I didn’t know what to say to make her feel better, “I’m sorry for your loss” was the only thing I could think of.

“I heard someone in the Humanities department died like this, but I never thought it would happen to Xuetao!” Jiang Ping shouted, her voice thick with emotion. “She’s such a good girl, why did this happen to her?”

I patted her back, trying to calm her down. I waited patiently until she stopped sniffling.

“Do you live in the same dorm with Li Xuetao?”

Jiang Ping nodded, wiping her tears with a tissue.

“Can you tell me, when did your girlfriend encounter the ghost?” I asked.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Ping paused for a second before asking, “Encounter the ghost? What ghost?”

I was confused. “You don’t know? The ghost haunting the Humanities department, it’s said that someone hears knocking at midnight and when they open the door, they see a horrible ghost. After they wake up, however, their roommates say they never heard any knocking. You don’t know?”

Jiang Ping shook her head, confused. “No, I don’t know. Xuetao never mentioned it to us.”

“She never mentioned it to you?” I frowned. “That means, she went into that death-like state without any sign?”

Jiang Ping nodded, but after a few seconds, she shook her head.

“No, but about the signs.. I suddenly remembered something, but I don’t know if it’s related.”

“It’s fine, can you tell me about it?”

“Em.. about two days ago, she told me she had a bizarre dream.”

“A dream? What kind of dream?”

“She said she felt like she was floating in the air, she could see herself lying on the bed from above. And then she saw a red shadow approaching her body. But she was in a dream, she couldn’t move or scream, so all she could do was to watch this weird red shadow enter her body.”

“En.. enter her body?” I was astonished.

“Em, this was what she told me,” said Jiang Ping. “But she mentioned that after she woke up, she didn’t feel abnormal, so she thought she just had a weird dream and didn’t pay much attention to it.”

“I see..”

“But who are you?” Jiang Ping suddenly changed the topic, she stared at me in doubt. “Why are you asking me about these things?”

“Uh, about that..” Her sudden question made it hard for me to find a good excuse. I couldn’t say I was here to investigate the case with an exorcist. Luckily, at this moment, Wen Jiubo ended his conversation with the teacher and walked towards me.

“Ah, about that, I’m really sorry, I have something to deal with, I gotta go now.” I forced a smile at Jiang Ping before walking towards Wen Jiubo.

“Ay, you haven’t told me who you are!”

I ignored Jiang Ping’s question and left the building with Wen Jiubo in a hurry.

“I never knew you were good at hitting on girls.” Once we were out of the building, Wen Jiubo started to tease me.

“I did it for the investigation, alright?”

“No, I think it’s probably because you are a very gentle person.” Wen Jiubo arched his eyebrows, smirking.

“Come on, stop joking, you know we have a serious situation here.” I rolled my eyes.

“About your investigation, what have you found?”

“Oh, yes, about that girl, she didn’t die because the midnight ghost,” I replied immediately. ” I asked her girlfriend, and she said Li Xuetao never heard the knocking. Instead, she had a dream about a red shadow entering her body.”

“I see.”

Wen Jiubo nodded. His tone suggested that he didn’t seem surprised at all. Instead, everything happened seemed to be expected.

I frowned. “You talked to the teacher for a while, did you learn anything?”

“Oh, quite a lot.” A mysterious smile appeared on Wen Jiubo’s face.

“Well, what did you learn?” He successfully aroused my curiosity again.

“That teacher is one of the department heads at your school. He told me something about the girl who committed suicide two years ago,” said Wen Jiubo. “The girl’s name was Su Qiaoning, majoring in journalism. She enrolled at the university in 2014, two years earlier than you. Her parents are doctors, so she came from a rich family. The girl was an extrovert and had many friends. The university had no idea why she committed suicide without any sign until they found out what happened to the people around her.”

For some reason, I felt like I heard the story about this girl’s family before, but I couldn’t remember from where.

“Does this mean the curse is real?” I asked.

Wen Jiubo nodded. “A car accident, tripping into a well, a leg was bitten off by some dog. If I was her, I would never believe these accidents were just coincidence. I have to say, I doubt whether or not the girl killed herself.”

I shuddered. “Do you mean she might have been murdered?”

“En. That teacher happened to be one of the eyewitnesses, and he gave all the details about the girl’s death,” said Wen Jiubo. “He told me that the body lay on the ground face up, with her feet pointing towards the dorm. When they arrived, the body was distorted by the fall and all her bones were shattered.”

“But how is it related with how she died?” I was confused.

“You didn’t pay attention to my words.” Wen Jiubo suddenly opened his arms, showing the posture to me. “The body lay face up, feet pointing towards the dorm building. It means she fell on her back.”

“So?” I still didn’t understand.

Wen Jiubo asked me, “If you want to jump off a building, how would you fall? Face up or face down?”

“Er, I..” I thought it over. I pictured myself standing on the edge of the six-floor balcony. “I think I would fall with my face down. It’s too scary to fall face up.”

“Exactly.” Wen Jiubo nodded. “Even if a man wants to jump off a building to end his life, his body will still subconsciously enact self-defense mechanisms, that’s why many people who kill themselves would fall with their face towards the ground. Therefore, I think Su Qiaoning might have been murdered.”

I immediately understood him. “Then, it’s quite possible that——”

Wen Jiubo nodded and continued, “Someone pushed her. However, it has been a long time since she died, and the police finalized this case as a suicide. The evidence we have now is not enough to prove this theory. After all, we can’t exclude the possibility that Su Qiaoning jumped off the building with her back towards the ground.”