Chapter 84 The Old Campus Returns to this space called "Home"...
The two faced each other in silence when suddenly the window at the far end of the fifth floor shattered, and vine-like hair fell down, dropping a tennis ball that broke the deadlock.
Xue Chao picked up the tennis ball and nodded: "You received the signal well."
"Don't be ridiculous." The girl casually grabbed a towel from the drying room to dry herself. Her phone, hidden in her inner pocket, came into view. She simply took it out and checked if it was wet. "We didn't even agree on a secret code—now you just believe I'm the real person?"
Xue Chao smiled this time: "Mm."
He took the girl's phone and looked at it. All the apps were just for show; they could only make calls and send text messages.
He tried sending a text message to a number, and it actually worked.
The girl didn't care about the phone. She didn't know any phone numbers that could be used as clues. She felt that giving them phones was just for the sake of ghosts, to create some kind of midnight horror story. She thought it would be better to give the phones to her friends and see if they could find any other clues.
The wet spots on her clothes could only be barely dried. The girl got tired after a few wipes and decided to let it go: "I didn't see very clearly, but... it seems like there really was something there. I saw a few strands of hair floating around in my clothes as I was turning them over..."
Seeing that she had relaxed, Xue Chao suddenly launched a slow attack: "Your notes only contain the first part of the fake code."
He didn't even know what the next sentence meant, so how could she know?
"I've read that book." The girl, realizing his mistake, seemed to have caught him off guard, a hint of smug satisfaction in her eyes. "I mean, I've read that book in the real world. Pretty unique, huh?"
Seeing that there was no conspiracy, Xue Chao immediately lost interest and lazily replied, "Elegant."
"You're too cynical," the girl said, pointing at him. "Speak more kind words, do more good deeds. Have you heard of the Law of Attraction? You need to guide your reality with your thoughts."
"I've heard of it, and it came true immediately."
"So you have quite a talent for metaphysics, what are you thinking?"
"I encountered a ghost."
"ah?"
As they descended to the fourth-floor stairwell, unsettling footsteps arrived as expected.
A voice, sounding like the volume had been turned down, came through the girl's earphones: "Great idea! Don't think about it again!"
Xue Chao's legs were burning hot, like they were wrapped around a twisted ghost, but he was still faster than the girl. He quickly reached the nearest dormitory room he could enter, and was stunned when he pushed the door open—there was a person tied to the bed in the bedroom, with a hood covering the head with headphones on, and the headphone opening was sealed with tape. It was the fifth player he had just found.
She was facing the door when she heard it open. Startled, she looked up and, upon seeing Xue Chao, burst into tears as if she had seen a family member.
Another woman who looked exactly like her had caught up and was standing behind him, the cold air blowing on his neck. She asked him softly, "What's wrong?"
Xue Chao remained silent. The girl's hand behind him had already touched the hem of his clothes, and the footsteps of his beastly father were about to reach the stairwell. He grabbed the girl's hand and shoved her hard into the corridor, then turned and closed the door.
He pulled down the tape on her earpiece: "Password?"
The girl was still shaken, but answered quickly: "There was no code."
Without a word, Xue Chao untied her. Her voice trembled as she said, "I knew that if we separated, there was a high chance that one of us would run into a fake human... but we were both unlucky. You have no idea how scary the monster disguised you was... scarier than you in real life!"
Xue Chao helped her up: "You're cursing me?"
“You’re fierce, it’s inhuman, do you understand… um!” The girl’s earpiece was covered by Xue Chao, and she listened in the direction of his hand—outside the corridor, there was a clattering sound of keys. The man opened the first door, let out a strange, childlike laugh, and when he saw that it was an empty room, he flew into a rage and slashed wildly a few times before retreating back into the corridor and opening the second door.
He opened the door this time!
The dormitory room they hid in was the sixth one, leaving them little time to react.
Running away is difficult, and the windows inside the house are locked. Even if they were to break them, it would be difficult to do so from the fourth floor without roots. Besides, there are two of them, which would allow Dog Dad to instantly pinpoint which room it is. Before they can climb down, the other party rushes in first. What difference is there between them and walking into a trap?
“His target is you. You sit here and draw his attention.” Xue Chao pointed behind the door. “I’ll ambush him.”
Now that things had come to this, the girl nodded with difficulty. Xue Chao carried the small, solid flowerpots for decoration and hid behind the door.
One room after another, the man quickly reached the door. He opened several empty rooms, his patience exhausted. He slammed his fist on the door, and the girl instinctively trembled, her knees together, her hands gripping her elbows. She stared stiffly as the lock turned, like someone awaiting execution, but the door remained closed for a long time.
In the agonizing silence, a crack suddenly appeared in the middle of the door, and a kitchen knife pierced straight in. The blade reflected Xue Chao standing beside the door. Xue Chao was slightly stunned before realizing—it was that old man Deng's head!
The murderer's head was shaped like a cleaver that widened from narrow to wide, while Dog Dad's head was shaped like a typical household kitchen knife, its blade pitted and covered in blood and garlic bits, as if the wife was using it to prepare dinner for her husband before he used it to kill her.
With a flick of the blade, it swept horizontally towards Xue Chao's location. Xue Chao, perhaps aggravating some wound, was unable to completely dodge, inflicting another injury on his arm. As he retreated, the movement was a bit too forceful, and warm blood splattered onto the girl, causing her to scream involuntarily, her voice trembling with obvious sobs.
The man seemed to be ignited by the crying and laughed furiously. All his attention was focused on the girl, and he cursed her with a series of nasty words such as "a worthless ingrate born of a bastard," and he always referred to her as "her mother" as if she were not his wife, but his enemy from several lifetimes ago. He could not finish saying anything, even the most offensive words in the world.
