"Recently, a rare century-old drought and thunderstorm hit the Lingnan region, right onto the iconic cultural monument of Lingnan National Forest Park - the Lingnan Buddha. Reportedly, a tourist was standing on the right hand of the Lingnan Buddha for a photo when the lightning struck. According to the witnesses, the struck tourist got off the Buddha's hand and ran away with another tourist unscathed... Let's see how the netizens respond to this story."

Comment on the first floor: "Profane the gods and suffer divine punishment! Serves him right! Why didn't the lightning just kill him?"

Comment on the second floor: "The one above is simply talking nonsense; it's clearly the Lingnan Buddha showing its spiritual power, bringing down heavenly punishment. What's that got to do with the tourist?"

Comment on the third floor: "This guy must have a rare lightning-attraction constitution, definitely a natural talent for cultivation. He wasn't even killed by heavenly lightning. That's so unbelievably amazing..."

Comment on the fourth floor: "v5v5v5…"

Fifth floor…

As Wang Jie watched the video content, he couldn't help but feel exasperated. However, he couldn't help but admire the imaginative explanations provided by netizens.

He glanced sideways at Chang Xu, who was sleeping on the lower bunk, and shook his head with a bitter smile.

"You know Chang Xu, when are you going to wake up? You've been sleeping for three days... Even if you have a lightning constitution, you're still struck by lightning, not some immortal. Try to wake up, at this rate, I'm going to start fretting over you..."

Yes, the tourist who was struck by lightning in the video was Chang Xu. On the day that he and Wang Jie went to Lingnan Forest Park, for some unknown reason, he insisted on climbing onto the hand of the Lingnan Buddha to take a photo. As a result, before he managed to snap a photo, he was struck by lightning, terrifying both of them and they hastily returned to school. However, once they were back, Chang Xu felt drowsy and went straight to bed, sleeping continuously for three days. If it weren't for his steady breathing, Wang Jie would have sent him to the hospital already.

Perhaps he heard Wang Jie's call, Chang Xu finally opened his eyes after a little movement, stretching a major yawn: "That was an incredibly refreshing sleep, Wang Jie. How long did I sleep? Several hours at least, right?"

"Several hours? Are you kidding...You've been sleeping for three whole days and nights, only turning around twice in between. You really know how to sleep, I strongly suspect you were a pig in your past life..."

Seeing that he's finally awake, Wang Jie instantly jumped up from his chair in excitement, "How are you feeling? Is there anything wrong? Do we need to go to the hospital?"

"Damn it, why go to the hospital? I'm not sick. I'm just feeling a bit drowsy and still want to continue sleeping."

Chang Xu moved his body without feeling anything wrong, struggled to sit up, yawned, and just happened to see the video playing on the computer, his face instantly lit up: "Is this story talking about me?"

"Who else could it be but you? Netizens have already started treating you as a god, eh, our Chang Da Immortal, why don't you try and conjure me up a diamond or something? I can then show off in front of my classmates." Wang Jie cackled weirdly.

"Get lost!" Chang Xu glared at him irritably: "By the way, how's the Big Buddha situation?"

"What else could be? A large pit was struck out by lightning in its right hand, it would probably take lots of cement to fill it up. Alright, let's drop the topic about the Big Buddha. You haven't eaten for days, go ahead and eat now, I just got back."

Wang Jie put a bowl of rice in front of Chang Xu on the desk, "Hurry up, it's still hot. I will go get another serving."

Having not eaten for three days, Chang Xu was quite hungry. He stretched out his right hand to take the bowl, but suddenly shuddered as an electronic synthesized voice echoed in his mind, "Rice bowl, manufactured in 201, made of stainless steel, unbranded, produced by a small factory in Guangdong, mediocre craftsmanship, not high in value."

Huh? Where did this voice come from?

Chang Xu looked around the dormitory; it was only him and Wang Jie, not anyone else. The voice didn't belong to Wang Jie either, so who was it from? He was puzzled.

"What are you waiting for? Hurry up and eat. Here, the spoon.” Wang Jie passed a stainless-steel spoon to Chang Xu.

Chang Xu, with a weird expression, switched the rice bowl to his left hand and took the spoon with his right hand. However, the peculiar electronic synthesized voice rang again in his mind, "Rice spoon, manufactured in 2011, made of stainless steel, unbranded, produced by a small factory in Guangdong, poor craftsmanship, not high in value."

Chang Xu was startled, "What the heck! This is creepy; where is this voice coming from?"

"What's wrong?" Wang Jie was perplexed seeing his strange expression.

"Wang Jie, did you hear anything?" Chang Xu asked, a bit spooked.

"Nope.”

Wang Jie gave him a puzzling glance and found his behavior somewhat unusual. He reached out and touched Chang Xu’s forehead, “You don’t have a fever, were you turned idiotic by the lightning strike?”

"You are the one who turned idiotic."

