Chapter 80 Old Campus "There's a ghost in this house."...
Xue Chao couldn't help but feel annoyed. He didn't want to be treated as a fake, but he ended up in the same situation as a fake.
To prevent the girls from getting themselves into trouble like student number 2, Xue Chao quickly went into the public laundry room next to the dormitory.
This time, he learned his lesson and didn't completely change into his school uniform. Instead, he wore it over his hospital gown. Now it came in handy. He soaked the blood-stained hospital gown in water, propped it up with a mop, opened the window, and threw it against the window next door.
In the darkness, a hospital gown was slapped open on the glass window, its tears and bloodstains telling a terrifying story. Water mixed with blood meandered down the window, and the long hair that had been left loose by the mop swayed wetly in the wind.
Xue Chao wasn't satisfied yet. He used the rubber bands he had removed with the rubber band gun to eject the remaining glass beads, which accurately hit the clothes, making a frightening impact sound and causing the "ghost" to bar its teeth and claws a few times, making it even more impactful.
Sure enough, screams erupted again, and the door was kicked open. The girls, who were probably not from the same dormitory, were bored and fooling around on the weekend. Now that it was really haunted, they all ran back to their own dorm rooms. Two of them, who didn't live on the sixth floor, ran downstairs, and the ghost that emerged from the desk curtain followed behind them.
Hiding in the clothes drying room, Xue Chao could vaguely see a disheveled female ghost crawling past the laundry room door through the reflective tiles. Her head was hidden in her thick, long hair and couldn't be seen clearly. It wasn't the same female ghost as the one in the men's dormitory on the first floor, but it felt very similar. Both were human figures pieced together from the organs of many people.
After all, they had made eye contact when the door opened, and Xue Chao thought the female ghost would at least turn back to scare him. The comment section had experienced several thrilling moments with him and was already guessing what tricky angle or posture the female ghost would appear in. But she didn't seem to notice him, or even if she did, she simply ignored him.
Xue Chao: I like this feeling of being ignored; I suggest we have more of it.
After the female ghost climbed away down the left staircase, Xue Chao cautiously returned to the corridor. The female ghost had indeed left, but after taking a few steps, he noticed a strand of thick black hair in the opposite direction from where the female ghost had left, that is, at the entrance of the stairwell on the right.
...Could they have already climbed over the fifth floor and come back from the other side?
The enemy didn't move, probably waiting for him to walk into their trap. Xue Chao made a quick decision, returned to the haunted dormitory, and closed the door.
Sure enough, a rapid crawling sound came from outside the door. It was different from the sound of a centipede crawling and tapping on the ground. It sounded more like a snake with a human head approaching from afar, twisting and scrambling across the ground.
It neither passed by nor stopped, but swam to the door and naturally climbed onto it. Xue Chao knew that the thing was now stuck to the door.
Suddenly, the sound of fabric being pulled taut came from inside the room. Xue Chao turned around and saw that there was another girl inside. She hadn't run out and was huddled in a small ball in the corner. Her head was covered by a gray hood, and a pair of headphones were over the hood.
She had her head buried deep in her hands, so she probably knew someone had come in and that there was something outside the door. She could only try to shrink herself in, wishing she could become a tiny insect that no one could see.
She was deceiving herself, and Xue Chao didn't rush to persuade her to wake up. He also ignored the ghost performing performance art outside the door. After confirming that there was no ghost under the table, he casually sat down and looked at the paper for summoning the spirit again.
This time, being closer, he could see clearly that it was the handwriting of the classmate who had borrowed the book and hadn't returned it.
The hospital gown stuck to the window had slid all the way down to the bottom edge. The water had dried a bit in the wind, and it couldn't hold on any longer, so it fell down instantly. The ghost stuck to the door panel seemed to have lost interest, climbed down again, and slowly crawled away.
