Chapter 07 A haunted school

　　I started the car and slowly drove away from the village. Looking through the rearview mirror, I saw Ling still gazing in this direction. Although we had known each other for quite a while, our feelings for each other were still as passionate as those in the honeymoon phase. I really couldn't bear to part.

　　Ling's father walked towards us from afar and called out to her. Ling turned her head at the sound.

　　Even though I had traveled this mountain road once before, it still made my heart skip a beat. I gripped the steering wheel tightly with both hands and drove with extreme caution.

　　"Screech!"

　　I suddenly slammed on the brakes, and the rear of the car bounced up. My head hit the windshield, causing a sharp pain...

　　Fortunately, the car wasn't going very fast. Otherwise, on such a steep mountain road, there was a great chance that both the car and I would have plunged off the cliff.

　　I looked somewhat angrily at the two people blocking the road. They appeared to be a father and son. Both were dressed in tattered clothes. The father had a burlap sack on his back, which was bulging and one couldn't tell what was inside. The child was about eleven or twelve years old, with a dark face and extremely lively eyes, showing the sharpness typical of mountain children. He darted over to the car door and said, "Uncle, are you leaving the mountains? Could you give us a ride?"

　　Since these two seemed to be locals, I thought I might as well help them out. I nodded and said, "I can take you, but remember, never rush out to stop a car like that again. It could be fatal."

　　The child felt a bit embarrassed and scratched his head. I gestured for them to get in. The child went to open the rear door, let his father in first, and then got in himself. The burlap sack was placed horizontally on their laps.

　　The fact that this child seemed so sensible and mature for his age made me quite fond of him.

　　As I drove, I asked, "Kid, how old are you?"

　　"Twelve," the child replied loudly.

　　"Where are you going? Don't you have school now?" It was the afternoon class time, and I was puzzled that this child wasn't in school.

　　"I quit school a long time ago," the child said with a hint of sadness.

　　My heart sank instantly. In these mountains, due to poverty, he couldn't receive a normal education like children outside.

　　"Our school is haunted," the child muttered.

　　"Haunted? That can't be true!" I said with a touch of ridicule. "What era are we in now? Only in such isolated places would people still believe in ghosts and spirits."

　　"It's real!" the child argued. "Every evening, there are terrifying ghostly cries in the classroom. It's so scary! First, the children were too scared to go to class, and then the teachers left too. Now, the children here have to go to Qingping Primary School, which is more than ten miles away. Some kids can't stick with it and gradually stop going to school..."

　　"What's really going on?" I stopped the car and turned to ask the child's father, who had been silent the whole time.

　　The child's father looked at me, scolded the child, "You talk too much!" Then he lowered his head and said humbly, "Sir, please keep driving. We still need to get out of the mountains. I'll tell you everything I know."

　　I drove the car slowly, pricking up my ears to catch every word of the father's narrative without missing a beat.

　　When we reached the outskirts of the mountains, I drove the father and son a bit further. Then I called a friend. After that, I headed towards Cuiping Primary School in my car.

　　In these mountains, there were only two primary schools: Qingping Primary School and Cuiping Primary School. It was Cuiping Primary School that was said to be haunted. Ling had attended Cuiping Primary School when she was a child, so I felt it was my duty and responsibility to uncover the mystery of the "haunting" at Cuiping Primary School and enable the children here to go to school normally.

　　I thought Ling would definitely want me to do something for her younger schoolmates.

　　...

　　Cuiping Primary School was a standalone two-story building with eight classrooms in total, situated in the vast emptiness of the mountains, with the nearest house hundreds of meters away.

　　I parked the car outside the school.

　　It was a good thing I had such good driving skills; otherwise, I might have driven into the ditch.

　　I climbed over the fence and entered the school. It was dusk now, and the setting sun's rays bathed the campus in a golden glow, making it incredibly beautiful.

　　However, what met my eyes was far from the solemn and sacred appearance of a school building. This two-story building looked dilapidated and run-down, and the campus was overgrown with weeds. Even on the concrete playground, wild grass was stubbornly growing through the cracks, which were like menacing claws, shocking to the eye.

　　It seemed that the school had been closed for quite some time.

　　After crossing the playground, I came to the front of the teaching building. The big lock on the iron gate was rusty, indicating that no one had been upstairs for a long time. I found a stone, gave it a casual knock, and the lock broke off. I pushed open the door and stepped upstairs.

　　The walls, which had been painted with lime God knows how many years ago, were severely water-stained. In some places, the paint had peeled off, while in others, there were many mildew spots. Even some ugly black mushrooms were hanging in the corners. The cobwebs on the ceiling trapped many dead mosquitoes and flies. This place was like a corner forgotten by the world.

　　I bumped into a large hanging web, and a gray spider the size of my thumb scurried away in panic. As I brushed off the spiderweb stuck to my head, I peeked into each classroom. The desks were all covered with a thick layer of dust, suggesting that the school had been closed for more than half a year.