Guai Dao Hu Zong Ren

  One day in April 2010 at noon, Hu Zongren suddenly called me and asked some very strange questions.

  He asked me, can I still recall when I was in high school? I said yes, although it's been a long time, but that period of my life is basically still one of my happier years. He then asked me, do you think university girls and high school girls, which type do you like more?

  I thought to myself, this kid is probably using BT at home again and doesn't know what kind of movie he's watched that made him come here looking for resonance. Just as I was about to remind him to be a man with some integrity and share his seeds, he beat me to it and said he prefers high school girls, pure, bold! When he said the two words "bold", my mind was filled with his lewd expression. So I told him that college girls are also very youthful, have vitality, and are knowledgeable. High school students are too young, their worldview is not yet formed, of course, their worldview is probably different from ours. Then I paused for a moment and said to him, didn't your family's Feng Yunni go play mahjong again? You kid has gotten bolder, dare to discuss this with me, hurry up and send the seeds!

  He was stunned for a moment, and then asked me, "What kind of seed?" I said, "BT seed!" He asked, "What's BT seed?" I said, "That time I taught you how to download movies with BT at night!" He said, "Oh, that. You misunderstood, I wasn't talking about that."

  So there's no way around it, this guy still can't use QQ even now.

  He continued, saying that he had received a commission from the principal of a high school and wanted me to go with him, but was afraid I wouldn't agree, so he asked if I liked high school girls first. He thought he could entice me by saying this, haha. After finishing speaking, he laughed lewdly as usual. I said that I wasn't as perverted as him, what had happened that made him want to give me money in a hurry? He said that roughly, it was about a teacher who fainted while proctoring an exam after seeing something strange, and the students quickly went to find another teacher for help and sent him to the infirmary. When this teacher woke up, he spoke nonsense and then said he wanted to resign because he was a respected old teacher at the school. The school finally calmed down his emotions and persuaded him not to resign, but when they asked what had happened, they learned from the teacher that he fainted because he saw a ghost.

  After hearing this, I responded to Hu Zongren with a sentence "Oh." Hu Zongren might be a bit unhappy, so he asked me if I could be more sincere. I ignored him and then asked him what's next. He said that for now, he only knows this much, the other party is a school, they are afraid of spreading such things out, so they don't want to talk about it in detail on the phone. I asked him where the school is located, is it a new school or an old school? He said the school seems to be an old one, but maybe it has been renovated in recent years, perhaps some place has touched the Feng Shui, making it a haunted location. He also told me that this school is near Wulichang in Jiangbei.

  Jiangbei Wulidian? Shouldn't that be my turf? You know, I'm known as the Little Trumpet of Jiangbei and the Car God of Wulidian! I've been hanging out in this area since I was a kid, and after returning to Chongqing from Yunnan, I've spent most of my time here. I'm extremely familiar with this neighborhood - back when I had a middle parting as a young punk, every student in the nearby schools had been beaten up by me! So, I suddenly became interested and said no problem, it's my turf, let's go together. He said okay, I'll give you a call when I head out this afternoon!

  That afternoon, after meeting with Hu Zongren, he took me directly to that school. This school is considered one of the older schools in our area, with a history of over 50 years. However, by the time I attended school, it may have been due to insufficient teacher resources, and later transformed into a vocational high school. What's more, majors like automotive repair, electronics, and CNC gradually became the school's signature programs. Even my parents' factory, which was converted from military to civilian use before they retired, had many graduates from this school. Overall, the school's specialties are quite strong. My alma mater is not far from this school, which also destined that some of the kids around my age at this school were bullied by me in their early years.

  There was a security guard at the school gate, and maybe it was because Hu Zongren and I didn't look like good people at first glance that he refused to let us in no matter what. While I was bragging about my past with Hu Zongren, he had already called the school principal on the phone. Then the principal called the security room and let us in. When Hu Zongren took me towards their administration building, a man wearing a suit, about 1.7 meters tall, and slightly fat came out of the building from afar and waved at us.

  Just look at this man's appearance, you can tell he is a leader!

  The man walked up to us, extended his hand and shook hands with us, then led us into the office while introducing himself. He said his surname was Wang and he was the Dean of Academic Affairs of this school, so Hu Zongren and I addressed him as Director Wang. In my understanding at that time, the difference between the Dean of Academic Affairs and the Principal was like the difference between the President and the Prime Minister. One is in charge of external affairs, and the other is in charge of internal affairs. That is to say, this Dean of Academic Affairs almost took care of all the big and small things inside the school, not only students' studies but also teacher resource allocation, student assessment results summary and so on.

  Director Wang led us into his office and closed the door, serving a cup of tea to both me and Hu Zongren.

