Chapter 22: Ghost Story Middle School 4

Qiao Song set the alarm for 5pm. She woke up at 4:55. After turning off the alarm on her phone, she found that Tang Xiaoxiao had just replied to her message a minute ago.

A Little Candy: Sister Qiao Song, I skipped class and am hiding outside now.

Joe:?

As soon as the person on the other end saw the question mark she sent, he called her.

After the video was connected, it showed the internal structure of the gymnasium. Tang Xiaoxiao should have climbed in through the window and was leaning against a large basketball frame.

Qiao Song: "When did you escape?"

"During the second class in the morning..."

I skipped class this morning, so why did I just message her?

Perhaps Tang Xiaoxiao knew what Qiao Song was going to ask, and quickly added with a strange look on her face: "When I escaped, I used my skills to knock away the teacher who was chasing me, but later it was strange that my memory was a little fuzzy. I just remember that after I left the classroom, I seemed to run directly to this gymnasium."

He climbed over the wall as if he knew the place well, found a few high jump mats and took a nap.

When she woke up and realized what she had done, she broke out in a sweat.

Having a conflict with the teacher in math class was nothing. It was horrible that he was possessed by the devil and found a place to sleep in an unfamiliar copy without knowing it.

"I have no idea how I found the path to the gym, and as soon as my head touched the mat I passed out."

But actually, he slept quite comfortably. The gymnasium was very quiet, the mat was soft, and there was a clean blanket to cover himself with. This made Tang Xiaoxiao feel both disconnected and ridiculous.

Qiao Song listened to her quietly, but asked a question that Tang Xiaoxiao had never thought of: "When you entered the classroom to choose a desk, how many seats in the back row were empty?"

Tang Xiaoxiao recalled: "It seems to be seven."

The seat she chose happened to be the middle one.

“How many new chairs are there and how many old chairs are there?”

"Two are new, and the others are very old."

"Tang Xiaoxiao," Qiao Song's voice became more serious, "Have you ever been so sleepy that you dozed off during math class before? I mean, even if you stayed up all night."

Tang Xiaoxiao had never had the experience of staying up all night and then going to class before, but when asked this question, she found it a bit strange. She wondered if she fell asleep too quickly in math class. It seemed that her head became uncontrollably dizzy not long after she opened the book.

Her heart was beating fast before she entered the classroom.

Even if she was sleep-deprived, would she really feel sleepy so quickly in such a terrifying place like the dungeon?

"Is this because of my seat selection?"

Qiao Song clamped his phone and walked to the window. The sun was setting outside. "Judging from your escape route, the path to the gymnasium and the habit of taking a nap there are not something you, a player who came here on your first day, can develop. It is very likely that you were influenced by another soul without knowing it, so I have reason to guess that this may be the result of your seat choice."

The atmosphere in the classroom was so depressing before. The bells for classes were like clockwork, twisting around everyone's necks. How could any student dare not come to class for a long time?

Where did the students who didn't attend class go?

The class committee member with a high ponytail said that if you sit on an occupied seat, the original owner might be unhappy. Does this unhappiness directly affect the person sitting in the seat?

Tang Xiaoxiao suddenly felt a little scared. If she had chosen that old chair at that time, what would she have done?

Qiao Song comforted her on the phone: "It's getting dark now, find a way to get out of the gymnasium, and we'll find a place to meet up."

The campus at night should be much more dangerous than during the day, so there should be many corresponding clues.

When Qiao Song went downstairs, there was another quarrel on the first floor of the staff dormitory. Somehow, the four ghost fire boys almost got into a fight in the hall.

"I already told you it wasn't me. Who would do such a prank in a dungeon? Why do you always doubt me every time you encounter something like this?!"

"Because you have a criminal record, okay? When we were in school, you liked to do this to others in the dormitory."

"Then what do you mean by bringing up the past now? The past is the past, and the present is the present. If you want to wrongly accuse someone, you must provide evidence!"

Qiao Song was watching quietly on the stairs for a while, and he seemed to understand. It seemed that someone was pranked when the two young men who chose the position of physical education teacher were looking for clues in this staff dormitory in the afternoon.

