Ke Xue: Xiaolan delivers goods to your door at the beginning

Kazumi Tsukamoto told everyone about the rumors of the ghost story.

"And for four consecutive days, four consecutive days! I think Hideaki Yasutoshi is so regretful because he can't reread these books..."

Sonoko deliberately feigned a look of fear on her face, intentionally trying to scare Ran.

However, with Lin Xiaofeng by her side, Xiaolan wasn't so scared anymore. She just stayed close to Lin Xiaofeng and didn't dare to separate from him.

"If someone takes the book out, the librarians will probably notice when they lock it up," Lin Xiaofeng analyzed.

"I heard that these four books are either thrown behind the bookshelf or placed under the table," Tsukamoto Kazumi replied.

"But why did Bao Ban Yingzhang, who has been dead for so long, only come out to haunt us now?" Xiao Lan asked, puzzled.

"So, I don't know who's playing this prank on me, trying to scare everyone with some supernatural event. If I ever see this weirdo, I'll definitely grab him and beat him up. You'll have to help me then, okay, Xiaolan?"

Kazumi Tsukamoto patted Ran's shoulder and said with a smile.

"Okay." Xiaolan clenched her little pink fist.

Next, the group headed to the next haunted location, the cursed staircase.

"Finally, there's this cursed staircase. I heard that some classmate found the bottom of the stairs flooded when they came in this morning," Tsukamoto Kazumi said to the other three.

"Yeah, that's where Hideaki Hosaka fell down these stairs. Is that water the tears of Hideaki Hosaka's curse?" Sonoko said, feigning exaggeration. While her explanation was quite good, it was only good for scaring Ran.

"Could it be that it rained the day before and the window wasn't closed properly?" Xiaolan wasn't scared anymore and immediately retorted.

"I heard that the number of steps on this staircase varies each time you count them, Ran, Sonoko. Do you want to give it a try?" Tsukamoto Kazumi said with great interest.

Sonoko smiled and agreed. Ran was a little scared, but she couldn't back down at a time like this.

"1, 2, 3..."

The two women walked step by step.

"Ran, how many floors did you count in total?" Sonoko asked as they reached the top.

"My floor is the 12th floor," Xiaolan replied.

"Ah! Why did I count to 13 floors?" Sonoko exclaimed in surprise.

Xiaolan was also startled.

"Yuanzi, the correct answer should be n1①2 floors. I think you should have been on the last floor when you put your feet together and then added another floor, which is why you looked like that," Lin Xiaofeng, who was watching from the side, explained.

"Is this the result of scaring yourself?" Tsukamoto Kazumi suddenly looked at Lin Xiaofeng.

"I think so," Lin Xiaofeng nodded.

Kazumi Tsukamoto couldn't help but smile. This proved that there were no real ghosts!

“The rain has stopped, let’s go look at other places,” Tsukamoto Kazumi suggested.

As the group walked out of the teaching building, a horrifying scene unfolded.

"Look what that is!" Xiaolan said, pointing to the playground with a look of horror.

"That desk..." Upon seeing this, Tsukamoto Kazumi frowned.

"Let's go take a look," Sonoko suggested.

Lin Xiaofeng was the first to arrive at the table, where a note was left.

"I haven't taken my revenge yet." Lin Xiaofeng read the words on the note aloud.

"Who could be playing such a prank?" Even so, Tsukamoto Kazumi still didn't believe it was the work of a ghost.

“This paper isn’t wet at all. I think it must have been brought over after the rain stopped. If that’s the case, then that’s interesting.” Sonoko discovered a crucial blind spot.

"Huh? Really?" Xiaolan exclaimed in surprise.

"Yuanzi, you've found a blind spot." Lin Xiaofeng affectionately ruffled Yuanzi's hair. "Look, the soil on the ground should have been wet from the rain. Also, there's something very important that wasn't left behind: the suspect moved the desk here, but why didn't he leave any footprints?"

Lin Xiaofeng posed a question to test Yuanzi.

“I’m sure I’m not mistaken, the desks and chairs in the middle of the playground are the same ones that were piled up in the gymnasium’s warehouse,” Sonoko immediately concluded.

"Hmm, it should be the one that Hideaki Hoban used before, but who played a prank and moved it to the playground?" Kazumi Tsukamoto frowned, quite dissatisfied.

This is clearly an attempt to escalate the situation and cause panic at the school.

"There's a piece of paper on the desk, but it's not wet. I guess it was moved there after the rain stopped," Xiaolan said timidly.

“However, there’s a loophole in that way of thinking, and I’m more concerned about what’s written on the note.” Sonoko’s beautiful eyes flickered slightly as she took on the role of the detective queen.

"It really is the ghost of Bao Banyingzhang. He moved the table over there. I heard that ghosts don't have feet. The paper didn't get wet because the ghost used his own body to block the rain and then wrote that sentence." Xiaolan became more and more frightened as she thought about it, and the more frightened she became, the tighter she clung to Lin Xiaofeng.

