It was an abnormally thin boy, his face pale to the point of looking inhuman. He was very young, probably only eleven or twelve, and wore the white school uniform of some school. It wasn’t exactly dirty, but the white fabric had already started to yellow, as if it had been worn for a very, very long time.
Not only that, Zhao Mingyue also noticed specks of blood on his body.
These bloodstains had already turned black, clearly having been there for a very long time as well.
By this point, Zhao Mingyue already knew this child’s identity. Every detail of his appearance reeked of eeriness, and besides, skin that was this ghastly pale couldn’t possibly belong to a living person.
The child’s neck was twisted at a highly unnatural angle. The first thing he did upon entering the convenience store was survey his surroundings. Then, as if something had happened, he seemed to receive a massive fright. His thin body hurriedly ducked behind a row of shelving.
He was acting as if he was terrified of something outside, something that was currently hunting him.
The boy crouched down, and Zhao Mingyue could just see his overly thin, small figure from behind.
She didn’t say a word. She just looked at the boy, then at the wind chime hanging on the wall. She had previously suspected that this thing could detect the appearance of a Ghostly Monster, and now it was completely confirmed. This thing didn’t just react to Bai Yu; all Ghostly Monsters entering the store would trigger a warning.
“Bai Yu, should we go check it out? He’s a ghost, right?”
“Yes, you can go and make contact.”
Zhao Mingyue received Bai Yu’s answer. Holding the rabbit doll in one hand, she stood up and walked out from behind the counter.
The child was indeed afraid, and the fear was definitely not an act. Zhao Mingyue could see his body trembling uncontrollably as he tried his best to shrink down behind the counter.
It was obvious he desperately wanted to peek outside, but because he was too scared, he didn’t even dare to make that small movement.
“Um, do you need any help?”
Zhao Mingyue stood behind the boy and tentatively spoke.
The boy was already trembling. When Zhao Mingyue’s voice suddenly sounded from behind him, he nearly jumped out of his skin.
“Don’t be scared. It’s very safe here. No scary things can come in. If something’s the matter, you can tell me. I’m the shop assistant here.”
The boy crouched on the floor. Only after hearing Zhao Mingyue say this did he dare to turn his head and look back.
It was then that Zhao Mingyue noticed a very clear black handprint on his neck. Combined with his unnaturally twisted neck, she understood his cause of death.
“As you can see, I’m the shop assistant here.” Zhao Mingyue pointed to the name tag pinned to her chest. “Is there something you’re afraid of?”
At the mention of this, the boy’s barely stabilized emotions began to crumble again. He hugged his head and shrank into the corner.
After becoming a ghost, it could be said that well over ninety percent of ghosts lost their consciousness from life. Most lost the ability to think; what drove them was merely that lingering trace of Resentment that hadn’t yet dissipated.
So, these types of ghosts generally couldn’t communicate normally. Seeing the boy in this state, Zhao Mingyue felt helpless.
After thinking it over, she decided to change her approach.
“I know you’re scared of something. You’re terrified that thing will follow you, catch you. But hiding like this right now won’t help.”
“You don’t want to be caught by that thing one day, right? If you don’t want that day to come, you can tell me about it. Maybe I can help you deal with it.”
This was the first Ghost she had encountered in the convenience store, and she very much wanted to understand it better. She had nothing else to do anyway, and she wasn’t afraid that something would actually follow. After all, that thing living in her shadow was fairly capable in a fight.
As expected, these words made the boy turn his head around once again. “That… that person is very scary. He’s killed many people…”
“It’s okay. I’m not afraid of him!”
“It’s no use, Big Sister. He’ll kill you.”
“You don’t need to worry about that. You should think about it; if you don’t use your head to figure out how to deal with him, he’ll be around forever. You have to seize every hope.”
A moment later, after Zhao Mingyue’s string of coaxing, the little boy stood before the counter. With a face full of hesitation and fear, he began to recount the story of what had happened to him.
“First, tell me why you showed up here.” Behind the counter, Zhao Mingyue sat the rabbit doll upright so Bai Yu could also see the boy.
“I… I escaped from school. When I came out, the sky outside was dark, so, so dark for some reason. There was no one around. I came in because I saw a light here,” the little boy said quietly.
“You escaped from school? Which school?”
The school emblem on the boy’s uniform was stained with a patch of blood. Zhao Mingyue couldn’t read what was written on it clearly; she could only make out the last two characters: “High School.”
“Dongcheng Thirteenth High School.”
“Dongcheng Thirteenth High School?!” Zhao Mingyue’s eyes widened slightly. Her next Mission Location was there—a high school that had been abandoned for many years.
“Yeah!”
“So, are you saying something inside the school was chasing you?”
“Yeah. A maniac got into the school. That person wanted to kill the Principal and all the students in the class the Principal managed. I was too scared, so I ran out.”
“A maniac? Then were you also a student in the Principal’s class? Did you tell the other students and the Principal about this? Oh, and what’s your name?” Frowning, Zhao Mingyue casually asked a few questions.
Who knew that this one question seemed to trigger something. The boy’s emotions spiraled into tension and panic again. His eyes were darting wildly in terror, his whole body trembling. “I don’t know… I don’t know… I don’t know anything! Don’t go there! Don’t… Don’t… Don’t go there!!”
His voice was small, his words rushed incredibly fast—the hallmark of someone terrified to the extreme. He suddenly spun around and bolted, running straight through the convenience store’s door and disappearing into the street before Zhao Mingyue even had a chance to call out to him.
Zhao Mingyue stood frozen behind the counter, cherry lips half-open as if about to speak but then hesitating.
“Did I… say something I shouldn’t have just now…”
Silence returned to the convenience store. She sat back down, carefully recalling the few sentences the ghost boy had spoken, but no matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t make sense of it.
“Bai Yu, do you think he really escaped from Dongcheng Thirteenth High School? Why do I feel like he hasn’t realized he’s dead yet? And he mentioned that after escaping from the school, the entire world was dark, and only our place had light. Why is that?”
The rabbit doll toppled over. In its place, a figure appeared beside Zhao Mingyue.
“I can’t be certain. However, this convenience store is indeed problematic. As for this ghost, he likely escaped due to some accident. Once he left the school’s range, his mind would also become muddled. He can’t remember anything except things related to the school.”
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