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Chapitre 32

Chen Ai did not escape from the hospital; instead, she ran upstairs until she reached the rooftop.

Gu Xing, Da Kai, Yang Mian, and a few others ran faster and arrived at the rooftop immediately, where they saw Chen Ai on the railing with her back to them.

Fearing that Chen Ai might jump, Gu Xing and the others stood far away, not daring to approach. The others followed one after another.

At this moment, Chen Ai turned around.

Gu Xing and the others suddenly shivered. When Chen Ai turned around, it was Qin Lizhen's face. She smiled and said to Gu Xing, "Gu Xing, Xu Chen is in the dormitory in the building. You'll see her tonight."

Just as Gu Xing was about to ask another question, Chen Ai had already leaped over the fence and disappeared from Gu Xing and the others' sight.

An hour after Chen Ai jumped off the building, the police arrived. Zhang Bei thought this would be very troublesome, but little did she know that the police mistook them for reporters and didn't ask Gu Xing and Yang Mian anything. They just kept kicking them all out of the hospital, which saved them a lot of trouble.

Gu Xing and the others left the hospital, recounting Chen Ai's dying words. Gu Xing said to Zi Yuan, "No matter what, I must go see her tonight."

“But that old man seemed to be deliberately preventing us from going in,” Li Xu said.

"We just need to go at night, understand? Sneak in quietly."

Yang Mian said with lingering fear, "When we chased after her just now, we clearly saw Chen Ai looking like that, but when she turned around, she looked completely different."

"What you're saying sounds pretty alarming." Zhang Bei, who hadn't seen it earlier, asked with a smile, "Actually, are you seeing things?"

Gu Xing and the others didn't bother with him. Gu Xing said to Zi Yuan, "Let's go back to the hotel first, rest for a while, and then go back to the dormitory tonight."

"Okay," Ziyuan nodded, her face beaming with joy, for she finally had a clue.

Da Kai, Li Xu, and Yang Mian were all restless people. After returning to the hotel, everyone rested beforehand for the events of the night, but the three of them couldn't calm down.

Li Xu suggested, "Why don't we go to that factory first and check it out to see if that old man has any ulterior motives?"

Yang Mian, still retaining his childlike spirit, replied, "Okay, let's secretly go and investigate first, it'll be a lot of fun!"

Da Kai became worried: "Won't we alert the enemy?"

"Da Kai, when did you learn to be so nagging?"

After Li Xuyi said that, Da Kai immediately patted his chest and said, "Let's go, what's there to be afraid of?"

Then the three of them made up a random excuse and told Gu Xing that they were going out. Since they had to go back to the dormitory that night, Gu Xing gave them a few instructions, and Yang Mian nodded in agreement, telling Gu Xing not to worry.

Yang Mian and the others left the hotel and went to the factory. This time, however, the gate was locked. Yang Mian secretly peeked into the guard room through the iron gate but couldn't see anyone there.

Yang Mian whispered to Da Kai and Yang Xu, "There's no one in the duty room."

"Who cares, let's climb in." Da Kai said nonchalantly, and started climbing the iron gate.

The gate was low, and the three of them climbed in easily. Then, they went to the factory building, only to find it locked, just like last time. Unable to get in, Yang Mian and the others had to walk around the factory to the back.

Behind them was a warehouse. They remembered that the old man said he lived in the warehouse, so they started looking and found a small warehouse with a few clothes hanging in front of it. It seemed that this was where the old man lived.

"Let's go in and take a look," Li Xu said softly.

"Nonsense." Da Kai glared at him and walked straight in, not worried at all that there was anyone inside.

The warehouse door was unlocked, and the three of them easily entered. They found it to be dark and shabby. The most conspicuous thing was a large table on the left side of the room, with a memorial tablet on it and three incense sticks in front of it.

Li Xu walked over to see who was being worshipped there. It read: "My beloved daughter..."

