"Whether it's for his future rehabilitation treatment or for your own safety, don't take this lightly."
"Understood."
After hanging up,
"Fan Yu's aunt concealed the truth from me. Something else must have happened that rainy night years ago."
Why would the people closest to someone become the killer? This was the question that puzzled Chen Ge the most.
"The crime scene was at Muyang Middle School. Maybe I can find some answers here."
Chen Ge reopened the livestream on his phone. The bullet comments still had some lag, but the video feed was gradually stabilizing.
He apologized briefly to the viewers, then picked up the tool hammer and walked out of the second-floor bathroom.
He stood at the bathroom entrance and deliberately shone his flashlight on the ground. There were no footprints or anything of the sort by the door.
"When I was hiding behind the door earlier, I heard footsteps. They stopped right at the bathroom entrance, but now that I'm checking in person, there's nothing there. Those things walking side by side — they're not alive." Chen Ge glanced downstairs. The last thing he'd heard was that sound heading to the first floor.
He wasn't yet sure whether the owner of those footsteps was the red shadow from the side mission. To play it safe, he decided it was best to steer clear.
Holding the flashlight, Chen Ge headed toward the third floor. But he'd barely reached the landing between the second and third floors when footsteps suddenly sounded again in his ears — it seemed to be coming from the first floor.
Two "people" walking side by side, ascending the stairs.
"They've found me?" Chen Ge switched off the flashlight without hesitation, pressed his back against the wall, and stared intently at the stairwell entrance.
The footsteps didn't stop. The two "people" walking side by side made their way all the way to the second floor.
"They've gone into the second-floor bathroom?" The thought had barely formed in his mind when he heard the sound of stall doors opening and closing inside the second-floor restroom.
One after another, the stall doors were pulled open — six times in all, front to back. It was as if they were checking each cubicle.
Chen Ge inched closer to the second-floor landing and tried to peek through the gaps in the stair railing to get a look at what was happening below.
After the sound of doors opening and closing ceased, the footsteps faded as well, as if everything had been nothing more than Chen Ge's hallucination. He waited in the stairwell for a full five minutes, but nothing strange emerged from the second-floor bathroom.
"The footsteps haven't started up again. Does that mean those things walking side by side haven't left the bathroom yet? They could be hiding in one of the second-floor stalls, waiting for me to walk right into their trap." Chen Ge was fearless by nature, but that didn't mean he couldn't feel afraid. If he actually opened a bathroom stall and saw something horrifying inside, he imagined he'd be pretty shaken up himself.
"Well, if that monster is hiding in the second-floor bathroom and won't come out, I might as well scout the third floor first." Chen Ge didn't turn on his flashlight. He had the Yin Eye — a reward for completing a nightmare-level daily task. Perhaps because it wasn't fully activated yet, it wasn't nearly as miraculous as the black phone had described. It simply enhanced his eyesight considerably, allowing him to see well enough even in total darkness.
In the pitch-black rainy night, lightning occasionally split across the sky. The brief flash of illumination rendered everything around him utterly terrifying. Chen Ge grew uneasy, worried that something might have crept up behind him without his noticing.
He glanced back several times, but the stairwell was completely empty. Only then did he relax his grip on his worry, clutched the tool hammer tightly, and stepped into the third-floor bathroom.
The third-floor restroom was stranger than the ones on the other two floors. The windows were sealed shut with wooden planks, and the walls were nearly spotless. It was as though very few people had ever used this place — even before the school had been shut down.