Making harassing phone calls to girls' dormitories

Chapter 5

Xu Xian laughed out loud, mimicking her, "Ha! Don't you hate those construction workers who harmed you?"

“I hate them, but they didn’t kill me.”

Xu Xian stared at her in shock, "Then...?"

The female ghost shook her head. "I remember clearly that someone called my name that day, and then my soul was freed from my body. Those people desecrated a corpse. Their shock must have been greater than my hatred! Hahaha!" She finished speaking and burst into laughter.

Xu Xian's mind was completely blank, only occupied by the phrase, "Someone called my name, and then I..."

Good heavens! Yang Tao also died because someone summoned his soul out of his body. He suddenly thought of a question.

"Didn't you try to go back into your body?"

"Why should I go back? Go back and watch those people humiliate me?" The female ghost was clearly getting agitated. "I'd like to go back, but do you know what they did to my body?"

Xu Xian and Li Ke both lowered their heads and remained silent.

"They found me dead, so they tried to dismember me. They cut me in two, and they chopped my lower body into pieces and flushed it down the drain. Until the drain got a little clogged. Hahaha, do you know what it feels like to watch yourself being dismembered? Hahahaha! They even sealed my upper body into the wall, hahahaha!"

Xu Xian and Li Ke both sensed something was wrong. If she continued to be so agitated, Wu Xi might… Xu Xian quickly burned a peace charm and, taking advantage of the female ghost's laughter, stuffed it into Wu Xi's mouth. Instantly, the laughter stopped, and a wisp of smoke emerged from Wu Xi's mouth, nostrils, and ears. Li Ke caught Wu Xi as she collapsed to the ground, wondering how to explain the events of the past two days to her. Xu Xian, however, was pondering the female ghost's words. She had been recounting her ordeal, but she hadn't explained the handcuffs, or why she had been locked in the wall and handcuffed. He couldn't understand it; perhaps he could ask Jiang Yu tomorrow.

The next day, after pestering Jiang Yu all morning, he finally answered Xu Xian's question impatiently, leaving Xu Xian's mind blank. "When we took the handcuffs off, we saw that skeletal right hand raised, as if pointing at the person opposite. I think that's why we handcuffed her; only in this way could we reduce the space and seal her inside the wall."

Pointing at the person opposite him—strictly speaking, that's a gesture, which he hadn't noticed before because of the handcuffs. But what does this gesture mean? So far, three people have been found dead. Each of them died because their souls were forcibly led away by a soul-guiding technique. And what's the story behind those three mysterious gestures?

Two months passed quickly, and Xu Xian and his six friends had moved back to their original dormitory. The walls had been renovated long ago, and the furnishings inside were exactly the same, as if nothing had happened. However, the hearts of the six people were no longer as peaceful as they had been two months ago.

Xu Xian walked alone to the library's basement. He arrived at the door of the old archives room, and to his surprise, the door was open. Professor Chen was inside looking for something. Xu Xian was one of his former students. When Professor Chen saw Xu Xian, a look of surprise crossed his face, but he quickly let Xu Xian into the archives room and placed a document in Xu Xian's hand.

Xu Xian found a table, opened the documents, and was stunned by a photograph that immediately caught his eye. It was a female student, hanging in the air—a hanging—but instead of her hands hanging at her sides, one of her hands was covered in front of her chest. That should count as a hand gesture, right? Four hand gestures in total—what did it all mean?

Turning to look at Professor Chen, he was already gone. Perhaps next time he saw him, he should ask him what had happened. Why had he given him this information? It was a file on missing and deceased individuals at the school. How did he know he needed this? What would be the end of this mystery?

The six people were in the dormitory, gathered around the table.

After two days of hard work, Xu Xian finally managed to sort out some clues about the matter.

The dormitory lights suddenly went out. Liu Bin, already used to it, fumbled in the dark to take out a flashlight from the drawer and hung it under the fan.

Actually, it doesn't matter whether the lights are on or off; it's just that everyone needs this dim light to drive away their fear, since what Xu Xian is about to say is...

Xu Xian placed the materials Professor Chen had given him on the table one by one, including several photos. He put them on top and then began to explain them one by one.

He took out the first black and white photo he had seen. It was of a very pretty girl, with her eyes closed, hanging from a rope, and making that strange gesture.

Li Ke nodded to him and began to speak, “This girl’s name was Liu Ye. She hanged herself in our dormitory building in 1982. The reason, it seems, was that her boyfriend had fallen in love with someone else. The location was…” He coughed and cleared his throat.

"What's wrong?" Zhang Xiaodi looked at him worriedly, and the others also frowned.

Xu Xian shook his head, "The location... the location is... our fifth-floor drying room."

After he finished speaking, he looked at his friends as if waiting for something, but he did not see the expected result.

