Chapter 52 Startled Someone

As soon as the braid ghost finished speaking, Shen Quan turned pale as a sheet.

He gritted his teeth and asked Lin Long, "What is it talking about?"

"It means exactly that."

Lin Long's timid expression vanished, replaced by a frantic and vicious look in his eyes.

Seeing this, how could Shen Quan still not understand?

Going to the ghost food window this morning to pick up breakfast—everything had been plotted by Lin Long. To think he, Shen Quan, would stumble so badly in his judgment of people.

"Impossible! You ate the steamed bun too, why are you fine?"

"Who says I'm fine?"

Lin Long wore a twisted smile, pain intermingling with the gratification of sweet revenge.

Earlier, he had simply endured the pain in his stomach, wanting to watch Shen Quan writhe in agony. As early as last night, he had already resolved to drag Shen Quan down with him in mutual destruction.

Because he knew too well that this game was far too difficult, and his chances of clearing it were practically zero. Rather than dying by the hands of ghosts, he might as well perish together with Shen Quan.

"Why? Have I not treated you well enough?"

Shen Quan still had no inkling of what harm he might have ever caused Lin Long.

Hearing this, Lin Long said excitedly, "Treated me well? You shoved all the danger onto my shoulders, and yesterday you even coerced the others into dumping their ghost food onto my tray! Is that what you call treating me well?"

With a hint of regret in his voice, he continued, "It's a pity that Zhang Si and Xiao Wei died; otherwise, I really would have killed them with my own hands. Dying just like that let them off way too easy."

As he spoke, Lin Long's voice grew progressively weaker. Before long, he collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud.

It was clearly visible that something inside his belly was violently struggling to break free. A moment later, a pale, corpse-like ghost hand burst straight out of his stomach.

Lin Long stopped breathing shortly after.

"What should we do with this human corpse?"

The twin-tailed ghost had no idea how to handle it; this was the first time it felt disinclined to feed on a human corpse.

"Eating it will get you parasitized by the ghost hand. I certainly don't want a hand bursting out of my stomach during class, or Teacher Chen will punish us," the braid ghost said regretfully.

Seeing that neither of the other two ghosts made a move, the disheveled-hair ghost looked eager to try its hand at Lin Long's corpse.

"Why not just give it to the cafeteria?" Huan Xiao suggested at that moment.

"So the chef can keep making ghost-hand buns for us to eat tonight!" the braid ghost exclaimed with great enthusiasm.

"Ugh."

While they were discussing the disposal of Lin Long's corpse, Shen Quan, nearby, was desperately trying to induce vomiting.

He wanted to throw the thing up before the ghost hand could tear its way out.

Dragging Lin Long's corpse, the braid ghost said in an eerie tone, "It's useless. Once you eat a ghost-hand bun, you can never spit it out. Should I just wait until he's completely dead and drag you both to the cafeteria together?"

It directed this question at Huan Xiao.

"In theory, that is much more efficient," Huan Xiao nodded earnestly.

"Class is about to start. Aren't you going to the classroom?"

The freckled ghost noticed the students blocking the classroom doorway and spoke in a displeased tone.

"Oh no, class is about to start! I'll drag them away after class is over."

With that, the braid ghost bolted into the classroom.

"What's wrong with them?"

The freckled ghost pointed at Shen Quan and Lin Long.

The disheveled-hair ghost quickly replied, "Reporting to the monitor, they ate ghost-hand buns. One of them is already dead."

"Never mind them, hurry into the classroom," the freckled ghost urged.

"Got it, monitor! No problem, monitor!"

The disheveled-hair ghost drifted back to its seat and settled down, then secretly pulled a severed palm it had snapped off Lin Long's body earlier and popped it into its mouth to chew.

The three players returning from the cafeteria were startled when they saw the corpses of Shen Quan and Lin Long blocking the doorway. Assuming the two had triggered some absolute death rule, panic began to overwhelm them.

With even the sole Qi-manipulation expert dead, did ordinary players like them have any hope of survival left...

