Volume One (Prequel): The Seventh Reader - Chapter 6: Night of Soul Returning

Fang Mu could tell that Zhu Lao Si had been in a bad mood these past few days.

During class, Zhu Lao Si often sat at the back, staring out the window in a daze. Back in the dorm, he didn't interact much with anyone, sometimes lying on his bed staring at the upper bunk, or sitting at the table scribbling on a piece of paper, only to tear it up, or spending long hours on the computer. Once, when Zhu Lao Si went to the restroom, Lao Wu sneakily took a look at the webpage he was browsing, which turned out to be a supernatural-related website. Fang Mu speculated in his heart that it was probably because of Liu Weili's death.

Liu Weili's death had caused quite a stir in the recently tranquil school. Speculations about the incident could be heard everywhere, in the cafeteria, classrooms, and even the restroom. There were numerous versions circulating, some claiming that Liu Weili had an affair with her mentor, and his wife came to confront her that night, leading to a physical altercation that resulted in her being pushed down the building; others said that Liu Weili was cheating with someone else on the 24th floor under the guise of working overtime, and when caught in the act by her boyfriend, he, filled with shame and anger, threw her off the building; some said it was an accidental fall due to a mental breakdown; and the most far-fetched version was that there was a ghost on the 24th floor, and it possessed Liu Weili, causing her death to take her place.

Fang Mu felt a bit of regret for Liu Weili's death. After all, a young and beautiful girl leaving this world in such a horrific manner, a stylish and fashionable senior sister knowing that her appearance had drastically changed after her death, would probably feel quite bitter. However, since Fang Mu had limited interaction with her, he was more concerned about when there would be an answer to the death of Zhou Jun, whom he had sat in the same classroom with for three years. Unfortunately, there was no news on that front. After two consecutive cases of homicide, the school held a meeting and tasked each department head to convey the school's stance, which was to cooperate actively with the public security bureau in solving the cases, not to believe in rumors, and to trust the capabilities of the public security bureau. Fang Mu was particularly repulsed by the phrase "closing the stable door after the horse has bolted."

On the seventh evening after Liu Weili's death, Fang Mu returned to the dormitory after playing basketball. Everyone had gone out for self-study, leaving only Zhu Lao Si sitting alone on his bed lost in thought. Zhu Lao Si was still wearing his daytime clothes, with some dirt on his pants, looking disheveled. Fang Mu went out to wash his face with a basin and found Zhu Lao Si already sitting at the table when he returned, fiddling with something.

Knowing that his emotions had been low these past few days, Fang Mu didn't speak to him and started packing his bag to go for self-study. As he was about to leave, Zhu Lao Si called out to him.

Turning around, Fang Mu saw Zhu Lao Si gazing at him with teary eyes. Even before he could say anything, tears were already rolling down his cheeks.

Fang Mu felt at a loss, as it was the first time he had seen this carefree guy cry.

Fang Mu awkwardly sat down at the table, not knowing what to say, and could only pat his shoulder symbolically. Zhu Lao Si lowered his head and rested it on the table, shoulders trembling.

After crying for a while, Zhu Lao Si stood up, let out a sigh, and loudly blew his nose with a tissue. Then, he turned to Fang Mu and asked calmly, "Do you believe in ghosts?"

It was then that Fang Mu noticed the strange items in a plastic bag on the table. It seemed to contain some yellow paper with twisted characters written on it, a bamboo pole wrapped with cloth, and a stack of spirit money.

"You can't be serious, Fourth Brother?" Fang Mu tried to make his tone sound less surprised.

"I really liked her!" Zhu Lao Si's eyes filled with tears again.

Looking at the characters and spirit money on the table, Fang Mu quietly calculated and suddenly realized, "Are you thinking..."

"Yes, today is the seventh day after Liu Weili's death. According to our hometown's tradition, the deceased should return to the place of death on this night, which is the night of soul returning. I found a local deity online and bought these things from him. Tonight, I'll summon her spirit using these items, maybe we can find out who harmed her."

Fang Mu thought for a moment. "Isn't the seventh day for the deceased to return home to visit their relatives?"

