The entire Experimental Middle School was a prison meticulously designed by the principal. Those inside could not contact anyone outside. Even with evidence in hand, finding a way to call the police was a problem.
Deng Wen and Jiang Yao could not stay out for long during the day, so they arranged to meet Ji Xun in the hall that night before returning to the Mirror.
Just as he was about to return to the classroom, Ji Xun spotted Chen He pacing along the first-floor corridor.
Chen He looked to be in a terrible state. His eyes were red and bloodshot, and he seemed somewhat dazed.
Ji Xun could just make out his muttering. When he drew closer, he realized Chen He was saying, "So hungry. Why am I so hungry?"
"Chen He, are you all right?"
His expression vacant, Chen He slowly shifted his gaze to Ji Xun's face.
Ji Xun frowned. Chen He had seemed perfectly normal when he saw him in the restroom earlier. How little time had passed? Why did he look possessed now?
"Ji Xun, where did that person from earlier go?" Chen He seemed to struggle to speak, forcing the words out.
"What's wrong with you?"
"What's wrong with me? Right, what's wrong with me?" Chen He said helplessly. "I'm so hungry. I don't know why I'm this hungry."
Ji Xun's heart sank. "Where are the other two? Why did they leave you alone?"
Chen He clenched his teeth and began to sob, shaking his head as he cried. "They went to the cafeteria for meatball noodles. I couldn't stop them. Ji Xun, I'm so hungry too. What do I do? What do I do?"
He desperately tugged at his own hair, trying to suppress the inexplicable hunger.
Chen He hated to admit it, but he knew he must have fallen victim to something.
If he let the hunger defeat him, he would never get out of this school.
"I don't want to die. I can't eat anything. I have to get out of here." Chen He suddenly lifted his head, fixing Ji Xun with eyes that gleamed eerily. "Let me take a bite of you. Just one bite. Please!"
Chen He held up one finger, his face full of pleading. "Help me, Ji Xun. I'm begging you to help me."
Ji Xun shook his head. "No."
Chen He's eyes widened, and he shouted angrily, "Why not!"
The hunger overwhelmed the last of his reason, and he lunged forward to bite Ji Xun's neck.
Ji Xun sidestepped him, grabbed his collar, and slammed his head against the wall.
He did not use much force, only enough to knock him out temporarily.
Ji Xun had not intended to bother with him, but after some thought, he left a note beside him listing several locations with Ghost Stories.
Whether Chen He chose to keep hiding in the dormitory or fight for a chance to survive was no longer Ji Xun's concern.
Hearing the noise, Yuan Ci stepped out of the classroom and met Ji Xun's gaze from a distance.
Ji Xun tipped up his chin, opened a window, and vaulted out.
Jiang Yao's last memory was of the Administrator taking him to a pile of building materials behind the teaching building. Yuan Ci had also mentioned that a concrete mixer truck had been on campus at the time.
But two years had passed. The physical evidence from back then had long since been completely destroyed, and there was nothing behind the teaching building anymore.
If the bodies of the Class Twelve students had been dismembered, mixed with gravel and cement, and thrown into the mixer truck, that would explain why Jiang Yao and the others' bodies had never been found.
Peng Di on the stairs, Jiang Yao and the other five behind "Straighten Your Clothes," and all the remaining students who had yet to be found.
Perhaps they were trapped in the teaching building because their flesh and bones had been mixed into the concrete and carried to every corner of the school.
Night fell.
It was already the third night, and Ji Xun still had not returned to the dormitory.
After checking the rooms, the Administrator and the madwoman from the girls' dormitory did not quietly wait for the second inspection as they had on the previous two nights. Instead, they entered the teaching building carrying weapons.
The axe dragged across the floor with a shrill scraping sound. Only then did Ji Xun get a clear look at the madwoman.
Her skeletal body was covered in cigarette burns. She probably was not very old, but her extreme thinness made her look aged.
A tear at the waist of her ragged dress exposed the loose skin of her belly. Unlike the gauntness of the rest of her body, her abdomen resembled a deflated, shriveled ball.
Ji Xun quietly slipped out of her patrol area and hurried toward the third-floor restroom.
Jiang Yao and Deng Wen were already waiting there. When Ji Xun arrived, Jiang Yao complained, "You're finally here."
Ji Xun followed him into the girls' restroom.
The restroom smelled clean. The boys' restroom had a choking stench of cigarette smoke, but the girls' restroom smelled only of disinfectant.
Wei Lin had said that Qian Fang had been forcibly dragged into the drain. Ji Xun leaned over to look. The area around the drain was clean too; apparently, it had been scrubbed.
"Why isn't he coming out?"
Jiang Yao curled his lip. "Who knows? The little brat only settles down when that madwoman's on patrol. Otherwise, he keeps banging on the pipes. It's annoying as hell."
No sooner had Jiang Yao finished speaking than the shrill scrape of the dragging axe gradually faded into the distance, and the pipe-banging he had just mentioned immediately began.
Rather than knocking, it sounded more like slapping.
The sound grew clearer and clearer, as though something were crawling up through the drainpipe.
Suddenly, a tiny blue-green hand reached out of the drain, followed by a head squeezed out of shape.
It was a tiny baby with blue-gray skin all over. Just as Jiang Yao had said, his umbilical cord was still attached. He must have died just after birth.
The baby's head barely retained any normal shape. He opened his mouth in a grin, revealing a mouthful of sharp, sharklike teeth.
At the sight of Ji Xun, the baby visibly brightened and crawled toward him on all fours.
Jiang Yao sounded surprised. "Good looks really do get you special treatment. This little brat is seriously territorial. He used to take a bite out of anyone who entered the girls' restroom."
Ji Xun chuckled and scooped the baby off the floor, settling him in the crook of his arm.
The baby babbled and clapped his hands, repeating over and over, "Mama, Mama."
Jiang Yao wore an indescribable expression. "Wouldn't have guessed it. You're a male mama."
Deng Wen elbowed him in the stomach. "Be serious."
Ji Xun stopped glaring at him and made his voice as gentle as he could. "Where's your mama?"
The baby giggled, the sound unbearably eerie in the dark teaching building.
He caught Ji Xun's hand with his icy little one and pointed in a direction.
[Side quest: Help the adorable lost child find his mama] [Complete the quest to receive a thank-you gift from the child]
The sound of the axe slowly approached them again. Hearing it, the baby began to whimper.
He had intended to crawl back into the drain and hide, just as he always had.
But perhaps the arm holding him was too warm. The baby did not want to return to that icy drain alone.
His lips puckered as he whimpered, and he stretched out his tiny arms to cling tightly to Ji Xun's neck.
His trembling little body kept conveying his terror to Ji Xun. Ji Xun patted his back soothingly. "Don't be afraid."
A sharp weapon whistled through the air beside his ear. Ji Xun spun around and kicked the hurled axe away.
The madwoman caught the axe as it flew back toward her. A gleam flashed in her eyes when she saw the baby. "Child, come to Mama!"
Jiang Yao looked at the baby. "Little guy, is she your mom?"
As though realizing he now had someone to back him up, the baby spat toward the madwoman.
Ji Xun laughed. "See? Our baby doesn't know you."
The baby clenched his little fists: ptooey!
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