"Don't rush to say that you didn't throw that basin of water. Let me ask you, when we were studying in the same dormitory, were you the one who threw the basins of water on Xiaolin's bed?"

The tall and strong boy who was accused immediately grabbed his collar and pushed him back fiercely: "Wang Xiang, don't pretend to be a good guy here. Didn't you also play a role in bullying him back then? Now when you see water on your bed, you think I splashed it. What, are you afraid of being bullied like him?"

Wang Xiang, who was being grabbed fiercely by the collar, was slightly thinner than the man opposite him. He was so angry that he was about to swing his fist, but was held back by the yellow-haired man and the fat man.

The fat guy was over there trying to smooth things over and persuade them.

"Hey, look at you guys. Why are you so emotional all of a sudden? We have been a team since we entered this game, but why are you quarreling over a small conflict right after entering the dungeon? It's just a basin of water, right? Maybe some weird thing made it when everyone was away?"

Wang Xiang, the man who was splashed with water on the bed, snorted coldly: "What a coincidence, the only washbasin in the staff dormitory was in his hand. He went into the toilet to look for clues at that time, why did he hold a basin in his hand?"

After hearing what he said, the high school boy got angry again: "Didn't you ask me to take it?"

Wang Xiang immediately looked at him as if he were a fool: "Don't you think before you lie? I asked you to pour water on the bed I'm going to sleep on?"

"Who are you saying is brainless?" The tall and strong boy opposite pretended to beat him up.

Qiao Song, who had basically heard the whole thing, felt that these two people were quite stupid.

After she went down the stairs, she asked the only silent yellow-haired guy next to her, "Are you guys always so united when you go into dungeons?"

Huang Mao looked depressed: "They are not like this usually. It feels like they are possessed by evil spirits now."

After hearing this, he finally understood.

"Fatty, did they encounter anything strange when they went to search for clues this afternoon?"

Although it seems that the staff dormitory building now has only one set of rules that take effect at night, it is hard to say whether these two people encountered something dirty somewhere and suddenly became enemies.

Wang Xiang, in particular, was acting neurotic and insisted that others were plotting against him.

We are all in the same car team and have gone through many dungeons together. How could we do such a stupid thing?

But the two angry people just didn't listen, it felt like——

"It's like being possessed by something, right?"

Qiao Song's words woke the dreamer up.

The yellow-haired man immediately pulled over the fat man who was trying to stop the fight and asked in a low voice, "Where did they go when they searched the room this afternoon?"

The fat man recalled: "They went to the first and second floors, and they heard that they didn't find anything."

But since there were four people in one room, it was not realistic for several big men to sleep on two beds, so two tall men with greater strength pried open the door lock on the same floor, moved out two mattresses, and prepared to sleep on the floor. They even tried sleeping on them and said that they did not expect that the mattresses in a faculty dormitory would have such good quality.

Wang Xiang started to feel abnormal from that time. First, he let out a strange cry, accusing someone of pouring water on the mattress he had carried back with great effort. Then he said that someone pushed him from behind when he was going down the stairs. Finally, when he reached the hall, he started swearing at his tall companion.

The yellow-haired man hissed, "Is he really possessed?"

Qiao Song thought the problem lay with the mattress.

"You used something you shouldn't have used. Maybe it has acquired the temper of the original owner. I suggest you try throwing the mattress back to the room it came from."

After she said this, she left the staff dormitory building. It was just getting dark outside. The junior high school should be on holiday at this time, and only the high school might need to attend evening self-study.

She and Tang Xiaoxiao agreed to meet in the cafeteria. Compared to other buildings where strange stories might pop up at any time, this kind of fixed building was a place that was easier for them to deal with.

Xiao Ni has given the corresponding rules for the cafeteria. They are very simple and require strict compliance with every red banner hanging on the wall.

When Qiao Song entered the cafeteria, he happened to see Tang Xiaoxiao who was already sitting there. She was holding a plate in her hand and staring at the metal spoon in her hand with a distracted look.

Only after Qiao Song sat down opposite her did she slowly raise her head.

"Have you prepared the meal?"

When Tang Xiaoxiao heard Qiao Song talking, it seemed like she needed a few seconds to understand what she said.

