Afterlife Department

Chapter 374 – Reaction

Morning. 

"A student died?" Huo Ling asked as he fixed his school uniform that got wrinkled after he slept on the bed last night. 

There's no need for them to take a bath, nor to change their clothes. Even though their body is of that a corpse's, but with Shen Sheng's Conferment Seal, their body is very clean and there has no smell emanating from it, nor it is even rotting on the inside. 

It is because of Item Preservation – an ability where an item will remain on its present state for a long time. Item Preservation is one of the abilities of Shen Sheng. It works like the qiankun pouch of a cultivator where it can preserve the items placed inside it. Item Preservation is one of the functions of Conferment Seal. 

"En." Yi Bing nodded as he leaned on the wall and crossed his arms. "The student is from the Dormitory A where the rich students reside.. His corpse was found outside the South Wall." He spoke. 

The South Wall is the wall behind the dormitories of the rich students and teachers – Dormitory A and Dormitory C. On the other hand, the Dormitory B and Dormitory D – the dormitories for the poor students and teachers, respectively, is located on the West, and behind them is the West Wall. 

Huo Ling's hand straightening his necktie paused when he heard what Yi Bing said. "You mean – " he turned to him. " – in the river?" he asked. 

Yi Bing didn't answer. 

Huo Ling frowned. "This is strange. If the student fell on the river, how can his corpse still be found?" he asked. The river is a running water. 

"That really is strange, indeed." Yi Bing agreed. "There were no plants for his corpse to entangled with." He said. "It's like… his corpse was purposely held there to be seen…" he muttered. "But, there was no rope or anything that was found when the rescue team searched the water to investigate. There were also no traces of struggle, nor were his clothes hooked by something to keep his corpse afloat and in place." He explained. 

Huo Ling stared at him. "Was it a murder?" he directly asked.

"That is my guess." Yi Bing honestly said. 

Huo Ling lowered his gaze as he pondered. Then, after a while, he raised his head to look at Yi Bing. "Yi Bing." He called. 

Yi Bing immediately understood what Huo Ling meant. Then, he remembered something of what he heard earlier. "When the teachers heard of the news, they were greatly shaken." He said. 

He was on his way to Dormitory B to 'fetch' Huo Ling because Huo Ling is 'disabled'. But, while he was on his way, he met a couple of teachers and the news of a student that died broke out. 

"Their reaction was normal upon receiving the news." Yi Bing spoke. "Except for one thing." He said. 

"What is it?" Huo Ling immediately asked. 

"They said it is a ghost's vengeance." Yi Bing answered. 

Huo Ling froze. "A ghost?" he asked. 

Yi Bing nodded and stared at Huo Ling. 

Huo Ling's lip twitched. "If you are thinking I disguised as a ghost just to prove my guess yesterday that the weakening of this world's energy is the work of a ghost, then you are greatly mistaken." He spoke. "I always kept in mind my identity as a 'disabled', and even though I feel regret of not experiencing the tertiary education when I was still alive due to my poverty, I have already moved on from that life, thus have no interest in schooling now." He explained. 

"I didn't say anything." Yi Bing spoke. 

"Gaze is included as a part of speech, and your gaze says otherwise of your words uttered just now." Huo Ling scoffed. 

Yi Bing. "…" how can his IQ suddenly exponentially increase after just a night? He was stimulated because we're in a school, right? Right?! "I just want to express that I know you are innocent." He said. 

Huo Ling sneered. 

Yi Bing coughed, changing the topic. "Let's go join the others, or we'll be suspected." He said. 

Huo Ling didn't say anything and just sat on the wheelchair. "Right. Speaking of suspicion…" he looked up to Yi Bing and saw Yi Bing's sharp jaw. "Iris is the biggest suspect here." He spoke. 

"You're right." Yi Bing said. 

"Iris might be lying to us yesterday. The things he is going to deal with yesterday afternoon might be what have happened last night." Huo Ling said. 

