Le 19e cercle de l'Enfer

Chapitre 29

Song Xiaomo listened blankly.

"The thing is—this bed is mine, and you slept in my bed!" After saying that, she laughed again, making Song Xiaomo's skin crawl.

The entire room suddenly became brightly lit, and then a thunderclap resounded from the sky: "Crack—"

"Ah—" Song Xiaomo screamed suddenly, burst through the door, and fled in a frantic panic.

As Song Xiaomo ran down to the lobby, she bumped right into Park Eun-hee.

"Xiao Mo, why are you so flustered?" Park Eun-hee asked in surprise.

Chapter 140: The Doll Murder Case (140)

"My room is haunted!" Song Xiaomo exclaimed, panting heavily, without bothering to explain. "I want to be discharged. I don't want to stay here a second longer!"

"Did you have another nightmare?" Park Eun-hee asked him with some concern.

"No, I saw it with my own eyes this time. It's too eerie!"

"The doctor wasn't calling you..."

"I'm completely cured, I wasn't sick at all!" Song Xiaomo interrupted him, saying with unusual determination, "No, I want to be discharged!"

Seeing that she couldn't persuade him otherwise, Park Eun-hee said, "You should find a place to sit for a while, and I'll go help you with the discharge procedures."

"Thanks."

Not long after, Park Eun-hee returned after completing the formalities.

"Alright, at least we won't see that little girl anymore." Song Xiaomo breathed a sigh of relief.

"Is that the girl who shared a hospital room with you?"

"yes!"

Park Eun-hee sighed and said, "I'm afraid you won't be able to see me again even if you want to!"

"Why?" Song Xiaomo noticed that the other person's expression was a little strange.

"That little girl died early this morning!"

Song Xiaomo didn't understand for a moment: "Eunhee, what are you talking about? I just saw her. She was combing her hair!"

"Is this another hallucination of yours? The doctor told me this when I was helping you with the paperwork. I know you don't want to believe it now, but it's true. Her heart stopped beating early this morning, and her body is still in the morgue!"

How did she die?

"A sudden illness, that is, the heart suddenly stops beating!"

Song Xiaomo's body trembled violently: "No! Impossible! Could it be that what I just saw was really a female ghost?" He suddenly felt that some of the little girl's slightly strange behavior became very reasonable, while all of this was so illogical.

“Oh, right, yesterday when I brought you to the hospital and accompanied you to your ward, I kept feeling like the place looked familiar, but I couldn’t remember why. Today I finally remembered, the bed you slept in used to belong to Shin Mi-hyun! I visited her two years ago…” Park Eun-hee said quietly.

Suddenly, the image of the ghost doll on the windowsill flashed into Song Xiaomo's mind, and she couldn't help but tremble in the morning breeze.

"Anyone who receives a ghost doll will die!"

Has she really come back?

Chapter 141: The Doll Murder Case (141)

Chapter Eighteen Whose Ashes

After leaving the hospital, Song Xiaomo looked at the blue sky and white clouds above her head, and her mood immediately brightened up.

He suddenly remembered that he had a general education class today.

"Maybe He Zhiying is already back and is waiting for me in her seat now," he thought to himself.

"Xiao Mo, remember this: all ghosts in the world are figments of people's imaginations. There's nothing to be afraid of!" Park Eun-hee said the same old thing, not forgetting to give a few more words of advice before leaving.

"It's alright, I've practiced Taekwondo, I can kill Buddhas and ghosts... What do I have to be afraid of?" He whistled easily.

The classroom wasn't crowded; people were scattered in a few corners. Under the blackboard, the professor was hunched over his desk, flipping through his lecture notes with a rustling sound.

Song Xiaomo looked around for a while but couldn't find He Zhiying. The spot where they used to sit was empty.

As soon as he entered, several classmates started whispering among themselves. Some of the boys, in particular, looked at him with hostility. It seems that boys can easily make enemies by spending too much time with pretty girls.

"Have you ever met He Zhiying?" Song Xiaomo asked a classmate next to her in a low voice.

"How would I know? He's been missing for days, didn't you know?" the student said in a strange tone, adding, "The school has already reported it to the police, and several police officers came here to investigate this morning!"

"Really? She's really gone missing?" Song Xiaomo's cheerful mood was instantly shattered.

"Aren't you often with her?"

"I haven't seen her in ages either!" Noticing the strange look in the other person's eyes, Song Xiaomo's heart skipped a beat. "You don't suspect me, do you?"

"How could a perfectly healthy person just disappear for no reason? It's like a ghost!" The classmate didn't respond to him and just muttered to himself.

The morning sunlight cast a hazy glow on the glass window, like fragments of a film recounting past stories. He couldn't help but recall He Zhiying's innocent smile, her exaggerated gestures, and her hilarious pranks… Actually, before encountering those "ghost dolls," she was lively and cheerful, and he was quite happy spending time with her. Now, that carefree life had become a dream for him; they could never go back to the way things were.

Thinking of all this, Song Xiaomo's mood sank uncontrollably. Regardless, remembering the little girl's sudden death early this morning, and how she had sat on his bed shortly afterward, coupled with the recurring hallucinations and nightmares, and even receiving a text message from the deceased Li Zhengzhen's phone, he felt as if he had been plunged into the deepest abyss of hell.

In a state of oppressive emptiness, Song Xiaomo endured the entire morning in the classroom, then forced himself to eat a Korean meal at the school cafeteria before heading to the campus garden. He had never felt so lonely, so afraid of being alone.

People always want someone to be with them when they are at their most vulnerable.

Chapter 142: The Doll Murder Case (142)

"He Zhiying, where are you? I miss you so much!" His eyes welled up with tears.

