On the day the national examination results were released, Lu Xingliao stared at the glaring score on his phone screen and remained motionless for a full ten minutes.
"It's over," he murmured.
From the living room came the muffled sound of his mother's suppressed sobs, while his father sat in silence, lighting his third cigarette. The university dream this family had nurtured for eighteen years had shattered in an instant. Lu Xingliao lowered his gaze to those eyes of his—the eyes that could perceive what others could not—and let out a bitter smile. Since childhood, they had brought him nothing but endless trouble and the derisive label of "liar."
Late that night, his phone suddenly flashed with a message.
[Special aptitude detected. Do you wish to undertake the qualification test for "Civil Anomalous Incident Handler"? Successful candidates will be granted university admission and a dedicated scholarship.]
Lu Xingliao stared at the inexplicable text, his finger hovering above the screen. A scam? Or…
As if guided by some unseen hand, he tapped "Yes."
Three hours later, he had passed every online assessment. At dawn the next morning, an exquisitely crafted admission letter appeared at his doorstep—Shanhai University, Department of Folk Culture and Special Affairs Management.
"A diploma mill," his father scoffed, tossing the letter onto the table. "Never even heard of it."
But Lu Xingliao saw what no one else could—the faint golden sigils flowing across the back of the letter, shifting as though alive. More importantly: full scholarship, accommodation included, and guaranteed employment upon graduation.
"I'm going," he declared, with a firmness he had never shown before.
In early September, dragging his suitcase behind him, Lu Xingliao followed the address on the letter to a derelict industrial park on the outskirts of the city. The map insisted a university stood here, yet before him lay only crumbling factories and weeds run wild.
"Scammed too?" a crisp female voice called from behind.
He turned to see a girl with a ponytail and a hiking backpack, holding an identical admission letter. Her name was Shen Qingdai—she too had failed the exam, and she too had received this mysterious invitation.
"Seems I'm not the only 'lucky one,'" another voice chimed in.
Within half an hour, seven people had gathered—three women and four men, all unsuccessful candidates, all bearing letters from Shanhai University. Just as they were preparing to leave, a sharp pain stabbed Lu Xingliao's eyes.
Above the abandoned factory hovered a line of translucent text:
[Entrance to Shanhai University Campus. Activation password required: the blood of seven.]
"Wait!" Lu Xingliao called out to the others who had already begun to turn away. "I think… the school might actually be here."
Under their skeptical gazes, he bit his finger and let a drop of blood fall onto the letter. The instant the crimson bead seeped into the paper, the sigils flared with light.
"Try it," he urged.
Though it felt absurd, desperation overrode doubt. When the seventh drop of blood touched the parchment, the world around them warped and reassembled. The dilapidated factories dissolved, replaced by an ancient complex of traditional Chinese architecture—blue bricks, grey tiles, soaring eaves—and upon the plaque above the gate, four bold characters danced like dragons and phoenixes:
Shanhai University.
The gates opened of their own accord. A middle-aged man in a Zhongshan suit stepped out, his complexion pale yet his smile impeccably courteous. "Welcome, first cohort. I am your Dean of Instruction, Qin Chuan."
The campus within was at least ten times larger than it had appeared from outside. Pavilions and corridors stood in elegant array, yet the grounds were eerily deserted—save for the seven students and Director Qin.
"Our institution specializes in folk culture and anomalous incident management," Qin Chuan explained as he walked. "Courses include, but are not limited to, exorcism, spirit summoning, corpse driving, body retrieval, geomancy, and talismanic inscription. The program spans three years and employs a progression-clearance system."
"A progression system?" Shen Qingdai asked with curiosity.
Qin Chuan pushed open a heavy wooden door, revealing a spacious classroom. Words materialized upon the blackboard of their own accord:
[First-Year Curriculum: Fundamental Cognition and Elementary Handling of Supernatural Incidents]
[Clearance Requirement: Complete 10 E-Rank Assignments]
[Current Rank: Trainee (0/10)]
"Completing assignments earns credits and points," Qin Chuan elaborated. "Points may be exchanged in the campus store for supplies, skill manuals, even extraordinary abilities. With each clearance, your title and privileges will ascend."
