Seeing that Su Lingyu didn’t respond, Qiao Feifei snorted.
If she hadn’t been lectured by Fu Yuchen last time and felt a bit embarrassed, she would have gone to the twenty-second floor right now to see if that vixen happened to be there too.
“Screech—”
Su Lingyu stood up, the sound of her chair scraping against the floor.
“What are you doing?”
Qiao Feifei turned her head to look at her.
“Oh, I’m going to the restroom.”
After saying that, Su Lingyu deliberately added, “Are you coming?”
“No, I just went not long ago.”
“Alright.”
Growing more uneasy the more she thought about it, Su Lingyu left the office and began searching everywhere.
She knew that given Xia Bai’s personality, she wasn’t the type to try every possible way to slack off.
Moreover, Xia Bai cared deeply about this job and needed the money badly—she would never disappear without asking for leave.
If she hadn’t shown up for so long, something must have happened!
Su Lingyu searched the entire twenty-first floor until she actually felt the urge to pee, but she still hadn’t found Xia Bai.
What were the chances of someone going out alone without their phone?
Forget it, she should deal with her physiological needs first.
“Strange, why are the restroom lights off?”
As soon as she reached the restroom, Su Lingyu noticed it was pitch dark inside. She took out her phone, turned on the flashlight, and found the switch on the wall.
For some reason, the switch seemed to be broken—no matter how many times she pressed it, there was no response.
“Strange, why would the lights break out of nowhere?”
Left with no choice, Su Lingyu held up her phone and slowly walked further in.
Since everyone was at work and the restroom was in a remote corner, it was exceptionally quiet.
Suddenly!
Su Lingyu faintly heard panting sounds.
And as she walked further in, the faint, intermittent sounds grew clearer.
Instantly, she felt a chill run down her spine, and the hairs on her back stood up in full salute.
Fragments of ghost stories and movie scenes about haunted restrooms she had read or seen in the past involuntarily surfaced in her mind.
“Damn! No way!”
“It’s broad daylight—this shouldn’t be happening!”
Su Lingyu cursed her own imagination while glancing at the pitch-black surroundings. How could this possibly look like broad daylight?
Dammit!
She couldn’t overthink this!
This was a modern romance novel!
Given the strict controls websites had on novels nowadays, how could there be any ghost stories?
Supernatural elements were explicitly forbidden—how could they appear in a romance novel?
Right, right, right!
There couldn’t be any of that!
Definitely not!
Su Lingyu comforted herself while pushing open the nearest stall.
Just as she was considering where to place her phone so she could safely take off her pants, she stared into the dark toilet bowl and was inexplicably reminded of a horror movie she had watched as a child.
The scene showed someone squatting over the toilet when a dry, blood-red hand reached out from inside…
Su Lingyu shuddered involuntarily.
Huh?
Suddenly, she didn’t feel like using the restroom anymore!
“Bang, bang, bang—”
Just then, knocking sounds came from the next stall.
Su Lingyu jumped, nearly dropping her phone into the toilet.
Wh-what was that sound?
No way, could it really be haunted?
Crap, she swore this wasn’t in the novel she read!
Could her presence have caused a butterfly effect, changing something?
“Bang, bang, bang—”
The panting-accompanied knocking sounded again.
“Cough, who, who’s there?”
Su Lingyu gripped her phone tightly and mustered the courage to speak.
She could no longer hide the tremor in her voice.
She even began silently reciting legal statutes to distract herself: In order to punish crimes and protect the people, based on our country’s specific experience and actual circumstances in combating crime…
“Save, save me.”
“Please save, save me.”
This faint, breathless voice seemed like a summoning from the darkness.
Su Lingyu’s legs went weak with fear, and she quickly pressed her back firmly against the door panel.
“Save you? How?”
“If, if you want me to save you, could you act more like a living person? Don’t, don’t be so frightening.”
“Save me, cough, save… cough…”
Coughing? Difficulty breathing? Would a ghost have such troubles?
Wait, she was a genuine successor of socialism, an outstanding red flag bearer, a top-ten student Party member in law—how could she be scared by something she imagined?
Right!
It must still be a person!
Su Lingyu clutched her phone tightly and began checking each stall one by one.
When she reached the last one, she tried pushing the door but it wouldn’t budge.
Looking closely, she saw it had been tied shut from the outside with mop strands.
This was clearly a method used by the living, which reassured Su Lingyu somewhat.
So she knocked on the door and called inside:
“Hey, is someone in there?”
“Yes, save, save me…”
Sure enough, there really was someone!
Suddenly, Su Lingyu had an epiphany—she remembered a scene in the book where the Female Lead was bullied and locked in the restroom.
Due to some childhood experiences, the Female Lead seemed to have Claustrophobia, and that time she was locked in the restroom, she was nearly tortured to death.
Fortunately, the Male Lead later found and rescued her.
Could this be that very scene?
Su Lingyu quickly put away her phone and swiftly untied the rope from the door.
Inside, Xia Bai was curled up in a dark corner, her face pale as paper, forehead covered in cold sweat, breathing rapidly as if she might suffocate at any moment.
“It’s me, Su Lingyu. Are you okay?”
Su Lingyu turned on her phone’s flashlight, crouched down, and firmly held Xia Bai’s hand.
“N-not too well…”
Xia Bai weakly half-opened her eyes, her long eyelashes casting shadows on her cheeks, giving her a fragile, fading beauty.
But Su Lingyu had no time to appreciate this now.
She put away her phone, grabbed Xia Bai’s arm, and hoisted her onto her back.
“Don’t be afraid, I’ll carry you out right now.”
Xia Bai wasn’t heavy—in fact, among women, she was quite slender.
But for Su Lingyu, who was even shorter than Xia Bai, carrying someone of similar weight was incredibly difficult.
Still, with lives at stake, she gritted her teeth and mustered all her strength to barely carry her out.
Outside the restroom, sunlight streamed through the glass windows, filling the room with brightness.
“What’s going on?”
Fu Yuchen, who had just come downstairs, saw the two emerging from around the corner.
“No time to explain. Quick, we need to get her to the hospital.”
Su Lingyu struggled to keep the slipping figure on her back from falling.
“Come with me.”
Without another word, Fu Yuchen set aside the documents in his hands, took the unconscious Xia Bai from her, and strode quickly toward the exit.
Feeling the weight lift from her shoulders, Su Lingyu hurried back to her workstation to grab her car keys before chasing after them.
“What happened?”
“What happened?”
“I think I just saw President Fu carrying Xia Bai on his back…”