Haunted

As the Free and Unfettered Female Emperor, Chu Xiaoyao naturally had no fear of mere ghosts.

Chu Xiaoyao wanted to tell Zhou You about her glorious achievements on the Primordial Continent, but she glanced up at their homeroom teacher, Old Gao, on the podium.

It was evening study hall, and the two of them would easily get caught if they whispered to each other.

Chu Xiaoyao had no choice but to pass Zhou You a note.

Zhou You took the note. It was long-half an exam paper's worth.

"I am the mighty Free and Unfettered Female Emperor! On the Primordial Continent, I struck at the Nine Heavens above and roamed the Nine Hells below. I wandered through the Yellow Springs as though no one else existed, and none dared disobey my decrees!"

"The Lord of the Hungry Ghost Path, the Sovereign of the Yellow Springs, the Asura King-all trembled at the sight of me and kowtowed in welcome, terrified of displeasing me." Chu Xiaoyao listed several mighty figures renowned throughout the Primordial Continent. Their titles alone made it clear they were important people.

"The Nine Hells teem with vengeful ghosts and are forbidden to all living beings. When I passed through them, lotuses bloomed beneath my every step, and golden light shone wherever I went. Every fiend touched by that light screamed and dissolved into nothing. Such is my exalted status that those ghosts would suffer heavenly punishment for so much as looking at me..."

Zhou You was captivated by the supreme power the Free and Unfettered Female Emperor described. He inwardly marveled that she truly deserved to be the female emperor with the highest cultivation on the Primordial Continent.

Then Zhou You caught something out of the corner of his eye, and his heart stopped.

At some point, their homeroom teacher had come to stand beside him and was silently looking down at him.

The entire class had fallen silent and turned to look at Zhou You with pity in their eyes.

Chu Xiaoyao had been happily waiting for Zhou You to write a note praising her, so she had failed to notice their teacher approaching.

By the time she noticed, it was too late to warn Zhou You.

Both Chu Xiaoyao and Zhou You were nervous, sweat beading on their foreheads. Dating was forbidden in high school. Although neither had romantic feelings for the other, what if their teacher mistook their notes for flirtation? Wouldn't they be made to sit apart from then on?

Their teacher unceremoniously picked up the note, frowned as he read it, and finally confiscated it.

"No reading novels during study hall."

"Okay."

The old dormitory building.

A large sign stood in front of the building, bearing the words "No entry" in red paint. It looked especially eerie in the darkness.

Two figures, a boy and a girl, crept through the night. After making sure no one was around, they ignored the warning on the sign and slipped into the old dormitory building.

They passed one empty dorm room after another, not daring to look through the little windows in the doors for fear that something might appear. Their hearts in their mouths, they walked with utmost care.

Fortunately, nothing happened.

"Isn't this place haunted? Why did you bring me here?" The girl looked around. It was so quiet she could hear her own heartbeat. Perhaps she was imagining it, but she felt a little cold.

A chilly wind blew through the broken windows and wandered down the corridor, making the room-number plaques creak.

For some reason, she had felt inexplicably panicked ever since arriving, as though someone was watching her from the shadows.

The building was dim. They could barely make out each other's silhouettes by the moonlight. The far end of the corridor led into darkness, as though something terrifying was brewing there.

"This is the only place the teachers don't patrol. Haunted? That's obviously nonsense." The boy scoffed. The more unsettling the surroundings, the more confident he had to act. That was how he could show off his masculine charm.

"O-okay." The girl still felt uneasy. The chilly wind brushed over her like countless little hands, damp and soft, stroking her skin. Goosebumps rose all over her.

She glimpsed a dorm room door out of the corner of her eye. Sweat broke out on the soles of her feet, and she clutched the boy's clothes.

"What's wrong?" the boy asked, puzzled.

The girl didn't dare speak. She merely pointed, signaling for him to look.

She was pointing at a dorm room.

The dorm room door wasn't completely solid. It had a small window so teachers could check the room. The boy saw a figure at the door, seemingly peering at them through the window.

"Who are you?!" the boy demanded sharply.

His voice echoed down the corridor. No one answered, and the figure remained at the window.

The boy was a little frightened too, but he couldn't show it in front of the girl. Holding her hand, he worked up his courage and walked toward the room, his heart pounding.

It was only three or four steps away, yet the distance felt endless. Even his lips had gone dry.

There are no ghosts in this world, he repeated to himself twice. Summoning his courage, he looked through the little window to meet the figure's gaze. The girl hurriedly covered her eyes, too scared to look.

"It's fine. Someone hung a school uniform by the door." Having discovered the truth, the boy sighed with relief.

A school uniform was hanging on the dorm room door. The dim light and the viewing angle had made it look like a person. It had been a false alarm.

Only then did the girl dare open her eyes, and her gaze held a little more affection as she looked at the boy.

They had just been through an adventure together-the perfect moment for their feelings to deepen. The boy fanned the flames by leaning in to kiss her.

They closed their eyes and kissed passionately, slipping their tongues into each other's mouths.

Suddenly, the boy felt something strange about the girl. Her tongue didn't feel right. Puzzled, he opened his eyes and discovered that the person in his arms was no longer a petite, lovely girl, but a gray rat as tall as a human.

It stood upright and wore a school uniform, right there in his arms. He could even see its whiskers clearly.

He instinctively gave it a squeeze. Its fur pricked his hand.

The giant rat's whiskers twitched as it gazed lovingly at the boy and tried to snuggle closer into his arms. "Darling, why did you stop kissing me?"

"Aah!"

The boy lost control of himself in terror and fled in a panic.

His reaction gave the girl a terrible fright. She had no idea why he had suddenly started screaming and running away.

