The two Baili Wuchangs fought endlessly all the time, and it made Wen Nuan’s head and ears ache. He went ahead and quietly picked up his chopsticks and spoon to eat lunch. Trying to stop them was a waste of energy.
The two Baili Wuchangs quarreled for a bit, then as expected, they escalated to talking with their fists. After they fought to their heart’s content, Wen Nuan had already finished eating to his own satisfaction.
“Alright. Are you both done? Let’s go investigate the school,” said Wen Nuan, wiping his mouth with a napkin.
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
Different mouths, same voice. The two Baili Wuchangs responded promptly.
After responding, both of them showed the same expression of disdain.
The eighteen-years-ago Baili Wuchang said, “It’ll be fine if just Wen Nuan and I go. If there are too many of us, we’ll inadvertently alert the enemy.”
Baili Wuchang smiled coldly. “You? If you go, you won’t just alert the enemy, but you’ll let them escape between your fingers.”
“What are you saying?” The eighteen-years-ago Baili Wuchang furrowed his brow.
Baili Wuchang smiled, not at all in a friendly way. “What I’m trying to say is, I question your abilities.”
Wen Nuan: “…” The smell of gunpowder in the air is getting stronger.
“How about,” Wen Nuan began, waving his two little hands in the air, “I take Heibai Wuchang instead? You two can stay behind.”
“No.”
“No.”
They were synchronized again. The two Baili Wuchangs uniformly frowned. “I’m worried about your safety.”
The conclusion in the end was to take both Baili Wuchangs, one on each side, and go to the school.
Honestly, Wen Nuan felt like if he was going to take two Baili Wuchangs with him, he might as well just go with Heibai Wuchang.
One Baili Wuchang was eye-catching enough. Now that they were two of them, like a pair of twins, every head turned as they walked down the street, and people spoke in hushed whispers as they passed.
Wen Nuan felt pressured having both Baili Wuchangs next to him.
“Um,” Wen Nuan said, glancing at the school entrance. “You two should turn invisible first. You’re too noticeable.”
Baili Wuchang’s spiritual ability made turning invisible a piece of cake. They wordlessly nodded.
Even though the school was a boarding school, it wasn’t a hundred percent so. There were some employees who lived outside, so the security wasn’t watertight. However, Wen Nuan felt like Baili Wuchang still looked way too out of place, so the best move was to make him invisible.
When the two Baili Wuchangs made themselves invisible, Wen Nuan could still see them. Normal people without all-seeing eyes couldn’t see them at all.
The three entered the school to investigate.
Wen Nuan said, “I hope we can find some clues today.”
Baili Wuchang smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll definitely solve this case and take you back. You want to go back to the real world soon, right?”
The eighteen-years-ago Baili Wuchang tightly knit his brow.
Wen Nuan didn’t respond. He felt like Baili Wuchang’s words were provoking on purpose.
Baili Wuchang looked at his other self and said, “In order to test your abilities, why don’t we have a bit of competition?”
The eighteen-years-ago Baili Wuchang said coldly, “What competition?”
Baili Wuchang said, “To see who can find the Youxian pillow first, of course. Additionally, to see who can find the school’s ghost.”
“Fine. I agree.” The eighteen-years-ago Baili Wuchang didn’t hesitate at all.
Wen Nuan looked at them. Oh yeah, that’s right, it’s like that. There’s a saying that your biggest enemy is yourself. Baili Wuchang wants to compete with himself.
Wen Nuan shook his head helplessly. “You two take your time competing. I’ll be on the side.”
“Wait. It’s Song Xing and Fan Haiyi.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“Let’s go see what’s happening.” Wen Nuan motioned with his stubby hand.
The three secretly got closer to be able to hear what they were talking about. Wen Nuan’s aunt’s voice wasn’t quiet, so they could hear it loud and clear.
His aunt was smiling a smile full of warmth and benevolence at Fan Haiyi. “Your mom called me yesterday. She asked me about why your academic performance is declining. Don’t be too dispirited. Placing number two is a normal occurrence. Next time, just aim for number one again.”
