Dozens of fresh corpses floated on the surface of the pool.
Drip…
Drip… drip…
Through the wide gap in the door, Feng Xiaojuan could clearly see the broken pipe on the opposite wall, from which rusty water dripped steadily into the corner.
Logically, an old restroom that hadn’t been used for decades shouldn’t have any strange odors, yet she distinctly smelled a sour, putrid stench rising from the toilet beneath her feet.
No, it wasn’t just sour and foul—it was mixed with a hint of a fishy smell.
Where had she smelled something like this before?
She remembered that before starting university, she would accompany her grandmother to the market every morning. After poultry were slaughtered, chicken blood mixed with chicken droppings would stick to the ground, and the smell was somewhat similar to this.
She also remembered that in elementary school, she had fallen on a gravel road and scraped her knee open into a large, bloody gash. Afraid of being scolded by her grandmother, she held back and didn’t say anything, sneaking back into the house. The sweltering summer heat of over thirty degrees Celsius quickly caused her wound to fester, and the white pus that oozed out also smelled somewhat like this.
But it wasn’t exactly the same.
Feng Xiaojuan suddenly recalled that last week, He Wenjian had handed her a small glass bottle containing half a bottle of brown, viscous liquid.
She asked what it was. He Wenjian, a year ahead of her, had already started anatomy classes. He leaned in mysteriously and whispered in her ear, “This is blood from the coronary artery of a cadaver.”
Feng Xiaojuan let out a startled cry and threw the bottle back at him, angrily scolding, “Why are you giving me such disgusting stuff?”
She turned to leave but was grabbed by He Wenjian. “Medical students will have to deal with these things sooner or later. I’m just giving you a head start so you’ll be more experienced than others when you take the class, right?”
Feng Xiaojuan eyed him suspiciously. “Since when are you so kind-hearted?”
He Wenjian uncorked the bottle and held it under her nose. “Take a whiff. This is what I’ve been surrounded by every day in the anatomy lab.”
Feng Xiaojuan recoiled in disgust. “What is this smell? It’s revolting.”
“The smell of a corpse,” He Wenjian said with a grin, looking at her. “A corpse preserved in formaldehyde.”
…
Yes, that was it—the smell of a corpse.
Though she had only smelled it once, it was unforgettable.
It wasn’t just foul—it carried an indescribably eerie odor that grew stronger and stronger. At first, Feng Xiaojuan thought it was her imagination, until a drop of foul-smelling liquid fell vertically from the ceiling and landed on the tip of her nose, snapping her out of her daze.
It was already past midnight. Instead of sleeping in her dorm, she was crouching in the men’s restroom on the fourth floor of the abandoned Anatomy Building, peering out through a wooden plank.
Why was she here? What was she doing?
Her mind had gone numb, but that drop of liquid awakened her senses. Suddenly, Feng Xiaojuan remembered everything.
—She remembered.
Twenty minutes ago, or maybe half an hour ago.
In any case, not long before, she had witnessed with her own eyes the formaldehyde pool on the fourth floor, which should have been dry, now filled with liquid. Dozens of fresh but unrecognizable corpses floated on the surface. She was terrified, her mind racing with one thought—hadn’t the Anatomy Building been abandoned? Why were there corpses here?
She stared motionlessly at the things in the pool, her ears filled with He Wenjian’s urgent cries.
“Xiaojuan, don’t just stand there! Run! Run now!”
He Wenjian’s voice was so frantic, so full of fear. He tugged at her desperately, but she seemed to be under some kind of spell, her body as heavy as a bronze statue.
By the time she regained her senses, the things in the pool had already crawled to the edge.
Their skin was deathly pale, their limbs twisted, and with every movement, their bones emitted eerie creaking sounds.
He Wenjian pushed her away from the poolside but was grabbed by the pant leg and fell into the formaldehyde pool. He was instantly torn to pieces, his blood staining the entire pool of liquid red.
The last words that escaped his shattered throat were: “Xiaojuan… run…”
Feng Xiaojuan had no time to save him. She turned and fled for her life, but the Anatomy Building was like a vast maze—no matter which way she went, she couldn’t find the exit. What was even more chilling was that she could clearly sense the things that had dragged He Wenjian into the pool following her at a leisurely pace.
…
Her temples throbbed violently. The smell of corpses in the restroom grew stronger, and the liquid dripping from the ceiling increased, falling onto her hair and shoulders, seeping down her collar and into her body. The sensation was bizarre, like a pair of icy hands repeatedly caressing her smooth skin.
