Although his eyesight was excellent, Su Er still stared at it for a few more seconds to confirm it was indeed those three characters.
“What question did you ask?”
Ji Heng was standing right next to him, yet his voice sounded as if it came from a great distance.
Su Er responded calmly, “About my future career plans.”
“Oh?” Ji Heng gave a half-smile, half-sneer.
Once the first lie is exposed, no matter how cleverly crafted the next excuses are, they lose credibility. Su Er cut his losses in time and admitted, “Actually, it was about romantic relationships.”
He just didn’t understand why the answer was for him to write a book.
As a diligent high schooler, Su Er had never even been in a relationship. How could he write a book with zero experience?
Pretending not to see his own self-deception, Ji Heng said, “Continue?”
Su Er was more than happy to quickly turn the page and move on. He thought of a new question and silently recited—
Has anyone ever died in this school?
Book of Answers: Many.
Su Er’s eyes lit up, and he looked up to repeat the answer to Ji Heng. Just as he was about to press further, his wrist was suddenly grabbed.
Ji Heng: “Wait a moment.”
Heeding the advice, Su Er paused his use of the Book of Answers.
“According to our calculations, there are 183 safe pages.”
Su Er nodded. That seemed to match the current pattern. But before Ji Heng could continue, Su Er rubbed the bridge of his nose—if that were really the case, wasn’t this game being a bit too merciful?
With over a hundred questions, even a fool could piece together clues.
After a brief silence, Ji Heng suddenly said, “You keep asking.”
Over the next several rounds, Su Er’s questions focused on the school itself, and the clues he received included: competition, fox spirit, accidental killing, and milk.
It could be said that as long as the question wasn’t about the graduation certificate, the Book of Answers remained fairly benign.
Just as Su Er was about to ask the next question, Ji Heng shook his head. “Let me.”
He asked if there were any usable electronic devices in the teaching building. The answer was no.
But when Ji Heng asked his next question, the tone of the Book of Answers’ reply changed: Let’s play hide and seek together!
Su Er hesitated. “Mister East Wind flipped to this answer before. And that other player must have as well—it’s showing up a lot.”
“There’s another possibility,” Ji Heng offered a grim hypothesis. “No one has ever won against it.”
The host had driven away the ghost with sheer strength, while that other player...
There was a sound outside the door.
The ghost child who had left earlier returned—this time without a head. The voice came from deep in its throat: “Come play hide and seek with me.”
In its childish hands, it held a severed human head. Despite being covered in blood, Su Er could recognize it as one of the players by the distinctive black mole in the center of the forehead.
“My new toy…” The child gleefully showed off its trophy, turning its body toward Ji Heng. “I’ll count to a hundred, then come find you.”
Su Er instantly understood Ji Heng’s earlier move—he had been testing the game’s settings to see how many “safe” questions could be asked. Su Er had asked five simple questions in a row with no ill effects, suggesting that five might be the safe limit.
After that, Ji Heng took the risk himself to test it.
“You’ve reached the limit. Ask one more and it’s over.”
There it was.
Upon hearing this, Su Er silently looked up, his heartbeat skipping again—familiar arrhythmia.
The headless child had already counted to ten. Seeing the two still chatting, it grew angry at being ignored and began smashing the severed head against the door, blood splattering everywhere.
Su Er used his finger to write in Ji Heng’s palm, giving him an idea: use an invisibility item and hide behind the host.
Ji Heng found the suggestion oddly familiar. Thinking back, wasn’t this the same trick Su Er had used to sneak into Mister Sea of Book’s bed to avoid the ghost king?
He gave him a long look, then shook his head and walked out of the broadcast room.
Su Er’s eyes flickered... Was that not a good idea?
“Three, two, one!” The closer it got to the end, the more impatient the ghost child became, eager to finish counting. Finally, it shouted the last number and excitedly left with the severed head.
