Moreover, the cement steps weren't completely covered with cement; in some places, the steel bars were exposed. I was afraid that this thing would suddenly collapse.
But since we were already here, we had no choice but to bite the bullet and keep going.
Just as we reached the stairwell to the third floor and were about to step into the third-floor corridor, Li Huai, who was at the back, suddenly screamed and shrank back towards us.
"Holy crap, what did you say? You scared me!" Luo Tianhe and I immediately turned around.
Li Bai's face was pale, and his finger trembled as he pointed to the platform at the corner of the stairs between the second and third floors that we had just passed. There was a small hole there, with steel bars still attached, which had not been completely filled with cement.
"There was a face there just now, it flashed by in an instant!" Li Huai's voice was choked with sobs, clearly she was terrified.
Luo Tianhe and I immediately shone our flashlights into that area. Besides the steel bars and cement, there was only dust and cobwebs.
"Li Huai, are you seeing things? How could there be a face over there? It must be Yang Zi doing something!" Luo Tianhe said, but his tone wasn't entirely certain.
After all, we all know what we're here for.
No human face would slip past that spot, but as for ghost faces...
"Really, I'm absolutely sure I didn't see wrong. A deathly pale face looked up at us from below, expressionless. It glanced at me and then disappeared!" Li Huai said anxiously, his voice full of certainty.
Luo Tianhe and I exchanged a glance. Although Li Huai was timid, he wasn't one to speak without reason, and it wouldn't be surprising if anything happened in this place.
"Alright, keep up, don't fall behind." I patted Li Huai on the shoulder, my vigilance at its peak.
Upon reaching the third floor, we discovered that the layout seemed different from the second floor; it resembled a large open space that had been haphazardly divided into several smaller areas.
The partition wall was simply built of red bricks, only reaching chest height, with nothing above it.
"The way this thing is built reminds me of the toilet in my junior high school," Luo Tianhe suddenly said.
I couldn't help but look at him strangely. Now that he said that, I realized it really did seem to be true.
It's a long passageway downstairs, the kind of toilet where you squat.
The front and back sides are separated by stone slabs, which are not very high, so you can see the students in front of you while standing.
I shook my head, banishing these chaotic thoughts, and then shone my flashlight across the area. I could see some remaining building materials, like scattered cement bags and rusty wires.
Suddenly, my gaze sharpened.
At the base of the partition wall in front, three pairs of shoes were neatly arranged.
One pair was old, black men's leather shoes, with severely worn toes.
He was wearing a pair of green liberation shoes covered in mud, the kind that many construction workers wear, with the laces undone.
There was also a pair of small, red women's cloth shoes embroidered with floral patterns.
All three pairs of shoes were pointing in the same direction, deeper into the corridor!
They were arranged meticulously, as if waiting for their owner to return and put them on.
The moment I saw those red cloth shoes, my heart skipped a beat. The color and style reminded me of the woman in red that Zhou Ming had described.
It's not surprising to find men's shoes on a construction site, but why would a woman come to a place like that?!
And then I suddenly remembered Li Huai's description from earlier:
A deathly pale face!
It's exactly the same as Zhou Ming's description. Could it be the same person, or the same ghost?
Luo Tianhe and Li Huai noticed it too. The three of us slowly approached and carefully shone our flashlights on the three pairs of shoes.
The shoes were covered in dust, clearly indicating they had been there for a long time.
But strangely, the dust around the shoes seemed to have been deliberately cleaned.
"Who, who put the shoes here and even cleaned them up?" Li Huai stammered, his voice trembling.
I shook my head and looked in the direction the shoes were pointing. That was the end of the corridor, where there seemed to be a small, partitioned space, but it was so dark that I couldn't see it clearly at all.
The compass needle in my hand was trembling slightly, pointing in that very direction.
"Let's go take a look," I said, and then I started walking. As I passed the three pairs of shoes, I subconsciously shuffled my feet, afraid of disturbing something.
The small space at the end of the corridor resembled an unfinished storage room.
There was no door, only a square doorway, and nothing special inside except for some tattered woven bags and discarded wooden planks.
However, when we went inside and looked at the wall we came in from, we found something that shouldn't have been there.
It was a mirror, an oval-shaped dressing mirror with a wooden frame. The frame was painted dark red and was already peeling and mottled.
The mirror surface was quite intact, without any cracks, but it was covered with a thick layer of grime.
The mirror was hanging on the wall, and our three figures were reflected blurry and distorted on its dirty surface.
And next to our figures, at the edge of the mirror, there seemed to be a blurry outline!
It was the silhouette of a woman with long, flowing hair. She stood quietly beside us in the mirror!
My scalp tingled instantly, and I abruptly turned my head to look to the side!
It's completely empty!
Only Luo Tianhe and Li Huai had expressions of surprise and uncertainty.
Li Huai was so frightened that he took two steps back and leaned against the wall, almost tripping over the debris on the ground.
Luo Tianhe wasn't much better off; his face was deathly pale, as if it had been covered in flour paste.
I looked back at the mirror again, and the woman's blurry outline was still there.
Even her eyes seemed clearer, as if they were looking at us serenely through the mirror.
My grandfather said that you shouldn't look in the mirror at midnight, especially in places with heavy yin energy, because you might see something terrible.
Mirrors are associated with the yin and yang, easily leaving reflections and attracting evil spirits.
"Don't look in the mirror!" I hissed, forcing myself to look away. At the same time, I grabbed a handful of powder mixed with cinnabar and sandpaper from my bag and threw it at the mirror.
Most of the powder fell onto the frame and the floor, but some stuck to the mirror.
The moment the powder touched the mirror, it shattered with a "crack".
We retreated in horror, but our reflections in the mirror remained standing in place, as the mirror shattered into pieces!
Crimson blood seeped from the shattered mirror.
"Go! Get out of here quickly!" A chill ran down my spine; the strangeness here had far exceeded my expectations!
Wreaths, coins, footprints, a mirror, and that face!
The three of us practically tumbled and crawled out of that small storage room and rushed through the corridor where three pairs of shoes were laid out.
As I passed by, I suddenly noticed that the leather shoes and cloth shoes were all placed properly, but the women's shoes were angled differently than before!
It looks like someone just stepped out!
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