Chapter 125
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Chapter 125 The Ghost's Dorm
“What?” I started, watching the girls in confusion. Moving as one, the eight girls reached towards their valves and loosed streams of water into the bathroom.
“What are you doing?” I asked in horror, thoughts of flooding and trying to drown the boy’s dorm flew through my brain. To my surprise, the girls weren’t wearing expressions of malice. They stared into the pouring water like it was their salvation, the light at the end of the tunnel. Xuan Hailin turned to the girls with an identical expression. “I will fix it! Run! Run away!” He waved his incorporeal arms at them.
The eighty flowers girls stepped towards their sinks and bent into the spraying water. I watched, mouth agape, as their yellowing spirits began to fold and slide into the spouting faucets. “Escape!” Xuan Hailin screamed at them. The girls flew into the pipes, disappearing before my eyes. When they were gone, Xuan Hailin’s head swiveled like a falling dancer. His eyes were wide and terrified.
I turned to the ghost of my dorm super and begged for answers. “The water tower supplies our building! It maintains the feng shui! Where is the old woman? Why did the girls run away?”
He lifted his arms as if in praise and gestured to the walls around us. “She is here.”
“The bathroom?” I asked.
He only looked at me.
“The building?”
His yellowed eyes wavered a bit. I let out a gasp as it came to me, “The girls ran away through the pipes…You have to fix things to keep her away…The water doesn’t…hurt her…no…” I thought out loud at him. “Is…is the old woman…in the building?”
He only looked.
“Is the building…the old woman?”
Xuan Hailin answered me with a wide-mouthed screech that rolled through the bathroom until I was sure the mirrors would shatter and my ears would bleed. Master Liu’s words came to me as I clapped my hands over my ears and doubled over in pain, “A house with ghosts around may be a haunted house, but a haunted house will always have ghosts because the house itself is one.”
The walls around me rumbled in protest. Xuan Hailin scuttled over to the sinks and began wailing on them with his ghostly pipe wrench. He moved frantically, but my thoughts moved faster.
“She’s afraid of Taoists, so she hides in plain sight. The girls couldn’t have escaped if she was fully awake…fully here. This isn’t a boy’s dorm. It belongs to the dead. It is dead! She’s been collecting spirits and holding them as her own. She’s like a…a…”
“God.” Xuan Hailin’s voice whispered through the bathroom. He was still working furiously to stop the flow of water. The floor was soaked despite the drain in the center of the room. A few hours of nonstop flow would drench the whole second floor.
“She’s coming…” Xuan Hailin whispered, “Please go. My wife, please go!”
“Who?” I started, but the answer stood behind me. I turned at the last moment, catching a reflection wavering in the water at my feet. Someone was behind me.
The spirit of a pale woman with long black hair stood behind me. A dark black aura flowed around her. It twisted like smoke as it swam through the air, like it tasted something around it. I spun and moved away from her, seeing for the first time the red hairband around her wrist.
“His wife…” I thought and took another step back.
She walked forward towards her dead husband and raised one hand. I wracked my brain for what to do. I couldn’t beat a black shadow spirit on my own! “Where did she come from?” I yelled to myself, furious that she caught me with my guard not only gone, but away on vacation.
Fighting seemed to be the last thing she wanted. Her shadowy figure approached Xuan Hailin, caressed his cheek and then jittered over to the nearest sink. With one look back at her dead husband, the shadow spirit was gone the way of the eighty-flowers girls.
“Go now. She is coming. I will fix it…” Xuan Hailin said again.
I huffed a breath out through my nostrils, suddenly angry that this was happening. Xuan Hailin was a good man! He just wanted to save his wife! I muttered a meditation incantation and approached him.
“Where is the old woman? When will she come back?” I demanded.
He looked at me with a blank, dull expression.
“The religious rites! I forgot!” I told him, “You probably don’t even understand what I’m saying do you?” I gave a short laugh that only made me feel more in over my head. Changing my tactics, I moved my hands in an incantation to send his spirit on.
When I finished, slamming my foot down into the water and splashing it all over my night shorts, something new happened. The air around me became suddenly cold and then impossibly hot. The light fixtures above each mirror gleamed blindingly and then several burst.
