This class felt much longer than yesterday's, and for a moment, the two of them even forgot about their anxiety.
When the bell rang, the teacher left immediately, but none of the students stayed, staring nervously at their phones. It dawned on them that it was time for the teacher to select students again.
Every morning after class, the counselor would notify the group chat which two students would be preparing for the afternoon anatomy class. Today, the message arrived incredibly timely.
Counselor: [Meng Tianyou and Zhong Xin, thank you for your hard work preparing for the class today.]
Seeing the names in the group chat, Meng Qing nearly fell to the ground.
She then steadied herself by holding onto the back of her chair, hurried over to Meng Tianyou, and clutched his hand tightly. Her voice was filled with anxious, fearful tears, "Son, don't worry. Mommy's going for you. Mommy's going for you..."
Meng Tianyou frowned, saying nothing.
Meng Qing seemed to be comforting herself, as well as Meng Tianyou, "It's okay, it's okay. Wasn't it okay when Song Mingliang went yesterday?"
"Should we tell her?" Lin Xiang asked Hua Haoming during lunch.
Meng Qing still thought Song Mingliang was fine, unaware that the two people who had gone to prepare for the lesson yesterday had acted strangely. Song Mingliang's eyes, hidden behind his thick bangs, were still peeking around.
Perhaps it was the dark, frenzied light surging within, but they seemed different, as if a ghost were watching its prey from behind.
It had only been a day.
Hua Haoming shook his head. "She's about to go in. Telling her now will only make her more panicked and more likely to get into trouble."
Just like yesterday, they didn't return to the dormitory at noon and followed Meng Qing to the anatomy lab.
On the way, Hua Haoming reminded Meng Qing, "Be sure to wear your gloves and masks. Don't remove them at all times. Don't look around. Get ready quickly and come out."
During the morning discussion among the three of them, Lin Xiang raised two possibilities: contamination or possession. Hua Haoming thought contamination unlikely, and possession was difficult to prevent. However, considering Dai Liangyuan's description of madness, he suggested a genuine ghost sighting or some form of mental contamination.
Lin Xiang's contamination could only be addressed with masks and gloves. As for the mental contamination, there was no other way to deal with it; he simply ignored it.
Meng Qing nodded one by one. She knew Hua Haoming had come out of the game before, and she believed his words very much.
After hesitating for a while while holding her son's hand, she went in with Zhong Xin.
Meng Tianyou stood there and watched her thin figure getting farther and farther away, his hands in his pockets clenched into fists.
Xia Bai also kept watching. Lin Xiang saw envy in his eyes and began to feel distressed again.
He knew that Xia Bai had no parents and only a grandfather to rely on. Later, in the winter of his senior year in high school, his grandfather also passed away, and he was left without any relatives. He must be very envious of such a good mother who stood up for her son and took risks.
Lin Xiang said: "Xia Bai, I will accompany you, just treat me as your own brother."
Xia Bai looked confused.
Hua Haoming: "..."
Did he enter this game to watch the show?
Meng Qing was faster than Song Mingliang, and ran out of the anatomy laboratory building in less than half an hour. Meng Tianyou, who had been silent all the time, saw her figure finally move, and ran two steps to meet her.
Meng Qing hugged her son tightly, her eyes red. "It's okay, it's okay, Mom's okay."
Song Qiang said in surprise, "Are they okay again?"
Wen Dong and Wen Qiu were also puzzled. So far, it was obvious that there was something wrong with the morgue, but two groups of people had gone in and nothing happened?
Could they have really gone in the wrong direction?
Wen Qiu studied Meng Qing for a moment, then looked at Song Mingliang, who was also looking at Meng Qing with a deep, focused gaze.
She subconsciously frowned. This didn't seem like the look Song Mingliang would have.
But Song Qiang hadn't gone in his place yesterday, and Meng Qing had gone in his place today. He couldn't help but feel envious. Was that a normal look?
Xia Bai and the other two didn't relax at all because of Meng Qing's words. Song Mingliang had said the same thing yesterday.
Hua Haoming asked her for more details, and her explanation was similar to Song Mingliang's. Hua Haoming also warned her not to look around. She didn't explain it as clearly as Song Mingliang.
