"This side doesn't show anything unusual either. Sun Fatty, could it be that the little girl ran away with that pretty boy, and they put on a show by themselves?" said Investigator Xiong Wanyi from Section Two. He got along well with Sun Fatty, or you could say they were like-minded troublemakers, often drinking together until late at night.
"I'm just saying, Xiong Wanyi, if you were running away with the pretty boy, wouldn't you just hold hands and run off? Why bother putting on such a performance?" Sun Fatty glanced at Xiong Wanyi and said.
Sun Fatty's words weren't wrong. It was already getting dark, roughly the same time as when Zhang Yuanyuan disappeared. We carefully observed the area but didn't find anything like Zhang Yuanyuan's soul or spirit. There was only one slightly suspicious spot. Maybe because women had gathered here for years, the yin energy within the women's academy was a bit stronger. But considering the special nature of this place filled with women, this amount of yin energy wasn't a big deal.
Seeing that Xiong Wanyi still looked a little unhappy, I stepped in to smooth things over. "Old Xiong, it's getting late. There's nothing more to see here. Let's listen to Dasheng — head to the cafeteria first, fill our stomachs, and then continue." I looked back at Yun Feiyang and Ximen Lian. They were easygoing and both nodded in agreement to eat first.
After walking forward for more than ten minutes, we finally saw the cafeteria. Upon entering, we noticed that probably because this was a women's academy, the food was much more delicate and appetizing than elsewhere.
It was already mealtime, and the cafeteria was bustling with female students eating. We five were the first "male students" to enter, and as soon as we came in, we attracted the gaze of most of the girls.
Sun Fatty didn't feel awkward at all. Seeing a fairly attractive female student, he went over to strike up a conversation: "Classmate, what dish is this? Is it tasty? What flavor? Sweet, salty, sour, or spicy? Is anyone sitting next to you? Would you mind if I sit here?"
"I do mind." The girl rolled her eyes at him and continued eating without looking up.
Sun Fatty looked a bit embarrassed. We behind him struggled hard not to laugh out loud.
Just as we took our trays and prepared to eat, there was a commotion at the cafeteria door. Then we saw Wu Rendi walk in, completely white from head to toe.
From the moment Wu Rendi entered, he attracted over 95% of the attention in the cafeteria (we five were the lucky remaining 5%).
"A bunch of little girls who've never seen a real man. What's so good about white hair? That's called senile sickness! Look carefully, he even has age spots on his face," Sun Fatty muttered softly.
Xiong Wanyi agreed beside him: "Exactly, spoiled by the school, what's so good about a pretty boy? But hey, Fatty, does he really have age spots? I didn't see any." Sun Fatty glanced at him and said, "It'll come sooner or later."
They whispered with mischievous smiles on their faces. I turned to them and said, "If you've got the guts, say that louder." Sun Fatty caught on and immediately shut up, putting on an act as he entered the dining area and began selecting food.
Xiong Wanyi had never worked with him before and had no tacit understanding with me. Back turned to Wu Rendi, he exaggeratedly said, "Lazi, he's way over there, are you afraid he'll... Wu, Wu Teacher, you… are you eating here personally?" He was halfway through when Wu Rendi had already walked behind him. Fortunately, Xiong Wanyi caught my glance and quickly changed the subject.
"Yes, came to eat," Wu said with no trace of earthly warmth, but that didn't mean he wouldn't choke people with his words. "Might as well check on my senile sickness and age spots."
"Wu Teacher, when did you get in here?" Sun Fatty approached with his tray, looking surprised. "We were just talking about you, saying you're getting younger and younger."
Wu Rendi snorted and ignored us. He casually took a tray, scooped some chicken, fish, vegetables, and other dishes in the dining area, then headed to the seating area.
Wu Teacher's intention was clear. Ignoring the girls trying to give him a seat, he went straight to a table on the right without asking if it was occupied and sat down. On the other side of the table were two female students. One of them was Shao Yiyi, who had some kind of connection with him.
But Shao Yiyi didn't seem to recognize Wu Teacher. She frowned and said to Wu Rendi, "Teacher, someone's already here. She'll be here soon."