“I can’t send you away…” I told Xuan Hailin. “She, she has you.”
He nodded his head and pointed at me with a shaking hand. A bolt of pale light floated from his finger and into my eyes. It wasn’t painful, but cloudy. I felt his presence wind into my consciousness like so many others had before. Only Xuan Hailin’s spirit voice was weak and small.
“Do you know me?” I asked him.
“Yes Shi Yong, I know you.” Xuan Hailin said inside my mind. “You must go now. You’ve helped too many of us leave this night, she will not be happy.”
“Me?” I asked, feeling a hot streak of anger. “I didn’t do anything, you did!”
“We knew what you could do when you came to this school.” Xuan Hailin said. The voice he used inside my mind echoed with the voices of so many others lost to this building. His small spirit bulged with new and foreign power inside of me. “We knew you were a Taoist that could break her cage. You’ve set us free.”
“How?” I asked, “How did I do this?”
He looked at the floor where our reflections rippled in the growing pool. “Water is universal, Shi Yong, ever changing. The longer you stay here, the clearer it becomes. With you here, the path to freedom is clear.”
“Is she here?” I asked, now whispering aloud. I was all at once sure she was watching us, and positive that she was angry.
He shook his head once and then met my gaze again. “Soon. She is building…strength”
“So she’s weak?” I said more than asked. “But I can’t track her down. I’m not Master Liu!” I thought to myself in frustration.
I took a deep breath. “You should go with your wife. If me being here is your only chance, then go now. I hope you find reincarnation with peace.”
He bowed his head to me once and then walked towards the still spewing pipes. His yellowing visage shrank and faded as it drew into the pipes. His presence in my mind dissipated at once.
I closed my eyes and tried to think. “How am I going to do this?” A splashing of footsteps came from behind me. I whirled around to meet it..
“What the hell are you doing?” Gao Xinying asked. He gestured to the floor and ran to the nearest sink, cranking the valve until the water stopped.
Several other boys stood in the doorway looking at me like a crocodile in a petting zoo.
Gao Xinying didn’t lower his voice as he went on, “I heard you talking to yourself, you loon! What are you going on about?”
I saw the way the boys in the doorway were looking at me and shuddered. I turned around to make sure nothing was behind me. There wasn’t.
“He said something about an old woman. Is there an old lady hiding in our bathroom?” He laughed.
“I was just… trying to fix the pipes…” I said lamely.
“Yeah, and carrying on about ghosts!” Gao Xinying said, looking at the other boys with his stupid smile.
It didn’t take long for word to spread around school. You Xiaoqing asked what happened so I explained everything to her. "I trust you.” She told me, “You’re probably not even enchanted." She added with a smile.
Xiong Ying on the other hand, swam with the rumors and jokes like a malicious surfer.
I didn't have time for their gossip or jokes though. The old woman was coming back. She was coming soon.
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Chapter 125 The Ghost's Dorm
“What?” I started, watching the girls in confusion. Moving as one, the eight girls reached towards their valves and loosed streams of water into the bathroom.
“What are you doing?” I asked in horror, thoughts of flooding and trying to drown the boy’s dorm flew through my brain. To my surprise, the girls weren’t wearing expressions of malice. They stared into the pouring water like it was their salvation, the light at the end of the tunnel. Xuan Hailin turned to the girls with an identical expression. “I will fix it! Run! Run away!” He waved his incorporeal arms at them.
The eighty flowers girls stepped towards their sinks and bent into the spraying water. I watched, mouth agape, as their yellowing spirits began to fold and slide into the spouting faucets. “Escape!” Xuan Hailin screamed at them. The girls flew into the pipes, disappearing before my eyes. When they were gone, Xuan Hailin’s head swiveled like a falling dancer. His eyes were wide and terrified.
I turned to the ghost of my dorm super and begged for answers. “The water tower supplies our building! It maintains the feng shui! Where is the old woman? Why did the girls run away?”
He lifted his arms as if in praise and gestured to the walls around us. “She is here.”
“The bathroom?” I asked.
He only looked at me.
“The building?”
