Edited—

These people’s faces were full of terror, practically crawling their way out. Zhou Jiayu had thought being scared to this degree was already quite something, but moments later, he actually smelled a whiff of urine. Looking down, he discovered that the middle-aged man with a Mediterranean hairstyle to his right had a wet patch on his light-colored pants…

Zhou Jiayu: “…” He suddenly felt that he was actually quite brave. At least when encountering these things, he hadn’t been scared to the point of wetting himself…

“Principal, Principal, are you alright?” Li Jinjiang was startled badly by this situation and hurried forward to help up the utterly disheveled middle-aged man before him. From his words, Zhou Jiayu and the others also guessed the identities of the few people before them.

“There’s a ghost! There really is a ghost!” The principal was gripping Li Jinjiang’s hand deathly tight, using so much force that he even drew bloody marks on Li Jinjiang’s arm. “Save me! Save me!”

Li Jinjiang was also a bit weak in the legs, but he still patiently comforted the principal. Only after the principal’s emotions and those of the people around him had calmed slightly did he breathe a sigh of relief.

During this time, Lin Jue’s face was full of helplessness. She looked up at the teaching building before them and muttered something under her breath. Her words were too soft; even Zhou Jiayu, standing very close to her, didn’t hear them clearly.

This teaching building was three stories high. From its exterior, it carried some classical charm; presumably it had some years to it. The floors were wooden, and dim lights were on in the corridor. Looking in from the door, one couldn’t see the end at a glance. But one could faintly see that at the corner of the stairs in the middle of the corridor, a human figure was slowly, slowly crawling outward.

At first, Zhou Jiayu thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. After carefully rubbing his eyes and confirming he hadn’t seen wrong, he said softly, “Shibo, there seems to be something in the corridor.”

Lin Jue looked in the direction Zhou Jiayu was looking and showed surprise: “Huh? There really is?”

When the others heard that there was something in the teaching building, they all hurriedly retreated a few steps. Especially that principal—he practically wanted to plaster himself to Li Jinjiang’s back.

Li Jinjiang’s expression was somewhat pained, but he was too embarrassed to say anything and could only endure it with difficulty.

“What is that?” As that thing drew closer, Zhou Jiayu saw it clearly and instead felt it didn’t look like a dirty thing but like a person. “It’s not a dirty thing, right? Did one of your people not make it out?”

The moment he asked this, someone beside him said softly, “Celestial Master Zhang hasn’t come out yet.”

Everyone: “…”

“Ow, ow…” Letting out painful groans, that frightening shadow wriggled bit by bit to the exit of the corridor. Only then did Zhou Jiayu, by the dim light, clearly see what was in the corridor. It was clearly a person, wearing a Daoist robe, crawling wretchedly in the corridor. His right foot, placed on the ground, was bent at an abnormal angle—apparently fractured.

“Celestial Master Zhang, Celestial Master Zhang, are you alright?” The people who had come out hurried forward upon seeing this scene.

“My leg… it’s broken, ow!” This Celestial Master Zhang looked to be around sixty years old, with a white goatee and wearing a bright yellow Daoist robe. He did have a somewhat immortal, transcendent air about him. He said, “Quick, quick, help me up.”

That person hurried over to help Celestial Master Zhang up.

Celestial Master Zhang sat at the edge of the corridor, groaning non-stop, and sighed, “This ghost—I’m afraid I can’t handle it. Too fierce, too fierce…” As he spoke, he casually tossed the peach wood sword in his hand to the side. Zhou Jiayu took one look and discovered that the peach wood sword was already broken in half, leaving only the hilt; the blade was nowhere to be seen.

“You were already quite impressive!” that person said. “If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t even have escaped!”

Celestial Master Zhang said, “Sigh, no good anymore. Old, old.” As he spoke, he was observing Lin Zhushui’s group out of the corner of his eye. Sure enough, after a moment, he opened his mouth and asked, “Who are these people?”

“This is Miss Lin Jue, and this is Mr. Lin Zhushui.” Li Jinjiang explained from the side. “They are both very proficient in feng shui!”