"Title?" a bespectacled boy inquired, adjusting his glasses.
With a casual wave of his hand, seven yellowed cards appeared out of thin air, hovering before each of them. Lu Xingliao took his. It read:
Name: Lu Xingliao
Title: Apprentice Folklore Investigator
Rank: E
Cleared Assignments: 0
Special Ability: Spirit Sight (Inactive)
Points: 0
The others examined their own cards with mixed expressions—curiosity, suspicion, excitement.
"And if we fail to complete the assignments?" asked a tall, gaunt boy named Li Ninghao, whose cautious demeanor set him apart.
Qin Chuan smiled, a smile that sent a chill down their spines. "You will be expelled, your related memories erased, and returned to your former life."
Silence fell. For these rejected examinees, their former lives meant the crushing pressure of retaking exams, disappointed families, and a future shrouded in uncertainty.
"I'm in," Shen Qingdai declared first, raising her hand.
Lu Xingliao looked at the words "Spirit Sight (Inactive)" on his card and recalled all the things he had seen since childhood that others could not. He drew a deep breath. "Me too."
All seven chose to stay.
That first night, Lu Xingliao lay in his antique-styled dormitory, tossing and turning, sleep refusing to come. At two in the morning, he rose for a glass of water—only to see, at the far end of the corridor, a woman in white standing with her back to him.
His heart clenched. Her feet hovered three inches above the ground as she slowly began to turn.
At that very moment, the trainee card in his pocket grew warm. He pulled it out to find new words emerging upon its surface:
[Emergency Assignment: Console the Wandering Senior (E-Rank)]
[Description: Senior Li, who perished in a laboratory accident three years ago, roams the experimental building each night. Soothe her spirit and guide her to rest.]
[Reward: 100 Points, Activation of Spirit Sight]
[Accept?]
Lu Xingliao's hand trembled. To accept meant confronting a ghost; to refuse might condemn him to remain forever a mere "apprentice investigator."
The woman in white had fully turned around. Hers was a pale yet youthful face—eyes hollow, devoid of light.
Lu Xingliao swallowed hard, his fingertip hovering above the "Yes" option.
Suddenly, a hand reached in from beside him and pressed it.
"For something like this, we should form a team, shouldn't we?" Shen Qingdai had appeared at his side without his noticing, a softly glowing trainee card clutched in her hand.
Li Ninghao stepped out from the shadows, adjusting his glasses. "I've analyzed the campus layout. The laboratory building lies to the northwest—metal in the Five Elements. Fire would be effective for suppression, but soothing a spirit may require water-aligned methods…"
The remaining four roommates emerged one after another; none of them had been able to sleep.
Seven people—seven failed examinees, seven strangers who had known one another for less than a day—stood in the eerie corridor at two in the morning, confronting their very first supernatural assignment.
"Let's go," Lu Xingliao said, courage rising from some unknown well within him. "We can't exactly get expelled on the first night."
The laboratory building stood in the northwestern corner of the campus, the sole Western-style structure amid a sea of traditional Chinese architecture, jarringly out of place. When they pushed open the heavy oak doors, a stale, decaying odor rushed out to greet them.
"According to horror-movie logic, this is where we split up," whispered a boy nicknamed Wang Pang.
"Then we'll do the opposite," Shen Qingdai replied, switching on her phone's flashlight.
The beam carved a pallid column of light through the cavernous hall. On the walls hung aged photographs—graduating classes staring blankly into the lens. In one image, a girl in a white lab coat stood within a laboratory, her back turned to the camera.
Lu Xingliao's eyes began to ache again. The girl in the photograph was slowly turning her head.
"She's here," he murmured.
