Chapter 117: Father
The female student had encountered many people at the office building. Whenever she asked if the person would help her, either they would run away or stay out of pity. It was her first time running into someone like Gao Ming.
“No. You’re not the homework…” The girl looked like her secret was exposed. She carried the textbook and ran upstairs.
“Don’t go!” Gao Ming followed her. “I notice you are different from the other ghost students. They try to make themselves look human, but your appearance is noticeably special.”
Gao Ming grabbed the girl’s arm. It was slender, weak and warm.
“Wait. You’re a human?! A human who helps ghosts?!” Gao Ming confirmed his suspicion and pulled the girl to the corner. “I won’t blame you. Everyone has a reason to do things. I just have some questions for you.”
The girl looked horrible. She must have been through a lot of torture. She was a girl accepted by ghosts. It was hard to imagine the price she must have paid.
“How long have you been here?”
Facing Gao Ming’s questions, the girl shook her head and hugged the books tight.
“Why are you so scared? Do you want me to bring you out of the office building?”
Hearing that, the girl shook her head harder. “I can’t leave the office building! Never!”
Knowing that Gao Ming wouldn’t easily let her go, the girl led Gao Ming to the male toilet on the second floor. She closed the door and entered the fourth cubicle with Gao Ming.
“The number 4 is the luckiest number at this school.” The girl hugged the books carefully, afraid that they might get wet.
“4 is good?! Does that mean we can leave the school at 4 a.m. Thursday?” Gao Ming memorised everything.
“Perhaps you can try.” The girl backed up to the wall. “I’ve studied here for a long time. I saw more and more students attend this school, but no matter how many there are, the school can fit them because…” The girl continued after a pause. “This school eats people. It consumes people who are filled with colours. The teachers will tell you how dangerous the world outside is. The school is the kindest and best place. They request every student to follow the rules to train them to become mindless robots.” The girl said with a sincere expression. If she weren’t hugging the books, she would have used her hands. “The school will show itself after dark. This school is a giant machine made from human beings. Every human is a cog in the wheel. They suffer the pain of being ground as they operate to help the machine run.”
“What kind of school still treats their student like this?”
“It’s true! Before the giant threat arrives, this machine will keep on running until it spirals out of control. If the threat doesn’t arrive, then it will create the threat to maintain the rules.” The girl sounded scared.
Normal schools wouldn’t do that, but Gao Ming remembered the teacher was wearing the centre uniform.
“Is the school the investigation centre?” Gao Ming thought about it. Wasn’t this the way the centre trained the newbies?
The superiors demanded that the juniors follow the rules closely, using the unknown threat as the goading stick. Living humans were made into tools as they were tossed into the anomalies.
“Han De Private School was built by Situ An years ago. With his aid, this school has become a monster.” Han Hai was an international free port. There were a lot of missing people. The scariest thing was people on the fringes, like the homeless and abandoned, were often aided by Han Hai Charity.
“You might still have the chance to escape, but not me.” The girl had accepted this painful truth. “I was raised at the orphanage and sent here to study. This place has my everything. No matter how scary it is, it is my home. Do you understand my feelings now?”
Seeing the girl’s sewn eyes, Gao Ming was reminded of Gong Xi. “What’s your name?”
“Situ Xin.” The girl whispered.
“Are there many people with the surname Situ at this school?”
“No. Only the kids adopted by father can have that surname.” The girl slowly lowered her head. “We love and fear him.”
“Does your father not know about the state you’re currently in? Does he not want to take revenge for you?” Gao Ming adjusted his tone. He suspected the girl’s father was Situ An.
“It was father who sewed my eyes together. This is his love. Other kids were eaten by the school, but I am still alive because his weighted love allowed me to live.” When the girl mentioned her father, she stood on tiptoe. Her mood lifted as well.
“The way your father shows his care is very special. Can you tell me where I can find him?” Gao Ming asked the core question.
“The headmaster’s office, but you can only go there after midnight. It’s normally locked.” The girl quickly added to prevent misunderstanding. “Father wants the school to return to normal. He’s trying very hard. He wants to save all of us!”
The school would show itself after dark, but based on the rules, every student should be asleep by then. Therefore, no one could really see the real school, much less go to the headmaster’s office at midnight.
“I should go. The teachers will leave the office to find me if they wait for too long.” Situ Xin was scared. Since Gao Ming didn’t stop her, she ran out.
“I didn’t find out the consequences for breaking the rules, but I did get extra clues about Situ An. That’s not bad.” Suddenly, his heart raced. The God of Flesh and Blood warned him to leave.
Gao Ming left the office building. He took the time to take another class. He realised different classes had different events.
Gao Ming returned to the hostel at 8 pm.
Compared to the morning, the hostel changed as well. There was a kind female manager at the hostel manager’s office. She wore a light blue short-sleeved vest. A dark red long-sleeved shirt and a deep green coat were draped on her single bed.
“These three colours again?” Gao Ming was reminded of the worker’s uniform at Min Long Supermarket.
Gao Ming ignored the manager. He was about to walk forward when he noticed all the pictures of the students from his class had their heads cut off. It looked like someone purposely did this with scissors.
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