If this Celestial Master Zhang truly understood the trade, even if he hadn’t heard the names Lin Jue and Lin Zhushui, he would certainly know of the Lin family’s existence. Who knew that after hearing Li Jinjiang’s introduction, he actually waved his hand directly and said in a tone of deep experience, “Young people, don’t take risks. This line of work isn’t something you can touch. This thing is truly, truly extremely dangerous. A great master must be the one to act!”

When Zhou Jiayu heard the words “young people,” he nearly laughed out loud. Having followed Lin Zhushui for so long, wherever he went, who didn’t treat him with the utmost respect? Who would dare call Lin Zhushui a “young person”?

Hearing this, Lin Jue didn’t directly tear into him. Instead, she asked in return, “Celestial Master Zhang, why do you say this? Is this thing really that fierce?”

“Naturally.” Seeing that they didn’t refute him, Celestial Master Zhang’s expression relaxed a bit. He said, “This ghost is wearing red clothes. Red is the most ferocious color. Once it has formed, that proves it has at least a dozen or so human lives on its hands…”

Lin Jue said, “Did you really see it?”

Celestial Master Zhang said angrily, “Young person, how can you be so unappreciative? I am advising you not to take risks, yet you doubt my good intentions. Fine, fine, suit yourself!”

Hearing this, Lin Jue laughed. She didn’t say anything more and took out her phone from her bosom to make a call.

Celestial Master Zhang was startled by Lin Jue’s actions. “What are you doing?!”

Lin Jue giggled. She said, “Naturally, I’m calling an ambulance for you, Celestial Master. What else? You wouldn’t… think I was calling the police, would you?” She paused in her words.

Celestial Master Zhang’s expression froze for a moment, but he quickly resumed his righteous indignation and said stubbornly, “Hmph, an expert makes a move and you know if there’s substance. One look and I can tell you people are outsiders! And the kind that doesn’t understand anything at that!”

Shen Yiqiong also became curious upon hearing this and leaned over to say, “Wow, Celestial Master, how did you tell that we don’t understand anything?”

Celestial Master Zhang was startled by Shen Yiqiong, who had suddenly popped up. “When did you stand here? How come I didn’t see you just now?!”

Shen Yiqiong: “…”

Zhou Jiayu really couldn’t hold it in anymore and let out a “pfft” of laughter. “Shen Yiqiong, I told you not to wear a black down jacket!”

Shen Yiqiong’s expression instantly twisted.

Fortunately, Celestial Master Zhang didn’t dwell too much on Shen Yiqiong’s skin color issue. Otherwise, Zhou Jiayu had reason to suspect that the humiliated and enraged Shen Yiqiong might rush up and break his other perfectly intact leg.

“I’m saying you people are outsiders because there’s one most important detail you all didn’t get right!” Celestial Master Zhang puffed out his chest proudly and said something Zhou Jiayu never could have imagined: “Those of us in feng shui never carry mobile phones!”

Everyone: “…”

Shen Yiqiong cast a glance toward Zhou Jiayu. Zhou Jiayu moved his eyes to Lin Zhushui. In the end, even Lin Zhushui couldn’t hold back, the corners of his mouth curving up ever so slightly.

Only Lin Jue was still baffled, saying, “What? No mobile phones? There’s this kind of saying?”

Celestial Master Zhang snorted coldly. “Of course. Mobile phones disrupt a person’s feng shui magnetic field, so naturally they can’t be carried on one’s person. This has been confirmed by the predecessors. But it’s not your fault. Those who know this are insiders. You only know some superficial stuff; it’s normal that you’re not clear on this.” His tone was righteous and confident, as if he were stating some golden rule.

Zhou Jiayu was suffering greatly from holding back his laughter, to the point that his entire expression was somewhat twisted.

Shen Yiqiong’s expression was about the same as Zhou Jiayu’s. He even said in a low voice, “Does Xu Ruwang know he played too big?”

Zhou Jiayu: “…I think we can tell him.”

Shen Yiqiong nodded in agreement.

Previously, Xu Ruwang had used the alias “Wangnü” to spout nonsense seriously on a website, and it seemed there had already been quite a few victims. He hadn’t expected to encounter one here today. But speaking of which, the source of this matter was Zhou Jiayu himself. If he hadn’t joked around with Xu Ruwang, Xu Ruwang wouldn’t have hung up a sockpuppet account and gone to that forum to take revenge on society, making up stuff that was logical and convincing.