"But, he's the only one that we currently know, so he's the only one that we can suspect right now." Yi Bing said. 

Huo Ling nodded. "True. I'm just speculating." He spoke. 

"I know." Yi Bing patted his shoulder and they stopped when they saw a large crowd surrounding the Dormitory A, and some part of Dormitory C that's just right beside the Dormitory A so that the teachers staying in the Dormitory C could supervise the students living in the Dormitory A. 

A student passed by. That student just came from the crowd. Huo Ling glanced at Yi Bing and Yi Bing grabbed the student. 

"Student, excuse me. May I ask you something?" Yi Bing asked and smiled a refreshing smile. 

Huo Ling wanted to roll his eyes but held himself back. Instead, he blinked 'adorably' towards the student. 

Seeing one looking gentlemanly and one cute, the student suddenly felt some good will towards the two. "Teacher. Ask away!" he said and winked at Huo Ling. 

Yi Bing's face slightly cooled seeing the student winking at Huo Ling, but he suppressed his emotions. "May I ask what is happening over there?" he asked, acting like he didn't know anything about the incident. 

The student is a rich student seeing his sparkling watch and gold rings in his fingers. Both rich and poor students have the same set of uniform, including leather shoes which were given in twos. No one could change the quality of the fabric of the uniform – which is actually already of a high quality, as well as change their shoes. Thus, one can only distinguish whether a student is poor or rich based from his clique, his accessories, and his temperament and bearing. 

Prille climbed his way to Luren's clique just to act like a wealthy student. Mandy and Hierre are wealthy students by looking at their accessories. But Luren falls on the third category – temperament and bearing. He doesn't care about cliques nor accessories. He's as what everyone perceives him to be – ascetic. He wears a plain shirt, though made of famous brands, underneath the uniform given by the Fughlia, and the leather shoes. 

One would think he is a poor student studying in Fughlia, had it not been for his face and bearing. He gives off an aura of someone exceptional.

The student finally noticed that Yi Bing and Huo Ling are new faces, but since both people are good-looking, he didn't think whether they are rich people or poor, since he thinks that their faces says that they are rich! 

"A student, Yule Portkin, died!" he said. His eyes are round and wide, and his voice is exaggerated. 

"Yule Portkin… he's famous?" Yi Bing asked. 

The student nodded, looking urgent. "The Portkin family is a family that owns a chain of five-star restaurants. Yule Portkin is their only son!" he explained. 

Huo Ling sharply inhaled to match the student's tale. "Really?! This is awful!" he said and covered his mouth with his both hands while blinking his eyes, making it enlarged to show his watery eyes, as if on the verge of crying. 

The student saw Huo Ling looking sympathetic. "Actually, there's no need to pity this guy." He said. 

"Huh? Why?" Huo Ling asked. Yi Bing remained silent and waited for the student's response. They felt that there's something wrong with the student's reaction. 

"Although the Portkins are said to be a wealthy but kind family, but who made their son be a rotten seed?" the student said through his gnashed teeth. 

"'rotten seed'?" Yi Bing asked. 

"Yeah. Who does not know that he is knocking up every girl he sees?" the student asked, then paused when he saw their ignorant gazes. "Although the Portkins already suppressed the news, but it is known in the circle that he makes the girls abort the child in their wombs when he finds out they are pregnant." He explained. "Such a rotten guy!" he clenched his fists. 

"You look like you have a beef with him?" Huo Ling asked. 

"Not only me… but there were also many others!" the student said and paused when he remembered something. "That's right! Even his best friend, Eram!" he added. 

"You…" Yi Bing muttered. 

The student sneered, as if he finally found something to vent all his anger. "Our girlfriends were all knocked up by him." he said, seething in anger. 

"That's…" Huo Ling and Yi Bing looked at each other. 

The student's eyes turned red, both in anger and frustration. "He abducted my girlfriend… then sent me the video while he… she…" he bit his lip.