Qiming Secondary School.

Class A1.

“Li Xiu…..Li Xiu?”

Someone nudged Li Xiu gently.

“Ah?”

After a moment, Li Xiu turned to look at the other party as if waking up from a dream.

The girl sitting next to him was giving him an anxious look.

“Did you do yesterday’s math paper? Can you show me the answers? Why do I feel like the teacher made a mistake on the extra question? It doesn’t look right no matter how I calculate it.”

“That’s right. The solution requires a different approach, and there are traps in the extra question,” Li Xiu said subconsciously. Then he handed his paper to the girl, who thanked him profusely. 

However, after taking the paper, the girl didn’t move away immediately. Instead, she stared at Li Xiu several times, and after dithering for a minute, she lowered her voice and whispered: “Li Xiu, are you really okay? You suddenly asked for leave yesterday and you’re so distracted today…..um, someone said they saw you drinking milk tea with the prince of the Fang family in the shopping mall yesterday.”

“Ah?”

“You’re not being blackmailed by that kind of person, are you?”

The girl stared at Li Xiu’s pretty face, her expression gradually becoming solemn. And it took Li Xiu another few seconds to understand what the other party was saying.

“Ah, no…..I’m not. I’m a little distracted today because of things at home.”

“That’s good.” The girl blinked, and after heaving a sigh of relief, she smiled bitterly. “I forgot. It’s impossible for Fang Qian’an to blackmail ordinary students like us.”

But before returning to her seat, she couldn’t help but give a kindly warning: “But in any case, don’t get involved with a person like Fang Qian’an if you can avoid it. That person……is a little scary sometimes.”

The girl instinctively looked around as she spoke.

“There are rumors that Fang Qian’an’s mother was mentally ill and was in a mental hospital for a long time, so Fang Qian’an’s brain…..well, you know.”

The girl drew a circle next to her temple.

Li Xiu paused for a few seconds before responding, his voice very mild: “I see.”

Fang Qian’an’s mother was mentally ill?

Upon hearing this news, Li Xiu’s first thought was not of the rumor that Fang Qian’an had also inherited those mental problems, but of that person yesterday whose face was covered in wounds that he was entirely accustomed to.

Fang Qian’an had said at that time that all of the horrific signs of domestic violence were caused by his father.

“But these things shouldn’t be talked about outside. Fang Qian’an is really…..”

Li Xiu suddenly interrupted the girl: “Hurry up and look at the paper. I’ll need it later.”

The girl’s voice cut off when she saw that Li Xiu wasn’t going to give her the expected reaction, and she sat back in her seat with some annoyance.

Seated next to her, Li Xiu stared at the table for a long time, then lowered his eyes to look at the phone screen in the drawer.

[Li Xiu: Fang Qian’an, are you there?]

Li Xiu actually didn’t know if he had gotten to school.

After learning about that incident from the neighbor sister, for a moment, Li Xiu wanted to rush back and wake up his grandmother to seek a scientific explanation.

But his instincts directly prevented him from doing so.

Call it evasion or call it childishness.

Liu Xiu found that he didn’t want to delve into what happened at home…..he kept feeling that if he began to delve deeper, his peaceful life would fall apart entirely.

Therefore, Li Xiu mechanically went to school and began morning self-study. And before he knew it, he had sent a message to Fang Qian’nan.

It was like he was able to discuss these things with Fang Qian’an.

As it happened, Fang Qian’an sent a reply just at that moment.

[Fang Qian’an: ? ]

Li Xiu’s fingers hovered over the screen indecisively.

Then Fang Qian’an sent several more messages.

[Fang Qian’an: You sought me out unexpectedly. Is something wrong?]

[Fang Qian’an: I didn’t go to school today.]

[Fang Qian’an: But don’t worry. If something happens, just use my name and I’ll take care of it for you when I get to school.]

Obviously, Fang Qian’an wasn’t even able to protect himself…..

Li Xiu stared at Fang Qian’an’s message and finally gave a simple reply.

[Li Xiu: It’s fine.]

After a moment’s hesitation, he added another sentence.

[Li Xiu: In any case, it’s best for students not to skip class.]

After all, Teacher Xu had said that the best way to avoid ghosts was to concentrate on studying.

[Fang Qian’an: ……]

[Fang Qian’an: I don’t call this skipping class, I call it asking for leave.]

[Fang Qian’an: Forget it, I’ll come find you in the afternoon.]

[Fang Qian’an: By the way, have you had breakfast?]

[Fang Qian’an: How about I order you some?]

He was rejected by Li Xiu.

[Fang Qian’an: I finally understand why you don’t have any meat on your body. When I held you last night, your boniness hurt.]

[Fang Qian’an: You won’t get taller if you don’t eat breakfast. Of course, even if you drink milk every day from now on, you won’t be taller than me, hahahaha.]

[Fang Qian’an: Do you want hot cocoa?]

Li Xiu read the various inane words that Fang Qian’an sent one after another, and the veins on his forehead twitched slightly.

[Li Xiu: No need. Please be quiet. I’m turning off my phone. I’m in class.]

But just as Li Xiu was about to turn off his phone and continue studying, the class group interface suddenly popped up on his screen.

Li Xiu’s cell phone was very old, and its system had seizures every day or two, so he didn’t pay too much attention to it.

But it happened that today, when he was shutting the group off, he took another look.

Then, throughout morning self-study, Li Xiu was unable to do anything else.

At this time, the class group had already exploded.

[Wa, are you mistaken? How could Ou Yang’s incident be exposed outside?]

[So annoying. It’s Qiming’s own business. Which idiot went and let outsiders know?]

[The internet is going crazy right now.]

