Officer Li lowered his voice and tensed up again. "Explain it to me clearly — what's going on?"
"This definitely isn't a murder investigation. I just want to look at her file."
"Don't be ridiculous. Our records aren't something just anyone can browse. If there's nothing else, I'm hanging up."
Officer Li ended the call right away, leaving Chen Ge a bit frustrated. He was trying to figure out his next move when his phone buzzed — another text from Officer Li.
"The files aren't publicly accessible. If you want to know something, you can come by between seven and eight in the evening. If it's urgent, I can look it up for you."
Reading the message, Chen Ge immediately understood — Officer Li was in his office, surrounded by other people, and couldn't agree outright.
"Uncle Li, do you have any records on Muyang Middle School? What happened before the school was shut down? Why are there ghost stories about it everywhere?"
After a while, Officer Li started replying in fragments.
"The school was built on the site of a crematorium. The land was cheap, but because of the bad omens, nobody wanted it."
"Later, a short, heavyset old man surnamed Chen bought it and built a private orphanage."
"After a few years, Jiujiang set up a charity aid station and related welfare institutions, so he sent the children of eligible age from the orphanage to proper welfare homes."
"The only ones left in the orphanage were the older children. To solve their schooling problem, the old director visited many places, but no school was willing to take them in."
"The old man had no choice but to buy textbooks himself and teach the children personally. Later, the matter apparently caught the attention of the media. After soliciting opinions from various parties, the authorities built Muyang Middle School in the suburbs."
"The school grounds were the old man's orphanage, and that batch of orphans he had taken in became the school's very first students."
Chen Ge scrolled through the messages, surprised that Muyang Middle School had such a past. "Officer Li, when the school was first established by the old director, how many students were there? Do you have records on that?"
After about twenty minutes, Officer Li called him directly. "Xiao Chen, I'm in the archive room right now. Muyang Middle School has been sealed off because of the body-in-the-well case. Most of the files have already been taken by the city branch."
"Uncle Li, I just need to confirm one thing — among the original students when Muyang Middle School was first established, were there two girls named Chen Yalin and Wang Xin?"
"Let me check." Officer Li searched for a while, then spoke. "When Muyang Middle School was first established, there were a total of twenty-five students, all orphans the old man had taken in."
"Twenty-five?" That number was very close to the twenty-four uniforms in Chen Ge's classroom.
"That's right, except…" Officer Li hesitated. "Only one of them is still alive — that Wang Xin you mentioned."
"The rest are all dead?"
"Yes. First, Chen Yalin hanged herself in the dormitory for reasons unknown. Then, apart from Wang Xin, who shared a room with Chen Yalin, the remaining twenty-three took a bus on an outing and got into an accident — the vehicle plunged straight into a reservoir. Not a single person survived, the driver included."
"Twenty-five people, and now only one is alive." Chen Ge thought of the twenty-four uniforms in the classroom — the numbers matched up perfectly. Now he was beginning to understand why these children, even as lingering spirits after death, would return to that classroom. To them, Muyang Middle School held a different meaning entirely. It was their home.
"Anything else you need? If not, I'm heading out — I've got a pile of things to deal with." Officer Li had already done Chen Ge a considerable favor.
"Last question — how can I get in touch with that one surviving child?" Chen Ge had already locked onto his target. This surviving girl was the one the Pen Spirit wanted to find.