Chapter 32

Brother Zhang and the other male player, who were holding the pen, sensed the arrival of the spirit earlier than the others.
Their hands moved uncontrollably, as if guided by the pen, tracing a crooked, unclosed circle on the paper.
The spirit had come.
The three female players huddled together, pressing against one another, their eyes fixed on the paper, not daring to make a sound.
The flashlight, for once, did not act up.
The light shone directly onto the paper.
The male player and Brother Zhang exchanged glances.
Brother Zhang asked, "Spirit, spirit, do you know my age?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Brother Zhang and the male player's hands abruptly moved, the pen dragging them toward the word "No" on the paper.
It seemed this spirit was not all-knowing, it was just a ghost.
Brother Zhang shot a meaningful look at the male player.
Now it was the male player's turn to ask a question.
The male player's lips trembled, and his gaze wandered unconsciously, landing just behind the female players.
A woman with a pale, ghastly face stood there, staring at him with an eerie intensity.
A ghost!
The male player immediately wanted to let go of the pen and run.
Brother Zhang roared, "It's fake! Hurry up and ask!"
In his panic, his voice was loud and sharp, echoing throughout the space.
The male player's hand was tightly gripped by Brother Zhang.
Their hands, still holding the pen together, narrowly avoided separating.
The male player didn't dare to glance toward the female players again.
The female players knew something strange was behind them. They looked to Brother Zhang for help.
Brother Zhang, the experienced player, was the backbone of the entire team.
Brother Zhang glanced behind the female players.
A woman stood there.
Looking more closely, she wasn't standing, she had no legs! She was floating!
The female ghost gave Brother Zhang a sinister smile, revealing her blood-stained fangs.
Brother Zhang's hand trembled slightly, but he calmly turned back. He had seen far worse; this female ghost's scare tactics were nothing special.
The male player asked nervously, "Brother Zhang, is this one difficult to deal with? Your hand is shaking..."
"Shut up."
Brother Zhang cut him off and said, "Everyone, stay calm. Don't look back. You, hurry up and ask."
The female players knew the "don't look back" was directed at them.
They huddled even closer to one another.
The male player now only wanted to end the spirit-summoning ritual as soon as possible. The sooner he finished asking his questions, the sooner it would be over.
"Spirit, spirit, why are you following us?"
As soon as Brother Zhang heard this, he looked at the male player as if he were an idiot.
Putting aside whether the question itself might anger the spirit, they had only provided a paper with "yes" and "no" for the spirit to answer.
How was the spirit supposed to respond to that?
But since the male player had already asked, the matter was settled.
Brother Zhang and the female players could only watch the pen.
The pen remained motionless, but the male player's head suddenly dropped.
His voice became eerie and strange.
"Only you can help me."
Brother Zhang immediately released his grip on the pen.
The female player sitting closest to the male player also paled. She stood up at once and took a step back.
The other two female players quickly caught on and scrambled to their feet, shuffling sideways toward Brother Zhang.
As they moved, they still didn't dare to look behind them. What if the ghost behind them wasn't the one possessing the male player? Looking back might put them in danger.
The three female players positioned themselves behind Brother Zhang, staring straight ahead without glancing around.
Brother Zhang remained calm, not wasting a single glance elsewhere, and fixed his gaze directly on the male player, who was now possessed by the ghost.
He asked, "Spirit, what kind of help do you need? If it's within our means, we'll do our best to assist you."
Upon hearing this, the male player's voice grew shrill and sorrowful, like a young girl pouring out her grievances.
"I suffered so much. I was murdered. Do you know who killed me? It was my roommate, someone I always considered a close friend! Gu Yi'an!"
It was Little Gu's name.
In an instant, Brother Zhang connected the name Gu Yi'an with the Little Gu from his memory.
Once the connection was made, Brother Zhang immediately grew skeptical of the ghost's story.
He had seen exactly what kind of person Little Gu was during that game.
A principled and kind-hearted individual.
Brother Zhang didn't show his doubts and maintained his calm demeanor.
In contrast, the three female players looked at the male player, or more accurately, at the female ghost possessing him, with a hint of sympathy.
Being betrayed and killed by someone you trusted, such a story made the protagonist sound utterly pitiful.
Possessing the male player, the female ghost recounted how she had misjudged her roommate, Gu Yi'an, who had tricked her into playing the spirit-summoning game, leading to the gruesome deaths of her other roommates and even students from the neighboring dorm.
