Chapter 3 The Extra Black Jar

  Jiang Pangzi made a tentative proposal to go take a look in that building, I thought for a moment and was about to nod, when the madman who had just been arguing with that little girl suddenly said: "No rush, let's go back and chat some more, integrate the information. Otherwise, we might come up with something else once we're inside!"

  I knew that Crazy had a cautious personality, nodded and said: "Right, let's eat something first, Ginger, you tell me everything that happened these days, don't miss a single thing."

  Jiang Pangzi nodded repeatedly, and our group returned to the farmhouse. Pangzi booked a room, but I later found out that this room was actually booked by Huo Niu Miao. I said, how can Jiang Pangzi be so generous? It turned out to be a case of borrowing flowers to offer to Buddha.

  Not only that, Huo Weiwei had already ordered a table of dishes at the farmhouse restaurant, and I couldn't help but admire her. Although Huo Weiwei is usually spoiled and arrogant, she is indeed from a wealthy family, and the arrangements are quite generous and proper.

  While having dinner, I and Crazy asked Jiang Paozi what was going on, why the school had also found a Taoist priest?

  Jiang Pangzi then told us, "That's what happened. Last time, one of them went crazy and he mentioned it to me. It wasn't a big deal that the student went crazy, but after an exam, the teacher was grading papers at school until very late, and said they saw a ghost that night."

  The next day, the teacher fell ill and did not get up. The principal went to comfort him, and he said that the school was haunted by a ghost.

  The principal sealed off the news, and no one knew what was going on. But the school was abuzz with rumors, and just when they thought they had suppressed the incident, another student died in school the next day. The police identified it as a death from fright.

  This time the one who died was a girl. This girl had a bad reputation in school, it's said that she had been with several boys and her ways were quite wild, also liked to hang out in bars and such. She had a boyfriend but still hooked up with an older student from another department, sneaking out at night without telling her boyfriend to go on a wild adventure...

  Then the girl allegedly played for half a day with stomach pain, probably due to wind chill. She wanted to go to the toilet, so this senior accompanied the girl to the dry toilet. The girl went in for half a day and didn't come out. The senior couldn't wait any longer, so he rushed in to take a look. As soon as he entered, he found that the girl hadn't even had time to put on her pants, lying in the toilet, the dry toilet was so dirty, the senior was frightened, took a closer look, and found that the girl had already stopped breathing.

  The senior was so scared that he didn't care what others said and quickly called the police. As a result, when the police arrived, they said that the girl had been frightened to death. Cardiac arrest. When the girl died, her eyes were wide open, staring in one direction, as if she saw something terrifying from there.

  That senior said during the police interrogation that at the time, it seemed like a white shadow was floating around like a ghost. However, he only mentioned it once and later denied it when asked again. Probably got educated by the police.

  But it's not worth getting a Taoist priest to perform rituals, I heard the principal didn't believe in it at first, but later on he got scared for some reason, seemingly because he saw something unclean or encountered an unclean thing. Can't get any specifics. Nobody dares to pry anything out of the principal's mouth.

  Then the principal made a series of school rules, such as prohibiting going out of the dormitory building after 10 pm. Not allowed to go outside the school, violators will be severely punished. It is said that there have been many cases of death from tick bites, and the area outside the school is cornfields and grasslands, so they are afraid that students will be bitten by ticks.

  It's actually not that serious, and the grass ticks aren't just active at night. It's clearly a case of making a big deal out of nothing to cover something up. Then I heard that the principal had invited a Taoist priest.

  After saying all this, Fatso also winked at me, as if there was something he wanted to say to me alone.

  I also had something to ask him, so I patted him on the shoulder and said: "I'm going to the restroom."

  The madman quickly followed me, and the two of us went outside. The madman lit a cigarette and handed it to me. I thought it was quite funny. In those days, the madman also handed me cigarettes, although I didn't smoke, but still missed this feeling. So I took it and lit it up too. Not inhaling into my lungs, just playing with the smoke. I asked the madman what he thought about this matter?

  The madman frowned and said, "Something's not right. If it were just one place with rumors of ghost sightings, I could understand. This place is haunted. But so many places are haunted at the same time, is this yin spirit's ability that strong, committing crimes everywhere? Then his scope should be limited to this college. Let's listen to what Jiang Pangzi has to say, I think he said something related to that jar, maybe we can get some other clues."

  The madman and I think alike, although Jiang Paozi is unreliable, but since he said this, it proves that there are still some ideas.

  After waiting for about half a cigarette's time, Jiang Pangzi came running over in a flurry. I asked him about the jar, and he said: "Oh no, Master! I think I've gotten myself into big trouble."

  I asked him why he said that. Jiang Pangzi then said that the jar he dug up seemed a bit off. He remembered that there was a black mark on the mouth of the jar, and it wasn't clear whether it was dirty or had been burned on. At the time, he didn't think much of it.

