Chapter 78

Chapter 78

Lai Xinrong said, “…There are still eighteen minutes.”

Qiao Yu nodded.

Eighteen minutes. More than enough~

He stretched, then raised a hand and pointed toward the school’s sign outside the window. “Yucai University… should change its name to Cash-Grab University!”

“Lai Xinrong, a gentleman may love money, but he earns it properly. What kind of family do you think you’re dealing with, charging people over fifty thousand in tuition? Why don’t you just rob them!”

Because they were in the review stage, Lai Xinrong could neither talk back no matter how furious he was nor kill him. He was so angry his face turned an even ghastlier shade of blue-white.

-The starving ghost is so pitiful~

-Serves him right. The guy wants to take a bite out of everything he sees all day. The streamer isn’t wrong. With that scrawny little neck of his, he’d choke even trying to swallow a piece of yarn!

-Wasn’t the starving ghost shouting that he was going to eat the streamer? I’m dying. He’s probably full from anger now, hahahahaha.

-Li Xiaoqin: Pah. I’ve hated him for ages. Sneaky little brat.

-Sadako: Every cause has its effect. Your karma is me… and my darling gege~

“Let’s take you, for example. Lai Xinrong, principal of this university. In 2019, you founded Yucai University and became famous throughout Yan City for reforming ‘problem adult students.’ The School Rules were perverse and rigid. At the slightest provocation, students were subjected to corporal punishment or solitary confinement. You claimed you were reforming problem adult students, but in reality, you treated those children like commodities, running them through an assembly line and training them into obedient ‘smart AIs’ who did exactly as they were told.

“No, that’s not right. Even AI programmers leave them with little emotional quirks to tell them apart. You’re different. You treated them like modeling clay. Whatever mold you shoved them into, that was the shape they had to become.”

Qiao Yu spent three minutes tearing this place down until it wasn’t worth a single cent. Only then did he finally vent all the oppressive emotions that had built up over the past few days here.

At last, he was in the mood to get to the point. “Now let’s talk about the serious stuff.”

Everyone: “…”

Lai Xinrong: Fuck. (A kind of plant.)

“The background of this storyline is that on September 31, 2022, a huge fire broke out, and everyone died in it.

“You were the only survivor at the time.

“That was because you had fireproofed the secret room built inside the Principal’s Office. Unfortunately, you were too stingy. You only changed the material of the walls and didn’t replace the material of the secret room’s lock.

“The keyhole of the lock melted in the fire, and you were still trapped inside that secret room, unable to get out.

“There was no water and no food inside. Only your favorite thing… money.

“The secret room was very well hidden. Even when rescuers later came, they still didn’t discover its existence.

“Starving, you stared at the mountain of money in front of you and wished you could shove it into your mouth. But money can’t fill a stomach. With no water and no food, you starved to death, and in the end, you became a starving ghost.”

At that moment, No. 16 tugged at Luo Yunmeng’s sleeve and muttered quietly, “See? I told you he holds grudges.”

Luo Yunmeng pointed at Qiao Yu and reminded him, “He’s looking this way. You’re on your own.”

No. 16: “…”

“The fire started because of No. 60, in other words, Lu Ruan, your daughter in name only.”

When Lai Xinrong heard this, his gaze toward Qiao Yu turned venomous.

Qiao Yu merely shrugged, unconcerned. “It’s no use looking at me. Didn’t you do a paternity test a long time ago? Wasn’t it precisely because she wasn’t your biological daughter that you divorced your ex-wife?

“And the reason you love money… is because you simply couldn’t afford your ex-wife’s spending. That was also why, the moment you were recognized as an education expert later on, you left your alma mater and established Yucai Academy, this money-grubbing tool.

“The fact that you hid the truth that Lu Ruan wasn’t your biological daughter, and took on her guardianship after your ex-wife died, shows that you care a lot about your reputation and have an extremely strong sense of pride.

“You were afraid that if you didn’t raise her, the fact that you’d been cuckolded would become known to everyone.”

As if deliberately provoking the starving ghost, Qiao Yu let out a timely scoff. “Principal Lai is still a respectable man, more or less, isn’t he?

“Because Lu Ruan was only your daughter in name, you treated her badly. You even transferred your hatred for her mother onto her.

“And your unique teaching philosophy made every student in this school hate you. Some especially rebellious children even transferred their hatred for you onto Lu Ruan.

“Just like you, they treated Lu Ruan as a punching bag for their resentment.

“You were indifferent when Lu Ruan was bullied. You were even glad to see it happen.

