Room No

Chapter 13

Duan Lin suddenly remembered many things that seemed strange to him now. For example, the first time he met the principal was in that grove of trees, where he found the ring, which belonged to the missing Xi Yuan. The principal also provided the car carrying the body. And... when everyone else said they saw a woman, only the principal said he saw a man...

Although that was outside the realm of logic, Duan Lin had a bad feeling when he heard the principal say that.

"It's you two again. Sir, you're a teacher, right? It's not good for a teacher to be like this all the time..." Standing in the distance, the tall and thin dormitory supervisor looked displeased. His old face, which was already terrifying due to his disfigurement, looked even more sinister under the dappled shadows of the trees.

But Duan Lin had no time to care about the sarcasm in the old man's tone. He rushed forward and grabbed the dormitory supervisor's hand tightly!

"That black car! Tell me, whose black car was behind us when you spotted us? Where is it now?" Duan Lin shouted, unusually losing his composure.

Perhaps it was the sudden outburst from this usually quiet and unassuming young man that surprised everyone, leaving the dormitory supervisor stunned. "Huh? The black car you're talking about? It belongs to the principal… of course it's parked at the principal's house, not far from here…"

Next, before the dormitory supervisor could finish speaking, Duan Lin let go of the other person and ran ahead.

If... if I'm not mistaken... those two children... those two children... they've been sitting in the car the whole time, they had to be in the car, not just because of Xi Yuan, but also because...

Standing in front of the principal's black car, Duan Lin saw the two boys again, one on the left and one on the right, standing indifferently on either side of the black car.

Duan Lin walked straight toward where the two figures were standing. Standing between the two transparent shadows, Duan Lin took a deep breath, touched the spot where the two people were silently watching—the trunk lid—and then suddenly pulled it open!

The truth came out! Duan Lin clearly saw that the slightly larger-than-average rear compartment contained the bodies of two teenagers...!

They're dead!

The boys' bodies were crammed into the carriage, twisted into unbelievable contortions. One of the boys' faces was turned upwards, his unclosed eyes staring straight at Duan Lin, as if glaring at him...

It's him!

Goosebumps rose on Duan Lin's skin. He remembered that face... it was the one he had seen that night, and later on the student roster: Zhang Yande, one of Xi Yuan's friends!

So, the other one...

Looking at the large, fat body with the vest facing him, Duan Lin felt himself trembling uncontrollably!

My body was stiff and I couldn't move. A warm breeze carried the rich fragrance of flowers from outside, dispelling the stench from the trunk—a faint, lingering smell of decay mixed with the floral scent…

Duan Lin stumbled back a few steps, leaned against the wall, and began to dry heave.

"Young man, what was that just now..." The dormitory supervisor's stern voice came from the doorway. He and Xiaobai walked quickly toward Duan Lin, and then, inevitably, they saw the scene in the back of the car!

"Oh my god!"

The keychain fell heavily to the ground from the old man's hand, and Xiaobai turned pale with fear.

"Teacher! They...they..."

“They’re dead,” Duan Lin said in a deep voice.

Transporting the bodies out was a difficult task. The bodies of these two poor children were already stiff, and the hot weather and enclosed environment inevitably caused their bodies to begin to decompose. A nauseating smell could be smelled as soon as you got close. Large patches of purple lividity covered their young bodies, making them look extremely eerie.

"Teacher, we must get them out. It's uncomfortable in here," Xiaobai suddenly said, speaking to Duan Lin with unusual seriousness.

She stared at Xiaobai for a long time, then looked at the two children's pitiful bodies, cruelly huddled in the back of the truck...

Yes, such a small place... it wouldn't be comfortable. So, Duan Lin touched that cold, decaying skin...

The dormitory supervisor also came to help.

The body was successfully removed.

Duan Lin suppressed the urge to vomit and turned one of the students over. Under the cover of lividity, Duan Lin noticed that the knife wound on his vest was the cause of death; he had been stabbed in the back of the heart. As for the shorter student named Ade, there was no need to look at him; his face was relatively intact, but there was a large gash on the back of his head!

The congealed brain matter, fermented over time, turned a disgusting yellow color. Upon seeing this, Duan Lin's heart trembled. Was it an axe? Or some other blunt weapon?

That poor child...

Duan Lin could almost imagine the endless bewilderment and fear his companion felt on that dark, deserted night when he was trapped at the bottom of a well and had no one to turn to for help. When he discovered that the person swinging the axe at him was none other than his beloved principal, he was filled with despair and fear.

