“I’m afraid the time inside the gap flows at a different speed than the time outside of it,” Wen Jiubo slowly articulated. “There is an old Chinese saying ‘one day in Heaven, a year on Earth.’ The gap opens the door to another dimension, so it’s possible that time flows differently.”

“Oh, my goodness..” Su Xiaoyun muttered. “How many things happened while I was gone?”

I forced out a humorless chuckle. “Nothing much. Just a couple of things. Many people went missing; Liang Kaifeng and a girl majoring in journalism had a fake death, they have no heartbeat but they can breathe.”

Su Xiaoyun covered her mouth in shock. “How is that possible..”

“The parasite spirit stole their soul, aiming to strengthen itself to take revenge on you,” I said. “We may have a chance to save them, else.. they will end up like your sister.”

Su Xiaoyun bit her lips and her body trembled. She turned to Wen Jiubo for help. “Mr. Wen..”

Wen Jiubo seemed to know what she was going to ask, and he changed to a more comfortable sitting position. “It doesn’t mean we don’t have one.”

“One what?”

“A method to save them,” said Wen Jiubo. He looked at Su Xiaoyun and continued, “As I said before, there is a contract that binds humans with demons and spirits. Humans and spirits, like Yin and Yang, exist in two parallel worlds. Theoretically, they should never be in contact with each other. However, because of the contract, they are bound to each other. Because of the contract, humans are haunted by demons and spirits.”

I frowned and became agitated; I interrupted Wen Jiubo, “Come on, can you stop bragging about your incomprehensible theories? Can’t you just tell us the method?”

Wen Jiubo gave in, he smiled at me and said, “All right, the method is quite simple. Destroy or seal the parasite spirit, then the soul of your friend will come back to his body.”

Su Xiaoyun and I looked at each other in dismay. The method was simple in theory but hard to execute.

Wen Jiubo knew our concerns, and he smiled. “Don’t worry. Anything that exists will always leave clues to follow. Liang Kaifeng’s father is my client, I will help you find the evil spirit.”

After saying that, Wen Jiubo stood up, indicating that the conversation was over.

“It’s too late, you’d better go back and get some sleep.”

Su Xiaoyun stood up and nodded though she still looked anxious. I felt a little relieved and was ready to leave with Su Xiaoyun, however, Wen Jiubo stopped me.

“Gu Yu, you stay.”

I turned around angrily, “Uh?”

“It’s already past 3 in the morning,” Wen Jiubo said casually. “Don’t sleep, I have something else to tell you.”

“Ay, why you do treat me differently!” I rebutted.

“Well, she’s a girl, and I need to be gentle to a girl.” Wen Jiubo narrowed his eyes. He seemed to enjoy this. “Bai, walk her home, make sure she arrives safely.”

“Alright!” Bai answered, jumping up onto Su Xiaoyun’s shoulder. “Let’s go, it’s pretty dangerous at night, so let me escort you home!”

Su Xiaoyun smiled at Bai, and then she looked at me. She seemed like she wanted to say something, but Bai prompted her to leave.

The room suddenly became silent, leaving only me and Wen Jiubo in the room. I looked back at him but found him sitting on the chair, sipping tea.

“Do you want some?” He detected my gaze and raised his cup. “This is high-quality Longjing tea.”

“No, thanks,” I replied dryly, sitting down across from him. “Drinking Longjing tea, you sound like an old man.”

Wen Jiubo laughed. He kept shaking his head, causing ripples in his tea. “Gu Yu.”

“I still don’t understand.” I didn’t want to chit-chat with him and went straight to the point, “That parasite spirit, didn’t it come to this world to get a vessel? But, didn’t you say that he can only get through the gap if he has one?”

“Yes, that’s right.” Wen Jiubo sipped some tea.

“So he already had a vessel?”

“I don’t think so. If he had, Su Xiaoyun would be dead by now.”

“So how does the spirit steal those people’s souls? It doesn’t make sense.” I was confused.

“I told you, it’s a contract, a contract.” Wen Jiubo gently poked my head.

I rolled my eyes. “What contract, I don’t get it!”

“The parasite spirit is way smarter than you,” Wen Jiubo slightly smiled and said, “don’t you remember that all the people who lost their souls had a weird dream beforehand?”

Ah, they did. I recalled the widespread campus gossip, it said that all the missing people had a dream of someone knocking on the door.

“They dreamed of someone knocking on the door, didn’t they?” Wen Jiubo asked.

I nodded.

Wen Jiubo touched his chin. “So, among all those people, did anyone refuse to open the door?”

I frowned, thinking hard. “No.. no one refused. After all, everyone would open the door when they hear someone knocking.”

Speaking of that, a thought suddenly occurred to me. I stared at Wen Jiubo with my eyes wide open. “No way? Do you mean.. the contract was made when they opened the door?”

Wen Jiubo nodded. “Opening a door is like answering someone’s call, the moment you open the door, you let the parasite spirit control your body and mind. I think many people were controlled by the parasite spirit that night, but none of them knew. That’s why they went missing or even died.”

The truth about the haunted campus was finally revealed. There was no dispute, no dead girl full of enmity. It was just a simple story about an evil spirit killing innocent people. I sat back, feeling sad, angry and bitter. I felt like my heart was going to explode.

“Damn it,” I stretched my head, grumbling, “why are there so many evil spirits and demons in this world?! And what is their purpose?!”

The moment I thought Liang Kaifeng and the girl majoring in Journalism could die, I felt extremely disturbed and upset.