Xiang Chen’s eyes quickly scanned through the contents of the folder. Ye Zhong was a student in the same grade and same class as Wu Liqin. He was known as a pretty average student with decent grades; not a trouble-maker but not any sort of outstanding type either. He seemed to be the very definition of a side-character type person. 

 

As he got to the last page, Xiang Chen couldn’t find what he was looking for. 

 

“There’s no record of death.” He whispered in confusion. 

 

“Ah?” Li Qianru peeked over, glancing at the name on the file. Bai Shen also looked over. “Isn’t that the name of the ghost you said was hiding among us?” 

 

“Yeah, it is.” Xiang Chen furrowed his brows. “He didn’t die at the school?” 

 

“Wait, Xiang Chen, look!” Li Qianru pointed to the back of the manila folder. She quickly pulled away what looked to be a newspaper page that had been stuck to the back of the folder. 

 

They quickly read it through. 

 

[Suicides at XXX School: Following the suicides of young students surnamed ‘Ye’ and ‘Wu’ respectively, the local authorities are now dispatched to the school to search for possible connections between the two deaths. Teacher ‘Zhou,’ a relative of student ‘Ye,’ encourages students to attend counseling classes to avoid future problems…]

 

The evidence was blatantly obvious. Students ‘Ye’ and ‘Wu’ were Ye Zhong and Wu Liqin, and about this ‘Teacher Zhou…’ 

 

“It must be him.” Xiang Chen said without hesitation. “The teacher must be Zhou Guowei.” His intuition told him that this was right. There were too many coincidences; the easiest level of this sort of horror game wouldn’t lead him astray. 

 

A familiar holographic screen popped up in front of him. 

 

[Congratulations on finding the critical clue “Newspaper Truth.” You’ve successfully discovered the relationship between the three main characters! For your diligent efforts, you may select one reward!]

 

[Hint or Reward]

 

Xiang Chen only contemplated for a second before clicking the ‘Reward’ button. Since he already had a pretty good direction for solving this horror to escape the night, a reward would be better, so that he could gauge what kind of things he’d receive in the future. 

 

Something suddenly appeared in Xiang Chen’s hand. It looked like a rectangular piece of yellow paper with flourished Chinese calligraphy characters written in cinnabar. 

 

[Received: “Paper Talisman.”]

 

As Xiang Chen stuffed the paper talisman into his pocket for safe-keeping, Li Qianru and Bai Shen were still quietly whispering about the scandalous insinuation between the three main characters’ relationship. 

 

“Then that means that…” Li Qianru’s face flushed embarrassingly. “Wu Liqin and Zhou Guowei were having a student-teacher affair!” 

 

“But how does Ye Zhong fit into this?” Bai Shen asked in a confused manner. 

 

“Maybe they both liked Wu Liqin?” Li Qianru surmised with a contemplative frown.

 

“If Ye Zhong and Zhou Guowei both liked Wu Liqin, then it would only result in Ye Zhong’s loss.” Xiang Chen recalled the lovestruck image of Wu Liqin doodling happily into her notebook. “And if Wu Liqin and Zhou Guowei were dating but then had to break up, then that would explain Wu Liqin’s depression and academic decline. The only question is why would Zhou Guowei break up with Wu Liqin?”

“Maybe Zhou Guowei had found out that his younger relative Ye Zhong liked Wu Liqin too, and so he decided to break it off?” Li Qianru said questioningly. 

 

Their understanding of the three main characters’ relationships was still too superficial. 

 

As the three people quietly mulled over these complicated relationships, the surrounding temperature suddenly seemed to drop, causing their puffy breaths to become visible. 

 

These exact circumstances mirrored the time when they had first encountered the male ghost in the hallway. Thus, Xiang Chen’s eyes fell immediately to the door connecting the office to the front. 

 

A lone shadow hovered in front of the door with its back turned to them. 

 

“Run!” Xiang Chen pushed Li Qianru and Bai Shen to their feet and headed towards the window. 

 

The shadow was slowly turning around to face them. It’s body slowly and steadily turning to an angle in their direction. 

 

Xiang Chen quickly opened the window. “Go!” He urged Li Qianru and Bai Shen in a firm voice. 

 

“Xiang Chen!” 

 

The two tried to argue, but Xiang Chen’s obstinate expression and words cut through their cries. “I’ll run around and meet you guys in the front! Trust me!” 

 

Xiang Chen wasn’t a martyr of any sorts. He knew he had some sort of talisman that could potentially save his life, while the other two were just normal everyday students. His chances of survival far exceeded theirs. 

 

The two people quickly crawled out the small space of the window, and just as the dark figure turned around to face Xiang Chen, a loud high-pitched ringing noise caused the latter to wince in pain. 

 

The faint contours of the male ghost’s face seemed to show a large gaping mouth. Was it screaming?

 

The dark shadow darted towards him, but luckily, it seemed to be the speed of a regular human. 

 

Xiang Chen wasted no time while running around the desks, avoiding the trajectory of the charging ghost while simultaneously pulling out the talisman in his pocket. 

 

How was he supposed to activate the thing!? 

 

The front office door flung open as Xiang Chen escaped with the male ghost hot on his trail. He didn’t dare look back, but the chilling air nipped at his heels threateningly. 

 

He ran forward, but hadn’t anticipated colliding with a hard body. 

 

“Oof!” 

 

Xiang Chen groaned as his head smacked into something hard, and before he could blink, a pair of cold fingers wrapped around his wrist and tugged him forward. 

 

“Run!” A familiar low voice commanded. 

 

Ye Zhong?

 

Xiang Chen’s gaze snapped forward as he took in the sight of a familiar man. But before he could fully contemplate the man’s sudden appearance, he was being forcibly dragged along, stumbling to keep up as the two of them sprinted to the stairs. 

 

Their feet ascended at a fast pace until they were safely onto the fourth floor where the two figures fled into the shadowy cover of one of the classrooms. 

 

After a few moments, the two figures separated. One stood off by the window, appearing nonchalant and looking as normal as ever. The other was gasping for air, struggling to catch their breath from the narrow escape. 

 

“You…” Xiang Chen swallowed a breath, leaning against the wall for a bit of support to steady himself. His eyes were glued onto that distant figure. “You’re a ghost.” 

 

Truthfully, Xiang Chen had felt deeply disturbed after finding out that the normal-looking Ye Zhong had been a ghost, but it was hard to feel any sort of fear when Ye Zhong really didn’t give off any scary ghost vibes. Unlike the eerie and unnatural appearance of the first floor male ghost, Ye Zhong looked as normal as any of the other students. Maybe that’s why Xiang Chen wasn’t too scared of him even now as the two of them were alone in a secluded classroom on the fourth floor once more. 

 

Ye Zhong’s black eyes seemed to reflect the dim moonlight which cast a pale glow on his expressionless face. Perhaps, during the daytime, the young man wouldn’t look so strange; maybe he’d even be a bit handsome with his tall figure and cool features. 

 

Those dark black eyes watched Xiang Chen like a hawk. 

 

“Are you scared?”