—The memorial tablet of Xiaohua

"Wow!" Li Xu suddenly exclaimed. Da Kai and Yang Mian were inspecting various parts of the warehouse when he shouted, which startled them. They wondered what he was up to. Just as Da Kai was about to ask Li Xu what was going on, a loud voice suddenly rang out: "What are you doing here?"

The three looked in the direction of the sound and saw a person standing outside the door—it was the old man. For a moment, they didn't know what to do.

The old man walked into the warehouse, picked up a wooden stick from the door, and pounded it on the ground, saying, "What are you doing here? Get out of here!"

"Old man," Li Xu, mustering his courage, pointed to the memorial tablet on the table and asked, "Is this memorial tablet your daughter's?"

The old man asked him curiously, "He's been dead for a long time, what's it to you?"

At this moment, Da Kai and Yang Mian noticed the memorial tablet. Da Kai saw the words on it and asked Li Xu in surprise, "Xiao Hua? Isn't that the scary girl you were chatting with online?"

The old man overheard Da Kai's words. After thinking for a moment, he suddenly raised his wooden stick and shouted, "You all need to leave now, or I'll beat you all out with this stick!"

The three were startled and, without asking any questions, covered their heads and rushed out of the warehouse. They ran desperately to the iron gate, jumped over it, and just then the old man caught up, waving his wooden stick and shouting, "If you come any closer, I'll break your legs!"

"Old man" Li Xu asked, "Has your daughter really been dead for a long time?"

"Why are you asking this?" The old man wasn't so angry anymore, but his complexion still wasn't good. "She died more than ten years ago."

"Dead? Then that Little Flower isn't this Little Flower?"

The old man listened to Li Xu's murmur, shook his head, and said, "Don't come again. These things are none of your business, so don't bother with them."

After speaking, the old man turned and slowly walked towards the warehouse, muttering to himself as he went, "Even Little Flower can't rest in peace."

Yang Mian and the other two looked at each other in confusion for a while, and then had no choice but to go back to the hotel.

Chapter Twenty

"Even insects want to play!"

"If you don't let the bugs play, the bugs are monsters."

"The bug is a monster, we shouldn't play with her."

"Let's go, ignore her!" one boy jeered, and several other boys followed suit. Chongchong immediately caught up, laughing and saying, "Let Chongchong play with you guys."

Suddenly, a stone flew over and hit Chongchong squarely on the head, causing her head to bleed profusely. Tears streamed down Chongchong's face, but she still smiled and didn't cry. She said to the other children, "Let Chongchong play with us."

"You're a monster! You scared me to death last time we played!" one child said, picking up a stone again and telling the others, "Throw stones at the monster!"

Suddenly, stones rained down on Chongchong, but Chongchong still slowly stretched out her hands and walked towards them, tears streaming down her face. Despite the stones hitting her, she held back her sobs and walked towards them with a smile, saying, "Let's play together."

Seeing this, the children became even more enthusiastic, dodging the insects while throwing stones even harder. Suddenly, a boy rushed out from behind a large tree, grabbed one of the boys who was throwing stones, and started hitting him indiscriminately.

The boy who rushed out was bigger than the other children who were throwing stones. They were no match for him, and after a while, they all ran away crying.

The boy snorted and walked over to Chongchong, asking, "Chongchong, are you alright?"

It was only then that Chongchong learned to cry, and she cried, "Brother Gu Xing, where is Brother Yang Mian?"

"He didn't come. He said you're scary."

"Besides the two of you, there's no one else to play with," Chongchong cried.

"Don't cry, Chongchong. I'll drag Yang Mian over here and have him play with you."

At this moment, Chongchong stopped crying and asked Gu Xing, "Brother Gu Xing, will you always stay with me?"

"Of course, but you're moving in a few days, so we won't be able to play anymore."

"Brother Gu Xing, will you still remember me after I'm gone?"

"Of course, I'll come find you when I grow up."

Why wait until you grow up?

