Zhao Mou's Bedtime Story

The burly clown man held the human head high, his upper body muscles bulging together like mountains as he moved. He screamed like a madman, truly giving off the vibe of a clown killer.

Yu Xing: "..."

Zhao Yijiu: "..."

The severed head had very short hair, and its eyes stared ahead in terror. The unfocused pupils were devoid of any luster, leaving only an empty, dark void.

The head was held up by the clown's hand, directly above the clown's own head, making it look as if the two heads were connected, which was very grotesque.

The clown man also raised his other hand high, gripping a serrated knife.

Yu Xing was close by, and with a glance he could understand why the corpse's neck wound had so many pits and bumps. The knife itself was very dull, and there were many nicks on the blade. If the beheader did not know the easiest line to cut the neck, he would inevitably have to cut it several times because of the dullness of the weapon.

For the killer, it was just a matter of putting in a little more effort, but for the victims, especially those who, after examination, found no other wounds besides their necks and arms, it was nothing short of torture.

The tip of the knife was now pointed at Yu Xing's forehead, and the arm seemed ready to swing down without hesitation. The clown's eyes were red, a sign of extreme excitement and loss of reason.

"I don't really need to go to the toilet, but I'd like to interview you. What kind of fetish do you have that you bring a human head with you when you go to the toilet?" Yu Xing looked at the clown man's vicious appearance with remarkable composure.

Since the murderer was already here, what he just said was completely unnecessary. This was a golden opportunity to seize a clue. He calmly took a step to the side, blocking the clown man's escape route.

The clown's expression twisted into a grimace for a moment, but he still gripped the man's hair tightly and thrust the knife forward with his right hand.

You don't understand at all!

He yelled, "What's the point of killing him? I'd rather scare him so he'll never dare to look up when he's on the toilet again! Hehehe, do you know how terrified he looked when he was sitting on the toilet playing on his phone, sending those disgusting messages to my girlfriend, and then suddenly looked up and saw my head?"

Yu Xing quickly took a step back, and at the same time, Zhao Yijiu raised her arm to block the knife.

Yu Xing then had a moment to spare and glanced at the partition between the two cubicles. The partition and the cubicles themselves were the same height, not very high. An adult man could reach the top of the partition by standing on the toilet. Similarly, with a little effort, they could easily push their heads over the thin partition and look into the next cubicle.

The clown's brief statement revealed the most crucial information: he deliberately spied on his victims while they were using the toilet in order to intimidate them.

This is a typical case of personality disorder. A typical murderer, after killing someone, would like to hide immediately, erase all clues, and try to distance himself from the murder in order to avoid punishment for his crime.

Some psychopathic killers, on the other hand, can't wait to show off their actions to the whole world. They feel that their killing methods are so clever and exciting. What they need is attention, recognition, topics, and an audience.

This clown-like man was spying on the last cubicle before committing the murder, and after killing the person, he even carried the victim's head back to the last cubicle. What could he possibly be doing?

Yu Xing considered it from the perspective of a psychopathic killer and figured he would probably climb to the top of the partition again to spy on the lifeless corpse.

Looking at the lifeless corpses he created lying quietly on the ground, it's probably like a sculptor admiring the artwork he created.

"Why are you blocking my way?" The clown's knife missed Yu Xing, and he screamed madly. His voice was definitely at the maximum decibel level that a human ear could bear, but this did not attract any attention from the outside world. Not a single person went into the toilet to check, and even the three people in the women's toilet next door did not make a sound.

Regardless of Lisha and Lian En, Qu Xuanqing would have come to check on them eventually. The fact that she didn't come only means that the moment Yu Xing and Zhao Yijiu saw the corpse and the clown man, the space of the toilet was sealed off to some extent.

Just like the day the murder occurred, no matter how much the victim screamed, no one came to help him.

"You've all seen it, you've all seen it! Why won't you let me kill you too? Want to get out? I'm telling you, you're not going to get out! Don't even think about telling anyone what I've done!" the clown roared viciously, his words coming out incredibly fast, like a madman who had lost his mind.

Yu Xing discovered that the clown man still had some desire to keep secrets. The only difference was that the secrets of ordinary murderers were for everyone, while his secrets were for most people. As long as a few people discovered his secrets, he would kill those few people as well, making them his new secrets.

"Are you sick in the head?" Zhao Yijiu felt that the clown man was very strong. If he had to describe it, it would be that he was not like a living person. He frowned as he listened to the clown man's noisy nonsense, and his eardrums were hurting from the vibrations.

Moreover, upon hearing that the clown was spying on others from above before killing them, he couldn't help but recall the bedtime story Zhao Mou had told him when he was very young.

A girl stayed at school to do her duty after school. It was very late when she came out. She lived in a remote area, and there were few pedestrians on the road. The buildings on both sides of the road became fewer and fewer. It was dark, and the girl was a little scared walking home alone.

However, her fear soon became a reality, because as she walked, she noticed a man following her from a distance. She had never encountered this man on the road before, and an ominous premonition enveloped her. She planned to find a chance to shake him off, but there was only a public toilet built by the roadside ahead.

There's a middle-aged man who's in charge of cleaning the public restroom. He doesn't seem to have much other work to do, so he stays in the outermost duty room of the public restroom all year round.

She figured that once she entered the public restroom, the person following her would stop after seeing the older man, right? If they still wanted to do something, she would find a chance to ask the older man for help.

So the girl quickened her pace, and almost ran into the public restroom. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a tall man following her closely, just like her, with an undisguised malice in his eyes.

The girl went into the restroom and knocked on the door of the duty room, but no one answered.

