Chapter 99: I’m Just Quietly Watching You
The hurried footsteps sounded as if someone was being chased by a ferocious beast. When Chen Ge stepped out of the classroom, he saw the person.
Zhu Jianing, over 1.8 meters tall, came wailing out of the girls' dormitory, his face pale as death. He had lost all reason, sprinting at full speed like a mad bull.
"What’s going on? Judging by the direction he’s running, he must have encountered something terrifying in the girls' dormitory. But as far as I remember, there’s nothing particularly scary in there." Chen Ge hadn’t even entered yet, and Zhu Jianing was already scared out of his wits, giving Chen Ge the feeling that he hadn’t even tried before his opponent collapsed.
"Didn’t he say he wasn’t afraid at all? He was so calm when he came in, so why is he running like a mad dog now?" With a new scene opening up, Chen Ge had no idea what the two had encountered. To be safe, he decided to stop Zhu Jianing and get the full story.
Zhu Jianing, having sprinted out of the girls' dormitory with all his might, didn’t even have time to catch his breath. As he slowed down, he suddenly saw a figure moving in the last classroom!
"The school uniform came to life?!"
That thought flashed through his mind first. He had been sprinting at full speed and hadn’t seen clearly. By the time he got close to the classroom door, he suddenly noticed a figure in a bloodstained shirt darting out from inside.
Zhu Jianing felt time slow down. His gaze locked onto the face of the figure—a patchwork face, a collection of twisted, cruel, and agonized expressions.
"I knew that classroom wasn’t clean!" Unable to stop, Zhu Jianing slammed into the corridor wall. Ignoring the pain, he pushed off the wall with both hands and turned to run!
Whether it was the full-speed sprint, the sudden stop, and the sharp turn that disoriented him, or the sheer terror clouding his mind, Zhu Jianing blindly dashed straight into the corner restroom.
"Trapped like a rat?" Chen Ge grew more curious about what exactly this young man had seen in the girls' dormitory.
"Wait, why is he alone? Where’s his companion?"
After a moment’s thought, Chen Ge decided it was better to "ask" Zhu Jianing directly. He touched the human skin mask on his face and stepped into the restroom.
Zhu Jianing only realized he had run the wrong way after charging into the restroom, but there was no turning back. He yanked open the door of the fourth stall and hid inside.
He covered his mouth, this muscular "tough guy" crouched beside the squat toilet, his heart pounding wildly, his pupils abnormally constricted.
Zhu Jianing was truly terrified. Earlier, during the Ouija board game, he had sat opposite Fei Youliang. While Fei Youliang was analyzing with his head down, Zhu Jianing had watched the spirit appear behind Fei Youliang, bit by bit.
Just thinking about that woman’s swollen, suffocating face made him feel like he couldn’t breathe.
"That’s definitely not an actor! This haunted house is really haunted!" They had just searched the girls' dormitory, including under the beds, and could confirm no one was hiding inside. That woman who died tragically had appeared out of thin air!
"It must be a ghost!" The woman’s face lingered in Zhu Jianing’s mind, becoming a shadow in his heart. Even when he closed his eyes, he could still see that face swaying in his thoughts.
He felt utterly helpless, pressing his body against the restroom wall, his muscles offering no sense of safety.
"Youliang is still in that room. The ghost was standing on his shoulder. How could such a scene appear in real life?" Zhu Jianing took several deep breaths, feeling like his brain was starved of oxygen.
"I need to get in touch with the people outside. This haunted house is problematic." He tried to tell himself not to be afraid, but his arms kept trembling. After fumbling in his backpack for a while, he finally pulled out his phone and dialed a number.
"Xiao Zhu? Why are you calling me now? Is the video done?" The voice of the short, middle-aged man came through the receiver.
"Brother Yuan, come in and save me! There are real ghosts in this haunted house!" Zhu Jianing’s voice was choked with tears. "I can’t hold on anymore. I don’t know how many ghosts are out there now."
"Isn’t it normal for a haunted house to have ghosts?" The middle-aged man outside the haunted house didn’t take it seriously.
"Not ghosts played by people—real ghosts!" Zhu Jianing didn’t dare speak loudly, afraid the "ghost" outside would hear him. He was both panicked and terrified.
"Put Youliang on the phone. Let him talk to me." The middle-aged man finally got serious, hearing the distress in Zhu Jianing’s voice.
"Brother Liang is being controlled by a ghost. He’s still in that room."
"Controlled by a ghost?"
"I saw it with my own eyes. A ghost was standing on his shoulder. It was a hanged ghost, with a purple-black face and eyes bulging out!"
"Standing on his shoulder? Did the haunted house staff beat you up? Fine, we’re coming in right now!"
"It’s not staff, it’s a ghost. There are no staff in this house…" Before Zhu Jianing could finish, footsteps suddenly sounded at the restroom entrance. "The ghost is coming in?!"
"What did you say? Hello?" The middle-aged man’s voice came through the phone, but Zhu Jianing, afraid of attracting the ghost’s attention, hung up immediately.
"I hope it didn’t hear me. Don’t find me. I’m never coming to this place again." Zhu Jianing turned off his phone, bent down, and stared intently at the wooden door of the stall.
He didn’t know when the door in front of him would be pulled open, nor what would appear when it did. His mind uncontrollably began to conjure all sorts of terrifying images—like the door opening to reveal that horrifying woman’s face, or the self-moving school uniform squeezing through the crack in the door.
"What should I do? Brother Yuan, hurry up and come!" He was frantic, his thoughts a mess. The footsteps had already entered the restroom and were getting closer!
"Creak."
The door of the first stall was opened. The old wooden door creaked, making Zhu Jianing hold his breath.
After a brief pause, the door of the second stall was also opened.
"Closer! That thing is coming!"
Another pause, and as expected, the door of the third stall was opened.
"It’s right next to me. That thing is about to open my door!" Zhu Jianing’s muscles tensed. Terror and fear were driving him mad.
Time ticked by, but strangely, the door in front of him remained untouched.
After a full half-minute, the door of Zhu Jianing’s stall still hadn’t been opened.
"Did it leave?"
Summoning all his courage, he pushed the stall door open a crack. There was nothing outside. "It really left?"
He slowly pushed the door open. The restroom was empty. "So lucky. I almost got caught."
Letting out a sigh of relief, Zhu Jianing dialed the middle-aged man’s number again. As the screen lit up, he suddenly saw something reflected on it.
Following the direction of the reflection, he looked up at the partition of the third stall. There, a face was silently staring at him.