Seeing that their expressions were somewhat strange, Celestial Master Zhang thought he had spoken too harshly and even comforted them a few times, saying young people shouldn’t be discouraged. These details could be slowly adjusted; they shouldn’t be too shaken.

In the time they were chatting, the ambulance had already come wailing into the school. People carrying a stretcher arrived at the teaching building.

Celestial Master Zhang got on the stretcher and was carried away like that. Before leaving, he still urged them absolutely not to go inside—the teaching building was truly very dangerous.

Lin Jue still hadn’t figured out what connection mobile phones had with magnetic fields or whatever, her face full of bewilderment. It wasn’t until after Celestial Master Zhang left that Shen Yiqiong lowered his voice and explained the matter of Zhou Jiayu and Xu Ruwang talking nonsense during the competition back then.

After hearing this, Lin Jue’s eyes went round, looking at Zhou Jiayu with utter disbelief. Clearly, she hadn’t expected that Zhou Jiayu had this kind of quietly mischievous side to him.

Zhou Jiayu said helplessly, “I was really just joking…”

Lin Jue nodded and said very seriously, “That joke was really quite funny.”

Zhou Jiayu: “…” Why did seeing Lin Jue’s expression give him a bad premonition?

“Little Li.” After seeing Celestial Master Zhang being sent off, the principal, who had been in a state of terror this whole time, finally calmed down. He said, “I still have some matters, so I’ll leave first. You all… if you haven’t prepared well, it’s better not to go in. This teaching building…” He hesitated for a moment, searching for his words. “This teaching building is unclean. Don’t go in and have something else happen.”

“It won’t.” Lin Jue smiled. “Principal, you go back first.” She took out a small medicine packet from her bosom and handed it over. “This is calming medicine. If you can’t sleep at night, you can drink a little.”

The principal’s attitude toward Lin Jue was still quite respectful. He nodded and left with his head lowered alongside several other school leaders.

Zhou Jiayu felt they couldn’t blame the principal for wanting to slip away. After all, although no one had mentioned it, the black traces left behind after light-colored pants got wet were still quite obvious…

Seeing the few people leave so quickly, Li Jinjiang showed helplessness and said, “Miss Lin, then should we come back during the day, or go in and take a look?” The latter part about going in to take a look was said especially softly; clearly, he was also somewhat afraid.

“Let’s go.” Lin Jue said, “If there’s really a ghost, that would be even more interesting.” As she spoke, she glanced at Lin Zhushui beside her and smiled.

Lin Zhushui didn’t speak and walked in first.

Their feet stepped on the wooden floor, making creaking sounds. Zhou Jiayu looked through the glass embedded in the door and saw the empty classrooms on both sides of the corridor.

The students had all left, and the classrooms were empty, but traces of use were still faintly visible.

“The most recent fatal case happened on the third floor.” The moment Li Jinjiang entered this teaching building, his voice grew smaller, as if afraid of disturbing something. “That girl was in her second year of high school. Her grades were quite good; she was originally a promising seedling being cultivated for key universities. It’s just a pity…” He sighed, a hint of regret showing between his brows.

The overall atmosphere of this school was problematic, and the teaching building was naturally no exception. After Zhou Jiayu walked in, he very clearly saw black qi swirling around the entire building. It just seemed that the higher one went, the denser the black qi became. If Zhou Jiayu had come in alone, he would definitely have been affected by this black qi. But now, with Lin Zhushui standing beside him, there wasn’t a trace of black qi around him.

On the second-floor platform, they saw an incense altar that had been set up. On the altar were placed an incense burner, some talisman papers, and all kinds of miscellaneous things. Presumably, this was what Celestial Master Zhang, who had already gone to the hospital, had left behind.

Lin Jue swept her eyes over it and immediately assessed Celestial Master Zhang’s strength: “He really is a half-baked outsider.”

Lin Zhushui said indifferently, “His hands aren’t stained with human life.”

“That’s true.” Lin Jue said.

Zhou Jiayu stood quietly at the side like a chicken, not daring to make a sound. Although Lin Zhushui already knew he wasn’t a fraud, the original owner had still done some heaven-defying things. It was better for him not to speak on this kind of occasion.

