Chapter Eight: Half a Photograph
Uncle Zhang Shan left with a wealth of story material, excitedly disappearing from sight in just a few seconds, leaving the surroundings in dead silence.
The sky was devoid of stars or the moon, and a breeze passed through, beginning to sprinkle fine rain as delicate as cow hair.
The rain, permeated by the cold air from the mountains on either side, brought a chill that ordinary clothing could hardly withstand.
Worried that Luxianbei would freeze in the cold wind and drizzling rain for too long, the coat stirred for a moment, tightening at the cuffs and hem, radiating a warmth from within that created an illusion of lying in a warm bed.
As the coat was Luxianbei’s companion who had signed a contract under the state of the female ghost’s powers, although it didn’t exhibit a high affinity for fire attribute spells like Du Sixian, it could still manage to emit a slight warmth.
The coat said, “…”
I’m truly a caring little coat!
Through the bond, sensing the coat’s foolish joy, Luxianbei let out a bitter smile in her heart, lightly stroking the collar, and continued down the quiet, deserted path ahead.
At this moment, mist had already begun to envelop the mountainside, and the vaguely discernible outline of Banshan Primary School seemed as if it could disappear into the swirling white fog at any moment.
“The fog seems to be getting thicker? Looks like I need to pick up the pace; it wouldn’t be good to get lost,” Luxianbei muttered to herself.
Although she hadn’t detected any urban legends in the vicinity, the atmosphere around Banshan Primary School was unsettling.
The sudden disappearance of the school in the thick fog might really happen.
Moreover, as this thought emerged in her mind, Luxianbei felt as if something hidden in the mountains had been awakened, casting a scrutinizing gaze upon her.
As she pressed on, the closer she got to the mountainside, the more she felt that sending Uncle Zhang Shan away was the right decision.
Due to the mountain deformation caused by the collapse of the peak’s mine, the road encircling the mountain became increasingly damaged as it neared the summit. The surface was riddled with cracks, with the widest part exceeding a meter, and coupled with years of rain and erosion, some sections, after a few downpours, had nearly transformed into a quagmire.
The mist within the mountains thickened.
By the time the last bit of light from the street lamps at the mountain’s foot was swallowed by the large mountain and thick fog, the surrounding scenery suddenly fell into obscurity.
Seeing this, Luxianbei silently exclaimed that it was bad; she was about to pull out an alchemical bomb for illumination when her feet turned sharply around a bend, and after a moment of disorientation, she froze in place.
The dense fog in the mountains seemed to vanish in an instant; when she regained her senses, she found herself standing in the clearing in front of the Banshan Primary School’s gate.
“This…”
Luxianbei opened her mouth, hesitated to speak, looked at the school gate a hundred meters away, then turned to look back at the path she’d taken, her brows knitting together.
This doesn’t make sense! Just moments ago, I could barely see the outline of the school, and there should have been another kilometer or two to go.
How did I make it to the school gate after just turning a corner?
It felt as though… as if the school had run towards me like the story I told Uncle Zhang Shan.
Luxianbei thought, silently pulling out an alchemical bomb to hold in her hand, both illuminating and providing self-defense, while also overcoming the urge to turn back with Z Country’s traditional saying “Since I’m here, I might as well go on” as she slowed her pace and walked forward.
Moments later, Luxianbei arrived at the front gate of Banshan Primary School.
This school had been abandoned for many years; the sign on the gate was broken in half, the ground littered with remnants of broken walls and tiles, and even the surrounding walls were covered with overgrown grass, making it appear very desolate.
It was now the midnight hours, the mountain was eerily quiet, occasionally interrupted by a few hurried bird calls, insidiously eerie.
That wouldn’t be a crow, would it?
Luxianbei recalled the story she had just told Uncle Zhang Shan, her face slightly pale.
Why did I have to say something so tongue-tied?
Isn’t it just adding trouble for myself?
She thought bitterly, frowning as she gazed towards the school.
Due to lack of maintenance, the green belt was overrun with weeds, many trees grew crookedly, and faintly, she could see a few unmarked graves standing under those trees.
