Chapter 368: Suspicions
“Zheng Jie fell!”
“Oh no! He’s not dead, is he?”
“Ah— !”
The class was in turmoil. Their screams even echoed across half of the school compound, prompting countless other students and teachers to turn to where the noise came from.
When Chen Chen saw the panicking crowd, he approached the window and leaned half his body outside the window to investigate.
On the base of the building, Zheng Jie was lying silently on the pavement. His face was twisted in horror and shock while a pool of blood formed under him.
At the same time, a red-colored round object slipped out of the corner of his lips and rolled onto the soft ground beside him.
Chen Chen felt another chill creeping into his heart when he saw this.
Inside the movie, all of Mimiko’s victims died of a large variety of different causes. The one thing they had in common was that red maltose would be deposited into their mouths. It was said that this was Mimiko’s favorite treat when she was alive.
When Chen Chen thought of this, he seemed to have suddenly recalled something. He immediately turned around and looked at the phone Zheng Jie had left behind.
The phone had automatically stopped ringing as if it understood its owner had passed on. However, its display was still left on. It shifted through the menus and opened the address books as if there was an invisible hand navigating through it.
Immediately after that, it dialed a new number...
“La la la la~ la la la la~ la la la la~ la la la la~ la ~ la~ la~ la~ la la la~ la la la~ la la la...”
A melodic rhyme resounded across the classroom. One of the girls who was curled up in her seat looked down at her phone when she heard her phone ringing.
She saw that the contact number of the caller was her phone number...
The death relay still went on...
Chen Chen shook his head and exited the classroom. He was much more immune to this curse compared to other people considering he did not even have a phone. Besides, the rate of killing in One Missed Call was mere child’s play compared to Ju-on.
Chen Chen suddenly halted the moment he stepped out of the classroom. A strange sensation immediately took over his body.
It was an extremely implacable feeling. An apt way to describe it would be a sudden shudder. He did not observe anything else unnatural but for some undistinguishable reason, he was extra sensitive to this strange sensation.
At this moment, he sensed what felt like a chilling breeze sweeping toward him from the end of the corridor. The stoic air was filled with a sense of dread and was absent of any warmth, like a frozen dead body.
Chen Chen’s first instinct was to back away. Just as he wanted to retreat into the classroom, he found out that the door to the classroom was locked. Chen Chen could not open the door no matter how hard he tried.
On top of that, the buzzing classroom had suddenly descended into a dead silence as if all the students inside had disappeared without a trace...
Something was off here.
Chen Chen drew a deep breath. He quickly decided to turn around and walk down the other end of the corridor. His gut told him that there was something hostile approaching and that he needed to get away from where the ominous wind came from.
It may be a futile attempt but Chen Chen did not have many options available to him at the moment...
Chen Chen felt a sourness rising up his throat. Should he consider this a case of poor luck or good luck? Of all the targets in the dormitory, Kayako just had to come for him.
The plot of the movie was evident enough that Kayako killed her victims in whatever order she liked at any given moment. There was no identifiable structure whatsoever in the order in which she claimed her victims.
These thoughts ran their course through Chen Chen’s mind as he sprinted down the end of the corridor. There was another emergency door down this way but when Chen Chen twisted the handle of the door, he found that it was the same as the classroom door. The handle would not budge no matter how hard he pulled. It felt as if someone was gripping the handle on the other end.
Meanwhile, the opposite end of the corridor had become shrouded in darkness without his noticing.
Even though it was still daytime, the world outside the windows had become as dark as the night. Even the sun had retreated into the darkness.
Chen Chen’s first thought was to look out at the window behind him. He saw that the bright daylight still poured through the window.
This was the strange predicament he found himself in. On one end of the corridor, the world outside was submerged in deep darkness while on the other end, it was nothing but daylight...
It was here!
Chen Chen felt a terrifying shiver. He began to hammer away at the door like a mad man. The corridor was filled with the hectic “bang, bang” sound of Chen Chen slamming at the door. During his constant barrage, there seemed to be another sound mixed into it...
“Hnnnghhhhhhhhhhh...”
It sounded like the sound a person made when their throat was dried up. Chen Chen was no stranger to this sound because he had heard it countless times in the movie before. Whenever one heard this sound, it could only mean one thing — Kayako was only inches away!