The axe swung fiercely at him. Before he could even close his eyes, the boy's body fell to the ground, and then, along with his companion, was squeezed into the narrow back of the truck...

"This is...this is..." Xiaobai opened and closed her mouth, but could no longer speak.

Duan Lin glanced at him, then at the dormitory supervisor, whose expression remained stubbornly fixed with tightly pursed lips. He took a deep breath: "If I'm not mistaken, the murderer is... the principal. Supervisor, please go to the police station later. Before that... could you please explain the situation here to me?"

He closed his eyes to calm himself down, and when he opened them again, Duan Lin was unusually calm.

Don't panic, stay calm in this situation! Mu Zi is there, everything should be alright...

But Mu Zi can only deal with ghosts, and the principal isn't a ghost!

When people become terrifying, they are more ferocious than ghosts!

This was the first time Duan Lin had thought this way.

“If I’m not mistaken, things are starting to get complicated. We found Cao and Zhang here; they’ve been murdered. But there are three other students over there who know nothing about it.”

"Wait! You mean... all the incidents here... were done by the headmaster? So there are no ghosts here at all?" This was completely unexpected from Duan Lin's reaction; the dormitory supervisor seemed quite agitated.

“No… although these two students died from murder, this place…” Duan Lin glanced at the dormitory supervisor and Xiao Bai, then continued, “There really is a ghost here. I… just saw a little child at Xi Yuan’s place.”

After pondering for a long time, Duan Lin finally spoke: "A child whose entire body was charred black, with only his eyes visible..."

"A child?!" The dormitory supervisor seemed to become even more agitated.

Understanding that seeing ghosts was too much of a burden for ordinary people, Duan Lin nodded, but continued, "I think... there must be more than one ghost, because Xi Yuan said that the calls they heard were women's voices. Xi Yuan also said that he saw a female ghost with long hair that reached her hips..."

The dormitory supervisor stared wide-eyed, his disfigured face displaying an extremely eerie expression. Even Duan Lin, who had just witnessed a ghost, swallowed hard to calm himself down.

Just as Duan Lin was waiting for She to finish listening to everything and give him her acceptance or rejection response, suddenly...

"The ones you saw... should be them."

"Huh?!" This time it was Duan Lin's turn to be puzzled.

"This place... was a hospital decades ago. I was very young then, and I was an assistant to one of the doctors. At that time, it was a very famous hospital. The doctors there were not only highly skilled, but also had the kind hearts that people admired as ideal doctors."

"In those days, poor people couldn't afford medical care, let alone orphans. The director of that hospital was a very kind person. He took in many sick orphans, treated them for free, and even found suitable families for them after they recovered..."

"Sounds... good." Duan Lin forced a smile. He instinctively understood that this was closely related to what happened today.

"Tsk! Yes, it just sounds good..." The dormitory supervisor laughed, but there was a hint of bitterness in his usual sarcastic smile.

"Those benefactors didn't treat the poor for free. One day later, I suddenly discovered the body of a sick child in the autopsy room, and that's when I started to have doubts. I often played with those children. The child was said to have recovered and found a good family willing to take him in. The family was in a hurry and took him away without saying goodbye to us."

"We were overjoyed for a long time, but... "When I saw him, the child was lying in the medicine, with a huge gash in his chest. Do you know what that was? This kind of surgery is common now, but back then it was still experimental; it was a heart transplant!"

"I became suspicious and slowly investigated, only to find that this hospital was taking in orphans for human experiments! Those missing children were all tortured to death by them!"

“I found those children. I told them that they would get better soon and have families again. The children were very happy, and I was happy too. I became an assistant so that I could save people in the future, but I unintentionally became a murderer!”

"Didn't you think about calling the police?" Xiaobai asked, after a moment of surprise.

"Impossible. The patients at that hospital were all important people. There was no law back then. So, I told the remaining kids to sneak away with me..."

"...And what happened?" Duan Lin regretted asking the question almost immediately, as he could clearly see the old man's face filled with remorse!

Pointing to his face, the old man said, "Look at my face, how did it get so disfigured?"

Seeing the old man's deeply lined and aged face finally fully revealed, Duan Lin's heart skipped a beat, and he blurted out, "Could it be burns?"

“Yes, it was burned. Those people knew someone had discovered their activities, but they were still afraid of being found out, so they set fire to the hospital! When I rushed in to find them, I was pinned down by a falling pillar. After I was rescued, my face was like this. Those children... they must have all been burned alive.”

