Chapter 17 The Shortening Day

"I'm going to the activity center again tomorrow," Jiang Cheng said.

Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Fatty was worried about Jiang Cheng and said, "Doctor, let's go together tomorrow."

Fatty volunteered to keep watch that night.

Nothing happened overnight.

When Fatty woke him up in a low voice, Jiang Cheng opened his eyes and found that it was still dark outside. It wasn't the kind of faint dawn, but pitch black, just like night.

"Doctor," Fatty also noticed the direction Jiang Cheng was looking, and his tone was a little strange. He said, "Look at what time it is."

Jiang Cheng took out the phone Professor Wu had given him and turned on the screen. It was almost 8 o'clock in the morning.

"Doctor, I've been趴 (pa) on the windowsill for a long time, and the sky has been so dark all the time, and it doesn't look like it's going to rain." Fatty swallowed and said cautiously, "It's very quiet around here, and everyone seems to be still asleep."

"The daylight in this world is shortening, and the night is lengthening," Jiang Cheng said.

Fatty nodded repeatedly, "Doctor, you're right. Actually, it started yesterday, but it wasn't obvious, so I didn't pay attention to it."

Huai Yi was still sleeping on the other bed. It seemed that he and Fatty had taken turns keeping watch and didn't wake him up.

Fatty saw Jiang Cheng staring at Huai Yi and asked, "Do you need to wake him up too?"

Jiang Cheng shook his head and stood up, "No need, let him sleep a little longer."

The consumption of energy in the mission is much more exaggerated than in the real world. Even Jiang Cheng felt a little scattered at the moment.

"Doctor," Fatty looked out the window, his face strange, and said, "There's no one outside, those students, and the school teachers and staff, seem to have defaulted to the shortening of daylight hours and adjusted their schedules."

Fatty's words seemed to give Jiang Cheng inspiration. After hesitating for a moment, he instructed Fatty, "You and Huai Yi stay here. I'm going out. Don't call me. I'll contact you when I'm done."

After speaking, Jiang Cheng walked towards the door.

Fatty was stunned, then suddenly reacted, "You want to take advantage of the fact that no one is around to go to the activity center?"

"Yes."

"Let's go together, just you alone..." Fatty hadn't finished speaking when Jiang Cheng interrupted him.

"I'll be back soon." Jiang Cheng added after a while, "Don't worry."

Thinking that he and Huai Yi might only be a burden to the doctor, Fatty didn't force it, "Then, Doctor, be careful."

Jiang Cheng had already grabbed the doorknob with one hand, but he seemed to think of something, stopped, turned around and said, "Fatty, if I don't come back, you can go to Wang Qi for anything."

Fatty blinked, seemingly not believing his ears, "Doctor, what did you say?"

Jiang Cheng didn't explain much. After a long silence, he said, "Wang Qi is a very unusual person. Although he looks strange, I don't feel any threat from him. He just has an attitude problem and is not good at communicating with people, and he is arrogant in his bones."

"Is that so." Fatty habitually accepted what Jiang Cheng said, "I thought you had more good feelings for Shen Mengyun."

"Shen Mengyun is a pretty good person, but she's not smart enough, and women are always easily swayed by emotions and lose their rationality." Jiang Cheng continued, "Remember, information still needs to be obtained from Yuan Xiaoyi, but don't completely trust her words anymore."

"She has a problem, doesn't she, Doctor?" Fatty lowered his voice.

"Yes, there must be a problem, it just depends on how big the problem is." Jiang Cheng took down the black man's poster and observed the corridor outside through the glass window.

"Don't open the door for anyone before dawn, be careful." Leaving his last words, Jiang Cheng opened the door, observed for a while, and after finding nothing unusual, he walked out.

Fatty sat alone in the chair, thinking about what Jiang Cheng had said.

The corridor was very quiet. Since they moved in, they hadn't heard voices from other people, as if only a few living people lived in the entire building.

And what was even more terrifying was that among these "living people," only he, Fatty, and Huai Yi were likely to be real living people.

Tiptoeing downstairs, he stepped very lightly. After arriving at the first floor, the corridor was only illuminated by a few light bulbs hanging from the ceiling, emitting a half-dead light.

But after only a few steps, Jiang Cheng suddenly stopped. With the help of the dim yellow light in the corridor, he saw faint patches of water stains on the ground.

The water stains were intermittent, extending all the way to the dormitory door.

Looking at the dormitory door, Jiang Cheng's eyes also became vigilant.

After returning from the abandoned playground, he was the last person to enter the dormitory door, so he remembered very clearly that there should be a wooden stick standing behind the door.

But now, the wooden stick was gone.

After they came back, someone else had passed through this door.

Associating it with the intermittent water stains on the ground, Jiang Cheng immediately had an idea. Ghosts would naturally not be bored enough to move a wooden stick, so it meant that someone among them had secretly slipped out after returning to the dormitory.

And Jiang Cheng had roughly guessed who this person was.

It was Wang Qi.

His purpose for sneaking out of the dormitory was the same as his own, to go to the activity center to confirm something.

If this matter was confirmed, then all their previous ideas would be overturned. Perhaps... no one had disappeared in this university called Xiangtan at all.

Thinking of this, he quickened his pace while carefully avoiding the water stains on the ground.

But just as Jiang Cheng was paying attention to where he was stepping, suddenly, a door beside him opened, and Shen Mengyun's face emerged from the room without any lights on.

But this wasn't her room!

Jiang Cheng's breathing stagnated.

"Mr. Jiang," Shen Mengyun didn't reach out to pull him, seemingly worried about being misunderstood, so she quickly said, "I'm a person, not that kind of thing, don't be afraid."

Jiang Cheng's face was full of expressions saying, *I'm very scared, I don't believe you.*

*If you're Shen Mengyun, why aren't you staying in your own room, running here without turning on the lights, are you tired of living?* Jiang Cheng closed his mouth tightly, not speaking at all, completely communicating with his eyes.

Shen Mengyun explained a lot in a low voice. After listening for a while, Jiang Cheng understood the general idea. Shen Mengyun was originally doing well in her room, but she suddenly heard the sound of dripping water.

At first, it wasn't very clear, as if it was very far away.

But slowly, the thing making the dripping sound got closer and closer to her. At first, it seemed to be at the end of the corridor, then it was outside her door.

Finally... finally, the sound of dripping water came from the closet in her room.

The three of them had encountered this kind of thing in the activity center before, so Shen Mengyun knew that the ghost had found her.

She also knew that she couldn't leave the room easily, so she kept comforting herself, saying that these were all auditory hallucinations, all fake, and she must not believe them.

Until the sound of dripping water came from under her bed...