"The perimeter wall? What are you going there for?"
The dark figure had had several chances to easily kill
The dark figure didn't answer Chen Ge's question. He seemed to be hesitating whether or not to bring Chen Ge along. The place he was about to go to seemed to be a hideout he'd prepared specifically for himself.
"If you don't feel comfortable answering, you can totally refuse. We're partners, friends—there's no need to hold back." Chen Ge said casually, his expression relaxed and natural.
The dark figure stood alone in front of Chen Ge. He wasn't tall, with a thin build that made him look frail enough that the wind might blow him away.
Since entering this school, this was the first time anyone had said these things to the dark figure. He stood facing Chen Ge, not hiding a single thing about himself.
Introverted, cowardly, self-loathing, closed off—the dark figure was different from other children his age. There was no trace of youthful vitality in him. It seemed like many unpleasant things had already happened to him before he'd entered this school.
Chen Ge's words stirred something in the dark figure's mind. Most of his memories were grey, and every time he recalled them it was like having his head shoved into muddy water—silt surging into his mouth, nose, and ears. It wasn't pain, exactly, just a suffocating heaviness.
"What are you spacing out for? Let's go. Staying in one place too long invites trouble."
Chen Ge lightly patted the dark figure's shoulder. His fingers passed through the dark figure's body and landed on his chest, but Chen Ge didn't seem to mind at all, as though he'd long grown used to it.
Striding forward, Chen Ge turned his back to the dark figure without any guard at all.
Staring at Chen Ge's back, the dark figure still couldn't believe that one day a scapegoat and an original ghost could actually work together.
"Where's this perimeter wall you mentioned?" Chen Ge walked in the direction the dark figure pointed for over ten minutes but still couldn't see the school's boundary. The school was absurdly large.
The dark figure kept urging Chen Ge to pick up the pace. Human and ghost walked through the thicket for another five minutes, and then Chen Ge was startled to discover that he seemed to have ended up right back where he'd started.
"A ghost wall? How did the surrounding woods get so much denser? It's like all the trees have connected into one."
Calling it a ghost wall didn't quite fit either. Chen Ge was currently in the eastern campus and could see the tall buildings in the western campus.
He and the dark figure had been walking toward the western campus for a long time, but those buildings still looked hazy and indistinct, as if hidden behind a thick fog.
"Are you sure you pointed the right way?"
The dark figure had noticed something was wrong too. He stood sideways behind a tree, his frail silhouette swaying in the night wind, as though he might be blown apart at any moment.
"Bro? You okay?"
The dark figure seemed to be sensing something. When he withdrew his hand, he motioned for Chen Ge to back up and stop moving forward.
"There's a fierce ghost nearby? Is it powerful? How does it compare to you?" Chen Ge fired off several questions in rapid succession, but the dark figure didn't answer a single one. He retreated step by step, making sure Chen Ge stayed within two meters of him as they pulled back.
"So there really is something in these woods." Chen Ge wiped the sweat from his forehead. Even the roadside thicket wasn't safe—he was gaining a new appreciation for this school. "I hope it's not a red spirit… or a half red spirit."
As Chen Ge and the dark figure slowly retreated, a faint voice drifted out from the darkness deep within the woods—"Save me…"
It was a girl's voice. From the sound of it, she couldn't have been more than a teenager.
"Someone's calling for help. Does that voice sound familiar to you? Do you know her?" Chen Ge moved closer to the dark figure. Right now, it was better not to wander too far off on his own.