Chasing

The Qipao Woman was certain that, given the Sleepwear Woman's nerve, she wouldn't dare go near the door after she left, let alone check whether it was shut.

But she had no time to think it over. The eerie sound followed close behind her, like a parasite clinging to her bones.

The sound drew nearer and nearer. Just as it seemed it would knock her down the next second, a light suddenly appeared ahead.

Unlike the light she'd seen before, this one was bright and unmistakable, and it felt warm, like the holy light radiating from heaven.

It was a door, too.

A door opened halfway.

A strange yet strangely familiar face appeared behind it.

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

The Fatty blinked at her disheveled state, then his pupils suddenly shrank, as if he'd seen something horrifying.

The Qipao Woman realized he must have seen the thing chasing her.

The Fatty anxiously tried to say something to Jiang Cheng, but Jiang Cheng ignored him completely.

Then the Fatty seemed to get angry. He actually went around Jiang Cheng and took it upon himself to try to shut the door.

The Qipao Woman, racing toward them, panicked.

"Don't close the door!"

She screamed at the top of her lungs. The door ahead was her only hope. She could already feel the icy chill of the thing behind her.

Fortunately, Jiang Cheng remained in the Fatty's way, and the Fatty was a step too slow.

At the last possible moment, the Qipao Woman slipped through the gap in the doorway. Jiang Cheng stepped back in time, and she crashed right into the Fatty.

Caught off guard, the Fatty was knocked off his feet and fell to the floor with an "Oof!"

The next second, the Qipao Woman swiftly turned around and slammed the door shut.

She was safe.

Strangely enough, the moment the door closed, the loud footsteps that had been pounding through the corridor vanished.

The night fell silent once more.

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

Leaning against the door, the Qipao Woman gasped for breath, her body trembling uncontrollably.

By then, the Fatty had picked himself up. Rubbing his aching shoulder and stomach, he looked at her with displeasure and suspicion.

Jiang Cheng, by contrast, seemed much calmer. He looked the Qipao Woman up and down, apparently waiting for her to catch her breath and explain what had happened.

"Whew—" The Qipao Woman took a deep breath and slowly calmed down. She turned around and met Jiang Cheng's gaze. "Thank you," she said, nodding. Her disheveled hair stuck to her face, making her look rather miserable.

In truth, only a few minutes had passed since she left Room 407 and fled into Room 404, where Jiang Cheng and the Fatty were. But to her, it had felt like an entire century.

It had been a chase between life and death.

Jiang Cheng lifted his chin. "Tell me what happened." He paused, then added, "You're safe now, so give me as much detail as you can."

Perhaps he still had doubts about the Qipao Woman's identity. Jiang Cheng kept a safe distance from her, but she didn't think there was anything wrong with that.

To be honest, she hadn't expected Jiang Cheng to let her in.

Although he'd saved her, she couldn't help thinking a little less of him for it.

Of course, she didn't let that show on her face.

If she'd been in Jiang Cheng's shoes, she'd never have opened the door for someone being chased by a ghost. For one thing, the ghost might follow them in and kill them both.

For another, no one could be sure this wasn't an illusion conjured by the ghost. It was impossible to tell whether the person being rescued was human or ghost.

So the safest thing to do was hold your breath, ignore everything, and pretend you hadn't heard a thing.

Once she'd caught her breath, the Qipao Woman began with the strange scraping sound the Sleepwear Woman had heard in her room. Then she described what had happened after she left: the inexplicable appearance of Room 407 in front of her, and the thing that had pursued her.

She didn't say outright that the thing chasing her was a ghost, but there was no doubt about it.

After listening to her story, the Fatty frowned. "You're saying that hearing the eerie scraping sound wasn't a sign that the ghost was about to kill someone. It was the people who didn't hear it who were in danger?"

The Qipao Woman seemed to remember the chase. Her face pale, she nodded. "I think so."

"Then that's strange," Jiang Cheng said abruptly after a moment's thought.

"What did you figure out?"

"I'm wondering what it's trying to accomplish," Jiang Cheng explained. "Is it making that sound just to scare people?"

Jiang Cheng's question did pique the Qipao Woman's interest. Out of habit, she brushed back her hair, then unconsciously glanced toward the door.

But the next second, she seemed to realize something. Her pupils contracted sharply, and an icy chill instantly crept up her spine.

Her blood turned cold, as if her veins were packed with shards of ice.

Only her mind remained unnaturally clear. The scene from a few minutes earlier flashed through her mind frame by frame, like an old slide projector.

Just as the ghost was about to catch her, Jiang Cheng had opened the door and saved her.

Yes!

It was the Jiang Cheng standing behind her right now who had "pushed" the door open!

But she clearly remembered that the dormitory doors on this floor had to be pulled open from the inside. How could he have—

She swallowed hard.

No!

The next second, Jiang Cheng's voice drifted eerily from behind her, sounding almost amused. The calmness was gone, replaced by something strange and frenzied, though desperately restrained.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" Jiang Cheng asked in a sinister voice.

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

The Fatty behind her spoke, too. His voice had started to turn strange as well, growing higher and more distorted. "Why aren't you saying anything?"

"Say something! Why aren't you saying anything?" By the end, his shrill voice seemed sharp enough to pierce her eardrums.

Malice, distortion, resentment—all kinds of negative emotions blended together.

It was clearly a woman's voice now. She wasn't very old, but her resentment was overwhelming.

The Qipao Woman finally broke. She frantically tried to open the door, but it was as immovable as if it had been welded to the wall.

As the voices behind her drew closer and closer, she screamed and turned around. The once clean, tidy dorm room had completely changed.

The walls were rotten and peeling. A heap of pitch-black things was piled on the bed, and a broken-legged desk and chair lay overturned in the corner. A large, dust-covered mirror was embedded in the wardrobe.

Moonlight shone in through the window. Faint traces of crimson remained on the floor, and the entire space was steeped in the marks left by the passage of time.

Jiang Cheng and the Fatty had disappeared.

Just as the Qipao Woman's terrified expression began to give way to confusion, she heard a strange sound. "Heh heh heh!"

It sounded a little like teeth grinding, or something laughing.

In the mirror.