I Wasn't Born Lucky

Xiao Li went to one side, pressed the recording button and picked up, recording the third ghost call. Compared with the previous two silences, this time the ghost on the other side of the phone finally spoke. "Ïn seven days... you’ll come down with me!"

The ghost’s voice was hoarse, as if it directly came from hell. Anybody who heard it would feel their body cool.

Xiao Li listened calmly. "I don’t know how to come down and accompany you. It is more realistic for you to come up and accompany me."

The ghost on the other side of the phone paused before stating gloomily, "You leave here and walk into the middle of the road. Then you can come down and accompany me."

"However, I don’t want to die yet. Even if I die, I won’t choose this method."

He held his mobile phone to his ear using his shoulder and rolled up his sleeves to see a number on his arm: 96.

The countdown to death had begun.

The ghost on the phone saw his actions and laughed, "The countdown has begun. You have no way to escape. Die! Come down and stay with me!"

Xiao Li tentatively tried to say, "If you just want someone to accompany you, I know a few good people, I mean, good ghosts. There is Bloody Mary or the pen fairy. You would find it easy to get along with them. If that isn’t enough, there are the sick ghosts from a ghost hospital. You can fill a mahjong table with them."

Ghost, "......"

The ghost hung up the phone.

Xiao Li looked at the ’beep beep’ coming from the phone, pulled up the caller ID and called back. His movements were very fast and the power of the phone ghost hadn’t disappeared yet. He called back and it really connected with the phone ghost. No sound came from the other end.

Xiao Li was a bit depressed. "I was speaking, how could you hang up? Didn’t you want someone to go down with you?"

The ghost hung up again and blocked his signal. Xiao Li looked at the phone screen that showed no signal and he had to put away his phone. He rolled down his sleeve and strolled back to where the others were located. Xie Zeqing and the others knew what this phone call meant and didn’t ask much apart from showing a heavy expression.

Lin Xiangyi looked at the time on the watch around her wrist. "I have a quarter of an hour until class. Please ask me."

Luo Dian had already asked what she wanted to know so she looked at Xiao Li’s group of two and signalled to them to ask.

Xiao Li asked, "What type of person is your teacher?"

Lin Xiangyi sighed heavily. "Sister Meiyou was a good person. She was very beautiful and her relationship was harmonious. She was so good yet happened to encounter an accident."

Xiao Li nodded. "I have nothing to ask."

Luo Dian was surprised. "You have no more questions?"

"You’ve asked so many times and there are no clues. Maybe you should go in the other direction."

Luo Dian said goodbye to Lin Xiangyi. "We disturbed you on your way to class. If there is a chance next time, I will invite you to dinner."

"There is no need to eat, Sister Luo." Lin Xiangyi raised her backpack and spoke hesitantly, "Are you still struggling with the anonymous calls? I think it is better to go see a doctor or call the police. Chenfeng’s mother also said they would take her to see a psychiatrist."

Luo Dian smiled and didn’t answer. She patted Lin Xiangyi’s head and watched the girl run into the teaching building.

Luo Dian sighed. "Youth is good."

"Don’t be sentimental, Sister. What should we do next? There is no time and no clues..." Han Jin pulled up his sleeve and looked at the number on his arm that had plummeted after a night passed.

Xiao Li wondered, "Where is the dance teacher’s office?"

"The fourth floor of the administrative building. However, it is a big office and there are many teachers present during the day. Xiao Qing went in to see but it was very strict. It is only at night that there is no one..."

Luo Dian’s message was clear. Her teammate had previously worked at the academy and if there was a clue then it would’ve been found.

"What if the school is just a cover and we were misled? In fact, this has nothing to do with the dance teacher and she is just a ghost call victim used to bring us here, just like a plot character." Xie Zeqing speculated based on his previous experience.

This was a common method in the instance world. It liked to set up such a counter-truth to mislead the reincarnators.

Xiao Li shook his head. "f this was a cover, why did their teammates die here? Something should be found..."

"Luo Dian and I have visited the school." Han Jin didn’t want to waste time since they didn’t have much time left.

"What time did you go?"

"The day..."

"Some things might only be visible in the darkness."

He opened his phone and created a new memo, asking Zhou Ying, "Is there a way to detect the direction of the incoming ghost call?"

The child had been cleared Tetris and was addicted to the greedy snake. He heard these words and typed a reply: 【 Its power is above mine and I have no way to see it. 】

After all, Zhou Ying was still young and the grievances of the female ghost too strong. It was normal not to be aware of this.

Xiao Li bowed his head and saw a single player game running in the background. He suddenly had an idea that he was too indulgent with the child. No matter what the child had suffered, his education couldn’t be poor. Xiao Li started to educate Zhou Ying with a solemn expression. "I have downloaded an app that contains simulation exams for five years of school. You have to finish it with at least 60 points before you can continue playing games."

Zhou Ying: 【 ...I’m a ghost, Xiao Li. I don’t need to take the exams. 】

"A wealth of knowledge is good for you. The first time I say you, you wrote an acrostic poem and now you are only playing games."