The blade retreated, and the man roared as he gathered his strength again. The sound of it cutting through the air was like a guillotine chopping ribs in a market, and it slashed towards the dormitory door. Just then, Xue Chao suddenly stepped forward, turned to the side, and pulled open the door. The head of the cleaver rushed in without hitting anything, and because of the excessive force, it slammed into the room along with the man.
Xue Chao showed no trace of his earlier sluggishness. He leaped two steps past the man, left the house, and closed the door neatly and silently.
"Wait, you can't leave! How can you leave me all alone like this... Ah!"
Dog Dad clearly had a priority list in mind. His initial anger was completely diverted when he heard his daughter's panicked cries. The fourth level—he really wanted to kill his daughter.
Inside, curses and screams mingled together in a chaotic mess, while a door deep in the corridor quietly opened a crack, revealing half an earphone.
Xue Chao rushed over, and before leaving, he seemed to hear a pitiful, distorted question coming from the house behind him: "How do you know I'm not really...!"
The long-awaited comment section immediately erupted in laughter.
"【Fang Tailai】Private Marseille Fake Sauce, our host already returned the camera to its rightful owner :)"
"【Fang Tailai】Private Marseille Fake Sauce, our host already returned the camera to its rightful owner :)"
...
"【Fang Tailai】I hereby announce that this year's Best Actor at the Oscars is Xue Chao! Best Actress is Fang Tailai! Applause!"
"【Fang Tailai】If I hadn't known the script beforehand, I really wouldn't have been able to tell which one was real, haha!"
"【Fang Tailai】The God's-eye view is so cool. When Brother Who Understands locked the real player out, I felt a little relieved, but when I thought that he could also see the camera, I felt at ease and lay down, and gave a thumbs up to the two of them for their acting skills and cooperation (peacefully)."
"【Fang Tailai】I thought you wanted to strike first to prevent the imposters from causing trouble later, but it turns out your purpose is this... to kill your daughter on the fourth floor, and then you'll have a daughter?"
"【Fang Tailai】Fake Human, don't pretend to be a human in your next life, or you'll get scammed by a despicable human, won't you?"
"【Fang Tailai】What a magic trick to defeat magic! Sure enough, those who deceive others will always be deceived, hahaha."
"What happened to your arm..." Fang Tailai opened the door to let Xue Chao in, but Xue Chao grabbed him and pulled him out the door. "Wait, that guy isn't done yet!"
"It's not over yet. Anyone below the fourth floor will kill you. The monster is clearly no match for him. He's the strongest here, and he can only hold off one floor." Xue Chao glanced at the rising popularity score and said with a grim expression, "Catch up in a bit."
The window at the far end of the fourth floor shattered with a crash, and a cat's tail, now just bones, dangled from the top. Xue Chao skillfully caught the tennis ball it threw and led the way downstairs.
Xue Chao running out was fine, but as soon as Fang Tailai stepped across the threshold, the cursing and screaming from the fourth floor disappeared. Her mind raced, and she suddenly remembered Xue Chao's evaluation of Dog Dad as "a bully at home": "We'll be safe once we're out of the dormitory building?"
The tennis ball being stuffed into the black cat's mouth may be the real cause of its death. The reason the black cat's spirit led the way and kept smashing the glass with the tennis ball was to remind them to leave the dormitory building.
Because the dormitory buildings are no longer just dormitory buildings, but rather so-called "homes" where people "live their lives behind closed doors".
No matter how subservient Old Deng is outside, when he returns to this space called "home," he is the supreme emperor, the ruler with absolute power.
Only by leaving this space can we escape these disgusting rules.
Breaking the window might have the effect of weakening the rules, because "family scandals should not be aired in public." Once an outsider—someone outside the "home," that is, someone outside the dormitory building—sees it, the dog dad can no longer pretend to be the emperor.
The desk was still sitting alone on the third or fourth floor platform. Xue Chao picked it up and smashed the window on the platform with a tennis ball. He rushed to the third floor and heard footsteps coming upstairs again. This time, he didn't hide on the third floor but rushed down.
The man hadn't expected him to rush down so directly, which deprived him of much of the cat-and-mouse game and made him feel that his authority had been challenged. He flew into a rage, bringing the cleaver head straight at him. Xue Chao instantly lifted the desk, deliberately controlling the angle so that the cleaver slashed diagonally into the edge of the desk. He used a clever trick to stop it, but the force still numb his hand. Blood from his fresh arm wound dripped onto the tabletop, and he bit his lip to hold on.
Fang Tailai seized the opportunity to slip past him from behind, immediately ran to the second floor, smashed the window between the second and third floor platforms, and the man suddenly disappeared. Footsteps came again from below, and he ran upstairs in a fit of rage.
The opponent was invincible inside the building. This kind of "surprise attack" could only be used once. The man, reeking of alcohol, swung his blood-stained cleaver head straight at the two of them.
Xue Chao sandwiched the desk between his chest and the wall, swiftly pulled out his phone, and pressed the call button he had prepared beforehand: "Help!"
The long, flowing hair cascaded upwards, wrapping around the man's ankles from behind and instantly engulfing his entire body. The two quickly descended the stairs. Xue Chao winked gratefully at the female ghost hidden beneath the hair, while Fang Tailai, understanding the situation, bowed as he ran, saying, "Thank you, Ghost Sister!"
Having successfully reached the first floor, Xue Chao tossed the key to Fang Tailai, who then cautiously opened the dormitory manager's room at the entrance.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com