HAGLTP Chapter 61

In the end, after Teacher Cui’s “appeal to emotions and reason,” Xiao Lu gritted his teeth and agreed to let this guy stay overnight in his room.

Cui Yunjin was not at all polite; he had already finished washing up and changed his clothes. Before Xiao Lu could suggest he sleep on the sofa, he had already taken the initiative to lie down on the bed.

Xiao Lu: “You…”

Cui Yunjin: “It’s already late at night, the butler and maid must be asleep. There’s only one blanket in your room; surely you wouldn’t make your guest sleep on the sofa.”

As he spoke, he smoothly burrowed under the covers.

He generously added, “If this is a paid service, don’t be shy about it. Name your price; you can empty my account if you want.”

Xiao Lu had never seen someone so shameless.

Both of them knew very well that they were merely passersby in this world. No amount of money would be of any use to them.

Cui Yunjin naturally lifted the blanket for him: “It’s getting late, you should rest. Don’t worry, I’m a very good sleeper.”

This guy seemed to have a clear grasp of Xiao Lu’s bottom line, obediently closing his eyes before Xiao Lu felt the urge to punch him in the face.

Xiao Lu: “…”

He glanced at his own fist, understanding that trying to kick this guy out would be a time-consuming and labor-intensive project.

After thinking for a moment, he decided not to waste any more time with the old fox.

It was indeed late, and he needed to rest; tomorrow he would have to look for clues about the ritual blade.

Cui Yunjin claimed to be a good sleeper, and he wasn’t lying. He lay there quietly, his limbs neatly arranged, neither snoring nor grinding his teeth, like a warm human-shaped pillow.

The heavy rain outside showed no signs of stopping.

The night in the mountains was a bit chilly, and the blankets prepared by the inn felt too thin at this moment. Having a presence that continuously radiated warmth beside him made it easier to sleep soundly.

·

The next day, everyone sat together for breakfast, still bleary-eyed.

The breakfast provided by the Autumn Twilight Inn was quite rich: milk, coffee, toast, eggs, bacon, and even fresh fruit for dessert.

Yueyue sipped her milk in small gulps while secretly glancing at her idol and Teacher Cui’s interactions.

She felt that the atmosphere between the two was rather subtly strange.

Cui Yunjin lowered his voice and leaned closer to Xiao Lu’s ear: “You were quite rough last night.”

Xiao Lu paused while cutting his fried egg, looking incredulously at the person beside him. It sounded as if he had done something to him last night.

“I remember lying down and falling asleep within minutes.”

“Oh…” Cui Yunjin smiled, “So it was you who, in the middle of the night, reached into my clothes while you were dreaming.”

Xiao Lu looked utterly disbelieving; it was impossible, he hadn’t.

Cui Yunjin picked up his coffee: “Just before dawn, you even had your leg on top of me. I’m curious about what kind of dream you had; would you mind sharing it so I can gather some inspiration?”

Xiao Lu carefully observed the expression of the person beside him, hoping to find evidence that he was just joking. But that face was filled with sincerity and curiosity, showing no hint of mockery.

Trying to read the truth from the old fox’s face was practically an impossible challenge.

“And also—”

Seeing that Cui Yunjin wanted to speak again, Xiao Lu quickly forked a piece of egg from his plate and stuffed it into the other’s mouth, cutting off whatever he was about to say.

“Shut up.”

He said this quickly and urgently, with a hint of exasperation, though on the surface, he still appeared calm and collected.

Cui Yunjin’s words were blocked, but the upward curve of his lips couldn’t be concealed, and a mischievous light danced in his peach blossom eyes.

What exactly happened last night, or perhaps nothing happened at all. As one of the parties involved, Xiao Lu was destined to never know.

Yueyue suddenly felt that the milk in her cup had turned sour.

Clearly, she was the one supporting her idol financially; why wasn’t she getting the personal feeding service from him? Was this the difference in spending levels?

Curly Hair yawned while eating bacon: “Sherlock, how many times did you get up last night? It was so noisy.”

Punk Pants bit off half a piece of toast: “Yang Huasheng, what are you talking about? I slept soundly until dawn.”

