“Right, I left my cup in there. I’ll just go and get it.” As she spoke, she glanced back at Li Zixuan, who was still huddled in the corner. “Aren’t you going to leave?”
Li Zixuan hurried out of the elevator shaft, only to turn back immediately. “There’s a ghost in the elevator, don’t you dare…” go in.
The last word died in Li Zixuan’s throat, for the elevator doors had already closed and were moving upwards.
Could something have happened to Lu Mian? Should she go and rescue Lu Mian?
But she didn’t dare.
Find someone! Yes, find someone to rescue Lu Mian!
Li Zixuan stumbled out of the library and ran towards the security booth.
In the elevator shaft, Lu Mian stared at the flickering numbers. Hardly anyone took the lift upstairs at this hour; it ascended rapidly, very rapidly, and soon reached the fifth floor.
There were a few people on the fifth floor. Lu Mian quickly located her cup by the light and left just as swiftly.
In the brief moment it took her to retrieve her cup, the elevator had already shot up to the thirteenth floor. Was there really anyone on the thirteenth floor at this late hour?
Lu Mian glanced at the other two lifts; they were all stopped on the thirteenth floor.
That’s not right. The highest floor in their university library was the eleventh—where on earth had this thirteenth floor come from?
Lu Mian pulled out her mobile and snapped a photo of the elevators stopped on the thirteenth floor, intending to report it to the security guard at the entrance later.
Just as she took the photo, her browser pushed a news alert: ‘Student Found Hanged in Mysterious Circumstances at Ningjiang University Library’.
Lu Mian glanced at it. The sensational headline was clearly designed to lure her in. She used to be easily drawn in by headlines, but after falling for it time and time again, she’d learnt her lesson. She swiped it away, finished taking the photo, and headed straight for the stairs.
The elevators were all out of order. She wasn’t stupid enough to take the elevator now—she’d end up as the next ‘elevator death’ case.
The lights in the stairwell were still on. Ningjiang University Library closed at half past ten in the evening; the security guard would only come to switch off the lights after that time, whilst reminding any students still studying to leave.
Lu Mian made her way down the stairs. When she reached the fourth floor, she discovered the lights there were out, leaving the area pitch black.
“Why is everything in this place broken? Are the buildings second-hand or something?”
Lu Mian muttered to herself as she switched on her mobile’s torch.
A warm yellow glow spilled out, and the first thing that caught Lu Mian’s eye was a white halo.
Lu Mian blinked twice sharply, but the white halo remained. What on earth was it?
The original owner had not only short-sightedness but also astigmatism. Lu Mian herself wasn’t short-sighted, so she wasn’t in the habit of wearing glasses, only putting them on during lessons. Now she was standing at the junction between the fourth and fifth floors, whilst that white halo appeared at the junction of the two staircases on the fourth floor; she really couldn’t make out what it was.
“Ding—”
The crisp sound of the elevator doors opening stood out sharply in the silent stairwell.
Lu Mian turned to look at the door leading out of the stairwell; turning right after passing through that door would take her to the elevator.
But had the lift gone haywire? To plummet down from the thirteenth floor so rapidly, only to stop directly on the fourth floor!
Although she hadn’t stepped outside, no light was filtering through the door; clearly, there was no one on the fourth floor. Yet the elevator remained stationary. What did that prove?
The elevator was utterly broken—it had plummeted straight down from the top floor. Anyone who got in would end up injured!
The female ghost standing in the stairwell fixed her gaze on Lu Mian, her eyes brimming with anticipation. Get in. Get into the elevator!
But before long, the scene she’d been hoping for failed to materialise. The figure before her was striding towards her, torch in hand.
Lu Mian shone her torch directly at that mass of white and black tinged with red, striding purposefully towards it. What on earth was that in the dead of night?
Blinded by the glaring light, the female ghost—accustomed to killing in the darkness—instinctively teleported away, reappearing in the spot where Lu Mian had just been standing.
Lu Mian walked into the spot where the tri-coloured halo had appeared moments before, only to find nothing there. She raised her torch and shone it around frantically, only to discover that the object had materialised where she had been standing.
Lu Mian: !!!
No way, surely not, it can’t be!
Could she have some sort of eye condition?!
Desperate to save her own life, Lu Mian didn’t care about anything else; she hurriedly opened a search engine—
What causes the eyes to suddenly see a multicoloured halo?
[Seeing a multicoloured halo may indicate glaucoma. In the early stages, symptoms may include eye discomfort and a sensation of pressure; in later stages, significant loss of vision may occur. If left untreated, it can lead to blindness. Please seek medical attention immediately if you experience any eye discomfort.]
