Chapter Fifty-two, The Pen Fairy

  Before long, all the students were chased away by the police, leaving only me and Director Jiang and some police officers who had experienced the Panshi incident. I looked at this abandoned building, which was like a red-brick house from the 80s, and it seemed to have been deserted for some time.

  "This building used to be an experimental building, specifically for the biology department's classes, but it was declared a dangerous building several years ago and hasn't been used since." A man with glasses standing next to Director Jiang said to me, looking like someone with some knowledge.

  "Zihe, this is a big principal." A big principal?

  "Hello, I need your help in retrieving some information about this deceased man." I found an excuse to have him leave.

  "I'll send someone to investigate right away." Seeing the principal leave, it wasn't long before Shiteng came running over. "Your life is in danger?", I saw that he hadn't even brought anything and had come running over.

  "What's wrong? I just received your call and rushed over, didn't even go back to get it." It seems that Shitian is also in a hurry, still panting.

  "A student died over there, it was a fall from the building. But when I just looked out of the window, I seemed to have seen a female ghost." I roughly told Sheng Teng about what had happened.

  "Director Jiang, you wait outside, I'll go in with Shitian." Director Jiang hadn't let the police enter this building before, so we had to go in to find out what happened. As Shitian and I walked in, we found that the inside was already covered in dust. I coughed constantly as I entered, unaccustomed to it. The three-story building's interior decoration was still good, but there were no classrooms on the first floor, only a staircase leading up to the second floor.

  "Zihe, this place feels quite gloomy." Not only did Shitian feel that way, but I also found that although there was plenty of sunlight shining into the teaching building, most of it was dull and grey. "Be careful, let's head straight to that window over there."

  I and Shì Téng went up the stairs, visible footprints of many people on the stairs, because the stairs were covered with dust, so it was clear to see, apparently this building had a lot of visitors, we followed the footprints and arrived at the room by that window!

  As we walked in, I saw that the room was a laboratory, empty and spacious. I looked around the room, where did that female ghost just go? I walked to the window, it's just right that sunlight couldn't shine in here! I looked down through the window, Director Jiang and the others were standing there thinking about something.

  I don't know how, but my eyes were fixed on the corpse, and the wind suddenly lifted a corner of the white cloth. The man's face was facing me! "Zi Chuan big brother, come take a look!" I was interrupted by Shi Teng. I walked over and saw a square piece of paper placed on a table.

  "What is this?" I feel like this paper is filled with words, and it feels familiar.

  "Someone is inviting a ghost!" Inviting a ghost? "Ah, isn't this inviting a pen fairy?" I saw a pen that had fallen to the ground and heard Shitian say someone was inviting a ghost. Suddenly, I remembered, no wonder it looked so familiar, having seen many on TV!

  "They thought it was a game to summon spirits, thinking that the gods attached to the pen were communicating with them about past and present lives, asking unclear things. In fact, they are just ghosts. Inviting Pen Fairy is actually inviting souls, which damages one's virtue and leads to suffering after death. And this ghost may have died in this building."

  When Shitian said this to me, it was also the first time I heard of such a statement. In the past, my roommates also wanted to try this kind of pen fairy, but I didn't care much about it. It's better to believe in its existence than not to believe in it at all. It is said that if you invite it, you have to send it away, and if you don't send it away, it will bring big trouble.

  "What's going on now? That ghost just looked over and then disappeared."

  "This kind of ghost we call it a haunting spirit, the only troublesome thing is that it can't be found unless it appears by itself. Since I came in, I haven't detected any yin energy at all. It seems like it doesn't want to come out and there's nothing we can do about it." Is there another kind of ghost like this?

  "Let's go, we should first find out the cause and effect of this matter, otherwise there is no way." Shitian pulled me out of my contemplation. I was thinking about the purpose of that ghost, but listening to Shitian made sense too. After going downstairs and telling Jiang Ju about it, they decided to return to the police station first, while the man's body had not been taken to the funeral home yet.

  "Director Jiang, it seems that the deceased had invited a spirit medium before his death. When we went up there, we also saw many footprints. It appears that the deceased must have gone in with a group of people previously. You need to investigate the identities of those individuals."

  As soon as I arrived at the police station, I told Commissioner Jiang straightforwardly.

  "What? Ask the pen fairy? Isn't that fake?" Looking at Jiang's surprised expression, I also understand, at least scientifically it can be explained as a psychological effect. But who would have known that ghosts really exist.

  "It's true, not just psychological, but real ghostly interference. The human body has three clusters of fire, and evil spirits don't dare to get too close. Once the fire goes out, you'll be possessed by ghosts, let alone they're even inviting them to appear." Upon hearing Shi Teng's explanation, Jiang Ju also realized that this matter wasn't so simple.

