Chapter Ten Suspicion

  Who? Cao Sen's four-person team reacted extremely quickly, with the fake one moving to the left hand, and the right hand drawing out a handgun. Two guns were aimed at the place where the sound originated, one gun guarding the female ghost, and the other gun responding in the middle.

  An elderly man with a slight hunchback slowly walked out, glaring angrily at the four people, his hands shaking as he pointed at them, "How could you use such despicable means to deal with her?"

  "Cut the nonsense, who are you?" Cao Sen looked at the old man with vigilance.

  "She has been alone and struggling for decades, never harming anyone. Why do you use such despicable means to bully her?" the old man said angrily.

  Bully a female ghost? This world is really strange, and someone still says such things. How can we bully her? We are just defending ourselves. Cao Sen and the others were full of vigilance towards this old man who suddenly appeared, who knows what his purpose was.

  Ding Haitao slowly raised the muzzle, aiming at the old man's brow. At a distance of less than five meters, his gun, even if it fired 6mm steel balls, still had considerable killing power. As long as he hit the brow, he could completely make the old man lose his ability to resist, or even die.

  "You... are you the one who cleans the teaching building?" Cao Sen suddenly recognized the old man in front of him.

  Ding Haitao was taken aback. No wonder he looked familiar earlier - wasn't he the old janitor who swept and mopped the floors in the teaching building every day?

  Knowing the old man's identity, Cao Sen and others let out a slight breath of relief, and Ding Haitao also lowered his gun muzzle.

  "Put away that thing in your hand!" The old man commanded in an unquestionable tone.

  "Will the female ghost not attack us?" asked Guo Jing, who was in charge of keeping watch for the female ghost.

  "Please be cautious and also respect others," the old man's tone was unquestionably majestic, "She won't hurt anyone because she doesn't have a physical body, nor does she have any means to harm people."

  Cao Sen felt that the words spoken by this old man in front of him were not something an ordinary cleaner could say, from the choice of words to the tone, it was like an old professor or someone who had a certain status before. This made Cao Sen have some trust in the old man, after thinking about it for a moment, he decided to follow the old man's words and put that fake back into his pocket. Others did the same.

  "Jing Zhe, come out." The old man said to the female ghost behind the tree.

  A faint mist flowed from behind the tree where the female ghost was hiding, gradually gathering into a ball. After the mist dispersed, a beautiful woman with a classic temperament, dressed in the style of the 1920s and 1930s, appeared beside the old man. The white dress and red high heels she wore made Cao Sen feel familiar. Could this be the headless female ghost?

  "Maybe there are some misunderstandings and frictions between you, I can guarantee that Jing Zhe absolutely did not harm you, nor did he have any intention of harming those girls. From now on, I hope you will not bother Jing Zhe again, and Jing Zhe will never appear in front of you again." The old man said, glancing at the female ghost beside him.

  The female ghost of Jing Zhe nodded gently.

  Cao Sen stared at the beautiful female ghost in surprise, her expression was completely that of a gentle and elegant young lady, which was vastly different from her previous two appearances. Which one was her true self?

  Seeing the female ghost leaning on the old man wanting to leave, Cao Sen hurriedly called out to the two of them, "Please stay."

  "What else do you want to do?" the old man asked.

  "Now that we've met, let's get things clear. Where did this female ghost come from and why is she attacking us?"

  "Alright, Jing Zhe, you tell them. Make it clear and settle this matter once and for all, then go back to your peaceful life." The old man turned around and found a chair to sit down.

  The female ghost Jing Zhe hung her head and spoke softly to the four boys about her story.

  Her name was Ning Jingzhe, a young lady from a scholarly family in the 1920s. She was elegant and refined, with a beauty that shone like a heavenly fragrance. Unfortunately, her life was cut short when she died unexpectedly at the age of seventeen. After her death, her spirit lingered and took residence in the teaching building of Dongshan University, where she spent decades passing the time, until the day Yang Xiang burst into the building dressed as a bride.

  Not being able to become a happy bride had always been one of Ning Jing's biggest regrets. Yang Xiang's appearance piqued her interest, so she showed up to take a good look at the bride, but startled Cao Sen and his brothers, who fired wildly and almost scattered her soul.

  Later, she recovered and wanted to scare Cao Sen and others in Donglin, but unexpectedly Jingjing's evaluation of her clothes enraged the female ghost, and the two sides had a head-on conflict. After that, Cao Sen scolded her for being ugly, so Jingjing naturally wanted revenge and ran to the dormitory building to scare Cao Sen, but unexpectedly was scared away by Cao Sen, and then today's things happened.

