Time seemed to stand still.
The boy on the hospital bed had a silk blindfold over his eyes. His skin was pale, and only his lips and jawline hinted at his age, suggesting he was no more than eighteen or nineteen.
His upper body was naked, his muscles well-proportioned, their smooth lines undeniable.
However, his left atrium was stitched shut with fine red thread, like a red fish drawn on white paper.
A few minutes of silence fell over the scene, all confused, except for Xie He, who leaned lazily to one side, his eyebrows slightly raised. He recognized the corpse; wasn't it himself?
"Tap. Tap. Tap."
A series of footsteps approached.
Sui Yuan walked in. Seeing everyone's expressions, he said calmly, "What's wrong? This is a corpse I found at school. Considering the school is currently under lockdown, I've already contacted outside. I will now collect and examine the body to investigate the cause of death."
His voice was cold, like a machine reporting a task.
Principal Zhang hadn't expected the other party to enter so quickly, and worried that his earlier outburst of anger might have been overheard. He gave an awkward laugh, "Oh, I see."
"Zhang Xiehe's body is gone," Sui Yuan said. "Only an urn of ashes remains."
Principal Zhang was utterly stunned. "W-what do you mean?!"
"With her consent, I dissected her body after the autopsy," Sui Yuan said, pulling out a stack of reports from the side. "This is the autopsy report."
—Although Sui Yuan had obtained a forensic certificate in the gacha game, he hadn't performed an autopsy; instead, he input data for the game to automatically analyze and provide the results.
Sui Yuan: "Zhang Xiehe. Male. Actual age 18, skeletal age 15. Fatal injury: fractured neck bone from the fall, instant death. Other injuries include internal acupuncture needles and abdominal fluid, suspected to be long-term abuse."
"What?! Male?!"
"The ghost girl was actually a man?!"
All the players present were stunned, only Principal Zhang's face flushed red and then paled.
Xie He stood quietly to the side. When he was shoved by those boys in the restroom that day, he had already realized the original owner of this body was male.
He had previously speculated that if the original owner was female, it could also correspond to male, but that hadn't actually applied.
But thinking about how he was actually a cross-dressing man after becoming a ghost, Xie He still felt complicated. He could accept all genders, but reality had come rather suddenly. He never wanted to become a ghost again.
Adding to the clues he had found before, Xie He was able to connect the story's background.
Xie He looked at Principal Zhang and quietly said, "That child isn't your biological child, is he—"
Principal Zhang fell silent.
Xie He continued, "Your child with your first wife was actually a daughter, but she tragically died shortly after your divorce—you remarried in the city. Your first wife adopted a little boy after the divorce, but she became mentally unstable and raised him as her daughter."
The live chat erupted in exclamations:
[!!!! What's going on???]
[Nobody said any of this, how did he know? Where did I miss something? QAQ]
[Upstairs, the principal is an intellectual, how could he let his own child have such a distorted sense of gender for so many years? He must have only discovered it after bringing him home—the child's gender was obvious at birth; if he was a girl then, this little boy must be a different child.]
Xie He continued, "After learning of your first wife's death, you brought Zhang Xiehe to the city. Your current wife despised him, initially abusing him behind your back, but when you found out, you just turned a blind eye because you also disliked this…little boy in a skirt."
"You told him you loved him."
"You promised that when his grades improved, you would take him out to play, maybe on a trip or to an amusement park. You said you would buy him the most beautiful flower lantern—but you didn't do any of that."
It was still that dimly lit restroom. A thin boy was surrounded by others at the innermost part. He dared not lift his head, trembling, his fingers twisting his skirt, his gaze fixed on his little red leather shoes.
Boys his age were all much taller and stronger than him; his vision was shrouded in darkness.
Cold sweat trickled down his forehead, his face as pale as paper.
"Don't come any closer! Don't come any closer! The school bell is ringing!!! Ring it quickly!!! I want to escape!!! Escape—!!!" He retreated, pressing his thin back against the cold wall.
The little boy dared not look at their faces, only remembering their mocking laughter, the laughter echoing in the bathroom like vicious knives, cutting deep into his heart.
He didn't understand why others disliked his skirt; his mother had told him he looked most handsome like this…
His heels unconsciously pressed against the wall.
"Let us see what's under your skirt," the people around him said with mocking laughter.
Suddenly, a fat hand lifted his skirt—
The little boy stood on the platform: "A letter of apology. I shouldn't have hit him. From beginning to end, it was all my fault. I deserve to die..."
...
The room was bathed in warm orange light. Xie He continued, "You didn't tell him it was right when he was bullied and tried to fight back. You didn't teach him to protect himself."
"Instead, you dragged him to the school assembly and made him apologize and read his apology in front of thousands of people. This made him increasingly insecure, increasingly feel like a weirdo—"
"Aren't monsters all created this way?"
Xie He looked up under the light, quietly observing Principal Zhang. The warm light from the ceiling cast a dark shadow on his face.
Comments flooded the screen:
[I love watching this guy analyze things so seriously. I've followed him.]
[But why did he ask that question just now???]
[I don't know, he probably just asked casually. I just felt so sorry for the little boy; wasn't he just a scapegoat? hhhh.]
Principal Zhang fell into deep silence.
“Everyone thinks it’s his fault, so does that mean what you did was right?!”
Zhang Langlang, always outspoken, couldn’t help but exclaim after listening to Xie He’s analysis for so long, “You parents, my god, I’ve never heard of anything like this before! If you can’t raise a child, don’t raise them at all! You each had so many chances to save him, yet you still pushed him off the building! Did you poison your mouths? Didn’t you take him to see a doctor, teach him to accept his gender? My own child is adopted, and I cherish him dearly, and you family… ruined someone’s life!”
Zhang Langlang continued grumbling, still seething with anger.
The light bulb in the room flickered, then dimmed considerably, and the room suddenly felt much cooler.
Everyone’s phones rang at the same time.
System: [Congratulations to player Xie He for unlocking the secret behind the ghost girl. Current followers +2066, points +20.]
Followed by, the message received by all players: [As time goes by, the ghost girl's power grows stronger. He will attack everyone at midnight tonight.]
[Players, please prepare yourselves.]
[Friendly reminder. Due to the vast disparity in strength between the three factions, the attacked party must first fulfill the ghost's two wishes to increase their score.]
Fulfill… wishes…
Xie He: “…”
He had a bad feeling when he saw the wishes.
Just then, a slip of paper floated down from the sky.
It landed on Xie He's fingertip.
On the front it read: [Wish 1]
On the back was a boy's crooked handwriting:
[I really want to travel around the world. (Complete within 10 minutes)]
Xie He: “???”
Travel around what in 10 minutes?
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