Chapter 6 of Season 1: The Mastermind Behind the Scenes

  "So, did you inform Zhao's family and relatives about this? What did they say?" Jiang Qicai asked with some curiosity.

  The principal coughed, "What's most puzzling is that after that student disappeared, we tried to contact her parents and relatives, but no matter how many times we called her home phone number, it was always unreachable. Later, I personally went to her home to look for her, but the neighbors told me that they had quietly moved away on the second day after the incident!"

  "Hmm, it's indeed very strange, what's next?"

  "After that, because we couldn't find that classmate, this matter was left unsettled even though many people felt puzzled at the time. After Zhao walked away, naturally a position in room 707 became vacant, so we had to arrange for another classmate to move in!"

  "What's this classmate's name?"

  "Qian Xiaoye!"

  "Qian Xiaoye?" Jiang Qicai's eyes suddenly widened. A flash of inspiration in his mind, he remembered that when he first met Qian Xiaoye on the bus, the name of the horror book she was holding seemed to be called "Nine Deaths and One Madness". So, it seems that those stories weren't made up by Qian Xiaoye herself? But were they true events?

  "What happened next?" Jiang Qicai felt that after Zhao's classmate moved away, the story had just begun.

  More than a month after that classmate moved away, it just so happened to be the start of a new semester. Nothing special happened on the first day, nor did anything happen on the second day, but by the third day...

  Jiang Qicai interrupted the principal's words, "And on the third day, another classmate had the same nightmare, right?"

  The principal nodded heavily, "That's right! And the person who had a dream was Qian Xiaoye, who just moved in!" After a pause, the principal continued: "Because our school has very good living conditions, basically every dormitory is equipped with two people per room, with a large area and a bathroom. That night, Qian Xiaoye's roommate happened to have something to do at home, so she was alone. At that time, she..."

  Jiang Qicai interrupted the principal for the second time, "If it was just her at that time, even if she was lying, you wouldn't be able to judge whether it's true or not, would you?"

  The principal shook his head and said, "She didn't lie!"

  "Oh? So certain?"

  The principal said: "Because I was afraid that something strange would happen to Qian Xiaoye's body again the next day, so I specially assigned other classmates to accompany Qian Xiaoye in that dormitory."

  "Hmm, and then?" Jiang Qicai asked, calming down at this time.

  "As a result, that classmate who accompanied her that night also had a strange dream! And the content of the dreams were exactly the same!"

  It wasn't until then that Jiang Qi had some idea of the ending, so he smiled and said: "Then on the third day you found four or five people to keep Wang Xiao Ye company, but what you didn't expect was that all those who stayed with her had the same nightmare!"

  "How did you know?"

  "It wasn't until the fourth day that you felt this matter was getting stranger and stranger, so you simply found nine classmates, plus Qian Xiaoye, making a total of ten people living in that dormitory. Originally, you thought that no matter how strange this matter was, it would be just a nightmare at most. But what you didn't expect was that overnight, nine out of the ten classmates died, and one went mad. If I'm not mistaken, the one who went mad is Qian Xiaoye, right?"

  The principal looked at Jiang Qicai with some surprise, nodded, "Yes! At that time, I specifically instructed them to take a nap in the afternoon and gather together at 12 o'clock to see what was inside that dormitory. Because I personally don't believe in these supernatural things. But... but I didn't expect those students to be scared to death! The only survivor also went mad. If I had known this, I..." The principal's tone was very self-reproachful and regretful.

  "No! You're not wrong! This thing was never the work of any ghost, what you saw were all man-made! And what those classmates saw were facts, not some nightmare!"

  "You mean... are you suspecting Qian Xiaoye?" The principal looked at Jiang Qicai, somewhat disbelieving.

  Jiang Qicai smiled, "I'm asking you, since Qian Xiaoye has gone crazy, why is she still staying in school?"

  The principal was stunned for a moment, "She really is crazy, but a year later her parents told me that she had been cured and fully recovered. Moreover, they also begged me to let their daughter continue studying..."

  "Can you really believe in such a coincidence?" Jiang Qicai sighed.

  The principal spread his hands, "But I just can't figure out how Xiao Ye could do such an unbelievable thing. How could she make all the students have the same strange dream? And why would she harm those students for no reason? What's her connection to Liu Xiaofei's death now?"

  "So you suspect that this school really has a ghost? Whether it was the nine classmates who died back then or Liu Xiaofei now, were they all killed by this so-called ghost?"

  The principal hesitated for a moment, then shook his head resolutely. "No! I think there must be a mastermind behind this incident, so I hope you can help me catch him as soon as possible! But I just can't believe that person is Qian Xiaoye... look at her, she's just a weak and timid girl..."

  "Hehe, okay! I'll help you get her out, and then we can talk about whether it's Qian Xiaoye or not. But I have a condition!"

  "You said, as long as you can really find out the truth, I'll agree to anything!"

  "Alright! I'll get straight to the point. Honestly, I'm in dire need of money right now. If I can help you find the real culprit, then a flat rate... one million yuan, what do you say?" Jiang Qicai looked at the principal's face and smiled: "For this school, one million yuan is just a small amount, and think about it, if this matter isn't investigated thoroughly, maybe other students will get into trouble too, and then there are the media and those parents..."

  "Never mind, never mind! I'll agree with you, it's 100,000 then, sigh!"

  Jiang Qicai stood up, "Actually, I'm not a greedy person, I can ask you for 500,000 or 1 million, and I believe you can afford it. Moreover, the value of this school doesn't need me to explain, you're clear about it too. However, having too much money is useless to me, I just want to prove to you that Qian Xiaoye is absolutely the mastermind behind the 'Nine Deaths One Madness' incident!"