Chapter 38: The Frenzy of Ruan Shiyin

Ruan Shiyin reached out both hands and gripped "Fang Ping's" throat, lifting her up. She was momentarily stunned—the living person in her hands weighed less than a few apples.

Yet, the Fang Ping before her looked so flesh-and-blood, and the scent was unmistakable.

She slowly applied pressure. A crunching sound of snapping bones came from "Fang Ping's" neck, and in the next second, the head rolled onto the ground, spinning twice.

Ruan Shiyin froze. She saw thin bamboo strips and paper at the neck of the severed head, and looking at the corpse in her hands, the jagged edges revealed the same materials.

This...

She couldn't help but recall the night two days ago, when those two students who violated school rules had vanished in this exact, inexplicable way.

Someone was targeting her!

At this moment, Ruan Shiyin could sense the presence of several "Fang Pings" wandering throughout the school.

How could one person be divided into so many? Unless they were dismembered!

She was about to leave when her body suddenly grew heavy. An invisible pressure seemed to pin her to the spot.

Having been dead for twenty years and having harmed many students, Ruan Shiyin was no longer an ordinary wandering spirit, but a fierce and malevolent ghost. As she slowly forced her body to move, the faint sound of things snapping echoed in the air.

At that moment, the school’s loudspeaker blared:

[Ruan Shiyin, as a staff member of the school administration, you have failed to conduct yourself with propriety. You engaged in indecent acts with the principal, violating human ethics. Furthermore, you have harmed students after your death; you are incorrigible and guilty of heinous crimes! The Department of Education has decided to strip you of your position as Dean of Students at Nalan Mude and suspend you immediately. You are henceforth prohibited from engaging in any education-related profession!]

It was the voice of the current principal, Song Fen.

Ruan Shiyin looked toward the broadcasting room in shock. Why? There was clearly no trace of Song Fen's presence there...

She could not know that it was merely a pre-recorded audio file playing on a timer; modern equipment was, after all, quite different from what it had been twenty years ago.

Too many things she couldn't comprehend had happened in these few minutes, and her mind was on the verge of crashing.

She shrieked toward the broadcasting room: "The Department of Education has no reason to listen to you! You say I'm fired, so I'm fired? I don't believe it!"

Subconsciously, Ruan Shiyin tried to return to the "School Administration Office" to break free from the mysterious binding force, but in the next second, her connection to the office was severed entirely.

She was like someone who had forgotten the way home.

She could not go back...

Who is doing this to me!

"HE JINTAI!!!!"

Ruan Shiyin’s hair stood on end without a breeze. Her eye sockets began to fill with black blood vessels, and she started to descend into madness. She suspected the ghost of the former principal, He Jintai, was at work, or perhaps that damn Fang Ping was playing tricks!

Why must they oppose her even after death!

Was it not that old woman who caused her to become like this in the first place?

If she had only pretended not to know...

Ruan Shiyin’s eyes bled, and her entire body was pressed against the floor by an invisible force. She roared, her ten fingers clawing frantically at the concrete floor, sending stone chips flying!

She was actually trying to stand up against the pressure.

She frantically scanned every inch of the school, trying to ferret out the despicable coward hiding in the shadows.

In a teaching building office, Li Xuan held a sword in his right hand, supporting the spine of the blade with his left. The invisible force transmitted from the ground caused the peach-wood sword to bend gradually!!

Wood has a limit to its flexibility. The sound of wood fibers tearing echoed, and a crack appeared on the spine of the sword.

Li Xuan breathed heavily, thinking to himself: *As expected, trying to suppress the dismissed Ruan Shiyin with just this Mount Dongyue Array is still not enough. Do I really have to use the trump card on the rooftop?*

*I’m a bit intimidated...*

He felt a drop of blood run from his nose.

His magical power was insufficient, and his body too weak—he needed a boost.

Stepping on the sword's spine, he pulled a bottle of ginseng oral liquid he’d bought at the pharmacy from his pocket and gulped it down!

*Crack!*

*Crack...*

Li Xuan took the Fengdu Treasure Seal and pressed it firmly onto the sword's spine!

*Bang!*

The sword shattered into pieces as it slammed into the ground.

