Chen Ge was certain that something important to Zhang Ya was hidden somewhere in this Ghost School — the stench was proof enough. He had recovered his heart in the boys' dormitory, and the transformation had been dramatic.
If Chen Ge could find what Zhang Ya had lost, there was a chance she might wake directly. Only then would he truly dare to do what he had been wanting to do.
"Chen Ge, why did that girl just leave?" The old principal was somewhat puzzled. The atmosphere in the hallway was eerie — still terrifying and oppressive, but the gnawing unease had diminished noticeably.
"Because she was scared." Chen Ge said it casually, his expression calm, as though everything was under control.
Seeing him like this, the surrounding students felt even more certain they had followed the right person.
"I'll lead the way." Ying Hong grew increasingly curious about Chen Ge. She had been standing very close to him moments ago and had seen clearly — the monster on the chair had suddenly gone mad and retreated the instant it saw Chen Ge.
In other words, the girl hadn't been afraid of Xu Yin, who was shielding Chen Ge. She had been afraid of Chen Ge himself.
"Just stay by my side. Judging by how those monsters are behaving, they don't seem to fear Red Dresses." Chen Ge chose to walk out in front.
Spoken without thought, yet heard with weight — Ying Hong turned Chen Ge's words over in her mind.
*They don't fear Red Dresses, so this man asked me to stand beside him. Does that mean he possesses strength beyond that of a Red Dress?* She watched Chen Ge, who had maintained his composure almost the entire time, and arrived at a wonderfully mistaken conclusion: *To me he looks like an ordinary person — but what if I'm wrong? What if he isn't weak at all, and I simply can't see through him?*
Chen Ge had been to the girls' dormitory of Xicheng Private Academy before. He knew where Zhang Ya's room was, so he had no need of Ying Hong's guidance.
The chairs in the hallway had vanished, having hidden themselves somewhere unknown. Chen Ge paid them no mind and walked straight to the deepest part of the fourth floor.
"Is your secret behind this door?"
Standing before the doorway, he murmured to himself, speaking at length, before finally pushing open the door in front of him.
*Crack!*
The instant the wooden door was pushed open, cracks splintered across its surface. By the time Chen Ge had fully opened it, the old, battered door simply shattered — as if it had endured tremendous pressure for so long that Chen Ge's gentle push had been nothing more than the last straw on the camel's back.
Wood splinters and threads of blood spun through the air as boundless malice surged out from the dormitory!
This was the first time Chen Ge had seen the evil within a human heart so clearly. Negative emotions had taken physical form. In the blood-red world behind the door, that malice coalesced into black tendrils that corroded the walls near the doorway into a deep, abyssal black in an instant.
"Stay behind me!"
When the malice erupted, Chen Ge bore the brunt of it directly — but the black tendrils of hatred swerved around him, as though even pure malice did not dare target him.
"What have you released?!" The black malice was spreading through the hallway. Director Lei saw the chaos and immediately ordered the students to fall back. "Don't touch those things! Fall back now! Call everyone over! Quick! Seal this place off!"
Outside the girls' dormitory's fourth floor, panic erupted into total disarray — yet Chen Ge, standing at the dormitory entrance, was utterly unaffected.
"Is this the malice Zhang Ya once endured?" Chen Ge felt as though he had opened Pandora's box. Outside the Ghost School, sounds of turmoil rang out endlessly — the school's will seemed to have gone mad.
"You've really done it this time." Ying Hong was shaken by the torrent of malice. Fearless of everything under heaven, she had only realized after meeting Chen Ge just how well-behaved she had been before.
"It's fine."
"Fine? You call this fine? Can't you hear what's happening out there? The school's will…"