Chapter 19

“Eh, is there really something wrong at our school?” Yue Yin muttered, scratching her head as she looked at the task on the forum.

But since it wasn’t marked as a red alert, she quickly lost interest after her brief surprise.

She was a lazy, sleep-loving deity obsessed with novels, not a superhero out to save the world. It would be far too exhausting if she had to handle every single paranormal incident.

Yet, some things seemed fated.

…

The next day,

Yue Yin, still groggy and half-awake, yawned as she strolled into school, once again pondering whether she should just blow it up.

She didn’t want to attend this lousy school for another day.

Once she finished watching all her shows, reading all her novels and comics, and completing her favorite games, she’d obliterate the world without a second thought!

The weather wasn’t great that day. A light drizzle fell from morning till dusk, and misty rain lingered in the air.

Yue Yin had just reached the front of the school building, taking a bite out of the pancake wrap she bought from the cafeteria, when she heard some commotion nearby.

“Huh, who is that?”

“What’s she doing up there?”

“No way, oh my god! Call someone, quick!”

Hearing these anxious voices, Yue Yin looked up, a bit confused.

There, on the rooftop of the school building, stood another girl in the same school uniform. She wobbled unsteadily at the edge, her long hair hanging down and obscuring her face.

It wasn’t just the students who noticed her, teachers and security guards rushed forward, with someone shouting nervously, “Hey, it’s dangerous up there, calm down…”

Before the guidance counselor could finish his words, the girl jumped. Everyone froze.

With a heavy thud, the body crashed onto a reinforced canopy, limbs flinging far and wide, a mix of crimson and pale white splattering everywhere.

A few drops of blood splashed onto Yue Yin, stark red against her fair skin.

Screams erupted, and the students who had arrived early scattered in a panic.

Some people braved the chaos to take a closer look, only to nearly lose their minds on the spot. “Ah!! Her eyes! Her eyes!”

Following this outcry, everyone turned their gaze toward the body and realized that the deceased only had one eye left, the other eye socket was hollow and empty.

Not just the students, even the teachers turned pale with fear.

Yue Yin wiped the blood off her face with the back of her hand, thoughtfully glancing down at the body lying not far from her.

The girl had jumped facing Yue Yin. Her pale hand was stretched out in front of her, and her remaining dark eye was fixedly staring in Yue Yin’s direction, as if it was still looking at her.

Blood mixed with rainwater flowed across the black concrete like a winding serpent, creeping toward the feet of the onlookers. Not far away, in a flowerbed, lay the dismembered remains of a girl who was once in her prime, sending chills down everyone’s spine.

Some of the more timid girls started crying, covering their mouths and refusing to look any further.

“She jumped…”

“What could have driven her to this?”

“It must have been suicide, right? She was alone on the rooftop, we all saw her jump…”

The murmurs grew louder, mixing with the rain.

The overcast weather was already stifling, and the air was thick with the scent of blood and wet earth. The mood around them was oppressively gloomy.

Ordinary people might only feel a slight chill and a heavy atmosphere, but to Yue Yin, the magnetic field of this place had undergone some kind of shift.

Something thick and sticky seemed to be growing out of the rain-soaked ground, or perhaps it was coalescing.

It felt like a fog, or a shadow, reaching out with twisted limbs, and being caught in it gave a person a sense of discomfort.

“Malevolent spirits stem from the negative emotions of humans—sorrow, fear, hatred, greed… Such thoughts might originate from one person, or they could be a collective manifestation of many people’s dark emotions.”

For some reason, Captain Li’s words suddenly echoed in Yue Yin’s mind.

She blinked and looked back at the direction of the corpse. The girl’s one remaining eye was still wide open, the dark pupil endlessly staring at her.

It was as if Yue Yin was the last person she saw before her life ended, and in her final moments, she instinctively tried to imprint that image in her memory.

Yue Yin pondered this for a moment before turning around to look behind her.

A crowd had gathered, some were discussing, others were crying, and still more were offering sympathy, but there was no sign of the person who had spoken beside her just now.

It was as if that voice had only appeared to make her look up at that exact moment, just in time to witness the tragedy.

Yue Yin suddenly lifted her head to the sky, “Eh, why is it still raining?”

…

The school tried to keep everything under wraps, but the ambulance and police arrived almost simultaneously.