"Oh, because I was squeezed into the line when I came in, so I had no choice but to eat."

There are several banners with white letters on a red background hanging on the wall, each of which is a canteen rule that must be followed.

[Every grain of food on your plate is the product of hard work. Eat as much as you can, please don’t waste the food on your plate]

[Be polite when queuing. Once you are in the queue, please do not leave easily. Do not queue for others. Each person can only purchase one meal.]

[Don’t talk while eating, don’t talk while sleeping, and please don’t make loud noises]

[The classification of meal trays starts with you, me and him. Please drop off your meal trays at the designated recycling location after leaving your seat.]

Qiao Song stared at Tang Xiaoxiao quietly for a while, then he stood up and went out to get a meal. The meal was simple and cheap, with one meat dish and two vegetable dishes, a soup and a rice.

She swiped her faculty card, which had enough balance to cover their canteen meals for seven days.

When she came back with the food, Tang Xiaoxiao had almost finished eating. It was already dark outside and all the lights in the cafeteria were on, making it look bright and clean. Perhaps because there were not many people eating there and because of the red banner, the cafeteria, which should have been bustling, was unusually quiet.

Qiao Song glanced at her current state and asked, "Have you been to the dormitory? Are you used to living here?"

Tang Xiaoxiao drank her soup slowly before answering, "The dormitories are just like that. There's not much difference between schools. I'm used to it."

Qiao Song narrowed his eyes.

Tang Xiaoxiao once mentioned that she was a day student, and even when she was in her third year of high school, she would go home every day to eat and sleep. It was precisely because of this that after the evening self-study, she felt dizzy due to a cold, and she missed a step in the dark corridor and inexplicably entered this game.

She had never lived in a school dormitory, so it was impossible for her to know what the student dormitories of other schools looked like, or what the ones in the copy looked like.

Is this person in front of me really Tang Xiaoxiao? Or is there something else in Tang Xiaoxiao's shell?

There was no noise or fighting allowed in the cafeteria, so Qiao Song did nothing. He waited for the two to finish their meal quietly, and then put the plates in the designated recycling location.

At this time, it was completely dark outside, and the school street lights lit up one after another. The campus during the evening study time seemed empty and eerie.

Qiao Song asked her: "Did you hit the teacher with a math book today?"

Tang Xiaoxiao paused: "I didn't mean to do that. I was just too sleepy and confused for a moment. I'm sorry."

Qiao Song stopped and looked at her: "You don't have to feel sorry for me."

"But aren't you my sister?" Tang Xiaoxiao looked up in confusion. The black pupils in her eyes grew bigger and bigger, until the entire eye socket almost turned black and stuck directly to Qiao Song's face.

"Didn't my sister tell me to study hard and listen carefully in class so that I can be called a good student?"

Qiao Song frowned and pushed the other person's face away: "Talk properly, don't get so close."

Tang Xiaoxiao pouted in grievance: "Sister, I skipped class today, so am I still a good student now?"

The girl's face gradually turned into a black line, only the voice was still Tang Xiaoxiao's.

“Am I a good student?”

"Sister, why are you silent? Didn't you say that you came to school as a teacher just to help my parents monitor me? I really didn't skip class on purpose, so please don't tell my parents, okay?"

A layer of transparent silk thread suddenly wrapped around Tang Xiaoxiao's limbs.

Qiao Song activated the [Ghost Puppet Thread], but the thread was easily torn apart by Tang Xiaoxiao after it came into contact with her.

The little girl tilted her head and looked at the transparent string sliding down her hand with a puzzled look: "What is this?"

Since the person can be entangled by the line, it means that he meets the criteria of being a ghost. The manipulation failed because the other party is now awake. The puppet line can only manipulate ghosts who have lost the ability to control themselves, such as the water ghost boss who has become unconscious after being attacked.

But the person in front of him was definitely not Tang Xiaoxiao. Either a ghost had taken over her body, or she was a ghost in disguise.

Qiao Song tended to believe the former, otherwise it would have been impossible for him to run directly to the cafeteria to meet her after the phone call. At least at that time, although Tang Xiaoxiao was a little flustered, she was still the little girl she knew.

