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Chapitre 15

"Anyway, I don't think anything will happen. It might just be someone who has a crush on you!" Chen Kai said, pointing behind her. "Zhao Yu is waiting for you!"

"Thank you!" Du Juan said, reaching out to smooth her long hair before turning and following Zhao Yu.

What's going on? Why is this person so unpredictable, sometimes sunny and sometimes cloudy?

Chen Kai turned to leave. There were hardly any people left in the corridor; everyone had gone to the cafeteria for lunch. Just as he turned the corner of the stairs, he almost bumped into a man.

"Ah! I'm sorry!" Chen Kai was startled and quickly apologized.

The man ignored them, and Chen Kai then realized that he was a man in his twenties, probably two years older than them, but his face was terribly pale.

The man was wearing a very old homespun coat, was thin, and had messy hair. He seemed annoyed that Chen Kai was blocking his way, so he shoved him aside.

He was incredibly strong, and Chen Kai was pushed down onto the cold cement floor in one go.

"Hey! How can you be like this!" Chen Kai shouted, sitting on the ground.

The man shook off Chen Kai and ran off at full speed. Chen Kai glanced at the man's back and his heart skipped a beat. It was that man! The man who came out of the talisman, the man who attacked Du Juan. Could this be the man Du Juan was talking about who was following her?

His figure vanished in the blink of an eye, disappearing at the end of the corridor, leaving Chen Kai alone sitting on the cold concrete floor. Everything that had just happened felt so unreal; Chen Kai felt as if the school was shrouded in a nightmare.

But nightmares don't end so quickly.

During afternoon classes, Chen Kai had just stepped into the corridor to get some fresh air when someone slapped him on the shoulder from behind.

"Wow! That scared me to death!" Chen Kai exclaimed, his nerves had been on edge lately.

"It's me! Zhao Yu, what are you afraid of?" Zhao Yu, who was behind him, found his frightened look amusing.

"Ah! You scared me to death! I was thinking about something!" Chen Kai looked at him suspiciously: "Why did you suddenly decide to look for me?"

"Hehe! We already know each other, it's good to catch up!" Zhao Yu said as he reached out to shake Chen Kai's hand, feeling something hard in his palm.

"Huh?" Chen Kai was stunned. What were these people thinking about all day? Or was he just out of touch with the times?

"I'll watch it when we get back!" Zhao Yu whispered, winking at him as he spoke.

"Hehehe!" Chen Kai said with a laugh, "Du Juan is so good to you, what are you thinking about?" Could this guy be asking me to pass on some love letter to him?

As the two were talking, a woman's voice rang out from behind: "Zhao Yu, it's time for class, let's go back to the classroom!" It was Du Juan!

As she spoke, she stretched out a hand painted with red nail polish, pulled Zhao Yu back, and winked at Chen Kai.

"Then I'll go back too!" Chen Kai waved to them and was about to turn back to the classroom when Zhao Yu, who was next to Du Juan, suddenly turned around and looked at Chen Kai with a frightened expression on his face. His mouth was opening and closing, and it was unclear what he was saying.

Chen Kai looked at the two of them and felt even more puzzled. They were clearly a young couple deeply in love, so why were they behaving so strangely? Putting aside Du Juan, what was Zhao Yu afraid of?

Back in the classroom, he carefully unfolded the note. A few words were written crookedly on it, clearly written in a great hurry. The most shocking thing was the three letters SOS, followed by a few small, distorted words written in ballpoint pen: "8 pm tonight, rooftop!"

The last exclamation mark has its vertical stroke cut into a line, as if someone had disturbed the writer at that moment.

Chen Kai held the crumpled piece of paper and looked out the window at the sky. Autumn nights always come particularly early. It wasn't even four o'clock yet, and the sun was already showing signs of fatigue. Chen Kai looked at the twisted and gnarled branches, and his heart tightened as night fell.

After class, he checked his watch and it was already five o'clock. It was getting late, and he wasn't sure if he should go. He decided to find a payphone and call Feixiao first, but all he got was a long "beep—" "beep—" tone. Feixiao wasn't home.

Disappearing at crucial moments, Chen Kai stared at the microphone in his hand and shook his head helplessly. What to do? He turned around and looked behind him. From there, he could see the rooftop of the teaching building. Against the backdrop of the sunset, the backup power room and water tanks on it appeared as square black shadows, adding to the eerie atmosphere.

At a quarter to eight o'clock, Chen Kai mustered his courage and walked into the teaching building. He wondered what Zhao Yu wanted to see him about. He had just called home, but Fei Xiao still hadn't returned. It seemed he would have to rely on himself this time.