Lin Xiang was anxiously waiting, "What's in there? I want to see it."
Xia Bai immediately looked at him, her eyes shining.
Lin Xiang smiled sheepishly, "Don't idolize me, I was just saying that."
"..."
The afternoon anatomy class went smoothly, and it was still Xia Bai's turn. Xia Bai was now not only the most popular student in Clinical Medicine Class 2, but also Professor Liu's favorite student. Professor Liu looked like he wanted Xia Bai to be his personal disciple. With
the anatomy class over, the day's classes were over. As they had discussed last night, they should go to the morgue to check it out.
Hua Haoming stopped him. The morgue was too strange. The two people who had been there last night were no longer normal. They couldn't just go in without figuring out what was going on, or they might all get wiped out.
"Let's go to the library first to look for clues. We know nothing about this medical school or its background. Libraries usually have newspapers and magazines that can help us understand things. We might even find something unexpected."
The players who had been resisting that place from the bottom of their hearts naturally agreed, but Xia Bai was the only one who felt a little regretful.
The medical school's library was a four-story circular building, remarkably well-designed in its day. However, it now wore signs of decay, its facade mottled and crumbling, and stood lifeless in the darkness.
They split up, some looking for magazines, some for newspapers, and some browsing campus forums, starting with the first instance of the campus legend last year.
The library's newspapers were organized by date, making searching easy.
Xia Bai finally found the incident: the first student who had committed suicide after preparing for a lecture.
Officially, it was suicide, and a newspaper featured it, but the description was vague, citing the pressure on medical students.
Xia Bai took the newspaper to Lin Xiang, who was researching on his computer. The two of them found more information on the campus website.
One of the photos showed the student, who may have actually committed suicide by jumping into the school's artificial lake, being fished out.
The photo was taken from a distance, so they could only make out a layer of green algae from the lakebed wrapped around the man-made body. It was so dense that it looked like it had grown from the body.
Xia Bai's mind flashed back to the green algae he had seen in the artificial lake over the past two days, the way they slithered at the bottom.
Lin Xiang: "At the time, the internet said he was possessed by a ghost in the morgue, and that's why he went crazy and jumped into the lake to commit suicide. It's a pity that we can't find any more details."
That's all that can be found about this incident. No newspaper reported on the subsequent deaths, perhaps because the school suppressed them.
Xia Bai continued to look through the newspapers from that time period, not only after that, but also before that, not only reading about the student suicide, but also other things he was interested in.
In a newspaper published a week before the student's suicide, Xia Bai saw a report in a small newspaper that interested him: a report about abnormal hobbies.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Lin Xiang, who was standing next to him, suddenly sighed, "The medical school is like this too, with posts like this."
Xia Bai looked up, "What post?"
Lin Xiang said, "Something about the secrets of the most beautiful counselor? It doesn't sound like a serious post."
Xia Bai was confused and walked over, "What's not serious about it?"
Lin Xiang saw Xia Bai's dazzlingly beautiful face and incredibly clear eyes, touched his nose, and quickly closed the gossip post he hadn't read yet, "Nothing, just... they also comment on the counselor's appearance in private."
"Lights out soon, we should go." Hua Haoming stood at the door and knocked.
The two of them looked at each other and saw that it was already eleven thirty at night. Time always passed quickly when reading newspapers and gossip in the safety of the library.
Before meeting up with the other players, Hua Haoming said, "Let's not sleep tonight. Let's observe Song Mingliang together and see what's going on with him."
Xia Bai shook his head. "The dormitory manager said we can't be outside the dormitory after lights out. You'd better not come and watch. I'll just lie in bed and watch. I'll message you if anything happens."
Hua Haoming thought about it. It was still unclear whether it was a hard rule not to go out after lights out. It was indeed a bit risky. "Okay, let us know if anything happens."
Lin Xiang followed up, "I'm staying awake and staying with you. Don't be afraid."
The other players were already waiting for them at the door. On the way back, they exchanged information with each other.
The medical school library must have some medical journals, which really helped Meng Tianyou and Wen Qiu find some relevant information.
