Chapter 212: The Haunted Construction Site on Huaishu Road 10

Chapter 212: The Haunted Construction Site on Huaishu Road 10

A group of people moved around the room, busy hanging garlic and coins from the Five Emperors.

Oil lamps were lit, red candles were placed, and a portrait of Guan Yu was pasted on the window frame.

Soon, the entire room exuded an unshakable sense of ritual.

An Yang let out a long breath and looked at Qin Fei with a complex expression. "Now I'm a hundred percent convinced that your plan will work."

No foolish ghost would bypass the neighboring room to come here instead.

"By the way," An Yang suddenly remembered something and said to Qi Xiu, "When you guys hadn't returned yet, someone from Room Three asked if we wanted to take turns keeping watch tonight."

The places that needed guarding included not only the four dormitories but also the corridor outside. That's what Room Three was asking about.

"No," unexpectedly, Qi Xiu refused. "Forget it."

"Why?" Zhu Ning, standing nearby, didn't understand. "Wouldn't having more people make us safer?"

Although the South Team didn't perform well just now, they were still alive.

In such a creepy place, the stronger the yang energy at night, the better.

Qi Xiu smiled without genuine warmth, pulling at the corner of his mouth. "Do you think they were really scared just now?"

Zhu Ning was taken aback. "What do you mean... Ah? Damn!"

Displeasure quickly appeared on the player's face.

He understood the implication in Qi Xiu's words.

Indeed, during the entire outing, Cui Wenxuan's trio had acted overly timid, huddling behind Qi Xiu and his team.

Zhu Ning had naively assumed they were genuinely afraid.

After all, those three weren't combat-talented players, and this scenario was particularly terrifying; being scared was understandable.

Zhu Ning hadn't realized that the others were simply shifting the risk.

Yiwu snorted. "Cui Wenxuan from Dark Fire wasn't always this cowardly."

A player who uses a demon-revealing mirror as a mainstay in various scenarios wouldn't be so afraid of ghosts.

If Cui Wenxuan were truly useless, he would have scared himself to death long ago.

In the end, since it was their first collaboration, they weren't fully trusting them, so they pretended to be scared the whole time.

While it wasn't outright betrayal, it was enough to make one uncomfortable.

At least, Qi Xiu felt genuinely annoyed by it.

Qin Fei agreed. "Although the rules state that we can move in the corridor at night, if we guard that door too tightly, the ghosts won't even be able to enter. How would we find clues then?"

Zhu Ning was thoroughly convinced and closed his mouth.

The beds had been assigned when they arrived at the dormitory. Now, it was getting late, with only half an hour left before the lights went out at ten o'clock. Everyone washed up in the bathroom and returned to their respective beds.

When Qin Fei went out, he happened to see the two players who had been following them return through the door.

Their eyes met, and the other side visibly shrank back, clearly guilty of something.

However, Qin Fei calmly shifted his gaze away as if nothing unusual had happened.

As time passed, the atmosphere in the dormitory area grew increasingly tense.

Qin Fei returned to the room, sat on the bed, and rested his chin on his hands, quietly gazing out the window.

Each room in the dormitory had a window covered with translucent frosted paper, which seemed to absorb all the light.

Inside the room, the flickering oil lamps and candles cast unsettling circles of light.

Outside, it was pitch black.

It was close to the Mid-Autumn Festival, and there should have been a moon in the sky, but there was no light outside.

Ten o'clock sharp.

The entire dormitory area was silent, with everyone staying at their beds.

For reasons unknown, none of the team leaders decided to keep watch in the corridor.

The large door leading to the corridor was locked from the inside by the players.

But everyone knew that an ordinary lock could stop people but not other things.

The intense darkness seeped into the room through the gaps in the windows and doors. Qin Fei, who had been staring at the portrait of Guan Yu on the window, suddenly felt an overwhelming wave of drowsiness.

His eyelids felt heavy like iron.

Soon, deep breathing filled the room.

...

"Let me out, let me out!"

A strange roar echoed in his ears.

A faint stench wafted through the air, mingling with the smell of blood and rotting flesh.

Chen Fei was acutely aware that he was dreaming.

But he couldn't control himself to wake up.

Chen Fei felt as if he were in an exceptionally cramped space. He lowered his eyelashes and swept a calm gaze around him.

Everything before him was pitch black; he couldn't move, so he could only strain to listen to the sounds coming from outside.

A series of loud noises were emanating from above, seemingly metallic or mechanical.

Voices, footsteps, mixed with various other sounds, surrounded him.

"Let me—out!!!"

The roar sounded again.

This time, Chen Fei identified the source of the sound.

The source was—

himself!!

...

Chen Fei suddenly jolted awake!

In the darkness, the young man lay on his back on the bed, his eyes clear, quietly recalling the nightmare he had just experienced.

In the chaotic nightmare, he seemed trapped in a place from which escape was nearly impossible. Now, recalling those somewhat familiar sounds, they were very similar to what he heard at the construction site during the day.

The murky darkness had not yet receded, and the dormitory remained in silence.

By the dim light of the oil lamp, Chen Fei saw Zhu Ning and Yiwu sitting face-to-face on hard benches beside the writing desk.

Both, who should have been awake, were nodding off, clearly already asleep.

The light was still on, and the candle hadn't burned out; everything was normal.