"Because that's when we had money."

"What if you don't have money when you grow up?"

"Even if I grow up and have no money, I will definitely come to find you."

"I will marry you then."

"Okay, let's pinky swear."

Gu Xing extended his finger.

It was just a dream. Xu Chen woke up to find herself sleeping on the rooftop of that old dormitory building. She sat up, touched her head, and murmured, "It was just a dream."

"...I can't believe it's been over ten years...Aunt Qin, she..."

“She escaped from the mental hospital,” a mature voice rang out. An elderly man in his sixties or seventies came up the stairs.

"Uncle An," Xu Chen smiled. "It's been two years. How have you been?"

"There's nothing good or bad about it, it's still the same old story, he just won't die..." Uncle Amber didn't finish his sentence.

"Uncle An, I think... Niu Erqing will come back too. He might have gone mad."

Uncle Amber slowly sat down on the ground and said, "Over the past ten years, the three of us have suffered a lot. Niu Erqing kept killing people in order to get pleasure from it and to fight against those terrifying feelings."

"Xu Chen," Uncle An asked, "Actually, I suspect that it was all the work of that unborn child. Niu Erqing probably thinks so too. So, what do you think?"

Xu Chen stared at Uncle An with a blank expression and said heavily, "Uncle An, I don't think so, but no matter what, I will end everything by myself tonight, because Aunt Qin will definitely come back here tonight."

"Ha...ha." Uncle Amber laughed loudly and said, "None of the three of us can escape. Tonight will not be just your business. Qin Lizhen and Niu Erqing will definitely come back too."

“Yes,” Xu Chen sighed. “It’s been more than ten years. The doctor said she would remain in a coma forever, but three weeks ago she came to the school to find me. I knew then that one day, the three of us would put an end to this.”

"By the way," Uncle An said softly to Xu Chen, "your friend from school came here the day before yesterday."

"What?" Xu Chen looked at Uncle An nervously. "They came here?"

"Yes, I thought it was a buyer auctioning off the land. I was planning to sell the land for the dormitory as soon as possible so that the dormitory could be demolished quickly. But I didn't expect that no one would come to buy it. So I told the people around me that the building was dangerous and that no one should go in."

"Even if someone goes in, it doesn't matter, as long as Aunt Qin isn't in there." Xu Chen said, then, thinking of Gu Xing and the others, he asked Uncle An, "Uncle An, you just said my friends from school are here..."

Uncle An nodded, and then described the characteristics of Gu Xing and Zi Yuan. Apart from Zhang Bei, Xu Chen matched the characteristics Uncle An described with the descriptions and realized that almost everyone she knew from school had come.

What are they doing here?

"I came here to see you."

"Now that Aunt Qin is out, we must not let them get near the building."

Uncle An's face darkened. He said, "They came again today. Some of them even asked about Xiao Hua. I never thought that even Xiao Hua couldn't rest in peace after Qin Lizhen woke up from her coma."

"Sister Xiaohua died young; she was the happiest among us."

“Yes,” Amber nodded in deep agreement, “I think tonight, we will be able to escape this hell just like her.”

Xu Chen was speechless. He took a deep breath and said, "Are we really going to leave this world?"

"Like a plague, we and Qin Lizhen are the source. If we don't disappear from this world, more people will be affected."

After listening, Xu Chen didn't say anything more, but just gazed into the distance. The wind ruffled her hair, making her look even more adorable.

"Xu Chen," Uncle An looked at her for a while, then said, "Come down to my house for something to eat, and come back tonight."

"No, I'll stay here. I don't want to go anywhere right now."

Uncle An chuckled and said, "Whatever you want. This old man is going down to the underworld to buy some wine and meat, and have a proper last meal."

After finishing his sentence, Uncle An turned and went downstairs. Xu Chen watched him leave, and a feeling of loneliness welled up in his heart again. He unconsciously thought of Gu Xing again, and his eyes instantly became moist.