novelsite Chapter 108 Just pretend she doesn't have a granddaughter like me.
Chapter 108 Just pretend she doesn't have a granddaughter like me.
Ji Shanqing knew that her current state was not right.
She strolled leisurely through the corridor of the teaching building, and through the windows connecting the corridor to the classrooms, she could even see the crowd of people inside.
—She was once one of them.
Before she jumped off the rooftop.
Ji Shanqing didn't actually die immediately; when she fell, her spine hit the ground first.
Her spine exploded in an instant.
White bone fragments and red blood mingled together, spurting outwards with a hissing sound.
Then came the head; the neck was snapped in that instant. Ji Shanqing didn't even feel much pain; the first thing she felt was coldness.
The cold from excessive blood loss, the icy chill of impending death, the urge to struggle, but only a futile, helpless trembling of fingertips.
Through her blood-blurred vision, she finally looked at the bright, azure sky, cloudless.
Ji Shanqing thought that it seemed to be the first time in so long since she started high school that she felt so peaceful, without having to worry about homework, exam results, or what kind of university she would get into.
She felt a long-lost sense of relaxation.
Just like when she was little—how old exactly? Ji Shanqing couldn't remember, but when she was very young—she sat in the basket behind her father, looking up at the sky.
It was summer, and the azure sky shone through the layers of swaying tree shadows onto her face.
Back then, she saw a pure blue sky, but now, the blue was mostly blurred by blood.
Ji Shanqing no longer wanted to think about where the blood that blurred her vision came from.
Was it her own eyeball that exploded? Probably not, or was it blood from her head that flowed into her eyes? Ji Shanqing didn't know.
Her short but profound life, which she recalled most vividly, was spent the longest time in school, flowing through Ji Shanqing's mind like a gentle breeze.
Ji Shanqing remembered the promise she made to her parents while sitting on the haystack: she would definitely earn money and take them away from this mountain village.
Ji Shanqing recalled that when she was still confused, her grandmother covered her eyes and told her that her grandfather was just asleep. But Ji Shanqing didn't understand why her loud crying hadn't woken her grandfather up.
Ji Shanqing recalled that after she clearly understood the concept of death, she began to calculate how much longer her grandmother could stay with her.
She was terrified that she was growing up too slowly, and that her grandmother was aging too quickly, so that the promises she had made would never be fulfilled, and that all she would see in the end was a light, flimsy urn containing her ashes.
In the end, Ji Shanqing did not fulfill any of the promises she made—except for getting into the best high school.
The only difference is that instead of me holding my grandmother's urn, it was my grandmother holding my urn.
Ji Shanqing thought this in a daze as she lost consciousness.
But what followed was an overwhelming pain and hatred.
Why me? Why me? Why me? Why me? I really wanted to get into a good university, find a good job, and support my family. Why me? Why not someone else?
Then, Ji Shanqing suddenly opened her eyes and saw her own corpse, which was unrecognizable due to falling from a height.
The students around kept their distance, and even just a glance was enough to make some of them gag.
Ji Shanqing could imagine what they would talk about when they got home—
[Should witnesses who jumped from buildings really smell feces?]
Someone jumped off a building at our school, does that mean we get a half-day off? Amen, I'll be forever grateful to that person.
Ji Shanqing was filled with hatred.
She hated those who bullied her, she hated herself, she hated herself for jumping off the building, for not enduring it a little longer—if only she had lived another year, she would have been free.
It wasn't until she became a ghost that Ji Shanqing realized just how many ghosts were in her school.
She can't count them all.
A strange entity told her—Ji Shanqing didn't know the other person's name—that they were all the people who committed suicide at the Fourth Middle School.
No one knows exactly how many people died—jumping off buildings, taking drugs, cutting their wrists, hanging themselves. All the dead will have their names erased. No one, not even their parents, knows that their child attended this high school and then committed suicide.
They didn't even know they had children.
So that's how it is. Ji Shanqing thought to herself, her grandmother would never hold her urn, because her grandmother would never remember that she had a granddaughter.
She walked that path many, many more times afterward, though no one saw her.
The flower bed she had smashed has been cleaned up, but bloodstains that can't be wiped clean still seep into the cracks.
Ji Shanqing wondered, would her death alone really spread such a large area of red?
Before him, how many people in this building, filled with despair and boundless hatred, jumped off the rooftop?
*
The truth about the Fourth Middle School was Ji Shanqing's own speculation.
The source of all the strange occurrences is Zhao Henshan.
They were all noticed by Zhao Henshan, who then considered them to be the same kind of people as himself, and so he dragged them into death on his own.
Ji Shanqing once thought that the erasure of her existence was also Zhao Henshan's doing, until she learned that Zhao Henshan's method of preying on her was to find out the truth about the Fourth Middle School.
Then she suddenly realized that the erasure of all their memories of their existence was not something Zhao Henshan did, but something they did spontaneously.
This was their first step in rebelling against Zhao Henshan.
"Ji Shanqing." The strange creature, whose name she didn't know, looked at Ji Shanqing with bloody tears streaming down its face. "I have parents too, I don't want them to die, do you understand?"
If so many people die and so many parents find out, then Zhao Henshan's actions will be absolutely unstoppable.
Zhao Henshan would only kill all the bystanders who knew about these things and, in her view, turned a blind eye to her suffering.
"Ji Shanqing, do you want your parents and your grandmother to die like this?" the familiar eerie voice asked softly.
Ji Shanqing shook her head.
Thus, Ji Shanqing became a newcomer in this step.
Ji Shanqing didn't know who took the first step to stop Zhao Henshan, and the strange creature that took the first step erased its own traces as well.
Similarly, regardless of their personalities as humans, after death they all become monsters with similar hatred. They are no longer innocent; they are also killing people.
However, an unknown number of non-human beings, with their meager conscience, built a defense line for their loved ones, which also protected the remaining ordinary people.
*
Ji Shanqing squatted on the bathroom shelf, looking down calmly.
She heard Xu Niannian sobbing, and she also heard Jiang Xingni's comforting voice on the other end of the phone.
Ji Shanqing knew that her current situation was abnormal, but she didn't care.
Soon, Xu Niannian will also become a new member among them.
Then, she heard Xu Niannian's voice, trembling with tears and even cracking, say, "Do you want your grandma to see you like this?"
Ji Shanqing paused for a moment.
She said softly, "Just pretend she doesn't have a granddaughter like me."