Chapter 11 Nightmare

"Creak—"

The sound of a door being pushed open. It was the first stall.

Long Tao covered his mouth, afraid to make even the slightest noise.

The restroom wasn't large, with only five stalls.

Each stall was short; if someone stood on tiptoe, they could see into the next stall.

He was huddled in the fourth stall.

Thud... thud...

"Creak—"

"Creak—"

The second and third doors were also pushed open.

The eerie sound finally stopped outside his door.

Time stood still at that moment.

Just as Long Tao made up his mind to rush out the moment the thing pushed open the door...

The door next to him suddenly opened. It was the innermost stall, and the old door hinges made a grinding noise that set his teeth on edge.

The thing actually abandoned the stall he was in...

Then, after a few seconds, the thudding sound rang out again.

The thing left the restroom, the eerie drumming fading into the distance.

Gone?

Gone?!

The feeling of surviving a disaster was beyond words.

Long Tao's legs went weak, and he collapsed directly onto the floor.

Half a minute later, he forced himself to stand up.

It wasn't about courage, but because he was worried that the thing would come back.

He leaned against the door and listened quietly for a while.

Then he quietly pushed open the stall door.

The restroom was silent and empty.

Long Tao couldn't help but feel a burst of joy. He hurriedly lowered his footsteps and walked towards the door.

He walked only on the tips of his toes, so he made almost no sound.

Closer...

Closer...

Just as he was about to step out of the restroom door, an absurd yet eerie chill instantly enveloped him, making him shudder violently.

He had never had this feeling before.

Almost instinctively, he looked behind him.

His neck turned little by little, like a rusted screw.

"Whoosh—"

Behind him... it was empty, there was nothing.

No one.

Even less of the fanged and grimacing vengeful spirit he imagined.

But just as he breathed a sigh of relief and retracted his gaze, he inadvertently glanced at the mirror in front of the sink.

The next second, he was struck by lightning.

The mirror in the men's restroom was covered in dust, and one corner was cracked.

Cracks like spiderwebs covered most of the mirror surface.

It was obviously abandoned.

But none of this mattered to Long Tao anymore. His pupils suddenly shrank, and the corners of his eyes twitched violently, as if they were about to split open in the next second.

Through the reflection in the mirror, he saw a pair of legs floating above his head!

A gust of wind, cold and eerie, blew in from nowhere in the closed space, and the legs swayed gently with it.

"Creak—"

"Creak—"

Long Tao trembled, mechanically raising his head, and what he saw was a pair of scarlet, resentful eyes.

The eyes were hidden in thick black hair, like a soul-snatching knife.

Long Tao opened his mouth wide, but no sound came out.

His mouth grew wider and wider, even exceeding the limit that ordinary people could make, and the corners of his mouth began to tear, and bright red blood immediately splattered out.

With a final "crack," everything fell silent.

A drop of blood splashed into those unclosed eyes.

Slowly, it spread like cinnabar.

......

"What's he dawdling about?" Zhou Taifu looked back at the corridor, grumbling discontentedly.

Zhang Yinyin answered after a while, "Maybe the situation is a bit bad." After a pause, she muttered to herself in a low voice, "But it's been too long."

The word "bad" gave Zhou Taifu a very bad feeling. He put out the cigarette between his fingers, frowned, and vaguely felt that the corridor behind him had also become deep and secluded.

"How long has he been gone?"

"I don't know," Zhang Yinyin's voice still had that weak and frail feeling, "But it must have been 20 minutes."

20 minutes...

Zhou Taifu's face turned ugly.

He strode towards the direction of the music classroom.

Zhang Yinyin seemed to be frightened by Zhou Taifu's actions and hurriedly asked, "Mr. Zhou, where are you going?"

"I'm going back to call people," Zhou Taifu said without looking back, "You stay here!"

"I...I dare not," Zhang Yinyin also realized that the situation was not right, and followed Zhou Taifu like a little tail.

A strange atmosphere descended, and the two walked faster and faster, one after the other, and finally even ran.

It was as if whoever was last would be dragged away by a ghost.

Rehearsal had just ended, and Jiang Cheng and the others were packing up.

Zhou Taifu was used to being pampered on weekdays, and he was out of breath from running this section of the road.

In the end, it was Zhang Yinyin who explained the ins and outs of the matter to everyone.

"You didn't go to take a look?" Luo Yi asked.

This was a standard piece of nonsense.

After all, no one expected that ghosts might appear during the day, especially when so many people were gathered here.

"Don't panic," Jiang Cheng stepped forward and said, "Nothing has been confirmed yet."

Although Jiang Cheng said so, even he himself felt that Long Tao was probably in mortal danger.

"Do you know the location of the restroom?" Yu Wen asked.

"I know."

At this time, Zhou Taifu glanced at the side of the choir stand and said weakly, "Should we bring that woman along?"

He was talking about the woman in charge of the coordination.

According to Zhou Taifu's idea, they could let that woman go in first.

If Long Tao was okay, that would naturally be the best. If something happened, they would be safe outside.

"Heh," Zhen Jianren, who had not expressed his opinion, crossed his arms and sneered, "I advise you not to. It's best to avoid unnecessary complications in this world."

On the handling of this matter, Jiang Cheng, Yu Wen, and Zhen Jianren's opinions were rarely unanimous.

After speaking, the group quietly walked towards the door.

Unexpectedly, just after taking a few steps, the liaison woman ran out and asked point-blank, "Where's your friend?"

Everyone fell silent in unison.

The woman's face slowly changed, and she looked increasingly nervous. Fine strands of hair were wet with sweat, sticking to her forehead and cheeks. "Did something happen to him?"

Hearing this, Yu Wen and the others instantly changed their expressions. Just as she was about to open her mouth, Jiang Cheng suddenly said, "No, he was a little unwell, so he went back first."

"Oh, oh," the woman's pale cheeks finally slowly turned rosy, as if a weight had been lifted from her heart.

Teams of students walked out, one of whom, a cadre-like girl with round-rimmed glasses, glanced around and finally fixed her gaze on the woman. "Teacher Feng?"

The woman responded after hearing this, and then explained to Jiang Cheng and the others that she still had work to do, so she wouldn't see them off.

Jiang Cheng nodded, "Then you go ahead with your work, we'll go back first."

"What time is the next rehearsal?"

This question seemed to stump the woman. She thought for a while and replied, "This needs to be determined after the school leaders watch the playback."

After leaving, the group went straight to the restroom where Long Tao was.

The more they walked, the worse their faces became. Even Zhou Taifu and Zhang Yinyin, who had been there before, noticed something was wrong.