St. Jonis's Killer Was Next Door

The smell of blood wasn't strong, but because Yu Xing was standing close by, the odor still rushed into his nostrils.

"I haven't done anything yet, I just looked in the mirror and I'm being watched. And it seems this mirror ghost isn't a toilet-specific ghost. Why?" he muttered to himself. "Did I accidentally trigger something?"

If the chances of encountering ghosts outside the classroom are this high, then there should be very few people left in the entire school. How could it be that only one person disappears every day or two?

You see, he saw a ghost in the men's restroom, and the teaching building is so big, the same thing could very well be happening in other places. He didn't really believe that these students were so capable of coping.

Moreover, everyone could see the problem from Lisha's expression just now. It was obvious that the classroom was not safe either. Although there were many people in the classroom, ghosts could always find loopholes. A group of students coming to the ghost's den every night was an amazing survival rate.

Therefore, there must be triggering conditions for seeing ghosts. Normally, if you go to the toilet and there has never been a murder in your stall or it has not been used as a place for bullying, then at most you will hear the crying of the stall next to you and ask for toilet paper, but you will not die. Those students who think that they will die as soon as they leave the classroom have misunderstood the key point.

"Did you see a ghost?" Zhao Yijiu was so close that Yu Xing's mutterings didn't escape his ears at all. He had already searched the third cubicle, found nothing, and experienced no danger, so he simply walked over.

Upon arriving, Zhao Yijiu noticed the bloodstains covering the sink. She frowned. Was the sink in the evening study hall always like this? No wonder the students who used the toilet were so frightened, and the rumors gradually became more and more outrageous.

"A mirror ghost attacked me just now, but I saw through it and it ran away," Yu Xing answered his question, also intercepting Zhao Yijiu's thought that might cause a misunderstanding. "Mirror ghosts are the kind that roam freely throughout the campus, so the attack I received wasn't because I went into the restroom, but for some other reason. There are likely other ghosts in the restroom. Continue searching."

Yu Xing tried turning the faucet, but not a drop of water came out, as if it was blocked. He put his finger into the downward-curving neck of the faucet and only felt a clump of tangled hair.

His hair was clumped together, clogging the faucet. He tried several more faucets, and the same thing happened with each one.

Although Zhao Yijiu received orders to continue the search, she did not leave immediately. Seeing this, she pushed Yu Xing aside and said, "I'll do it."

He casually inserted his fingers into the neck of one of the faucets, and after touching the hair, he hooked his finger and, with his fingertip against the inner wall, pulled the hair out bit by bit. At the same time, he thought to himself that Yu Xing's fingers came into direct contact with the ghost, he might be injured by the surging power within his own body, so it was better to let him do it.

He roughly pulled out a strand of hair, and once that was done, the rest was easy. Clumps of hair tangled together, and when pulled down, they scattered like a flood.

Without the pressure of the faucet, the fluffy hair swelled up and piled into the sink with Zhao Yijiu's movements. Yu Xing watched as more and more of the black hair grew until it filled the sink space under the faucet, with some still attached to the faucet.

"Stop pulling, you'll never finish." Yu Xing knew the hair was endlessly clogging the faucet, so he raised his hand to stop Zhao Yijiu from continuing. "Let's not waste time."

The blood in the sink couldn't be dealt with immediately, so they walked around the urinals together. Some urinals were filled with filth, while others were clean. There was no pattern to it; the clean ones didn't have anything extra in them. As for the unclean ones, the two hesitated for a moment and didn't touch them.

If we really have to rely on this to trigger ghosts... let's forget about it.

Finally, they arrived at the toilet stalls. There were five stalls in total. Zhao Yijiu had already explored the first three, leaving only the last two particularly dark areas. The door to the second-to-last stall was ajar, just like the first four.

Zhao Yijiu pushed the door gently, just like she had with the previous three cubicles. She thought the door would open easily, but it only opened a crack before it seemed to hit something and got stuck by some resistance.

His muscles tensed instantly, and he tilted his head slightly, reminding Yu Xing that something strange was behind that door.

