Cruel punishments

The girl in the white dress, Girl B, brought stools over for the two of them and asked gently, "What would you like to ask?"

Lu Xingchen smiled and asked with seemingly casual interest, "Why are only three of you here in the dorm? Where's the other senior?"

Su Tianle chimed in, "Could she have already run away? The school is haunted, after all."

Girl B looked sorrowful as she explained, "Do you mean Xiao Qian? She's already dead."

"Oh?" Lu Xingchen stood and walked over to Xiao Qian's desk. "Could you tell me exactly what happened?"

Seeing that Lu Xingchen was about to go through Xiao Qian's belongings, Girl C, who wore carefully applied makeup, warned him.

"You'd better not touch her things. You'll be cursed. She slept around, got pregnant with someone's child, and contracted HIV. The school asked her to withdraw, but her family was poor, and she refused to leave."

"In the end, someone posted about it online. She couldn't take the cyberbullying and jumped to her death at school."

Ignoring the warning, Lu Xingchen casually opened one of Xiao Qian's books. It was densely covered in the number 666. He flipped to another page at random, only to find another page full of 666s.

Lu Xingchen's trypophobia made his scalp crawl. He closed the book, certain that if he looked any longer, he would pass out from hyperventilating.

Remembering that Huo Chuyun had said the Hunter Box required a three-digit code, Lu Xingchen sent him 666 and told him to try it, then asked what special meaning the number might have.

Lu Xingchen asked with a smile, "Since Xiao Qian had HIV, why didn't you burn all her things? Aren't you afraid of catching the virus?"

Girl B looked a little at a loss. In a gentle voice, she said, "Xiao Qian cursed the school before she died. Perhaps because we threw away her things before, she put an even worse curse on us."

"Other people can escape at night. We can't."

"When Xiao Qian's things were thrown out that time, the three of us couldn't even leave the dorm room during the day. We had to beg other students to pick her things back up before we could come and go freely during the day."

Girl C flung the hair clip in her hand onto the desk as though venting her anger and complained, "She's dead, and she's still dragging us down. Every time we fall asleep, we have nightmares, and we get tortured in our dreams. Who could sleep like that!"

Girl B hurriedly rebuked her, "Don't talk nonsense!"

But it was too late.

The next second, as though confirming her words, gusts of eerie wind howled against the window of Room 414, making piercing sounds like the wails of evil spirits that had crawled out of hell.

The light bulb that had been working perfectly moments before began flickering. The constantly flashing incandescent light seemed to herald the arrival of the curse.

The air in the dorm room churned wildly. Oxygen gradually grew scarce in the cramped room, and everyone breathed heavily, trying to draw in more.

Black shadows slipped like phantoms through the gaps in Room 414's window, accompanied by a girl's terrified scream.

Lu Xingchen strode to the door and tried to open it, but the handle seemed welded in place and would not turn no matter what he did. Just as he was considering whether to break the door down-

Girl C's chest gave out heavy distress signals like broken bellows. There was clearly nothing in her nose, yet it was completely blocked.

For an instant, Girl C seemed to see the Grim Reaper's scythe. Her terrified pupils kept dilating as she screamed, "I... I was wrong! I shouldn't have cursed you. I'm... I'm sorry! Xiao Qian, please forgive me."

The moment she finished speaking, the wind stopped, the light went out completely, and the air began circulating normally again. Everyone gulped down oxygen, their heavy breathing filling the room.

"Ding, ding, ding." A phone suddenly rang in the still air.

The next instant, violent pounding came from the door.

"Help! Open the door! Black shadows are grabbing us!"

"Hurry, open up! We can't get downstairs at all! The iron gate is locked!"

They were the terrified voices of Lu Yichen and Lu Yihao.

Lu Xingchen turned a deaf ear and checked his phone. It was a message from Huo Chuyun.

Huo Chuyun: Baby, 666 was the wrong code. Six in binary is 110, so I tried 110, and it worked. I suspect the 666 you mentioned is a distress signal. Are you safe right now?

Lu Xingchen: Not very. The girls' dorm is haunted. I suspect something's wrong with the three girls in Room 414.

Huo Chuyun: Wait for me. Don't be scared. I'm coming over now.

Su Tianle was a little worried about the two outside, but the door would not open at all. He stamped his feet anxiously.

Lu Xingchen glanced over and said flatly, "The door won't open for now. Save your strength."

Outside, Lu Yichen and Lu Yihao's wails gradually subsided.

Su Tianle glanced down at his phone, then leaned over to Lu Xingchen and asked, "Jingyi and Anran found a Hunter Box. Xingchen, do you know the code?"

Lu Xingchen nodded. "Tell them to try 110. The Hunter Box on Chuyun's end has already been locked."

"The code worked!" Su Tianle praised him. "Xingchen, you're amazing! Where did you find the code? We've been together this whole time."

Lu Xingchen switched on his phone's flashlight and shone it on the three seniors, studying their disheveled appearances without any intention of going over to help them up.

Girl A sat back on her knees in the corner, seemingly scared witless. Her hair was a tangled mess, plastered to her face with sweat. She suddenly opened her eyes wide in terror and clutched her head uneasily with both hands, her body seeming about to sink into the wall as she muttered.

"No! Don't grab me! I was wrong, my lord! I don't want to be punished anymore! It hurts so much!"

"Stop gouging out my flesh! My lord, I confess! I confess!"

Lu Xingchen frowned, staring at the dark circles beneath Girl A's eyes and listening to her delirious ramblings. What were those black shadows just now? My lord? Punishment? Gouging out flesh?

Weren't those terms only used in ancient times?

Lu Xingchen watched Girl B hold and comfort Girl C. Her eyes darted uneasily, and she could not hide the exhaustion on her face, so he took the opportunity to ask.

"Could you tell us what kind of nightmares you've been having?"

Girl B turned her head. Her earlier gentleness was gone, and she shot Lu Xingchen a sharp look. "Aren't you a new student here? Haven't you had them?"

Lu Xingchen smiled. "Maybe because I only just enrolled, Xiao Qian hasn't had time to curse me yet."

Half-convinced, Girl B said, "It's a dream without a glimmer of light. I'm trapped in an ancient prison. Whenever I fall asleep and enter the dream, countless cruel punishments await me."

Girl B's pupils shrank to pinpoints. With her hair hanging loose, she looked like a female ghost with only the whites of her eyes showing as she glared viciously at Lu Xingchen and Su Tianle.

"Have you ever experienced being torn apart by five horses? Five horses are tied to my head, hands, and feet, then pull in five different directions, tearing me apart alive."

"Do you know what punishment she just suffered? She just endured death by a thousand cuts in her dream. The executioner sliced her flesh 3,357 times while she was alive, then stabbed her to death with the final cut."