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墨書 Inktalez
Because I had to work tonight, I decided to share an old story. Friends from Tieba have read it, but many of my Ironworking friends haven't. I've made this chapter free, so those who have read it won't have to pay again.
Back in 2006, when I just started university, I had heard some ghost stories about the school even before classes began. So, the day before school started, while waiting for Military Training, I spent an entire afternoon at an internet café searching for supernatural events and their locations on campus. Out of pure curiosity and a love for my school, I wanted to learn more. However, the start of school meant two weeks of Military Training, which took up all my time from morning till night. There was hardly any time left to get to know my classmates, and the campus was vast, leaving me no opportunity for exploration during that period.
Once Military Training ended, I got a map of the school and bought a Mountain Bike. I spent a whole day familiarizing myself with the campus environment. Although I didn’t memorize all the paths, I marked several key locations I wanted to visit.
First, there was the Air Raid Shelter.
Second, the Old Library.
Third, the entire feng shui layout of Sakura School had been examined by experts. The most intriguing part was the sensational ghost stories that drew me in. So that Saturday night after finishing Military Training, I headed to the School of Engineering’s Ten Building Restroom. Since Military Training had taken place in the School of Engineering, I was somewhat familiar with that area.
Fortunately, the infamous restroom was a men's room. I didn't know what had happened there; I only saw many people discussing how eerie it was on a Forum, which piqued my interest.
The supposedly haunted restroom in Ten Building was located on the second floor in a secluded corner. It would be hard to find if you weren't specifically looking for it. Perhaps due to its position away from sunlight, it felt particularly heavy with Yin Qi. On weekends, there weren’t many students in Ten Building, and when I arrived around ten or eleven at night, there wasn’t a soul in sight—indeed, the entire building seemed deserted. Not only were there no lights, but it was also extremely isolated. After searching for quite some time, I finally found it. The restroom itself had no lights either; I relied on dim light to navigate inside. It truly felt eerie—the branches outside swayed ominously in the wind, creating a whistling sound as they brushed against the door. However, aside from its creepy atmosphere, there were no supernatural occurrences inside. Disappointed, I left a mark on the wall of the stall as proof of my visit and walked out. There was another restroom in the School of Science that was also quite frightening, but my interest in restrooms had waned by then.
Next, let’s focus on Sakura Ai.
I visited at night as well—not on a weekend—so the Sakura dormitory closed at ten o'clock. Just before ten, I slipped inside and headed straight to the rooftop. The student council office was empty, so I wasn’t too worried about being discovered; I casually sat on the rooftop terrace and quietly waited for midnight.
Once it hit eleven o'clock and all the dorm lights went out below me, I began my exploration. That night, I didn’t bring much—just a compass for spirit detection and a few Ink Fight Lines, along with some protective talismans and items for Spirit Binding. It was a date I'd chosen deliberately—the day before the 2006 Mid-Autumn Festival, which happened to be a Thursday. The reason for this choice was that after calculating, I found that day would have the heaviest gathering of yin energy within a month; plus, the weather was great that evening with a bright moon overhead. If there were spirits present, they would surely reveal themselves.
After eleven o'clock struck, I went outside to check on that restroom; indeed, it had no lights. Even though summer nights in Wuhan can be sweltering hot, this spot felt relatively cool under the bright moonlight. Since it was late at night, the entire building was eerily quiet except for the sound of whistling winds.
After wandering around outside for a while, a chill wind suddenly swept through me. I recognized it as yin wind because it felt cold and there were no air conditioners nearby. Although there were no lights inside the restroom either, using moonlight to glance at my compass revealed some supernatural response—though not very strong. At that moment, I couldn’t help but smile; this trip hadn’t been in vain after all.
My emotions were complex: subjectively speaking, I didn’t want my trip to be pointless; objectively speaking,
I hoped there wasn’t any presence of a Spirit God here because I didn’t want any senior students to have truly committed suicide in this place. With these conflicting feelings in mind, I stepped into that restroom. As I ventured deeper inside, the light grew dimmer until I could barely see my compass needle; I'd have to rely on its guidance while keeping my eyes fixed on it. Entering a completely dark space while constantly watching my hand can be unsettling—something anyone would feel uneasy about.
Inside the restroom were several stalls; all but one at the back were open. After checking each one and even stepping inside some stalls looking for any signs of spiritual presence without success, it wasn’t until I reached that last closed stall that intense spiritual energy began to manifest.
This situation could arise from two possibilities: either being very close to where the Spirit God resides or not being close but still eliciting strong reactions from it. Regardless of which scenario applied here—I knew it was nearby.
Moreover, it seemed aware that I was searching for it; yet it neither attacked me nor made me feel uncomfortable at all.
I stood there in a daze, feeling lost and unsure of what to do next. Perhaps it was because my mind was still immature at that time. I realized that when I put my all into this situation, I was not adequately prepared. Halfway through, I found myself completely lost, and that feeling was unbearable. Since I hadn’t brought the tools from Call of Souls, I couldn’t take the initiative to communicate with it. Given that, I had no choice but to hand over the initiative and see if it would engage with me.
