Sheh's face darkened as she turned to return to the small building, but Shi Jinzhe swiftly grabbed her clothes. "They won't be going back to the small building until tonight, so you might end up empty-handed if you go now."

"Right now, I can find it."

Shi Jinzhe was dragged forward several steps. "But there's mud outside." If his tail got dirty, he would be the one to suffer her displeasure.

Sheh froze, catching Shi Jinzhe off guard. He stumbled and bumped into a bookshelf, but steadied himself on the corner. "Go back tonight. During the day, everyone will see your snake tail. Do you think they're worthy?"

Everyone's looking for clues today. If he's going to die, let him try to get some useful information out of those two people first.

He continued, "And the way Widow Zhou looked at you this morning, and the shameless gazes of some people, letting them see such a nice tail, it's really too good for them."

Shi Jinzhe tried his best to appear sincere, hiding his desire for free clues and his plan to pick up items after death very well.

However, Shekh was unmoved. His bright red lips parted and closed, and his words were cold and ruthless.

"Then you should all just die."

The murderous intent came straight at him, and Shi Jinzhe was speechless for a moment, his heart skipping a beat.

Although she was angry on the way here this morning, she was still able to control her emotions. But now, he could clearly sense that Sheikh was serious when he said those words.

From yesterday to today, she had been very easy to talk to, but now that she had suddenly become angry, Shi Jinzhe remembered that Shekh was not only a humanoid prop, but also a boss who single-handedly destroyed a giant maze.

A glossy, deep purple snake tail climbed up his legs, and Shi Jinzhe's face turned pale and half of his body went numb due to his physiological fear of snakes.

He gripped the corner of the cabinet with one hand, so nervous that he didn't even realize the sharp wooden corner was digging into his palm.

The thick snake tail wrapped around his body, and even before it began to twist, it could compress his ribs so tightly that he felt they were about to break.

“Sheh…” Shi Jinzhe’s breath trembled as his gaze swept over the books. “If you like reading, I can teach you to read and write…”

She is illiterate, yet she is so curious and patient in looking at these things that it shows she is interested, and perhaps very interested at that.

"...Do you want to learn?" He forced a smile, looking directly at Shekh, his gaze sweeping over an open page of a book. "Look at that poem, [South bank of the Yangtze, North bank of the Yangtze. Endless farewells for travelers. The sorrow of separation.] That's the origin of my name. Do you want to find your own name?"

Sheikh tilted his head slightly. "My name?"

"Yes, I can teach you to write your name. These two characters will represent you from now on. You are unique and one of a kind."

Shekh pondered for a moment, then loosened her tail a little. She liked things that were unique, like her own snake tail, which was irreplaceable.

Having escaped the threat of death, Shi Jinzhe leaned against the bookshelf behind him and coughed twice. "There isn't even a decent pen here. I'll write it for you as soon as we leave, okay?"

Sheh nodded reluctantly. She flicked her tongue and suddenly detected a sweet scent in the air. Following the scent, she focused her gaze on Shi Jinzhe's palm.

There was a small puncture wound where the sharp corner had pierced the skin, and a little blood was flowing out. She took the hand and extended the snake's tongue.

Before Shi Jinzhe could fully recover, he saw her, barely able to stand, transform from a snake into a human and throw herself into his arms.

Knock knock—

There was a knock on the library door. Meng Chengxi pushed the door open and walked in, but as soon as he took a step, he felt himself trip over something.

He looked down and found nothing on the ground.

Meng Chengxi didn't take it seriously and walked inside, saying, "The locks on these doors have been broken all the way here. You guys are quite capable of breaking them."

Sheh couldn't forget the blood flowing from that hand. He leaned against Shi Jinzhe, palm to palm, ignoring Meng Chengxi's arrival.

Meng Chengxi kept his eyes straight ahead, raising a booklet in his hand. "I've finished investigating over there. There are no useful clues, except for this roster."

He spread out the roster and pointed to the gender column, "That building is used by the junior high school. There aren't many students; the three grades combined have less than a hundred students, of which 82 are girls."

“Then the male-to-female ratio is abnormally high.” Shi Jinzhe showed him the photos he had found.

Shekh's answer and intense anger had given him new ideas, and now, with the clues provided by Meng Chengxi, some unpleasant thoughts began to pop into his head.

Women feel extremely resistant to men who have filthy thoughts about them. In a backward village, a girl who was sweet-looking in life organized eight charity events in just six months.

Is it really just about doing charity work when you come to the same place so frequently?

"I think this charity might be using these girls from mountain villages to do some bad things."

Meng Chengxi: "Are you saying that someone is using charity as a cover, but their real intentions are impure and they are harming women?"

“I have that idea, but there are still some things that don’t make sense.” Shi Jinzhe stared at the girl in the photo and asked him, “Have you seen any ghosts in the building next door?”

"No, there's only fog outside, but the yellow talisman on my body was burning hot, so there must be a ghost here."

Upon hearing about the yellow talisman, Shi Jinzhe felt envious; he had no chance of owning such a protective item that could be purchased with points.

However, Shi Jinzhe couldn't understand why the ghosts in the school hadn't harmed the two of them.

If it was people involved in charity work who harmed these girls, then the female ghost in the classroom on the first floor must hate herself and Meng Chengxi. Why didn't she take action against these volunteers like the ghost did last night?

Shi Jin had a question: weren't they in cahoots?

Beside him, Shekh absorbed the blood with satisfaction, her volatile mood calmed down, and she returned to her usual indifferent self.

As the background noise of the other two discussing their opinions lingered, she leaned against her bent shoulder and remained still, the angle of which naturally brought her eyes toward the window.

Through the glass, she unexpectedly found herself staring into the eyes of the ghost that the girl with the low ponytail had transformed into once again.

The girl leaned against the window, her face pressed against the glass, and shook her head at her again.

Shekh was puzzled and wanted to get closer.

While Shi Jinzhe was talking to Meng Chengxi, one of his hands was pulled up, and his gaze followed Shehe's gaze. "What are you looking at?"

"She's here again, still shaking her head."