Translator: CinderTL
He walked along the familiar path, carefully managing his emotions and expressions.
When he saw Yuan Xiaoyi waiting at their usual spot, the emotions he had been holding back instantly flooded out.
"Xiaoyi!"
Jiang Cheng's micro-expressions were perfect. From the initial joy of seeing her, to the guilt of remembering his failed mission, by the time he reached Yuan Xiaoyi's side, the complex and conflicted emotions on his face were beyond words.
"I'm sorry, Xiaoyi." Jiang Cheng's eyes were red, and he fought to hold back his tears. His voice choked with emotion as he said, "It's all my fault. I couldn't save Xiaoyu. It's my fault for being useless!"
Upon hearing the devastating news, Yuan Xiaoyi froze. Then, as if she could barely stand, her eyes glazed over, and her lips trembled slightly.
After a few seconds, tears began to stream down her face like a broken dam. "Xiaoyu... she... she wouldn't... wouldn't!"
As if this were their final performance together, Jiang Cheng and the Heart-Corroding Demon cherished this opportunity. Their emotions were delicate, their dialogue precise, and their actions seamlessly integrated with the plot. It was only after a long while that they reluctantly moved on to the next scene.
"Senior," Yuan Xiaoyi said, her voice trembling with despair as she looked at Jiang Cheng. "Last night, I saw Xiaoran."
Jiang Cheng's pupils narrowed slightly.
The final mission... has begun.
Xiaoran was the girl who had disappeared in the school swimming pool. In Jiang Cheng's memory, Yuan Xiaoyi had once shown him a photo she claimed Xiaoran had sent her after she went missing.
The photo was taken inside the swimming pool. In the distance, a diving board stood, and a pair of livid feet were visible on it.
"What did Xiaoran say to you?" Jiang Cheng rubbed his face, then asked in a low, hoarse voice, clearly still struggling with deep self-reproach.
"She... she didn't say anything. She just stood by my bed, completely soaked," Yuan Xiaoyi recalled. "I couldn't see her face at all. It was hidden by her hair, which was dripping wet and still... still dripping constantly."
"If you couldn't see her face, how could you be sure it was Xiaoran?" As Jiang Cheng listened to Yuan Xiaoyi's account, a familiar feeling suddenly washed over him.
Soaked and dripping water, leaving wet footprints wherever she walked—wasn't this the figure that had been following them all along?
"Her swimsuit... she's wearing Xiaoran's swimsuit. It can't be wrong. It's Xiaoran. She's come back for me."
"I thought it was a hallucination. No, wait, it's not a hallucination." Yuan Xiaoyi's mental state seemed on the verge of collapse, her words incoherent. "But that's what I thought at the time. I didn't want them to find me. Please don't come looking for me anymore! I'm going crazy!" She clutched her head, her expression one of intense agony.
"Calm down, Xiaoyi," Jiang Cheng soothed. "You've done a great job."
"Senior!" Yuan Xiaoyi suddenly raised her head, her eyes bloodshot. "I can feel Xiaoran watching me. Through the gaps in my hair, there's a pair of eyes staring at me!"
"When I woke up this morning, there was water on the floor—right where Xiaoran had been standing last night, in front of my bed!"
"And footprints! From the edge of the bed all the way to the door. There's even water on the doorknob!"
Observing Yuan Xiaoyi's reaction, Jiang Cheng felt a strange unease. She seemed terrified, not of losing Xiaoran again, but of... Xiaoran herself.
When she described the other missing students, she wasn't like this.
Was there something special about this Xiaoran?
And why did her description of Xiaoran sound so much like the person who had been following them?
Soon, with Jiang Cheng's reassurance, Yuan Xiaoyi finally calmed down and began to recount the Urban Legends surrounding the school's swimming pool.
"Senior," Yuan Xiaoyi said in a muffled voice, as if still struggling internally, "the school's swimming pool is different from places like the library and the abandoned sports field. It's newly built, only a few years old."
"Construction went smoothly, and I never heard of any incidents during the process."
"Perhaps because of previous incidents, the school was cautious and had the site inspected beforehand. In short, the land was clean. Nothing strange or unusual had ever happened there, and there were no similar rumors."
"Do you understand what I'm saying, Senior?" Yuan Xiaoyi looked at Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng nodded. The Sculpture Hall had been built on a mass grave, and strange occurrences had plagued the construction from the very beginning. Clearly, the school had learned its lesson this time.
After a moment's thought, Jiang Cheng asked, "So this incident only happened after the school swimming pool was built, right?"
"That's right, Senior," Yuan Xiaoyi replied, looking somewhat nervous and clutching the hem of her clothes. "I'd heard rumors about the swimming pool before, but they were vague, just scattered fragments. It wasn't until Xiaoran told us the story that day—that day..."
"The night they disappeared," Jiang Cheng finished.
Yuan Xiaoyi nodded, her face pale.
"What happened at the swimming pool?" Jiang Cheng asked in a calm, unhurried voice, suppressing his impatience.
"It was... a few girls. They weren't students at our university, but high school girls. I heard they were preparing for a very important competition."
"Since our university's swimming pool was newly built and had excellent facilities, they arranged with the school to borrow it for training."
"The school agreed, but since our students needed to use it during the day, they scheduled the girls' training for the evenings."
"The school even assigned them a dedicated instructor who came every night to guide their technique and supervise their training."
"At first, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The girls progressed quickly under the teacher's guidance."
"One girl stood out in particular. I heard her scores already met the standards, and several prestigious universities had taken notice. If she performed normally, she could secure a spot through a special talent program."
"But no one expected what happened. On the eve of the competition, the coach the school had arranged for the evening training had to leave temporarily. When he rushed back, the girl with the exceptional scores..." Yuan Xiaoyi paused, "...was already dead."
"Her body was floating in the pool, bobbing gently with the water's surface. The remaining girls were paralyzed with fear, as if their souls had been stolen. All they could do was cry."
"How did she die?" Jiang Cheng asked.
"Drowning." A strange emotion flickered in Yuan Xiaoyi's eyes. "The final investigation concluded that the girl had suffered a severe muscle spasm, or cramp, in the pool, leading to this tragedy."
"What were the other girls doing when she drowned?" Jiang Cheng asked the question that any normal person would have thought of.
"It was a severe cramp that led to the tragedy."
"What were the other girls doing when she drowned?"
Jiang Cheng raised a question that any normal person would have asked.
(End of the Chapter)
---
📖Read (NS) on Pa.treon@CinderTL - c1314. [+4]
🔑Read it 100% for FREE visit the pinned post on my p@treon to learn how!🎉
💥Translated (6) Series, (4.6K+) Chapters, (6.7M+) Words.