  But later something happened, the crazy classmate left, and he only then realized that during the time his classmate was crazy, his hand had been moving all along, just like a sheep with rabies. At the time no one thought much of it, but later when he was taken to a mental hospital, classmates who were close to him went to visit him and came back saying that his hand movements followed a pattern, didn't seem like random madness, as if he was drawing something.

  The doctor at the hospital also picked up a piece of paper with the pattern he had been drawing, which looked like the character for "ghost". Jiang suddenly remembered the blurry characters on the jar and found that they were somewhat similar. He also recalled that his classmate had seen a black shadow approaching in the jar on the rooftop, and the jar he had placed on top had also gone missing. With this connection, he felt that something was off.

  But he didn't dare tell anyone about this kind of thing. He was also afraid that he would get into big trouble himself.

  The madman gave him a glance and said, "You don't have to be afraid either. Those ancient symbols all look similar at first glance. It's normal. Are you being too cautious?"

  But Jiang Paozi seemed to have something else to say but didn't dare to speak out, I told him to speak directly if he had anything to say, otherwise I wouldn't care.

  He stuttered and said: "Master, I, I went to that dry toilet again later, didn't you tell me it was the southwest corner? I, I seemed to have remembered wrong, I dug at the southeast corner. It wasn't until later when I took out the compass that I realized, you know, my sense of direction isn't very good!"

  As soon as I heard Jiang Paozi say that, my heart suddenly went "thud", and a bad premonition surged up.

  "What did you dig up then?"

  Ginger's face turned pale, on the verge of tears, and said in a choked voice: "Master, I...I dug up another jar. It's brown glazed. But it's much simpler than the first one I dug up, without so many complicated patterns, just a simple jar. I'm scared, when I opened it, it was what you said, yellow paper with my birthdate and eight characters."

  "Master, if this jar is the one that's been bringing me bad luck, then what was in that dark and gloomy one I dug up first?"

  The madman's face also turned solemn: "Younger brother, do you think that black jar he mentioned might be someone's ashes container? What did he release?"

  I took a deep breath and nodded: "It's indeed very likely, if he let out an old ghost from years ago, this matter... would also have an explanation."

  Jiang Pangzi heard me say this, and suddenly sat on the ground with a thud. His round face turned ashen, and he muttered: "It's all over, it's all over. So to speak, all these dead and crazy people in school are all my fault?"

  I saw him like that and couldn't bear it, so I quickly reached out to pull him up and scolded: "The matter has already happened, thinking of a solution is the right way, what kind of virtue do you have?"

  Ginger fatty heard me scolding, he came back to his senses, grabbed my arm and begged: "Master, please save me! These people won't come back to haunt me after they're dead, will they?"

  The madman kicked him fiercely, and Jiang Baozi stumbled forward with a cry of "Aiyo".

  The madman cursed: "Less of his mother's incompetence, doing what he should be doing, just a ghost, my two haven't even put it in their eyes."

  Jiang Pangzi's face regained some color after hearing the madman's words, and he nodded repeatedly. Just as he was about to say something, a crisp female voice suddenly said: "Hey, I thought you guys went out to pick up soap, it took so long to come back, hurry up and finish eating, let's go take a look at that haunted teaching building! What are you doing? Hiding?"

  We looked up and found it was Huo Wenwen who had come out because we hadn't returned for a long time.

  The madman said a few more sentences, and we followed Huo Wenwen inside, with the fat man following behind us with his head hung low. After drinking enough wine and eating enough food, I discussed with Huo Wenwen that it would be better for me and the madman to go to the teaching building alone, as having too many people would only cause trouble.

  Let Huo Wenwen, Liang Yuhao and Jiang Pangzi wait for us at the farmhouse.

  But Huo Weiwei refused to give in, insisting that she had never seen a ghost and had to go take a look. She even used her eyes to threaten Chubby. Jiang Chubby was about to cry, but he didn't dare offend this lady, so he could only grit his teeth and persuade me to go together.

  The madman on the side said, "Good words are hard to advise a ghost who is about to die. If they want to follow, let them follow. Young people should also see more of the world and be careful not to scold others. They have no respect for humans or ghosts, and will eventually get into trouble."

  I know the thoughts of a madman, a madman never guides people to goodness, every time it's just letting people hit the wall themselves, and naturally they will remember the blood and scars. People, advice is always useless.

  Anyway, I reckon that even if there really is a ghost, it's no big deal. The two of us should be able to protect these three people. Even if we do run into something serious, at least getting out of here shouldn't be a problem.

  I nodded in agreement. Then I prepared some things. A few people took advantage of the afternoon, and the sunshine was quite sufficient. They rushed to that old teaching building.