Edited—

Although they didn’t know what kind of “treasure” Lin Jue was talking about, Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong both knew it definitely wasn’t anything interesting.

Lin Jue stuck her head out the window again and said, “It seems to have crawled into the teaching building. Shall we go check the stairs?”

Li Jinjiang’s entire face was deathly pale, looking like he couldn’t withstand any more fright. Even Zhou Jiayu felt some sympathy for him. Li Jinjiang said hoarsely, “W-what thing?”

Lin Jue preserved her last remaining conscience and didn’t directly answer Li Jinjiang’s question. Instead, she said, “The one who jumped was a female teacher, right? And quite young…”

Li Jinjiang’s expression nearly made him cry. Although Lin Jue’s words were somewhat tactful, they also made clear what she had seen—the female teacher who had jumped from this office a few years ago.

Shen Yiqiong also couldn’t quite bear to watch. “Don’t be afraid. We’re all here. Be brave!”

Li Jinjiang still maintained an expression of being on the verge of collapse.

Supposedly, that thing had already crawled into the teaching building; it was just unknown when it would crawl before them. Lin Jue was still calculating its crawling speed, saying they might as well wait in the classroom for the rabbit to walk into the trap.

Zhou Jiayu asked tremblingly, “What if we really wait for it?”

Lin Jue said, “Wait for it? If we wait for it, we’ll have your Sir burn her to death.”

Lin Zhushui hadn’t said much the entire time. Hearing Lin Jue’s words, his thin lips parted slightly: “It’s here.”

The moment he said this, the three grown men remaining in the room instantly huddled together. If they weren’t afraid of losing too much face, they truly wanted to hug each other and shiver.

A very strange sound indeed came from the corridor. That sound carried a somewhat moist quality, like some heavy object slowly crawling across the floor.

Lin Zhushui’s expression didn’t change. He took out several paper cranes from his bosom and casually released them. The paper cranes left his hand and ignited with faint red flames, flapping their wings as they flew out of the office.

This scene wasn’t the first time Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong had seen it, but Li Jinjiang’s expression was dazed as he said, “Am I already dead? Why am I seeing paper flying?”

Zhou Jiayu quite understood Li Jinjiang’s feeling of his worldview collapsing and patted his shoulder in comfort.

The paper cranes flew out, and soon they heard other sounds—a woman’s miserable scream, so shrill it made one’s hair stand on end, accompanied by some heavy impact sounds.

Lin Jue stood at the doorway, tilting her head as she looked into the corridor, giving them a play-by-play: “Oh my, the meat is all charred!”

Zhou Jiayu really did smell the scent of protein being burned… He thought painfully that at least for the next half year, he wouldn’t have any interest in roasted meat.

“Quite impressive.” Lin Jue said, “Zhushui, you’ve improved these past few years. Oh no, she’s trying to escape!” After saying this, she turned to look at the few people in the room and asked, “Are we chasing?!”

The three grown men in the room all felt a bit like crying upon hearing this.

Fortunately, Lin Zhushui spoke up at this moment: “No need to chase. Let her go back.”

Lin Jue said, “Did you mark her?”

Lin Zhushui nodded.

Lin Jue seemed somewhat unsatisfied, saying she had thought they could have a thrilling adventure. But then she looked at the three men standing quietly beside Lin Zhushui, as obedient as quails, and sighed toward the heavens: “How come men these days are all so timid—”

Zhou Jiayu thought to himself that it wasn’t that they were timid, but that her courage was a bit too excessive… However, he didn’t dare say this out loud. After all, Lin Jue seemed to possess extraordinary talent, and he felt that offending her wouldn’t be a good thing—just look at Li Jinjiang, who had been frightened half to death tonight.

After that thing was driven away by Lin Zhushui, they didn’t rush to leave. Instead, they checked the office. Supposedly, this office originally had over a dozen teachers in it. After the incident, a few were transferred out, and in the end, only a single-digit number remained.

Zhou Jiayu noticed a desk near the edge of the window. That desk was somewhat different from the others—it was almost empty, with only some very old stationery supplies on it. He wiped it with his finger and saw that there was a thick layer of dust on the desk, looking like it hadn’t been used for a long time.

“Was this that teacher’s desk?” Zhou Jiayu asked Li Jinjiang.

