École des sciences humaines

Chapitre 2

Actually, we are all lonely.

Prologue: The Tears of Oleander (End)

Author: Xinxinjun Reply Date: 2005-01-02 0:15:00

[Part 1: A Pale Smile]

Before you learn to protect yourself strongly, the only way you can protect yourself is by hurting others.

However, after unknowingly hurting others, I found myself even more hurt.

Everyone desires happiness. But happiness is like a puppy's tail; it seems so close, yet you can never quite grasp it.

The First Municipal High School is a renowned century-old school. While my grades were part of the reason I was able to transfer there in my second year of junior high, my father's help was the main factor. Before that, I was having trouble adjusting to the overwhelming and terrifying resentment that had enveloped me in the provincial capital, and I spent a long time in the hospital. I finally managed to control myself from seeing those things, but the oppressive gloom still made me very uncomfortable.

In my last few years in the countryside, I finally learned to control myself and try not to see those things... but when I couldn't control myself, I still saw them.

I felt uneasy the moment I stepped into the school gate. A prestigious school with a century-long history—that just means the chances of encountering ghosts have increased. Oh well, I'm used to it anyway.

My parents are very busy with work, so I chose to live at school. Today is the first day of school, and the bustling atmosphere can't stop the inexplicable chill. For example, right now, there's a student who committed suicide by jumping off a tree around the corner, crying.

"Why are you here!" She looked up at me, her eyes filled with bloodshot tears. "You shouldn't be here. You're impure; you'll bring more resentment!" She suddenly jumped down, her hands gripping my neck tightly, making it feel like I was suffocating. It's daytime, and the resentment here is already this strong…

"Hey, are you alright?!" Just before I collapsed, a clear voice woke me up. "Are you alright?!" It was a very cute girl, who seemed like a little bunny.

"Thank you... I'm fine."

"But you look very pale! I'm Nana from Class 5, Grade 8. Which class are you in? Shall I help you over?" She smiled kindly.

Class 5, Grade 8—that seems to be the class I'm going to! I looked up at the tree behind her; the student who committed suicide was gone. She'd probably left temporarily, since it's daytime and her abilities are still relatively weak. Anyway, I just arrived and don't know the way, so I might as well follow her to avoid wandering off into some random place.

"Well then, thank you for your help. I'll be going to Class 5, Grade 8 too!"

"Are you the new transfer student? What a coincidence! You'll be my future roommate! I'll take you to the classroom first, and then to the dorm after school. But that dorm is weird; nobody dares to live there except me! Everyone says it's a suicide dorm, but I've been there for a year and I'm perfectly fine! I'm so happy that someone's finally living with me now~~~ I thought I'd have to live alone until graduation!"

I chuckled softly. Judging from her energy level, she was probably the kind of person who would never see a ghost, with an incredibly high level of yang energy! With such strong yang energy, no ghost would be so foolish as to risk its soul being scattered to find her.

"By the way, after all this nonsense, I haven't even asked you your name yet."

"Zero, Ouyang Ling."

Which ling is it?

"The one with the number."

"What a unique name!"

During the conversation, I noticed that the school corridors were made of cement with a certain history. Although the smell of paint on the walls indicated that it had been recently renovated, you could still sense that it was quite old.

"We're here. This is Class 5, Grade 8," Nana said, pointing to a wooden door. Nana went in first, and strangely, a hand reached out from the crack in the door, a pale hand waving towards me. The moment my hand touched the doorknob, I felt something eerie. There were many dark shadows stuck to the lintel and the door itself; these weren't ordinary grime, but rather unseen vengeful spirits.

This place truly lives up to its reputation as a century-old prestigious school! I suddenly had a bad feeling. I hope... nothing bad happens. After all, these spirits existed before I arrived.

"Hello everyone! This is Ouyang Ling, the new transfer student and my future roommate. Please be nice to her for my sake!" It's clear that Nana is very popular. By the way, she's also our class monitor.

After school, I followed Nana to the dormitory. I noticed that the dormitory corridor was strange. It had the layout of a very old building. The corridor lights were dim, like something out of a horror movie. Nana was some distance away from me, and I vaguely noticed that the figure walking in front of me had become two.

No! Upon closer inspection, it was a woman with only her upper body leaning on Nana's shoulder. She seemed to have noticed me. Slowly turning her head, I gasped. Blood was flowing from her seven orifices—ears, eyes, nose, and so on.

"Don't go near her, she's mine..." she said fiercely, giving me a warning look.

