The Old Woman Boiling Medicine (Part One)

On the afternoon Wang Qin was disfigured, Su Meng confessed everything to Hui Nan in the mathematics office.

Su Meng had loved drawing since childhood and dreamed of becoming a manga artist. But her parents were strict — afraid it would affect her studying — and they never allowed her to attend art classes. As a result, Su Meng's academic record was consistently excellent, and she was deeply unhappy, knowing she was moving further and further away from her own dream.

Until one day she met Gu Qing. Because they shared the same passion, the two girls became close confidants quickly. Gu Qing shared her drawing knowledge with Su Meng; the two girls created manga together and posted it online. Those were the happiest days of Su Meng's childhood.

But a well-performing student spending time with a weak-performing one — a "disharmonious" friendship — was not something teachers or parents would permit. Their bond was forced to stay hidden. Only Gu Qing's boyfriend Chang Di knew about it.

Gu Qing's death was a devastating blow to Su Meng, who wept many times in private. One day Chang Di came looking for her help. He told her that Gu Qing had been killed, and that the school and the police were covering it up together. He asked her to help him create fear — to make the real killer reveal themselves through guilt. Su Meng agreed, because she too had found Gu Qing's death suspicious. She also wanted to find whoever had done it. But as events grew more and more terrifying, with teachers dying one after another, she began to regret her involvement. When she watched Wang Qin being disfigured by acid before her own eyes, she completely broke down — she confronted Chang Di at lunch in the canteen, sobbing, demanding to know if all of this was his doing. Chang Di hadn't admitted to anything. He said he was still investigating. He said he had never killed anyone.

"Do you believe him?" Hui Nan asked suddenly.

Su Meng shook her head through her tears. "I don't know. I don't understand him. If it isn't him, then it's…"

She stopped abruptly, a look of extreme terror flooding her face.

"If it isn't him, then who?" Hui Nan pushed urgently.

Su Meng hesitated, then spoke: there was a rumor going around the school's internal forum — fifteen years ago, a girl named Fang Chuchualied had died on the campus. Fifteen years later, she had come back to claim lives: she needed to kill seven people in order to be reincarnated. Gu Qing and several teachers had all been killed by her vengeful ghost.

After hearing this absurd rumor, Hui Nan looked straight into Su Meng's eyes and asked: "During chemistry class this morning — did you truly not see any student go up to the front and put anything in the teacher's cup?"

"I didn't see anything."

If Su Meng wasn't lying, then reaching the front and putting sulfuric acid into the teacher's cup without a single student noticing — it seemed like only a ghost could do that.

"Will Wang Laoshi die?" Su Meng asked suddenly.

Hui Nan didn't answer her.

Everyone will die — only the time differs. But Wang Qin's time had not yet come. After emergency treatment, Wang Qin's life was not in danger. She was admitted to Kangping Hospital near No. 4 and placed in a double room, her sister Wang Ping sleeping in the other bed as her caregiver. That night, Wang Qin had a terrible dream.

In the dream she was back at school, back in the classroom of Class 4, Grade 4. She pushed open the door and went in. The room was blazing with a brightness that wasn't natural — as if lit by a light ten times more intense than sunlight. There was only one desk, one chair, placed in the very center of the room. A girl in a school uniform sat there, slumped forward on the desk in the posture of sleep.

When Wang Qin stepped inside, the girl suddenly raised her head. Gu Qing's face, and around her neck — a deep red welt.

"You're not dead?" Wang Qin said.

"I am dead."

"You killed all those people?"

"I killed no one."

"Then who did?"

"She did."

"Who is she?"

Gu Qing suddenly stood and looked straight past Wang Qin at the door behind her. Wang Qin felt a chill wash through her. She spun around.

No one there.

Gu Qing's body began to move — toward the door, into the corridor, out of the building. Wang Qin followed. At last she watched the figure disappear into a small building behind the teaching block: the school boiler room.