Awakened in the Dormitory at Midnight

Suddenly, I saw Zhang Qiang take out the coin Xiao Yu had held in her mouth.

My face instantly changed, and I hurriedly said:

"Zhang Qiang, y-you brought back a coin from a dead person's mouth?

You should spend it as soon as possible! It's bad luck."

Zhang Qiang did not care at all. Holding it in his hand, he said:

"Jiang Ning, it's the twenty-first century.

So what if it was in a dead person's mouth?

The people who sell antiques say that the more something comes from an ancient tomb, the more valuable it is!"

I wanted to persuade him a little more.

But Zhang Qiang suddenly shuddered violently.

He turned to look outside the dorm room and asked me with a grave expression:

"Did you hear that? Did you hear that? It sounded like... like someone was calling my name?"

Seeing how serious Zhang Qiang was, I listened carefully too.

The hallway was unusually quiet. There was not even the sound of footsteps. Who could be calling his name?

"I didn't hear anything!"

I shook my head.

But Zhang Qiang looked solemn and said seriously:

"There really was. Over by Little White Bridge!"

When I heard the words "Little White Bridge," I was stunned.

The dormitory building we were in was at least several hundred meters from Little White Bridge on campus.

Even if someone shouted through a loudspeaker, we would not be able to hear it from inside the dorm.

"From that far away, you could hear it?"

I did not believe him at all, and I studied Zhang Qiang.

Something seemed off about him. His face was pale, and he kept sweating.

"Zhang Qiang, you don't look well. Are you feeling sick somewhere?"

Zhang Qiang did not answer immediately.

Instead, he stood at the door and looked around for a while before turning back.

"You're right. It's too far away. I must have heard wrong.

I probably overexerted myself running back and have a little low blood sugar.

I'm eating the chocolate on your desk. I need to replenish my energy."

Without waiting for my approval, Zhang Qiang tore open the chocolate wrapper right in front of me and ate it.

But his complexion still looked terrible.

I asked whether he felt unwell and again told him to spend that coin as soon as possible.

Zhang Qiang still did not care.

First, he moved around in front of me and said he was fine.

Then he said he would use the coin to buy soy milk tomorrow morning. He was not afraid of something a dead person had held in their mouth.

Since he had put it that way, I had nothing more to say.

Like some kind of lunatic, Zhang Qiang paced back and forth around the dorm room a few times before saying he was sleepy and wanted to sleep.

Without even washing up, he climbed straight into bed, pulled the covers over himself, and did not move.

There were only the two of us in the dorm.

After Zhang Qiang fell asleep, I, who had originally been wide awake, soon became sleepy as well.

My eyelids kept drooping, and before long, I fell asleep...

In the middle of the night, I felt a chill on my back.

A strange sound vaguely drifted into my ears.

"Hu..."

"Hu..."

"Hu..."

The sound was not loud, but it was like a long inhalation.

Every breath sounded as though the person was about to stop breathing, heavy and strained, like the last breath drawn by a dead person.

Half-asleep, I turned onto my side and slightly lifted my eyelids.

Then I saw a pale white face crouched beside my bed, its mouth wide open as it desperately inhaled at me with repeated "hu, hu, hu" sounds.

I screamed in fright.

My body sprang off the bed, and I hurriedly shrank backward until I was pressed against the wall.

Before I could recover, that pale face was startled too. It hurriedly backed away and said:

"Jiang Ning, it's me, it's Zhang Qiang..."

Only then did I calm down a little.

By the moonlight streaming in through the window, I vaguely made out the face.

That pale face belonged to my roommate, Zhang Qiang.

I let out a breath, still shaken, and said:

"Zhang Qiang, why the hell are you standing by my bed in the middle of the night, breathing in? You scared me half to death."

Zhang Qiang chuckled, stood beside the bed, and scratched his head.

"Sorry, Jiang Ning. Did you put on perfume? You smell really nice.

I couldn't help it, so I leaned by your bed and took a few more breaths..."

After saying that, Zhang Qiang still could not resist.

He took another deep breath in my direction.

Watching Zhang Qiang inhale, I immediately cursed at him.

"Perfume my ass. Are you an idiot? You're smelling me? Get the hell away from me."

He had left me completely speechless and furious.

But Zhang Qiang looked a little aggrieved.

"If you won't let me smell you, then forget it.

Can I borrow your blanket?

This damn weather is freezing tonight. I don't know what's going on, but I'm cold to death..."

I could not be bothered to deal with Zhang Qiang anymore, so I threw my thin blanket over to him.

I did not feel cold at all. If anything, I felt a little hot.

After getting my blanket, Zhang Qiang grinned and thanked me twice.

He took two more breaths of my blanket.

He said it smelled wonderful, then finally climbed back into bed.

After covering himself with both thin blankets, he faced the wall with his back to me and went to sleep.

But I only heard him inhaling. I never heard him exhale...

I lay back down and stayed alert for a while.

Then that overwhelming drowsiness hit me again. I could not fight it off, and a powerful dizziness came with it. I could not control it at all.

It did not feel like sleepiness. It felt more like I was about to faint...

When I woke up the next day, it was already past five in the afternoon.

I had clearly gone to sleep so early the night before.

Yet when I woke up, I still felt incredibly sleepy, as though I had not slept at all.

Zhang Qiang was already gone, leaving me alone in the dorm. My head was still dizzy, I was exhausted, and I wanted to sleep again.

That made me realize something was wrong with my body.

But after calming down, I did not plan to stay in the dorm any longer.

Because Xiao Yu, who had been with me before, was clearly not alive.

There had to be an answer to what happened to Xiao Yu. I had to find out what was going on.

The source of all this might have been the coin I had failed to spend a week ago.

Even though I was exhausted in both body and mind, I knew I had to do something. I could not just sit around and wait to die.

Otherwise, this would haunt me forever.

After letting out a long breath, I reached for the phone on my desk.

But the instant I stretched out my hand,

my heart suddenly jolted, and my outstretched hand froze in midair.

That suffocating fear engulfed me once more.

Because I discovered that the chocolate Zhang Qiang had eaten yesterday

was sitting completely intact beside my phone.

And pressed on top of it was the coin Zhang Qiang had brought out of the Anatomy Room...