His yellowed eyes wavered a bit. I let out a gasp as it came to me, “The girls ran away through the pipes…You have to fix things to keep her away…The water doesn’t…hurt her…no…” I thought out loud at him. “Is…is the old woman…in the building?”
He only looked.
“Is the building…the old woman?”
Xuan Hailin answered me with a wide-mouthed screech that rolled through the bathroom until I was sure the mirrors would shatter and my ears would bleed. Master Liu’s words came to me as I clapped my hands over my ears and doubled over in pain, “A house with ghosts around may be a haunted house, but a haunted house will always have ghosts because the house itself is one.”
The walls around me rumbled in protest. Xuan Hailin scuttled over to the sinks and began wailing on them with his ghostly pipe wrench. He moved frantically, but my thoughts moved faster.
“She’s afraid of Taoists, so she hides in plain sight. The girls couldn’t have escaped if she was fully awake…fully here. This isn’t a boy’s dorm. It belongs to the dead. It is dead! She’s been collecting spirits and holding them as her own. She’s like a…a…”
“God.” Xuan Hailin’s voice whispered through the bathroom. He was still working furiously to stop the flow of water. The floor was soaked despite the drain in the center of the room. A few hours of nonstop flow would drench the whole second floor.
“She’s coming…” Xuan Hailin whispered, “Please go. My wife, please go!”
“Who?” I started, but the answer stood behind me. I turned at the last moment, catching a reflection wavering in the water at my feet. Someone was behind me.
The spirit of a pale woman with long black hair stood behind me. A dark black aura flowed around her. It twisted like smoke as it swam through the air, like it tasted something around it. I spun and moved away from her, seeing for the first time the red hairband around her wrist.
“His wife…” I thought and took another step back.
She walked forward towards her dead husband and raised one hand. I wracked my brain for what to do. I couldn’t beat a black shadow spirit on my own! “Where did she come from?” I yelled to myself, furious that she caught me with my guard not only gone, but away on vacation.
Fighting seemed to be the last thing she wanted. Her shadowy figure approached Xuan Hailin, caressed his cheek and then jittered over to the nearest sink. With one look back at her dead husband, the shadow spirit was gone the way of the eighty-flowers girls.
“Go now. She is coming. I will fix it…” Xuan Hailin said again.
I huffed a breath out through my nostrils, suddenly angry that this was happening. Xuan Hailin was a good man! He just wanted to save his wife! I muttered a meditation incantation and approached him.
“Where is the old woman? When will she come back?” I demanded.
He looked at me with a blank, dull expression.
“The religious rites! I forgot!” I told him, “You probably don’t even understand what I’m saying do you?” I gave a short laugh that only made me feel more in over my head. Changing my tactics, I moved my hands in an incantation to send his spirit on.
When I finished, slamming my foot down into the water and splashing it all over my night shorts, something new happened. The air around me became suddenly cold and then impossibly hot. The light fixtures above each mirror gleamed blindingly and then several burst.
“I can’t send you away…” I told Xuan Hailin. “She, she has you.”
He nodded his head and pointed at me with a shaking hand. A bolt of pale light floated from his finger and into my eyes. It wasn’t painful, but cloudy. I felt his presence wind into my consciousness like so many others had before. Only Xuan Hailin’s spirit voice was weak and small.
“Do you know me?” I asked him.
“Yes Shi Yong, I know you.” Xuan Hailin said inside my mind. “You must go now. You’ve helped too many of us leave this night, she will not be happy.”
“Me?” I asked, feeling a hot streak of anger. “I didn’t do anything, you did!”
“We knew what you could do when you came to this school.” Xuan Hailin said. The voice he used inside my mind echoed with the voices of so many others lost to this building. His small spirit bulged with new and foreign power inside of me. “We knew you were a Taoist that could break her cage. You’ve set us free.”
“How?” I asked, “How did I do this?”
He looked at the floor where our reflections rippled in the growing pool. “Water is universal, Shi Yong, ever changing. The longer you stay here, the clearer it becomes. With you here, the path to freedom is clear.”
“Is she here?” I asked, now whispering aloud. I was all at once sure she was watching us, and positive that she was angry.
