Chapter 4

Ye Chen and his three companions exited the staircase and turned right. The wind came and went, and their heartbeats rose and fell with its rhythm. Each step forward required a reckless courage. As they walked to the right, they passed the first dormitory, clearly marked with the number “1801.” Ye Chen, who was leading, suddenly stopped.

“My god… oh my god, Ye Chen, what are you doing?” Cai Erman exclaimed, eyes widening as he saw Ye Chen reaching for the door handle, as if he were witnessing Ye Chen about to drop his own child to the ground. His astonishment was evident.

The sound seemed to bypass his vocal cords, synthesized merely from the scant oxygen and nitrogen drawn into his lungs.

In that moment, everyone heard that sound with as much anticipation as if they were witnessing the resurrection of Michael Jackson. They held their breath, hearts racing! But what they saw wasn’t Jackson; it was Cai Erman.

“Can you not talk without risking death?” Mingzi said through gritted teeth, forcing the words through clenched teeth.

“Shhh…”

“Click… thump!” Ye Chen turned the handle, but the door was locked, refusing to open. There was a pane of glass set into the door, covered on the outside by a mesh screen, and a curtain on the other side obscured any view inside.

At the Shengze Mainstream Language and Literature College, the dormitory buildings were designed with meticulous attention to human needs. Every dormitory, every corridor, every bed, every switch… all were devised so impeccably that no flaws could be found. What made one feel truly “grateful” was that every door on the eighteenth floor of each dormitory building featured glass panels that could be opened from the inside. In summer, even the top-floor dorms remained comfortably cool. To ward off insects, an additional mesh screen covered the glass. Thus, upon leaving the school, no one criticized its facilities; they only praised its near-incredible excellence.

“Hey! Seriously? You, a grown man, holding onto my arm, aren’t you embarrassed?” Cai Erman exclaimed as he felt a sudden weight on his left arm. Startled, he turned to see Mingzi clinging to his arm, taking a deep breath and shouting. His voice and expression were as if a size 21 waist was stuffed into size 28 pants.

“Damn! I take after my mom; it’s not my fault if I’m timid!” Mingzi retorted, and such an excuse left one speechless.

“You…” Cai Erman, at a loss for words, simply closed his mouth.

The group moved towards the second door when they suddenly heard a crashing sound. On the other side of the corridor, on the balcony, the wind had shattered the glass of a window, followed by the shards hitting the ground, every fragment shattering into pieces.

Ye Chen led the way, with Zina holding onto his left arm, Cai Erman following behind her, and Mingzi clutching Cai Erman’s right arm, brushing against the wall. It was unclear what they hoped to achieve by being there!

“Should we head back?” Zina finally couldn’t suppress her fear any longer. For these three men, her suggestion was a timely relief!

“With just another second of perseverance, victory is yours!” This was the motto of Shengze Mainstream Language and Literature College, and at that moment, no one doubted its practicality!

“Alright, let’s go back.” Cai Erman hastily agreed, afraid someone might say something they shouldn’t.

“Bang! Clang!”

“Ah!”

The loud noise made Zina scream, and it seemed to come from a dormitory ahead, likely from room 1802.

“What are you afraid of? The door ahead isn’t locked; it’s probably just the wind causing it to swing back and forth,” Ye Chen said, peeking to check.

The notion of returning had just seemed appealing to Zina and Cai Erman, but now they felt as if they were mice who had seen a cat. Their legs became weak, making it hard to even stand, let alone run.

“Achoo! Achoo! Achoo! Achoo!” Four consecutive sneezes came from room 1802! The four held their breath, trembling all over, minds blank, nerves numb!

“My god… oh my god! Is that… a person or a ghost?” Cai Erman stammered.

“Pre… preliminarily, I deduce that… that voice sounds like a girl…” Ye Chen replied, leaning back. If Zina weren’t standing behind him, he wouldn’t need to suffer this indignity just to save face.

“Bro… brother, who are you trying to fool? I can’t even tell if it’s male or female,” Mingzi said from behind Cai Erman.

“According to historical records, men usually sneeze once or twice, while women sneeze twice or more,” Cai Erman said, appearing somewhat composed, as if he wasn’t planning on returning alive.

“He’s not wrong,” Ye Chen said, turning his head. This “historical fact” was something Cai Erman had heard from Ye Chen.

“Brother, joking at a time like this!” For someone like Mingzi, who took after his timid mother, laughing now would be unimaginable.

“Damn it! Let’s risk it! Let’s go have a look!” Ye Chen, mustering some sudden courage, uttered these audacious words.

“I’m scared!” Zina finally spoke.

“Scared of what? What’s inside is also a woman,” Ye Chen whispered to Zina. As he said this, he took two steps forward, and his hairline had already crossed the threshold of dormitory 1802!

Ye Chen gently pushed the door open. It swung slowly to the right, and the light from the corridor gradually seeped in. Pushing further, they could see a faint glow from the balcony window. It seemed the darkness inside was much denser than outside.

With the door fully open, Ye Chen reached for the switch on the left wall. The light turned on, revealing an empty room! Could it really be haunted?

“What’s the situation inside?” Mingzi asked curiously from the back.

“If there was anything, you wouldn’t be able to speak,” Cai Erman remarked, rolling his eyes at Mingzi.

