CH 18

【In the dead of the night, a few college students, carrying travelling bags, approached the abandoned schoolyard, laughing and giggling with one another.

“Hey, do you think we’ll run into some ghosts? I heard this was a well-known haunted spot; apparently this place used to be a really prestigious school, however a major homicide case happened and then the school was mysteriously abandoned. The whole situation was just strange!” The only girl in the group looked curiously at the rusty and shabby gate.

“According to my mom, her sister used to attend this school and disappeared with the rest of the students. Even the police couldn’t find them! Everyone speculated that the students were eaten by the ghosts. Although, the police suppressed the rumors, people still talked about the matter privately. Therefore, no one dares to live around here and no developers dares to come and inspect the land. Ah, it’s such a pity though, there used to be a bustling commercial street nearby.” The boy next to her replied.

“Aiya! Who cares about all that? Let’s hurry up and take the pictures. We have to upload them tomorrow!” Another boy gripped his camera excitedly, his face filled with anticipation.

“Alright, alright!” Walking behind the group, a boy carrying the largest backpack complained, “If I knew you guys were going to use me as the pack mule, I wouldn’t have agreed to come. I’m doing all the heavy work! I want to take a break!”

The group continued to joke around as they walked onto the abandonded campus, not noticing the distoration of space behind them. 】

——-Excerpt from <<Her Strangeness II>>

*******

Zhao Yu Xin glanced light shinning from the security’s room and nodded at Zhou Han Xi.

Zhou Han Xi understood the signal, and proceeded with their plan. She was pretending to be a middle schooler due to her tender-looking face. Zhou Han Xi stood by the gates and shouted, “Uncle Gatekeeper, could you open the gates please?”

Currently, the gatekeeper was resting in the security box, drinking tea. He had just finished patrolling the campus, making sure there weren’t any stragglers left on campus. When he overheard some shouts, his eyebrows immediately scrunched up in annoyance.

“What’s are you hurrying me for?! Which class are you from? Why are you at school so late?” The gatekeeper was a 30 year old man with an ordinary appearance. However, for these middle schoolers, his scowling face was quite an intimidating thing. There were many mischievous and troublesome children who dared not to act up in front of him after seeing his angry expression.

Zhou Han Xi quickly clenched her stomach, “Uncle Gatekeeper, I forgot my medicine in class, could you let me in?”

Unfortunately, Zhou Han Xi had absolutely no talent in acting. Her expression was stiff and she wasn’t able to trick the gatekeeper, who had plenty of experience from students trying to fake a sicknesses to get out of school.

“Don’t play any tricks here, what are you- AH!!!” The gatekeeper was knocked unconscious by an impatient Zhou Han Xi.

Both Zhao Yu Xin and Liu Zhuang stared at her speechlessly.

“You…wait…uh… How did you get in?”

As Zhao Yu Xin watched the gatekeeper on the otherside of the gate get taken care of by Zhou Han Xi who had jumped, she finally understood the saying of 一力降十会 (All plans fail in face of a great strength.) She had already worked out multiple plans on how to enter the school, but none of them could guarantee that they would be successful.

Zhou Han Xi squatted down by the guard’s collapsed figure, patted him down, and retrieved a key, finally, opening the gates.

“I can jump really high, and the gate wasn’t that tall.” Zhou Han Xi chewed on her gum, revealing a silly smile.

She was used to being a hired thug, and was not used to conversing with her opponents. Just now was the limit of what she could handle. Besides, the guard was too annoying, so she couldn’t help it knocking him unconscious.

“En. Not bad! Han Xi! Let’s go in!” Zhao Yu Xin looked warmly at Zhou Han Xi who successfully opened the gate.

To have a free thug working for her… this feeling wasn’t all too bad!

(Orange: There has to be a better way to describe Zhou Han Xi’s occupation, but my brain isn’t working.)

Liu Zhuang was a little surprised, but since he was also a former prisoner, he quickly calmed down.

“Let’s kill the guard, then…”

The night grew darker while the group discussed their plans for the next day. They didn’t realize that after they entered through the gates, the school became enshrouded in an increasingly gloomy aura.

**********

After Li Huan finished washing up in the bathroom, she stared at herself in the mirror, dazed. Then she looked at her hands again.

Her hands were spotless.

She blinked. In the next instant, her hands were stained with blood. The blood dripped down her wrists. The sink was also filled with worms, inching towards her quickly.