  "I've already sent someone to check on it, should have an answer soon."

  "By the way, Director Jiang, also check if anyone has died in that building before." Shenti had told me before that the female ghost died in this building, it should have spread out, why doesn't anyone know?

  "Has anyone died? Okay, I'll check." Director Jiang said and left. Myself and Shi Teng were still confused, only to learn from the news that came from Director Jiang's side.

  "Zi Jiang, everyone has arrived." I saw Director Jiang bring in a few people. They looked like students, two girls and one boy. They seemed very nervous... "Don't worry, please sit down, we just need to understand some things from you." I saw them hesitantly take their seats on the stools.

  "Let me ask them, they're all young people and easy to talk to." I reckon Director Jiang's demeanor scared them off, and being in a police station didn't help. As a student myself, we can have a good chat.

  Jiang also discovered this and went out to bring down the next gate.

  "Don't be nervous, I'm just a student too. This time I just want to ask you what you did that night." I said it clearly, and after they heard it, their expressions were a bit distorted, especially the two girls who kept grabbing their clothes, which looked like a tense expression. The boy was okay, but not very natural either.

  I saw them not speaking, I didn't say anything either. I took out a pack of cigarettes and asked the boy if he smoked. His hand trembled as he accepted it from me, and I lit one for him. He finally let out a sigh, and Shitian and I lay down on the sofa quietly watching them.

  "It wasn't us who killed him."

  The man took a few puffs as if to muster up his courage before saying this sentence.

  "Uh-huh, I know, I just want to know what really happened that night." I tried to sound as calm and non-confrontational as possible.

  "I don't know how to say this, but he was the one who suggested going to that building..." The man seemed to be slowly calming down, and seeing him like that made me feel better too. I could sense something. But those two girls still didn't dare look at me, keeping their heads down."

  "Which building are you going to and what for?" Shitian also sat up.

  "He said he was going there...to play with a pen spirit...", it turns out that he's inviting ghosts! I felt like I had grasped the key point, and continued to ask him.

  "Why go there to play with Bi Xian? Don't you know that Bi Xian is fake?" I said it on purpose, a different way of asking would make him speak out.

  "I... am not fake... there really is a pen fairy..." The man choked and didn't speak, his eyes darted to the girl in the middle, which I saw.

  "Oh? Your girlfriend?" I unintentionally asked, wanting to see his reaction. As a result, he shook his head and said it wasn't so. The girl also looked up at me: "I'm not...his girlfriend."

  "You say there really is a pen fairy? Why go then?"

  "He...", he didn't say a word during this time, but kept glancing at the girl, I felt there was some kind of relationship between them.

  "What is it that you want to say, I can help you, you have also seen the pen fairy, but someone died for no reason, do you think you can escape?" I didn't know the rules of the pen fairy game, I just casually said something to scare them.

  "She's having an affair with two men!" I almost spat out my cigarette, and the girl who was fiddling with her hem next to me let out a startled yelp at my words. I saw that both the man and the woman were staring at her, but neither of them said anything.

  "You know? You tell me." Looks like I can get something out of her after all.

  "I don't want to die yet, she's Wu Yisheng's girlfriend! But she's still with Chen Tong!"

  "Wait, what's the relationship?" The relationships she mentioned confused me. She told me her name was Yang Jing, Wu Yisheng was the deceased person, Chen Tong was the smoker, and their girlfriend was Lin Xue.

  "Wu Yisheng and I, Chen Cong are friends, that night he said he wanted to invite Lin Xue out for dinner and called us all up, but I felt the atmosphere was very off during dinner, Yisheng kept pouring white wine and didn't speak, just coldly smiled...Lin Xue and Chen Cong's relationship we all knew about, but didn't dare mention it to Yisheng because he is a bit extreme..." I handed Yang Jing a cup of water. She drank it and continued speaking...

  "That day, none of us dared to speak, and Yisheng didn't either. We felt like he had sensed something was off. After we finished eating, we wanted to leave... but Yisheng wouldn't let us go. He spoke in a cold tone, insisting that we go to the abandoned teaching building. We were all scared, knowing that Yisheng was extreme and capable of doing anything."

  "He used to hear that someone was pursuing Lin Xue, and directly beat up the person, almost stabbing with a knife... We were all afraid, feeling that he pretended to be calm. Seeing that we didn't dare to move forward, he ran to the front and took out a knife from somewhere, forcing us to walk... Letting us take out our mobile phones..."

  "When we arrived at the abandoned teaching building, I saw that this door was not locked. He followed us from behind and led us to a lab on the 2nd floor. As soon as we entered, he closed the door and smiled at us saying 'Chen Dong, I heard you're very close with my girl?' We were all scared..."

  "Let me say it..." Chen Yong had been sitting there with a not-so-good expression and interrupted Yang Jing.