The Girl’s Lament: A Ghost’s Tale of Chuanbei Middle School

Upon leaving the room where the hanging fan ghost resided, the girl landed and chose a more ‘human’ way of walking. Throughout her years as a ghost, she had always tried to maintain human habits. Although ‘floating’ is a fashionable way for ghosts to travel and passing through walls and floors is convenient, most of the time, she would walk, knock on doors, and open them the usual way.

However, five years ago, before this dormitory was abandoned, her habits of ‘knocking’ and ‘opening doors’ had truly frightened many young girls. Stories like ‘midnight ghost knocking,’ ‘footsteps echoing in the hallway at dawn,’ and ‘blood handprints in the toilet’… During that time, she was a genuine campus legend!

Sometimes, she would wonder if it was because she had frightened these girls that accelerated the school’s plan to abandon this building. What regret! If only she had knocked on fewer doors and left fewer blood handprints…

Five years! Who knows how she spent these five years? She was so bored she was about to go crazy! After all, she couldn’t leave this dormitory building more than ten meters…

Fortunately, a few months ago, other female ghosts began to appear in this dormitory. This had never happened before. She had been wandering in this building for nearly twenty years, exploring every corner. But besides herself, she had never seen another ghost, not even a trace.

In these twenty years, this dormitory had seen more deaths than just hers. Like the hanging fan ghost, five years ago, due to a malfunctioning fan, she tried to fix it while standing on a stool, forgetting to turn off the power. When she climbed up, the fan suddenly started spinning, pulling her hair into it and spinning her around. Her roommate panicked, some ran out, others tried to pull her down… In the end, her neck was broken… It was after this accident that the school ordered the dormitory to be abandoned.

Apart from that, there were those who jumped from heartbreak, those who overdosed after failing exams, and those who performed self-induced abortions in the toilet and bled to death… This building, from its construction to now, forty-five years in total, including herself, has seen about ten deaths.

Yet, until recently, there was only her as a ghost, which made her doubt science. She thought maybe her resentment was strong enough to keep her as a ghost. But a few months ago, these female ghosts slowly began to appear.

That night, when she discovered the abortion ghost in the toilet, she was thrilled! Eager to make a friend, but the ghost only wanted to kill her. With no choice, she had to fight back. Though she had never fought another ghost, she didn’t know her own strength. In one swift move, the abortion ghost was dead, smashed into pieces like a block of tofu.

At first, she was sad. A potential ghost friend was gone so quickly. Later, she ate the abortion ghost’s remains, sucking them up like tofu brain. Inside, she resisted, but the ‘tofu brain’ was too tempting. Plus, she knew the ghost only had an instinct to attack, whether it was a person or another ghost. It saw her and wanted to fight, showing no mercy. As a ghost, she considered it a low-grade ghost, much like how humans eat pork without guilt.

After that, she slowly discovered the jumping ghost, the overdosed ghost, the choked ghost, and the bloated ghost… However, without exception, they all wanted to kill her, none wanted to be her friend… Among these female ghosts, she was like the smartest student, unable to befriend these less articulate classmates. Loneliness…

Thinking this, she arrived at the rooftop. Chuanbei Middle School, despite its name, is not located in the ‘north of the river.’ It sits on a mountain named ‘Chuanbei.’ Because of its high elevation, even with only five stories, the rooftop has a tall lightning rod standing in the center. She looked at the lightning rod, her eyes flashing with resentment and hatred. She had once hung there for at least half a month!

She had died twice. The first time wasn’t so painful. A middle-aged bald programmer died at his computer, a devoted worker until the end. He left a nice sum of money, with both parents deceased, naturally leaving everything to his wife and daughter. With his wife working for a state-owned enterprise, their income was stable, ensuring they wouldn’t suffer too much.

Then, she was reborn as a girl named Fu Ziqing. Regarding the resistance and discomfort of changing genders, she felt little. She was a fetus, experiencing life from infancy to girlhood, then to adolescence, living a full new life for over a decade. With her parents and brother, she would act cute, play and gossip with other girls… First bra, first period, first crop top… Many experiences she embraced as new, not resisting or struggling, but fully adapting.

