I hailed a taxi to Xinhu High School, but at first even the driver hadn't heard of the place. He had to keep asking around as we went, and it took over two hours before we finally arrived.
I paid, got out, and looked around. Deep in the wild weeds up to waist-high, with stinking drainage ditches crisscrossing the wasteland, I finally saw the school sealed away from the city.
"This is way different from the fancy private school in the photos," I muttered.
The photos showed a prestigious, elegant campus, but the abandoned school before me felt sinister—like a corpse half-buried in the earth.
"It's already 11 o'clock. Need to speed this up." Determined to finish the task, I plunged into the overgrown grounds. But not far in, a rusted iron fence blocked my path.
"Keep Out!" The warning sign had been ripped down and thrown in the mud, smeared with vague bloody handprints.
I picked it up and rehung it, puzzled. "Usually, even abandoned factories don't bother building fences unless there's toxic waste inside. And a school? It shouldn't need quarantine like this."
I climbed over the fence and stepped inside. If I'd looked back then, I'd have seen the sign sway, then drop with a wet "thud" back onto the mud.
At the school's main gate, two red locks chained the black iron doors shut. Peering inside, I could just make out the outlines of several buildings.
As I focused, a sudden chill touched my calf. I jumped back and saw a black cat crouching at my feet.
"Scared me."
The cat's eyes glowed green, tilting its head almost like a person, then it darted "swish" into the abandoned school.
"Jump scares like this a few more times and I'm gonna have a nervous breakdown." I stuffed the suitcase under the gate and climbed over the iron fence into Xinhu High School.
"Whew, made it. My second livestream starts now!" I pulled out my camera and phone, plugged in the mobile encoder.
"Acquiring video…"
"Connecting to chat…"
"Data stable. Start live broadcast?"
"Yes."
"Welcome Teletubby Murdered to the stream! Welcome Officer Huang from Class 3-2! Welcome—"
Familiar usernames flooded the chat as soon as I went live.
"Damn, the streamer's still alive! Thank God!"
"We all thought you'd croaked, funeral wreath already booked!"
"Where to die tonight, bro? Unit One's on standby, ready to call the cops anytime!"
Their enthusiasm eased my nerves, though mostly it was just playful banter.
"Welcome back to the Super Spooky Livestream, everyone. Tonight's location is… pretty creepy, actually."
I aimed the camera at the school sign: "This is Xinhu High School, a Sino-Japanese joint private elite school. Only kids from wealthy families could attend here."
"I've heard of those elite schools — Japanese-style education, insanely expensive tuition!"
"Pfft! We've got five thousand years of Chinese history, don't need Japanese education! Japanese devils out of the stream!"
"Japanese ghosts get lost!"
"Hey, everyone calm down. Xinhu High School was shut down five years ago, no need to argue." The chat was already derailing, so I quickly tried to steer things back: "This school should be well-known locally. But after my investigations, all information about it was deliberately sealed off five years ago."
"What are they hiding? What happened five years ago to make them shut down the whole school?"
The chat slowly quieted, drawn in by the mystery.
"Tonight, I'll lead you through the fog to uncover the lost truth."
"Hurry up! The old gatekeeper might wake soon!"
"My gut says the girls' locker room hides secrets. Please check it out, streamer!"
"Upstairs's experienced in occult stuff, I read the stars and agree with that."
"You two are fighting over it. Me? I say the girls' bathroom's got more yin energy."
"Scumbag, get lost!"
Holding my phone and camera, I left the suitcase at the gate and stepped into the campus.
Whether to check the girls' locker room or bathroom first wasn't on my mind. First thing was to get my bearings, map out the area.
"Teaching building, lab building, girls' dormitory, office building, playground…"
Xinhu High School was huge. It would take hours to search everywhere. To be safe, I decided to check one building at a time.
"Streamer, if you really don't want to check the locker room, the girls' dorm is fine too."
"Who agrees on girls' dorm? Press 6."
"6 my ass. We're a spirit-hunting show, the girls' bathroom definitely has ghosts. I vouch for that."
After weighing it, I chose the teaching building nearest the gate.
It wasn't tall — just four floors. Because of elite education, not many students; all three grades shared this building.
Each floor had four classrooms, with class signs on doors. Two exits per floor. The stairs and walls were scorched black from fire, handrails mostly broken off—bare and dangerous. One false step and you could fall.
"Looks like the online rumors weren't baseless: fire and stampede probably true." I walked the first-floor hallway.
Anyone else have that feeling — looking at empty classrooms late at night, rows of desks quietly waiting — somehow creepy?
Classrooms were empty. The blackboards had writing but too blurry to read from outside.
No surprises — all empty on the first floor.
I walked by the charred walls up to the second floor.
"Grade 10 Class 5, Grade 11 Class 1, Grade 11 Class 2…"
Still nothing. I started doubting myself, then hurried up to the third floor.
"Empty, empty, still empty."
Relief washed over me — until I saw the last classroom's window.
"What's that?"
I saw four black shadows standing by the podium.
"Bang!" My grip slipped, camera dropped to the floor. I stepped back two paces — if not for the railing behind me, I'd have fallen from the third floor!
"What the hell?! Still students here? No, calm down… maybe just mannequins."
I picked up the camera, approached the window again.
"Gone?! Those four shadows disappeared! They weren't mannequins!"
Cold sweat broke out. Ignoring chat, I backed toward the stairs.
Creak.
The classroom door opened.
"Scared me to death! Come out, not ghosts — people!"
A young voice. I gawked as two boys and two girls, backpacks on, stepped out.
"You guys—"
"We're students from a nearby school. Heard this place was haunted, so we came to test our courage." The oldest boy looked about seventeen or eighteen.
"Test courage? Get home quick, this place is dangerous!" My tone sharpened — if The Netherworld Live Show picked this place for a livestream, the rumors might be true.
"Uncle, you're such a scaredy-cat." One short-haired girl smiled at me. She and the boy seemed to be dating.
"Go home. If something really happens, you won't be able to run."
"You grownups always so loud. We came first, and we don't think it's weird here."
"Yeah, if you wanna leave, go. Our courage test just started."
Kids these days, fearless to a fault — or just courting death. If I forced them out, they might get rebellious and sneak back.
"Alright. If you won't leave, how about you let me join your courage test? I'm a paranormal adventure streamer, actually pretty interested in this stuff."
I only said that to protect them.
What I didn't expect was that my nightmare was just beginning.