“Li Xiu? What’s wrong with you, you look weird.”

When Li Xiu returned to the classroom that day, his expression had changed so much that even the classmates he had a distant relationship with couldn’t help but inquire.

“……That one didn’t do anything to you, right?”

Li Xiu felt a few gazes lingering on the parts of his body exposed outside of his school uniform. It was clear that Fang Qian’an dragging him out in front of everyone today had given many classmates a very bad association.

The young man took a deep breath and forced a smile: “I’m fine.”

What came to mind was the embarrassing and nerve-wracking scene when he came out of the lounge. Xu Luren didn’t seem to be the very bright type, and everything he was thinking was pretty much revealed on his face.

In fact, it was just a matter of a few words to explain. However, in the face of Xu Luren’s panicked apologies, what Fang Qian’an said was—

“If you dare to tell anyone about what you saw today, you’re dead.”

Li Xiu, who was standing next to Fang Qian’an at the time: “Fang Qian’an?!”

Noticing Li Xiu’s shocked and condemning eyes, Fang Qian’an seemed to have figured out that something was wrong, and added: “Me and A-Xiu didn’t do anything at all! Remember that!”

Xu Luren’s face paled, and he nodded quickly. He didn’t hesitate to swear that he hadn’t seen anything, and of course he wouldn’t speak a word of it. 

“That’s enough…..”

. . . . . .

Not long after he returned to his seat, morning classes began.

Li Xiu sat upright at his desk, but his eyes were still a little vacant.

The empty desk dragged over by Fang Qian’an was still there, but with no one in the seat — of course, Fang Qian’an wanted to stay with Li Xiu every moment of the day, but Li Xiu firmly refused.

The first reason was that as long as Fang Qian’an was around, it was impossible for him to pay good attention to the lecture. The second reason was……

[“Don’t you have a psychological shadow?]

With last night’s nightmare, Li Xiu really didn’t want to challenge himself and recreate that scene again.

Against Li Xiu’s cold eyes, Fang Qian’an was defeated in despair. After agreeing to contact each other by phone any time or anywhere, he left dejectedly.

“Phew…..”

However, Li Xiu had to admit that even without Fang Qian’an’s interference, he wasn’t able to study in earnest at all.

He had driven Fang Qian’an away simply…..to just escape for a little bit.

Ghosts.

As the teacher was still lecturing seriously at the podium, Li Xiu unconsciously wrote this word down on paper.

Li Xiu stared at this word for a long time. The tips of his fingers were chilled, and the palm holding the pen was covered in cold sweat.

There was a strange, unexplainable fear in his heart.

It was as if Fang Qian’an didn’t realize he had been in the Xiao Family Haunted House until today. They had already shared a room once with many supernatural beings. And Li Xiu also realized dimly that he seemed to have overlooked many things.

A lot of things that were…..amiss.

A breeze blew through the window, and the paper slogans and learning materials on the walls fluttered in the air.

The wall clock moved forward regularly, kacha, kacha, and the teacher’s sonorous and powerful teaching voice echoed in the quiet classroom.

It was clearly a sunny morning, and the classroom contained many normal humans, but Li Xiu found that he was involuntarily shivering.

Due to not sleeping well, the heaviness of his body became extremely evident.

He couldn’t help but think, So cold…..

Had his low fever not gone away yet? Why was it that after several days, his shoulders still felt too heavy to lift and his whole body began to get chills from time to time?

Just as Li Xiu was distracted by his physical problems, a siren outside the window abruptly pierced through his trance.

Although the siren quickly stopped within a few seconds, the students sitting by the window suddenly realized that something was amiss on campus — police cars had arrived at the school.

Even during class, peoples’ curious nature could not be restrained.

Noticing the unusual goings-on downstairs, even as the teacher said “listen carefully,” she couldn’t help but lean toward the window to take a peek.

The location of Class A1 was just at the right spot to catch a glimpse of the back door at the junction of the Xiao Family Haunted House and the campus.

That door, which connected the two locations, was a heavy iron door with an iron lock that had been fastened for many years. It had never been opened by anyone. 

