"Yo, they're even threatening us!" Chen Hao said in surprise, then tried to reply to the death message—"We're just being nosy, what do you plan to do with us?"

Surprisingly, the text message was successfully sent!

"What's up?" Huang Yejiang asked urgently, looking at Chen Hao.

Chen Hao smiled and lifted his phone to show Huang Yejiang.

After clearly seeing the content on the screen, Huang Yejiang was first startled, then a crafty smile appeared on his face.

"Boyfriend, this person is so annoying!" Ye Yuqiao's angry voice suddenly rang in Chen Hao's mind, "Did you notice his sly grin?"

"Mm!" Chen Hao thought secretly, "He must feel reassured having us back him up, thinking that we can settle this matter for him, or even if we can't settle it, he has pulled us in to take the fall with him, which would make him feel more balanced."

"Such a person doesn't deserve our help! Abandoning his own roommate to save his skin, he's too unreliable!"

"I didn't agree to help him!"

"You clearly agreed just now, saying if you could save him you definitely would!"

Chen Hao chuckled, thinking again, "Whether I can save him is not up to me. As things stand, I can't, because my girlfriend is angry."

"That's more like it!"

"Idiot, what are you stupidly smiling about?" Tang Jing gave Chen Hao a disapproving look, sensing a hint of displeasure on Huang Yejiang's face, probably enraged by Chen Hao's laughter.

Chen Hao shrugged his shoulders, at which point Huang Yejiang's phone received another text message.

A sharp gleam suddenly shot from Huang Yejiang's eyes. His displeased, somber face trembled slightly, and he said urgently, "Quick, what's the reply?"

Chen Hao nodded with a smile. Then he opened the text message slowly, deliberately making Huang Yejiang beside him anxious.

The text message read: "Then wait for me to arrange your date with death!"

Upon seeing this, Chen Hao quickly replied to the message: "Don't rush, my bad, we won't meddle anymore."

After sending the text message, Chen Hao excitedly returned the phone to Huang Yejiang.

Taking back his phone, Huang Yejiang looked as if he was handling a live grenade, shocked and scared, with his hands shaking violently. After reading the recent exchange of messages, Huang Yejiang said angrily, "What do you mean by this?"

Now it was Chen Hao's turn to wear a crafty smile on his face.

"I mean nothing by it. I said we would do our best to save you, and of course we will, but we won't lose our lives for you!"

"Exactly!" Xie Xiaofeng echoed.

Although filled with disappointed anger, Huang Yejiang still forced himself to control his temper, after all, he needed the help of these younger Onmyoji.

"So, what do we do next?"

Chen Hao pointed to a nearby coffee shop and said, "Let's sit down in that coffee shop. We still have questions for you."

"What questions?" Huang Yejiang's expression turned wary in an instant, "I've told you everything I should tell you!"

"What about what you shouldn't tell? You haven't said that yet, have you?"

"You!" Huang Yejiang grew angry again, "I have nothing that I shouldn't say!"

Chen Hao smirked, then moved closer to Huang Yejiang and said coldly, "Considering your reaction just now, it's clear that you are hiding something from us. I'll just ask you one question: do you want to tell the truth? If so, then let's go to the coffee shop and hear you out. If not, we'll leave right away in the car."

"If I tell you, can you guarantee I won't die?"

"No!" Chen Hao shook his head, "You're in no position to negotiate terms with us!"

After struggling internally for a while, Huang Yejiang said with a gloomy face, "Then I'll tell the truth."

So, Chen Hao and his group got out of the car and walked into a nearby coffee shop with Huang Yejiang.

As the five of them sat down, Chen Hao's phone just happened to receive a text message.

"Could it be that I've received a death threat too?" Chen Hao exclaimed with surprise. "That was rather quick!"

After taking out his cell phone, Chen Hao looked at it intently and saw, indeed, it was a death message—"Starting from next week, from Monday to Thursday, one of the four of you will die in turn each day, starting with you!"

Chen Hao replied with a dismissive smile—"Why start from next week, why not from today?"

Having replied to the message, Chen Hao placed his phone on the table, then turned to the visibly tense Huang Yejiang and said, "I'll ask, you answer."

"Was the text message you just received a death threat?" Huang Yejiang asked with a shaky voice.

Chen Hao shrugged and said with a faint smile, "It wasn't a death message, it was insurance sales."

A look of disappointment briefly crossed Huang Yejiang's face. He felt it was unfair—why out of so many people did he alone receive a death threat? Hence, he had always hoped to drag a few others down with him, as the feeling of shared misery would comfort him somewhat.

After a pause, Huang Yejiang nodded stiffly and said, "Ask away!"

"You should know who sent the message, right?"

