Chapter 117: He Blinked
I really like this school, so I want to protect it…
This reason is quite sufficient, and judging from her demeanor, it doesn’t seem like she’s lying to me. Luxianbei stared at the Decapitated Senior, thinking to herself.
However, just to be safe, I still need to ask clearly how terrible that thing she mentioned really is.
If it’s within my capabilities, I’ll take a trip to the school tonight.
If it’s too difficult to deal with, then I’d have to apologize, but the urban legend girl you called for is out of service!
If I can’t handle it, and there’s that d*mn Yahshashi, that’s just foolish! It would be much better to stay put, level up, and solve the problem once I can defeat the enemy, right?
Thinking this, Luxianbei looked at the Decapitated Senior and said seriously, “I can help you contact Professor Ma to see if he can find the girl you mentioned.”
“However, whether I can actually bring her here, I cannot guarantee. Additionally, you’d better tell me more about that terrifying entity you’re talking about, so that if I find her, I can relay the information.”
“Mmhm.” The Decapitated Senior, holding her neck, nodded, her tone somewhat excited. “Just the fact that you’re willing to help me is enough. Even if I ultimately can’t bring her here, it won’t be your fault.”
“As for the specific details about that terrifying thing…”
The Decapitated Senior paused for a moment, her head rotating about one hundred and forty to one hundred and fifty degrees towards the direction of the faculty dormitory. “I can’t explain the details very well. If you’re not afraid, you could come with me to take a look.”
In the direction of the faculty dormitory? Could it be… Luxianbei squinted slightly as she followed the Decapitated Senior’s gaze and said, “Did you see a certain counselor being attacked?”
“Ah?” The Decapitated Senior was visibly taken aback, and in surprise, she said, “How did you know? Uh, wait, I actually didn’t see it; I just felt it and heard someone say earlier that a certain counselor living there went crazy.”
That sounds pretty close to the truth… Luxianbei thought, nodding at the Decapitated Senior. “Alright, I’ll go with you and take a look from a distance.”
First, check the situation, then decide whether to show up tonight. Luxianbei thought.
…
As they walked along Sakura Avenue towards the faculty dormitory, Luxianbei’s gaze occasionally drifted towards the Decapitated Senior, controlling her pace to lead her around pedestrians.
Although she didn’t know if ordinary people crossing paths with such urban legends would have any adverse effects, Luxianbei figured it was still better to avoid them as much as possible.
Seeming to sense Luxianbei’s little action, the Decapitated Senior quietly said, “It’s fine. Before I met you, I wandered around the school, wanting to find someone who could see me. I don’t know how many people I’ve passed through face to face, and it hasn’t affected them.”
“Is that so?”
Luxianbei replied awkwardly, suddenly recalling something, and hurriedly changed the subject. “By the way, you’ve been staying in the school. Besides liking it here, is there no other reason?”
If there were no other reasons, just a pure fondness for this place, she shouldn’t care whether someone could see her, Luxianbei thought.
“……” The Decapitated Senior turned her head to glance at Luxianbei, and after a moment of silence said, “I want to repay the three people who laid flowers and sincerely mourned me in the days after my d*ath.”
Three? Didn’t Professor Ma say that there were many people spontaneously memorializing that day? Luxianbei wondered, then heard the Decapitated Senior mention another reason for wandering the campus.
“Also, I want to find the person who killed me.”
As expected, I knew there was another reason, but this one doesn’t seem malicious. Luxianbei frowned slightly.
“But it’s been so long. That person, I mean the murderer, if they haven’t been caught, shouldn’t they have long since left here?”
The Decapitated Senior’s expression suddenly darkened, and the black mist surrounding her body thickened as well. Luxianbei felt a slight sting in his eyes; he could sense a chilling aura radiating from the Decapitated Senior.
“No, he’s still in this school. I can feel it.”
Still in this school? Luxianbei was taken aback.
How could someone so cruelly k*ll a girl, and after so many years, not only remain at large but also have the audacity to stay near the scene of the crime?
Is it a student or a teacher? d*mn, what kind of mentality drives someone to commit such an act?
Luxianbei thought in surprise, frowning and asking, “Can you tell me who it is? Perhaps I can help you out a bit.”
If I can’t deal with the urban legend, I still can’t handle the perpetrator? Criminal Law warns! Luxianbei thought.
Upon hearing this, the Decapitated Senior was momentarily stunned, looking at Luxianbei, her murky eyes trembling slightly as she stammered, “I… I… forgot what he looks like.”
“What the hell, you really can forget such an important thing? Why don’t you forget your name too?”
Luxianbei blurted out, and as soon as he said it, he felt a bit inflated for having the guts to tease an urban legend. Just as he was about to explain to the Decapitated Senior, he noticed her pale face had already turned bright red.