"Open it." Yu Xing's expression remained unchanged, and his voice didn't even drop. After all, the two of them had talked so much in the restroom, and the stalls weren't completely enclosed. If there was anything thinking inside, they would have already eavesdropped. Similarly, the sound of them walking to the front of the stall was quite loud, with their leather shoes hitting the floor tiles. Unless the thing inside was deaf, it could accurately pinpoint their location.

So there's nothing to worry about.

Zhao Yijiu nodded and pushed the door again, this time with some deliberate effort at a good angle. The resistance inside increased, and he felt that the force was concentrated at the bottom near the ground, so it wasn't someone pushing the door from behind.

Instead, there must have been a short, heavy object placed by the door, making it difficult to open.

Amidst some bumping and knocking, Zhao Yijiu managed to push the door all the way down. A strange smell wafted out from behind the door, and one of her legs bent and kicked out in front of them.

The school uniform trousers were stained with large patches of dried, dark brown blood. The leather shoes were half-fallen off, stubbornly clinging to the forefoot, and finally fell to the ground with a new movement. Looking up from that leg, the school uniform shirt stained red and an empty sleeve were also in close contact with the ground. Above that, there was a man's severed neck.

Yu Xing glanced inside; the scene was exactly as he had expected.

This is a headless male corpse, which, judging from his clothing, belongs to St. Jonis. He was originally leaning against the wall on the inside of the cubicle, with his legs stretched out against the wooden door. So when you push the door in, you encounter resistance, which is the reason why the already stiff corpse stubbornly maintains its dead state.

A person who has just died has only lost body temperature and their body is still soft. After a period of time, usually 4 to 6 hours, rigor mortis will form, and the body will become extremely hard. Even if someone tries to pry open the clenched hands of the corpse, they will not be able to. After another day or two, the body will soften again, and it will be completely relieved after about seven days.

The corpse remained stiff. Zhao Yijiu was very strong and managed to force one of the corpse's legs, which couldn't bend, into an arch, while the other leg was stuck behind the door.

His upper body had more blood on it than his pants; one arm was draped over the ground, while the other was missing, the empty sleeve looking strangely eerie.

The blood at the severed neck had dried, making it impossible to discern the details of the cross-section. The only indication that the weapon that separated the head and neck was not particularly sharp was its unevenness.

"No identification tag." Zhao Yijiu confirmed after one glance. That made sense. From the perspective of a murder case, even the head was taken away, which clearly meant that they didn't want anyone to discover the victim's identity, let alone leave behind something as obvious as an identification tag.

"What's this all about?" Yu Xing stroked his chin. "To make it easier to distinguish and define, I think the school at night and the school during the day can be divided into an inner and outer world. The daytime is the outer world, which, although strange and dangerous, still follows certain rules. Things like the female cook in the cafeteria, which are clearly not human, won't directly attack people."

"The night is the underworld, a place even more chaotic and filled with an undisguised sense of panic. Even if someone disappears without a trace, the remaining students dare not care, and even the teachers never bother to investigate."

He seemed to say something unrelated to the corpse, but Zhao Yijiu perfectly connected with his brainwaves. "You want to determine whether the person who killed someone was a human or a ghost?"

Whether the body was left here by a human or a ghost makes a huge difference. If it was a ghost, then the body might have been an unlucky soul who had used the toilet here. His carelessness triggered the ghost's killing intent, and the body was left here forever. Because no one dared to search for it, it was declared missing.

This means the corpse is in the present tense, existing on the same timeline as Yu Xing and the others.

If it was done by a human, then this is a murder case. A logical analysis is needed to determine why the body is missing an arm and head. The head could be interpreted as concealing identity, but why cut off an arm? Was it for revenge?

At the same time, an even bigger question arises: would anyone really risk murder in the toilets of this ghostly school building?

There was no body in the toilet during the day, just as there was no blood in the toilet sink during the day. According to the information Qu Xuanqing brought at noon, the teaching building would change its appearance every night during evening self-study time, and would return to its original state during the day.

The presence of the body here indicates that he died sometime some night, but the time frame suggests that he died 4 to 6 hours ago, which was in the afternoon. The timeline doesn't match up.

This suggests that the corpse's timeline is different from their current timeline, and it is highly likely that the scene was reenacted in the "other world" during evening self-study.