Zhu Lao Si hesitated for a moment. "Perhaps, or maybe on the way back to the place of death, after all, it's the last place they visited." He stood up and held Fang Mu's hand. "Among the people in the dorm, you and I have the best relationship (Fang Mu thought to himself, really? How come I didn't know), and you have the most courage (I can't even go to that restroom), tonight, will you come with me?"

Fang Mu looked at Zhu Lao Si, pondered his words, and said, "Fourth Brother, we are educated people after all..."

"Will you go or not?" Zhu Lao Si's eyes filled with tears again, looking determined.

Fang Mu had always been a soft-hearted person, and seeing Zhu Lao Si in tears, he reluctantly nodded.

Following their plan, at around nine o'clock, Zhu Lao Si entered the administrative building, opened a window in the restroom on the first floor, and Fang Mu threw the bag of items inside before climbing in through the restroom window. Zhu Lao Si stayed in the building until around 10 o'clock, then left the administrative building. It would be best if the duty officer saw him leaving, and then he climbed back in through the restroom window. After that, they had pre-arranged for Wu Han (who was on duty that night) to open the dormitory door and return to the dormitory. (Originally, Zhu Lao Si's plan was to boldly and openly enter the administrative building with the pile of miscellaneous items, but Fang Mu thought that after the incident in the building, anyone entering the building would be particularly cautious, so it was better to be cautious. Zhu Lao Si thought Fang Mu's opinion was important and expressed that choosing Fang Mu was not wrong. Fang Mu thought to himself: Oh boy.)

However, there was a small hitch in the implementation of the plan. The window of the restroom on the first floor was firmly sealed with iron bars (probably one of the school's measures to close the stable door after the horse had bolted). Fang Mu had no choice but to hand the bag to Zhu Lao Si and nervously walk into the administrative building under the watchful eye of the duty officer.

The two of them hid in the restroom on the 17th floor, not daring to make a sound until midnight. (As soon as Zhu Lao Si entered the building, he was extremely excited to burn paper on the third floor, but Fang Mu reminded him that it was customary to wait until after midnight for the soul returning, and even cited examples from Stephen Chow's "A Chinese Odyssey," and said that burning paper on the platform on the third floor before that time would be strange.) Just after midnight, the two of them quietly made their way to the third floor. (Zhu Lao Si wanted to take the elevator, and Fang Mu reminded him that they would be noticed by the duty officer, to which Zhu Lao Si expressed his gratitude once again, and Fang Mu began to doubt the rationality of acting with this guy.)

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They opened the window in the corridor on the third floor and went out onto the platform outside. It was very cold, and after Zhu Lao Si tremblingly burned a few pieces of paper, he shook the bamboo pole and chanted some words, but there was still no response. After thinking for a moment, Zhu Lao Si felt that his tone was not right and elongated his voice, "Wei---Li, you---come---back---ah, who---hurt---you, I---will---avenge---you." Hearing Zhu Lao Si's ghostly voice, Fang Mu was trembling with fear. After calling out for a while, they had to give up. It was then that Fang Mu realized they couldn't leave.

After discussing with Zhu Lao Si, they decided to spend the night in the restroom and sneak out after the administrative building staff started work the next morning.

The marble floor of the restroom was extremely cold. After tossing and turning for most of the night, Fang Mu leaned against the heater, grumbling to Zhu Lao Si, and eventually fell asleep, not knowing how long he had slept before Zhu Lao Si woke him up.

"What's wrong!" Fang Mu rubbed his eyes, impatiently asking.

Zhu Lao Si's eyes were shining in the darkness. "Do you think we got the wrong place?"

"What?"

"Weili fell from somewhere on this building. Although she died on the platform, she fell from higher up."

Fang Mu widened his eyes. "Yeah, that's right."

Zhu Lao Si became more spirited. "Do you remember when we studied criminal law, we learned that the place where the criminal act occurred and the place where the result occurred are both part of the crime scene? By extension, the place where Weili fell should also be considered."

At this point, Fang Mu wasn't willing to discuss criminal law issues with him, especially considering that Liu Weili was still so academically inclined after her death. However, he agreed to go with Zhu Lao Si to the 24th floor.

