The unlit bonfire stood silently in the clearing by the Black Lake.
The gathered Nevermore students were filled with laughter and chatter.
Only Pugsley addams stood alone at the edge of the shadows, like a forgotten comma.
He had just proposed that brilliant exploration plan to his new classmates—
To search for the corpse of the student with a clockwork heart from campus legends, only to receive a flurry of avoidant gazes and awkward silence.
Just then, a warm hand heavily clapped him on the shoulder.
"Hey, bro, why are you playing the melancholic prince here all by yourself instead of joining the party?"
Pugsley turned around and saw Victor's always-smiling face.
Victor had one arm affectionately around his shoulder, while the other hand was happily munching on an oversized chocolate bar.
Seeing Pugsley look over, he naturally offered the chocolate, cocoa crumbs still clinging to the corner of his mouth:
"Want a bite? When you're in a bad mood, sweets work best."
"Brother-in-law!"
Pugsley's dim eyes instantly lit up.
That's right, how could he forget Victor! His brother-in-law definitely wouldn't find his idea strange.
He immediately laid out his plan: "While the bonfire is lit and everyone's noisy, we'll go to the Skeleton Tree and dig for the clockwork heart corpse."
"Go dig for a corpse by the Skeleton Tree while the bonfire is lit?"
Victor shook his head like a rattle drum after hearing this.
"No, no, that's too amateur!"
Pugsley's small face instantly fell. Did even Victor not understand him?
Unexpectedly, Victor's next sentence took a turn. He shook his head, put on the air of an old scholar, and gestured with his finger as if holding a pipe:
"You're still young, I can tell. Grave robbing, that requires following the rules left by our ancestors. Listen to your brother-in-law, we have to choose the third watch! That's the golden hour for this kind of work, when the moon is dark, the wind is high, and the Yin energy is strongest, things go smoothly!"
"So... you're willing to go with me?"
Pugsley's voice trembled slightly with excitement.
"Of course!"
Victor patted his chest, raising an eyebrow proudly.
"We'll go after the bonfire party ends. At the third watch, your brother-in-law will show you what 'professional' means!"
He lowered his voice and leaned into Pugsley's ear, like an accomplice sharing a secret mission.
"Remember to prepare your 'tools'—flashlight, gloves, and... uh, it's best if you can get a military shovel, that thing digs dirt fast!"
Pugsley nodded vigorously, a faint blush appearing on his pale face from excitement.
He looked at Victor, feeling that his brother-in-law's image had instantly become incomparably tall.
Victor saw that the school anthem part of the party was over and it was about to enter the highlight of lighting the bonfire.
So he pulled the eager Pugsley, like two nimble loaches, squeezing forward through the increasingly excited crowd.
"Excuse me, excuse me! Please make way!"
Victor yelled as he tried to squeeze sideways through a slightly denser group of people.
In the process, his elbow accidentally lightly bumped a girl with red twin braids standing at the edge of the front row.
"Ouch!"
The girl stumbled from the bump and sharply turned her head.
Seeing it was Victor, a pair of eyes burning with anger glared fiercely at him, the gaze so sharp it seemed to want to carve a piece of flesh from him.
Victor was stunned by her glare, then found the girl somewhat familiar.
In a flash of lightning, he remembered—
Isn't this the little girl from yesterday who was holding a notebook, wanting Wednesday's autograph, with an almost pathological obsession in her eyes?
She seemed to be... a very fanatical'solo stan'?
"Sorry, sorry, I wasn't paying attention!"
Victor quickly offered his apologies with his signature innocent and radiant smile.
The girl coldly snorted through her nose, shot him a fierce glare, and then turned back around.
Victor shrugged, not paying much attention, and continued to pull Pugsley forward.
This guy was carefree; this little incident was forgotten in a blink of an eye.
"Hey! Victor! Over here!"
"Senior Victor, look here!"
"Black! Let's drink together later!"
Wherever he went, greetings and camera flashes rose and fell.
Although the components of Victor's popularity were complex, and there were quite a few negative reviews and'stake' threats, he was genuinely popular. With his naturally blessed good looks, it was hard not to attract attention.
Especially among the female students, there were certainly many who secretly screamed for him.
