Book 2 Chapter 2: Why is it me again?

“Ah!!!!”

An extremely terrified scream mixed with the scent of death pierced the night. The entire floor felt their hearts shiver and ran towards the dorm room to see what was going on. The seven girls in room 205 had completely forgotten their promise and scrambled out of the room to escape. No one dared to go back and check on Qian Li.

That scream was too terrifying.

After the resident assistant Auntie Zhao listened to the babbling of the girls in room 205, she understood what was going on. She scolded these children for not treasuring their parents’ hard-earned money. They ate and drank their fill, was able to study at a university, but still insisted on being so senseless. It seemed they wouldn’t know how treacherous the road was until they tripped.

She was old and had seen many things. From that girl’s scream, she already knew things weren’t looking good. However, she still had to force herself to go check. She prevented the girls from coming over and went to take a look by herself. First of all she was afraid they would get scared. If several of them fainted, it would be even more troublesome. Secondly, she didn’t want news to spread if something had truly happened in case it stirred a panic. Thirdly, she wanted to preserve the scene.

The door to the bathroom was locked from the inside and she couldn’t open it. Right as she was going to look for a tool or ask someone for help, the door slowly creaked open by itself. The room’s bright light shone onto the body of a girl.

That girl was standing in front of the mirror. She stood rigid as though made of wood, not moving a muscle.

That weird scene made Auntie Zhao not dare to walk inside. She could only feel around the edge of the door to turn on the bathroom lights. The moment the lights were turned on, the corpse standing there suddenly fell backwards, right in front of Auntie Zhao’s feet.

The girl’s corpse no longer had a face. What was left of it was badly mangled. However, her eyes were opened wide and rolled backwards, still twitching weirdly. It was as though she was venting against some injustice. The mirror was drenched in blood.

Auntie Zhao fell over from her fright and scrambled out along with the other girls, deeply afraid Qian Li would chase behind them. She had seen hauntings before, but had never felt her blood run cold like this.

In the end, the autopsy declared the cause of death as her heart bursting from excessive fright, and ruled it as a closed-door murder case. However, the seven girls in the room testified that no one else had entered. The bathroom was also an enclosed space with no other entrances apart from the door. There was no scientific explanation for this, and they could only go with this theory. The school did its best to prevent anything from spreading, afraid for their reputation or other unnecessary troubles. However, within several days, two similarly weird cases occurred that prevented this matter from being kept quiet.

The first was two days later, when a girl was taking a shower in the shared bathroom. Because it was almost time for lights-out, the manager in charge of the showers kept urging her to hurry. When she was the only person left, the lights in the shower suddenly went out. The manager found a torch and wanted to check the fuse box to see if there were any problems. However, the sound of the girl’s terrified scream rang out. The manager hurriedly tried to enter but the door had been locked from the outside. By the time the staff member smashed the lock, only the girl’s naked body was found lying in front of the bathroom’s large mirror. Not only was she dead, her entire body was withered. Her eyes had also been bloodily dug out.

Due to this matter, the police was even more certain this wasn’t just a matter of superstitious games. The circuit breaker had been pulled and someone had locked the doors from the outside. This could only be a sinister murder case, but the murderer’s methods were too brilliant.

However, before another day passed, the police was still investigating the situation when another girl died. This girl had been studying at night in the main building’s classroom. She had been heading back to the dorm with a companion. Before reaching the first floor, her companion realized she had forgotten her phone and ran back to grab it. The girl thus kept walking slowly while waiting for the other person to catch up.

The stairwell between the first and second floor had a large full-length mirror facing the door. Her companion found her dead in front of the mirror, without even having made a sound. There were still traces of blood on the mirror and her skin seemed to have been peeled off by someone. During this time, the lights had been cut off for less than five minutes again. Although the doors to the lobby hadn’t been locked, it might have been because it wasn’t likely for anyone else to be entering or exiting at this time.

Within a week, three people had died in a row. This made the students anxious and frightened, putting a lot of pressure on the school. The police were also clueless. Although this matter wasn’t officially reported in the media, it was already spread all over the internet. It sounded like a scary story to those unaware. It was said that a girl played the Bloody Mary game and ended up summoning an evil spirit. Not only did she lose her life, the evil spirit still lingered and had harmed others.

