What am I going to do? What am I going to do?
Su Qing pulled the duvet over her head, her mind conjuring up all sorts of terrifying images. A few minutes later, she plucked up the courage to open her eyes, only to find that there was nothing there.
Su Qing suddenly remembered the story Lin Yue had told her before bed—about Xiao Mu, who had died after playing a summoning game, and the strange look on Lin Yue’s face at the time.
Wait a minute! There’s no Room 404 at their school!
She remembered! She remembered it all!
When she first enrolled, a senior had told her that the school considered the number 404 to be unlucky, so they’d scrapped the entire fourth floor altogether; after the third floor, it went straight to the fifth.
So although their room was called 504, it was actually 404!
In an instant, Su Qing was terrified.
She scrambled to her feet. She was so afraid; she didn’t dare stay awake alone. She wanted to call her roommate to keep her company.
Once she was on the floor, Su Qing suddenly felt a chill. Stepping out from behind her closed bed curtain, the whole dormitory seemed unsafe.
Suppressing her fear, Su Qing rushed to call Xu Xia, her closest friend.
Xu Xia’s bed curtain was drawn. Su Qing stood on tiptoe, pulled the curtain aside, and peered inside: “Xu Xia, could you please keep me…”
Su Qing’s words trailed off. What she saw was not Xu Xia’s sleeping face, but a face turned to one side, eyes wide and bulging, blood streaming from all seven orifices, twisted and grotesque.
“Ah!!!”
Su Qing fell to the floor in terror, instinctively crawling backwards. Her trembling sobs echoed through the dormitory amidst broken cries: “Help me, help me…”
“Wang Ying, Lu Mian, Chen Jiaqi, wake up, wake up! There’s a ghost! There’s a ghost!”
Su Qing frantically called for help, but in the empty dormitory, only her own cries echoed, sounding all the more eerie in the silent night.
Stumbling to her feet, Su Qing pulled back the bed curtains one by one, only to find a face with blood streaming from all seven orifices on every bed.
“No! This isn’t it!” Su Qing cried, shaking her head. “This isn’t our dormitory. Run! I’ve got to get out of here!”
Su Qing trembled as she reached for the dormitory door. In an instant, the pale light from the corridor flooded in, bathing the entire room in a glow that made it look like a desolate grave.
The corridor outside was eerily quiet; there were none of the usual sounds of construction work on the school grounds, nor the hushed whispers of students staying up late chatting in other rooms…
A desolate moonlight shrouded the campus; the whole world seemed to consist of nothing but black and white.
Su Qing paid no heed to any of this; she ran frantically out into the corridor, down the stairs, and down, step by step, with all her might. Yet, though it was clearly only a four-storey building, no matter how hard she ran, she could not escape.
“This story takes place in 2024. Five students from the dormitory took part in a late-night horror story session. After the event, the five of them fell asleep as if nothing had happened.”
“But later, one by one, they met with misfortune. Let’s start by talking about one of the girls who met with misfortune.”
“Her name was Su Qing. She was sleeping as usual, until a pair of icy hands clung to her leg…”
An eerie, chilling voice rang out from all directions, recounting her experiences from the previous night as if telling a story.
“Ah! Stop! Stop!” Su Qing covered her ears, her emotions spiralling into a breakdown.
No, she didn’t want to die!
In a state of emotional collapse, Su Qing fell to the floor, yet she dared not stop; she crawled forward on all fours.
She had to get out of here! She had to go home! She had to find her mum and dad!
Why? Why had this happened to her?
It was her fault; she shouldn’t have listened to those horror stories!
Home. Home!
…………
At half past six in the morning, Lu Mian was the first to wake up. As soon as she got up, she saw Su Qing hanging upside down from the ladder of the bed frame.
Head down, hair scattered across the floor, a look of terror on her face, yet her feet were hooked over the bed’s guardrail—a grotesquely contorted posture that jolted Lu Mian’s senses.
Good heavens! Could it be that Su Qing was a sleepwalker too?!
Judging by that posture, her sleepwalking was even worse than Lin Yue’s.
A position like that could easily cause a rush of blood to the head, and she was bound to bump into things.
Lu Mian climbed out of bed, immediately scooped Su Qing up, placed her on a stool, and patted her gently: “Su Qing? Wake up!”