“So No. 56 became increasingly unscrupulous in bullying Lu Ruan on campus.
As the head teacher of Class F, the Painted-Skin Ghost couldn’t stand by and watch you let others bully Lu Ruan like that. She submitted multiple petitions demanding severe punishment for campus bullying, and after being pestered enough, you had no choice but to issue No. 56 a permit for solitary confinement.

But No. 56 was a very rebellious little girl. She wasn’t going to obediently serve her time in detention. She smashed things and threw tantrums in the Detention Room until, in the end, she was transferred to the Psychological Clinic.”

When Qiao Yu reached this point, a look of disgust appeared on his face. For once, his voice carried anger. “The doctor at the Psychological Clinic was severely homophobic. Unfortunately, No. 59 had been enrolled here precisely because of his sexual orientation.

So No. 59 was detained by him in the Psychological Clinic and subjected to inhumane electroshock treatment every day.

And because of that, No. 59 witnessed Lu Ruan killing No. 56 from the electric chair.

Lu Ruan wasn’t as formidable as she claimed. How could a girl who had suffered so much bullying possibly stay there and touch the warmth of blood?

Her first reaction after killing someone was fear. She ran.

With nowhere else to go, she eventually returned to the dormitory, covered in blood, and was caught red-handed by the Dorm Superintendent.

The Dorm Superintendent was just as greedy as you. He knew Lu Ruan and knew she was your daughter, so he helped Lu Ruan dispose of No. 56’s body.

He even kept evidence so he could threaten and blackmail you with it.

As the president of Yucai University, if anyone found out your own daughter was a murderer, this school would be finished.

But at the same time, you were unwilling to spend the enormous sum of three million on a daughter who wasn’t related to you by blood, so you first gave the Dorm Superintendent a hundred thousand to keep him quiet.

Then you remembered No. 59, who was still being held against his will in the Psychological Clinic. With all these matters piling up, you grew irritated and took all your anger out on Lu Ruan.

Lu Ruan had no idea she wasn’t your daughter. Faced with her father’s repeated coldness, she became more and more extreme, until she decided that as long as she killed No. 59, the witness, and the Dorm Superintendent, the whole matter would be over.”

At this point, Qiao Yu pursed his dry lips and subconsciously glanced at Shang Yan.

He held out his palm. “Water.”

Shang Yan was a little dazed and didn’t react right away.

His thoughts were still being drawn along by the person before him. Qiao Yu at this moment was truly impossible to look away from. His reasoning ability was extremely strong, and that confidence seemed to wrap him in a dazzling halo, making him impossible to ignore.

“Water!”

Qiao Yu repeated impatiently.

Only then did Shang Yan snap back to himself. He took a bottle of mineral water from his Spatial Grid and handed it over, obedient as a little wife.

-Speechless.

-I suspect I guessed wrong. This definitely isn’t that person.

-+1

Qiao Yu gulped down nearly half the bottle before the dryness brought on by his recap finally eased. After a soft cough, he continued, “With that thought in mind, Lu Ruan chose a time when the psychiatrist wasn’t there and went to find No. 59.

She saw No. 59 lying in the electric chair, his mind already muddled from the shocks, and forced down her fear as she raised the voltage-40 mA.

Only after personally watching No. 59 stop breathing did she leave.

Before leaving, Lu Ruan didn’t turn off the electric chair. And just like that, a fire broke out in the Psychological Clinic.

Because the fifth floor only had the archives room and the Psychological Clinic, with no one around, the fire grew larger and larger until it spread beyond any hope of being extinguished.

Everyone ran outside like mad. Unfortunately, the school gates were sealed. The three-meter-high gates and walls that had trapped the children’s nature also trapped everyone’s path to survival.

The fire burned fiercely that day. Students and teachers alike were in complete chaos, desperately trying to escape the teaching building. But the raging flames weren’t the most terrifying part. What was truly terrifying was the toxic gas produced by the fire.

In a university built by a greedy president, how many teachers could there really be who devoted themselves wholeheartedly to their students?

My guess is… when the fire broke out, aside from Head Teacher Tong, who was calming and rescuing the students, the other teachers all escaped the teaching building?

That’s also why both Head Teacher Liu and the psychiatrist have intact facial features, with only signs of smoke-blackened skin, while the Painted-Skin Ghost is covered in burns from head to toe.

Because she was the only one who was burned alive together with the remaining students of Class F.

Am I right?”

Lai Xinrong looked at him, malice showing in his eyes, his excitement practically spilling over. “Are you finished?”