Lin Xiaofeng couldn't help but laugh and gently tapped Xiaolan's head: "Xiaolan, don't scare yourself."

"Was there something wrong with what I said?"

"Ghosts exist in a different dimension from us. All they can do is influence our thoughts and create illusions; they cannot affect reality."

"Ah... Xiaofeng, you're so knowledgeable..." Xiaolan said with admiration.

233. So there really are ghosts.

"what!"

A man's scream suddenly came from the art room on the second floor of the teaching building.

Everyone's expression changed, and they rushed to the art room and opened the door.

In the art room, the boy with glasses sat in front of the easel, his face ashen as if he had seen a ghost. His right hand, which was holding the paintbrush, slipped from his grasp, letting the brush fall onto the wooden floor. He clutched his head, trembling all over.

"That guy is still holding a grudge after all... This ghost incident is also... Hosaka Hideaki's curse!"

Lin Xiaofeng stepped forward and helped the boy up, then asked, "Do you also know this student named Hosaka Hideaki?"

“Ah, yes…” The boy with glasses still looked terrified, his eyes unfocused. “My name is Mononobe Masao. Hosaka Hideaki and I were members of the art club, until two years ago when he fell down the stairs…”

"You mean 'at that time'?" Ran Mouri asked, puzzled.

Sonoko Suzuki asked directly, "Were you there when he fell?"

Mononobe Masao avoided answering, seemingly having calmed down, and said with his head down, "Could you please leave..."

"Huh?" Sonoko Suzuki was taken aback.

"So that I can concentrate on the competition, the teacher specially arranged for me to stay in this art classroom alone," Mononobe Masao suddenly became agitated again, turning to the group of people and shouting, "Alright! Get out! I don't want to waste any more time!"

"Ah, yes!"

Everyone was embarrassed, not understanding why the other party reacted so strongly, but they still left the art room.

"He seems to be afraid of something? Could it be that there's more to the story behind Hideaki Hosaka's death?" Lin Xiaofeng guessed.

Kazumi Tsukamoto, sorting through her thoughts, said, "I heard that when Hideaki Hosaka fell, it was in the morning, before the students had even arrived for class, which means..."

“It’s very likely that only Hideaki Hosaka and the boy downstairs were present at the time,” Sonoko Suzuki said solemnly, her voice low and deep, possessing a storyteller’s talent for narration. “And Hideaki Hosaka probably didn’t fall by accident, but was…”

A sudden chill ran through the air, causing Ran Mouri to silently hug her arms tighter.

Regardless, so much time has passed since the incident, it's impossible to find anything more from the investigation.

Then, the four of them went downstairs to the faculty and staff building.

Sonoko Suzuki casually guessed, "I bet the principal is struggling with what trees to plant in the yard."

“Yes,” Ran Mouri chuckled, “He goes to the yard every day to worry, thinking that this plant isn’t good and that plant isn’t good either. I didn’t expect him to go there even on rainy days. But if the principal had been in the yard at the time, he might have seen something.”

“That’s true, but I’m really worried he’ll lose all his hair from worry,” Sonoko Suzuki said with a smile, raising her hand to gesture her hairline.

"It's not good to talk about the principal behind his back like this..." Tsukamoto Kazumi said, both amused and exasperated.

When they arrived at the principal's office, the elderly principal with snow-white hair said that he had never been to the courtyard.

"I haven't been to the courtyard all day. And when the rain was heaviest, I was in the staff meeting room with other teachers, discussing the increasingly exaggerated ghost stories," the old principal explained with a smile, dismissing the ghost stories with disdain.

Lin Xiaofeng suggested, "Why don't we go ask the boy sleeping in the infirmary on the first floor? He might have seen something there!"

The group then headed towards the infirmary.

In the infirmary, Kunishige Seya said that he had been resting in the infirmary the whole time and had not gone out. Moreover, he could not see the situation in the yard from the corridor outside because the trees outside the corridor blocked it completely.

Ran Mouri looked around. "Isn't the nurse in the infirmary here?"

"He wanted to learn to drive, so he went back first! My neighbor told me to hurry home and rest, because my house is near the school," Shigu Kunishi explained.

Ran Mouri looked at Kunishige Seiya, "I heard that you and Hosaka-san have been childhood friends?"

“Yes,” Kunishige Seya gave a bitter smile. “We were in the same class in elementary and junior high, but we didn’t see each other often in high school because I had a motorcycle accident right after I enrolled and spent almost half a year in the hospital. I only heard about his fall down the stairs after I was discharged and returned to school…”

Kunishige Seya quickly followed up with a teasing question, "So what about your results? Has anyone been scared out of their wits by the ghost stories?"

"Results?" Ran Mouri asked, puzzled. "Why do you say that?"

Kunishige Seya looked at Kazumi Tsukamoto, "Those people who keep talking about ghosts all the time might be the ones who planned these things, waiting for others to be startled, and then hiding behind and laughing to themselves!"

"Huh?" Tsukamoto Kazumi was stunned, pointing at herself and saying, "Are you talking about me?"