Yet class time was approaching, so they had no choice but to cautiously slip into the classroom, silently taking their seats and not daring to make a single reckless move.

When the class bell rang, Teacher Chen entered the classroom on time.

As on any new day, Teacher Chen still did not call upon Huan Xiao to answer questions.

As for the disheveled-hair ghost, because it had caused a disruption during class, it was burned into a lump of charred charcoal by fire. Although it recovered its human appearance completely by the end of class, its psychological shadow regarding Teacher Chen deepened considerably.

In the afternoon, Huan Xiao habitually went to her previous food stall to buy dinner, only to find the place shut tight.

Strange, the store had still been open at noon; why would it close by afternoon?

With no other choice, Huan Xiao had to buy dinner at the stall next door.

Driven by curiosity, she asked the vendor, "Why is the shop next door closed?"

"That place? A few hours ago, they suddenly slammed the door shut as if they'd seen a ghost, and kept muttering about ghosts from the ghost school escaping. It sounds hilarious—what ghost would dare show its face in broad daylight? I reckon the owner just lost her mind," the vendor said nonchalantly.

Hearing this, Huan Xiao's mind flashed back to noon.

That middle-aged woman had seemed to examine the school uniform she was wearing quite closely, before her expression turned pale for a moment as if recalling something.

Could it be that she recognized this as the uniform of Ende Middle School?

...It seemed she had better hide the school emblem on her uniform properly, lest she frighten anyone else again.

Casually, Huan Xiao swept her hair over to the side bearing the school emblem, covering it completely.

"Little sis, is that outfit of yours a school uniform? It looks awfully familiar."

The vendor was busy with his work and missed Huan Xiao's gesture of shielding the emblem.

Huan Xiao smiled and said, "Not at all. It's just a jacket I bought online, campus style, you know."

"Oh, oh, I see. No wonder it looked familiar... I remember now! The color scheme is identical to the uniform of Ende Middle School from six years ago. That made the news back then, too."

As he spoke, the vendor's expression shifted, and he hurriedly glanced down at Huan Xiao's shadow on the ground.

Only upon seeing a normal, sharp human silhouette did he breathe a sigh of relief, and said with a chuckle, "Sorry, my bad! I was just reminded of how squirrelly the owner next door was acting this afternoon, and for a second I thought you might be a ghost from that haunted school. Haha, I'm really overthinking things—actually believing that kind of nonsense! We should believe in science; there are no such things as ghosts in this world."

"Exactly, ghosts are all fake," Huan Xiao nodded putatively.

"Sigh, people say that, but the news is always full of vengeful spirits harming people and grievance-fueled ghosts seeking payback. Who knows what nonsense those media outlets are just making up? It gives me a scare every time I see it."

Perhaps feeling a pang of guilt for having suspected Huan Xiao just moments before, the vendor continued, "Take that incident six years ago—it was just an ordinary fire, yet rumors kept spreading that the school was haunted. To this day, nobody dares to touch that plot of land. What a waste of a good piece of real estate."

With that, the vendor stopped chatting with Huan Xiao, as he had a long line of customers waiting for him.

The sky over the ghost school remained shrouded in heavy, gloomy clouds.

That evening, the disheveled-hair ghost and the others still wanted to head to the boys' dormitory. Upon inquiry, Huan Xiao learned that this, too, had been arranged by the monitor.

Recalling how Teacher Chen had appeared downstairs at the boys' dormitory last night brandishing a ruler, Huan Xiao wondered if the teacher would show up again tonight.

To ensure a sound night's sleep, Huan Xiao did not allow herself to be dragged along by the disheveled-hair ghost this time.

Using the excuse that she had other business to attend to, she didn't wait for the three ghosts to respond, and teleported away using ghost energy.

Only after the three ghosts had departed for the boys' dormitory did she return to her own dorm room.

Had the other dorm rooms not been far too filthy, she might have just made do for the night in one of them.

...

Time quickly advanced to the eve of the final exams.