Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The three of us exchanged a look. None of us made a sound.

If Dormitory Auntie couldn’t push the door open, maybe she would assume we were already asleep.

But she kept knocking, over and over, without saying a word. Just knocking in that steady rhythm.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

At that moment, I would honestly rather she curse at us a couple of times. Anything would have felt better than listening to that knocking in the dead, silent night.

About ten minutes passed before the knocking finally faded away.

Then came the sound of footsteps, gradually growing more distant.

“Is she… gone?”

Huang Xuexue leaned close to my ear and whispered. I could even feel her breathing, quick and uneven.

I shook my head, still not daring to speak. Hunched over, I crept toward the door.

I wanted to take a look and make sure she had really left.

Huang Xuexue was timid to begin with, and she had a heart condition. If she stayed under this kind of pressure much longer, she might genuinely break down.

Taking a deep breath, I climbed onto the pile of junk blocking the door and brought my eye close to the peephole.

In that instant, countless scenes from horror movies flashed through my mind.

For example, I might see a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood outside the door.

Or when I looked out, I might find myself staring straight into a pair of bloodshot black pupils with no whites at all.

At last, my line of sight met the world beyond the peephole. By then, my palms and back were soaked with cold sweat.

Luckily, there was nothing outside.

Under the emergency light in the middle of the night, I could clearly see that the hallway was empty.

I let out a breath of relief and turned around, intending to share this bit of good news.

“Don’t be scared. Dormitory Auntie already…”

“…”

But the very instant I turned back, it felt as if someone had seized my throat in a death grip. I couldn’t force out another word.

“Already what? She left?”

Huang Xuexue lowered her voice and asked me.

“Don’t-don’t turn around!!”

I didn’t answer her. I slapped myself hard across the face, forcing my voice to come back.

The next second, trembling all over, I yanked her toward me.

So close. It had been so close.

Dormitory Auntie hadn’t left at all!

She-she had climbed in through the window!

Just now, all three of us had been terrified of the door, so we had huddled by the window directly opposite it.

And I had gone to check the peephole, while Wan Yue and Huang Xuexue had all their attention fixed on me.

None of us had noticed the movement outside the window.

At that moment, Dormitory Auntie was like some kind of monster, all four limbs prying the window open as her body twisted almost unnaturally while she crawled inside. In her hand, she was holding a knife.

Just now, it had been so close.

If Huang Xuexue had turned her head, there would have been a fresh red line across her neck.

Wan Yue reacted just as fast. She didn’t look back. Instead, she immediately jogged over to my side.

I watched as Dormitory Auntie climbed down from the windowsill and advanced toward us, step by step.

Moonlight fell across her aged face, making her expression painfully clear. It was anger-twisted, distorted anger.

As she walked, she spoke in a hoarse voice:

“You were in the dorm room. Why didn’t you open the door for me?”

“Why… weren’t you asleep!”