“How could there possibly be ghosts in this world.”
Jianghai Film Academy, female dormitory, Room 1706.
Jiang Wei closed her eyes, sitting cross-legged high on her bed with her hands folded in front of her lower dantian, observing her nose and mind.
The three roommates looked on in reverence from beneath the bed, loudly praising her as a “master who has attained the Dao.”
Zhou Fuzhen asked, “Weiwei, are you trying to ascend to immortality?”
Jiang Wei smiled faintly, “Pretty much!”
Over the past few days, she hadn’t continued watching horror movies, but had repeatedly experimented with her newly acquired ability. She had roughly confirmed that it was a domain-type ability with a radius of two meters centered around her.
Although not particularly large, within this range she possessed a nearly omniscient capability, and the effect was extremely cool.
She had constantly tried various ways to communicate with the power inside her body in order to expand the range of her domain. Sitting in meditation was one of them, but unfortunately, it didn’t have any practical effect; it merely raised her standing within the dormitory.
Her roommates all felt that she was becoming “more and more ethereal.”
“Master, please take me as your disciple!” Zhou Fuzhen pressed her palms together, looking up at Jiang Wei with a sincere expression.
“Foolish child, you still have worldly ties remaining,” Jiang Wei gently waved her hand, her voice sounding ethereal and distant.
Zhou Fuzhen couldn’t help but laugh out loud, clutching her stomach, and Jiang Wei started laughing too.
Pei Xiaomin urged, “Zhenzhen, let’s go! The movie is about to start. Let her stay here and ascend to immortality by herself!”
Zhou Fuzhen asked once more, “Weiwei, the new superhero movie is super exciting. Are you really not going?”
“Really not going,” Jiang Wei shook her head. It wasn’t that she felt bad about the money anymore; for some reason, just hearing the word “movie” made her feel a little nauseous.
Zhou Fuzhen didn’t push any further, and the group headed out.
Jiang Wei shouted a reminder from behind, “Don’t forget to bring back good food!”
Zhou Fuzhen looked back at Jiang Wei and sighed, “Weiwei, you’ve really changed!”
The Jiang Wei of the past had always been cautious and timid, and would never have made requests of others with such confidence.
Jiang Wei tilted her head. “Did I get prettier?”
“Mm,” Zhou Fuzhen nodded affirmatively. The current Jiang Wei was like a butterfly breaking out of its cocoon, more radiant than ever before, giving Zhou Fuzhen a sentimental feeling akin to “a daughter of mine has finally grown up.”
Wang Jingjing declared she couldn’t stand it anymore. “You two are making my skin crawl!”
Jiang Wei watched with her own eyes as Zhou Fuzhen was dragged away. The dormitory fell quiet again, but she no longer felt lonely.
“Since I’m idle, let’s test out my superpower again!”
Jiang Wei pressed her back against the wall, closed her eyes, and opened her domain.
In an instant, everything within a radius of several meters was clear in her mind.
“Huh? What season is it, and there are still mosquitoes?”
Jiang Wei muttered a complaint with her eyes closed and brow furrowed, casually swatting at the wall.
A mosquito was flying leisurely through the air when it met an unprovoked disaster, getting slapped flat against the wall.
Jiang Wei flicked her finger, sending the mosquito’s carcass dropping to the floor. The smile on her lips was impossible to suppress, feeling as though she were a martial arts master from the movies.
In reality, her reaction speed hadn’t actually increased. It was just that when her domain was open, she could precisely grasp the mosquito’s position and flight trajectory in space. Combined with the fact that autumn mosquitoes had become quite sluggish, she was able to achieve a one-hit kill.
“Hehe, what’s so great about superheroes? Isn’t there one right here?”
As Jiang Wei was feeling quite pleased with herself, a figure walked into her domain. It turned out to be Sun Tian from the neighboring dorm.
Sun Tian’s bed was right next to Jiang Wei’s, separated by only a single wall.
When Jiang Wei opened her domain from her own bunk, she could encompass Sun Tian’s bunk and desk right into it. She was already quite familiar and used to this classmate.
“Jiang Wei is being kept by a sugar daddy, can’t you even tell?” Sun Tian lowered her voice, yet it carried an unmistakable trace of excitement.
“Huh?” Jiang Wei froze.
