"Brother Kai, what exactly happened last night? I heard the captain promoted you to squad leader?"
Yang Kai was surrounded by several people, who peppered him with questions from every direction.
"Hey, of course! Last night..."
Yang Kai wore a smug grin. After becoming a squad leader, he could move into a higher-grade dorm, had more than a dozen new men under him, and enjoyed a much better allowance. But when it came to last night, his eyes darted around before he put on a mysterious face. "You wanna know? Heh, take a guess!"
Seeing Yang Kai string them along, the people around him immediately booed.
Just then, Yang Kai glanced over and spotted someone coming out of the dormitory building. His eyes lit up, and he shoved the people beside him aside. "Move, move, move!"
Then he hurried toward the figure. "Brother! Brother, you're alive!"
Xiao Ran looked up in confusion and saw Yang Kai coming straight toward him.
"Brother, how did you survive last night?"
Xiao Ran had told Yang Kai and the others to leave first and stayed behind alone to deal with the Embroidered Shoes. That morning, Yang Kai and the others had seen Wang Jun and the others' bodies in the hallway and assumed Xiao Ran was dead, too. They hadn't expected him to still be alive.
"Lucky, I guess."
Xiao Ran sighed, looking shaken.
Only then did Yang Kai notice the bloodstains on Xiao Ran's clothes and the black plastic bag in his hand. It looked rather heavy, and the outlines of hands and feet were faintly visible inside.
"My roommate died, so..."
Xiao Ran's expression darkened with guilt. He blamed himself for being too greedy. He hadn't expected the old man's corpse to be so fragile. After using Borrow and Extract to draw talismans several times, the body had suddenly fallen apart.
Its flesh had crumbled like weathered foam, turning completely to mush.
"Ah, my condolences..."
Yang Kai nodded solemnly. Seeing the sadness on Xiao Ran's face touched him deeply.
To find a brother so loyal and true-hearted in a place like this campus was as rare as a ray of light in the darkness.
"This guy's too kind."
Yang Kai waved to the people behind him. "A few of you, come help me throw my brother's brother into the— Uh, take him to the Meat Furnace."
"The Meat Furnace?"
"Yeah. You're new here, so you don't know. All the bodies around here get tossed into the Meat Furnace out back and burned as firewood. You'll get used to it eventually."
When Yang Kai saw the blood on Xiao Ran's face, his heart ached. "Brother, why don't you stick with me from now on? As long as I've got food, you'll have a share."
"That's not a bad idea. Having a dorm room to myself makes me stand out. I might as well blend in with Yang Kai and the others. That way, I'll have cover when the big sweep happens."
"Thanks, Brother Kai."
"What are you thanking me for? Come on, let's go take a shower and get you into some clean clothes."
Yang Kai slung an arm over Xiao Ran's shoulder and said to the underlings behind him, "From now on, this is my sworn brother. Call him Brother Wang."
"Hello, Brother Wang!"
The men didn't dare slack off and called out in unison.
Yang Kai then introduced Xiao Ran to the two followers who had originally been at his side: Xie Xinrong and Xie Hongyi. They were brothers, Xie Xinrong the elder and Xie Hongyi the younger. They were also Yang Kai's right-hand men.
"Brother Yang, did you get promoted?"
Xiao Ran had noticed that Yang Kai was clearly in a different position now. He even had a lot more underlings around him.
"Hahaha." Yang Kai grinned smugly, then lowered his voice. "Last night, our captain went after a Night Ghost, and we followed him..."
He glanced around before continuing in a hushed voice. "We ran into the captain halfway there. He was a little injured, so we carried him back."
Then Yang Kai muttered, "Must've eaten something bad. The captain spent the whole night in the toilet. No idea why, but he kept yelling while he was... taking care of business."
Yang Kai took Xiao Ran to the school bathhouse.
It was mostly empty. Yang Kai checked the time. "Go on and wash up. And remember, if anyone asks you what date it is, tell them it's September fifth."
Seeing Xiao Ran's bewildered expression, Yang Kai pointed to an inconspicuous sign on the left.
[Bathhouse Rules]
1: Please wash as quickly as possible. Do not linger afterward.
2: Keep quiet. No horseplay.
3: Hot and cold water are provided at random. It's all down to luck.
Weird Tale: If anyone asks you what date it is, tell them it's September fifth.
"Aren't you going in to wash, too?"
After reading the rules, Xiao Ran turned to look at Yang Kai.
"No."
Yang Kai lowered his voice. "There's actually a hidden Weird Tale. If more than six people bathe together, only five can come out."
"There are hidden Weird Tales, too?"
"Yeah. There are lots of Weird Tales at this school, but people have deliberately kept them hidden. We've only figured out a few by sacrificing the lives of our predecessors. They're damn creepy. Once you're done washing, I'll tell you all about them."
