"I didn't hear anything either," Jiang Cheng said after a moment.

Wang Qi's face darkened. "Me neither."

"Fu Gui, it seems... it seems only you heard it," Huai Yi said, a hint of worry in his voice.

"It's that 'drip, drip' sound," the fatty explained quickly, raising his head. "It was quite clear. How could you guys not hear it?"

If only the fatty heard it, the biggest possibility Jiang Cheng could think of was that he was being targeted by a ghost.

"Don't panic," Jiang Cheng comforted him. "Listen carefully. Can you tell where the sound is coming from?"

"I... I don't know. The sound is very clear, like... like it's coming from all directions, everywhere," the fatty said, panting, his eyes darting around.

Hearing this, Wang Qi reached out and placed his hand on the fatty's head, saying softly, "Don't be nervous. Close your eyes and feel it again."

The fatty did as Wang Qi said, closing his eyes. After a moment, his body began to tremble, and he said excitedly, "I... I see it. It's over there, it's..."

"Don't open your eyes! Point with your finger," Wang Qi reminded him.

The fatty stretched out his hand, pointing in one direction. "There, that's right."

"Hoo--" Wang Qi withdrew his hand and nodded. "Okay, you can open your eyes now."

Jiang Cheng scrutinized Wang Qi for a few moments before walking with the others in the direction the fatty had indicated. Rounding a corner, a rather concealed small door appeared before them.

"The dripping sound is coming from here," the fatty said, staring at the door as if to confirm.

Jiang Cheng had barely touched the door, not even pushing it, when it opened on its own.

The inside was brighter than they had imagined, filled with various杂物 (záwù, sundries).

Near the door were mops, rags, and other cleaning supplies.

There was also a rubber hose, coiled up like a snake.

Further inside, there was an old table with an orange life jacket and rubber gloves on it, along with two plastic chairs nearby.

On the wall, a light blue short-sleeved work shirt hung from a hanger.

This was a supply room for the swimming pool staff.

In the corner, they found a pipe connected to a faucet on the wall, from which water was constantly dripping.

The "drip, drip" sound the fatty had heard was coming from here.

But strangely, they hadn't heard the dripping sound when they first entered the room.

It was only after discovering the leaky faucet that they could suddenly hear it, and very clearly, without any transition.

It was as if their hearing had been taken away and then suddenly restored.

This couldn't help but remind them of the ghost stories in the library.

After a moment of thought, Wang Qi reached out and tightened the faucet. The dripping stopped, and the dripping sound disappeared with it.

Before they could even catch their breath, a familiar sound reached their ears, and they immediately headed outside.

It was the sound of water.

Right outside!

Someone was swimming in the pool!

Leaving the supply room, they rushed to the pool. As they rounded the corner, they all saw something different in the dark pool.

Light shone down from above, creating shimmering reflections on the water. In the distance, someone was swimming.

Like a sword cutting through the water, white splashes were created.

It was a woman, but she didn't seem to be wearing a swimsuit. She was swimming away from them, her face always submerged, so they could only see her back.

This time, Jiang Cheng could see a little more clearly, but when he noticed the woman's back, he was stunned, a violent tremor running through his heart for no reason.

It was just a blurred back view, even just an outline, but Jiang Cheng felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

And he was sure that this person... was very important to him.

Unspeakably important.

The woman swam to the edge of the pool, relatively far from them, and then climbed out.

She then walked in one direction, quickly disappearing into the darkness.

Without hesitation, they followed, arriving at the spot where the woman had come ashore.

Clear water stains marked the ground. Following the wet footprints, they reached a corner, and around the corner was a dark corridor, with cold wind blowing out.

"Damn, it's cold," Huai Yi complained. Back at the gatekeeper's room, everything below his knees had been soaked, and now the cold wind was cutting right through him.

Wang Qi stared at the corridor and said after a moment, "It looks like the women's showers are up ahead."

They had come in on the men's side, and they had passed through a similar corridor. The layouts were similar, except that it wasn't as cold, and the corridor on the men's side wasn't as hidden or as deep.

Looking at the scene before them, they felt an increasing sense of familiarity. Wasn't this the experience of that male employee?

First, hearing the sound, then discovering the woman in the pool, and then following her to the women's showers. Next, he would go inside, and finally...

But soon, the development of the story began to deviate from their expectations.

They waited outside for a while, but they didn't hear any sound of showering. It was quiet inside. If it weren't for the footprints, they might have thought the woman had disappeared again.

"Should we..." the fatty asked tentatively, "Should we go inside and take a look?"

After a moment, the fatty looked at the end of the corridor leading to the showers and said hesitantly, "I don't know why, but I feel like... I feel like she doesn't have any malicious intent. She didn't hurt that security guard..."

"Should we... should two of us go in and take a look first?" Huai Yi asked Jiang Cheng in a low voice.

"Better not. If we're going in, let's all go together. There's safety in numbers," the fatty said.

The group walked through the long corridor. At the end of the corridor was a table with a plastic sign on it. The name on the sign was illegible now, but below it was a red stamp from the Jiangtan University Swimming Pool Management Center.

It seemed someone was usually on duty here.

As they approached the showers, it was quite dark inside, but they could still see that there were individual stalls.

There were no doors. Each stall had a semi-transparent curtain that could be rolled up when not in use.

The footprints disappeared here, because the ground was covered in water.

Not standing water, but patches of water everywhere, like the kind left behind after showering.

They walked slowly inside, observing the stalls on both sides. Jiang Cheng reminded them to be careful of the puddles on the floor and to avoid them if possible.

Some of the curtains were completely open, but many were not, or were only partially open. Some of the girls must have been in a hurry after showering and hadn't paid attention.

But this created a problem for Jiang Cheng and the others. They needed to pull back each curtain to check behind it.

After trying a few, the fatty said that it was too exciting, like opening a blind box. You never knew if you would pull back the curtain to find a ghost.