He was exposed.

He stepped closer to her, his tall figure blocking the light from above, pressing down on her like a burning mountain. Ji Tong stepped back twice, clearly frightened, yet still staring at him with wide eyes.

“I remembered wrong.”

Ji Tong certainly didn’t believe him.

“You should go back. Your family will worry.”

“When did you start possessing him?” Ji Tong gripped her school uniform tightly, her mind flashing through Li Qu’s many strange behaviors. During the afternoon break, Gan Ting had chatted with her about Li Qu. Gan Ting said she had friends in every class and often visited around, but she seemed to have never really seen Li Qu before. He was vaguely familiar, probably because they were on the same floor and had passed each other a few times, but she didn’t know him at all. Unable to control her curiosity, Gan Ting had run to Class 9 to ask around. She heard people say this Li Qu studied very well, but was usually low-key, introverted, and even timid.

But look at how he was just now—timid? He nearly devoured people.

“When you played basketball? Or was it the first time you helped me?”

Seeing Ji Tong’s determined gaze, he knew he couldn’t deceive her anymore, so he simply stopped hiding. “Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you.”

Ji Tong stepped back another step. Although she knew he wasn’t an evil ghost, she couldn’t help but feel fearful. “Why do you keep helping me?”

He didn’t answer a single word.

Suddenly, Li Qu closed his eyes and collapsed.

Ji Tong hurriedly crouched down to support him. Li Qu turned over, knelt prostrate, and kept dry heaving.

Ji Tong found tissues for him, but Li Qu didn’t take them. He looked at her with resentment, stumbled to his feet, and walked away.

“Li Qu.” Ji Tong followed him.

Li Qu suddenly turned around, his face full of disgust and grievance. “Stay away from me.”

Ji Tong froze in place, motionless.

…

He Feng stood on a high-rise rooftop, looking down at the city in a daze.

Meng Yuan sat beside him, holding a piece of broken gold. “Why did you call me here?”

“To teach some people a lesson. I have official duties, so it’s not convenient for me.”

“People? What people? Living people?”

“Mm.”

“Who? Did they offend you?”

He Feng tapped her head with his finger.

Meng Yuan understood the whole situation and sighed. “Who is this little boy? So pitiful.”

“Don’t go overboard. Just teach them a lesson.”

“Why don’t you tell her who you are? Just confess directly instead of making it so complicated.”

He Feng didn’t answer, pushing her to leave. “Go on.”

…

Meng Yuan couldn’t find Zhang Xinrui—she wasn’t home. On the way, she encountered some wild ghosts gambling and watched all night, only remembering He Feng’s instructions when dawn was approaching.

Forget it. In broad daylight, she should find a place to sleep first and wait until evening.

This delay got Li Qu in trouble.

Zhang Xinrui had gone to cry to Hu Chongjing yesterday, and early this morning, Li Qu was dragged into the school’s small grove.

At noon, Ji Tong and Gan Ting went to the cafeteria for lunch and happened to run into Li Qu. He was carrying two large bags filled with drinks and snacks.

Gan Ting was about to greet him when Li Qu, as if he hadn’t heard, hurried away anxiously.

Gan Ting looked gossipy. “What’s he rushing around for?”

Ji Tong watched his retreating figure absent-mindedly without responding.

Gan Ting waved her hand. “What are you thinking about?”

Ji Tong shook her head and continued toward the cafeteria.

“Is he injured? There seems to be a bruise on his face.”

Not one bruise, but two.

He Feng stood at a high vantage point watching Li Qu.

Why was he buying so many things and rushing somewhere? Something seemed off.

So He Feng followed him.

…

Li Qu entered the small grove.

Hu Chongjing sat on a stone bench deep inside, smoking, with a pile of food in front of him.

Li Qu placed the items on the stone table. “Done.”

Huang Ke flicked his cigarette and slapped the back of Li Qu’s head. “Not done yet. Where’s the milk tea? Don’t you see Sister Rui here?”

Li Qu felt a chill down his back.

Zhang Xinrui sneered. “What? Weren’t you pretty tough yesterday? Show Brother Jing some of those moves.”

Li Qu kept his head down, not daring to speak.

Zhang Xinrui was somewhat afraid inside—after all, she had been truly scared yesterday—but now Hu Chongjing was here.

She stood behind Hu Chongjing, intimately hugging his neck. “Brother Jing, what do you think we should do?”

Hu Chongjing patted her hand. “You decide.”

“I wouldn’t dare. What if he goes crazy again and stabs me with a knife?”

Hu Chongjing laughed and kicked Li Qu’s leg with his foot. “So what should we do? Say something.”

Huang Ke slapped Li Qu’s back again. “Speak up.”

