Peace never lasted long at the academy.
Not when ghosts had unfinished stories.
Not when the living carried buried memories.
It began with a scream.
Sharp.
Human.
Echoing down the corridor of the old language building just after sunset.
Shi Mu was already moving before the second echo faded.
By the time she reached the source, a crowd had gathered.
A first-year girl stood trembling in the hallway, pointing toward an open classroom door.
"She was standing there," the girl stammered. "She looked like a student—but her face—her face was wrong."
Fu Yunshen appeared moments later, expression sharp and calculating.
He scanned the area quickly, eyes settling on the dark classroom.
"She's gone," he said.
Shi Mu nodded. "But the energy's fresh."
She stepped inside first.
The lights flickered once.
Then stabilized.
But the chill in the room didn't leave.
At the center of the classroom, written in chalk on the board, was one sentence:
"I never left."
Zhou Zhi arrived behind them just in time to see it.
"Okay, nope!" he blurted. "That's it. I'm transferring."
"No one's accepting you mid-year," Fu Yunshen said dryly.
Zhou Zhi pouted. "Then I'm dropping out and becoming a tofu vendor."
Shi Mu didn't laugh.
She was staring at the sentence.
Something about it felt familiar.
Wrongly familiar.
That night, back in her dorm, she scanned the system archive.
There it was.
A case file dated five years before her enrollment.
A girl—unnamed, unphotographed—who had reportedly vanished during midterms.
Last seen in the same classroom.
Same message left on the board.
No body was ever found.
No spirit either.
Until now.
[System Notification]
Case Reopened: Unresolved Disappearance – Echo Manifestation Detected
Spiritual Risk Level: Moderate → Rising
Brotherhood Value +95 (Immediate Response + Multi-party Awareness)
Current Total: 3,500 / 1,000,000
Shi Mu sat back in her chair.
"This one didn't come for me," she whispered.
Fu Yunshen, across from her, looked up.
"Then who?"
"I don't know," she said slowly.
"But she wants to be seen."
And the worst kinds of spirits—
Were the ones who waited for their story to finally be noticed.