"Let's go to the art room on the second floor together!" Lin Xiaofeng had already identified the culprit. "I've figured out who deliberately scared people! Let's go first, Shigu-kun, you have to come quickly too!"

"Me?" Kunishige Seya pointed to himself in surprise.

“Yes,” Lin Xiaofeng said sarcastically, looking at Shigu Kunishige, “don’t you want to know who was spreading those rumors after your good friend passed away?”

Kunishige Seya felt inexplicably nervous. With so many people staring at him, he had no choice but to get up from the bed in the infirmary.

"I'll go right away."

The art room. A group of people returned again. Mononobe Masao was about to get angry again, but Lin Xiaofeng stopped him, saying that this time they had come to tell everyone the truth.

Then, Kunishige Seya arrived at the art room with an umbrella, which was covered in water.

Lin Xiaofeng glanced at the evidence; Shigu Kunishige had brought it all, so he could begin his reasoning.

"The desks and chairs placed in the yard were carried there by someone under an umbrella when it rained, along with the piece of paper that was weighed down by a stone. Then, the other person placed the black umbrella with the long string attached on the desks and chairs."

Because it was still raining, the other person's footprints were quickly washed away by the rain.

After the rain stopped, the other party used a long line to pull the umbrella back and clean it.

The long mark in the yard was made by the tip of an umbrella, and the one who did it was Shigu Kunishige, whose umbrella tip was still dripping wet.

Because he didn't know when the rain would start, Kunishige Seiya took leave and stayed in the infirmary, waiting for the rain to start so he could complete the procedure.

School had already let out, and the teachers were all in meetings. Once it started raining, there was hardly anyone outside. If there were people on the second or third floor, they could only see a black umbrella held up from the window. The first-floor corridor was also blocked by trees. So, before putting away the umbrella and revealing the desks and chairs, there was no need to worry about being discovered..."

When the truth was exposed, Kunishige Seya bowed his head and admitted that he had done it.

Kazumi Tsukamoto said smugly, "I told you, there's no ghost story. It's just a prank. Detective Hayashi, you've lost to me, hahaha..."

Lin Xiaofeng remained calm and showed no intention of admitting defeat: "Shigu Kunishige only admitted that he played a prank, but he did not admit that he was the one who caused the haunting all along."

Kazumi Tsukamoto was stunned and asked, "Kunishige Seya, were you not the one who played all this prank?"

Kunishige Seya looked completely innocent: "I did play a prank, that's true. But the ghost story has been going on for two years now. Do you think I would keep playing pranks like that? Kazumi Tsukamoto, I thought you were the one who played the prank, so I deliberately played a prank to scare you and try to stop you from doing that."

Upon hearing this, not only Xiaolan was terrified, but Yuanzi was also frightened. The two girls clung tightly to Lin Xiaofeng, trembling with fear.

Masaki, who had been silent all along, suddenly collapsed to his knees.

234. After her divorce, Shizuka Ikenami decided to live in Tokyo.

Masaki from the Art and Biology Department recounted what happened two years ago.

"Hideaki Hosaka wasn't bullied or pushed down the stairs. It was two years ago that morning when a new plaster statue was delivered to the art room. It was Hideaki Hosaka and I on duty, so we came to the art room early in the morning to move the plaster statue, which startled the teacher who opened the door."

As we were talking, Hideaki Hosaka accidentally went up the stairs to the third floor. He turned around when he heard me call him, and in his panic, he slipped and fell. To protect me and the plaster statue, he even cushioned the fall, causing severe head injuries. He eventually died despite all efforts to save him.

I've felt guilty about it ever since, but I didn't want this to happen either.

After Mononobe Masao finished speaking, Tsukamoto Kazumi also mentioned something.

"Speaking of which, the reason why Hideaki Hosaka's desk and chair are gathering dust in the warehouse is because Hideaki Hosaka left his signature on the desk and chair with a pencil. His classmates did not want the signature to be erased after the desk and chair were used by others, and they also wanted to include Hideaki Hosaka's desk and chair in the graduation photo. So the whole class chipped in to buy a set of desks and chairs and put Hideaki Hosaka's desks and chairs (classes 1, 2, and 3) in the warehouse for safekeeping."

After hearing this, Kunishige Seya was stunned for a long time. "So that means that guy didn't hold any grudges at all..."

“If anyone should hate someone, it should be me,” the art student said dejectedly, “because I was the one who came up with that prank to scare the teacher… the instigator…”

“No, I think Hideaki Hosaka never resented anyone,” Lin Xiaofeng revealed the truth to everyone. “The reason he made a commotion was to tell you not to blame yourselves for his passing. It was just that due to the ignorance of the ghost realm, he did not take the correct approach. As long as you stop blaming yourselves for him, he can peacefully attain Buddhahood.”

Upon hearing Lin Xiaofeng's revelation of the truth, everyone suddenly realized and understood everything.

Everyone went to the playground, put their hands together, and prayed for Hideaki Hosaka.

"Hidesaka Hideaki, we have received your kindness. Rest in peace and become a Buddha."