Yellow police tape was set up around the area, and in the quiet, persistent rain, the atmosphere felt suffocating.

The deceased was a student from the high school division. She hadn’t returned after leaving for the bathroom during a break, even by the time evening self-study started. She had told her friends she wasn’t feeling well and had asked them to inform the teacher.

No one could have guessed that in less than twenty minutes, she would jump off the rooftop.

The surveillance footage had been reviewed multiple times under the watchful eyes of the police and the girl’s parents, and they had ruled out foul play.

The parents screamed in anguish, “How can this be? It was clearly murder! Murder!”

Outside the police cordon, groups of students and school administrators whispered among themselves:

“She was under so much pressure…”

“The footage shows she gouged out her own eye before jumping…”

“Her grades were really good before… Maybe it was something to do with a relationship or a conflict with a teacher or classmate… We’ll conduct a thorough investigation.”

Words like these drifted out of the mouths of the adults, a grim summary of the loss of a young life, while the parents’ cries of grief echoed in the background.

Of course, the student’s family couldn’t accept what had happened. The incident caused the school to announce a day off to cooperate with the police investigation and give the parents some answers.

Whispers about the incident continued to swirl, fear and unease seeping through the campus.

As soon as the dismissal bell rang, everyone rushed to leave. The recent tragedy and the strange behavior of the deceased had spooked them all, leaving their hearts heavy with dread.

Yue Yin followed the crowd. It wasn’t that she was scared, she was just eager to head home.

But after walking a few dozen meters, she suddenly stopped in her tracks.

Someone was watching her.

She turned her head and was greeted by a face just a few steps away.

“Yue Yin?” The girl looked at her with concern.

She wore black-rimmed glasses, had a few freckles on her round face, and was clutching a broom tightly to her chest.

Yue Yin searched her memory and remembered that this was Li Shushu, the class’s labor monitor.

Li Shushu raised the umbrella she was holding and offered, “I noticed you didn’t bring an umbrella. Would you like to walk together?”

Yue Yin looked at her, puzzled, as if questioning why she would offer to help since they weren’t close.

Her expression of surprise and detachment was clear, and Li Shushu understood that they hardly knew each other, having spoken less than ten times despite being classmates for several years.

Li Shushu’s smile faltered, and she suddenly felt a bit awkward for being so forward.

Just when she started to regret her offer, thinking she would be turned down, Yue Yin broke into a smile, “Sure.”

She quickly ducked under Li Shushu’s umbrella, tilting her head with a bright smile. “Thank you, Shushu. Otherwise, I’d be soaked, and I really hate getting wet in the rain.”

“Especially rain that carries the scent of something else,” she muttered to herself.

Yue Yin’s sudden closeness made Li Shushu feel a bit uneasy. Hearing her words, she felt even more puzzled. If Yue Yin disliked getting wet, why didn’t she bring an umbrella?

As far as Li Shushu could remember, it had been raining since morning.

Still, Li Shushu, being her usual kind self, didn’t ask further questions since she and Yue Yin weren’t close. Yue Yin, on her part, was simply venting and had no intention of explaining herself.

They walked quietly, sharing the umbrella, heading out of the school.

In just that short delay, the sky had grown noticeably darker. Most of the students had already left, scared by the recent incident, leaving the empty school building feeling eerily silent.

The tragic event had only happened a little while ago, and in such circumstances, it was hard not to feel frightened. Li Shushu, being timid, instinctively moved closer to Yue Yin, so close that the two were nearly touching.

On their way out, they began to talk about the big event that had shaken the school today.

“It’s so terrifying,” Li Shushu said, her tone filled with sadness. “Everyone’s saying it was a suicide. Such a pity… she was about to take the college entrance exams soon.”

She then glanced over at Yue Yin and quietly asked, “Yue Yin, are you okay?”

Yue Yin had been staring at something on the ground, but when she heard this, she looked up with a blank expression, raising her brow. “What?”

Li Shushu’s eyes widened with curiosity as she probed, “Aren’t you scared? That girl died right in front of you.”

Yue Yin took another bite of her pancake roll and replied, sounding indifferent, “Not really.”

As a true eldritch being, Yue Yin had seen mountains of corpses. How could she possibly be scared by the death of just one or two people?

