Guai Dao Hu Zong Ren

  Because it was after class, there were not many people around, and it seemed very quiet. It was precisely because of this quietness, combined with the echo in the classroom, that this sigh, although soft, was extremely clear. Director Wang was so frightened that he retreated several steps towards the back, his buttocks leaning against the desk of the first row, his hands stretched out to support the table behind him, and his eyes stared at the small door in surprise.

  I glanced at Director Wang and said, "Director, don't be afraid, I've got the rope tied up tight, it can't get out." Hu Zongren didn't say a word, but seemed to be thinking about something. After a moment's thought, he looked at me and said, "How about you call your wife tonight and tell her you won't be coming home for dinner? We'll take care of this matter tonight?" I nodded in agreement. Hu Zongren turned to Director Wang and said, "Director, we'll probably need to trouble you for a bit more time tonight. Do you have any appointments tonight?" Director Wang hastily waved his hand and said, "No, let's just get it over with tonight. If this school really has such things, how can we go on like this?"

  It seems he has completely believed now.

  Hu Zongren said to me, "Brother, trouble you to tie the rope knot tightly, don't wait until the students come back and mess it up again, it's not easy to deal with." I said, "I'm afraid I can't do that, this rope is useful for ghosts, but after all, it's just a rope. If the students see it, they'll break it with one pull." Hu Zongren thought for a moment and said, "Okay, let's stay in the classroom and guard it well." Director Wang interrupted, "You two are in the classroom, won't the students be discussing it later?" Hu Zongren said, "It doesn't matter, I believe the students can still provide us with some specific information about what happened that day." After finishing speaking, Hu Zongren said to me again, "Just now when I was asking for the soul, I found that this little guy didn't have a desire to harm people, it wasn't unwilling to leave, but couldn't leave. As for why it can't leave, I don't know yet, so we still need to investigate."

  I nodded, and Hu Zongren also started to dig deeper, which made me very happy. At least he won't easily raise the thunder symbol in his hand and strike down at my head now. You see, both I and his right hand have broken fingers and are keeping the Thunder Symbol that Qiang gave us back then.

  So I took out the nail and fixed the rope, then took advantage of the students who hadn't returned to the classroom yet, and had Director Wang take us to the school cafeteria to eat something casual. After finishing eating and returning to the classroom, some students had already started coming back for evening self-study, aged 16 or 17, with a youthful glow on their faces, and some female classmates were quite pretty. However, compared to many ordinary high school girls, vocational high school girls have an extra layer of maturity and worldly feel. From Hu Zongren's drooling expression, it's not hard to see that there's his dish here.

  Those students looked at Director Wang bringing two strange handsome guys into the classroom, all with a somewhat surprised expression. Director Wang walked up to the podium and said to the classmates, "These two are invited by the school to help Teacher Ma resume classes. Later they will ask you some questions, please cooperate and answer them. Because Teacher Ma's mental state is not very good, don't you all hope that Teacher Ma can return to the classroom soon, back among you?"

  "Right!"

  This kind of strong and brainless dialogue between teachers and students has happened to me countless times in my early years. Sometimes when I answered "yes", "right", "think" or "good", I didn't even understand what the teacher was saying, just randomly responding along with the teacher's question. Director Wang continued to say to his classmates, okay, then you all review by yourselves tonight.

  After finishing speaking, he leaned over to me and whispered that he would go tell the teacher who was in charge of this class tonight to adjust the lesson. Then he quickly ran out of the classroom.

  I wasn't very good at blending in with the students, it made me feel uncomfortable all over. I always felt that their way of life was too different from mine, and I stood out like a sore thumb among these young and vibrant students. Soon, most of the students returned to the classroom, some whispering to each other, others reading comic books, and some were diligently reviewing their notes. In the front row, there was a bespectacled thin boy who seemed to be chewing gum, twirling his pen while occasionally glancing at me and Hu Zongren. Apparently, Hu Zongren also noticed this and gave me a signal, so I followed him to walk up to that boy.

  Hu Zongren said to him, "Classmate, you're sitting so close, can you tell me what happened when your teacher, Ma, fainted during the exam?" The boy replied, "That day, I finished my test very early and was reviewing it. I saw the whole process of Ma fainting." Hu Zongren said, "Then please tell us in detail."

  The boy said that at the time, everyone was still doing the test paper, and the classroom was quiet. Teacher Ma was sitting on the podium, correcting homework while proctoring the students. However, when the exam was about to end, a rustling sound suddenly came from somewhere in the classroom, the sound wasn't loud, but everyone could hear it. Teacher Ma reminded them on the podium, "Everyone should focus on their test and not look around."

  The male classmate continued to chew gum, twirling his pen, and then said that after a short while, the sound appeared again. Many classmates raised their heads to see where the sound came from. Teacher Ma stood up and started walking back and forth in the classroom, thinking about whether any students were cheating on the exam or not. But when Teacher Ma walked over to my position, the sound appeared again.

