Les beautés du palais froid une femme subtile et séduisante

Chapitre 3

Three days later, Mrs. F was discharged from the hospital.

"Teacher, should these scores be changed back?" Rui'er called out "Teacher" to her face for the first time in a serious manner.

Mrs. F smiled gently.

Kiyohiko had known her for fourteen years, and this was the first time he had ever seen her smile.

Hopefully, these remaining thirteen exam papers with altered scores will bring everyone peace.

Campus Mystery (Part 1)

Before the afternoon was over, Vivi skipped into the house, greeted Qingyan who was sitting in front of the computer, and then grabbed a bag of Lay's potato chips from the table and started munching on them.

"Why are you back so early? Did you skip class again?" Qingyan asked, his eyes still glued to the screen.

"Hey! Don't put it so harshly, they're on holiday."

"They're releasing it so early."

"Still early? The first one has been sitting for a week already."

"Oh..." Kiyohiko casually typed on the keyboard, "Then let's do the cleaning this afternoon."

"No, no!" Vivi's mouth was stuffed full. "I made plans to go out with Yuning. Oh, I can't talk to you anymore. I'd better go early. I'm going to change my clothes." With that, she turned and went into the bedroom.

"Why change clothes when going out? That's ridiculous," Qingyan said.

"Hey! I'm leaving!" Vivi quickly packed up, pushed her bicycle, and went out the door.

"Are you coming back for dinner tonight?" Qingyan shouted at the door, but she had already walked far away.

Yu Ning and Wei Wei are both freshmen. They were partners in the "Pantene" promotional work. Although they stopped working together a long time ago, they have kept in touch and would find opportunities to hang out during holidays.

Yu Ning is a student from Haikou who lives on campus.

After a week's break, most of the students from other places had gone home. Of course, some didn't plan to go back, like Yu Ning, who, along with three or four other students, squeezed into Yu Ning's dormitory. Although Weiwei didn't know them, they quickly became familiar with each other after a few words.

Young people spend the most time together, and soon it was evening, so everyone decided to go out for dinner.

"They told me to go back." Vivi hesitated a bit. "Oh well, I'm all alone in the dorm anyway, why don't you stay with me for the night?" Yu Ning suggested. "Okay, then call home." Vivi dialed the number, but it was busy; Qingyan was probably online.

"It's not that I didn't say hello, hehe, now I have an excuse." Vivi chuckled to herself as she went out with everyone.

The campus was very quiet; it was such a large place, it was actually a little scary.

The university is located in the west of the city, in a slightly remote area with few residential areas. It is quite deserted outside the school gate, and you might only see one person on the street every half day. It doesn't feel like the city at all.

---Magpie Bridge Fairy

Reply [8]: Yu Ning kept turning her head back. After three or four times, everyone couldn't help but ask her, "What are you looking at?"

“I always feel like someone is following us,” she murmured.

With the year-end approaching and the area experiencing bad luck, everyone was a little worried after hearing what she said. After discussing it, they decided to walk in a line, with one man and one woman separated, with the first and last men being men and the three women sandwiched in the middle, so that it would be easier to deal with any problems that might arise.

After doing this, Yu Ning seemed relieved, and nothing happened. Everyone arrived at the familiar snack shop without incident.

The dinner was very enjoyable. A sophomore boy seemed to have a crush on Yu Ning and told a lot of jokes on the spot. Wei Wei laughed so hard she couldn't straighten up. When she checked her watch at the time of paying the bill, it was almost nine o'clock.

“Well, we can’t go back now. What should we do tonight?” Vivi asked Yuning, turning around.

"..." Yu Ning seemed not to hear, looking preoccupied.

Everyone maintained the same formation they had when they arrived.

She turned back again.

"Why do you keep looking back?" a sophomore asked.

"Let me see who's following me."

"Of course it's me behind you. You keep looking at me, do you have a crush on me?" the sophomore boy said with a smile.

Everyone laughed along, but Yu Ning didn't laugh, nor was she angry; rather, she seemed afraid.

It was getting late when Weiwei got back to the dorm. She called home, told them she wasn't coming home, and hung up before Qingyan yelled at her. The boys had already gone back to playing around. Another girl, Jing, brought her blanket and slept in the bunk above Yuning's. Weiwei slept on top of her, so of the four beds in the dorm, only the one above Yuning's was empty.

Weiwei and Jing originally wanted to have a good chat before going to sleep, but Yuning was always absent-minded, either silent or giving irrelevant answers, which dampened their spirits, so they turned off the lights and went to sleep.

After a while, just as everyone was about to fall asleep, Yu Ning suddenly shouted, startling everyone.

"What is it?" Vivi and Jing asked in unison.

“There’s someone outside the window,” Yu Ning stammered.

Vivi wasn't very brave to begin with, and hearing what she said made her a little scared too. Luckily, Jing wasn't too scared. She snapped on the light, opened the window, and saw that there was no one there, but there was a bed sheet hanging down—it was being hung up by a third-year college girl upstairs.

"Hey, false alarm! There was no one there, it was just a bed sheet. Go to sleep, go to sleep." Jing turned off the light.

But after a while, Yu Ning let out another scream.

"What's wrong now?"

"I saw a pair of red eyes outside."

"What red eyes? I didn't see anything."

“There it is, there it is,” Yu Ning pointed shakily outside, “triangular red eyes, wow!” She suddenly pulled the blanket over her head.

