Chapter 63

Chapter 63

The screams inside the room were endless. Mixed in were the sounds of something being dragged, the sounds of struggling-total chaos.

When people couldn’t see, their imaginations tended to run wild.

“What’s happening? What’s happening?” Luo Yunmeng took two tentative steps forward, her unfocused eyes turned anxiously toward the source of the noise. “Benefactor, are you all right, Benefactor?”

Qiao Yu: “…Benefactor, my ass. What, am I the empress now? My name is Qiao Yu.”

The next second, Qiao Yu freed one hand and picked up his phone. The moment the flashlight came on, Luo Yunmeng finally saw what had just happened.

The Smoky Water Ghost was tied to a chair in the corner. Qiao Yu held the handle of the conductive device and waved it back and forth in front of the ghost, his expression uncommonly mean. “You must’ve loved playing with this thing when you were alive, huh? Today, you get a taste of it yourself.”

The Smoky Water Ghost: “…!”

Bzzzt-

Water conducted electricity to begin with. The moment Qiao Yu pressed the device’s terminal against it, the current spread through its whole body. The Smoky Water Ghost convulsed nonstop, unable to even get out a complete sentence.

Before long, what little hair it had was standing straight up, like it had a hedgehog perched on its head.

“This is fun.” Qiao Yu chuckled and handed the conductive device to Sadako. “Want to play?”

Sadako sympathized with the Smoky Water Ghost for three seconds, then decisively took the conductive device and nodded hard. “I do!”

The Smoky Water Ghost: “………”

-Uh… is this what they call fans taking after their idol??

-Sister Sadako has learned bad habits.

-The streamer isn’t human. He’s a demon!

While Sadako was having the time of her life over there, Qiao Yu seized the chance to search through the Psychological Clinic.

First, he found a treatment report:

Name: No. 59

Cause: Homosexuality.

Treatment plan: Electroshock therapy, visual therapy, verbal therapy.

Schedule: One hour each in the morning, afternoon, and evening.

Check-in: Completed on September 1, 2022.

He skimmed it briefly. Almost every page had the same contents.

Only the last few pages were a little different.

The treatment schedule in the middle had changed. Starting on September 21, it had become all-day treatment.

And on the final page, the one dated September 31, there was no check-in at the end.

Add to that the attendance records for the Painted-Skin Ghost’s Class F and the punishment board recording that No. 03 had been placed in solitary confinement that day.

So something must have happened on September 31.

Qiao Yu had always believed that once was a coincidence, twice was a coincidence, but three times absolutely could not be explained away as mere coincidence.

Thinking of the charred-black skin of Class F’s original students, Qiao Yu narrowed his eyes.

Had the fire happened that day?

Why?

Qiao Yu clutched the stack of treatment reports, his brows tightly furrowed.

Shang Yan stood off to the side, tilting his head as he looked at him. Those eyes, usually lazy and half-lidded, were wide open now, the bright pupils slowly darkening…

Actually, swearing wasn’t a big deal.

Compared to the old Qiao Yu, it really wasn’t anything.

The way he was now was already very, very good…

Almost unconsciously, Shang Yan’s hand reached toward Qiao Yu’s brow, wanting to smooth away the crease there.

But the person before him looked up with extreme sensitivity, his black-and-white eyes full of small-animal wariness. “What are you doing?”

He would never force Qiao Yu. Not ever. Including now.

Shang Yan smiled and withdrew his hand. “What are you thinking about?”

Qiao Yu heartlessly waved the treatment report in his hand. “I’m wondering why a perfectly good school would catch fire.”

Shang Yan glanced toward the two ghosts who were “having fun” off to the side. He stretched and said slowly, “Current and voltage are different. Do you know the threshold of electric current the human body can withstand?”

Qiao Yu shook his head.

How was he supposed to know that?

“Thirty milliamps.”

“So?”

“Forty milliamps can be fatal. And if the device isn’t turned off, it will definitely start a fire within an hour.”

Hearing that, Qiao Yu immediately ran over to the conductive device. When he saw the 40mA reading on it, his eyes instantly lit up.

