Chapter 103: Suddenly Falling Ill

I pondered, “Could there be a connection between these two matters? Can you tell us the details?”

Su Yi glanced nervously at the surrounding darkness, clearly frightened.

Xiao Qingwan placed a hand gently on her shoulder and said, “Don’t be afraid, I can protect you.”

Then, as if realizing she might have been too forceful, she secretly glanced over at Lord Wei and quietly withdrew her hand without showing it.

Su Yi trembled as she spoke, “I’ve encountered that little ghost a few times—sometimes in the classroom, sometimes in the dormitory, sometimes on the playground. In short, I’ve seen it in many places. It’s very small, not even the size of a palm, and it flies swiftly through the dark. At first, I thought it was some kind of animal… until that night, during the evening class in the classroom. I was sitting by the window when it poked its little head through the window and let out a laugh that sounded like a human’s…”

Recalling the scene, she hugged herself in fear.

Xiao Qingwan offered her a comforting word.

I asked Su Yi, “Besides you, has anyone else seen that little ghost?”

She shook her head. “Others don’t know. When I mentioned it to my dorm mates, they said they hadn’t seen it and didn’t believe me.”

“Not even palm-sized? What kind of ghost is that?” I asked.

Xiao Qingwan shook her head. “There are countless spirits in the world. There’s too little information to deduce anything. Master, what’s your opinion?”

She looked toward Tu’e.

Tu’e was staring intently at the lotus pond and suddenly said, “Why aren’t the lotuses blooming now?”

Xiao Qingwan blinked, puzzled.

“Lotuses bloom in June; now is January,” I explained.

This fellow’s focus was always somewhere far from the main topic.

The dormitory closes at 11:30 p.m., and it was nearly that time, so we each returned to our rooms. Since we were pretending to be students from another school visiting to learn, we couldn’t expose any flaws.

After showering, I lay in bed, turning my head to look at Lord Wei, feeling deeply unsettled. Did she feel no discomfort at all?

The next morning, we arrived at the classroom and joined the chemical engineering class for chemical process drawing!

Damn it! It really was a visit to learn! And we actually had to “study”! Why didn’t that Wei guy say this earlier? He woke me up so early without telling me! No wonder Teacher Zhong gave us the chemical engineering class schedule!

It was like a foreign language—I couldn’t understand a word of what was being taught. Yet, I had to sit properly in the back, pretending to listen attentively while holding my notebook!

The teacher had already explained our purpose to the class. The students looked at us with curiosity, especially the girls, who practically had flowers blooming in their eyes when they looked at Lord Wei and Tu’e. They lost focus on the lesson, whispering among themselves.

Ge Zhikai kept glancing back at me with disdain. Meanwhile, Gao Sheng never once looked at us, completely ignoring Lord Wei.

I learned the real name of that “rat”: Zhang Haozi. No wonder they called him that.

After sitting through most of the class, utterly bored, the two students behind me began chatting idly.

“I heard the bald guy in the city center got arrested!” one whispered.

“You mean that bald head that looks like a scorpion or a lump of dung?” the other asked.

“That’s the one!”

I leaned closer and asked quietly, “Who’s this bald guy you’re talking about?”

They didn’t shy away. One said, “There’s a bald guy around here, the local gang leader. He got caught by the police just yesterday afternoon. The cops also raided his wife’s bar and found a lot of contraband, so they shut it down!”

That was the same bald guy who caused trouble yesterday afternoon—so this happened right after he left!

The other added, “He had a lot of powerful backers, both in the underworld and aboveboard. Nobody dared to mess with him. Even the mayor had to show him respect. How did he suddenly fall?”

The first replied, “Exactly. He used to be so formidable. This time, when he got arrested, none of his big brothers came to bail him out. Everyone associated with him got caught, even the rich second-generation kid at our school who claimed him as his boss. The classmates told me they saw that rich kid get taken away last night.”

The other said, “This crackdown was ruthless. He must have offended someone powerful.”

I glanced at Lord Wei, thinking the person he offended was right here in front of us. Who was this guy, really? Without bloodshed, he used legal means to wipe out an entire group. Just like last time in Hainan.

The two resumed their chat:

“Wasn’t Haozi working part-time at his wife’s bar?”

“I heard he was being kept by his wife!”

“Wow, I never would’ve guessed. That guy’s so tough; I always thought he was useless!”

“Maybe she just likes the useless type!”

They giggled to themselves.

I straightened up and stopped joining their idle chatter. It seemed Zhang Haozi wasn’t well regarded. I scrutinized him: plain clothes, dark-skinned and thin, somewhat timid. He occasionally spoke to the girls nearby, but they didn’t seem to like him much and even threw a few sarcastic remarks his way, causing him to awkwardly turn his head away. He was clearly from a poor background and not serious about studying.

Bang! A muffled sound suddenly rang out nearby, startling me. I withdrew my gaze and saw one of the two chatting students collapse to the floor!

The other panicked, “Ah Hua! What’s wrong with you?!”

All eyes turned instantly. I jumped up and moved forward to check, with Lord Wei and Tu’e hurrying over as well.

I placed a hand on the fallen student’s forehead and found it burning hot. Having been sickly in the past, I’m very sensitive to temperature—this was at least a 40-degree fever! He had fainted from the heat! Just moments ago he was fine—how did he suddenly get such a high fever?

Tu’e also checked his forehead, frowning slightly, clearly noticing something unusual.

The teacher rushed over, pale and panicked. “W-what happened? Did he suddenly die?”

I shook my head. “High fever caused him to faint! Call an ambulance immediately!”

The teacher breathed a sigh of relief and quickly pulled out his phone to call emergency services.

“He was fine just a moment ago! How did he suddenly get a fever?” the friend who had been talking to him asked anxiously.

Others whispered nervously:

“I heard several others had the same thing happen before.”

“Suddenly getting a fever, weak all over, bad cold… Could it be some contagious disease?”

“Don’t say that—there’s no contagious disease here, the symptoms are different—but it’s definitely strange…”

…

It seemed the students here were beginning to realize something was amiss.