  Cao Sen listened to the female ghost's narrative, and many doubts arose in his heart. He had to clarify all these doubts before he could put his mind at ease. So he asked the female ghost: "When you first appeared in the teaching building, why didn't you use your current appearance, but only showed your lower body? Why?"

  Jing Zhe was silent, his lips pursed tightly shut.

  "Alas, that's the thoughts of a girl's family," the old man replied on behalf of Jing Zhe, "with a heart to compare beauty with the new bride, and feeling inferior to her, she could only hide her upper body. Later, seeing you were afraid of her like this, she used this shape to scare people."

  Cao Sen glanced at the old man with a sideways glance, his eyes implying "how did you know?"

  "Quiet and lonely, I'm an old man living alone in the basement of a teaching building, so I naturally understand some things."

  "Alright, that explanation is acceptable. Then I'll ask you again, why did you lock the main door of the teaching building that night? Did you want to trap us inside?" Cao Sen continued to ask.

  "I didn't!" The female ghost looked up at Cao Sen in surprise.

  As she raised her head, the four Cao Sen brothers felt dizzy for a moment. This female ghost was born too beautiful.

  The old man was surprised and said, "I thought the lock on the gate was broken when you entered, but it turns out that it was cut off when you came out? Then who locked the door?"

  Cao Sen then recounted what had happened outside the teaching building that night.

  Jing Zhe shook his head and said, "You guys almost scattered my soul with your chaotic gunfire. I rested for a long time to recover, how could I have gone after you again at that time? The high-heeled shoe sound you heard later was not made by me."

  "At that time, there were a boy and a girl sleeping in the classroom on the third floor. Was it an illusion created by you?" Ding Haitao also asked.

  Jing Zhe's face turned red, "I don't have such high magical powers."

  Cao Sen felt that there were more and more suspicious points. Those things weren't done by the female ghost in front of him, so who was it? Was there another ghost in the teaching building?

  "Then who sweeps up the steel balls we shoot out?" asked Teng Fei.

  "It's me," the old man replied, "I don't want the school to notice anything unusual about the teaching building."

  "How can you collect them so cleanly without leaving a single one behind?" Teng Fei continued to ask.

  "I have some knowledge of physics and I also like to tinker with small things. For me, collecting metal-made beads is not a difficult task."

  Teng Fei thought to himself, this old man is absolutely not simple, and he will have to investigate his identity when he has time.

  "In the days before we first met," Cao Sen looked at Jing Zhe and asked, "I once felt a very heavy yin energy in the vertical well of the teaching building, was it you?"

  As soon as the female ghost Jing Zhe made eye contact with Cao Sen, she hurriedly lowered her head and asked, "Is it daytime or nighttime?"

  "Daytime."

  "I don't dare come out during the day, even if there's no sunlight, I still don't dare."

  Doubts grew more and more, the four brothers' hearts were filled with suspicion. Not to mention the questions mentioned earlier, even the female ghost in front of them now made them feel suspicious. Her current appearance was vastly different from her previous appearances, not just in looks but also in temperament, differing by a huge margin. Were these two female ghosts really the same one?

  The old man saw the suspicion of the four boys, "ghosts are people who have changed, and ghosts' thoughts are also produced on the basis of human thoughts. If a person lives alone in a large building for decades, his personality and thinking will inevitably become biased. Jing Zhe is no exception, the first two times you saw her biased side, now Jing Zhe is the real her."

  This remark seemed to make some sense, and Cao Sen temporarily acknowledged it. To be on the safe side, he asked Jing Zhe to transform into a creature without an upper body once again.

  "No... I won't change, that's too ugly." The female ghost shook her head and hid behind the old man, like a naughty child seeking protection from grandfather.

  "Don't bother her anymore, I can guarantee they are the same person, no mistake." The old man said, "If you don't have anything else to do, I think we should go to the teaching building together, we all need to figure out what happened that day."

  The four brothers naturally accepted the proposal, and the five people came to the teaching building with a ghost. The old man took out the key and opened the door. Everyone went in and thoroughly searched the teaching building, but found nothing unusual and no clues to solve the mystery.

  "Come sit at my place for a while, I have something to tell you." The old man extended an invitation.

  Teng Fei gave Cao Sen a look, meaning they should wait until daytime to go. What if this old man had some unfavorable thoughts towards them? It was already late at night and they were on someone else's property, with a female ghost assisting them - the brothers would definitely be at a disadvantage.

  Cao Sen believed the old man in front of him and agreed to his invitation after some consideration.

  Helpless, he could only follow his brothers down to the basement.

