Pègre - Chapitre 22

Chapitre 22

It happened too fast; everyone noticed something was wrong and quickly asked him what was going on. He stared at Yang Tianwen and Xu Sen without speaking, his eyes...

But it was filled with fear.

"What's wrong?" Xu Sen asked him.

“I’ve thought of something,” he said slowly. “I was thinking, what if these things and Lung Ying-shui and his group…”

"It doesn't matter, so what should we do?"

Before he could finish speaking, everyone else's faces changed, turning as pale as Jiang Shichao's.

They had already realized that whatever consequences this game of chess might bring, it could only prove the connection between the accident and the game.

This does not necessarily mean that Lung Ying-shui and his group were involved in the haunting.

In other words, if Long Yingshui and his group were to cause trouble, then Yang Tianwen and his companions would surely die, and the incident would end there.

This is certainly the best outcome, and undoubtedly the goal that Yang Tianwen and Xu Sen hoped for in this game of chess.

However, if the matter has absolutely nothing to do with Lung Ying-shui and Zhu Huan, two scenarios arise. The first scenario is...

The matter had nothing to do with Long Yingshui and Zhu Huan, nor with Go, so Yang Tianwen and Xu Sen wouldn't have died, and he...

Our investigation has returned to zero.

The second scenario is the worst of the three.

The second possibility is that the matter, while unrelated to Lung Ying-shui and Zhu Huan, is related to a game of Go. If this is the case...

Even if Yang Tianwen and Xu Sen die, the accident won't end there. Under these circumstances, the deaths of Yang Tianwen and Xu Sen...

The loss only confirmed the connection between the draw and the accident, without significantly improving the overall situation.

Is it too much to gamble with two lives to prove a hypothesis?

Yang Tianwen and Xu Sen looked ashen-faced. They weren't afraid of death itself, but rather of dying in vain.

They were filled with a sense of tragic emotion, which touched everyone else present.

Now, everyone feels they've participated in something foolish, and the only thing that brought them joy was...

A mysterious force secretly orchestrated this series of accidents.

Everyone felt like they'd walked right into a trap; morale in the office was low. The principal nervously cleared his throat:

Don't lose heart, everyone. Maybe neither the chess saint nor the chess fanatic will die...

No one spoke; everyone felt the chances were very low.

“It was mostly Long Yingshui and his gang who did it,” Xu Sen said in a low voice. “Perhaps it will all end today.”

Yes.

Will it? Everyone smiled bitterly to themselves—death is no longer the worst outcome.

Waiting to die is the hardest thing to endure.

We waited all afternoon, but nothing happened. Everyone called and ordered boxed lunches to eat in the office.

Continue to wait.

As darkness fell, all the employees in the office building had left for the day, leaving only a few of them in the entire building.

Zhao Xuejun suddenly needed to use the restroom. This was already her seventh time doing so since the afternoon; she had no choice.

That's what happens when you're nervous.

As she reached the door, she noticed the hallway lights were off. Feeling a little scared, she turned back and looked at the others pleadingly.

Seeing that everyone else's attention was focused on Xu Sen and Yang Tianwen, Jiang Shichao had no choice but to come out and keep her company.

The building was deserted, making the corridor exceptionally quiet; even the lights seemed to be silent. The restroom was at the end of the corridor, around the corner.

Zhao Xuejun was a little scared, taking a few steps and then looking back, which made Jiang Shichao nervous, so he followed her.

Looking back—there was nothing behind me, only a long shadow trailing on the ground.

He glanced back a few times, then ignored Zhao Xuejun and continued walking. Seeing him quicken his pace, Zhao Xuejun...

She quickly came up and took his arm, but his eyes kept wandering around.

After taking a few more steps, he suddenly stopped, looked up at the ceiling, and his expression changed. Zhao Xuejun was...

His face suddenly turned pale, and he was terrified. He shook his arm and asked repeatedly what had happened.

He couldn't say anything; he only felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over him from head to toe, chilling every cell in his body.

A chill was emanating from it.

Then, he slowly turned around—behind them, their own long shadows stretched out.

Where there is light, there is shadow; that's not surprising. What is surprising is that there's only one shadow on the ceiling in the middle of the entire corridor.

A chandelier. When they came out of the office, the chandelier was in front of them, so their shadows were behind them, which was...

normal.

However, they had now passed the chandelier, which was behind them, and the light was coming from behind them.

Logically, their shadows should appear in front of them.

But what he saw was that the shadow was still trailing behind him, stretching long against the light.

Even more terrifying was that, although they were clearly standing still, their shadows were still moving. It wasn't the kind of movement that was altered.

It's not a change in position, but a change in size; it's constantly stretching, slowly extending towards the other end of the corridor.

As you approach the principal's office, the door suddenly turns a corner and extends into the building.

Zhao Xuejun initially didn't think anything was amiss, but the more she looked, the more alarmed she became, seeing the shadow enter the principal's office.

In the room, she finally couldn't help but scream. The silent corridor seemed to grow even more profound because of her scream. Jiang Shichao originally wanted to stop her.

He found himself screaming along with them. As they screamed, their hearts pounded wildly, as if they were about to burst from their chests.

It seemed to spring out of his mouth.

Their shouts alerted the people in the office, and several voices could be heard asking loudly, "What's wrong?"

Before they could answer, the lights flickered and then everything went black. The two men were so tense they were trembling all over.

Cold, they held each other's hands, groped their way to the wall, and stood with their backs against it. A commotion arose from the office.

Amidst the panicked sounds, the principal was shouting, "Don't panic, everyone!" while Leng Xin and Lin Ding were calling out Jiang Shichao's name. Chaos...

After a few minutes, I calmed down a bit and heard the principal's loud voice say, "Don't panic, everyone come to my side."

"Now I'll take attendance!" He called out Jiang Shichao's name first, and Jiang Shichao shouted, "Zhao Xuejun and I are in the corridor!"

Then they slowly moved along the wall towards the office. They had experienced power outages before, but after a few...

After a few minutes, my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and I could vaguely see some things. By then, several minutes had passed.

It was still pitch black before their eyes. They could see the streetlights shining brightly outside through the corridor windows, but inside the corridor...

There was no light at all; it was pitch black.

---Magpie Bridge Fairy

Reply [37]: Jiang Shichao suddenly remembered the thing he had thought of at the beginning, and broke out in a cold sweat. His face turned...