Chapter 9: The Song Before Drowning

The headmaster's study was a tomb of paper. Scrolls piled in precarious towers, ink stones crusted with centuries of dried pigment, and a single lantern that cast more shadows than light. Headmaster Lu sat behind his desk like a judge awaiting a condemned prisoner, his fingers steepled, his eyes empty of warmth.

"You've been busy, Bai Su."

It wasn't a compliment.

Bai Su's hands still tingled with the memory of blood that wasn't there. She kept them pressed to her sides, knuckles white against fabric. "I was investigating Chen Feng's death."

"I know what you were doing." Headmaster Lu slid a scroll across the desk. Unrolled, it revealed a charcoal rubbing of a footprint—delicate, precise, perfectly preserved. "This was found in the bell chamber this morning. Care to explain?"

"It's mine."

The admission came out before she could stop it. Headmaster Lu's eyebrows rose a fraction of an inch. "You admit it?"

"I was there last night." Bai Su forced her voice steady. "I followed a ghost scholar into the tower. He told me about the life qi transfer. About the ghost who's trying to break through the veil."

"And you believed him?"

"Why would he lie?"

"Why would any ghost tell the truth?" Headmaster Lu stood, his robe rustling like dry leaves. He moved to the window, hands clasped behind his back. Outside, the courtyard was empty. The students had been confined to their dormitories since the bell's midnight toll. "You've been at this academy for three days, Bai Su. Three days, and already you're sneaking into restricted areas, consorting with spirits, and leaving your footprints at crime scenes."

"I didn't kill Chen Feng."

"I didn't say you did." He turned, and his eyes caught the lantern light, flickering yellow. "But someone did. And that someone is still here, still hunting. The ghost you spoke to—did he tell you how to identify the killer?"

Bai Su hesitated. The ghost scholar hadn't told her much at all. He'd warned her, cryptically, and then vanished. Left her with blood on her hands and a footprint that matched her shoe.

"He said the killer was taking life qi to break through the veil."

"Obvious." Headmaster Lu's voice dripped with contempt. "Any ghost with a grudge could tell you that. What else?"

"He said if the killer succeeded, they'd become something worse than a ghost."

"Also obvious. A ghost that remembers how to live is a ghost that remembers how to kill. Every child in the spirit realm knows this." He stepped closer, his presence pressing against her like a physical weight. "What did he tell you that I don't already know?"

Bai Su's mind raced. The ghost scholar had said something else, hadn't he? Something about the bell, about the ringing, about—

"He said it was starting."

"Starting what?"

"I don't know. He vanished before he could explain."

Headmaster Lu's expression flickered—something between anger and fear—before settling back into stone. "You're useless to me, girl. Get out. Stay in your dormitory. Do not investigate. Do not speak to any more ghosts. The next time you break the rules, I will expel you. And expulsion from Wutong Academy means you never take the imperial exams. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Headmaster."

She bowed and left, her heart hammering against her ribs. But she didn't go to her dormitory.

---

The library was empty when she arrived. Not empty of books—it was always full of those—but empty of students. The living were confined, and the dead... the dead were watching her from the corners.

Bai Su could feel their eyes. Cold, curious, hungry. The drowned scholar was there, his skin blue-white, water dripping from his robes onto the floorboards. The suicide candidate hung from the rafters, her neck twisted at an impossible angle, her eyes fixed on Bai Su like a hawk watching prey. The murdered prodigy sat at a desk, his fingers tracing patterns in the dust, his expression unreadable.

"You shouldn't be here."

The voice came from behind her. Bai Su turned to find a girl she didn't recognize—pale, pretty, with hair that floated around her face as if underwater. Her robes were old-fashioned, from a dynasty long past, and her feet didn't quite touch the ground.

"I'm looking for information," Bai Su said. "About the ghost who's been taking life qi."

The girl smiled, and it was not a kind smile. "You mean the one who killed Chen Feng?"

"Yes."

"They're not the only one." The girl drifted closer, her movements fluid, unnatural. "There have been others. Before Chen Feng. Before you came to this academy."

Bai Su's blood ran cold. "How many?"

"Three. All living students. All found dead in their beds, their bodies drained of qi, their faces frozen in terror." The girl's smile widened. "The headmaster didn't tell you, did he? He's been covering it up. Fearing a panic. But we know. We ghosts always know."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I want you to stop them." The girl's expression shifted, the smile fading into something desperate. "The killer isn't just after the living. They're after us too. Ghosts who refuse to join them. Ghosts who remember what it means to be human." She reached out, her fingers passing through Bai Su's arm like smoke. "I don't want to die again. I don't want to be erased."

"How do I find them?"

The girl's eyes darted to the left, toward a shelf of ancient scrolls. "The examination records. Look for the ones who died during the test. The ones whose names were struck from the roll." She leaned in, her breath cold against Bai Su's ear. "The killer is among them. A ghost who never accepted their death. A ghost who has been waiting for a chance to come back."