Although a thick wall separated them, as long as they were within her domain, Jiang Wei was completely omniscient and all-knowing. Sun Tian’s voice wasn’t so much coming from next door as it was ringing directly inside Jiang Wei’s mind.
It was like a sudden bolt of thunder exploding in Jiang Wei’s heart, and she couldn’t help but listen intently.
Sun Tian leaned casually against her desk, turning her face away with a pout, not showing a shred of hesitation:
“Otherwise, where did she get the money to buy a phone? Such a nice phone, how could an orphan like her afford it? Selling blood? Look at that malnourished state of hers—selling blood wouldn’t fetch much anyway.”
“A pursuer sent it? Tch, you actually believe that kind of ghost story. Where in our school would you find such a good man willing to send a phone worth tens of thousands without even showing his face? Look closer at how many new clothes she’s bought recently; some of them cost a few thousand RMB a piece. Let me tell you, she’s definitely been taken care of. I heard someone even saw it—last Sunday morning, she came out of a hotel with some old man in his forties or fifties…”
Sun Tian acted as though Sherlock Holmes possessed her. What started as “I heard” quickly morphed into something she claimed to have witnessed with her own eyes. What the man looked like, what clothes he wore, what car he drove—she described it all in vivid detail, making Jiang Wei’s mouth twist in fury next door. She wanted nothing more than to crush Sun Tian to death just like she had crushed that mosquito.
Jiang Wei had indeed not returned to the dorm on Saturday night, but that was because she was pulling an all-nighter at the internet cafe watching horror movies. How did that turn into coming out of a hotel?
And not a single piece of clothing she bought cost over five hundred RMB. How did they become worth several thousand?
Well… maybe the shop sold high-fakes of some major brands, and coupled with her tall figure and decent temperament, she managed to pull off cheap clothes with a touch of high-end flair…
“Wait, what am I feeling proud of?!”
“No wonder I always felt people were looking at me strangely lately. Sun Tian, you’re going to die!”
Filled with righteous indignation, Jiang Wei got out of bed, put on her shoes, and prepared to storm over to the neighboring dorm to confront Sun Tian, but then she reined in her emotions. If she rushed over now, although she could claim she overheard it right at the dorm door, Sun Tian would definitely flatly deny it. Furthermore, once the matter blew up, the rumors would only spread even wider.
She didn’t believe bullshit like “rumors stop at the wise.” Right at that moment, everyone was just looking for entertainment and dying to see you fall flat on your face.
Like a caged tigress, Jiang Wei paced around the dormitory a few times before baring her pearly white teeth: “Sun Tian, you asked for this!”
The dorm lights had been turned off long ago, and Sun Tian stayed up watching live streams past midnight before getting ready for bed.
Accustomed to making a trip to the restroom before sleeping, she put on her pajamas, slipped into her slippers, and headed toward the restroom at the end of the hallway.
The corridor was dark and empty, stretching out without a visible end, while the emergency exit signs glowed with an eerie green light.
She didn’t mind it, walking along while looking at her livestream shopping app, failing to notice a figure quietly trailing behind her.
The restroom, however, was brightly lit, though the windows were wide open, letting in gales of autumn wind that felt bone-chillingly cold.
Sun Tian shivered, tucked her neck in, casually picked a stall, and walked inside.
Just as she squatted down, the stall door was knocked on:
“Thump—thump—thump—”
Knock by knock, weak and listless, ringing out in the empty restroom.
Only then did Sun Tian tear her gaze away from her phone screen, feeling extremely puzzled. It was so late, and all the other stalls were empty; why come knock on hers? Annoyed, she called out, “Occupied!”
The restroom fell quiet again, save for the eerie sound of the wind.
“Thump—thump—thump—”
The knocking sounded once more, still just as listless, with every single beat dragged out long.
The person knocking seemed as though they were suffering from a severe illness.
Sun Tian began to feel that something wasn’t right. At that moment, a cold draft blew in from the gap beneath the stall door, raising goosebumps all over her body.
Hesitating for a moment, she lowered her body, looked out from the gap under the door, and mustered her courage to shout, “Who is it?!” Her voice held a trace of a tremble.
Snap. The restroom lights flickered out, plunging everything into pitch blackness, leaving only the weak light emitted from Sun Tian’s phone.
“Ah!”
The sudden descent into darkness made Sun Tian let out an involuntary shriek, almost causing her to land flat on her back. Instinctively shrinking backward, her spine slammed against the water tank with a loud thump.
