HAGLTP Chapter 60

Xiao Lu shoved aside the person obstructing him, casually wiping away the crimson stain on his lips with his fingertip.

“Your turn.”

Having obtained the inspiration he sought, Cui Yunjin ceased his pursuit. He tidied his appearance slightly, sat down on the sofa, and succinctly recounted the information he possessed.

“Before coming, I gathered a considerable amount of information about the Qiu Ming Inn, including most of the murders that occurred within.”

“I did a lot of research too. I found everything available online,” Yueyue said softly.

Although his livestream’s selling point was a timid and cowardly cross-dressing male, he always thoroughly investigated the location and background of each broadcast. He knew everything about the murders at the Qiu Ming Inn.

“Then do you know who’s lingering outside?” Cui Yunjin asked.

“Uh…” Yueyue, of course, couldn’t answer. He wasn’t a master, nor did he possess X-ray vision. How could he possibly know who the ghost outside was through the door?

“Do you know then?”

“It’s the students who were murdered 80 years ago,” Cui Yunjin stated confidently.

Juanmao immediately looked puzzled: “Teacher Cui can also perform calculations?”

“No.” Cui Yunjin shook his head. “I arrived at this conclusion based on the data I collected.”

“The rumor that all the school’s teachers and students were killed isn’t entirely accurate.”

“I checked old newspapers from that time. That night, a student secretly slipped out of his dorm to visit a friend in the neighboring village. He left at 10 pm and returned at 1:30 am. By then, the school was already a scene of carnage.”

“The deaths of the teachers and students occurred within those three and a half hours, between 10 pm and 1:30 am.”

“And it’s 11 pm now.”

Pink-pants pondered the flaws in his reasoning: “Your deduction sounds reasonable. But before the Qiu Ming Inn became a school, many people had already died here, some certainly around 11 pm. How can you be sure it’s the students?”

Cui Yunjin leaned back leisurely against the sofa: “Because of the footsteps.”

“The age, gender, physique, and identity of the guests staying at the inn vary. Listen carefully to the footsteps outside. Aren’t they all roughly the same weight, even the hardness of their soles on the floor similar?”

“This suggests they’re wearing the same style of shoes and are of similar build. Only the students who died here fit this description, and they must be from the same grade.”

Upon hearing his words, the others fell silent, listening intently.

Upon careful discernment, it was indeed as Cui Yunjin had described.

It’s difficult to deduce all the information about a person from their footsteps. But at least they didn’t hear the sound of high heels, nor the cloth shoes favored by the elderly of that era, or the heavy footsteps of a large person, like the ones that had appeared in the corridor earlier.

The others looked at Xiao Lu with a mixture of surprise and doubt, hoping for confirmation from the male god.

Xiao Lu leaned against the table with his arms crossed: “So, what you’re saying is, the way to get us out of here is…?”

Cui Yunjin: “Mr. Lu probably knows. Ghosts have a weakness: they fear what killed them.”

Xiao Lu calmly nodded.

Although he was completely unaware of this world’s ghosts having such a weakness, it didn’t affect his maintenance of his aloof persona.

Cui Yunjin looked at him with an amused smile, as if seeing through his disguise, but thoughtfully refrained from exposing him: “And I happened to find out from the documents what killed them.”

“An axe. The autopsy results at the time stated that all the teachers and students were killed by axe blows to vital areas. Each corpse was gruesome, almost completely dismembered.”

Yueyue, Juanmao, and Pink-pants shivered in unison.

What kind of hatred could drive a principal to attack his students and teachers in the dead of night, using such a brutal method?

To kill over a hundred teachers and students within a few hours, how much strength would that require?

Pink-pants recovered from his chill: “But we can’t find the axe used in the murder.”

Cui Yunjin: “We don’t need the original axe. Our goal isn’t to completely eliminate the ghosts, just to temporarily drive them away.”

Yueyue rubbed the goosebumps on his arms while looking around the bedroom: “I don’t see any axes here either.”

The owner of this bedroom was clearly refined. Who would keep an axe in their bedroom?

“We don’t need a real axe,” Xiao Lu spoke, the first to understand Cui Yunjin’s meaning. “It’s like burning paper money and joss paper during Qingming Festival. As long as it looks like we’ve done it, it’s enough to fool the ghosts.”

“Mr. Lu understands me.” Cui Yunjin gave him an ambiguous smile.

Xiao Lu ignored the erratic old fox and began directing his three followers to search the room for paper.

This wasn’t difficult. Since Pink-pants and Juanmao had come to play the pen fairy game, they wouldn’t only have one sheet of paper. Pink-pants pulled out a notebook from his bag.

“Male god, is this enough?” He presented the A4-sized notebook to Xiao Lu.

It was still a pen fairy theme, quite meticulous.

·

“Open, open, open… the door is opening…”

Yueyue held the paper axe, still feeling uneasy. After all, there were real ghosts outside, and he only had a piece of scrap paper.

He looked at Xiao Lu, trying to use his watery eyes to move the male god, hoping for another ghost-expelling performance.