  The basement is quite spacious and divided into a warehouse and a living room. The old man is responsible for the sanitation of the teaching building during the day, and lives here at night.

  The furnishings in the house were simple, a table and a bed, plus a chair and a wardrobe. The four brothers sat on the bed, the old man leaned against the chair and sat down, panting for a while, as if the previous walk had exhausted his physical strength.

  The female ghost Jing Zhe didn't appear, don't know where she hid.

  "Can I take a look at your guns?" The old man made an unexpected request.

  Since you're here, don't be stingy, Cao Sen readily handed the gun over to the old man.

  The old man took a glance and quickly found the disassembly card, slowly disassembling the gun bit by bit, then reassembling it.

  "Have you modified this carbon dioxide-powered air gun?" The old man returned the gun to Cao Sen.

  Cao Sen nodded.

  "You young people, taking such a dangerous thing, aren't you afraid of hurting someone?"

  "Toys are just toys," Teng Fei said with a smile.

  "Toys? Hmph, young people, toy guns won't turn the walls of a five-story building into a beehive. You must have even more powerful weapons, right?" The old man shook his head, not listening to the four boys' response and continued to say, "These things can kill people, sigh, nowadays young people. Which department are you from?"

  "Mechanical Department."

  The old man nodded, learned with purpose, and the gun was remodeled very reasonably.

  "Has the school investigated the holes on the fifth floor wall, sir?" Cao Sen had always wanted to know if the school authorities suspected anything about the numerous holes on the wall.

  "The person from the General Affairs Department asked me," said the old man.

  "What did you say?"

  "I told them that the teaching building has a history of nearly a hundred years, it's old, just like people getting old, there will always be some strange problems, not caused by human factors."

  Cao Sen suddenly realized, no wonder nobody investigated this matter, it turned out that the old man had covered it up. He thought of another question, "Grandfather, please don't mind me asking, classmates said your hearing loss is quite severe, now it seems to be a rumor?"

  "Since you know it's a rumor, why ask?"

  "So did you hear anything on the night we met the female ghost?"

  "As soon as I fall asleep, I won't hear anything, and all things are told to me by Jing Zhe later." The old man sighed in his heart, these children's hearts are meticulous and quick-witted, not letting go of any doubts, they are material for great things, but unfortunately, it was misused.

  "Grandfather, you called us brothers here, isn't it just to see our hands and talk about these things?" Teng Fei's eyes were bright and sharp, paying attention to the old man's every move.

  "Yes, I have something else to say. I want to tell you that young people having the courage to take on things is not a bad thing, but you must also be careful. There are too many things in this world that you haven't come into contact with, and some of them are very dangerous." The old man said this while coughing repeatedly.

  Cao Sen hastily found a thermos and cup, poured water for the old man and placed it beside him.

  The old man didn't look at the water cup or Cao Sen, nor did he show any gratitude, as if it was something Cao Sen should have done.

  "Let's talk about this ghost, you dare to provoke the ghost, but do you know how terrifying the ghost is? You young people are lucky, you encountered Jing Zhe, if you encounter a powerful and evil ghost, you won't even know how you'll die."

  Several young men thought discontentedly, is it that serious? We brothers are well-trained and have a strong heart, why should we be afraid of those cowardly ghosts who dare not see the light of day?

  "Now that you've met Jing Zhe, I think it's fate. Perhaps you'll see more things in the future." The old man said slowly, "I'm giving you a warning, don't underestimate enemies you don't fully understand. Ghosts are not something ordinary people can mess with!"

  "Grandfather, after hearing your words, we younger ones have learned a lot." Cao Sen's tone was very sincere. "Can you please call Jing Zhe out again? I have some things I'd like to ask her about."

  The old man looked at Cao Sen without speaking, a pair of turbid eyes seemed to be able to see through people's hearts, giving Cao Sen great psychological pressure.

  Teng Fei and the other two knew that the old man was playing a psychological game, trying to weigh Cao Sen's importance. If Cao Sen couldn't withstand the pressure of the old man's gaze and showed signs of nervousness, such as fidgeting or blinking, the old man wouldn't let Jing Zhe come out, and they wouldn't be able to talk to him in the future either. So the three of them didn't make a sound, quietly waiting for the old man to speak up.

  After a long time, the old man nodded slightly, "Jing Zhe, come out."

  The four boys let out a sigh of relief at the same time.

  The female ghost Jing Zhe appeared silently behind the old man, bowing her head and saying nothing, quietly waiting for Cao Sen's question.