“AH-!!!” Li Huan fell to the ground from fright, and everything reverted back to normal. Nothing was out of place.

“It’s a hallucination! It’s only a hallucination!” Li Huan muttered to herself.

She stood up and breathed heavily.

Facing the mirror, Li Huan leaned towards her reflection, whispering, “Coward! It’s just one dead person, what are you afraid of? That bitch deserved to die!”

Recalling Feng Xing’s gruesome death, Li Huan shuddered but continued to calm herself, “It’s okay. I was enforcing justice on the behalfs of the heavens! That bitch deserved to die, after trying to seduce Senior and abusing animals. She deservers to die!”

“HuanHuan, are you alright?” Downstairs, her mother was worried about her situation.

“So annoying, I’m FINE!” Li Huan shouted in a loud voice. Her face was harsh and cruel.

She hated this meddlesome mother the most. Once her mother had heard that someone died in her class, she kept crying without any end. It was fortunate that she didn’t tell her that Feng Xing was pushed by her otherswise this idiot mother of hers would try to convince her to turn herself in.

“Aunty Li is way better, why is this idiot my mother? Che!” Li Huan thought of her father’s mistress, and felt even more resentful.

Aunty Li was always really nice to her. She always bought whatever she wanted. Unlike that birth mother of hers, who cared about everything regarding her life, but refuses to give her a single cent.

Li Huan calmed herself down and glanced at her reflection again. She looked slightly haggard, but still had a sweet and delicate looking appearance. Patting her cheeks Li Huan encouraged herself, “Everything is fine! Let’s go to sleep. Tomorrow I’ll confess to Senior! With that bitch out of the way, this confession will succeed! Haha! This is great!”

Li Huan then winked at her relfection, turned off the bathroom lights, and went to sleep in the bedroom.

Behind her, the Li Huan in the mirror also winked and smiled.

Li Huan, who was quickly falling into a deep sleep, naturally couldn’t see that her real face was as pale as a dead person.

********

In the morning, Zhou Yu woke up late.

The alarm clock, for some mysterious reason, didn’t go off, and due to his strong insistance, the nanny doesn’t come over to make breakfast, so he had successfully overslept.

When he had woken up, it was already 8 o’clock.

Zhou Yu sighed in defeat, but he was in an incredibly good mood, which could have resulted from the good night’s rest he had.

“I have to hurry and get to class!” Zhou Yu sped through his morning routine and rushed towards school.

Soon he arrived at the school gate and felt something was off. The gatekeeper who would normally stand by the school gate in the morning to watch the students was not there. Except , he had more important things to do today, so he didn’t care about these little things.

It was also convient for him, since the gate keeper isn’t there to mark him tardy.

“Student, you are late!” A young voice called from behind. Zhou Yu shrugged and turned around.

However Zhou Yu was shocked by what he saw. He thought it was a teacher who had caught him, but to his surprise, it was a young man wearing the security uniform.

“Ah… I apologize. I woke up late today, so… could you please let it slide for today? Uh, I’ve never seen you around before.” Zhou Yu raised his eyebrows and studied the young security guard’s face.

The young security guard revealed a warm smile, “I just started working here today. Uncle Zhang is inside resting. Student, don’t try to change the topic, I need to write your name down!”

The young security guard pointed at the security booth.

Zhou Yu glanced in the security booth, seeing a figure laying down resting.

“Alright, do you want me to write it down in the book?” Late students were required to write their names down so they could be lectured by the teachers during roll-call.

The young security guard nodded, pulling out the notebook and passed it to Zhou Yu.

Zhou Yu wrote down his name and class room number.

Year 3, Class 1

Zhou Yu

The young security guard’s eyes widened, and stared at Zhou Yu for a while. Finally, he took back the book from a dissatisfied looking Zhou Yu.

“Okay Student, you can leave now.”

“Thank you.”

Turning away, Zhou Yu thought to himself, this security guard didn’t have any problems right? The expression in his eye was quite strange.

Theater Time!

Li Huan: *excited* I’m going to confess tomorrow!

Feng Xing: *smiles darkly* I’m going to kill someone tomorrow!

Secruity guard: *crying* I got killed right as I started acting! Who has it worst than me?

World Conscious: *crying* Shut up! I haven’t cried about it and I only exist in the “little theater” section. Even though you were just a little canon fodder, at least you’re an actual character in the series! ~yingyingying~