  I subconsciously turned my head to glance at the small storage room door behind the classroom, which was only about four or five steps away from where the boy was sitting. The male classmate continued speaking, and then Teacher Ma became aware that the sound was coming from behind the classroom door. The male classmate said that this wasn't the first time; inside the small door were stored mops and brooms, and during snack time, students would often throw their trash into the dustpan inside. In the past, some classmates had even found wild cats or mice that had crawled in to look for food, so when Teacher Ma realized where the sound was coming from, he jokingly said, "Has another mouse snuck in?"

  He continued, many classmates heard the teacher's words and looked at Mr. Ma, some students thought Mr. Ma was joking and laughed. Then Mr. Ma walked to the front, opened the door, called out, and fainted after a few seconds of stunned silence. After saying this sentence, the male classmate didn't continue speaking, but stared at me and Hu Zongren through his glasses, still chewing with his mouth.

  Hu Zongren asked somewhat helplessly, "Is that it? Didn't you see what was inside the door?" The male classmate laughed and said, "What else could it be? Just brooms and mops." It's like this, normally Teacher Ma is quite humorous, occasionally during lessons he would joke with us. When he opened the door and called out at that time, we all thought he was just playing a prank on us to liven up the classroom atmosphere.

  Hu Zongren interrupted him, saying, "You guys are still students, who's going to liven up the atmosphere during exams? And can you please stop chewing gum? The smell of it is just like your breath." I couldn't help but burst out laughing. The male classmate saw Hu Zongren's impatient expression and thought that if he didn't spit it out, Hu Zongren might eat him alive, so he spat it out and wrapped it in paper. He continued to turn his pen while talking to Hu Zongren, "At the time, no one thought much of it, until Teacher Ma fell straight back, then everyone realized it wasn't a joke." I was sitting closer, so I went up to help Teacher Ma, while other classmates went to report to the teacher. At the time, I saw that Teacher Ma's hands and feet were stretched out stiffly, his eyes weren't closed, but he was rolling his eyes white, so I helped press his people's pulse, but it didn't work. Later, it was the school doctor who took Teacher Ma away.

  Hu Zongren asked, what about before that? Has anything else happened in this small door? The male student said, nothing before, oh right, a female student once found a big spider inside, does that count? Hu Zongren ignored him and asked the male student, after Ma teacher fainted, what did the classmates say? The male student said, yes, everyone discussed it, and finally someone said they heard from another teacher that Ma teacher saw a ghost at that time.

  Hú Zōng Rén's spirit lifted as he asked, "What did that classmate say?" The male classmate said, "There's a rumor that in our school several years ago, among the senior students, there was a female student who had a romantic relationship. One night, when no one was around, she brought her boyfriend back to the classroom. As a result, right here in this very classroom, she was ** by him and his friends. Later, unable to cope, she took her own life."

  The boy classmate said while twirling his pen, I heard that the teacher who spread this rumor also said that he had seen the ghost of that girl with his own eyes. At midnight, she was wandering around in the classroom and crying on her desk, as if that desk was where she was raped. The boy classmate said, this rumor is currently the most widely known, and in fact many classmates have also asked about it. It's true that our school has had a student die before, and it was indeed a girl.

  Hu Zongren asked him, "If that's the case, aren't you guys afraid to go to school?" The male classmate said, "Of course we're afraid, but it was only during the first few days when it started. Later on, it just became a story to listen to. The principal and the head of the teaching department also came to our class many times to tell us not to spread rumors, saying that Teacher Ma fainted due to exhaustion and excessive mental stress. We thought it wasn't likely to be true about the haunting, anyway nothing happened, everyone still had to attend classes here, gradually everyone just treated it as a story. As for what really happened, only when Teacher Ma recovers can he explain clearly."

  Hu Zongren stopped asking questions and leaned in close to my ear, whispering that it seemed like we had to go visit Ma teacher tonight. I asked Hu Zongren if he would tell us the truth since we were going so suddenly. Hu Zongren said of course he would, thinking that since he himself requested a thorough investigation into this matter, he would definitely be willing to tell us once we revealed our identities. I nodded in agreement, and Hu Zongren said we would go after the students finished class.

  Over the next few dozen minutes, Hu Zongren and I asked several other classmates separately, and their accounts were mostly similar to that of the previous male classmate. We figured we wouldn't be able to get anything new out of them, and what we had found out so far was already more detailed than what Director Wang had told us. At least we could gradually make sense of things now.

  When the class was about to end, Hu Zongren walked up to that male student and said, "Classmate, don't tell others about our conversation today for now. I think your teacher Ma has encountered some trouble this time." The student nodded vigorously and asked Hu Zongren, "Uncle, what do you guys actually do?" Hu Zongren seriously told the student, "Call me Red Scarf!" As I was rolling my eyes, Hu Zongren said again, "Also, classmate, can you please stop twirling your pen in front of me? Are you a pen fairy?"

  I kicked him and was just about to tell him off for scaring our classmates when the bell rang, signaling the end of class.