I have a ghost diary

Statistically speaking, Chu Jiang and his group are slightly more likely to be targeted because they are closer to the Ghost Tree.

However, you never know. Zhang Haoran covered everyone's retreat in the library and still managed to escape alive. Even more miraculously, he had no obvious injuries, and even the blood was someone else's.

In that case, Ghost Tree might perceive Zhang Haoran as a greater threat and prioritize hunting him down.

Finally, there was the worst possible outcome: Ghost Tree was pursued from both sides!

This is not impossible. The branches and roots gushing out of Xiao Chen's body are endless, and dividing them doesn't seem to be a big burden on him.

......

Next, it seemed that heaven was on Chu Jiang's side, because the Ghost Tree actually abandoned them and turned its full attention to hunting down Zhang Haoran's group.

However, even though Chu Jiang and his group could no longer hear the rustling sound, they didn't dare to stop immediately. They continued running for another five or six minutes before daring to stop and catch their breath.

The group of nine was exhausted, panting heavily with their hands on their knees, but none of them dared to sit down or lie down.

After running around aimlessly, I had no idea where I was in the school anymore; it was pitch black all around.

Chu Jiang, catching his breath by the river, shone his flashlight around.

He soon realized that this place seemed to be behind the boys' dormitory. It was a rather secluded spot, and to be honest, it wasn't far from the school wall.

However, Chu Jiang dared not lead his men that way. One reason was that there was a high chance of getting lost in a maze; the other was that he had discovered the thin, elongated figure's men twice, both times in places very close to the school exit.

"For now, it seems like no ghosts are chasing us." Li Yan said, panting, as he looked at Chu Jiang.

"Why don't we just stay here? It's very remote, and the boys' dormitory is quiet. I guess everyone has run away. Why don't we hide inside?"

"Don't go into the dorm yet, everyone come over here." Chu Jiang waved his hand while standing against the dorm wall.

Everyone immediately gathered around him; Chu Jiang was now their only hope.

"Turn off the flashlight first, and only turn on the night mode on your phone. As long as you can see your own faces clearly, that's fine."

Similarly, everyone did the same, also to avoid attracting the attention of ghosts.

"Can anyone tell me what Zhang Haoran did before? It seems like the ghost went in their direction."

Chapter Nine: A Dilemma

This question about Chu Jiang is also a source of confusion for Li Yan, Chen Jie, and Gao Yifei.

In their minds, Zhang Haoran was a model student—good grades, good character, and apart from being a bit stubborn, he was pretty good in every other way.

But I've never heard of Zhang Haoran knowing martial arts or anything like that. His performance in physical education class is at best below average.

Yet this "literati" managed to gain everyone's trust in a short period of time. Even Teacher Yu said that Chu Jiang and Zhang Haoran should lead everyone to survive.

After Chu Jiang finished asking his question, none of the others spoke; they all just looked at each other in bewilderment.

So he looked at Liu Mingming, who hadn't followed Zhang Haoran but had stayed right behind Chu Jiang.

Liu Mingming was a little nervous. "Actually, we don't know either."

“When the incident happened, it was Teacher Yu who led us to evacuate the classroom and the teaching building. Later, the vice class monitor rushed into the office and took out a fruit knife when he passed by it.”

"We were originally among the first to evacuate, but we just happened to run into the security guard."

"When we looked at him in the classroom, he was still half-human and half-ghost; but when we went downstairs, we found that he had turned into a black ghost with a hole in his head."

"Then a terrible tragedy struck, and several people died."

"It was at that time that the students scattered in all directions out of fear, with only a small portion of them remaining with the teacher."

"The five of us got separated around that time, so we don't know what Teacher Yu and the vice class monitor went through."

"The reason we were able to meet up with them later was because they were shouting for the students of Class 2 of Senior Three to come and gather while they were fleeing to the library."

“We were terrified at the time. When we heard our own people calling out, we ran from our hiding place to meet them. By the way, by then the person with the knife had become Zhang Haoran.”

"As soon as we ran into the library, we encountered a new ghost, the one that was growing on the librarian's body." Liu Mingming's face showed some sadness as she said this.

"It appeared so suddenly, killing several classmates in one go. The vice class monitor also died while covering our retreat."

"Then I saw Zhang Haoran rushing up with a fruit knife, yelling and stabbing the administrator's body repeatedly."

"But we could see that his attacks didn't seem to be very effective. We could only escape from the library with the teacher's help while he was holding off the ghost."

"You all know what happened next, Teacher Yu also died." At this point, Liu Mingming lowered her head sadly.

After hearing this, everyone fell silent. Although Zhang Haoran probably had some secrets, at this moment, he couldn't be the savior to save everyone. Otherwise, Teacher Yu and the vice class monitor wouldn't have died.

Chu Jiang let out a long sigh. "Then let's not study this for now. It's time for us to make a choice."

"Should we stay here and wait until dawn, or go find another group to meet up?"

"If you choose to stay here, don't go into the dorm. Nobody knows if there are ghosts in there. It seems that people who die in school eventually become ghosts, as long as most of their bodies are still intact."

"But staying here is a conservative choice; it all depends on luck. If you're lucky, you'll live until dawn; if you're unlucky and the ghost finds you, then everyone will be wiped out."

“If we choose to find the other team, we can combine the strengths of both sides. There must be a reason why Teacher Yu mentioned Zhang Haoran.”

"But now we can't contact them by phone, and we have no idea where they went."