"No one, no one. Wu Teacher, you sit." A classmate sitting with Shao Yiyi quickly denied her, causing Shao Yiyi to roll her eyes. "Bai Anqi, Xu Miaomiao are coming, where do you want them to sit?"
Wu Teacher ignored her. To be precise, he ignored everyone. Once seated, he lowered his head and ate from his tray as if the two girls across from him were invisible. He ate quickly; within minutes, his tray was clean.
After eating his fill, Wu Teacher stood, said nothing, and left the cafeteria. Everyone watching his back felt a bit awkward and uneasy.
The five of us found an empty table and sat down. Xiong Wanyi spoke first, "Why did Old Wu come?"
Ximen Lian added, "Seems like he came to eat."
Only Sun Fatty and I knew a bit more and could guess about eighty to ninety percent of the situation. Sun Fatty glanced at me, then at the confused Shao Yiyi. He changed the topic, "I heard the welcome ceremony planned for you almost got canceled? A girl went missing and was found later? What happened? Xiong Wanyi, you tell us."
"What do you mean, 'Xiong Wanyi'? Call me Brother Xiong!" Although Xiong Wanyi was verbally annoyed, he still recounted again what happened in the auditorium. Actually, Sun Fatty had already heard about it from me before. He was just trying to change the subject, not really paying attention, and Xiong's rambling didn't help. So I took over and summarized the whole incident in a few sentences.
While we were eating, several other groups arrived one after another. Judging by their looks, they hadn't found anything either. We exchanged information, and sure enough, there was nothing special to report.
Staying in the cafeteria wasn't much fun, so the few of us left and headed back along the way we came. By now, it was completely dark, and under the streetlamp's dim glow, the surroundings looked gloomy and eerie.
We returned to the place where Zhang Yuanyuan had gone missing and searched again, hoping that once the night was fully fallen, we might find some clues. Unfortunately, after a full sweep, we still found nothing.
With no new leads, all we could do was head back to the dorm and wait for instructions from the directors. Not long after we started walking back, suddenly, a woman's voice faintly sounded in my ear: "Shen… La… Shen… La."
Something's wrong! I shivered and stopped walking. "Did someone call me? Did you guys hear that?"
Sun Fatty and the others immediately surrounded me. Using the Heavenly Eye, we scanned the surroundings but found nothing. Sun Fatty asked, "Did anyone else hear it?" Xiong Wanyi and the other two shook their heads. Sun Fatty continued, "Lazi, what did she say to you?"
"She was just calling my name. It was a woman, like she wanted to say something to me."
I strained to listen. The voice that had called me suddenly disappeared, as if no one had ever shouted. After waiting a while longer with no sound, I said, "The voice is gone. I can't hear it anymore."
Xiong frowned. "According to what Zhang Yuanyuan said, if we wait a little longer, we'll hear someone calling you, and at that moment, you'll vanish instantly."
I snorted, "Who here has a gun? Lend it to me." None of the four shook their heads. My confidence wavered. I had been too arrogant—afraid that carrying a gun would reveal my identity, I'd put the pistol in the storage locker. The short knife Uncle San gave me was still at the Civil Investigation Bureau. I thought having Wu Ren Di around meant nothing would happen. Should have kept the gun on me. To borrow Hao Wenming and Sun Fatty's motto: Not to brag, but in a situation like this, if I had a gun in my hand, those restless ghosts wouldn't even be on my radar. That fifteen-story building is a perfect example.
Sun Fatty and the others formed a circle around me. We all pulled out our collapsible batons, ready for that voice to call me a second time.
It came! The voice sounded again: "Shen La, is that you?" This time, we all heard it. I could already feel the four around me stiffen. Sun Fatty shouted loudly, "Left side!" As he finished, we all swung our batons with the wind, the rods flashing a black gleam under the streetlamp's light.
"Shen La, is that you?" Again, the voice came. Hmm? Why did it sound so familiar? Like someone I know well. "Seriously, what are you five standing around for?"
As the voice came closer, Hao Wenming appeared from the direction of the cafeteria.
