Chapter 24.2: Night Rituals and Hidden Truths

That night, they met in the school's equipment room—again.

Zhou Zhi came too, reluctantly, holding a flashlight and muttering complaints the whole way.

"You people and your midnight rituals. Can't ghosts haunt like, at brunch?"

Shi Mo knelt near the back wall where they'd once encountered the spirit of Lu Feng's mother. She pulled out a box of ritual items—salt, charms, and incense sticks her grandfather had blessed years ago.

"This isn't a normal ghost," she explained. "It's tethered to an object—or a memory."

"Probably both," Fu Yunshen added. "The note said 'under the desk.'"

Shi Mo stood and walked to the back of the room, where old desks were stacked in a crooked pile.

With careful hands, she pulled one aside.

Then another.

And then she saw them.

A pair of red shoes.

The same ones that had appeared in their earlier haunting—but older now, worn and cracked.

Stuffed into the space beneath the desk, like someone had hidden them in a hurry.

Zhou Zhi whispered, "That's… creepy."

Fu Yunshen crouched beside Shi Mo. "There's a note inside."

He carefully unfolded a torn paper from the heel of the shoe.

"You promised you'd wait for me.""I danced until I fell. But you never came."

Shi Mo swallowed hard.

"It's her," she said. "The girl from the first haunting."

"Lu Feng's mother?" Zhou Zhi asked.

"No. The girl who died dancing alone."

"The one we helped move on?" Fu Yunshen said.

Shi Mo nodded slowly. "She left something behind. Or maybe… someone else carried her guilt."

The air turned colder.

Shi Mo lit a stick of incense and placed the shoes in a circle of salt. She chanted softly under her breath, drawing out the lingering energy.

A gust of wind blew through the room, though the windows were shut.

Then—

A whisper.

Clear.

Soft.

"Thank you…"

Then silence.

The shoes turned to dust.

Later that night, the system chimed softly in Shi Mo's ear:

[Residual Energy Cleansed: Abandoned Shoes – Spiritual Item Neutralized][Brotherhood Value +25 (Team Ritual Coordination)][Current Total: 670 / 1,000,000]

Fu Yunshen walked beside her on their way back to the dorm.

"You keep doing this," he said. "Risking yourself for ghosts."

"They're not just ghosts," she replied. "They're voices left behind."

He didn't respond, but he didn't argue either.

A small moment of quiet passed between them.

Then he added, "You're weird."

She smirked. "So are you."