Ich bin von Natur aus schön und unübertroffen

Kapitel 4

There's no need to make a fuss and scare others about things I'm not sure about. With that thought in mind, Duan Lin pushed open the door and entered "143".

It was getting darker and darker. Although the days were long in summer, this was the first floor and on the shady side, so it felt like darkness came faster here than elsewhere. Thinking he needed to hurry and change the light bulb, Duan Lin pulled over a chair, stepped on it, and reached for the light switch.

The light bulb seemed to be rusted inside. I spent ages twisting it, sweating profusely, until my arms ached, before I finally managed to unscrew it. In the blink of an eye, the room darkened a few degrees.

Shaking his arm, Duan Lin could only align the light bulb's clip with the base by feel. The bulb and the somewhat rusted base rubbed together, making a hissing sound, like grinding teeth...

Duan Lin thought for a moment and finally installed the light bulb. By then, the room was quite dark. Looking at the small window on the wall, Duan Lin suddenly had an idea…

"This place really does resemble a prison." Duan Lin chuckled to himself and decided to try turning on the light. He hoped it would work; if the problem was with the base, that would be troublesome.

With a "snap," the light... came on. "Huh? Why is the light so dim?" Duan Lin frowned as he looked at the dim light bulb, his peripheral vision scanning the area beneath it...

Duan Lin froze! His body trembled slightly as he cautiously turned his eyes, his pupils looking down at what lay beneath him…

There's someone in my bed!

In the darkness, a small figure was curled up on his bed. The upper bunk made it even darker, and in the darkness, a pair of eyes stared straight at him!

Duan Lin felt as if he were in an ice cellar! His arms ached terribly, but he dared not move a muscle. He simply held his breath, afraid to look at those "people" even once, yet he dared not look away, lest he be caught off guard...

Cold sweat gradually appeared on my forehead, soaking my shirt. The wind blew through the gaps in my clothes, bringing a biting chill!

Duan Lin suddenly felt a chill on his shoulder!

My shoulders suddenly felt stiff, like... something was draped over them...

Wait a minute! "Hitchhiking"?!

His body trembled uncontrollably. Duan Lin dared not breathe, his terrified gaze turning backward, and then…

"Kuang Dang!"

Duan Lin lost his balance, and the chair under his feet tilted, causing him to fall off the chair.

However, in the instant he fell, Duan Lin flicked the light bulb, and the dim light returned to normal, illuminating the room!

When the students rushed over, they saw Teacher Duan lying on the ground, staring at the light bulb.

"Teacher Duan, what are you doing?" The one who rushed in first was the boy nicknamed "Monkey" whom we had met that morning. He stood at the front, staring at Duan Lin with wide eyes, looking at him nervously.

"Cough," Duan Lin coughed as he came to his senses and was helped up by his students. He patted the dirt off his clothes and said, "I... I was changing a light bulb and then I fell down."

"Oh? Is that so... That's good. I thought... I thought you'd seen a ghost..." The monkey breathed a sigh of relief, a smile appearing on its face.

Duan Lin gave a dry laugh, and was about to thank the student who helped him up when he was surprised to find that the student supporting him from behind was none other than Mu Zi. He glanced at her, nodded slightly, and subconsciously patted her shoulder lightly.

"...I'm fine." Duan Lin patted his shoulder, but his gaze couldn't help but drift to his bed. The upper bunk railing cast two even shadows on his bed. Was he seeing things?

But... what happened behind me just now?

Mu Zi looked at Duan Lin, and the dust on the shoulder of Duan Lin's shirt suddenly caught his attention...

"Your shoulder..." Mu Zi asked calmly, subtly blocking the students' view at the door without attracting anyone's attention.

"Oh? I must have bumped it when I fell, it hurts a little..."

Ignoring the man's explanation, Mu Zi simply stared at the inconspicuous gray mark.

Four...like human hands... Mu Zi gently extended her hand, her fingers lightly touching the four gray lines. The paths were the same, but...they were smaller, and...

His thoughtful gaze drifted toward Duan Lin's side.

What are you doing?

Seeing Duan Lin turn around and look at her in surprise, Mu Zi gently patted Duan Lin's shoulder, as if brushing off dust.

