Chapter 4: You one thousand and ninenty-five days ago

“Nope.”

“What about Tokyo Ghoul?”

“Nope.”

Attack on Titan?”

“Nope.”

“Dragon Raja?”

“What… is that?”

Xueqiu looked at Xia Yin, whose face grew gloomier by the second.

He couldn’t grasp the boy’s intentions.

“Sigh… How am I supposed to explain this to you… Fine, let’s put the Shadow Ghost stuff aside for now.”

Xia Yin hung his head, as if those questions had drained all interest in Xueqiu.

But he quickly forced a sincere expression.

“As your senior, I formally invite you to join Ting’an University’s Spiritual Academy.”

Xueqiu still didn’t understand.

First, he calls himself my senior.

Then it’s Shadow Ghosts.

Now some nonexistent academy.

Was Xia Yin crazy, or was Xueqiu himself losing it?

Xueqiu suddenly felt exhausted.

From stepping through the door to now, everything seemed designed to wear him down.

Yet tomorrow’s 7:15 a.m. morning study session wouldn’t pause for him.

“If there’s nothing else, I’m outta here. Someone else will come for you later. Just don’t call the cops, alright? The Academy folks will lose it. Erasing memories with a ‘Contract’ takes dozens of pages of reports…”

Xia Yin’s voice trailed off.

After saying this, he kicked the long blade on the floor, catching it mid-air at shoulder height with a steady hand.

He ignored Xueqiu’s silence, walked out the wooden door, and vanished into the alley without looking back.

The room fell quiet, leaving only Xueqiu, alone by the stairs amid the wreckage.

He’s gone.

What about me…

Xueqiu caught a few keywords from Xia Yin’s ramble.

Spiritual Academy, Shadow Ghost, Contract.

What is all this?

Am I going crazy?

Was everything just now fake?

My split personality?

Or is this just a nightmare I need to wake up from?

Fine strands of hair fell to his neck, damp with sweat, clinging to his skin.

It felt uncomfortable.

When did my hair get this long?

Dozens, maybe hundreds, of thoughts collided in his mind.

Xueqiu didn’t know which to tackle first.

Gradually, one word from Xia Yin’s speech stood out.

Call the police.

Inside the police station, 26-year-old duty officer Li Feng stepped out of the interrogation room at the end of the hall.

He wiped sweat from his forehead, glancing at the crumpled notebook in his hand.

The girl in that room still felt… off.

She had a head of white hair, not dyed but seemingly natural.

She called herself Xueqiu.

According to her, her guardian was murdered in a three-story house on Jianguo Road in the old town.

She nearly died there too.

Her words made Li Feng think she wasn’t right in the head.

No, more like she had mental issues.

First, he and his colleagues checked the scene.

No bodies, no blood, no signs of a struggle.

The table held three dishes and a soup, corn and rib soup with oil spots on the surface, cooled for hours.

No one else was in the house except the girl.

Second, the name she gave—Xueqiu—didn’t match their records.

A girl claiming to be the homeowner’s grandson sat alone on the steps.

Her white hair flowed, her eyes like ice-blue contacts, her face expressionless.

She looked like a ghost!

Of course, Li Feng, a staunch materialist, didn’t believe in supernatural nonsense.

He figured her parents had a fight, she ran away, wandered into someone’s house, and called the police out of fear.

Was that illegal trespassing?

As he pondered, his phone rang.

Who’d call at this hour?

“Let her go?”

After hearing the chief’s groggy, just-woken voice, Li Feng froze, his notebook still in hand.

This was getting weirder.

Procedure demanded a thorough investigation first.

How could they just release her?

Suspicion grew as he walked to the waiting room.

The room was empty.

At the entrance stood a young man, tall—over 1.9 meters—wearing a gray felt hat and beige trench coat.

He looked barely in his early twenties.

But his features, from every angle, screamed foreigner.

A deranged white-haired girl, a foreigner at the station in the dead of night, an empty house, a bizarre police call…

Am I stuck in some long-ass dream? Li Feng thought.

Xueqiu was led out at 3 a.m.

Outside the station, the night was as still as midnight.

A few cars sped by, their noise the only sound besides two sets of footsteps.

Her heart had been pounding nonstop since earlier.

Only after reaching the station did Xueqiu notice changes in her body.

Who am I?

Why is my hair white?

Why is it so long?

Why has my voice changed?

Why…

“You’ll have a lot of questions.”

The young man walking ahead stopped.

His fluent Chinese startled Xueqiu, briefly making her forget her body’s changes.

“Everyone with Shadow Ghost genes has these questions. You’re not the first.”

Nor the last? Xueqiu thought but didn’t say.

This guy, dressed like no normal person, claimed to be her guardian.

But his appearance screamed exchange student.

Is he real? Is this world real?

“You can call me Carlos,” the young man said suddenly.

He led Xueqiu toward a parking lot.

“Xia Yin probably told you—try not to call the police.”

“I…” Xueqiu started to apologize but didn’t know why.

She was in this state, and no one had told her who she was, what she should do, or where she’d go.

After a turn, she saw a parked car and a boy leaning against the hood, eyes closed, blade in hand.

“Hey, hey, hey! You guys finally showed up! I knew that kid wouldn’t listen when I finished the job. Bet he’d stir up a mess, just like I did back then.”

The boy waved, eyes still shut, as if he knew she’d be brought here by this “Carlos.”

“But man, Professor sending you, Carlos? For a simple recruitment? Overkill much?”

He opened his eyes slowly.

But upon seeing the girl behind Carlos, the lively mood froze.

Xia Yin stiffened.

“Get in the car, Xia Yin.”

Carlos ignored the petrified boy, unlocking a black compact MPV with a key fob.

The beep nearly made Xia Yin jump.

Why’s he staring?

Why’s he looking at me like that? Xueqiu thought.

She didn’t get in.

She couldn’t trust their intentions.

Couldn’t be sure they were helping her and not about to drive her straight to Myanmar.

“F*ck…” Xia Yin slapped his forehead, voice suddenly animated.

“No wonder they sent you, Senior! Bringing the dead back home? Only you’d take that job!”