Chapter 13: Disappearance
Lin Yiri didn’t think that there was anything wrong with what he just said.
When they were running to see Liu Lili, someone had asked him if the person in the red night gown was his girlfriend.
Naturally, he said ‘no’; he was afraid of getting beaten to death.
Lin Yiri’s lip twitched, “If you don’t want to, you don’t have to.”
Su Min never wanted to wear the night gown. It was entirely the cinema’s fault, setting him up for embarrassment.
Furthermore, the script was too strange. Why would a schoolboy go to a lingerie shop off campus? How was that possible...?
Su Min had a strong feeling the screenwriter who wrote this script had bad tastes.
He changed the topic, “Stop talking about this. Did you hear anything else about Teacher Chen?”
Lin Yiri shook his head, “There are no more students left from that year.”
It had been several years since Teacher Chen’s death. His students all graduated one after another, and there was no easy way of tracking them down.
There were new teachers in this school, so the subject of discussion would naturally not be him.
Lin Yiri suddenly had a thought, “Teacher Chen was quite well-known among the students. What if we just found this birthday card on accident and it’s not an important factor at all?”
Su Min didn’t agree.
Everything that appeared in this horror movie was more or less useful.
The birthday card, the photo, the seventh floor, the Su Ya and Jiang Hui who were best friends and also happened to be students of Teacher Chen...
All of these were signs indicating that something unusual happened years ago in the seventh floor, and a large portion of it was related to Teacher Chen.
Lin Yiri had doubts, “Why did one jump off the office building while the other hung herself in the dormitory? Could it be that they failed too many courses?”
Seeing Su Min absorbed in a piece of paper, he continued talking himself, “More and more, I feel that this matter isn’t simple.”
This time, he finally got a response.
On a piece of paper, Su Min drew a diagram to show the relationship between several characters. While thinking, he asked, “Where is it not simple?”
Lin Yiri thought for a moment, “Didn’t we call the police? Even after they came and took Chen Ke’s body away, they didn’t ask us anything.”
Before, they had interrogated them about Liu Lili’s death.
Now, when the police collected Chen Ke’s corpse in the dormitory, not a single question was asked.
It seems that this matter really isn’t simple.
As they were talking, a knock sounded on the door.
Lin Xiao Yan sneakily came in the room, “Su Min, Lin Yiri.”
Lin Yiri jumped in surprise, “How did you come in?”
Lin Xiao Yan closed the door, “The dorm-keeper auntie didn’t stop me.”
Lin Yiri was shocked, “Sure enough, there is a difference between girls and boys–I can’t go into your dormitory.”
If he had gone, he would immediately be blocked by the dorm-keeper aunt the moment he stepped in. He might’ve even been given the title of a ‘lecher’.
“Su Min, can you come to our dormitory at night?” Lin Xiao Yan asked.
Su Min thought for a moment, “Can I just go like this?”
“Yes, the dorm-keeper aunt won’t be checking my dorm, so it doesn’t matter what you wear,” Lin Xian Yan replied.
Su Min was happy when he heard that.
“Okay, then I’ll go,” he agreed.
Lin Yiri cut in, “I want to go, too!”
“No,” Lin Xiao Yan rejected him. “Lin Yiri, your appearance is too robust. You can come only if you wear a skirt and pretend to be a girl.”
Lin Yiri received a big blow.
However, the topic had moved on; Lin Xian Yan purpose in coming here was not this, but another.
She talked about the clues she had heard, “The girl who jumped off the building was Su Ya, and the person who hung herself was Jiang Hui.”
Su Min set the picture aside.
The girl on the left was who they heard jumped off the office building when they were on the stairs; the girl on the right was who they saw in the sealed dormitory last night.
“How did they die?” Su Min asked.
Lin Xiao Yan passed over her cell phone, “The people I talked to said that Jiang Hui hung herself in the dormitory. Her body was discovered by the dorm-keeper aunt during the evening.”
Death by hanging on a ceiling fan was really horror-movie-like.
It was during the holidays, so no one knew that there was someone in the dorm. The dorm-keeper aunt was checking to see if the rooms were locked when she saw that one room was open. Upon entering, she met face-to-face with Jiang Hui’s corpse hanging under the ceiling fan.
Afterwards, the school had suppress this news.
“Did she die on Teacher Chen’s birthday?”
Su Min looked through the records, “No, it was on the day before.”
Jiang Hui died one day before Teacher Chen’s birthday, so the birthday card wasn’t sent.
Su Ya should’ve been the one who died on his birthday. It was unknown if she had jumped on her own freewill or if she had been forced.
At the same time, there was a fire in the office.
“I also find it strange,” Lin Yiri said. “Why did she hanged herself the day before? Unless it was something else, the public statement said that it was a suicide.”
Is it really a suicide?
Lin Yiri continued, “What if she failed a course? The people I asked said Teacher Chen’s failing rate was pretty high. Maybe she failed too many courses and received too much stimulus.”
Lin Xiao Yan revealed some doubts, “It’s unlikely...”
She had failed numerous times but never thought of killing herself... However, she shouldn’t put other people under the same category.