Because of what had just happened, Li Jinjiang looked somewhat dazed. He nodded, and after a while, finally said slowly, “Yes. After that teacher’s incident, the family came to the school to make a fuss. To placate everyone, the school kept her desk. At first, they seemed to say they would remove it after a few months, but later no one was willing to touch it, so it stayed.”

“Oh…” Zhou Jiayu carefully looked at the desk, feeling that there didn’t seem to be anything special about it. But as if compelled by a ghost, he suddenly reached out and touched the underside of the drawer, unexpectedly discovering that a small slip of paper was stuck to the bottom of the drawer.

“What’s this?” Zhou Jiayu was startled by this thing. He didn’t dare tear it off and bent down to look into the desk cavity.

It was a yellow Post-it note, stuck under the desk. An ordinary person would be hard-pressed to notice it.

“What is it?” Lin Jue heard Zhou Jiayu’s voice and walked over. She was much less particular than Zhou Jiayu and directly reached out to tear off that slip of paper.

“Is it okay to just tear it off like this?” Zhou Jiayu was startled by her.

“What are you afraid of?” Lin Jue smiled meaningfully. She said, “With your Sir here, if it were truly something especially dangerous, he would definitely stop us.”

That made sense… Zhou Jiayu, who deeply agreed with Lin Jue’s words, cast a glance toward Lin Zhushui and felt much calmer inside.

The yellow Post-it note also had dust on it; who knew how long it had been stuck there. Lin Jue turned the note over and saw a few words written on it: Welcome back.

Lin Jue: “…Welcome back.” She showed a thoughtful expression.

“Welcome back?” Zhou Jiayu felt that the implied meaning of these few words was truly not good. “Welcome who back?”

“Who else could it be?” Lin Jue stroked the words on the Post-it note. “Naturally, the person who left.”

The office instantly quieted down. Only faint breathing sounds could be heard. Clearly, everyone felt very uncomfortable about this sentence.

Lin Zhushui walked over, took the Post-it note from Lin Jue’s hand, and sniffed it lightly by his nose: “Written by a man, roughly around thirty years old.” When he said this, his brows suddenly furrowed.

Lin Jue said, “What’s wrong?”

Lin Zhushui shook his head and didn’t speak, but Zhou Jiayu sensed a faint killing intent from his expression. That killing intent was very faint, almost fleeting, but Zhou Jiayu still caught it. He just didn’t know what kind of person could make Lin Zhushui emit such an aura.

Lin Jue also noticed Lin Zhushui’s strangeness. She put away that Post-it note and dusted off her hands. “Let’s end it here for today. I’m tired too. Let’s go back to the hotel and rest.”

“Yes, yes, yes.” Li Jinjiang couldn’t have asked for more.

After locking the office door, the group left the teaching building.

When Zhou Jiayu reached the bottom of the building and was about to leave, he glanced again at the location of that window and discovered that the window had been opened again—clearly, they had repeatedly confirmed it was closed when they left.

Lin Jue followed Zhou Jiayu’s gaze and smiled disdainfully: “Putting on a mysterious act. If it were that impressive, why didn’t it come over when we were upstairs?”

Zhou Jiayu thought to himself that it actually had come over; it was just driven back by Lin Zhushui later. Of course, he only thought this casually. After all, saying it out loud would somewhat boost others’ morale at the expense of their own.

The hotel Li Jinjiang booked for them was right next to the school. The environment looked quite good. Zhou Jiayu was originally supposed to have one room with Shen Yiqiong, but Shen Yiqiong insisted on sleeping with Zhou Jiayu, saying he absolutely couldn’t sleep alone at night.

Seeing this, Lin Jue even joked: “Oh? When you were scared before, didn’t you always go to Sir’s place to sleep on the floor? With Zhou Jiayu here, you can finally sleep in a bed?”

Shen Yiqiong had a face full of “that’s not me, I didn’t do it,” but couldn’t say anything to refute it.

Zhou Jiayu sighed and said, “Alright, alright. We’ll make do together tonight.” He was actually quite scared too.

Li Jinjiang, standing nearby, seemed to want to say something but hesitated.

Lin Jue looked at his expression and giggled, saying, “What? You’re not thinking of squeezing in with them too, are you?”

Li Jinjiang said softly, “Can I?”