"Hao, was that you calling just now?" Sun Fatty couldn't hold it any longer. Hao Wenming was at least a director-level figure; with him here, we all felt a bit more reassured.
"Anyone else calling?" Hao Wenming looked around but didn't see anything. "Seriously, what did you hear?" I explained, "A woman's voice was calling my name, but only I could hear it. Da Sheng and the others didn't hear anything. It's similar to what happened when the girl Zhang Yuanyuan went missing in the academy."
Hao Wenming nodded, pulled a small compass-like device from his pocket, examined it for a while, and said, "Seriously, something must have been there, but it was far away, so you guys didn't sense it. Only Lazi's Heavenly Eye was strong enough to barely feel some movement."
"Hao, what do we do now?" Hearing this from Hao Wenming, the atmosphere relaxed a bit.
Hao put away the compass. "I'll inform Director Gao and have this section of the road sealed off. You guys go back to the dorm for now." With that, he dismissed us.
Finally, we had a lead, and with the biggest backing from the Bureau by our side, it seemed graduation wasn't far off.
On the way back to the dorm, no strange noises appeared. After entering my room, the first thing I did was take the pistol out of the storage locker. With the gun in my hand, I suddenly felt fearless. But Sun Fatty seemed to be hiding something from me. He wasn't in a hurry to open his locker, so it looked like his sidearm wasn't stored there. His explanation was that his gun wasn't in the locker, and as for where it was, that was "no comment."
The next morning, our official student life at Vermilion Bird Business Academy began (except for Sun Fatty). We were assigned to various classes above the high school level. I ended up in the same class as Xiong Wanyi and Ximen Lian. Coincidentally, Shao Yiyi was also in our class.
The first class was math — my biggest headache — but one consolation was that the math teacher was a genuine beauty. Whoever said science subjects had no beautiful teachers clearly hadn't met her.
What she said on the podium went completely over my head. Looking at my two classmates, Xiong Wanyi was already slumped asleep on his desk, while Ximen Lian was chatting animatedly with a female student next to him. That girl was the same one who was with Shao Yiyi last night—something like Bai Anqi.
My attention was quickly drawn to Shao Yiyi. She was probably the most diligent student in the class. Whenever the beautiful teacher asked questions, she eagerly raised her hand to answer and took detailed notes on the teacher's blackboard writing. From what I saw, she was the epitome of an excellent student.
Just as I was about to give up, the class finally ended. Xiong Wanyi hadn't woken up yet, but I admired Ximen Lian — in just one 45-minute lesson, he had already exchanged phone numbers with Bai Anqi and arranged to have lunch together. How did he manage that?
With only a few students left in the classroom, I planned to sneak out and find Sun Fatty, and skip the remaining classes. But as I stood up, someone poked my lower back with a hard object.
"Hey! You, I need to talk to you."
Shao Yiyi stood behind me, holding a pen.
"Are you acquainted with that white-haired guy?"
I glanced at her. "If you have something to say, just say it. And don't poke me with that pen."
Shao's face flushed a bit. She seemed about to curse me but held back. "Go tell that white-haired guy to stop pestering me. I... don't get along with him." Her voice lowered with the last few words—I had to listen carefully to catch them.
For a moment, I couldn't believe my ears. What's going on? Even Wu Ren Di gets dumped? He... has his day? No, wait! Wu Ren Di seemed to have known Shao Yiyi and her mother for a long time. Last time, he forced me and Sun Fatty to give half of the bead money to the mother-daughter pair, and from the looks of it, it wasn't the first time he'd sent money. Would it really cost that much just to chase a girl?
Seeing I didn't respond, Shao misunderstood. "Don't say you don't know him. I saw you talking to him in the cafeteria last night. Even if you're not close, you can at least pass on a message, right?" Her final words were half pleading, half coaxing. If I didn't know Wu Ren Di's background, I probably would have agreed on the spot.
I felt awkward and said, "Your business is yours to handle. Besides, I'm not really close with him. We just exchanged a few words on the school bus when we came. Not close enough for me to help with this."