Once inside the teaching building, Chen Kai realized he had been worrying unnecessarily; many students were there to study with their backpacks. He walked through the spacious and bright lobby and went straight to the elevator.

The highest floor is the 9th floor. He didn't know how to get to the rooftop, but he figured he'd figure it out once he got to the 9th floor.

As the elevator continued to ascend, the students inside gradually disembarked, until he was the only one left in the elevator on the 9th floor.

The two large metal doors swung open with a "whoosh," revealing a desolate corridor.

Chen Kai stared at the empty corridor, bathed in the stark white light of the fluorescent lamps, and suddenly felt a sense of fear.

But when he thought of that shocking SOS, he couldn't turn back. Perhaps Zhao Yu really did have something important to ask for help with.

He wandered around the corridor several times before finally finding an iron escalator, which seemed to be the staircase leading to the rooftop. It was located at a dark corner of the corridor, and from below, it was pitch black above. He had no idea where the escalator led.

Chen Kai mustered his courage and walked up the stairs step by step. His eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness. This dilapidated staircase seemed quite out of place with the teaching building. With each step, a metallic "clunk" sound was heard.

After circling the stairs several times, a rusty iron gate finally appeared in front of me. Under the light below, I could see the four large characters "No Trespassing" painted in red on the gate, which looked particularly frightening in the night.

Chen Kai suddenly felt a terrifying feeling gripping his heart. Should he go in? If he went back now, it wouldn't be too late!

But what will happen to Zhao Yu if I go back?

He gritted his teeth, reached out and pushed hard against the iron gate in front of him. The gate actually opened with a creaking sound; it wasn't locked!

Before Chen Kai lay a spacious rooftop. The moon cast a soft, hazy glow on the concrete floor. Near the wall were piles of large paint buckets used for waterproofing. It was a peaceful, perfectly normal scene. Chen Kai took a deep breath of the cold night air and let out a long sigh, trying to release the fear that had just settled in his heart.

But before I could even calm myself down, a man's voice rang out, "You're here! I've been waiting for you for ages!"

A person emerged from the shadows of the nearby power distribution room, his back to the moonlight, so his face was not visible.

"Who? Who is it?" Chen Kai asked, trembling.

"It's me! Zhao Yu!" The man seemed to be in a good mood when he saw Chen Kai.

"It's you!" Chen Kai felt his tense nerves relax instantly. "What do you want with me in this godforsaken place?"

Zhao Yu walked up to Chen Kai and whispered furtively, "I'm so scared!"

"What are you afraid of?" Chen Kai looked at him with a smile. How could someone who was probably the envy of the entire department be afraid?

"I feel like someone is trying to harm me lately, and I'm really scared!"

Chen Kai shook his head, turned around and was about to leave. He really didn't want to listen to this guy spouting any more baseless rumors.

"Hey! Wait a minute!" Zhao Yu said, pulling Chen Kai to the center of the rooftop. "Don't leave so soon!"

"But, but what's wrong? Who's the person you're afraid of?" Chen Kai asked anxiously. Are people these days all talking in circles?

"The person who...the person who scares me..." Zhao Yu hesitated, then after a moment, as if he had made a great decision, said, "It's Du Juan!"

"What?" Chen Kai could hardly believe his ears. These two seemed like a perfect match, and what was most interesting was that they both chose the same day to tell him that they were living in fear.

"That's right!" Zhao Yu's eyes widened as he asked Chen Kai, "Do you even look at her now? How could a person look like that? Everything changed ever since we played that game!"

Yes, that's the game. Prince Jin from the Flower Sea also appeared after that game. Their lives were gradually dragged off course by inexplicable intruders.

Chen Kai suddenly seemed to remember something and grabbed Zhao Yu's hand: "Zhao Yu, did you also tell the true story? The story of that night?"

Zhao Yu looked at Chen Kai with a pained expression on his face: "That's right, I told the true story!"

"Then why didn't you say anything? I asked you that day, why didn't you say anything?" Chen Kai said anxiously.

"Because I'm afraid you'll remember it and say I'm cruel!" Zhao Yu said dejectedly.

"You, did you abandon any girls before?" Chen Kai asked him, looking at his pained face.

"No, don't think such things!" Zhao Yu said, quickly shaking his head in denial!

"Then why does Du Juan like you? Or is there another girl who has a crush on you?" This seems very strange.

