get people coming to visit them. We don’t even have that.”
One of the boys said, “…Don’t we have the senior girl from the news department coming to visit us?”
“How many years is she in?”
“Her legs are so slender.”
“She’s that pretty. She must have a girlfriend, right?”
The moment the conversation turned to girls, the boys suddenly had an endless supply of things to say.
The eight-person room at the military training base included four students who had been transferred over from a neighboring dormitory. They were enthusiastically discussing all the pretty girls they had seen, while the four people from Li Xingchuan’s own dormitory seemed to have absolutely no worldly desires whatsoever.
Late-night conversations in a boys’ dormitory inevitably revolved around brotherhood, bragging, girls, and romantic experiences.
When the conversation finally reached the last topic, the other four boys briefly went around sharing their rather unremarkable romantic histories. After that, the room suddenly fell quiet.
A long while later, one of them tentatively asked, “Li Xingchuan, do you have a girlfriend?”
Li Xingchuan replied, “…No. I’ve never had one before, either. I’ve been single since birth.” He turned over and tossed the question to Ji Wangcheng. “You too, right?”
Ji Wangcheng answered, “Mm.”
Shan Bai suddenly let out a breath of relief. “Me too.”
Li Xuanzhi seemed to have already fallen asleep.
The boy continued, “Well… that’s pretty normal, I guess. Everyone’s busy studying in high school. But you’re in university now, and with your looks and conditions, it should be pretty easy for you to find someone if you want to date.”
Li Xingchuan smiled casually. “That depends on whether anyone actually likes me enough to want me.”
Barely a week after military training began, his words came true.
All of a sudden, Li Xingchuan started receiving several friend requests a day. There were both boys and girls among them.
At first, he assumed his personal information had been leaked and that telemarketers had gotten hold of his phone number. He didn’t bother responding to a single request.
It wasn’t until dinner that Luo Song sent him a message.
Luo Song had been admitted to Yuda’s School of Civil Engineering, officially becoming a proud member of the future bucket-packing-and-running-away reserve force. His dormitory was in the building directly opposite theirs.
[Luo Song]: Brother Shan, some girls asked me for your WeChat. They’re girls from my class. Can I give them your contact?
Ever since the chubby guy had learned his childhood nickname, “Brother Chuan” had turned into “Brother Shan.”
Li Xingchuan was thoroughly puzzled. He had enjoyed this kind of attention back in high school, too, whether on the basketball court or after the campus Top Ten Singers competition. But what was going on now?
[Why do they want it?]
[Luo Song]: They saw that article posted by the student union, obviously.
[Luo Song]: [Shared link]
Li Xingchuan opened the link and took a look. The article featured close-up shots of several good-looking freshmen, and the photograph of him was actually quite handsome. Without a moment’s hesitation, he long-pressed the picture and saved it.
He had never been particularly concerned about his own dignity, so after saving the photo, he happily forwarded it to Ji Wangcheng to show off. He even made a point of announcing with great solemnity, “Your Brother Shan has made the news.”
Ji Wangcheng was sitting right beside him, eating dinner.
The food in the military training base’s cafeteria was either too salty or too bland, with some dishes suffering from one extreme and others from the opposite. It was edible, certainly, but hardly delicious.
Everyone was ravenous after training and devoured their meals without much regard for appearances. Against that backdrop, Ji Wangcheng’s calm, unhurried movements somehow seemed extraordinarily elegant. Even eating from a metal tray in a cafeteria, he managed to create the impression of someone dining in an upscale restaurant.
Ji Wangcheng had always been good at indulging Li Xingchuan’s little displays of vanity. He put down his chopsticks, quickly scanned the article from beginning to end, and stopped when he reached Li Xingchuan’s photograph.
“This one looks really good.”
As he spoke, he saved the picture without the slightest change in expression, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Li Xingchuan’s pride nearly sent his tail shooting straight into the sky. “Right? I think so, too!”
Ji Wangcheng continued scrolling through the page, but his expression gradually darkened.
At the bottom of the article was the comments section. Senior students were enthusiastically welcoming the freshmen and praising their looks, and plenty of students from the same year had joined in as well.
[Welcome to Yucheng Sports University~]
[The freshmen this year are all so good-looking! Every single one of them looks so young and full of energy. [doge]]
[It’s 35°C again these past two days. How are our junior brothers and sisters holding up? This is the blessing of our university! ]
…
The comments were sorted by popularity, and the farther down one went, the more uninhibited people seemed to become.
[That handsome guy in Picture 7 just woke me right up with his looks.]
[Is the guy in Picture 7 from the School of Computer Science?]
[First of all, I’m not a lesbian, but the girl with the side-swept bangs has such a lovely aura.]
[Sisters, I’m celebrating my sixtieth birthday this year. Can someone give me the contact information of the handsome guy in Picture 7?]
[Oh my, isn’t that my junior? He went to Yucheng No. 1 High School!]
Ji Wangcheng frowned and closed the article.
Beside him, Li Xingchuan was busy replying to Luo Song’s messages.
He hadn’t put a privacy screen protector on his phone, the brightness was turned up quite high, and his font size was relatively large. Anyone glancing over could clearly make out the interface and read what was on the screen.
[Better not give it to them. So many people have added me today, and I don’t feel like chatting with anyone. Besides, I’d only put you in an awkward position later.]
[Luo Song]: Oh, look at you, getting all high and mighty now?
[Luo Song]: Don’t worry about it. Your dad doesn’t get embarrassed.
[Forget it, forget it.]
[How about we go eat crayfish after military training ends?]
[Luo Song]: Let’s do it! The place by the entrance to the old railway station?
[You get me!]
Ji Wangcheng withdrew his gaze.
He knew who Luo Song was. The boy had become friends with Shanshan during their first year of high school, and the two of them had remained classmates throughout all three years. They had been able to see each other and talk almost every day, and their relationship was exceptionally close.
Meanwhile, his own childhood friend of more than ten years was, in the end, someone he only got to see a few times a year.
Every summer, when he returned to Yucheng, he would listen to Li Xingchuan talk about the little things that had happened around him, share amusing stories from school, and occasionally boast in passing about just how popular he was.
Until now, Ji Wangcheng had never truly participated in Li Xingchuan’s daily life. He had merely been the person listening to those stories. He would hear them, laugh at them, and enjoy them, but he had never really put himself in Li Xingchuan’s shoes or thought deeply about what his life was actually like.
Before this, living as part of a group had been an unfamiliar concept to Ji Wangcheng.
Now, he was beginning to understand it.
—There are so many people… who want to steal Shanshan away from me.
Author’s Note:
Shan Bai’s surname, Shan, is pronounced in the fourth tone. You can simply call him Egg White.
Little Ji has entered alert mode and has already become unhappy, even though absolutely nothing has happened yet.