Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 186: Chapter 163: Anniversary of Death_2

"Furthermore, at that time Teacher Wang’s eggs were a reward from the town to nourish his health, limited in number with just one per day, no more than 30 for a month. Yet, look at what these people are saying: after every assault, several eggs would be cooked. With 27 students in the class, repeatedly violated, how many eggs would be needed to compensate?"

Teacher Xu Yu handed over a few sheets of paper next, "I’m not making this up; I have evidence. These are the documents provided by the police after the investigation. They even found the owner of the electronics store where Teacher Wang sold his recorder, and the owner’s testimony is here as well."

Most of the testimonies were photocopies, the rest were printed from photographs, some with stamps and signatures below. Yang Xiao had always been a law-abiding citizen and had rarely interacted with police, so he couldn’t discern the authenticity of these materials.

However, Song Yan examined the documents over and over, finally giving Yang Xiao an assured look, "They should be real."

This made Yang Xiao even more puzzled—if the case had such significant flaws, why hadn’t they cleared Teacher Wang’s name in time, at least to prevent the case from falling into an irreparable abyss?

According to Teacher Xu Yu, these pieces of evidence were collected only after Teacher Wang’s death. Shengnan had been using her influence to interfere with the investigation all along, and under the pressure of public opinion, many of the police’s normal investigative activities were being grossly misrepresented and inflated.

"There’s something else you probably don’t know, and it’s directly related to Teacher Wang’s cause of death," Teacher Xu Yu suddenly said.

"Wasn’t he driven to death by Shengnan and her people?" Song Yan was somewhat astonished.

"Yes, but after being consoled by Principal Wu and the townfolk, Teacher Wang had adjusted his mindset. He definitely would not have committed suicide. I know Teacher Wang; he might have been gentle, but he was incredibly strong-willed on the inside and would not have ended his life over a false accusation. Do you... do you know about Sun Zhen?"

"Yes, she was also one of Teacher Wang’s students, and it was initially her, Xia Xiuyan, and Nie Hexiang, who together accused Teacher Wang. I heard she had returned to town not long ago and then died under mysterious circumstances," Yang Xiao intentionally kept his words vague, wanting to hear what Teacher Xu Yu would say.

"You’re right, her death was very strange. And before she died, I went to see her. We had a big argument, and perhaps in her anger, Sun Zhen blurted out something cryptic. She said if you want to know the truth, don’t come to her, go find Xia Xiuyan. If it weren’t for Xia Xiuyan meeting with Teacher Wang at the end, he wouldn’t have died."

"Did Xia Xiuyan visit him on the night of Teacher Wang’s suicide?" This information was extremely important—if true, it meant that Xia Xiuyan definitely said something, and it was those words that cornered Teacher Wang to his death.

After a moment’s thought, Yang Xiao delved deeper, "After such an incident, Xia Xiuyan had no reason to approach Teacher Wang proactively. It must have been Shengnan’s doing; she instructed Xia Xiuyan to deliver a message to Teacher Wang."

"That makes sense, but what words could have driven Teacher Wang to end his life?" Song Yan couldn’t figure it out either.

"I don’t know, but someone definitely does. Let’s go find Xia Xiuyan." Yang Xiao decided to break through the situation by speaking directly to Xia Xiuyan herself. As for the means... there was no need to be ethical with such scum.

Seeing Teacher Xu Yu with a strange look in her eyes, as if she were troubled, Yang Xiao spoke up first, "Teacher Xu Yu, is there something else you want to say?" freewebnøvel.com

"There is one thing I’m not sure I should mention; it may sound superstitious and eerie, but... I believe in it," Teacher Xu Yu recalled. "When Teacher Wang’s body was found hanging in the classroom, the incident was so widely implicated that no one dared to claim the body for a time, and when the classroom door was opened again two days later, everyone was shocked. A timid female teacher even fainted on the spot."

"Teacher Wang’s neck was stretched very long, the bones had broken, and the skin had been pulled so taut it had become translucent, revealing the flesh and blood inside."