Unfortunately, his male god’s reply was very cold: “First trial is free, subsequent uses will be charged.”

Damn it, even the aloof expert was doing in-app purchases.

Out of compassion and cost control, Yueyue consoled himself. These students were already pitiful, and they certainly didn’t want to linger here. He should be kind and not have the male god exterminate them.

The door slowly opened.

A group of grayish-white figures hovered in the corridor. They looked about fifteen or sixteen years old, wearing uniform Western-style school uniforms and flat leather shoes, with neat, short hair.

They should have been full of youthful vitality.

But now, only the whites of their eyes were visible, their uniforms stained with blood. Ghastly wounds tore at their young bodies; some had limbs severed, others eviscerated, and some could only crawl on the ground, like blood-soaked rags.

Their ashen faces turned towards the people behind the door, devoid of any human emotion.

The ghostly aura was so strong that even those without psychic abilities could clearly see them.

Xiao Lu stood at the forefront, bearing the brunt of their “gaze.”

He took a step forward.

Instantly, the ghosts in the corridor moved.

They stared with their vacant eyes, their mouths gaping like black holes, reaching out to him, as if to drag him down into eternal torment in this hellish inn.

“Uh…” Yueyue quickly covered his mouth, suppressing the gasp about to escape.

But Xiao Lu pressed forward, charging towards the oncoming ghosts.

A paper axe appeared in his hand.

Xiao Lu shed his ethereal facade. In the dim light, his smile was ferocious, the paper axe transforming into a real weapon, drawing a white arc in the air, slashing towards the foremost ghosts.

The intent to kill wasn’t limited by the weapon in his hand. Whether it was a peerless sword, an ordinary bamboo branch, or a fragile paper axe that couldn’t even cut a bamboo leaf, it didn’t matter.

A terror deeper than death descended. The frenzied ghosts let out ear-piercing screams.

Sharp, cold, and extremely unpleasant.

Even the wailing of a hundred ghosts couldn’t compare.

For the first time, fear appeared on their stiff faces. They screamed, fleeing wildly in the corridor, pushing and trampling each other, trying to escape, some even crashing into the walls.

In a short moment, the corridor was empty.

Yueyue stared dumbfounded. The scene was quite grand, unlike his previous imagination of a close-quarters battle with the ghosts.

“…Male god, did you secretly use magic?”

Juanmao and Pink-pants had similar expressions, their faces practically screaming “WTF” in bold letters.

If the paper axe hadn’t been folded by them, using the notebook they bought for ten yuan outside their school, they would have suspected hidden high-level talismans.

Was this the power of the male god? It was truly reassuring.

Xiao Lu played with the paper axe: “Let’s go. Although these little ghosts aren’t very smart, we can’t say what will appear later. We might not have enough time to prepare props next time. Let’s go back first.”

·

The rest of the journey was uneventful. They returned to their rooms without incident. As for the principal’s office, it was better to go during the day when it was safe.

Sleep first, then we’ll talk.

Yueyue hesitated at his room’s door. After tonight’s experience, he couldn’t possibly sleep alone. His gaze drifted towards the next room.

Should he go to the male god? Fine, paid services, so be it.

The male god said it was a separate fee, definitely not cheap. Didn’t we agree to control costs?

Life is precious!

No, no, the greatest pain in the world is having no money but still being alive!

His inner coward and miser battled endlessly.

At that moment, a tall figure appeared at his male god’s door, knocking without hesitation, completely unconcerned about the paid service.

Coward: “…”

Miser: “…”

Teacher Cui was truly magnanimous.

Forget about paid services. The income of the national erotic writer, Teacher Cui, was far beyond that of a small spiritual streamer; it was a dimensional strike from a kryptonite whale.

Yueyue decided to find two male college students instead.

Then, two innocent but shy boys had their worldview shattered by the cross-dressing male.

·

“What did you say?” Xiao Lu, sitting on the bed about to undress, looked at the doorway in astonishment.

“I said, let’s sleep together tonight.”

Cui Yunjin, wearing a high-quality sapphire blue silk robe, leaned against the doorframe, relaxed, as if what he’d just said wasn’t important.

“This world isn’t safe. Aren’t you afraid something will happen to me?”

Xiao Lu looked suspicious: “I don’t believe you lack self-preservation skills.”

Cui Yunjin had already entered the room, closing the door behind him. He gracefully but swiftly approached, pinning down Xiao Lu, who was about to get up, and whispered softly: “I’m thinking of you.”

He moved elegantly and quickly, step by step, pressing down on Xiao Lu, who was about to get up, and lowering his head, he softly said: “If something happens to me, if I die unexpectedly, there are some important things I won’t have a chance to tell you…”

“I’m just a fragile writer, and I really need the male god’s protection.”

As he spoke, his dark peach blossom eyes curved slightly, like a mischievous fox.

Xiao Lu looked at the still vivid wound on Cui Yunjin’s lip, not missing the upward curve of his lips.

I believe you like hell.

He felt that this old fox, seizing the moment before the showdown, was becoming increasingly bolder and more provocative.