“Haiyi ah, don’t feel too stressed. I told your mom that you’ve been doing extraordinarily well at school. You’re the hope in all us teachers’ eyes.”
“Oh, right. Haiyi, you should ask more questions in class. Don’t be afraid of being wrong. You have to be willing to participate, alright? Don’t be afraid of answering wrong, either, as long as you know how to correct your mistakes.”
“I understand, Teacher.” Fan Haiyi kept his head low. With every sentence Wen Nuan’s aunt said, he nodded a little in response.
Even though he said he understood, his voice was very quiet. He looked very timid and scared.
“Alright, I have nothing else to say. Go eat first, Haiyi. Evening classes are starting soon,” said Wen Nuan’s aunt with a smile.
Fan Haiyi nodded. He turned to Song Xing and said, “Let’s go to the cafeteria.”
“Wait a minute!” Wen Nuan’s aunt suddenly raised her voice. “Song Xing, you stay put. I still have something to say to you.”
Song Xing stopped in his tracks. In an instant, their homeroom teacher’s amiable smile had disappeared. As if she had become a different person, her gaze became impatient as she stared at Song Xing.
“Are you going to register for evening classes or not?” she spoke pointedly. “In our class, you’re the only one who hasn’t registered yet. In the entire class year, only two people total haven’t signed up! You’re taking the college entrance exams soon. If you don’t study up soon, you’ll regret it and talk badly behind our backs. We’re giving you an early notice. Don’t think that just because you got first place once gives you a free pass. I’ve seen too many of you kids who become complacent because of your pride.”
“Teacher!” Fan Haiyi quickly spoke up in his soft voice. “Song Xing’s going to register for evening classes. He just forgot to tell you. He even brought the payment today.”
Fan Haiyi prodded Song Xing as he spoke, urging him to give the money to their homeroom teacher.
Song Xing had been holding the money for the evening classes all day, hesitating whether or not to sign up. After all, it was a lot of money. He still needed the money he earned from his part-time job for living expenses, so it would be difficult to pay Fan Haiyi back soon.
Song Xing hesitated before taking out the envelope of money and handing it to his homeroom teacher.
Wen Nuan’s aunt took the envelope, glancing at its contents. “Don’t make me keep reminding you about your studies in the future. You have to be more proactive, okay? I’ll count the money when I get back. If there’s not enough, I’ll let you know.”
Their homeroom teacher turned around to leave. Suddenly, she stopped and seemed to remember something. “Song Xing.”
Song Xing frowned. He felt like every time his name was called by his homeroom teacher, it was about something bad.
She said, “I almost forgot. Have you apologized to Classmate Cao yet?”
Classmate Cao…
Wen Nuan frowned as he eavesdropped. Wasn’t Classmate Cao the one amongst the delinquents who wanted to teach Song Xing a lesson?
Before, at the school entrance, Baili Wuchang had given Classmate Cao a beating to remember.
Song Xing’s face grew dark. He knew that Classmate Cao regularly hung out with delinquents, bullied his classmates, and robbed them. The homeroom teacher didn’t believe him, thinking that Classmate Cao was a good person and the wronged party here, wanting him to apologize instead.
Song Xing was silent, reluctance written across his face. When his teacher saw this, she became angry again. “What’s the problem? What’s with your attitude? Is this passive aggressiveness? Your teacher asked you a question, and you should’ve heard. Your attitude is really terrible, you know? I have never met a child as disobedient as you. You wrongly accused someone, and you’re still not willing to apologize. Classmate Cao’s parents already called me to say that if you don’t apologize, they will sue you and maybe even the school. You can’t possibly think that just because you did something wrong that everyone should take the blame, right?”
Their homeroom teacher’s chatterbox was triggered, scolding him unendingly.
Song Xing clenched his fists. His patience was wearing, but he couldn’t do anything about it…
Aside from being patient, there was nothing else he could do. He had no parents to help speak for him, nor could he talk back to his homeroom teacher. If he did anything “out of line”, he would definitely be severely punished. Since he was going to take the college entrance exam soon, he couldn’t be impulsive, or else he would ruin his future career.