Chang Xu gave his arm a strange look and tapped it lightly, muttering under his breath, "No sound could be heard. Could it be that the thunderstorm really had affected me and I am experiencing auditory hallucinations?"

"What's wrong with you? Why do you look so off?" Chang Xu felt a bit uncomfortable being touched like this.

With a queer expression, Chang Xu held onto Wang Jie's wrist with his right hand, then felt his chest. Still not hearing any sound, his look became even stranger. "Take off your clothes, let me touch," he said.

"Hell no! Back off you blasted gay!" Wang Jie was totally taken aback. He shook off Chang Xu's hand and ran out of the dorm room like a man possessed, as if someone was trying to assault him.

"Screw you! You're the gay one!"

Chang Xu was left speechless. He lost his appetite, threw the rice bowl on the table and exclaimed in frustration, "What the hell is going on!" In annoyance, he slapped his hand against the bed frame. Then the strange synthesized voice appeared again, "Bunk bed produced in 2007, made of angle iron, manufactured by Lingnan Iron Art Company, average craftsmanship..."

"Holy crap, this is so freaky!"

Scared out of his wits, Chang Xu, in his underwear, ran out of his dorm room to tell anyone he met about his ghostly experience, gripping anyone willing to listen. Before long, whenever other guys on the same floor saw him, they would scatter like mice spotting a cat, their faces white with fear.

A day later, rumors started spreading throughout the building, "Dorm 408 has a new gay resident and he is constantly on top of other guys using the ridiculous excuse of seeing ghosts!" This sent a wave of panic among the male students and they would run whenever they saw Chang Xu.

Two days later, gossip of Chang Xu being gay had circulated throughout the entire school...

"Damn, who is the bastard spreading these rumors! If I find out who it is, I swear I'll beat the crap out of them!"

Chang Xu was grinding his teeth in anger but felt helpless. He claimed to be hearing weird sounds but no one believed him. They all thought he was trying to take advantage of this to touch others. His roommates were so scared they didn't even dare to return to the dorm, some stayed over at other dorms. He felt abandoned and ostracised.

However, after these two days of weird experiences, he finally understood something. There's really something wrong with his right hand. Whenever he touched an object with the palm of his right hand, regardless of what it was or what it was made of, he would hear a strange synthesized voice in his head. His left hand was perfectly fine, and touching anything with his right fingertips was also fine. But the odd phenomena only occurred when he touched anything with the palm of his right hand.

"Could my right hand have changed after being struck by lightning?"

Remembering that Lingnan Big Buddha was also struck in the right palm, Chang Xu felt a sense of unease.

Ding-a-ling--

Suddenly, the phone rang.

Chang Xu glanced at the caller ID, only to see it was a call from home. He quickly answered the call, "Hey, mom, what's up? Why are you calling me at this hour?"

"Come home quickly. Your dad has been hit by a car and is now in the emergency room." His mother's voice trembled on the other end of the phone, and she sounded like she was about to cry.

Thump! His heart jumped in his chest. Panicked, Chang Xu immediately called Wang Jie, asking him to take a few days off on his behalf. He packed a few clothes and hurried out of the dormitory, leaving the school.

Chang Xu's hometown was not far from Lingnan City, situated towards the east of it, was a small county called Lingdong. By the time he arrived at Lingdong and reached the county central hospital, it was already past three in the afternoon, over six hours since his mother's call.

"Mom, how's dad?" The moment he arrived at the emergency room, he saw his mother nervously pacing outside the door, looking anxious and worn.

"Oh, my child, you're finally here." Upon seeing Chang Xu, his mother broke down in tears, clinging onto him as if he was her last hope. She was thoroughly frightened.

Chang Xu quickly sat his mother down onto a nearby chair, "What exactly happened?"

At that moment, the door of the emergency room swung open, and a nurse walked out.

Chang Xu stood up quickly, asking, "Nurse, how's my dad?"

"The patient is out of immediate danger. He's currently undergoing surgery, but he'll have to be hospitalized for a period after it's done," the nurse replied.

"That's good, that's good." Chang Xu finally relaxed.

Upon hearing that her husband was out of danger, Chang's mother finally stopped sobbing, murmuring prayers of gratitude for the mercy of the Buddha. But the nurse's next words plummeted her spirits once again.

The nurse said, "The 50,000 yuan deposit your family paid earlier is not even enough for the surgery fees. You must go to the payment office as soon as possible and settle the balance. Otherwise, our hospital may have to stop the treatment."

"How much will it cost?" Chang's mother asked anxiously.

The nurse shook her head, saying, "I'm not too sure about the details, but the victim has broken multiple bones leading to severe internal bleeding. This surgery is a big operation, and with subsequent treatment costs, it won't be less than 200,000 yuan."

"200,000 yuan..."

Chang's mother collapsed to the ground, her face full of worry. "Where are we supposed to get that kind of money from..."

Chang Xu also felt a tightening in his chest, his heart plummeting to the darkest depths.