On the playground, Ruan Shiyin lay prone, surrounded by pools of viscous black liquid. She was no longer the beautiful, moving figure she had been in life; her skin was charred black, her eye sockets hollow and shriveled, looking exactly like a burn victim crawling out of a fire.

She smelled the scent of fresh blood—it was coming from the teaching building office!

She turned her head, staring fixedly, the strength in her sinews slowly waning.

*Die!*

Whoever it was, they had to die!

Ruan Shiyin was in unbearable pain, a torment that brought her back to the fire twenty years ago.

Just as she struggled to charge toward the teaching building, the sound of footsteps echoed from the school gate...

"Ruan Shiyin, your mother has come to see you."

A voice suddenly rang out.

She went rigid. Mechanically, she turned her head to see two people standing at the gate. Under the lights, the current Dean of Students, Fang Xiaoyi, was supporting a hunched, white-haired old woman with a face full of wrinkles...

"Ah!"

Ruan Shiyin hurriedly covered her face, stumbling backward until she fell to the ground, screaming:

"Don't come over here!"

In life, she feared nothing more than her mother learning of her sordid dealings with the principal; now, in this hideous ghost form, her shame and resentment were unbearable.

Fang Xiaoyi had the talisman water Li Xuan had given her. She had soaked a towel in it to wipe the old woman’s face, allowing her to see ghosts as well.

The old woman looked in shock at the black-clad woman screaming on the ground inside the school. Her lips trembled, unable to believe her eyes as she spoke: "A... Ah-Yin?"

The night wind was cold...

The old woman’s carefully combed hair was blown into disarray by the breeze. She had come to see her daughter today, even taking special care to wear a clean, red floral coat.

Fang Xiaoyi gently let go, allowing the old woman to walk inside.

Her phone screen was lit; the call had been ongoing for half an hour. Ever since Li Xuan entered the school, the two had not stopped talking...

Whether it was because they couldn't suppress Ruan Shiyin or if the call suddenly dropped, they had to bring Ruan Shiyin’s mother inside.

Fang Xiaoyi followed at a distance, her right hand in her pocket, gripping the [Mount Dongyue Token] talisman Li Xuan had given her. If she and the old woman were attacked by Ruan Shiyin, she would immediately strike with the token and then drag the old woman out, even if it meant dragging her by force...

Tears streamed from the old woman’s cloudy eyes as she said with a sob: "Ah-Yin, let's go home. You haven't been back in so long, I've been waiting for you for such a long time..."

She remembered now: her daughter, Ruan Shiyin, had been burned to death a long time ago.

All of Ruan Shiyin's ferocity collapsed in that instant. She had thought the school hired an expert to destroy her, but she never expected them to bring her mother...

She covered her face with her hands, not daring to look. Blood streamed through her fingers as she wailed: "I won't go back... I won't go back!"

How could she go back!

She no longer had a life.

The old woman was also weeping bitterly, wiping her eyes with trembling hands as she stepped closer:

"I've heard a little about what happened at the school these past few years. People say... you were messing around with the principal, and that you continued to harm students after you died. They came to our house and smashed your spirit tablet...

Ah-Yin...

Mom’s heart aches so much. Why did you have to go to such lengths when you could have just lived a good life?"

Ruan Shiyin’s eyes were gradually filled with black, her resentment churning as she gritted her teeth:

"Mom... this world is a cannibal! I didn't want to rot in the slums of Causeway Bay as an ordinary person for the rest of my life! I wanted to wear beautiful clothes, live in a beautiful house, and bring you there too...

We shouldn't have to suffer anymore. Why must we suffer? Why? Just because we were born poor, just because we are the lowest of the low?

That man, He Jintai, was in his thirties. Did you really think I loved him? He was rich, and I just wanted to change my fate through him! Mom, you have to understand me! Understand me!"

The old woman was crying until she was nearly fainting.

She trembled: "Did you really harm those students? They were innocent!"

Ruan Shiyin’s body shook uncontrollably, black liquid spilling from her mouth and nose. Her voice grew hoarse and heavy, her eyeballs rolling uncontrollably as she emitted a madman’s shriek: "Why? Because I was still the Dean of Students! What’s wrong with punishing students! I was just doing my job! Didn't that bitch Fang Ping say I corrupted the school atmosphere? I’ll adjust it right now, I’ll adjust it thoroughly..."