"Reported to school for the second day, chased by a teacher, escaped by climbing a wall — this is nothing like the college life I imagined!"
"There might be even more things you never imagined still to come."
"This rope is my way out." When he had left the east campus, Chen Ge had been alone. By the time he came back, he was already the head of a club.
"Teacher, did you notice anything… off?" Zhang Ju straightened up, and his eyes—hidden within the creases of his scars—slowly widened.
"What is it?"
"Maybe I'm just sensitive, but the air on this side of the wall feels thick, damp. There's a strange smell, like you've been drenched in blood." Zhang Ju spoke in the calmest possible tone while saying the strangest possible things.
He parted his lips slowly, the tip of his tongue tracing the scar along his upper lip. His gaze was distant and confused. "Compared to the west campus, this place feels more familiar to me."
"You're not joking, are you? Are you familiar with the scent of blood?" Zhou Tu had originally thought Zhang Ju was ugly but otherwise normal enough. After hearing those words, however, he had a rather different impression of the man.
"I'm not joking. I'm serious." Zhang Ju looked at Chen Ge, who stood where he was, wearing a calm smile.
"You're not mistaken. This is the fertile ground where sweet dreams are cultivated. In the world behind the gate, only corpses and blood can serve as fertilizer—only then can flowers bloom that will take your breath away."
Chen Ge hoisted Wang Yicheng onto his back and gestured for Zhang Ju to follow. "I'm taking you somewhere first. Listen carefully—do not make a sound."
They threaded through the untended undergrowth, the cover of night their best disguise.
Without incident, Chen Ge led Zhang Ju to the spot where the female ghost in the tree hollow waited.
"Does this look familiar?" Chen Ge pointed at the hollow in the tree where the woman's head had been hidden, and at the surrounding trees.
"I think we've been here before… Wait, isn't this where that girl was murdered? We saw it in the west campus! How is there an identical scene in the east campus too?" Zhou Tu's eyes went wide—even the position of the tree hollow and the angle of its opening were exactly the same.
"The murder scene in the west campus was just an empty shell. The body and the victim's soul were hidden in the east campus. What you're looking at now is the real crime scene." As Chen Ge spoke these words, Zhang Ju seemed to be drawn by something. He stood alone beside the tree hollow, his shoulders trembling faintly.
"Zhang Ju?"
He appeared not to hear Chen Ge's voice. Slowly he crouched down, knelt beside the hollow, and with trembling hands reached inside.
"Hey! What's gotten into you? I remember the girl's head was found in that tree hollow! Why are you sticking your hand in there?"
Zhou Tu moved to pull Zhang Ju away, but Chen Ge stopped him. "Don't disturb him. His memories are hidden inside that hollow. What was lost has to be dug out by his own hand."
"Dug out? You people really are insane!" Zhou Tu lacked Chen Ge's strength and couldn't break free; all he could do was stand to the side and watch helplessly.
With both knees on the ground, Zhang Ju knelt beside the hollow, his eyes fixed on the darkness inside as his arm sank deeper and deeper into the cavity.
His body was shaking the entire time, sweat clinging to the scars on his face like tears sliding down.
"Nothing? Why is there nothing? Why is there nothing! Impossible!" Zhang Ju had found nothing. His voice came in broken gasps, as though he was too anxious to breathe. "I saw it with my own eyes! I watched him hide that thing inside the hollow! How can it not be here!"
His fingers dug frantically into the dirt and bark, nails splitting and beginning to bleed, but Zhang Ju felt no pain. His expression was savage as he clawed wildly at the bottom of the hollow.
"Zhang Ju, are you looking for this?" Chen Ge pulled a rusted cleaver from his backpack. This was the object the female ghost of the tree hollow had been bound to. After the shadow consumed the ghost, it had been discovered deep inside the hollow (see Chapter 787). Chen Ge had originally intended to keep it as a weapon and hadn't thought much beyond that.
The surroundings fell silent all at once. Every pair of eyes was fixed on the cleaver.
"This cleaver is what I found in the hollow. The victim's maddened soul was bound to it." Chen Ge set the cleaver in front of Zhang Ju. "Pick it up. Can you remember your past?"
Zhang Ju was on the verge of breaking down. The trembling in his arms grew more violent, his pupils twitching erratically.
"Does it look familiar? Have you seen this knife somewhere else? Whose hand was holding it, and whose neck did it finally bite into?" Chen Ge's words drove into Zhang Ju's mind like iron nails. Zhang Ju reached out with a shaking hand toward the cleaver. The instant his fingertips touched the handle, his face underwent a drastic change—his pupils contracted, his mouth flew open, as though he had grabbed a red-hot branding iron.
Before Zhang Ju could cry out, Chen Ge clamped a hand over his mouth. "It's all right. That's all in the past now. It's only your history."
He soothed Zhang Ju with his mouth, but his eyes remained locked on the hand gripping the cleaver. The instant Zhang Ju made a slashing motion, he would pin him down.
Zhang Ju was far stronger than Chen Ge had expected, and as his memories loosened, his strength only kept growing. This boy was no ordinary ghost.
Just when Chen Ge was about to lose control, Zhang Ju finally calmed down.
Chen Ge released his hand. Zhang Ju collapsed to his knees, his lips pressed against the dirt on the ground, the scars on his face stark and jarring.
"I—I remembered some things." Zhang Ju stared at his broken fingernails. "That day was the senior's birthday. A girl wanted to confess her feelings to him, but he already had a girlfriend, so he asked me to reject her on his behalf. When I got to the meeting spot, I didn't see the girl, so I waited. Eventually I heard movement in the trees, and I snuck over to look. That's when I saw someone holding this knife…"
"The girl was still struggling, but I didn't dare come out. I was frozen with terror—I'd never seen that much blood before." His nails dug into the soil, and the scars on his face bunched together. "If I had stepped forward then, maybe that girl wouldn't have died."
Self-blame and guilt tormented Zhang Ju ceaselessly. He gripped the cleaver tightly. "By the time I went back to call the police, those people had already fled. I don't know if they were ever caught, but I saw one of the figures—it looked very familiar."
"The next night, we drank a lot of wine, then went singing, and then the fire started. I was sent to the hospital, and after that…" Zhang Ju slammed his fist against his own head. "What happened after that? Why don't I have any memories beyond that point?"
"Third-degree burns, unconsciousness, hospitalized. Your memories stopped right there." Chen Ge already knew Zhang Ju's past.