Chapter 105: The Supernatural Society’s First Assignment

The class bell rang, signaling the end of the day’s lessons.

Su Mian gathered her books, her fingertips unconsciously tracing the phone screen that no longer displayed new messages.

The classroom began to stir with students, and she flowed with the crowd out of the teaching building. A cool evening breeze brushed her cheeks, carrying a hint of autumn.

Following Lu Yang’s directions, she headed towards the “Supernatural Phenomenon Research Society.”

It was an old building, quite aged, usually deserted except for a few classrooms used for niche courses and rooms piled high with miscellaneous items.

The activity room for the “Supernatural Phenomenon Research Society” was located on the third floor, at the easternmost end—a storage room originally used for discarded desks and chairs.

Pushing open the creaking wooden door, a musty, old scent wafted out.

The activity room, roughly sixty to seventy square meters, was dimly lit.

Old bookshelves crammed with books stood against the walls, while several chipped desks were pushed together in the center. Scattered across them were folders, notebooks, and an old-fashioned laptop.

Three people were already in the room.

Qin Xuan sat at a desk by the window, spectacles perched on his nose, engrossed in a thick, hardbound book. He appeared utterly focused, as if he were in a library rather than this slightly cluttered corner.

His companions were unfamiliar faces.

A girl stood before a bookshelf, seemingly selecting a book. She was tall and slender, with waist-length hair that was predominantly black but shimmered with a faint, ethereal blue.

Noticing someone enter, she turned her head slightly, her gaze serene. She merely gave Su Mian a gentle nod of greeting before turning back, her fingertips gliding softly along the book spines.

Yet, in the instant their eyes met, Su Mian felt a subtle difference. It wasn’t hostility, nor familiarity, but rather a… temperature variation? It was as if the air around the girl became several degrees cooler.

Su Mian instinctively tightened her jacket.

The other person was a boy, lazily leaning against another desk. He appeared to be around their age, his hair dyed a fashionable ash-grey and styled with considerable texture.

His features were handsome, his eyes holding a hint of playful amusement. Noticing Su Mian, he flashed a brilliant smile, revealing a set of perfectly white teeth, and waved proactively.

“Hey, a new face?”

“Qin-President, this is Su Mian, the new member joining our expedition team tonight.”

Only then did Qin Xuan lift his head from his book, pushing up his glasses. He introduced them in a calm tone.

“Su Mian, my roommate, is interested in tonight’s investigation. These two are club members, Xue Li and Hua Liang.”

“Hello everyone, I’m Su Mian.”

Su Mian quickly greeted them, yet she was once again surprised by Qin Xuan’s address. ‘Qin-President?’

She had always assumed Qin Xuan, a ‘scientific believer’ steeped in the world of books and logic, would scoff at anything ‘supernatural.’

His creation of the “Supernatural Phenomenon Research Society” was entirely unexpected. Moreover, from Lu Yang’s words, this club had only been established this very week?

During the few days she had been missing?

Suppressing the questions in her heart, Su Mian began to survey the small activity room.

The variety of books on the shelves was even more extensive than she had imagined. Beyond sensational titles like *Encyclopedia of Unsolved World Mysteries*, *Global Paranormal Incident Records*, and *Classic Ghost Story Analysis*,

there were also *Introduction to Animal Behavior*, *Abnormal Psychology*, *Field Methods for Folklore Research*, and even *Basic Physics (Revised Edition)* and *Mythological Semiotics*…

Various disciplines, spanning an enormous range, were crammed together without any discernible order.

Some folders were labeled “Partial Historical Building Structure Maps of N University,” “Local Old Newspaper Summaries,” and “Abnormal Weather Records (Past Five Years).”

She even spotted an open copy of *Fox Rearing and Breeding* on a stack of books in a corner, with *A Study on the Evolution of Canid Folk Images in East Asia* tucked beneath it.

Su Mian could only blink.

She couldn’t help but glance at Qin Xuan, who was still reading. She never expected her studious roommate’s reading tastes to be so… ‘all-encompassing,’ and oddly unique.