The two of them climbed to the 24th floor, and the corridor was pitch black. Fang Mu looked at the dimly visible copy room in the dark corridor and couldn't help but shiver. Zhu Lao Si, on the other hand, was emotional, and he pulled Fang Mu, who was hesitant, and quietly walked towards the copy room.

As they got closer to the copy room, suddenly, Fang Mu's heart started pounding, and a sense of impending doom washed over him. He wanted to grab Zhu Lao Si, but before he could even touch him, he had already stopped. When Fang Mu looked ahead, he felt his blood freeze in his veins.

The door of the copy room was open, and two figures were standing in front of it.

There really was a ghost.

Fang Mu and Zhu Lao Si stood dumbfounded in the corridor. Fang Mu stared fixedly at the two blurry figures across from them. In the darkness, it appeared to be a man and a woman.

Two of them? Fang Mu suddenly thought, could it be that Zhou Jun had also come?

The two figures across from them silently looked at Fang Mu and Zhu Lao Si.

Zhu Lao Si trembled and softly said, "Weili, is that you?"

One of the figures across from them let out an ear-piercing scream, then collapsed in silence.

Fang Mu was petrified by the scream, and instinctively pulled Zhu Lao Si to turn and run. Just as they reached the stairs, several flashlight beams shone directly up from below, accompanied by several shouts, "Who's there? What are you doing?"

Fang Mu and Zhu Lao Si were taken back to the dormitory by the counselor from the security office, and it was already 9 in the morning.

The previous night, when the security office and the administrative building duty officer were patrolling the administrative building, they heard a scream coming from the 23rd floor. Several security staff rushed up to the building and coincidentally met Fang Mu and Zhu Lao Si, who were running unsteadily. Fang Mu haltingly pointed towards the direction of the copy room and said, "Ghost...there's a ghost!" A few people bravely went to the door of the copy room and found a man and a woman lying on the floor, with the woman already unconscious, and the man, though not unconscious, had soiled himself.

After an investigation, the man was identified as Song Bo, and the woman as Jia Feifei, a couple from the Economics Department who had come to the administrative building that night to be intimate. To avoid being discovered, they had chosen the 24th floor, where they thought no one would come. (Fang Mu thought, this is a staunch materialist.) They found the copy room door unlocked, and after their intimate moment, when they opened the door and walked out into the corridor, they saw two dark figures, one of whom was holding a bamboo pole, much like the staff carried by the two ghostly assistants, and particularly using a ghostly voice called out the name of Liu Weili, who had fallen from this place. The couple's world instantly collapsed, and the woman fainted on the spot, still in the hospital.

Although the situation of these two people was sordid, it was still believable. Fang Mu and Zhu Lao Si, on the other hand, seemed suspicious.

Zhu Lao Si insisted that they had come to offer respect to their beloved senior sister by burning paper as an expression of grief. When asked about the bamboo pole, Zhu Lao Si mumbled that it was given as a gift when they bought the spirit money, a buy-one-get-one offer. The security office staff naturally didn't believe this and subtly inquired further, mentioning that criminals usually return to the scene of the crime, and informed the police station. Two policemen, one older and one younger, arrived and questioned them before releasing them. As they were leaving, the older policeman jokingly asked if they intended to summon the spirit of the deceased to seek revenge, to which Zhu Lao Si was about to express his opinion, but was pulled away by Fang Mu.

Exhausted, Fang Mu and Zhu Lao Si sat on the bed, and the counselor scolded them before leaving. After the night of terror, Fang Mu was already dead tired. He opened the blanket, hadn't even taken off his clothes, and crawled in. After a while, he still couldn't fall asleep.

Zhu Lao Si was the same, tossing and turning for a long time, unable to sleep. Later, he lifted the blanket and sat up, and pointed at Fang Mu, making shushing sounds, but Fang Mu ignored him with his eyes closed. Zhu Lao Si, feeling bored, sat alone on the bed, muttering to himself.

"I know I've caused trouble for you, I'm sorry. But... sigh."

Zhu Lao Si sighed, "I've been thinking these past few days, if I had gone in at that time, maybe Weili wouldn't have died. So, I always feel like I owe her. So..."

Fang Mu suddenly sat up.

"Lao Si, you should go to the police!"