Lin Jue: “…” Her expression froze for a moment. She hadn’t expected her joking remark to make Li Jinjiang take it seriously.

After intense discussion, the three mutually understanding grown men decided to squeeze together tonight. Lin Jue had an expression like she had seen a ghost.

But although they said they would sleep in the same bed, Li Jinjiang ultimately didn’t come over, saying it wasn’t very appropriate.

Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong persuaded him a few times. Seeing his insistence, they didn’t force it.

The two lay on the bed, a bit unable to sleep, so they chatted about the things they had seen these past few nights.

“What exactly is the dirty thing in this school?” Shen Yiqiong said, “And the person who stuck the note on the desk…”

Zhou Jiayu said, “I don’t know either.” He looked at the ceiling, closed his eyes, and began recalling the entire process of tonight. He suddenly remembered that scent he had smelled when entering the office and asked Shen Yiqiong if he had smelled it.

“Scent?” Shen Yiqiong said, “I didn’t smell anything.”

Zhou Jiayu was somewhat distressed: “I always feel like I’ve smelled that scent somewhere before, but I can’t recall it for a moment.”

Shen Yiqiong didn’t respond.

Zhou Jiayu said a few more sentences. When he turned his head again, he saw that Shen Yiqiong had already fallen asleep and was even snoring softly.

Zhou Jiayu: “…” It’s good to be young… Fortunately, his own sleep quality wasn’t bad either. He closed his eyes and soon sank into a deep sleep.

Zhou Jiayu thought he would sleep until dawn, but in the middle of the night, knocking sounds woke him and Shen Yiqiong from their dreams.

Shen Yiqiong said groggily, “Guan’er, someone’s…”

Zhou Jiayu curled up in his little blanket. “You go. I’m cold.”

Shen Yiqiong expressed that he was just an underage child and Zhou Jiayu couldn’t treat him like this.

The two bickered for a minute. Finally, they played rock-paper-scissors. Zhou Jiayu lost tragically and went to open the door with a bitter face, throwing on a down jacket.

“Who is it?” Zhou Jiayu asked first.

“It’s me.” Li Jinjiang’s voice came from the doorway, somewhat trembling. “Can I come in? I’m so scared—”

Only then did Zhou Jiayu open the door. Sure enough, he saw Li Jinjiang standing at the door wearing thermal pajamas. He hugged his arms, his brows full of rigid fear. He said in a trembling voice, “Can I come in?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Sure. What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

Li Jinjiang said, “Thank you.” He slowly walked into the room.

Shen Yiqiong was still lying in bed and asked, “Who is it?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Li Jinjiang.” His whole body was chilly, and he wanted to hurry back into bed. Who knew that the moment he walked past the corner by the door, Shen Yiqiong, leaning against the headboard, let out a miserable scream: “Zhou Jiayu—what the fuck did you let in!”

Hearing this sentence, Zhou Jiayu’s body made a very wise move—he didn’t look back but instead sprinted forward until he had pulled some distance away. Only then did he look behind him.

There was no Li Jinjiang behind him at all. Instead, there was something crawling on the ground. That thing was wearing a long red dress, its hair disheveled, and beneath it was a floor full of blood.

Shen Yiqiong directly leaped up from the bed, scrambling to dig through things. Zhou Jiayu thought quickly, suddenly remembered something, and reached out to grab his down jacket placed nearby, pulling out the neatly placed talisman papers from inside. These talisman papers contained all types—even three or four peach blossom talismans. But with the situation critical, Zhou Jiayu couldn’t afford to pick and choose carefully.

The talisman papers were thrown over and really took effect. Zhou Jiayu saw flames ignite on its body. These flames were blue-green, directly enveloping its entire body.

By this time, Shen Yiqiong had also dug out various items from his backpack and began frantically sprinkling glutinous rice at that thing.

Seeing the fire growing larger, Zhou Jiayu roared, “It’s working—”

Shen Yiqiong said, “Quick, quick, don’t just stand there. Start cursing!”

Zhou Jiayu: “…” He took a deep breath and began launching personal attacks at this dirty thing. He truly felt that today he had cursed more dirty words in one day than he would in his entire lifetime. But that thing was still slowly approaching them, though its speed was about that of a turtle.

“What do we do! The cursing is useless!” Zhou Jiayu was going crazy.