Next to him, Fan Haiyi was anxious, but he didn’t know how to speak for Song Xing. He could only hang his head and tangle his hands together, listening alongside the verbal abuse.
Song Xing finally opened his mouth, saying coldly, “I haven’t seen Classmate Cao.”
When he said this, his teacher seemed to think of something. “Hm. After school ended, I didn’t see Classmate Cao. I don’t know where he went.”
She dialed a number on her phone to call Classmate Cao. The phone rang for a long time, but no one answered. This happened a few more times.
Their teacher had no choice but to hang up the phone and said to Song Xing, “Find Classmate Cao and apologize to him immediately.”
After saying this, she turned and left.
As she walked away, Fan Haiyi breathed a sigh of relief and sighed.
Fan Haiyi said, “Song Xing, let’s go to the cafeteria quickly. I was scared to death just now.”
“Let’s go.” Song Xing nodded.
Listening in, Wen Nuan’s cheeks were flushed with anger. “Terrible. How annoying.”
It was obvious from a glance that Wen Nuan’s aunt held prejudices against Song Xing to begin with. Wen Nuan knew his aunt very well. She loved money. Both Classmate Cao and Fan Haiyi were students from well-off families. They gave many gifts to their teacher during holidays, so she had a very good attitude towards Fan Haiyi and Classmate Cao.
But Song Xing was different. His family had no money and he was unwilling to participate in various evening classes, which made his teacher very unhappy.
The darks of Wen Nuan’s eyes twinkled. He whispered to himself, “I need to find a way to help Song Xing and teach my aunt a lesson.”
Of course, Wen Nuan had wanted to do this for a long time now, not just to help Song Xing.
“Ahhhh! Help!”
“There’s a ghost!”
The sky was already gray at this hour. It was cloudy, so around four or five in the afternoon, it started to get dark.
The sharp scream was especially grating to hear across campus. Many students couldn’t help but stop.
“What happened?”
“Scary. Did someone see a ghost again?”
“Let’s go have a look.”
“Don’t; do you also want to get haunted?”
Strange things were happening across campus lately. Everyone was like frightened birds, afraid of going to see what was happening.
Wen Nuan looked towards the direction of the sound. The two Baili Wuchangs were faster. They had already flashed towards the classroom building where the screams came from.
It was the end of the day now. Just about everyone was eating in the cafeteria or resting, waiting for evening classes or self-study hours to begin.
The classroom building was empty, and the old-fashioned spiral staircases were a bit cramped. The lights were dim, and combined with the screams, it felt like a scene out of a horror movie.
Wen Nuan took a look and quickly ran into the building.
There was a girl holding her school bag on the ground. The books were scattered all over the floor, and she cut a sorry figure.
Wen Nuan hurriedly asked, “What happened?”
The girl was scared out of her wits. She wordlessly pointed to the dark stairway, shaking her head with a whimper.
The two Baili Wuchangs were already ascending the stairs. Wen Nuan ran after them on his little legs, quickly climbing the stairs as well.
The classroom building was relatively old, and there was no elevator. You had to climb stairs to get from the first to the sixth floor, and there was only one staircase to go up and down.
Wen Nuan ran quickly, feeling that he was too short for these tall stairs. He huffed and puffed, almost falling over from exhaustion.
“Ahhhh!”
There came another scream from upstairs. This time, the sound was much louder and stronger than before.
Wen Nuan’s eyes widened, and he felt the hairs all over his body stand on end.
He then saw someone come down the stairs. The first thing he noticed was a pair of incredibly long legs. Wen Nuan always thought that if he put a picture of Baili Wuchang online, there was an eighty percent chance that people would think he photoshopped his legs. How could a person’s body have such proportions?
But then again, Baili Wuchang was by no means a normal person.
One Baili Wuchang walked down, and then another one followed.
Wen Nuan looked at them with his eyes wide. “How is it? Did you find a ghost?”
