Carrying My Senior's Coffin (GL) - Chapter 8

Furthermore, she didn’t believe her relationship with Li Ting was good enough for Li Ting to stand up for her.

Fang Yiyi felt that the most precious quality she had acquired in her life was self-awareness. Her relationship with Li Ting should be purely that of food and predator. Once Li Ting had drained her, it would be her time for a glorious exit and reunion with her parents.

She just hoped her body could last another two years.

Just then, someone sat down next to her and whispered, “Fang Yiyi, you are here! I’ve been looking for you for ages. I didn’t catch you at the cafeteria at noon either.”

It was Feng Xue, the class monitor, a fresh-faced young woman who liked to dye her hair brown and braid it into two pigtails. She lived in the adjacent dorm, 405.

Fang Yiyi was a little surprised. Apart from Nancy and Youlan’s group, rarely did anyone approach her. She asked suspiciously, “What is it?”

Feng Xue scratched her head. “It’s about Youlan. Have you seen her? I can’t reach her.”

Fang Yiyi found this immediately amusing. “How could I have seen her?”

“Right…” Considering Fang Yiyi’s relationship with Youlan’s faction, Feng Xue realized that asking Fang Yiyi was inappropriate, but she couldn’t think of anyone else to ask. “Then I’ll go look elsewhere.”

Fang Yiyi nodded and buried her head back in her book.

Another half hour passed, and Fang Yiyi’s chin once again smacked against the desk.

She self-destructively put down her book and tried to recall the day’s lesson, only to find her mind was a mess.

After suffering physical and mental torment, Fang Yiyi was hit with a major blow to her confidence: she might fail her courses.

Failing a course = Resit exam = Continued failure = No diploma.

What should she do?!

Fang Yiyi annoyedly ruffled her hair. After long contemplation, she decided to move her next plan up: she would go running first.

The body is the capital for revolution. She had to, at the very least, cope with that ghost. Although her supply might not meet the demand right now, every bit of replenishment helped. She also hoped the ghost would learn restraint and not work her to death before she graduated.

With Nancy’s incident, the people who usually bothered her also disappeared, leaving her afternoon relatively peaceful. She suddenly had a lot of free time. She didn’t want to go back to the dorm, so she walked and jogged on the track. At dinnertime, she went to the cafeteria and ate a portion fit for two people by herself.

Full and satisfied, Fang Yiyi felt energized and ready to bounce off to evening self-study.

“Where are you going now?” Li Ting’s voice exploded in her mind.

Fang Yiyi paused mid-step, then heard Li Ting continue: “Come back. You’ve eaten enough. I haven’t eaten yet.”

Fine.

Fang Yiyi dejectedly returned to the dorm to “pay the public grain.”

Fang Yiyi’s dorm building was set further back in the old campus. In earlier years, many bicycle sheds were built around the building. Now that a new campus was constructed, some sheds were emptied and used to store miscellaneous items. They were dark inside, with no lights, and few people bothered to look inside even when passing by every day.

There was one such shed on Fang Yiyi’s route back to the dorm.

“Fang Yiyi.”

“!” Someone called her. Fang Yiyi was startled and saw Manman, whom she hadn’t seen for a day, and instinctively took a step back.

“Fang Yiyi, come here! We need to talk to you.” Fang Yiyi noticed she said ‘we’ instead of ‘I.’ A sense of crisis flared up—all the more reason not to go near them!

Fang Yiyi took two more steps back, making sure she was standing under a security camera. “What is it?”

Manman insisted, “You come over here first.”

Fang Yiyi noticed that Manman’s eyes were bloodshot, her face pale, and her hair disheveled. She looked extremely haggard.

As she wondered about this, someone suddenly appeared from behind, grabbed Fang Yiyi’s hair before she could react, and started dragging her toward the shed.

As she dragged her, she cursed: “When we tell you to come over, you come over! What’s with all the nonsense! Who the hell do you think you are, negotiating with us?”

Fang Yiyi’s scalp burned from the tug. She only managed a gasp, staggered a few steps as she was dragged, and the person then gave a forceful pull. Fang Yiyi was slammed onto the ground. Her back hit a loosely stacked pile of wooden planks, which tumbled down and completely collapsed onto Fang Yiyi.

