Chapter 28: The Red Dress

"When did you figure it out?" After several seconds of silence, Xiumu finally asked hesitantly.

"From the very first moment I saw the four of you." Backing away to the door, I widened the distance between Xiumu and me. "The area surrounding Xinhu High School is barren land. No matter which direction you come from, your shoes would inevitably carry dirt. Yet in the hallway where we met, the floor was completely clean. Only my footprints were visible."

"This led me to deduce that you didn't come from outside but were part of the school all along."

"That's why I never trusted any of you—not the three of you, nor Yingko."

Xiumu's face darkened as he gradually lowered his head. In the dim light, his expression became even more sinister. "If you knew from the start that we weren't human, why did you willingly join our games? Why help us search for Shen Meng?"

"Life is a performance, and it's all about the act. As an ordinary person with no special talents, I had to rely on my wits to survive here," I replied with a smirk. "By not exposing your identities and playing along in your games, I gained the upper hand. It made you drop your guard, feel entertained, and hesitant to kill me."

As long as I could stay alive, playing a few games with ghosts was a small price to pay.

Xiumu's expression grew even darker. Patches of livor mortis began appearing on his pale skin. "So, you've been deceiving us all along?"

"What's the matter? Feeling humiliated?" I waved dismissively. "I wouldn't call it deception. I was just humoring you little ghosts."

My current attitude reeked of arrogance, a blatant display of brazenness.

Hearing my words, Xiumu took slow steps toward me. His clothes grew tattered, and blood seemed to seep from under his feet.

"Xiumu, in my opinion, you're the smartest of all the ghosts. Don't do anything rash. Since I've chosen to reveal everything, I've naturally prepared a way out for myself."

"Remember when I asked about your father's name? Your surname is Wang—Wang Xiumu. The school uniform on the second bed in the infirmary belongs to you. As for Xue Fei and Shen Meng, traces of you all can be found within this school. You're the victims of five years ago, cursed and killed by Guo Junjie, unable to reincarnate."

"Pitiful souls, forever wandering in this eerie school, reliving the horrors of Guo Junjie's curse for eternity."

"I actually sympathize with you. Your sins have long been atoned for, yet your souls remain restless. Compared to the mistakes you made, this punishment seems excessively cruel."

Perhaps my words struck a nerve because Xiumu stopped in his tracks. "We don't need your pity. Soon enough, you'll end up just like us!"

His voice was raspy, as if something were grinding in his throat.

"Mutual benefit or mutual destruction. You can kill me and trap my soul here, but before that happens, I have a proposal."

"Speak."

"Let me help you find peace and liberation."

"You?"

"How will you know unless you give it a try?"

Seeing Xiumu fall into contemplation and the livor mortis recede from his body, I finally began to relax.

This life-or-death negotiation was a gamble I had won.

From the moment I received the optional mission notification from the Hell Show, I was puzzled. Why would the task require me to play games in a haunted school?

What games? With whom? How?

In a place as eerie as this, there couldn't possibly be other living people. The answer was simple—I had to play games with ghosts, and the more, the better.

At first, I followed the instructions. But as the school's mysteries gradually unfolded, I discovered there were more than one or two ghosts here, and there seemed to be irreconcilable conflicts among them.

One side consisted of the perpetrator behind the massacre, while the other side were victims trapped here.

If my assumptions were correct, the mastermind orchestrating everything was Guo Junjie, while Xiumu and Shen Meng were like clowns, existing solely to perform for him—reliving fear and despair repeatedly to atone for their sins.

This imbalance of power presented an opportunity, and I decided to take the initiative to confront the ghosts.

"The mistakes you made have been paid for with years of torment. If you don't resist now, are you planning to remain his puppets for eternity?"

I had experience in civil litigation and mediation cases. Although I initially pursued it just to make a living, that experience taught me how to persuade others.

"There's no reason for hesitation. You can kill me whenever you want, but if you miss this chance, you'll never change your fate of imprisonment."

Xiumu was ultimately convinced and returned to his normal appearance. "I'll trust you for now, but if you don't break the curse by sunrise, you'll stay with us forever."

"Deal." I made the offer to help Xiumu purely on a whim, with no plan in mind. It was a desperate gamble.

Since death was inevitable, why not bet on a slim chance?