Moreover, the act of murder almost certainly attracts ghosts, which are inherently negative entities. These ghosts might not interfere with the murderer's actions, but they will definitely take the opportunity to tamper with the murderer's surroundings afterward, watching the murderer's fear and regret, and tormenting the murderer's spirit in unconventional ways. Ghosts do this for some energy or simply because they enjoy playing pranks. Not to mention the high probability that the murdered person will become a vengeful ghost on the spot.

Isn't the murderer afraid? Why choose this place?

Therefore, as long as the murderer was killed by a human, Yu Xing can be basically certain that the murder occurred before the ghost story of the evening study session began, which is a story from a very, very long time ago.

That's what they're looking for. The recurrence of events from long ago during evening self-study suggests that there must be a clue hidden within this incident.

"How can we determine this?" Zhao Yijiu asked. "Whether it's a human or a ghost, either could have caused this wound on his neck."

"I think to determine whether the murderer is human or ghost, we need to find his head first and confirm his identity." Yu Xing also had something else he didn't need to say explicitly: even if the murderer was human, after so much time, it's unknown whether the murderer is still alive.

Once the identity of the body is confirmed, the year can be checked in the school's archives, or records of a similar incident can be found in the school's history books in the library.

"Assuming the killer took the head," Zhao Yijiu said coldly, "The teaching building is so big, where should we even begin looking?"

Moreover, the report they submitted to the class was merely that they were going to the restroom. The reason they dared to dawdle for so long was simply because even if they didn't return quickly, the students would only assume they died in the restroom and wouldn't investigate them for "skipping class."

If I were to wander around the entire teaching building, I would definitely be seen by many eyes on each floor, and then it would be impossible to explain myself.

"Heh, no rush. The scene during evening self-study is the same every night. If we can't find it today, we can look for it tomorrow. Let's check the last cubicle first." Yu Xing had found a possible breakthrough and was in a very good mood. He knocked on the door of the last cubicle. "Oh, it's locked. Is someone inside?"

He bent his fingers, knuckles, and tapped the wooden door of the stall twice slowly. "Excuse me, are you done using the toilet? Can you make room for me? The first four stalls are full, and they just went in. You're the slowest one around."

Even though the last cubicle door was locked, it wasn't soundproof. If there was something inside, it would definitely be cursing him for being shameless and lying so easily.

Were they speaking quietly?

"Hey, are you done yet?" Yu Xing quickened her pace and started knocking on the door urgently. The muffled sounds echoed in the originally quiet bathroom, making it even more creepy than a scene from a horror movie.

Zhao Yijiu thought to herself, "Why do you always act like a murderer?"

"Hey classmate, you didn't faint in there, did you? If you don't open the door, I'm going to break it down!" Yu Xing smiled happily. Once upon a time, he was a civilized person who needed a wire to open the door.

But now there's no wire, no keyhole on the toilet door, and Zhao Yijiu is right next to us, so we can leave the door-breaking to Zhao Yijiu.

Having probably never seen anything so aggressive, and also being thoroughly disturbed by the soul-summoning-like noise, the door to the fifth cubicle finally moved, and with a slight sound, the lock was unlocked from the inside.

"Thank you for your cooperation, classmate. Let's go to the restroom together next time." Yu Xing pushed open the stall door with a polite smile. Before he could even see what was inside, his vision blurred and a pale face was pressed against his face, their noses almost half a centimeter apart.

His face was so pale it was indescribable; he looked like a clown covered in white powder.

Yu Xing that getting any closer would mean that face could kiss her, Yu Xing quickly stepped back. Only then did she see that the clown-faced man was a nearly 1.9-meter-tall, muscular man with exaggeratedly disproportionate muscles. He wasn't wearing a school uniform, but rather a dark gray short-sleeved T-shirt and tight black pants. He was holding a swaying human head in his hand and gave Yu Xing a wicked smile, "Next time, use the toilet next to mine!"

One sentence instantly exposed his identity: he was the murderer!

Even Yu Xing didn't expect that after killing someone, the murderer left the head in the adjacent cubicle and even used the severed head as a trophy.