The Restless Spirit's Father

Back in Room 208, Wen Taio was preparing the ghost stuff that he had asked for from the members of his nameless chat room. It could have been a chatting guild inside the school, and the fact that their real names where needed in order to be a member. Unlike Liu Xiaodan, Wen Taio was very vocal to others and would not hesitate to help when needed. He was a leader and a big brother to everyone. Because of that, he was able to have bigger circles outside the dorm, but his bros never get less priority than before.

He was packing necessary ghost hunt equipments for the task today. The Mei Niang last week came to them in the cafeteria earlier and asked for help. It seemed that the fifth floor of the girls" dorm was experiencing disturbance related to the claims of Wing and Kite. Though he was sad Liu Xiaodan would miss it, he was better off with Chuan Nayi than deal with ghosts that he hated all his life.

Unknown to the bear, Liu Guangru was sitting on Ruan Jin"s new chair. He was watching one of his uncles as he worked for a situation happening this lunch. He was not familiar with the objects being stuffed in the bag, but Wen Taio"s excitement was contagious. Soon, Ruan Jin and Xu Disung entered the room as well.

"Ay, aren"t we going to bring a lot?" Ruan Jin rubbed his neck, trying to suppress the fear coming out of his system. He was a coward when it comes to ghosts, and yet he chose not to let Wen Taio do it alone. He looked at Xu Disung who was weighing a bag Wen Taio finished packing. "So, any mission briefing?"

"Okay, here"s the deal." Xu Disung sat down on his bed where Wen Taio was packing. "Later at lunch, the fifth floor will be closed. We will be able to investigate, but we are not allowed to open the rooms. We are forced to record the adventure, just so they know we did not break rules." He sighed as he scratched his head. "I guess they forgot the girls" dorm have more security camera than our dorm. How can we even break rules?"

"It doesn"t matter. At least, we can go investigate." The bear nodded to the one next to him, as if agreeing with the countermeasures. "Last night, terrifying cries were recorded in the fifth floor. There were also weird banging sounds coming from the walls. I know it"s not really our business to do this, but we"re asked to help so we shouldn"t refuse." He looked down at the bag he was supposed to zip close. "We"ve always been the worse in the cla.s.s. Let"s show them we"re made for something more special."

"Yay! Let"s go!" Liu Guangru got excited and yelled as if supporting the big uncle. However, he was unaware that Ruan Jin was playing with the voice box Wen Taio missed to pack. His voice got through, but not as clear as Liu Xiaodan would hear him. The ghost child turned to Ruan Jin who was standing next to him, outside his prior line of sight.

"Was that... a child?" Xu Disung murmured before receiving the voice box from Ruan Jin who made long strides just to get to their side. Though it did not sound the same, but he was aware that a ghost child was responsible for Huang Kun"s death. Also, he remembered Wen Taio saying there was a child sitting on his bed earlier morning.

"L-Let"s just ignore that!" The bear, who was also frightened, decided to shrug it off of him. He led his friends out of the room, while looking at the place where the voice box sounded. He had no idea whether to think that a ghost child was around them, but he still had to deal with the fifth floor ghost.

Lunch came, and the three hors.e.m.e.n went up to the fifth floor. Ruan Jin set up cameras on tripods to capture parts of the floor where they might catch movement. Xu Disung was preparing the recording materials to be used, while Wen Taio scouted the area for any girl who was uninformed about the task. Liu Guangru was sitting on the floor, watching Xu Disung who was plugging cords to equipments the child had never seen before.

"Little Liu..."

The ghost child turned behind him, seeing a black shadow in the middle of the steps going to the sixth floor. He seemed to be friendly, and had no malicious energy that could compare to the residents of the boys" dorm. Liu Guangru smiled at him. "h.e.l.lo."

"What are they doing here? Men are not allowed in here..." The shadow stepped closer, creaking the boards of the stairs with its sharp feet.

"It"s okay. They were allowed by Mei Niang, the housekeeper." The child continued to smile at the shadow which resembled a person by had very angular edges. "Someone was scaring the girls. They"re here to find that one scaring the girls."

"Ah, are they the friends Wing and Kite said would help?" The shadow sat at the last step, also intrigued by Xu Disung"s actions and toys.

"Wing and Kite asked for them? I heard Mei Niang called them." Liu Guangru frowned with a pout.

"Hm, then they must not be those people." The shadow rose and started going back to the sixth floor. "Just make sure they stay there. No man crosses to my floor."

The ghost child only hummed at the puzzling fact. Wing and Kite were also residents of the girls" dorm like the shadow; but since Liu Guangru goes there to check up on his mother, he knew them. They were kind and generous, and so he befriended them. He also mentioned about Liu Xiaodan to them. The ghost child puffed his cheeks, sulking for not being acquainted to these friends Wing and Kite had.