The person yelled, “Fang Yiyi! Did you do this?!”

What…?

Fang Yiyi was stunned. Before she could figure out what they meant, her hair was grabbed again. The person’s grip was strong, as if trying to rip off her scalp. Fang Yiyi was forced to raise her head. The person then raised a hand and slapped her, the burning blunt pain and loud sound making Fang Yiyi’s ears ring and her vision go black momentarily.

At the same time, more voices poured into her ears, all filled with accusation and abuse.

“Did you do what happened to Nancy?!”

“Are you really that selfish?!”

“You bastard, what did you do?!”

“Is your heart black? We won’t forgive you even as ghosts!”

After hearing them clearly, Fang Yiyi finally understood.

These were the people who had played the planchette with Nancy. Her assignment to 404 was due to them, making her their substitute for death.

Fang Yiyi lowered her eyelids, covertly scanning the group—exactly five of them.

If Fang Yiyi had paid closer attention, she would have realized that none of them looked well.

Nearly all of them had dark circles under their eyes and poorly managed hair. A few had makeup smeared, looking like madwomen, a stark contrast to their usual polished appearance. Nancy’s incident had clearly shaken them deeply.

Fang Yiyi thought they had gone insane.

“Speak up! Nothing to say?”

Someone shouted near her ear. Fang Yiyi recognized Youlan’s voice. She turned her head toward the sound, and her stomach was immediately kicked.

“You smelly bitch, you have the nerve to look at me!”

“Talk! Are you mute?”

Fang Yiyi groaned from the kick, and the metallic sweetness of blood rushed into her nostrils. She raised a hand to wipe her lip and saw bloodstains, confirming it. “Are you all crazy?”

Youlan’s eyes were bloodshot. She screamed hysterically: “Yes! Nancy is already crazy! And we will all go crazy too! No one can escape! It’s all because of you! What did you do? Are you only satisfied if you drag all of us down to be buried with you?!” Youlan was overcome with emotion, acting maniacally. She grabbed Fang Yiyi’s shoulders, her fingernails digging deep into her flesh. “It was only supposed to be you who died, just you! One life versus six lives! What makes you so special? Is your life worth more than six of ours? Huh?! Fang Yiyi! What gives you the right?!!”

The words seemed to flip a switch in the others.

“Right! What gives you the right!”

“Am I next? I don’t want to be! I’m only eighteen! Help me, waaaah…”

“Fang Yiyi, you are so selfish! You’ll die a miserable death!”

Cries and curses were relentless.

Fang Yiyi found the whole thing absurd and couldn’t help but say, “Why should I pay for your mistake?”

“Why shouldn’t you! You useless trash!”

“What value does your life even have!”

Fang Yiyi carefully avoided her injuries, controlled her breathing, straightened her back, and looked at them without a trace of fear. “If you assault a student, you will be disciplined.”

The atmosphere froze for a second or two.

“Ha,” Youlan sounded like she’d heard something hilarious. She spun Fang Yiyi’s head around. “Disciplined? Are we scared of being disciplined? We’re all going to die, Fang Yiyi! Even if we kill you here and bury you with us, what can you do about it?”

She looked at Fang Yiyi with a strange fervor, leaning close and whispering every word: “Why don’t you die right here today and go ahead to scout the way for us? How about that?”

Fang Yiyi suddenly realized that she was serious. Fear and panic surged through her. Suddenly, she found the strength in her hands. She shoved Youlan away and started running out.

Youlan, caught off guard, was pushed to the ground. She screamed in disbelief and fury: “The wretch dared to push me?! Stop her!”

Without her saying anything, the others had already grabbed Fang Yiyi. They had come prepared, taking a desperate gamble. There was no way they would let Fang Yiyi escape.

Someone shouted, “Break her legs! Kill her! It’s all her fault!”

The group swarmed her, the fear and frustration they had felt for days finally finding an outlet.

Fang Yiyi curled into a ball, despairingly enduring the rain of kicks and blows.

“Tsk, what is this nonsense.” A familiar voice sounded in her ear, filled with clear annoyance: “Do you need my help?”