In addition, the wall between the haunted house and the campus was not very high, and if the students of Qiming wanted to go to the haunted house, they would choose to climb over it directly. This back door was out of sight most of the time.

But presently, there were several police cars parked there. Someone got out of a car and stood beside the old janitor, waiting for the old man to shakily go through his keys one by one to open the door.

“God, what’s going on?”

“There must have been an accident over there at the haunted house…..”

Uneasy whispers began to spread throughout the class.

And very soon, even more bizarre gossip spread virally on everyone’s cell phones.

Some students happened to have free time during this class. Although they were blocked from getting closer, they all watched from a distance as someone carried a person out of the Xiao Family Haunted House.

And that person was carried out under a shroud.

[Holy shit, has the haunted house shown off its power again?]

[I hear that every year, several people die there without explanation.]

[I wonder which unlucky guy it is. It couldn’t be someone from our school, right?]

[Haha, maybe it’s Ouyang?]

The messages originally flooding the screen paused for a moment when Ouyang was mentioned.

After all, many people had seen the pictures that were posted in the group before.

He was a living person, and moreover, a popular male teacher in the school just a day ago. Yet it was very possible that he had filmed the entire process of hanging himself and posted it to the group chat…..

Not everyone could bear the impact of this.

Thinking back to the terrifying rumors about the Xiao Family Haunted House, the lawless students with severe chuunibyou elements were also more or less frightened.

[How annoying. Don’t come on here and talk about things without evidence.]

[Laughing to death. Does anyone really believe those kinds of ghost stories?]

[Maybe a homeless person went inside? There are security guards patrolling the school, after all, so maybe they didn’t dare rest in the school and went to the haunted house instead. Homeless people have so many underlying diseases, it’s normal for one to kick the bucket.]

[But I heard that the school has lost contact with a sophomore student…..]

[Ah, so annoying. Stop talking.]

Throughout the next classes, the students were a little distracted and absent-minded.

In the presence of these people, even Li Xiu’s inattentiveness became less obvious.

After waiting until class was finally over, this group of people rushed to the window to keep watching.

“Fuck, what happened?”

“What the hell…..”

His classmates’ words caused Li Xiu to reflexively walk to the window. Lowering his head, he glanced in the direction of the haunted house. Right afterward, his brow furrowed.

The police cars had already left after the first class, or the school had realized something was wrong and had the police cars move to a different location.

The back door to the haunted house was still open, and there were several more school staff at the wall. Every one of them was busy, climbing up and down to add railings and barbed wire to the original fence.

Judging by the small fraction of work that had been completed, the school seemed to intend to simply raise the wall to a point where even monkeys couldn’t climb over it.

Of course, if that was all it was, the school’s action of sending maintenance workers to heighten the fence boiled down to the normal behavior of stopping further losses since something had happened in the haunted house.

However…..

There were a few who looked like logistics staff doing something extremely strange.

They were tying red cloth to the large trees and bushes near the fence.

Each strip of cloth was a dazzling red color. They were impatiently tying them all over the foliage, which looked indescribably bizarre.

“What is the school doing? Isn’t that too unsightly?”

“People don’t normally go into the haunted house, right? Do they need to make such a grand gesture?”

“Damn, the more I think about it, the more scared I get. So they really did carry someone out of the haunted house?”

As Li Xiu listened to the chattering of his classmates, the chill in his body became increasingly obvious.

And before the bell rang, there was an announcement.

The panic in his official tone could not be hidden as the dean announced to the students as calmly as possible on the intercom that from today onwards, the school would strictly prohibit students from entering the Xiao Family Gardens. Once discovered, they would be punished with a demerit and expulsion from school.

As for the red cloth on the trees, according to the school leaders, it turned out that the school was preparing the trees in advance to protect them from the cold.

“…..Please take good care of the campus environment and respect the fruits of the staff’s labor. Do not take off or damage the cloth strips on the branches when passing by. We will also send people to patrol the area regularly. If a student is caught not following discipline and damaging the environment, they will be dealt with severely.”

“Pfft, do these school people think we’re idiots? Who would protect trees by tying strips of red cloth to them at the end of summer? Are they sick in the head?”