Li Qu was pushed, shoved, and slapped without any ability to fight back.

Seeing his cowardly appearance, Liu Wen said, “Sister Rui, could we have gotten the wrong person? Him? One against four? You’re kidding.”

“Hit me twice, wrong person? What kind of joke is that?” Zhang Xinrui rolled her eyes at him.

Hu Chongjing exhaled smoke and smiled lazily.

Huang Ke kicked him in the back of the knee. Li Qu couldn’t steady himself and fell forward on one knee.

Zhang Xinrui opened a bottle of Sprite and poured it over his head. “And that Ji Tong—bring her to me too.”

Hu Chongjing was displeased. “I just looked at her a couple more times, and you won’t fucking let it go.”

“You even asked for her phone number.”

Hu Chongjing threw away his cigarette butt, stamped it hard into the dirt, and stood up impatiently. “Let’s go.”

Zhang Xinrui was still pouring the Sprite. Li Qu’s eyes turned red—he finally couldn’t take it anymore. He forcefully knocked her hand away and stood up.

Hu Chongjing turned and kicked him hard in the thigh.

Zhang Xinrui immediately hid behind them, startled. She always felt this guy seemed mentally split, changing constantly—he might suddenly explode at any moment. Seeing him fall to the ground and get punched several times by Huang Ke holding him down, she felt both satisfied and nervous.

Hu Chongjing grew tired of watching. “Enough.” He saw mud on his shoe tip, frowned, and extended his foot in front of Li Qu. “Clean it for me.”

Li Qu’s face was pressed against the ground, looking at Hu Chongjing’s foot in front of him. He wouldn’t clean it.

He thought they would continue beating him, but unexpectedly heard Hu Chongjing’s angry curses.

Looking up.

Huang Ke had punched Hu Chongjing so hard his nose was bleeding.

…

After the afternoon exercise break ended, the grade director took the microphone to publicly criticize several students who had been fighting and delivered a series of speeches.

Ji Tong usually wouldn’t care about such things, but this time there were people she knew. It was Zhang Xinrui, Hu Chongjing, and his two followers—three boys uniformly covered in mud and bruised.

From what the grade director was saying, they had ganged up on Li Qu.

Ji Tong felt even more guilty.

After the grade director finished speaking, he had them read their self-criticism letters one by one.

Zhang Xinrui went first. After reading, she handed the microphone to Huang Ke.

Huang Ke didn’t take it, keeping his hands in his pockets and holding his head high arrogantly.

The grade director shouted sternly, “Where’s your self-criticism letter?”

Huang Ke didn’t even look at him. “I have nothing to say.”

The grade director bellowed, “Don’t you want to study here anymore!”

Huang Ke glanced at him dismissively, absent-mindedly took the microphone, and looked at the sea of student faces below. He suddenly remembered when he was young in the mountain stronghold, after accidentally blowing up the gate, his father had made him stand in front of the courtyard to apologize to his brothers.

Carefree times—so nostalgic.

There was a metallic taste in his mouth. Huang Ke spat blood on the ground, looked at Hu Chongjing standing beside him, and suddenly kicked him.

Hu Chongjing never saw it coming—completely unprepared, he fell sideways like a domino, causing three people to tumble down in succession.

The entire school of teachers and students was shocked.

They heard Huang Ke say lightly to him,

“Kneel down and lick your grandfather’s shoes clean.”

…

Hu Chongjing and the others received disciplinary action. The school notified their parents to take them home one by one for reflection.

Li Qu’s parents were working out of town, with only his grandfather at home. The homeroom teacher talked with the old man for a long time and also gave Li Qu a day off to go home and rest well.

It wasn’t difficult for ghosts to find people. In the latter half of the night, Meng Yuan found Zhang Xinrui.

Hu Chongjing had been scolded by his family and came out to get a hotel room. Zhang Xinrui accompanied him. After making love half the night, they fell into deep sleep.

Zhang Xinrui woke up to the sound of television. Strange—they hadn’t turned on the TV today.

She drowsily reached for the remote control. As soon as she sat up, she saw a woman standing at the foot of the bed. She immediately woke up completely, screaming and diving under the covers, hugging Hu Chongjing while trembling violently. “There’s a ghost!”

“There’s a ghost!”

Hu Chongjing was woken up by her commotion and unhappily turned over. “Ghost my ass, stop making noise.”

“There’s someone standing over there.”

Hu Chongjing pried her hands off. “Standing your ass. You’re dreaming. Don’t touch me—I’m sore all over.”

Zhang Xinrui held onto him tightly. “There really is a ghost! I saw it!”