Shen Yiqiong said, “I fucking don’t know what to do either!”

Zhou Jiayu forced himself to calm down, then looked around and suddenly had an idea: “Anyway, it can’t move right now. Why don’t we go around it and get out!!”

Shen Yiqiong said, “Okay!!”

Saying okay, neither of them actually moved. This thing simply looked too terrifying. It was the most standard kind of female ghost from a horror movie, making one’s whole body stiff and scalp numb.

Zhou Jiayu knew this wouldn’t do. Biting his teeth, he stood up from the bed and tiptoed, wanting to go around it. That thing was lying on the ground, and its face couldn’t be seen clearly. But faintly, through the strands of hair, one could make out its ghastly pale skin.

Zhou Jiayu rushed directly to the door and waved at Shen Yiqiong: “Hurry!! The fire on her body is starting to get smaller!!”

Shen Yiqiong looked like he was about to cry. He poured all the glutinous rice in his hand onto the ghost’s head, then closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and tried to step over this thing.

He lifted one foot and was just about to bring the other foot over when that thing suddenly raised its head, revealing a face covered in blood. Then it reached out and grabbed Shen Yiqiong’s ankle tightly.

“Ahhhh!!” Shen Yiqiong collapsed directly onto the ground, kicking his legs frantically. “Guan’er—I’m going to die!!”

Zhou Jiayu also collapsed. He grabbed Shen Yiqiong’s hand and dragged him outward: “Don’t be afraid, I won’t abandon you!!” With one hand dragging Shen Yiqiong and the other opening the door.

However, the moment the door opened, Zhou Jiayu was stunned. Lin Jue was standing outside, her eyes full of surprise as she looked at the two of them: “What are you two doing so late at night? Why are you screaming so miserably…”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Shibo, Shibo! Shen Yiqiong has been grabbed by a ghost!!”

Lin Jue said, “A ghost?” She pushed the door open and entered the room directly, walked up to Shen Yiqiong, and reached out to pick up something. “This is a ghost?”

Shen Yiqiong and Zhou Jiayu looked closely and discovered that what Lin Jue was holding was actually a white long dress. The hem of the dress was stained with blood. Earlier, it had been wrapped around Shen Yiqiong’s leg.

“This…” Zhou Jiayu was stunned.

“Mm… but something should have come.” Lin Jue held the dress, seeming to ponder something.

“We really saw a dirty thing just now.” Shen Yiqiong was still lying on the ground, speaking with weak hands and feet. “It was a woman wearing a red dress, slowly crawling toward us.”

“Red dress?” Lin Jue said, “Could you see her face?”

“Her face was covered in blood. Couldn’t see clearly, could only make out a rough outline.” Shen Yiqiong still had lingering fear. “What exactly was that thing? An illusion?”

Lin Jue didn’t answer. After a moment of silence, she made a decision: “Shen Yiqiong, come sleep with me. Zhou Jiayu, go stay at Zhushui’s place for the night.”

Zhou Jiayu hadn’t made a sound yet when Shen Yiqiong became excited and said, “Sh-Shibo…”

Lin Jue said, “Don’t think nonsense. Be careful or I’ll get angry, and then I’ll show you another interesting treasure.”

Shen Yiqiong: “…” He thought of that crawling female ghost from just now. His expression twisted, and he completely couldn’t get excited anymore. He followed Lin Jue out like an eggplant beaten by frost.

Zhou Jiayu followed behind, somewhat panicked, and said, “Shibo, but Sir, hasn’t he already gone to sleep? Wouldn’t it be inappropriate for me to go like this?”

Lin Jue had her back to Zhou Jiayu. Zhou Jiayu couldn’t see her expression, but he could hear obvious laughter in her tone: “He hasn’t slept yet. What are you afraid of? He won’t… eat you.”

With no other choice, Zhou Jiayu had no choice but to knock on Lin Zhushui’s door.

Indeed, as Lin Jue had said, Lin Zhushui hadn’t gone to sleep yet. He was wearing a thin sweater and said indifferently, “Come in.”

Zhou Jiayu hurriedly followed him into the room. Although Lin Zhushui hadn’t gone out, he seemed to already know what had just happened and casually asked a few details.

Zhou Jiayu answered some but couldn’t remember others. After asking, Lin Zhushui said, “Rest.”

