A Good-for-Nothing

104. A Strange Video (2)

Translator: Dragon Rider

Among the three of them, Qin Huai was the least composed one. On hearing this, he broke out in a cold sweat, feeling his blood freeze. As a childe growing up in a rich family, Qin Huai was nearly scared shitless. “I–I think you probably just failed to notice it. I mean, it’s such a small thing.”

Zu Zhichong and He Zheng exchanged glances, both of them feeling that this was not as simple as it seemed.

“Yeah, we probably didn’t notice.” Sergeant Luo, who could tell that Qin Huai was very nervous, gave a relaxed smile.

In fact, even He Zheng, let alone Zu Zhichong, was fully aware that anybody, after staying with Sergeant Luo for a short while, could tell that he was not the kind of person who would be so careless as to let such an obtrusive white button escape his notice.

Unless someone or something had deliberately let them find this button — possibly the ghost of Xu Tianhao, whose body they had not yet find the time to check.

In the normal course of events, suicide or homicide cases in schools had nothing to do with ghosts. A person’s soul could be used as a metaphor for an energy being. Everybody had a fixed amount of energy. Even when people were dead, their energy was still constant. Only extremely intense emotions, like resentment, yearning, to name but two, could convert into energy like psychokinesis did, which was why, as rumor had it, people would become ferocious ghosts if they committed suicide at midnight wearing red clothes. Only when their energy was great enough would this kind of things happen.

However, most people were unable to stay so concentrated to boost their energy when they were on the verge of dying. Otherwise there would have been numerous ghosts wandering around in this world.

“Eek? It’s so strange. Why is this multimedia player not working?” Vice-principal Wu anxiously bustled around, his head covered with big drops of sweat, but the screen wouldn’t come down.

“Wait a minute.” Zu Zhichong fished an Anti-ghost Fu out of his pocket, stuck it on the computer and said, “Try again.”

Vice-principal Wu was astonished, wondering why nowadays policemen were carrying Fu in their pockets. However, instead of relieving Vice-principal Wu, this Fu made him even more afraid. A layer of cold sweat oozed out of his brow and he couldn’t even speak fluently. “O–Okay. I’ll try again.”

Trembling all over, Vice-principal Wu took the remote control, trained it at the projector and pressed a button. Strangely enough, the screen which wouldn’t unroll a moment ago instantly started coming down. Vice-principal Wu wiped the cold sweat off his brow. Seeing this, Zu Zhichong secretly put a Soul-Consoling Fu into a pocket of Vice-principal Wu.

“The projector malfunctioned just now, right?”

“I–I think so.”

Qin Huai went even more scared. He Zheng rolled his eyes upwards and said, “Judging from your thick eyebrows, you are full of yang Qi. Just relax.”

“Ah? I trimmed my eyebrows only a few days ago!”

“I told you to get rid of that habit.”

Qin Huai felt aggrieved. “I won’t do that again. This whole thing is scaring me to death.”

While they were talking, Vice-principal Wu pressed the “Play” button.

The indicator light of the projector flashed briefly and then a rustle came from the loudspeaker of the computer.

Everybody concentrated their mind and listened attentively.

“After seeing this, you’ll find out why we don’t have any evidence to accuse Liu Lanxue of murder,” observed Sergeant Luo.

 

Weather was getting hotter by the day in this city. Students of the First High School of Coastal City had always been required to wear school uniform on school days, and those like Xu Tianhao who had gained admission by the back door were no exception. After all, getting them into this school had taken a lot of doing. If they violated school regulations, there was a very high risk that they would be expelled.

As a result, in the surveillance video, Xu Tianhao was wearing summer school uniform.

His countenance was a shade weird, eyes vacant and utterly lifeless. He walked into the classroom from outside, sad down on the teacher’s desk for a short while and then suddenly burst into laugh. Like that of a ghost, his mouth stretched so dramatically that the corners of it almost reached his ears, which was terribly eerie.

“I was wrong. I’m sorry, Mrs. Liu. I was wrong.”

Then a sudden thud was heard. Taken aback, Qin Huai hastily threw his arms around He Zheng’s shoulders. Vice-principal Wu had watched this video several times, but this part still sent a chill down his spine. He cowered against the back of the chair, too frightened to utter a word.

“Mrs. Liu, I was wrong.” Xu Tianhao on his knees kept kowtowing. “I was wrong, Mrs. Liu. I shouldn’t have slandered you. I deserve to die. I deserve to die. I deserve to die.”

“Mrs. Liu, I deserve to die. Mrs. Liu, please forgive me.” Xu Tianhao was kneeling on the ground all along, kowtowing to the air.

But after a short while, Xu Tianhao seemed to feel that what he was doing was not enough. As if seeing a strange presence, he cringed in horror. “Mrs. Liu… Mrs. Liu, I’m really sorry. Please don’t kill me, Mrs. Liu. I’m sorry. Ah–”

He let out a shriek so piercing that his voice seemed to have broken. On his knees, Xu Tianhao kept flinching and muttering “I’m sorry”, as if something horrifying was closing in on him.

After a few moments, Xu Tianhao instantly rose to his feet and slapped himself hard across the face. “I was wrong, Mrs. Liu. I was wrong.”

He suddenly unfastened his belt, climbed onto the teacher’s desk, hung the belt from an iron hook fixed in the ceiling, buckled it tight and then put it around his neck of his own accord.