She hadn't expected the man on duty in the restroom to leave at that moment. The girl was frightened by the person following her closely, so she had no choice but to enter the women's restroom. The stalls in the women's restroom had locks, so it was relatively safe. She thought she would just wait for the man on duty to return; she couldn't very well lead that man to her home.

After about a minute, there was no sound outside. The girl thought that the man with her didn't have the courage to enter the women's restroom, and she breathed a sigh of relief. But then she heard footsteps. Someone walked up to her stall, stood there for a while, and then went into the stall next to hers.

The girl wanted to ask the person next door if they were a woman, but then she thought, this place is so secluded, is it really possible that a woman would happen to pass by and come in to use the restroom at this time?

Terrified and worried, she pricked up her ears, listening intently to the sounds from next door, and locked herself next to the toilet, huddling together for a sense of security.

Time seemed to stretch on forever, but the man next door didn't come out. The girl became even more certain that it must be the man who had been following her. She dared not make a sound, only hoping that the man on duty would appear soon. Along with her fear, she also felt a touch of curiosity. She wondered what the man next door had been doing for so long.

It was this curiosity that prompted her to slowly raise her head. Because of the wooden plank, people instinctively look towards the unobstructed area, which is the top of the plank. Although she still couldn't see anything, the subconscious action still occurred.

The girl looked up and suddenly saw a man's face.

She didn't know how long that face had been pressing against her from above the wooden board, its reddened eyes staring straight at her, a sickly smile on its face. And she recognized that face.

It was the same uncle on duty; the collar the uncle was extending was exactly the same as the one the man had been following behind him.

At that time, Zhao Yijiu was probably just beginning to understand what fear was. Young people lack the proper fear of everything because the vigilance hidden in their genes has not yet been fully developed. When a person knows to be afraid of certain animals, certain behaviors, or unknown things like ghosts, that is when they truly begin to protect themselves.

Just as he was beginning to understand fear, Zhao Mou began telling him this story as a bedtime story every night.

Perhaps they were too lazy to find new stories, so they used the same old ones to appease him.

At the time, his family was all fine, and his father was very relieved to leave the younger Zhao Yijiu in the care of his older brother Zhao Mou. Who would have known what kind of nonsense Zhao Mou would talk to Zhao Yijiu about?

Therefore, Zhao Yijiu had a very deep impression of this story, so deep that even after experiencing many years of darkness and loneliness, and growing up to be 25 years old after seeing the light again, she could still vividly recall how Zhao Mou told the story when he was a child.

The tone, the plot, and the expression were as if they were etched into his mind. Now, facing the clown man's roar, the image of the man who followed the little girl in the story, the uncle in the duty room, suddenly merged with the clown man in front of him.

He was momentarily dazed, and the incredibly strong clown seized the opportunity, shoving him aside with explosive force, while the knife remained firmly aimed at Yu Xing with hatred.

Verbal taunts are probably far more effective than physical violence for a psychopathic killer who has become mentally sensitive after a bout of madness.

The blade was stabbing at his face again. A hint of disgust flashed in Yu Xing's eyes. He was only physically weak, but his strength and explosive power were much stronger than this clown man. At this moment, he slightly turned his head to dodge the blade, and then grabbed the clown man's wrist.

With a sharp twist of her five fingers, Zhao Yijiu, regaining her senses, heard the clown man's wrist bone crack. The clown man stared wide-eyed in disbelief, and after a moment, he reacted with a bloodcurdling scream.

The head fell to the ground with a thud. The clown man was stunned for a moment, then immediately ignored his broken wrist bone, dropped the knife, bent down and picked up the head like a precious treasure, and then, with the momentum of a striker dribbling a ball, laughed wildly as he smashed past Yu Xing and ran towards the bathroom door.

Compared to his previous stabbing and attacks, the clown man's speed and reaction speed when he ran away had clearly increased significantly, to the point that Yu Xing couldn't stop him. Instead, she was grazed by him while he was running away, and half of her body went numb.

Zhao Yijiu was about to give chase, but Yu Xing smiled and said, "No need to chase. Didn't you see? His body disappeared as soon as he stepped out of the toilet. It seems he only exists in the enclosed space of the toilet."

In other words, he was indeed the human murderer from that timeline, forever etched into the legend of evening study sessions along with the corpse in the cubicle, becoming an inescapable horror story.

Normally, this is how the event should proceed.

Someone discovered a body in the second-to-last compartment and screamed in panic. Just then, a knocking sound came from the last locked compartment, which terrified the person who had screamed.

Then the clown-like man rushed out carrying the corpse's head, verbally attacking the discoverer to intensify their fear, and then killed the discoverer with the knife in his hand, turning them into the same form as the corpse in the second-to-last cubicle. This is the process of the murder in the toilet incident during evening self-study time.

Corpse, murderer, madness, blade—these interconnected images are enough to create a bizarre legend that would make today's students afraid to even step into the toilet.

But today, the clown-like killer suffered a major setback. He encountered two people who were even more insane than him. One of them was just as strong and had a chilling aura as him, while the other actually crushed his bones. Not only that, but he also verbally mocked him and denied the ritualistic aspect of his killing.

They're all devils!

So the Joker ran away with the idea of escaping. Of course, he probably didn't know that he couldn't "escape" out; in his mind, there was only one timeline and one world.

The final effect was that the vicious and deranged killer fled the toilet in terror and disappeared, along with the corpse in the stall, which vanished like bubbles. The toilet returned to normal, as if nothing had happened, leaving only two composed outsiders staring at each other in bewilderment.