When Chen Chen considered this, he turned toward the dark end of the corridor yet again. This time, he noticed that the darkness seemed to have crept closer toward him.
If the total length of the corridor was fifty meters, only forty meters were separating Chen Chen from the desolate darkness — the foul darkness had claimed ten meters of the corridor...
Cold sweat rained down between Chen Chen’s brows. He continued smashing at the emergency door with every ounce of strength left in him and still, it did not budge even after his fists were dripping blood. Meanwhile, the mechanical “hnnghhh” was drawing closer to a point where it felt like it was drowning out the sound of him smashing the door. It felt like it was ringing in his ears!
“Is it over yet?”
Chen Chen stopped beating against the door and twisted his neck around with bloodshot eyes. The darkness had swept through four-fifth of the corridor. There was less than a ten-meter gap between the void and Chen Chen...
Chen Chen could also see the faint silhouette of a woman with brazen hair dragging herself across the floor on all fours within the suffocating, obscure darkness!
Five meters, four meters, three meters!
When Chen Chen drew in a deep breath and prepared to confront whatever was to come, he suddenly felt something pulling at his arm. He immediately turned around and saw a familiar pair of widened eyes staring back into his.
Chen Chen abruptly pulled himself up and sat on the floor.
It was only now when he realized that he had fainted on the corridor without having any recollection of it.
The corridor was as empty as they were. Where were the darkness and Kayako?
“Chen Chen, are you alright?”
A familiar voice rang in his ears. Chen Chen inspected his body, still visibly shocked. After ensuring that he was unharmed, he pulled the other person closer to him. “Aixen, what time is it now?”
“Class just started not too long ago.”
The girl took her phone out and presented it to Chen Chen. The clock showed an eight and a ten.
This meant that it had only been less than half a minute since he stepped into the corridor from the classroom!
Chen Chen quickly understood that he was cut off from reality from the moment he stepped out of the classroom. He drew this conclusion because although he spent several minutes in that dimension, it had only been a brief moment in the real world.
Upon realizing this, Chen Chen puffed out a giant sigh of relief. Although he was not sure how he managed to get himself out of that mess, it had something to do with this girl in front of him.
Chen Chen brushed the dust off of him and got up while asking, “Didn’t I tell you to apply for a leave from Tutor Wang? Why are you back here again?”
“I’ve already taken leave. I even bought train tickets for tomorrow. I just figure that since I didn’t have anything to do today, I’d finish one last class before leaving...”
The girl stole a glance at Chen Chen and informed somewhat embarrassingly.
Meanwhile, many people started to shuffle out of the classroom and quickly made their way to the ground floor of the building. The corridor quickly became crowded. When Chen Chen saw this, he took the girl by her hand and led her out of the school building as well.
“You can leave tomorrow, but don’t attend any classes today. Don’t even stay to stick around the dormitory for that matter, got it?”
Chen Chen waited until they left the vicinity of the school building before issuing the stern reminder. Since she was responsible for saving his life, he figured he should return the favor as well.
“You haven’t given me a proper reason!”
The girl complained a little.
“All I can say is that the longer you stay here, the higher the chances of you dropping dead is.”
Chen Chen said in a hushed tone while leading the girl outside the main gate of the school, “Yesterday was day one, the likelihood of death was one in a thousand. Today is day two and the likelihood of death is one in a hundred. By tomorrow, that number rises to one in ten, and that number will only climb higher by day four and five...”
After saying this, Chen Chen took a deep breath and concluded. “Point is, get as far away from here as possible. Actually, get out of the city if you can. Just do as I say!”
The girl was spooked when she heard this and immediately became quiet.
Chen Chen had walked out of the school compound with the girl by this point. He finally heaved a sigh of relief and said with a soft chuckle, “I know you might think that I’ve lost my mind, but since you’ve already taken leave anyway, might as well do as I say, right?”
“Based on my previous observation, it doesn’t fit your personality to leave behind that final remark.”
Surprisingly, the girl suddenly switched the topic and stared at Chen Chen seriously. “But you went out of your way to explain yourself with that final remark. Did you do it because you’re worried about me?”
“???”
Chen Chen looked back at her, all confused. “What goes on in that head of yours? It’s like you didn’t even register half of what I just told you?”