The ones it picked were all young and beautiful girls.

On the other end of this city, Yue Xiao Xia was meeting with her director in his office. The moment she saw the big boss of this firm looking at her with a gentle expression, she knew things were far from good.

Based on her previous experience, it was normal if Director Pan spoke to her strictly and abruptly. The more affable he was, the more dangerous. This was because it meant he was about to throw a difficult problem at her. Being able to realize the situation was due to her ability. Whether she could get out of it depended on the circumstances. Now, her circumstances were rather dire. This was because Director Pan had even personally poured her a cup of tea.

“I have a small assignment for you.” The director finally finished his suspiciously kind gestures and got to the point.

Xiao Xia gulped the tea down, fighting the urge to turn and run.

“Recently you’ve truly improved quite a bit. I am very gratified. Therefore, I’m sure you can do a good job with my alma mater’s case.”

“You wouldn’t be thinking about assigning me the matter with the school hauntings, right?” Xiao Xia got a layer of goosebumps and almost spat out her tea in fear at the thought.

“Smart, you guessed it right away.”

“Aren’t those just rumors or fake news?”

“As far as the outside knows. In reality, I’m afraid it isn’t.”

“But….but, I’m still working on that inheritance dispute case.”

“You can keep working on that case. The school is just asking for a consultation.”

“Just a consultation.” Xiao Xia let out a breath. She definitely didn’t want to get involved in some supernatural matter again.

The Vast Sky law firm’s founder Director Pan turned out to be a former law professor at T. University. Due to a shortage of lawyers back then, he had worked as a lawyer on the side. After the nation started slowly cancelling the model of side-lawyers and the school’s law department split off into its own law school, Director Pan resigned and started a law firm with a few others. Due to his impressive abilities, his win percentage on cases was rather high. The law firm gradually became the best in the city. Due to him having sentiments for his old school, he acted as their legal advisor for a very low fee.

“Of course it’s just a consultation. You know this matter is very troublesome and involves many things. For example, the students’ families want compensation and the police are looking for answers. There’s also the question of insurance. The school’s interests must still be protected.”

Xiao Xia was a little displeased. If it was really caused by a student looking for trouble, having caused her own death by summoning an evil spirit, that was that. However, if it was a murder case, the school naturally had some responsibility. Who would protect the students’ interests in that case?

“Xiao Xia, you have to be more proactive.” The director completely failed to notice Xiao Xia’s moodiness. He continued speaking: “You are my prized disciple, and must definitely act the part. Therefore, although this is just a consultation, it’s best if you can investigate the scene a little. Just in case some problems crop up in the details.”

Prized disciple? This elder! For the sake of getting her to accept this task, he could even tell such a lie? Furthermore, he did so without batting an eye. Truly, the elderly were more experienced. She was thoroughly impressed. But, but, what was he saying about investigating the scene?

Xiao Xia suffered a fright. Wouldn’t she be very likely to encounter “that” if she went to the scene?

“If you don’t thoroughly investigate the scene, how can you provide the most effective suggestions? However, you are only to act as a consultant. You must definitely not overstep your boundaries. It’s different from a lawsuit.”

“Why is it me again?” Xiao Xia weakly gave a final struggle. “I’m not defying your orders. It’s just this might be a little scary. Isn’t it better to pick a daring male lawyer?”

“This concerns my alma mater. I have a lot of attachment towards it, and it’s also your alma mater’s predecessor. You are also my student, so having you go feels more like I’m repaying my school. If I weren’t so busy with the stock fraud case recently, I would personally follow up with this case. Xiao Xia, I’m sure you understand my emotions.”

“Alright.” The director could absolutely have forced this onto her, but instead used such a gentle tone to discuss it. Furthermore, based on how much he looked after her normally, how could she refuse? “I will definitely give it my all.”

“I believe in you.” The director was very pleased. “You handled the family murder case last time very well. Although the trial ended up being cut short due to the suspect dying suddenly, you had done very well prior to that. You worked hard and took a trip out to investigate.”

It was more like taking a trip to cause trouble for Ruan Zhan! Xiao Xia thought this as she said a few self-deprecating words. She expressed her determination a few more times before leaving the director’s office. She sorted out the current case she was working on, arranged a time with T. University’s president and immediately set off.