The Sound of Reading in a Deserted School
The suburban rain always carried a rusty smell, slamming against the abandoned school's iron gate with a clacking sound, like someone gently knocking on the door. Lu Ye, holding an umbrella, gazed at Qiming Middle School before him, and the hairs on the back of his neck involuntarily stood up. The red bricks of the school's exterior were already mottled, revealing the blackened cement underneath. Several windows had shattered glass, leaving only the frames, like gaping wounds. The wind rushed in, carrying chalk dust and the smell of mold, making his throat constrict.
"Is this it?" Lu Ye's voice trembled, the handle of his umbrella clenched until it turned white. He stared at the third floor of the teaching building. There was a window there that hadn't completely shattered. The curtains were a faded blue, swaying gently in the wind, as if someone was peeking through the curtains.
Qi Chen stood beside him, the soul-calming bell in his pocket burning slightly—a sign of approaching a place of deep resentment, stronger than any previous one. "Ten years ago, this school suddenly closed down. They said it was because the 'school building was old,' but it was actually because of three consecutive 'accidents.' Students were afraid to come, and the teachers had all left." He pulled out his phone and pulled up the information he had looked up in advance. "The last person to have an accident was the Chinese teacher of Class 2 (3), Lin Wanqiu. She disappeared and has never been found."
Lu Ye's eyes fell on the iron plaque at the school gate. The paint on the characters "Qiming Middle School" had mostly peeled off, and the right side of the character "Ming" had been scraped away, leaving only the character "Ri," which had an eerie meaning on the rainy day. "What is her obsession?"
"I don't know." Qi Chen shook his head and pushed open the half-closed iron door. The hinge creaked like an old man's wail. "We have to go in and look for clues. Remember, don't touch anything with chalk dust - the resentment here is entangled in chalk dust, and if you touch it, you will be entangled."
The two walked into the campus. The weeds had grown to knee height, and a half-broken flagpole was buried in the weeds. The tiles of the flagpole were shattered into pieces, and a line of blurry words was written on it with red paint: "Give it back to me..." The rest of the words were washed away by the rain and only a few dark red marks remained, like dried blood.
The entrance of the teaching building was piled with discarded desks and chairs. Some of the chair legs were broken, and some of the tabletops had large cracks, with crooked marks left on them - "Teacher Lin" and "I believe you". The handwriting was covered with chalk dust. With a gentle blow, the dust fell off, revealing deeper marks underneath, as if the person who carved the words had used all his strength.
"Teacher Lin Wanqiu..." Lu Ye muttered softly, and suddenly heard a very light reading sound coming from the second floor. It was a female voice, intermittent, like a stuck tape: "... Man is born good... Natures are similar, □□..."
Qi Chen paused, his flashlight beam sweeping across the second-floor corridor—it was deserted, save for the clanging of classroom doors in the wind. "It's a reverberation," he said, his voice deeper than usual. "It's the sound of Lin Wanqiu teaching before he died, trapped here by his resentment."
Lu Ye followed Qi Chen up the stairs. The handrail was rusted green and crumbled at the touch. When they reached the second floor, the sound of reading suddenly stopped, replaced by a "tick-tick" sound coming from the bathroom at the end of the corridor, mixed with the faint sound of crying, like a child secretly wiping away tears after being wronged.
"Let's go to the classroom first." Qi Chen pointed to the classroom of Grade 2 (3). The door was ajar, and a faint light shone through the crack - not natural light, but the phosphorescence of chalk dust reflected in the air, light blue, like a ghost fire.
The moment he pushed open the door, a strong smell of chalk dust hit him, making Lu Ye cough uncontrollably. The desks and chairs in the classroom were placed crookedly, some upside down on the floor, others leaning against the wall. The blackboard still had unwiped writing on it: a passage from the Analects of Confucius, with the words "Return my innocence" written in red chalk at the end. The handwriting was so sloppy it looked like the writer was trembling.
On the podium below the blackboard sat a yellowed lesson plan. "Lin Wanqiu" was written on the cover in beautiful handwriting. Lu Ye was about to reach out to take it when Qi Chen stopped him, "Don't touch it. It's filled with resentment."
Qi Chen pulled a pair of latex gloves from his backpack, put them on, and carefully flipped through the lesson plan. Inside were several notes from students. The top one read, "Teacher Lin, I know you didn't steal the donations. They wrongly accused you!" There was a small star in the lower right corner of the note, and the word "Xiao Yu" was written next to it.
"Who is Xiaoyu?" Lu Ye leaned over to take a look and found that the last few pages of the lesson plan had been torn off, leaving only jagged edges. "Is he the student who spoke up for her?"
Qi Chen nodded, and the flashlight beam swept across the ground. He found a broken red chalk under the podium. Next to the chalk head, there was a series of small footprints - they were children's size, and the soles of the shoes were stained with chalk dust. They extended from the podium to the back door of the classroom and disappeared into the corridor.
"These footprints belong to Xiaoyu," Qi Chen speculated, "He might be helping Lin Wanqiu hide something, like a torn page from the teaching plan."
