108: Chapter 108 The Red Scarf

The holographic camera emitted a sickly green glow in the dark hallway.

On screen, Ms. Jiang held an extended anti-shake selfie stick, delivering an exceptionally fluent, professional science explanation to thin air.

Deep in the darkness behind her, the bright red scarf had long broken free from the door bolt.

The red strip of cloth stiffened in midair, transforming into a headless, blood-red serpent.

At that moment, the livestream chat exploded completely.

Countless comments scrolled wildly across the screen, densely covering the entire display.

"Guys, look! There's a red scarf hanging behind Sister Jiang!"

"It's fake, right? There's definitely a high-powered blower hidden underneath! It's a script! It must be scripted!"

"Where would wind come from in a closed hallway?! That red scarf is moving! It's standing up on its own! It's reaching for Sister Jiang's neck!"

"High-energy warning! Bullet chat shield! Prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony!"

"Expert Lin next to her, turn around! Are you using that huge electromagnetic detector in your hand like a poker stick?!"

Ms. Jiang was currently explaining the impact of air humidity to the camera.

As soon as the words left her mouth, a bone-chilling cold suddenly struck the back of her neck.

The chill felt like someone holding a poison-dipped ice needle, driving it deep into the joint of her Dazhui point.

The hairs all over Ms. Jiang's body stood on end instantly, and cold sweat quickly beaded on her forehead.

She instinctively wanted to turn her head to check the abnormality behind her.

Suddenly, Lin Ye's stern warning before entering flashed through her mind.

She forced down the urge to turn around, suppressing the extreme fear in her heart, standing in place with weak legs.

The red scarf glided silently through the air, less than three centimeters away from Ms. Jiang's fair, swan-like neck.

Dark, blackish water stains began oozing from the edges of the crimson cloth.

A stench like a dead rat in a sewer rushed straight toward the back of Ms. Jiang's head.

Lin Ye remained standing at her side.

The beam of the high-powered flashlight in his hand shone coldly onto the moss-covered floor of the corridor.

His facial expression was so calm that not a single ripple showed.

His clear, sharp eyes conveyed absolute composure.

Facing a genuine supernatural encounter right in front of his face, Lin Ye showed no sign of panic.

He flicked his wrist sharply.

Wrapped tightly in layers of black waterproof canvas, the soul-suppressing copper coin sword in his hand carved a sharp, fluid arc through the air.

"Clang!"

A crisp sound of metallic impact exploded through the silent, eerie corridor.

The heavy spine of the copper coin sword struck squarely at the "seven-inch" vital spot of the red serpent.

At the moment of contact, the abundant Pure Yang True Qi inside Lin Ye instantly surged from his palm into the sword.

The one hundred and eight ancient copper coins wrapped in canvas vibrated with an intense, silent resonance.

A flash of fiercely positive, fiery light burst silently inside the canvas.

"Hiss!"

The crimson serpent formed from a drowned ghost's resentment couldn't even utter a proper shriek.

Under the terrifying burn of thunderous fire, it vaporized instantly into a wisp of dark smoke and vanished completely in midair.

A few fragmented pieces of black ash fluttered down, landing on the waterlogged tiles.

Unfazed, Lin Ye casually pressed the red plastic taser button glued onto the tip of the copper coin sword with his thumb.

The handheld disguised device let out a series of synthesized "beep beep beep" sounds.

Keeping an emotionless deadpan face, Lin Ye shone the flashlight's beam onto the black ash on the floor and spoke without a hint of emotion:

"Everyone in the stream, don't panic. What you just saw was a very typical phenomenon of electrostatic attraction."

Holding the thick "detector," he pointed at the residue on the floor, reaching the pinnacle of lying through his teeth.

"Because this building at Jiangda Affiliated Elementary School is in disrepair, combined with tonight's thunderstorm, the charge distribution in the air is extremely unbalanced."

"And the quick-drying outfit Ms. Jiang is wearing is made of high-polymer synthetic fibers. During her energetic walking and friction earlier, her body accumulated tens of thousands of volts of high-voltage static electricity."

Lin Ye looked straight into the camera solemnly, his eyes reflecting the depth and rigor of a Great Xia physics titan.