The temperature plummeted; their breath unfurled in pale mist. At the far end of the hall, the woman in white materialized from nothingness—clearer than before, and infinitely more sorrowful.
"Senior," Lu Xingliao called, summoning what courage he could, "we want to help you."
Her hollow eyes fixed upon him. Her lips moved, yet no sound emerged. In that instant, his Spirit Sight awakened of its own accord. He saw the bruised, violet ring encircling her neck, and in her hand, a photograph burned halfway to ash.
On the photograph stood a young man in a white lab coat, smiling radiantly.
"You didn't die in an accident," Lu Xingliao blurted. "You were… murdered."
A piercing shriek tore through the air. The lights of the entire building flickered madly. Glassware exploded, desks and chairs whirled into the air like leaves in a storm.
"I said the wrong thing!" Lu Xingliao shouted.
Li Ninghao swiftly pulled a pouch of glutinous rice from his backpack—the very item he had purchased earlier from the campus store with his initial points—and scattered it outward. The grains crackled faintly as they fell around the apparition, and the shriek softened, if only slightly.
From the opposite side, Shen Qingdai approached, holding a pen and a notebook—her exchanged item, the Beginner's Pen of Consolation.
"Senior, tell us the truth," she said, her voice astonishingly calm. "Only then can we help you."
The woman ceased her wailing. Slowly, she raised the half-burned photograph and pointed upward.
The seven exchanged glances and moved cautiously toward the staircase. With every step, the air grew colder still. The door to the third-floor laboratory stood ajar, a faint sobbing drifting from within.
When they pushed it open, they beheld a younger Senior Li—or rather, the final illusion of her life. The phantom stood before a workbench, a data report trembling in her hands as tears fell one by one upon the paper. Behind her, the shadow of a young man flickered past.
"The data… it was tampered with…" the illusion whispered. "Why would he do this…?"
Abruptly, she spun around, eyes widening in terror. Her hands flew to her throat as though gripped by invisible fingers. Her body lifted slowly into the air—struggling, trembling—then fell limp.
The vision dissolved, leaving only the charred half-photograph drifting gently to the floor.
Lu Xingliao picked it up and turned it over. On the back was a single line of small handwriting:
"If we cannot graduate together, then we shall descend into hell together — Zhang."
"Zhang…" Shen Qingdai mused. "I saw the name in the school archives. Three years ago, a student called Zhang Ziheng voluntarily withdrew after the laboratory accident."
Li Ninghao had already powered on the antiquated laboratory computer—miraculously still functional. Within an encrypted folder, they discovered an unsent email:
"Professor, I have discovered that Zhang Ziheng altered the experimental data. I will confront him in person tomorrow. If this email is sent, it means I…"
The message ended there, abruptly severed into silence.
"So Senior Li discovered her boyfriend had tampered with the data, arranged to confront him, and was silenced—her death disguised as a laboratory accident," Wang Pang concluded.
"But Zhang Ziheng merely withdrew from school and faced no legal consequences," Shen Qingdai frowned. "Why?"
Lu Xingliao swept his gaze across the laboratory. Through Spirit Sight, he perceived far more than the others—the lingering imprints of rage, despair, and unwillingness etched into the walls, and… a concealed safe, hidden directly behind the wall adorned with the banner reading Outstanding Experimental Team.
Working together, the seven dragged aside the heavy equipment cabinet, revealing the safe embedded in the wall. The combination lock was rusted beyond recognition, yet Li Ninghao, armed with a length of wire and the deft techniques he had learned in Campus Survival Skills, managed to pry it open after ten painstaking minutes.
Inside lay only a single item: an intact photograph. It depicted a youthful Senior Li standing beside Zhang Ziheng, both smiling brilliantly, the very laboratory behind them. On the reverse side was a brief exchange written in two distinct handwritings:
"Shall we marry after graduation?"
"Of course, my genius girlfriend."
And then, a third line—scrawled in a trembling script unlike the others:
"You've uncovered my secret. Then you shall remain here forever."