Instantly, Huang Yejiang's expression darkened, his face full of hesitation as if he harbored some unspeakable secret.

Half a minute later, hearing Chen Hao let out an impatient sigh, Huang Yejiang hurriedly said, "I know, I know who sent the message—it's a classmate of ours, Li Nuanyan..."

Li Nuanyan, a 24-year-old female student, was a classmate of Huang Yejiang and his three deceased roommates, all postgraduate students. Among this group, Huang Yejiang was a star student, Lu Jun the class monitor, and Li Nuanyan had been the president of the student council.

Two months earlier, their adviser secured a position for teaching assistance, which would also allow for teaching undergraduate courses—a coveted job retention opportunity after graduation. Naturally, every student wanted a shot at it, but among the dozen or so students, Huang Yejiang, Lu Jun, and Li Nuanyan were the most likely to secure the position.

After several rounds of competition, Lu Jun learned the inside scoop from their adviser: Huang Yejiang would get the job retention position.

Upon hearing this news, Huang Yejiang was overjoyed and invited his dormitory roommates to a big celebratory dinner at an upscale restaurant.

However, two days later, the college announced Li Nuanyan as the awardee of the job retention position.

When they heard this news, Huang Yejiang and his roommates were thunderstruck. Huang Yejiang was particularly furious, directing his anger at Lu Jun, accusing him of having played a trick on him, deceiving him, and causing him to waste over two thousand yuan on the celebration.

Lu Jun denied it, insisting the information he had obtained from the adviser was indeed that Huang Yejiang had the highest cumulative score, far ahead of second-place him and third-place Li Nuanyan. As to why Li Nuanyan ultimately got the position, there must be some other scheme.

Among Huang Yejiang's three roommates, Gao Dasong had attended the same university as Li Nuanyan during undergraduate studies and was even in the same faculty. When Lu Jun suggested Li Nuanyan might have been involved in some backstage dealings to get the job retention position, Gao Dasong brought up a rumor from their undergraduate days: Li Nuanyan was said to have had an affair with a married male teacher for a scholarship and nominations, which even led to a scandal when the teacher's wife showed up at the school to confront her.

The most explosive part was that the male teacher had filmed their intimate moments, and to seek revenge, his wife posted those compromising photos on the school forum. Although the forum admins quickly deleted the pictures, many students had viewed and downloaded them before they were taken down.

After hearing Gao Dasong's account, Huang Yejiang and Lu Jun were shocked and suspected Li Nuanyan might have used similar methods to secure the teaching position.

Unable to find any evidence and still dwelling on the issue, Huang Yejiang asked Gao Dasong to retrieve Li Nuanyan's compromising photos and then had their roommate, the hacker-skilled Liu Weitao, distribute the images on the school forum. He also fabricated posts alleging Li Nuanyan's affairs with a married professor during her undergraduate years, insinuations of bribing interviewers for her graduate studies, and corrupt dealings with college leaders.

Later, those defamatory posts about Li Nuanyan spread throughout the campus when they weren't immediately addressed by the authorities; then some male students shared them on various social platforms. The content, involving a beautiful and talented student from a prestigious university and implicating several key school leaders, quickly became a hot topic online, causing a major uproar.

The next day, several local media outlets in C city reported on the matter, leading to the suspension and investigation of many leaders mentioned in the posts. That afternoon, the college website announced the cancellation of Li Nuanyan's job retention position, with the alternative candidate pending.

On the morning of the third day, last Tuesday, Li Nuanyan committed suicide by jumping off a building; efforts to save her were in vain.

When they heard this news, Huang Yejiang and his three roommates were stunned.

That morning, the school authorities and the police jointly held a press conference, announcing an in-depth investigation into the matter.

Since Liu Weitao had posted the illicit photos and messages from an off-campus internet café and used some hacker techniques, it was difficult for the police to trace the posts back to him.

Out of guilt for Li Nuanyan, five nights later, the four roommates covertly visited the spot where Li Nuanyan had fallen to her death, burning paper money and begging her not to come back for them.

However, the next day, which was the seventh day after Li Nuanyan's death, Gao Dasong received that death message.

After listening to Huang Yejiang's detailed account of the events, Tang Jing slammed the table, wishing she could throw all the hot coffee in Huang Yejiang's face.

"You deserved it, the death wasn't unjust at all!" Tang Jing said angrily.

Letting out a sigh, Huang Yejiang lamented with great regret, "At the time, we never thought it would blow up to be such a huge issue!"

"No," Xie Xiaofeng shook his head, "you must have anticipated it, or else why would the school cancel Li Nuanyan's job retention position? You just didn't foresee that she would come back as a ghost to haunt you!"

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