"What does this prove?" Jia Renliang asked.
Chen Xiao shook his head, "It proves nothing; anyway, I think we should first take a look around!"
"Wouldn't it be better to wait here until daylight? You heard it just now, that laughter must have been Xiao Ming's, he's outside," Liu Yi said.
"No, all these candles can't stop him, staying still is even more dangerous," Bai Xiong immediately rejected his suggestion.
Jia Renliang nodded and suggested, "Let's check the corridor opposite first, maybe we can find something... like the bodies of those people who came here before!"
So, the four of them left the room.
At this point, half an hour had passed since the signal was lost, and the entire building was devoid of light. Bai Xiong led the way with his flashlight, the other three following closely behind. Soon, they reached the opposite end of the corridor.
Like the corridor on the other side, there were four classrooms. The group looked into the first three classrooms one by one, but there was nothing special.
Then, they came to the fourth room. Bai Xiong, as before, directly pushed open the classroom door, then clearly shuddered all over, quickly retreated back, and with a "clang" shut the door, leaned against the wall with a pale face.
The shock also startled everyone else, who quickly leaned against the wall as well, their wide eyes darting around in terror.
About a minute went by, and nothing happened...
Jia Renliang glanced at Bai Xiong and asked in an extremely soft voice, "What's wrong?"
Bai Xiong seemed truly frightened this time, and after catching his breath, he whispered, "There's someone inside!"
The others were again horrified, but then they thought, wait, whether it's a person or a ghost inside, why is there no sound at all?
Chen Xiao, who was not afraid of death, took the flashlight from Bai Xiong, crept to the door, and listened. Indeed, there was no sound.
Afterward, he kicked the door open with a flying kick, charged into the classroom with the flashlight as if it were a knife, and yelled, "This tree I plant! This path is mine... ho!!!"
Setting aside the classic muggers' jabber after kicking the door open, the exclamation "ho" Chen Xiao uttered was not in the fourth tone, but dragged out in the third tone, pronounced as "huo~." This conveyed the visual impact and shock of what he saw before him and also indicated there was no danger in the room!
The remaining three peeked inside after hearing this.
And that peek, boy, did it give them all a shiver.
This classroom was no different from the others, even the desks, chairs, and benches were neatly arranged, and the floor wasn't as dusty. Only... the room was full of people.
You couldn't really say they were sitting; more accurately, they were positioned.
Everyone maintained a posture as if they were in class, and there stood a "female teacher" on the podium, even holding a textbook in her hand!
Of course, these were all corpses, and they were mummies! Their skin was withered and yellow, their eyes sunken, just like mummies.
In this haunted orphanage, such a scene suddenly appearing, the fact that Bai Xiong didn't shout out a "holy ****" and was able to quickly retreat to lean against the wall and even remember to close the door was truly admirable.
By now, the three people outside the door had entered, their hearts trembling slightly with panic, while Chen Xiao had already started rummaging around the classroom like a kid in an amusement park.
Liu Yi swallowed his saliva and whispered, "Why do I feel like he seems rather thrilled?"
Jia Renliang couldn't help but nod.
At this moment, Chen Xiao had already whirled through the entire classroom, then went to the front of the podium. Everyone immediately cleared a path for him, watching as he stuck his finger into the teacher's eye socket, bent down to look under the "teacher's" skirt, and finally leaned in to take a sniff.
This action caused everyone's hearts to tighten.
"He's not going to lick it, is he?"
"Why do I feel like he could just bite off a piece?"
"Maybe he'll even swallow it with a 'smack, smack'."
The other three were on edge, as if facing a great enemy, until finally, Chen Xiao seemed satisfied, nodding his head before stepping down from the podium.
"Whew~" Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"Did you discover anything?" Bai Xiong asked.
Chen Xiao, with his hands in his pockets, nodded, "These corpses should be students from this orphanage, all their body fluids have been drained. They've been placed here for about half a year. Presumably, it's 'Xiao Ming,' due to some obsession, wanting to recreate a scene where everyone is still in class."
As he spoke, he went over to the teacher, "This person was not a teacher here!"
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Everyone was taken aback, and then immediately thought of the outcome.
"The woman from the last group?" Liu Yi asked.
Chen Xiao nodded, "Yeah, although her bodily fluids had been completely drained and she looked almost like a mummy, it's easy to tell from her hair that she hasn't been dead for more than a week."
"A vampire? But weren't there no wounds?" Jia Renliang asked.
"Not a vampire, something worse, it's not just the blood, but all bodily fluids, even the cells were drained dry, probably drawn out through the pores!" Chen Xiao said.
Liu Yi shifted uncomfortably, "So why aren't we dead yet?"
Chen Xiao said, "Don't know, but I want to try something! Everyone, stay away from me!"
As he spoke, he turned on his flashlight and shone it from below onto his face, chuckling sinisterly, while the other three got goosebumps watching him.
Right after that, he circled around the "female teacher" as if overjoyed!
"What's he doing?" Liu Yi asked.
"Don't know, but why do I feel he's much more dangerous than that little Ming?" Jia Renliang said.
Bai Xiong and Liu Yi both nodded firmly in agreement.
Then, Chen Xiao stood behind the "female teacher," flashlight in hand, expression serious. He took a deep breath and then let out a low roar, "Ha!"
After that, he lifted the skirt of the female teacher...
The trio was stunned!
Chen Xiao found that nothing happened, furrowed his brow, and murmured softly, "Hmm... Did I guess wrong?"
Next, he kicked up a leg, and with a "smack," he knocked the female teacher over...
The trio was stunned again!
"Uh... Chen Xiao, brother, what are you..." Bai Xiong asked with some annoyance.
But before he could finish his sentence, suddenly, the whole building shook violently, as if there was an earthquake, followed by the sharp scream of a child.
"Ah!!!!"
The scream was filled with anger, making all four of them feel dizzy!
Chen Xiao immediately pointed the flashlight at himself and shouted, "Come at me!"
...
The shaking lasted for a few seconds and then quieted down.
Chen Xiao nodded, and the other three also began to recover somewhat.
"What happened?" Bai Xiong asked, still somewhat frightened.
Chen Xiao walked over and said, "Little Ming values this classroom a lot, he's very weak now, as long as we don't turn off the flashlights, there shouldn't be too much danger!"
Bai Xiong nodded, clearly trusting Chen Xiao's judgment, but was still puzzled by the recent set of actions.
"What just happened?" Jia Renliang, having recovered from the recent panic, immediately asked.
"It's a long story... Anyway, let's first check downstairs; there are some things I still don't understand!" Chen Xiao said, chuckling, "Maybe the four of us could take down this little Ming!"
After saying that, he walked out of the classroom with a laugh, and the three others exchanged glances and hurried after him.
Soon, the four of them arrived on the first floor.
Bai Xiong's flashlight was out of battery, and now Chen Xiao was holding a flashlight. He said, "Keep up!" and then, bouncing along like a child in a shopping mall, he pushed open the door of a classroom on the first floor.
"Hmm...not here!" he muttered softly. Then he immediately ran to another door and pushed it open. "Huh? Not here either!"
He zipped through the corridor, "slamming" each classroom door shut, then without pause, he moved to the opposite corridor, clearly searching for something. The other three followed Chen Xiao as if they were ducklings trailing behind, until finally, Chen Xiao pushed open a door...
"Oh... it's here!"
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