In an instant, Duan Lin finally understood why the child was covered in soot. He suddenly remembered the black ash on the sheets when he first arrived... He had indeed seen the child that day.

"Later, many things happened—turmoil, revolution. When I returned here, it had become a school, and... at first glance, I knew that the hospital hadn't left, or rather, their successors hadn't left, for the reason..."

The old man's gaze suddenly deepened. Turning his head, Duan Lin followed the old man's gaze and saw the scene outside the garage: blue sky, white clouds, and swaying flowers—it was a beautiful day…

"See those flowers? Those are poisonous flowers. The reason this hospital has such powerful backing is because they're researching this stuff—it's even better than opium! The wealthy are hoping to make a fortune from it!"

"When I returned here and saw these flowers covering the mountains and fields, I immediately decided to stay."

"That...that person...is the principal?" Duan Lin asked in surprise, suddenly realizing what was happening.

"Thanks to you, I know today. Originally... I really thought it was ghosts taking people away... I thought... they were looking for me..." At the end, the old man silently lowered his head, his shoulders trembling, and he whimpered softly.

"Let's call the police," Duan Lin suddenly said. "I'd like to trouble you, dormitory supervisor, please call the police."

"What about you? And... how do you call the police for something like this? The principal and the others aren't even here!" Xiaobai jumped up upon hearing Duan Lin's words.

"I will bring them back!" Duan Lin said, staring into Xiao Bai's eyes. Then he ran straight out.

Xiao Bai paused for a moment, then quickly followed after him.

The dormitory supervisor seemed not to see the young man who had already left, and just stared straight into the distance.

"You... I'm sorry, the appointment at 3:15... I broke my promise..." As if remembering something, the old man burst into tears.

At this moment, Duan Lin stood in front of his dormitory room, "143".

His face was calmer than ever before.

The dormitory supervisor's words still had some omissions, because there were still things that couldn't be explained. However, everything seemed to be related to this dormitory room. So... recalling the strange things that happened here when he first arrived, Duan Lin felt that his judgment should be correct.

"T-Teacher, what do you want to do?" The boy standing timidly behind him was Xiaobai, who had followed closely behind. The boy looked at his teacher with a serious expression as he stared into the distance. The next thing Duan Lin did was sit down on the floor right in the middle of the corridor!

"I'll wait for him to come." Duan Lin placed his hands on his knees and calmly closed his eyes.

The dormitory had been sealed off after the student's disappearance, and no one lived there. The entire building was quiet, and the light that shone into the bedroom through the narrow windows was extremely dim. Before long, the room became completely dark.

Time seemed to slow down, as if he were asleep. Duan Lin vaguely remembered many things: things from his childhood, things from his student days, and the two sisters he had met recently…

Is this what one's "thoughts" are? The things that come to mind when one is closest to sleep are often a person's purest memories. If one dies, will these thoughts stubbornly linger in the world, be touched by someone, and become physical?

If... what Mu Zi said is true, then let me see the proof!

Let yourself see the memories of those who have passed away and are left here, let yourself see them!

As his body was trapped in darkness, Duan Lin also abandoned his thoughts to the darkness. He couldn't tell how much time had passed when footsteps suddenly echoed in the once silent old school building...

One...two...three...

The footsteps grew increasingly noisy—so many people! So many people passed by him, there were girls' laughter, and the sounds of children running and chasing each other in the corridor. Duan Lin felt as if he could even feel the cool breeze from the clothes of those passing by brushing against his cheek…

Duan Lin slowly opened his eyes.

Chapter Ten: Encountering Ghosts

"Principal! Something terrible has happened... Teacher Duan and the others' car is gone!"

The monkey's voice suddenly rang out inside the car. Everyone who had been staring nervously ahead immediately turned around. Sure enough! Behind them was only the dark road they had just driven through, but there was no trace of Duan Lin's car.

"Huh? Is...is that so?" The principal turned around, a bead of cold sweat appearing on his forehead.

"I just turned around to check on Xiaobai and the others, but who knew..." As he spoke, the monkey became increasingly anxious, for his friends were up there!

"Principal! Please stop the car!" Overwhelmed with worry for his friend, the monkey, who had been sitting in the back seat, leaned forward and lay on the driver's seat, pleading with the principal.

"It's best not to stop. In a place like this, if the car stops, something unlucky is bound to happen," Mu Zi said calmly, sitting next to the monkey. The principal's attempt to stop froze, and the car continued to move slowly forward.