Did I Just See a Ghost?

"I'm screwed... screwed... I'm not going to make it..." Li Yichen wailed as he ran.

Pressed for time, Li Yichen didn't even notice the energy surging out of his dantian and flowing through his meridians into his legs.

His figure gradually blurred, darting through the campus like a shadow.

Had anyone watched his feet, they would have noticed that with every step, his soles never actually touched the ground. Instead, he glided along on the air.

Dawn was just breaking. A young man was jogging with headphones on, his head bobbing gently to the music. Every so often, he belted out a few lines, completely lost in the music.

"Coming through... coming through!" Suddenly, a voice came from behind him.

Before he could react, a blurry shadow shot past him with a whoosh.

"Sorry, man, I'm in a hurry!" Without slowing down, Li Yichen swerved around the young man and kept running, stirring up a few fallen leaves by the path.

"Holy shit..." The young man instinctively stopped, his mouth hanging open. All he saw was a shadow rounding a corner and disappearing.

"That guy's practically flying." It took him a long while to recover before he muttered, "Can a human even move that fast? Did I just see a ghost?"

A minute later, Li Yichen pushed open the door to the administration building.

The moment he opened it, he froze. To his surprise, an old man inside was staring right at him.

The old man had graying hair and wore dark gray clothes, with a broom in one hand and a dustpan in the other.

"Morning, sir. Doing some cleaning?" Li Yichen smiled awkwardly, then casually asked, "Do you know what floor the academic affairs office is on?"

"You're here early, young man. The academic affairs office is on the fifth floor." The old man straightened up and smiled too. "But it's still too early. Director Wang isn't here yet. He'll probably be another half hour."

"Got it. Thank you, sir." Li Yichen bowed to the old man, then hurried straight into the stairwell.

"It's been a long time since I've seen such a polite student." Watching Li Yichen disappear, the old man bent down and resumed sweeping.

Just then, a middle-aged man in an immaculate suit walked in through the entrance.

As soon as he entered and saw the old man sweeping, he started in surprise. His arrogantly upright posture immediately folded into a bow.

He hurried over with a fawning smile and snatched the broom from the old man's hand. "Principal Cao, why are you cleaning again? You can leave this to the cleaning staff."

"Ah, Director Wang." The old man straightened up and smiled. "I'm old. I can't sleep much, and I have nothing else to do anyway. It counts as exercise."

"By the way, why are you here so early today too?" the old man asked.

"Well, the new students arrive tomorrow, don't they? I need to finish putting together the orientation volunteer list so the student council can post it first thing this morning," Director Wang promptly replied.

"Excellent. Our school needs administrators as dedicated to their duties as you, Director Wang." The old man nodded in satisfaction.

Who would've thought getting kicked out of bed by my wife and coming in a little early would get me noticed by this big shot? Looks like I might be in line for another promotion! Director Wang was so excited he nearly floated off the ground.

"You're too kind, Principal Cao." Director Wang grinned so broadly his eyes vanished. "I still have plenty of shortcomings. There's so much I need to learn from you."

"Let me help..." Without waiting for a response, he rolled up his sleeves and began cleaning alongside the old man.

By then, Li Yichen had reached the academic affairs office. The door was closed, so he couldn't see what was inside.

Li Yichen glanced both ways, then pressed his forehead against the door and peered through the gap. It was pitch-black inside, with no one there.

Immediately emboldened, he gripped the handle and gently turned it. "Shit, it's locked."

"That might stop someone else, but it won't stop me." Li Yichen grinned, and with a thought, he vanished from where he stood.

He passed effortlessly through the wall into the office, then immediately became visible again.

He had gotten smarter about it now. His netherworld ghost body could last half an hour, so he was better off conserving that time whenever he could.

He crept over to the desk, took out the folders one by one, and quickly searched through them.

"Not in here." Li Yichen put one folder back and opened another.

"How can it not be here?" After putting the last folder back, Li Yichen began to grow agitated. "If it's not here, where could it be?"

"That doesn't make sense. The new students arrive tomorrow, so the list has to be posted today." Scratching his head, Li Yichen checked every cabinet in the office that might hold documents.

Finally, his gaze landed on the computer, and inspiration struck. "Could it be they haven't printed it yet?"

He quickly crouched in front of the computer and pressed the power button. A fan immediately began whirring inside the machine.

Then the screen lit up, the familiar Windows 10 interface appeared, and a white loading circle spun around and around.

"Seriously... the director of academic affairs still uses a mechanical hard drive? Isn't that embarrassing?" Li Yichen's face darkened as he kept muttering, "Would it kill you to get an SSD? Hurry up, please."

Three minutes. Three whole minutes. It felt like a year to Li Yichen before the familiar desktop finally appeared.

"Holy shit, finally. You nearly scared me to fucking death." Li Yichen's eyes lit up, and he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good thing there's no login password, or I'd be screwed." Muttering to himself, Li Yichen scanned the files on the desktop.

"Found it!" Delighted, Li Yichen opened a Word document titled "Orientation Volunteer List" and quickly searched for his name.

"School of Mechanical Engineering... Li Yichen... room 601." Only after scrolling almost to the bottom did he finally find his name.

"School of Mechanical Engineering... Yang Weifeng..." Li Yichen's fingers clattered across the keyboard as he added each of his roommates beneath his own entry.

"All done. Thank you for your help, Director Wang," the old man said appreciatively downstairs.

"Not at all. It's my duty." Director Wang smiled until his eyes narrowed to slits, then wiped the sweat from his forehead, leaving several dark smudges.

The old man nodded in satisfaction and casually said, "You'd better head upstairs. A male student went up just now. I think he was looking for you."

"Of course, Principal Cao. I'll go take a look right away." Director Wang felt brimming with energy.

Meanwhile, Li Yichen checked everything again, confirmed there were no problems, and clicked Save.

"Yes... done!" Li Yichen couldn't help clenching his fist.

Tap, tap, tap... Just then, footsteps sounded outside, drawing closer and closer. Whoever it was was clearly heading this way.

"Shit." Li Yichen's heart jolted, and he hurriedly moved the mouse to click Shut down. Then came the same agonizing slowness as always.

"Hurry up, you piece of junk." Li Yichen was tempted to smash the computer.

The footsteps stopped. A moment later, a click sounded as the door opened.