Chapter 13
Chapter 13
Preparations for the Ghost Festival cultural event left everyone at Mingjiang No. 7 Special School exceptionally busy.
Zhu Jiayan gathered the teachers to discuss the arrangements. They ultimately decided to hold the main event in the evening, with three sections: an exhibition on filial piety, an arts-and-crafts experience, and student role-playing activities.
The filial-piety exhibition was straightforward. Display boards would present stories such as Mulian Rescues His Mother, the Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars, and quotations from ancient sages for the students to view.
During the crafts section, students would make river lanterns, paper chrysanthemums, and similar items.
For the role-playing activities, students could freely portray figures from ancient stories and promote the culture of filial piety.
Li Que thought the plan looked good. He intended to take his students to make crafts when the time came.
Supplies were purchased, display boards made, and the event publicized. Before long, the Ghost Festival arrived as scheduled.
As the event’s organizer and honored guest, Zhao Xueru arrived early. She specifically ordered Zhu Jiayan and Leng Qingyan to accompany her throughout the evening.
As for Li Que, she paid him no attention whatsoever.
He was only an ordinary person.
Li Que set up a stall beside the temporary cultural street with his students. He brought out paper-cutting supplies and other materials for crafts.
As evening approached, warm lanterns lit one after another, instantly creating a festive atmosphere.
Events like this were rare at Mingjiang No. 7 Special School, so the students participated enthusiastically. The area around the cultural street bustled with activity.
Li Que even noticed many students in cosplay.
They hadn’t followed the school’s plan to portray figures from ancient stories of filial devotion. Instead, many wore all manner of bizarre costumes.
One student wore a zombie suit and looked like an evil spirit fresh from hell.
Another had painted a gruesome, blood-smeared face that looked exceptionally vicious.
Clearly, young people found dressing up as ghosts far more interesting than playing filial sons and daughters.
Li Que was a teacher, but he didn’t object.
Traditional festivals needed to change with the times. They would only remain vibrant if young people found them entertaining.
If adults did nothing but preach gratitude and impose rules all day, a festival would inevitably lose its vitality.
Just then, his phone rang.
It was Gu Xiaomeng.
“Li Que, we’re at the school gate. Can you come get us?”
Li Que told Meng Mo and the others to enjoy themselves, then headed for the entrance.
The moment he left…
“One, two, three… Three wild ones have arrived,” Nian Youyu began counting. “Their anomaly bait is too low-grade, though. None of these three will taste good.”
He turned toward a certain direction.
Zhu Jiayan and Leng Qingyan were accompanying Zhao Xueru over there.
“The little one inside her isn’t bad,” he said.
Meng Mo looked toward the school entrance. “Don’t rush. More people are coming.”
“Tonight is going to be fun.”
His eyes gleamed with excitement.
Only Lin Xiaoyu continued working earnestly on her craft as Li Que had instructed. Hearing the boys’ conversation, she lowered her scissors and looked up.
“You’re not allowed to cause trouble!”
“Otherwise, Sir will be angry!”
Meng Mo immediately grew annoyed. A deathly darkness flashed through his eyes, as though it could devour everything.
“Do you have a death wish?” Bai Lu suddenly asked coldly, still looking into her mirror.
Meng Mo’s aggression vanished. “I didn’t even do anything to you!”
Bai Lu gave him a look of disgust. “I’m trying to stop Lin Xiaoyu from killing you.”
With that, she returned her attention to the mirror.
Meng Mo was about to retort when he glanced down and discovered a layer of moisture covering his hand.
It was as though he’d been caught in the Damp Drizzle.
“Lin Xiaoyu, when did you get so strong?” Nian Youyu exclaimed.
…
At the school gate, a car pulled up and a man and woman stepped out.
The woman wore stylish casual clothes. Her figure was nowhere near as striking as Leng Qingyan’s, but she was still quite attractive.
She was Gu Xiaomeng.
“Li Que, it’s been a long time.”
Gu Xiaomeng smiled in greeting. “This is my boyfriend, Qin Yuandong.”
“We’re interested in traditional cultural events, so we came specifically to take a look. Thank you for helping us get in.”
Li Que felt nothing. He was merely settling a little unfinished business for the body’s original owner.
“Follow me.”
He led them onto the campus.
As they walked, Qin Yuandong gave Li Que a cold once-over.
“What did you ever see in this guy?”
He wasn’t even an anomaly wielder. He was only an ordinary person.
“He’s a good man,” Gu Xiaomeng said softly, regret flashing through her eyes.
She really had imagined spending her life with Li Que back then. Unfortunately, she later became an anomaly wielder while Li Que remained exactly where he was.
This world was cruel. An anomaly wielder and an ordinary person were practically different species.
Li Que had lost the right to enter her world, and she couldn’t clip her own wings to remain trapped with him in a mundane life of bills and household chores.
So they had parted peacefully.
The breakup hadn’t involved any great heartbreak or ugly scene. That was why she could still contact Li Que so calmly.
“The cultural street is just ahead. It’s quite lively tonight.”
Li Que brought them into the event area, then pointed toward Zhu Jiayan’s group in the distance.
“Those are the officials attending the event. How you introduce yourselves is up to you.”
Getting them inside was more than enough.
But Qin Yuandong and Gu Xiaomeng seemed afraid of being noticed. They quickly followed Li Que into the crowd.
