(I"ll Bring You to Your Mother)
Qinghai High School was not large in size; one afternoon was more than enough to check the entire school out.
Despite searching around the premise, they did not manage to find any useful clues.
The sun was starting to set in the East.
It covered the entire campus with an orange afterglow.
After being shined on, Shen Dongqing was feeling lazy so he simply decided sit beside the flowerbed and he plucked a Chinese rose, placing it in his mouth to taste it.
"Bleh," Shen Dongqing"s face wrinkled, "It"s bitter."
Zhou Wenyan took away the rose flower in his hand: "I"ll bring you to eat delicious food when we go out."
All of the sudden, Shen Dongqing regained his vigour: "Let"s quickly find the doll then."
Saying that, he stood up again with much enthusiasm.
He wandered back and forth before it abruptly struck him that the place they were at was slightly familiar. Shen Dongqing walked forward another two steps and lifted his head to gaze at the rooftop of the cla.s.sroom building.
This was where the Rooftop Girl had jumped off in the Campus" Strange Talks.
"Although we can"t find it, we can still ask someone else," Shen Dongqing offered a suggestion.
Zhou Wenyan: "En?"
After the Campus" Strange Talk had been resolved, the subject in question - the Rooftop Girl - had disappeared along with it, and what remained of her was the residual blood that had seeped between the gaps of the stone bricks.
Shen Dongqing half-knelt and knocked on the stone brick with his fingertips.
Rat-tat—
Shen Dongqing was extremely polite: "h.e.l.lo, are you there?"
Nothing happened.
Shen Dongqing knocked again.
A small dimple emerged from the side of his face: "You don"t need me to invite you out, right?"
The knocked stone brick trembled and slowly hefted up. From beneath it, a ghastly white hand crawled out. Perhaps because it had previously been caught by Shen Dongqing and almost had a part of it bitten off, the psychological pressure it felt was comparatively larger and it laid down with its palm flat on the ground, trembling, and not daring to move.
Shen Dongqing: "Do you know the doll?"
The ghost hand thought about it for a moment before it used its index and middle finger to gently knock on the stone slate.
Sheng Dongqing stood up, "Bring us there."
The ghost hand"s five fingers pointed towards the ground and it ran around in a circle at where it stood before he started crawling towards the sports field.
Shen Dongqing followed after it at a leisurely place before he snorted: "It feels like I"m walking a dog."
Ghost hand: ……
It felt very aggrieved, but for the sake of not being eaten, it could only suppress it.
The ghost hand led the two of them towards the sports stadium.
Qinghai High School could be described as school with an all-rounded and comprehensively developed in regard to moral, intellectual, physical, arts and labour education. It had every kind of facility that was to be expected, including running tracks, basketball courts, tennis courts… it even had a swimming pool.
Currently, there were no physical education cla.s.ses ongoing and the entire sport field was quiet.
The ghost hand used some of the white pebbles as its own small pavement and it pushed aside the gra.s.s lightly to reveal a doll lying amidst it.
Shen Dongqing stretched past the ghost hand to pick the doll.
How long the doll had been lying there was unknown, but her face had been stained with dirt and its pretty little skirt was also torn and ragged, leaving only a pair of big, still dazzling eyes.
"Is this considered as found?" Shen Dongqing held the doll and wiped away the mud miring her surface to expose her fair skin.
And perhaps because he had touched her somewhere, a sweet voice emitted from the doll"s belly.
"h.e.l.lo there, big brother."
Shen Dongqing did not expect that the doll could still speak and he responded, "h.e.l.lo."
"Big brother, can you take me to my mother?" asked the doll as she blinked her eyes.
Unlike the other offensive Campus" Strange Talks, the doll was cute and polite like a well-behaved little girl.
It would not be appropriate for Shen Dongqing to be simple and crude against her, so he could only help the lost child before he said anything else: "Alright, where"s your mother?"
The doll smiled sweetly and raised her small and thin arms before she pointed. "Mother is over there."
Shen Dongqing looked towards the given direction.
It was the multi-storied building for the political education office.
When he stepped into the political education office, a gust of cold air blew into his face.
Carrying the doll, Shen Dongqing walked in as he pushed open the first door with his other hand. "Is she here?"
The doll looked around and shook her head: "She"s not here, she"s on the top floor."
The political education office was four floors high.
Being too lazy to climb the stairs, Shen Dongqing pressed the b.u.t.ton to call down the elevator.
Ding-
The elevator made its slow descent and two people were reflected on the door.
Before he could press the floor after they entered, the elevator suddenly lurched and it sank by a certain depth.
Unprepared, Shen Dongqing"s unsteady figure stumbled.
The pair knocked into each other.
Under the flickering lights, Shen Dongqing raised his head, his pupils visibly dilated. Unable to resist it, he blurted out: "Can I bite you?"
