Translator: CinderTL
Noticing the woman's nervousness, Jiang Cheng reached out and gently touched the back of her hand with his fingertips. He looked into her eyes with an encouraging gaze and said earnestly, "Senior Sister, I never imagined you were so brave. A physician's compassion—you agree, right?"
Fatty observed the woman's tense face gradually relax. He pursed his lips and continued, "The gym teacher who moved in quickly noticed something was off. At first, he felt an unbearable cold, the kind that wouldn't go away even with the heater on and thick clothes. It was like... like someone was blowing cold air down the back of his neck." The woman's eyes flickered as she emphasized, "Very cold air."
"After sleeping, the clothes hanging nearby would inexplicably become damp, constantly dripping water as if they'd just been washed."
"Three male teachers moved in at the time. Before long, one fell ill, and another was hit on the head by a box that fell from a metal shelf while he was moving things. In the end, only one teacher remained, stubbornly holding on."
At this point, the woman explained in a low voice, "Actually, some people had already noticed something was wrong, but the school insisted on keeping him there. The incident had become too big to simply dismiss it without losing face."
"To appease the remaining male teacher, the school promised that if he could endure just three more days—only three days—they would grant him full-time status."
"The male teacher had only recently joined the school and was still in his probationary period," the woman sighed.
From her tone and expression, everyone could sense that the male teacher's fate was likely grim.
"What happened next?" Jiang Cheng asked gently, following the predictable horror movie trope: something terrible would inevitably occur on the final night. He had already anticipated this.
I hope he's still alive, Jiang Cheng thought, his mind swirling with unanswered questions.
The woman shook her head, her voice weary. "No one knows exactly what happened that night. All we know is that when the school security found him the next day, he was completely broken. You can't even imagine it—a grown man, curled up in a fetal position, crammed into a cardboard box."
"The cardboard box was hidden in a very secluded corner of the warehouse. If they hadn't found his phone nearby, the security guards would have assumed he'd run off."
"When they tried to pull him out, he resisted fiercely, refusing to come out. His eyes were bloodshot, and he kept shouting things like, 'Don't touch me! It's here! It's watching me!'"
"The security guards didn't dare make any sudden moves, afraid of further agitating him. Someone offered him a bottle of water, hoping he'd calm down, but the moment he saw the water, he leaped out of the box in terror."
"He literally leaped out, leaving the security guards stunned. Then he bolted out like a madman, knocking several people over in his frenzy. He tripped on the corridor stairs and tumbled down, breaking his leg."
The woman sighed, her gaze sweeping over Jiang Cheng and the others with a now you understand look. She lowered her voice and said, "The school pulled a lot of strings and spent a fortune to cover this up."
"Of course, the news was tightly suppressed. Most students and teachers know nothing about it. I only learned some details because of my work," she explained.
"Senior Sister," Jiang Cheng said, pressing his lips together and looking at her with sincere apology. "I'm sorry. We misunderstood you."
The woman sighed but remained silent.
"But Senior Sister," Jiang Cheng hesitated before asking, "there's still something I don't understand. If that warehouse is problematic, why wasn't it sealed off? At the very least, it should have been taken out of use."
"I asked about that too," the woman replied. "An old professor once told me that the gate couldn't be locked. He also said that as long as you didn't approach the warehouse at night, you'd be safe. Even entering during the day wouldn't give you that chilling feeling."
She paused before continuing, "And it turned out he was right. Before Gao Yan's incident, there hadn't been any trouble for a long time."
After hearing her explanation, the group seemed to fall into deep thought.
The woman's mention of inexplicably soaked clothes and the male teacher's fear of water immediately reminded them of the Stalker Ghost.
It always left wet footprints wherever it went.
Among them, Shen Mengyun was the most deeply affected. The male teacher's words echoed endlessly in her mind: It's here. It's right here, watching me!
She had experienced the same thing. The first time she went to the warehouse, a figure had been hiding behind the metal shelves, coldly watching her.
This must be the Stalker Ghost.
Jiang Cheng waited for the woman to calm down before attempting to ask more questions. But just as he was about to speak, the office door suddenly swung open, and a man in a security guard uniform strode in.
Everyone immediately recognized him as one of the two men who had been arguing with Gao Yan in the infirmary.
"Doctor Liu, who are they?" the man asked, glancing at the woman sitting across from Jiang Cheng.
The woman stood up, first exchanging a meaningful look with Jiang Cheng before turning to the man. "They're Gao Yan's classmates," she said calmly. "They've come to visit him."
Hearing that they knew Gao Yan, the security guard's expression immediately tensed. "If you're with Gao Yan, did you go inside too?"
Following the woman's cue, Jiang Cheng skillfully shifted all the blame onto Gao Yan, portraying him as young and reckless. He emphasized that none of them had any knowledge of what had happened.
The security guard clearly remained skeptical, but lacking any evidence, he could only take down their contact information, saying he might need to reach them later.
After the security guard left, the woman led Jiang Cheng and his group to see Gao Yan.
Pushing open the door, they found Gao Yan propped against the pillows, his face pale and his breathing labored. Small bloodstains dotted his collar.
"You can talk," the woman said, taking a phone call and hurrying out.
In just a few hours, Gao Yan's head had been bandaged like a rice dumpling, his clothes torn, and an IV drip hung from his hand. He looked utterly wretched.
"Mr. Gao, it's good to see you again," Wang Qi said with a nod.
Gao Yan's stomach churned at Wang Qi's forced smile, but he knew he had only himself to blame. He had secretly tucked the notebook into his clothes, hoping to hoard the clues for himself.
Now, haunted by the ghost because of his greed, he couldn't fault anyone else.
"Mr. Gao, where's the notebook?" Jiang Cheng asked bluntly, his tone direct with the old man.
"Lost," Gao Yan gritted his teeth. "The ghost wouldn't let us take anything left by the girls."
"And I'm certain that notebook was the ghost's primary target. If I hadn't thrown it away at the last moment, you wouldn't be seeing me alive right now."
(End of the Chapter)
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