Chapter 3
Chapter 3
In an instant, a wave of dread washed over me, making my skin crawl.
“Lu He, you’re awake. I tried calling you just now, but I couldn’t wake you up.”
I forced a strained smile.
Lu He tilted his head as he looked at me. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me today. My head feels incredibly heavy.”
He watched me, hesitating before he spoke. “Xiao Nuo, I feel like something is wrong with my current state. I suspect there was something off about that bottle of water I drank tonight.”
I recalled when Xu Qing handed us the water earlier. One bottle was room temperature, and the other was chilled.
Lu He knew I didn’t like cold water, so he would have naturally chosen the ice-cold bottle of mineral water.
Did Xu Qing exploit our habits to ensure Lu He drank the tainted water?
“Xiao Nuo, I’ve actually been wanting to tell you this for a while. I think there’s something wrong with Xu Qing, but you two are so close that I couldn’t find the right time to bring it up.”
“Take a look at this video.”
Lu He pulled up a video on his phone.
It was a recording of our engagement ceremony from three months ago.
In the video, Lu He and I were wearing shy smiles amidst the blessings of the crowd.
At that moment, the camera panned across Xu Qing’s face.
She wore an extremely bizarre expression.
Xu Qing looked like she was smiling.
But her eyes were intentionally wide, staring fixedly at us.
To be honest, I was terrified by the way she looked.
We had known each other for so long, and in my mind, she had always been a carefree, simple-minded girl.
“After watching that video that day, I felt something was off, so I went looking for some old photos of the three of us together.”
After looking through the photos on Lu He’s phone, I was covered in goosebumps.
In every single photo, Xu Qing’s expression was haunting.
She was staring at me with a hollow, forced smile that was both exaggerated and deliberate.
“After that, I looked into Xu Qing’s past. Do you remember her telling you that she was bullied by her roommates in high school?”
I nodded.
Xu Qing had indeed mentioned it. She said she had been collectively bullied by her roommates in high school and eventually transferred schools.
Because of that, I had always felt sorry for her.
Lu He took a deep breath and showed me a screenshot of a news article.
“March 1st, 2013: An accidental fire broke out in Room 405 of Jianshe Middle School. All three students inside the dormitory perished. Only one student survived because she had returned late and was not in the room.”
Jianshe Middle School was the school Xu Qing used to attend.
My heart began to thud against my ribs.
Xu Qing had never told me about this.
“I got in touch with one of Xu Qing’s high school classmates. She told me that the police suspected arson back then, but they couldn’t find any evidence. It was considered a very eerie case.”
“Furthermore, Xu Qing was never bullied. On the contrary, she was very close with one of the girls in the dorm. However, starting from their second year, their relationship soured.”
“To be more precise, everyone in Xu Qing’s class became a little afraid of her.”
“Why?” I asked, bewildered.
Beads of sweat began to form on the tip of Lu He’s nose.
“During her first year, Xu Qing was kidnapped. Before the kidnapping, she was very quiet and introverted. But after she was rescued, her personality took a complete turn. She became extremely extroverted.”
“Her classmate said she gave off a very strange feeling. Even her eating habits changed from before. It was as if she had become a different person.”
Lu He added, “I found the news report from when Xu Qing was kidnapped.”
I looked at the photo of the arrested kidnapper on Lu He’s phone.
It was a woman with a very fierce, sinister face.
But what terrified me most was that the woman in the photo was smiling.
And the way she smiled was strikingly similar to the way I had seen Xu Qing smile earlier.
Lu He looked at me and said something that chilled me to the bone.
“Xiao Nuo, do you think the person who came back… was the real Xu Qing?”