It was only then that Lu Mian noticed Su Qing was freezing cold all over; the sensation was worse than someone sticking their hand down your collar in winter.
Lu Mian began to panic. If she was this cold, how long must she have been lying there? Ningjiang City was in the south, and it was May; logically, she shouldn’t have become this hypothermic without a blanket.
“Hello? Mr Li, it’s Lu Mian. Something’s happened to Su Qing in our dorm…” Lu Mian contacted the dorm supervisor immediately; she felt Su Qing needed to be taken to hospital without delay!
“Lu Mian, what’s wrong?”
Lu Mian’s voice had woken the others in the dormitory. As soon as she hung up, several of them poked their heads out to find out what was going on.
Lu Mian explained Su Qing’s condition once more. Immediately, the others gave up on sleep; one by one, they climbed out of bed to check on Su Qing.
Lu Mian suddenly looked at Lin Yue. She was afraid Lin Yue might end up like Su Qing. Lin Yue keenly sensed the gaze and looked back, somewhat puzzled. “Lu Mian, is something wrong?”
After much hesitation, Lu Mian finally spoke up. “Lin Yue, I think you should go to the hospital too. You suffer from sleepwalking.”
“Ah, oh, right.” After a brief pause, Lin Yue continued, “Thanks.”
Lu Mian gave Lin Yue another puzzled look. Why was she acting so odd today—so dazed? She was usually so lively. Could it be an after-effect of the sleepwalking? Lu Mian wasn’t sure and didn’t dwell on it further.
The supervisor arrived quickly, and Su Qing was soon taken to hospital.
This morning, Lu Mian and the others had an 8 o’clock lecture, so they hadn’t gone to the hospital to check on her.
“Lu Mian, are you going to the hospital to visit Su Qing tonight?” Lin Yue suddenly asked during the lesson.
Lu Mian, who had been listening intently, didn’t even turn her head. “I don’t think so. I’ve got a part-time job tonight.”
“Oh.” Hearing this, Lin Yue said no more and turned her full attention back to the lesson.
Lu Mian, however, turned her head to glance at her. What was going on? Why did she feel as though Lin Yue was in such a good mood?
Her dormmate had fallen ill, and she herself was unwell, yet she was still in such high spirits. What a broad-minded person.
“Lu Mian, can we walk home together after class?” Xu Xia, sitting on the other side of Lu Mian, suddenly spoke up.
“No, I’m going to hand out leaflets,” Lu Mian replied flatly.
Xu Xia was acting strangely today too. Usually, Xu Xia, Su Qing and Lin Yue were always together. It was odd enough that they’d sat on either side of her in class today, but now they were even inviting her to walk home with them.
There were only three lessons this morning. As soon as the bell rang, Xu Xia quickly gathered her things and said hurriedly, “Lin Yue, I won’t be walking with you today. I’ve got something to do, so I’ll be off.”
With that, she hurried out of the classroom.
Lu Mian had also packed up her things and left the classroom right after Xu Xia. When it comes to earning money, there’s no time to waste!
This was Lu Mian’s second part-time job: handing out flyers for a haunted house. She earned a hundred and fifty yuan a day, paid daily.
Apparently, the pay for this job used to be eighty yuan a day, but after many people quit after just one day, the boss raised the wages—and Lu Mian managed to snag the deal.
“Boss, I’m here!” Lu Mian greeted the boss cheerfully as soon as she arrived; she looked so excited, it seemed less like she was coming to work and more like she was coming to have fun.
“Little Lu’s here. Just hand out these and you’re done for today.” The haunted house owner pointed to a small stack of leaflets on his desk.
“Right, no problem.” Lu Mian picked up the leaflets and headed out.
The Haunted House was located in Pinghu Shopping Centre in the heart of Ningjiang City. Foot traffic was decent, and with the university district nearby, plenty of students came here to have fun, making it easy for Lu Mian to hand out the leaflets.
She simply targeted students her own age; generally, people were kind enough to take them.
“How dare you hand out leaflets like this?!”
Lu Mian was diligently going about her work when a teenage boy’s voice rang out before he even appeared.
By the time Lu Mian looked up, the boy was already standing right in front of her, his face contorted with fury. “Do you have any idea that these leaflets are cursed?!”