There was nothing unusual on the second floor, so the group headed toward the third floor.

The crime scene was in the classroom at the far right of the third floor. Next to it was the restroom. Zhou Jiayu noticed that it seemed only the third floor had restrooms in this building, so he casually asked about it.

“This is an old building.” Li Jinjiang explained. “Before, only the third floor had students. The lower floors were all teachers’ offices. Later, the school expanded enrollment, and all three floors became classrooms.”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Then isn’t it especially troublesome for them to use the restroom?”

“It is a bit troublesome.” Li Jinjiang said, “But this building is a bit special. In our school, it’s called the Top Scholar Building. Most students want to have class here. In superstitious terms, the feng shui is good… Sigh, you know, third-year students, for the sake of getting into a good school, they’ll try any method.”

Zhou Jiayu nodded.

According to Li Jinjiang, this building housed the elite classes for the school’s second and third years. Because the first years hadn’t been split into tracks yet, there was no such thing as an elite class for them.

“This is the classroom.” Arriving before that classroom, Li Jinjiang took out a key. “Since the incident, this classroom hasn’t been used. The remedial classes were also disbanded. Sigh…”

The door had the most old-fashioned kind of padlock. Li Jinjiang twisted the lock open and pulled the wooden door open with a creak.

Zhou Jiayu entered the classroom and saw the crime scene.

Although it had already been cleaned up, traces of the incident were still visible. Of the six ceiling fans originally overhead, only five remained. On the floor and walls, one could see traces of congealed blood. There was also the desk nearby, which showed obvious damage from impact.

“The fan fell directly down?” Shen Yiqiong walked to that empty spot and looked up. “You didn’t do safety inspections?”

“How could we not have done them?” Li Jinjiang said helplessly. “With so many incidents having happened before, the school leaders’ nerves were all taut. During the summer vacation this year, they inspected the wiring and all kinds of equipment thoroughly. This fan was certainly inspected too.” Yet now that things had happened, saying these words didn’t seem to serve much purpose.

Zhou Jiayu observed his surroundings and noticed the camera overhead: “Don’t you have cameras here? What was the situation at the time?”

The moment cameras were mentioned, Li Jinjiang’s expression turned somewhat ugly. He hemmed and hawed for a long time before finally stammering, “I-it’s because of this recording that we confirmed this matter isn’t an ordinary accident.”

Lin Jue was stunned upon hearing this. “There’s a recording? Why didn’t you tell me before?”

Li Jinjiang smiled bitterly. “The school leaders still wanted to suppress it. But seeing them all running to hire Daoist masters today, I figured it wouldn’t matter if I said it.”

“When can you let us see it?” Lin Jue was clearly a bit unhappy.

Li Jinjiang also saw this and hurriedly said, “Anytime. I carry the USB drive with me. Otherwise, let’s go to the hotel first and then find a teahouse nearby…”

“No need.” Lin Jue’s tone was neither salty nor light. “Doesn’t this classroom have multimedia equipment? Let’s watch it here.”

Li Jinjiang opened his mouth but ultimately couldn’t say anything in refutation. He lowered his head and went to turn on the multimedia equipment.

By now, the night was deep. The campus outside the window was shrouded in darkness. On the opposite teaching building, which stood in neat rows, were rows of pitch-black windows. Probably because the wind was too strong and someone had forgotten to close the windows, Zhou Jiayu even saw curtains dancing in the windows.

Li Jinjiang turned on the computer, and everyone heard the brief startup music.

“Um… can I not watch?” Li Jinjiang’s expression was somewhat awkward, but he still said what he wanted to say. He rubbed his hands and said softly, “Too scary. I feel awful all over when I watch it.”

“Sure.” Lin Jue didn’t make things difficult for him either. She walked up to the podium, clicked on the video in Li Jinjiang’s USB drive, and the recording was soon projected onto the screen before them.

Zhou Jiayu glanced at Lin Zhushui several times, thinking in his heart whether he should describe the scene to Lin Zhushui. But Lin Zhushui seemed to have already guessed his thoughts and said indifferently, “Don’t worry about me.”

Zhou Jiayu then focused his attention on the projection screen.

