The sky outside hadn’t completely darkened, but it was getting darker. The lights were on in the lab, and the surroundings were clear. However, in this environment, Song Jun still felt scared.
He locked himself in this small lab, not knowing what to do.
The thick security door of the lab cut off the sound of footsteps in the corridor outside. He didn’t know if anyone was outside or if that person was human. He was not in the mood to look at the experimental results on the computer. He was just thinking about what he should do to get out of this place.
But after leaving here, where would it be safe to go? Even in the dormitory, didn’t that strange thing come to harass him?
He was sure that he was haunted by that female ghost, or in the words he heard Feng Junyuan say today, he was marked. But why him? He had never encountered these things since he was a child until he had graduated college. Everything had only happened since he came to study here. Was it an issue with him, or was there a problem with this university?
Song Jun leaned against the window, feeling the remaining warmth of the setting sun outside, but his body was still unable to warm up. He gradually slid down until he knelt on the ground; his mind was filled with nothing but panic and confusion.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the heavy security door.
Song Jun was surprised at first, but then he became hopeful. He was thinking that maybe other people in the lab would come over to do experiments after dinner. He held out hope and asked, “Who is it?”
But got no response.
Song Jun stood up, hesitating whether to go over.
The knock on the door sounded again. This time it was a continuous and stereotyped sound, one after another, with precise intervals like a machine.
Song Jun asked who it was but never got a response.
He finally plucked up the courage and walked towards the door, slowly probing his head towards the peephole on the door.
Through the peephole, Song Jun saw the situation in the corridor. There was indeed someone outside, a woman wearing a white dress. She stood outside the door with her back to the lab.
The figure was identical to the one Song Jun had seen when he opened the door to the elevator just a moment ago.
The woman’s back was facing the door, but she stretched out her hand backwards in a strange posture and then made a sharp sound on the door with her sharp nails.
The sound tormented Song Jun.
Immediately after, he realised that the woman was turning around and she was trying to turn her head around.
Song Jun’s first reaction was to move away, but it was as if his feet were frozen, and he couldn’t move at all.
Seeing that the woman was about to turn her head, Song Jun gasped for air, cold sweat dripping from his forehead.
At that moment, a massive dark shadow flashed before Song Jun’s eyes. The figure was so large that, in the next instant, it completely blocked the entire range visible through the peephole, leaving total darkness in front of Song Jun’s eyes.
The woman disappeared. Song Jun’s legs weakened, and he sat on the ground. He found that he could move again.
At this moment, Song Jun wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. His mind remained blank, unable to react. He didn’t know if he had narrowly escaped a disaster, and if he had indeed escaped, should he drop out and leave this eerie place?
Just when he didn’t know what to do, the knock on the door rang again.
Song Jun’s whole body tensed up, and then he heard a calm voice, “Song Jun, it’s me.”
It was Xia Hongshen’s voice.
Song Jun quickly stood up and went to the peephole to take a look. Sure enough, he saw Xia Hongshen standing outside the door. He immediately breathed a sigh of relief, but at the same time, he became nervous, fearing that it might be a trick played by the female ghost outside the door to trick him.
However, Xia Hongshen then said, “Don’t be afraid, just open the door.”
Song Jun put his hand on the door lock and hesitated for a long time before opening the door.
There was only Xia Hongshen outside, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Not far away, the door leading to the elevator was still open, and Song Jun could clearly see the light coming through.
There was nothing left, and everything returned to normal.
Song Jun hastily saved the experimental data on the computer, then packed up and left the Forensic Medicine building with Xia Hongshen.
He didn’t say anything the whole way. When Xia Hongshen walked downstairs, he said to him, “Please drink some water.”
Song Jun did not refuse. He went to the canteen with Xia Hongshen and asked the boss for a can of beer. He opened the lid of the can and took a few sips. Then he wiped the corners of his mouth with the back of his hand, panting slightly.
Xia Hongshen sat opposite him and looked at him.
Song Jun felt the cold beer sliding down his digestive tract and said to Xia Hongshen, “Senior, I seem to be haunted by a ghost. I’m going to die.”
As he spoke, he scratched his cheek with his fingers, remembering the scratches he had seen before.
