Su Ning kept grumbling about Shen Ji, but her hands were gentle as she cleaned him up.
Before long, he was once again the clean, neat, sunny young man he had always been.
Su Ning’s phone had also completely run out of battery from having the flashlight on for so long, so she could only put it back in her bag.
Shen Ji was unusually obedient at this point and even took the initiative to carry her bag for her.
He didn’t find it embarrassing at all to carry a pink girl’s bag.
Shen Ji held Su Ning’s hand and said ingratiatingly, “Ning Ning, give me another kiss.”
Su Ning pushed his face aside with one hand and pulled him to his feet.
“Kiss what?
I’m still angry!”
Shen Ji looked at her pitifully, looking just like a little animal yearning for its owner’s touch.
Su Ning wasn’t going to give in.
She pulled Shen Ji forward, but accidentally bumped into something beside them.
With several cracking sounds, the object fell to the floor, stirring up another cloud of dust.
Su Ning covered her mouth and coughed several times.
Shen Ji waved his hand back and forth in front of her, as if that could sweep the dust away from her.
Only then did Su Ning get a clear look at what had fallen.
It was an easel.
Already old from years of wear, the easel had shattered into several pieces when it fell, and the half-burned painting board on it had also broken into several pieces.
When Shen Ji saw Su Ning crouch down again, he assumed she felt guilty about breaking it and said, “Ning Ning, this thing isn’t important.”
But Su Ning still picked up one of the pieces of the painting board.
Whatever had been painted on it was impossible to make out now.
She could only vaguely see some colors.
“I heard there was a fire here many years ago,” Su Ning said.
Shen Ji crouched down again as well.
Thoughtfully, he held up the girl’s dress so it wouldn’t drag on the floor and replied, “I think there was.”
Su Ning continued, “Almost everything here was burned, but this painting board was the best preserved.
Whoever was trapped here back then must have protected it carefully.”
Shen Ji tilted his head and blinked, saying nothing.
After the fire, the building was abandoned completely.
Naturally, no one ever brought up the matter of repairing it.
The incident had happened so long ago that many details had become blurred over time, such as how the fire had started and how many people had died.
Over the years, it wasn’t as though there hadn’t been curious students who secretly sneaked in to explore.
Among them were also people who loved stirring up trouble and exaggerating everything they saw.
Some claimed they had encountered a ghostly wall loop.
Others said they couldn’t find the art room at the very end of the fourth floor at all.
School ghost stories like these never seemed to die out.
As far as Su Ning was concerned, they were all just rumors.
The art room was right here.
How could it possibly disappear?
She tried to piece the broken painting board back together, but the lighting was poor, and she wasn’t very good at putting puzzles together either, so she was painfully slow.
She nudged the young man beside her with her elbow.
“Help me.”
Shen Ji obediently picked up all the broken pieces.
In just a few quick movements, he had put the painting board back together exactly as it had been.
The image on it was much clearer now.
It was a window.
The iron bars across it broke the glow of the setting sun into scattered fragments.
Beyond the window, the evening clouds seemed to stretch endlessly, making the tiny window feel even narrower and more suffocating.
The painting was covered with additional burn marks, while mottled black patches became its darkest accents.
Although the painting depicted a beautiful sunset, it somehow gave the impression of someone sitting inside an iron cage.
A good piece of art could always convey the artist’s thoughts to its viewers through the work itself.
An idea suddenly occurred to Su Ning.
She gently wiped away the black marks along the edge of the frame.
“I hope the owner of this painting escaped.”
Rather than dying in that fire.
Shen Ji gently tugged at Su Ning’s hand.
“Ning Ning, it’s so dark here.
Let’s get out of here.”
Su Ning obediently let the young man pull her to her feet.
She muttered, “Now you know how to be afraid of the dark.
You weren’t afraid of the dark when you were hiding here eating earlier.”
Shen Ji looked completely innocent and pure, making it impossible not to feel soft-hearted.
Although there was moonlight, the long corridor was pitch-black wherever there were no windows.
Several times, Shen Ji pulled Su Ning aside to avoid obstacles on the floor.
In places without any light, Shen Ji seemed to have night vision, always able to guide her forward without the slightest trouble.
Su Ning couldn’t see, so naturally she walked slowly.
In the darkness, Shen Ji suddenly said, “Ning Ning, you’re hurt.”
Before Su Ning could figure out what he meant, she suddenly felt the person holding her hand crouch down.
The next moment, a slightly cool hand closed around her ankle, and one of her feet was gently lifted.
Shen Ji said, “You’ve scraped the skin.
Ning Ning, does it hurt?”
He was talking about the skin on the back of her heel, which had been rubbed raw by her shoe.
Was he a little too perceptive?
She clearly hadn’t said anything about her foot hurting, yet he had noticed even in such complete darkness.
Su Ning wasn’t used to having someone hold her foot.
She said uncomfortably, “It hurts a little.
I’ll just put a bandage on it when we get back.”
“I’ll carry you,” Shen Ji said.
Su Ning hesitated.
“It’s so dark here.
What if you fall…”
“I won’t.”
He stood up.
He seemed to be looking at her with a smile, then lowered his head and accurately found her lips, kissing her as he said indistinctly, “My eyesight is very good.
I won’t let Ning Ning fall.”
One of his hands also quietly rubbed against her waist.
If she hadn’t been wearing a long dress today, he probably would have done what he had done the last time they were trapped in the library, slipping his hand under her clothes to touch her skin.
He seemed to really like being in direct physical contact with her.
Su Ning certainly didn’t dislike it.
She just didn’t understand how Shen Ji could get turned on by her even in a place like this.
Su Ning didn’t want to play lovers’ games with him in such a terrible environment, so she compromised and climbed onto his back.
Shen Ji carried her effortlessly.
Her weight was nothing to him.
He also proved that he hadn’t been exaggerating.
Whether they were walking through the lightless corridor or going down the stairs, every step he took was steady.
The moment they walked out through the iron gate of the building, the cool moonlight spilled generously over them.
In the distance, the shadows of the swaying trees danced gracefully beneath the clear moon and gentle breeze.
Lying on the young man’s back, Su Ning saw their shadows stretched long and far across the ground.
Something stirred in her heart, and she leaned over and kissed the young man’s clean cheek.
Caught off guard by the unexpected kiss, Shen Ji lifted his eyes and looked at her, his eyes shining brightly.