“Here.” Baili Wuchang, who was in front, flipped his palm over to show what he was holding. There was something that looked like a message in a bottle, only the message was a ball of black gas instead.
Wen Nuan blinked. “This…”
Baili Wuchang explained, “It’s been caught, and now it’s trapped in this bottle.”
As soon as they heard screams, the two Baili Wuchangs took action. They agreed to compete, so neither one was willing to be outdone by the other as they rushed up the stairs.
Sure enough, as they reached the top, they saw a shadow about to escape.
The shadow had no power to fight back when it encountered Baili Wuchang, let alone two of them, who instantly captured it and put it inside a special soul-binding device from Hell.
The so-called soul-binding device was the thing that looked like a message in a bottle that Wen Nuan saw.
Baili Wuchang looked at the bottle in his hands, the corners of his mouth curling upwards in a sneer. “Actually, I could have caught this evil ghost faster, but there was someone causing trouble and holding me back, so it is what it is.”
There was a pointed meaning behind Baili Wuchang’s words. The eighteen-years-ago Baili Wuchang’s face turned dark.
The two of them wanted to compete, so they both wanted to catch the shadow first. It was inevitable that they would fight along the way.
There was a saying that ginger gets spicier as it gets older, and this held true as Baili Wuchang had more experience dealing with cases than the eighteen-years-ago Baili Wuchang. He was the first to catch the shadow, leaving the eighteen-years-ago Baili Wuchang empty handed.
The eighteen-years-ago Baili Wuchang said nothing. He seemed to have taken a psychological shock.
Wen Nuan glanced between them and quickly tried to ease the tension by changing the topic. “The shadow was caught this easily? Is this the source of the school’s hauntings? Can I see?”
“Of course.” Baili Wuchang handed the bottle to Wen Nuan.
The bottle was not big for Baili Wuchang, but it was quite big for Wen Nuan. Wen Nuan took it with both hands, hugging the bottle to carefully observe.
No matter how you looked at it, it looked like an ordinary bottle, but there seemed to be something inside, like mist moving back and forth.
Wen Nuan shook the bottle curiously. Suddenly, the mist in the bottle condensed on one side. Through the thin glass, it turned into a huge eyeball. The red, bloodshot eyeball stared straight back at Wen Nuan.
“Oh—”
Unprepared, Wen Nuan was instantly startled. He took a step back and almost fell down the stairs.
Baili Wuchang immediately took action, grabbing Wen Nuan before he fell. He picked him up and put him on his arm. Then, he tapped the bottle hard with his long fingers.
The red and bloodshot eyeball was deterred by one tap. It fell apart and turned into a ball of mist again.
“What’s going on?” Wen Nuan was stunned.
Baili Wuchang said, “It’s just the evil ghost trying to scare you. As long as I’m here, you’ll be fine.”
Wen Nuan patted his little chest. “That scared me.”
The eighteen-years-ago Baili Wuchang glanced at his future self and the little Wen Nuan in his arms. He suddenly felt jealous, and also wanted to hold Wen Nuan for a change.
The eighteen-years-ago Baili Wuchang said, “Shouldn’t we interrogate the captured ghost as soon as possible? I think there’s something wrong with it. If you caught it so easily, it may not be the ghost we’re looking for.
“What do you mean?” Baili Wuchang frowned.
The eighteen-years-ago Baili Wuchang smiled. “Exactly what I said.”
Catching ghosts was very easy. For Baili Wuchang, it was practically effortless.
The three of them randomly found an empty classroom and went in. Then, Baili Wuchang put the soul-binding device on a table and uncorked the bottle.
“Fwoosh—”
A chilling wind blew and the mist in the bottle came out, trying to escape.
Baili Wuchang didn’t chase. He crossed his arms and said, “If you dare escape, you’ll be responsible for the consequences.”
The ghost who had half escaped was frightened, immediately pausing. Unwillingly, it moved in front of Wen Nuan and the others.
A shadowy figure slowly appeared, condensing into a human form.
Wen Nuan looked at it in surprise. “It’s the female classmate.”
Thanks for the chapter!!!
I forgot who the female classmate was 😭