Chapter 1: Is it a ghost?

  No one, no one at all! Cao Sen flew quickly out of the women's restroom and took a quick glance around, taking a few swift steps down the corridor before slowing his pace, pretending to be nonchalant. He glanced around casually, relieved that no one had seen him emerge from the women's restroom.

  A man entered the women's restroom without anyone noticing, but what's more important is why he entered the women's restroom? Cao Sen can be 100% certain that he absolutely did not do it on purpose and it was impossible for him to have walked through the wrong door. The men's and women's restrooms in this building were located at opposite ends of the corridor, and when Cao Sen turned from the stairs onto the corridor, he clearly remembered walking towards the east end where the men's restroom was located. His sense of direction was very good, and he wouldn't get confused about this issue. So how could he explain his own behavior?

  Cao Sen thought of the stairs, that staircase which never saw sunlight all year round, dark and cold. And there were rumors about the staircase being haunted. Was what he experienced just now the legendary "ghost hitting the wall"? Cao Sen had reason to suspect this, because before entering the women's toilet by mistake, he indeed encountered something unusual, or it would be more accurate to describe it as eerie and ominous.

  Here is the translation:

  It was like this, today in the afternoon was the day of graduation defense for the mold specialty students of Dongshan University class 01. After Cao Sen finished his defense, he hid in the stairwell on the fifth floor to satisfy his craving for a smoke. Having gone through more than an hour of intense defense, Cao Sen's first puff of smoke tasted especially sweet and refreshing, and the big sweat he had broken out in during the defense had also subsided quite a bit.

  Whoosh! A cool breeze blew past Cao Sen's side, the sweat that hadn't dried on his body made him feel a bit chilly, and he got goosebumps all over, feeling comfortable!

  But... the wind blows by, and the smoke on the cigarette is still straight up, without a single bend. What's going on? Cao Sen stared at the cigarette butt, pondering what kind of evil wind this was - could it be the legendary yin wind?

  Cao Sen has always been very brave and never believed in ghosts or gods. Even if they existed, he wouldn't care. Cao Sen had always thought that humans were the most spirited of all things, and men were even more so, with a strong yang energy that made it difficult for ghosts to invade. He wouldn't be afraid even if a fierce ghost appeared, let alone a gust of yin wind.

  Cao Sen once again brought the cigarette to his mouth, sucking in a mouthful with a hint of resentment, only to find it was filled with the taste of blood. It was as if he had sucked in not smoke, but a mouthful of cold blood. The sweet, greasy, and fishy flavor quickly spread through his trachea, filling his entire chest cavity, causing nausea to rise up from his stomach. Cao Sen hastily pinched the cigarette between his fingers, spitting out several mouthfuls of saliva, and carefully examined the cigarette in front of his eyes. It looked very normal, a very ordinary cigarette - how did it end up tasting like this? Was it related to the eerie wind from earlier?

  The young man's temperament made Cao Sen unwilling to suffer this loss, and he cursed in his heart: Go to your mother, if there really is a ghost, you'll show your face to your brother!

  Nothing responded to Cao Sen's curse, the surroundings were gloomy and silent, without a single breeze. Cao Sen let out a breath of relief, threw away the cigarette in his hand, lit another one, and as the blue smoke rose, a familiar tobacco fragrance drilled into his lungs. It was an illusion, it must have been an illusion, where did the ghost come from on such a sunny day? If you really are here, then blow a gust of wind to extinguish this cigarette of mine!

  As Cao Sen's thoughts wandered, a gust of cold wind suddenly rose from the depths of the stairwell and hit him head-on, sending a chill down to his bones. He shivered and looked again at the smoke, only to find that it had gone out!

  If it were someone timid, they might have been scared away by the strange atmosphere, but Cao Sen was not afraid of these things, and he leaned out from the handrail of the stairs to look at the vertical well in the middle of the stairs.

  The vertical well was as usual, dark and quiet, the spiral staircase extended to the first floor, without a single sound.

  What's going on? Cao Sen looked at the familiar staircase that couldn't be more familiar, what just happened? He reached back and touched his waist, the thing was still on him, Cao Sen felt even bolder, stepping down the stairs one step at a time, wanting to go downstairs and see what's going on.

  There was only a faint sound of Cao Sen's footsteps in the stairwell, from the fifth floor to the second floor. Everything seemed normal, with no eerie wind or any other movement. Cao Sen let out a sigh of relief and mocked himself for being so jumpy earlier. However, his attention was focused on the vertical well of the stairwell, and he didn't notice that there was no one else on this staircase except him, which was very unusual.

  Cao Sen hesitated about whether he needed to go down to the first floor, and in that brief moment, a chill suddenly swept across his face, accompanied by faint, mournful wails, like a net swooping down on him.

  Cao Sen's hair stood on end, his scalp tightened, and he suddenly crouched down. His right hand touched the back of his waist, and a semi-automatic pistol appeared in his hand. The slide was racked with a soft "click", loading a round into the chamber. A series of swift movements followed without any pause, and in the blink of an eye, the muzzle was pointing at the sky.

  A dark wind howled over Cao Sen's head and disappeared into the wall.