"Don't leave me!" The girl had already been frightened and didn't dare stay alone in the pitch-dark building. Now she was so terrified that she didn't even have the strength to walk. Tears welled in her eyes, ready to spill at any moment.

A strange scraping sound came from the other end of the corridor, as though someone was dragging something heavy toward her.

Rustling noises also drifted out of the darkness, as if someone were whispering.

"W-who's there?" the girl asked, forcing herself to be brave. She pressed herself against the wall, which gave her a faint sense of security.

The scraping grew louder and louder, meaning the person in the darkness was getting closer.

At last, the person dragging the heavy object emerged from the shadows.

When the girl saw what that person looked like, overwhelming terror engulfed her. Her whole body shook uncontrollably.

It was her boyfriend!

Hadn't he run out through the entrance? Why was he appearing from deep inside the corridor?

The boy lay on the floor, straining with both arms as he slowly and laboriously crawled toward her.

That strange scraping sound wasn't her boyfriend dragging something heavy. It was him dragging his own body!

Lying on the floor, the boy shakily reached toward her. "Help me... Help me..."

The girl had intended to pull him up, but only after moving closer did she see that countless black crawling creatures had gnawed away his entire lower body. His eye sockets were hollow, with creatures crawling in and out. Countless more crawled along his arms toward her.

The rustling she had heard wasn't whispering at all. It was the sound of those creatures crawling, jostling, and feeding!

"Aah!"

No. 2 High School had originally been a boarding school. Rumor had it that the old dormitory building was haunted and uninhabitable, which was why the school had switched to having students commute.

It was already nine thirty when evening study hall ended. Zhou You and Chu Xiaoyao were full of energy, even livelier than they were during the day, and slipped away from the stream of students leaving school.

The old dormitory building stood at the very back of the school, far from the classroom building and across the sports field. Zhou You inwardly grumbled that the designer must have had something wrong with their head to put the dorms so far from the classrooms.

The sports field was deserted and frighteningly quiet. The only sounds were Zhou You's and Chu Xiaoyao's footsteps on the grass. They even felt a slight chill.

The closer they got to the old dormitory building, the more pronounced that chill became.

Moonlight spilled down, casting the shadows of branches onto the walls. They swayed and rustled in the wind like ghosts baring their fangs and claws.

As the two carefully approached the old dormitory building, they heard screams coming from inside.

A boy and a girl ran out one after the other, their faces stricken with terror and panic. Zhou You wanted to stop them and ask what had happened, but they gave him no chance to open his mouth. They hurried past him and Chu Xiaoyao toward the classroom building, quickly disappearing into the darkness of the sports field.

"How outrageous! They actually skipped class to come here." Chu Xiaoyao was indignant. They had come to catch ghosts as soon as evening study hall ended, yet that boy and girl had arrived even earlier. They must have skipped study hall altogether.

Neglecting their studies like that-how awful.

Zhou You didn't know the two well. They were students from another class.

As the two approached the old dormitory building, an inexplicable chill washed over them, making them shiver. It was completely at odds with the sweltering summer weather.

Thinking of the young couple who had fled in terror, Zhou You figured they had most likely encountered a ghost. His heart leaped with delight. They had come to the right place.

"So there really is a ghost." Chu Xiaoyao nodded composedly, delivering her verdict.

Ignoring the wooden warning sign, they stepped through the entrance into the old dormitory building. The chill grew even stronger, seeming to seep into their bones and leave them cold from the inside out.

Who knew how long this building had been abandoned? Dust coated everything, and cobwebs were everywhere. Just a couple of steps stirred up enough dust to make them both cough.

Incoherent messages such as "Help me" and "Let me leave" were smeared across the walls in broken, uneven writing.

It was too dark to see clearly, but Zhou You kept feeling that the words were dark red. He couldn't help wondering whether they had really been written in paint.

"They actually managed to have a date in these conditions. Those two had it rough." Zhou You shook his head. Just look at what the school had driven young couples to-forcing them to hide in a place like this for their trysts.

Zhou You surveyed the pitch-black corridor and couldn't see a thing. He felt they had come a little too hastily. They should have brought a geomantic compass, black dog blood, a big rooster, or something.

At the very least, they should have brought a flashlight.

Nuomi watched Zhou You and Chu Xiaoyao with interest, floating around them in circles and making faces. She secretly blew a breath against Zhou You's neck.

"Whoo."

Zhou You covered his neck and turned around warily. Seeing nothing, he looked bewildered.

Nuomi covered her mouth and laughed.

Even when she laughed, neither Zhou You nor Chu Xiaoyao noticed her presence in the slightest.

They had scared her half to death. So their earlier words had just been a bluff.

She was right beside them, yet neither had any awareness of her. Were these another two students out exploring?

In Nuomi's experience as a ghost, the people who came to the old dormitory building generally fell into three categories.

The first were young couples sneaking off for a date.

The second were reckless students coming to explore.

The third were people who came specifically to exorcise ghosts.

Zhou You and Chu Xiaoyao had no equipment whatsoever and were peering around in their school uniforms. They were undoubtedly the second type.

"How should I scare them this time?"

Nuomi floated in the air, circling the pair as she considered what trick to use this time.

These two seemed quite brave. The trick she had just used to scare the young couple might not work.

Nuomi had extensive experience scaring people. She had frightened off more people than she could count.

The biggest mistake in scaring someone was failing to frighten them on the first attempt. If the first try didn't work, they would know what to expect, making them even harder to scare.

"Rawr, rawr!"

Nuomi bared her teeth and brandished her claws in a threatening pose right in front of Zhou You and Chu Xiaoyao. The two remained completely unaware.