Having slept until three in the afternoon, Lu Mian received a message—she didn’t have to go to work that evening. Her boss said the tap had broken and needed fixing, though it was unclear when it would be sorted.
Seeing that she was free, Lu Mian decided to head to the library to study. The original host’s major was bioengineering—not hers. Although she had inherited the original host’s memories, she still felt a sense of unease. Moreover, the original host had been a top student, so she would have to work hard to live up to that expectation.
It was early May, not long after the May Day holiday, and with over a month to go before the final exams, there were still seats available in the library at this time of day.
Lu Mian chose a spot near the reading room and began her studies.
There happened to be someone sitting opposite her. The person wasn’t studying; they were holding a tablet and seemed to be reading the news. As Lu Mian lowered her head to sit down, she accidentally caught a glimpse of the screen: something about the ‘404 Murder Case’.
Lu Mian quickly looked away and concentrated on her own work.
…………
Li Zixuan had been searching online for murder cases at Ningjiang University; she’d started looking into them on a whim.
At first, she’d simply been curious as to why their university didn’t have a fourth floor, so she’d searched online for the reason. Gradually, the ‘Ningjiang University Dormitory 404 Tragedy’ began to appear in her search results.
Out of curiosity, she clicked on the link, intending only to glance at it briefly, until she spotted a familiar name—Lin Yue.
Their Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering programmes shared some common modules. During the last roll call for a shared module, Lin Yue from the Bioengineering class hadn’t turned up; the lecturer had called her name three times, so Li Zixuan had remembered it. Now, seeing this familiar name, she couldn’t help but read on.
In May 2011, a tragic incident occurred at Ningjiang University—
Six female students in Room 404 of Block 3 of the women’s dormitory died in succession.
The first victim, Lin Yue, died under mysterious circumstances in the teaching block; the cause of death was listed as excessive fright. The day after Lin Yue’s death, her roommate Jiang Fan was found drowned in the bathroom. These two consecutive fatalities drew the attention of both the university and the police.
The dormitory was promptly sealed off and the students were quickly relocated. However, two days later, another resident fell to her death from the dormitory rooftop during the night. At the time, the rooftop was locked; the key was in the possession of the dormitory supervisor, and there were no signs of forced entry.
Reading this, Li Zixuan broke out in a cold sweat in broad daylight.
When she first heard of the six deaths in quick succession, she had assumed it was a man-made tragedy, speculating whether it might stem from dormitory disputes, with a resident taking their own life after a violent altercation.
But upon learning of the first victim’s death, she found it deeply unsettling. How could a perfectly healthy person be scared to death in a classroom?
The second case filled her with even greater dread. How could someone drown in a dormitory toilet? What position would one have to be in to die that way?
By the time the third case emerged, fear had truly crept over her entire body.
Li Zixuan couldn’t help but look up to catch her breath, only to find herself staring into a face that seemed vaguely familiar.
The girl opposite seemed to be a bioengineering student; she was quite pretty, yet possessed a feisty, assertive air that made her stand out, so Li Zixuan had remembered her after seeing her a few times.
During a break from her studies, Lu Mian looked up to relax for a moment, only to find the girl opposite staring at her.
Lu Mian tilted her head, her eyes conveying her confusion.
Li Zixuan immediately averted her gaze; she felt rather embarrassed that she’d been caught staring.
But as soon as she looked down, Li Zixuan saw the murder case on the screen again. She immediately pulled out her phone and typed: ‘Can I add you as a friend? I’d like to ask you something.’
Lu Mian blinked, deciding that the person in front of her probably had no ulterior motives, and accepted the friend request.
As soon as they were friends, the other person messaged her: ‘Hello, my name is Li Zixuan. I’m in Chemical Engineering Class 1. We’ve taken some general education courses together.’
Chemical Engineering Class 1? That was indeed where they’d taken those general education courses.
Lu Mian replied in a friendly manner: ‘Hello, my name is Lu Mian. Is there something you need?’
[Li Zixuan: Do you know about the tragedy in Room 404?]
[Lu Mian: Not really.]
[Li Zixuan: Well, how’s your relationship with Lin Yue? Does she often go to the study room to study in the evenings?]
Li Zixuan knew her question was a bit odd, but she recalled seeing reports stating that Lin Yue from Room 404 was a keen student who often studied late into the night. On the day of her death, her flatmates had gone to bed just after ten o’clock, assuming she would return later as usual, so no one had gone to look for her.
