Chapter 85 Midnight Horror 2
It's so late, who would be looking for him?
Water droplets from the ends of her hair dripped down her forehead and disappeared into her bathrobe.
As Lu Cen dried his hair, he leaned towards the door. Looking through the peephole, he saw no one outside. Lu Cen felt strange and subconsciously gripped the doorknob. Suddenly, he remembered that the mission said Jiang Zhao would come to find him.
The hand stopped.
The hotel corridor was dimly lit 24 hours a day, just enough to prevent guests from tripping. At this moment, Lu Cen saw that it was brightly lit outside the door, with no shadows cast by anyone standing there.
He locked the door from the inside, put the chain on, and gasped.
Lu Cen retreated to the bedside, and then there was another knocking sound at the door.
He grabbed his phone and sent a message in the group chat of five people.
[Someone is knocking on my door!!!]
[Could you please help me identify Yan Shanting? Thank you!]
Hu Si replied to him.
[What's wrong with you in the middle of the night? Who's knocking on the door?]
[I didn't hear that.]
Lu Cen typed rapidly.
Someone is knocking on the door, but I'm too scared to go out. Could you please come and check?
The knocking grew more urgent.
Chen Yiqing was depressed because of Xiao Wei's death, while Yang Jiali, a hot-tempered man, said a few words to Lu Cen.
Are you even a man?
[Open the door when someone knocks.]
[What are you afraid of? Are you afraid of being sexually assaulted or robbed? Do you even have those kinds of fears?]
[Look at you, you're even more timid than a woman, what good are you?]
Lu Cen replied to him while keeping an eye on the commotion outside.
Why are you cursing at me like that? I didn't do anything to you.
[Isn't it okay if I'm scared?]
[Besides, I didn't ask you to come, why are you being so mean?]
Hu Si tried to smooth things over.
[Alright, alright, let me take a look.]
[Stop talking.]
The conversation in the group stopped, and the sounds outside the door seemed to stop as well.
A few dozen seconds later, Hu Si knocked on the door from the outside.
Lu Cen cautiously looked through the peephole and saw that Hu Si had indeed opened it a crack. His bathrobe was already soaked with water droplets from his hair. Because he had just taken a shower, his face was flushed, and his eyelashes and eyebrows were wet and stuck to his skin. His lips were red and plump like peaches.
Hu Si was taken aback.
"How was it? Was anyone there when you came over?"
Hu Si snapped out of his daze and didn't go in. Standing at the door, he said, "Who could be there? Maybe you're just imagining things. When I came over, the doorway was empty, and I didn't hear any knocking."
In truth, Lu Cen knew that the person knocking on the door was most likely not a person, but probably Jiang Zhao. However, he knew that these people would not believe him if he said it. He called someone over simply for a sense of security, as he was very afraid to be alone.
"Maybe."
Hu Si said speechlessly, "Alright, you should get some rest. It's getting late, and you still have to handle various procedures tomorrow."
Towards the end, he became depressed.
No one could have imagined that such an accident would happen when they were just taking a photo. It would be a lie to say they don't feel guilty.
When the car accident happened, no one reacted at the time. Only Hu Si was close to the two of them. The car just grazed him. He could have helped them, but he was so scared that he froze on the spot.
He actually regrets it.
Seeing that he was about to leave, Lu Cen quickly grabbed his wrist and said urgently, "I'm a little scared, can you sleep with me?"
He added, "You sleep in the bed, I'll sleep on the sofa."
Hu Si's skin was wheat-colored from the summer sun and wouldn't recover. Lu Cen's fingers were thin and pale with a sickly air. When Lu Cen grabbed him with that little strength, Hu Si felt as if he were being held by a white cat's paw. A slender wrist emerged from the white bathrobe, and for some reason, Hu Si felt a little hot all over.
Is that okay?
"How about I sleep in your room?"
This statement was so ambiguous that it made Hu Si's eyebrows twitch.
What does it mean to go to his room to sleep?
If others overheard, they would think there was something going on between them.
"Let go."
Lu Cen gripped the reins even tighter upon hearing this. Compared to Jiang Zhao coming to find him in the middle of the night, he preferred to stay with humans, at least there was human presence.
Hu Si took a breath and said, "I'll go get my things."
Lu Cen tilted her head and hesitated, "You're not going to go and never come back, are you?"
"I'm right next door, where could I go? Couldn't you knock on the door if you weren't coming back?"
Lu Cen thought, that makes sense.
Hu Si's clothes were wrinkled from being grabbed, but he didn't straighten them. He went back to the next room. Lu Cen closed the door slightly, but opened it when he heard a noise outside.
Hu Si took the backpack to Lu Cen's room, locked the door, lay down on the bed, and turned off the light. Lu Cen was startled and let out a soft scream. She turned on her phone light and then turned the light back on.
Thinking that Hu Si might not be used to it and might not be able to sleep, he left a bedside lamp on. When Hu Si sat up and looked at him with disdain in his eyes, Lu Cen explained, "Turn on a light, I'm really scared."
Hu Si didn't say anything, and turned his back to him.
There are at least two people in the room now.
Lu Cen took a quilt from the closet and spread it on the single sofa. He then changed out of his wet bathrobe, dried his hair, and lay down with a satisfied sigh. After the last dungeon, he realized how precious it was to be able to eat and sleep well.