The screen showed a classroom in self-study session. A teacher sat at the podium grading exam papers, while the students buried their heads and diligently did their homework. The scene was harmonious, with nothing unusual. It wasn’t until the progress bar was halfway through that Zhou Jiayu discovered something was off. He said, “Look, that ceiling fan seems to be moving…”

Shen Yiqiong looked in the direction Zhou Jiayu was pointing and discovered that the ceiling fan above one seat was actually moving. Back and forth, back and forth—like… something was sitting on it, slowly rocking. This kind of movement was clearly abnormal because the other fans weren’t changing, and when fans operated, they spun in circles. They absolutely couldn’t move like a swing…

Yet the students and teachers in the classroom hadn’t noticed this change.

Rocking, rocking—the fan’s swinging amplitude grew larger and larger. The creaking sounds caught the students’ attention. But by the time they looked up and found the source of the sound, everything was already too late.

With a loud crash, the fan fell straight down, smashing heavily onto the head of the student sitting beneath it.

That girl’s head was directly sliced off by half. One could even see the pink tissue inside her skull. Having suffered such a heavy injury, there was no doubt she died on the spot.

Screams, running footsteps—the students rushed out of the classroom like mad. The teacher, who had still been grading homework, was completely stunned, then also let out a shrill scream and scrambled out of the classroom. The fallen fan and the lifeless victim were left behind, lying quietly in the empty classroom.

One had to admit that by this point, Zhou Jiayu somewhat understood Li Jinjiang’s feelings. Watching this kind of recording in the classroom where the crime occurred was indeed a bit too stimulating.

The screen went dark. Goosebumps rose on Zhou Jiayu’s arms. He swallowed, about to say something, when he saw Lin Jue, her face unchanged, click on the video again, intending to watch it a second time.

Zhou Jiayu: “…”

Shen Yiqiong said somewhat painfully to Zhou Jiayu, “Did you notice that girls in our line of work all have guts of steel?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “…I noticed.”

At the time of the competition, Tan Yingxue had been the one with the biggest guts among them. Now, seeing Lin Jue, Zhou Jiayu once again felt his own cowardice.

Lin Zhushui had been standing to the side without saying much the whole time. It wasn’t until Lin Jue was about to play it a second time that he suddenly said, “Pull the video to around the six-minute mark.”

Lin Jue nodded, moved the mouse, and dragged the progress bar to the back.

Around the six-minute mark was the period when the fan was swinging the most violently but hadn’t fallen yet.

Lin Zhushui said, “Stop.”

Lin Jue pressed pause. “There’s something?”

Lin Zhushui nodded.

At first, they didn’t understand what Lin Zhushui meant by “something,” until Shen Yiqiong suddenly had a flash of inspiration and said, “Hey, look outside the window. Is there a person sitting on that building over there?” He stood before the computer screen and pointed at a certain spot with his finger.

Zhou Jiayu looked at where Shen Yiqiong was pointing and discovered that through the window, a white shadow could be seen hanging on a windowsill. Lin Jue didn’t speak and dragged the progress bar back a bit, further confirming that this thing hadn’t been there before and only suddenly appeared when the recording reached the six-minute mark.

The moment this shadow appeared, that ceiling fan began to swing violently. It seemed the two were indeed inseparably connected…

“So it’s this thing?” Lin Jue said, “But a single dirty thing—where would it get that much energy?”

The time when the recording took place wasn’t midnight, but an ordinary afternoon. Although it was somewhat overcast outside, and sunlight couldn’t be seen…

Zhou Jiayu didn’t know much about these things. He slowly walked to the classroom window and looked outside. “Guys, come quick and look! The lights are on over there!”

“Lights?” Li Jinjiang, standing beside Zhou Jiayu, was the first to arrive. Looking through the window, he also saw the light shining from a certain window in the opposite teaching building. “How is that possible? It’s so late; there couldn’t possibly be anyone at the school!”

Zhou Jiayu didn’t make a sound, because he had already discovered that the window with the lights on was the same window where, in the recording, a human shadow had been sitting…

That window looked somewhat smaller than the classroom windows, seemingly a teacher’s office window. There were also a few potted plants on it. At first glance, there didn’t seem to be any problems. But upon careful observation, one would notice that shadows flashed across the white wall adjacent to the window—like there were many people in the room inside the window.

