The first cubicle door was pushed open. Long Tao closed his hand over his mouth. He didn’t dare to make any sound. The bathroom was not that huge. It only had five cubicles. The cubicle was not tall. If one stood on tip-toe, one could easily look in. He was curling up inside the fourth cubicle.
The second and third doors were pushed open. The strange sound paused outside his cubicle. Time froze at that moment.
Long Tao made the decision to shove the door open and charge out. The cubicle next door suddenly opened. It was the innermost cubicle. The old axle creaked creepily. The thing skipped over the cubicle he was in…
A few seconds later, the thudding sound resumed. The thing left the bathroom, and the strange sound faded away.
Long Tao’s legs weakened, and he collapsed to the ground. The relief he felt was indescribable. Half a minute later, he forced himself to stand up. It had nothing to do with courage. He was worried that the thing might return.
He leaned on the door and listened to his surroundings. Then, he slowly eased the door open. The bathroom was empty. Long Tao felt a burst of joy. He quickly slithered out of the cubicle and headed to the exit. He walked on his top toe so that he wouldn’t make any sound.
The exit came closer and closer…
There was… nothing behind him. There was no ghost.
As he sighed in relief and wanted to pull his gaze back, his eyes swept the mirror in front of the sink. He felt as if he was struck by thunder. The mirror in the male bathroom was covered in dust and cracks. However, these were not important to Long Tao. His pupils trembled. Through the reflection in the mirror, he saw a pair of legs floating above his head!
A wind picked up in the enclosed space, and the legs swayed.
Long Tao shook. He lifted his head slowly. He saw a pair of red and venomous eyes. The eyes were hidden in a thick curtain of black hair. They were like pairs of knives. Long Tao opened his mouth, but no sound came out. His mouth continued to widen until it was much bigger than humanly possible. The corners of his lips tore, and blood spurted out. With a last crack, everything returned to silence.
A drop of blood dripped into the wide-open eyes of the dead.
“What is taking him so long?” Zhou Taifu looked down the corridor and grumbled.
After a while, Zhang Yinyin added, “His stomachache is probably very bad.” Then, she said as if to herself, “But he has indeed taken a bit too long.”
This gave Zhou Taofu a bad feeling. He extinguished the cigarette between his fingers. He frowned and suddenly felt the corridors around him become eerier.
“How long has he been gone?”
“I don’t know.” Zhang Yinyin sounded so fragile, “It has to have been at least twenty minutes.”
Zhou Taifu’s face darkened. He ran towards the music classroom. Zhang Yinyin appeared to be frightened by Zhou Taifu. She asked in a hurry, “Mr. Zhou, where are you going?”
“I’m going to get reinforcements.” Zhou Taifu said without turning his head, “You wait there!”
“I… I don’t dare to!” Zhang Yinyin also knew things were not right. She quickly followed Zhou Taifu. The two walked faster until they ran. It was like the one who was last would be caught by the ghost.
The rehearsal just ended. Jiang Cheng and the rest were packing up the stuff. Zhou Taifu was used to an easy life, so he was already exhausted from a short run. In the end, it was Zhang Yinyin who told everyone everything.
“Neither of you went to check on him before you came back?” Lou Yi asked. After all, no one expected the ghosts to appear in the day. Plus, there were so many people there.
“Don’t panic.” Jiang Cheng stood forward. “We still don’t know anything.” Even though that was what he said, he also thought things were not looking good for Long Tao.
“Do you know the bathroom’s location?” Xu Wen asked.
Zhou Taifu glanced at the stage, and he asked weakly, “Should we bring that woman?” He was talking about the woman who welcomed them at this building. In other words, Zhou Taifu wanted to sacrifice this woman. Suppose Long Tao were fine, then great. If something happened to him, the woman would be the one to die first.
“Hah.” Zhen Jianren, who had not said anything until then, scoffed, “I’d advise against that. Don’t find trouble in this world.”
Jiang Cheng and Xu Wen agreed with him on this matter. They silently moved towards the exit.
To their surprise, the woman they were talking about came over and asked directly, “Where is your friend?”
Everyone was silent. The woman’s face changed as she became more nervous. Her hair was wet with sweat, and it stuck to her face. “Did something happen to him?”
Hearing this, Xu Wen’s expression changed. Just as she was about to say something, Jiang Cheng cut in, “It’s fine. His body was too weak from the stomachache, so he went back to resting first.”
“Oh.” The woman’s face became ruddy again.
A team of students walked over. One of them wore a round-rimmed glasses. The girl’s sharp gaze wandered everywhere before landing on the woman, “Teacher Feng?”
The woman responded. She told Jiang Cheng’s group that she still had something to do, so she had to leave for now.
Jiang Cheng nodded. “Okay. We can return on our own.
“When is the next rehearsal?”
The question seemed to stump the woman. She thought about it before saying, “We need the superiors to decide on that first.”
After she left, the group headed to the bathroom where Long Tao was.
Their faces paled. Even Zhou Taifu and Zhang Yinyin, who had been there, felt that something was wrong.