At the same time, a flash of astonished admiration spilled into the gaze he turned on Shang Yan. Without thinking, he threw away the useless papers in his hand, lunged forward, wrapped his arms around Shang Yan’s neck, and planted a loud kiss on him.
Only after kissing him did he realize what he’d done.

Damn it. What was the point of being so smart for no reason?

Relying on that clever little head and that pretty little face, all he did all day was seduce people.

Under Shang Yan’s man-eating stare, Qiao Yu gave an awkward smile. “Sorry. Got excited.”

“I don’t accept that.”

“Huh?”

Shang Yan’s amber eyes seemed to be coated in a matte glaze as he repeated, “I don’t accept it.”

“…You don’t accept it, so?”

“So you have to give it back.” Shang Yan took a step forward. “Let me kiss you back, and then we can call it even.”

Qiao Yu: “…”

“Ahem.”

Just as Qiao Yu had no idea how to talk his way out of this, a cough sounded behind him.

Facing Shang Yan’s gaze that looked as if he wanted to slice her to pieces, Luo Yunmeng pulled a long face and said, “I’m begging you two, spare this single dog, okay? Could you pay just a tiny bit of attention to the third person present? I don’t want to turn into some love-addled idiot. I still have a doctorate to get.”

Qiao Yu: ??

No, seriously, were they never going to let this love-addled thing go?

He really wanted to ask everyone: exactly how was he love-addled?

Whose love-addled idiot ended up never worrying about food or clothes, with a house and a car to boot?

As long as he wasn’t paying out of pocket, he was already doing pretty well!

“Time’s up.” Sadako set down the conductive device, her hoarse voice thick with regret.

It was obvious she hadn’t had enough fun.

Before she left, Qiao Yu comforted her. “I’ll come play with you again next time.”

After Sister Sadako disappeared, silence once again returned to the Psychological Clinic. The Smoky Water Ghost lay dazedly on the chair, and Qiao Yu didn’t continue torturing him. The three of them kept searching the room for any usable clues.

Right now, their chances of reviewing and clearing the Instance were still too slim. If they wanted to reach a 90% completion rate for the storyline, these clues were far from enough.

They still needed to verify more things.

For example, whether the fire really had been caused by the conductive device. Or who had adjusted the device’s values?

And why exactly had they adjusted those values? All of that remained open to discussion.

On top of that, the information on No. 59 was too vague. And then there was Yucai Academy’s… principal.

There were also No. 56 and No. 60. As the principal’s daughter, how had No. 60 ended up being bullied by No. 56?

They turned the entire Psychological Clinic upside down, but in the end, they still found nothing.

Qiao Yu sighed helplessly. It seemed there was nothing left to dig up here. He rubbed his stomach, which had long since gone flat from hunger, and suggested, “Shall we head back?”

“How do we get back?” Luo Yunmeng had long since had enough and wished she could leave this bizarre, terrifying timeline immediately.

To her surprise, Qiao Yu seemed to have known how to get back all along.

He walked toward the only mirror in the room that hadn’t been stained by black ash, then slowly reached out his hand.

The next second, Qiao Yu’s entire body was sucked into the mirror.

She looked at No. 54 in shock, but No. 54 didn’t even acknowledge her before following right after him and disappearing into the mirror as well.

Tsk. This guy was way too aloof.

Luo Yunmeng awkwardly rubbed the tip of her nose. Compared with staying here by herself, it was better to crawl into the mirror and find her companions.

Soon, a wave of dizziness hit her. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in a very clean and tidy room.

Unexpectedly, this was not the Psychological Clinic.

Unfamiliar wooden bookshelves stood before her, one after another. Through the transparent glass on the cabinet doors, she could see what looked like rows of kraft-paper-covered folders inside.

Curious, she opened a cabinet, pulled one out, and flipped through it, only to discover that it was actually a student file.

“How did we end up here?” Luo Yunmeng was utterly confused.

Weren’t they in the Psychological Clinic? Why had she opened her eyes and suddenly appeared in the school’s archive room?

Qiao Yu glanced at the time, put the file in her hands back where it belonged, and asked in return, “Is it that strange? We’re in the Yucai Academy inside the mirror, after all.”

Luo Yunmeng: ??

You sound so calm…

Do you even know what you’re saying?