"This red scarf is made of the cheapest polyester on the market. Under a strong magnetic field, polyester easily experiences floating reactions due to static attraction."

"The spark you saw was merely a microscopic spontaneous combustion caused by static discharge igniting the polyester fibers. Polyester burns extremely fast, which is why almost no debris was left behind."

"Please remain rational, everyone. We must believe in science."

The two million viewers in the livestream were completely stunned after hearing this hardcore physics explanation.

The bullet chat paused briefly, then gushed forth at an even more frantic pace.

"666! Static electricity can suck a red scarf into creeping up someone's neck like a live venomous snake? Newton's coffin lid can't hold him down anymore!"

"Expert Lin's expression is way too calm. He sounds so convincing that I almost bought his BS!"

"Holy crap, static self-combustion can burn so cleanly? Not even a scrap of cloth left? This power rivals a high-explosive incendiary bomb!"

"Don't argue, guy above. My college physics professor is watching the stream right now, taking frantic notes in his little notebook, saying Expert Lin's charge theory opened up a brand new research idea!"

"Believe it or not, I believe in science now! Heavenly Master Lin, please accept my humble respect!"

Looking at the pile of black ash on the floor, Ms. Jiang's lips twitched uncontrollably, her quick-drying clothes long soaked in cold sweat.

She had truly felt the tactile touch of death just moments ago.

In front of millions watching the HD stream, she had no choice but to play along with Lin Ye's nonsensical story.

"That's right, everyone."

"Just now, a strong charge of static electricity really struck my neck. It felt a bit numb."

"Expert Lin is truly a physics titan appointed by the state, hitting the nail on the head. The power of science is indeed grand."

Ms. Jiang chimed in with a dry laugh, her voice carrying an undisguisable tremble.

Lin Ye didn't give her much time to catch her breath or regain her composure.

He stepped forward, reached out with his free left hand, and pushed open the wooden classroom door drawn with eerie runes in ink.

"Creak!"

The door opened inward.

A surge of bone-chillingly cold, damp air rushed out from inside the classroom like a tidal wave.

The air pressure was as heavy as a pig-iron plate, weighing down hard on everyone's chest and making it difficult to breathe.

The bright beam of the flashlight swept through the crack of the door into the classroom.

Inside the room, forty sets of rusty wooden desks and chairs were arranged neatly.

Floating above every single chair was a blue-and-white summer school uniform of the affiliated elementary school.

These uniforms maintained a posture of sitting upright as if listening to a lecture.

Without any physical bodies inside them, the cloth sleeves and pant legs puffed out roundly.

Bright red scarves were tied neatly at the collars.

Black, viscous liquid continued to drip incessantly from the cracks in the ceiling.

Dropping onto the rusty metal desks below, the liquid instantly turned into splashes of black ink, staining the worn textbooks laid on top.

On the giant blackboard directly behind the podium, the eight large characters written in dark red chalk—"Class in session, no being late"—began to melt across a large area.

The handwriting turned into streams of dark red bloody water, trickling down the mottled wall.

It outlined a giant red "X" mark on the wooden floor in front of the podium.

Ms. Jiang's hands trembled violently.

The anti-shake selfie stick in her hands was completely useless, and the camera feed shook madly in midair.

Forcing a smile, she gave a strained explanation to the camera with a shaking voice.

"Everyone, do you see this? This... this is clearly the multi-dimensional air projection technology recently developed by the Jiangda School of Optoelectronic Engineering."

"These floating school uniforms are all holographic illusions created by light refraction. Expert Lin, would you say my analysis is correct?"

Lin Ye waved the tightly wrapped copper coin sword around, wearing an expression of unquestionable academic authority.

"Ms. Jiang is spot on. The old blackboard here contains a large amount of ferromagnetic media. Under the strong convective environment of thunderstorm weather, a rare magnetic tape effect occurred on its surface, recording and projecting the light and shadows of students in class back then."

"This is not the work of ghosts or spirits. An excessive concentration of mold spores caused by poor air circulation in an enclosed space can also cause minor visual hallucinations in a person's optic nerve."