After all, this school was a well-known university with an inhumane percentage of students who couldn’t graduate.
Countless of thoughts flashed through Su Min’s mind, “I’m more inclined to believe that Teacher Chen had done something.”
There were water stains on the birthday card, and he believed those were tears.
It was dropped in-between the bedplates and hadn’t been found until now. If Teacher Chen had nothing to do with it, she should have given it to him.
Lin Xiao Yan wondered, “Maybe Teacher Chen threatened to fail her?”
Su Min nodded his head, “We have no way of knowing for the time being. After all, we weren’t there when it happened.”
Maybe after he returned to the cinema, he would re-watch the movie the normal way to get the answer.
“I’m going to the office building tonight,” Su Min said.
Today’s tip was the office building; before, it was the seventh floor. There was still two more days left to go. Maybe he would know everything by tonight.
Lin Yiri quickly interjected, “You can’t do it alone, let’s take care of it together.”
Su Min seriously thought about the suggestion, “If you can’t fall asleep tonight, you can go.”
“Naturally, I won’t be able to sleep,” Lin Yiri said.
Thus, the plan was set.
There were still classes in the afternoon.
The police were determined to solve the suicide cases that happen in succession inside the school. Currently, there was anxiety among the students who felt like something bigger was happening.
Besides Su Min and Lin Yiri, no one dared to sit around Lin Xiao Yan.
Even the girls in her surroundings were gossiping about her.
Meanwhile, Lin Xiao Yan was extremely optimistic. She only thought that as long as she was alive, everything was okay. As for other people, that wasn’t important.
Su Min strongly approved of her mentality.
Then he opened a book and saw a female ghost with disheveled hair lying on the middle of the page. Her face was a muddle of blood and flesh, her facial features badly mutilated. The worst part was her empty eye sockets, showing an unfathomable, bloody depth.
Su Min violently closed the book.
The female ghost’s miserable shrieks rang repeatedly as she begged for forgiveness, “Don’t do this Xiao-Gege1. I just wanted to see you...”
When Su Min reopened the book, the female ghost had already disappeared.
He turned his head and looked around. No one else looked like they’ve seen or heard anything out of the ordinary. On the side, Lin Yiri was still watching his socialist videos.
Since he had entered this horror movie, the ghosts seemed to be becoming less and less frightening.
‘Indeed, it’s a rotten film,’ Su Min thought.
Naeda Translations. Do Not Re-Upload.
At 8 o’clock in the evening, Su Min and Lin Yiri, who was wearing a skirt and wig, infiltrated the female dormitory.
The three beds of the deceased were still there, untouched.
Their parents came earlier, but they had to wait until the police and school gave them the okay to pick up the things.
So, Su Min and Lin Yiri had the option of staying awake or sleep on those beds.
Su Min didn’t know what to do.
On the other hand, Lin Xiao Yan gave up her bed without worries, “I just cleaned it today, don’t disdain it.”
Su Min would never. In any case, a girl’s bed was cleaner than anyone else’s.
Lin Yiri sat on a chair and asked, “What time are we going to the office building? Should we go outside and buy some talismans?”
“Naturally, when it’s late into the night,” Su Min casually replied.
Lin Xiao Yan suddenly cut in, “What they were like in the past, tonight, it might be me.”
Maybe she would die without even knowing how or why she died.
When she recalled Chen Ke’s death last night, her scalp numbed. Whether it was by drowning or hanging, she didn’t want to appear suicidal in outsiders’ eyes.
Lin Yiri shuddered, “Let’s go to bed to be safe.”
He took the lead and climbed onto the bed, putting on headphones. This time, he was well-prepared and downloaded several videos to watch throughout the night.
Lin Xiao Yan didn’t say anything more.
Seeing that the two of them had already gone up, he could only follow along. While climbing on the bed, he turned off the lamp in the passing.
As Su Min lay on the bed and got under the sheets, he felt ice-hold hands grabbing onto his.
Immediately afterwards, Jing Xian’s voice sounded in his ears, “My hands are cold.”
Su Min, “Do you want me to cover you up?”
“Really?”
“...” No.
Su Min didn’t want to talk to him, but he still gave him a little space. What looked to be air in the quilt was actually a ghost.
One man and one ghost had nothing to say for a while.
Su Min coughed and asked, “Since you’ve been here for a long time, do you know what’s happening in this school?”
Jing Xian answered with another question, “Do you want an answer?”
Su Min predicted that if he said ‘yes’, Jing Xian would reply with an ‘what do I get in exchange’.
And so, he shut his mouth.
Perhaps it was because he hadn’t slept well for several days, but Su Min unexpectedly fell asleep within ten minutes.
It was already 11 o’clock when he woke up.
In the darkness of the dormitory, Su Min turned on his phone and used the light to look around. He found that the door was open, letting in a cold wind from the pitch-black corridors.
Just then, he felt that something was wrong and turned to center of the room.
Standing there with a blank expression on her face was Lin Xiao Yan.
Su Min felt chills running up his spine.
When she saw that he had noticed her, she quirked her lips up to a strange smile before quickly running out of the dorm room.