Chapter 57
Chapter 57
A corridor… Yesterday’s clue had mentioned a laboratory, and that was exactly where Lin Zhu and the others had gone during the night.
Whatever hidden meaning lay behind these clues, at the very least, they told the players where the danger would take place.
Cheng Miao shared her theory with the two girls. They nodded and left to knock on the other players’ doors. They wanted everyone to survive. They did not want anyone else to die.
Cheng Miao returned to bed. Tonight, she did not struggle against her own exhaustion. If sleep was inevitable, there was no point fighting it.
The bearded man woke with a terrible premonition. He had been chosen tonight.
He stood in a corridor with his back against the wall. The chill of the concrete seeped through his clothes and made his teeth chatter.
Then he saw the person beside him, and a spark of relief entered his eyes. It was Qian Ming, the cheerful, sunny young man. More importantly, he was a powerful veteran.
Qian Ming opened his eyes, looked around, and clicked his tongue.
His ever-present smile disappeared. He got to his feet, straightened his curly hair, shoved his hands into his pockets, and walked deeper into the corridor.
“Qian, wait up!” The bearded man had just shaken the auntie awake when he turned and saw Qian Ming heading into the oppressive darkness without a backward glance.
Qian Ming stopped without a word and looked back at him.
The bearded man fell silent as a bead of cold sweat slid down his forehead.
Away from Qiao Jin, Qian Ming seemed like a completely different person. His usual smile was gone, replaced by gloom and impatience.
The look in his eyes reminded the bearded man of the little girl in their group.
The bearded man did not dare say anything else. He could only follow close behind Qian Ming.
The moment the auntie woke, she began muttering in a panic. Irritated, the bearded man warned her to lower her voice before she attracted something unclean.
The auntie’s voice dropped, but she redirected her complaints at her two teammates.
Qian Ming strolled along as if he could not hear her.
As Qin Musong’s clue had suggested, this was a school corridor. The fluorescent lights had faulty contacts. Half flickered overhead, while the other half lay swallowed in viscous darkness.
The marble floor shone. Classroom doors lined both sides, each locked tight. Through the transom windows, they could see only the classroom ceilings.
At least nothing strange was up there. Thank God for that, the bearded man told himself.
He was trying to tune out the auntie’s muttering and find some way to start a conversation with Qian Ming when he suddenly heard a sound.
Tap… tap… tap… High heels!
The bearded man’s face went white. Lin Zhu’s description of the laboratory flooded his mind. He reached out for Qian Ming, only to discover that the man walking ahead of him had vanished. His hand closed on empty air.
The auntie’s muttering stopped as well. She looked around in panic. The clicking heels grew louder in the silent corridor, yet neither of them could tell whether the sound came from ahead or behind.
The increasingly distinct footsteps snapped the bearded man’s last nerve. Abandoning the auntie, he broke into a run.
Huff… huff… He heard his own ragged breathing and the wind rushing past his ears. The darkness was too dense to see through. All he could do was keep running forward.
He had no idea how long he ran. Just as a metallic taste rose in his throat, a point of light finally appeared ahead, illuminating a lone figure.
Joy surged through him. He was about to rush over when he stopped short a few steps away.
That person… did not look like Qian Ming.
Only then did the bearded man realize that the figure belonged to none of the three people who had entered the corridor.
His scalp prickled, and a violent shudder ran through him like an electric shock. He whirled and fled in the opposite direction.
Huff… huff… The bearded man had no time to wonder why he had not encountered Qian Ming or the auntie after running for so long. He could only run for his life.
Someone appeared ahead!
His taut nerves had just begun to relax when his heart lurched again.
No! It was the same figure as before, and it was even closer!
The bearded man turned again in despair. He had no strength left to run, but he braced one hand against the wall and staggered onward.
He did not know how much time passed. When his exhausted legs finally gave way and he collapsed, the figure stood directly before him.
Then he realized that the figure he had been staring at from behind was himself.
An agonized scream rang out from the depths of the corridor. Tears streamed down the auntie’s face. She clapped both hands over her mouth, not daring to make a sound.
“What do I do…? Where’s that young man?” She wanted to call Qian Ming’s name but was afraid to speak. She wanted to search the darkness for him, but her feet refused to move.
As the light above her flickered, she suddenly spotted a person at the far end of the corridor, standing with their back to her.
The person walked forward, yet their body moved backward, drawing closer and closer to the auntie.
Her eyes bulged, and saliva leaked from the corner of her mouth. She wanted to run, but her body would not move. She was as helpless as a chicken held by the neck.
She watched the figure approach. What little thought remained to her registered that the coat on its body looked exactly like her own…
Qian Ming hid in the shadows and watched the figure reach the auntie. Their silhouettes overlapped, then both vanished into thin air.
He raised an eyebrow with interest and studied the new figure that had appeared. It matched his build and had the same curly hair, but moved backward in his direction.
Qian Ming stretched and sauntered straight toward it.
Cheng Miao awoke to the auntie’s wailing. The woman lived in the room next door, and her robust cries doused Cheng Miao’s morning temper.
It was already daylight, so moving between rooms did not violate any rules. Cheng Miao washed in a hurry and went to the auntie’s room.
After listening to her tearful account of the night, Cheng Miao asked in confusion, “Then how did you get out?”
The auntie glared at her. “How should I know? I watched that ghost get closer and closer, then I blacked out. When I woke up, I was back in my room!”
Cheng Miao frowned, trying to identify the nighttime rule from the ways Lin Zhu and the auntie had survived.
“You said my friend was taken in there last night too?” Qiao Jin asked from where she had been standing nearby. Her hair was tied in a ponytail, making her look both fresh-faced and capable.
The mention of Qian Ming soured the auntie’s expression. “Yes. No respect for his elders at all. Who knows where he ran off to?”
Qiao Jin nodded without speaking. The auntie disliked both her and Qian Ming, so she added spitefully, “He’s probably dead already. Calls himself a veteran player, but I bet the coward only knew how to hide.”
Qiao Jin stopped on her way out and looked back. The icy blade in her gaze cut off every other word the auntie might have said.
Outside the academic building, Cheng Miao spotted Qian Ming waving cheerfully to Qiao Jin. She quickened her pace. “How did you survive?”
Beside Qiao Jin, Qian Ming behaved like an obedient golden retriever. He handed her a steamed bun he had bought in the cafeteria and smiled at Cheng Miao. “I walked straight toward that thing. Then I came back.”
Walked toward it… and came back?