No one knew how much time had passed before Ding Feifan heard the footsteps of the Restroom Ghost outside again.
Since the quest began, he had kept his head lowered, staring at the floor, trying his best not to look anywhere else.
He had deliberately left Zhou Shengsheng's stall door unlocked.
He didn't even know Luo Yiming and Fang Wei.
Nor did he know if Zhou Shengsheng would actually return to normal after leaving this place, as he had claimed.
Ding Feifan couldn't even explain what he had been thinking.
The latch on the last stall door was rusted and very difficult to close.
When he was locking the door, for some bizarre reason, the horrific sight of those two corpses flashed through his mind, and the strength in his hands faltered slightly.
Time slowly passed.
His phone was dead, so Ding Feifan had no way of knowing the exact time, only able to make a vague guess based on his gut.
Around three o'clock, he suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck.
Ding Feifan instinctively reached up to touch it, finding that a drop of liquid had dripped into the nape of his neck.
It was cold and slightly sticky.
A leak?
—It was normal for an old building to leak.
That was his first reaction.
Then, he instinctively wanted to look up.
He had only raised his neck halfway when he suddenly froze.
He couldn't look up.
Looking up meant death.
So, was what dripped down water... or blood?
Ding Feifan brought his hand to his nose, and his breath instantly caught.
It was blood.
The ceiling was dripping blood.
Something was crouching on the partition above his head, dripping blood onto his neck.
Perhaps it was the Restroom Ghost, or perhaps it was Zhou Shengsheng's peeled-off skin.
The moment this thought arose, the hairs all over his body stood on end, and a chill rushed up his spine, straight to the crown of his head.
It was looking down at him from above.
Ding Feifan gritted his teeth, raised his hand, and slapped himself hard across the face with a sharp smack.
He just had to endure it.
He didn't know how much longer passed. Ding Feifan answered several rounds of questions from the Restroom Ghost. In his dazed state, he seemed to hear someone calling him from outside.
The voice came through the door, sounding somewhat familiar.
It was Zhao Weilai's voice.
The girl's voice carried a hint of pleasant surprise mixed with a sob, drifting in clearly:
“Instructor Ding! Ziwen! It's dawn!”
“We made it through! The quest is over!”
“We can go home!”
It was dawn? Ding Feifan pushed aside the debris blocking the gap beneath the stall door, and sure enough, he saw light filtering in from outside. A surge of wild joy instantly welled up in his heart.
But just as his hand touched the latch, the smile on his face suddenly froze.
Where was the system notification?
Why hadn't the system notification for completing the quest sounded?
Ding Feifan's heart skipped a beat.
It was fake.
It was a trap.
The "Zhao Weilai" outside the door was still shouting, her voice drawing closer and sounding increasingly anxious:
“Instructor Ding? What's wrong? Open the door!”
“It really is dawn! The system just notified us! Hurry up and come out so we can leave together.”
“Deng Ziwen is already out. Why aren't you coming out yet?”
The voice stopped right outside his stall door.
Ding Feifan squatted down, held his breath, and slowly looked toward the gap beneath the door.
He wanted to see what exactly was outside.
His gaze lowered bit by bit.
The first thing he saw was the waterlogged concrete floor, reflecting a dull red glow.
Then, a face.
A peeled, skinless face.
The skin on the left side of the face was still there, looking like Zhou Shengsheng, but the skin on the right side was gone, exposing dark-red muscle and white bone.
One eye bulged out, staring intently through the gap.
It was lying on the floor, face pressed against the concrete, looking inside as well.
Their gazes met directly through the narrow gap.
It saw him.
Ding Feifan felt a sudden, excruciating pain in his left eye.
...
Zhao Weilai curled up in the corner, closing her eyes and counting her breaths.
“One thousand three hundred and forty-one, one thousand three hundred and forty-two, one thousand three hundred and forty-three... The shirt costs fifteen pence... Abandon, abandon...”
She didn't know how many thousands or tens of thousands of times she had counted when a cold system notification suddenly rang in her mind:
【The check-in quest has ended.】
【Players Zhao Weilai, Deng Ziwen, and Ding Feifan have successfully checked in.】
【Players Zhao Weilai, Deng Ziwen, and Ding Feifan have left the Instance.】
Why was it an electronic voice?
Shouldn't it be ink-wash text?
Zhao Weilai thought dazedly, the last thing she saw being half a human skin hanging over the restroom partition.
It looked a bit familiar.
Before her consciousness slipped into darkness, she had only one thought:
I can finally leave this godforsaken place.
...
When Zhao Weilai opened her eyes again, she saw familiar camphor trees, a familiar wall, and the sound of police sirens approaching from the distance.