“My name, my name, I forgot that too…” the Decapitated Senior said weakly.
Luxianbei, “……”
Is it because she died, and in the process of becoming an urban legend, her memories have become fragmented?
Or is it that her head was severed in such a horrific manner that her brain has some issues with connectivity?
Luxianbei pondered, just as he was about to ask the Decapitated Senior further, she suddenly called out softly, “We’ve arrived, it’s right there!”
While they were talking, they had unknowingly reached the foot of the faculty dormitory. Following the direction pointed by the Decapitated Senior, Luxianbei’s gaze landed on a balcony of a dormitory on the second floor.
On the balcony, he saw a familiar coat—the one worn by Counselor Xue when they first met.
At that moment, the coat gently swayed in the breeze; the balcony window was tightly shut, and the curtains drawn. To the n*ked eye, there didn’t seem to be anything particularly strange about it, yet it gave off a sense of unease.
That should be Counselor Xue’s dormitory, right? Luxianbei thought, turning to the Decapitated Senior and nodding. “Got it, let’s go up and take a look.”
Upon entering the faculty dormitory, unexpectedly, the Decapitated Senior just stood by the window of the duty room, and the old lady in the duty room seemed to ignore Luxianbei completely, letting him walk past.
Is it some kind of special spirit ability? What a pity for all the excuses I prepared. Luxianbei thought, quickening his pace up the stairs, and soon arrived at the door of Xue Hua’s dormitory.
The tightly closed dormitory door blocked his way. He contemplated whether to just peek outside the door since he couldn’t go in when suddenly the Decapitated Senior, who had been following closely behind him, abruptly distorted in light and shadow and stepped forward, walking right through the door.
A few seconds later, the doorknob turned, and the door creaked open as the Decapitated Senior gently nudged it, opening it just a crack.
Seeing this, Luxianbei, acting like a thief, glanced around to make sure no one was watching before he quickly pushed the door open and sidled in.
“Click—!”
The dormitory door closed behind him, and Luxianbei turned to take a look, instantly surprised by the scene inside the dormitory.
This was a single room approximately thirty to forty square meters, with a single bed near the door, a desk beside it, and a bookshelf leaning against the desk.
The area near the balcony was simply furnished as a meeting space, with a carpet on the floor and two single sofas, making the whole room appear simple yet cozy.
However, the walls were lined with a haphazard collection of dark photographs that greatly ruined that cozy feel. At first glance, it even seemed a bit eerie.
Luxianbei approached the wall and examined the photos closely, frowning.
He had heard from classmates during breaks that Xue Hua had a passion for photography, but he hadn’t thought much of it at the time since photography was quite a common hobby.
However, seeing the photos taken and developed by Xue Hua, Luxianbei felt that this hobby was not so simple.
Almost every photo he took was of nighttime scenes. Occasionally, a few were not, yet the lighting indicated they were taken at dusk or just before dawn.
What made Luxianbei’s skin crawl even more was the content Xue Hua had photographed.
Those photographs taken at midnight mostly featured various humanoid statues—bronze statues in the University City park, Confucius outside the library, mannequins abandoned in garbage piles, and clown statues in an abandoned amusement park…
Each figure, captured under the cover of night, appeared in Xue Hua’s photos with an overexposed technique that gave them a faint glow, combined with the eerie angles, creating a very haunting atmosphere.
Some of the photos even gave Luxianbei the illusion that the statues in them were alive.
What on earth was he doing taking pictures of these things? It’s strange and creepy! It would be more unusual for him not to encounter an urban legend with such odd tendencies, Luxianbei thought.
As he pondered, the Decapitated Senior gently tapped his shoulder. He turned and followed her finger, spotting a photo that had fallen next to the sofa.
“That photo is related to Xue Hua’s experience and the terrible entity you mentioned?”
“Mmhm, that’s right.”
Upon hearing this, Luxianbei frowned slightly, stepped forward to pick up the fallen photo, and examined it closely.
The background of the photo was the sports equipment room of Huacheng University under the night sky, with a dimly lit corridor featuring a grey-faced old man in a vibrant shroud, his body hunched.
He held a bl**d-red lantern, forcing a strange smile at the camera. His gloomy face was lined with unsettling wrinkles.
Whether it was due to the shooting technique or not, the old man in the photo looked entirely like a wax statue, or perhaps…
A corpse!
Luxianbei thought, glancing again at the photo in his hand. For a moment, his eyes met the murky eyes of the old man in the photo, and it felt like he saw him blink…
(Today’s writing was a bit stuck, so there’s only one update. I’ll have two updates tomorrow…)
