Mysterious Revival

Yang Jian’s legs nearly gave out, and he almost collapsed to the ground. He took a few deep breaths, finally feeling the cold sweat on his forehead trickle down his cheeks and drip to the floor.

It felt like he had just narrowly escaped death.

“No, I can’t stay here. I have to get out of here as soon as possible…”

Having just barely escaped the clutches of whatever supernatural force was after him, he didn’t even have time to process or reflect on what had just happened.

He quickly grabbed his phone, turned on the flashlight, and stood up.

In the darkness of this place, an unknown ghost lingered. The longer he stayed, the faster death would come.

He moved forward in the dark.

Yang Jian’s entire body trembled slightly, whether from extreme tension or an inexplicable fear, he couldn’t tell.

After walking just a few steps, as the light from his phone dispelled some of the darkness, he saw Duan Peng and Zheng Fei. They stood by a moldy, peeling wall, their faces filled with terror, frantically pounding on the wall.

“Who’s there? Who is it?” Zheng Fei’s voice trembled as he turned around in panic.

He caught a glimpse of a faint, dim light.

Yang Jian, his face cold, held up his phone and said, “It’s me, Yang Jian.”

“Y-Yang Jian? You’re not dead?” Zheng Fei’s fear was mixed with shock.

“Do you and Fang Jing really wish I were dead?” Yang Jian retorted.

Duan Peng, overwhelmed with emotion, lunged at Yang Jian, grabbing him by the collar and shouting, “Why did you drag me into this? Why? I’ve done nothing to you. Why are you trying to kill me?”

Yang Jian responded by punching Duan Peng in the face, anger in his voice. “I’ve done nothing to you either, yet you all wanted me dead. You’re blaming me for what you did? I said if we’re going to die, we’ll die together. I regret not dragging Fang Jing in here with us. He should’ve experienced what it’s like to be caught by that thing.”

Duan Peng fell to the ground from the punch, ignoring the pain, and sobbed, “I don’t want to die. I just want to live. Fang Jing made me do it… If we didn’t do it, that thing would come out, and we’d all die. It’s better for one person to die than all of us.”

“So I’m the one who should be sacrificed? Ridiculous. If you’re so noble, why didn’t you volunteer to sacrifice yourself? Why force someone else to do it?”

Yang Jian continued, “And do you really think sacrificing me would let you escape? Don’t forget, there’s another ghost out there. And don’t be naive-Fang Jing has been trying to kill me from the start. He must know something, or he wouldn’t have been targeting me. If I make it out of here alive, I’ll settle this score with him…”

But before he could finish, Duan Peng suddenly shuddered, his face twisting in horror. He turned his head slowly, trembling as he looked back.

In the thick darkness, he couldn’t see anything, but he felt an icy hand grip his wrist.

The cold hand exerted an overwhelming force.

Duan Peng’s body was almost uncontrollable, being dragged backward.

“Help… help me, Yang Jian, save me…” Duan Peng screamed in terror.

Yang Jian’s heart skipped a beat. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the pale hand gripping Duan Peng’s wrist.

His heart raced… There was no doubt. The ghost had returned.

Almost instinctively, he raised his phone, ready to open the audio file, hoping to repeat what had happened earlier and scare the ghost away.

But just as his hand moved, he stopped.

Was Duan Peng really worth saving?

No.

He wasn’t.

Yang Jian had ended up in this situation entirely because of Fang Jing, Duan Peng, and Zheng Fei.

Now that they were in danger, why should he save them? They hadn’t lifted a finger to help him earlier. They had only thought about saving themselves and finding a way to escape. And even if he wanted to save them, how could he? The audio file on his phone could only scare the ghost away, not harm it.

He was just bluffing.

They wanted to survive, but didn’t he want to survive too?

Fang Jing was right. Yang Jian had been too naive before. He had heard Fang Jing plotting against him in the classroom, yet he hadn’t been prepared.

That would never happen again.

He lowered his phone and took a step back, coldly watching as Duan Peng was dragged deeper into the darkness. No matter how desperately Duan Peng cried for help or screamed, Yang Jian remained unmoved.

Finally, he watched as Duan Peng’s figure, filled with terror, disappeared into the darkness, along with the pale hand.

The moment the darkness swallowed Duan Peng, even his cries for help vanished.

Everything quickly returned to silence, with only the faint sound of dripping water echoing clearly.

