Nightmare Assault

On the western side of the school, there was a convenience store. The old glass door was left half open. The poster of a K-pop artist was pasted on it. The sequined suit of the idol looked outdated in today’s entertainment industry.

The man in the suit lit a match and turned away to light up his cigarette. Then, he waved his hand to extinguish the match. The man in the cap stood on the step below him. He munched on the dry bread as he held a bottle of water. Staring at the poster on the door, the suited man scoffed as he blew the ring of smoke on the poster, “Did we have such horrible taste back then?”

The man in the cap finished his bread and slurped the jam that lingered on his fingers. However, he didn’t turn to the other man or the poster. Instead, he stared at a group of young girls, not far away. He eyed them like a hungry wolf. They were dressed rather lightly. One of the taller girls had long hair and kept throwing glances back at him. She held a cigarette between her fingers. Even though she tried her best to act natural, the awkwardness in her eyes sold her out. She just recently joined this group of ‘bad girls’.

“If only this is not the dream realm,” The man in the cap licked his lips.

The suited man lowered his head, fixed the button on his sleeves and chuckled, “Don’t kid yourself. Do you dare to come to a place like this in real life? You can only hide in the sunless basement.” The suited man chided him. “Don’t forget. The police are still looking for you.”

The man’s words yanked the other man back. His smile disappeared. He wiped his left hand on his shirt and then tugged the rim of his cap down lower on his face. He stood in the shadows, only showing half of his chin.

“Don’t need to be so scared.” The suited man’s voice carried an alluring tone. As he fixed his clothes, a peek of the tattoo underneath his shirt showed through. “I’ll keep your secret.” He smiled, “You know what I want.”

“But neither of us knows who has it.” The man in the cap grumbled.

“Then, we’ll search the others one by one. We have a lot of time. The woman in the qipao is dead, so that means the chance of her having the thing is low. Even if she did have it, it had been taken by another person.” The suited man seemed to have transformed into a demon at that moment.

The man in the cap seemed to realise something. He looked up to stare at the suited man. “Do you mean someone has designed her death?” His pupils narrowed to give him a sense of cunningness.

“That’s right.” The suited man nodded.

“Who is it?”

“No idea yet.”

“Could it be the woman from Room 406?” The man in the cap suddenly became nervous, “She has a strange presence. There are callouses all over her hands. Could… she be a police officer?”

The suited man scratched his chin and uttered after a pause, “Shouldn’t be. Her presence is territorial and aggressive. A member of the police won’t have that.”

The man in the cap sighed. “That’s good.”

The suited man studied the man in the cap and joked, “As long as you choose to work with me, it doesn’t matter if she’s a cop or not…” He leaned forward and grinned darkly, “Because… I won’t let her leave this place alive.” He pinched his cigarette out and added sinisterly, “Same for the two idiots in Room 404.”

…

Jiang Cheng sneezed heavily. Fatty hugged his elbows and asked with concern, “Doctor, are you down with the flu?”

Jiang Cheng shook his head and looked around. “No. Probably someone is thinking about me again and is going over how much they miss me.” Fatty naturally ignored the latter half of the sentence.

They had wandered for a long time at the school. They went from the canteen to the field on the west and then took another detour back.

“Doctor,” Fatty asked curiously, “Where are we going? I feel like you’re just walking around aimlessly.”

“That’s right.” Jiang Cheng admitted generously, “That is exactly what I’m doing.” Fatty was stumped. He was always confused by Jiang Cheng.

“I’m done with the stroll.” Jiang Cheng put his hand over his forehead to block out the sun. He triangulated the direction and then pointed down a path, “Let’s go to the Prop Room to meet up with them.”

Everyone would meet up in front of the Prop Room before noon. That was already decided earlier.

The journey was long, and Fatty’s heart started to worry again. He looked at Jiang Cheng many times. His lips moved, but in the end, he said nothing.

“You wanted to know who killed the woman in the qipao, right?” Jiang Cheng said calmly. It was like he was reciting a truth.

“Yes.” Fatty nodded quickly. They were discussing this earlier but they were interrupted by the bell.

“It was the ghost who killed her.” Jiang Cheng answered him.

Fatty grumbled, “Of course I knew that. I mean…”

“It’s the girl in the dinosaur pyjamas.” Jiang Cheng paused to look at Fatty. “She used the woman’s fear of ghosts to make her leave Room 407, which caused her death.”

Even though Fatty was shocked by this hypothesis, he didn’t question it. This was because he knew Jiang Cheng would never joke about this.

“How did she do it?” Fatty became nervous, “How… how did a newbie like her do something like this?”

“I temporarily can’t answer your first question.” Jiang Cheng uttered, “But the second question is very simple. The girl is not a newbie. Everything that we saw, including her show of fear, screams, cries and weakness… Even the dinosaur pyjamas that she showed up in… They are all a part of her disguise. The suited man is ten times weaker than her in terms of disguise.” He shrugged, “Compared to the girl, he is a simpleton.”

Fatty slowly calmed down. He thought back to the girl in the pyjama. He couldn’t find any loophole in his memory. “Doctor, can you show me some evidence?”