The two followed the footprints to the restroom at the end of the corridor. The "tick-tick" sound became louder, coming from the innermost cubicle. The light in the toilet had long been broken, and only Qi Chen's flashlight was on. The beam shone on the cubicle door and he saw "Xiao Yu is here" written in chalk on the door panel. The handwriting was crooked and looked like it was written by a child.
"Xiao Yu?" Lu Ye called softly, and the crying in the cubicle suddenly stopped, leaving only the sound of dripping water.
Qi Chen pushed open the cubicle door, and the scene inside made both of them gasp - the toilet was rusty and filled with black sewage. A small blue schoolbag was floating on the water, with a star embroidered on it, exactly the same as the star on the note.
"It's Xiaoyu's schoolbag!" Lu Ye's voice trembled. Qi Chen used a branch to hook out the schoolbag. After opening it, a diary fell out. The cover was moldy, the footers were curled, and there were a few dark red stains on it, like blood.
The first page of the diary reads: "September 10, 1998, today is Teacher's Day. I gave Teacher Lin a piece of red chalk, and she praised my handwriting." The rest of the diary mostly records Teacher Lin's daily teaching, until a page in March 1999, when the handwriting suddenly becomes sloppy: "They say Teacher Lin stole the school's donations! I don't believe it! Teacher Lin is such a good person, how could she steal money? The principal called her to the office, and I heard her crying..."
Turning the pages further, the diary began to yellow, some places were wet with tears, and the handwriting was blurred: "On March 15, Teacher Lin didn't come to class. They said she ran away with the donations. I went to her office and found that her lesson plan was torn up. I hid a page in my schoolbag with the word 'Archives' written on it..."
"On March 18th, I went to the archives to look for evidence. The principal suddenly showed up and scolded me for meddling in other people's business. I fell while running and my head hurt..."
The last page contained only one sentence, the handwriting so crooked it was almost illegible: "Teacher Lin, I will help you find evidence. Don't abandon me..."
Lu Ye's tears suddenly fell. He clutched the diary, his knuckles turning white. "Xiao Yu...did he die here? Was he killed by the principal because he was helping Teacher Lin find evidence?"
Qi Chen's face also darkened. He pointed to the floor next to the toilet - the color of the tiles there was darker than other places, as if they had been soaked in some liquid. When he shone a flashlight over there, he could see a bit of blue fabric embedded in the gaps between the tiles, exactly the same color as Xiaoyu's schoolbag.
"It's blood." Qi Chen's voice was very soft. "Xiaoyu must have hit his head here and died from excessive blood loss. The principal hid his body and told everyone that he had transferred to another school."
Just then, a series of "clacking" footsteps were heard outside the bathroom. It was the sound of high heels, slowly approaching from the other end of the corridor. Lu Ye and Qi Chen looked at each other, and saw vigilance in each other's eyes - the sound sounded like a woman's footsteps, consistent with Lin Wanqiu's identity.
The footsteps stopped at the restroom door. A few seconds later, a blurry figure appeared in the doorway. She was wearing a gray teacher's uniform, her long hair hanging down, covering half of her face. She held a red chalk in her hand and slowly walked in. She stopped beside Xiaoyu's schoolbag and squatted down, as if to touch the stars on it.
"Teacher Lin?" Lu Ye called softly. Shadow's body trembled violently and she slowly raised her head. Her face was pale, and there were no pupils in her eyes, only two black holes. However, there was a very faint smile on the corners of her mouth, as if she saw an acquaintance.
"Xiao Yu... have you found any evidence?" Her voice was soft, as if coming from far away. She slowly wrote on the ground with red chalk in her hand: "Archives...account book..."
Qi Chen immediately understood that her obsession was to find the school's old account books to prove that she had not stolen the donations. "We'll help you find it," Qi Chen said softly. "Can you tell us where the archives are?"
Lin Wanqiu's shadow nodded and turned to walk to the other end of the corridor, the sound of her footsteps "tapping" as if leading the way. Lu Ye and Qi Chen followed behind and noticed that her feet didn't touch the ground—she was floating. The hem of her skirt occasionally swept the chalk dust on the ground, and the dust would gather into small stars, just like the ones on Xiaoyu's backpack.
The archives room was on the third floor of the teaching building. The door was made of a thick wooden board, with the words "Archives Room" nailed to it. The words were covered with thick chalk dust, and a gentle blow revealed a dark red mark, like blood. A rusty brass lock hung on the doorknob, and half a piece of paper was stuck in the keyhole. It was a fragment of a teaching plan, with the words "Lin Wanqiu" written on it.
"How do I open the lock?" Lu Ye asked. Qi Chen was about to take out tools to pick the lock when Lin Wanqiu's shadow suddenly floated to the side of the podium and pointed at an old chalk box. Inside the box was a small copper key with a star engraved on it, exactly the same as the one drawn in Xiaoyu's diary.
"It's the key that Xiaoyu hid..." Lu Ye's eyes were wet again. He carefully picked up the key and inserted it into the keyhole. With a "click", the lock opened.
