Chapter 547: Chapter 475: Took the Wrong One
The day had finally dawned.
In the bedroom of the villa, Yang Xiao had endured a whole night without daring to close his eyes. He didn’t know if it was psychological, but every time he closed his eyes, he saw an image of a ghost climbing the stairs in high heels.
He rubbed his weary red eyes, walked over to pull open the curtains, and saw the first pale light of dawn in the east. It was not until that moment that Yang Xiao finally breathed a sigh of relief, tore off the wig, kicked off the high heels, and exhaustedly collapsed onto the bed.
Having slept for less than an hour, Yang Xiao woke up. The villa complex began to stir. He went to the bathroom, splashed his face with cold water, took off the skirt and stockings, and changed back into his normal clothes before he went downstairs and stepped out of the villa.
Near the villa’s gate, Yang Xiao immediately noticed that familiar figure – Monk Wukong had clearly seen him from a distance too. Without waiting for Yang Xiao to come closer, the monk already put his palms together in a gesture of devotion.
Yang Xiao, who had been anxious all night and harboring a bellyful of anger, managed to hold it in, approaching with a feigned smile and said, "Master Wukong, you switched my phone yesterday. I need an explanation today."
"Amitabha, it was this poor monk’s mistake. I... picked up the wrong one," replied Monk Wukong, unperturbed, his tone sincere and calm.
Yang Xiao scoffed, "Is that it?"
"What else did Master think?" Monk Wukong blinked his attractive peach blossom eyes, his expression somewhat innocent.
Taking a deep breath, Yang Xiao realized this monk was no ordinary individual and had no desire to make an enemy of him, so he continued patiently, "Master Wukong, I’m a straightforward person. Please, speak plainly."
After quietly chanting a Buddhist mantra, Monk Wukong suddenly smiled, "Master Chu is kind-hearted and keeps his word, I indeed have something to say."
Yang Xiao immediately perked up, gesturing with his hand, "Please speak!"
"Yesterday, you promised that if we saw each other again today, you would treat this poor monk to buns."
The words of Monk Wukong bewildered Yang Xiao, but regardless, he had survived the night, which was cause for celebration.
At a breakfast stall on the street, Monk Wukong was in high spirits, eating seven meat buns with evident satisfaction, while Yang Xiao just sipped a bowl of millet porridge. He kept eyeing Monk Wukong across from him, but ultimately couldn’t figure out the monk’s true nature.
Yang Xiao had also gotten his own phone back, and upon turning it on, he did not discover anything unusual, as if the other party truly had taken it by mistake.
Before Yang Xiao could continue pondering, his phone suddenly rang. It was a call from Wen Chongxian asking them to come to the hotel immediately.
When Yang Xiao and the monk arrived, three people were already standing outside room 9018 of the hotel. Jin Shun and Che Xuechun showed no particular expression, while Wen Chongxian, sitting against the wall, looked devastated, his cheeks flushed with a handprint on them.
"What happened?" Yang Xiao asked almost out of routine.
Jin Shun, glancing at the overwhelmed Wen Chongxian, replied for him, "Same as before. We can’t reach her. Her phone is ringing inside the room."
After Jin Shun opened the door, a strong smell of blood assaulted their senses. He covered his nose, entered, and soon found Zhang Man’s body on the bed.
The corpse was ghastly, cheeks shattered, limbs twisted, with the abdomen and chest having been crushed under the wheels, leaving shattered internal organs spilling out from wounds on both sides of the body. Only the left eye remained, wide open as if it had beheld some extreme horror right before death.
Zhang Man was wearing a blue dress, stockings, and still had a high heel hanging on one foot, yet despite that, she was dead.
Searching carefully around the room, they finally found a bloody high-heeled shoe print by the window.
The print was on a raised stone step below the window, hidden between the curtain and the window. Everyone involuntarily gasped. The ghost was hiding behind the curtain.
Another high heel had fallen by the bed, a match to the one on Zhang Man’s foot. Based on the scene, the ghost was hiding behind the curtain, and Zhang Man had been attacked by the ghost the moment she pulled back the curtain, but...
Lian Jinsun gazed out the empty window, lost in thought. Given Zhang Man’s state of death, it looked as if she’d been hit by a large truck, and furthermore... the truck had come crashing in from outside the window.
It was a ghost truck.
Staring at Zhang Man’s horrible corpse, everyone fell silent for a moment, feeling a sense of shared doom. It seemed their earlier assumption was wrong; cross-dressing as a feminine man did not garner the ghost’s sympathy, at least not just on that count alone.
Wen Chongxian, with a crestfallen face, practically resigned to his fate, said, "There’s no escape, once chosen to stay in these three haunted houses, one out of three residents is bound to die."
Lian Jinsun scolded him to be quiet, then turned to consult Yang Xiao about the next steps in their plan. According to yesterday’s arrangement, today Lian Jinsun would check Wang Zhongli’s residence, while Yang Xiao would continue the investigation at the school.
With time pressing, everyone quickly set out, leaving Wen Chongxian alone in the hotel as he had become a burden.
On the taxi ride to the school, Yang Xiao called the school archive’s lady teacher, who informed him that she had contacted a female student from back then, willing to reveal the truth about the malignant deeds of Fei Yong and his friends.
Soon, they arranged to meet at a café, and Yang Xiao rushed over there with Monk Wukong.
An hour later, in a small private room of the café, Yang Xiao met a young woman wearing sunglasses. Dressed plainly, she sat down, her hands unnaturally twisted together under the table, and spoke in a low, clearly restrained voice.
The woman introduced herself as Ms. Qin, Fei Yong’s former desk mate, and from her, Yang Xiao and the others learned a truth more unbearable than imagined. Fei Yong, Sha Meihui, and Hu Yuan, leveraging their family’s wealth and influence, frequently bullied other students at school, with Wang Zhongli being one of the victims, and arguably the most tragic one.
"Why do you say that?" Yang Xiao inquired.
"His family was from out of town, and he was always quiet and kept to himself, not very familiar with the rest of us. Except for attending classes or eating in the cafeteria, he liked to be alone in his dorm, and his grades were average, so teachers didn’t pay much attention to him either," she explained.
"So, he was inconspicuous, right?" Yang Xiao summarized.
"Yes," Ms. Qin nodded, her tone gradually turning peculiar, "So Fei Yong and the other two bullied him the most, but of course, there was another reason. Wang Zhongli was... he was a bit odd."
Pausing, as if making up her mind, she gritted her teeth and continued, "He liked to wear women’s clothes, especially dresses. He often hid in his dorm, alone, dressing up in front of a mirror in skirts, high heels, stockings, and even wore long wavy wigs—the kind for women."
"We all didn’t know about this initially until... until one day, I saw Fei Yong pulling out a photo, grinning," she recalled.