"When my grandmother heard about this, her expression became quite solemn. After I pestered her repeatedly, she finally told me that, when she was very young, she had heard from an old blind fortune-teller in the village, that those who hang themselves accumulate the strongest deathly aura, their resentment gathers at the tips of their toes, rendering their body horridly deformed by this resentment."

"In other words, the greater the resentment in the heart of the hanged person, the heavier the body becomes. With a case like Teacher Wang’s, perhaps even the old blind man had never encountered such in his life."

"And such a corpse must be cremated, and the ashes from the cremation must be buried in a specific place; otherwise, sooner or later, it will become a malevolent presence."

"Just two days after Grandma finished speaking, Teacher Wang’s corpse was cremated. You might not be aware, but our town is remote, and people’s thoughts are conservative. Back then, everyone privately was against cremation and all went for secret burials. Even nameless foreigners who died in our town were given a burial by the townspeople, so the cremation of Teacher Wang was very strange."

"Moreover, the place where Teacher Wang’s ashes were buried was also very particular. It was a shady area at the foot of the mountain which never sees the sunlight. The elders always said that it had bad Feng Shui and was a place to suppress evil spirits. What’s more, someone had planted a banana tree there."

"A binding ghost tree?" Yang Xiao suddenly realized.

Teacher Xu Yu nodded repeatedly, "You said the same thing as my grandma. Grandma also said that the banana tree has the ability to trap ghosts and it absorbs the resentment of the ghosts. The greater the resentment of the ghost, the better the banana tree thrives. If you pass by at night, you can even hear chilling cries."

"Later, I found out that Teacher Wang’s funeral was all managed by Sun Shengnan and her people. They were using the guise of righteousness, but they were really afraid that Teacher Wang would become a fierce ghost and come for revenge. It seems that Sun Shengnan must have also consulted with an expert and knew there was something wrong with the way Teacher Wang died." freёweɓnovel.com

Song Yan thought to himself that this was stating the obvious. How could a normal corpse have such a long neck? Anyone who wasn’t a fool like Sun Shengnan could tell something was wrong.

"What happened after that?" Yang Xiao pressed on, since Teacher Wang had appeared, then something must have gone wrong with the so-called ghost-binding banana tree.

"Last year, one night, a sudden storm hit. It was so sudden; there were no signs of it beforehand. It triggered a flash flood. When someone passed by a few days later, they found that the area had been completely washed away, and the banana tree had disappeared. The place had become a depression."

"Right, the night of the storm was also the night Teacher Wang hanged himself. At the time, people in the town whispered among themselves, saying Teacher Wang’s spirit was not at rest."

Storms, flash floods, the mysterious death of Sun Zhen, and the mud-covered ambulance – a series of images flashed through Yang Xiao’s mind. All seemed to be connected mysteriously.

Suddenly, a peal of thunder sounding right next to them gave Yang Xiao and Song Yan a startle. Yang Xiao immediately walked outside, only to see that it had started raining heavily at some point, and the rain was getting more intense.

A sense of ominous premonition rose in Yang Xiao’s heart. He quickly turned to look at Teacher Xu Yu, but before he could speak, he heard Teacher Xu Yu slowly say, "Today... is the anniversary of Teacher Wang’s suicide. It was on this very night that he hanged himself."

Before the words had settled, a fierce lightning bolt tore through the night sky and a downpour rained outside the door.

Song Yan did not even dare look outside, fearing that in some corner, there was a figure with a twisted neck watching them.

A moment later, Yang Xiao suddenly remembered something, "Quick, make a call to Principal Wu!"

Song Yan reacted swiftly, taking out his phone. But the moment he dialed, he stopped, looked up somewhat apologetically at Teacher Xu Yu, "Teacher Xu Yu, maybe you should..."

Without any unnecessary words, Teacher Xu Yu directly dialed Principal Wu’s number. At first, Yang Xiao still held out hope, as it seemed from their earlier interactions that Teacher Wang had no ill intentions toward Principal Wu and his peers, but the call went through to voicemail and Principal Wu’s phone remained unanswered.

Calling Teacher Zhao was the same.

The rain outside intensified, and the buildings around them grew blurry.