“Go over and take a look?” Lin Jue stood beside Zhou Jiayu, looking at the window with a frown.

Lin Zhushui said, “Sure.”

Li Jinjiang’s expression was terribly ugly. He couldn’t even manage a forced smile anymore. “R-really go over? Why don’t we go there during the day and take a look…”

“During the day?” Lin Jue said, “Dirty things aren’t that easy to find during the day. If you really want to resolve this matter early, we still have to come at night.”

Li Jinjiang said, “I understand the logic…”

Lin Jue interrupted him: “Otherwise, you wait here alone, and we’ll go over, take a look, and come back?” She had clearly said this on purpose, because the moment these words came out, Li Jinjiang immediately caved. “No, no, no, don’t leave me here alone. I’ll go with you.”

Lin Jue smiled. “Alright.”

One had to admit, this really wasn’t Li Jinjiang’s fault, because Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong, having seen this scene, were also somewhat creeped out. Especially since there seemed to be more and more people in that office with the open window. The shadows projected on the wall—at a rough count, there were over a dozen of them.

They were just about to go over and take a look. They had already reached the door when Shen Yiqiong looked back at the window and then shuddered all over, cursing a string of profanities.

Zhou Jiayu very wisely didn’t look back and instead asked him what was wrong.

Shen Yiqiong’s face was ashen as he said, “Fuck, fuck, I saw a pair of hands reach out and close that window—”

Zhou Jiayu: “…”

Lin Jue studied it quite carefully. “It really closed. The lights went out too.” She said with a faint smile, “Is this afraid we’ll go over or something?”

Zhou Jiayu was truly filled with admiration for Lin Jue’s composure.

The group continued walking toward that teaching building. When going down the stairs, Shen Yiqiong quietly popularized some science to Zhou Jiayu, saying that actually, cursing when seeing dirty things was useful, and he even knew a secret technique that wasn’t passed down…

Zhou Jiayu said, “A secret technique that isn’t passed down??”

Shen Yiqiong said, “That’s right! I’m telling you, when you’re especially scared, think of some dirty jokes in your head, and you’ll feel much better.”

Zhou Jiayu: “…” He was convinced.

Lin Jue heard what Shen Yiqiong said and let out a “pfft” of laughter.

Shen Yiqiong said aggrievedly, “Shibo, what are you laughing at me for? This is really true.”

Lin Jue nodded. “It is indeed true. In ancient folklore, there are many stories of people scolding ghosts away.”

Zhou Jiayu had originally thought Shen Yiqiong was joking, but seeing Lin Jue really say this, he showed surprise.

“But this only applies to ghosts that still have consciousness.” Lin Jue sighed softly, “For ones that have already killed people… it’s not very useful.” Her gaze shifted, lingering for a moment on the expressionless Lin Zhushui. “But thinking of dirty jokes and such—I think it’s still fine.”

Lin Zhushui seemed to notice Lin Jue’s gaze and slightly raised an eyebrow.

Lin Jue laughed softly.

Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong were both baffled by Lin Jue’s smile.

That teaching building was right next to the one they were in. Li Jinjiang was the person most familiar with the school, but he was truly too afraid. His complexion was terrible the entire way.

“It’s the fourth floor, right?” When they reached the bottom of that teaching building, Lin Jue looked up.

“Yes.” Li Jinjiang said softly, “It should be… 4-13.”

“4-13?” Lin Jue pondered for a moment. “We’re here now. You should finally tell us what happened in this office, right?”

Li Jinjiang was very obviously silent. He hesitated for a long time before finally saying haltingly, “A teacher also died in that classroom.”

“A teacher?” Zhou Jiayu said, “When did it happen?”

“It’s been quite a while…” Li Jinjiang reached out and heavily wiped his face. He didn’t know if it was from the cold or from fear, but he felt his face and hands were somewhat numb. “It happened before I came to this school. I’m not clear on the specific circumstances. I just know that a teacher jumped directly from that office back then and died on the spot.”

“You’ve been at this school for five or six years, right?” Lin Jue was thoughtful. “Then this matter really has been quite a while. If there was going to be something, it definitely would have started five or six years ago. So why did so many things only happen in the past year?”

Lin Zhushui said indifferently, “Let’s go up and take a look first.”

Lin Jue nodded and led the way into that teaching building.

