Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

Like chanting, the mechanically repeated harmonies carry a false joy.

Ding Xiang stared wide-eyed in astonishment, her mind reeling.

A chill crept into her heart as she looked at Wu Yan, who wore a formulaic smile in the crowd, and for some reason, she had a strange feeling.

It's as if her facial features are slowly melting away!

Ding Xiang took a deep breath, then opened her eyes again, her expression complex.

The female teacher cleared her throat, and the clapping crowd below instantly fell silent, placing their hands neatly on the table with upright posture.

She announced that the second half of the class would be a self-study period, then slowly sat down, took a sip of tea from her thermos, and began to bend over to grade homework.

A cool breeze drifted in from outside the window, passing over the podium and gently ruffling the strands of hair on Li Xiaoli and Guan Meng's heads that were stuck together with blood...

A faint, fishy smell permeated the entire classroom.

......

As soon as the bell rang, Chen Ji and the other two got up and left the classroom.

Before leaving, they gave Ding Xiang a wink, and the latter understood.

Less than two minutes later, a wisp of short hair appeared around the corner, and Ding Xiang followed silently.

This is the rooftop of the teaching building. The ground is covered with moss and has a damp smell. It is usually locked up tightly.

I chose this place to see if we could discuss the topics of missions and "domains" here.

Before afternoon classes began, the burly man had already sneaked up to the top floor and pried open the door leading to the rooftop.

"What's wrong?" Ding Xiang looked at the group, somewhat puzzled.

Chen Ji leaned against the railing, looked at her dark circles, and asked softly:

"You didn't sleep well?"

Ding Xiang nodded, took a deep breath, and walked to the railing to look down.

The campus was shrouded in layers of mist, marking the boundary of the domain. Students came and went on the ground, and she breathed in the cold wind, finally feeling a long-lost sense of relaxation.

It seemed that the heavy, oppressive feeling that had been lingering in her heart had dissipated somewhat.

"I've been feeling dizzy and nauseous all day, and I've been in a really bad mood," she said softly. "I'm feeling a little better now."

Chen Ji and Du Tingfeng exchanged a glance, and the latter immediately said, "Don't you feel like something's wrong with you?"

"Ok?"

"Ding Xiang, I'm asking you, what exactly are we doing here!" Chen Ji shouted.

Ding Xiang was a little puzzled, but said naturally, "Just follow the rules here."

"Think again, what did the instructions on the blackboard say yesterday?"

Ding Xiang frowned, subconsciously recalling everything that had happened before, but it all felt very vague.

Her memories were like the fog outside the campus, heavy and chaotic. She dug hard and gradually found a clear path.

From Meng Yue's death to Zeng Mingwei's punishment.

Suddenly, she turned her head sharply, her eyes filled with horror!

"How could this be...?"

She swallowed hard, almost stammering:

Why do I always believe that our goal is to follow the rules here?

"The original goal was to find the pattern and survive for three days, but I almost completely forgot about it!"

In just half a day, it seemed that after Meng Yue's death, her memories and emotions gradually became blurred and were no longer under her control.

“It’s not your fault,” Chen Ji said. “The three of you girls have all been assimilated to some extent.”

"...So, what assimilated us?" Ding Xiang murmured.

“You’ll understand once you look at these two diary entries.” Chen Ji pulled out a draft paper from his pocket: “These are the ones we found in the locker and next to Meng Yue’s body, respectively.”

A few minutes later, Ding Xiang finished reading the diary, her hands trembling, just as incredulous as they had been.

Chen Ji briefly explained the current situation and the reason why he hadn't told them.

"...That's about it."

"There's only one day left, how do we find the last diary entry?"

Ding Xiang put down her diary, her eyes filled with confusion.

Du Tingfeng looked at Chen Ji, and after their eyes met, he looked earnestly at Ding Xiang:

"This is where your help comes in."

......

After evening self-study, the two bloody heads on the podium were nowhere to be seen, seemingly having been cleaned up.

Just as the bell was about to ring, Wu Yan and Fang Jia returned to the classroom, supporting each other.

Wu Yan was no longer willing to talk to them, and the look in her eyes as she looked at them was inexplicably complicated.