Unlike the well-behaved Class A1, a boy in another classroom simply laughed after hearing the campus announcement.

He leaned against the window and craned his neck to look in the direction of the haunted house. Seeing that chaotic and mindless scene, he couldn’t help but shake his head.

“Young Master Fang, don’t you think so?”

He turned around eagerly to look at the tall boy in the classroom who was playing on his cell phone with his head down.

It was unknown why, when a rare bit of fun was happening outside, the young master of the Fang family still refused to raise his head and look out, and wouldn’t even go near the window today.

The former prince exuded an aura of alienation and alertness all over his body today, and the way he stared at them put people on pins and needles.

Sure enough, when the boy bravely spoke to him, Fang Qian’an ignored him entirely.

The other went silent in embarrassment and looked at the others awkwardly.

[Hey, you guys, can someone tell me why Young Master Fang is acting so strange today?]

The boy gave a light cough, pretending to play on his phone as he secretly messaged the others.

[I heard that some moron interrupted his personal affairs this morning.]

[Affairs? What affairs? Wait, this affair can’t be the one I’m thinking of, right?]

[But didn’t Young Master Fang go to Class A1 to snatch that person this morning?]

[Shh, don’t talk nonsense. You’re dead if someone hears.]

[Wait, you’re not talking about that one this morning…..]

[I think I might know what’s going on, but I’m afraid to say it.]

All at once, rumors about what had happened with the prince of the Fang family spread among this group of idle playboys, the importance of which even outweighed the strange things happening at school.

Nearly everyone maintained a subtle silence, but their eyes all fell on Fang Qian’an.

The result of this observation was that everyone discovered that Fang Qian’an’s expression was very bad at the moment.

This wasn’t caused by a bad temper…..instead, it seemed like he was completely drained of energy.

The strong, healthy boy who could beat people fiercely like a human weapon had a slightly gray face today. The bruises under his eyes were so thick that they were black, and there was no color to his lips at all.

Everyone exchanged glances, and the atmosphere was incredibly solemn.

Nobody dared to speak.

Nobody even dared to type their guesses on their phones.

Fortunately, at this anxious moment, a companion came through the door carrying takeout from an expensive burger restaurant outside the school.

According to convention, this person chose the most expensive one and handed it to Fang Qian’an.

“Angus beef and fish roe bacon burger. Young Master Fang, I remember you liked the taste of this last time.”

“Right, and here’s the iced americano you wanted.”

When the cold coffee cup touched his fingertips, Fang Qian’an abruptly shivered and drew his attention from his cell phone. 

He took a deep breath and hesitated for a second on the lines of text on his phone, then hit the pause button on the screen fiercely.

Fang Qian’an didn’t have much of an appetite.

His stomach felt heavy due to the news he had just received, and his chest felt tight. 

But Fang Qian’an soon recalled that he hadn’t eaten anything since the day before.

Although he wasn’t hungry, it seemed like a very bad idea to continue to starve.

Fang Qian’an didn’t refuse the hamburger offered by his follower. But after just one bite of the burger…..

“Bleh…..”

A strong fishy taste spurted up from deep inside his body.

Fang Qian’an ignored the panic of the others and rushed to the toilet as he gagged.

When he opened his mouth, the burger he had just eaten suddenly gushed out.

His stomach was churning. Fang Qian’an felt as if he had turned into a high-pressure water gun as he sprayed vomit into the toilet.

The fishy smell spread throughout the toilet cubicle. Even for a big, strong person like Fang Qian’an, his stomach cramped like crazy and he felt dizzy after vomiting.

With great difficulty, Fang Qian’an stopped spewing his stomach contents.

He wiped away the vomit-induced tears, sniffled, and was about to flush……

He suddenly stopped moving. 

The toilet was full of the things he had spit out.

Pieces of flesh big and small, with the teeth marks still remaining, sank into the water dyed crimson with blood.

There were gray-white fingers that had been chewed to the point of losing their shape mixed in with the viscera-like pieces of meat.

Those were clearly human fingers.

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Chapter 23 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 25