In the distance, in front of the teaching building that was dark and had broken windows, stood a banyan tree with exceptionally lush roots, its thick trunk and tangled aerial roots so large that several people could barely encircle it.
Hanging from the banyan tree’s branches were a few pieces of old school uniforms that had not been taken away, swaying in the wind, as if waiting for someone to return.
In the wind and rain, the old banyan tree’s leaves made a rustling sound, and the already decayed swing hanging from the trunk swayed gently, as if a girl invisible to the eyes were seated on it.
“Hiss—!”
The eerie scene inside Banshan Primary School made Luxianbei involuntarily take a deep breath.
In such a haunted place, akin to a haunted vacation resort, if there were no urban legends lurking about, then that’s truly absurd, downright wrong!
If those urban legends under Du Sixian were to take a vacation and organize a team-building retreat here, they would surely be delighted.
That guy would feel right at home!
As she pondered, Luxianbei suddenly propelled herself with her toes, leaped up, and vaulted over the gate, officially entering Banshan Primary School.
Here, the area was vast, and she could see the entire school at a glance.
Directly in front of the gate was a patch of not too large a muddy area, perhaps some sort of playground, now overgrown with weeds.
At the end of the playground, next to the old banyan tree, stood a two-story building, presumably the teaching building.
Due to deformation caused by the mine collapse, the building had suffered quite a bit of damage, with visible cracks on the walls, looking as if it could collapse at any moment.
Next to the teaching building was a row of low houses; it wasn’t clear what they were for, but Luxianbei speculated they could be offices for teachers or dormitories.
Having surveyed the environment in the school, Luxianbei wasn’t in a hurry to enter the teaching building or the low houses.
From the metal box on her shoulder, she took out several alchemical bombs, spaced about a meter apart, and buried them beneath the school gate and the surrounding walls, then carefully set triggering spell formulas.
Though up to now, she hadn’t sensed any spirit energy fluctuations within Banshan Primary School, it didn’t stop her from being cautious.
If she didn’t prepare adequately in advance and ventured deep into the school, only to encounter some danger with unknown enemies charging in from outside, wouldn’t she be left with no way to retreat?
Regardless of whether there were enemies or not, let’s assume there are!
After all, it wouldn’t take long to bury the alchemical bombs; it’s not a bother; if they end up being unnecessary, she could always dig them up and take them away later.
Thinking this, after burying the last alchemical bomb, Luxianbei dusted her hands off, nodded in satisfaction, and turned to walk towards the teaching building.
The light rain pattered down, washing away the soil, quickly covering any traces of the disturbed earth.
————
Approaching the teaching building, Luxianbei cautiously avoided the surrounding weeds and circled around the dilapidated structure.
Confirming that there were no ambushes around the teaching building and planning two excellent escape routes, she entered through the side door of the building.
The dark corridor, with all the doors on either side wide open, revealed no valuable items; the desks and chairs were all moved away cleanly.
In the empty classroom, the floor was littered with yellowed papers, and Luxianbei even spotted a test paper with altered scores.
“Good gracious, 18 points turned into 98 points?” Luxianbei frowned.
“You’re quite the talent! That summer, this test paper must have left you with painful memories, huh?”
Continuing on for a while, she reached the main entrance lobby of the teaching building and discovered something interesting.
On the wall next to the main entrance, there was a wall painted black to serve as a bulletin board, densely covered with various chalk writings, not announcements but fragments of messages seemingly left by students before they left.
Most of the chalk writings had become fuzzy over the long passage of time, but a few could still be barely recognized.
With a hint of curiosity, Luxianbei leaned closer to the wall, igniting a red flame to illuminate her surroundings, and began reading the messages one by one.
【Li Guoqing, I love you!】
Luxianbei, “…”
Uh, elementary school students decades ago were this bold already? Impressive, predecessors!
In comparison, I was like a fool in elementary school, only thinking about whether to spend my five yuan pocket money on snacks or save it to buy skins, she thought.
【Wang Xiaobao, I f*ck your ancestors!】
Now that was much more normal; however, children shouldn’t use such foul language!