Fang Jia was about to walk towards Ding Xiang when Wu Yan pulled her back. Wu Yan frowned and looked at everyone with a worried expression.

“Wu Yan is preventing Fang Jia from getting close to us…” Ding Xiang said softly.

She felt a lingering fear. Looking at Wu Yan, who was deeply affected, she couldn't help but recall that she herself had also been briefly lost and almost lost her way.

The burly man didn't even glance at them, and said impatiently, "Ignore them."

"So easily influenced, they deserve to die here."

He kept swinging his legs, his anxiety was palpable; there was very little time left before his evening plans.

Soon, evening self-study ended.

Before he knew it, amidst the increasingly rapid heartbeat of the burly man, he was already lying in bed, and the lights-out signal sounded precisely on time.

None of the three spoke, and the room was silent except for a few faint heavy breaths.

As the clock struck 10:05, accompanied by the click of the small window on the door being pushed open, the dormitory supervisor's eerie head once again peered into the room.

This was the second time Chen Ji had experienced this. Although he had mentally prepared himself, he still felt an urge to vomit when the dormitory supervisor's wet and smelly eyeballs pressed against his eyelids.

A few minutes later, a gentle breeze blew, and the small window was slammed shut with a "snap".

The high heels disappeared at the end of the corridor. Two minutes later, Chen Ji opened his eyes and wiped the sticky liquid off his face.

Du Tingfeng's bed creaked, and Chen Ji slowly crawled out from under the covers and carefully climbed down the stairs.

In the dim light, a dark figure sat beside the burly man's bed; it was Du Tingfeng.

Seeing Chen Ji approach, Du Tingfeng rolled up his sleeve, revealing a green watch face on his wrist that glowed with a soft, luminous light.

"It's 10:15 now," Du Tingfeng said softly. "During the second room check, the dormitory supervisor will arrive on the upper floors around 11:05."

"I'll decide when exactly we'll go."

Chen Ji nodded, but didn't hear the burly man say anything. He turned his head and found that the man was leaning low and staring intently at the watch on Du Tingfeng's wrist.

"You've got guts, buddy," he exclaimed, his eyes holding an ambiguous meaning.

"It's alright." Du Tingfeng paused for a moment: "You like it?"

The burly man sneered: "What man doesn't like that?"

"I bought it at the North China Market. You can go and take a look when you get back," Du Tingfeng said. "It only cost three hundred yuan."

"..." The burly man was speechless for a moment, and looked at Du Tingfeng with a complicated expression. The other party looked very innocent.

"Save where you should, spend where you should, understand?" Du Tingfeng patted the burly man on the shoulder, his voice sincere.

Chen Ji watched them silently. They were about to steal the ghost's things, yet these two still had the leisure to discuss where to buy fake watches.

However, this interruption did ease the tense atmosphere in the dormitory quite a bit.

Time passes minute by minute.

The sound of the dormitory supervisor's high heels clattered again, gradually fading into the distance and disappearing into the upper floors.

Du Tingfeng tossed the coin in his hand until the clock hands reached exactly 11:05, then suddenly pulled his hand back and hissed, "Let's go!"

By the light of the green glow from the window, Chen Ji inadvertently glimpsed a line of very small numbers faintly visible in his palm, seemingly the markings on a coin, perhaps 5000.

Without thinking much, the burly man had already pushed the door open a crack, and the three of them quietly squeezed out.

The corridor was dimly lit, with only the emergency lights emitting a faint green glow.

All the small windows in the dorm rooms were pitch black, except for a single windowless iron door at the far end, from which a faint light emanated.

The burly man leaned against the wall next to the stairwell and winked at Chen Ji and the other man. He was standing very close to the emergency light socket.

Chen Ji placed the paper he had prepared beforehand on the hinges of the iron gate, and when he pushed the gate open again, the creaking sound was barely audible.

A musty, foul smell assaulted their nostrils.

Chen Ji closed the door, took the piece of paper, and exchanged a glance with Du Tingfeng, both showing the same worry.

Under the dim light of the old desk lamp, every wall and every piece of floor was piled with clutter and cabinets, like a sea of ​​garbage, leaving almost no room to step.