Without waiting for the girl to answer him, Chen Chen turned back around to enter the school.
The girl suddenly pulled him by his arm.
“What else do you want?” Chen Chen expressed with a frown.
“Are you going to die?”
The girl fixed her eyes on Chen Chen and asked in a lowered voice, “Are you going to die here?”
Chen Chen became silent for a moment before shaking his head and answered in a way that seemed like he was psyching himself up, “I’m not going to die in this place, I’m going to live!’
With that, Chen Chen patted her head before turning around and left.
For some reason, every time he saw that girl, he felt something funny inside him.
Maybe because Chen Chen had caused a small commotion, many people passing by turned to look in his direction. Chen Chen paid no mind to these trivial matters and quickly walked toward the school entrance. That was when he saw Li Bo sprinting toward him.
“Where did you go?”
Li Bo was gasping for air and asked with a tinge of horror in his voice, “When I saw you leaving the classroom, I quickly packed up my bag and chased after you. Then you suddenly disappeared. I searched through half of the school building before I finally saw you through the window.”
“I was just escorting that transfer student from our class out of the school.”
Chen Chen waved his hand nonchalantly and remarked while walking, “I told her to apply for a long holiday so she can get away from these things.”
“Transfer student?” Li Bo looked at Chen Chen, his eyes growing wide as he said this.
“You know, that Aixen girl. The one you and Brother Wei fussed about.”
Chen Chen proceeded to explain.
Li Bo’s expression quickly turned sour. He looked at Chen Chen with mild horror, a strange look quickly took over. “Lil Chen, there’s something I gotta tell you, don’t freak out...”
Chen Chen froze subtly when he heard this. He glanced at Li Bo. “Go ahead.”
Li Bo glanced in the direction of the school entrance briefly and held his voice down. “There’s never been any transfer student in our class!”
Li Bo’s expression was twisted with horror. “Well, there’s a transfer student over in the next class, but he’s a guy...”
Chen Chen stopped walking and subconsciously turned around and looked in the direction of the main gate. A large crowd had gathered around the gate by this point. He could not find the familiar figure anywhere.
It was as if the girl called Aixen had never existed in the first place...
“That’s impossible...”
Chen Chen became bewildered. He snapped his head around and grabbed Li Bo by his shoulder. “That’s impossible, she was in the class with us and even answering questions. There’s no way!”
“Lil Chen, you have to calm down!”
Li Bo panicked more when he saw Chen Chen’s reaction. He quickly explained, “What I’m telling you is true, there’s never been a transfer student in our class!”
“What about during recess? I swear I saw you and Wang Wei flocking to her table during recess last morning. How do you explain that?”
“Yesterday’s recess?”
Li Bo immediately recalled the events. “That’s not right, we gathered together during recess yesterday because the class rep Zheng Jie was handing out tickets for the campus party!”
Chen Chen stood in place as if struck by lightning. He slowly lifted his head, the memory zapped across his mind like a bolt of thunder.
...
“Hi, is there anything I can do for you?”
“I’m the new transfer student, can I become friends with you?”
“Making friends? Shouldn’t you be making friends of the same gender first usually?”
“This works too!”
...
“Chen Chen, we met again!”
“How do you know my name?”
“I asked the other students. Right, you don’t know my name yet, don’t you? The name’s Aixen!”
...
“Chen Chen, you alright?”
“Aixen, what time is it now?”
“Class just started not too long ago.”
...
Chen Chen felt his body shivering. He finally understood why people would stare at him strangely whenever he talked with that girl.
Back then when he was in the class, he thought they were wondering why such a cute girl would flirt with him. Back when he was at the school gate, he thought it was because he was causing a commotion. Looking back now, they were probably looking at him strangely because they saw him interacting with the air...
“Just now when I was upstairs, I also saw you yanking away at the air and walking out the school. You didn’t even respond when I was shouting at you.”
Li Bo lowered his voice, slightly trembling as he asked, “Chen Chen, did you see... Did you see... That?”
Chen Chen stumbled several paces backward. He felt his head twisting into a chaotic mess. He felt his sanity slowly trickling away bit by bit. Even the image of the girl’s appearance in his mind started to turn into a blur.
Despite all that, the pair of eyes she wore was deeply imprinted into the depths of his mind. It crept into the deepest crevice of his mind...
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