Curly Hair, named Yang Huasheng, turned to Yueyue, unconvinced: “Yueyue, you heard it too, right? This guy was stomping around all night, it was so annoying.”

Yueyue shifted her attention from her idol and Cui Yunjin: “Huh? I don’t know, I fell asleep as soon as I lay down.”

Sherlock said: “You weren’t dreaming, were you?”

Yang Huasheng suddenly began to doubt himself; could it be that he was the one dreaming? After all, he had seen such a terrifying scene last night, so having a nightmare would be normal.

At that moment, Haigou smugly leaned over: “I paid to get a handsome partner, thinking I could outshine everyone, but fate had other plans; who knew the signal here would be so bad, making it impossible to go live.”

Yueyue shot him a glance, giving him a “you know nothing” look.

The material he had collected was excellent; if made into a video, it would definitely go viral, and the subsequent earnings might not be lower than a single live stream. He didn’t believe the other party hadn’t thought of that.

Seeing that his provocation had no effect, Haigou curled his lip, silently sneering a few times, and continued to eat his breakfast.

It wasn’t just Yueyue who knew about filming videos; he had also collected a lot of useful material.

Hmph, let’s see whose views are higher then.

Xiao Lu observed everyone eating breakfast, finally glancing at Haigou. He remembered that the other had come with a photographer and assistant, but now only he and the photographer were out for breakfast; the assistant was nowhere to be seen.

But judging by the other’s expression, it didn’t seem like anything had happened to the assistant.

After breakfast, the guests began to roam freely around the inn. No one thought about going out to explore; after all, they were all paranormal enthusiasts, and the Autumn Twilight Inn, filled with terrifying rumors, was already the best attraction in their eyes.

The rain continued to pour.

·

In the evening.

Yueyue sat down on the ground, dejected.

Last night’s pen fairy had provided them with the clue of the principal’s office. But the Autumn Twilight Inn, as a school, had been around for over 80 years.

After decades of vacancy and renovations, no one was clear about the original layout, not even the owners, Guo and Jiang.

Although he had renovated the building to resemble the Autumn Twilight Inn, due to the inability to find the original design drafts, the actual internal structure was closer to that of a wealthy merchant’s house from over twenty years ago.

Thanks to Cui Yunjin, Guo Hejiang provided them with keys to all the rooms. They searched the inn for a long time but still found no clues related to the principal’s office.

Xiao Lu was pondering another matter.

Whether it was the rumors about the Autumn Twilight Inn or the various paranormal events that followed, none of them contained the keyword “ritual blade.” Even if he asked Ivan, he could only get a blank slate regarding information about this world.

It seemed that to achieve his goal, he needed to dig deeper into the plot.

“We can’t just tear apart every room, can we? Idol, do you have any ideas?” Yueyue asked weakly.

Xiao Lu nodded: “Yes, we don’t know where the principal’s office is, but his students must know.”

“Students, students, students—” Yueyue suddenly felt a chill run down her back.

None of the students from back then were still alive. Thinking about the group they saw last night, she didn’t believe those ghostly students would answer their questions properly.

·

Late at night.

Energetic male college students couldn’t sit still at night; even after encountering ghosts just yesterday, Yang Huasheng and Sherlock were still eager to go out and seek danger.

Tonight, they learned from last night’s lesson that summoning ghosts was too dangerous, so they decided to just observe.

Thus, they stealthily found an empty room. One of them found a stool to sit on, then pulled out two palm-sized small round mirrors from his pocket.

These were mirrors they had buried under a locust tree at midnight and dug up three days later; it was said that using such mirrors could allow one to glimpse ghosts.

The two closed their eyes and held the mirrors in front of their faces, softly chanting various ghost-summoning incantations they found online, regardless of whether they were effective, all at once.

The first round yielded nothing.

The second round still yielded nothing.

…

After chanting seven or eight times, Sherlock opened his eyes in frustration; the mirror was still empty. He sighed, putting down the mirror, intending to call Yang Huasheng back to sleep.

