Chapter 5: College

Xueqiu finally got into the car, under Xia Yin’s gaze that seemed to look right through her, as if she were already dead.

From birth until now, Xueqiu had faced all kinds of looks from others.

The warmth of her homeroom teacher’s praise.

The venom of others’ jealousy.

The indifference from being an outcast.

She could, to some extent, understand the reasons behind those looks.

But not this one.

Xia Yin’s gaze was like that of a living person visiting a grave on Qingming Festival, only to find the tomb’s occupant had turned from ashes into a full body, standing before him, waving, and saying:

“Xia Yin, long time no see. I missed you.”

Xueqiu didn’t have to get in the car.

She could’ve bolted back to the police station.

Even during the police interview, she could’ve spilled everything about Xia Yin and the tentacle monster.

But she didn’t.

Do you really believe Xia Yin’s words? she asked herself.

No, his words clash with the values I’ve built over eighteen years.

Shadow Ghosts, Contracts—all of it’s fake.

Yet I still got in the car. Why?

Xueqiu sat in the back seat, next to Xia Yin.

The young man in the driver’s seat, Carlos, didn’t start the car right away.

Instead, he opened the front and rear windows.

Silence.

A silence shared by all three.

Xia Yin’s first impression was that he talked too much.

But even a chatterbox like him went quiet after that teasing remark, as if his throat had been gripped shut.

He lowered his head, placing the black long blade between himself and Xueqiu, like a dividing line.

How long would this silent atmosphere last?

“Um…” Xueqiu tried to speak, but Carlos cut her off.

“We’ve already requested leave from your school. Reason: poor health.”

It was past 3 a.m.

Going back to that empty house was clearly not an option.

But Xueqiu didn’t think this was a good excuse.

She’d need a signed note and a stamp to clear her absence at the school office.

“Who are you people?”

She asked a question that brought everything back to square one.

She wished everything could go back to square one.

But her lost family wasn’t coming back.

“Not people,” Carlos said flatly.

“Not people?” Xueqiu didn’t understand.

If not people, why do they speak like humans?

If not people, why help her?

If not people, what was she talking to right now?

“Xia Yin probably explained. The creature that attacked you was a Shadow Ghost. We’re the gravediggers of Shadow Ghosts.”

Xueqiu heard the term “Shadow Ghost” again, delivered in Carlos’s broadcast-standard Mandarin.

She still couldn’t wrap her head around what kind of creature it was.

Xia Yin started dialing on his phone.

The beep-beep sound reminded Xueqiu of when she was still at home—Xia Yin had used the same phone.

“Hey, Professor! What the fck is this?! You didn’t say his ‘Contract’ was a disguise type! And even if it’s a disguise, why’s this guy looking like her?! Did they know each other before? No way, right?!”

Xia Yin’s voice was near a roar.

No response came from the other end.

“It’s not a disguise,” Carlos said, breaking the silence again.

He rested his arm on the steering wheel, his gaze falling on the black blade between Xia Yin and Xueqiu.

“Huh? Then how’d he end up like this? You all playing riddle masters now? I’m a sophomore dragged all the way to Qingtan to clean up Javier’s mess, and now saving someone with Shadow Ghost genes—”

“Xia Yin,” Carlos interrupted, “quiet.”

The boy’s complaints didn’t help Xueqiu at all.

She even felt these two were just as unknown as the tentacle monster that tried to kill her.

“Xueqiu, your situation is complicated. The best option now is to come with us to the Academy. We’ll send someone to handle your high school records.”

Handle? What does that mean?

Am I getting expelled?

Xueqiu glanced at Xia Yin beside her.

He seemed to have recovered from his earlier hysteria.

The lively spark in his eyes from their first meeting had turned into dead-fish eyes.

Or maybe they’d been like that from the start.

Noticing Xueqiu’s gaze, Xia Yin cleared his throat and said softly:

“Let’s put that aside. I know what you’re thinking—‘Am I getting expelled?’ ‘What about my future?’ All that jazz. Those worries are pointless. You’re about to be a college student.”

Xueqiu knew she’d fill out college applications after the entrance exam in 81 days.

She’d likely get into a local second-tier university or maybe a first-tier one in a farther-off region.

Her grades were average for her class.

But that clashed with what Carlos just said.

Ting’an University Spiritual Academy…

She recalled the metal ID card.

“Don’t worry, the Spiritual Academy isn’t some shady school riding Ting’an University’s name. We’re not kidney harvesters either. All the stuff you’re worried about? I worried about it five years ago for you.”

Xia Yin’s carefree attitude returned.

Xueqiu couldn’t help but meet his lifeless gaze.

Dead-fish eyes.

Since meeting her at midnight, he seemed to have swapped expressions.

Do I look that scary?

Xueqiu stared into the rearview mirror.

The reflection showed shoulder-length snow-white hair and curious sea-blue eyes.

Like a Persian cat wandering into its owner’s room, seeing its own cute face in the mirror for the first time.

Is this really me?

“Can I… refuse?” Xueqiu asked.

The moment she spoke, a pfft* laugh came from beside her.

“See, I knew she’d refuse. What, Xueqiu, got a crush you’ve been pining for at school for three years? The kind who gets confessed to, dates, breaks up, and comes crawling back when her ex gets in trouble?”

“Twenty-three percent of students refuse before enrolling. You can too,” Carlos said from the front, expressionless.

Xueqiu wasn’t too surprised by Xia Yin’s laugh.

The boy had reverted to the version she met hours ago.

What surprised her was Carlos’s words, implying she could treat this like a dream.

“I can really refuse?” she asked.

“Yes, you can refuse our invitation. But in 12 hours, we’ll send someone to erase your memories of Shadow Ghosts and the Academy. Your body will stay as it is now,” Carlos replied.

Erase memories…

Xueqiu remembered Xia Yin saying something similar.

As if they really had tech to send her back to a normal life.

But what about Grandma?

Her only family, killed by that thing called a Shadow Ghost.

“Exactly, the dead don’t come back. Just remembered that myself. Hope you did too.”

Noticing Xueqiu staring at the black blade, Xia Yin lifted it from between them, propping the handle against the car door.

“And look, with the way you are now, what’s the plan if you go back? Taking the college entrance exam with a girl’s face?”