Chen Jiaqi acted without hesitation, walking over to open the cup of milk tea, revealing its contents to her.
It was a cup of milk tea with a base of blood-stained glutinous rice and a deep brown tea liquor—just an ordinary cup of milk tea.
Seeing that the milk tea was indeed quite ordinary, the two of them couldn’t help but let their guard down a little.
“The milk tea looks perfectly normal. I’ve just had a few sips and it tastes fine, but who on earth put it here?” Wang Ying stared at the drink, utterly perplexed.
“If you can’t figure it out, don’t bother. And don’t drink it either—just throw it away. You really are something, drinking something of unknown origin like that.” Chen Jiaqi urged Wang Ying to dispose of the drink immediately.
Wang Ying nodded, picked up the milk tea from the table, walked towards the rubbish bin on the balcony, and casually tossed it inside.
The moment she turned around, Wang Ying immediately looked down again, scrutinising the rubbish bin. She remembered throwing her hair in there just a moment ago; the damp strands had been lying on top of the fruit peelings. Now, where was the hair?
…………
In the shower, several strands of black hair, as fine as threads, emerged from the drainpipe, wrapping themselves around Lu Mian’s ankle with a choking force.
Lu Mian immediately looked down in alarm; without her glasses, she could see only the smooth floor.
There’s nothing there. Why does it feel as though something’s wrapped around my ankle?
Uncertain, Lu Mian crouched down and felt along her ankle, discovering something with the texture of silk thread wrapped around it, round and round.
Hair again! Lu Mian impatiently pulled the strands of hair from her ankle, clenched them in her palm, and hastened her shower.
This hair is such a nuisance. Every time she washes, it either ends up in the shower or tangled around her. One of these days, she’ll go and get it cut!
After getting dressed, Lu Mian walked over to the bin clutching the strands of hair, intending to throw them away, only to find Wang Ying standing next to the bin looking like a complete idiot.
“What’s the matter with you?” Lu Mian glanced at the bin; the top layer of rubbish was fruit peel. What on earth was she doing, mourning the passing of fruit?
“Lu Mian.” Wang Ying slowly looked up. “Didn’t I just clear the hair away? Now, where is it?”
“You mean the hair’s gone?!” Lu Mian spread her hands in surprise; a few strands of black hair lay in her palm. “Is there some law of preservation for hair or something?”
Wang Ying stared in horror at the hair in Lu Mian’s hand, stammering incoherently: “You… hair… it…”
Wang Ying looked genuinely frightened, so Lu Mian quickly tucked the hair away. “Don’t be scared, I was just joking. Look, the wind’s blowing so hard—isn’t it perfectly normal for hair to get blown away? The hair in my hand is just what fell out when I was in the shower.”
“Is that normal?” Wang Ying looked somewhat dazed.
“Are you really that easily frightened? I thought Su Qing was the only one in our dorm who was a bit of a scaredy-cat.” Seeing that Wang Ying was still in a daze, Lu Mian added reassuringly, “Go and get some rest first. I’ve noticed you’ve all been acting a bit odd lately; I haven’t seen so many of you falling ill or having mishaps before.”
What Lu Mian didn’t say was that she felt the dorm residents had suddenly developed mental health issues: Su Qing fainting, Lin Yue sleepwalking, Xu Xia’s inexplicable fascination with the occult, and now Wang Ying becoming paranoid over a single strand of hair.
There aren’t many sane people left in the dorm, Lu Mian couldn’t help but sigh.
Wang Ying walked into the inner room, half-convinced, and sat back down on her stool.
Lu Mian tossed the strand of hair into the bin. After washing up, she sat back down on her chair, ready to take a sip of water, only to discover her cup was missing.
She must have left it in the library. Lu Mian glanced at the pitch-black sky outside; it was nearly ten o’clock. She didn’t want to go, but after a few seconds of hesitation, her thirst reached its peak, so she decided to go after all.
…………
Late at night, Li Zixuan stood waiting for the elevator with her schoolbag on her back.
She’d spent the afternoon engrossed in a murder case and hadn’t studied, so she had to catch up in the evening.
