The school administration had a "brilliant" idea: dorm renovations.
Room 415 was temporarily condemned—pipes too old, wiring too unstable. Students were to be reassigned for the week.
Zhou Zhi wailed in despair.
"But I just finally got used to my mattress!"
Shi Mo, on the other hand, didn't argue.
The moment she heard she'd be reassigned to one of the oldest buildings on campus—the unused West Wing—something inside her stilled.
"There's something waiting," the Gu whispered."A call. A presence."
She didn't tell anyone that part.
Her new room was quiet. Dusty. Remote.
The kind of place where rumors whispered of suicides and shadows that watched from corners.
The moment she stepped in, the door creaked.
She dropped her duffel on the bare bed and turned in a slow circle, scanning the walls, the window, the ceiling light.
Everything looked untouched.
And yet…
It felt occupied.
Back in Room 412—his reassigned space—Fu Yunshen stared at the two empty bunks beside him. He shared the room with strangers now. Boys who snored and left damp towels on the floor.
But what bothered him wasn't the mess.
It was the silence.
No Shi Mo flipping through her notes.
No subtle sarcasm.
No scent of her herbal tea in the evening.
He told himself it was habit.
Not loss.
Not longing.
Just routine, disrupted.
And yet, he still caught himself glancing at the door, expecting her to walk through.
She never did.
Shi Mo swept the dust from her new floor, opened a window, and let the stale air out.
The Gu stirred again.
"Beneath this place… someone is buried. Not in body. In memory."
She nodded.
"I know."
This wasn't just a dorm.
It was a shell.
Something had died here—but not in the way people thought.
She knelt by the wall, placed her palm flat against the floorboards, and whispered a chant.
The room pulsed—barely noticeable—but enough to confirm what she suspected.
There was a spirit here.
Quiet.
Watching.
Waiting.
Not dangerous… yet.
Zhou Zhi called her that night.
"Is your new place haunted?" he asked dramatically.
"Yes," she said.
He blinked through the video call. "Wait. Seriously?"
She smiled faintly. "It's an upgrade."
"Shi Mo, no offense, but your taste in real estate is terrible."
Later, curled under a dusty blanket, Shi Mo stared at the ceiling.
She missed Room 415.
She missed the sound of Fu Yunshen's light footsteps across the room. The sarcastic comments. Even Zhou Zhi's ghost theories.
But this room?
This room was hers.
And for the first time… she didn't have to pretend.
She could sit in the dark.
And feel what she was actually feeling.
Which, if she was honest, was a kind of ache she didn't know how to name.
[System Notification]
New Spiritual Site Identified – Dormitory West Wing, Room 7
Spiritual Energy: Suppressed
Brotherhood Value +45 (Temporary Separation – Emotional Insight Gained)
Current Total: 1,295 / 1,000,000
Shi Mo drifted off to sleep with the hum of spirits in the walls and Fu Yunshen's name resting on the edge of her thoughts.