As they listened, the three female players grew intensely disgusted with Gu Yi'an.
Of course, they still remembered who Gu Yi'an was.
She was the one who had survived unscathed while everyone else in her dorm and the neighboring one had died.
"Who would have thought someone so beautiful could have such a venomous heart?" one of the female players muttered under her breath.
The female ghost overheard her.
"Exactly!" the ghost said. "She pretended to be a rich, elegant girl, but she didn't actually have any money. Her lavish lifestyle was all an act, she was being kept by an older man, which was why she had so much to spend. After I died, I thought about it for a long time. She must have done this to us because she found out I overheard her talking to that old man on the phone. She wasn't satisfied with just killing me, she had to take Feifei and the others down with her."
The female ghost suddenly lifted her head, veins bulging on her face, revealing her fury.
She was speaking through the male player's body.
The male player had an average appearance, and making such an expression at this moment was not only frightening but also extremely ugly.
The female players instinctively moved closer to Brother Zhang.
Brother Zhang was already tense, and the commotion behind him nearly startled him.
Steadying himself, Brother Zhang said to the female ghost, "What do you want us to do for you?"
The female ghost let out two eerie laughs, speaking word by word through gritted teeth, "Help me kill her! Kill her!"
The hatred and chill in her voice sent shivers down the spines of the female players who heard it.
They had no idea how to respond to the ghost's demand.
This was murder!
The female ghost was asking them to kill someone!
Brother Zhang remained composed, showing no fear even in the face of the ghost.
Hearing this, he replied with difficulty, "Killing is against the law. We can't do that."
The female ghost, controlling the male player's body, glared with venomous eyes, "So she gets to roam free after killing us? Kill her! Otherwise, I'll kill you!"
The female ghost stared fixedly at the players.
Brother Zhang's expression remained steady.
He said, "Alright. We need time. We have to set up an ambush. Spirit, please leave my companion's body. He will be a useful helper."
The female ghost's gaze swept over the players present, a look of greed flickering in her eyes.
"Tomorrow night. If she isn't dead, you will die."
The male player's upper body suddenly went limp.
"Thud!"
He collapsed sideways onto the ground, unconscious.
It seemed the female ghost had left his body.
Brother Zhang signaled the three female players to wake the male player up and then called them to sit down.
The pen lying on the ground gave Brother Zhang an intensely dangerous feeling again.
He picked up the pen and held it in his hand to prevent any further accidents.
Brother Zhang said, "The spirit we summoned earlier must have been the one originally attached to this pen."
After the three female players sat down, hugging their knees, they looked at Brother Zhang with slight panic, their voices trembling, "Brother Zhang, is there nothing behind us now?"
Brother Zhang glanced behind them and confirmed there was no ghost there.
His heart stirred slightly, but he said, "That must have been the Pen Spirit. There's only one ghost here. It just came out of the pen earlier. Now it's back inside. Let's go to the audience seats and rest for the night. We'll discuss some things tomorrow morning."
Late at night, the female players didn’t want to talk about the female ghost either.
The female ghost had just returned to the pen, but the fear she had instilled in them still lingered. The female players wanted to get some proper rest.
Brother Zhang turned on the cracked smartphone he had taken from the phone store and checked the time.
"1:16 a.m. We’ll take turns keeping watch, sleep until 5:30, and then head to the library to wait for Gu Yi’an."
6:20 a.m.
Gu Yi’an woke up.
She first looked at the ceiling, then gradually became fully awake and remembered her plans for the day.
She had a class at 8 a.m.
Her notebook, phone, cards, and other items lay quietly beside her pillow.
Forty minutes later, after freshening up, Gu Yi’an packed the textbooks she needed for the day into her backpack, and only then did she pick up her phone and notebook.
To her surprise, the notebook suddenly opened on its own.
A line of black text automatically appeared on the ruled paper.
"There’s something I think I should tell you."
Gu Yi’an had a bad feeling.
She calmly said, "Go ahead."
Another line of text appeared.
"Actually, I can sense the outside world, including when you hold me."
When had she ever held the notebook?
Gu Yi’an froze for a moment.
Then it dawned on her.
Every time she went out, she would clasp the notebook under her elbow, pressing it against her abdomen, the same way many people carry folders.
So that meant the notebook could feel through her clothes...
Without a word, Gu Yi’an locked the door of her rented room.
Goodbye, you can just stay there by yourself!