It was ten o’clock, and there were still people in the library, though most were concentrated on the first and second floors. Li Zixuan’s seat was on the fifth floor, where almost everyone had left; at that moment, she was the only one waiting for the elevator.
The lift came to a slow halt on her floor. Li Zixuan stepped inside, pressed the button for the ground floor, then took out her mobile and started scrolling.
Her tablet and mobile were linked to the same account. Perhaps because she’d been looking at so many murder cases today, the system immediately suggested related posts.
Li Zixuan’s finger slipped, and she tapped on one—
This case is really strange. One of the victims was Huang Qingqing—the fifth victim, to be precise. She was found hanged in the library elevator. Qingqing and I were study partners, but she hardly ever went to the library to study. She preferred the activity centre, and most of her books were piled up there. Yet that day, she went to the library, which was completely out of character, and she never left.
The library elevator?!
Li Zixuan looked around suspiciously. She was alone in the cramped lift; it was deathly quiet.
Something’s not right!
Li Zixuan suddenly looked at the elevator display. She’d pressed the button for the ground floor, and having been staring at her phone for so long, the elevator should have arrived by now. Yet it was only just reaching the fourth floor.
Under Li Zixuan’s increasingly terrified gaze, the elevator came to a slow halt on the fourth floor.
The lights on the fourth floor were off, with only the emergency lights glowing; it was quiet, spacious and spotless.
But that was precisely what frightened her even more. There was no one on the fourth floor, so who had pressed the button?
Li Zixuan frantically pressed the ‘Close Door’ button, praying the lift doors would shut quickly. She would never set foot in the library again!
The lift doors closed very slowly, and the overhead lights began to flash wildly. Li Zixuan glanced around nervously, fearing something might dart out at any moment.
A pale, ghostly hand reached out from behind her and pressed the close-door button as well.
Li Zixuan spun round abruptly to find a female ghost standing before her—her feet dangling in mid-air, clad in white with jet-black hair, her tongue stretched down to her waist.
“Aaaah!!!”
Li Zixuan’s scream echoed through the entire elevator shaft, only to be perfectly muffled by the lift’s walls.
The pale hand reached out and snatched the mobile phone from Li Zixuan’s grasp. Terrified, Li Zixuan didn’t think of anything else; she turned and tried desperately to run out of the elevator. But things didn’t go as planned—the elevator doors closed just then.
“Are you curious about my story?”
The eerie, cloying voice sounded utterly terrifying in the silence.
“No, I’m not curious, I don’t know anything! Let me go, let me go!” Li Zixuan cried, backing away. She didn’t want to die; if she could turn back time, she would never have clicked on that murder case!
A smile spread across the female ghost’s purple-tinged face; her thick, blood-stained lips stretched back to her ears, and fresh blood dripped down her tongue. She lunged towards Li Zixuan, and crimson blood splattered onto her.
“Come… keep me company!”
“No! Help! Is anyone there? Help me!” Li Zixuan closed her eyes and curled up in the corner, trembling uncontrollably.
“Ding—”
The elevator doors opened.
Lu Mian looked at the person cowering in the corner, trembling. Wasn’t that Li Zixuan, the girl who’d spoken to her earlier today? Had she gone mad from studying?
“Li Zixuan, are you all right?”
The clear, gentle voice brought Li Zixuan back to her senses, pulling her back from the brink of collapse.
The moment she opened her eyes and saw that beautiful, familiar face, Li Zixuan immediately lunged forward. “Lu Mian, there’s a ghost!”
Lu Mian instinctively stepped back, but the moment she did, the person in front of her broke down even more. Lu Mian reached for a tissue and handed it over. “You’ve got a nosebleed.”
Having regained her composure, Li Zixuan took the tissue and wiped her nose, only to find a large patch of bright red blood.
“If you’re ill, you’d better go home and rest.” Lu Mian patted her on the shoulder, gesturing for her to leave, then pressed the button for the fifth floor.
Watching her move, Li Zixuan stammered in terror, “You’re going to the fifth floor?!”