[Seriously. God, can’t the school do something to delete the post? Save me…..]

[Who the hell wants this kind of thing to be known on the entire internet, ah? I’m asking my mother to change schools.]

Amidst the continuous complaints of the student group, Li Xiu clicked on the link forwarded by the person who had spoken first.

Only then did Li Xiu learn that the suicide message and photo of him hanging himself that Ou Yang had previously posted in the group had become hot news on social media.

Unlike that group of students who were worried about tarnishing the “innocence” of the school, Li Xiu didn’t care if this incident was made known to the entire internet. What really drew his attention were a few comments under the marketing account news.

Ou Yang’s behavior originally revealed an indescribable strangeness — without any inducement, the well-hidden Internet celebrity teacher suddenly exposed his most private and disgusting side and sent that horrible photo.

In the words of the marketing account, “It’s like he was controlled by some supernatural force.”

In addition, the marketing account also connected several other things that had happened during the school year, particularly when a student was sent to the hospital for food poisoning and was attacked there, but died mysteriously in the Xiao Family Haunted House. The marketing account’s blog post had begun to be forwarded tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of times. After all, even though over a decade had passed, the famous murders of the Xiao family in City A still evoked people’s most secret fears and curiosity. And what had happened at Qiming Secondary School in just a few days was difficult to explain with common sense.

Netizens had left countless messages under this account.

Li Xiu’s gaze lingered on one of the popular messages for a long time.

[ tj178676: That Teacher Ou Yang wasn’t a good thing to begin with. I spoke up several times when he was still an internet celebrity, but you guys laughed at me and said I was jealous. Do your faces hurt now? That guy was rotten since birth, and did everything from voyeurism to filming. This was revealed several times when I was in school. ]

[ tj178676: It can be said that bad people have bad endings. He was able to escape every time in the past because his sister married into the Xiao family, and she always used her power to suppress others. When the murder case broke out later, this man quickly left the country with his tail between his legs. After he came back, you idiots chased that internet celebrity teacher, licking the screen and calling him Gege and Husband every day. ]

[ tj178676: He himself wasn’t afraid of death and went to Qiming to teach. Now that he’s gotten his wish, I hope he and his cheap sister in the underworld are never reincarnated.]

The ID of the commenter was system-generated, and it was obviously a small account.

It was filled with all kinds of abuse and humiliation toward Ou Yang and the Xiao family. This made the posts seem less credible, and many people accused him of talking far-fetched nonsense just for the popularity.

Li Xiu looked at his phone and his expression became grave. He knew very well that the other party’s words were likely true.

In the Xiao family portrait, he had indeed seen Ou Yang in his youth.

So was Ou Yang in his and Fang Qian’an’s terrible nightmare because of the Xiao Family Haunted House?

Ou Yang’s sister turned out to be the missus of the Xiao family…..

The terrifying rotting corpses he’d seen in his hallucination appeared in Li Xiu’s mind. Did that woman really abuse a child in such a cruel way? 

That child…..where was he now?

Li Xiu unconsciously shivered, beginning to feel cold again.

No…..

Li Xiu bit the tip of his tongue and forced himself not to focus on the Xiao family’s past.

After all, the most important thing for him now was studying. If he could still get first place in the exams as before, according to his contract with Qiming, he could get a scholarship of 3,000 yuan per month.

With a little planning, he might be able to buy a cheap surveillance system to put up at home.

His grandmother’s condition was obviously bad, and Li Xiu didn’t know what she might do at home with her Alzheimer’s disease advancing. 

Just as the morning self-study bell rang, Li Xiu was called out of the classroom again.

The police were looking for him.

*

The building complex, Academic Affairs Office.

Li Xiu sat on pins and needles in the office, where he had to steel himself and give an account in front of two police officers. Of course, compared to the dean, the attitudes of the police officers were particularly kind and gentle. 

What they asked about was the last time Li Xiu saw Ou Yang, and if he displayed any abnormal behavior.

And what Li Xiu hadn’t known until this moment was that he was the last person to come into contact with Ou Yang at school that day.

“Abnormal?”

Li Xiu frowned and tried to recall the scene at that time.

“At that time…..well, the window blew open and some books fell off the shelf, so he was a little frightened.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he noticed the police officers exchange looks.

Then they asked Li Xiu to verify the colors of the books on the bookshelf, but so many things had happened these days that Li Xiu couldn’t remember much. After going through the whole process quickly, the officers sent Li Xiu out of the office.

A policeman patted Li Xiu on the shoulder and said with a smile: “Okay, thank you for your cooperation, Classmate Li Xiu.”

As if aware of Li Xiu’s tension, he specifically explained before he left: “Don’t be so nervous, we’re just investigating this matter. It has nothing to do with you.”

Li Xiu tried his best to smile and cope with it.

Of course, he couldn’t tell the police in front of him that it wasn’t their identities that made him nervous, but this building. 

What had happened to Fang Qian’an in this building complex was a nightmare that Li Xiu didn’t want to recall in this lifetime.

In fact, when the office door closed, Li Xiu quickly fell into a heavy mood.

He looked with difficulty toward the elevator at the end of the corridor, then turned to look at the stairs.

The trauma that elevator had brought him was too much. How about taking the stairs?

Just at this time, Li Xiu suddenly sensed an intense gaze.

He turned his head automatically and happened to see a slightly blue face with sunken eyes slowly peeking at him from around the corner of the corridor.

That person only had their head and neck exposed, and was so low that it made a person think they were lying on the floor, only revealing their head to take a peek.

And Li Xiu looked at them for several seconds before just barely realizing who that haggard face belonged to.

“Wang Rongfa?”

---

Consider donating via Kofi here.

Chapter 38 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 40