Chapter 1: The Ghost Knocks on the Door

  It's been two years since I came to this university, and I'm familiar with every nook and cranny of the school. It feels like I can find my way around even with my eyes closed, just like finding where the cherry blossoms are in bloom. My name is Homi, a third-year female student majoring in case investigation.

  If you ask me what department this is, I'm not quite sure either. All I know is that "Yueying University" is a private school. There are all sorts of unfamiliar departments inside. The only thing I'm clear about is that after graduation, I can probably do detective work.

  I don't have delusions of being a famous detective, after all it's not that easy to do. I don't like empty fantasies, I'm a more realistic 'girl'. There are indeed many bizarre events in this world, but they won't be foolish enough to let a college student like me take over.

  My father is the police chief, and mom often says that my cold 'beauty' looks like her, calm 'temperament' like dad. Really, do I look that good?

  Her fingers slid over the pink frame of the mirror, carefully watching the face inside with a fringe covering half of it, thick and straight black hair hanging down to her waist, and a flat chest that was not impressive at all... nowhere compared to that beautiful and virtuous mother!

  "Xiaomi, someone is looking for you."

  Someone was calling me at the 'door', I tiptoed to look outside.

  "What are you looking at, Mimi?" Liu Ke leaned against the door frame, smiling over here. The surroundings were as bright as a blooming lily, I especially liked his sunny smile and shallow dimples.

  "We're here! Xiao Mimi." Chen Yan 'Lu' followed closely behind Liu Ke, like a little follower. More than half of his face was covered by his black hair, making him look particularly uncomfortable. Plus his natural lazy personality, it's really not suitable for being a detective student!

  "That's it, it's over!"

  I smiled and nodded, and a classmate beside me said, "You two are really close."

  "Hehe, it's okay, two jinxed people."

  Speaking of their fateful relationship, it's indeed a complex web. Cut off one thread, and another will become entangled.

  Liu Ke is my high school classmate, and Chen Yan 'Lu'... I'm embarrassed to say that we've been together since childhood. He always acts like a kid who never grew up, liking to collect all sorts of models, car models, anime figurines, robots, etc. The only thing that remains unchanged is his intelligence being above ours. It's just because of 'personality' issues that many people don't understand him. In fact, Chen Yan 'Lu' is a hidden genius, although his personality isn't suitable for investigating cases, but if he gets serious, he's an opponent who shouldn't be underestimated. Liu Ke has a relatively gloomy personality, usually quiet and taciturn, but in reality, he's already thought of many ideas in his mind.

  "Hey, what were you just looking at?! You're really disgusting." Chen Yan slipped his hands into his pockets and said with a lazy tone.

  "Nothing to see!" Who's like you, with a comb in your pocket every day. "Where are we going?" Ignoring him making an ugly face, he turned to ask Liu Ke beside him who hadn't spoken up yet.

  Liu Ke said expressionlessly: "Dining hall."

  "Quickly thank me! Recently, I've been making money from ranked matches, so I'll treat you guys to something good." Zǐdà patted his chest with a proud expression, Chen Yan smiled brightly at us.

  Yes, heaven forbid he invites us to eat a pack of spicy strips.

  As he arrived at the entrance of the restaurant, Liu Ke suddenly stopped. Taking a deep breath, he announced a shocking piece of news: "After my junior year, I'm going to take a leave of absence."

  "Huh?"

  "Why!"

  I asked and Morning Research 'Liu' reaction is bigger than me. Just short of hugging big 'legs' to ask Liu Ke to continue reading senior year.

  "Because the case investigation has reached a dead end, my parents plan to have me return home and look for another job." The tone was so casual that it made us mistakenly think this news wasn't that serious.

  Through his calm demeanor, I see that he has an unspeakable secret. Liu Ke has a habit of pursing his lips every time he tells a lie, and I think the meticulous Yan Lu couldn't have failed to notice.

  A gentle breeze blew by, lifting their strands of hair, as if they were frozen in a painting.

  After a long time, I squeezed out a sentence: "I respect your parents' choice." Many things I wanted to say were ultimately held back at the tip of my tongue.

