The live comments scrolled wildly.
[Holy crap, what a bombshell. Your Chenchen is getting engaged. How do his fans feel?]
[As long as Chenchen is happy. I can't bear to let him go, but he has my blessing.]
[Am I the only one who noticed? Lu Yichen said he's getting engaged to a young master of the Huo family. The Capital's most powerful family!]
[Why do I remember the Huo family only having one young master, the president of Huo Group?]
[Apparently there's a second young master too. We just don't know which one Lu Yichen is getting engaged to.]
[Our Chenchen is the Lu family's most beloved young master. Only the president of Huo Corporation is good enough for our Chenchen.]
[I knew Lu Xingchen had no manners. He even hits his own parents.]
[Is the person above blind? My heart hurts for Xingxing. He lives with the servants, even the furry little ones he raised get bullied, and when he fights back, they use filial duty to keep him down.]
[Lu Yichen and his fans have lost their minds. He took Xingxing's place and still puts on an act.]
Since Lu Yichen was willing to drag up all this ancient history, Lu Xingchen didn't mind tearing off their masks of hypocrisy either.
Thinking of Huo Junchi's looks, Lu Xingchen rolled his eyes at Lu Yichen. "You really must be starving. You'll swallow anything."
Lu Yichen thought Lu Xingchen was just calling the grapes sour because he couldn't have them. "I know you're jealous of me, big brother..."
"What's there to envy about you eating shit?" Lu Xingchen cut him off.
Just then.
Ding, ding, ding.
Everyone's phones rang loudly in the empty silence outside the girls' dormitory building.
The text message read: Huo Chuyun scanned a QR code and obtained a clue: Building 4.
Jiang Jingyi and Song Anran scanned a QR code and obtained a clue: 404.
Lu Xingchen glanced at the message Huo Chuyun had sent.
Huo Chuyun: Baby, I found a Hunter Box on the third floor of Teaching Building 4. I won't be coming over to the girls' dormitory. It has a three-digit code. Send it to me when you find it.
Lu Xingchen: Stay safe and stay hidden. Wait for my code.
Lu Xingchen called for Su Tianle to follow him toward Girls' Dormitory Building 4. "Tianle, keep up."
"Okay." Su Tianle put away his admiring gaze and immediately followed Lu Xingchen.
The biting night wind gave Lu Yichen and Lu Yihao goose bumps. They exchanged a glance, decided that staying with Lu Xingchen was safest, and hurried after him.
They reached the fourth floor of Girls' Dormitory Building 4.
The corridor seemed shrouded in stillness, so eerily quiet that even the crisp sound of a needle as fine as silk falling softly to the floor would have reached their ears clearly.
The dimness spread like a thick fog. When they stretched their hands out, all they could see was pitch-black darkness, as though it had swallowed everything, leaving not even the outline of anything visible.
Only an extremely faint dark green light flickered in the corner: the emergency exit sign.
Su Tianle was already afraid of ghosts, and now, faced with this scene, he didn't dare take another step. The corridors on the three floors below had all been lit, so why was the fourth floor...
Su Tianle clutched the hem of Lu Xingchen's clothes, following him with his eyes closed.
Lu Xingchen frowned and switched on his phone's flashlight, shining it clearly onto the room numbers in the girls' dormitory.
401, 402, 403, 405, 406, 407...
Where had Dormitory Room 404 from the clue gone?
"Ah!" Lu Yichen suddenly shrieked, clinging tightly to Lu Yihao's arm as he pointed at a spot in the corridor.
"Third brother, a dark shadow floated past over there!"
Lu Yihao followed Lu Yichen's finger with his gaze, but saw nothing except darkness. There was no shadow at all.
Lu Yihao patted Lu Yichen's hand soothingly. "There's nothing there. Were your eyes playing tricks on you?"
Seeing a dark shadow drift past over Lu Yihao's shoulder, Lu Yichen screamed and shoved him away. He fell to the floor himself and scrambled backward on his hands and feet until he hit the wall.
"Third brother, b-behind you!"
The shove sent Lu Yihao back two steps. He turned to look, but there was still nothing except darkness. Frowning, he said, "Chenchen, if you're really scared, let's go downstairs first."
Lu Yichen nodded tearfully. "I don't want to stay here anymore. I want to leave. Third brother, help me up."
With his eyes closed, Su Tianle listened to their exchange, his hands trembling. "Xingchen, should we..."
Lu Xingchen couldn't be bothered with the two Lu brothers. Hearing the tremor in Su Tianle's voice, he suggested, "If you're scared, you can go downstairs first. I'll be okay on my own."
"No, I'd rather stay with you."
Su Tianle was more willing to trust Lu Xingchen. He was afraid something unexpected might happen if he went downstairs.
Lu Xingchen had reached the very end of the corridor. The room number was 414, and this number plate was slightly different.
Some of the other number plates were rusty, while others had pieces missing from their numbers.
Room 414's number plate was brand-new, without a speck of dust on it, as though it had only been installed that day.
There hadn't been the slightest movement inside any of the rooms they passed along the way. Only this room had light showing beneath its door, and when he listened carefully, he could hear a few faint voices talking inside.
At the other end of the corridor was the exit leading downstairs.
Lu Yichen watched helplessly as the iron door to the stairs suddenly locked as though by magic. He looked at Lu Yihao in despair.
At that moment, an eerie wind came howling through the corridor balcony beside them like a wild horse breaking free of its reins. Several dark shadows flashed past like specters, and only then did Lu Yihao finally notice something was wrong.
Meanwhile, Lu Xingchen raised his hand and knocked on the door to Room 414. Knock, knock, knock.
The voices inside stopped abruptly, followed by a terrified sob.
A trembling female voice came from inside. "W-who is it?"
Lu Xingchen's voice was gentle and harmless. "I'm a new student. I only enrolled recently, and I don't know why the school is haunted. I wanted to find someone to ask about it, and I noticed only Room 414 had its lights on, so I wanted to ask if you knew anything."
Perhaps because Lu Xingchen's voice was so clear and sounded so harmless, the door slowly opened from inside.
Lu Xingchen blinked, trying to adjust to the sudden, dazzling light, then grinned. "Hello, seniors. My roommate and I are from Room 302 in Boys' Dormitory Building 1. We wanted to ask about what's been going on."
Lu Xingchen tugged at Su Tianle behind him. Finally seeing living people, Su Tianle excitedly followed his lead and greeted them. "Hello, seniors."
Girl A, who wore glasses and had short hair, looked warily behind them. Only after seeing that there was nothing behind the two did she let them in.
Lu Xingchen quickly surveyed the dorm room. It was a four-person room, with beds above desks.
Only three beds were occupied. The other had bedding and looked very tidy. A few books lay scattered across its desk, but a thin layer of dust had long since settled over the desktop.
Lu Xingchen briefly scanned the four bookcases and noticed that the books belonging to the three seniors still living there were different from those in the absent senior's bookcase.
Different majors? Or...
Before you continue