Early the next morning.
At the entrance of the inn.
The bearded owner looked at Chen Mo and the others, who were clearly a little listless, and his expression darkened.
"Didn't sleep well? Was there something wrong with the bed, or something else? Don't hold back—tell me. I'm not a stubborn guy."
"No, no. We just had a bit of insomnia, that's all," Chen Mo replied.
"Oh? Is that so…"
The bearded owner frowned slightly.
"Though I often see young people online saying they're under a lot of pressure and can't sleep, I didn't expect you guys to be the same. You should take better care of your health."
Chen Mo nodded repeatedly, indicating he understood.
Of course, he wasn't about to tell the innkeeper that after spotting that Ghost-type Pokémon in his house using Aura last night, their group had barely rested at all.
Especially Chen Mo himself—he had not only sent Pidgeotto to observe the owner's family through the window, but had also repeatedly used Aura every time the cooldown allowed, scanning the downstairs rooms to make sure nothing bad happened to the innkeeper's family.
The entire night passed without incident.
Whether under Pidgeotto's surveillance or Chen Mo's Aura scans, the Ghost-type Pokémon behaved just like an ordinary doll, staying quietly in that room. It rarely moved, except late at night when it would occasionally stop by the short-haired girl's bedside—only standing there at a distance, watching, without making any extra movements.
Combined with the materials Qiao Cheng had organized overnight, Chen Mo already had a preliminary hypothesis about the recent Ghost-related injury incidents in Ziyuan Town.
Now all that remained was to confirm it.
"Daddy…"
A clear, childlike voice sounded nearby.
Xiao You, wearing a deep-blue dress patterned with stars and carrying a small backpack, stood in front of the bearded owner.
"Daddy… can I not go to school today?"
"No, sweetheart. Anything else you can talk to Daddy about, but not this."
The bearded owner gently patted Xiao You's head as he comforted her.
"Daddy will take you to school now. Be good and listen to your teacher. When school's over, Daddy will come pick you up and take you to eat something tasty."
The little girl's mood was clearly low, but faced with her father's rare firmness, she eventually agreed, albeit dejectedly.
Qiao Cheng watched the father and daughter leave the inn, then turned to Chen Mo, still looking a bit incredulous.
"Mo-bro, I still kind of…"
"Don't think too much about it," Chen Mo said softly, patting Qiao Cheng's shoulder.
"The one hurting people isn't Xiao You, but the Ghost-type Pokémon staying by her side. As for the exact situation, we'll have to wait until we investigate Ziyuan Primary School today."
Qiao Cheng didn't say anything, only nodded.
Ziyuan Primary School was the only elementary school in Ziyuan Town, and every day many parents came to drop off their children.
The bearded owner stood at the iron gate of the school, looking at his daughter, who was lowering her head and clutching the hem of her skirt.
"Go on. When it's time to get out of school, Daddy will come pick you up. Don't worry."
"Mm."
Under her father's gaze, Xiao You slowly walked toward the school building, glancing back every few steps, clearly reluctant to part from him.
Only after Xiao You had fully entered the building did the bearded owner turn and leave the school.
"Daddy's gone…"
Inside the school building, Xiao You watched her father leave with her own eyes. She lowered her head again, her small hands tightly gripping her skirt.
She didn't go upstairs to her classroom right away.
After a moment of silence, she turned around and headed into a girls' restroom on the first floor.
There was still some time before class, and since it was early morning, the restroom was empty and quiet.
Xiao You walked into the innermost stall, locked the door, closed the toilet lid, and sat down, lowering her head to look at the backpack in her arms.
After a long while, she slowly pulled open the zipper.
Inside the backpack—besides a few textbooks—was a doll with a very strange appearance, one that could even be called frightening.
Its most striking feature was its mouth, like a zipper pulled halfway open, revealing golden teeth in a half-smile that was anything but comforting.
If an ordinary child saw this doll, they would probably have thrown it away in fear. But for Xiao You, this oddly terrifying doll she had picked up by the roadside was her only source of comfort.
"Xiao Ji… I'm so scared. I'm really, really scared…"
Xiao You hugged the doll tightly, burying her face deep into its soft belly.
She was afraid of this school and deeply disliked the classmates here.
Just thinking about those cold stares and the mocking laughter ringing in her ears filled her with fear.
Tears slid down from the corners of her eyes, soaking into the doll's body.
Where Xiao You couldn't see, the doll's originally vacant gaze suddenly regained its light. It looked at the child crying in its arms, and in its once-crimson eyes, only a trace of gentleness remained.
It wanted to raise its hand and gently pat Xiao You's head to comfort her, but fearing it might scare her, it hesitated. After a moment, it lowered its hand again, continuing to pretend to be just a doll—nothing more than her doll.
However.
At that moment, light footsteps suddenly sounded outside the restroom.
Still crying, Xiao You hurriedly stopped. Seeing the large wet patch on the doll's chest where her tears had soaked through, guilt flashed across her face.
"I'm sorry, Xiao Ji…"
Before she could finish speaking, Xiao You suddenly noticed that the footsteps were approaching her stall.
In that instant, she regretted choosing the innermost stall.
But… she had locked the door, and the indicator on the handle showed someone was inside, so—
Bang!
"Is someone in there?" a young girl's voice came from outside.
Startled, Xiao You hesitated for a moment before answering in a small voice,
"T-there's… someone…"
"If someone's inside, say so earlier."
"Um… the red circle outside shows it's occupied…"
"Th-that—I know! But who keeps paying attention to that all the time? Geez!"
The girl went into the stall next door.
Xiao You lowered her head and said nothing.
Life was always full of inexplicable things, and inexplicable people.
But Xiao You didn't understand.
"Is… is it my fault?"
Silently, she put the doll back into her backpack, zipped it up, and opened the stall door, preparing to leave.
What Xiao You didn't notice was that at the moment she slung the backpack over her shoulders again, the zipper quietly slid open.
A shadowy, unknown creature shrouded entirely in black matter floated out.
It glanced back at Xiao You as she walked away, then drifted straight toward the second-to-last stall.
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