Without the mirror blocking his view, the space in front of him suddenly opened up.

Sherlock was shocked to find that he was no longer in the previous room; the empty room had somehow filled with neatly arranged desks and chairs, with students in uniforms bent over their desks writing.

These students looked exactly like the ghosts they had seen last night! Only now they appeared whole.

But their faces were still pale.

Sherlock felt as if someone had poured a bucket of cold water over him. He froze, unable to move. He tried to glance at Yang Huasheng with minimal movement, only to find that he was just as stiff.

The two exchanged silent glances.

Yang Huasheng: Didn’t you say this method was to see ghosts with mirrors?!?!

Sherlock: That’s what it said? Who knew the effect would be this intense.

Yang Huasheng: Where did you find this method?

Sherlock: I bought it for three bucks on Mingxi, and even got a one-dollar coupon.

Yang Huasheng: What do we do now?!

Sherlock: You ask me, who should I ask?

While the two were exchanging glances, the door to the room creaked open.

Sherlock thought a savior had arrived and looked toward the door with anticipation.

To his surprise, what came in was a student covered in blood, with a wound running from his left shoulder down to his right lower abdomen, and his legs bent at unnatural angles.

The student limped forward, seemingly searching for his seat.

The classroom was nearly full at this moment. The nearest empty seat was right in front of them.

Sherlock: “…”

Sherlock silently prayed in his heart: No, please, big brother, you can’t be this eager to learn. Sit further away, sit further away; it’s hard to be unnoticed by the teacher when you’re slacking off in class.

Unfortunately, this big brother didn’t hear his inner thoughts and plopped down right in front of him, splattering blood all over the table.

The heavy, cold smell of blood invaded his nostrils.

Sherlock wanted to cry, but he didn’t dare.

Yang Huasheng wanted to pee, but he didn’t dare.

Around them was a rustling sound; the students quietly wrote their assignments, as if this was just the most ordinary self-study class.

The two living beings who had stumbled in didn’t dare to move, sitting there alongside the room full of ghosts, attending the longest self-study class of their lives.

As time passed, the two gradually adapted to the atmosphere, their moods slightly relaxing.

But their relaxation didn’t last long; as the clock ticked toward 11 o’clock, the appearances of these students began to change.

Originally, only the one sitting in front of them was covered in wounds.

Gradually, the seemingly normal students around them began to show bruises, then scrapes, and soon after, gory wounds appeared on their bodies, staining their clean uniforms with blood.

These students continued to write furiously.

Even as blood flowed from their hands, staining their notebooks, and the blood pooling at their feet formed a small lake, they remained oblivious.

Cold sweat broke out on the two of them.

With twenty minutes until eleven, the students’ eye sockets were already completely white, almost resembling the figures they had seen last night.

It was over…

The door was pushed open again, and the cold night wind blew into the room, causing the only two living beings to shiver with goosebumps.

They trembled, hesitantly looking toward the door.

It couldn’t be… the perverted principal who killed all the students with an axe, could it…

Then, the two forgot about managing their expressions, looking both like they wanted to cry and laugh, as if they were holding a failing test paper, seeking their parents’ signatures, getting scolded, and then receiving a red envelope, only to have to perform for relatives afterward.

The newcomer wore a moon-white long robe, walking calmly, with an air of detachment and indifference on his face. However, he now wore a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, and held a thick lesson plan, looking just like a teacher from a bygone era.

“Students.” Xiao Lu stepped onto the podium.

Upon hearing this, pale faces lifted, and eyes without pupils locked onto him.

Xiao Lu’s expression turned slightly serious as he raised his hand and knocked heavily on the blackboard: “Your homeroom teacher told me that you are the worst class he has ever taught!”

The ghosts: “…”

“Where’s the class monitor? Come out and go to the principal’s office with me.”

A blood-soaked boy ghost stood up trembling. Even as a ghost, students still felt intimidated in front of a fierce teacher.

“And you two.” Xiao Lu pointed at the two with uncontrolled expressions, “What are you two whispering about during self-study? Come out too.”

Sherlock & Yang Huasheng: Idol, you are my biological father!!!