Zhou Ying: 【!!! 】

******

Night.

Darkness shrouded the dance academy but unlike an ordinary campus, the dance practice rooms and some club rooms still had the lights on. Some people were still practicing in the dance rooms in preparation for the upcoming contest.

Still, whether there was someone on the campus or not, night time was the ghost’s favourite time. It was also the time that reincarnators wanted to see the least.

Xiao Li and the others had collected the school’s information during the day. They bypassed the security guard’s patrol route and headed straight to the dance teacher’s office.

The administrative building was quiet and dark. The elevator was stopped and they could only take the stairs. Their footsteps mixed together on the stairs and stopped at the door of an office on the fourth floor. The door was locked.

"I have a way." Luo Dian took out a wire from her pocket, bending over and skilfully poking it into the keyhole. There was a click and the door opened in response.

Luo Dian carefully pushed open the door and went in. The office had a total of six desks, three on the left and three on the right. Four desks were full of things. Only two desks were empty and clean. There was a large cardboard box filled with odds and ends on the desk near the window.

Luo Dian turned on the flashlight and shone it inside the office. "Out of the two empty desks, one belongs to Xiao Qing and the other is Chen Meiyou."

Xiao Li walked to Chen Meiyou’s large cardboard box and placed a finger on the glass table. Under the glass was her class schedule. He reached out to take a photo frame from the top of the cardboard box. He held the photograph and looked at it in the moonlight.

The woman in the photo wore a red dress and smiled sweetly with her hands on her boyfriend’s shoulders. The man beside her had slightly longer hair, wore a leather coat and had stubble. He held the woman’s hand and smiled at the camera. They looked like a pair of sweet lovers just based on the photo.

Xiao Li put the photo aside and looked at the other things in the carton.

There were some trivial things in the box such as a stack of materials, dance conference flyers that had the time carefully circled by Chen Meiyou, a bottle of half-used hand cream, a thermos cup, a band aid, alcohol, cotton, iodine...

Xie Zeqing had originally been leaning against the edge of the window, patiently watching Xiao Li take out the things one by one. Then he became impatient and glanced out the window. The stars above their head were sparse and the soft moonlight broke the darkness, spilling onto the ground.

Then the young man suddenly shook. His casual look turned to concentration and he turned his body. "Shh."

Xiao Li stopped flipping through the cardboard box. "What is it?"

"Just... there was a ’person’ in red clothes who walked in." Xie Zeqing lowered his voice as he bent down and slowly moved away from the window. "We should go now."

Xiao Li’s location was also close to the door. He looked down and not far from the door of the administrative building, he found a row of bloody footprints. Based on the direction, they were heading inside the administration building. They had no reason to put everything back in place and ran straight out, not daring to make any noise.

Luo Dian gritted her teeth and pulled out the necklace she had been wearing around her neck. The necklace was a small lock and she pulled out the lock, twisting it. "Silent Binding, a special item. It lasts for five minutes and we can run without worrying about making a sound!"

This was a magic weapon obtained when playing hide-and-seek with a ghost.

Xie Zeqing released his full speed and ran forward. "How do you have so many items?"

Luo Dian replied, "It is a special instance with many items in it. That is another secret I will tell you if I survive."

They rushed away from the floor that contained the office but had to make a difficult choice at the stairwell. "If we go straight down, won’t we encounter the female ghost in red?"

"There is a safe passage." Xiao Li stated. He had looked at the school’s map in the afternoon and wrote down the route. "Go here."

The safe passage that was rarely used was a small door next to the elevator. The stairwell was covered with dust. Han Jin sneezed as soon as he entered.

Luo Dian and Xie Zeqing walked in front, Han Jin was in the middle and Xiao Li was last. The group of people moved very quickly. No one wanted to be chased by the ghost in red.

The eager Han Jin somehow fell down the stairs and rolled straight down the stairs. Han Jin himself couldn’t see the truth but Xiao Li behind him could see it very clearly. It wasn’t Han JIn who fell. There was a hand that emerged from the stairs that grabbed Han Jin and dragged him down. Luo Dian, who had run past, turned back and picked up Han JIn. The two people looked at the stairs together.

On that step, a layer of blood bubbles continued to pour out. There was a person’s upper body floating here and it was the culprit behind grabbing Han Jin.

Xie Zeqing bent down. "I-I’ll try to communicate with—"

He hadn’t finished his sentence when behind the bloody ghost, Xiao Li took out his phone from his pocket. He reached out and placed it to the blood ghost’s ears. A voice full of resentment echoed in the silent corridor. "Ïn seven days... you’ll come down with me!"

It was the curse of the third ghost call!

Xie Zeqing, "......"

Luo Dian, "......"

The blood ghost cursed after hearing the ghost call, "???"

The author has something to say:

Blood ghost: I’m dead. How can I accompany you down? In addition, what is this countdown? Can I resurrect after the countdown is over?