“Let’s go in.” Ye Chen said as he stepped into the room. After all, it was brightly lit both inside and out, emboldening him.

As everyone entered, there was a sudden “creak,” and they turned sharply!

“Ah!”

“Ah!”

Zina and Mingzi screamed simultaneously. In an instant, Mingzi had moved to the safety of Ye Chen’s back.

Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the back of dormitory door 1802, where another pair of eyes was watching them!

Yes, just as Ye Chen had guessed, the person was indeed a woman.

She was crouching behind the door, back against the wall. Her arms tightly held her legs, which were drawn up in an inverted “V” shape. She wore a ragged, white and green shirt, and her legs were covered by a skirt stained with dust. On her feet were embroidered shoes like those only seen in period dramas. Her hair was disheveled, covering most of her face, the visible parts thickly coated with dust. Through the strands of hair, her large eyes stared blankly at the ground, still and unmoving. Four gold hairpins were still in her hair, though her once neatly arranged hair had come undone, and the pins glinted with a sharp light.

“Who… who… who are you? Are you… are you human or ghost?” Ye Chen pressed his arms close to his body as if shivering from a cold wind, and his lips noticeably trembled as he spoke.

“I don’t know,” the woman crouching by the wall said softly. She spoke slowly, lightly, and naturally, with no vitality in her voice, yet it was oddly comforting to hear.

“Then… then how did you end up here?” Zina asked, peering out from behind Ye Chen with half her face visible, before quickly pulling back a bit.

“I don’t know.” Her voice was slightly choked and delicate, sending a slight chill through their hearts.

“Where’s your home? What’s your name?” Cai Erman continued, and the tension in the room slightly eased after the back-and-forth questions and answers.

“I don’t know.” As she answered, she gently rested her chin on her knees, her large eyes fixed unmoving on the floor, appearing as though they were filled with tears, damp and glistening.

The four of them finally exhaled in relief. If the woman before them were not a human, the four might not still be among the living.

Ye Chen looked at the woman again, and a wave of emotion hit him, causing his nose to tingle. He gently moved Zina’s hand from his left arm and slowly approached the woman crouching on the ground.

When he was within a foot of her, Ye Chen bent down slightly and asked, “Are you hungry?” Upon hearing this, the woman’s eyes shifted, taking in the sight of Ye Chen entering her view.

The face before her was broad, with large eyes, a square jaw, a big nose, big ears, and a big mouth. It wasn’t the face of a handsome man, but it appeared safe and reassuring.

“This kind of face has a friendly vibe,” Zina had commented before.

In the 21st century, a girl should look for a wise man like this as a husband. Even if he wasn’t wise, this appearance wouldn’t make him seem like a fool. Life with someone like this would certainly be more comfortable than with a pretty boy. Look at Mingzi: despite having the face of a celebrity, he’s a full-on wannabe, with no intellectual substance, and he spends his days dreaming about selling everything to ruin someone else’s looks. Sigh…

The woman crouched on the ground nodded her large eyes, looking so innocent that it tugged at one’s heartstrings. As Ye Chen gazed into her eyes, he found them captivating. Despite being dirty all over, with her face smeared in grime, her scattered hair fell gently over her fine neck, revealing a subtle elegance that was unmistakably present.

“How old are you?” Ye Chen asked again.

She simply shook her head, and her big eyes went back to staring blankly at the ground as before.

Seeing how dirty she was, Ye Chen asked, “Would you like to come to our room to take a shower and change clothes?”

She didn’t respond, her eyes blankly staring at the ground, as if she had suffered a great blow.

“Come on, sister, come with us to wash up. We won’t harm you,” Zina said, seeing that the woman had no ill intentions, and moved next to Ye Chen before speaking to her.

Perhaps because she saw someone of the same gender, the woman lifted her head slightly, looked at Zina, then lowered her head again, remaining silent.

“Those things in her hair seem to be gold…”

“Gold, my foot!” Cai Erman interrupted, smacking Mingzi on the head for his unserious comment. Mingzi rubbed his head and said nothing more as they walked toward Ye Chen.

“Zina, take her to our room,” Ye Chen said, standing up.

“Come on, sister, let’s go,” Zina offered, extending her right hand, palm up, to the woman.

The woman looked at Zina’s hand and then at her face. The warmth in Zina’s eyes was hard to resist, and the woman slowly extended her right hand. Zina grabbed it and helped her up.

Feeling like they had accomplished something significant, they happily left dormitory 1802, turned off the lights, locked the door, and headed toward the elevator.

The woman walked behind Zina. She was about the same height as Zina, who stood at 165 cm and weighed 49 kg-a perfect figure by Shengze Mainstream Language and Literature College standards. Despite her skirt hiding her lower body, the woman’s upper body suggested she had a figure as graceful as Zina’s.

Once in the elevator, they all glanced at the woman, feeling as though they might be inviting trouble. Seeing the number 13 inside the elevator made them feel more at ease. Cai Erman pressed the button for the 13th floor, and as the elevator started, the woman was visibly startled. The others, however, dared not look at her directly, only watching her movements peripherally. Zina, in particular, held the woman’s hand tightly, fearing that letting go might lead to trouble. The journey from the eighteenth to the thirteenth floor felt unusually long, but when the elevator finally stopped, their anxious hearts calmed down.