He motioned for Xiao Ran to hurry inside. They would keep watch at the entrance.
"Oh, okay."
Xiao Ran nodded, his confusion deepening. Hidden Weird Tales, beggars created by someone... What exactly was going on at this school?
Still uneasy, Xiao Ran walked into the bathhouse and took off his clothes.
The school bathhouse was shabby. It was really just a communal shower room, without the soaking pools common in the north. Each showerhead was separated by a partition.
It was a bit run-down, but good enough for a school.
He turned on the hot-water tap, but no hot water came out. Looked like he was out of luck.
It didn't matter, though. He could use cold water. He often showered with cold water back home anyway.
He turned the cold-water tap, and a chill washed over him.
Although it was a school bathhouse, each shower had a bar of soap and a bottle of shampoo hanging beside it. For Xiao Ran, covered in blood and reeking of gore, a chance to wash up properly was as good as it got.
He picked up the shampoo and rubbed it into his hair. After scrubbing a few times, he was about to rinse it off with cold water when—
"Pfft... splish, splish, splish..."
Water splashed behind the partition.
Xiao Ran froze. "Someone else came in to wash?"
Yang Kai and the others weren't keeping their word. Hadn't they promised to watch the door for him?
He hurriedly rinsed the shampoo from his hair. Cold water poured over his head. He rubbed at his scalp a few times, then suddenly sniffed.
"Blood!"
A sharp, fresh scent of blood drifted over. Xiao Ran snapped his eyes open and warily scanned his surroundings.
The fresh blood smelled completely different from the blood on a corpse. It couldn't possibly have come from him.
He looked down at the water around his feet, now stained red. The blood wasn't coming from his side; it was flowing from behind the partition next to him.
Xiao Ran hesitated, then took the Death Ring from his inventory, activated it, and put it on. He also took out his black cleaver. Narrowing his eyes, he leaned over and peered around the partition.
"Splish, splish, splish..."
Water splashed onto the floor. Behind the partition, a thin young man was crouched on the ground with both hands covering his face, his shoulders trembling. His body was covered in tiny wounds, and the blood washing over him was coming from those injuries.
Looking at the young man crouched on the ground, Xiao Ran's gaze turned curious. He looked him over. "Need a hand?"
The young man froze, then looked up at Xiao Ran in surprise.
"I can't stitch you up, but I can stop the bleeding."
The young man was still conscious, which meant he hadn't reached the point where his mind had been wiped away. Xiao Ran took a stick of incense from his inventory and lit it in a dry spot nearby.
As the incense began to burn, the young man swallowed. He glanced at Xiao Ran, then went over and greedily inhaled the smoke in great gulps.
As wisps of smoke entered his nose and mouth, his previously wispy body began to take on a more solid form.
While the young man was occupied, Xiao Ran dried himself off and put on a clean pair of underwear. Then he went over to him. "Are you a Night Ghost?"
That was right. The young man before him was a Yin Soul.
Xiao Ran found him more familiar than the students outside. Since coming here, he'd only seen the old man at the stairwell last night, apart from the Night Ghosts.
But those Night Ghosts weren't normal souls. Every pore on their bodies exuded intense negative emotions.
By comparison, the young man before him seemed more like a normal soul.
That was one reason Xiao Ran was willing to help him.
The young man shook his head at the words "Night Ghost." Still inhaling the smoke, he said, "There's no such thing as Night Ghosts. We don't even know where they came from."
"You have other classmates?"
Xiao Ran caught the word "we" and immediately pressed him.
"Yeah..."
The young man nodded. "But ever since the school built that big Iron Furnace, there've been fewer and fewer classmates around me. Sometimes I see them, but they don't talk to me. They disappear soon after."
"A big Iron Furnace?"
Xiao Ran thought about it. Hadn't Yang Kai mentioned a Meat Furnace earlier? Could that be the same thing?
Xiao Ran wanted to ask more, but after saying so much, the young man seemed exhausted. He shook his head and held it. "I don't know. I don't know anything. My head hurts..."
When it was clear he wouldn't get anything else out of him, Xiao Ran had to let it go for now. He picked up the incense ashes, rubbed them between his hands, and blew them over the young man.
The ash settled over the wounds, and the bleeding stopped at once.
The blood wasn't real, but this should at least make him feel better.
"Get some rest. I'll come see you when I have time."
Xiao Ran turned to leave.
"Wait!"
"What date is it?"
Xiao Ran paused and studied the young man. "September fifth."
Hearing the date, the young man began to tremble. He lifted his head. His pupils had turned completely black, and he stared straight at Xiao Ran, the corners of his lips curling into an eerie smile. "Wrong answer..."
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