I couldn't help but take two steps back. "What's wrong, Zero? We're almost at the dorm. Are you feeling unwell again?" Nana stopped and asked when she noticed I had slowed down. The closer she got to me, the more I felt the hostility emanating from the spirit behind her.

"It's nothing." I took a closer look at the spirit. It had a middle parting, a small ponytail, droopy inner corners of its eyes, and two small moles below the right corner of its mouth. It was strange; someone as powerful as Nana shouldn't have any spirits bothering her. Also, this corridor gave me a really bad feeling.

"We're here at the dorm!" Nana pushed open the door in the far corner and said to me with a smile.

Although this is the legendary suicide dormitory, there is no sense of any spirits present. Perhaps they have already ascended to the afterlife! I noticed that the spirit behind Nana was no longer there, so I asked, "Nana, have you had any friends who have recently fallen ill and passed away? She was a girl with a small ponytail, droopy inner corners of her eyes, and two small moles on the lower right side of her mouth."

"No!" Nana asked, puzzled. "I don't know anyone like that at all!"

Why is that spirit around Nana and hostile towards me? And strangely, if it were possessing or clinging to Nana, it should have been following her the whole time. Why didn't I notice it this morning or now? I only saw it in the hallway. What's wrong with that?

That corridor made me feel really uncomfortable.

That day, I ate the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden. And so I began my descent into depravity.

What's mine will always belong to me.

I'd rather destroy it than have it stolen from me.

Possessiveness has inflated.

Boarding students are required to attend evening self-study sessions. When returning to the dormitory after class, they inevitably have to pass through that corridor. Sometimes, when you see something too often, you stop paying attention to it, even if it's dangerous. People are always so careless.

When Nana and I first went up to the third floor, I didn't realize it yet. She was talking the whole time, and I was always the one listening.

The corridor lights flickered, creating a slightly eerie atmosphere. But Nana said it was because the dormitory was old and the wiring was faulty, so I didn't pay much attention to it.

Thump, thump, thump, muffled footsteps came from afar, and Nana's figure in front of me became a little blurry.

Oh no! I just yelled in my head, and the lights went out.

The corridor was pitch black.

"Nana? Nana?"

"She's mine...she's mine..." A strange laugh came from afar.

The footsteps faded away again, and the corridor lights came on once more.

But Nana was no longer there. Only the ethereal shadow of a young girl remained, weeping. I knew she wasn't human; she was the spirit of this place.

Where did they go?

"Can you see me?"

"Where did they go!" I said, a little angry.

"Don't force me, I'm so scared! I'm so scared!" she cried, shaking her head and glancing furtively up the stairs.

Author: Xinxinjun Reply Date: 2005-01-02 0:16:00

That's the staircase on the west side of the dormitory. The dorm that Nana and I lived in was so infamous, not just because someone had died there, but also because right next to it was the legendary devil's staircase. If you closed your eyes at night and counted the steps as you went up, you would find an extra step leading to an unknown world from which you could never return.

"1, 2, 3... 21... 22... 23!" A cold wind blew by. Opening her eyes, she saw a door in front of her, emitting a slightly old and rotten smell. Pushing the door open, she found Nana had already climbed over the rooftop railing. The spirit she had seen that morning was pulling at Nana's foot.

"Nana!" I shouted and ran over, catching her as she was about to fall.

"She's mine... Don't try to take her from me!" The spirit still clung tightly to Nana's foot, while Nana, who had just been in a daze, had completely lost consciousness.

It's heavy, but I have to keep going.

"You're not from the same world, she...is not yours!"

"...Do you think you can stop me? I'm much stronger than you now!" Ling forcefully pulled Nana's feet down, and my body sank down with her. Nana's body was completely suspended in the air, while half of my body was already outside the railing.

"Why are you looking for her! Nana said she doesn't know you at all!"

"She's mine, and no one can take her away from me!"

Good heavens! It's nighttime now, and the spirit's power is immense. Plus, this is a space she created, the place where her power is strongest. I can't see any spirits, so if this continues, we'll both be in danger.

My hand hurts so much. That spirit keeps staring at me with fierce eyes, but I absolutely cannot let go. However, because of my poor health, I feel like I'm already running out of strength.

What on earth is it that makes this spirit so inexplicably persistent? Normally, Nana doesn't have the constitution to attract spirits!

"Ugh, so noisy! You damn mosquito!" Nana suddenly yelled while she was unconscious, and kicked the spirit away with a powerful jewel. I felt a strong gust of wind, grabbed Nana's waist tightly, and then everything returned to calm. Nana woke up.

"ah……"

And then, sure enough, came screams.

"Zero, why, why am I out here in such danger? Hold on tight!"