"Your shoulder... got dirty." Seeing that the finger-shaped dirt on Duan Lin's shoulder had disappeared, Mu Zi took a step back, widening the distance between them again.

Duan Lin gave Mu Zi a deep look, which seemed to be looking at him but also seemed not to be looking at him. He couldn't help but look behind him.

There's nothing there.

Frowning, Duan Lin turned around and looked at the two students outside the door, then smiled gently.

Thank you for your concern.

The two people outside the door both had strange expressions on their faces. After a while, the monkey finally spoke, breaking the awkward atmosphere.

"I rushed in without thinking, and then I realized... this is '143'!"

"Yeah, yeah!" A student nearby chimed in. The one who spoke was a tall, burly boy, whom Duan Lin remembered as a student in his class.

"This is Qi Lan's 'forbidden zone.' If we tell them we've been here tomorrow, they'll be incredibly impressed!" Monkey said with a smile, but his voice lacked conviction.

However, young people are bold after all. After staying inside for a while, they found that it was no different from their own dormitory. The two boys quickly became friendly with Duan Lin.

"Teacher, you scared me to death!" Once he's not scared, the monkey talks like a string of beans.

"What?" Duan Lin could only force a smile as he looked at the other person.

"Teacher, you really didn't see anything?" The monkey still didn't believe him, looking back and forth at Duan Lin. This time, Duan Lin fell silent.

Did I really see it? I was too nervous just now, was it just my eyes playing tricks on me or...? Duan Lin hoped he had misread it.

Seeing Duan Lin remain silent, the monkey's expression suddenly changed. "Did you really see something?"

"...No, no, I just fell down, and my head still hurts a little..."

"Ah, I knew it! Don't scare us! That monkey guy is always listening on the wall. When you froze like that just now, we really thought something was wrong..." The boy next to Duan Lin, who was startled by Duan Lin's sudden silence, immediately patted his chest and slumped back on Duan Lin's bed.

There were two boys sitting on his bed, no more, no less, just enough to fill the spot where he had seen the thing earlier... Lost in thought, Duan Lin suddenly felt a pang of emotion, and after a moment, he gently pinched his palm and smiled faintly.

Monkey wanted to tell more about the terrifying things in the dormitory, but under strong prompting from his roommate, he finally kept quiet. Duan Lin wanted to know too, but... seeing the boy next to him desperately winking at Monkey and looking terrified, Duan Lin wisely kept quiet.

Duan Lin suddenly felt thirsty and took out a beer from his box, when he was startled by a monkey that pounced on him.

"Teacher, you have such a good thing and you didn't tell me!" Seeing the two guys practically drooling, Duan Lin thought for a moment and offered up all his stock. Boys this age are just starting to get interested in alcohol, just like he was.

The once quiet room suddenly became lively. People drank and chatted, completely forgetting that this was room 143. Duan Lin, finally free from the earlier incident, quietly sipped his drink, watching the group of older children beside him. Suddenly…

"What is that?" Mu Zi's voice rang out. Duan Lin looked up and saw that she was staring straight at him. He realized that she was asking about him. His gaze followed Mu Zi's finger and he saw that she was asking about the ring.

Because of the dream he had that morning, Duan Lin strung the ring on a thin thread, intending to hang it by the door that evening. It wasn't his own; hanging it there, perhaps its owner would take it away... who knew who its owner was? But he hadn't expected Mu Zi to be interested in it.

Duan Lin sighed. Anything that person would specifically ask about was definitely not good.

“It’s a woman’s ring,” Mu Zi suddenly said. “But it could also be a pinky ring.” Hearing Mu Zi’s words, Duan Lin opened his mouth, then closed it.

"This... I found it yesterday. I was thinking of posting it out tonight for someone to claim it." The things I saw and dreamed about yesterday... such unbelievable things, should I even say them? Could I even say them?

Duan Lin glanced at the ring, then turned his gaze to Mu Zi. "Hmm, hang it up as soon as possible. Don't leave that kind of thing in the house," Mu Zi said calmly, and then didn't say another word.

Duan Lin was slightly tipsy when he saw the students off. He hadn't actually drunk much, but he felt inexplicably dizzy and his body felt hot, as if it were on fire. However, this feeling vanished the moment everyone left.

