152 Person of Authority

 

Run! Grabbing the schoolbag was already more than he hoped for. Han Fei charged out of Room 401 without looking back. The 3 ghost children in the room did not expect to find a man hiding under the bed, much less him jumping out and snatching the schoolbag with him. Naturally these ghosts were not going to let him off the hook so easily. They shrieked pointedly. After a temporary stun, they chased after Han Fei. Holding the bag tightly, Han Fei raced down the corridor. As his legs moved, he reached his hands into the bag and the system started to work its magic.

“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve discovered a Grade G Item, Unreturned Library Book.

“Unreturned Library Book (Possessed by Resentment and Despair): According to legends, a girl died after reading this book. If you borrow this book home, then she’ll follow you home too.

“You’ve discovered a Grade G Item, Surveillance Video Tape.

“Surveillance Video Tape (Possessed by Resentment and Despair): This tape records very important things, including your moment of death.

“You’ve discovered a Grade G Item, Red School Uniform.

“Red School Uniform (Possessed by Resentment and Despair): There is a red uniform placed inside one of the lockers at the changing room. It will only appear when you are inside the changing room alone.”

Han Fei shoved every identifiable object into his inventory. The rest, he allowed the shadow on his finger to absorb. Since he could not keep them in his inventory, after he logged off, the remaining items inside the bag would be left for other ghosts anyway. In that case, Han Fei decided to treat the shadow to a feast. He was even more generous than Xu Qin. He loosened the shadow inside the schoolbag and allowed it to suck all the negative energy away from the relics. After much consumption, the shadow which was only a thread large started to grow. It crawled on the bag like a black snake.

“Eat as much as you can! Don’t let anything go to waste!” The most cursed items from the bag were kept by Han Fei inside his inventory and the Yin energy of the other objects were consumed by the shadow. In other words, there was nothing but trash left in the schoolbag. When he reached the first floor, without even stopping, Han Fei lobbed the schoolbag at the manager office’s window!

The glass window shattered and the items inside the bag scattered all over the office. ‘The hostel door is locked and there are 3 ghosts chasing after me. If they split up to block my path, I won’t be able to do anything about it. It is unwise to log off while they are around either. They might be waiting right for me to return. So the best option now is to find a secluded spot to hide.’ After making the perfect throw, Han Fei turned into the bathroom on the first floor.

The footsteps approached. The 3 ghost children weren’t dumb. Two of them sneaked into the manager’s office to retrieve the schoolbag while the last one turned into the bathroom to check for Han Fei. Han Fei was hiding inside Cubicle 1 when the chill came from his ring. Before he was exposed, Han Fei chose to log off. The blood dropped and Han Fei’s consciousness detached itself from the game. Taking the helmet off, the man reached for the cold bottle of water on the table and chugged it down. “That was exciting.”

Putting down the bottle, Han Fei crawled to his computer and quickly recorded down a few names. Bed 1, Qing Qiutao; Bed 2, Yu Yingying; Bed 3, Qing Wanghui; Bed 4, Qing Chuxia; Teacher Ma.

He scoured the net for a long time before Han Fei found something. Room 401 did exist at Yi Ming Private Academy and the girls’ names matched. Incidentally, Girl 4, Chuxia was the female student who got her face scratched by Jin Sheng. It was her boyfriend who ‘committed suicide’ within the school compound. Based on the staff roster, there was only one teacher with the surname Ma at Yi Ming Private Academy and he was the language teacher for Primary 1 Class 1, Ma Manjiang.

“Girl 1, Qiutao is from class 1, that was noticeable from her exercise book. That means that the lovey-dovey messages on her exercise books were meant for Ma Manjiang. The poor girl probably didn't know she had been played a fool by her teacher until her death.’ As he dug deeper, Han Fei found more shocking information. Ma Manjiang indeed had a child. His name was Ma Bo. There was a psychiatrist report on Ma Bo from many years ago. The boy suffered from schizophrenia and he had 4 main personas. Everything matched what Han Fei experienced in the game. Ma Manjiang’s son had 3 ghost children possessing his body. ‘Everything matches. This Ma Manjiang sure is a pervert. As a teacher, he not only had an illicit relationship with his student, Qiutao but also tricked Chuxia to follow him into the gym. God knows what he had done to her. Unfortunately, his action was encountered by another student who was hiding inside the gym. To protect his reputation, he and his children have been trying to locate that student.’

Han Fei stared at the screen as the thoughts circulated in his mind. He recorded down everything that he found from the internet. Then he pulled down all the pictures of the human jigsaw case from the wall and replaced them with info from the new case. “Four people have died at Yi Ming Private Academy in real life. The first victim was the security guard, he didn’t seem to be related to Ma Manjiang. The second victim was Jin Sheng’s class teacher, a female teacher who was new to the job. Her name is Liu Lina and she was also Ma Manjiang’s wife. The third victim was a ruffian. He was Chuxia’s boyfriend and Chuxia was a victim of Ma Manjiang’s sexual advances. The last victim was Jin Sheng. At first glance, Jin Sheng has nothing to do with this whole event so why was he killed? Was he the student who was inside the gym and saw Ma Manjiang's secret?”

Han Fei had a hypothesis, all the victims did not die from suicide but killed by Ma Manjiang and his son. “That still does not feel right.”

Han Fei went back to the computer and checked further down the date. He accidentally came across a news that was extremely curious. Long after Yi Ming Private Academy was locked down, the 4 girls from Room 401 died one after another, just like the curse from the ghost story.

According to the article, the police confirmed that the killer was Ma Manjiang’s son, Ma Bo. As if knowing his ending, Ma Bo committed suicide in his room out of guilt. Everyone who was related to this case had been killed, only Ma Manjiang did not receive his deserved punishment.

The sun was rising. Han Fei had another thought, he took out his phone to call Li Xue. After a few rings, Li Xue’s voice came from the phone. She appeared to have just woken up.

“Li Xue, can you bring me to meet your teacher today? I have a case that I need to discuss with him.”

“The human jigsaw case has already been handed over to the heavy crime unit. My teacher is not part of it anymore and you have to understand that he is going to retire soon…”

“This is another case, it’s related to Yi Ming Private Academy.”

“Yi Ming Private Academy?” That snapped Li Xue out of it. “Teacher’s health is failing and he needs to take regular check-ups. I’ll bring you to meet him this afternoon.”

“Okay, thank you for everything.” After hanging up, Han Fei climbed into bed to catch up on his sleep.