Early in the morning, Jiang Hou finished his breakfast and tidied up the kitchen before heading to school.
Actually, for him now, studying is optional. His short-term goal has shifted from initially aiming for university to striving to become stronger.
Jiang Hou is very clear that whether in ancient times or modern society, fists have always been at the core of power.
As long as a person is strong enough to ignore firearms and heavy weapons, the things they should have will naturally belong to them.
But there's no choice; he has to go to school.
In the past, Qin Buyi would boast to colleagues and friends, saying his academic performance was excellent and he was 100% sure to get into university, and he's been boasting since elementary school until now.
Therefore, even if not for himself, Jiang Hou must go to university.
Otherwise, Qin Buyi's bragging would turn out to be empty talk.
Of course, whether he attends after getting admitted is another matter.
And fate is like a knife, unpredictable. If he ends up dead in the rubble before next year's college entrance exam, he'd just have to apologize to Qin Buyi since it's a force majeure...
The weather today is nice, the sun is shining.
Jiang Hou had just arrived at the classroom when Zong Zheng Nan Mo walked in right behind him and said solemnly while taking his lunchbox out of his backpack.
"Jiang Hou, I heard someone died again last night."
Jiang Hou was taken aback, raising an eyebrow: "Someone died again, how many?"
"Five."
Zong Zheng Nan Mo spoke quietly: "Among them, four people were regulars at night spots, and when their bodies were found in an alley in the old town, only some remnants were left."
"Another had a large hole in his chest, with scorched marks around the wound, not like human-made."
"Do you think it's possible that there really are ghosts?" Gulping down as he spoke the word "ghost," Zong Zheng Nan Mo swallowed hard, clearly a bit scared.
"In broad daylight, where do ghosts come from? Don't scare yourself."
"True, I've been sleeping poorly the last couple of days, making me a bit paranoid." Zong Zheng Nan Mo said as he tried changing the subject, bringing up some hearsay around the school.
Like how the class flower from Class One confessed to the basketball club chairman after school yesterday and got rejected on the spot, and by this morning, she was with the vice-chairman of the basketball club.
The dance club president from the second year didn't wear underwear yesterday and was discovered by a female classmate at the neighboring desk...
What a mess. Jiang Hou was getting a headache listening to it.
Just then, a small group on the side burst into laughter and chatter as five students surrounded the radiant and beautiful Li Mengwu, evidently rejoicing over their fun at the esports city yesterday.
Besides, many early-arriving male classmates in the class were secretly glancing at that same girl classmate.
Seeing this, Jiang Hou shook his head subtly; encountering someone too stunning at a young age is not a good thing, especially when you're quite ordinary yourself.
Thinking of this, Jiang Hou's gaze fell on Jiang Chong, a handsome boy smiling as he talked with Li Mengwu.
The young will ultimately be troubled for life by what they cannot obtain.
At this point, Zong Zheng Nan Mo noticed Jiang Hou's lack of interest in gossip and said: "Jiang Hou, I cast a hexagram for myself when I left this morning; the hexagram showed water above fire, extreme yin meeting with calamity."
Jiang Hou cast him a sideways glance: "I don't quite understand, speak plainly."
"It means I shouldn't go out; nothing should happen in the morning, but there might be a calamity in the afternoon."
"Well, it's irrelevant; anyway, none of your hexagrams are accurate, don't worry about it."
Because of his family tradition of the Taoist School, Zong Zheng Nan Mo liked casting hexagrams for himself daily, saying he was avoiding calamity and seeking fortune. But as Jiang Hou mentioned, this guy never got one right.
"That's what it is, but today I have an uneasy feeling, like something might happen." Zong Zheng Nan Mo said, a bit worried.
"Relax, when the time comes, I'll help collect your body."
Zong Zheng Nan Mo immediately showed his middle finger: "Damn, are we brothers or not."
"No." Jiang Hou replied decisively.
With a 'sad' face, Zong Zheng Nan Mo's overly beautiful face made Jiang Hou's skin crawl.
Luckily, the teacher walked into the classroom then, and Zong Zheng Nan Mo quickly returned to normal, allowing Jiang Hou to breathe a sigh of relief.
After the first class in the morning, Zong Zheng Nan Mo slipped out again to dig up gossip with his classmates, while Jiang Hou took out his phone.
He opened the video site, selected local options, then typed "dead person" into the search box.
Soon, a slew of videos and information related to 'dead person' titles was refreshed, but the content was all about incidents from a week ago.
As for videos related to last night's deaths, not a single one appeared.
Jiang Hou softly murmured: "No surprise." Regarding this result, he had almost anticipated it.
With so much happening the night before and the night before that, apart from the villa attack case by someone named Zhang, no related information could be seen on the news and online.
It closely matched Jiang Hou's previous suspicion that an invisible hand was covering up these things.
As for the reasons, it should be to prevent widespread panic, given those corpses were not man-made and would be easy fodder for manipulative folks.
At the same time, with two consecutive nights of death incidents, Jiang Hou felt the world becoming increasingly dangerous.
In the afternoon, as the second class was about to start, Zong Zheng Nan Mo walked back in looking a bit disheveled, holding his nose.
"Jiang Hou, I really did have a calamity today."
Jiang Hou blinked: "You got attacked?"
"More or less." As Zong Zheng Nan Mo spoke, he took his hand away, revealing a red nose and an additional scar on his overly pretty face.
Instantly, Jiang Hou almost burst into laughter.
Zong Zheng Nan Mo, speechless: "Are we brothers or not, I'm like this, and you're still laughing."
"What happened?" Jiang Hou asked, holding back laughter.
"Got hit with a broom by the art club president. It was clearly a mistake; I didn't intentionally touch her chest, but she still chased me across three floors with a broom."
...Well, getting beaten wasn't undeserved.
For high school girls, whether it's intentional or not, a boy touching that place in public will definitely cause reflexive reactions.
Time passed quickly like flowing water, soon it was time to go home.
As Jiang Hou stood up and Zong Zheng Nan Mo packed up to leave, the glasses-wearing homeroom teacher walked in: "Jiang Hou, Zong Zheng Nan Mo, come with me."
...Jiang Hou and Zong Zheng Nan Mo looked at each other in confusion, why was the homeroom teacher calling them?
Yet, despite their puzzlement, the two followed behind the homeroom teacher all the way to the old teaching building.
Because of outdated facilities, the classrooms were converted into places for students to conduct extracurricular activities, like music, dance, art, etc.
After reaching the fifth floor, the homeroom teacher pointed toward the end of the corridor: "Go on, the person looking for you is inside."
"Teacher, isn't it you who wants us?" Zong Zheng Nan Mo asked, puzzled.
Jiang Hou also felt odd — who would have the teacher call them here, and could someone move the homeroom teacher.
"I'm not sure, I just got a call from the principal asking you to come over." The homeroom teacher shook his head, equally bewildered.
"Go ahead, don't worry about anything happening at school, I've got stuff to deal with, I'm leaving first."
With that, the teacher waved them off and turned to leave, leaving the two in bewilderment.