Xia Hongshen said in his usual calm tone, “It will be okay.”
Song Jun said, “Really, if it weren’t for you suddenly showing up just now…” At this point, Song Jun took another big gulp of beer. He felt a bit uneasy, a sense of exhaustion after being severely frightened, leaving him emotionally low.
He began to think about some things in the past. He felt that his whole life was going well. He finally got into the school of his choice, but then he had to encounter such unthinkable things.
Song Jun raised his hands to cover his face and said, “I’m so scared. I want to drop out of school.”
Suddenly a hand was pressed on the top of his head, and Xia Hongshen’s voice rang out, saying, “Don’t be afraid. It won’t happen again in the future.”
Song Jun said, “It will be. Someone told me I was marked. He must have seen the female ghost haunting me.”
Hearing this, Xia Hongshen asked, “Who told you?”
Song Jun still had his face covered with his hands. He thought for a moment and said, “I saw that person last night. The one with the surname Feng.”
Xia Hongshen didn’t say anything. He raised his hand to call the owner, brought over a few cans of beer, and then asked Song Jun to relax and drink more.
Song Jun just drank to drown his sorrows and drank all the beer Xia Hongshen ordered. With an average alcohol tolerance and the burden of his thoughts, he ended up getting thoroughly drunk. When he saw a girl wearing a white dress and red shoes passing by, he shouted not to come over. As a result, he was shouted as a lunatic by the passerby.
Seeing that Song Jun was almost drunk, Xia Hongshen came over and helped him up with one hand, supporting him to walk towards the dormitory.
Song Jun staggered, and it was all thanks to Xia Hongshen’s support that he didn’t fall to the ground. As he walked, he kept talking to Xia Hongshen. He talked about his own experiences from childhood to adulthood. If these things happened when he was sober, he would definitely refuse to say it.
Xia Hongshen helped him back to the dormitory room, put him on his bed, and wiped his face with a wet towel.
Song Jun soon fell into a deep sleep, unaware of anything.
Xia Hongshen was still sitting in front of the computer surfing the internet until he saw that the time had reached three o’clock in the morning. He took off his glasses, rubbed the corners of his eyes and stood up.
He walked to the bed and gently touched Song Jun’s forehead. Seeing that he was sleeping peacefully, he stood up straight and walked out of the room.
Xia Hongshen left his room, slowly went downstairs, and then walked out of the old dormitory building.
It was late at night at school, and no one could be seen. He walked all the way to the Faculty of Pharmacy building and stood in front of the gate on the first floor.
The door had been locked, and the administrator had already fallen into a deep sleep.
Xia Hongshen put his hand on the door lock and waited quietly for a moment. Then, the door lock opened on its own.
The whole Faculty of Pharmacy building was dark, and the elevator had stopped.
Xia Hongshen didn’t stop and walked toward the stairwell on the right. In a dark environment, some moonlight and lights from outside can still shine through in the corridor, but the stairwell was sealed, and nothing could be seen.
Despite this, Xia Hongshen didn’t hesitate at all. He walked up the stairs and stopped at the corner between the first and second floors.
However, at this time, Xia Hongshen heard footsteps coming upstairs.
He paused and continued walking upstairs.
On the fifth floor, Xia Hongshen pushed the door from the stairwell to the corridor. There was a person in front of him, a woman wearing a white dress and red high heels, walking slowly forward. The footsteps were made by her, tap, tap, tap, tap, slowly echoing throughout the corridor.
Every night, she walked tirelessly inside this building, floor by floor. When she reached the fourteenth floor, she would jump from the window. In the early morning of the next day, she continued to get up from where she fell on the ground and repeated the process.
Until Xia Hongshen appeared in front of her.
Initially oblivious, she intended to pass through Xia Hongshen’s body and continue walking forward. However, Xia Hongshen’s hand, with fingers pressed against her forehead, emitted a slightly warm breath that she could feel.
Her blank brain began to move slowly. She stopped, looked at Xia Hongshen, and talked to someone for the first time after her death, “Who are you?”
Xia Hongshen retracted his hand and said to her, “My name is Xia Hongshen, a doctoral student in Forensic Medicine pathology.”
