The Tale of the Ghost Eyes Chapter 126 weighting the Advantages and Disadvantages

I knew the old woman was going to manifest. The thought kept me up at night. Master Liu wasn't around to help and I couldn't call on the green ghost to lend his strength. I was all but useless against an ancient spirit that had an entire building in its grasp.

With Xuan Hailin out of the picture, the boy's dormitory was due for another supervisor. The lunchroom buzzed with curiosity the days before his arrival. And of course it was me the dean came to when things started moving again. The dean of the freshmen and sophomore grades was a middle-aged man that the students called Hu Hansan for his serious demeanor. When he approached me at lunchtime a few days after the bathroom incident I felt my heart beating in my teeth. "Now I'm in for it." I thought.

"Hello Mr. Hu." I said, holding my English book to my chest like armor.

He nodded and said, "Follow me. The head teacher wants to have a talk with you."

I nodded, my throat seemingly done talking. I followed Hu Hansan into the main administration building. It was on the far west corner of school grounds. We wound our way up the stairwell to the fifth floor. Hu Hansan was red in the face by the time we reached the top. I, on the other hand, felt much calmer. "One step at a time." I thought to myself.

I walked into the head office thinking I'd be frank and honest. There really wasn't any other option.

The office was twice the size of my dorm room, something that only nagged at me a little. In the center of the room was a large oak desk decorated with the national flag, a small plant, and a quaint bronze lamp that looked older than me.

Behind the desk sat a large leather sofa. A man in white lounged on it. He rose at once when we entered. "Lao Hu, come sit! You look like you could use it." He offered a kind smile.

"Head Teacher Qu," Hu Hansan said, "I brought the boy like you asked. I trust I don't have to supervise this interview?" He puffed in a breath and released it with a low dry cough.

"I'd like it if you did." The Head Teacher said, "This is your school after all, and your students were the ones involved…" He cocked an eyebrow at the dean and then turned to me. "You're Shi Yong correct?" I nodded. His face molded back into a smile. "No need to be nervous young man. Is that English I see?" I nodded again, shrugging the book still held against my chest.

"Have you been studying hard?" Another nod. "That's a good lad." He replied. I returned his smile, unsure of what to say.

The three of us sat on the sofa, the men on either side of me. Head Teacher Qu went through the regular questions about how I was doing in class and whether I was adjusting to living away from home. I gave him the truth and we meandered past the niceties. When he asked about the bathroom, I told him the short version, the layman's version.

After about ten minutes, another man entered the office. I recognized him as dean of the senior classes. "Everybody's here now." I thought.

Head Teacher Qu invited the new member to sit and got to the point. "All right, let's not waste any time. What do you think?"

Hu Hansan and Head Teacher Qu looked to the senior dean. He was a white haired man, but didn't look a day over fifty.

"I think he knows…" He started.

"Knows what?" I asked curiously. All three men turned to me. I gave them an awkward smile.

"That's why we invited you here, Shi Yong." Head Teacher Qu said, "I know a few things about you. You might know more than we do." He clapped his hands together, "Let me tell you something first. When I got this job, my predecessor pulled me to the side and suggested that I may one day have to call on a powerful master to take care of," He raised his hands in air quotes, "Something in the boy's dormitory."

I nodded, careful to keep my face blank. His eyes burned into mine and he gave a sigh. "Shi Yong, we know you have paper amulets hidden in your room."

I gaped at him in surprise and spoke before I meant to, "You went through my things?"

He smiled, "Don't worry! You're not in trouble. The cleaning staff found your amulets and reported to us. We did some research on you." He leaned in and lowered his voice to a whisper, "You learned from a master didn't you?"

"Well I guess everybody's gonna' know." I thought. I nodded and said, "I trained in Taoism with my godfather, yes sir."

"Is there a ghost in the dormitory?" He asked.

I nodded again and replied with sincerity, "Yes! There's a ferocious ghost! It's turned the dorm into a haunted house. I think the Yang air has kept her at bay for a while, but not any more."

Head Teacher Qu turned to the deans, "He did warn me that we might have to destroy the building. What was that, ten years ago?"

"They've been staying in the empty dorm all this time." I thought to myself, "Xuan Hailin's wife, the eighty flowers girls…maybe they were trying to get out before it was open all the way…that would explain the footprints…and why they came to me!" I thought.

"Shi Yong, are you all right?" Head Teacher Qu asked, "You've gone very pale."

I nodded my head. "Fine." I told them.

"Did you see the ghost in the bathroom?" Head Teacher Qu asked. I nodded.

"Can you deal with it?" He pressed. "If you can then I won't call anyone else here. We don't need the town finding out we're haunted." His smile was thin now, almost unpleasant.

I frowned at him, feeling heat rise in my head. "No!" I said a little too loudly. "I can't do it alone. The spirit has been here for years! She's ferocious."

Head Teacher Qu looked at me, his smile all but gone now. "He doesn't care about the students safety at all." I thought to myself, meeting his gaze.

He continued to look through me for a moment before turning to my dean. "Lao Hu, go to town and seek out a master."

"Longan Town?" I wondered, "Those masters never even use cinnabar to make paper amulets! They'll wreck the place."

"Shit!" I thought to myself. "If I stick around and a half-assed master comes he'll just infuriate the old woman…but if I leave, what would happen to my roommate? To Gao Xinying?"

"What am I going to do?" I thought as the men rose to leave.

Chapter end