He shook his head once and then met my gaze again. “Soon. She is building…strength”
“So she’s weak?” I said more than asked. “But I can’t track her down. I’m not Master Liu!” I thought to myself in frustration.
I took a deep breath. “You should go with your wife. If me being here is your only chance, then go now. I hope you find reincarnation with peace.”
He bowed his head to me once and then walked towards the still spewing pipes. His yellowing visage shrank and faded as it drew into the pipes. His presence in my mind dissipated at once.
I closed my eyes and tried to think. “How am I going to do this?” A splashing of footsteps came from behind me. I whirled around to meet it..
“What the hell are you doing?” Gao Xinying asked. He gestured to the floor and ran to the nearest sink, cranking the valve until the water stopped.
Several other boys stood in the doorway looking at me like a crocodile in a petting zoo.
Gao Xinying didn’t lower his voice as he went on, “I heard you talking to yourself, you loon! What are you going on about?”
I saw the way the boys in the doorway were looking at me and shuddered. I turned around to make sure nothing was behind me. There wasn’t.
“He said something about an old woman. Is there an old lady hiding in our bathroom?” He laughed.
“I was just… trying to fix the pipes…” I said lamely.
“Yeah, and carrying on about ghosts!” Gao Xinying said, looking at the other boys with his stupid smile.
It didn’t take long for word to spread around school. You Xiaoqing asked what happened so I explained everything to her. "I trust you.” She told me, “You’re probably not even enchanted." She added with a smile.
Xiong Ying on the other hand, swam with the rumors and jokes like a malicious surfer.
I didn't have time for their gossip or jokes though. The old woman was coming back. She was coming soon.
Chapter 125 The Ghost's DormWhat? I started, watching the girls in confusion. Moving as one, the eight girls reached towards their valves and loosed streams of water into the bathroom. What are you doing? I asked in horror, thoughts of flooding and trying to drown the boy's dorm flew through my brain. To my surprise, the girls weren't wearing expressions of malice. They stared into the pouring water like it was their salvation, the light at the end of the tunnel. Xuan Hailin turned to the girls with an identical expression. I will fix it! Run! Run away! He waved his incorporeal arms at them. The eighty flowers girls stepped towards their sinks and bent into the spraying water. I watched, mouth agape, as their yellowing spirits began to fold and slide into the spouting faucets. Escape! Xuan Hailin screamed at them. The girls flew into the pipes, disappearing before my eyes. When they were gone, Xuan Hailin's head swiveled like a falling dancer. His eyes were wide and terrified. I turned to the ghost of my dorm super and begged for answers. The water tower supplies our building! It maintains the feng shui! Where is the old woman? Why did the girls run away? He lifted his arms as if in praise and gestured to the walls around us. She is here. The bathroom? I asked.He only looked at me.The building? His yellowed eyes wavered a bit. I let out a gasp as it came to me, The girls ran away through the pipesYou have to fix things to keep her awayThe water doesn'thurt herno I thought out loud at him. Isis the old womanin the building?He only looked.Is the buildingthe old woman?Xuan Hailin answered me with a wide-mouthed screech that rolled through the bathroom until I was sure the mirrors would shatter and my ears would bleed. Master Liu's words came to me as I clapped my hands over my ears and doubled over in pain, A house with ghosts around may be a haunted house, but a haunted house will always have ghosts because the house itself is one.The walls around me rumbled in protest. Xuan Hailin scuttled over to the sinks and began wailing on them with his ghostly pipe wrench. He moved frantically, but my thoughts moved faster. She's afraid of Taoists, so she hides in plain sight. The girls couldn't have escaped if she was fully awakefully here. This isn't a boy's dorm. It belongs to the dead. It is dead! She's been collecting spirits and holding them as her own. She's like aaGod. Xuan Hailin's voice whispered through the bathroom. He was still working furiously to stop the flow of water. The floor was soaked despite the drain in the center of the room. A few hours of nonstop flow would drench the whole second floor. She's coming Xuan Hailin whispered, Please go. My wife, please go!Who? I started, but the answer stood behind me. I turned at the last moment, catching a reflection wavering in the water at my feet. Someone was behind me.The spirit of a pale woman with long black