Zhou Jiayu nodded and silently climbed onto the bed.

The two of them sleeping in the same bed wasn’t the first time, but Zhou Jiayu was still somewhat excited. Probably because he now understood those unspeakable feelings in his heart toward Lin Zhushui, when Lin Zhushui lay down beside him, he was even more nervous than the last time he had shared a bed with Lin Zhushui.

“Cold?” Lin Zhushui sensed Zhou Jiayu’s stiffness.

“N-no…” Zhou Jiayu covered half his face with the blanket.

Lin Zhushui was silent for a while. Zhou Jiayu had thought he had fallen asleep. A moment later, he actually felt the temperature around him slowly rising. Unlike the purely physical temperature of an air conditioner, the temperature around him seemed to be warming his soul and emotions that had become stiff and cold from fright.

Zhou Jiayu felt incredibly comfortable, as if he were floating in warm spring water. He closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep just like that.

The next day, when Zhou Jiayu woke up, it was already ten in the morning. Lin Zhushui, who had originally been sleeping beside him, was gone. Zhou Jiayu reached out with his hand and felt that the bedding had already gone cold.

He slowly got up, dressed, and prepared to return to his room to wash up. Because of yesterday’s incident, Zhou Jiayu carefully looked left and right when entering the room. He discovered that although the thing was gone, there were still traces on the floor similar to those left after burning. At least this proved that what he and Shen Yiqiong had experienced wasn’t simply a hallucination.

“Good morning.” Shen Yiqiong was eating breakfast in the restaurant on the first floor. To call it eating breakfast was actually more like he was spacing out. Seeing Zhou Jiayu come down, he listlessly greeted him.

“Why so listless?” Zhou Jiayu said, “Didn’t sleep well last night?”

Shen Yiqiong raised his hand to wipe the corner of his eye and said very painfully, “If I had known Shibo had that kind of hobby, I would have rather gone to Sir’s room to sleep on the floor.”

Zhou Jiayu was shocked upon hearing this: “T-that kind of hobby?”

Shen Yiqiong didn’t make a sound and took out his phone to show Zhou Jiayu.

Zhou Jiayu looked at the photos in Shen Yiqiong’s album and fell into silence: “…It is… a bit hard to accept.”

In the photo, Lin Jue was lying on the bed wearing a thick sweater, holding that white blood-stained long dress they had found in their room. An ordinary person would definitely find such a dress very taboo, but she didn’t. Instead, she held it in her hand and studied it carefully. On the nightstand were neatly arranged some rather special objects. Zhou Jiayu even seemed to see a small skull.

Shen Yiqiong said, “I didn’t sleep the entire night… I kept feeling that dress would float up and cover my head, suffocating me to death.”

Zhou Jiayu also didn’t know what he should say. He could only sigh deeply and pat Shen Yiqiong’s shoulder in comfort.

The two of them had been tormented quite badly last night, but Li Jinjiang seemed to have rested quite well. When he came downstairs, he happily greeted them.

Shen Yiqiong said gloomily, “Slept well?”

Li Jinjiang’s face was full of confusion: “W-what’s wrong? Why are your eye circles so dark?” That Shen Yiqiong’s dark skin could still show dark circles meant his sleep quality was truly quite terrible.

Zhou Jiayu briefly told Li Jinjiang about what happened last night. The moment Li Jinjiang heard that someone had impersonated him to knock on the door, his face instantly stiffened: “Actually…”

Zhou Jiayu said, “What?”

Li Jinjiang coughed dryly: “Actually, someone also knocked on my door last night.”

Zhou Jiayu: “Huh?”

Li Jinjiang was a bit embarrassed: “Although I recognized your voice, I was really scared at the time, so I pretended to be asleep…”

Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong: “…”

Seeing the two’s expressions weren’t good, Li Jinjiang quickly found an excuse and slipped away.

Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong were silent for a long time. Finally, Zhou Jiayu said, “I swear, I’ll never open the door for anyone else in the middle of the night again. No matter who comes, I won’t open it.”

Shen Yiqiong said, “What if it’s Sir?”

Zhou Jiayu: “…” Can we still chat properly?

Shen Yiqiong said very weather-beatenly, “Don’t say it. Actually, I understand. After all, with three thousand beauties in the harem, being favored by Sir should come with some risks. For Sir’s sake, what’s seeing a ghost?”