Jing also became a little suspicious. Could it be that those boys were playing a prank on them and deliberately trying to scare them? She deliberately didn't turn on the lights, quietly opened the window, and suddenly shone her flashlight outside.

It was very quiet outside; there was nothing there.

"What's wrong with you today? You're acting crazy. Please don't scare yourself like that," Jing said, somewhat displeased.

“Exactly, you’ve scared me,” Vivi added.

Everyone went back to sleep, and Yu Ning didn't say anything more.

But she couldn't fall asleep. She could clearly feel a pair of red, triangular eyes staring intently at her from outside the window.

She dared not look or sleep, and broke out in a cold sweat.

Suddenly, she felt those eyes enter the room, not looking at Jing in the next bunk, nor at Weiwei in the upper bunk, but staring intently at her.

Closer and closer...

"Wow!"

The call was neither loud nor long. Weiwei was already asleep and didn't hear it. Jing heard it a little, but Yuning had already called three times, so she didn't pay any attention to it.

The night passed just like that.

"Huh? Where's Yu Ning? Why is she up so early?" Weiwei got up and found that Yu Ning's bed was empty.

"That guy, I don't know what went wrong with him yesterday, he made a scene all night, and then he yelled again, did you hear that?" Jing sat up.

"Hey! Ladies, get up and have breakfast!" The boys knocked on the door from outside.

Vivi and the others got dressed, yawned, and opened the door.

"Yu Ning is still sleeping."

"She got up early. What, didn't you see her?"

"No!"

Vivi and the others then realized something was wrong. After recounting what had happened the previous night, they split up and searched the dormitory, but to no avail. They were all puzzled and decided to wait a little longer, thinking that perhaps she had something come up and had to leave.

When Weiwei returned home, she vividly recounted what had happened, and Qingyan and Ruier were also amazed.

Jing called in the evening and said there was still no news about Yu Ning, and that the school leaders on duty had been notified.

The next day, the school officially reported the case to the police. Weiwei and the others were called in to give statements. She and Jing told the police what happened that night, but the police thought it was meaningless.

---Magpie Bridge Fairy

Reply [9]: A month later, the police officially announced that Yu Ning was missing.

Vivi was convinced that Yuning's disappearance was related to the red eyes, and from then on she dared not go to the First District, or even the West District.

For the next six months, Kiyohiko used this to ridicule her.

Midnight Bell (a reference to a tragic night) - On a weekend, Kiyohiko didn't get home until two hours after his usual workday.

"Fines!" Vivi and Ruier shouted in unison as soon as they entered the house.

"Don't get so worked up."

"Why are you so late?" Vivi asked.

"I'm trying to break up a fight! You have no idea, someone almost died in our office today."

"Pshaw, those few people in your office fighting?" Rui'er curled her lip in disdain: "Who's fighting whom?"

"Little A and Little B."

"Wow!" Vivi and Ruier exclaimed in unison, "Please come up with a better excuse next time. Those two fighting? You must be joking."

"Sigh..." Kiyohiko sighed, "I was originally going to tell you the live-action version of The Ring, but never mind."

"What? Tell me, tell me." The two became interested again and sat down around the table.

"Oh? You want to hear it? Then I can skip washing the dishes—I'll tell you if you don't object."

"It depends on how well you speak."

"Alright, alright, just say it already."

"This is what happened..."

Because there are relatively few male directors at the TV station, they share a dorm room in pairs. A and B naturally stayed together. Recently, the movie *The Ring* has been quite popular, so A borrowed a DVD. It was the night before last, I think, and the two of them watched it together in the dorm.

It was A who suggested the idea, but he wasn't very interested and almost fell asleep. B, on the other hand, read it carefully and even left a lot of comments. A barely read it and didn't know who he was talking to, so the matter was simply dropped. Last night, A was on duty for the midnight shift, and B was alone in the dorm.

Because she had to work the early shift today, Little B went to bed early. At night, she heard strange noises coming from the house, as if they were coming from the TV.

He had just stepped out of his bedroom when the clock struck twelve. When he got to the living room, he saw that the television, DVD player, and high-powered speakers were all on, and the screen was playing "The Ring".

He broke out in a cold sweat. He saw Sadako crawl out of the well, her hair disheveled—a close-up shot, then the television froze, and the volume of the speakers swelled to maximum, filling the room with that eerie, terrifying music. His heart nearly stopped. Just then, the phone rang. Before he could react, he instinctively picked up the receiver. There was no sound from the other end. The silence was terrifying. So quiet you could hear the minute hand of a clock—one, two, three… When it reached the seventh tick, beep beep beep… the call ended.

Poor Little B didn't sleep a wink all night. He couldn't sit still, couldn't stand still, and rushed to the TV station at daybreak. He was completely distracted all morning. During the live broadcast, he accidentally raised the volume three times instead of lowering it, almost driving the director crazy. He was severely reprimanded after the program ended. Back in the office, he complained to us, but no one answered; everyone just stared at him like he was something else. After repeating his story three times, he realized something was wrong and grabbed everyone to ask. Finally, Sister Yang couldn't help but tell us.

It turns out it was all A's doing. He set the timer on the DVD player, calculated the exact time, made a phone call, and then told us about it early in the morning, telling everyone to wait and see B's reaction.

Last night we scared B to death, but today we really angered him. We dragged A out of the recording studio where he was surfing the internet. We had to talk to him and persuade him to stop. We didn't fight, but B insisted on changing dorm rooms.

Kiyohiko finished speaking in one breath.