The ghost had already crawled away, but the quail showed no sign of leaving the bed. Xue Chao put down the paper and deliberately walked over with heavier steps, but perhaps because the other party was wearing headphones, there was still no reaction.
Xue Chao felt that she was completely frozen, neither calling out nor crying, just shrinking in fear, as if he would automatically disappear sooner or later and everything would return to normal.
He waved his hand and poked her again, a signal that he "had to face it." Only then did the girl seem to log back into her online account, instinctively shrinking back and glancing at him furtively.
"Seeing" is still a sensation derived from the body; her head, covered by a hood, is empty, and her cavities are directly visible.
She was very afraid of him.
And it's not the kind of fear of "ghosts".
Xue Chao stepped back, moved a chair, and sat down beside her bed. He just watched her quietly. She became even more frightened, but she still didn't say or do anything, maintaining the status quo.
In the end, Xue Chao gave in. It wasn't that he wanted to force her to speak first, but his tongue was still rotting and it hurt to breathe. He didn't want to talk, but he was afraid that they would really sit like two withered stones forever, so he had no choice but to break the deadlock: "...I'm more afraid of you."
He speaks now, barely daring to pronounce a single word clearly, his voice hoarse and strained, like someone who has been isolated for decades trying to activate a voice that has become a degenerated part. His voice is low and strange, and he doesn't sound like a good person. The girl visibly trembled, but after realizing what he had said, she looked up blankly.
"Why?" she murmured.
"I opened the door and saw a ghost under the table." Xue Chao pointed to the square table in the distance, trying to put it simply, "The one that was crawling."
The girl's thoughts moved surprisingly quickly. She glanced out the window in surprise: "What's that dress by the window...?"
Xue Chao nodded, meaning that he was the one who did it.
"You wanted us to escape because there's a ghost in the house." After understanding, the girl's attitude softened a bit, but Xue Chao's appearance at this moment was truly comparable to a ghost, making it hard for her not to be afraid. "...Why are you afraid of me?"
But behind this statement lies a sense of stability, as if objectively exploring a question, with a hint of disbelief, as if saying, "You're lucky you didn't scare me to death with your grotesque appearance, and you still have the nerve to be afraid of me?"
"What did you do?" Xue Chao twirled the red ballpoint pen.
The girl was very resistant, seemingly feeling that playing this game in the middle of the night was suicidal, like she was being forced to participate in a group activity: "...invoking the Ouija board."
"But the ghost was under the table, and it didn't reach out." It didn't move a hair, just stared at him with one eye.
At first, the girl was confused. Following Xue Chao's description, she reconstructed the scene in her mind, and her whole body tensed up instantly: "But when the spirit answers, it should be holding our hands and guiding us to move the pen..."
"That means the ghost under the table isn't the Ouija board spirit." Xue Chao smirked. "There's another ghost in this room."
"..." It was even colder than before.
But that wasn't all. The girl seemed a bit timid, but her thinking was very clear: "But you only saw the ghost under the table. There weren't any other ghosts standing next to us, holding our hands to answer..."
After receiving Xue Chao's affirmative nod, the girl came to a conclusion... which was truly a challenge to her heart: "...So one of us is a spirit of the Ouija board."
Unless the spirit of the Ouija board can become invisible twice, there's no reason why everyone should be a ghost. Even after the answer was given and the spirit appeared, Xue Chao only saw one and not the other.
It's highly likely that they all saw it, and it was among them—their hands were clasped together, holding the pen, and when the spirit answered, it could be directly guided.
She might be one of them, the spirit of the Ouija board.
...She even thought the other person wasn't a good person; she was the one who looked dangerous!
But she knew she wasn't. The thought of shaking hands with a real Ouija board made her mind go blank, and she almost fell off the bed. Xue Chao reached out to support her, but didn't touch her. The girl stubbornly held on.
This posture looked like it could easily twist his back, but Xue Chao took her wariness in strangulation well. Just as he was about to pull his hand away, the girl grabbed him, and her attitude changed drastically: "...I'm not a ghost, really, big brother, you have to believe me!"