Gu Yi’an appeared composed, but her steps were slightly quicker than usual.
However, she didn’t arrive at the classroom a few minutes early. By the time she reached the school cafeteria, it was peak dining hours for students, so it still took some time.
Gu Yi’an casually took an empty seat in the front row of the classroom.
She was used to keeping her distance from others to avoid making them anxious.
This was the first time in eleven days that Gu Yi’an had attended class without her notebook.
She quickly adjusted to the situation and flipped her textbook open to where the teacher had left off last time.
A few minutes passed.
7:58 a.m.
Several middle-aged men in suits, slightly overweight and looking like administrators, led an elderly monk in faded monastic robes to the classroom door.
The students in the classroom were stunned. Even those in the back rows stopped playing on their phones and craned their necks to see if there really was a monk in their classroom.
Someone kindly spoke up, "Excuse me, are you in the wrong classroom?"
The group ignored the comments.
The leading middle-aged man scanned the room, then stepped back and whispered a few words into the old monk’s ear.
Gu Yi’an, who had been looking down at her textbook, suddenly felt many wary eyes on her.
Without exception, all those gazes came from the people at the front of the classroom!
Gu Yi’an slightly raised her head and looked forward.
She saw an old monk standing in front of the blackboard at the center of the classroom, clasping his hands together in a respectful gesture and smiling at her.
Glancing at the men who looked like school administrators on either side of the old monk, Gu Yi’an smiled back at him as a simple greeting.
After seeing her response, the old monk shook his head slightly at the person beside him, then turned and walked toward the classroom door.
The other men in suits looked at Gu Yi'an with their initial wariness now subdued.
One of them stepped forward and said, "We're here for a religious exchange meeting and ended up in the wrong classroom. Please continue with your lesson."
His explanation only made the students in the classroom look at them even more strangely.
They had been reminded earlier but ignored it, and now they claimed they had entered the wrong classroom.
These people had come inexplicably and left just as inexplicably.
Only Gu Yi'an felt that they had come specifically to see her.
Once the monk confirmed she was fine, they left.
"Ding dong!"
The class bell rang.
The professor for Gu Yi'an's specialized course walked into the classroom right on time, stepped up to the multimedia podium, and set down his bag.
He glanced at the students below.
"The number of people keeps dwindling. I'd almost prefer if they were just skipping class."
After saying this, he seemed to realize he had spoken out of turn and added, "Alright, everyone, wake up. Class is starting."
Hearing this, Gu Yi'an turned to look at the students behind her.
The classroom was sparsely populated, with most students clustered in the back rows.
She usually sat in the front and hadn’t paid much attention to the back.
But now, compared to her memory of the usual student count, there were indeed far fewer people.
College students skipping class is a common issue in many universities.
Typically, attendance is highest at the beginning of the semester or when roll is called.
Since this specialized course occasionally had surprise roll calls, logically, more students should have shown up.
Gu Yi'an sensed something was off.
She didn’t think many students had died but suspected something might have happened that made them afraid to come to class.
She took out her phone, placed it under the desk, and logged into the university forum to check for information.
Generally, the school forum was the primary source for the latest news.
Of course, the information could be a mix of truth and falsehoods, it all depended on how one discerned it.
As soon as she logged in, Gu Yi'an saw a post floating on the first page with the headline: "Unidentified Male Body Found on Campus."
She clicked on it, but the page disappeared.
It seemed the forum moderators had banned the discussion.
The first class ended.
As soon as Gu Yi'an took out her phone, she saw an incoming call.
It was the counselor calling.
Gu Yi'an stepped out of the classroom to answer the call.
"Teacher Huang, is there something you need?"
The counselor on the other end of the line said, "It's nothing, really. Yi'an, if you feel unsafe around you, be careful. There's a theft ring on campus. Yesterday, they even snatched a phone right out of someone's hand in broad daylight. Be cautious. If you ever sense danger, run immediately! Your intuition won't deceive you."
The counselor repeatedly emphasized that if Gu Yi'an ever felt in danger, she must escape quickly.
It was out of the counselor's concern, so Gu Yi'an promised, "Okay, thank you for the reminder, teacher. I definitely will."
After hanging up, she pondered why the counselor was so worried about her, likely because the counselor believed she was highly likely to be harmed.
Gu Yi'an usually didn't offend anyone.
The only ones she had a slight rift with later, due to the Oujia board incident, were her former roommates, who had all met their demise after playing with it together.
