Chapter 23

Hiding behind the door, Xia Tianqi held his breath, not daring to make the slightest sound.

After about 30 seconds, a faint sound of fingernails scraping against the door of the duty room could be heard.

"Hisss..."

With this sound, Xia Tianqi felt his heart leap to his throat.

"Damn, it really is a ghost!"

Xia Tianqi shouted in his mind, but he still held his breath, hoping that the thing outside would leave without finding anything.

In fact, the situation was indeed turning for the better, because through the glass of the duty room, he could clearly see a long-haired woman.

Or perhaps it should be a woman, as her long hair almost completely covered her face, so Xia Tianqi was not entirely sure.

At this moment, the woman stood woodenly in front of the duty room window, but due to the angle, Xia Tianqi was certain she could not see him.

"Is that a red dress? A red-clothed ghost?"

Xia Tianqi thought the woman was wearing a blood-red robe. He seemed to have heard from someone that red-clothed ghosts were mostly extremely vengeful spirits, very difficult to deal with.

As the time of holding his breath slowly passed 1.5 minutes, Xia Tianqi had reached his limit, his face turning red.

Fortunately, his luck was good enough. After a fruitless search, the red-clothed woman finally left the duty room.

The sound of footsteps gradually faded away outside the door.

"Phew—Ha!"

"Breath—Out...!"

Xia Tianqi swore he had never held his breath for so long, feeling as if his chest was about to explode.

"Finally, the damn thing is gone..."

Xia Tianqi rubbed his aching chest and sighed in relief.

However, just as he thought the danger had passed and he could relax, his body shivered inexplicably, and he instinctively glanced out the window.

This glance made Xia Tianqi feel as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

It was her!

It was the red-clothed woman.

She had somehow returned!

As for himself... he was undoubtedly exposed.

Xia Tianqi shuddered as he stared at the red-clothed woman outside the window, who was also staring at him.

No! It should be called a red-clothed female ghost.

Because when the hair covering her face fell away, what was revealed... was only a mouth with a strange smile!

Or rather, she had no face at all.

"There's nothing to be afraid of, I've stuck so many talismans in the duty room, it must—"

Before Xia Tianqi could finish his self-reassurance, the red-clothed female ghost had already shattered the glass and burst into the duty room. The talismans he had stuck around the window fell to the ground like waste paper, along with the broken glass.

It was clear that the talismans he had spent a lot of money on were—useless!

"I'll tell you, I'm a demon who kills ghosts without blinking, and the female ghosts I've killed could fill a train, so if you know what's good for you, you'll scram!"

Although he knew that pretending to be a villain wouldn't be very effective, with the thought of treating a dead horse as if it were alive, Xia Tianqi still shouted out, but it clearly had no effect.

The female ghost continued to advance step by step.

Of course, Xia Tianqi was not the type to be easily scared. After all, he had experienced a major event at the Xin Hua Grand Bookstore, and he had some courage.

Seeing that pretending to be a villain was useless, Xia Tianqi directly threw the peach wood sword and axe he had been holding, and then fled from the duty room without looking back.

After escaping the duty room, Xia Tianqi didn't care much and started shouting loudly. He didn't believe that the red-clothed female ghost could kill all the students in the two dormitory buildings.

In the corridor filled with the sound of footsteps, Xia Tianqi ran desperately, and the red-clothed female ghost pursued him relentlessly.

While shouting and fleeing, Xia Tianqi knocked on each dormitory door, and soon the students inside began to complain. (Xia Tianqi was just shouting, not asking for help.)

Clearly, everyone thought Xia Tianqi was acting crazy by not sleeping and making noise in the middle of the night.

Whether it was because Xia Tianqi had fled upstairs or because his earlier actions had alarmed the students, when he reached the second floor and looked back, the red-clothed female ghost that had been chasing him was gone.

But after the previous lesson, he did not let his guard down this time and knocked on the doors of the dormitories on the second floor again before fleeing to the third floor.

At the same time, outside a deserted dormitory on the eighth floor of Building 2.

"Creak..."

Leng Yue carefully pushed open the door of the dormitory and found three decapitated bodies inside.

Seeing these three bodies, Leng Yue's body visibly trembled, and the corners of her mouth twitched. Clearly, this scene was unexpected.

The three round heads were all staring with wide eyes, clearly showing the immense fear they had experienced before death.

"Truly... too pitiful."

Leng Yue muttered, but the voice... was a man's voice.

Carefully tapping the three heads that had rolled to the ground, Leng Yue recognized one of them as Li Xiaoxiao, one of the four dormitory managers.

She had already been killed at some point.

"The situation looks very serious. The students must be evacuated, or they will all be killed."

Muttering to himself, Leng Yue entered the dormitory and dragged out the three bodies, including Li Xiaoxiao.

For Xia Tianqi, this night was destined to be sleepless.

Because he thought the red-clothed female ghost might not act when there were many people around, he had no choice but to sneak into a dormitory that was not locked.

He spent the night in fear, and only returned to the duty room when it was almost dawn.

This night was undoubtedly extremely painful for Xia Tianqi. The only silver lining was that the few girls in the dormitory slept like dead pigs and did not notice him.

To avoid unnecessary suspicion, he even cleaned the duty room, and during the process, many students, still half-asleep, came out to use the toilet in their underwear.

They were all inevitably scrutinized by Xia Tianqi from head to toe.

Because he had not rested all night, and had been chased by the red-clothed female ghost, almost dying, Xia Tianqi was both mentally and physically exhausted, and he did not know when he had fallen asleep.

When he woke up again, the small rest room was already filled with police officers.

Before he could ask anything, he was dragged out of bed by several police officers and taken out of the dormitory building in a daze.

It was only after leaving the dormitory building and hearing the police officers' discussion that he understood what had happened.

Apparently, in the morning, a student had discovered three dead bodies in the dormitory building and called the police.

He was taken out by the police because of his strange behavior the previous night, such as shouting and banging on doors, making him a prime suspect.

As for the other dormitory managers, Leng Yue and Han Xiyuan, they were also suspected and taken to the nearby police station.