The group seemed to have matured considerably, no longer displaying the terrified expressions they had when he first arrived, terrified at the mere mention of ghost stories. They smiled reassuringly at Xu Xian; it seemed the past few months of hauntings had forged them into true men. Xu Xian smiled back. After a long pause, he let out a long sigh and continued speaking.

“So I think this didn’t just happen after we arrived; it’s like something that happened at this school a long time ago.” He took out another photo, still of a very pretty girl. Liu Bin took the earlier photo and examined it closely. Almost immediately upon seeing it, he blurted out, “She didn’t hang herself!”

Several people looked at him in surprise, passing photos among themselves.

“That’s right, she didn’t hang herself,” Liu Quan said seriously after seeing the photo.

At the same time, Xu Xian took the photo and looked at it carefully again. "Why?"

Liu Quan thought for a moment, then said, "Remember when I went to the police station to investigate the girl who jumped from the girls' dormitory? I saw a real hanged ghost that day! Her tongue was sticking out. Unlike this girl, who was so quiet. She didn't have any expression when she died; it was like she was sleeping."

Liu Bin nodded in agreement, "Yes, Quanzi is absolutely right. I saw it too. That dead man's tongue was sticking out very long, like this." He stuck his tongue out of his mouth, then rolled his eyes upwards, revealing only the whites of his eyes.

A gust of wind blew by, and Xu Xian's soul-summoning bell rang. Everyone shivered, watching silently as Xu Xian stuffed cotton into the bell, then looked towards the corner of the wall. Although they couldn't see anything, they already knew from Xu Xian that a female ghost often stood there, who, while not harmful, was still quite frightening.

Another gust of wind blew by, and Li Ke reached out and closed the window.

Xu Xian coughed. "Don't look anymore, he's already gone." He shook the soul-summoning bell in his hand. It wasn't stuffed with cotton, and it didn't ring on its own; the sound came from the way Xu Xian shook it.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and Xu Xian timely drew everyone's attention back.

"Don't make such a fuss next time. She knows we've been looking at her and that we're investigating this. But it's strange, she doesn't touch us at all, and she doesn't seem to have any hostility towards us. She just comes to see us occasionally, like we're friends! How strange!"

Xu Xian shook his head, then looked at his friends and said, "From now on, just pretend you don't know anything and stop looking into the corner all the time."

Everyone nodded and continued studying the photos.

Wu Xi picked up a photograph and examined it carefully, sometimes frowning and sometimes sighing softly.

Zhang Xiaodi took the photo and examined it closely. "What's wrong, Wu Xi? Is there a problem with this photo?"

Liu Bin snatched the photo, then exclaimed "Ah!" as if he understood everything, "So she's a beauty! No wonder she's completely captivated."

Wu Xi quickly snatched the photo back and hurriedly explained, "It's not what you think, I just saw this person in my dream."

Xu Xian took the photo and examined it closely. It was a black and white photograph, with the edges already yellowed. "How can you be so sure?"

Wu Xi pondered, as if searching for a reason. After a long while, she ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. "I don't know. Do you remember when we stayed at the police station's guesthouse a few days ago?"

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Do you remember when I woke up? I only remember seeing Liu Quan faint in the school bathroom, and then I don’t remember anything else. Later you said I also fainted, and then you found the two of us in the bathroom. Since we couldn’t stay at the school, we ended up staying at a guesthouse. You know what? During the time between when I fainted and when I woke up, I kept having dreams, and the main character was this woman.”

Xu Xian and Li Ke each put their arms around Wu Xi's shoulders, one on each side. Xu Xian didn't understand why Wu Xi always attracted ghosts. Why did the ghosts possess him instead of others? The previous "good friends, back to back" ghost was one thing, but now there was the female ghost who was dismembered on the tenth anniversary of the school's founding. It seemed that Wu Xi needed some talismans to ward off evil.

"Do you remember what the dream was about?" Xu Xian asked as he looked for information.

"I need to think about it, wait a moment." Wu Xi fell into deep thought.

Everyone fell silent, then a voice cried out, "Found it!"

Everyone looked up at what Xu Xian had found. Xu Xian began to read, "In 1942, Lin Mei, a student in the accounting class of the finance department, returned to school on February 10th to return from leave, and then mysteriously disappeared. Three days later, one of the red leather shoes she was wearing when she disappeared was found in the newly built dormitory building."

At this moment, everyone except Li Ke was completely bewildered by the swirling clouds and mist.

Liu Quan's face turned pale instantly. "Red...red leather shoes?"

Li Ke also chimed in, "Yes, our school was founded in 1932, and the dormitory building was built ten years later, which matches what that female ghost said."

Seeing everyone's expression of "please explain yourself more clearly," Xu Xian nodded, and Li Ke recounted the story of Wu Xi being possessed by a ghost.

After listening, everyone fell into deep thought, and Wu Xi was especially worried! Then, something occurred to him!

"I remember now," Wu Xi said excitedly.