Zhou Jiayu: “…” Why does this kid have so much drama all day long?

After encountering those things yesterday, they went to the school again in the afternoon.

This time, although they went during the day, the fact was that the empty campus plus the gloomy weather didn’t make the atmosphere feel any more relaxed.

Lin Zhushui came prepared this time. After entering the school, he went straight to the playground.

Li Jinjiang had rested for a night and looked much better. The one in the worst condition among them had instead become Shen Yiqiong. He had dark circles under his eyes and looked like he might fall asleep at any moment.

The school playground was very large, with a plastic track. Next to the track were some sports equipment and grounds. Near the corner by the wall grew clusters of shrubs, but at this time, the leaves had almost all fallen off, and some white snow had accumulated on them.

Lin Zhushui walked toward the corner of the wall.

Zhou Jiayu saw his serious expression and didn’t dare make a sound from beginning to end, until he squatted halfway down, seemingly searching for something in the soil.

“Is it here?” Lin Jue was also calculating with her fingers.

Lin Zhushui nodded.

Zhou Jiayu indeed sensed that this patch of dirt was somewhat different from other places. The black qi here seemed somewhat denser, and it carried an uncomfortable fishy stench. And at this moment, Zhou Jiayu finally remembered where he had smelled that scent in the office yesterday—when they went to the tube-shaped apartment building and were locked on the rooftop by Lin Zhushui, that humanoid composite that crawled out of the water tank had carried this scent. This scent was very strange. To call it stinky wasn’t quite right; instead, it had a faint woody scent. But as for what kind of wood it was, Zhou Jiayu couldn’t say for sure.

Zhou Jiayu also helped dig in the soil. He picked a few places where the black qi was especially heavy and dug downward with a branch. Fortunately, the soil here wasn’t too compact, and digging didn’t require much effort. He had only shallowly dug one layer when he discovered there really was something hidden underneath: “I found it!”

He quickly brushed away the soil on top, revealing what was hidden in the dirt. It was a black jar, its opening sealed with beeswax. Zhou Jiayu held it in his hand and weighed it, feeling that this thing was very light. He didn’t know what was inside.

“What is this?” Li Jinjiang was startled, not expecting that there were such things buried in the school playground.

“Open it.” Lin Zhushui said indifferently.

Hearing this, Zhou Jiayu carefully pried open the beeswax seal and lifted the lid with his hand.

“This is… hair?” Shen Yiqiong saw what was inside the jar and said, “Who put this here?”

It was a jar full of hair, packed tightly inside. After Zhou Jiayu opened the lid, the hair slowly overflowed outward, as if it couldn’t fit anymore.

Lin Zhushui suddenly stepped forward directly and took that jar from Zhou Jiayu’s hand.

At first, Zhou Jiayu didn’t understand why he did this. But the next moment, several black flying insects crawled out of the jar, climbing onto Lin Zhushui’s hand along the jar. However, Lin Zhushui was clearly the nemesis of these things, because the moment the black insects made contact with his skin, they directly burned up, emitting the scent of protein being burned.

Lin Jue’s brows furrowed tightly: “Hair? Could it be that teacher’s?”

Li Jinjiang, on the other hand, was deathly pale. He said in a trembling voice, “N-no, it shouldn’t be that teacher’s.”

“Why shouldn’t it be?” Lin Jue asked in return.

“That teacher’s suicide caused a huge fuss back then.” Li Jinjiang swallowed. “The family made a huge scene, so the school came up with a very generous compensation plan. But the condition was that the teacher’s body had to be cremated and buried first…”

Lin Jue said, “So you mean it’s impossible for the teacher to have left hair behind?”

Li Jinjiang confirmed with a nod.

“Then whose hair is this?” Lin Jue pondered.

“There’s more.” Lin Zhushui interrupted Lin Jue’s train of thought. “Keep digging.”

Zhou Jiayu was startled when he heard there was more. But indeed, as Lin Zhushui said, there were many places in this patch of soil where the black qi was especially dense. He roughly counted at least six or seven.

The others didn’t have Zhou Jiayu’s sensitive spiritual sense, so finding them was somewhat troublesome. After Zhou Jiayu dug out the second jar, he marked the remaining few spots where the black qi was especially dense.