"And if I find them?"

"Kill them. Again." The girl pulled back, her expression hardening. "Before they kill you."

She dissolved into mist, leaving Bai Su alone with the watching dead.

---

The examination records were kept in a locked cabinet behind the librarian's desk. Bai Su picked the lock with a hairpin—a skill she'd learned from a street urchin in her village, never thinking she'd use it in a place like this—and pulled out the oldest scrolls.

They were brittle, yellowed, the ink fading to brown. She unrolled them carefully, scanning the names. Most were unfamiliar. Students who had died in the centuries since Wutong Academy was founded, their names preserved in ink and memory.

But one name caught her eye.

Lin Wei.

The same name as the ghost scholar who had led her to the bell chamber. The same name that appeared in the records three times—once as a living student, once as a deceased candidate, and once, strangely, as a name that had been crossed out and rewritten.

She traced the final entry with her finger. The ink was fresher. Recent. As if someone had added it within the last few days.

*Lin Wei. Deceased. Year of the Serpent. Cause of death: murder.*

Murder.

The ghost scholar had been murdered.

Bai Su's mind raced. If Lin Wei was a murder victim, then he had as much reason to seek revenge as any other ghost. But he had warned her about the killer. He had told her to find them before they broke through the veil.

Unless he was the killer.

Unless everything he had told her was a lie.

She rolled up the scroll and tucked it into her robes. The librarian would notice it missing eventually, but by then, she'd either have answers or be dead.

Neither option was appealing.

---

The west wing was silent. The ghost students had retreated to their haunts, and the living were locked in their dormitories. Bai Su walked alone through the empty corridors, her footsteps echoing against the stone walls.

She found Lin Wei in the same classroom where she had first seen him. He was sitting at a desk, staring at a blank examination scroll, his fingers tracing the empty lines.

"You lied to me."

He looked up, and his eyes were tired. "I didn't lie. I just didn't tell you everything."

"You're the killer."

"No." He stood, his movements slow, deliberate. "I'm the one who stopped them. The first time."

"Then why is your name in the records? Why did you die?"

Lin Wei's expression flickered with pain. "Because I tried to save her. The girl who became the killer. She was my fiancée. We were supposed to take the exams together, marry, start a life. But she died during the test. A fever. The proctors didn't notice until it was too late."

"Her name?"

"Xiao Yue." He whispered it, as if the name itself was sacred. "She died in this classroom, hunched over her scroll, her hand still gripping her brush. They buried her in an unmarked grave outside the academy walls. No ceremony. No mourning. Just another dead student, forgotten."

"And she became a ghost."

"A vengeful one." Lin Wei's voice hardened. "She's been gathering life qi for decades. Taking it from the living, draining them dry. She almost broke through the veil ten years ago, but I stopped her. I gave my life to seal her away."

"How?"

"I bound her spirit to the bell chamber. The bell's toll keeps her trapped, prevents her from crossing over." He looked at his hands, translucent, fading. "But the seal is weakening. Every time the bell rings, it cracks a little more. And last night, when I showed you the chamber, I broke it completely."

Bai Su's blood ran cold. "You broke the seal?"

"I had to. I needed you to see the truth. To understand what we're dealing with." He stepped closer, his eyes pleading. "Xiao Yue is free now. She's been gathering qi faster than ever. Chen Feng was just the beginning. She'll kill every living student in this academy if she has to."

"How do I stop her?"

"You can't." The voice came from behind her, sweet and familiar, like a lullaby she had heard before she was born. "You're already too late."

Bai Su turned.

A girl stood in the doorway. Beautiful, ethereal, her hair flowing like water, her robes pristine white. Her eyes were black pools, depthless and cold, and her smile was the smile of a predator.

Xiao Yue.

"I've been waiting for you, Bai Su." She stepped forward, and the air around her grew heavy, suffocating. "I've been waiting for all of you."

Lin Wei moved in front of Bai Su, his body a shield of fading light. "Run."

"Where would she go?" Xiao Yue laughed, and the sound was like breaking glass. "The academy is mine now. The bell chamber is empty. The seal is broken. And I..." She raised her hand, and the lanterns flickered, died. "I am finally whole."

The darkness swallowed them whole.

Bai Su ran.

She didn't know where she was going. The corridors twisted and turned, the walls shifting, the doors opening onto rooms that shouldn't exist. Behind her, she heard Xiao Yue's laughter, soft and terrible, echoing through the stone.

And then she heard the song.

An old folk song, the one the shadow had sung in the bell chamber. Sweet and familiar, like something she had known before she was born.

*"The moon is high, the river wide,*
*The girl who drowns has nothing to hide.*
*She waits beneath the silver light,*