Chapter 15 Pressure

Back in the room, Fatty was still reeling from the shock.

But mindful of the late hour, he couldn't speak loudly, so he kept his voice as low as possible.

"Doctor, what are you doing?"

"Nothing," Jiang Cheng mumbled as he wiped his hands with a wet cloth, "I think they're not being proactive enough, so I'm giving them a little pressure. You know, I'm doing it for their own good."

Fatty was used to Jiang Cheng's schemes, so he changed the subject. "Then this blood is..."

"Just what you think," he shrugged. "Borrowed it from Long Tao."

Fatty's expression became even more colorful.

He hesitated for a moment, as if reasoning to himself, "Doctor, I'm guessing you want to create the illusion that they're being targeted by a ghost. If they don't solve the task in time, they'll be the first to die."

"Mmhmm."

Fatty licked his lips, following closely behind Jiang Cheng. "I can understand that, but why did you have to draw the fingers so long when you could have just made a handprint?" He looked at the former, asking in confusion, "Is there some meaning to it?"

"You want to mislead those two people's investigation, making them think that the killer must have a huge hand!" Fatty seemed to have figured something out, his tone becoming excited. "Is that it? Doctor!"

"Not really," Jiang Cheng scratched his head a little embarrassedly, looking back at Fatty and saying, "It's just that I saw there was still some left in the bottle, and I thought it would be a waste."

Fatty's mouth twitched. "...I especially thank you on Long Tao's behalf."

"You're welcome."

After using up the last two bottles of mineral water, Jiang Cheng only stopped when the smell of blood on his hands was no longer so strong. He dried his hands and contentedly crawled back into his sleeping bag.

"Doctor," Fatty called out softly after a while, "are you asleep?"

"Sound asleep," Jiang Cheng replied clearly. "I just dreamed of Long Tao. He said he couldn't eat sweet and sour pork ribs without a chin, and he wanted to borrow yours for a couple of days, then return it to you."

"I was just speaking up for you, but you woke me up," Jiang Cheng said, smacking his lips, as he turned over. "Don't worry, I reckon he'll be here in a bit. It won't be more than a few minutes late."

"My dear doctor..." Fatty said with a sob in his voice, wishing he could sew Jiang Cheng's mouth shut. "Please, just shut up."

There were about two hours until dawn, and Jiang Cheng figured that Fatty wouldn't be able to fall asleep after hearing the story.

"Doctor," Fatty said furtively, "I have a question I want to ask you. I just thought of it," he lowered his already low voice even more. "In the corridor just now, weren't you afraid of being attacked by the ghost? You know, the qipao woman died in the corridor."

Jiang Cheng pulled up the quilt, covering his chin, which made his voice even more muffled.

It sounded even weirder to Fatty's ears. "That's because the qipao woman died in the corridor, so I'm not afraid."

Fatty's eyes widened. "What did you say, Doctor?"

"Nothing," Jiang Cheng turned his back again, leaving Fatty with his back view. "I'm tired."

"Oh, oh, okay, Doctor," Fatty nodded like a chick pecking at rice. "Sleep soundly, I'll wake you up if anything happens."

After saying that, Fatty didn't dare to disturb Jiang Cheng any further, and sat cross-legged on the bed.

If one hadn't seen it with their own eyes, it would be hard to imagine that Fatty's thick legs could actually be crossed.

If Jiang Cheng saw this scene, he would surely exclaim at the wonder of the creator.

......

In the cafeteria, Jiang Cheng leisurely picked his teeth.

Most of the students had gone to class, and now there were only a few scattered groups of students eating breakfast.

Fatty's eyebrows were furrowed together at the thought of going to the equipment center to gather intelligence later.

"Doctor," he withdrew his gaze from a scantily clad girl and turned to look at Jiang Cheng. "What time are we leaving?"

He blinked his small eyes and suggested, "Why don't we go around noon, when the yang energy is strong? Those things might be a little more restrained."

"Doubtful," Jiang Cheng glanced at him, toothpick in his mouth. "Remember when Long Tao died?"

Fatty thought for a while, and his face suddenly turned ugly.

Jiang Cheng was right. Long Tao's death wasn't far from noon, so it seemed that time didn't have much of a limiting effect on the ghost in this mission.

Speaking of this, Fatty began to whine again. He said in a resentful tone, "Doctor, why did you have to show off and take on the equipment center? It was obviously the most dangerous place!"

"Now it's all for nothing," he sighed. "Forget it, forget it, Doctor, I won't say anything more. When are we leaving?"

Jiang Cheng looked up. "Leaving for what?"

"To the equipment center!" Fatty asked in surprise. "Have you lost your memory?"

"You know it's the most dangerous place, so why should we go?"

Fatty was stunned by the question, and after a long while, he stammered, "But... Doctor, didn't you decide this at the meeting yesterday?" He paused. "Zhen Jianren and Luo Yi are going to ask the students for information, the three from 407 are going to find the rehearsal woman, and we're going to the equipment center."

"Oh," Jiang Cheng nodded as if he had suddenly realized something. "So that's what you're talking about. I just said it casually."

"Casually?"

"Yes," Jiang Cheng stirred the tofu pudding in front of him with a spoon, but didn't intend to drink it. "The equipment center is obviously a very dangerous place. Only a fool would go there."

Fatty felt that his brain was completely inadequate, not even as good as the bowl of tofu pudding in front of him. "Then... then how are we going to explain it when we get back?"

His worries were not without reason. Later, they would inevitably gather together to share their gains for the day.

If he couldn't come up with anything...

"Doctor," Fatty leaned over, earnestly persuading him, "I think we'd better not take this risk. If we go back empty-handed, without any information, those two teams won't let it go."

"Who says we'll go back empty-handed?" Jiang Cheng smiled.

For some reason, when Jiang Cheng smiled, Fatty's right eyelid began to twitch, accompanied by a chain reaction such as a tightening of his chrysanthemum.

"Doctor, stop smiling," Fatty pressed his right eyelid, but helplessly found that he couldn't control it at all.

Jiang Cheng did become serious, lowering his voice and looking at Fatty very earnestly, "We went to the equipment center this morning, but just as we reached the door, before we even entered, we saw a woman inside from afar."

"The woman had disheveled hair, hunched over, and posed in an extremely strange posture. What's even more terrifying is that the woman had an abnormally large hand."

"We didn't dare to get close, so we could only hide behind the door and watch from afar."

"After a while, the woman left with a swagger, and only then did we realize that she was drawing a picture while looking down."

"A portrait," Jiang Cheng blinked. "There's a person in the painting."

Fatty listened as if he were hearing a fairy tale, but he was strangely attracted by the nonsense story that Jiang Cheng had made up. He turned around, looked at Jiang Cheng and asked, "Who's in the painting?"

"Hoo—"

Jiang Cheng exhaled a long breath, raised his eyebrows and said, "Zhen Jianren."