Lu Mian looked at Fang Qinian’s message in the group chat and felt something was amiss.
Having lived in the countryside with her grandmother as a child, she was quite familiar with village life. The villagers were warm towards guests, but they wouldn’t invite a stranger into their home for a meal for no reason—especially not when that stranger was waiting for someone.
To go so far as to slaughter a chicken to entertain a guest? For a mere stranger? Who would go to such lengths for no reason? It’s late April now, and they haven’t even finished their own farm work yet.
[Lu Mian: Something’s not right. Why don’t you leave straight away?]
Lu Mian thought Fang Qinian was a bit naive. How could someone suddenly go home with a stranger? He really would eat anything. But out of that faint sense of camaraderie between classmates, she still hoped Fang Qinian would leave immediately.
[Fang Qinian: I’ll go and tell them I’m leaving now.]
Lu Mian waited for Fang Qinian’s reply; she felt a bit uneasy until she was back at the university.
Whilst waiting for a reply in the group chat, Lu Mian made her way back to the dormitory, with Chen Jiaqi clinging to her side, looking around suspiciously.
In fact, Lu Mian had tried to persuade Chen Jiaqi to go to the hospital for a check-up, but the girl had refused outright, crying and throwing a tantrum that she had to stay with her.
Lu Mian had no choice but to take her everywhere she went.
[Fang Qinian: Something’s not right, everyone. They keep trying to persuade me to stay, saying the chicken’s already been slaughtered and that after dinner they’ll give me the chicken blood I need.]
[Fang Qinian: Should I stay? I’m a boy—I’ll be fine, won’t I?]
[Lu Mian: You’d be even safer if you were dead. Dear Mr Fang, could you please be sensible? What if the villagers are involved in some shady business? As long as you’re human, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a man or a woman.]
[Lu Mian: Although that’s a bit of a malicious assumption, it’s late at night, and it’s quite a remote village. You won’t be able to get a taxi, and you’ll be the only outsider there. You’d better come back straight away. Don’t bother buying the chicken blood.]
Lu Mian was truly pleading with him; she genuinely didn’t want anything to happen to her classmate.
Glancing at her phone, Lu Mian pushed open the dormitory door and flicked on the light by the entrance. The very next second, she felt like screaming.
Wang Ying was clutching the leg of a chair, curled up into a ball, muttering nervously to herself.
Lu Mian rushed over, trying to help her up.
But Wang Ying clung to the chair leg with all her might, refusing to let go. Just like Lin Yue last night, she looked as though she’d lost her mind.
Lu Mian was on the verge of a breakdown. Someone must have slipped something into their drinks; otherwise, how could all her dormmates be either going mad or falling ill, whilst she—who was out and about every other day—was the only one left sane?
Lu Mian fished out her mobile and, with trembling hands, rang the supervisor to report what had happened.
To her surprise, the supervisor was even more distraught than she was: “Your dorm again? Have you all been cursed by the god of misfortune? Su Qing’s still in hospital, Lin Yue’s been admitted to a psychiatric ward, Xu Xia’s been crying about dropping out, and now Wang Ying’s gone mad!”
Xu Xia wants to drop out? What’s going on? Lu Mian turned to look at Chen Jiaqi; hadn’t the three of them been together at lunchtime? Lu Mian looked at Chen Jiaqi expectantly, hoping she might provide some useful information.
Instead, Chen Jiaqi’s reaction was completely unexpected. Her face lit up with the joy of a cloud-clearing sun. “Drop out? Yes! I can drop out! I haven’t played the summoning game, have I? No, wait—I don’t need to drop out. I’ll just take a leave of absence. A year’s leave will do!”
Before the counsellor had even hung up, Chen Jiaqi snatched Lu Mian’s phone and exclaimed excitedly: “ ’Teacher, I’m taking a leave of absence!’
“You must discuss a leave of absence with your parents first. How is Wang Ying doing now?” Teacher Li’s voice, sounding both desperate and resigned to the demands of duty, came through the phone.
“She’s still clinging to the leg of a chair and crying,” Lu Mian replied honestly, glancing at Wang Ying.
“Right, I’ll be there straight away. I’ve asked another teacher to call an ambulance; it should be here soon. Make sure you look after yourselves.” ” Teacher Li hung up the phone.
Lu Mian took her phone from Chen Jiaqi and voiced her concern: “What happened at lunchtime?”
But Chen Jiaqi was acting strangely too; she hadn’t even been listening to Lu Mian. Instead, she hurriedly rang her family with a single goal in mind—to take a leave of absence.
