Yan Xiaoni's joke completely broke me. Forget about my reputation being ruined—at this point, even my dignity was about to be completely stripped away. I ground my teeth in frustration, but had nowhere to vent. All I could do was roll around on the bed, clutching my head, wishing I could rip this nuisance out of my body. But, even if I could, I didn't have the courage to do it.
"Forget it, forget it. I'll endure the humiliation and just survive," I comforted myself. People who are used to bad luck often develop the ability to quickly accept reality.
I thought the incident of sneaking into the girls' dormitory would lead to severe punishment from the school, but the next day, the school leadership was busy welcoming an inspection team, and the matter was quickly swept under the rug. When I heard the news, I felt unexpectedly relieved.
"See? I've helped you change your luck," Yan Xiaoni's voice echoed in my head, filled with some smugness. "From now on, your bad luck will decrease, and good luck will increase."
"Hah! A dead ghost helping me change my luck?" I scoffed, "Why not just tie up the goddess of fortune and bring her here instead?"
Thinking about the mess she caused for me, I couldn't help but vent some anger. I didn't expect this little ghost to have a worse temper than mine: "Hmph! No good deed goes unpunished! From now on, I won't care about your affairs!"
Her words made my heart sink, thinking that this time I had truly pissed her off. However, a few days passed, and she didn't show up again. Her silence actually made me feel relieved.
But then, strange things began to happen. Usually, when I played cards with my rowdy friends, I would always lose everything. But this time, I actually won three rounds in a row and walked away with all their money! Even more bizarre, the director of the academic office, who had always been at odds with me, suddenly greeted me with a smile, as if he had turned into a completely different person.
"Could it be that my luck really has changed?" I thought to myself, and began to half-believe what Yan Xiaoni had said.
However, no amount of good luck could fix Xiao Xiang's cold attitude. Every time she saw me, she immediately turned her head. I tried several times to muster the courage to explain to her, but every time I opened my mouth, I couldn't speak. The feeling was worse than bad luck itself.
Life went on like this for several weeks. The autumn chill grew more pronounced, and before I knew it, deep autumn had arrived, and the school's exam week was fast approaching.
The classroom was brightly lit at night, with most students gathered there "preparing for exams." But in reality, aside from reviewing, many were also gathering to tell ghost stories. This had almost become a post-study tradition, especially among the boys—they had a simple goal: to scare the girls with terrifying stories and then heroically "rescue" them.
"How boring," I thought to myself, but still couldn't resist going to the classroom because—Xiao Xiang was among the group of people listening to the stories.
Tonight, eight students were gathered in a corner of the classroom: four boys and four girls, seated in pairs. Xiao Xiang was sitting in the corner, looking somewhat distracted. I randomly chose a seat farther away, pretending not to notice her, but secretly watching her.
At this point, our dorm's Liu Bin began his ghost story. To be honest, this guy talked a lot of nonsense, but his storytelling skills were excellent. Tonight, he was telling the story of the "Woman in Red Ghost" in the school's southwest corner woods—the campus beauty Feng Lan who had committed suicide a year ago.
"Did you guys know? When Feng Lan died, she was wearing a big red dress. That kind of death is the most likely to turn someone into a vengeful ghost!" Liu Bin deliberately lowered his voice and spoke in a creepy tone. "I've heard that her resentment hasn't dispersed, and every deep autumn, people see a red-dressed girl in the small woods…"
The classroom fell silent immediately, with only Liu Bin's voice echoing. His description became more and more eerie, and even I felt a chill down my spine. What unsettled me even more was that Xiao Xiang didn't seem scared at all. Instead, there was a strange gleam in her eyes—was it curiosity? Or excitement?
Just as the atmosphere grew tense, I suddenly noticed something strange. Originally, the eight people sitting in a circle, how did they become nine?
I counted again—yes, there was definitely one more person! It was a girl dressed in red, with long hair cascading over her shoulders, sitting with her back to me. Her position was between Liu Bin and another girl, making her presence especially noticeable.
"What's going on? When did one more person appear?" My skin prickled with goosebumps, and my throat felt like it was being constricted by something.
I counted again carefully—still nine! The girl had a slender figure, exuding a strange aura. I forced myself to calm down, but then I realized—no one else seemed to notice her!
"Could she be Feng Lan?" The thought suddenly flashed through my mind, sending an icy chill down my back.
Just as I was lost in my thoughts, the girl in red suddenly disappeared! Then, the girl sitting next to her, Xiao Ying, suddenly burst out laughing. But her laughter was cold and piercing, completely unlike her usual voice.
"He he he… Do you know how I died?" Xiao Ying looked up, her voice filled with resentment. "There are many things you don't know. And now, I'll let you know…"
Her eyes suddenly turned bright red, and the people around her turned pale with fear. The atmosphere in the classroom froze instantly, as if even breathing had been suspended.