  Ding Haitao looked at the female ghost's soft and delicate curves, thinking to himself what a pity it was that such a beauty had become a ghost. He wondered if it was possible for a male ghost to be intimate with her, and if so, which male ghost would have such good fortune?

  "This... Miss Ning," Cao Sen considered for a moment before deciding to use the honorific, "Miss Ning, I'd like to know, what are ghosts afraid of? Please don't mind me, I'm not targeting you."

  "It's okay, I don't know much about other ghosts. There are many things that scare me, such as the long guns you use, which I'm particularly afraid of. Last time, you almost scattered me." Jing Zhe was very honest and didn't avoid his weaknesses.

  Cao Sen's impression of the female ghost was slightly improved by her honest answer, and he continued to ask: "Is it effective to use fists and feet or other things on ghosts?"

  "It should be none, human actions are too slow and we don't have a physical body."

  "Are you afraid of real guns?"

  "I've been through the flames of war, but the real bullets feel less intense than your steel ball-shooting guns. They can fire a large number of high-speed steel balls in a very short time, causing significant damage to my soul."

  "If ghosts wanted to kill a person, I mean if they did, what means would they have?"

  "Sorry, I don't have the ability to kill people, nor do I know how other ghosts kill people."

  A closed spirit, claustrophobia, Ding Haitao made a judgment for Jing Zhe.

  "Are you afraid of Buddhist and Taoist ritual objects?"

  "There's no particular feeling. Sometimes when I have nothing to do at night, I go for a walk around the nearby temple and take a look. The Buddha statues there are getting more and more beautiful, but not scary at all."

  Cao Sen knew that Jing Zhe's temple was a temple on the east side of the city, with relatively prosperous incense and several times of gold-plated Buddha statues, each time more luxurious than the last.

  Guo Jingxiang thought, this female ghost is quite interesting, running around in temples to clear her mind, and she's not even afraid of being captured by the Buddha's light.

  "So what's the difference between humans then? Are you afraid of people with strong yang energy?" Cao Sen continued to ask.

  "Hmm... I'm quite scared when you're angry, and him too," Jing Zhe pointed at Guo Jing.

  "I'm angry with you, aren't you afraid?" Ding Haitao made a scowling face.

  Jing Zhe smiled, and the room was suddenly brightened by her face, "Don't worry."

  Ding Haitao looked very disappointed, and Jing Zhe smiled again with a pursed mouth, and the room lit up once more.

  Teng Fei hummed a tune in his heart, looks like he's not afraid of me either?

  "So you know if there are other ghosts or supernatural things around here?"

  "It should be none," Jing Zhe looked at the old man, "I haven't encountered any anyway."

  "That night many of us came to the teaching building, did you notice a couple on the third floor?" Cao Sen's question was completely abrupt, he had studied how special police interrogate captives.

  Jing Zhe shook his head and said with some embarrassment, "That day I only looked at the bride, she was really beautiful."

  "Was it you who made the sound of high heels on all three flights of stairs when I went downstairs at that time?"

  "I'm sorry, it's me. I didn't want you to leave. The teaching building has never been so lively at night, so... I thought..., really sorry, I didn't think about scaring those girls at the time. After all, I've been dead for decades and have forgotten human emotions." Jing Zhe's head hung even lower, revealing a slender and pale neck that reflected a delicate glow in the light.

  A beautiful and harmless female ghost, with a soft voice, told the sad story, normal men would sympathize, but Cao Sen and his friends seemed not to be normal men, at least Cao Sen was not normal, he wanted to continue asking questions, the old man who had been silent all along spoke up.

  "It's late, you all should go back and rest. Jing Zhe, see off the guests."

  "Yes, Grandfather. The four young masters... Ah... No, I mean the four classmates, please." Jing Zhe made a gesture of sending off guests.

  Cao Sen was the first to get up and respectfully said to the old man: "Grandfather, we will come back another day to visit."

  The old man responded with an ambiguous "uh-huh".

  As they were about to leave the teaching building, the female ghost Jing Zhe asked an unexpected question: "Excuse me... is my attire... and I myself really that ugly?"

  Cao Sen looked at the female ghost seriously: "Miss Ning, I have never seen a more beautiful woman than you. As for clothes, I don't understand."

  "Thank you." The female ghost's pale face flushed with a hint of shyness, quickly disappearing into the darkness.

  Ding Haitao and Tengfei looked at Cao Sen in surprise, is this Cao Sen? He had never heard him praise any female in front of her before, what's going on tonight? Does Brother Sen have a special liking for beautiful female ghosts?

  "Come on, let's go!" Guo Jing urged impatiently.