These books didn’t seem to be recent purchases; many showed obvious signs of frequent handling, their pages yellowed. Had Qin Xuan been interested in these things for a long time?

“How about it, Qin-President’s ‘collection is rich,’ right?” Hua Liang grinned, leaning closer and following Su Mian’s gaze across the bookshelves.

“The first time I came, I was startled too, thinking I’d stumbled into some retired old professor’s private archive.”

“Qin-President is our club’s ‘encyclopedia’ and ‘information hub.’”

Just as he spoke, the activity room door was abruptly pushed open, and Lu Yang burst in, a little sweat on his forehead.

“Sorry, sorry! Just got called by the counselor for something, didn’t I miss anything… Huh?”

His gaze was instantly drawn to Xue Li, who stood by the bookshelf. His voice trailed off, his eyes visibly brightening.

Xue Li turned her head again at the sound, her ice-blue eyes calm and unruffled. She merely gave a polite, slight nod.

Lu Yang’s face visibly flushed. He cleared his throat, trying to make his voice sound steady and reliable.

“H-hello! I’m Lu Yang, Su Mian and Qin Xuan’s roommate, from the sports department!”

“What should I call this classmate?”

Qin Xuan answered for her. “Xue Li, a club member.”

“Xue Li… what a lovely name!”

Lu Yang immediately interjected, plastering what he believed to be his most charming smile on his face. “Um… this is my first time participating in a club activity like this, so I don’t quite know the rules. Please guide me, Xue Li!”

Xue Li simply uttered a faint “Mm,” then turned back. She pulled *Biological Adaptation Mechanisms in Low-Temperature Environments* from the shelf and walked over to Hua Liang, naturally sitting down beside him.

She even leaned slightly towards him, opening the book between them and whispering something.

Lu Yang secretly nudged Qin Xuan, who was still reading, with his elbow. He lowered his voice, a hint of grievance in his tone.

“You sly dog, you have such a beautiful girl in the club and didn’t introduce her to me sooner! That’s just not right!”

Qin Xuan didn’t even lift his head, turning a page. His voice was utterly devoid of emotion. “She’s not for you.”

Lu Yang paused, then immediately assumed Qin Xuan was implying that Xue Li and Hua Liang were involved. He scratched his head.

Though a little regretful, he quickly adjusted his mindset, becoming polite and maintaining a proper distance towards Hua Liang and Xue Li.

“Hahaha, Qin Xuan is right, I was presumptuous.”

“Hua Liang, Xue Li, please take care of me during tonight’s activity.”

Hua Liang maintained his usual cheerful demeanor. “No problem, no problem. The more, the merrier.”

Xue Li merely nodded slightly, her gaze mostly fixed on the book pages, or occasionally exchanging a quiet word with Hua Liang. Her response to Lu Yang’s enthusiasm was limited.

Su Mian observed all of this, and her impression of Xue Li was that the girl was simply too aloof.

Hua Liang, though appearing like a typical stylish young man, had a smile beneath which Su Mian felt something was hidden.

However, she quickly reconsidered, thinking that she was currently the biggest ‘anomaly’ here, and perhaps she was just being overly sensitive.

Time quietly slipped away in the somewhat peculiar atmosphere. Outside the window, the sky completely darkened, and the campus streetlights flickered on one by one.

Qin Xuan finally closed his book, stood up, walked to the center table, and opened the laptop. The screen’s light reflected on his expressionless face.

“It’s almost time. I’ll go over tonight’s investigation plan.”

His voice was calm, drawing everyone’s attention. He clicked open a folder, which contained several scanned old newspaper pages, along with some handwritten notes and structural diagrams.

“The recent abnormal phenomena in the old teaching building’s women’s restroom are mainly concentrated in the third-floor eastern restroom.”

“According to existing eyewitness reports, the anomalies mostly occur between ten at night and two in the morning, manifesting as intermittent crying and flushing sounds from an unoccupied stall.”

He pulled up a somewhat blurry black-and-white photo—a small local news article titled *Tragic Death of a Young Girl on Campus, Suspected to Be Related to Peer Disputes*, dated over thirty years ago.

