This was Chen Ge's second time entering Room 413, but this time, with w.a.n.g Xiaoming's accompaniment, Chen Ge did not feel that panicked.
“Xiao Lin, don't you ever clean your room? You are supposed to be the only one living here, but somehow, it feels like there are several people living here.” This appeared to be w.a.n.g Xiaoming's first visit to Room 413, and this attracted Chen Ge's curiosity. After all, the two friends stayed literally just across from the corridor. Even though they might not have a sleepover, normally, when they came across each other in the corridor, they should be able to look into each other's bedroom, unless Xiao Lin had been purposely trying to keep that a secret.
“My eyesight is not so good. Can you help me see what those things on the walls are?” Chen Ge had not fully placed his trust in w.a.n.g Xiaoming yet. He did not dare to leave the man unattended near the door. What if the young man suddenly decided to turn back and lock Chen Ge in the room? That would be horrendous.
“Okay.” It did not look like w.a.n.g Xiaoming knew anything about the horrors inside Room 413. In his eyes, this was probably a student bedroom that could not have been more normal. Using the ladder of the bunk bed, w.a.n.g Xiaoming climbed up bed number one. He used his hands to touch the walls. “I don't see any posters inside your room, so why are there so many nails here?”
“Nails?” When w.a.n.g Xiaoming climbed up the bed, Chen Ge quickly hurried to bed number four. He was planning to grab all the information and notebooks. He was not going to return to this bedroom ever again.
“That's right. And what is with the dark spots on the wall? It looks like a human crawling on the wall. Aren't you afraid staring at them at night?” Just looking at them, w.a.n.g Xiaoming was already feeling uncomfortable. Chen Ge did not give a direct response; he was still going over w.a.n.g Xiaoming's words in his mind.
The spot of the wall that w.a.n.g Xiaoming was touching originally had a human shadow, but it had just escaped from the room earlier. It had disappeared.
“Let me see.” Chen Ge grabbed the bag and climbed up the bed. He reached out to touch the wall, and under the coat of white paint, the wall was punctured with many nails. All the nails were on the human shadow that was once on the wall. Then, could it be that it was those nails that had pinned the human shadow onto the wall? Was it because of those nails that the shadows were unable to escape?
Chen Ge was thinking when he felt a sharp pain coming from his stomach. “There's a bug?”
Chen Ge lifted up his s.h.i.+rt. He noticed a small cut on his stomach, but since the cut was so small, it was not severe enough to cause bleeding.
“Did some kind of bug crawl into my s.h.i.+rt earlier?” He took out his jacket to inspect his clothes closer. He did not come across any bugs, but he found an incredibly sharp nail inside his s.h.i.+rt pocket!
“Xiao Lin, why are you carrying something like that with you? Aren't you afraid of accidentally scratching yourself?” w.a.n.g Xiaoming asked out of curiosity, but one could not say that he was surprised. From his reaction, Chen Ge suspected that even in his cla.s.s, Xiao Lin was considered a unique specimen. No matter what he did, his cla.s.smates would normalize it on the account of him being Xiao Lin.
“It's fine.” Chen Ge might have said that, but internally, his heart was raging. The nail that was used to pin the ghost shadow on the wall suddenly appeared inside his pocket, and it was used to p.r.i.c.k his skin. That was definitely not a simple coincidence.
Is the shadow looking for a scape goat?
Chen Ge was thankful that he did return to the bedroom, or else he probably would not have known what went wrong. Only when he died and was pinned on the wall would he have realized the mistake that he had made.
I was kind enough to help him open the door, but he repaid my kindness with vengeance and wish to use me as a scapegoat!
Chen Ge compared the nail in his pocket and the ones hidden underneath the paint coat, confirming that they were one and the same.
It is understandable that he wants to find a scapegoat but at least gives me a warning. To do something like this behind my back is such a rude thing to do.
After slowly calming down, he took out the scissors, wis.h.i.+ng to use them to yank out the rest of the nails from the wall, but the nails were in too deep. Chen Ge needed a more heavy-duty tool.
There is danger at every corner. If I am not careful, I will not even know how I died.
In just these few minutes, Chen Ge felt like he was pinned again, but this time, the pain came from his calf. He shook his pant legs, and a short nail fell out.
For now, they appear very far between each other, and they honestly are not that painful, but as time moves forward, will these nails appear closer to each other and then become more and more painful?
Chen Ge did not mind being p.r.i.c.ked once in a while, but the thing was, he did not know when the nail would show up or where they would show up. If they happened to show up inside his shoes when he was running away from a threat, then it would over. Other than that, Chen Ge was worried about another situation. If he just ignored this, one of the future nails might appear inside his body, and that would be more than just a bleeding matter.
No wonder I've been feeling so pressured since I've arrived at this place, this place is so dangerous.