Li Shushu’s expression turned curious, and she cautiously continued, “I saw it happen, you know. That girl… she jumped right in front of you. Her body hit the roof of the shelter and shattered into pieces…”

As Li Shushu spoke softly, the surroundings seemed to grow quieter, her words replaying the gruesome scene in Yue Yin’s mind.

Li Shushu watched Yue Yin closely, her eyes hidden behind her glasses, not missing a single change in expression.

Her tone was tense, her eyes locked onto Yue Yin. But just as Yue Yin’s mind seemed to wander, she suddenly snapped back, looking at Li Shushu. “Why are you describing it in such detail?”

She wasn’t scared, but it was definitely off-putting.

Did this girl have no sense of decency? Couldn’t she see that Yue Yin was trying to eat?

The rain-soaked air around them felt damp and suffocating. Yue Yin’s long hair hung down, her dark eyes clear and bright, her lashes slightly curled, and her features delicate and flawless.

As the misty rain settled on her hair, she appeared almost enchantingly beautiful.

Standing in front of Li Shushu, she looked as if she could see through everything.

Lishu’s heart raced, adrenaline surging through her veins.

She stared at Yue Yin, forgetting to even blink.

How strange… how had she never noticed how beautiful Yue Yin was before?

The Yue Yin she remembered was always timid, her eyes downcast, shuffling along with her head bowed. Some people even mocked her, calling her a rat that scurried around in the dark.

When had she changed? It seemed to have happened after the new school term began.

Was this really still Yue Yin?

Or was it a shell, taken over by something far more powerful and unknown?

Li Shushu’s expression grew wild, her lips twitching. The mere possibility sent shivers of excitement through her, her cheeks flushed red.

Tears glistened in her eyes as she tried to control her emotions, quickly lowering her head to hide it.

Suppressing her excitement, she said, “I’m sorry, Yue Yin. I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just worried about you…”

Li Shushu looked at her and whispered, “How do you feel now? Are you really not scared?”

Her eyes sparkled, almost unnaturally bright, as if she was eagerly anticipating something.

Yue Yin, seemingly unfazed by her odd behavior, replied casually, “Nope, not scared.”

The girl, dressed in her school uniform, with her black hair cascading over her shoulders, continued nibbling on her pancake roll.

She took a step forward, paused briefly, and said softly, “Actually, I feel… a little excited.”

Is this the answer you were waiting for? Satisfied?

Yue Yin rolled her eyes, finding these little human tricks utterly dull.

Li Shushu, trying to mask her nervous smile, tilted her head down, lips twitching upward uncontrollably. “Oh, really?” she said, almost to herself.

Li Shushu seemed lost in her thoughts, completely missing the way Yue Yin looked down at her, an assessing, slightly disdainful gaze.

“Shushu?” Yue Yin called, sounding annoyed. “Were you even listening? That was quite rude, you know.”

“Huh? Did you say something?” Li Shushu quickly looked up, hesitated for a moment, then hurriedly apologized, “I didn’t hear you. I’m sorry, I was too scared.”

Yue Yin looked away. “It’s fine. I forgive you.”

Not that she had actually said anything — she just wanted to scold Li Shushu a little.

After all, Li Shushu had deliberately tried to disgust her while she was eating.

As they continued to talk, they eventually reached the school gate without realizing it.

The two of them parted ways there. Li Shushu waved and said excitedly, “See you next time! And be careful on your way home, Yue Yin. Stay safe, okay?”

With those oddly suggestive words, Li Shushu hopped away in the opposite direction, almost skipping.

Yue Yin watched her retreating figure, her eyes thoughtful.

She suddenly turned around and walked back toward the now-deserted school building.

The fluorescent lights hanging in the corridor cast a cold, harsh glow. Most of the classrooms she passed were empty, dark, and suffocatingly still.

Yue Yin went straight to Class 1A, approached her seat, and reached into the desk drawer.

Inside were scattered papers, pens, and some homework. Her fingers sifted through the mess and abruptly touched something that didn’t belong to her.

She pulled it out — it was a small box.

Her pale fingers were stained with a deep red, the pungent scent of blood wafting through the darkness.

Inside the metal box was an eyeball.

The eye swiveled around, its gaze locking onto Yue Yin, watching her with a strange intensity.

Outside, the bright white streetlights mingled with the moonlight, casting eerie, claw-like shadows on the wall.

Yue Yin held up the eyeball, gave it a cursory look, let out a dismissive chuckle, and then casually stuffed it into her bag.