“Who’s Wu Liqin?” Li Qianru asked.

 

“Is it another ghost?” Bai Shen shivered visibly in fear. “Why are you always meeting with ghosts ah?” 

 

Xiang Chen picked up the small white card that had fallen on the ground and showed it to the other two. “The flowers on the desk are for someone who died, and this card was there. If we find out who this Wu Liqin is, then we should be able to find out more clues about what happened here a long time ago.” He briefly explained to them about his hallucination dream.

 

“En, that makes sense.” Li Qianru agreed. 

 

Bai Shen gave a worried look. “But where do we start?” 

 

Xiang Chen furrowed his brows as he thought. “The teacher’s office maybe? There might be student records.”

 

“Since this building is similar to our’s, then the teachers’ office will be…” Li Qianru’s voice trailed off into a whisper. 

 

“The first floor.” Bai Shen gulped. 

 

The malevolent male ghost hung around the first floor, so it wouldn’t be easy to break into the teachers’ office unnoticed. 

 

“You said everyone came to look for me?” Xiang Chen asked. 

 

“Yeah…We all promised to meet at the stairs after checking out each floor.”

 

“Then everyone is in the school right now. Maybe we can have some people draw the ghost’s attention away and escape outside while others break into the teachers’ office.” 

 

They were reluctant to confront the ghosts, but they knew that they had to do something. Everyone seemed capable of outrunning the ghosts so far. 

 

The three of them peered out into the hallway of the fourth floor, hearing no sounds. Xiang Chen had deduced that the main ghost of this floor had an accompanying thumping noise, so it would be easy to deduce when to stay or go. 

 

The three of them quietly darted out of the classroom and descended the steps. It wasn’t long before they met up with the group of students again. 

 

“Xiang Chen! It’s good to see that you’re okay!” Shao Ming clapped Xiang Chen on the shoulder. 

 

“En, I heard you convinced people to come back for me. Thanks, Shao Ming.” Xiang Chen said sincerely. 

 

Shao Ming rubbed his nose, looking a little embarrassed. “I owed you. This is the least I could do.” 

 

Xiang Chen was grateful for Shao Ming’s simple-minded good nature. They quickly informed the other students about their plans, and everyone looked hesitant but agreed.

 

The group of students went to the first floor with Shao Ming leading. He peeked around the corner and confirmed that the male ghost was standing there still. 

 

“We’ll make a run for it and then you guys can head into the office.” Shao Ming said Li Qianru, Bai Shen, and Xiang Chen. 

 

“En, thanks.” Xiang Chen replied.

They scattered according to the plan. Luckily, it seemed that the male ghost wasn’t too smart or anything; it seemed to follow a certain pattern of attack. Shao Ming and the other students successfully led the male ghost away as it chased them to the front of the building. Meanwhile, three people quietly slipped past the front office doors. 

 

“Check the drawers over there, and I’ll take these.” 

 

The large work office was quickly divided between the three as they quietly rummaged through desks and drawers. A pale stream of light illuminated their surroundings. 

 

Surprisingly, for an old abandoned school, quite a lot of school records had been left behind. 

 

“Ah!” 

 

Li Qianru held up a manila folder. The other two quickly ran over to see. Clearly written on the tab were the characters for ‘Wu’ and ‘Liqin.’ It was definitely a student file! 

 

Li Qianru handed over the folder to Xiang Chen, and the latter immediately began to peruse the documents within. There were basic grades and exams as well as teacher observation papers. 

 

It seemed that most of the teachers regarded Wu Liqin as an incredibly smart yet socially distant girl; a stereotypical top student who excelled at academics but was unpopular with her fellow students. However, she was quite popular with the teachers as an obedient and studious type. 

 

This type of girl seemed just like any other ordinary girl. 

 

But as he continued reading, Xiang Chen realized that Wu Liqin’s grades started to drop and then she had taken a leave of absence. When she returned, her grades were poor, and then she… 

 

“She killed herself?” Li Qianru covered her mouth with a hand in shock. 

 

The three people were silent as they contemplated this previous student’s fate. 

 

“I don’t get it…” Bai Shen rubbed his temple, looking confused. “What happened to make her do such a drastic thing ah?”

 

Xiang Chen furrowed his brows as he recalled the hallucination dream from before. 

 

“Look for a file with the name ‘Zhou Guowei’.” He said decisively. “In my dream, I saw Wu Liqin writing her name with this person’s. I think they were either dating or she really liked him, but something bad must’ve happened.” 

 

Bai Shen and Li Qianru nodded in understanding, and the three quickly returned to looking around. 

 

However, as Xiang Chen continued rummaging through the desks, a faint chill began to cause his skin to tingle uncomfortable. He looked up and managed to see a face peering into the room from the window. 

 

With the light behind it, the face had been obscured, but Xiang Chen felt like he could see the eyes staring straight at him. 

 

How long had it been watching them?

 

“Fuck!” Came Bai Shen’s hushed grunt as he seemed to notice what Xiang Chen was staring at. 

 

The shadow quickly disappeared, leaving Li Qianru to glance over and see nothing while the two young men stood frozen in place. 

 

“What is it?” She asked in a whisper, reaching out to smack Bai Shen’s head for making loud noise at seemingly nothing. “Don’t scare me like that ah!”

 

Xiang Chen blinked a few, calming down his nerves. “There was someone watching us from the window.” 

 

Li Qianru’s eyebrows rose, and she fearfully faced the window, half-expecting to see what they had seen. But there was only the pale moonlight left. 

 

They quietly returned to their task at hand, and as Xiang Chen flipped through a seemingly endless amount of documents, his eyes caught sight of a familiar name on the tab of a manila folder. 

 

He pulled it out, fingers shaking a little. Not from fright, but from the memory of a cold cheek against his own. 

 

The manila folder was labeled ‘Ye Zhong.’