Meng Tianyou said, "A journal reported on issues with the use of human specimens at major medical schools. Some school personnel were secretly reselling cadavers and human organs. Our Peace Medical College was on the list, but it wasn't a big deal. It was just that the records of the bodies' source and use weren't standardized."
Lin Xiang was shocked. "Is it really like Brother Hua said, illegal trafficking of cadavers?"
Hua Haoming was curious. "Did they say what they were doing with them?"
"What else could they be doing?" Song Qiang actively participated in the discussion. "I can think of a few, like the legendary ghost marriages, and some people with special hobbies who buy them. Let me tell you, there are a lot of perverts among the feudal and ignorant."
Xia Bai suddenly looked up, as if he had thought of something.
"That doesn't make sense," Wen Dong said. "If it's reselling, then it means selling them. The buyers must have been involved. How come all the deaths were within the school?"
"Didn't they say the source of the bodies at this school is unclear?" Lin Xiang was suddenly shocked. "Oh my god, can't it be what I said? Someone at the school killed students or teachers and made them into cadavers, and then these victims became ghosts and stayed in the morgue to take revenge on the students who used their bodies?"
Surprisingly, it made sense.
After discussing all the way, they soon arrived at the dormitory.
At this time, the lights in the dormitory were about to be turned off, and the few of them went back to the dormitory without saying much.
Before leaving, Hua Haoming patted Xia Bai on the shoulder and signaled him to observe Song Mingliang's affairs at night.
Xia Bai nodded, went back to the dormitory and lay on the bed, holding the family tree and trying his best to resist sleepiness.
The weather began to get cooler at night, and the humidity became heavier, as humid as in a bathhouse.
Wen Qiu didn't know whether she was woken up by the sound of water or woken up by the discomfort of the humidity.
She turned over and heard the sound of water falling on the floor in the bathroom.
In the dark night, she subconsciously turned her head to look at the bed opposite. The light was dim, but she could see that there was no one there.
She and Meng Qing were the only two people living in this dormitory. Meng Qing was not in bed at this time, and there was a sound of water in the bathroom. Naturally, Meng Qing was taking a shower in the bathroom.
But didn't Meng Qing take a shower before going to bed?
Wen Qiu turned on her phone, 02:09.
It was past two in the morning, and Meng Qing was taking a shower in the bathroom?
The sound of running water continued. In the dormitory late at night, only the sound of splashing could be heard, and there was a contradictory and strange silence.
Wen Qiu tensed up little by little, and sat up quickly and quietly.
She repeatedly comforted herself in her heart that Meng Qing loved cleanliness. When they returned to the dormitory at night, the lights were about to be turned off, and they only washed quickly. It was normal for someone who loved cleanliness so much to still feel uncomfortable, so she went to take a good shower.
However, she could not comfort herself.
Meng Qing had just come out of the morgue this afternoon.
She thought of the look in Song Mingliang's eyes that Meng Qing saw when she came out, and a chill arose from it, spreading along her sticky skin.
Wen Qiu stroked her arm, got off the bed quietly, without wearing shoes, and slowly approached the bathroom.
It was after two o'clock in the morning, the darkest time of the night. There was no light in the school, and it was almost impossible to see in the dormitory. She groped forward with her hands and feet.
She touched the sticky clothes on the chair, and her feet touched the chair legs and stepped on the water.
In fact, her whole body was resisting going near the bathroom. The bathroom has always been a place full of dirt and dampness, especially the one in the dormitory where the bathroom and toilet are combined, which is the easiest to have dirt.
But she had to go and see what Meng Qing was doing in there and what happened to her.
The bathroom door was not closed tightly, and the gap was enough for her to see inside.
Meng Qiu squatted down carefully, her eyes close to the gap.
A faint fishy smell of dampness came over.
It was too dark, and the water vapor was thick. The windowless bathroom was pitch black, and only the back of a squatting figure could be seen.
After hesitating for a long time, Wen Qiu carefully turned on the mobile phone hidden behind her, and she froze in place at that moment. She
didn't know if the bathroom sewer was blocked, or if the water in it had been running for too long, and it overflowed outside the bathroom door.
Wen Qiu stepped on some of it, and the light from the mobile phone illuminated a blood-red area.
The author has something to say:
Lin Xiang: I have some friendship self-attack methods.