After getting a scare, the tension among the three actually eased quite a bit. Zhang Shaoqing grinned as he shared stories he’d heard about couples sneaking off to hook up, while Wen Yang wore a calm smile. Only Ning Chu looked utterly dead inside.
It wasn’t that their cowardice disappointed him. He was simply struck by how perfectly this place fit the label of a smutty webnovel world.
And they’d only been here a little while, yet they’d already run into two couples hooking up outdoors...
In his previous life, he’d occasionally heard about people he knew stumbling across couples sneaking off together, but that had only happened once or twice. Now he’d run into two in a single day.
Did nobody around here have enough money to afford a hotel?
They were a little perverted, sure, but they were harmless horny guys. They were just chasing a thrill, not doing anything heinous, and at least they knew to find a secluded corner. Even if the cops caught them, the worst they’d get was a short detention.
Ning Chu couldn’t help sighing.
He’d naively thought everyone here was normal...
“One of my high school classmates went clothes shopping once and ran into a couple in a changing room. In broad daylight, too. Tsk, they really knew how to have fun.” Zhang Shaoqing turned his head and caught Ning Chu sighing. “What? Did that corrupt your pure little heart?”
“Not really...”
If Ning Chu counted as pure, then he wouldn’t have written smutty webnovels, let alone ended up in such a weird world.
“Then why are you sighing? I’ve never met anyone as shy as you.” Zhang Shaoqing rolled his eyes and said, perfectly self-righteous, “Who gets so scared watching a movie they go pale?”
He even dragged out the last few words, putting extra emphasis on “go pale.”
It wasn’t exactly a normal movie you were watching, either!
It might’ve been different if they were his best friends, but Ning Chu had only known the two of them for a few weeks. They were ordinary friends at best.
“Quit messing around. We’ve got a job to do.” Wen Yang held up his phone to light the way and cut off their bickering.
“What ghost? I bet they just got spooked by one of those couples hooking up.” Zhang Shaoqing muttered. “Just like we did a minute ago...”
“Anyway, let’s look around the teaching building. If we don’t find anything, we’ll head back.”
Zhang Shaoqing waved the wrench in his hand and shouted, “If I really run into a ghost, I’ll smash its damn head in with this wrench!”
“Remind me who ran off first just now?” Ning Chu called him out without mercy, then bragged about his own courage. “Look at you—you all look like men, but you’re scared like a bunch of sissies!”
Though, at the time, his mind had gone blank and his legs had locked up. He just hadn’t reacted in time.
“Heh.” Zhang Shaoqing knew he was in the wrong, so for once he admitted defeat first. He folded his arms and fell silent.
The suspenseful atmosphere from the start had turned pink and steamy. Zhang Shaoqing was rattling off dirty jokes he’d picked up God knew where. Wen Yang, a little virgin, was still pretty well-behaved, just listening, while Ning Chu had already started unconsciously filing those jokes away to use in his book...
Wait! I’m in the book right now!
He’d spent years writing that smutty webnovel in fits and starts. Whenever he read some great work and was left wanting more, he’d write his own text version for fun.
That was how this world became a modern urban setting where all kinds of nonhuman girls and humans lived side by side.
The three of them strolled up the stairs to the second floor. From somewhere, they could faintly hear that sweet, breathy panting again.
Ning Chu kept a blank face. He almost felt like laughing.
Sure enough, there wasn’t a single normal person in this world!
“If there really are ghosts around here, they’re horny ghosts.” Zhang Shaoqing grumbled. “We came looking for a thrill, and ended up playing chaperone to some couple, huh?”
Maybe they’d heard him, because the noise on the second floor stopped at once.
Wen Yang sighed helplessly. “I told you there weren’t any ghosts. You scared that couple.”
“We might as well have stayed in the dorm and played games.”
Listening to them talk put Ning Chu a little more at ease, but he still kept watch in every direction, shining his phone into every corner.
He wondered if that female ghost would be as pretty as the one he’d described in his book.
Maybe it wouldn’t even be the same female ghost?
What if it was a guy?!
His mind was full of random thoughts when, from the corner of his eye, he suddenly spotted a pale figure flash past at the far end of the hallway.
A chill ran down his back. He grabbed Wen Yang’s hand without thinking and pointed toward the end of the hall. “There’s something over there!”
“Don’t scare me.” Wen Yang calmly looked where he was pointing. “Come on, let’s go see.”
“Well, look at you. How’d you get so scared all of a sudden?” Zhang Shaoqing teased Ning Chu as he strode ahead.
When they reached the end of the hallway, Ning Chu nervously looked around and realized they were by the second-floor restroom.
Splat!
All three of them jumped and looked down in unison. Wen Yang had stepped in a puddle.
A puddle outside the restroom was perfectly normal, after all.
“Damn, that scared me!” Zhang Shaoqing grumbled as he headed toward the restroom. “I’m gonna use the bathroom... Actually, never mind. I’ll go when we get back.”
“Come on, let’s go check the third floor.”
Ning Chu strongly suspected the figure he’d just seen was a ghost, which only made him more of a coward. He trailed after Wen Yang with his tail between his legs, already regretting getting involved.
But if he hadn’t come, and a ghost had eaten Wen Yang up, wouldn’t all his efforts have been for nothing?
If he went... at least he’d get to see how Wen Yang got eaten, so his efforts wouldn’t have been entirely wasted.
The teaching building had four floors. The three of them looked around all four, then took a quick peek at the rooftop before leaving, a little disappointed.
Wen Yang had more or less figured it out. Some timid student had probably been spooked by one of those couples hooking up outdoors late at night, then reported it to the school, setting off the ghost rumors.
If there really were ghosts, why hadn’t any of those couples been scared?
“Let’s go, let’s go. What a letdown!” The moment they were back on a street lit by streetlamps, Zhang Shaoqing was brave as ever, boasting, “That ghost was lucky it didn’t run into us tonight!”
“Yeah, sure~”
Ning Chu agreed halfheartedly.
“So what do we do now?” He turned to ask Wen Yang.
“Report it to the school. Just tell them what happened.” Wen Yang shrugged helplessly. “Have the security guards patrol more at night. Then I doubt anyone will keep claiming there are ghosts.”
“Shame there really wasn’t a ghost. If my uncle got involved, we could’ve made some money.”
That plan put Ning Chu at ease. He’d been most afraid that Wen Yang would stubbornly insist on finding the ghost no matter what.
That was a close one. He’d thought they’d triggered an exorcism plot for real~
The white figure he’d seen still unsettled him. Every so often, he looked back at the teaching building, unable to shake his unease.
Maybe the female ghost hadn’t shown herself this time because there were so many of them that she couldn’t handle all three. But what about next time?
From now on, he absolutely couldn’t let Wen Yang come to the teaching building alone!
Ning Chu tried to comfort Wen Yang, who was disappointed about missing out on the money. “It’s fine. If there really had been one, the three of us might not have made it back tonight.”
“That’s true.”
Wen Yang really was pretty innocent for a guy his age who was still a virgin.
If it were him, even without a ghost, he’d have put on a whole shaman act and squeezed some cash out of that damn school!
“Come on, let’s grab some late-night snacks from the second floor of the cafeteria.” Zhang Shaoqing spotted the brightly lit cafeteria in the distance and called to the other two. “My treat. How about chicken cutlets and milk tea?”
Ning Chu suddenly found this villain a lot more likable. “I want a flaky pancake!”