After standing there for over ten minutes, I began to talk to myself. At that moment, I could only pretend; I certainly didn’t want to spend the night in the restroom with it.
I said, "Hello, senior. I know you exist, and I believe you know that I'm not afraid of you, so you shouldn’t be afraid of me either. You know you’re dead; the light in this restroom has been malfunctioning for a long time, which should be your doing. I don’t know if you committed suicide here as the legends say, and I don’t understand why you chose to end your life. But continuing like this isn’t a solution; I believe you don’t want this either. If possible, please show yourself so we can have a proper conversation. I will do my best to help you leave this place. You have your own belonging; there are many things you need to let go of."
I couldn’t remember my exact words; I said a lot, but the gist was to ask him to appear so we could communicate face-to-face. Sure enough, after talking alone for quite some time, I saw a spirit slowly materializing in the corner opposite the stall. It was crouched down with its head lowered, resembling a child who had done something wrong. My heart leaped with joy; I almost wanted to go up and shake its hand. I shoved all the aggressive items into my bag and took a step toward it.
Suddenly, it lifted its head and stared at me blankly before saying, "Don’t come any closer; what do you want?" Hearing those words struck me as somewhat amusing; it was always humans speaking to spirits, yet here was a spirit speaking back to me. However, hearing it say that made me completely relax because it showed no hostility toward me. But I didn’t laugh; instead, I stood my ground and said, "Why don’t we go outside and talk? The air in here isn’t good." It nodded slightly and got up to follow me.
I walked out onto the platform and found a concrete ledge to sit on. It floated behind me and found a corner not far away where it crouched down again. I knew it was used to crouching, so I quickly moved my rear close by and crouched down too—at least we were equal now.
I asked how long it had been there. Its voice was deep and rough, like someone who hadn’t spoken in years.
"It’s been here since I died; I don’t know how long," it replied.
"Then why don’t you leave?" I asked.
"Because there’s nowhere else to go," it said. "This is where my life ended. I watched my body being taken away but couldn’t find the way out."
I understood that it was due to the environment; Sakura Peak had always been one of the most popular spots at Wuhan University. Every year during cherry blossom season, this place became a must-visit destination for tourists, receiving tens of thousands of visitors daily. Thus, Yang Qi was particularly strong here; aside from staying in the restroom, it seemed there was nowhere else for it to go.
"Why did you feel hopeless?" I asked.
It fell silent for a moment before slowly saying, "At that time, I felt immense pressure—academic pressure, life pressure, emotional pressure—and wanted to find a place to escape. The scenery here is beautiful; I really liked it."
I said, "Since you had the courage to die, why didn’t you have the courage to face those difficulties?" It looked at me then lowered its head again and replied softly: "Actually, when I was about to die, I regretted it and understood your reasoning—but by then it was too late; my body had no strength left to break free."
I thought of my parents—though poor, they were optimistic and worked hard to send me to college while I repaid them in this way. When I truly realized that I was dead, I couldn’t accept that fact; thus, I didn’t want to leave this place. I wanted to return to normal life; even if there were many difficulties ahead, I'd have the courage to face them because as you said, having had the courage to die is perhaps the greatest courage one can possess in this world.
I nodded without speaking further. At this point, there was no blame for it; it was innocent—only acting on impulse led to today’s consequences—a regretful choice.
As the saying goes: A prodigal son returning is worth more than gold. It turned back but couldn’t go back.
"Do you understand now? Do you still want to stay here?"
It said that it had thought about leaving but couldn’t find a way down because below wasn’t familiar territory anymore and Yang Qi was too heavy. Even if it went down, it wouldn’t know where to go. Rather than drifting aimlessly around, it preferred quietly staying in this place.
I thought about it, and in this vast world, it seemed that the only place that could accommodate it was that restroom. That night, we talked a lot; I started squatting, and later we both sat down. By the end, I even lay on the concrete floor, listening to its stories while sharing mine, chatting about our experiences in school.
Before that night, I had never imagined I would spend an entire night talking with a Spirit God on a rooftop. If it hadn’t taken that path, perhaps we could have become good friends. But if it hadn’t taken that path, maybe we wouldn’t have had this interaction at all. Still, I would rather not have had this encounter than wish for it to walk down that irreversible road.
As dawn approached, it thanked me for keeping it company for so long and said it needed to gather its courage to face the road ahead. I thanked it as well for giving me a chance to listen and for providing me with many insights that made me love life even more.
In the end, with its cooperation, I captured it in my compass and took it away from the place where it had spent countless days and nights. When the dormitory opened, I returned to my room, drifting through my first Mid-Autumn Festival since starting university.
That evening, under what should have been a reunion moon, I walked to Donghu, performed the Send Soul ritual, burned paper offerings, and bid farewell to this friend I had known for less than twenty-four hours.
Its surname was Zeng; it was someone who originally had a bright future but became a pitiful wandering soul due to a moment of impulse. It found no place in this world to belong, losing not only its future but also family ties, love, and the home it should have had—along with all the joys and sorrows of life.
All those things that should have belonged to it vanished into thin air because of that impulsive decision...
Thinking carefully about it, why go through such pain?
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