Before even knowing his ident.i.ty or even the overall image of the location he was in, Chen Ge had already triggered some kind of slow death. However, even in those circ.u.mstances, he managed to maintain his cool.
I woke up inside the cla.s.sroom, and after Mr. Bai showed up, he kept on repeating for us to stay inside our bedrooms and not wander out of the bedrooms at night. Is this some kind of psychological trick? The findings at the desk and the content of the notebooks also all pointed toward the bedroom. To better understand my ident.i.ty, the best option was to visit the bedroom—it was a place that I had to go see no matter what.
Chen Ge had no choice but now that he was thinking about it, two details popped up at him.
The first was when Chen Ge said that he needed to go back to the bedroom, w.a.n.g Xiaoming had suggested they take a detour to the canteen first. Whether he meant something by it or it was just a pure coincidence, if Chen Ge had agreed to follow w.a.n.g Xiaoming to the canteen, he would have been able to temporarily prevent this from happening.
This explained that at least in this incident, w.a.n.g Xiaoming had no intention of harming him. Of course, that did not go far in proving that w.a.n.g Xiaoming was an ally. After all, there might be a deeper trap waiting for him at the canteen, and w.a.n.g Xiaoming was merely luring Chen Ge there to be killed.
The second thing was that before the lights went out, Mr. Bai personally checked up on him to confirm if Chen Ge was inside his bedroom. The expression that Mr. Bai had back then was one of pure terror. He did not move an inch inside Room 413, which proved that he knew about the danger residing and lurking inside Room 413.
He had told Chen Ge to sleep there while knowing there were dangers at Room 413. There had to be something wrong with that man. After summarizing everything that had happened so far, Chen Ge came to such a conclusion in his heart. w.a.n.g Xiaoming might not be a good person, but Mr. Bai definitely had an ulterior motive and was a bad guy!
Chen Ge memorized that the people he had met, the words that they had said and the expressions on their faces—it was not because he had such a good memory, but this was his way of surviving.
Room 413 is very dangerous, but I was not killed instantly after entering it. I was merely made a scapegoat, and the enemy used a very slow method to kill me. Looks like the mission is not really a dead end.
Turning his attention back to the room, Chen Ge studied the other human shadows, beneath which should be a large group of nails hidden.
The ghost has made me his scapegoat, so that is why I have been constantly p.r.i.c.ked by these nails. If I remove all the nails inside the bedroom and use them to poke another person, what will happen?
Chen Ge had already been poked twice by those nails that had appeared out of nowhere. If this was a normal person, they would have tossed away the cursed nails or buried them deep in the ground already. However, Chen Ge did not do that. Instead, he kept the nails and intended to find a few characters that he was annoyed by and try to use them as experiments.
These nails can pin ghost shadows into place, so they should be able to damage lingering spirits or baleful Specters to a certain degree. They're valuable items, but will I cause some kind of panic going around poking people with nails in the middle of the night?
In any case, Chen Ge thought that this idea was workable.
I should try to keep some nails on me. The focus will then be to find the ghost who is attacking me and try my best to persuade them to attack another person with me. If they refuse, I will just use the nails to pin them back onto the wall.
Studying the nails on the wall, Chen Ge tried to use the scissors to pry them out, but it was to no avail.
I will need a hammer or pliers for this. There should be a maintenance room at the school. I believe I will be able to get some tools there.
Chen Ge's mind moved very fast. He was not one to dawdle on one issue for a very long time.
I should carry more useable tools with me. That way, I will have more choices when dealing with complicated situations.
“Xiao Lin? Xiao Lin!” w.a.n.g Xiaoming extended his hand and waved it before Chen Ge's face. “What are you thinking about? You even started to laugh for some reason.”
“Xiaoming, do you know where our school's maintenance room is?” Chen Ge asked in a casual tone.
“Why do you want to know that?” w.a.n.g Xiaoming had no idea what was going through Chen Ge's mind. The two of them were not on the same wavelength at all.
“There is a problem with my bedroom door. It creaks noisily at night, so I wish to get some tools to fix it.” Chen Ge jumped off the bed and stood at the door.
“It should be around the staff dormitory, but students rarely go there. I think you should wait until tomorrow morning and tell the dormitory management about this. Although our dormitory management…” w.a.n.g Xiaoming s.h.i.+vered involuntarily and did not continue the conversation.
“There is no need to trouble the dormitory management. After all, this is just a small problem. I will be able to deal with it myself.” Chen Ge found out that the maintenance room was near the staff dormitory, but the problem was that Chen Ge had no clue where the staff dormitory was situated.
“If you wander around like this after the lights have been switched off and are discovered by the staff, you will be severely punished! Xiao Lin, you have to seriously consider what you're planning to do. It's one thing if you want to sneak to some other location, but the maintenance room is right inside the building where the staff dormitory is!”
