“A teacher?”
“Yes, and he knows about us. He plans to tell them to the headmaster and the black building.” Han Fei was telling the truth.
“But teachers and students are different sacrifices, and they have different uses…” The head floated before Han Fei. “But since he knew about our private trades, then we can’t keep him around.”
“I’ll bring him here as soon as possible.” Han Fei moved the head away. “The school takes a lot of time to calculate a teacher. I’m using him to trade for a small Lingering Spirit, so this trade is in your favor.”
The head made a thinking face. Then, his lips moved. “If you make that teacher a live sacrifice, I’ll tell you more about the strange buildings.” The pale hands took out several damaged cursed objects from under the black room. The black merchant dropped them before Han Fei. “I’ve found parts of the things you want me to. These cursed objects are all from the Third Optometrist Hospital and Deep Sea Aquarium. However, the souls on them are almost gone. They might help.”
Han Fei was surprised that the merchant was so generous.
“The ticket to the aquarium and a patient’s list?” When Han Fei touched these things, the greed abyss in his mind opened up again. Shadow and darkness surfaced, and the black merchant astutely moved back.
Han Fei flipped the coin of fate. The black mist consumed the cursed objects. The broken memories appeared in Han Fei’s mind. Blood waves boiled. The patient’s list was torn apart to form a pale morning.
The young Gao Cheng had just finished his first treatment. The doctor gave him the bad news. He temporarily couldn’t regain his sight. It was already quite best that he could see simple colors. His mother and the doctor discussed many other options, but the doctor only shook his head.
At the same time, the blind parents shooed Gao Xing out of the consultation room. The aged doctor closed the door. He took out a contract and discussed something with the blind parents. The aged doctor wanted to buy Gao Xing’s eyes. He wanted to use Gao Xing’s eyes to conduct a new surgery on Gao Cheng. The blind parents were moved when they heard the offer. Their lives were hard. This was an astronomical number. After a long silence, they took the contract, tore it apart, and dumped it on the doctor’s face. They didn’t have the money to cure their eyes and lost their last chance.
The blind parents exited the doctor’s room and called Gao Xing’s name. The pale sunlight filtered into the second floor of the hospital. Gao Xing and Gao Cheng sat on the same passage. Hearing his parents, Gao Xing ran over happily. He held his parents’ hands and led them downstairs. About several seconds later, another room door opened. Gao Cheng’s mother walked out. She didn’t hear any good news, but her expression was still warm and gentle. She didn’t want her child to be sad. She was there to protect her child. To make Gao Cheng happy, his mother decided to bring him to the aquarium. Compared to the noisy theme park, Gao Cheng preferred the aquarium. He liked to listen to the whales and dolphins. They were kinder than humans.
His mother drove past the bus stop. The blinding light shone on the crowded stop. Gao Xing held his parents’ hands tightly. He allowed the others to cut in line and got on the bus last. His parents were acting very strangely that day. He felt guilt from them. They used their savings and brought Gao Xing for the first time to the aquarium. After the blind father paid, he stayed outside. He wanted to save money, so he let his wife and Gao Xing visit the aquarium without him. The memory images were consumed by the greed abyss. This Deep Sea Aquarium was probably where Gao Cheng and Gao Xing met again. Han Fei felt the minute changes in the greed abyss. Perhaps at the Aquarium, Gao Xing met his birth mother for the first time, but his mother only cared about Gao Cheng.
“The places Gao Cheng explored are related to Gao Xing. He should be looking for something.” In the memory fragments available to Han Fei, Gao Cheng and Gao Xing were just normal kids. So the timing that changed Gao Xing hadn’t appeared yet. Han Fei was quite curious too. Just what triggered Gao Xing to start killing?