Yang Jian turned away, taking a deep breath. He tried to calm his nerves and overcome his fear, then picked up his phone as if nothing had happened and began searching for a way out.

If the ghost was still lingering here, he couldn’t guarantee it wouldn’t target him next.

Fang Jing had said before that using a person could temporarily stall the ghost.

Earlier, Yang Jian had been pushed into this situation because Fang Jing had wanted to use his life to delay the ghost.

Given that, since Duan Peng had been taken by the ghost, the next time the ghost appeared would likely be after a certain interval.

If his analysis was correct, he should be safe until the ghost attacked again.

He could only hope so.

With that thought, Yang Jian immediately began searching for a way out.

“Yang Jian, where are you going? T-take me with you,” Zheng Fei called out, desperately trying to catch up.

Yang Jian ignored him, coldly rejecting the plea. “Figure it out yourself. Don’t follow me. Do you really expect me to lead you out of here? Remember, I’m in this hellhole because of you.”

With that, he quickened his pace and disappeared into the darkness.

The fact that he hadn’t taken revenge on the spot was already out of consideration for their past as classmates. The ghost had killed Duan Peng, and it would surely come for Zheng Fei next. Let him wait here for death-it would buy Yang Jian some time.

If the ghost attacked again, Zheng Fei would undoubtedly be its first target.

Zheng Fei panicked and hurried after him, but Yang Jian was already gone, swallowed by the endless darkness.

“Y-Yang Jian, where are you? Come out! I didn’t mean it earlier, I’m sorry, I’ll apologize…”

His voice trembled as he groped through the darkness, but he found nothing.

He walked in circles for a while.

Soon, Zheng Fei realized he was lost.

He couldn’t find Yang Jian, and when he tried to go back to the wall where they had been earlier, he couldn’t find that either.

This place no longer seemed like the familiar restroom. It had become an endless void of darkness.

Fear gradually crept into his heart, drowning what little courage he had left.

Then, he heard heavy footsteps behind him.

The footsteps grew louder, steadily approaching his location.

“D-Duan Peng, is… is that you?” Zheng Fei asked in a trembling voice, cautiously.

Before he could finish, a pale hand suddenly reached out from the darkness and grabbed his neck from behind.

It was cold, stiff, and unmistakably not the hand of a living person.

“Ahhh!” A shrill, hysterical scream erupted.

But Yang Jian didn’t hear that scream. He was now facing his own dilemma.

He had gotten lost in the darkness again.

“This definitely isn’t the restroom anymore…” he thought to himself, a chill running down his spine.

The darkness stretched endlessly ahead, and the distance he had walked far exceeded the size of any restroom.

He checked the time on his phone. Twenty minutes had already passed.

Twenty minutes had passed, and he still hadn’t walked out of what should have been a restroom. He hadn’t even bumped into a wall or a toilet. This defied all logic.

The only explanation was that he had wandered into some unknown place.

“Damn it, what exactly is this ghost domain? Zhou Zheng didn’t explain anything about it during his lecture,” Yang Jian thought, growing increasingly anxious.

Without enough information, he couldn’t analyze the situation properly, let alone figure out how to break free from this ghost domain.

“Drip, drip.”

The sound of a dripping faucet echoed in the darkness.

“Wait, that dripping sound… it disappeared earlier. Why is it back now?”

Yang Jian’s expression shifted, and without hesitation, he followed the direction of the sound.

If there was a dripping faucet, it meant the restroom was nearby. As long as he could return to that familiar restroom, he could find the door and escape this cursed place.

Damn it, he should have paid attention to this earlier.

With a clear direction, Yang Jian felt a bit more confident and quickened his pace.

However, he soon heard the low battery alert from his phone. His heart skipped a beat, and after a moment of hesitation, he gritted his teeth and turned it off.

Compared to the darkness, he feared the ghost lurking here even more.

He had to save that last bit of battery for a critical moment.

Moving forward in the dark, he treaded carefully.

The only sound in the darkness was the steady drip, drip of the faucet. Beyond that, there was nothing.

The silence was unnerving, so much so that he could hear his own breathing clearly.

But not long after he turned off the light and continued forward, something happened.

Suddenly.

“Tap, tap.”

A series of footsteps echoed from behind him, heavy and distinct.

The footsteps grew louder, gradually closing in on him.

In an instant, Yang Jian froze, his body tensing up. He quickly turned on his phone’s flashlight and looked back.

The light illuminated about a meter ahead, but there was nothing there-only thick, impenetrable darkness.