However, some things were still hard to accept. Fu Ziqing had always been the center of attention. As a child, she was cute, obedient, and sweet-talking, loved by everyone. Starting in middle school, her body began to develop. Though her face still had some baby fat, the beauty she would become was undeniable. From receiving her first silly, cheesy love letter, to facing shy or arrogant boys confessing their love, she started with curiosity and playfulness. But as more came, she inevitably grew tired. During that time, she was truly annoyed by those love-sick boys.

In high school, Fu Ziqing blossomed even more, but the bothersome situation improved. This was due to her cold demeanor and Chuanbei Middle School’s strict rules. Though a reincarnated soul, she had lost her previous life’s knowledge, so she had to study hard, maintaining her position as the top student. Over the years, she learned about this world’s differences from her past life, planning to enter university, where she could write classic martial arts novels from memory, submit them to newspapers, and become a happy plagiarist. During high school, she intentionally chose liberal arts, unlike her past life. For years, she contributed to the school newspaper, honing her writing skills.

Some things were hard to accept, so she chose to live alone, freely and happily. Anyway, she had an older brother, so the pressure to carry on the family line wasn’t on her.

However, all her beautiful dreams and plans were shattered during a rainy night before the college entrance exams. That year, Chuanbei Middle School was an exam site, so Fu Ziqing stayed in one of the dormitory rooms. She was awakened by the cold rain. She was tightly bound and hung on the rooftop’s lightning rod. Her eye sockets ached intensely, blood flowing down her face, mixing with rainwater, staining her body red. All she could hear was the rain, feeling the icy drops hitting her skin. No matter how hard she tried to open her ‘eyes,’ all she saw was darkness. Fear and pain caused her to pass out.

Later, Fu Ziqing was awakened by pain and heat. On the first day of the exams, it was a bright, sunny day. While teenagers, filled with anxiety or confidence, entered the exam halls, Fu Ziqing was hanging on the rooftop. Losing her eyes caused intense pain, and a night of rain left her feverish. Her throat was dry and sore, making it impossible for her to call out, only able to emit weak moans. She knew, as Chuanbei Middle School’s ‘princess,’ teachers and school leaders must be frantically searching for her. But why, why didn’t anyone think to look on the rooftop?

Under the blazing sun, Fu Ziqing was tormented by pain and heat, fainting and waking up repeatedly. Blood clotted in her eye sockets and on her face, her body dehydrated and anemic, worsening her condition. Naturally, she grew weaker, her rescue calls growing fainter… She never gave up, continued to call for help, until the third day, when she could no longer make a sound. Even then, she struggled to maintain consciousness.

She heard the final bell of the exam, the noise of students rushing out of the exam halls. Though she couldn’t see, she still wanted to live. She was still holding on, counting the hourly chimes of the school bell. Counting and counting, until her thoughts became chaotic. She couldn’t tell how many chimes she had counted, couldn’t distinguish day from night. Until one moment, her thoughts cleared. In that instant, she realized. She had died. Become a ghost.

Unfortunately, even as a ghost, she couldn’t see. A blind ghost. But soon, she discovered something amazing and sensitive. Though she couldn’t see her corpse, she sensed its location and the stench of decay. She was almost grateful, feeling lucky not to see her corpse’s grotesque state.

Using her senses, she left the rooftop. She didn’t know who was responsible. But since she was a ghost, she had to investigate, find the culprit, and take revenge! But soon, she found she couldn’t leave the dormitory more than ten meters. She was trapped. She fell into a brief madness, during which she discovered other abilities. Calming down, she returned to the rooftop, manipulating objects to make noise, finally annoying the dorm supervisor enough to open the rooftop door… Accompanied by the dorm supervisor’s scream echoing through the school. Chuanbei Middle School’s ‘princess,’ Fu Ziqing, changed from missing to deceased. The shocking ‘Fu Ziqing Missing Case’ escalated into a brutal murder case, drawing national attention.