“I checked N University’s old archives and local newspapers from that era, and found a related record.” Qin Xuan pointed at the photo.

“Thirty-four years ago, a female N University student was found dead in a stall in the women’s restroom on the third floor of the third teaching building.”

“The investigation report at the time stated the cause of death as a sudden illness. However, rumors and some scattered student recollections later mentioned that the girl had long suffered ostracism and bullying from several female classmates before her death.”

“It was rumored that on the day of her death, she had a fierce argument with those girls in the teaching building.”

Lu Yang gasped, drawing in a cold breath.

“Holy crap… Qin Xuan, you dug up even this? You’re incredible!” His face was filled with shock.

“Wait, so you mean… the supernatural phenomenon in that restroom is a haunting?” Saying this, Lu Yang swallowed hard.

“And the ghost, it might be that… girl from back then?”

“No way, Old Qin, are you serious? I always thought you were just messing around, collecting strange stories… Do you actually believe in ghosts? And you investigated so thoroughly?”

Su Mian also felt surprised. She knew Qin Xuan was serious about things, but she hadn’t expected him to be this serious.

Moreover, he was actually investigating based on the premise that ‘ghosts might exist.’

Qin Xuan ignored Lu Yang’s exclamations and continued his analysis in his usual straightforward tone.

“If the hypothesis that supernatural phenomena exist and are related to obsession and resentment holds true, then the frequently appearing female figure, whose gender and death location match the victim from back then, has a high probability of being connected.”

“Furthermore, since security guards are mostly male and their repeated investigations yielded no results, this could be explained as a repulsion towards males.”

He pushed up his glasses, the lenses reflecting the cold light of the computer screen. “Therefore, to observe or confirm up close, we need a female member to enter the target area during the high-incidence period of anomalies.”

His gaze swept over the only clearly female individual present—Xue Li.

Xue Li raised her ice-blue eyes, her expression still unchanged, her voice cool and calm. “I have no problem.”

It was as if she was merely agreeing to fetch something from the next room.

Lu Yang, however, frowned, his excitement replaced by worry. “Wait, Qin Xuan, even if there really is something… letting Xue Li go alone, as a girl, isn’t very appropriate, is it?”

“It’s too dangerous! What if something happens…”

Qin Xuan nodded, acknowledging Lu Yang’s concerns. His gaze slowly, clearly, shifted to Su Mian, who was listening with growing apprehension.

“Therefore,” Qin Xuan’s voice was exceptionally clear in the quiet activity room, “it’s more suitable for you and Xue Li to go together.”

Su Mian: “…………??”

She blinked, suspecting she had misheard. Pointing at her own nose, she looked utterly bewildered. “Me?”

“Qin Xuan, you… you mean me? To go with Xue Li… to the women’s restroom?”

Lu Yang was also stunned. He looked at Su Mian, then at Qin Xuan, trying to comprehend. “No, Old Qin, Mianzi is a guy! Him going to the women’s restroom? That’s not appropriate, is it?”

Although he said this, he couldn’t help but recall the image of Su Mian dressed in women’s clothing.

Qin Xuan’s gaze rested on Su Mian, his eyes calm and unwavering. He spoke slowly, his tone carrying an undeniable certainty, “You are the most suitable candidate.”

The activity room instantly fell silent. Lu Yang’s smile turned somewhat playful, and Xue Li also lifted her eyes, looking at Su Mian seriously for the first time, with a hint of subtle scrutiny.

Lu Yang, on the other hand, was completely bewildered, utterly clueless as to what Qin Xuan was saying. Su Mian’s heart, however, sank heavily at that moment.

‘Qin Xuan… does he know something to say that?’

Immediately after, she heard Qin Xuan continue, “You can wear women’s clothing and go with Xue Li.”

Su Mian: “…”

She had just managed to wear men’s clothing again, and now she had to put on women’s clothing once more?

“Moreover, that women’s restroom in the old teaching building has long been unused.”

“You don’t have to worry about being mistaken for a pervert.”

Lu Yang’s eyes lit up at the words. “I think, Old Qin, your suggestion actually works!”