Rub it away, rub it away!
Luxianbei raised her hand to erase the crude language left by some former elementary student on the bulletin board, just as she was about to continue looking down, a sudden light rustling sound echoed beside her.
Following the direction of the sound, she immediately held her breath.
She saw that the line of crooked writing she had just erased was slowly reappearing, word by word.
It felt as if someone was gripping an invisible piece of chalk, writing on the blackboard, the faint sound of chalk rubbing against the board echoing in the dark.
But the “person” couldn’t be seen, lacking any sign of presence, energy, smell, or temperature, as if existing in another inaccessible dimension.
Then, after a few breaths, the words 【Wang Xiaobao, I f*ck your ancestors!】 re-emerged on the blackboard.
Seconds later, Luxianbei snapped back to reality, expanding her spiritual perception to its maximum to capture even the tiniest energy fluctuation.
However, she found nothing.
No energy fluctuation indicated that this phenomenon couldn’t be explained by urban legends.
But…
Without relying on urban legends to explain this phenomenon, can I even explain it with science? Luxianbei wondered.
She wasn’t afraid of most urban legends; phenomena that could be explained by science didn’t frighten her either, yet this type of unknown phenomenon that couldn’t be understood through either science or metaphysics momentarily gave her the same tense feeling she had when encountering an urban legend for the first time.
She steadied herself a bit, concentrated her attention, and stepped closer for a better look at the script on the bulletin board.
This time, as she inadvertently noticed another line of small text, she suddenly tightened her grip on Ling Tai Purification, took two steps back, and froze in place.
【Luxianbei, do you not recognize me anymore?】
Written in the corner of the blackboard was such a line of small text, the neat writing revealing a hint of clumsiness, making it feel like it had been left by a naive girl.
The surroundings were horrifyingly quiet; outside the teaching building, in the empty school, the cold wind blew, causing the overgrown weeds and the banyan tree’s branches to sway, producing sinister, fragmented “whispers.”
In a daze, she felt as though someone was lurking in the shadows, peering at her; she nervously looked left and right but saw nothing.
In the deathly silence, Luxianbei looked again at the small line of text, her willow-like brows furrowing.
That sentence seemed to grow like a thorny briar, deeply rooted in her mind, causing her to uncontrollably ponder.
When was this sentence left?
Was it when I was just distracted, or was it during the last meeting between Qin Nanzhu and my father nineteen years ago, or perhaps when this school had just been abandoned over forty years ago?
Could the one who left this message have been Qin Nanzhu?
If so, what message did she want to convey?
Was she trying to confirm if I still remembered her, or was it some kind of silent threat?
……
“Bang, bang, bang—!”
Suddenly, a sound of footsteps came from above, as if someone were hurriedly walking down the corridor on the second floor.
The muffled sound of footsteps and the faint energy fluctuations pulled Luxianbei from her chaotic thoughts.
There are other people in this school!
Luxianbei’s eyelids twitched; after a brief moment of tension, her emotions calmed instead.
Upon realizing the presence of energy fluctuations, she felt less fear.
It is the unknown that instills fear, and the known does not.
If there are energy fluctuations, it means the other party is either a spiritual ability user or an urban legend.
What’s there to fear about spiritual ability users or urban legends? Who isn’t one? Within Huacheng, they should be afraid of me!
Luxianbei reassured herself, raised her head to glance at the ceiling, took a few deep breaths, then drew her sword and proceeded upstairs.
As soon as she reached the second floor, the dark corridor was illuminated by the light of the red flame, and a trail of footprints from accumulated dust caught her eye, stretching from the staircase to the darkness at the end of the hallway.
Following the direction of the footprints, she advanced; the classroom doors on either side of the corridor remained open, empty without space to hide a person.
The one responsible for the footsteps seemed to have vanished into thin air suddenly.
After traversing the dusty corridor, she arrived at the last classroom at the end of the corridor; gazing at the only locked classroom in the entire teaching building, Luxianbei furrowed her brows.
A rusted iron chain coiled around the door of this classroom, and on the chain hung a lock that seemed to have rusted shut with it.