This teaching building should have been newly built. The style was much more modern, and air conditioning was installed. But according to Li Jinjiang, the students mostly wanted to go to the “Top Scholar Building” because everyone said the feng shui there was good and it was easy to get good exam scores.

The group quickly reached the fourth floor, to the office Li Jinjiang had mentioned. The door there was tightly shut. Judging from the light seeping through the door crack, the lights inside had already gone out.

Zhou Jiayu smelled a scent here. It was somewhat familiar, but for a moment, he couldn’t recall where the scent came from.

“There’s no one inside?” Lin Jue said, “Do you have the key? Let’s go in and take a look.”

Li Jinjiang hurriedly shook his head and said, “I don’t have the key. This is a teachers’ office. It’s still in use. I definitely can’t just go in like this.”

“Is that so?” Lin Jue reached out and pushed the door, then lowered her head to carefully study the lock on the door. “Grade A cross lock. Give me five minutes.” As she spoke, she naturally took out a small hairpin from her pocket, stood before the door, and bent down to grip the lock.

Li Jinjiang watched Lin Jue’s actions, his eyes going straight. “M-Miss Lin, t-this isn’t appropriate, is it?”

Lin Jue said indifferently, “What’s inappropriate about it?” She turned her head and flashed Li Jinjiang a gentle smile. “Are you planning to accompany us here again tomorrow night?”

Li Jinjiang instantly went quiet.

Zhou Jiayu watched Lin Jue’s movements and thought to himself, why are you so practiced at this…

“Click.” A soft sound. The door before Lin Jue opened a crack. She put away the tool in her hand and pushed open the door before her. “After you?”

Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong looked at each other, both hesitating and not stepping forward. Li Jinjiang didn’t even need mentioning—Zhou Jiayu even suspected he wanted to shrink his entire body into his down jacket.

Lin Zhushui, standing behind them, didn’t say a word and stepped in first. Zhou Jiayu followed closely behind.

Turning on the lights on the wall, they saw the full view of the office.

This was a large office seating seven or eight people, very spacious. Each desk was quite far apart. On the desks were mostly teaching tools and such things.

“This is the science department office.” Most of Li Jinjiang’s energy had been worn away by fear, and he spoke listlessly. “Good lighting, spacious. I heard before the incident, everyone wanted to come here. But after the incident…”

Although he didn’t say the rest, Zhou Jiayu could imagine that because of the sudden fatal case, this place had obviously become an office that people shunned.

Lin Jue first roughly checked the entire office. Then, based on the office’s location, she roughly located the window from which they had seen the light shining on the opposite side.

This window was closed, and the thick curtains had been drawn. Presumably, the teachers had deliberately closed it when leaving the school to prevent accidents. Lin Jue studied it and discovered that the window latch was perfectly intact. She said, “Interesting.”

Zhou Jiayu stood beside her and saw her pull out the latch, then forcefully push the window open.

The moment the window opened, howling wind gusted in, carrying scattered snowflakes.

Lin Jue’s hair was blown flying by the wind. She stood by the window and even stuck her head out.

Who knew that the moment she made this movement, Lin Zhushui would suddenly speak up: “Be careful, there’s something!”

Lin Jue was about to ask what there was when her expression froze, because when she looked down, she really did see a shattered corpse appear below the building. That corpse was lying prone on the cement ground, surrounded by red blood. And at this moment, this thing was raising its head in a twisted posture, meeting Lin Jue’s gaze.

Lin Jue: “…Yiqiong, come here. I’ll show you a treasure.”

Shen Yiqiong: “…” Who would believe that!!

He and Zhou Jiayu very默契ly retreated a step. Seeing their movements, Lin Jue even acted wronged and said, “You don’t believe me? This is a rare spectacle. It’s quite interesting.” As she spoke, that thing had already climbed up from the ground and began hobbling into the teaching building.

Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong waved their hands: “No, no, no.”

“Tsk.” Lin Jue made a disappointed “tsk.”

__

Author’s Note:

Zhou Jiayu: A bit scared…

Lin Zhushui: Remember what Lin Jue said?

Zhou Jiayu: Dirty jokes? W-wait, Sir, what are you going to do…

Lin Zhushui: Help you think of dirty jokes.