Shen Yiqiong sighed from the side: “As expected of Guan’er, finding your own kind is so effortless…”

Zhou Jiayu: “…” Shen Yiqiong’s mouth was getting more and more poisonous.

Working together, they turned over all the soil in this area. In the end, they found seven ceramic jars in total. These jars were identical in both size and appearance. The only difference was that the time they had been buried in the soil varied somewhat.

“Open them?” Lin Jue asked.

Lin Zhushui said, “I’ll do it.”

He picked up these ceramic jars and opened their seals one by one. Zhou Jiayu had originally thought that the remaining ceramic jars would all contain things similar to hair. Who knew that after opening them, he discovered the contents varied. The most ordinary was a white flower hairpin. The most terrifying was a finger that had already skeletonized.

“What’s in this one?” In the last jar Lin Zhushui opened, there was only a pinch of white powder.

Shen Yiqiong had originally wanted to lean over and smell it. But the moment his nose moved toward it, Lin Zhushui gave the answer in a flat tone: “Cremated ashes.”

Shen Yiqiong: “…” He quickly retracted his nose, thinking that he was lucky he hadn’t taken a good sniff.

“The things in here are all so strange.” Zhou Jiayu studied them carefully but didn’t discover any pattern.

Lin Jue, however, shifted her gaze and placed her eyes on Li Jinjiang, who had already stiffened to the point of nearly becoming a stone statue.

“You know what this is, don’t you?” Lin Jue met Li Jinjiang’s gaze.

Li Jinjiang showed a smile, but this smile was uglier than crying. His entire face was twisting, and even the corners of his mouth began to twitch.

Zhou Jiayu was frightened by Li Jinjiang’s expression. Even during such terrifying moments yesterday, he hadn’t seen Li Jinjiang react so strongly. Why would these few ceramic jars make him show such an expression?

“I-I…” It was clearly early spring with a chill in the air, but Li Jinjiang’s forehead was covered in cold sweat. He reached out and roughly wiped his face, saying hoarsely, “The student who drowned in the restroom—during the autopsy, her body was missing, missing a little something…”

The moment he said this, Zhou Jiayu instantly understood Li Jinjiang’s meaning. He pointed at one of the jars: “She was missing a finger?”

Li Jinjiang nodded slowly. He really seemed like he couldn’t hold on anymore and just sat down on the damp soil covered with thin snow: “These things… should all belong to… the dead students…”

Six students, seven jars. Zhou Jiayu said, “The remaining one…”

Li Jinjiang collapsed and said, “The remaining one must definitely belong to that teacher who jumped to her death!!”

Counting like this, the numbers matched up perfectly.

“Someone is performing a ritual?” Lin Jue also realized this matter wasn’t a natural disaster but man-made. “Then what’s his purpose? What’s the purpose of doing this?”

For the moment, no one could answer this question.

Lin Zhushui did ask, “When your school was laying the foundation, did they dig up anything strange?”

Li Jinjiang shook his head: “I don’t know about that. I haven’t been at this school for a particularly long time.” He sighed, “I originally thought my promotion here was going smoothly, the benefits were good, and I would just stay here for the rest of my life. Now it seems… I’d better resign and leave early.” This school was so sinister. No matter how bright the future, it was no use if you lost your life.

“Then help me ask around.” Lin Jue reached out to tuck the hair by her ear and smiled. “Resigning at this point is probably a bit too late. If this really isn’t handled well, probably everyone in the whole school will be affected.” Her voice was very gentle and pleasant to hear, but the words she spoke didn’t make people feel so pleasant. “Look, that thing came to find you last night. Although you didn’t open the door for it this time, you can’t guarantee you’ll never open the door at night.”

Li Jinjiang was frightened until he was deathly pale.

But Zhou Jiayu sensed a familiar flavor from Lin Jue’s tone. He looked at Lin Zhushui, who was standing nearby in silence, and sighed in his heart that this brother and sister truly shared the same genes in some respects. Even the tone they used to scare people was so similar—one wouldn’t know whether they were speaking love words or threats.

__

Author’s Note:

Zhou Jiayu: I like every expression of Sir’s.

Lin Zhushui: Which one do you like the most?

Zhou Jiayu thought about it seriously and blushed embarrassedly.