Except... Chen Fei lightly bit his lip.

A strong sense of being watched enveloped him.

Chen Fei gently moved his head; the peach wood sword under the pillow was still in its original position.

There shouldn't be anything that could come in.

After a moment's thought, Chen Fei slowly turned over.

Under the dim light, Chen Fei saw a pair of bright eyes staring at him.

Blue eyes.

Chen Fei's eyelids twitched.

Only someone with his courage wouldn't scream; anyone else might have already shouted in fright.

The source of pollution was completely unaware of its terrifying actions at night. It didn't need to sleep like the players did to replenish energy within the scenario. Since it couldn't sleep and couldn't go out, it naturally found something interesting to watch.

Looking at the face of the source of pollution, Chen Fei's mind kept replaying the vague scenes he saw in his dream.

After a while, he asked in a low voice:

"Has anyone entered this room?"

Anyone.

Or something else.

The source of pollution shook its head.

It was now midnight. Since Chen Fei and the others fell asleep, it was certain that no one or anything non-human had entered this room.

Chen Fei nodded.

It seemed the props he and Qi Xiu bought indeed worked.

Thus, the dream he had wasn't due to any special influence from a ghost.

It was probably related to the plot, and perhaps everyone in the department store would dream about it.

He could ask the other players tomorrow morning.

Chen Fei then asked, "Is there a fragment of your soul in this scenario?"

The man on the adjacent bed gave an answer that surprised Chen Fei: "No."

"The last fragment is hidden deeply. The system won't expose it right at the beginning of the team competition," explained the source of pollution.

Chen Fei raised an eyebrow: "Then why did you enter this scenario?"

He originally thought the source of pollution had a specific purpose for entering the scenario, but after a day and night, it did nothing except diligently perform miscellaneous tasks within the scenario.

The source of pollution wore an innocent expression.

Without speaking, it stared fixedly at Chen Fei, its gaze moving down from the young man's face to their accidentally touching fingertips.

Chen Fei had leaned half his body onto the other bed to whisper into the source of pollution's ear. Seeing the other's expression, he immediately understood its meaning.

The source of pollution's answer perfectly confirmed Chen Fei's guess: "Because you're here."

When He was there, It followed—this was such a natural occurrence.

The source of pollution, having long distanced itself from human thought patterns, occasionally uttered some startling words.

Qin Fei: "…"

Discussing this in a haunted house where real ghosts could appear at any moment.

You really have your own way.

While the two were talking, an odd sound suddenly came from the next room, separated by a wall.

Tap, tap.

It sounded as if someone was walking on the ground, but upon closer listening, it didn't quite seem so.

The sound was too light, weightless, vastly different from the usual sound of someone walking.

If described in detail, it was more like someone holding a pair of shoes and tapping them on the floor one by one, simulating the sound of footsteps.

Qin Fei put a finger to his lips: "Shh—"

The eyes of the pollution source flickered, silently asking, "What's wrong?"

Qin Fei rolled his eyes.

Making small talk?

He didn't believe that It hadn't heard the noise outside.

Qin Fei pointed towards the door, playing along with the pollution source: "Someone is there."

The young man half-raised his body, looking in the direction of Lu Cheng.

Lu Cheng, who should have been monitoring the other rooms at all times, was sleeping face down like a dead pig, his brows furrowed, clearly having a not-so-pleasant dream.

Qin Fei paused, ultimately choosing between "waking up Lu Cheng" and "sending out the ghost child to investigate," opting for the latter.

...

Room Two.

Since returning from the third floor, Zheng Hu had been in low spirits.

Although he didn't show it, Zhao Li's death had greatly impacted him.

That female ghost was too strong. After encountering her directly, Zheng Hu was one hundred percent certain that if he faced her, he would have no chance of fighting back.

The female ghost was from the women's dormitory area, and they were now also in the women's dormitory area. Would she enter the dormitory at night?

Thinking about this made Zheng Hu's heart race.

He and Ji Feipeng bought many things from the third floor.

The shop owner told them that the previous group of six people had bought the same items, but Zheng Hu always had doubts about this.

Because when the owner understood their intentions, he showed a disappointed expression, muttering, "What a pity, what a pity."

Pity what?

Following the owner's advice, both Zheng Hu and Ji Feipeng bought a stack of yellow talismans and paper money. Back in the dormitory, they burned the talismans, drank the ash water, and placed the paper money under their pillows.

With heavy thoughts, Zheng Hu lay on the bed. After ten o'clock, overwhelming drowsiness caused him to fall into a deep sleep instantly.

He had a long dream. In the dream, he felt as if he was buried underground, trapped in a coffin or something similar, unable to escape.

This dream made Zheng Hu extremely uncomfortable. He knew he was dreaming, but he couldn't wake up, enveloped in a suffocating and fearful feeling akin to being pinned down by a ghost.

Until a long time later.

Tap, tap.

A sound of footsteps penetrated the darkness and reached his ears.

These footsteps seemed to possess a magical power, awakening him instantly. Zheng Hu abruptly woke up from his dream.

He opened his eyes instinctively.

From Zheng Hu's angle, he could see the window of Room Two, which was tightly closed just as it was before they went to sleep, with nothing visible outside.

Yet, in this sealed space, Zheng Hu distinctly felt a breeze brush past his ear.

The player broke out in a cold sweat!