Through a crack in the door, she saw the water flowing from the wall pipes faster and faster. The rusty water quickly overflowed the grooves at the base of the wall, spreading across the floor, flowing and flowing until it seeped into her sandals. Only then did she realize it wasn’t rusty water at all—it was the blood from the aorta of the cadaver He Wenjian had once let her smell, a scent she would never forget for the rest of her life.
It was blood. The restroom was filled with corpse blood.
Feng Xiaojuan’s shoulders trembled, and she couldn’t suppress a sob. Though it was only one sound, in this eerie place, it was enough to bring disaster upon her.
A sudden, chilling wind swept through the silent men’s restroom, and footsteps echoed from the doorway not far away.
Light, slow.
But each step struck at the very core of Feng Xiaojuan’s heart, leaving her unable to even breathe. She knew she should close her eyes, not look or listen, but she couldn’t control herself. Though her fingertips trembled with fear, her eyes remained wide open, fixed unblinkingly on the crack in the door.
The thing outside the door stopped and crouched down.
The crack in the door remained wide enough for Feng Xiaojuan to see one of its eyes.
So refined, so familiar, yet now it carried an indescribable, deathly gleam.
He Wenjian’s voice emerged from its mouth: “Xiaojuan, why are you running?”
Feng Xiaojuan’s voice was hoarse, her scalp tingling: “…It’s… it’s you… you told me to run…”
“I told you to run, but Xiaojuan…” It curled its lips, smiling just as He Wenjian used to, “…if you run, what will I do?”
How had things come to this?
Before losing consciousness, she thought despairingly that she should have listened to the girl’s warning outside the building.
She shouldn’t have entered.
Chengho Medical College’s Anatomy Building was constructed in the 1950s. After seventy years of weathering, it had become dilapidated and worn.
Outside the building, a vine of Virginia creeper had been planted in the long-neglected flower bed by someone. Over the years, it greedily absorbed nutrients from the soil and now spread in a lush, overwhelming green, tightly enveloping the building like an impenetrable cloak.
Feng Xiaojuan remembered that before entering the Anatomy Building, Xue Rong had joked, “Look at this Virginia creeper—doesn’t it look like a thick cotton coat, protecting this building?”
Wu Liang, the president of the drama club and Xue Rong’s boyfriend, laughed and said, “What’s there to protect in a dilapidated building that’s been abandoned for over twenty years?”
Xue Rong covered her mouth with her hand, speaking in a volume only Wu Liang and her roommate Feng Xiaojuan could hear: “You still don’t know, do you? The legend about this building.”
The drama club at Chengho Medical College had recently been rehearsing a play, having chosen a horror script by Edgar Allan Poe. However, the main cast members were all lively in personality and simply couldn’t convey a sense of terror. So, several of the club’s leaders had a sudden inspiration: they decided to take the main cast on a late-night adventure. Only by experiencing horror firsthand could they better immerse themselves in the story.
The school’s abandoned Anatomy Building was the perfect place for this. The building had been deserted for twenty years, and the school strictly forbade faculty and students from approaching it. No reason was given, yet it was never demolished—something truly puzzling in Shencheng, where land was as precious as gold.
Everyone privately gossiped about what had actually happened in the Anatomy Building back then. The stories varied, but every one of them carried a terrifying undertone.
Hearing Xue Rong’s question, Feng Xiaojuan replied, “It seems like there was a murder back then. The school thought it was unlucky, so they sealed off the building.”
Xue Rong curled her lip. “That’s just to fool ghosts! How much does it cost to build a building? Do you really think one murder would make the school abandon an entire building? That’s just a story to trick students.”
Wu Liang said, “You seem to know quite a bit, huh?”
“Of course,” Xue Rong said proudly. “My aunt studied at Chengho. She happened to be there when the school sealed off the building. Everyone in her class knew what happened back then… Xiaojuan wasn’t entirely wrong. There was indeed a murder, but the killer wasn’t human.”
Feng Xiaojuan, who was timid, shrank her shoulders. “We’re about to go inside for the adventure. If you keep talking, I won’t go.”
Xue Rong deliberately tried to scare her. “They say that twenty years ago, any corpse delivered to the building—no matter how long it had been dead or how it died—would come back to life at night after being soaked in the formaldehyde pool on the fourth floor. Many medical students saw corpses walking around in the middle of the night. And it was those corpses that did the killing. Just imagine: you finish studying late at night, turn off the lights, and run straight into a corpse you dissected just that day…”
Before she could finish, Feng Xiaojuan suddenly let out a bloodcurdling scream. Xue Rong was startled, thinking, “Is she really that scared by just a few words?” However, what had frightened Feng Xiaojuan wasn’t her, but He Wenjian, who had somehow appeared behind her without anyone noticing. Just as Xue Rong was speaking, he had playfully blown a puff of air onto the back of Feng Xiaojuan’s neck.
