Translator: CinderTL
"Because the exhibits inside were all for display, any accident would make me liable. Plus, there was the matter of the male teacher..."
"He still felt the male teacher hadn't left, that he was still somewhere in the art center."
"First, he found the light switch behind the Gate. But when he pressed it, the feel was wrong. It wasn't the crisp, click-click sound he expected. Instead, it was soft and mushy, as if it were broken."
"Shining his flashlight, he saw cracks all around the switch, as if someone had smashed it with a sharp object."
The security guard's first thought was that a thief had broken in.
Rustle... rustle... Yuan Xiaoyi's imitation was so convincing that Jiang Cheng felt as if he were the security guard that night.
"The security guard heard that strange sound again, this time even clearer. It was... it was coming from the corner of the Sculpture Hall!"
Thinking it was the thief, the security guard shouted for them to come out, shining his flashlight in that direction. He warned that if they didn't come out immediately, he would call the police!
Yuan Xiaoyi paused, her gaze fixed on Jiang Cheng. Her expression shifted slightly. "In the corner... there really was someone. He was wearing a red outfit, squatting on the ground, facing the wall with his head bowed. All we could see was his back—we couldn't see his face."
The image flashed through Jiang Cheng's mind, and he couldn't help but sigh inwardly. If he were that security guard, he'd have turned and walked away immediately, on tiptoe, as quietly as possible.
But if it were him, there probably wouldn't have been any more to the story.
"That person..." Yuan Xiaoyi's voice suddenly grew tense. "That person kept twitching every now and then. The strange sounds were coming from him."
"At that moment, the security guard noticed that the ground around the person was covered in blood! Bright red blood! The outfit wasn't originally red—it had been dyed red by the blood!"
"That person was the male teacher! He had been wearing a white outfit when he arrived, which is why the security guard hadn't recognized him at first!"
"As the panicked security guard rushed forward and his hand brushed the male teacher's shoulder, the male teacher suddenly collapsed backward."
"His exposed face was a bloody mess. His hands... both hands had been stripped down to bone, hanging in front of his chest like chicken claws, still clinging to shreds of flesh and skin."
At this point, Yuan Xiaoyi gasped violently, the story filling her with deep unease.
"Senior, he wasn't dead yet! He was still alive then!" Her voice trembled with barely controlled emotion.
"Xiaoyi, don't be afraid. I'm here. You're safe," Jiang Cheng said, placing his hand on her forehead as if to infuse her with strength and help her overcome her fear.
Her chest heaving, Yuan Xiaoyi finally regained her composure after a long moment and continued her story.
"The security guard was terrified and scrambled away on all fours. Senior, can you imagine? That... that male teacher actually reached out to grab the security guard with those hands..."
"The security guard was completely stunned. He ran blindly, crashing headfirst into a wall and splitting his head open without even realizing it."
"Back at the security office, he immediately called the police."
"The police arrived before dawn, but the male teacher was already dead," Yuan Xiaoyi said, her lips pressed tight. "I heard the scene was particularly gruesome. An old Police Officer who participated in the case recalled that a young officer, upon seeing the body, immediately covered his mouth and ran outside to vomit. It took him a long time to recover."
"Senior Jiang, you've heard of Lingchi, haven't you?" Yuan Xiaoyi explained, her face pale. "They say the scene was somewhat similar."
"What did the police say?" Jiang Cheng asked.
"They found the murder weapon at the scene—the tools commonly used for sculpting—covered in blood. There were no signs of forced entry anywhere in the building; all the doors and windows were intact. Besides the male teacher, the only other person inside was the security guard, so everyone suspected him," Yuan Xiaoyi said.
"But they later determined he wasn't the killer, right?" Jiang Cheng asked, already familiar with the case.
"Yes," Yuan Xiaoyi nodded cautiously. "The police took the security guard in for questioning, but released him shortly after."
"After that, rumors began circulating around the school that the male teacher hadn't been murdered by a person, but by the sculptures in the Sculpture Hall!"
Jiang Cheng frowned slightly. "Sculptures killed him?"
"That's right." Yuan Xiaoyi swallowed hard and continued, "The rumors are quite detailed. They say it started with a photograph taken by the police at the scene before dawn."
"The next afternoon, the police brought the photograph to the Person in Charge of the Sculpture Hall."
"They immediately asked why he had entered the crime scene without police permission and moved things around."
"The Person in Charge was stunned. He quickly explained that he hadn't. Besides, the scene was sealed off. Even if he wanted to go in, he wouldn't have had the chance."
"The police then presented two photographs taken from the same angle. Pointing to one, they asked, 'Where is this sculpture? We searched the entire scene but couldn't find it.'"
"That's when the Person in Charge noticed a sculpture standing in the background of one of the photos, roughly in the corner. With so many sculptures around, it hadn't stood out at first glance."
"But when the two photos were compared, the difference was obvious. From the same angle, the corner in the second photo was empty. Nothing was there."
"The photo showing the sculpture was taken by the first police officers to arrive on the night of the crime, before dawn."
"The second photo was taken this morning after dawn by a police officer."
"It's easy to guess what the Police Officer was thinking: they suspected someone had secretly moved the statue while they weren't looking. In other words, only someone with a guilty conscience would do something like that at this time!"
The Person in Charge protested his innocence, but then seemed to notice something strange. He stared at the photo for a long time.
After a moment, he finally looked up, his eyes filled with confusion as he turned to the questioning Police Officer. "I've never seen this statue before. It doesn't belong to our school!"
Of course, the police couldn't believe such nonsense. They called in several teachers who worked at the art center to identify the statue.
But strangely, every single one of them claimed they'd never seen it before, with no recollection whatsoever!
Even an elderly cleaning lady insisted that the corner had always been empty. She said she rested there every day when she got tired, and she couldn't possibly be mistaken.
Jiang Cheng let out a slow breath. "The statue only appeared on the night the male teacher was murdered, and then vanished by dawn the next day. Is that right?"
(End of the Chapter)
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