Strange

Chapter 38: Strange

Bai Yanliang paused for a moment, then tapped Confirm.

The moment he accepted, Feng Xiuxue sent him a message.

"See you tomorrow."

That woman certainly was direct and efficient.

"Time and place."

Bai Yanliang replied with two words.

On the other end, Feng Xiuxue frowned slightly. It had taken Bai Yanliang nearly half a minute to reply with four characters. It seemed he was hesitant about meeting her.

That was a misunderstanding. Bai Yanliang was simply unfamiliar with typing on a phone and was too slow.

"Two in the afternoon. Rongqiao Sky Street, Log Coffee Shop."

Bai Yanliang looked at the message, turned his head, and asked, "Where's Rongqiao Sky Street?"

Yang Yiyi gave him a deeply resentful look. He'd just bought a phone and was already chatting away. Had he forgotten why they were here?

At the thought, she said irritably, "Do you know the name of my residential complex?"

"Rongyuan Residential Complex."

Bai Yanliang remembered it clearly.

"Then there you go. Rongqiao Sky Street is the pedestrian street across from it."

Bai Yanliang nodded and laboriously typed out two words:

"Got it."

Feng Xiuxue saw the two-word reply, which had arrived almost a minute later, and her eyelid twitched.

On the other side, Bai Yanliang flexed his stiff fingers and turned to Yang Yiyi, who wore a deeply displeased expression. "Let's go to the affiliated hospital."

The group had already learned almost everything about Yu Hanzhou's team.

All that remained was Wei Xiu's team and Bai Yanliang's.

But... all six members of Wei Xiu's team had died in the past. Not only could they bring back no useful information, they had also left Mist Gathering with a terrifying problem.

"Hiding from the moon in the mountains, retrieving a coffin from beneath the water"—in six months, that moment would descend upon everyone in Mist Gathering.

"Mr. Xu, please tell us about your third group."

Xu Zhi'an read the message, but felt a little troubled.

His arms had completely healed, as if they had never been broken. But he actually knew very little about this mission.

In fact, even now, Xu Zhi'an still had no idea how Bai Yanliang had dealt with so many ghosts.

There had been three known ghosts, after all!

He wasn't the only one who knew little. Li Yuejun was also in the dark. Only Jiang Li had some idea, but they had found too few clues, and afterward she had gone to care for Xu Zhi'an, who had broken his arm. She couldn't say much either.

The three of them took turns adding bits and pieces, leaving everyone in the group thoroughly confused.

"So... Mr. Bai helped you repeatedly, then solved every problem on his own?"

Zhou Li summed it up.

"...More or less."

Jiang Li was the first to reply.

"Mm... that's right..."

Li Yuejun also confirmed it.

"Yes, Mr. Bai... is incredibly brave. Throughout the whole thing, he didn't show the slightest fear. He even... went to see a ghost of his own accord."

Xu Zhi'an's reply left the group silent once again.

Everyone couldn't help but wonder the same thing: was Bai Yanliang a genius, or... a madman?

Li Mu calmly read through all the messages, then left the group chat.

A genius?

Mist Gathering had never lacked geniuses.

Yecheng Jiangbei Training Affiliated Hospital was a key school, and many of its students went on to prestigious universities each year.

After what had happened the previous night, a group of reporters suddenly appeared outside the school.

The security guards blocked the reporters from entering. They had already agreed on what to say: whatever the reporters asked, they would answer that they didn't know.

But the story had already spread through the students who had been sent home early.

"A student suddenly went berserk and stabbed an assistant instructor through the neck with a compass."

The school administration had no intention of keeping the story under wraps forever. They simply wanted to delay its exposure as much as possible. At the very least, the school needed to find out what had happened first.

Had the student suffered a sudden medical episode, or had there been bad blood between the two?

Even now, the school had no answers.

The police had found nothing conclusive either.

It wasn't that they were incompetent. The problem was that one person involved was being treated at the hospital, while the other had said nothing since being arrested at the scene the previous night. He just sat there, staring blankly, as if his soul had left his body.

When Bai Yanliang and Yang Yiyi arrived outside the training school, they found a crowd of reporters with cameras and microphones at the ready, all looking poised to break the story.

The entrance was completely blocked, with security guards holding them back.

Yang Yiyi had expected this. She led Bai Yanliang through a secluded corner and slipped inside.

"Don't tell anyone about this place. It's the students' secret!" Yang Yiyi reminded him again and again.

Bai Yanliang glanced at the secret passageway. It seemed every affiliated school had a corner where students could sneak out.

The training school was fairly large. Bai Yanliang followed Yang Yiyi toward the place where the confrontation had taken place the previous night.

"I heard it was in the assistant instructor's office. Follow me!"

By the time they arrived, police tape had been strung around the office. A stern-faced officer was speaking to someone who looked like a school administrator.

"Uncle Wang!"

Yang Yiyi called out sweetly.

The officer turned around. A smile appeared on his stern, proper face. "Yiyi? What brings you here?"

"I study here!"

It was clear that Officer Wang knew Yang Yiyi—or, more precisely, Yang Wanlong. The two were on good terms.

Officer Wang then noticed Bai Yanliang, who was looking thoughtfully at the scene. He frowned and asked, "Who are you? Unauthorized personnel aren't allowed at a crime scene."

"Leave immediately!"

Officer Wang's voice turned stern. He was about to send both Yang Yiyi and Bai Yanliang away.

Just then, Yang Yiyi raised her phone and handed it to Officer Wang. "Uncle Wang, my dad wants to talk to you!"

Officer Wang took the phone and held it to his ear.

No one knew exactly what Yang Wanlong said to him. Officer Wang's gaze kept shifting to Bai Yanliang, and in the end, he let him stay.

"Strange, isn't it?"

Officer Wang's voice suddenly sounded beside Bai Yanliang.

Bai Yanliang was crouching and feeling around on the ground. At the question, he nodded instinctively. "Yes. There's no sign of a struggle—not even any signs that the assistant instructor struggled after being injured. It's as if... he was already dead."

Bai Yanliang's strange explanation made Officer Wang pause. He then signaled to the nearby officers, sending away the school administrator who had come over to ask questions.

"You're right. As a matter of fact, we received a strange emergency call last night."

"An emergency call?" Bai Yanliang turned to look at Officer Wang.

"Mm. The caller said someone was going to rush in and stab him through the neck with a compass." Officer Wang's voice was calm, but his expression was not.

Because... it was just too bizarre.

The caller was the assistant instructor. He had actually... predicted his own murder?