Translator: CinderTL
"As long as they're not ghosts, I don't care who they are," Fatty muttered under his breath.
As he spoke, the group of five approached them. Jiang Cheng could sense they were just as wary of the trio.
"Who are you?" Huai Yi asked.
"Don't be nervous," the Bearded Man replied. "We're just like you—we all got off that bus."
The mention of the bus made the others visibly uncomfortable.
Jiang Cheng scrutinized the Bearded Man. "I was on the bus too. How come I didn't see you?"
"You were in the front; we were in the back," a frail-looking man around 25 answered quietly.
Jiang Cheng pressed further, and the group managed to explain away his questions convincingly—until he asked about the Old Madam.
"We didn't see any old woman," the Bearded Man said, giving Jiang Cheng a strange look. "Our mission came from the bus's announcement: a missing person notice."
"An announcement?" Jiang Cheng frowned.
"That's right," the Bearded Man confirmed. "It was playing on the bus. Didn't you hear it?"
"No."
Jiang Cheng was surprised to find a radio in the bus. It seemed this vehicle held more secrets than he had imagined.
After a moment of contemplation, Jiang Cheng seized upon a contradiction in the middle-aged man's story. "You said you saw us, but the Old Madam was right beside us, even talking to us. Why didn't you see her?"
The middle-aged man explained, "We only caught a glimpse of you boarding the bus before you disappeared into the fog. We didn't dare approach."
"Did you hear any other sounds on the bus besides the radio?" Jiang Cheng pressed, his eyes fixed on the man.
The middle-aged man thought hard, then shook his head. "No, just the radio. But we did see some things."
He paused, then turned to a woman behind him. "Miss Shen, why don't you explain?"
A tall woman with light makeup spoke up. "I was sitting further back. Four rows directly behind me, someone was holding a black umbrella that completely obscured their face. But my intuition told me it was a man."
"In the fifth row to my right, by the window, there was a woman wearing a floral dress. Her hair was golden, like a porcelain doll's."
"What happened after that?" Jiang Cheng asked. "Did anything strange occur after you spotted those two people?"
The woman glanced at him coldly. "No," she replied.
Jiang Cheng was slightly surprised.
Noticing his expression, she retorted, "Are you new here?"
A flicker of panic surfaced on Jiang Cheng's usually calm face after a few seconds. Though he tried to conceal it, it didn't escape the others' notice.
"Don't be nervous," the woman said in a condescending tone. "An experienced person wouldn't ask such a question. After spotting them, I chose to abandon further observation and maintain the status quo. Rashly disturbing them could be dangerous."
"I'm not nervous," Jiang Cheng insisted stubbornly, stiffening his neck.
While they were talking, a small gate beside the school's main entrance swung open, and a woman in her forties emerged. Dressed conservatively in a high-necked sweater and glasses, she looked thoroughly unremarkable.
Upon seeing Jiang Cheng and the others, she hurried over, her gaze sweeping over them as if counting heads. "You must be the new transfer students?"
"Yes," someone replied.
So this was their new identity.
The woman turned and said, "Follow me," leading them into the school grounds.
Though the school gate was dilapidated, the interior facilities were surprisingly modern, and the campus sprawled across a vast area. After a fifteen-minute walk, they were led to a classroom door.
"You'll sit in on a few classes first to familiarize yourselves with our teaching style," the woman said, adjusting her glasses. "We'll take care of the paperwork later. The lectures are more important."
To avoid disrupting the ongoing class, Jiang Cheng and his group quietly slipped in through the back door. The tiered lecture hall could accommodate over a hundred students.
An elderly professor with a hunched back stood at the front, scribbling diagrams on the blackboard.
Only a handful of students occupied the front rows, craning their necks to follow the professor's work, looking endearingly awkward in their concentration. The rest of the class had clustered in the back, heads bowed over their phones.
"No seats left," Fatty grumbled reluctantly. "Looks like we'll have to sit up front."
Just as they were about to move forward, Jiang Cheng stopped them with a gesture. He pointed to one of his female teammates, signaling for her black handbag.
The woman was around thirty years old, with darker skin and a quiet demeanor that made her almost invisible. She glanced at the middle-aged man first, and only after confirming he had no objections, she handed her bag to Jiang Cheng. Everyone watched him with puzzled expressions, wondering what he was up to.
Jiang Cheng took the bag, straightened his clothes, and walked up behind a male student who was bent over, chuckling foolishly as he stared at his crotch, completely oblivious to Jiang Cheng's approach.
Jiang Cheng raised the bag and slammed it against the back of the student's head, startling him so badly he nearly dropped his phone.
As the student turned around, Jiang Cheng casually tucked the bag under his arm, his eyes cold and domineering as he glared down at the student. "What do you think you're doing?" he demanded in a low but commanding voice.
The voice wasn't loud, but its authority was undeniable.
Before the student could react, Jiang Cheng turned to Fatty and barked, "Teacher Wang, note down this student's major and class. I want his academic advisor to explain this to me after the meeting."
"Understood, Director Jiang," Fatty replied, reaching into his pocket as if he expected to pull out a notepad and pen from thin air.
The male student instantly panicked, rushing to explain, "Director, please, please don't do this! Give me another chance! I'm a student council member, and if I do well this year, I'll be promoted to department head next year!"
"Get to the front and listen to the lecture!" Jiang Cheng barked.
"Yes, yes, I understand, Director," the student stammered, bowing obsequiously as he grabbed his bag and scurried to the front row.
As Jiang Cheng's gaze shifted, the students in the back rows paled. They stood up in unison and silently moved to the front, not daring to make a sound.
Once the first row was filled, they scrambled for seats in the second.
The elderly professor, who had been lecturing, paused when he heard the commotion behind him. He set down his pen, turned around, and stared in stunned silence at the flood of students rushing forward.
He slowly removed his thick reading glasses, his hands trembling as he opened their case. He took out a cleaning cloth, wiped the lenses meticulously, and hastily put them back on.
After confirming that this wasn't a hallucination, the corners of the professor's eyes began to glisten.
(End of the Chapter)
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