234: The little cutie in the bed.

Ten minutes later.

In the bathroom, the faucet dripped, making Li Xiang's heart pound with fear.

She hugged her knees, cowering in the corner of the stall.

Just now, she had seen it with her own eyes.

She saw that figure in the red dress, standing right in front of her, with a strange smile on her face, and then... little by little, she dissolved into nothingness.

But that bone-chilling coldness still clung to her tightly.

"Don't... don't come over... It wasn't me... I didn't harm you..."

Li Xiang babbled incoherently, bowing her head to the empty stall.

She even forgot that her pants were still down.

Just then.

"Creak—"

The door to the public restroom was pushed open.

A figure walked in.

Li Xiang was so scared her Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering, and without thinking, she let out a piercing scream.

"Li Xiang? What's wrong with you?"

A clear voice, somewhat familiar.

Li Xiang suddenly looked up and saw that the person who had come was Lu Xiaoya.

She was holding a few pieces of toilet paper and looking at her with a puzzled expression.

"You... why are you here?"

"I saw the group message, didn't you say you didn't bring paper? I just finished mywalk and brought it over for you since it was on my way." Lu Xiaoya waved the paper in her hand, then frowned slightly, "Who are you talking to? And why aren't you wearing your pants?"

She looked around; in the entire bathroom, besides the two of them, there wasn't even a ghost of a shadow.

Li Xiang also saw clearly; in front of her, there was only Lu Xiaoya!

Then... that one just now...

She no longer cared about anything, scrambling out in a panic.

Lu Xiaoya stood still, looking at the few pieces of toilet paper she hadn't given out, and then at Li Xiang's bare-bottomed disappearing back, her head full of question marks.

What... what's going on?

In this day and age, do people not wear pants to the bathroom anymore? Is streaking in fashion?

...

Dorm 302.

Li Xiang burst through the door with a "bang," ignoring the two roommates who were already fast asleep, and directly threw herself onto her bed, wrapping herself tightly in her quilt.

But that bone-deep chill, she couldn't shake it off no matter what.

With trembling hands, she pulled out her phone and dialed a number.

"Hello? Xiangxiang? What time is it? Why are you calling?" On the other end of the phone, a young male voice with a hint of impatience came through.

"Young Master Wang! Young Master Wang, save me!" Li Xiang's voice was tearful, "I... I saw her! I saw Lin Rourou! She... she came for me!"

"Lin Rourou?" Wang Shi'an, or Young Master Wang, on the other end of the phone, was startled at first, then scoffed, "Are you out of your mind? Lin Rourou died from a fall a long time ago, the police closed the case, what Lin Rourou did you see?"

"It's true! I really saw her! In the bathroom! Wearing that red dress!" Li Xiang urgently explained, "She... she must have turned into a ghost to take revenge! Young Master Wang, quickly think of a solution!"

"A ghost?"

Wang Shi'an sounded as if he had heard the biggest joke.

"Li Xiang, I never realized before, why are you so brainless? What era is this, and you still believe in this?"

"I think you just did something bad and have a guilty conscience!"

"Alright, stop acting crazy, I'm sleepy, hanging up!"

"Beep... beep... beep..."

Listening to the busy signal from the other end of the phone, Li Xiang's heart sank completely to the bottom.

She hugged her knees, huddled in her quilt, her whole body icy cold.

In the darkness, she always felt that a pair of eyes was staring intently at her.

...

The night grew deeper.

The dorm building was eerily quiet.

In Dorm 302, besides Li Xiang, the other three were already in dreamland.

Li Xiang wrapped herself tightly in her quilt, leaving only her eyes exposed, vigilantly observing her surroundings.

After an unknown amount of time, a wave of drowsiness hit her, and she finally couldn't resist, her eyelids gradually drooping.

Just as she was about to fall asleep.

"Hehehe..."

A light chuckle, without warning, echoed in her ear.

Li Xiang's body suddenly stiffened!

She wanted to scream, but her throat felt like it was clogged with cotton, unable to make a sound!

Immediately after, she felt her quilt being slowly... pulled back by a cold hand.

A chilling wind blew in.

A bloodless face, with black blood continuously oozing from its seven orifices, emerged from the foot of the bed.

"Xiangxiang..."

"My dear sister..."

"Going alone, how lonely it must be."

"How about... you come with me?"

...

The next day, early morning.

"Ah—!"

A scream loud enough to pierce eardrums tore through the tranquility of the campus.

In Dorm 302, two recently awakened roommates, seeing the horrifying scene before them, were scared Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering, scrambling out of the dorm.

Lu Xiaoya was also awakened by the commotion.

"What's wrong, so early in the morning?"

When she clearly saw what was happening on the lower bunk.

"..."

Ten minutes later, the police arrived and investigated the body and the scene.

"Officer, what... what exactly is going on here?" She grabbed a young police officer who was investigating the scene and asked urgently.

The young police officer glanced at her, sighed, and shook his head.

"The deceased, Li Xiang, preliminary assessment, died of myocardial infarction due to extreme fright."

"In other words, she was... scared to death."

Scared to death?!

Lu Xiaoya's mind buzzed!

She suddenly remembered Li Xiang's terrified look last night, and her words, "There's a ghost"!

Could it be...

"Officer!" She grabbed the police officer again, "I... I have something to report! Last night, Li Xiang, she..."

She recounted everything that happened in the restroom last night, in detail.

The young police officer listened, his brows tightly furrowed, clearly not quite believing it.

But when he saw Lu Xiaoya's serious expression, and connected it to the bizarre manner of the deceased's death, he couldn't help but feel a sense of doubt.

"Let's go, let's check the surveillance room."

...

Inside the surveillance room, there was a deathly silence.

The police officer responsible for retrieving the surveillance footage played the recordings from the dorm hallway during that time last night, back and forth, over a dozen times.

On the screen, besides Li Xiang and Lu Xiaoya, no third person appeared.

"See, I told you, there's no such thing as..." The young police officer was about to say something.

Suddenly, an experienced older police officer next to him slammed his hand on the table, pointing to an extremely subtle corner on the screen, his voice trembling.

"Rewind! Slow motion! Even slower!"

The footage rewound and played again at 0.5x speed.

Just as Li Xiang rushed out of the restroom, and Lu Xiaoya followed closely behind!

An extremely blurry, almost indistinguishable red figure, merged with the darkness... flashed past from behind the restroom door!

So fast, it was like an illusion!

"What... what is this?!" The young police officer's eyes almost popped out.

"Damn it, you scared me." The old police officer patted his chest, forcing himself to calm down, "It's probably just some noise from the camera being old and malfunctioning."

Despite his words, the cold sweat on his forehead betrayed his inner turmoil.

...

Inside the police station, the lights were bright.

Since no clues could be found at the scene or from surveillance, the police could only start with the deceased's social connections.

Soon, they found that Li Xiang had a phone call lasting several minutes with a rich second-generation named Wang Shi'an last night.

Through technical means, they recovered the recording of that call.

Upon hearing Li Xiang's fearful pleas in the recording, and the line, "Lin Rourou turned into a ghost to get me."

Every police officer involved in the case froze in place.

Lin Rourou!

The female university student who had recently been classified as an "accidental fall"!

They immediately pulled out Lin Rourou's case file, and combined with Wang Shi'an's background...

A truth that they found somewhat absurd, yet filled with endless fear, gradually surfaced.

Lin Rourou was murdered!

And the murderer, very likely, was Wang Shi'an, and... Li Xiang, who had just been "scared to death"!

But...

If that were true, then how could Li Xiang's death be explained?

Could it be...

Are there really ghosts in this world?!