Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

The boy's complexion was not good.

"Hongtian just disappeared like that?"

All nine people frowned deeply. Just a minute ago, Zheng Meng suddenly stopped the group and walked to the front with a serious expression.

Hong Tian has disappeared!

Just after they heard the sound of reading aloud.

"As I was walking, I suddenly couldn't hear any footsteps behind me anymore." Zheng Meng tossed her ponytail, looking back warily. "When I turned around, I realized that Hong Tian had disappeared!"

They looked behind them, and the woods were empty.

There was only a long trail of footprints on the ground, without a single piece of trash. You could vaguely see another trail of wet footprints on the hillside.

The drowned ghost had stopped and did not follow them up the way.

Hong Tian's disappearance was very mysterious.

First, he didn't wander off at all; second, his disappearance was so quiet that Zheng Meng noticed it very quickly. As soon as the footsteps stopped, she turned around, but saw nothing.

There wasn't a single person in the woods.

In just a short time after entering the domain, one member of the ten-person team had already gone missing!

All of this caused Chen Ji to frown slightly. Just then, they suddenly heard a loud shout:

"...Hongtian is back!"

The voice was very young and came from the direction of the school.

“Hongtian? At school?” Zhong Ge’s eyes flickered slightly. He looked around again to make sure there were no other footprints within a hundred meters.

"Is that really him?" Ah Gou, standing beside him, looked doubtful.

However, it is now clear that all the clues lead them to the school, and the forest is not safe either, so the nine people decide to go to the school to check it out first.

Before long, they emerged from the woods and arrived at a loess slope, where they indeed saw Hongtian!

Hong Tian looked terrible, his head hanging low as he received criticism from a middle-aged teacher.

The teacher was simply dressed, in his forties, and spoke with a rural accent.

On the teaching building behind the loess slope, a dozen or so junior high school students stood by the window, watching Hong Tian get criticized with grins on their faces.

"...We're not students here, are we?" Chen Ji said softly.

The boy frowned strangely, snorted, and walked over first. Before he even got close to Hongtian, he saw the teacher turn around and shout at him:

"Little boy!"

"Where did you all go during lunch break instead of resting properly? Don't you know class is in session now?!"

He didn't expect the boy to answer at all. Instead, he ran over and counted the number of people one by one, from the boy all the way to Zheng Meng, before he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Hong Tian didn't even glance at them.

Soon after, everyone was brought to the school. During this process, Chen Ji learned that the teacher's surname was Zhan and that he was a local from there, judging from his accent.

The school was terribly dilapidated, with just one teaching building and a few bungalows next to it. The ground was dusty and the small rubber track in front of the teaching building was peeling. This small area was the only place for students to have physical education classes.

Just as the boy had guessed, it was a rural junior high school.

The ten people who entered the domain were students here.

The domain setting is a bit too forced... Chen Ji looked at the boy's half-white hair, then at Li Bi's floral dress, and then at Zhu Guang's bloated beer belly, and couldn't help but twitch his lips.

Although they were both schools, this school felt completely different from the high school he attended for the first time.

There is absolutely no gloom or oppression here.

It was early summer, the sun was shining brightly, and the space was open. Teacher Zhan was sharp-tongued, but he was clearly worried that the students would run around and cause trouble. The students here also seemed more lively and energetic.

In the corridor, they lined up in a row of ten, and Teacher Zhan lectured them all the way from the loess slope to the playground and then to the front of the classroom.

"...Summer vacation is almost here. If you want to play, you can play then. You only have a few days left. Are you still going to skip class?"

Mr. Zhan sighed wearily. He was a Chinese language teacher, still holding a textbook in his hand, with heavy dark circles under his eyes.

"You guys can think about it yourselves before get out of class ends."

This means he's going to have to stand as punishment.

After saying that, Teacher Zhan put his hands behind his back and walked into the house, but as soon as he stepped inside, he turned back.

"..."

He paused for two seconds, looked at the backpack in Chen Ji's arms, and then asked seriously, "You guys didn't go swimming in the river, did you?"

"No," Ah Gou said in a low voice, but Wan Xiaoshuang interjected, "He just went to the riverbank to take a look."

After she finished speaking, she observed Teacher Zhan's reaction.

Teacher Zhan didn't say much, her expression momentarily dazed, and a slight fluctuation appeared in her eyes.

A few seconds later, he looked at the group with a complicated expression and said softly, "Don't go anymore."

Ring ring ring!

The bell rang suddenly, interrupting Mr. Zhan's words. He glanced at the students rushing out before continuing:

"...We'll talk about it tonight."

After saying that, he tucked the book under his arm and slowly walked downstairs.

Everyone noticed his unusual behavior and seemed to be deep in thought.

The teaching building was in complete chaos. There were only ten minutes left, and not a second could be wasted.

First, there's the matter of Hongtian.

Hongtian Station was far away from them, and he stood alone with a livid face, seemingly deep in thought.

There was nothing unusual about him; his face was even flushed red from the sunlight. However, everyone noticed that Hong Tian had taken off his leather jacket.

"What's wrong with you? Did you see a ghost?"

The boy asked.

Hong Tian looked them up and down a few times before nodding gloomily.

"A group of ghosts. Follow me backwards."

"It was you all who drowned!"

Upon hearing this, everyone was startled. From the perspective of the remaining nine people, it appeared that Hong Tian had disappeared on his own.

"Are you sure you read that correctly?"

Zhong frowned. "Don't drowned people usually have swollen faces? How can you see their facial features clearly?"

“I didn’t look closely,” Hong Tian said. “The important thing is that I caught a glimpse of the ghosts’ features when I was running away.”

He pointed at Zheng Meng: "Your ghost is the closest to me, with the same ponytail on its head."

Then she looked at Li Bi: "Your floral dress."

His gaze slowly shifted to Chen Ji, and he said solemnly, "Were you standing at the very front of the line at the time?"

Chen Ji nodded, and then he heard Hong Tian say, "In the same spot, that ghost was also carrying a red schoolbag!"

Red schoolbag.....

Chen Ji frowned. He didn't discuss the matter first, but instead opened his schoolbag.

The schoolbag was empty; there were no textbooks, only a piece of paper, which was already somewhat soggy.

The writing above was blurred by water, but it was still barely legible:

One-on-one, one for one

[A substitute has been found]