Xue Chao gave a half-smile, neither withdrawing his hand nor answering. The girl felt a little awkward, but the other girls seemed suspicious. This man, who looked even more like a ghost than a ghost, was the only teammate she could develop at this moment. She absolutely couldn't let him run away like this. She forced herself to be outgoing for once.
"I didn't notice anything amiss with them, so I don't know which one is..."
"There's a ghost in the building that can disguise itself as someone else," Xue Chao provided the clue.
“It’s too dangerous outside.” She knew that the worst thing about group projects was when only one person did the work while everyone else reaped the benefits. So she racked her brains and came up with a suggestion: “Let’s hide here. Maybe they’ll fight each other and die, and we can reap the benefits…”
Xue Chao didn't refute, seemingly accepting the suggestion. He glanced at the window, and just as the girl breathed a sigh of relief, he suddenly got up, walked to the door, pressed the handle, and pushed it. The girl's heart jumped into her throat—but the door didn't open.
The girl had no idea what was wrong with him, so she could only assume he was normal for now and guess: "...Is the ghost under the table also crawling on the door?"
“It’s not blocked from the outside.” Xue Chao tried again, his expression grim. “The door is locked.”
If the door is locked, it's most likely locked from the inside.
With a loud bang, the bed the girl was sitting on shook as if an earthquake had struck, startling her so much that she immediately jumped out and retreated behind the table.
There was another loud bang, but it wasn't an earthquake. Only the girl's entire bed was shaking, tilting from above, as if it had been hit by something suspended in mid-air.
But the ceiling was empty. The girl backed away while observing, and finally noticed the flickering light on the window... like a shadow hanging there, swaying back and forth, matching the sound of an impact.
Girl: "I remember now, I overheard them talking, they seemed to say that a senior student once hanged herself, could it have happened in this dorm room..."
Xue Chao suddenly asked, "Are you sure the other three have all run away?"
The girl stepped back to his side: "They rushed out all at once, and I was knocked down. When I looked up, there was no one there. The door was open, but I heard something crawling. I didn't dare to go out... I don't know."
Her seat was on the side, and the girl at the very back rushed out and knocked her down. In other words, strictly speaking, she didn't know how many people had gone out... It's very possible that the "Ouija board" never actually went out.
That should be the one hanging there, right above the table.
The girl stood frozen in front of the door, nudged Xue Chao with her elbow, and asked him for his opinion.
Xue Chao demonstrated this directly by sitting back down in the chair at the table.
The girl was extremely resistant to his actions, but she didn't want to be left behind by her teammates, so she reluctantly sat down next to Xue Chao. The chair was placed very far to the side, almost squeezed into the corner of the table.
She didn't dare to look up, her head, hidden behind the hood of her headphones, turned towards Xue Chao. It was hard to say whether she was trying to explain or simply trying to distract him.
“She’s not making a move, nor is she letting us pass; she probably has something to ask of us.” Xue Chao placed the pen back in the middle of the paper. “Looking at her shadow won’t help; let’s ask her to come down.”
The girl was shocked: "You're going to use a Ouija board?"
Xue Chao: "We can't hire just one person."
She began to doubt...did she really need teammates?
She could summon two ghosts in one go, and she didn't even dare to think about doing it again, wondering if she would still be alive.
They've probably been walking for a while now.
But there was no other way at the moment, so she straightened the crooked paper, picked up the pen shakily, and waited for Xue Chao's hand to overlap.
"No rush." Xue Chao smiled and moved the torn corner of the paper to her pen. "They must have crushed the paper when they ran away, tearing a corner. Let's fix the word first. Is this the word 'bad'?"
The girl nodded, then looked down and squeezed a new "bad" next to the "good".
Xue Chao nodded in agreement.
The handwriting here indicates that the person who borrowed the book was her.
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