Right at that moment, that bizarre knocking sound rang out again:
“Thump—thump—thump—”
Using the faint light of her phone, Sun Tian saw a brand-new pair of red high heels standing right outside the stall door. The sharp, pointed toes were aimed directly at her, as if an invisible “guest” wanted to come inside.
Sun Tian widened her eyes, her pupils shrinking to pinpricks. She tightly clamped her hands over her mouth, not daring to make a single sound.
That pair of high heels didn’t move an inch, and Sun Tian didn’t dare move either, as if engaging in a standoff across a thin wooden door.
After a long while, the knocking never sounded again. Regaining a bit of composure, Sun Tian cheered herself up internally:
“Someone must be pranking me! It has to be. I don’t know who I offended, but asshole, don’t let me find out who you are, or you’re dead!”
Just then, a scene unfolded that she would never forget for the rest of her life: blood began to bubble up from within that pair of red high heels outside the door, instantly staining the pristine white tiles and spreading outward in all directions.
The crimson blood crossed the stall threshold, inching closer and closer toward Sun Tian, accompanied by a pungent metallic scent of blood.
“Ahhhhhhh!” Sun Tian’s piercing shriek instantly echoed across the entire floor.
“Bang bang bang bang bang!!” Wild, violent pounding erupted all around, making the entire restroom stall vibrate, filled with an incomparable fury and hatred.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!” Sun Tian’s screams went up a few more decibels before cutting off with a hiccup—she rolled her eyes back and fainted dead away inside the restroom stall.
Jiang Wei rubbed her reddened hand as she stepped out of the adjacent stall, gracefully picking up the red high heels off the floor. That [A Stain of Blood] had already been retrieved back into [Blessing], leaving the red high heels immaculate and dust-free.
She had bought too many clothes and shoes recently, and many of them hadn’t even been tried on before being thrown into the closet to gather dust. This pair of red high heels was one of them.
Jiang Wei felt a pang of regret—it seemed she wouldn’t be able to wear these shoes anymore, so she’d just have to give them away.
To whom should she give them?
She glanced back at the stall where Sun Tian was located. “If you ever dare spread malicious rumors about me again, I’ll gift them to you!”
By the time students rushed over upon hearing the commotion, only the unconscious Sun Tian remained in the restroom.
In a flash, the restroom was packed to capacity:
“Someone passed out! Call the school doctor quickly!”
“I recognize her, her name seems to be Sun Tian.”
“Let me see, let me see!”
“Don’t shove in the back!”
“Should we splash cold water?”
“Splashing cold water will give her a cold! I think we should pinch her philtrum instead!”
Amidst the noisy chatter, Sun Tian slowly blinked awake, screaming wildly, “Ghosts, there’s ghosts! Blood, so much blood!!”
Everyone was startled, looking all around. However, the restroom had been kept spotlessly clean by the cleaning lady, and the white tiles gleamed brightly.
“What blood? Where is there any blood?!”
“Could it be her period?”
By this time, Jiang Wei had already returned to her bed in the dormitory, turning a deaf ear to the commotion coming from the restroom. Lying flat and enjoying the peace, she swept away all the stifling frustration in her chest, feeling infinitely refreshed.
Pulling out her phone to check, she abruptly sat straight up: “It went up, it went up!”
In this short span of time, her fear value had actually surged by a full thirteen points.
Watching two horror movies might not even net Jiang Wei this many fear points, and while scaring Sun Tian, she definitely hadn’t felt a shred of fear herself.
“This is… Sun Tian’s fear. So, I can harvest other people’s fear too!”
Jiang Wei was overjoyed. That gradually blurring and receding “annual salary of one million” once again became crystal clear, beckoning to her.
In an instant, Jiang Wei completely forgave Sun Tian. After all, the other party had already paid her a “mental distress fee” worth around four thousand RMB—she even felt a tiny, microscopic trace of guilt. “Sigh, was I too harsh? Hope I didn’t scare her out of her wits!” Yet the smile on the corners of her mouth refused to flatten down.
Afterward, the incident shook the entire school. Sun Tian was sent to the infirmary and didn’t return for several days.
Many people swore up and down: Sun Tian ran into a ghost in the middle of the night.
Others believed in science, thinking Sun Tian was merely sleepwalking, suddenly jolted awake, and thus had a hysterical episode.
