Ji Xun tossed the baby in his arms toward Jiang Yao. "Take him out of here first. I'll come find you in a bit."
The baby traced a graceful arc through the air. Jiang Yao caught him precisely, then stared at the baby perched securely on his arm, who stared right back.
"Be careful!" Deng Wen grabbed Jiang Yao, who was still locked in a staring contest with the baby, and ran.
The madwoman wanted to chase them, but Ji Xun kept her too occupied to get away.
She glared furiously at Ji Xun and hurled her axe at him with all her strength.
Ji Xun dodged sideways, and the axe buried itself deep in the restroom door behind him.
When her strike missed, the woman instead broke into a sinister smile. Her shriveled belly suddenly began swelling rapidly, like a balloon being inflated.
Her limbs were as thin as sticks, yet her belly was as large as that of a woman about to give birth.
A shrill, beastlike howl erupted from her mouth. A bloody lump dropped from beneath her tattered skirt, writhed a few times, and turned out to be another ghost infant.
Unlike the ghost infant from the sewer, however, this one had no mind of his own. He had been born solely to kill.
After the ghost infant left her body, the madwoman panted a few times, and her belly shriveled back to its former state.
She howled at Ji Xun. As though receiving an order, the ghost infant crawled rapidly toward him.
Ji Xun drew his blade and flicked the ghost infant away, but he felt no pain at all and crawled along the wall toward Ji Xun again.
The madwoman retrieved her axe and attacked Ji Xun together with the ghost infant. The axe kept flying toward him, and before long, the walls were covered in marks left by its blade.
Seeing that she had no chance of winning, the madwoman decided to repeat her trick and create a few more ghost infants.
As the saying went, little ghosts were the hardest to deal with. The ghost infant's constant sneak attacks were already annoying Ji Xun to death. There was no way he would let her make more, so he kicked the little ghost infant into the restroom.
Then he used his scabbard to bar the restroom door.
The ghost infant kept pounding on the door from inside, letting out babbling cries.
The madwoman's belly swelled again. Ji Xun's gaze shifted slightly as he nimbly evaded her wildly swinging axe. Drawing his blade as he closed in, he almost sliced her in half at the waist!
The madwoman let out an agonized wail. Her belly had been slashed open, and a half-formed ghost infant burst out. With one swift, precise, ruthless stroke, Ji Xun chopped off his head.
The woman stared at Ji Xun with hatred, baring her teeth like a wild beast.
She was now completely incapable of attacking and could only drag what remained of her upper body across the floor.
Ji Xun was not in the habit of kicking someone when they were down, so he retrieved his scabbard and shut the woman inside as well.
Then he barred the door again with a mop.
The ghost infant's cries and the woman's screams came from inside.
"A mother and son reunited. How touching," Ji Xun remarked.
Blood seeped out beneath the restroom door. Ji Xun clicked his tongue and left.
"Stop pulling my hair, you little brat! Let go!"
Jiang Yao was arguing furiously with the baby, who was tugging on his hair and looked ready to climb onto his head.
Deng Wen could not stand watching any longer and lifted the baby down. "Ji Xun's here."
Jiang Yao sighed in relief and waved his fist at the baby. "I'll deal with you later."
The baby understood nothing and had no idea he was being threatened. Thinking Jiang Yao was playing with him, he reached out his chubby little hand to grab his fist.
Ji Xun walked over, and Deng Wen asked, "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine. Let's go to Grade Two Class Three."
"All right." Deng Wen handed the squirming baby in his arms to Ji Xun.
There was a Red-Dress Ghost hanging from the ceiling fan in Grade Two Class Three. When they reached the classroom door, the baby seemed to sense something and became unusually quiet.
His jet-black pupils shifted slightly, and tears filled his large eyes.
"Mo... Mommy." The baby reached helplessly toward the classroom, looking pleadingly at Ji Xun.
A noise came from inside the classroom as well. Ji Xun pushed the door open and found the Red-Dress Ghost struggling desperately.
But no matter how hard she struggled, she could not free herself from the rope that had taken her life.
Upon seeing the baby, the Red-Dress Ghost stopped struggling and reached out to him, her mouth forming a soundless call.
Ji Xun threw his blade, severing the rope she could never escape at night.
The Red-Dress Ghost floated to the floor like a sheet of paper. The baby let out a cry and crawled desperately toward her.
"She's the little brat's mother?" Jiang Yao asked. "How did you know? I've been here for two years, and I didn't even know the little brat had a mother."
"That's blood on her dress." Ji Xun looked up at the ceiling fan. "And with the fan that high, she couldn't have hanged herself from it."
Deng Wen lowered his eyes. "Before I enrolled, I heard that a girl in Grade Three had hanged herself. Supposedly, she'd been dating some thug from outside school and gotten pregnant, but he abandoned her in the end."
"Bullshit!" The Red-Dress Ghost was furious. "The principal did this to me!"
The Red-Dress Ghost was exactly the kind of student Jiang Yao had described: beautiful, but with no family to stand up for her.
She had been born into a family that valued sons over daughters. Even her tuition had been scraped together by neighbors who could not bear to watch her plight.
But when word of her "scandal" spread through the neighborhood, her name was forever nailed to the pillar of shame.
The neighbors who had once helped her looked disgusted whenever they mentioned her. Her parents had not even gone to collect her body, leaving her lying cold and alone in the funeral home.
All of it was because of the principal.
"You must never touch that stuff. Once I was forced into drug addiction, I stopped being a person. I became the principal's dog." The Red-Dress Ghost gave a miserable smile.
Wary of the power wielded by the Class Twelve Parents, the principal had started Jiang Yao and the others on small doses of drugs, gradually increasing them.
But the Red-Dress Ghost was different. No one would speak up for her, so the principal had nothing to fear.
The principal had someone give her extremely pure drugs. Then, when she was suffering from withdrawal and at her breaking point, he appeared, approaching her with a facade of kindness and concern.
The Red-Dress Ghost had never known what it felt like to be cared for. He deceived her with ease, and she even became pregnant.
"I started bleeding that day, so I went to the Principal's Office to find him. But I saw the drugs in his safe." Hatred filled the Red-Dress Ghost's eyes. "He was the one who ruined me! And he still pretended to be my savior!"
She wanted to call the police and expose the principal's crimes, but the principal and the Administrator happened to return and discovered her.
The principal had the Administrator strangle her, then stage it as a suicide by hanging after school let out.
The baby, who had been about to enter the world, had been crushed by the Administrator's hands and slipped out of his mother's body. The principal had tossed him into the sewer in disgust.
Both Jiang Yao and Deng Wen fell silent.
Watching the baby anxiously comfort his mother, Ji Xun finally sighed.
[Main quest: Collect and verify four Campus Ghost Stories (3/4)] [Side quest "Help the adorable lost child find his mommy" completed]
Ji Xun raised an eyebrow. He had actually completed two quests at once.
Squeaking sounded in the classroom, and Ji Xun felt something tugging at his trouser leg.
He looked down and discovered a jet-black mouse no longer than his thumb.
"Big brother, thank you for helping me find Mommy. He's my friend Hei Hei. You can have him," the baby said indistinctly.
Ji Xun: Thanks, but I don't want him.
Before you continue