He hadn't noticed it before, but after the commotion subsided, Duan Lin realized how cold his room was—extremely cold. Shivering, the effects of the alcohol wearing off, he shook his head and slammed the door shut.

The door lock has been changed, so there's no need to hear the door opening and closing sound like last night. Duan Lin decided to use the last bit of alcohol to go to sleep. Lights out is after midnight here, and the school will cut off the power, so he must go to sleep now.

Thinking to himself, Duan Lin looked at his bed and... the shadow cast by the upper bunk.

Was it just his imagination? Duan Lin squatted down and looked closely at his bed.

The sheets were spotless, and on them...

dust.

There was a faint black layer on the bed sheet where the student had just sat.

Looking at the stain, Duan Lin suddenly remembered something, shook his head, and reached out to brush away the dust. But the black stain seemed to have adhered to the sheet. Looking at the faint stain, Duan Lin felt inexplicably awkward. He simply took off the sheet that had been on the bed for a day and changed to a new one.

That unease that came from the bottom of my heart was like... like the feeling I got from that smell in the Guangcai Building last time, extremely uncomfortable...

After that incident, Duan Lin began to realize that he seemed to be a little different from others, and that the things he found strange might actually be strange...

This place seems ordinary, but it's actually strange in every way. Not only did my strangest roommate frame me for coming here, but he also followed me here. This shows that there must be something wrong with this place!

Suddenly I remembered the terrifying thing the monkey had said. What exactly happened here in the past?

Perhaps... we should ask the monkey in private...

Thinking to himself, Duan Lin slowly drifted off to sleep. However, he didn't need to ask the monkey; the next day, he already knew what was so strange about the school!

Chapter Three Disappeared

A student has gone missing!

When Duan Lin woke up in the morning, he noticed that something was off. The washroom, which had been packed like sardines yesterday morning, was eerily quiet, and the corridor was also strangely silent. This time of day should be the noisiest time for everyone to wash up and prepare for class, so why...?

Duan Lin knocked on the door of the neighboring dormitory "142". The boys inside all looked pale.

"What happened?"

"..." The monkey's face was the palest. He was an extremely timid person and was usually most afraid of such strange and supernatural things, so he was particularly careful in this regard.

"Someone from the third-year dorm upstairs has gone missing. They've been missing for a few days, but they're students who often skip classes, so no one noticed until today when they were discovered to be missing... See, there really is something ghostly here!"

His face darkened, and without listening to what the monkey said next, Duan Lin ran upstairs!

It was too early, and the teachers who lived off-campus hadn't arrived yet. There was only a group of students and the dormitory supervisor outside. The students just stood there, pointing and whispering, but no one went in to speak. So Duan Lin struggled through the crowd and rushed into the dormitory. Inside, he saw a boy.

There was only one boy in the room. All the beds around him were empty. The folds in the blankets and sheets indicated that someone had slept there, but at this moment, there was only one person in the dormitory.

Duan Lin turned his gaze to the only person present, a pale-faced boy sitting on the bed in his pajamas. He was sleeping on the lower bunk, while the upper bunk partially obscured the boy's face. Duan Lin then bent down.

"Um, you still..." Seeing the boy's expression, Duan Lin stopped himself from saying the rest of his words.

That expression didn't look good at all, and Duan Lin couldn't bring himself to ask, "Are you alright?"

After a moment of surprise, Duan Lin suddenly asked, "Did they go out together?"

"……Um."

"What time is it?"

"3:15."

"Are you awake?"

"Um."

"..." He wanted to ask why Duan Lin didn't go with them while he was awake, but... if he had gone with them, this room would be empty now, and he shouldn't have asked that question, so Duan Lin couldn't bring himself to ask.

At this moment, the school's directors rushed over, and Duan Lin noticed that the school did not call the police.

"They just haven't come back yet, we can't be sure they're missing..." When asked if they should report it to the police, the director of the academic affairs office pulled her aside and whispered.

I was initially worried about the boy who had lost all his roommates overnight, and I was even more concerned about his repeated questioning. However, the boy remained very calm, answering every question. After answering, he lowered his head and asked softly, "Can I go to class now?"