Chapter 169: The Reason for Jumping
Lin Huai and the others quietly made their way back to the wing where First Year, Class 16 was located.
They did not dare get too close to the door. Instead, they hid around the corner of the hallway, keeping a careful watch on the tightly shut classroom.
From behind the wood, Teacher Gao’s cold, unyielding voice drifted out faintly. Mixed with it was Sister Cai’s frustrated mutter—”This question isn’t even in the textbook!”—followed by a heavy, impatient sigh from Dragon Emerging from the Sea.
“It sounds like the tutoring is still going on,” Cute and Sparkling whispered anxiously. “Brother Long and the others are close to their breaking point.”
“Breaking in by force won’t work, and sneaking them the answers is too risky…” Lin Huai frowned, scanning the dim hallway for any possible way through.
Just then, out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flicker of white darting behind a cracked window next to the classroom.
The shadow moved like drifting smoke, completely weightless and unnatural.
“There’s something over there!” Lin Huai whispered, waving for the group to follow.
Stepping lightly, she led them toward the broken frame.
The window had been boarded up with wooden planks, but wide gaps ran between the slats.
Peering through the openings, they saw an abandoned room filled with broken desks, chairs, and piles of discarded junk. Specks of dust drifted lazily in the thin beams of light cutting through the wood.
In the far corner, the pale silhouette slowly came into focus. It was a teenage girl wearing the same faded school uniform. She had her back turned to them, her shoulders slightly hunched as if she were softly weeping.
Her form was translucent, and her feet hovered several inches above the dusty floorboards.
Worst of all, dark, dried blood coated the crown of her head. This was no ordinary non-player character; she was a genuine, lingering ghost.
“She’s… she’s the student who jumped from the roof, isn’t she?” Milk Tea Seven Parts Sugar covered her mouth, her voice trembling.
Lin Huai drew a slow breath, raised her hand, and lightly tapped on the wooden planks. “Hello? Classmate?”
The girl’s shoulders stiffened. Very slowly, she turned around.
Her face was delicate but completely bloodless. Her hollow eyes were filled with deep, endless grief.
She showed no signs of wanting to attack them. She simply stood there, staring out at the unexpected visitors with sorrowful eyes.
“Who… are you?” she asked. Her voice was faint and hollow, carrying a distant echo.
“We are new students in First Year, Class 16. Teacher Gao is our homeroom teacher,” Lin Huai replied gently, keeping her tone calm and steady. “Were you one of Teacher Gao’s students, too?”
At the mention of Teacher Gao’s name, the spectral girl reacted. Her eyes wavered with suppressed emotion.
“Teacher Gao… is she doing well?” she asked softly. “Did my death… get her fired?”
Lin Huai shook her head. “No, she’s fine. She is still the homeroom teacher of Class 16, and she is still considered an outstanding educator.”
The girl gave a small, faint nod, her voice barely a whisper. “That’s good to hear…”
Milk Tea couldn’t help asking, her heart aching for her, “If you cared so much about Teacher Gao, why did you end your life just because you failed an exam?”
Lines of dark blood welled up in the girl’s eyes and spilled down her pale cheeks. She stared back at them, her voice rising in anguish: “I was ranked first in the entire grade! How could I have truly failed an exam?!”
Brother He Ping frowned. As a former lawyer in the real world, he had handled many family disputes and tragedies. “Are you saying Teacher Gao failed you on purpose?”
The rest of the squad frowned as well. If the teacher had deliberately targeted her, resolving this grudge would be far more difficult.
To their surprise, the girl shook her head. “I failed because I didn’t want to pass…”
“I just wanted someone to notice me. I needed someone to talk to,” she wept. “I deliberately failed the test because I hoped someone would come and ask if something was wrong at home, or if I was having a hard time…”
“I waited and waited, but no one came. Not even Teacher Gao cared to ask why my grades suddenly collapsed. And so… I jumped.”
Lin Huai took a step closer to the window. “What happened with your family? You jumped because of something that happened at home, didn’t you?”
The ghost girl nodded, fresh tears of blood dripping onto her uniform. “My parents… they got a divorce.”
“I knew from when I was little that they didn’t really love me. To earn their affection, I studied day and night. I believed that as long as I was the best, they would finally love me…”
“It wasn’t until I died that I realized it had nothing to do with my grades. They simply never cared about me at all.”
Her voice broke into choked sobs. “Even when I brought home top marks, they never smiled. They still went through with the divorce, and neither of them wanted custody of me. They only fought over who got to keep my little brother.”
“I thought… if I failed, if my grades fell apart, would they get angry? Would they ask me why? If I told them it was because they were separating, maybe they would stay together…”
“I was so foolish. My scores dropped, and they still didn’t care.”
“On the day I jumped, they had probably already packed up and moved out of the apartment.”
“Nobody cared about me. Not even Teacher Gao, the person I trusted most in the world…”
The more she spoke, the deeper her despair became. Her form began to flicker, turning hazy and indistinct. “Since nobody cared about me when I was alive, I will make everyone remember me forever! I will keep every single soul in this school trapped here for eternity!”
With that bitter cry, the girl dissolved into thin air.
Watching the empty corner, Shudao Mountain gasped in realization. “So this whole school… the entire instance is powered by that girl’s resentment! Her grudge is what trapped everyone here!”
The Young Miss nodded in agreement. “The real reason she ended her life was the heartbreak and neglect from her parents. That failing grade wasn’t the true reason; it was just the final straw that broke her.”
Flash Delivery Yellow Knight clapped his hands together. “That means Teacher Gao misunderstood the whole thing! The failing score wasn’t why she died!”
There was no time to lose.
Lin Huai met the eyes of her teammates, their plan instantly clear.
They stopped sneaking around and strode directly down the hall toward Classroom 16.
Taking a deep, steady breath, Lin Huai shoved the heavy wooden door wide open!
“Teacher Gao!”
Inside, the atmosphere was suffocating. Teacher Gao stood at the blackboard with her pointer raised, barking out grammar rules in a harsh, grating voice. Sister Cai, Dragon Emerging from the Sea, and the other two sat slumped at their desks, their faces ghostly pale and their eyes glazed over from mental exhaustion.
The sudden intrusion broke the lesson. Teacher Gao snapped her head around, her eyes flashing bright crimson behind her thick lenses. A wave of murderous rage rolled off her.
“Who gave you permission to interrupt?!” she shrieked. “Anyone who disrupts tutoring will be executed on the spot!”
Black spiritual energy gathered around her fingertips, ready to activate the instance rules to crush the intruders.
“Teacher Gao!” Lin Huai shouted at the top of her lungs, meeting the teacher’s murderous glare without flinching. “Ding Ran did not jump because you failed her!”
Teacher Gao froze.
The heavy pointer slipped from her fingers, clattering loudly against the wooden floorboards. The fury on her face vanished in an instant, replaced by utter shock and disbelief.
“You… what did you just say?”