“I…I’ve thrown away a few cats…” Zhao Yu said, head down.

"A cat?" Chen Kai's eyes widened. "How could it be a cat?"

"That's right! It's a cat!" A clear female voice suddenly came from behind, accompanied by the cold night wind, penetrating straight to the heart and lungs, making one's spine tingle.

Chen Kai and Zhao Yu both screamed "Wow!" and huddled together in fright, neither of them expecting there to be anyone else on the rooftop.

A woman's figure emerged from the shadowy corner—it was Du Juan! She was still wearing red clothes, the hem of which fluttered in the cold night wind, making her look like a bewitching butterfly, casting a huge and eerie shadow on the empty concrete ground.

"Who, who exactly are you?" Zhao Yu asked her, trembling.

"Hehe! Me?" Du Juan put her hand to her scarlet lips, licked them with her tongue, and said seductively, "I'm a cat!"

"A cat?" Chen Kai asked, puzzled.

"That's right, it's the cat he abandoned four years ago!"

"There's no need for that!" Chen Kai looked at Du Juan as if he harbored some deep hatred for Zhao Yu.

Du Juan smiled and pointed at Zhao Yu: "Ask him how he threw the cat?"

Zhao Yu sat on the ground, without saying a word.

"What's going on, Zhao Yu!" Chen Kai stared at the silent Zhao Yu, realizing that he had indeed used some cruel methods.

Zhao Yu looked at Chen Kai for a long time before saying, "I had a cat when I was in high school, but my dad wouldn't let me keep it because he was afraid it would affect my studies!"

"And then you just threw it away?" Chen Kai asked him.

“Yes!” Zhao Yu nodded and continued, “But you know how cats are, no matter how far you throw them, they can find their way home!” Zhao Yu paused and said, “My dad put the cat in a sack and drove off to dump it in a river a long way away!”

"Wow! That cat is definitely going to die!" This person is really going too far; no wonder the cat is looking for revenge.

"It's just a cat. There are plenty of stray cats on the streets, aren't there?" Dujuan said with a sorrowful expression. "But what about cats? Don't cats have the right to live?"

"I... I didn't say that!" Zhao Yu waved his hands repeatedly in fright.

"The river was so cold, so frigid, you know?" Dujuan said, tears welling in her eyes. "How I longed to see the starry sky again, but... but I couldn't see anything at all!" She gazed sadly at the night sky. "What did I do wrong? What did I do wrong? I was deprived of my right to live!"

"What do you want to do?" Chen Kai asked her timidly, looking like she had ill intentions.

"I want him to know that everyone, no matter what, has the right to live in this world!" After saying that, he added viciously, "He killed me back then, and today I'll let him know what death tastes like!"

After saying that, a fierce glint appeared in her beautiful eyes, her nails grew long, and she pounced on Zhao Yu, who was sitting on the ground.

"Hey! There's something we can work out!" Chen Kai shouted from the side.

Before he could finish speaking, Du Juan's sharp nails had already pierced through Zhao Yu's body. Zhao Yu seemed unable to believe it, his face full of astonishment, his eyes wide as he stared at Du Juan's heavily made-up face in front of him. The two of them fell to the ground together.

The turn of events was too sudden; Chen Kai was stunned. How could this happen? Was Zhao Yu really dead?

In the night wind, the figures of Du Juan and Zhao Yu overlapped, looking exceptionally terrifying and desolate.

Seeing that she had succeeded, Du Juan smirked and let out a cold laugh as she pulled the sharp, knife-like hand out of Zhao Yu's body.

Chen Kai couldn't bear to look any longer and closed his eyes in fright, afraid that blood-red flowers would bloom in front of him.

But as soon as she withdrew her hand, Zhao Yu's body fell to the ground as lightly as tattered cotton. Upon touching the ground, it transformed into a worn-out mop, its wooden handle crushed in its grip.

"Huh!" Chen Kai was both surprised and delighted. What on earth was going on? How did Zhao Yu turn into a mop?

"Who?" Du Juan stood up, her face filled with terror, and looked around. "Who did this? Come out now!"

On the empty rooftop, there was only the crisp night wind and the cold moonlight. Apart from Chen Kai, who was too frightened to stand up, who else was there?

"Hehehe!" Suddenly, a man's voice drifted over from afar: "Didn't expect that, did you? This is called the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind!"

The voice was so familiar, carrying a hint of mockery and cynicism. Chen Kai immediately felt comforted upon hearing it, and said in a trembling voice, "Feixiao! Is that you? Why are you only arriving now?"