Zhou Wenyan could not react in time, "Huh?"
Shen Dongqing swallowed his saliva, "I…"
Before he could finish his words, Zhou Wenyan tugged him directly into his embrace.
Shen Dongqing was suddenly surrounded by his thick yin energy and he narrowed his eyes happily, thinking that Zhou Wenyan had consented to his actions and he was about to take a bite.
However, before he could he bite down, Zhou Wenyan suddenly moved.
Hand stretching out, he grabbed onto a living person from outside the elevator. No, it was not a person but a translucent figure, and it was evident that he used to be a student from Qinghai High School.
"So- Sorry, I was just trying to scare you." Feeling like he was in danger, the student shivered.
Zhou Wenyan said: "You don"t want us to go up."
The tone he used was that of an affirmation.
The student seemed as though his intentions had been seen through and his insubstantial body flickered: "No, no I wasn"t."
Zhou Wenyan: "Then move aside."
The student stuttered: "No… The Director is particularly terrible, I"m trying to protect you… you, don"t go up…"
Just then, the doll suddenly opened her mouth and her tone harboured some doubt: "I"ve met this brother before."
Once he heard the doll"s voice, the student"s complexion changed; it took an ashen hue from its initial, bloodless state, and he shuddered before he drilled back into the elevator and he did not dare to come out again.
Immediately after the student disappeared, the elevator resumed its normal operation.
Shen Dongqing still felt the lingering of his hunger and he inhaled deeply through his mouth before he removed himself from Zhou Wenyan"s arms and pressed the b.u.t.ton for the fourth floor.
Zhou Wenyan rewound and asked: "What did you say just now?"
Shen Dongqing thought about it before he discarded the thought. He was a human now, how could he go around biting people?
"Nothing." He shook his head.
Coincidentally, they happened to reach the fourth floor. With a "ding", the door slowly opened.
It revealed a long hallway illuminated by bright cold lights, and at the end of it, an office with the sign "Director of Teaching Affairs" hanging above the door could be discerned.
In a shrill voice, the doll said, "This is it."
The door was not locked.
Shen Dongqing pushed open the door and found that there were no inhabitants in the room.
The office was organised in a neat fashion and there were various teaching materials on the table. The only misnomer present was the pair of scissors hanging on the wall and upon closer scrutiny, chunks of meat were stuck to it.
Shen Dongqing looked around before he picked up the photo frame on the desk.
In the picture was a little girl around the age of seven or eight donning on a bright smile and she held a doll in her arms. And standing next to her was precisely the Director of Teaching Affairs.
Unlike the cold woman that they had met, she was smiling with absolute gentleness.
Shen Dongqing turned his head, "There"s no one…"
Once he turned back, he came face to face with the Director of Teaching Affairs who was clad in her professional attire and standing at the doorway.
Shen Dongqing froze for a moment before he raised his hand: "h.e.l.lo."
Despite wearing a pair of gold-rimmed gla.s.ses, the coldness in the Director"s eyes could be detected through the lenses. The corners of her mouth were harsh. "Intruding the Political Education Office is a violation of the regulations."
Others might be afraid of violating the rules but that that did not apply to Shen Dongqing. Instead, he was intending to play the same old trick to resolve the Director when Zhou Wenyan stopped him.
Zhou Wenyan shook his head gently.
He could sense that the Director of Teaching Affairs was the ultimate BOSS in the copy and she was symbiotic with the entirety of Qinghai High School. So long as Qinghai High School existed, she would never dissipate.
Attempting to deal with her would all end in vain.
Zhou Wenyan took the doll from Shen Dongqing"s hands and handed it over: "Director, we found this object. Does it happen to belong to you?"
The Director lowered her head and gazed at the tattered doll in front of her. As if some switch had been triggered, the cold and detached appearance of hers fractured and it was enveloped with panic.
"My Tiantian…"
"It"s all because they hurt my Tiantian…"
"I want to find my Tiantian…"
The Director muttered to herself and grabbed the doll before she ran out in a stumble.
Shen Dongqing touched his chin: "Is this considered solved?"
He opened《Campus" Strange Talks》and looked at it, noticing that the last "Lost Doll" only had a little blood on it and there were no notes below.
Zhou Wenyan said: "Half solved."
Shen Dongqing was puzzled: "Huh?"
Zhou Wenyan blinked at him: "Actually, what was lost isn"t the doll but the Director"s daughter herself."
With his explanation, Shen Dongqing immediately understood. He clapped his heads and let out a clear and melodious voice: "I see, if we find where the doll is, we can find the Director"s daughter is as well."
"We don"t have to trouble ourselves," Zhou Wenyan stated, "We just need to find someone to ask for directions."
He walked towards the elevator.