  "Alright, let's go eat. We still have a year left anyway, so let's make the most of our campus life!"

  You're right, we're still young and want to enjoy the remaining year of happy times. At Yu Ying University, this university that is filled with beautiful memories every moment...

  After dinner, there were no classes in the afternoon. Alone in the dormitory playing computer, opened the school website, browsing information boredly.

  Still thinking about Liu Ke's words at noon, he must be lying. Is there any other reason that can't be told to us? Having known him for five years, what secrets can't be said to us?

  "Beep beep —— Vroom vroom ——"

  The mobile phone ringtone suddenly rang out, startling me. The quiet dormitory suddenly exploded, and I pressed the answer button.

  Strange, no one responded inside.

  "Hello? Hello?" I said several times, but no one answered.

  The hand leaves the cheek, checks the record, and it's a strange number that I don't recognize. Maybe it was sent to the wrong person, but I didn't pay attention at the time. Now my mood is heavy, one year... Time has passed quickly.

  After a while, my eyes felt as heavy as lead. I lay on the 'bed' and slowly fell asleep. Until nightfall, I was woken up by a text message ringtone.

  "April 5th is the 180th anniversary of Yu Ying University's founding. Please arrive at the gymnasium at 3 pm sharp to participate in the celebration! — Office of Yu Ying University."

  That's the end of the message. I was dazed and confused, turned off my phone, got up and looked out the window into the dark outside.

  The next morning, I opened the window to breathe in some fresh air. I called out to wake up my roommate, "Dummy, get out of bed! The sun is shining on your butt!"

  Today is... April 1st. There are five days left until the celebration.

  Recently, I haven't seen Liu Ke, don't know what he's busy with, and he doesn't even teach classes. Yan 'Lu' guesses that he's having a conflict with his family, I think he's unwilling to face us. Former good friends can't lie to each other after all.

  "It's all been said, this case was in 1890, ten years have passed, the dead cannot be revived. So it's impossible for this case to be done by the same person, such a simple question you can't even think of, what an idiot. I've been staying in the library doing my homework these days, and I'm starting to regret calling 'Luo' from the morning study group."

  His brain works a hundred times faster than mine. As soon as he sees the question, he comes up with the reasoning process. It's hard for me to focus, "Alright, alright, stop bothering me. I know I'm not as smart as you, let me do my questions properly. The exam is in 4 days..."

  Luo is bored and plays games on his computer, then falls asleep on his laptop. I really don't know what to do with this guy, every day he's either being naughty or eating and sleeping, not a bit of effort in studying, yet somehow he's better than me.

  On one hand, he couldn't help but look at the case files again, on the other hand, he cursed himself for failing this time.

  After finishing the last question, it was already 8 o'clock in the evening. I and Chenyan 'Lu' decided to go out for a walk, so we had spicy hot pot at a roadside stall next to the university.

  "When taking an exam, you think of yourself as a detective." Yan said, swallowing a mouthful of fish balls.

  "It's not that easy, you know I'm a realist. I know the gap between us..." I said dejectedly.

  "Are you stupid? I even suspect that your score of over 600 in the college entrance examination was cheated."

  Even if I'm not stupid, he says I am, "Yes, yes, yes, I'll try to think of myself as a famous detective!"

  "That's right." He got a satisfactory answer, and he looked like a kid who had gotten candy. He ate with relish, his mouth making smacking sounds, and a gust of cold wind blew him and me into a shiver.

  The sky had already entered the deep night, and we sneaked back to the campus. On the empty playground, the moon was hanging high in the sky, with not a single star around.

  "You say, will there be ghosts on a night like this?" Ming Yan 'Lu' suddenly said in a hushed tone.

  My thoughts were pulled back, and I was stunned for a while, unable to react. For realists, there is nothing that cannot be explained by science; anything unscientific is impossible to truly exist.

  Ghosts, I really haven't thought about it. From ancient times to the present, how many stories have evolved from ghosts. More or less, I understand that the stories I hold are all scientifically proven to be real.