Night gradually descended, eventually covering the entire sky. The garden was unlit, a dark expanse like a giant net, ready to fall at any moment, engulfing anyone with no escape. Song Xiaomo sat by a flowerbed for several hours, then bought some bread from a small restaurant outside the dormitory, lingered for a while listening to the campus radio, and only when it was 10:30 did he reluctantly drag his heavy steps upstairs. He was now somewhat afraid to go back to the dormitory; Song Yun'er's words from the hospital still seemed to echo in his ears.

The dormitory lobby was quiet, save for the ticking of the alarm clock on the wall.

Since Li Zhengzhen's incident, some students upstairs moved out, while others went to bed early. Song Xiaomo lowered his head and tiptoed inside. Just as he reached the second floor, he heard heavy footsteps and breathing behind him. He turned around and saw a shiny black wildcat. Its eyes glowed with an eerie green light. Upon seeing him, the cat meowed and nimbly leaped out of the window.

"Damn it, now even a cat is trying to scare me!" Song Xiaomo cursed, but immediately realized something was wrong. Why was the cat making such loud footsteps and breathing sounds?

He dared not think any further and hurriedly ran up to the fifth floor.

When he reached the fifth floor, he found it even quieter and darker. This dilapidated dormitory building frequently experienced power outages due to faulty wiring.

Just as Song Xiaomo was about to open the door, a strange sound suddenly drifted in from somewhere.

“Song…Xiao…Mo…ah…”

"Who's calling me?" He was startled, turned around and tried to figure out what was going on. He realized the voice was coming from inside the door next to him.

"Strange, isn't 519 empty? Why is the door still ajar?" Song Xiaomo was stunned.

As if possessed, he took a step, like a puppet on strings, and strolled to the door of room 519, as if he were about to enter a terrifying alternate dimension.

"Who? Who's in there?" he cried out just as his hand was about to push open the door. His intuition told him he absolutely couldn't go through that door; the owner of the house was dead. That gaping door could turn into a gaping maw at any moment, swallowing him whole.

"I clearly heard someone calling me just now!" Song Xiaomo's hand hovered in mid-air, hesitant to move.

At that moment, his eyes widened as he watched a dark shadow flash past through the crack in the door!

There is indeed someone here! His movement caused the shadow to appear!

The door also seemed to be deformed, with iron filings falling off its surface, resembling a thin, wrinkled face that was smiling eerily at Song Xiaomo.

"Waaah..." Another cry came from inside the door.

Song Xiaomo suddenly felt dizzy and his ears were ringing; this crying sound had appeared in his dreams more than once. He reflexively jumped to the side and turned to run away.

Chapter 143: The Doll Murder Case (143)

"Ring ring... Ring ring..." The phone in her pocket suddenly rang automatically. Instantly, a strange current of air swept across her palm. Song Xiaomo took out her phone, glanced at it, and her body convulsed.

It's him again!

"Ding-a-ling... ding-a-ling..." The terrifying sound of the bell was like the mournful cry of a vengeful ghost.

His nerves were taut, like a rubber band stretched to its limit, ready to snap at any moment.

"Ring ring ring... Ring ring ring..."

He finally pressed the call button with trembling hands, holding it to his ear, "Hello?"

"Come...in...keep...me...I...so...lonely..."

Song Xiaomo felt a chill run down his spine and quickly hung up the phone. He suddenly felt that Li Zhengzhen had become a vengeful ghost. In the instant he turned his head, he saw the door rapidly twisting and deforming, like a ravenous beast.

With a creaking sound like a ghostly noise from the underworld, the door to room 519 finally opened!

Chapter 144: The Doll Murder Case (144)

The moment Song Xiaomo's gaze fell upon the room, she immediately noticed a person standing inside. However, the person's posture was somewhat strange, floating lightly, as if standing in mid-air.

His mind was instantly gripped by a new fear, and he finally saw the face of the person standing inside the door.

That's Li Zhengzhen!

His body seemed to be slowly turning his face around, using an invisible lever as an axis—

It was a distorted face that seemed to be crying but not laughing. In the dim light, the skin on Li Zhengzhen's face had already developed lividity, with clumps of skin clustered on his face, a shocking sight!

At this moment, Li Zhengzhen was still spinning in place. Song Xiaomo noticed that the rope around his neck had firmly tightened around his throat, with one end hanging from the chandelier above.

What's even more terrifying is that he was also tightly clutching a cell phone in his hand.

—A cell phone dripping blood!

"You...you weren't already dead?" Song Xiaomo was so shocked she couldn't move, muttering, "Didn't you jump off the building and commit suicide?"

He hugged his arm and bit it hard. Ouch!

So, this time it wasn't a dream! But how did things become so confusing?

Could this be Lee Jung-jin's second suicide attempt?

Song Xiaomo remembered hearing from elders in the countryside that after death, a person's soul can remain in the mortal world for forty-nine days before going to its proper place—either ascending to heaven or descending to hell—to await reincarnation. If the deceased still has unfulfilled wishes in the mortal realm, they will surely return. Which category does Li Zhengzhen fall into? Has he truly returned?

Song Xiaomo was stunned for a moment, then immediately snapped out of his daze and quickly fled dormitory 519. Just as the door closed, he heard a series of "hehehehe..." laughs coming from behind him again, echoing eerily in the room and making his hair stand on end.

The lights were on in dormitory room 521.

“Park Eun-hee…” Song Xiaomo called out as she knocked on the door.

"Bang!" The door opened, and Park Eun-hee walked out.

“Eun-hee… Lee Jung-jin, he…” Song Xiaomo stopped mid-sentence. He suddenly sensed that the other person’s expression was very abnormal.

Park Eun-hee seemed to completely ignore his presence, her eyes were empty, her body was stiff, and the way she walked didn't feel like she was walking, but rather like she was being lifted up or pushed forward.