“The third Optometrist Hospital, Gu Yang Tian Nian Elderly Home, Deep Sea Aquarium, Gao Xing’s secrets should be there.” When Han Fei recovered, he only had scarps on his hands. He didn’t expect the greed persona to consume the cursed objects too. With the merchant sending him off, Han Fei left the shop to welcome the blurry day. There were tattered survivors around the streets. Most of them were ills. They acted like beasts. Han Fei rushed to school. He heard arguing when he was still far away. There were a lot of people gathered at the front gate. They normally relied on the school to survive. They still had basic human dignity. These people’s fates were tied to the school. They could survive due to the yearly sacrifice of the school. But now, they held a protest at the school gate. They looked fearful.
Han Fei pulled down his cap and sneaked into the crowd. “Auntie, what happened last night? Why are we gathered here?”
“The school promised us safety, and we handed our children to them! Who would have thought they have been trading our kids to ghosts!” The old auntie was so angry. She knocked on the school wall with her staff. Her eyes were bloodshot.
“Monster! I told you this school houses a group of monsters, but none of you is willing to trust me!” The bleeding drifter crawled out of the trash heap. He waved his hands willingly. Then he laughed and cried. The curses floated over the wall. Many people then understood the wall was not there to stop ghosts but humans!
Han Fei nodded. He looked at the protestors. Some of them were drifters, but there were those who flourished in the tragedy. These were the ‘managers’. They managed the human bases and knew what the school was up to. These people enjoyed the benefits, so they should side with the school. But they were protesting too.
“Every living person around the school is rising up against it.” Han Fei very naturally moved to stand beside a well-dressed man. He was an expert handling the base for medicine manufacturing.
“Why are you here too?” The man looked tired, but the fear in his eyes couldn’t be hidden. “The school promises us safety, but since the day before last, there have been 27 managers who have been killed! Everyone wants an explanation from the school!” He twisted his wrists. “I’ve paid so much to protect my family, but it’s all a joke!”
“27 managers have been killed by ghosts?” Han Fei was genuinely shocked. The headmaster was related to the Black Building, so ghosts rarely wandered around the school. How could 27 managers be killed? Clearly, the killer was not a ghost but an anarchist. That man would figure it out too, but the problem was, other than the school, which was so capable of killing so many managers in two nights?
They had sacrificed their conscience, children, and family to protect themselves. However, they were not protected now. So, of course, they were mad.
The school gate crashed. The crowd surged in. Han Fei followed. Han Fei didn’t say anything. He felt like the killers were the students of Class Seven. The night before last was also when the students of Class Seven awakened.
“Their methods are scary…”
Using two nights, they turned every living person against the school.
“You need monsters to deal with monsters.”
The stone crashed through the windows. When people were in a crowd, they were braver. When the school was no longer an institute of education, this was bound to happen. The teachers had anticipated this, but they didn’t expect it to happen so soon. The speakers on the field emitted static. Crow ran out of the education building with a speaker. He stood on the steps and shouted into the crowd. But no one gave him any attention.
“If we don’t need you to cultivate need sacrifice, who will care about you?” The headmaster walked out of the shadows and appeared in the second-floor corridor. He didn’t stop the crowd but took out a vial filled with black liquid. “This is such a waste of a nightmare.” He tossed the vial down the window. The bottle exploded. The black mist expanded. Cries echoed around the school. A giant Lingering Spirit charged at the crowd. The headmaster leaped down from the second floor. He stepped on the spirit’s skull. The mutated arms pierced into the spirit’s eye sockets. The heavily-injured Lingering Spirit was no match for the headmaster in broad daylight. So it could only be tortured.
“The monsters who killed the innocent came from another zone. I’ve captured one of them. Soon, we’ll capture the others.” The headmaster was covered in soul blood. He stood on the giant skull. “Remember. Only the school can cultivate the persona to kill ghosts. This is the last hope for all humans. Don’t buy into the rumors!” The headmaster grinned viciously and looked down on the crowd. “Give me three days. When the exam is over, I’ll capture the culprit and execute him before you!”
The Lingering Spirit disappeared in the light. The headmaster shocked the crowd. Crow and the other teachers consoled the crowd. The crowd finally disappeared.
The people returned, but the seed of suspicion had been sown. Not all trusted the school blindly anymore. Han Fei witnessed everything at the corner. He believed the kids might be able to kill the headmaster before the exam.
