A Good-for-Nothing

102. A Button (2)

Translator: Dragon Rider

The moment Sergeant Luo and Vice-principal Wu walked out of sight, Zu Zhichong’s feigned professional demeanor instantly dissolved and with that, he jumped in anxiety and looked at He Zheng who wasn’t supposed to be here.

“Why did you come here, bro?! Does Chief know this?”

He Zheng gave him a sketchy account of the matter of Qin Huai’s niece.

Zu Zhichong immediately covered his forehead with his hand and muttered, “My goodness. It never crossed my mind that someone else was affected.”

Then he flicked He Zheng a glance and remarked, “Please stay out of this matter, will you? Chief will no doubt scold me if it comes to his knowledge that I let you get involved in this.”

He Zheng’s brow corrugated in a frown. Originally, judging from Qin Huai’s account of the incident, he had thought that it was just some common ghost making trouble, but now, after hearing Zu Zhichong’s remarks, He Zheng came to realize that it was probably more dangerous than that.

But he felt no fear, replying, “I’ve already come here. Let me take a look at the classroom first.”

He Zheng had noticed a couple of minutes ago that something was not quite right.

The three of them were the only ones left in Classroom 305. All windows were wide open and gusts of chill wind were blowing in from behind them. The piercing coldness reduced them to involuntary shivers.

On seeing He Zheng walked towards the front door of the Classroom, Zu Zhichong uttered “Hey!” and blocked his path. “Why do you want to go in there? There’s nothing suspicious inside. I’ve already checked.”

“There is something in there.” He Zheng’s voice was flinty but tinged with insistence.

Zu Zhichong was amazed.

He Zheng entered the classroom. Since the First High School was prestigious and the proportion of students here admitted into good universities was high, every year large numbers of third-year junior middle school students scrambled to gain admission into this high school. There were also many who had managed to get in through the back door. As a result, this high school had a lot of teaching buildings. This middle-sized classroom had 50-60 school desks in it.

At the front of the classroom was a big teacher’s desk. On the silvery white, stainless-steel surface neatly placed an eraser, a box of water-soluble chalks and a projector remote control.

He Zheng squinted his eyes. He was not sure whether it was a hallucination or not, but he kept feeling that there were threads of black gas emitting from the teacher’s desk.

But after He Zheng crouched down, he confirmed that what he was seeing was not hallucination.

A small, white button was in a crack beneath the teacher’s desk, which was the source of the black gas.

He Zheng’s hand was too broad to fit into the crack, so he rose to his feet and tried to push the teacher’s desk aside, which seemed a little strange and attracted the attention of people outside. Zu Zhichong hurriedly inquired, “What did you find, Cutie?”

“There’s a button down here.”

Zu Zhichong was amazed by this reply. He looked in the direction He Zheng was pointing and, as expected, saw a small white button quietly lying in dust, which appeared somewhat weird.

“It’s so strange. How did it come to escape my notice just now?”

“Let’s get it out first.”

There was a computer inside the teacher’s desk, so it was rather heavy. Both Qin Huai and Zu Zhichong came to He Zheng’s help. With the joint efforts of three men, it still took a lot doing to push the desk aside. “Whose button is this?” Zu Zhichong, holding the button between his fingers, squinted his eyes and then flipped the button to check the other side of it. He could tell that it was of the same style as that of those on a school uniform of the First High School.

“I guess it’s from the clothes of the deceased schoolboy,” said He Zheng.

Surprised, Zu Zhichong looked He Zheng in the eye and queried, “How do you know that?”

Face full of puzzlement, He Zheng twisted his head around and asked rhetorically, “Can you not see the death Qi emitting from the surface of the desk? That boy’s dead, isn’t he? That’s the very reason why there’s death Qi here.”

Zu Zhichong gave a mirthless smile and recalled that He Zheng had the Yin Yang Eye. “Bro, even in the Supernaturalism Management Bureau (SMB), very few people can confirm the existence of death Qi at a glance.”

He Zheng was sent into a trance, having no idea what that meant.

Without giving He Zheng any further explanation, Zu Zhichong wrapped the button up in a yell Fu and pocketed it. “I’ll give it to Sergeant Luo later and have him confirm where it’s from.” Then Zu Zhichong gave He Zheng’s shoulder a push. “Look again and see if you can find anything else suspicious.”

He Zheng carefully checked the classroom twice but didn’t find anything else unusual. Zu Zhichong felt that this made sense, for he had actually checked this place just now, and there was nothing wrong with this classroom, except for the button that He Zheng had just found.

“I also think there should be nothing else.”

Zu Zhichong looked at his watch and slackly put his arm around He Zheng’s shoulders. “Let’s go.”

“To where? To the office to watch the surveillance video?”

Zu Zhichong seemed mentally exhausted. “Jesus Christ! Forget about the video. I’m taking you to the front gate. You need to go back home!”

Unwilling to leave, He Zheng had a sulky face. “That’s not going to happen.”

Zu Zhichong coaxed, “If Chief finds out, he’ll hack me to death, bro. Isn’t your training going to start in just a couple of days? Can you just go back home, do some reading or play video games? Why let yourself be drawn into this kind of thing? If you get involved, you could easily get hurt, dear. Maybe some evil spirit is at work, dear.”

In fact, originally, He Zheng had had no intention to be part of this, but Qin Huai was involved in this matter, who apart from everything else was his bosom friend, so of course he couldn’t just stand by.

“Qin Huai’s little niece is involved in this matter. Xu Tianhao’s ghost has been pestering her. There’s no way I’m going to sit back and watch Qin Huai suffer.”

Zu Zhichong hastened to promise, “Okay, no problem. I guarantee that I’ll settle this matter quick and clean! Rest assured, from now on, I’ll regard that girl as my own niece. I promise I’ll never let her come to any harm.”

He Zheng knitted his eyebrows. Zu Zhichong was also secretly vexed. Of course he couldn’t let He Zheng get involved. It was true that members of the Special Talents Training Program (STTP) would have to participate in some field training sessions organized by SMB, but without his Chief’s permission, who would dare to let He Zheng take this kind of risk? Besides, he was performing a punitive task to atone for his previous mistake, which was yet another reason why he didn’t dare to let He Zheng go with him.

Seeing the uncooperative look on He Zheng’s face, Zu Zhichong had no alternative but to play his trump card, assuming his Chief’s authority. “Cutie, let me get this straight — if you insist on getting involved in this, I’ll have no choice but to call Chief.”

These words threw Qin Huai into perplexity. ‘What the hell is going on?’