“…”
Could it be…
Staring at the padlock, Luxianbei pondered for two seconds, then quietly reached into her jacket pocket and grasped the twisted brass key.
Although she could easily break this ordinary iron door with a single sword strike, to verify her suspicion, she cautiously straightened the key and attempted to insert it into the padlock’s keyhole.
Perhaps due to the long period of abandonment, the padlock had severely rusted; as soon as she inserted it halfway, it jammed; with a forceful push, the moist rust from the lock stained her hands a rusty red, and with a sudden “click!” the key fully entered the keyhole.
What followed was the moment to witness a miracle!
Staring at the padlock, Luxianbei silently took a deep breath, forcefully twisting the key left and right. Accompanied by a sound that made her teeth ache, the padlock clicked open.
“!!!”
It actually opened for real!
Since this key was carefully preserved by my dad, does that mean that behind this door is the person or thing I want to find? Luxianbei thought excitedly.
Then…
She suddenly stepped back two paces, activated the energy within her body, and executed the sword techniques from “Taihe Gentleman Sword Illustration” in a flash, unleashing a brilliant streak of sword light toward the iron door.
In an instant, the shrill sound of metal tearing erupted, and the iron door shattered into a dozen pieces, flying into the classroom.
Although using the key to unlock the lock followed by cutting open the door with the sword may have seemed somewhat erratic…
First, Luxianbei hadn’t unlocked the door to enter; she merely wanted to verify whether the key held by Lu Ming matched this padlock.
Second, if those spiritual ability users or urban legends moving about upstairs were hiding behind the door waiting in ambush, directly pushing the door open would grant them an opportunity to strike.
So, Luxianbei needed to unlock the door first, making them think she would push the door open, and then violently break the door down, slashing both it and the lurking entity behind it down with her sword.
However…
This time, she overthought it; there were no spiritual ability users or urban legends inside that classroom behind the door.
As the iron door was forcibly opened by Ling Tai Purification, the accumulated dust on the door flew about, landing on Luxianbei’s face, as if reprimanding her for her rough behavior.
“Ahem—!”
Clearing her throat quietly and waving her hand in front of her face to disperse the dust, Luxianbei focused her gaze inside the classroom.
Unlike the previous empty classrooms, it was unclear what had occurred here; the ground was littered with the remnants of chairs and desks.
Those broken desks and chairs were piled together, twisted in shape, hinting at intentional arrangement.
Yet, amidst the debris of desks and chairs, there lay a perfectly intact chair in the center of the classroom, upon which rested a dusty booklet, with the words “Commemorative Book” written on the cover.
Luxianbei glanced up at the ceiling above the chair, confirming there was nothing to hang oneself with and that the chair wasn’t a tool for hanging, before approaching cautiously, keeping a distance of one meter, and using Ling Tai Purification to open the booklet on the chair.
However…
“Eh? It’s empty? How can it be empty?” Luxianbei exclaimed in surprise while looking at the blank pages of the booklet.
Honestly, in a place like this, if a commemorative book appeared filled with scriptures directly referencing an evil god, she wouldn’t be surprised.
But if nothing at all was written, it would rather raise suspicion.
Filled with doubt, she used Ling Tai Purification to flip through several pages, and at that moment, a faint, almost imperceptible light suddenly flashed, and a photograph tucked in the commemorative book floated gently to the ground.
To be precise, it was only half a photograph, showing a stunningly beautiful woman, and the other half…
Luxianbei furrowed her brows, pulling out the half photograph she found among her father’s relics, and just from a distance, she could tell the tear marks from both photographs almost perfectly matched.
Was the woman in that half photograph Qin Nanzhu?
Was this photograph possibly a picture of her and my dad together?
Luxianbei thought, holding the half photograph and inching closer to compare the rip more closely when suddenly, a loud bang was heard from outside the window, followed by piercing screams.
The loud bang startled Luxianbei, causing her body to tremble; in a moment of negligence, the photograph slipped from her hand and, as if drawn to the photograph on the ground, flew over and bonded together…