Still others felt Sun Tian was just seeking attention and acting out on purpose, sneering at the whole affair.
Although many people stated they didn’t believe in any ghosts or spirits, that restroom where Sun Tian encountered the ghost suddenly became deserted, losing its former bustle.
Days later, as Jiang Wei walked past the neighboring dorm, she saw it packed to the brim with people—even the hallway had quite a few standing outside. Surprised, she asked, “What’s wrong? What happened?!”
“Weiwei, over here, hurry over!” Hearing Jiang Wei’s voice in the crowd, Zhou Fuzhen immediately waved and called her over.
“How am I supposed to get over there?” Jiang Wei sighed helplessly.
“Ugh, you’re so useless!” Zhou Fuzhen immediately squeezed her way out of the crowd, grabbed Jiang Wei by the wrist, and said excitedly, “Sun Tian is back, and she’s telling everyone about her ghost encounter!”
Dragged by Zhou Fuzhen into the center of the crowd, Jiang Wei saw Sun Tian animatedly recounting her experience of meeting a ghost, surrounded entirely by an audience. If she hadn’t witnessed it with her own eyes, Jiang Wei wouldn’t have believed a tiny dorm room could cram in so many people.
Seeing Jiang Wei enter, Sun Tian paused slightly, glanced at Jiang Wei, and lifted her chin slightly, as if she had won something.
Jiang Wei was amused yet exasperated. To think she had worried for several days—do young people nowadays have hearts this big?
“You know what? That female ghost’s face was as white as paper, nothing like a living person, but her clothes were red, and her shoes were red too! She kept calling my name, asking me to open the door for her! You tell me, would I dare open it?” Sun Tian recounted vividly, making the listeners tense up alongside her like a bunch of worldly-inexperienced rabbits.
After listening to a few sentences, Jiang Wei felt her memories getting scrambled, almost wondering if she hadn’t actually messed with Sun Tian, but had just had a dream, and Sun Tian really had run into a ghost.
“And then? And then?” Zhou Fuzhen was both terrified and expectant, hugging Jiang Wei’s arm tightly.
Jiang Wei barely managed to endure until the session ended, feeling like she had just listened through an entire horror movie.
Zhou Fuzhen, standing right beside her, was still unfulfilled, her face filled with envy: “Weiwei, how come things like this always happen to Sun Tian!”
“…” Jiang Wei was speechless. “Is this supposed to be a good thing?”
“Didn’t you hear what Sun Tian said? That woman in red had a grievance. Once she realized Sun Tian wasn’t the person she was looking for, she let her go and didn’t hurt the innocent.”
Jiang Wei secretly gritted her teeth: I was the one looking for her! Is she even innocent? Ptui ptui ptui, I am not a female ghost in red!
Oh well, never mind. After this whole ordeal, the rumors about her should have vanished into thin air. Compared to actually bumping into a ghost, being kept by a sugar daddy was hardly explosive news anymore.
Returning to her dormitory, Jiang Wei pulled out her phone and opened the black app. Sure enough, her fear value had risen by 7 points, prompting a satisfied smile.
The story Sun Tian fabricated certainly wouldn’t cause Jiang Wei—the culprit behind it—to feel fear. This wasn’t her own fear, but the fear of those around her.
Altogether, Sun Tian had contributed twenty fear points to Jiang Wei, enough to buy two gold prayer beads.
Through this period of effort, the money Jiang Wei had earned already exceeded one hundred thousand RMB, and it hadn’t even been a month since she acquired the mysterious phone. This speed of making money was truly startling.
“How is this any different from a printing press? No difference at all!”
This event also served as a reminder to Jiang Wei: she needed an explicit, public source of income. A hundred thousand or several hundred thousand could still be explained away by winning the lottery, but any more than that would become difficult to account for.
Besides, she couldn’t win the lottery every single day.
“Time to find a job!” Jiang Wei stroked her chin, a plan already forming in her mind.
Just then, Zhou Fuzhen finished washing up and returned, asking, “Weiwei, has the theme for your video assignment been decided yet?”
“Decided,” Jiang Wei smiled faintly: “Spirit-exploration streamer.”
“Huh? Aren’t you the one most afraid of scary things? I get it, Sun Tian gave you inspiration! Ahhh, I’m so jealous of her!” Zhou Fuzhen ruffled her wet hair into an even bigger mess.
“…”