Tang Xiaoxiao, who had controlled the fear state in advance, ran to the gymnasium to sleep. Was it in order to consume the day time faster and enter the night directly?

The body belongs to her, so she won't hit it with the hammer for now. Otherwise, Tang Xiaoxiao will wake up tomorrow and find a big bump on her head, and she will have a hard time explaining it.

Qiao Song put away the puppet thread: "Nothing, by the way, if you don't go to the evening self-study, will you go back to the dormitory directly at night?"

"Tang Xiaoxiao" hesitated when hearing this.

"The dormitory... I don't want to go back. Sister, can I sleep in your staff dormitory? Just like Xiaolu, he said his brother would also take him to sleep in the staff dormitory. The school doesn't care much about intern teachers."

Qiao Song thought of the ghostly boys in the hall this afternoon. If they sat in someone else's seat, they would be possessed by a ghost. Would sleeping on someone else's mattress also have the same consequences?

Thinking of the staff dormitory building and the dormitory management regulations inside, she blinked and smiled: "Okay, sleep with me tonight, the staff building is very empty anyway."

"Is the little green you're talking about a classmate of yours?"

"Well, the teachers and classmates don't pay much attention to us."

"Tang Xiaoxiao" lowered her voice and started to cry, "My grades are getting worse and worse. I can't keep up with the class. No one likes to talk to me. If this continues, I will become a invisible person in the class..."

She sniffed, raised her face and was about to continue crying, but she found that Qiao Song was several meters away from her.

The remaining lines in his mouth were stuck. From such a distance, did she hear what he just cried about?

Qiao Song walked very fast. Tang Xiaoxiao was more than a head shorter than her and her legs were not as long as hers, so she could only quicken her pace and jog beside her while reciting her lines quickly.

"Sister, I heard there is a wishing tree on the hill behind the school. Many students with good grades said they would go there to make a wish before the exam. If my grades are still so bad this time, not only will I not be able to make friends in class, but my parents will scold me to death when I get home. Can you accompany me to make a wish?"

Qiao Song didn't say yes or no, as if she didn't hear clearly what "Tang Xiaoxiao" said just now. She hung up the phone she had just dialed.

"Hmm? What did you just say?"

"Tang Xiaoxiao" was not angry, and continued to persuade Qiao Song to accompany her to the back mountain to make a wish.

Qiao Song: "But doesn't the school have a hill behind it?"

A sinister look flashed across Tang Xiaoxiao's face: "It's just hidden deep inside. The area behind the mountain has not been developed yet. I'm a little scared to go there alone at night. Can you accompany me?"

Qiao Song really felt that this ghost was treating him like a fool.

She looked around and found a figure with a flashlight approaching from afar. She decisively patted Tang Xiaoxiao on the shoulder and said, "Xiaoxiao, did you ever tell me that you were bitten by a dog when you were a child?"

The unknown ghost being photographed looked a little dazed.

"What, what dog? What are you talking about..."

Qiao Song said: "It doesn't matter, you have a chance to overcome it this time."

Before the ghost hiding in Tang Xiaoxiao's body had time to continue playing dumb, she heard a dog barking that made her tremble all over.

It's impossible. It's just getting dark at this time!

Qiao Song pinched her shoulders hard, making her unable to move.

"Tang Xiaoxiao" could hardly hold back her expression. Not only was this body afraid of dogs, but the ghost that possessed her was also afraid of dogs. To be precise, dogs themselves were a means that the Ghost Story Middle School used to deal with nighttime ghost stories.

This woman had discovered it a long time ago! No, I can't stay here any longer!

"Tang Xiaoxiao" finally let fear overcome her instinct, and finally shook off Qiao Song's hand and ran forward at a rapid speed.

Her short legs moved very fast, and after increasing her walking speed to the maximum, she had only walked a few hundred meters when her body was almost twisted out of shape because she waved her hands too quickly.

But the barking of the dog behind me was getting louder and closer.

In extreme fear, she wanted to run but didn't dare to. She could only grit her teeth and walk until her face became hideous and her body was twisted.

"Why are you walking so fast? Didn't you have a lot to say to me just now?"

Qiao Song's legs were longer than hers, so he followed her for a while, slowly slowing down as he followed. He took the opportunity to pick up his phone and silently took a picture of this embarrassed and panicked figure.