  In the end, I forced myself to say: "Of course I don't believe it." This was a cruel question for a realist, and I didn't dare think about it any more.

  "Oh." He responded woodenly. His eyes stared straight ahead at the not-too-distant, empty playground. "You said you didn't believe it, huh? What is that?"

  I stopped in my tracks and looked towards where his eyes were fixed, muttering to myself, "Ghost?" What's on the playground?

  The distance was too close, and I suddenly saw the anomaly on the opposite 'exercise' field. Those were two clusters of unknown objects that were on fire! There was nothing else, we are now standing next to a large tree, the 'exercise' field is arranged like this:

  The surroundings are overgrown with weeds, and the plastic track is worn out due to the age of the school. The football field in the middle is also covered with thick weeds. Many times when I went in, the weeds were so tall they could submerge my shoes. Those two balls of ghost fire were right on top of the tallest weeds!

  I was so scared that I didn't know how to react. Suddenly, the lights in both the girls' and boys' dormitories went out from a very far distance.

  Our hearts have reached the eyes of the fat boy.

  I turned around to take a look at Chen Yan's expression and reaction, but he was nowhere to be seen. Damn it, could I have fallen behind myself and run away!?

  Looking around, it seems that even the slightest movement can make me nervous. Where did you go, Lu? Just then, a strong gust of wind blew by, and the dormitory building suddenly erupted in noise. The distance was too far for me to hear clearly, but mixed with various girls' screams, the sound came over to me.

  "Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh——" The night was pitch black, the bright moonlight covered by thick dark clouds. I tried to move my legs, but they wouldn't budge as if they were not listening to me. The cold wind blew in waves, making my nose tip turn red.

  After a while, the fireball was still in place. Gradually I let myself relax as much as possible and tried to explain this phenomenon scientifically. Suddenly, someone behind me breathed softly, and my waist was roughly hugged from behind.

  "Who!" I really admired myself for being able to ask calmly at this time.

  "Shh." Yan's expression was invisible in the darkness, "Let's sneak over and take a look." He said with unusual calmness.

  "I asked incredulously: 'Where did you go just now?!'"

  "I went to take a look at the main switchboard and it didn't trip." He paused for a moment, then continued: "Don't you think that's abnormal?"

  I shook my head, "It should be on fire."

  He shook his head helplessly and whispered behind the tree, "Are you really stupid or just pretending to be?"

  We were quiet, not even daring to breathe. Like soldiers, as we approached the '操' field, our hearts felt like they were going to jump out! Chen Yan's eyes seemed exceptionally excited, and from his gaze, you could see a shadow of "the boring university life is finally coming to an end!"

  I shook my head helplessly, thinking that I still wanted to graduate safely. If it were Liu Ke, if his parents agreed, he might continue to pursue a master's degree...

  "Hey, what are you guys doing?"

  A strange sound broke the tense and excited mood between us, and when I turned around, I saw Liu Ke's face hiding in the darkness gradually lit up by the moonlight coming out of the dark clouds.

  Morning exercise 'Lu' gets up and sweeps away the dust on her legs, saying: "It's been a few days since we last met, your tone is still so cold."

  I forced a smile, isn't this pushing the answer to my question? He's not answering what I asked, and I couldn't follow suit. Before I could even speak, Liu Ke suddenly grabbed both of our arms. With an extremely serious tone, he said: "Don't linger! Let's go quickly!"

  I was a bit at a loss, but Yan 'Lu' retorted in an uncooperative tone: "What's wrong with you!"

  "Listen to me, hurry up and leave. It's very danger—"

  The words had not been spoken yet, and right in front of his eyes, in the center of the playground, the ghost fire went out!

  Suddenly our vision in front of us darkened a lot, and we couldn't see anything more than a meter away. Immediately after that, the ground shook violently; Chen Yun 'Lu' reacted quickly and pressed down on my and Liu Ke's heads to crawl on the ground. I was knocked unconscious for a moment, and my mouth was bleeding with a broken lip.

  "Bang!"

  A deafeningly loud sound shook the sky and earth, followed by which we smelled a bloody stench...