"With all this stuff on the bed, if the student from bed four comes back at night, where's he going to sleep?"
Ever since he'd entered room 413, the students inside had been casting glances at him, one way or another. It was hard not to notice when someone wearing a school maintenance uniform walked in.
"Are you a teacher here?" A tall, thin student sat on the bed opposite bed four. He wore thick glasses, and his features looked a little odd. "Nobody lives in bed four. We put our stuff on it — it's just efficient use of space."
"It's got a fitted sheet and a comforter on it, and you're telling me nobody sleeps here?" Chen Ge smiled at the thin student. "Maybe you just can't see him. Be careful when you sleep at night — don't lie on your side, or you might find someone lying behind you."
Chen Ge stood next to bed four and began moving all the luggage onto the floor. "Unacceptable. You'd even take advantage of a ghost's spot?"
"Hey! Don't just move our stuff around!" The boy behind the mosquito net at the door poked his head out again.
"I'm trying to save you. This bed has its own owner, and he's still in this school." Chen Ge had found plenty of clues in room 413 of the East Campus dormitory, and he had high hopes for this room in the West Campus.
"So you know the legend about bed four in room 413 too?" The bespectacled boy kept a straight face. "That's just something we made up to scare Wang Yicheng. You actually bought it?"
"Real or not, you'll find out when you run into it."
After clearing the bed, Chen Ge removed the pillowcase and the duvet cover, checking that nothing was hidden inside.
"You say someone lives in bed four, yet you just casually move his things around?" The thin student pushed his glasses up. He didn't much like Chen Ge — probably because Chen Ge had spoken up for Wang Yicheng, which was the exact opposite of this dormitory's vibe.
"I don't really care. It's not like I sleep here. If he gets angry, you'll be the first ones he comes for." Chen Ge's way of talking was a far cry from the kind of model teacher these students had in mind. Then again, he was a fraud to begin with and couldn't have cared less.
Lifting the quilt beneath the sheet, Chen Ge stopped bantering with the residents. His gaze froze on the bed board.
Five bloody fingerprints lined the edge of the board where it met the wall.
"Don't tell me this is part of your prank too?" Chen Ge scraped at one of the bloodstains with his fingernail, pinched off a bit, and held it to his nose. It smelled like dried, coagulated blood.
Why was there fresh blood on bed four?
"Teacher, what's that?" Wang Yicheng had only just noticed the fingerprints because of how hidden they were.
"It's dried red paint. I studied painting — I know the smell." Chen Ge shot a glare at the other students in the room. "Someone's been pulling a prank."
He didn't dwell on the topic. Pulling out Lin Sisi's phone for light, he looked beneath the bed board.
It was reminiscent of a scene in the East Campus dormitory. Something had been written underneath this bed.
Tiny, fine characters — they appeared to have been carved into the wood little by little with a knife.
"Why won't anyone talk to me?"
"Why does everyone ignore me?"
"I didn't lie to them! There really is a ghost! I really did see a ghost in the bathroom!"
"It's dangerous here! Why doesn't anyone believe me?"
Chen Ge read these lines, feeling a flicker of familiarity. He continued reading further down and found an even more familiar name.
"I, Lin Sisi, swear on my life — there really is a haunting in the bathroom! It's real, they're watching me!"