The instant the safe opened, the oppressive chill suffusing the entire building dissipated. The woman in white appeared before them once more, no longer terrifying—merely a sorrowful young girl.
"Thank… you," she whispered, her voice so faint it was nearly lost to the air.
She accepted the complete photograph, clasped it to her chest, and her figure gradually grew translucent. Before vanishing entirely, she extended a hand and lightly touched Lu Xingliao's trainee card.
[Assignment Complete: Console the Wandering Senior (E-Rank)]
[Rewards Settled: 100 Points Credited; Spirit Sight Activated]
[Bonus Reward: Senior Li's Blessing (E-Rank Talisman)]
All seven trainee cards vibrated simultaneously. Each of them received one hundred points, along with a subtle enhancement to their abilities.
By the time they emerged from the laboratory building, the eastern sky was already paling with the first light of dawn. Exhausted yet exhilarated, they had completed their first assignment and truly brushed against another world.
"That was only an E-rank task," Li Ninghao remarked, adjusting his glasses. "I can't imagine how difficult D or C ranks will be."
"At least we're no longer useless failures," Shen Qingdai said with a smile. "We are… folklore investigators."
Lu Xingliao gazed at the trainee card in his hand. With Spirit Sight now awakened, he could clearly discern the various "auras" permeating the campus—the thirst for knowledge lingering in the classrooms, the quiet reassurance surrounding the dormitories, the warmth emanating from the cafeteria… and, deep within the grounds, several formidable and perilous presences.
Director Qin stood before the main building, watching the seven return. A rare, genuine smile crossed his pale face. "Well done on your first lesson. Go and rest. Formal classes begin this afternoon—Classification of Spirits and Fundamental Communication Techniques."
They dragged their weary bodies back to the dormitory, yet none could sleep. They remained in the common lounge until sunrise, discussing abilities, assignments, and the enigma that was this university.
When Lu Xingliao finally returned to his room, he discovered an ancient notebook resting upon his desk. Opening the first page, he read:
"To the one who can see this notebook: Shanhai University is no ordinary school, and you are no ordinary students. Clear every rank, and the truth will reveal itself. Beware of Qin Chuan—he is not entirely what he appears. —A Former Trainee"
Every subsequent page lay blank, save for a single line on the very last:
"There were nine in the first cohort. Only three remained at graduation."
Lu Xingliao snapped the notebook shut, his heart pounding like a war drum. Seven? Nine? Where were the other two? What did it mean that only three had survived to graduate?
He recalled Director Qin's pallid visage, the dangerous auras lurking in the depths of the campus, and the inexplicable emergence of this institution from nothingness.
Outside the window, daylight fully bloomed, and the morning bell of Shanhai University tolled—deep, resonant, unending.
A new day had begun, yet Lu Xingliao knew that certain shadows had only just awakened.
In the principal's office at the farthest reaches of the campus, Qin Chuan stood before the window, gazing at the seven dormitory buildings whose lights had just flickered on. To the empty room, he spoke:
"The seeds have been sown. The game officially begins. This time… how many will survive to graduation?"
The shadow upon the wall writhed, coalescing into a vague humanoid silhouette:
"The wager is placed. Let us see whether this batch can shatter the curse of the 'Seventh Group.'"
A cryptic smile curved Qin Chuan's lips as his fingers tapped lightly against the windowsill. "Especially that boy, Lu Xingliao… his eyes remind me of an old friend."
Morning light dispelled the last remnants of night, yet the truth of Shanhai University remained veiled in layers of mist.
The path of growth for the seven had only just begun.
And in a place beyond their awareness, the assignment list upon their trainee cards silently refreshed:
[Second Assignment: Investigation of the Seven Mysteries of the Campus (D-Rank)]
[Warning: This task may involve clues regarding the 'Two Missing Trainees.']
[Acceptance Countdown: 23:59:59]
The clock had begun to tick.