“Let’s look around first. This place is surprisingly fun.”
Night soon closed in, and the sky went completely dark.
Qin Yuandong and Gu Xiaomeng sat for a while beside Li Que’s stall. Gu Xiaomeng checked the time. It was almost time.
The students around them were already in high spirits, with costumed ghosts appearing every few moments.
“The sky is dark. Follow Granny. Follow Granny away…”
Suddenly, the lanterns ahead flickered. An old woman in gray slowly entered the cultural street, carrying a ghastly white lantern.
Every student she passed went blank in an instant, their spirits seemingly stolen. They began trailing after her.
“She’s here.”
Qin Yuandong smiled faintly. The anomaly bait Zhao Xueru’s people had deployed had attracted three wild anomalies in total.
This white-lantern-bearing crone was one of them.
The other two were likely elsewhere, already fighting Zhao Xueru and her team.
“We need to hurry over,” Qin Yuandong said, preparing to move.
“No.”
Gu Xiaomeng frowned lightly. “We should deal with the situation here first.”
She glanced instinctively at Li Que and his students.
Once the lantern-bearing crone reached them, they would fall under her influence too.
“What? You still want to save him?”
Qin Yuandong’s expression darkened. “Think carefully. He’s only an ordinary person. If he gets dragged into this, his death will be his own fault.”
“He did help us,” Gu Xiaomeng replied.
Qin Yuandong frowned, then said, “Fine. I’ll give them a hand.”
He rose and approached Lin Xiaoyu, who was concentrating on making a paper lantern.
“You’re very focused, little girl.”
“Here. Let me give you something.”
He took out a bracelet and fastened it around Lin Xiaoyu’s slender wrist.
The bracelet was deathly pale, as if made from bone.
Then Qin Yuandong turned back to Gu Xiaomeng.
She finally relaxed. Gu Xiaomeng knew the bone bracelet was an anomalous entity that could temporarily place Lin Xiaoyu and the others under an illusion.
That illusion would also protect them from the lantern-bearing crone’s influence.
Gu Xiaomeng immediately rose and hurried away with him.
“Heh…”
Before leaving, Qin Yuandong looked back and sneered at Lin Xiaoyu.
Protection?
Hardly.
The bone bracelet ranked higher than the lantern-bearing crone. It would kill every student here and drain all their blood.
Qin Yuandong’s younger sister had once been on the verge of taking a job at this school so she could feed the students to her anomalous entities. But Zhu Jiayan had refused.
This time, Qin Yuandong would take back everything they were owed.
…
Beside Li Que…
Lin Xiaoyu didn’t even raise her head, but Meng Mo suddenly laughed as though he’d witnessed something absurd.
Nian Youyu’s expression turned complicated. He looked at Qin Yuandong with what seemed like pity in his eyes.
Li Que watched the approaching lantern-bearing crone with curiosity. These students certainly knew how to have fun. Their costumes were endlessly strange and inventive.
…
At the same time, not far from the school’s garbage collection area…
“There’s still a D-class anomaly at the cultural street. Aren’t you worried about your boyfriend, Sister Leng?” Zhao Xueru asked with a smile.
Before her, Chen Jun was leading a team in hunting two anomalies.
One was a flying human head that darted around trying to devour the living. The other sang a piercing song capable of driving ordinary people to a mental breakdown.
Neither was particularly powerful. Both were only around C-class, so Zhao Xueru paid them little attention.
Her target was the garbage collection area.
Seeing Leng Qingyan remain here without trying to save Li Que made Zhao Xueru completely certain.
The boyfriend, the career abandoned for love-it had all been a lie.
The treasure in the garbage, Crimson Netherworld, was Leng Qingyan’s real objective!
Leng Qingyan, however, was equally baffled.
She still couldn’t understand why Zhao Xueru had gone to such lengths.
Why was she guarding the garbage collection area?
Bang!
An anomaly shrieked as Chen Jun raised his revolver and blew apart the flying head.
Black smoke curled from the muzzle of the B-minus-class weapon.
At the same time, two of Zhao Xueru’s other subordinates subdued the anomaly whose song manipulated the mind.
Zhao Xueru smiled.
“Sister Leng, it’s time to end this game.”
The fabric over her lower abdomen suddenly split. A tiny bloodred hand clawed its way out, followed by a blood-covered infant.
“The Vengeful Infant of the Blood Coffin?”
Leng Qingyan stared in shock.
“Zhao Xueru, how could you contain something like that?”
Zhao Xueru smiled. “Why couldn’t I?”
“Leng Qingyan, I won’t merely contain the Vengeful Infant. I’ll make you watch as I advance to A-class.”
The blood-covered infant slowly crawled from her abdomen, an umbilical cord running from its back into Zhao Xueru’s body.
Leng Qingyan’s expression changed. The Tear of the Charm Demon at her throat flared with light, and snow-white scales instantly covered her entire body.
She was ready to fight.
But the Vengeful Infant ignored her completely and dove headfirst into the school’s garbage collection area.
Then it began grabbing every piece of trash its tiny hands could reach and stuffing it into its mouth.
Leng Qingyan stared blankly.
What the hell?
Did the blood-covered infant enjoy eating garbage?
Had Zhao Xueru really gone to all this trouble just to seize a garbage dump?