Chapter 48: The Hatred of a Student

Huan Xiao walked over to the midday food stall and bought a serving of beef noodles, taking them to go as before.

"You're back again, young lady. You didn't go to that school, did you?"

The vendor clearly still remembered Huan Xiao.

"I'm planning to go later. Is Ende Middle School really that terrifying?"

Sensing that the vendor wanted to chat, Huan Xiao tried to probe for more information.

She loved listening to stories, especially real-life ones, as they felt much more immersive than fictional ones.

"Sigh, since you catch my eye, I'll tell you secretly, young lady."

The vendor had probably said the exact same thing to countless people, but Huan Xiao didn't expose her.

"That school, you know... a teacher got mixed up with a student. My sister's classmate's cousin's daughter used to study there. I heard that the ghost haunting the place is none other than that teacher's wife. The one whose husband cheated on her with a student. How miserable that poor wife was."

Hearing this, Huan Xiao asked:

"What was that teacher's name?"

"It seemed to be the surname Chen? I really can't recall the first name. Strange, I remember reports about it six years ago, how could I forget the name..."

The vendor handed the packed noodles and the change to Huan Xiao, saying:

"I can't remember clearly, I'm getting old. Anyway, that Teacher Chen is a scourge, a shameless wretch. No wonder his wife turned into a vengeful spirit after dying. If I were to go through something like that, I'd drag him down to hell no matter what."

"Are you talking about Teacher Chen from Ende Middle School?"

At that moment, an elderly voice sounded from behind Huan Xiao. Turning around, she saw an old woman slowly approaching with the aid of a walking stick.

"Yes, exactly him."

Busy attending to another customer, the vendor casually replied and turned away.

Realizing the old woman might know something, Huan Xiao stepped forward and asked:

"Granny, do you know Teacher Chen as well?"

"I remember. Back then, my grandson was taught by Teacher Chen. Teacher Chen was a good man. He straightened out my grandson—a mischievous and unmotivated boy—and even helped him get into a good university. When my grandson came to visit me during his senior year of high school, two out of every three sentences he spoke were about Teacher Chen. My ears practically grew calluses from hearing it."

The old woman held an exceptionally favorable impression of Teacher Chen, seemingly unaware of what had happened six years ago.

Huan Xiao exchanged a few more words with the old woman, then bought a small bag of fruit before preparing to head back to the ghost school.

The school had a rule: outside of holiday periods, students were not allowed to leave the premises for more than forty minutes.

Huan Xiao did not want to complicate matters and decided to follow the rules to avoid unnecessary trouble.

Upon returning to school, she did not see the people from earlier, but instead came across three abruptly appearing corpses on her way to the playground.

They were very fresh corpses, their facial features and organs completely missing, with a mobile phone lying beside them.

Huan Xiao picked it up using ghost qi, discovered it had no signal, and tossed it back down.

This trivial matter did not concern Huan Xiao.

The playground was deserted, devoid of both people and ghosts, and many pieces of equipment were covered in thick layers of spiderwebs, resembling a veil of gray gauze.

The sky of the ghost school was forever gloomy, looking as though it were about to rain, yet not a single drop fell.

The surroundings were very quiet, but this silence was soon broken.

"Xiao Huan, we have to enter the dormitories by eight o'clock. Why are you still on the playground?"

A ghost student wearing twin tails stopped beside Huan Xiao.

Upon seeing the food in Huan Xiao's hands, she wore the exact same indescribable expression Teacher Chen had made earlier.

"Is your appetite poor? Let's hunt down a human to eat tonight. I'll save the most delicious heart for you."

Out of sympathy for Huan Xiao's plight of having to resort to human food, she decided to make a painful sacrifice.

Huan Xiao chewed on a piece of beef, unable to understand why this ghost suddenly displayed such a remarkably human expression.

"Xiao Huan, you're not going to side with Teacher Chen, are you?"

The twin-tailed ghost suddenly turned solemn and continued:

"Teacher Chen is the enemy of all students. We must find a way to make him vanish completely. Once he disappears, we..."

"What are you doing?"

Suddenly, Teacher Chen appeared right behind the twin-tailed ghost.

This startled the twin-tailed ghost so badly that her head detached from her body, revealing a dark red cross-section between her neck and torso.

Teacher Chen calmly pressed her head back onto her shoulders and said:

"As my students, you should respect your teachers, follow the moral path, and be united and affectionate with your classmates. Do you remember that?"

A chilling, oppressive ghost qi enveloped the twin-tailed ghost, who dared not stay a moment longer. Nodding frantically, she grabbed her head and scurried away.

"Xiao Huan, too few humans died today. You haven't killed a single one."

Teacher Chen said with a solemn expression and a reprimanding tone.

Seeing that Teacher Chen did not seem genuinely angry, Huan Xiao asked:

"Teacher, why must we kill humans?"

"They disrupt the final exams. Humans are like rats—they love hiding in the dark to spy and trip us up. Rooting them out and dealing with them early on is the best course of action."

"However, I have no interest in humans."

Huan Xiao had no choice but to reply helplessly.

She did not want to be constantly urged; after all, she was human to begin with.

Teacher Chen let out a low sigh and said:

"Xiao Huan, if you keep this up, sooner or later you will be destroyed by humans and your soul will scatter. Ghosts should never show mercy to humans."

With that, Teacher Chen vanished.

Coming and going without a trace, even Huan Xiao was unable to track his movements.

Seeing that no one else was disturbing her, Huan Xiao resumed enjoying her dinner.

The setting sun dipped below the distant horizon, leaving behind a gradient of warm light, cozy as sunflower petals.

Time passed swiftly, and in the blink of an eye, night fell.

Huan Xiao had been assigned to a dormitory on the second floor of the girls' building, and her three ghost roommates completely failed to notice that they were actually strangers to her.

Perhaps the ghost game's power was simply too formidable, capable of playing both ghosts and humans in the palm of its hand.

"It's nighttime! My ghost qi is back!"

The braid-wearing ghost beamed with delight, its split mouth reminding Huan Xiao of the Slit-Mouthed Woman from urban legends.

As night descended, they gradually revealed the appearances they had worn at the moment of death.

Charred burn marks on their skin and numerous fine incisions across their bodies made it easy to imagine the tortures they had endured before perishing.

"Let's go take revenge on Teacher Chen!"

True to her original intention, the twin-tailed ghost still wanted to make Teacher Chen completely disappear.

Hearing this, the braid-wearing ghost disagreed, saying:

"The likes of us wouldn't even be enough between Teacher Chen's teeth. We'd be better off going out to gnaw on a few more humans."

"Yeah, yeah, I want to eat a live human."

The loose-haired ghost nodded in agreement.

Huan Xiao expressionlessly used her ghost qi to block a splash of brain matter flung halfway across the room.

"Xiao Huan, you want to go take revenge on Teacher Chen too, right?"

The twin-tailed ghost twisted her head a full 180 degrees to look at Huan Xiao.

Huan Xiao shook her head and replied:

"I don't want to go."

"Then come with us to torture and slaughter humans, Xiao Huan! We have to hurry, or else the class monitor and the others will eat them all, and we won't get anything left."

Figuring that Huan Xiao hadn't coveted her brain matter just moments ago, the loose-haired ghost felt a strong affinity for her.

Before she knew it, Huan Xiao was half-dragged and half-pulled by the loose-haired ghost right into their hunting party.