Sunlight filtered down through the thin mist and fell on her face. It wasn't warm; in fact, it was somewhat glaring.
“Found them! There are people over here!”
A police officer's shout echoed from nearby, followed immediately by hurried footsteps.
People in police uniforms surrounded them, and medical personnel running at the front carrying stretchers looked down with concern in their eyes above their masks:
“Classmate, are you okay? Can you speak?”
Perhaps because she had stayed in the Instance for too long, she couldn't feel any warmth at all.
Warm hands supported her arms—it was the temperature of a living human.
Zhao Weilai opened her mouth, and the emotions she had bottled up for three days instantly burst through the floodgates.
They were really out.
She had really gotten out of that hellhole.
...
The chaos of that day was like a fast-forwarded movie.
Ambulances wailed as they rushed the three to the hospital, the police took statements in turns, and reporters blocked the hospital entrance, their camera flashes blaring in unison.
The news of Jiangcheng University's "gas leak trapping three students for seventy-two hours" made the papers for two days, and the comments section below was in an uproar.
Some believed it, others doubted it, but in the end, the public discourse was gradually suppressed.
Zhao Weilai stayed in the hospital for a week.
Post-traumatic stress disorder, mild malnutrition, multiple soft tissue contusions... the diagnosis sheet was filled to the brim.
Deng Ziwen was slightly better off. He was just badly shaken up, along with a mild gastrointestinal disorder, and was discharged after three days.
Ding Feifan was in the worst shape. He had a massive subconjunctival hemorrhage in his right eye, and his vision had dropped by 0.3. The doctor said he had to recover slowly, or else his eye would easily tear up when exposed to the wind in the future.
Despite having seen ghosts, life had to go on after getting out.
Graduation, job hunting, renting an apartment, and going to work.
As she wished, Zhao Weilai joined a law firm in Jiangcheng, starting as a legal assistant.
As if trying to fill the void in her heart with busyness, she worked overtime until one or two in the morning every day, her life filled with challenges.
Deng Ziwen stayed by her side, passing the civil service exam for Jiangcheng and living the nine-to-five life he had always wanted.
In their second year after graduation, the two got married.
The wedding was small, with only relatives, friends, and classmates invited, and Ding Feifan served as the marriage officiant.
He wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses, and his right eye still didn't seem to be doing very well.
After getting married, Zhao Weilai bought a small two-bedroom apartment with her salary. It was located in the old town, far from Jiangcheng University, and came with a small balcony.
She also got a golden retriever named Mantou, a fluffy yellow ball of fur.
Every day when she came home from work, Mantou would wag his tail and leap over, resting his paws on her knees.
Zhao Weilai gradually stopped thinking about the events in the Instance.
Those skinned corpses, the dripping blood from the ceiling, and the venomous wails felt like a distant nightmare.
Every day, she went to work, came home, and walked the dog.
On weekends, she and Deng Ziwen would go to the supermarket and buy a mountain of snacks to stuff the fridge, living a warm and incredibly fulfilling life.
Occasionally, she would wake up in the middle of the night, dreaming of the eye in the gap of the restroom door.
Deng Ziwen would hold her close and gently comfort her:
“It's okay, it's all in the past.”
Yes, it was all in the past.
She always told herself that.
In the autumn of their third year of marriage, on a Wednesday.
Zhao Weilai came home from work after handling a new case and ran into Deng Ziwen, who had just finished buying groceries.
In his left hand, he held a large bag of groceries, and in his right, he dragged a watermelon, looking rather comical. “Honey, help me open the door. The keys are in my pocket. The watermelon is extra sweet today.”
“Okay.”
Completely off guard, Zhao Weilai inserted the key and gently pulled the door open.
Wait.
Was the security door a latch-style door?
The moment this thought arose in Zhao Weilai's mind, a familiar, rancid stench hit her right in the face as the door swung open.
The bloody stench mixed with the smell of urine from the old school building's restroom slammed into her face.
The warm yellow light of her home vanished instantly. The white tiles rapidly faded, replaced by mottled, blackened concrete walls covered in green spots.
The smile on Zhao Weilai's face froze.
She slowly raised her head.
She was still inside that restroom stall.
Hanging over the half-open stall door above the squat toilet was half a human skin.
It was Zhou Shengsheng's.
His single remaining eye stared fixedly at Zhao Weilai, filled with venom and resentment:
[Come down and keep me company, come down and keep me company, come down and keep me company.]
[Why did you leave me to die, why, why, why?]
The human skin shifted, making a sound like a leaking balloon:
[Come down and keep me company.]
[Come down and keep me company.]
...