"I've got you firmly in my grasp. You'd better put your feet down somewhere and climb in yourself! I'm starting to feel the strain."

After Nana came in safely, I sat down on the floor, completely exhausted.

"Zero, I know you're tired, but I have a question for you. Where are we? Why am I here? Weren't we just on our way back to the dorm?"

"This is on the rooftop of the dormitory," I replied lazily, having just used up all my strength.

"Huh? There's no door to get up to the rooftop?"

"I'm more worried about how we'll get down here," I sighed.

Why are we here?

"Then answer me a question first: do you really not know a girl with a small ponytail, droopy inner corners of her eyes, and two small moles below the right corner of her mouth?"

"I don't recognize you, why?"

"Do you believe in ghosts? This girl died and turned into a powerful vengeful ghost to come after you, and she's determined to kill you. We're here because of her. She's gone for now, but I can't guarantee she won't come back for you tomorrow, or maybe she'll come soon. So we need to find a way to get out of here right away."

"But I really don't recognize them!" Nana said innocently. "Zero, can you see those things? That's amazing!"

I paused for a moment, then suddenly remembered the look of disgust in other people's eyes when they found out I had this ability. So I turned around and said, "No, I'm just more sensitive. Her power is too strong. If you woke up, you would see it too."

"Oh! Then let's hurry up and think of a way to get down!"

The rooftop is surrounded by railings, with a water tower in the center. There used to be a door to the rooftop, on the other side of the water tower, but it was sealed off after the frequent suicides at Building 5—almost one student dying every year. The wind on the rooftop is chilly. I felt that if we couldn't find our way down, when that spirit came again, we wouldn't be as lucky as we were just now, unharmed.

"Zero, look! How romantic! It's a love umbrella!" Nana exclaimed, completely captivated.

I went over to look, and the marks were already a bit blurred. The boy's name, "Zeng Aiai/XX Wei, we'll be together forever," was already somewhat indistinct. I reached out to touch it, but found that the wooden plank was loose. I pushed it hard, and sure enough, there was a small hidden door, big enough for one person to squeeze through sideways, leading to the stairs to the dormitory.

"Nana, let's go back!" I took Nana's hand and we walked sideways through the door. Inside, we found a pull ring behind the wooden plank. It was indeed a door someone had deliberately made. After all, the water tower still needed cleaning; this was probably a small door for the workers, but they were afraid the students would find it, so they made it quite hidden.

I closed the door behind me and went back to the dorm with Nana. Before entering the dorm, I noticed that the seemingly powerless spirit who had been crying at the dorm entrance was gone.

There are so many mysteries here. I don't believe Nana would lie to me, but vengeful ghosts don't come looking for Nana for no reason, and the spirit that only appeared after Nana was taken away is also very strange.

Some things are lost little by little without you noticing.

When you want to make amends, you find it's too late.

The weeping spirit outside the dormitory, the one who only appears when Nana walks in the corridor, constantly saying that Nana is her spirit, and even the spirit that warned me at the school gate—the Municipal First High School is shrouded in mystery. A century-old prestigious school, the excessive academic pressure results in a particularly high number of spirits who commit suicide and cannot ascend to the afterlife. Even during the day, you can feel their resentment. But then I suddenly find it amusing that this place is actually quite suitable for psychics to cultivate; maybe there are a few like that in our school.

However, this is probably just my wild guess. Many people might find this strange: why, if I can see ghosts, don't I cultivate myself to become a psychic? Actually, my mother considered it too. But a powerful cultivator told her that with my constitution, cultivating spiritual abilities would only lead to an earlier death. Because my body couldn't handle so much negative energy.

Humans are a collection of positive energy, while ghosts are a collection of negative energy. When negative energy exceeds a certain limit, this ghost is called resentment, or what is known as a vengeful spirit. My body is already different from ordinary people; I have more negative energy than positive energy. It's a miracle I've survived this long. In a sense, I'm almost a ghost. If I were to cultivate spiritual abilities, it would only attract more negative energy around me. If I'm not careful, I'll die when the delicate balance between the two energies within me is lost. Actually, the type suitable for cultivating spiritual abilities is someone with abundant positive energy but who is also very sensitive to negative energy. In a sense, I'm the least suitable type to cultivate them.

After school, I want to go to the library. I need to look into what the students who committed suicide in the last two years have in common. If I continue like this without any clue, it will only bring Nana closer to death.

"Ah Ling~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~" Hearing the loud voice from behind, I knew who it was. Only she in the whole world would be so energetic every day, without any sense of crisis.

Helplessly turning around, she saw the figure of a strange man beside her.