Chapter 1 Respite

Holding his phone, Jiang Cheng leaned against the wall and took several deep breaths.

He couldn't claim to have much of a connection with Wang Qi, and he could sense that Wang Qi felt the same way about him. In fact, the other man had been quite blunt about Jiang Cheng not being well-received within Deep Red.

The bond between them stemmed entirely from Fatty.

Jiang Cheng didn't want anything to happen to Fatty, and neither did Wang Qi. Both were willing to pay the price to protect him.

Wang Qi... ultimately fulfilled his promise.

This was something Jiang Cheng respected him for.

But his death could only stall the ghost temporarily. If Fatty and Huai Yi were to truly be safe, they needed to find the correct way to open the locker in the changing room and find Jiang Yanran.

With that thought, Jiang Cheng took out the key from his pocket and went to the women's changing room again.

This time, he didn't fixate solely on locker number 18. Instead, he paced back and forth in the changing room, sensing an indescribable strangeness about the place.

It felt somehow... off.

Moreover, the reason was right there in his mind, something he should have been able to figure out easily, but something was blocking him.

Like a membrane, impossible to pierce, preventing him from uncovering the truth.

"What is it?" Jiang Cheng muttered, staring at the rows of lockers. "Why are the numbers on them all wiped off, except for 18?"

"What is it trying to hide?"

"Why is the key wrong? It's definitely not for locker 18. Originally, he could have chosen the most basic method and tried them one by one, but now the key is severely damaged. It's likely that he can only try it 2 or 3 more times before it completely breaks. There's neither the opportunity nor the time."

The life-threatening footsteps had stopped. It had been a while since he last heard them, the time Wang Qi had bought with his life.

But soon, the Eshi Mo would continue.

Just as Jiang Cheng was thinking, his eyes inadvertently swept across the wall.

It was a very white wall.

Compared to the other walls, it was almost excessively white, as if it had recently been painted with a new coat of paint.

Jiang Cheng walked over and touched it. The texture was... strange, quite hard, but seemingly brittle.

Furthermore, such a large white wall, with nothing on it, felt very out of place.

Jiang Cheng tentatively tapped the wall with his hand.

The wall trembled slightly, accompanied by a faint vibration.

His thoughts instantly clicked. Jiang Cheng stared at the wall and immediately understood why white paint had been used here. Because before, this had been... a mirror!

Now, the mirror had been covered with a layer of white paint, obscuring it!

All the strange tales were mirror worlds created after the personality fled!

Following this line of thought, previous doubts slowly resolved. No wonder they felt that the entire swimming pool itself was strange, and also, all the numbers in this room were erased!

If they weren't erased, the mirror world would be the opposite of the real world, and these numbers would all be reversed, making it obvious at a glance!

Damn it!

He should have thought of it sooner. He had discovered long ago that the existence of strange tales was based on the mirror world.

But the Eshi Mo had actually used some unknown method to blur his memory.

Causing him to overlook this point.

Otherwise, Wang Qi wouldn't have had to...

It was too late to say all this now. Jiang Cheng wasn't one to dwell on things. If he dragged it out any longer, neither Huai Yi nor Fatty would be able to escape.

And faintly, he heard footsteps again.

"Tap."

"Tap."

...

Nearby...

"In the drowned girl's memories, her locker was number 18, so she took the key to open it, but this is the mirror world, everything is reversed, so the number is reversed."

"18 reversed... is 81!"

Jiang Cheng stared at the battered key in his hand. "So this key corresponds to locker 81!"

"Jiang Yanran must have thought of this as well, so she hid herself in locker 81. That's why she was able to survive in the swimming pool!"

Thinking this, Jiang Cheng immediately started looking for locker 81.

Although the lockers in the changing room were reversed in the mirror world, this wasn't difficult for Jiang Cheng, who had already discovered the pattern.

Soon, he located locker 81 in the corner of the room.

At this moment, the wet footsteps were already approaching him.

Aiming at the keyhole, he inserted the key.

Jiang Cheng raised an eyebrow. It worked!

It really went in, without any obstruction. This was the key to locker 81!

He carefully turned the key. The lock clicked open. Before Jiang Cheng could pull the door open, it swung outwards, and a person fell out.

Because he was prepared, Jiang Cheng caught her.

Long hair, a white lace-trimmed shirt on her upper body, denim shorts on her lower body, outlining the girl's beautiful curves, and a pair of long legs shining white.

Hidden by her disheveled hair, the girl only revealed half of her face, thin lips, a high nose bridge, and slightly prominent cheekbones. Perhaps it was because of preconceived notions, but Jiang Cheng didn't find her attractive or beautiful at all. He only felt that this was a dangerous and mean woman.

If it weren't for the mission requirement, he wouldn't want to get involved with such a woman at all.

He reached out to check the woman's breath. Her breathing was weak, and her complexion was also very poor, but as far as Jiang Cheng was concerned, it was enough as long as she wasn't dead.

At first, Jiang Cheng thought about carrying her on his back, but he didn't trust this kind of femme fatale. In the end, he decided to carry her in his arms, so that he could detect any unusual movements in time.

Wang Qi had ultimately arranged for Fatty to go to the women's showers. Jiang Cheng guessed this. While walking towards the showers, he freed his left hand to send a message to Huai Yi.

But unexpectedly, as soon as the message was sent, Huai Yi's call came through. "Brother Jiang." Huai Yi's tone was urgent and fearful, and Jiang Cheng could hear heavy breathing. He seemed to be running.

"The black figure... no, no, it's a ghost! It's moving again! It's moving again!"

"Where are you?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"I'm on the east side of the swimming pool. There's a lounge and some offices nearby!" Huai Yi said while running.

"Come to the women's showers to find me. I've found Jiang Yanran!" Jiang Cheng replied quickly. "I'm going to find Wang Fugui now!"

"Okay, I'll be right there! I'll shake off the shadow behind me first!" Huai Yi ended the call.

Arriving at the women's showers, it was dark and visibility was poor. Just as Jiang Cheng was worrying about how to find Fatty, a strange sound suddenly entered Jiang Cheng's ears.

The sound was very soft, like someone was crying, suppressing it.

Following the sound, Jiang Cheng soon found Fatty curled up in a corner inside a hidden stall.

Fatty's eyes were red and swollen at the moment, his mouth was slightly open, snot and tears were flowing everywhere. When he saw Jiang Cheng, his body began to tremble, and his pale lips were trembling, but he couldn't make a sound. It wasn't until Jiang Cheng touched him that Fatty seemed to be released from a spell, and he burst into tears!