"What? What did you remember?" Liu Quan was still lost in his red leather shoes, speaking with some impatience.

"A dream! I've figured out what the dream was about."

Everyone perked up their ears, signaling Wu Xi to continue...

"The dream went like this... A boy and a girl were playing with a kite, both laughing and seemingly very happy. The girl was dressed very elegantly, in a red silk cheongsam and matching long skirt, while the boy was only wearing plain clothes. It seemed the boy was a farmhand for the girl's family, because I dreamt he was chopping wood and fetching water at her house, but the girl didn't look down on him, and they were very happy. Then, something seemed to happen; a grave appeared on the hillside where they were flying the kite. I don't know if the boy or the girl died, or maybe some other unrelated person died. Anyway, that's all."

Everyone's jaws nearly dropped. "Is that all?"

Wu Xi nodded. "There should be two scenes: a woman and a man are flying a kite, and then a gust of wind blows them away, and they disappear, replaced by a grave."

Xu Xian fell into deep thought. What did this mean? Such a simple dream couldn't possibly be connected to that ghost in red shoes! A little thought revealed the answer: the ghost in red shoes didn't come from a wealthy family; where would she get farmhands? Besides, shouldn't people in her time wear cheongsams? Why would she wear a padded jacket and a long skirt? That must be from a much earlier era!

Also, one died in 1982 and another in 1942, forty years apart. Then there was this year, 2002, twenty years later. All four deaths occurred in years ending in two. Is there any special meaning behind this?

Unable to reach a conclusion after further discussion, everyone finally went to their own beds and drifted off to sleep.

Before going to sleep, Li Ke looked at Xu Xian under the bed and asked, "Hey, where did you get that information?"

Xu Xian recounted the truth. So the six of them decided to visit Professor Chen's house the next day, partly to express their gratitude, but really to see if they could get any more information out of him.

Chapter Six

The next day, all five of them skipped class except for Liu Quan, and poor Liu Quan had no choice but to call out "Present!" five more times.

Five people stopped in front of the gate of a courtyard house.

"Hey, Xiaodi, have you investigated thoroughly? Is this the place?" Liu Bin nudged Zhang Xiaodi with his elbow.

"That's right, I secretly found out Professor Chen's home phone number from the General Affairs Office and called to ask. His wife told me herself, how could I be wrong?" Zhang Xiaodi patted his chest and assured him confidently.

Li Ke nodded and went to knock on the door.

About half a minute later, footsteps came from inside, and several people stood respectfully in a straight line in front of the gate.

The door opened, and a middle-aged woman appeared.

"What are you doing here..." The middle-aged woman was clearly hesitant. It was understandable, as five people were standing respectfully at her door, each of them tall and burly, looking just like the gangsters.

"Greetings, Master's wife..." The five of them bowed at a ninety-degree angle together, their voices sounding like those of elementary school students, with the last syllables drawn out.

"You? You're here to see your teacher, Mr. Chen, right? But he's out." The middle-aged woman asked, holding a rag in her hand, clearly cleaning.

Several people nodded, then revealed sweet smiles.

The middle-aged woman was taken aback for a moment, then led them to the living room and went to tidy up herself.

Xu Xian took the broom from the middle-aged woman and began sweeping the yard.

Others followed suit and started looking for work.

The middle-aged woman was initially quite embarrassed, but in the end she was defeated by Xu Xian and his group of lively characters.

Fine, let them clean it up. I'd rather go buy some groceries and treat these little guests to lunch.

Xu Xian looked at the middle-aged woman who had already stepped out the door with her basket, and unconsciously shook his head and smiled.

Their teacher's wife is a bit too naive! I don't know if she really looks that harmless, or if she just lacks any sense of danger. If bad guys really came, I'm afraid her whole house would be gone when she got back!

After enjoying a delicious lunch at Professor Chen's house, they were taken to Professor Chen's study. To keep them from getting bored, Professor Chen's wife brought out an old photo album as a gift, pointing out some photos while explaining them.

As evening approached, Professor Chen was finally spotted at the door.

When Professor Chen saw them, a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes, though it was fleeting, Xu Xian still caught it. The group then sat down in the study and began to chat.

"Professor Chen, I don't understand why you gave me those materials?" Xu Xian asked.

Professor Chen nodded. "Aren't you investigating the mysterious deaths at the school?"

"But where did you get this information from? And how did you know we needed it?" It was Li Ke who spoke.

Professor Chen looked at him thoughtfully, but said nothing.

“Professor, you must know something else, right?” Xu Xian’s sharp eyes looked at Professor Chen as if he could see through everything.

Professor Chen looked at him with some surprise and sighed inwardly, "To have such an imposing presence at such a young age, he is sure to have a bright future."

Seeing that Professor Chen had not responded for a long time, Xu Xian took out a photo from somewhere and handed it to him.