Pushing open the door, a strong odor of mold and old paper hit me, more pungent than the smells of the classroom and toilet. The archives room was filled with filing cabinets, some of which had collapsed, their contents scattered across the floor. Most of them were old school lesson plans and student files. The ceiling lightbulb flickered, then suddenly clicked on, illuminating a table in the center of the room with a dim yellow glow. On the table sat a thick ledger, the cover labeled "Qiming Middle School 1998-1999 Financial Account Book," stained with a few dark red stains, resembling blood.
"This is it!" Lu Ye walked over quickly and was about to pick up the account book when he heard a loud bang behind him—a filing cabinet suddenly collapsed and fell towards him! Qi Chen was quick-witted and pushed him away. The filing cabinet slammed to the ground, and the documents inside were scattered all over the floor. On one of the papers was written "Principal: Wang Jianguo, misappropriated 5,000 yuan in donations for personal consumption." There was also Wang Jianguo's signature below, and the date was March 10, 1999, just a few days before Lin Wanqiu was wrongly accused of stealing donations.
"The principal stole it!" Lu Ye shouted, and the diary in his hand fell to the ground. The page he opened was right in front of the sentence "The principal scolded me for meddling in other people's business."
At that moment, the door to the room suddenly slammed shut, and the lightbulb began to flicker wildly. The dim light flickered, distorting the shadow of the filing cabinet on the wall into a monstrous shape. Lin Wanqiu's shadow suddenly became agitated, and with red chalk in her hand, she quickly wrote on the ground: "Restore my innocence... Give Xiaoyu justice..."
Qi Chen immediately pulled out his soul-calming bell and gently swung it. With a crisp "ding," the lightbulb stopped flickering, and the chilling wind in the room died down. "We've found evidence," Qi Chen said, picking up the account book and the slip of paper showing the misappropriated donations. "Look, it was Wang Jianguo who stole the money and framed you. Xiaoyu helped you find evidence. His death wasn't in vain."
Lin Wanqiu's shadow slowly drifted over, staring at the signature on the account book. The dark holes in her eyes gradually brightened, as if they were filled with light. With red chalk in her hand, she wrote on the ground: "Xiaoyu...where is it?"
Lu Ye pointed to the toilet downstairs: "He is in the toilet on the second floor. We will find his body, bury him properly, and let him go with you."
Lin Wanqiu's shadow nodded, her body slowly becoming transparent. The red chalk in her hand fell to the ground, turning into a wisp of chalk dust that was blown away by the wind. Her voice was soft, as if she was saying goodbye: "Thank you...you..."
Just as she was about to disappear, a child's laughter suddenly rang out from the corridor. It was very crisp, like Xiaoyu's voice. A small shadow floated in from the doorway, holding a red chalk in its hand. It walked over to Lin Wanqiu and took her hand. "Teacher Lin, we finally found the evidence. Can we go now?"
Lin Wanqiu's shadow smiled and nodded. The two shadows held hands and slowly disappeared into thin air. The light bulb in the archives room went out with a snap, leaving only Qi Chen and Lu Ye, as well as the account book and notes on the table.
"Is it over?" Lu Ye asked softly, feeling a little empty in his heart.
Qi Chen shook his head and picked up the account book: "Not yet, we have to find Wang Jianguo and make him accountable for his actions. We also need to find Xiaoyu's body and let him rest in peace with Teacher Lin."
The two walked out of the archive room and just went down to the second floor, they saw the toilet door open by itself. The "ticking" sound inside stopped, and was replaced by a very light breeze with the smell of chalk dust, as if guiding them.
Walking to the innermost cubicle of the toilet, Qi Chen used a shovel to pry open the tiles next to the toilet, revealing a small skeleton underneath - it was a child's. In its hand was a fragment of a teaching plan with the words "Restore my innocence" written on it. It was the page that was torn off from Lin Wanqiu's teaching plan.
"It's Xiaoyu..." Lu Ye's voice trembled. He carefully took out the bones and wrapped them in cloth. "Let's bury his ashes together with Teacher Lin's under the school flagpole. They can see the whole campus from there. They used to teach and study here, so they probably want to stay here."
Qi Chen nodded, and the two of them walked to the flagpole, dug a hole with a shovel, and buried Xiaoyu's bones and Lin Wanqiu's lesson plan (Lin Wanqiu's relics they later found in the archives room), and placed a red chalk on top, the same one Xiaoyu gave to Teacher Lin.
"Teacher Lin, Xiaoyu," Lu Ye said softly to the tombstone, "Your grievances have been cleared. Go with peace of mind."
A gust of wind blew by, and the weeds beside the flagpole swayed gently, as if in response. Qi Chen took out his cell phone, called the police, and told them the evidence that Wang Jianguo had misappropriated donations and killed Lin Wanqiu and Xiaoyu.
By the time he left the school, it was almost dawn. The rain had stopped, and the sky in the east was turning pale. Lu Ye glanced back at the abandoned school building and suddenly felt less terrifying. The souls trapped there, the unresolved obsessions, had finally found peace.
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