Only Su Er remained in the broadcast room. The bloodstains on the door glowed eerily in the moonlight, making it feel like the scene of a murder.
He didn’t sit there idly. Instead, he prepared to explore the empty classrooms.
Before heading downstairs, he noticed the nearby activity room. He hesitated for a few seconds before deciding not to enter.
This floor only had the broadcast room and the activity room. If he had come alone, he probably would have entered the activity room first—it had a cute tree picture on the door, much more eye-catching.
But Ji Heng had gone straight into the broadcast room earlier and hadn’t run into a ghost, which made Su Er a little more cautious about the activity room.
Pick one of two—the other option is too likely to run into a ghost.
The moment Su Er turned and headed downstairs, whether by a gust of wind or something else, the door to the activity room suddenly swung open.
He quickly quickened his pace, went to the next floor, and slipped straight into the first classroom on the fourth floor.
Class 6, Year 1.
Kids at this age already possess a certain degree of judgment and logic, so the chance of finding useful clues was relatively high.
Almost as soon as Su Er entered the room, bang bang! Two loud noises rang out as the front and back doors of the classroom slammed shut.
He walked over and tugged at the doors—locked.
Can't dodge the first day of the lunar year, but maybe the fifteenth?
It was fate—he was bound to run into something supernatural.
His hand stayed in his pocket, never leaving the stun gun. After standing still for a few seconds without being attacked, Su Er simply went on with his original intent—searching for clues inside the classroom.
He turned on the lights. As the light spread out, the fear inside was dispelled somewhat.
The desks were scattered with bits of junk—textbooks, and empty snack wrappers.
Su Er checked each one. Just as he pulled out a wrinkled workbook, his hand froze. He suddenly looked behind him.
On the back door was a pale paper cut-out of a human face.
“Gao Rui?” Su Er had a fairly distinct impression of this person—among the players who came this time, only she matched his own physical combat ability—bottom tier.
Gao Rui pushed the door open and entered.
“Wait—” Su Er had only just uttered the first syllable when the door slammed shut again on its own.
Startled by the sound, Gao Rui clutched her chest and hurried a few steps forward.
Su Er sighed. “I was just about to say that this classroom seems like you can enter, but not exit.”
Gao Rui’s eyes widened.
Maybe because someone else was inside, her fear remained under control.
Su Er kept a subtle eye on her movements, angling his body so as not to turn his back to her, and asked, “Where’s your partner?”
Gao Rui, still spooked, replied, “One died. Then we all split up.”
Su Er raised an eyebrow. “Hide-and-seek?”
Gao Rui was surprised. “How did you know?”
Su Er: “Ji Heng flipped to that page too.”
Gao Rui frowned, still focusing on the person in front of her, and asked what he was looking for.
Su Er: “I want to know what happened in this school in the past.”
“Huh?” Gao Rui was astonished. “What does that have to do with finding graduation certificates?”
“Sometimes the backstory of an instance is pretty important.”
Gao Rui thought this was a waste of time, but since Su Er didn’t seem to be looking for an exit either, group psychology kicked in, and she bent down to help search.
Girls tended to notice finer details. After flipping through three drawers, she spotted something Su Er had missed. “They all have foxes—coincidence?”
Su Er paused, lifting his gaze.
Gao Rui showed him what she found—a ruler, a workbook cover, and a book jacket. All had fox illustrations on them. Some were cute fire foxes, others were chubby and cartoonish. Visually different, but consistently foxes.
Fox spirit.
Su Er stared at the fox illustrations. He immediately thought of one of the clues from the Book of Answers. If he remembered correctly, he had asked: What was once popular at this school?
Looking back at the items he had already pulled out—yep, all had foxes.
At this point, Gao Rui also sensed something was wrong. Though she usually liked small animals, her skin was now crawling with goosebumps.
Noticing the cat shelter bracelet on Gao Rui’s wrist, Su Er asked, “Do you know much about fox spirits?”
