The Chase

The Qipao Woman was absolutely certain that, given the Pajama Woman's timid nature, she wouldn't dare approach the room door after she left, let alone check if it was properly closed.

But she couldn't afford to think any further. The strange sound was right behind her, like a persistent leech.

Just as the sound grew closer, almost upon her, light suddenly appeared ahead.

Unlike the light she had seen before, this light was distinct and carried a warm feeling, like holy light radiating from heaven.

It was a door.

A half-open door.

A stranger's face, yet one that felt familiar, appeared behind the half-open door.

Jiang Cheng stood there, with a round, big head peeking out from behind him.

Fatty blinked as he looked at her disheveled state, then his pupils suddenly contracted, as if he had seen something extremely terrifying.

The Qipao Woman understood that he had likely seen the thing chasing her.

Fatty was anxiously saying something to Jiang Cheng, but Jiang Cheng completely ignored him.

Later, Fatty seemed to get angry. He actually moved past Jiang Cheng, taking it upon himself to try and close the door.

This made the Qipao Woman, who was running towards them, extremely anxious.

"Don't close the door!"

She screamed hoarsely. The door in front of her was her only hope. She could already clearly feel the chilling aura emanating from the thing behind her.

Fortunately, Jiang Cheng had been blocking Fatty all along. He was a step too late.

In the nick of time, the Qipao Woman darted through the gap in the door. Jiang Cheng stepped back just in time, and she crashed right into Fatty.

Caught off guard, Fatty stumbled and fell to the ground, groaning, "Ouch!"

The next second, the Qipao Woman quickly turned back and slammed the door shut heavily.

She was saved.

Strangely, the moment the door closed, the violent sounds of movement in the corridor completely vanished.

The night returned to its previous silence.

It was as if everything that had just happened was an illusion.

Leaning against the door, the Qipao Woman panted heavily, her body trembling uncontrollably.

By then, Fatty had gotten up on his own. He rubbed his sore shoulder and stomach, his gaze filled with displeasure and suspicion.

In contrast, Jiang Cheng's gaze was much calmer. He sized up the Qipao Woman, seemingly waiting for her to catch her breath before she explained the situation.

"Hoo—" The Qipao Woman took a deep breath, slowly calming down. She turned around slowly, meeting Jiang Cheng's gaze. "Thank you," she nodded, her messy hair sticking to her face, making her look rather disheveled.

In reality, from the moment she left Room 407 to her escape into Room 404, occupied by Jiang Cheng and Fatty, the entire ordeal had lasted only a few minutes. Yet, for her, it felt as long as a century.

This had been a life-or-death chase.

Jiang Cheng tilted his chin. "Tell us, what did you encounter," he paused, then added, "You're safe now, so I need you to be as detailed as possible."

Perhaps still suspicious of the Qipao Woman's identity, Jiang Cheng maintained a safe distance from her. The Qipao Woman didn't find this inappropriate.

Honestly, she hadn't expected Jiang Cheng to let her in.

Although she had been saved because of it, in her heart, she couldn't help but look down on Jiang Cheng a little.

Of course, she didn't show this disdain on her face.

If she had been in their shoes, she would never have opened the door for someone being chased by a ghost. For one, it might lead to her being chased and killed as well.

Secondly, no one could be sure if it wasn't a trick by the ghost, and it was difficult to distinguish whether the person being saved was human or ghost.

Therefore, the safest course of action would be to hold her breath, ignore it, and pretend she heard nothing.

After catching her breath, the Qipao Woman began her account, starting with the strange scratching sound she heard from the Pajama Woman in her room, and then describing what happened after she left her room: the appearance of Room 407 out of nowhere, and the entity chasing her.

She didn't explicitly state that the thing chasing her was a ghost, but it was undoubtedly the case.

After listening to the Qipao Woman's story, Fatty frowned. "You're saying the strange scratching sound isn't a precursor to a ghost killing someone, but rather the people who don't hear it are?"

The Qipao Woman seemed to recall the chase from earlier, her face turning pale as she nodded. "I think so."

"That's strange," Jiang Cheng mused, then suddenly spoke.

"What are you thinking about?"

"I'm wondering what its purpose is," Jiang Cheng explained. "Is it just making noise to scare people?"

The question Jiang Cheng posed indeed piqued the Qipao Woman's interest. She habitually tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and subconsciously glanced towards the door.

But in the next second, she seemed to realize something. Her pupils constricted sharply, and an icy chill crawled up her spine.

Her blood ran cold, her veins feeling like they were filled with ice shards.

Her mind, however, was exceptionally clear. The scenes from a few minutes ago replayed in her mind, frame by frame, like an old-fashioned slideshow.

The moment she was about to be caught by the ghost, it was Jiang Cheng who had opened the door and saved her.

Yes!

It was at this very moment that Jiang Cheng from behind her "pushed" the door open!

But she clearly remembered that the dormitory doors on this floor all needed to be pulled open from the inside, how could it be.

With a "gulp," she swallowed hard.

This is bad.

The next second, Jiang Cheng's voice, neither smiling nor frowning, drifted from behind her. The calmness in his voice was gone, replaced by a strange, manic energy he was struggling to suppress.

"Why aren't you speaking?" Jiang Cheng asked eerily.

Qipao Woman trembled all over, unable to utter a word.

Fatty behind her also spoke, his tone becoming increasingly strange, his voice growing higher and more distorted, "Why aren't you speaking?"

"Speak! Why aren't you speaking!!" By the end, his sharp voice seemed capable of piercing eardrums.

Malice, distortion, hatred – countless negative emotions were all mixed together.

It was already clear that it was a woman's voice, not very old, but filled with immense resentment.

Qipao Woman finally couldn't take it anymore. She tried to open the door like a madwoman, but the door seemed welded to the wall, unmoving.

As the voices behind her grew closer, she turned around with a scream. At this moment, the once clean and tidy dormitory had completely transformed.

The wall plaster had rotted and peeled off, a pile of pitch-black things was stacked on the bed, a table and chair with a broken leg were overturned in the corner of the room, and a dusty mirror was embedded in the wardrobe.

Moonlight streamed in through the window, and faint red marks could be seen on the floor. The entire space was filled with the traces left by the erosion of time.

Jiang Cheng and Fatty had vanished.

Just as Qipao Woman's expression shifted from terror to confusion, she heard a strange sound, "Hehehe!"

It sounded somewhat like grinding teeth, or perhaps something laughing.

In the mirror.