"You look exactly the same as the person in my memory — I've been searching so hard for you!"
Chen Ge remembered it clearly. It was a night of torrential rain, the phone showing just past two in the morning, and he had been sprinting down the corridors of the abandoned school.
When he passed the last classroom, he had caught his first glimpse of the old principal.
A short, stout, kindly-faced man standing at the podium. Their eyes had met in that fleeting moment — a fraction of a second of eye contact had planted the seed, and their reunion now in the psychic ghost school was the fruit.
The old principal probably never imagined that a single careless look back back then would become a fateful "encounter" that changed the course of his destiny.
A chill crept across Chen Ge's scalp and ran down his spine. The silhouette standing before a cherry-red desk slowly turned around. When he saw Chen Ge carrying two large backpacks, the expression on his face became noticeably unnatural.
"You are..."
"Chen Ge."
Chen Ge strode toward the old man. "We've met once before at Muyang Middle School. If you can't remember, I can show you the footage from that day — I happened to be livestreaming."
"I do have a vague recollection, but I have something else to attend to right now. Let's catch up after I'm done." The old principal seemed to know the secrets Chen Ge carried. He understood perfectly well that he was different from those students who had been left with nothing but obsessions — once he became entangled with Chen Ge, there would be no end of trouble. So without hesitation, he reached out, grabbed Cherry Red's arm, and made to leave.
"What could possibly be more important than the children at Muyang Middle School?" Chen Ge pulled a comic album from his backpack. "Principal, everyone misses you. While you've been gone, the light has gone out of the children's smiles. You are the backbone of Muyang Middle School — without you, that family isn't complete."
In expression, in voice, in the content and tone of his words, Chen Ge delivered a perfect performance of heartfelt sincerity.
His students were all in Chen Ge's hands. A subtle shift passed through the old principal's gaze. He opened his mouth but didn't speak immediately.
Even after living the better part of a lifetime, the old man apparently still hadn't learned how to say no to people.
"Principal, I know you have your difficulties, and I know you have your reasons for doing what you're doing. But have you ever thought about it this way? You've given your students what you consider a peaceful life, but you've entered this dangerous ghost school alone. Would those children you once saved truly accept that kind of peace?"
"If they knew that their current lives were bought with everything you've sacrificed, do you think they'd be willing to keep living like that? You know your own children best — if you don't want them to spend their lives drowning in guilt, you'd better tell them everything, and we can figure this out together."
Every word Chen Ge spoke struck the old principal right in the heart. He didn't care about his own safety — but he cared deeply about those students of his.
Those students were the old principal's weakness. And of course, they were also his greatest helpers.
Without giving the old principal more time to think, Chen Ge pulled out a ballpoint pen wrapped in tape and handed it to the old man. Then he rummaged through Cherry Red's schoolbag and found a blank sheet of paper. "I'm not lying to you. I just hope you'll listen to what they have to say."
The tape-wrapped ballpoint pen rested in the old principal's palm, the barrel trembling slightly. When the nib touched the blank paper, the pen began to move on its own.
"Whatever anyone else thinks, I'm willing to help you."
Reading the words on the paper, Chen Ge felt a wave of emotion. When the Pen Spirit had learned he planned to enter the ghost school, it had put on an attitude of "better to die in pieces than live whole" — preferring to commit suicide rather than go inside. Yet after meeting the old principal, it had changed its tune immediately.
The old principal shook his head gently, holding the pen carefully as though afraid of breaking it — as though he were stroking his granddaughter's head.
"It's not just her. There are others." Chen Ge opened the comic album and released every obsession from Muyang Middle School. "They were orphans. You gave them a home. Even after death, their obsessions returned to Muyang Middle School. Because no matter how big this world is, for them, that was the only place that was home."
Staring at those familiar figures, the old principal fell silent.
After a dozen seconds or so, he looked at Chen Ge. "I'm about to do something extremely dangerous. You shouldn't have come here — and you especially shouldn't have brought them."
"You've met my parents. You know certain things about them. If you trusted your children to me, that means you understand what kind of person I am." Chen Ge stood before the old principal. "That haunted house is my home. Those who live there are my family. How could I ever let my family suffer in sadness and guilt every single day?"
Whether it was the obsessions from Muyang Middle School or Bai Qiulin carrying the mirror on his back, hearing Chen Ge's words moved them all. They had already developed a sense of belonging toward Chen Ge's haunted house.
This feeling wasn't something Chen Ge had forced on them, nor had he ever deliberately instilled it. It was something he had built, bit by bit, through one small act after another in their daily lives together.
"What I'm about to do is very dangerous. It will put you at risk, and it will put them in danger too." The old principal's hair was streaked with grey. He stood in this classroom that had been burned by fire, gazing at those familiar figures. He had thought he would never see these children again.
"I went through hell and high water, tried every method I could think of, just to get into this ghost school — and one of the reasons was to help you." Chen Ge placed the obsessions of Muyang Middle School's students back into the comic album. They were merely obsessions — incredibly fragile. If something went wrong, they could dissipate on the spot, losing the very last trace of their existence in this world.
Watching the students' obsessions disappear, the old principal's expression was deeply conflicted. At last, he let out a soft sigh. "You're a lot like your father — always meddling, always getting into trouble, fond of causing chaos without thinking about the consequences. But you hold fast to your own principles, and you possess a rare and precious kindness."
This was the first time Chen Ge had heard someone evaluate his father. The father in his memory was nothing like what the old man described. He held back from interrupting, afraid of ruining the atmosphere.
"Sounds like you were pretty close with them," Chen Ge asked, feigning casualness.
"Mm. It was your father who told me that Snow Cherry had been locked inside the psychic ghost school. And it was him who found a way in and out of this place, without asking for anything in return. He helped me so much, and now you've come into the ghost school yourself to find me. I... really owe your family far too much." In the old principal's words, Chen Ge's father cut an extraordinarily heroic figure — but something about it sounded very off to Chen Ge. He knew full well that his entry into the haunted house had been an accident, and that running into the old principal was something he'd never even conceived of beforehand.
He had been puzzled before, feeling it was all too convenient. But now, hearing the old principal say it outright, Chen Ge suddenly realized that this old principal might have been played.
"I was too selfish, only thinking about my own affairs without considering anyone else." The old principal reflected on his own shortcomings, and for a moment Chen Ge didn't know how to respond.