It's just that most people were wary of his Wednesday, whose aura could freeze people to death, and Enid, who had a sweet smile but probably hit very hard.
They only dared to admire from afar, not truly daring to 'presume'.
Otherwise, Victor would probably have been drowned by girls using various excuses to 'get close'.
As for the boys, their emotions were even more complex.
Jealousy was real, but admiration was also genuine—
Being able to handle both Wednesday and Enid, two goddesses of distinct styles yet equally exceptional, was simply a textbook example of a 'winner in life'.
To some extent, Victor had already been privately revered by many boys as a 'founding master' level figure.
Just then, the lingering echoes of the school anthem slowly faded.
Acting Principal Barry Dote stood on the high platform in the center of the field. Instead of lighting the bonfire with a torch as traditionally done, he elegantly raised his hand, and a cluster of leaping flames 'poof' erupted from his fingertips.
"To borrow the words of a famous person, a single spark can start a prairie fire!"
He declared loudly, then flicked his wrist, and the fireball, as if alive, drew a graceful arc.
It accurately shot towards the eagle sculpture, meticulously constructed from countless dry branches and poised to take flight, in the distance!
"Boom—!"
The flames instantly engulfed the wooden eagle, transforming it into a true phoenix reborn from fire!
Immediately after, some students present with psychokinetic abilities—
Mainly those intelligent Outcasts known as 'Da Vinci'—simultaneously concentrated their minds and used their psychic powers.
The fiercely burning flaming eagle seemed to be lifted by an invisible hand, its massive flaming wings began to powerfully flap, carrying scorching air currents and dazzling sparks, slowly leaving the wooden pile of its base and soaring upwards into the dark night sky!
"Whoa—!"
The entire venue erupted in deafening cheers and exclamations.
The burning eagle soared in the night sky, trailing a long fiery tail, like a brief but brilliant meteor, illuminating the entire Black Lake shore as if it were daytime.
"Oh ho! This idea is good! Very flashy!"
Victor looked up, his eyes reflecting the sky full of fire, genuinely praising it.
Even the Venom, which had been sulking inside him and blocking external sensations, was attracted by this spectacular scene.
It couldn't help but peek out from his shoulder, its huge white eyes staring unblinkingly at the fiery eagle in the sky, emitting a hoarse, somewhat excited clicking sound:
"Tsk tsk, as far as human tricks go, this shows sincerity!"
The bonfire was successfully lit, and the atmosphere of the party instantly reached its climax.
"Victor! I finally found you!"
Enid struggled through the restless crowd, her cerulean eyes filled with terror, her hair slightly disheveled. She grabbed Victor's arm, her fingertips turning slightly white from the force.
"Someone... someone stuffed Wednesday's novel manuscript into the woodpile under the bonfire! Wednesday... she crawled in! We have to put out the fire quickly!"
What?!
Victor felt a chill shoot from the soles of his feet straight to his head, his heart gripped by an icy hand!
He sharply turned his head, his gaze fixed on the center of the clearing—
That bonfire, originally a symbol of celebration and revelry, had now transformed in his eyes into a devouring, menacing inferno!
The fire, aided by the evening breeze, was rapidly growing fiercer at a visible speed, the crackling sound of burning wood like malevolent sneers.
Wednesday? Underneath that place?!
Wednesday, who found even sunlight harsh and whose body temperature was consistently low, was now in the midst of a fiercely burning woodpile?!
"Fuck!"
A crude curse burst out, all of Victor's cynicism and nonchalance instantly shattered, replaced by a nearly insane fury and terror!
With almost no hesitation, he instinctively activated the Water Demonic Qi deeply hidden within his body, residing in his kidneys!
Stop sleeping, damn it! Get to work!
He roared in his mind, as if awakening a slumbering giant.
A bone-chillingly cold, yet boundless power instantly erupted from the location of his kidneys, like a bursting glacial torrent, sweeping through his limbs and bones!
A distinct, strange sensation, as if his organs were instantly frozen and then filled, even came from his waist.
"Water, come! Water, come!!"
Victor's eyes were bloodshot, and he let out a nearly screaming roar towards the bonfire, no longer caring about concealment or control!
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