But the other party soon disappeared from her sight, probably going to the back mountain that did not exist in the legend.

【Dormitory Management Regulations (Faculty and Staff Version)】

【3. Please stay away from the security room and garbage disposal center at night. If you hear a dog barking, please do not turn around or run away quickly. Leave on foot.】

It seems that this is something that not only trainee teachers but everyone must abide by.

When Qiao Song saw this for the first time, he found it very strange. At night, one should stay away from the security room and the garbage disposal center. It can be understood that these two places are more dangerous. After all, it is said in the ghost story of the security room that if you meet a fat security guard at night, you will lose your tongue.

But if you encounter a dog, don't look back or speed up to run away, just walk away. This is like saying: the dog is tracking something on campus, and if you run away, it will think that you are the thing it is chasing, causing the dog to have a stress response.

Walking slowly allows the dog to smell you and determine whether you are the target.

So it can be inferred that the dog is good, and it is a key prop used to identify some bad things that roam around in the ghost story middle school at night.

As for the guy in front of me who is walking so fast that his body is twisted into shape, he is probably one of the people being hunted.

Otherwise, why would he react so strongly when hearing a dog barking?

As for why there were dogs on campus before seven o'clock, it was of course because -

"Finally I found you. Why did you suddenly ask me to come here with the recording?"

Huangmao greeted Qiao Song from afar. He was holding a flashlight in one hand and using his mobile phone to record a pre-recorded dog barking sound.

Qiao Song nodded at him: "I did an experiment to see what effect a dog's barking has."

Huang Mao uttered two "oh" sounds, not really understanding, "Will that work?"

Qiao Song recalled the video recorded on his phone, of the hastily escaping and distorted figure of the runner.

"It is quite useful and can make a certain contribution to the future of sports for middle and young people in our country."

Huangmao:?

Qiao Song put away his phone: "Where are your two companions? Have they recovered?"

Having said that, Huangmao's expression became even more bitter.

"The fat guy and I used our skills to knock them out and tie them up. Later, they made such a big fuss in the dormitory that they even started using knives."

This is obviously not the state a teammate should be in when going through a dungeon. It's obvious at a glance that they've been tricked.

"After returning the mattress, the two of them calmed down a bit. They are still tied up in the dormitory now."

It was because his condition had obviously improved after listening to Qiao Song's advice that he had the courage to come over to help after receiving the other party's call.

"Then you can try to scare them by barking when you go back."

Huangmao had a face full of question marks.

Is the dog barking sound the BGM for some shamanic performance?

Qiao Song looked at the time and thought about the rest of the things to do tonight: "So now your other teammate is watching them, right? Then do you want to go to the student dormitory with me? It's just the right time to finish the dormitory inspection."

【Dormitory Management Regulations (Faculty and Staff Version)】

1. Staff members are requested to complete ward rounds before 10 p.m. every night to prevent students from going out at night.

Huangmao looked at the dog-related parts of these rules with a little fear: "So what time will this dog come out?"

The fake dog barking sound alone can scare away some ghosts, but what will they do if the dog itself comes?

Qiao Song summarized Tang Xiaoxiao's reaction to the ghost-possessed version just now.

"It should be after 10 o'clock."

In fact, if the ghost was not stupid, he would have understood it by thinking about it. In the past, dogs only barked after 10 o'clock, so the sound coming from far away just now was definitely not a real dog.

However, the opponents were so scared that they ran out of race walking posture and didn't dare to run. It seemed that this rule was more restrictive than she imagined.

Finally, Qiao Song decided to check the dormitories first and try to get back to the staff dormitory before 10 o'clock. Huangmao hesitated for a long time and decided to follow her. He always felt that something was wrong in the school at night, and it was much safer to be with her than to look for clues alone.

The author has something to say:

The next day, Tang Xiaoxiao learned that she was possessed by a ghost at night: Sister Qiao Song, did I do anything out of the ordinary last night? !

Qiao Song released a video: None of that, I was just scared by the barking of a dog and ran a kilometer

Tang Xiaoxiao herself:?

Possessed ghost: The dog barking is not a real dog, but you are a real dog