  I took a closer look at this office, it's quite impressive. The room is square in shape, but the work area is located on one side of the innermost part, near the door where we are currently sitting. There is a corner sofa and a tea machine nearby. The teacup handed over to me is made of Qinghua porcelain, which shows that Director Wang is a person with taste and style in his daily life, at least he has a certain level of sophistication. On his office desk, there is a computer, some paper documents stacked up, behind it is a large leather chair, next to it is a crimson bookcase, and on the side of the bookcase stands a national flag. Through the window, you can still see some students exercising on the playground.

  After drinking a mouthful of tea, Hu Zongren introduced me to Director Wang, saying that this is my companion, we came together, and things can be done faster. Director Wang looked at me with an expression of disdain in his eyes, but pretended to show a look of admiration for young people with prospects. In fact, we were already used to it, if he didn't do so, I would find it strange. Director Wang rubbed his hands together and told us the detailed process of the matter.

  He said that about two weeks ago, the school organized a vocational skills assessment test for students according to the requirements of the Municipal Education Commission. In addition to professional projects such as computer operation, there was also a written test content. The main subjects such as English, Chinese and mathematics were basically placed in the evening because the daytime was mainly used for operation examination. Moreover, since it was directly prepared by the vocational training center, and the cultural score was only one of the theoretical assessment standards, the school's evening self-study was also empty, so the unified exam was held at night.

  Principal Wang said that although he knew some students would cheat, the school still assigned a proctor to each class. The teacher who had an accident was the proctor. Principal Wang said that this teacher is one of our school's old teachers, usually strict, not very old but with strong professional skills, and was one of the earliest batch of teachers in the school's vocational reform, over 50 years old, surnamed Ma. During the two-hour exam, at around one and a half hours, he heard a noise in the classroom, got up to look behind the door, opened the storage room door, and then fainted.

  Hu Zongren asked Director Wang, what did Teacher Ma see at that time. Director Wang continued to rub his hands and said, at the time some students ran out of the classroom to report this matter to us, so we quickly sent someone to take Teacher Ma to the infirmary. After he woke up, he was still in a state of shock, kept saying there was a female ghost in the storage room, and fainted several times in a row. When he woke up again, his spirit was slightly calmer. Director Wang raised an eyebrow and said, actually it wasn't calmness, but rather that people were scared soft. The next day, he submitted his resignation to the school, saying he would not continue teaching anymore.

  Director Wang continued, "Teacher Ma is a signboard of our school. When we recruit students from outside, we will make the teacher's strength a special propaganda point. Teacher Ma can be considered as the leader of our school's teaching team. If he leaves, other teachers in the school will definitely feel that there is no one to lead them, and it will be difficult for us to recruit students again."

  Hu Zongren looked at me and nodded, indicating that he still agreed with Director Wang's concerns. Director Wang continued to say that later the school went through several rounds of communication with Teacher Ma, using almost every tactic, including a raise, promotion, and improved retirement benefits, even the former principal came to plead on their behalf, just barely getting Teacher Ma to agree to stay, but he insisted strongly that he would no longer teach that class, and from now on, the classes for that grade level must be taught by another teacher.

  Hu Zongren interrupted Director Wang, saying that in fact, although Teacher Ma stayed behind, he still had a shadow in his heart. This shadow has nothing to do with the school or class, but rather with the classroom where he was invigilating that evening, right?

  Director Wang sighed and said, "Isn't it just like that? Teacher Ma was persuaded to stay behind with great difficulty, and he demanded that the school administration take action and find someone to investigate what kind of unclean thing had happened here. I didn't have a choice but to invite you two over, at least to put on a show for Teacher Ma's sake. But how can we investigate this baseless claim? Can we just believe there's a ghost because Teacher Ma said so? On that day, no one else saw anything except Teacher Ma. I think it's probably because Teacher Ma has been working too hard recently, with great mental pressure and fatigue, which led to hallucinations. You two can take a look around later and give me an explanation, so I can deal with Teacher Ma."

  I couldn't help but feel a bit impatient, so I put down my teacup and asked Director Wang, "Excuse me, what exactly do you mean by that?" Director Wang smiled and didn't respond, picking up his own teacup to take a sip. Hu Zongren took over from me, saying, "According to your meaning, Director, are we supposed to pretend to be something we're not in order to deceive Teacher Ma? Are you yourself actually doubting Teacher Ma's words and asking us to put on an act?"

  Director Wang seemed to hear that Hu Zongren's tone was somewhat excited, and I really worried about him. Because this madman Hu Zongren could easily knock him to the ground with his brute force at any minute. Director Wang said with a smile, "We are a place of scientific learning, how can we believe in such ghostly talk? The school invited you two here, also to let Teacher Ma continue teaching with peace of mind from now on. To put it bluntly, throw out some money and let you two earn it, quietly and without making any noise, isn't that pretty good?"

  I stood up and kicked Hu Zongren, saying that we had nothing to do with each other, let's go, wasting time here, still doing business, you're just a fool!

  Hu Zongren not only didn't stand up, but instead lifted his second leg and leaned back against the sofa, sneering as he said, "Director Wang, double pay, we'll do this thing properly for you, let you see what it's all about."