Chapter 12

Wang Yazhi really wanted to ask if the person approaching her was Xia Tianqi, but the last bit of rationality in her mind kept warning her not to do so, even to the point of making the slightest sound.

She tightly covered her mouth, her eyes wide open with terror, trying to catch something in the darkness.

But all she saw... was darkness.

"Tap, tap..."

Light and slow footsteps accompanied by the sound of something heavy being dragged came to a stop beside her.

Even though she couldn't see with her eyes, it didn't stop her from clearly hearing and judging that the "person" was standing very close to her.

It could be beside her, or... right in front of her!

And what was the thing being dragged by "him"?

Was it an object? Or...

Wang Yazhi tried her best to control herself from thinking further, for she feared that if she continued, she would completely break down.

At this moment, the "person" hidden in the darkness seemed to be doing the same thing, listening intently as well.

If it weren't for the very real sensation of the "person" approaching earlier, she would never have thought that there was another "person" hidden in this darkness... and so close to her!

There was not a single sound, the almost deathly silence made Wang Yazhi dare not even breathe.

Because any sound would be infinitely amplified here.

After holding her breath for a short while, Wang Yazhi reached her limit, and her mind was filled with the hope that the "person" would move away.

Perhaps her prayers worked, for just as Wang Yazhi was about to run out of breath, the footsteps and the sound of the heavy object being dragged finally moved away.

"Inhale—exhale—!"

Only after confirming that the "person" had moved away did Wang Yazhi greedily take a breath. She had never felt that being able to breathe was such a blissful thing.

After taking a few deep breaths until her chest no longer felt as suffocated, Wang Yazhi stood up and, based on her sense of direction, walked in the opposite direction of the "person."

However, she soon found her path blocked by a wall.

In other words, she could only turn back or stay here.

Stopping, Wang Yazhi felt around the surroundings and finally concluded in her mind that this was a women's restroom.

Because she not only touched a mirror and a faucet but also found no urinals, which are typically found in men's restrooms.

After confirming that this was a women's restroom on a certain floor, Wang Yazhi's memory of buying books here before helped her visualize the layout of the restroom. In fact, her previous exploration had already given her a good understanding of the environment.

After some consideration, Wang Yazhi decided to stay here, thinking that hiding in a stall would be relatively safer. After all, the ghost wouldn't search every floor and every stall, right?

With this thought, Wang Yazhi's hands, which had been feeling around in the darkness, finally grabbed the small door of a stall and carefully pushed it open.

Because there was a toilet in the stall, she didn't go in too deep, just staying at the door.

Turning around and leaning her back against one side of the stall, Wang Yazhi couldn't help but let out a long sigh, feeling that she was temporarily safe.

But her sense of safety didn't last long. Suddenly, a series of extremely piercing flushing sounds came from the toilet behind her!

"Rush, rush—!"

The sudden flushing sound made Wang Yazhi shudder, unable to understand why it would sound in such a situation.

She tried to control herself from imagining scenes from horror movies, instinctively reaching out her hands toward the toilet, and then...

She touched a... face covered in slime!

"Ahh—!"

In that instant, Wang Yazhi felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave.

In her scream, Wang Yazhi desperately felt for the small door of the stall, trying to unlock it and escape, but perhaps due to her extreme fear, she couldn't find the lock and could only repeatedly bang on the door in terror.

"Bang, bang, bang—!"

But before she could break the door and escape, a cold hand suddenly grabbed her neck from behind!

At the same time, Xia Tianqi shivered uncontrollably, suddenly standing up and instinctively looking in the direction of the scream, even though all he could see was the damned darkness!

"What was that scream... Was it Wang Yazhi?"

For a moment, he vaguely heard a woman's scream, though it was fleeting.

Xia Tianqi swallowed hard, feeling a chill run down his back. It had been over an hour since the middle-aged man appeared, and he had vanished like a stone in the sea.

If the middle-aged man had successfully killed the ghost, he would have made some noise to alert them, but that didn't happen.

Moreover, the woman's scream made him think.

In this bookstore, the only woman should be Wang Yazhi, so if a woman was killed, it was most likely her.

The only one who could have killed her was the ghost.

But if the ghost was being dealt with by the middle-aged man, how could it come out and kill Wang Yazhi?

Unless... the middle-aged man was also killed by it!

Although he didn't want to accept this conclusion, if the scream was indeed from Wang Yazhi, then this was very likely the truth.

The middle-aged man failed to kill the ghost and was killed himself. After that, the ghost found Wang Yazhi hiding upstairs and killed her.

And next... it would be his turn!

Thinking of this, Xia Tianqi shivered uncontrollably again, feeling the temperature around him drop even more.

His unease intensified, making Xia Tianqi shake his head forcefully to stop his wild thoughts.

After all, instead of scaring himself with wild thoughts, he should use this time to think about what to do next, or how to survive.

After calming down and thinking for a while, he came up with two plans.

The first plan was to set the bookstore on fire.

The reason was based on his previous thoughts: the ghost feared light and heat, and it might only exist because of the bookstore. If the bookstore was gone, the ghost might disappear as well.

He didn't consider the consequences of burning down the bookstore.

The second plan was to run away. If even the middle-aged man couldn't deal with the ghost, staying here would be waiting for death.

So he had to escape the bookstore and see if he could return to the Golden Office Building to find a way, or do something else, but he couldn't continue sitting here waiting to die.

Since he had two plans, he had to make a choice. Xia Tianqi knew he didn't have much time to hesitate, as the ghost could appear in front of him at any moment.

After a brief thought, Xia Tianqi decided to combine the two plans.

He would set the bookstore on fire and escape.

For safety, he decided to wait until he successfully reached the first floor before setting the fire.

Once he made up his mind, he acted without hesitation, a basic principle of Xia Tianqi. In fact, he was surprised by his own calmness, thinking he couldn't be called just talented, but a genius!

He was a genius, a genius who could only remain calm when encountering a ghost.

Despite his humorous thoughts, Xia Tianqi didn't stop moving. Using the brief light from his lighter, he quickly ran toward the nearest staircase.

Because the flame of the lighter was limited and could attract the ghost, Xia Tianqi didn't use it to light his way after entering the staircase, but instead felt his way down in the dark.

Counting the floors in his mind, Xia Tianqi quickly reached the third floor. Just as he was about to continue down, a strange sound came from above.

Hearing the sound, Xia Tianqi's hair stood on end, and without hesitation, he ran down the stairs.

At the same time, a series of hurried footsteps came from above!

"Is that you, middle-aged man?"

"Middle-aged man?"

"Wang Yazhi?"

The other person had definitely noticed him, so Xia Tianqi didn't try to hide and asked with a trembling voice, but received no response.

From this, Xia Tianqi almost confirmed that the one chasing him down the stairs was the ghost, and his previous speculation was true!

"Damn!"

Xia Tianqi cursed as he ran down the stairs, no longer hiding and using the lighter to light his way.

The flame of the lighter illuminated Xia Tianqi's fleeing figure, but behind him, another terrifying ghostly shadow was closing in!

It was getting closer and closer!

"Finished... It's going to catch up..."

"What to do... It's going to catch up... What to do...!"

Feeling the cold hand getting closer to his back, Xia Tianqi's fear erupted from the depths of his heart, making his legs give out, and he rolled down the stairs.

"Ahh—!"