Volume 2, Chapter 60 (Chapter 98): You’re In Big Trouble!

8:30, in Huacheng’s University of Technology.

A junior and a senior, guided by fate, would run into each other in the corner, and their breakfast would be scattered all over the floor.

A handsome man would carry his friend with a sprained ankle, and his smile would make anyone’s day.

A professor would sigh as he tapped a message into his phone, which read, [I wish I could skip class too, but I’m a f*cking teacher!]

Lu Yibei would walk into campus grounds with his backpack, and his gaze would dart around him, seemingly worried about something.

Although he didn’t do anything bad, there was a kitchen knife and seventeen or eighteen charms in his bag, which always made him feel like he was carrying a backpack of weapons.

He regretted not taking the statue with him. A boy carrying a guitar bag is normal in this day and age.

The first class on Monday morning was taught by Professor Ma, and the attendance rate was exceptionally high.

When Lu Yibei managed to squeeze through the crowd and came to the classroom, it was already full of people, leaving only a few seats near the podium vacant.

Finding a place relatively far away from the podium and sitting down, Lu Yibei looked at the empty podium and frowned slightly.

‘Strange, where is he?’

Sure enough, the bell rang, and Professor Ma entered the class right on time.

The once hearty old man who was strangely eager to deduct a student’s points seemed dull—dark circles under his eyes, and his hair unkempt and messy. His clothes were tucked and untucked, and the hairs on his temples were snow-white.

Professor Ma walked to the centre of the podium in a trance, weakly saying, “Self-study session today. If any of you leave the class, I’ll be deducting points.”

After speaking, he hurriedly left the classroom.

The same words sounded like the lamentation of a tiger that had been declawed, and soon the classroom became noisy.

Lu Yibei looked at the direction in which Professor Ma left, and he felt doubt.

Professor Ma is strict not only with students but with himself as well. This is out of character for him.

Not only was he late today, but he seemed out of it.

Something strange must have happened.

Yibei decided to follow him. If Professor Ma had encountered an urban legend, maybe he could help (and take the urban legend’s core for himself to eat!)

Although he didn’t have to worry about hunger for the time being, he felt that the 60 charms he made in total were too little.

If possible, he plans to make three to five hundred more.

In the long corridor, the lights flickered, sending the empty hallway into liminal darkness from time to time.

Professor Ma walked forward while leaning on the wall, his mind plagued by the events of the past few days.

Tap, tap, tap.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps could be heard behind him, and his heart dropped to the floor. He slowed his pace, and when the footsteps were right behind him, he roared out.

“Who’s there?”

Yibei was visibly startled, and he brought his hands up to his chest and said, “It’s me, Professor Ma. I’m Lu Yibei.”

“Phew!” Professor Ma exclaimed as he patted his chest and let out a sigh of relief. “Why are you following me? Go back to class, or I’ll deduct your grades!”

‘Is that all you know?’ Yibei gritted his teeth.

“You asked me to help in your laboratory before, but I don’t know where the lab is, so I thought of asking you.”

Everything should be done gradually. Yibei knew that if he were to ask Professor Ma if something abnormal was happening to him, he wouldn’t ever spill the beans.

“Oh…” Professor Ma nodded thoughtfully and smiled bitterly. “I’ve decided to withhold the project. You don’t need to participate in it for now.”

Those bamboo scrolls triggered something sinister, and he didn’t want to research them any longer.

Although there have been no casualties so far, he feels that there is a greater danger lurking in places he cannot see.

He couldn’t let his student venture into the unknown depths with him.

“Professor Ma… Are you okay?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Something must have happened to you,” Yibei explained. “I can read faces well, and I can tell something is up.”

Even if one doesn’t know how to read faces, anyone could tell that the professor is going through something.

“Is that true?”

“Yes. You can trust me.”

“Well, in that case,” Professor Ma said, looking around the empty corridor before getting closer to him. “Not to me, but to my student. Something happened to him.”

Thinking of Lu Xu, he frowned again. The bamboo scrolls must be causing Lu Xu to…

“I’m going to see him now. Maybe you should come along.”

Professor Ma could sense something in Yibei, having encountered some strange things himself. He believes that everything can be explained with science, and hence, he chooses to believe in Yibei.

“Sure, but I’m not sure how I’m supposed to help.”

“Try,” Professor Ma forced a smile. “Whether it works or not, I will be in your debt.”

“Besides, if anything goes wrong…” Professor Ma continued as he gripped Yibei’s shoulder. “Promise me you will ensure your own safety.”

Ten minutes later, Lu Yibei met Lu Xu in the postgraduate dormitory of the University.

He sat in the corner of the room against the wall, wrapped his body in a quilt, and huddled up, not responding to any stimuli as he trembled from time to time.

Lu Yibei looked at Lu Xu; he didn’t even blink his eyes once the entire time he was in here.

“Lu Xu, this is my student, Lu Yibei. He might be able to help your situation,” Professor Ma said.

Professor Ma and Lu Yibei entered the dormitory with keys borrowed from the dormitory manager. Lu Xu was not surprised by these two unexpected visitors, or rather, he did not care that they were in his room.

“A few days ago, he came to me saying he was suffering from depression and wanted to withdraw from the project. I was too engrossed in my work, so I simply referred him to the university’s psychologist. He was completely normal, albeit tired and anxious, so I gave him a few days off.”

After a pause, Professor Ma glanced at Lu Xu with some distress and said, “I received the news this morning that he had injured his roommate. He hasn’t slept at all for the past few days, and he would murmur unintelligibly.

“His roommate told us that he was like a dog infected with rabies, pouncing at him and trying to bite him. As if something was possessing him,” the professor whispered.

‘A possession? An evil spirit?’ Lu Yibei deduced, thinking back to the time when he was possessed by Zhu Linglong, and his abdomen shifted uncomfortably from memory.

While thinking, Lu Yibei looked at his backpack from the corner of his eye.

The charm, he thought. ‘I might as well try it out. See if it’s effective.’