Hu Chongjing was very annoyed. Irritably, he pulled back the covers and sat up. There was nothing in front of him. He lay back down with the covers over his head, back to her. “Idiot.”

“Can’t you hear footsteps upstairs?”

“Are you sick? This is the top floor. Can you please sleep properly? I’m exhausted.”

Zhang Xinrui curled up in a ball under the covers. “There really are footsteps. Didn’t you hear them?”

“Keep making noise and go home to sleep.”

Zhang Xinrui suddenly stopped making a fuss.

After a while, a hand rubbed back and forth on his leg. Hu Chongjing was truly angry and turned to scold her, but saw Zhang Xinrui smiling at him.

“What are you smiling about?”

Hu Chongjing felt uneasy and slapped her face. Zhang Xinrui turned her face back and smiled at him again, drawing out her words slowly: “You beat him so badly.”

Hu Chongjing kicked her off the bed, his heart racing. “Stop fucking pretending to be a ghost.”

Zhang Xinrui climbed back onto the bed, moving closer to him, tears streaming down. “Don’t bully my great-grandson.”

“My great-grandson is so good. Why did you hit him?”

Hu Chongjing didn’t believe in ghosts and spirits, but at this moment he was truly scared. He jumped off the bed and ran toward the door.

But the door wouldn’t open no matter what.

A hand fell on his shoulder.

“I was wrong!” Hu Chongjing crouched on the ground holding his head. “Great-grandmother, spare me!”

…

Meng Yuan was thrilled.

She had never scared people like this before. No wonder they enjoyed tormenting people so much—it was so fun!!!

“You didn’t see how scared they looked! Next time there’s something like this, definitely find me again!”

“Stop celebrating. There’s another matter.”

“More scaring people?” Meng Yuan looked at him expectantly.

“That kid’s grandfather came to school today. I discovered he’ll have a blood disaster recently. Go guard him for a few days and help resolve it.”

“Ah—I won’t go. It’s boring.”

“Go on.”

“Don’t want to! Why are you meddling in this?”

“I harmed that child. Helping his family members counts as making amends.”

Meng Yuan pouted reluctantly. “Go yourself.”

“I’m busy.”

“I’m busy too!”

“I’ll pay you.”

“Then I’ll consider it.”

…

The math teacher extended evening self-study, dismissing them ten minutes late. Ji Tong walked home, pondering that difficult problem the whole way.

The night was very quiet with no one else on the road. Suddenly a stray cat darted across, pulling her attention back from the problem.

Where was this?

Ji Tong was very familiar with the route home—she couldn’t possibly have gone wrong.

This seemed to be an urban village. She vaguely remembered there was indeed an urban village not far from her residential complex.

There was only one streetlight in the far distance, flickering—it was broken.

Ji Tong looked at the faint light at the end of the road and walked quickly, but somehow could never reach the end.

She had encountered another ghost.

It was a female ghost who didn’t look scary, carrying a backpack, appearing to be twelve or thirteen years old, wearing a gray sweater and black skirt, with a butterfly bow in her hair.

“Big sister.”

Ji Tong’s path was blocked by her.

The female ghost looked well-behaved. “Big sister, I can’t find my way home. Could you take me home? I miss my daddy.”

Ji Tong’s father had died early. Hearing the word “daddy” softened her heart.

She didn’t run away. “Where do you live?”

The female ghost walked toward her, her childish face showing a smile. “Right under your feet.”

Ji Tong watched helplessly as she suddenly opened a bloody maw, extended a seven-inch tongue toward her. Just as it was about to reach her, it was suddenly cut off by something and fell to the ground.

A red bedsheet flew down from a rooftop, landing and covering her head.

Ji Tong’s vision was filled with red as she only heard the female ghost’s heart-wrenching wails outside.

A strange scene suddenly flashed through her mind.

Red wedding veil, blue cotton jacket.

There was wind, there were gunshots.

A sharp pain shot through Ji Tong’s heart, as if a hand had inserted into her chest and was pulling something out. She slumped against the wall and slid to the ground, her mind in chaos.

The female ghost’s screams disappeared, and quiet surrounded them.

Ji Tong’s hand trembled slightly as she slowly pulled away the red cloth from her head.

She saw a… ghost standing silently in the dark night.

Black cloak.

Ji Tong remembered him.

He Feng turned to leave, but Ji Tong called out to him, “Wait.”

“Wait.”

He stopped.

“Is it you?”

“Have you been helping me all along?” Ji Tong stood up, gripping the red bedsheet tightly in her hand, sweating. “Were you also the one possessing Li Qu?”

He Feng turned around, his hat brim still covering his eyes and brows.

He slowly lifted his head,

“Hello there, Ji Tong.”

…