Lu Cen played on her phone for a while, then felt sleepy.
He lay on his side on the light blue sofa, holding his phone in one hand, his breathing gradually becoming steady. Little did he know that two shadows had suddenly appeared under the door, looking like two feet standing there.
Lu Cen slept soundly and woke up to bright daylight. Hu Si was washing up in the bathroom, and Lu Cen took the opportunity to change his clothes. By the time he finished, Jiang Zhao and Xiao Wei's family had arrived. The atmosphere was somber and sorrowful all day. After their bodies were taken away by their families, the remaining people didn't want to take any more photos and went back to school.
Lu Cen lives off-campus. To avoid being confronted by Jiang Zhao, he wanted to go back to school to live, where he would at least have roommates. However, after moving out in his second year, he didn't register for a dormitory stay, and now there are no rooms available.
Lu Cen had no choice but to live alone in that one-bedroom apartment.
To keep an eye out for Jiang Zhao suddenly knocking on the door, Lu Cen hid in his room with his phone after dark, glancing at the door every now and then. He was on edge and was starting to feel weak.
Lu Cen couldn't stay awake any longer until the early hours of the morning.
He leaned against the headboard, his body slowly sliding down. In his half-awake state, his mind was pounding, as if someone was hitting his head with a stick, causing him unbearable pain and agony.
He wanted to break free from this feeling.
During the struggle, Lu Cen woke up.
The room was bathed in warm yellow light, the door was open, and the living room was brightly lit. Nothing seemed amiss. Lu Cen pulled out two tissues from the bedside table and wiped the cold sweat from her forehead.
"Knock knock knock—"
A slight sound suddenly came from outside the gate.
Lu Cen stopped and stiffly looked in the direction of the gate.
The knocking on the door grew louder, one after another, rhythmic, as if programmed.
The bottom of the door was closed off from the frame, so there was no light source and no way of knowing if anyone was outside. Lu Cen's heart started racing. She checked the time: 4:30 a.m.
He swallowed hard and approached the door. When he got to the door, Lu Cen hesitated whether to look through the peephole. He was afraid that he would see something terrifying. So, Lu Cen lingered at the door for a while. Seeing that the knocking did not stop, he crouched down behind the door. He thought that what was outside could not get in for the time being. Although he was scared, he was still able to remain calm.
After an unknown amount of time, Lu Cen leaned against the wall in a daze. When he realized that the knocking had stopped, he snapped awake. It was 5:40. Lu Cen relaxed his guard and returned to the master bedroom, yawning repeatedly.
As he was about to close the door, something pressed down on his shoulder.
Lu Cen's body stiffened, his heart pounding like a war drum. He slowly turned his head and saw a gray hand on his shoulder. He thought the locked door was wide open, but a trail of bloody footprints stretched from the doorway to behind him.
The owner of this hand had half of his head rotten, blood and tears streaming from his eyes, and various dents on his body, caused by a violent car collision. Just one glance sent a chill down Lu Cen's spine, as if he were submerged in the depths of the ocean.
"Li Yan, Li Yan, it hurts so much..."
"It really hurts, why does it hurt so much..."
"Tell me, how can I stop the pain? Tell me, tell me!"
“Li Yan…”
The breath was close to Lu Cen's neck, as cold as the air conditioning, giving Lu Cen goosebumps. The hand slowly moved to his neck, and Lu Cen trembled, feeling like a fish on a chopping board.
"Li Yan, why didn't you save me..."
"You know how much pain I'm in..."
The other hand, deformed from the impact, wrapped around Lu Cen's waist and pulled him back. Lu Cen felt a sticky patch of blood on his back, the stench of blood filling his nostrils. His eyes reddened, and his threshold reached its limit.
Jiang Zhao's body looked as if it had crawled out of the morgue; it was still cold and emitting a chill. Lu Cen trembled, wondering if Jiang Zhao and Xiao Wei were the ones who actually died in this instance.
But Jiang Zhao appeared, but where was Xiao Wei?
Jiang Zhao tightened his grip on Lu Cen's waist, almost breaking him in two. Lu Cen's breathing became rapid, and he could barely breathe.
Lu Cen woke up in bed with his eyes wide open, covered in sweat. He couldn't tell where he was for a moment. After looking around, he realized that he was lying in the bedroom, and the lights in the living room and the bedroom were still on.
Was Jiang Zhao from last night just a dream he had?
He couldn't quite tell the difference.
He put on his shoes and got out of bed. The bloody footprints he had seen last night were no longer on the floor, and the front door was closed properly, just like before he went to sleep. Could it be that he was just too tense?
After washing up, Lu Cen sent a message to Hu Si, asking where he was and what he was doing.
Hu Si returned after a while, saying he was at home. When asked what was wrong, he said...
Lu Cen thought for a moment and typed a sentence in the chat box.
Jiang Zhao came to see me last night.
The reply came instantly.
[What nonsense are you talking about!]
[What do you mean Jiang Zhao came looking for you?]
Lu Cen embellished the story of the dream in a few words.
[How could that be?]
[What nonsense are you talking about?]
[There are no ghosts in this world. You're overthinking it.]
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