Lu Mian felt like crying. Was she really going to be the only one left in their six-person dorm?
The counsellor and the ambulance arrived quickly. Wang Ying was taken away shortly afterwards, whilst Chen Jiaqi, determined to take a leave of absence, insisted on leaving with the counsellor, demanding that the paperwork be sorted out that very evening and even insisting that her family come and collect her that night.
In the blink of an eye, the vast dormitory was left with only Lu Mian. For the first time, she felt the dormitory was so empty. How had she suddenly become all alone?
“Sss, sss, sss”
An intermittent sound came from the balcony. Still lost in her emotions, Lu Mian suddenly became alert. That sound—could a snake have got into their dormitory?
Could it have climbed up from the fourth floor?
Lu Mian opened the door to the balcony and switched on the light at the same time, carefully scanning the area. If it was a non-venomous snake, she would catch it and release it back where it belonged; if it was venomous, she would go straight to the supervisor.
Lu Mian looked very carefully, but found no sign of a snake. All she saw were a few tufts of hair by the door. Unlike the jet-black, lustrous hair from earlier that day, these tufts looked rather coarse.
Why was hair loss so severe in their dorm? Whose hair was this now?
Never mind whose it is, I’ll just burn it. Throwing it in the bin risks it being blown away by the wind, and it’s driving her flatmates completely mad—it’s safer to burn it.
Lu Mian took out the lighter she’d used at lunchtime, picked up the strands of hair, and went over to the sink, repeating the process.
The acrid smell of burning mingled with the scent of blood and spread through the balcony. Lu Mian, whose hay fever hadn’t yet cleared up, couldn’t smell a thing; she simply watched quietly as the hair curled and twisted in the flames until it was completely consumed.
Lu Mian turned on the tap and washed the ashes away.
Having finished, she turned and glanced casually out onto the balcony, only to see the white dress fluttering in the wind.
Wasn’t that the one Lin Yue had bought?
“Sigh.”
Lu Mian sighed, picked up a clothes rail and gathered up the white dress. Just a few nights ago, Lin Yue had been planning to use the dress to scare her dorm mates, yet in the blink of an eye she’d ended up in hospital. Lu Mian put the dress away, thinking she’d take it to Lin Yue next time she visited. Since she loved playing pranks, perhaps seeing this would cheer her up a little.
The white chiffon dress felt smooth to the touch. Lu Mian folded it neatly, found a bag to put it in, and decided to take it to Lin Yue on her next visit.
After Lu Mian turned and went back into the dormitory, a red tongue dangled from the clothesline.
A lump of black sludge slowly oozed upwards from the edge of the balcony, coming to a halt at the railing.
“Did she drink the milk tea?”
“She did. If she had, Jiang Fan and Qian Ming would have made their move straight away. Could Jiang Fan really have been burned by her? And Qian Ming wouldn’t have let her stuff her into a bag.”
The two ghosts spoke in hushed tones, afraid Lu Mian might hear them; this wicked girl was a difficult target to kill.
“So what do we do now?”
“Ask, ask, ask! Can’t you do it yourself? You useless piece of rubbish!”
“If I could kill her, do you think I’d be asking you? Last time I tried to scare her, she wasn’t even fazed!”
“Figure it out yourself. I’ve got other prey to deal with.” The black sludge gradually faded and vanished from the balcony.
The long red tongue twisted furiously around the clothesline. A solution, a solution—what solution could it possibly have? Hadn’t it seen how its fellow spirits had been subdued one by one by that wicked woman!
And she’d called her a useless piece of trash! She had a prey of her own, didn’t she!
Thinking of that prey still stuck in hospital, the tongue lashed out even more furiously. Damn it, damn it! Why on earth did she have to go to hospital? It was so crowded there. Wouldn’t it have been better if she’d just stayed in the library so the tongue could’ve killed her!
…………
After putting the white dress away, Lu Mian opened her phone again. Messages from that dimwit Fang Qinian were flooding her screen.
[Fang Qinian: I’m listening to Lu Mian. I’m determined to leave. They’ve actually pulled out a hoe! Help!]
[Fang Qinian: I lied and told them I wasn’t leaving, so they’ve gone off to slaughter chickens again.]
[Fang Qinian: I slipped away whilst they weren’t looking, but I can’t seem to find my way out.]
[Fang Qinian: Looks like I’m about to lose signal! It’s so laggy!]
[Fang Qinian: Why on earth doesn’t this village have any streetlights!]