Fang Wen bolted desperately up the stairs, the blood roaring through her veins and her heart pounding so violently it felt ready to burst from her throat.
Yet when she reached the third floor and tried to keep climbing, she was horrified to discover that the staircase leading up to the fourth floor had vanished, replaced by a wall that seemed to have appeared out of thin air.
Fang Wen froze, her mind spinning in a daze.
Why was this happening?
Why?!
Not daring to linger, Fang Wen dashed across the hallway toward the staircase on the right.
Yet the other stairwell was in the exact same state—every path to the fourth floor was gone.
Fang Wen was completely at a loss, but she didn’t dare head back down to the second floor.
Helpless and panicked, she ultimately ran back to the left stairwell and waited in the relatively bright corridor for the others.
From this vantage point, she couldn’t see what was happening downstairs, but she could clearly hear the gasps and frantic sobbing from Yi Lin and the others.
Hunching her back, Fang Wen tightly wrapped one arm around herself while gnawing on the fingers of her other hand, pacing frantically in circles.
Fear and tension relentlessly gnawed at her fraying nerves, leaving her utterly unable to calm down or think straight. She could do nothing but wait in helpless torment.
Right then, a faint rustling sound—“shhh, shhh, shhh”—whispered in her ears. It sounded like wind rustling through willow branches, or tiny objects softly rubbing against each other.
It wasn’t loud, but it was relentless. It immediately set Fang Wen’s already taut nerves on edge, making her jump like a frightened bird.
Yet a quick glance around revealed nothing out of the ordinary.
Holding her breath, Fang Wen strained her ears to track down the source of the noise.
Before long, she realized the sound seemed to be coming from the fire hydrant cabinet mounted on the wall in front of her.
The cabinet was locked, but through the transparent glass door, she could clearly see that it held only an indoor fire hydrant, a neatly folded fire hose, and a water nozzle.
And that sound seemed to be coming from inside the hydrant itself.
“Shhh, shhh, shhh...” The sound persisted.
As if by some sinister spell, it drew every ounce of Fang Wen’s attention.
Her eyes remained unblinking, fixated on the pitch-black outlet of the fire hydrant.
She didn’t even notice that, aside from the rustling, every other sound around her had ceased.
It was as if, in this very moment, she was the only person left in the entire academic building.
Suddenly, Fang Wen saw something slowly squirming out of the outlet.
Fine, dense, tangled clumps of black silk-like strands writhed and knotted together inside the opening.
Hair!
It was hair—countless strands of hair!
Her heart leaped into her throat, the hair on her arms standing on end as a bone-deep chill gripped her whole body!
Under Fang Wen’s terrified gaze, the hair suddenly shot out of the outlet like a striking serpent.
With a loud crash, it shattered the glass door and lunged straight for her!
“Ah—!”
Fang Wen only managed a sharp cry before the hair coiled tightly around her neck.
It choked her with such tremendous force that her eyes rolled back into her head, nearly suffocating her on the spot.
Yet this was only the beginning!
More and more hair surged competitively out of the opening, splitting into four thick coils that slithered like vipers around Fang Wen’s limbs.
Dense and suffocating, they bound her tightly from her fingertips to the ends of her limbs, coiling with immense pressure and twisting relentlessly.
Immediately following, a series of crisp “crack-crack-cracks” echoed in the air, as if something hard was being systematically twisted, snapped, and crushed to pieces...
...
After Ye Li abruptly kicked the head flying, everyone froze in place, not daring to breathe.
Yet unexpectedly, the headless corpse stood dazed for a moment before turning around, steadying “herself” against the wall, and shuffling slowly down the stairs to search for “her” head.
Only after “her” figure disappeared around the corner did everyone finally breathe a sigh of relief, their legs trembling uncontrollably.
Ye Li brought a finger to her lips, making a shushing gesture to the others, then softened her footsteps and led the way up the stairs.
The others followed closely behind.
Yet before they could even make their way toward the fourth floor, a reek of blood was carried over on the night breeze, thick and nauseating.
Le Jun and the others blanched instantly.
Ye Li raised an eyebrow and bounded up the steps several at a time.
Soon, she spotted the source of the foul odor.
Not far down the corridor outside the stairwell, right beneath a fire hydrant cabinet with a shattered glass door, Fang Wen lay motionless in a pool of blood.
Her limbs were entirely gone, leaving behind ragged, uneven stumps that looked as though they had been brutally snapped and torn away.
All the blood in her body seemed to have drained from the stumps, staining the floor in a shocking expanse of crimson.
Her facial features were horribly contorted. Her eyes bulged, bloodshot, and her once-fair face was mapped with red dots and streaks from burst capillaries. Her neck bore distinct ligature marks, making it abundantly clear that she had suffered unimaginable agony before dying.
“Ugh... blech...” Fierce retching sounds came from behind her.
Le Jun and the others had caught up.
Ignoring them, Ye Li looked up at the cabinet on the wall once more.
The glass door was shattered, and almost all the shards lay on the outside, indicating it had been broken from the inside out.
Her eyes flickered with thought as she peered into the dark opening of the hydrant’s outlet.
By then, Le Jun had pinched his nose and plucked up the courage to gingerly edge closer.
Fixing his eyes firmly on Ye Li and not daring to look down, he asked in a trembling voice, “H-How did she die?”
“Most likely, her limbs were torn off while she was still alive, and she bled to death,” Ye Li stated her conclusion.
Le Jun’s face turned ashen. Swallowing hard, he asked, “Then... where did her limbs go?”
There were no severed limbs anywhere in the hallway, and the blood was concentrated right here, with no trails leading off.
How could her arms and legs have vanished into thin air?
Ye Li pointed at the fire hydrant. “If I’m not mistaken, they’re probably down inside the fire pipes.”
Le Jun was baffled. “What do you mean?”
“There’s minced flesh on the outlet,” Ye Li said. “And hair.”
Le Jun peered closely, and indeed, within that narrow opening, he spotted crushed human tissue, bloodstains, and strands of black hair.
However, that hair was long, whereas Fang Wen had short hair—and the color was completely different.
“How could entire arms and legs be shoved into such a tiny hole?” Le Jun asked, still bewildered.
“What do you think?” Ye Li looked up at him with a pointed look.
Le Jun pondered the possibility for a moment, and a bone-chilling horror washed over him.
Intact limbs couldn’t fit, but crushed pieces could!
Having reached the answer, Le Jun couldn’t hold it in any longer. Clamping a hand over his mouth, he bolted to the side and began dry-heaving.
Ye Li curled her lips in disdain and turned back toward the stairwell.
“From now on, nobody goes off alone!” she warned the three of them.
Two people had died in such a short span of time, both perishing silently, their deaths grotesque and bizarre.
This damn place was far more sinister than it appeared on the surface.
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