"Ah, they stopped." Xu Disung murmured, getting the attention of everyone around him. A little earlier, he called his two bros near as he stared at the jagged lines of his test recording. He took off his headphones and beckoned the other two to come closer. He gave the headphones to Wen Taio and replayed the test recording. "Probably next to me?"

"Yeah, definitely next to you..." Wen Taio took a deep breath and stared at the direction of the stairs. "Guess that was what the creaking was about."

"W-What? What happened?" Ruan Jin asked even if he did not want to know.

"Ah, there was a faint conversation even though we were completely silent. It looks like they were talking about Wing and Kite." Xu Disung answered despite not handing him the headphones. "To the child who must have been following us from our room, we met these two girls yesterday. Wing and Kite were their names, they said. They were looking for a ring." He extended the microphone towards the stairs leading to the sixth floor. "Any idea why they want it back so badly?"

Liu Guangru only tilted his head. He got up and bent down to speak directly at the microphone. "No." He stood up and looked at the direction of the toilet at the end of the hall. His beady eyes soon glared at it before knocking the microphone off of Xu Disung"s hand with his foot. He ran to the toilet, letting the uncles hear the squeak of his new shoes, and seeing the faint colorful lights reflecting on the sides of the walls.

Needless to say, the three were scared when the microphone got kicked off of the sound tech guy"s hand. Xu Disung retrieved the microphone despite staying seated, while Ruan Jin got up in an instant. He turned to the direction of the hall towards the toilet.

The camera he set up there was not a recording one, but one that detected movement. It was a high-end toy Wen Taio borrowed from a senior in Film and TV Prod. It would take pictures whenever it sensed movements in its line of sight, doing it with a loud shutter sound. Ruan Jin dashed to his laptop at the other end of the hall to check the photos sent to him by the camera via Bluetooth. There was nothing at the first glances, but soon he was able to make out a silhouette of a small human running to the toilet. It could have been the child Xu Disung was trying to communicate with earlier.

Wen Taio checked the time and saw that almost half an hour had pa.s.sed since they were there. He looked at the two. "Guys, we don"t have much time. Let"s start."

Ruan Jin ran to the detect camera and turned it off before making it face a different direction. He gestured to the two. "The child went that way. That"s also near the place where the ring was stolen. Let"s go?"

Before the three men decided to go, Liu Guangru was already inside the toilet. Before him was another dead ghost. However, unlike what he could do, the ghost only looked like a normal ghost seated on the floor of one of the cubicles. Her mask was damaged and cracked along the division of the white and brown color. There was another ghost crying next to her friend; she must have come too late to save her. Liu Guangru glared at the sight, trying to calm himself outside the supervision of his father.

The door of the cubicle suddenly opened, and Xu Disung caught a glimpse of the child and the dead ghost"s body. Wing was hidden behind the door. The two vanished at the exposure of light, while the ghost vanished in discovery. Her cracked mask fell to the tiled floor, waiting to be picked up.

"Disung, what"s wrong?" Wen Taio came over quickly as he noticed the guy holding the camera froze. He saw the mask on the floor, recognizing it after a few seconds of recalling the design. "Isn"t that Kite"s mask?"

"Yeah. I saw a kid here earlier, too..." Xu Disung stepped away and let Wen Taio through. "He was in a hoodie..."

"Could it be the child wandering around us?" Wen Taio hummed, soon picking up the mask and staring at it, trying to piece it together. He turned it around and wore it with his hands holding it against his face.

However, his little stunt caused him nightmares. The moment he looked outside the toilet cubicle, his friend was not there. He could only see a dark and b.l.o.o.d.y version of the toilet. Liu Guangru was standing against the wall with a name written behind him in blood. His mouth moved without a sound, but there was a voice sent to his head.

"Someone"s going to die again..."

Wen Taio ripped the mask off of his face, and instantly saw Xu Disung frowning in front of him. He only tried to chuckle before the other took the mask from his hands.

"What are you doing? Don"t play with evidence." The sounds tech guy pouted, wanting to try the same thing if only he was not scared to see anything. He took out a small bag and dropped the mask inside. He held onto the bag before looking around the toilet some more.

The bear took a deep breath and recalled what he saw. The child was nothing close to what could have been horrifying, but the dead look in his beady eyes sent chills to the man. He ma.s.saged his forehead before stepping out of the cubicle and looking outside to find the other person with them. Wen Taio frowned at the empty hallway with nothing but their equipments. He turned to Xu Disung who just finished looking around the toilet. "Bro, where"s Jin?"

"Wasn"t he just behind you?"