Chapter 76: Encountering A Ghost In The Elevator

Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio

Kazuki left at 8.30pm, but of course, he would not demand any remuneration for the extra half an hour.

Before he left, he could feel how relieved Harunaka and the others were. Perhaps studying was indeed a tough task for them.

Moreover, he had brought two sets of test papers with him, one from the Senior High School Entrance Examination and another one from the Junior High School exam. He had left the Senior High School test papers with them along with a copy of his own Junior High School textbook.

He hoped that when he was here again the coming Wednesday, the Senior High School test paper would be filled with answers as they were allowed to refer to books and research for information. As long as they were earnest enough, they could basically find all the answers they needed from the textbook he photocopied.

They should be able to finish it… right?

Kazuki was slightly unsure of himself and sighed as he felt the road ahead of him as a private tutor would be a tough one.

However, he had already decided on the method that he would be using to teach the Furuhashi sisters. It was the simplest, but most boring and dry spoon-feeding method of education.

There was a fundamental difference in the nature of spoon-feeding and inspirational teaching.

There was a saying in inspirational teaching, which went like this, “I’ll listen and forget about it; I’ll look, and I’ll have some impression of it; I’ll do it, and it’ll stay in my mind.” The spoon-feeding method encapsulated the first two actions, but it missed out on the last part of actually ‘doing’ it. In contrast, inspirational teaching gave full consideration to the importance of ‘doing.’

In terms of limitations, there were a lot of shortcomings in spoon-feeding since it only involved delivering the ideologies of teachers and books to students, leaving no room for innovation. The best part of spoon-feeding, however, was the speed at which students could learn content.

Therefore, a lot of people condemned the method of spoon-feeding for killing off the creativity in students, training them into individuals lacking in their own ideas, and turning them into machines that only knew how to sit for exams. Although they would excel in the exams, they would only excel at getting high marks. They would not even have half the creativity of a middle school student when they go out into society.

Although spoon-feeding was heavily criticized, Kazuki knew that this was the only way that would work for them after a mere two and a half hour’s worth of observation.

Though it was dull, it had a remarkable impact on raising marks.

Blind memorization was another way too.

Of course, Kazuki had to inform Sena Nagayama to get her to grant him higher authority. Otherwise, he was afraid that the Furuhashi sisters would not last very long. As their teacher, he naturally needed to supervise them closely.

There were two means of supervising. One of them being some mild and kind advice while the other was to coerce them into doing something.

Yep, he was more inclined to the latter.

After all, after the past two and a half hours, he realized that these four girls had had numerous experiences and strategies in dealing with private tutors. Hence, extraordinary times called for extraordinary measures.

After thorough contemplation, he decided to call Sena Nagayama the next day to ask for her opinion.

As the elevator door opened and before Kazuki could get out of the elevator, an old lady tottered into the elevator with her back bent and her body shivering.

Her face was full of wrinkles, but it was easy to see that she was an old lady who had experienced much hardship in life. She stepped forward slowly with one of her hands softly beating against the back of her waist, coughing from time to time, causing an urge in people to lend her a helping hand. She had a head of short hair that looked like it was covered in a layer of white snow, teeth that were almost gone, and a pair of rough hands that were covered in veins that could almost pass off as earthworms. But at the moment, her dull eyes were filled with anxiety.

Her dry lips moved slightly as she murmured to herself, “Oh Sunny, please don’t believe what Rieko said… she was lying… lying…”

The people waiting outside of the elevator looked confused as Kazuki, who was standing in the elevator, showed no intention of getting out. However, seeing that Kazuki made no move of going out, they did not continue waiting and walked straight in.

Kazuki watched silently as the three of them penetrated through the old lady’s body, causing a chain of ripples without a sound. He had never imagined that he could witness an apparition here, and she seemed like a spirit too.

“Oh, Sunny, please don’t believe what Rieko said… she was lying… lying…”

No one in the elevator was talking, and only Kazuki could hear what the old lady was saying, but she just kept on repeating the same sentence over and over again like a clockwork machine, confusing him to no end.

Observing her closely from the corner of his eye, it seemed to him that she was slightly mentally unstable?

Looking at the people around him, he paused in thought.

The people in the elevator left one by one until only Kazuki, and the repetitive old lady remained. However, the elevator door had already closed, and if no floor button were pressed, it would remain unmoving. The old lady beside him only stared intently at the floor buttons while repeating the same sentence.

Upon seeing this, Kazuki looked at the floor they were at, it was the ninth floor.

As he was thinking, he pressed the button for the 10th floor, and after a brief feeling of weightlessness, the elevator started to move upward quickly. When the elevator reached the 10th floor, the unknown old lady beside him still did not move.

Then, he pressed the button for the 11th floor.

When the elevator stopped on the 11th floor, the old lady started to move. With the same sentence still in her mouth, she staggered out of the elevator somewhat hurriedly.

Kazuki followed her steps silently because he knew that there were cameras both inside and outside of the elevator.

When he saw the old lady entering room 1105, he memorized the room number. Then, he took the elevator down, but he did not go home. Instead, he sat on one of the benches in the small square at Suiryu Apartment with his gaze fixed on the 15th block of Suiryu Apartment.

He did not wait for her on the 11th floor because there were cameras there as well as the fact that he did not know how long the old lady would stay in room 1105. Thus, he had come down first. After all, if he had stayed on the 11th floor for a long time without moving, he would probably have been suspected of having malicious intent.

After waiting for almost an hour and just as he thought that the apparition might not even come down, he saw the old lady at the brightly lit entrance of the 15th block.

With staggering steps and the occasional cough, it was challenging for her to walk without a walking stick.

Yet Kazuki knew that these were just habits that were embedded within the depths of the apparition’s soul when she was still alive. In actual fact, she could walk normally, but he could also feel that this apparition was very much worn out.

The reason for this was self-evident. This apparition had most likely passed away for quite some time and had unsolved obsessiveness left after death. By continually mixing amongst crowds of the living, the apparition was damaged by constant showering of Yang energy, causing her consciousness to fade. Yet because of her unresolved obsessiveness, she still maintained her habits after death. If he had not discovered her, perhaps not long after, this old lady would not have been able to maintain her soul, and she would have probably disappeared from the face of the earth.

Kazuki followed the old lady from behind and did not try to talk to her because he knew that even if he spoke to her, she probably would not have answered him anyway.

After 15 minutes, both humans and ghosts came to the Jinwen market.

The Jinwen market was the largest in the Jinwen District, but since it was already 9 o’clock at night, the market was dark and quiet except for the rare bypassers walking by. All the shops within the market were closed.

He saw the old lady slowly sit down beside a rubbish bin that was surrounded by flies in a narrow alley beside a noodle shop. She stared in front of her with empty and dull eyes.

Like a homeless and lonely ghost.

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