Chapter 1

The teacher's office building was newly built this past summer vacation, and the formaldehyde smell inside hadn't completely dissipated, so there weren't many people.

Shi Qingsong, a people's teacher, held a stack of documents and stood in front of the elevator, pressing the button.

He wore round-framed glasses, a dark shirt, his hair meticulously combed, his face calm and steady, with a refined and gentle temperament, like a learned professor from a Republic-era photograph.

Gentle, kind, frugal, and yielding in his dealings with people, the middle-aged Shi Qingsong had consistently been a good teacher in the eyes of students, a good subordinate in the eyes of leaders, a good husband in the eyes of his wife, and a good father in the eyes of his children.

The elevator descended from a higher floor, and with a ding, the doors slowly opened.

A person was standing in the corner of the elevator, wearing a yellow construction safety helmet. The blue worker's uniform and pants were covered in large patches of black mud, and the protective gloves on his hands were worn beyond recognition.

An ordinary construction site worker, only his face was covered by a white mask, making it impossible to discern his age or appearance.

'Is this building still under construction?'

Shi Qingsong thought to himself, stepping into the elevator, immediately smelling an irritating odor of construction materials.

Without a doubt, the source of the smell was the worker. Seeming to notice Shi Qingsong's gaze, he took a half step back uneasily.

Shi Qingsong coughed somewhat awkwardly, offering an awkward but polite smile, suppressing his breathing as he reached out and pressed the button for the first floor.

The elevator continued to descend, and in the narrow, enclosed space, the pungent odor grew stronger, as if trying to drill into his nostrils, seep into his throat, and corrode his alveoli.

Shi Qingsong pretended to casually move his feet, distancing himself from the source of the smell, while using the documents in his hand to shield his nose, breathing slowly.

Drip.

The sound of liquid dripping.

Shi Qingsong didn't turn his head. Using the elevator's brightly mirrored walls, he could see some kind of black liquid slowly dripping from the worker's trouser legs.

Mud?

The people's teacher pursed his lips, holding the documents in his hand even tighter, silently hoping the elevator would reach the bottom as soon as possible.

Drip, drip.

More and more black mud dripped, quickly forming a large puddle at the worker's feet, occupying most of the elevator floor.

At the same time, the pungent odor became even stronger, practically stinging his skin and seeping into his heart.

What's going on?!

Shi Qingsong took two steps back, avoiding the spreading liquid while glaring at the silent worker.

That glare nearly cost Shi Qingsong half of his soul.

The construction worker's eyes were vacant, his pupils cloudy and dilated, the area around his black pupils filled with a blood-red hue.

These were the eyes of a dead man!

Shi Qingsong felt every hair on his body stand on end. He suddenly thought of a news story related to this building.

Just two months ago, the road in front of this building was being renovated and resurfaced. A road worker was standing next to an asphalt gravel spreader truck, working.

Suddenly, one of the truck's axles broke, and the truck's rear hopper tilted, the scalding asphalt and fine gravel instantly covering half of the road worker's body.

The construction team rushed forward to try to rescue him, but because the asphalt was highly viscous, under great pressure, and mixed with too much gravel, the man couldn't be pulled out at all.

Moreover, the hot asphalt was sticky and scalding, and mechanical cutting was impossible, so they could only use hoes and shovels to dig him out.

After digging for more than ten minutes, the worker was finally dug out, but his lower body had already been cooked alive by the hot asphalt... there was no chance of rescue.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the worker had gone into shock and lost consciousness within minutes of the incident, not suffering too much pain, and the construction company paid a large sum of money to his family as compensation.

To avoid negative publicity, the school strictly forbade insiders from revealing the information, and even internal staff members couldn't discuss it with each other—Shi Qingsong, as one of the few people who knew, would quietly quicken his pace every time he walked past the road in front of the teacher's office building.

Drip, drip.

His thoughts were pulled back.

The black, turbid liquid dripped from the construction worker's trouser legs like a small waterfall—a mixture of hot asphalt and blood plasma.

Scalding, viscous, and filled with a pungent odor, he could also vaguely smell a roasted meat aroma.

The construction worker took a step forward, the asphalt beneath his feet as sticky as glue, tearing apart the rubber soles of his shoes and the tough fabric of his construction uniform.

As if unaware of the asphalt's scalding heat, he took another step forward, the extremely sticky asphalt like a pair of large hands, firmly grabbing onto the exposed skin of his legs.

Tear—

Large patches of skin on his legs, under the effect of the asphalt, easily "fell off," like taking off rubber rain boots, leaving only pinkish-white muscles and tendons.

Moving his thighs, which were now only muscle, the worker walked towards Shi Qingsong unhurriedly.

Thud, thud, thud. Each time he stepped on the ground, a portion of the flesh on the soles of the worker's feet would be torn off, exposing pale bones from within the pink flesh, and splattering blood on Shi Qingsong's twisted face.

"Ahhhhhhh!!"

Terrified, Shi Qingsong screamed, his refined and gentle temperament completely gone.

He retreated as far as he could, pressing his back desperately against the elevator doors, while his trembling fingers frantically pressed the emergency button inside the elevator.

The spot where his feet were standing was the only island not submerged by the asphalt.

Ding-dong.

The elevator bell rang; they had arrived at the first floor.

The doors opened in response, and Shi Qingsong, his glasses askew, ignored the scattering documents, eagerly prying open the elevator doors and rushing out.

He forgot something.

When he was a child, his grandmother had told him that you must never run when you see a ghost, because when you run, your heels lift up, and the evil spirit will take the opportunity to place its toes under your heels, thereby taking over your body.

Behind him, unseen, the worker in the elevator stood upright, toes pointed, like a motionless ballet dancer, lightly floating out of the elevator.

The lobby on the first floor was empty and silent, the only sound being Shi Qingsong's frantic footsteps breaking the silence.

Soon, he would be able to run out the door, bathed in the sunlight.

Finally, at the last moment, as his fingers touched the doorknob, the ghost's toes very gently pressed against Shi Qingsong's raised heel.

Click!!

Shi Qingsong, who was running wildly, suddenly stopped. He stood up straight expressionlessly, walked to the wall of the teacher's office building lobby, and using the reflection in the wall tiles, slowly and methodically straightened his tilted glasses, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and combed his hair into a meticulous shape.

Thump, thump, thump.

"Shi Qingsong" turned around extremely calmly and walked back to the elevator, only to see that everything inside the elevator was normal. There wasn't a single drop of asphalt or blood plasma to be seen.

He crouched down, picked up the scattered papers from the ground, and gathered them into his arms.

From an angle unseen from the elevator, "Shi Qingsong" laughed wildly, his eerie mouth almost splitting open to his ears.