Chapter 58: Dance Shoes
At this moment, Chen Ge was only half a finger’s length away from the mirror, and he could see it very clearly.
Blood dripped from the pristine school uniform, clinging tightly to her body. Her hair covered her face, and the exposed skin was eerily pale.
“Zhang Ya?” The cold light from his phone screen warped and distorted. Chen Ge felt his hands and feet turn icy. He mustered all his strength just to utter her name fully.
The girl seemed to hear Chen Ge’s voice. Her lowered head slowly lifted, black hair sliding to either side, revealing flawless features bit by bit.
But just as her head rose halfway, the mirror’s surface seemed to fog up. She took a step forward and vanished directly from the glass.
“Where is she?”
Chen Ge stared intently at the mirror. Then something even stranger happened.
Under the glow of his phone’s light, his shadow slowly rose to its feet and stopped behind him.
From the mirror, Chen Ge could see that the black shadow was about 1.7 meters tall. Accompanied by a dripping sound, like blood falling, the figure gradually gained color.
A bloodstained school uniform clung to its body. At a glance, everything was crimson.
Chen Ge stood frozen, not daring to move an inch. The chill at his back had already climbed up his spine and surged into his brain. Just then, the blood-red figure took half a step back and leaned directly against his back!
Back to back, Chen Ge’s body felt as if it had been frozen solid. He gasped for air but couldn’t relieve the suffocating sensation.
“A vengeful spirit is leaning against my back?” Back to back is a terrifying scenario in certain contexts, because often you can’t be sure who’s behind you.
“Thud!”
Something cold seemed to slip between his fingers. He didn’t dare look. His stiff fingers slowly loosened, and the phone dropped to the floor.
The light flickered a few times and then inexplicably went out.
Wrapped in darkness, the chill at his back continued to spread. Chen Ge couldn’t even begin to imagine what he was going through.
At two in the morning, alone in a pitch-black, empty abandoned school dance studio, facing a six-meter-long mirror, standing back to back with a crimson-clad vengeful spirit—maybe that counted as a kind of romance.
All sorts of thoughts drifted through his mind. His palm seemed to be grasped by something, growing colder and colder. The girl’s black hair swayed behind his head, the vengeful spirit’s hair intertwining with Chen Ge’s.
“What is she planning? My task here is to find the red dance shoes. If I don’t find the shoes, the favorability mission won’t count as a success.”
His body rigid, Chen Ge could only passively watch the mirror in front of him. At first, he didn’t pay much attention, but after a few seconds, he suddenly noticed a blurry figure appearing in the glass.
He widened his eyes, the color of his pupils darkening. The figure in the mirror gradually became clearer.
“Isn’t that the female students who were trapped in the chairs earlier?”
Inside the mirror, five girls in clean, tidy school uniforms entered the dance studio. Their attire was completely different from before. This scene recorded by the mirror seemed to be something that had happened long ago.
The five girls chatted and laughed as they walked toward the mirror. After they entered the changing room, Zhang Ya appeared.
The tall and slender Zhang Ya wore the same school uniform but gave off a completely different vibe.
She carried a bag and held a gift bag in her hand—the same one Chen Ge had seen in the changing room, containing five boxes of fruit.
Zhang Ya seemed to be in a good mood. She quickly ran into the changing room. A few minutes later, the six girls changed into ballet skirts and came out.
The situation didn’t change much. The five girls huddled together in front, while Zhang Ya followed alone.
They began practicing. After a while, the dance studio door opened again, and a female teacher walked in. She held the city-level group championship certificate for *Swan Lake* and said a few words to the six girls, likely encouraging them.
This day probably wasn’t a regular class day, as no other students came. The six of them seemed to be practicing during the holiday because the provincial competition was approaching.
The teacher guided them for half an hour and then left. Once she was gone, the five girls stopped practicing, sat on the floor, and played on their phones, chatting. Only Zhang Ya, the lead, continued to rehearse.
Then one of the five girls pointed at Zhang Ya and said something. The others laughed, while Zhang Ya looked embarrassed. But she didn’t mind. She stopped to rest for a moment, then went into the changing room and brought out the bag of fruit.
Zhang Ya intended to give the fruit to the girls, but only one reached out to take it. She was stopped by another girl about the same height as Zhang Ya. That girl pointed at Zhang Ya and said a lot, then ran into the changing room, pulled out a backpack, and retrieved several love letters others had written to Zhang Ya.
It wasn’t really an argument—just the taller girl talking one-sidedly, her emotions seeming a bit agitated.
In the end, Zhang Ya’s fruit wasn’t given away. She put the gift bag back in its place, and that should have been the end of it. But not long after, the dance studio door suddenly opened.
The girls were startled, thinking the teacher had returned, and quickly scrambled up to pretend to practice.
A blurry male figure walked in through the door. He was about 1.8 meters tall, slightly hunched, and very stout.
The man said something to the girls. His identity puzzled Chen Ge a bit—only two of the girls seemed to know him.
Soon, the girls resumed practicing, and the man went into the office. After a while, he suddenly gestured for Zhang Ya to come over.
Zhang Ya didn’t seem to know the man. Hesitant, she walked to the office door but didn’t enter.
The mirror couldn’t capture the scene inside the office. After about six or seven seconds, the image in the mirror grew darker. Zhang Ya ran out of the office, and the man followed, clutching his hand and cursing.
All five girls in the dance studio saw this, but they stayed seated, not one willing to step up and say a word for Zhang Ya.
Soon, Zhang Ya was cornered. She was far from the door. She screamed loudly, but no one responded. The remaining five girls sat still, none of them moving.
The man kept cursing as he got closer to Zhang Ya. At that moment, her hand touched the windowsill behind her. She had only one path left.
Watching the scene in the mirror, Chen Ge suddenly recalled the words from the black phone when he drew the love letter—*Eyes bulging, face pale, from the moment she fell from the high building, she became a taboo on campus. The red dance shoes, the bloodstained school uniform, even the name itself became topics that could not be mentioned.*
The man stared at the empty window frame. He didn’t go down to rescue her. Instead, he backed away several steps and stopped beside the five completely terrified girls.
Book club group: 819098233, welcome everyone.