She heard Xia Hongshen say this, so she introduced herself, “My name is Tian Xin, a third-year pharmacology graduate student.”
After speaking, she asked Xia Hongshen, “Why are you here?”
Xia Hongshen did not answer her but asked, “Why are you here?”
Tian Xin was a little confused. She thought about it seriously, and then her eyes widened in shock. She said, “I caught my boyfriend cheating. I said, believe it or not, I’m going to die. He then said just go ahead. I will go to the top floor and jump off the building.”
Xia Hongshen looked at her and said, “Then what?”
“Then?” Tian Xin was thinking, “Then I really jumped.”
Xia Hongshen said calmly, “Yes, so you are dead.”
Tian Xin’s face turned from blank to full of horror, “I’m dead?”
Xia Hongshen told her, “You jumped from the 14th floor and died. You are just a ghost now.”
Tian Xin suddenly trembled violently all over, “I’m dead?! I’m a ghost now?”
Xia Hongshen’s tone sounded completely emotionless, “Your soul is bound to this place. Every night you walk from the first floor to the fourteenth floor, repeating the process of jumping off the building, unable to free yourself.”
Tian Xin raised her hands to cover her face, “I—”
Xia Hongshen said, “This is your own choice, giving up your life so easily for a man.”
Tian Xin started to cry. She was very sad, her body was trembling, and she kept sobbing, but she couldn’t shed a single tear. She hugged her chest, curled into a ball, and squatted down.
Xia Hongshen looked at her expressionlessly, showing no sadness or sympathy.
Tian Xin suddenly said, “No! I don’t want to commit suicide. I was confused! It’s that, it’s the mirror!”
“Mirror.” Xia Hongshen repeated in a low voice.
“It started out as a rumour from the Faculty of Pharmacy. I heard them talking about an ancient mirror in the college that can show you what you want to see. I didn’t believe it at first, but one night during a power outage, I went down the stairs on the right and saw that mirror at the corner leading from the second floor to the first floor. I had always suspected that my boyfriend was cheating on me, and at that time, I was in a bad mood. So, I asked the mirror, ‘Can you show me if my boyfriend is really cheating?’ In the end, I saw him in the mirror having sex with another woman.”
Tian Xin said these words slowly while walking downstairs with Xia Hongshen.
“I felt so distressed. I received too many negative emotions from that mirror. I became anxious and sensitive, completely unlike myself. Later, I had a fight with my boyfriend. I told him that if he continued to associate himself with that woman, I would show him me ending my life. To my surprise, he said go ahead. I was in so much pain and wanted to make him regret it, so that night, I jumped alone from the fourteenth floor. I didn’t want to! It was like I was under some kind of spell, and it all started because of that mirror!”
Tian Xin stretched out her hand and pointed at the full-length mirror standing quietly at the corner of the stairs.
The two of them had reached the second floor. If they walked further, they could stand in front of the mirror.
Even though Tian Xin couldn’t breathe anymore, she couldn’t hide her emotions. She really thought the mirror was confusing her.
Xia Hongshen slowly walked down the stairs and approached the mirror. When he reached it, he touched the cold mirror surface with his fingers and said to Tian Xin, “It’s not that this mirror is bewitching you. It’s the thing attached to the mirror that is bewitching you.”
“The thing attached? What is that?” Tian Xin asked.
Xia Hongshen’s fingers moved slowly, and a faint light appeared in the dark environment, slowly illuminating the surrounding outline.
Tian Xin looked at the mirror and found that she was like a shimmering mist in the mirror with Xia Hongshen next to her—she opened her eyes wide in surprise and looked at Xia Hongshen.
“This mirror is originally a spiritual object. The spiritual energy promotes the growth and nurturing of all things, making it susceptible to the influence of demons and spirits. Before this, the mirror was only inhabited by a female ghost. The scenes you saw were nothing more than illusions created by the female ghost. However, you were easily manipulated by her, losing control of your mind.”
Tian Xin raised her hand and put it on her chest. She said, “What about the female ghost now?”
Xia Hongshen tilted his head slightly, his jawline was elegant and smooth, and he said, “Eaten by me.”
Notes:
I should’ve done this in October, idk it’ll be this scary…
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