"To show your sincerity, can you ask the red-dress ghost at the door to leave? These petty tricks don't scare me." I picked up my phone to monitor the situation outside. The red hem of her dress was no longer visible in the camera, but she might still be hiding just beyond its view, ready to ambush me the moment I opened the door.

"The red dress?" Xiumu's expression turned strange. "I've never seen that thing in this school before."

"She's not Shen Meng?!" Things weren't unfolding as I had expected.

"Shen Meng is already dead—or rather, she died again tonight."

"What do you mean by that?"

With a sigh, Xiumu explained, "We're nothing but weak remnants of consciousness, forced to relive unbearable horrors every night by Guo Junjie. It's like an endless nightmare. When our consciousness can't bear the torment and fades away, it represents death."

"You were right about one thing. We're nothing more than clowns dancing in Guo Junjie's palm. We have no freedom and can never escape."

"If Shen Meng and Xue Fei won't appear tonight, could the red dress be another one of your classmates?" Unsure if Xiumu was lying, I pressed for more details.

Shaking his head, Xiumu pointed out a critical fact. "Cursed students wear school uniforms. Only outsiders are different. For instance, Yingko—I've never been able to figure out her origins."

The silent, dreamlike Yingko turned out to be an outsider as well?

"When did she appear?"

"Around a year ago. She claimed to be waiting for someone. But don't be fooled by her innocent appearance. That girl harbors intense resentment, and even we avoid her."

As an adult, my motivations differ from Xiumu's. Every entity in Xinhu High School, living or dead, has a purpose.

"There must be some treasure here that draws spirits to this place."

"I've never heard of any treasure in our school. However, when the school was first built, a madman once stood at the gate, claiming it was built over his family's ancestral grave. He cursed for three days and nights before security took him away," Xiumu shrugged. "You seem curious about everything. Why don't you quit streaming and start narrating for Ten Thousand Whys?"

I coughed to mask my embarrassment. It was odd being lectured by a ghostly kid. "Back to the point. Since you're all cursed by Guo Junjie, finding him will resolve many issues."

"You won't find him. We've wandered this school for five years without discovering his whereabouts. We know he watches us from the shadows, but we have no idea where he's hiding."

I could sense Xiumu's despair. "Don't worry. Locating people and recovering corpses are my specialties."

The mass deaths at Xinhu High School were never publicly disclosed. To deal with so many bodies, moving them out of the school would be too conspicuous. Incineration on-site would be the safest method.

"Let's check the water purification tank where Guo Junjie drowned and then head to the school's incineration pit." After reaching an agreement with Xiumu, I pocketed the dorm key. "The red-dress ghost might be gone. Let's move quickly!"

Grabbing the handle, I twisted the lock and threw the door open. Picking up the camera, I sprinted down the stairs.

"Run! I think she's following us!"

No need to look back—I knew who Xiumu was referring to. I ran for my life, skipping several steps at a time, and managed to escape the girls' dormitory unscathed.

"Let's go to the water treatment plant. Don't let her catch us!" On instinct, I scooped up Yingko, who was sitting idly by the roadside, and dashed away.

"Relax, she doesn't seem to be chasing us."

Looking back, the red figure stood at a second-floor window of the dormitory, seemingly waving at me.

A shiver ran down my spine. This time, I saw clearly—she wasn't wearing a long dress but a blood-red wedding gown.

"Why does her silhouette seem familiar?"

Shaking off the unsettling thought, I followed Xiumu to the water treatment plant.

Pushing open the door, we found a small room filled with water pipes. At the far end was a boiler, connected to several large storage tanks.

"This is where he drowned." Climbing up the tank, I opened the narrow water inlet, about a foot wide. A foul stench wafted out.

Using my phone as a flashlight, I peered inside the massive tank. It was empty, dark, and devoid of water.

"You two wait outside. I'll go in and take a look." The narrow opening barely allowed me to squeeze through. Climbing in with difficulty, I entered the dark, enclosed space, where the oppressive atmosphere was suffocating.

The tank hadn't been opened in a long time, making the air thin and stale. Fighting against the suffocating sensation, I used my phone to search for clues.

The slippery floor forced me into a crouch. Before long, I spotted a tattered school uniform in a corner of the tank.

Just as I was about to reach for it, a boy's voice echoed in my ear:

"Why did you kill me?"

"Who's there?" Whipping around, I found nothing. At that moment, the only exit—the foot-wide water inlet above—slammed shut from the outside with a loud bang!