Yesterday, the counselor had called her in to inquire about her former roommates' personalities and such, saying the school administration needed the information.
Before class today, a few men brought an old monk to the classroom to see her.
There were so many students absent from her class.
Her brother, Gu Tianjing, had specifically called to tell her that someone at their school had died again while playing with the Oujia board.
That day, she also heard from others that someone had summoned the pen spirit, and it claimed that Gu Yi'an had killed it.
Connecting all these clues, Gu Yi'an formed a speculation.
Her former roommates had become the new pen spirits. Not only that, they might have lost control and killed many people, including those who had opposed them before.
Only this scenario could explain the counselor's concern for her, the students' fear of attending class with her, and the school administration's special attention in bringing a monk.
The school administration and others likely saw her as something even more sinister than ghosts.
Since Gu Yi'an didn't interact much with others and lived off-campus, she was out of the loop. She wasn't sure if all those who had opposed her former roommates had met with misfortune.
This was still just a guess, and she intended to investigate it herself.
Shifting the focus back to the five players.
Brother Zhang and the others sat dejectedly in a small pavilion in the school garden.
Brother Zhang apologized to the other players, who were munching on steamed buns.
"Yesterday, I only saw a post on the forum mentioning she likes going to the library. I didn't expect we'd run into her on a day she has class. Sigh, we waited for hours and didn't see her."
The players had set out a little after five in the morning and waited until after eight, but they couldn't hold out any longer.
Brother Zhang sighed outwardly, but inwardly, he was relieved he hadn't misremembered Gu Yi'an's class schedule.
If these players had actually gone to her, they might have really tried to kill her.
Then his deception game would have no one left to deceive.
As for which of these players and Gu Yi'an would survive, Brother Zhang had no doubt it would be Gu Yi'an.
Hearing Brother Zhang's words, one of the female players comforted him, "Brother Zhang, it's okay. Even if I had to go up and kill someone, I'm not mentally prepared for it."
Brother Zhang's eyes flickered at her words. He glanced at the pen in his hand, then at the other players, and shook his head at the four of them.
A male player thought he understood and said, "Brother Zhang, you mean we can't kill her?"
Brother Zhang glared at him.
Can you say that in front of the Pen Spirit? In front of the Pen Spirit, you must say "kill"!
The male player was the one who slept the best among the five players. Although he had lost some vitality due to being possessed by the female ghost, he made up for it entirely with sleep.
Brother Zhang and the three female players, on the other hand, had to keep a constant watch on the pen housing the Pen Spirit and take turns staying awake to prevent anyone from discovering they were secretly staying in the gymnasium.
The female players, being more observant, gradually noticed that Brother Zhang was wary of the Pen Spirit in his hand.
Once they realized this, they too found it difficult to speak freely in front of the Pen Spirit.
At that moment, Brother Zhang suddenly felt that the dangerous aura emanating from the pen in his hand had vanished.
The disappearance of this aura was inexplicable.
Brother Zhang quickly realized, the Pen Spirit had left. Could it be that there was someone nearby it feared?
He immediately scanned his surroundings and soon locked onto a target.
"Is that a monk?" Brother Zhang, sharp-eyed, spotted a group of people following a monk on the road not far away.
Brother Zhang let go of the pen, his gaze fixed in the distance as if he hadn't noticed the pen slipping from his hand.
"Let's go, let's check it out."
The male player glanced at the pen on the ground and reminded him, "Brother Zhang, the pen-"
"Let's see who walks faster!"
Brother Zhang cut him off and dashed out.
He didn't walk, he ran.
Seeing Brother Zhang run, the female players quickly followed suit.
The male player exclaimed, "Wait for me!"
He too ran off, completely ignoring the pen on the ground.
Brother Zhang led the four players to blend into the crowd, pretending to be onlookers, and followed behind the monk.
This time, the pen did not reappear.
They were no longer within the Pen Spirit's surveillance range.
Only then did Brother Zhang speak up, "Do you believe what that female ghost said?"
One of the female players hesitated and replied, "Shouldn't we? It sounded like the truth."
Brother Zhang said, "It only sounded like it!"
He continued, "If it were really as simple as killing someone, would the deity have given us the task of surviving for seven days?"
The others were half-convinced, half-doubting.
The task of surviving for seven days was something Brother Zhang, as an experienced player, had told them, so they had no choice but to trust him for now.
Another female player said, "Brother Zhang, it should be true. Didn't we get a hint about 'malice'?"