The human skin repeated those two sentences over and over, the half-piece of skin spreading out like an open wrapping cloth, flying straight toward Zhao Weilai.
A massive force grabbed Zhao Weilai's arm. The icy human skin pressed against her, feeling like countless tiny knives slowly slicing into her.
She could even clearly feel the skin on her arm being peeled away bit by bit.
It hurt.
She opened her mouth, but the extreme terror left her unable to utter a single word.
Sharp pain spread from her shoulder, the sensation of her skin separating from her muscle horrifyingly vivid.
Zhao Weilai's vision went black as despair washed over her like a tidal wave.
The very second her skin and flesh began to separate, layers of dirt-like debris suddenly started falling from her body—
But what fell off wasn't her skin; it was handfuls of dried mud!
In her pocket, the ugly clay doll Liu Guilan had given her shattered to pieces.
Zhao Weilai seized the opportunity, retreated violently and slammed the restroom stall door shut!
Zhou Shengsheng's human skin squeezed in through the gap, wearing a sinister grin. In her vision, two faint green lights lit up on the floating red skin.
【Weakness detection successful!】
There was a green spot the size of a fingernail behind its left ear.
She found it!
Zhao Weilai raised the wooden stick in her hand and smashed it fiercely toward the weakness behind the skin's ear!
Bang!
[Ah—!]
The wooden stick hit the mark with pinpoint accuracy. The human skin let out an incredibly shrill shriek, deflating like a leaking balloon.
Pressing her advantage, Zhao Weilai pinned down the human skin and shoved it downward with all her might, stuffing it straight into the drain!
[Agh—!]
The human skin writhed frantically in pain, its limp form rolling on the floor and splashing dirty water everywhere.
But Zhao Weilai held it down in a death grip, leaving it completely unable to break free.
Zhao Weilai gritted her teeth, using every ounce of her strength to press down.
[Come down and keep me company.]
[Come down and keep me company!]
The human skin cursed and struggled wildly, splashing rancid black water all over Zhao Weilai's face and body. Yet, she gritted her teeth tightly, not letting her grip loosen even a fraction.
Inch by inch.
The human skin's head was forced into the drain opening.
[Come down and keep me company—!]
With one final, resentful shriek, Zhao Weilai exerted a sudden burst of power, pressing down on the wooden stick with both hands and shoving it down hard!
Squelch.
The human skin was forced entirely into the narrow drain.
The limp flesh squeezed past the ceramic edges, making a sticky, squelching sound. Dark-red blood splattered out, spraying onto the rim of the squat toilet, the rancid stench so thick it was nauseating.
Zhao Weilai gripped the wooden stick, pinning it down with all her might, not daring to let go.
She could feel the human skin still struggling inside the drain, bumping against the bottom of the wooden stick over and over.
She just crouched there, maintaining the exact same posture. Even when her arms grew sore and her hands trembled, she didn't dare relax her grip.
Time ticked away, minute by minute.
Outside, the sky slowly brightened.
Faint light filtered through the gaps in the window, illuminating the dirty water and bloodstains covering the floor of the stall.
The struggling inside the drain grew weaker and weaker.
Until finally, it fell completely still.
...
【Congratulations to Player Zhao Weilai for slaying the "Ghost Skin"!】
【First-kill reward obtained: Five-slot personal inventory (bound)】
Zhao Weilai still didn't let go.
Until the familiar ink-wash text finally floated into the center of her vision.
【The Restroom Ghost Story check-in quest has ended.】
【Players Zhao Weilai, Deng Ziwen, and Ding Feifan have successfully checked in.】
【Players Zhao Weilai, Deng Ziwen, and Ding Feifan have left the Instance 《Campus Ghost Stories》.】
【Rewards are being distributed...】
A white light flared once more.
This time, the sensation of weightlessness felt exceptionally real.
Zhao Weilai stumbled onto the ground. Even when someone rushed over to hold her, she remained in a state of high alert, thrashing and kicking wildly.
“Comrade, comrade! You're safe now! You're safe!”
“Medical team! Medical team! Administer a sedative!”
“Hurry, hurry, hurry! The three missing persons have been found!”
The medicine from the syringe was slowly pushed in, and Zhao Weilai only felt a sensation of coldness.
Only when she was lifted onto the stretcher did she see Deng Ziwen and Ding Feifan's conditions:
Deng Ziwen's lips were pale, and his face was gaunt, but he didn't seem to have any visible external injuries.
Ding Feifan was clutching his eye, dark-red blood continuously seeping out from beneath his palm.
But seeing her look over, both exhausted men forced themselves upright and gave her a thumbs-up.
Zhao Weilai burst into loud laughter.
They had all survived.
This time, it was real.
Rate on N.U.