“I know there is a certain risk to this, but I cannot sleep at night if I do not do anything with this door. It keeps making this creaking noise, and it is too noisy for me to even try to fall asleep.” Chen Ge looked at w.a.n.g Xiaoming with sincerity. “Brother, how about this? I will sleep over at your place for one night. After all, you are the only occupant of your bedroom, and the other beds are empty.”
“You want to sleep over at my place?” w.a.n.g Xiaoming's face twitched conspicuously. After giving it some thought, he said, “I think you should go take a look around the maintenance room. Even if you run into the staff, I am sure they will understand if you just explain and communicate the problem that you are facing.”
“Okay then, how about you lead me to the area around the staff dormitory?” Chen Ge grabbed hold of w.a.n.g Xiaoming's arm, and he was not going to let go no matter what.
After some back and forth inside the bedroom, w.a.n.g Xiaoming finally relented. “Fine, but I will be leaving after we arrive. I will not step into the staff dormitory no matter what.”
“Thank you.”
“You're welcome. There's no choice because you are my only friend.” w.a.n.g Xiaoming returned to his bedroom to change his shoes. Chen Ge closed the door to Room 413. When he was waiting for w.a.n.g Xiaoming, he took out his notebook to study closer the information of the student who had perished inside the bedroom.
“A student studying the art of oil painting? He is normally very cowardly and does not like to speak, but he is a kind person and prefers to stay alone inside the oil painting room and come up with many strange paintings.” Xiao Lin's notebooks contained some snippets of information, and Chen Ge had to compile them together to form the bigger picture.
“The most urgent goal right now is to find the tools. If there is not enough time, I will try to poke Mr. Bai with the nails; if there is enough time, I should try to take a spin around the oil painting room.”
After w.a.n.g Xiaoming changed his shoes, the two walked down the corridor together.
“Xiao Lin, try not to make any noise. If you attract the dormitory management's attention, it will be over for the both of us.” w.a.n.g Xiaoming was clearly very afraid of the management, and this caused Chen Ge to start to wander about the manager's real ident.i.ty. Just what kind of person would be able to instill such a fear in w.a.n.g Xiaoming?
If not for the danger and urgency of the situation, Chen Ge would have made a detour to go and see them.
The two eventually arrived at the first floor. The door of the dormitory block was not locked.
“Quick!” w.a.n.g Xiaoming waved at Chen Ge, and the two rushed toward the entrance. However, just as they were about to reach the entrance, the curtain inside the dormitory manager's room was pulled open, and a gray face leaned against the window. Next to this face was the notice that forbad students from leaving the compound after the lights were switched off. The gla.s.s window was slowly pushed open, and a cold draft poured out from inside the room.
“Run! The dormitory manager is coming!” Chen Ge had no idea whether the dormitory manager had seen them or not. He grabbed w.a.n.g Xiaoming and raced out of the student dormitory. The two of them ran for a long time in the dark school compound. They only dared to slow down after a peacefulness returned to their surroundings. They found a corner to hide and catch their breath.
“Oh my G.o.d, Xiao Lin! This is all your fault! We've been discovered by the manager!”
“Why are you panicking? He didn't even see our faces.” Chen Ge thought back to that pale face, and a small chill spread through his body. That face definitely did not belong to a living human. Be it w.a.n.g Xiaoming, Mr. Bai, or the other students in the cla.s.s, they looked on the surface to be no different from a normal person. In fact, they even possessed warm flesh. But that dormitory manager was completely different. The face that he had seen earlier in the window had no life or expression to it.
The dormitory manager is different from others. This can be considered a valuable piece of information. If there's a chance, I should try to poke him with these nails or try to get him to take my place as the scapegoat.
Chen Ge's plan was continually changing based on the information that he obtained, but the general direction had remained the same. The school compound at night was very scary. Chen Ge had no idea why, but he felt like the buildings that were so crowded in the morning had the same crowdedness to them even though he could not see any people inside them at night.
After walking for a few minutes in the dark, w.a.n.g Xiaoming, who had been very silent, suddenly stopped moving.
“We're there? This is the staff dormitory?” Chen Ge saw the outline of a squat building in the dark.
“Not yet, I merely realized that, since we've been discovered, there is no reason to stay in the hiding and mind those details anymore.” w.a.n.g Xiaoming seemed to have thought things through.
“Why? Have you decided to go to the maintenance room with me?” Chen Ge felt that something was wrong with w.a.n.g Xiaoming.
Shaking his head, w.a.n.g Xiaoming turned around to look at Chen Ge. He was breathing heavily through his nostrils, he was chewing something hard in his mouth, and his lips were dyed red.
After a long time, he managed to say, “This is the canteen.”
“The canteen?” They were supposed to go to the maintenance room, but w.a.n.g Xiaoming had suddenly had a change of heart and led Chen Ge to the entrance to the canteen without informing him.
