Chapter 90: The Ballpoint Pen Wrapped in Resentment

Fan Yu's aunt had seen the scene inside the classroom too — the children in school uniforms with their heads bowed low beside the desks, looking exactly like the students in the group photo her brother had brought home.

She collapsed to the ground, terror frozen on her face, her limbs refusing to obey as she struggled for a long time to get up.

"Don't speak!"

Chen Ge strode quickly to Fan Yu's aunt, grabbed her arm, and dragged her out of the teaching building!

The legend was true. No matter what had caused those students' deaths, they had all ended up returning to this school.

"You saw it too, didn't you?!"

Seeing something in a photo and experiencing it firsthand were two completely different things. Fan Yu's aunt's eyes bulged from their sockets, and she gasped for breath as though she couldn't breathe at all, her voice breaking in fits and starts.

"Let's get out first." Chen Ge dragged Fan Yu's aunt to the entrance of the teaching building. As he left, he glanced back one more time at the classroom — the doors and windows were sealed shut, and inside it was pitch black.

"I've been in this school for quite a while now, and none of them have ever attacked me on their own. Whatever's lingering in this school doesn't seem to be evil spirits." Chen Ge had good reason to think this. The girl who had been driven mad by Fan Yu's father had committed suicide in the last classroom, and the one who had stood up to help her was the spirit in that same classroom. The one who had warned Fan Yu's father before also seemed to be the classroom spirit. They appeared to be trying to protect the students in the school, even if their methods were somewhat misguided.

Chen Ge helped Fan Yu's aunt to the main gate of Muyang High School, and they took shelter from the rain beside the broken school gate.

It was past midnight. He didn't dare stay inside the three school buildings any longer, and with Fan Yu's aunt as an unpredictable variable in the mix, he had no choice but to exercise more caution.

The rain gradually weakened. A little past one in the morning, lights appeared outside Muyang High School. Chen Ge immediately switched on his flashlight and called out in a loud voice.

The bushes were pushed aside as a group of people in raincoats forced their way through.

"Over here! The suspect has been restrained!"

Chen Ge had been shouting at the top of his lungs, but when he caught sight of the face leading the group, he felt an inexplicable twinge of guilt.

"Why is it always you?" Officer Li was the first to arrive. When he reached the school gate and saw Chen Ge, his face twitched. "Three consecutive emergency dispatch calls in one week, all because of one person — in thirty-five years since the Xicheng Police Station was established, that's a first. Did you know that? The people at the dispatch center are starting to recognize your voice."

Chen Ge was rendered speechless by Officer Li's words. Feeling somewhat sheepish, he quickly helped Fan Yu's aunt to her feet and walked toward Officer Li.

Officer Li called on the others to break open the school gate and enter. "Is she a victim?"

"No, this woman is one of the perpetrators." Chen Ge handed Fan Yu's aunt over to a nearby officer.

"One of the perpetrators?" Officer Li flashed his flashlight three times, signaling everyone to be on guard. "Are the other perpetrators still hiding inside the school?"

"The other perpetrator is already dead." Chen Ge explained what he knew in as concise a manner as possible. "This woman's brother had a voyeuristic habit. After his wife found out, she asked for a divorce. In response, he killed her. This woman happened to witness her brother committing the murder. To avoid being killed herself, she ended up killing her brother."

"Excessive self-defense, resulting in death?" Officer Li immediately zeroed in on the crux of the matter.