Chapter 118 The Extra Nine Floors
"Director Wang, I'd like to see the surveillance footage."
Suddenly, Xie Xun spoke up, his fox-like eyes full of seriousness, "Especially those clips that captured unusual phenomena but were later proven to be misunderstandings or equipment malfunctions."
Director Wang was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized what was going on.
"You mean..."
He paused, swallowed, and said, "Those details we overlooked?"
After receiving Xie Xun's affirmative nod, he immediately led the group to the school's security room and quickly filtered through the surveillance system, pulling up several folders marked as false alarms.
"Most of these are motion detection alerts that originate in the middle of the night,"
Director Wang pointed to the document on the screen and explained, "But during playback, it was either flying insects or changes in light and shadow, so we didn't investigate further."
As he spoke, he had already clicked on the first video and started playing it.
At 3:33 a.m., in the empty corridor, a blurry white figure flashed past the camera, moving so fast that it was almost invisible.
"stop."
Xie Xun suddenly pointed at the screen and said, "Rewind three seconds and zoom in on the bottom left corner."
The image freezes and zooms in, revealing the faint outline of a lantern emitting a dim green light in the shadows at the end of the corridor.
"Oh My God……"
Upon seeing this, Lin Huairou gasped, "This thing was actually on the surveillance camera the whole time!"
The second video is even more bizarre and terrifying.
At 4:44 a.m., the stairwell surveillance camera captured a pair of students' legs descending the stairs.
But strangely, only the legs are visible; the upper body completely disappears beyond the top of the image.
"What...what's going on?" Ah-chan's voice trembled as he looked on.
"It should be, space folding."
Xie Xun narrowed his eyes and, unusually, spoke in unison with Fu Qinghuai: "The lanterns create overlapping spaces here."
The moment the words fell, both the human and the ghost froze for a moment, instinctively looking at each other.
Xie Xun's ears turned a faint red at a visible speed, but he maintained his aloof expression, quickly shifting his gaze and casually adjusting his cuffs.
Fu Qinghuai seemed to have discovered some tremendous surprise; his peach blossom eyes suddenly lit up, and the corners of his lips couldn't help but turn up in a smile.
He leaned closer to Xie Xun, about to say something suggestive, but was interrupted by Xie Xun.
"Let's get back to business."
Xie Xun didn't even raise his head, his voice calm and unwavering.
Fu Qinghuai swallowed back the words he was about to say. He wasn't annoyed; instead, he chuckled softly, his gaze still fixed on Xie Xun's reddened earlobes, like a cat that had successfully stolen some fish.
Lin Huairou watched from the side, pouting. She couldn't help but nudge Zhou Wei with her elbow and mutter, "See? It's starting again."
"alright."
Zhou Wei shook his head helplessly and steered the conversation back on track, "So, this lantern can not only create illusions, but also distort space?"
"That's right."
Xie Xun had regained his composure and pointed to the surveillance footage, explaining, "Moreover, it's not just that. It uses spatial folding to overlay images from different points in time. So what we see could be fragments of the past, present, or even the future."
Upon hearing this, the expressions of everyone in the security room turned somewhat grim.
Director Wang adjusted his glasses, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
He is a staunch atheist who has taught physics for half his life and has always believed only in data and logic. He only asked Zhou Wei and the others to come over today to dispel the rumors in front of the students.
But these surveillance images, which cannot be explained by science, have cracked the worldview he has built up over the years.
"This...this must be some kind of special optical phenomenon."
He tried to explain using his familiar area of expertise, but his voice trembled with uncertainty.
Recalling the times in the teachers' office, whenever young teachers discussed the strange stories about the laboratory building, the older teachers who had been with the school for many years would always remain tight-lipped and quickly change the subject.
He suddenly remembered that when he first came to teach at Yucai Middle School fifteen years ago, an old teacher from the next class who was about to retire had revealed a few words after drinking.
"Xiao Wang, that lab building...something happened there before. There was a girl who was a very good student, but somehow she couldn't think straight...everything in that building has been disturbed ever since..."
At the time, he thought it was just an old man's superstitious ramblings, but now, thinking about it, it sends chills down his spine.
"perhaps……"
Director Wang took a deep breath, as if he had made up his mind, "Should I invite all the old teachers who knew about this back then? Although so many years have passed, maybe some of them still remember the details."
Xie Xun nodded slowly, acknowledging Director Wang's approach.
Upon seeing this, Director Wang immediately took out his phone and searched through his contacts for names he hadn't contacted in a long time.
His finger paused briefly on the name Li Jianguo.
This retired principal, who had been retired for many years, was the one who insisted on suppressing all the news after that incident.
"I'll contact them now and find out."
As Director Wang spoke, he walked to the window and began dialing.
At first, he couldn't get through to the old principal by phone, so he called the old teacher who had made a drunken slip of the tongue years ago.
The phone rang for a long time before being answered. After hearing the purpose of the call, the other party remained silent for a while before finally saying vaguely, "I'm getting old and can't remember many things. Don't ask me anymore."
After saying that, he hurriedly hung up the phone.
Director Wang frowned, sensing that something was amiss, and the others waiting nearby grew increasingly suspicious.
After a moment's pause, Director Wang called a former head of teaching who had been transferred to another position.
Upon hearing that the question was about the old days of the laboratory building, the other party's tone immediately became tense. "Director Wang, so many years have passed, let's not bring it up again. Take my advice, some things are better left unsaid than known."
Director Wang's brows furrowed deeper and deeper; the reactions of these people clearly confirmed that the matter was not simple.
He took a deep breath and finally dialed the number of the former principal, Li Jianguo.
Surprisingly, the phone was answered after only two rings.
"Is this Director Wang?"
The old principal's voice was unusually calm, as if he had expected this call. "I know why you're calling. It's time to make some things clear."
Director Wang responded repeatedly, then turned on speakerphone so that everyone could hear.
"That girl's name is Lin Huairou."
The old principal's first words stunned everyone, and Lin Huairou himself widened his eyes in surprise.
"It's alright, it's probably just someone with the same name," Xie Xun explained softly, gesturing for everyone to continue listening.
"She is an excellent student, excelling in both character and academics."
The old principal sighed softly as he finished speaking, "Until one day, she found something in the laboratory building. She asked the teacher who taught her and found out that it was a very old lantern."
These words immediately put everyone on edge.
"She said the lantern was talking to her, telling her that if she completed a ritual, it could help her fulfill her wish."
The old principal's voice was filled with deep weariness. "At the time, we just thought the child was having wild thoughts and didn't take it seriously, until one night, she really jumped off the building and committed suicide, and... she even completed that ritual."
"What ceremony?" Director Wang asked eagerly.
“Count the stairs.”
The old principal's voice began to tremble, "She counted from the first floor to the thirteenth floor at midnight. But the laboratory building... clearly only has four floors."
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