Chapter 157

Chapter 157

“Xia Zeqin.” Shi Chen repeated the name.

He turned to Jian Fan and asked, “You all seem to have some… feelings about him.”

Jian Fan did not answer.

“Spend some time around him, and you’ll understand how sinister that guy is,” Qin Nan said.

There were too many details to explain in a short time. In any case, they would all be spending a while together in the Realm of Death. If Shi Chen lived long enough, he would discover for himself what was wrong with Xia Zeqin. If he could not survive this world, then there was no need for him to know what Xia Zeqin was like.

Qin Nan was not in the mood to waste time explaining things to someone who did not matter.

Shi Chen was not surprised by this. He nodded. “I understand.”

With that, he looked at Jian Fan and continued, “Since there’s still a problem on the sixth floor, we’ll have to go back up there. What do you plan to do?”

“We have nothing to rely on,” Jian Fan replied.

Qin Nan understood what Jian Fan meant.

Right now, they had absolutely nothing that could save their lives. Going back to the sixth floor would be no different from walking straight to their deaths.

Shi Chen understood as well.

He nodded. “All right. Then let’s keep looking.”

What had just happened seemed to be only a minor interlude. Everyone quickly put Xia Zeqin and the matter of the sixth floor out of their minds and continued searching the room in earnest.

Unfortunately, even after searching once, then twice, they still found nothing.

The group gathered in the room again, looking at one another. For a moment, no one had any idea what to do.

“How about we search the other rooms?” Yellow Hair suggested.

There were so many dorm rooms. Searching them one by one was clearly not the best option, but there really were no clues in this room. Continuing to waste time here would not help anything.

Qin Nan had no objections. He looked at Jian Fan and asked, “What do you think?”

Jian Fan still did not particularly feel like acknowledging Qin Nan at the moment.

Qin Weiyi did not notice anything wrong. Following Qin Nan’s words, he also looked at Jian Fan and said, “We’ve already made it this far. We should be only one step away from the truth. What we’re missing now should be the key point that connects everything together.”

As long as they could find that crucial point and link all the pieces together, perhaps everything would become clear.

“Go to the Second Floor,” Jian Fan said after thinking it over.

No one objected.

Where they went made little difference to them. Since Jian Fan had proposed the Second Floor, he must have his reasons.

Once the decision was made, the group quickly left the dorm room.

Because they were not sure whether Zhao Yingguo could pass through the iron gate, they all tried to keep their movements as light as possible. After coming out of the dorm room, they crept quietly up the Stairs.

Inside the dorm room, with the door shut, they had still dared to talk. But now that they were out in the Corridor, although no one brought it up, everyone tacitly closed their mouths and made no sound.

Before long, the group reached the Second Floor.

The Second Floor had the same layout as the first and sixth floors: one passageway, with dorm rooms on the left and right. If there was any difference, it was probably that the spot where the dormitory supervisor’s room had been was, on the Second Floor, just an ordinary student dorm room.

There was no sign for the dormitory supervisor’s room hanging above it, and there were no carpets or anything of the sort nearby. A dorm member information sheet was even posted on the door.

This should simply be a student dorm room. As for what it looked like inside, they had no key, so they could not see its true appearance.
“What now?” Qin Nan silently mouthed at Jian Fan.

Jian Fan had never said outright why he had come to the Second Floor, but everyone knew he was looking for the dormitory supervisor’s room. And right now, there wasn’t one on the Second Floor.

Jian Fan did not hesitate for long. He raised a hand and pointed upward, then took the lead toward the Stairs.

Before long, the group had moved from the Second Floor to the third floor.

There was still no dormitory supervisor’s room on the third floor.

Once they confirmed that, the group wasted no time and went straight up to the fourth floor.

The fourth floor had none either.

After that came the fifth floor, and there was still no dormitory supervisor’s room on the fifth floor.

Above that was the sixth floor, and beyond the sixth floor, there was nothing. In other words, this dormitory building had six floors in total. The first and sixth floors each had a dormitory supervisor’s room, while the Second Floor through the fifth floor had no dormitory supervisors at all.

Was this simply how the school had arranged things, or was there something special about the dormitory supervisor’s room on the sixth floor?

Jian Fan could not figure it out.

He walked from the dorm room doorway to the entrance of the Stairs. He did not go up. Instead, he lifted his head and looked upward.

Standing there at the entrance of the Stairs, he could not see much, but Jian Fan felt as though something exceedingly dangerous was hidden deep within that darkness.

Qin Nan also walked over to Jian Fan’s side and followed his gaze upward. Then he patted Jian Fan on the shoulder.

Jian Fan turned his head and looked at Qin Nan in confusion.

Qin Nan shrugged, then pointed behind them, probably asking whether Jian Fan wanted to go back.

Jian Fan did not speak. He answered with his actions instead.

He turned around.

He did need to discuss things with Qin Weiyi and the others to see if they could find any clues, but the moment he turned, Jian Fan froze on the spot.

The eight of them had come up to the fifth floor together.

Because he had been preoccupied, he had left the dorm room doorway and taken a few steps toward the Stairs. He should have been only two or three meters away from Qin Weiyi and the others. The area they were in was open as well, so they should have been within one another’s line of sight. But…

Right now, the fifth floor before Jian Fan was completely empty.

No one was there.

Qin Weiyi, Lu Jing, Mu Xin, and the rest-apart from Qin Nan beside him, the other six people had vanished without a trace.

Qin Nan turned around with Jian Fan. When he saw the empty fifth floor, he froze too.

He had only just walked over and patted Jian Fan. Barely ten seconds had passed. Even if Qin Weiyi and the others had wanted to avoid them, there was no way they could have run that fast. More importantly, Qin Nan was certain that Qin Weiyi and the others would never abandon them like this. So what was going on now?

Qin Nan could only turn to Jian Fan, trying to get an answer from him.

Jian Fan was no better off than Qin Nan.

At that moment, his mind was filled with confusion.

Why had this happened? What exactly had occurred? Where had Qin Weiyi and the others gone? Had they left on their own, or had something gone wrong with the few steps he had taken forward? And were Qin Weiyi and the others safe right now?

As for Qin Weiyi and the others…

They had watched Jian Fan walk toward the Stairs.

They had not made any particular move.

Immediately after, Qin Nan had also walked to Jian Fan’s side.

Aside from Shi Chen, everyone else knew about Qin Nan and Jian Fan’s relationship. Mu Xin and Lin Junruo had even smiled a little as they watched the two of them. And then-

Something eerie happened.

The two people standing at the entrance of the Stairs suddenly disappeared from where they stood, without the slightest warning.