hair stood behind me. A dark black aura flowed around her. It twisted like smoke as it swam through the air, like it tasted something around it. I spun and moved away from her, seeing for the first time the red hairband around her wrist.His wife I thought and took another step back. She walked forward towards her dead husband and raised one hand. I wracked my brain for what to do. I couldn't beat a black shadow spirit on my own! Where did she come from? I yelled to myself, furious that she caught me with my guard not only gone, but away on vacation.Fighting seemed to be the last thing she wanted. Her shadowy figure approached Xuan Hailin, caressed his cheek and then jittered over to the nearest sink. With one look back at her dead husband, the shadow spirit was gone the way of the eighty-flowers girls.Go now. She is coming. I will fix it Xuan Hailin said again.I huffed a breath out through my nostrils, suddenly angry that this was happening. Xuan Hailin was a good man! He just wanted to save his wife! I muttered a meditation incantation and approached him. Where is the old woman? When will she come back? I demanded.He looked at me with a blank, dull expression.The religious rites! I forgot! I told him, You probably don't even understand what I'm saying do you? I gave a short laugh that only made me feel more in over my head. Changing my tactics, I moved my hands in an incantation to send his spirit on. When I finished, slamming my foot down into the water and splashing it all over my night shorts, something new happened. The air around me became suddenly cold and then impossibly hot. The light fixtures above each mirror gleamed blindingly and then several burst. I can't send you away I told Xuan Hailin. She, she has you.He nodded his head and pointed at me with a shaking hand. A bolt of pale light floated from his finger and into my eyes. It wasn't painful, but cloudy. I felt his presence wind into my consciousness like so many others had before. Only Xuan Hailin's spirit voice was weak and small.Do you know me? I asked him.Yes Shi Yong, I know you. Xuan Hailin said inside my mind. You must go now. You've helped too many of us leave this night, she will not be happy.Me? I asked, feeling a hot streak of anger. I didn't do anything, you did!We knew what you could do when you came to this school. Xuan Hailin said. The voice he used inside my mind echoed with the voices of so many others lost to this building. His small spirit bulged with new and foreign power inside of me. We knew you were a Taoist that could break her cage. You've set us free.How? I asked, How did I do this? He looked at the floor where our reflections rippled in the growing pool. Water is universal, Shi Yong, ever changing. The longer you stay here, the clearer it becomes. With you here, the path to freedom is clear.Is she here? I asked, now whispering aloud. I was all at once sure she was watching us, and positive that she was angry.He shook his head once and then met my gaze again. Soon. She is buildingstrengthSo she's weak? I said more than asked. But I can't track her down. I'm not Master Liu! I thought to myself in frustration.I took a deep breath. You should go with your wife. If me being here is your only chance, then go now. I hope you find reincarnation with peace.He bowed his head to me once and then walked towards the still spewing pipes. His yellowing visage shrank and faded as it drew into the pipes. His presence in my mind dissipated at once.I closed my eyes and tried to think. How am I going to do this? A splashing of footsteps came from behind me. I whirled around to meet it..What the hell are you doing? Gao Xinying asked. He gestured to the floor and ran to the nearest sink, cranking the valve until the water stopped.Several other boys stood in the doorway looking at me like a crocodile in a petting zoo.Gao Xinying didn't lower his voice as he went on, I heard you talking to yourself, you loon! What are you going on about?I saw the way the boys in the doorway were looking at me and shuddered. I turned around to make sure nothing was behind me. There wasn't. He said something about an old woman. Is there an old lady hiding in our bathroom? He laughed.I was just trying to fix the pipes I said lamely.Yeah, and carrying on about ghosts! Gao Xinying said, looking at the other boys with his stupid smile.It didn't take long for word to spread around school. You Xiaoqing asked what happened so I explained everything to her. "I trust you. She told me, You're probably not even enchanted." She added with a smile.Xiong Ying on the other hand, swam with the rumors and jokes like a malicious surfer.I didn't have time for their gossip or jokes though. The old woman was coming back. She was coming soon.