"Moreover, if we actively seek him out, the probability of encountering a ghost will increase; in the end, we might not even know that the ghost tree is with the other group."

After listening to Chu Jiang's analysis, everyone hesitated. To be honest, it was a difficult choice, and if they made the wrong choice, everyone would die.

"I'll listen to you," Li Yan was the first to agree, showing that he would follow Chu Jiang's lead.

Gao Yifei hesitated for a moment, then said, "I think it's better to find another team. I really don't have the confidence to stay here until dawn tomorrow."

"There are two problems here. One is that it's only a little before four o'clock in the afternoon, and there's still a long way to go until tomorrow."

"Another issue is that we can't guarantee we'll be safe after daybreak. We might still be trapped here then. You know, this isn't like those ghost stories where ghosts start appearing in broad daylight."

As soon as Gao Yifei finished speaking, two people immediately said they wanted to stay.

Their thinking was simple: for now, they were lucky; at least they hadn't encountered any danger since escaping the Ghost Tree's pursuit. But if they left this place, it would be an unknown.

Chu Jiang didn't immediately state his choice; he looked at the others and asked, "What about you?"

Chen Jie moved slightly closer to Chu Jiang and whispered, "I'll listen to you."

Others also expressed their opinions one after another, but their opinions were not unified, with conservatives and radicals accounting for about half.

During this process, Chu Jiang noticed that one or two classmates were staring at the diary in his hand.

This is quite normal; Liu Mingming wasn't the only one who saw Chu Jiang smash the ghost tree branch.

At such a critical moment of life and death, when humanity is being tested, it's natural that some people would be tempted by the mysterious diary in Chu Jiang's possession.

However, at least so far, everyone has been behaving themselves, because even the one or two who are interested are afraid of being crushed by Chu Jiang in a single day.

"Chu, Chu Jiang, is the blood flowing from your diary getting more and more? Won't it attract ghosts?" Liu Mingming swallowed and pointed to Chu Jiang's right hand, which was leaning against the wall.

More and more blood flowed from the bloody handprint on the cover, staining a large area of ​​the wall red and pooling into a puddle on the ground.

After saying that, Liu Mingming, fearing that Chu Jiang might misunderstand, quickly added, "I didn't mean anything by it, I was just reminding you."

Chu Jiang nodded, "I know. As for this diary... there's no way to throw it away for now."

"Well then, we still need to leave this place."

"I don't think that going to another team is the right choice, but the risks of staying here are too great. We have to choose the lesser of two evils."

Besides the fact that the diary is constantly bleeding and a large amount of blood is accumulating, which may attract ghosts that are sensitive to it.

Another point is that Chu Jiang is genuinely worried that the Slender Man was searching for this diary at the school. Otherwise, how could such an ordinary middle school attract such terrifying ghosts, and more than one at that?

If the ghosts' target is the diary, their behavior of staying in one place without moving is dangerous.

Now that Chu Jiang has made his decision, those who choose to stay have nothing to say and can only leave together. Leaving Chu Jiang would only hasten their demise.

Chapter Ten Monsters

In the pitch-black campus, a group of nine people moved like mice through the corners.

At first, they could still hear faint screams and cries of terror coming from all directions of the school, but as time went on, these sounds became less and less frequent...

And whether it was just their imagination or not, Chu Jiang and the others felt that the road beneath their feet had become longer.

Although it was dark now, Chu Jiang and his group had lived here for three years after all; for example, the bluestone path they were now stepping on was only about a hundred steps long in their minds.

But by now, they had been walking on this road for five or six minutes and still couldn't reach the end.

A female student named Zhang Zihan, suppressing her fear, asked, "Are we... trapped in a ghost wall?"

The others paused for a moment, and most of them offered words of comfort, but no one gave her a direct answer, because everyone knew the answer in their hearts.

Some people started to regret it, saying that the school was becoming more and more scary and unfamiliar, and that they should have stayed behind the boys' dormitory.

Chu Jiang walked at the front, his face growing increasingly grim. This offered no way out; could they really survive today?

In this atmosphere of despair, Chen Jie approached Chu Jiang from behind and said in a low voice, "I'm sorry."

The tone of his voice contained complex emotions, as if if he didn't speak now, he would never have the chance to speak again.

"Why are you apologizing to me?" Chu Jiang didn't turn around, but used the faint light from his phone screen to illuminate the road ahead.

"You know, I made a mistake back in our first year of high school. And I shouldn't have called you a monster, I'm sorry..." Chen Jie's tone contained self-reproach, as well as a sense of relief that had been buried in his heart for a long time and could finally be spoken.

This is why Chu Jiang has a problem with Chen Jie.

During a self-study period in my first year of high school, near the end of the semester...

Chu Jiang remembers that he had a cold that day and felt a little dizzy, but he still insisted on going to school.

At that time, Chen Jie was not the class monitor, but she still had a group of girls who were very close to her.

Chen Jie's seat was right behind Chu Jiang's. While studying, she was whispering to the girl next to her, and it was unclear what they were talking about.

Chu Jiang was already having trouble concentrating because of dizziness, and then the two girls started chattering away. So he turned around, glared at them, and hissed, "Stop making noise."

After being reprimanded by Chu Jiang, the two immediately shut up and remained quiet for the next few classes.

However, the next day, a female classmate who was close to Chen Jie came to Chu Jiang to tattle on him. Her exact words were: "Chen Jie said the way you stared at her was like a monster."

The female classmate spoke in a casual tone, as if she had just accidentally let it slip, and then asked Chu Jiang to keep it a secret with a smile.