aircannonsinc Chapter 566: Campus Strange Things
Chapter 566: Campus Strange Things
The September wind carried the last bit of summer heat and blew on Jian Yi's bare arms. She looked up at the four large gold-plated characters "Qingwu University" in front of her.
The camphor tree inside the gate blocked out the sun, casting mottled light and shadows. Dragging two half-person-high suitcases, the handles left red marks on my palms.
"Mom, I'm here." She shouted into the phone. The receiver could be heard the sizzling sound of a frying pan, mixed with her mother's hurried voice: "Xiaoyi, is the box heavy? If there is no other way, you can find a senior to help you carry it. Oh, if I had known earlier, I would not have set up the stall today. I told you last night, but you insisted that you could do it yourself.
Be nice outside and learn to adapt. Oh, study hard in school and don’t mess around. If you dare to let down my rich husband, I’ll skin you alive when I get back…
"Oh! Mom, why are you talking about this again? Su Yang and I are really not in a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship!" Jian Yi quickly interrupted her nagging and glanced across the school gate.
Well-dressed parents helped their children carry branded bags and held up SLR cameras to take pictures of the school gate, while the straps of her canvas backpack were already frayed. It contained pancakes that her mother had baked at 4 a.m., but she thought it was too much, so she took it out many times and stuffed it back into the backpack.
"Mom, let's stop chatting. Go and get busy. Don't let the city management catch you again. I can do it myself."
After hanging up the phone, Jian Yi put the phone back in her pocket. There was a crowd of people at the registration office. She followed the procedures to get the dormitory key, military training uniform and campus card. The card had her photo printed on it, with delicate eyebrows and a stubborn curve at the corner of her mouth.
The dormitory was assigned to "Jingyuan Building 3", a six-person room, Room 414. She followed the sign and crossed the basketball court. Jingyuan Building 3 was hidden deep in the camphor trees. It was an old building that looked quite old, with mottled walls and shiny stair railings. The air was filled with a faint musty smell and the fragrance of camphor trees.
The stairs were made of cement, and they made a hollow sound when stepped on. It was hard to imagine that such an old place still existed in this era. Jian Yi couldn't help but complain in his heart, gritting his teeth and dragging two large boxes up. When he climbed to the fourth floor, he heard voices in Room 414.
When she opened the door, two girls looked over at the same time. A girl in denim shorts was sitting on the lower bunk by the window, applying lipstick in front of the mirror. When she saw her come in, she raised her chin and said, "New roommate? My name is Song Ran, from the accounting department."
A head popped down from the upper bunk next to her. His long hair fell to his waist and his face was as pale as paper. "Zhou Ren, Chinese Language and Literature."
"Hello everyone, my name is Jian Yi, Chinese Language and Literature."
She smiled and greeted the two, dragging her luggage to her bed. The upper bunk near the bathroom had a rusty iron frame and the bed board looked a little loose.
"What a coincidence, you're in the same department as me." Zhou Ren smiled. Her eyes were bright, which was a bit scary in the dim dormitory. "No one wants to sleep in that bunk because it's close to the bathroom and it's very damp. If nothing unexpected happens, no one will enter this dormitory anymore. If you feel uncomfortable sleeping there, you can ask the dormitory manager to switch."
Jian Yi nodded and started to pack his things.
Zhou Ren could see that she was not in a good mood, probably because she was exhausted from the journey, so he did not say anything to her, but just stared at her with a half-smile, his eyes fixed.
"Didn't your parents send you off?" Song Ran was drawing her eyebrows in front of the mirror, her tone casual.
"My mom has to look after the stall." Jian Yi spread the quilt on the bed, speaking softly. Song Ran said "oh", and Zhou Ren suddenly asked, "Single-parent family?"
Jian Yi paused for a moment, without looking back: "Yeah."
The dormitory was quiet for a few seconds, with only the sound of cicadas outside the window. Zhou Ren jumped down from the upper bunk, stepped on the floor barefoot, walked to Jian Yi's bed, and looked up at her: "This building is not peaceful, did you know that?"
"Zhou Ren, you're talking about this again." Song Ran frowned, "She just arrived, don't scare her."
"I'm not trying to scare her, I'm trying to remind her." Zhou Ren lowered his voice, as if he was telling a secret, "This building has been here for thirty years, and someone died here."
Jian Yi looked down at her. Zhou Ren's face was in the shadow, half bright and half dark. "Who is it?"