Gao Rui did have some knowledge of folklore and nodded quickly.
“There are a few popular beliefs—becoming beautiful, attracting love, and gaining wealth. But in my hometown, there’s also a saying that worshipping fox spirits brings protection.”
Su Er’s eyes lingered on the fox patterns on the stationery. “This kind of thing actually became trendy in a school?”
“Maybe fox spirits are just special,” Gao Rui said. “In a lot of places, fox spirits have been worshipped for generations. The older folks even call them ‘Great Fox Immortals’—with a lot of respect.”
After saying that, she cautiously watched Su Er’s expression. “You don’t believe in this stuff?”
After being in so many instances, most players started to buy into some level of superstition.
Su Er: “Can a fox spirit raise my math score by 20 points?”
Gao Rui was stumped for a moment. “That might depend on your IQ.”
Su Er let out a cool “oh”: “Then I don’t believe in it.”
Lies.
Su Er kindly reminded, “You shouldn't believe it either.”
“......” Gao Rui's lips trembled. “Do you feel like the classroom's getting colder?”
And the drop in temperature had coincided precisely with the moment Su Er mocked the fox spirit.
Gao Rui walked to the door. “We need to find a way out.”
She mustered all her strength and smashed a chair at the door. With that kind of force, even if the door didn't break, it should’ve at least cracked. But this door seemed as solid as steel, completely unmoved no matter what was thrown at it.
“The noise is too loud. It'll scare off the other players.”
Gao Rui's hand, holding the chair in mid-air, froze.
She had easily pushed the door open earlier. If someone were to walk by again, all they had to do was lightly push it from the outside, and they'd have a chance to escape.
But after that loud banging, most players would probably steer clear out of caution.
The window, however, was open.
Gao Rui's gaze fell on the curtain as she weighed the possibility of climbing down through the window.
Su Er stood up, took a deep breath, and without warning, began yelling loudly through the door crack: “Hey! You there? Little baby who loves playing hide-and-seek! Are you out there?!”
Gao Rui was stunned. “What are you doing?”
“Calling the ghost.”
Gao Rui was speechless. If she could turn back time, she swore she would never have stepped into this classroom. She’d rather walk alone through the creepy schoolyard, being careful with every step.
There was no reply for a long time.
Su Er frowned. It seemed that unless the child saw that page, it wouldn’t come on its own—especially since it was probably still tied up dealing with Ji Heng.
Clearing his throat, unwilling to give up, he added, “I want to play hide-and-seek with you. There are two people here—fresh heads, served up on a plate! Interested?”
In the quiet of the night, when everyone else was cautiously hiding their presence, that voice echoed through the hallway.
‘Interested...ed...ed…?’
Mister East Wind, who had been resting in a classroom with his eyelids drooping, was startled awake by the shout. He rubbed his temples.
Meanwhile, Ji Heng was standing near the flowerbed behind the school building. He wasn’t deliberately hiding, having chosen an open space to make fighting easier if needed.
His luck had been pretty good. Even though he’d flipped to a dangerous answer, the ghost he encountered wasn’t particularly strong, so his current plan was to fight violence with violence.
In the distance, he could vaguely hear the sound of liquid dripping onto the ground.
Ghosts didn’t have shadows, but in the flickering tree shadows, you could see a stretched, floating head-shaped silhouette. The ground was dotted with black marks—evidence of blood trailing.
Ji Heng kept his peripheral vision on the approaching ghostly figure and slightly twisted his wrist.
The ghost thought it was the predator, but the players were hunters too. Yet just before they could meet, a shout from inside the school building shattered the silence of the night—
“Free heads here! Come get them!”
The headless child paused at the invitation, hesitating.
The person hiding now might be too difficult to deal with—but that idiot upstairs shouting seemed like an easy target!
Still clutching a head, it hesitated for a moment longer, then was finally lured by the promise of two heads and turned around to go upstairs.