Perhaps it was because she’d read too many novels; whenever she saw someone with the same name, she’d think of the ‘book-jumping’ trope, so she subconsciously wanted to ask whether this Lin Yue was as studious as the victim in the Room 404 murder case.
Lu Mian did indeed find Li Zixuan a bit odd—why on earth was she asking whether Lin Yue liked studying? Still, it wasn’t exactly a secret, so Lu Mian told her the truth.
[Lu Mian: She doesn’t usually go out in the evenings.]
[Li Zixuan: Oh, right, thanks.]
[Lu Mian: You’re welcome.]
Seeing that the other person had no further questions, Lu Mian closed her phone and went back to her studies.
Li Zixuan looked down again at the murder case she hadn’t finished reading.
After the third person died, the school and the police stepped up their vigilance even further, separating the remaining three and placing them in different dormitories, and even increasing the number of staff on duty.
But soon, a fourth victim appeared. The fourth victim was found at the foot of the dormitory block, her face frozen in a smile. Strangely, the post-mortem revealed that her vocal cords had been damaged due to vocal strain, yet the cause of death remained undetermined.
In other words, the only injury on the fourth victim’s body was the damage to her vocal cords caused by vocal strain; apart from that, there were no other injuries or illnesses.
So how did she die?!
Li Zixuan voiced the same question as the netizens in the comments section.
She didn’t have the courage to read on, and had already scrolled down to the comments section.
Having read this far, she truly wondered how to explain this death. And this was back in 2011—were there really such sophisticated methods of murder? Killing someone without a sound.
Could it be a paranormal incident?
Li Zixuan couldn’t help but seek answers in the comments section.
And she certainly found the answer she was looking for.
[Cotton Porridge: I’m an alumnus. After the six of them died, the police never managed to determine the cause; they didn’t even have a suspect. The case became a cold case, and we’ve all been whispering amongst ourselves that it was a paranormal incident. What’s more, prior to this, the six of them had indeed played a game involving summoning spirits.]
[Cat Working on Final Project: Jiang Fan and Qian Ming were both in the Paranormal Society. Qian Ming was the one who fell from the rooftop. Our society shared an office with theirs. I once saw that summoning book; the cover was really eerie—countless ghostly hands reaching out from a dilapidated house, with a dark, gloomy sky. Just one glance made my heart race, so I didn’t look any further. But later, they prepared the tools needed for the summoning ritual and left them in the office for two days—things like candles and white rice.]
Li Zixuan, who had been engrossed in reading the comments section, suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder. She flinched in fright, looked up with a pale face, and saw that it was Lu Mian.
Lu Mian gestured for her to look at her phone, and Li Zixuan hurriedly looked down at it.
[Lu Mian: Are you alright? Do you want to go to the infirmary? You looked particularly pale just now, and you seemed really tense.]
[Li Zixuan: I’m fine, I’m fine. Thanks for asking.]
Seeing that her complexion had returned to normal, Lu Mian said no more and gathered her things to go for dinner.
Li Zixuan glanced at the time and realised it was already past six o’clock; she’d been so engrossed in the gossip that she hadn’t read a single page of her book.
Ahhh!
Now, all her other fears had vanished; she was even more panicked about tomorrow’s test. It was precisely because there was a chemistry test tomorrow—and it counted towards her overall marks—that she’d come to the library to cram at the last minute, only to end up getting distracted by all this nonsense.
After finishing her dinner, Lu Mian had intended to return to her dormitory, but then she realised that the club the original host belonged to was holding a meeting at 7.10 pm tonight.
She’d forgotten that the original host was part of a club. Lu Mian had spent the last month so focused on studying and earning money that she’d completely forgotten about these extracurricular activities. She still needed to earn credits, so she had to attend this meeting.
The problem was that the club the original host belonged to was utterly ridiculous. Ridiculous in what way?
A proper, reputable university actually runs a paranormal society! Just think about it—does that make any sense?
Lu Mian didn’t think it did, but it wasn’t recruitment season, and if she left the society now, she’d miss out on a lot of credits.
For the sake of graduating, Lu Mian had no choice but to stick it out with the club for the rest of the term.
Then it got worse. Lu Mian thought she might as well just give up on the credits, because the club president pulled out a book with a cover depicting a dilapidated house, with countless ghostly hands struggling to break free, and announced they were going to play a summoning game.