"A senior schoolmate, like us, majoring in Chinese Language and Literature." Zhou Ren stretched out her hand and counted on her fingers. "She was dumped by her boyfriend, got pregnant, and jumped off the roof of this building." She paused and glanced at Jian Yi's bed. "She jumped from right above your head. Two lives were lost."
Song Ran rolled his eyes. "This kind of rumor has almost become standard. If you go out and ask around, you'll find that any university that doesn't have a few ghost stories behind it won't be able to open its doors."
"It's different." Zhou Ren's voice was floating. "When that senior died, she was wearing a red skirt and the baby in her belly was seven months old. Some people said that when she jumped down, the baby in her belly moved a little..."
"Zhou Ren!" Song Ran raised his voice, "I'm talking to you nicely, and you're getting excited, right?"
Jian Yi felt a chill on her back. It wasn't that she was afraid of ghosts, but Zhou Ren's tone was too realistic, especially the sentence "it jumped right above your head", which made her feel like something was seeping down from the ceiling above her head.
She looked down at Zhou Ren and found that she turned a deaf ear to Song Ran's anger. Instead, she stared at the bathroom door with an indescribable weirdness in her eyes.
"Don't go to the bathroom alone at night," Zhou Ren turned his head and stared into Jian Yi's eyes, "especially after midnight. Some people say that they saw a figure in a red skirt combing her hair in there, and heard... a child crying."
"That's enough!" Song Ran threw the lipstick on the table. "If you want to tell a ghost story, go out and tell it. I don't want to have a nightmare at night."
It’s no wonder that people get so angry. After all, hearing these things on the first day of school would be unlucky for anyone.
Zhou Ren shrugged, said nothing more, turned around, climbed onto his bunk, turned over, and faced away from them.
They had dinner in the cafeteria. Jian Yi bought the cheapest vegetable noodles. The two roommates sat opposite them. Song Ran complained that the food in the cafeteria was too greasy, but Zhou Ren didn't eat much. He kept staring at the camphor tree outside the window, muttering something.
When they returned to the dormitory, it was already dark. The street lights in the old building flickered, and the corridor was empty, with only the footsteps of the three of them echoing. Just as they reached the fourth floor, Jian Yi suddenly heard a cry, thin and like a baby crying.
"What's that sound?" She stopped and pricked up her ears.
Song Ran was also stunned: "It seems like... a child is crying?"
Zhou Ren smiled, his voice was particularly clear in the empty corridor: "Did you hear that? I told you, this building is not peaceful."
The crying sound soon disappeared, as if it had never appeared. Song Ran's face was a little pale. He pulled Jian Yi and walked quickly into the dormitory, locking the door behind him. "Don't listen to her nonsense. It might be the cat outside."
At 11 o'clock at night, the lights in the dormitory went out on time. Jian Yi lay on the upper bunk and could smell the damp smell from the bathroom, mixed with a faint smell of mold. Song Ran's breathing was very even, he should have fallen asleep, but there was no movement from Meng Meng, and it was unclear whether she was awake or asleep.
She closed her eyes, but Zhou Ren's words kept replaying in her mind. The senior in the red skirt, the fall from the roof, the shadow in the bathroom, and the crying of the baby just now. She told herself not to believe it, it was all made up, but her heart was still beating fast.
She didn't know how much time had passed, but when she was about to fall asleep, she suddenly heard a ticking sound.
It was very light, like the sound of water dripping on tiles, coming from the direction of the bathroom.
Jian Yi opened her eyes and listened. Tick-tock, tick-tock, the sound was very regular, one after another, and it was particularly clear in the silent night. She frowned. Was the faucet in the bathroom not closed tightly?
She quietly got up and looked at the bathroom door in the moonlight. The door was ajar, and it was pitch black inside, and the ticking sound was still ringing.
"Song Ran, did you hear that?" She called softly, but there was no response from the other end, as he was sleeping soundly.
"Ah……"
A light laugh came from Zhou Ren's side, and he said faintly: "Did you hear it?"
Jian Yi was startled and almost fell off the bed. "You didn't sleep?"
"Who can sleep at this time?" Zhou Ren's voice came from the darkness, with a bit of weird excitement, "Let's go and take a look?"
"No." Jian Yi lay back on the bed and pulled the quilt to cover her ears, but the dripping sound seemed to have grown legs and drilled into the quilt and into her ears.
Suddenly, the ticking stopped.
Immediately afterwards, a rustling sound came from the bathroom, as if someone was combing her hair, and the comb made a rustling sound as it passed through the hair.
Jian Yi's scalp instantly went numb. There were only three of them in the dormitory, Song Ran was sleeping, Zhou Ren was on the upper bunk, who would comb their hair in the bathroom?