Feng Xiaojuan was so angry that tears welled up in her eyes. He Wenjian quickly tried to comfort her. “Don’t listen to Xue Rong’s nonsense. They’re just ghost stories. I’ll protect you later.”
While he was coaxing her, the other students used sticks to push aside the ivy on the wall, preparing to pry open the door.
Xue Rong took Feng Xiaojuan’s hand and followed behind. As they walked, something suddenly fell on their heads.
Xue Rong reached up and felt it—two pieces of sunflower seed shells. Feng Xiaojuan looked up and suddenly screamed, “Oh my god, there’s someone—”
Everyone was startled, thinking a patrolling security guard had arrived. But when they looked in the direction she was pointing, they realized it wasn’t a guard.
On this moonless night, the woods were especially dark and deep. If not for Feng Xiaojuan’s sharp eyes, no one would have noticed the girl who almost blended into the black forest.
Tao Tao sat perched on a tree, legs crossed, holding a handful of freshly cracked sunflower seed shells, quietly watching the group. She hadn’t been there long before encountering these fearless students. If not for Li Sanjiu’s unfulfilled last wish, she wouldn’t have spoken up to warn them.
Xue Rong asked, “Who are you?”
Tao Tao remained silent. Xue Rong muttered, “Scaring people in the middle of the night and littering everywhere—no sense of public decency at all.”
In a groggy, half-asleep tone, Tao Tao asked, “Are you planning to enter the haunted building?”
Xue Rong tossed away a melon seed shell. “Are you talking about the Anatomy Building? Yeah, we are. Don’t tell the counselor, okay? We’ll just take a quick look and come right out.”
It was pretty creepy to find someone sitting in a tree in the middle of the night. Seeing no reaction from Tao Tao, Xue Rong looked up and pleaded, “Oh, little sister, I’m sorry, okay? I shouldn’t have said you lacked public decency—I take it back. We’re not just here out of curiosity; we’re rehearsing for a play. Could you please let it slide? I’ll give you a free ticket to the play later, alright?”
Tao Tao scratched her messy hair. “Don’t go in.”
“Huh?”
“If you don’t want bad luck, don’t go in.”
The students exchanged puzzled glances, not understanding what she meant. Xue Rong was the first to react. “I’ve begged you like this, and you still want to report us to the teacher to get us in trouble? What grade are you in? How can you be so unreasonable? Go ahead and report us if you dare! See if our club’s long-planned activity will be canceled just because of a few words from you!”
“Oh, suit yourself.” Tao Tao said expressionlessly, casually tossing the remaining melon seed shells onto Xue Rong’s head.
Furious, Xue Rong rolled up her sleeves, ready to argue. Wu Liang quickly stopped her. “Alright, Rong Rong, don’t be so impulsive. If you make a scene, you might attract the security guards.”
“It’s not that I want to argue with her—she’s the one who went too far!” Xue Rong shook her head frantically, picking melon seed shells out of her hair. “Look! They’re all tangled in my hair. I can’t even get them all out. What am I supposed to do?”
Tao Tao dangled her legs between the tree branches, deliberately provoking her. “Don’t worry. Shave your head, and they’ll be gone. Or just cut your head off—that works too.”
This nearly sent Xue Rong into a rage. She pointed at the tree and yelled, “You’re so rude! Come down right now, and I’ll show you what happens!”
Ignoring her, Tao Tao shifted to a more comfortable position, pulled out another handful of melon seeds, and continued cracking them while staring at Feng Xiaojuan.
Feng Xiaojuan was wearing shorts, her legs straight and slender. Without a hint of shame, Tao Tao stared openly and then, like a troublemaker, whistled at Feng Xiaojuan as if no one else was around.
He Wenjian’s expression darkened as he stepped in front of Feng Xiaojuan. “What are you doing?”
Tao Tao’s gaze shifted to He Wenjian, paused briefly, and then returned to Feng Xiaojuan. “Have you come into contact with anything unclean recently?”
The question was odd. Feng Xiaojuan couldn’t help but think of the bottle of corpse blood He Wenjian had given her, but taking anything from a corpse out of the anatomy classroom was against school rules. She didn’t dare admit it in front of her classmates, so she shook her head.
Tao Tao asked again, “Do you know any Spirit Master who can help you ward off misfortune?”
“Spirit Master?” Feng Xiaojuan looked confused and shook her head again.
“Then are you brave?”
Feng Xiaojuan looked bewildered. “What are you trying to say?”
“You must be pretty brave. Otherwise, with such heavy Evil Qi on you, how could you still dare to go out and attract ghosts?” Tao Tao spat out a melon seed shell. “You really aren’t afraid of dying, are you?”