Chapter 206: Chapter 174: The Substitute
It wasn’t Xu Yu. Another man in a suit had appeared in the forest, and without guessing, it must have been the real Teacher Wang who had followed them.
But... why?
Without seeking out Sun Shengnan who caused his death, he had instead set his sights on them. It would have been fine if it was before, but today he was playing the role of the principal, not a male teacher.
But now discussing this was meaningless. The ghost had targeted him, so how to survive was the key.
Yang Xiao forced himself to calm down and quickly replied to Teacher Xu Yu’s message, confirming to continue as planned. To distinguish between Xu Yu and the real ghost, Yang Xiao requested Xu Yu to adorn each shoulder of his suit with a twig.
After putting away his phone, Yang Xiao couldn’t help but sigh inwardly, a forest hiding both a real and a fake ghost, what a scene this was.
Returning to the tree, he found Xia Xiuyan below it, already like a startled bird, flashing the flashlight around in fear that a figure would suddenly appear. Seeing Yang Xiao return, she wished she could throw herself into his arms, "Chu Xi, I’ve thought it over, we... we won’t film anymore, let’s go back!"
"Go back? How are we going to explain to Ms. Shengnan?" Yang Xiao intentionally scared her, "And what about Director Ding, Director Ding has quite the temper."
"Also, we’ve already come almost halfway, even if we were to return the same way, it would take a long time." What’s done cannot be undone, Yang Xiao knew that with the ghost having found them, going back the same way would only be more dangerous; they might even get lost in this forest.
Xia Xiuyan, having lost her own judgment, could only follow behind Yang Xiao, "Did you see it just now, over there... there was something standing there."
"I didn’t see it very clearly, but it seemed like a man, dressed in a suit." Yang Xiao said with a sinister tone, "Strange, it seemed like he was dressed as the male teacher."
Xia Xiuyan shuddered and almost started crying, gripping Yang Xiao’s arm tightly, "You’re saying... it’s not possible that the teacher really came looking for us, is it?"
"Don’t scare me. I have no grudges with the teacher, why would he seek me? If he’s looking for anyone, it’s you." Yang Xiao immediately tried to disassociate himself from Xia Xiuyan.
"You... don’t talk nonsense. This has nothing to do with me, it’s all Ms. Shengnan, it’s all..." The next second, Xia Xiuyan immediately shut her mouth, as if realizing she had spoken out of turn.
Yang Xiao curiously asked, "What about Ms. Shengnan? What happened to her?"
"It’s... nothing, let’s hurry up and complete the task so we can leave this place." Xia Xiuyan refused to continue the subject.
So close, Yang Xiao thought coldly, with both a real and a fake ghost here, Xia Xiuyan would surely tell the truth eventually, but the key now was how to save their own lives.
After a brief torrential downpour, the rain started to ease up, and the moon emerged, greatly improving visibility in the forest. Yang Xiao told Xia Xiuyan to turn off the flashlight, and the two moved forward using the moonlight.
"Turn off... the flashlight?" The flashlight now was Xia Xiuyan’s emotional crutch.
"Quit wasting words. Think about it, in a forest as dark as this, with your flashlight on, are you worried that thing won’t be able to find you?"
Under Yang Xiao’s lead, the two quickly reached the fourth marker. Then, at a coincidental moment, Xia Xiuyan once again spotted "Teacher Wang."
"Ghost! There’s a ghost!"
Xia Xiuyan suddenly plunged into Yang Xiao’s embrace, shaking like a leaf, and seeing the white figure near a large stone not far away, Yang Xiao breathed a sigh of relief. The figure was in a drenched beige suit, hanging his head, with broken willow branches dangling from the shoulders of the suit.
Soon, the figure slowly moved and then disappeared into the night.
"Xiuyan, what’s wrong?" Once the figure had completely vanished, Yang Xiao began his act, "What did you see?"
"A ghost, it’s a ghost!"
"Where’s a ghost? You’re not scaring me, are you?" Yang Xiao turned Xia Xiuyan’s body around to look back in the direction of the stone.
Xia Xiuyan’s eyes widened with terror, "How can this be? Just now... just now I clearly saw something near that stone, a figure, no, not right, a ghost! It must be a ghost!"
"You really saw it?" Yang Xiao asked.
"I’m sure of it, it was him!" Xia Xiuyan cried.
"Then that’s strange, why can you see it and I can’t, could it be..." Yang Xiao suddenly paused, "he’s coming for you?"
"I was wrong, I was wrong, Teacher Wang still won’t let me go, but it was all what Ms. Shengnan made me do, it has nothing to... nothing to do with me." Xia Xiuyan broke down, the successive scares completely collapsing her mental defenses.
"What about Ms. Shengnan? What on earth did you do?"
Just as Yang Xiao found the opportunity to ask, the next second, Xia Xiuyan’s gaze shifted behind Yang Xiao, her face turned deathly pale, her mouth involuntarily agape. Seconds before Xia Xiuyan could scream, Yang Xiao made the best decision, he grabbed Xia Xiuyan and threw her behind him without looking back, and then he broke into a run.
Not until he had run a dozen meters did he dare to look back; in the dim moonlight, Yang Xiao noticed behind where he had just stood, not far off amid several jagged boulders, stood a ghastly figure, looking down at them from a height.
The distance was too far, and the light too poor to see clearly in a hurry, but the beige suit was unmistakable, and moreover, the shoulders were spotlessly clean.
Before Yang Xiao could take a closer look, Xia Xiuyan struggled and ran over, throwing herself on Yang Xiao, nearly knocking him over.
"Don’t leave me, don’t leave me!!"
As Yang Xiao steadied himself and looked towards the boulders again, the figure had disappeared, leaving the area between the boulders empty.