21
2 > 1.
Big win.
Ji Heng didn’t hear the expected sounds of fighting. He stepped out from behind the flowerbed and looked up toward the source of the voice.
It had been about ten minutes since they left the broadcasting room. Why would Su Er be shouting now? Was he worried about Ji Heng’s safety?
Ji Heng rarely assumed things, but he went through countless possibilities in his head and still couldn’t figure out any other reason Su Er would intentionally draw the ghost away.
Sound travels through air. Thoughts don’t.
Su Er had no idea that Ji Heng had used ironclad logic to arrive at such a touching scene of self-sacrifice. Right now, wind howled outside the window, puffing up the curtains and making a rustling noise.
The overhead fluorescent light flickered. Gao Rui instinctively stepped back, but Su Er grabbed her: “When the ghost comes in, we rush out.”
Children’s laughter echoed in the hallway.
Worried the ghost might go to the wrong room, Su Er even slapped the door twice. “Over here!”
Gao Rui: “......”
The headless child stopped and gently pushed.
Creeeaaak——
The old wooden door, as if weightless, was softly blown open by the wind.
Su Er shot forward like a flood breaking through a dam, yanking Gao Rui with him as they rushed out.
The child ghost was stunned.
Almost at the moment Su Er dashed out, the door slammed shut heavily. Luckily, the child had no head—otherwise, it definitely would have been hit in the nose.
Gao Rui was still shaken; if she had been a moment later, she might never have gotten out.
“Th-thank you.”
She looked gratefully at Su Er, who had pulled her out at the last moment.
Su Er, panting, didn’t take credit alone and pointed at the child ghost: “It deserves some credit too.”
Though it didn’t understand what had happened, the ghost child felt inexplicably used for free labor.
Annoyed, it slammed the severed head against the wall twice more. The head looked like a smashed watermelon—already broken to bits.
The crushed head belonged to a player who had been in Gao Rui’s group not long ago. Gao Rui closed her eyes, unwilling to watch the bloody scene.
“The toy needs to be replaced,” the little ghost said hollowly. “You two hide; I’ll count to a hundred and come find you.”
It muttered to itself and started counting while leaning against the door.
The crisp voice sent chills down the spine.
Su Er whispered to the somewhat panicked Gao Rui: “You run first.”
Gao Rui looked stunned.
Su Er generously said, “I’ll cover you.”
Though feeling guilty, the desire to survive won out, and Gao Rui hesitated.
Su Er: “If you don’t go now, it’ll be too late.”
“Be careful,” Gao Rui wiped her tears, and glanced back at him one last time: “You really are a good person!
Su Er nodded.
After they ran far away, Su Er expressionlessly took out his stun gun and shook his head. “Finally gone.”
He didn’t dare use his skills while unfamiliar people were nearby.
“Thirty, twenty-nine…”
The headless child smelled approaching humans but hadn’t decided yet when suddenly a burning pain struck its waist.
It spun around violently, with great force, angrily trying to rip off the attacker’s head.
As Su Er used the stun gun, one hand was already holding a crying doll, ready to deploy at the slightest sign of trouble.
“Too bad you don’t have a head to cry…” Su Er said disdainfully, “Otherwise, I could collect one more ghost tear.”
Not understanding what he meant, the child threw the head in its hand hard.
Su Er dodged sideways. The head hit the wall, bounced off, and rolled far away. In the critical moment, he no longer hesitated to use his tools. Just as he was about to act, the child suddenly shifted its body toward another corner.
“Ji Heng,” Su Er followed and his eyes lit up.
Ji Heng didn’t walk fast, but carried a naturally strong presence—he looked even more like a criminal wielding a weapon searching for victims than a ghost.
He gave Su Er a slight nod. Ji Heng thought for a moment and said, “Take care of yourself. Don’t do anything dangerous for me again.”
Su Er was utterly confused. What had he done?
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