Blindness!!!
She wanted to go to the hospital right now!
The female ghost, forced to teleport, shot a venomous glare at the figure who had suddenly started looking at her mobile phone, then teleported behind Lu Mian once more. Her crimson tongue, dripping with blood, rose up, as if intending to lick Lu Mian’s head.
But before its tongue could touch her, the person in front of it suddenly bolted in a panic.
Ran off?
The female ghost froze in place, her tongue suspended mid-air. Moments later, a chilling gust of wind swept through the stairwell, signalling the ghost’s fury.
Aaaah!!!
It was going to kill her!
…………
“Sir, it’s right here, this elevator! A classmate just went in—is she in danger?!”
Li Zixuan cowered within the security guards’ protective circle, her finger trembling as she pointed towards the lift.
The security guards stood on high alert. They weren’t staunch materialists; late at night, with a witness to boot, they were feeling a bit uneasy themselves. But since a student had already entered the elevator, they had to go and have a look. If there really was something in there, they’d outnumber it and should be able to make a run for it.
The security guard at the front pressed the elevator button with trepidation. As the lift stopped at every floor from the fourth down, rather than descending in one go, doubts began to creep into his mind. It was his shift tonight; he’d personally switched off the lights on the third and fourth floors, yet now the lift was stopping at both levels. There was a strong likelihood that something was indeed there.
Lu Mian, hurrying down the stairs with a cup in hand, stepped out of the stairwell to find several security guards standing at the ready, staring intently at the elevator. Li Zixuan was still surrounded in the middle.
Lu Mian, who had been worried about her own health, suddenly felt her curiosity piqued and quietly made her way over.
“Uncle, what’s going on?”
“Lu Mian! You’re all right!”
Li Zixuan heard the familiar voice; she turned her head and saw Lu Mian standing safely right beside them.
Lu Mian looked at her in puzzlement. “What could possibly go wrong just from fetching a cup?”
“The elevator! That elevator—it…” Li Zixuan was at a loss for words. Standing too close to the lift, she dared not utter that particular word, and with her heart racing, she could only stammer out a garbled explanation.
“Oh, the elevator, did you say?” Lu Mian realised with a start. “The lift has indeed broken down. Did you know that already? And when you saw me get in, you called the security guard over because you were worried something might happen to me?”
“The elevator malfunctioned?” Li Zixuan, suddenly feeling like she’d been given the ‘good Samaritan’ label, repeated the words like a broken record.
“Yes, it suddenly shot up to the thirteenth floor—and our university library doesn’t even have a thirteenth floor. Then it plummeted back down and stopped on the fourth floor. It stopped at every floor on the way down—of course it was malfunctioning! Don’t worry, I saw what was happening and didn’t get in.”
“Phew—” The lead security guard let out a sigh of relief. “So it was just a malfunction. It’s late now; you two should go back and get some rest. We’ll arrange for someone to come and fix it, and we’ll also warn the students upstairs not to use the elevators.
Li Zixuan followed Lu Mian out of the library in a daze. Watching Lu Mian’s determined and brisk stride, her admiration grew. Good luck was a skill in itself.
She had a hunch that the chances of encountering the female ghost were higher if one had entered the elevator—after all, the ghost had died in the lift shaft—but Lu Mian hadn’t gone in, which was why she’d emerged unscathed.
Upon reaching Building 3, the two parted ways. Li Zixuan lived in Building 5, so she had to walk a few more steps, but after taking just two, she immediately turned back.
Block 3!!!
Li Zixuan immediately looked down and messaged Lu Mian to ask which dorm room she was in. A reply came back a few seconds later.
[Lu Mian: I’m in 504. What’s up?]
Dormitory 504 in Block 3—wasn’t that the former 404 in Block 3?! What incredible luck Lu Mian had! Just as she’d thought Lu Mian was lucky to have escaped the female ghost, she’d now walked straight into an even worse nightmare.
Having witnessed the ghost in the elevator, Li Zixuan was convinced that everyone involved in the 404 murder case must have become ghosts, meaning Lu Mian was now in grave danger!
Li Zixuan immediately turned back. A mist had descended upon Block 3 at some point; through the hazy fog, she thought she glimpsed a female ghost in white robes with black hair, her long tongue dangling down to her waist, following Lu Mian as she walked upwards.
Li Zixuan’s hands trembled as she tried to send a message. Suddenly, the female ghost turned her head; the next second, she appeared right in front of Li Zixuan, her crimson tongue wrapping itself around her neck.