  Damn, what's going on? Did I really encounter a ghost? Cao Sen's forehead was sweating coldly, and when the cold wind passed by, he clearly heard the sound of crying and wailing. The cry contained anger, despair, resentment, and hatred, with an extremely mournful tone. Even in broad daylight, hearing this voice would make one's heart feel chilled, let alone in this dimly lit stairwell? Cao Sen, who was normally brave, felt a bit tense at this moment.

  He half-squatted against the wall, slowly retreating to the corner of the wall, carefully searching around, but the staircase returned to its usual calmness, and no abnormal situation was found again. Soon, footsteps came from the first floor, and several students walked up the stairs laughing and talking.

  Cao Sen hastily put away the gun and pretended to go upstairs. After a few students turned into the corridor, he repeatedly walked up and down the stairs several times, but didn't find anything unusual again. Everything from a moment ago was like a daydream, leaving Cao Sen puzzled and unable to figure it out.

  Cao Sen returned to the fifth floor with a stomach full of doubts. Perhaps due to tension, or perhaps due to his stomach's doubts, he felt an urgent need to use the restroom. The fifth-floor bathroom had long been out of order, so Cao Sen turned back to the fourth floor to solve his problem, which led to him mistakenly entering the women's restroom.

  Entering the women's restroom can be a momentary confusion, the crying sound heard can be misheard, the bloody smell while smoking can be an illusion, the lit cigarette can be blown out by the wind, and the eerie wind can be just a cold wind with heavier chill. All the strange things Cao Sen encountered earlier can be explained away, and cannot be entirely attributed to "ghosts". Therefore, Cao Sen also didn't have the guts to say it was a ghost encounter. Deep down, Cao Sen actually hoped to encounter a ghost, to see what the legendary ghost really looked like, whether it was truly disheveled with a tongue over a foot long, and a pair of eerie and terrifying eyes.

  In the end, Cao Sen decided to ignore these inexplicable things for the time being and talk about it at night. If there really were ghosts, didn't they like to appear at night? Well, Cao Sen would investigate the building at night and have a thorough and meticulous "exchange" with the ghost.

  Having found the men's toilet and solved his problem, Cao Sen returned to the fifth floor from another staircase. As he went upstairs, he suddenly felt a little regretful. Since he had already entered the women's toilet earlier, why didn't he just take advantage of it and relieve himself inside? From childhood to adulthood, he had never had such an experience, which was also a brand new experience for him.

  There were not a few of Cao Sen's classmates standing in the corridor on the fifth floor, surrounding someone and laughing loudly. The person was called Guo Jing, who was short and stout, with a red face and thick neck, complaining: "Damn it, I'm so unlucky!"

  Cao Sen thought, what's wrong, did something go wrong with the debate?

  "Brother Sen," said a classmate named Teng Fei with a smile as he saw Cao Sen approaching, "the trick you taught us has gotten Jing Ge into big trouble."

  "What's wrong?" Cao Sen asked strangely. No way, that ultimate move was the debate team's sure-win technique, how could it harm Guo Jing?

  This morning, Cao Sen was the first to defend his thesis. When the teacher asked a simple processing technology question, Cao Sen casually gave an answer that violated basic processing common sense. He was immediately caught by the teacher and repeatedly questioned about which book he had seen this process in. Cao Sen was forced into a tight spot, but quickly thought of saying that this process wasn't from a book, but rather something he had seen during metalworking practice at a factory. The teacher was stumped by Cao Sen's answer and could only let the question go.

  The university professors have broad and profound theoretical knowledge, but lack practical processing experience. This is their shortcoming, which Cao Sen took advantage of to muddle through. After the defense was over, he taught this trick as a surefire way to deal with the defense teachers to other students.

  Then came the defense of Tencent and Ding Haitao, both of whom used this "trick" to pass successfully, but the fourth defender, Guo Jing, encountered trouble.

  Guo Jing angrily said to Cao Sen: "Damn it, you three used that trick to shut the teacher's mouth earlier, and now it's my turn to be unlucky. Just now I answered a question wrong, and before I could say 'I've seen this problem in the factory', those teachers rushed to ask: 'Have you also encountered this problem in the factory?' Damn it, at that time I was shut up and couldn't say a word!"

  Cao Sen was taken aback at first, then he also laughed. He understood that the teachers must have been stifled by him and Teng Fei, Ding Hai Tao, knowing that the students were taking advantage of their lack of practical experience to deceive them, but unable to refute them face-to-face, until finally Guo Jing burst out, having been stifled for a long time.

  "It's settled, it's just a debate, you don't care about this anyway." Cao Sen grabbed Guo Jing and gave Ding Haitao and Teng Fei a signal with his eyes. The four of them walked to a corner of the corridor.

  "Just now, my brother encountered something." Cao Sen lowered his voice and recounted what had just happened.

  Kuo Ching looked at me and I looked back at him, neither of us seeming to believe this was really happening.

  "Brother Sen, you're not messing with us, are you? You're... serious?" Ding Haitao asked tentatively.

  Cao Sen glared: "Did I deceive you?"

  Three people looked at each other, suddenly simultaneously pulled their feet towards the stairs and ran, scrambling to squeeze into the stairwell, shouting "Ghost! Ghost! I love you, just like a mouse loves rice!"

  Cao Sen smiled wryly as he looked at his three brothers, who were just like him - fearless of heaven and earth. Not to mention ghosts, even if it was hell, as long as they could find the entrance, who would dare stop them from entering?