She analyzed, "That Gu Yi'an deliberately tricked people into playing with the Pen Spirit, causing so many deaths, just because her roommate overheard her talking to her sugar daddy. The malice is too obvious."
Brother Zhang shook his head.
"You can't interpret it as malice. In the information we gathered, did anyone say Gu Yi'an was a bad person? They only described her as eerie. What does that mean? In their eyes, there's nothing wrong with her character.
Have you considered this, what if the ghost is lying?"
The players listened to Brother Zhang's words.
A male player raised a question, "Brother Zhang, why are you siding with that Gu woman? Just because she's good-looking doesn't mean she's kind-hearted. You can't be so shallow and judge by appearances."
Brother Zhang inwardly scoffed.
If he really judged by appearances, he would have long abandoned this clumsy male player who was dragging the team down and kept the three young, beautiful female players instead!
He kept him around only because of his foolishness.
Ignoring him, Brother Zhang turned to the others.
"What do you think?"
The female players thought for a moment. They actually wanted to mention that some of the gathered rumors speculated Gu Yi'an might have killed her roommate, but Brother Zhang's current stance clearly favored Gu Yi'an.
One female player spoke on behalf of the group, "We might need more clues."
They were subtly expressing that they didn't fully trust Brother Zhang's words.
Hearing this, Brother Zhang said, "See, you don't entirely believe what I say."
The female players felt a bit embarrassed by his remark.
Brother Zhang continued, "You already know not to fully trust what people say. Ghosts were once people, are you going to believe ghost talk now?"
His words swayed the players' thoughts.
Indeed, if even the living can't be trusted, how much less the dead?
The male player asked, "Brother Zhang, where do we find clues? We've already checked everything online. You said the newly deceased victims killed by the spirit were just collateral damage and that looking for clues from them is useless."
Brother Zhang said gravely, "We find people. We'll go see Gu Yi'an. We've heard the ghost's side; now let's hear the human side."
After last night's encounter with the spirit, Brother Zhang had realized how troublesome it was.
This game was more difficult than he had initially anticipated.
Today, he absolutely had to meet Gu Yi'an and learn the truth about the spirit from her.
He wanted to know more than anyone else how Gu Yi'an had escaped the spirit's pursuit, forcing it to target players instead.
"Ding dong, ding dong!"
The class dismissal bell rang.
As the lecture ended, Gu Yi'an packed her textbooks. She opened her backpack, about to put the books inside, when she spotted a familiar notebook lying quietly there.
Gu Yi'an paused mid-action.
People in the classroom deliberately took a wide detour around where Gu Yi'an was sitting before leaving.
Hesitating for a moment, Gu Yi'an took out the notebook.
She randomly opened a page, picked up a pen, and wrote a sentence.
"When did you get here?"
Gu Yi'an hadn't brought it with her today at all.
Beneath the line she had just written, Lu Zize's response instantly appeared.
"Just now."
Gu Yi'an didn't believe it.
When it came to Lu Zize's words, it was best to listen but never trust.
Trusting him would lead to being badly deceived.
Gu Yi'an certainly didn't believe him.
Now trapped as a notebook, Lu Zize, as always, guessed Gu Yi'an's thoughts.
Words gradually appeared on the paper, one by one.
"If I said I've been here all along, would you believe me?"
Of course, Gu Yi'an didn't believe that either.
She suspected it had deliberately provoked her today, making her not carry it with her in the morning, most likely to avoid the monk’s inspection of her in the classroom before the lesson.
The notebook felt wronged and immediately displayed new words.
“You don’t believe me no matter what I say. Do I have to cut open my heart and show it to you?”
Gu Yi’an immediately wrote beneath it, “No need.”
Given Lu Zize’s mental state, Gu Yi’an was genuinely afraid she might see a bloody heart the next second.
At the thought of a heart, Gu Yi’an suddenly recalled that she had indeed seen one before, at the end of her first game.
She forced herself not to dwell on that memory.
As she looked at the notebook, she saw a large, sketched heart appear beneath her words “No need.”
Inside the heart, stroke by stroke, three characters gradually took shape: Gu Yi’an.
Beside it, a horizontal arrow pointed directly to the center of the heart.
A note slowly appeared next to the arrow, perfectly mimicking that person’s unhurried way of speaking.
“My true heart.”
Gu Yi’an flipped her hand and instantly closed the notebook.
It was clearly fake.