Chapter 423 Returning to School

This happened when I returned to Saltwater in early January.

My purpose in returning to Xianshui City was to move some of my belongings to my current residence at Luoshan headquarters. While these weren't particularly valuable items, they were personal. For example, there were commemorative photo albums from my travels, notes I kept while collecting ghost stories, and some private documents on my laptop that I didn't want others to see. I'm also a bit particular about my pillow; I find it more comfortable to sleep on my usual one.

After quickly tidying up, I also took the opportunity to revisit my university with a touch of nostalgia. It wasn't that I had changed my mind and wanted to continue my studies, but I felt that being expelled for too many absences would be quite undignified, so I went to apply for a leave of absence first. Of course, this was just the surface reason; I didn't actually care that much about such things, and besides, I could have delegated that to someone else anyway.

I simply wanted to mark the end of my campus life by revisiting familiar places. What seemed so boring back then now, looking back as a resident of another world, surprisingly holds a unique brilliance in my memory. Letting it linger in my mind isn't my style. I'm someone who values ​​rituals, so I'll use this ceremonial approach to say a final goodbye to my past self.

As the saying goes, you can't step into the same river twice; things are always changing. During my absence, changes were happening at the university. More precisely, society was undergoing dramatic changes, and this wind of change had undeniably blown into the university.

Society has largely accepted the existence of the strange. Although most people have never personally experienced what strange events are like, through repeated "science popularization" on the internet and television, people have become aware of their existence in the depths of the world. When I walk around campus, I can hear students from some places discussing topics related to the strange, and the term "Luoshan" even appears.

With the government's statement and recognition, the Luoshan organization has come into the public eye.

For the time being, the government still defines Luoshan as "an official force organization that specializes in handling strange events for the country and is inseparable from the government," without explicitly stating the conflict between Luoshan and ordinary people.

However, the public is not only able to see the surface information. Just based on the fact that "there are a large number of individuals in this world who possess extraordinary powers, and they seem to have formed an organized force long before the founding of the nation," many people have realized the turbulent undercurrents beneath the surface.

How ordinary citizens should deal with the Demon Hunter community has been a topic of ongoing debate online. Some extremists believe that the government should preemptively seize control of the treacherous organization, Luo Shan, using organized modern armed forces, and impose the most thorough management on these "few extraordinary individuals" of the Demon Hunters. Other pessimists believe that it is too late, and the government may have already become a puppet manipulated by Luo Shan behind the scenes.

The latter's idea is not without merit. In fact, some local official forces have already defected to certain forces in Luoshan, or have been controlled by the supernatural camp through the power of mental magic. However, this phenomenon has not yet become widespread, because Fazheng is curbing its further spread behind the scenes.

Back to the school. Perhaps because I had "disappeared" for a long time, coupled with this wave of strange events, some teachers and students at the school who knew my style assumed that I had encountered something real while investigating strange events and then died.

When I entered the classroom, the previously noisy room suddenly fell silent. Looking around, I saw that the number of students present was less than half of what it usually was.

I sat down in the back row. When the teacher in charge of the lecture came in and saw me, he opened his mouth wide and was speechless for a moment before he couldn't help but ask, "Zhuang Cheng, are you alive?"

Until class ended, I was constantly being stared at with strange looks. It seemed they suspected I had died in some bizarre incident long ago, and that I, now appearing in Zhuang Cheng's guise, was some kind of monster. If it were a joke, that would be one thing, but it seemed a few people genuinely believed it, which made it no laughing matter. It was as if a wave of magical realism was blowing in, making one wonder, "What's wrong with this world?"

Although I've often been viewed as an oddball in the past, this is the first time I've been treated like one by my own teachers and classmates. It's impossible to "say goodbye to my past self" like this; I even feel uncomfortable walking normally on campus.

While walking outside the teaching building, I overheard several students chatting by the roadside. Apparently, more than a dozen students have mysteriously disappeared in recent days, and the bodies of several others have been identified. The school seems to be planning an emergency shutdown, ending the semester early, and intends to switch to online, home-based learning for the next semester.

Similar phenomena are not limited to this university; many schools are planning to do the same, and some companies are also preparing to switch to working from home. If it were just an epidemic, a natural disaster, or even a war, it would be understandable, but now various inhumane and irrational "ghost stories" are escalating in society, making it impossible for social order to function normally under such a terrifying storm.

It seems Zhu Shi's plan to continue his studies is going to be aborted... Just as this thought crossed my mind, I heard a series of running footsteps behind me, and a voice calling out: "Senior... Senior!"

At first, I thought it was someone calling out to someone else, but the jogging footsteps seemed to be coming towards me. So I turned around and looked at the person who had called out.

She was a female student with a ponytail, a pure and innocent appearance, and a quiet demeanor. She seemed to be lacking in stamina; after jogging up to me, she braced herself on her knees, took a few small breaths, and then anxiously peered down at my expression.

I felt her face looked somewhat familiar, and I was about to ask her what she wanted when I noticed another familiar figure in the direction she had come from. There stood Zhu Shi, looking helpless. She was wearing her usual white women's blouse and black skirt, carrying a large black guitar case, as she walked towards us.

She no longer needs to hide the Yama Sword in the guitar case, so why does she still carry that guitar case around? Although I had some doubts, I didn't raise them in this situation.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

“She’s my classmate,” Zhu Shi said. “She said she has something she wants to ask you.”

She looked at the female student, who stared at my face with a mixture of surprise and suspicion. Then she reached out a finger, cautiously tapped my shoulder, and then quickly withdrew it.

Seeing the other person's trembling expression, like a small animal, I quickly searched my memory for information corresponding to this female student. Yes, although it was only once, I had seen this female student before.

The female student seemed to be mustering her courage as she asked, "Um... you're Zhuang Cheng, Senior Zhuang, right?"

“Yes, I am Zhuang Cheng,” I said. “By the way, I am a living person.”

Her expression softened slightly, and then she asked cautiously, "I heard you haven't been to school lately because you got involved in a dangerous supernatural event... Is that true?"

"Although there are some minor differences, that's roughly the gist of it."

As I confessed, I looked at Zhu Shi, who answered on my behalf: "She has recently encountered some mysterious events and doesn't know what to do. She's very anxious. She happened to overhear a student mentioning that you were at the school, so she desperately wants to see you and consult you, the 'expert on the strange.'"

If that's the case, why didn't this female student ask Zhu Shi for help? No, we should ask why Zhu Shi didn't offer to help her with the consultation?

Judging from Zhu Shi's helpless expression, it probably wasn't that she didn't want to help; there might just be some coincidence involved. I won't delve into that aspect for now, but instead turn my attention back to the female student.

The female student tentatively asked, "Senior, do you remember me?"

"Of course I remember," I said.

-

We sat down in the student cafeteria.

This female student's surname was "Qiao," and she was a freshman at Xianshui University, making her my junior. Zhu Shi called her "Xiao Qiao," which sounded like a famous beauty from the late Eastern Han Dynasty, while she called Zhu Shi "Xiao Zhu."

I met this junior once in mid-September last year. Yes, it was around the same time as when I first met Asa, or rather a little earlier.

I entered the abandoned building where Asaho was hiding in order to investigate the ghost stories associated with the abandoned construction site. It was said that a vengeful ghost who died in a construction accident lived in that building and would appear at night covered in blood, kidnapping female students who passed by.

This female student was the person involved in that ghost story.

(End of this chapter)