Fang Yiyi looked up at Li Ting floating above. Her head had been hit hard, and her vision was blurred. Through the haze, she only saw the woman in red, flaming like fire, her face like the bright moon, and her pitch-black eyes seemed to be staring fixedly at her.

Driven by an impulse she couldn’t explain, Fang Yiyi reached out a hand to her, like a person in utter despair reaching for a saving deity: “Yes, help me.”

The female ghost in red suddenly materialized.

“You—Ah! A ghost!!!”

Li Ting’s appearance was so sudden that several people were instantly paralyzed with fear, collapsing onto the ground. The bolder ones, like Youlan, ran immediately, but only managed two steps before slamming into an invisible wall, leaving her with a bleeding head. She too crumpled to the ground, motionless.

Li Ting rubbed her chin and asked Fang Yiyi thoughtfully, “Am I that scary?”

Fang Yiyi couldn’t get up immediately and lay on the ground gasping. Hearing the question, she shook her head gently and said sincerely, “You’re beautiful.”

Li Ting narrowed her eyes. “I like hearing that. So, what now? How do you plan to deal with these people?” She casually looked around, seeing the same terror on all their faces, and said indifferently, “You have the grudge against them, I won’t interfere.”

Fang Yiyi thought for a moment and asked, “Will they end up like Nancy?”

“Nancy?” Li Ting repeated, seemingly finally recalling her. “That girl. Probably. They brought this on themselves, they have to pay the price.”

In other words, Nancy’s incident had nothing to do with Li Ting.

“Oh,” Fang Yiyi said, after a moment of thought, “Then turn them over to the teacher.”

Li Ting frowned, seemingly dissatisfied. “They hit you. Aren’t you going to hit them back?”

Hit them back?

Fang Yiyi was stunned. She was so used to passive submission that the thought of ‘hitting back’ never occurred to her. She subconsciously said, “They’ll go crazy like Nancy anyway…”

“Is your revenge the same as someone else’s?” Seeing Fang Yiyi’s bewildered expression, Li Ting suddenly realized she might not get through to her. “…Forget it. I won’t interfere with your matters. Can you get up?”

They were all girls, and even at full force, they didn’t have much strength. Fang Yiyi grabbed a piece of wooden plank, struggled twice, and slowly managed to climb up with its support.

She limped past the trembling people and made her way out.

As she passed one person, her pant leg was grabbed. She looked down to see Manman.

“Fang Yiyi, it was their idea, it had nothing to do with me… Save me, you must have a way, right…” Manman’s eyes were swollen and red from crying. She was terrified of Li Ting, yet felt she had grasped a final lifeline. Her expression was a strange mix of fear and hope.

Li Ting, who had been about to return to the Buddhist beads, decided to stay. She watched Fang Yiyi with interest, deep in thought.

Fang Yiyi bent down, extended a hand, and pinched Manman’s hand between her thumb and index finger, pulling it away lightly but firmly. “You are truly amusing.”

With that, she didn’t look back and limped away.

Before Fang Yiyi walked out of the shed, Li Ting dissolved into a wisp of smoke and entered the Buddhist beads on her wrist.

Fang Yiyi’s appearance caused quite a stir in this international first-class university. She first went to the infirmary, attracting countless onlookers along the way. A kind young woman even rushed over to help her walk. While being treated, her class counselor, who had heard the news, arrived. After recounting the events, Fang Yiyi returned to the dorm.

She declined the doctor and counselor’s suggestion to go to the hospital. The counselor granted her a week’s leave and instructed her to call if she needed anything.

Fang Yiyi sat on the bed, looking at the injuries on her face with a small mirror.

Li Ting leaned over, pinching Fang Yiyi’s chin. She peered closely, turning her face left and right, frowning with disgust. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Such a beautiful face, now it looks like a winter melon… What are you usually like? How did you get bullied to this extent?”

Fang Yiyi’s eyelashes were half-lowered. She remained still, cowering like a quail.

A fingertip touched her bruised skin, and Fang Yiyi winced in pain.

“I stood up for you. Are you happy?”

Fang Yiyi was startled for a moment, then nodded.

“But I hope that next time, you will fight back yourself.”