Translator: Cinder Translations
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"After he took the four keys the woman handed over, he put them in his left pocket," Jiang Cheng said calmly. "Then, his left hand stayed in the pocket, and I'm not sure what he was doing in there. Meanwhile, he kept talking, trying to distract us."
Fatty felt like his brain was starting to fail him again. He asked cautiously, "Do you think he did something to the keys?"
"It's not clear for now," Jiang Cheng replied. "I checked the keys just now and didn't find anything strange."
Nodding, Fatty muttered to himself, "So, Doctor, you sent the woman in pajamas to interrupt his little tricks?"
Fatty gritted his teeth and said indignantly, "Doctor, that guy in the suit looked alright, but I never expected he'd be so sneaky. He even retaliated by assigning us to room 404."
"I'm going to take a nap first," Jiang Cheng ignored him and turned over. "Wake me up in an hour."
"Got it." Fatty took the watch Jiang Cheng tossed to him.
The watch strap was too short, so he couldn't wear it. He just held it in his hand.
Though not very sleepy, Fatty sat up to avoid dozing off, wrapping himself in a blanket.
The night was incredibly quiet, and the whole campus felt dead.
Fatty thought that there probably weren't any students living nearby; otherwise, it wouldn't be this silent.
An hour passed, and Fatty got off the bed and shook Jiang Cheng awake.
Jiang Cheng was a light sleeper; as soon as Fatty got up, he had already woken up. However, he waited for Fatty to nudge him a few times before groggily opening his eyes.
Sitting up, he stretched his neck and shoulders. The pillows here weren't comfortable; he was used to sleeping on buckwheat pillows at home and couldn't get used to these soft cotton ones.
"Anything strange happen while I was asleep?"
"Nope," Fatty replied. "Don't worry, Doctor. If I'd seen even a cockroach, I'd have woken you up. You know me—I'm super alert."
Jiang Cheng got up and walked to the door, listening for any sounds in the hallway from a short distance away.
After a while, he returned to his bed, lying down to listen to the movements from the neighboring room.
"Doctor," Fatty said, "they should all be asleep. It's really quiet around here."
Jiang Cheng gave him a glance but said nothing. He took back the watch from Fatty's hand and strapped it onto his own wrist.
Fatty, though not hungry after eating some chocolate, was feeling quite thirsty.
About half an hour passed, and Jiang Cheng mentally estimated that it was time to act. He instructed Fatty to act completely unaware, no matter what happened next.
Fatty was puzzled but trusted Jiang Cheng enough to agree without hesitation.
Jiang Cheng dug out an old one-yuan coin from a corner on the floor, then picked it up and walked to the wall near his bed. Using the coin's edge, he lightly scraped the wall.
"Scratch—"
"Scratch—"
The sound was faint but, in the quiet night, it was unusually clear.
"What are you doing?"
The scraping noise made Fatty's skin crawl. Many people have a natural aversion to such sounds.
Jiang Cheng didn't answer, continuing the scraping.
Soon, faint sounds could be heard from the next room, disorganized and panicked.
That was room 405.
The room where the man in the suit and the guy in the baseball cap were staying.
After a few more moments, the sound of a door opening echoed down the hallway, followed by hurried, erratic footsteps.
Jiang Cheng immediately stopped scraping, carefully wiping the coin clean of any wall residue, then tossed it into an inconspicuous corner.
However, the footsteps were moving away from Jiang Cheng's room, heading in the opposite direction. Then came a knock, and the voices of the man in the suit and the guy in the baseball cap.
Soon enough, the hallway became lively.
Jiang Cheng feigned waking up, slowly opening his door with a drowsy expression. Seeing everyone gathered outside, his face immediately showed fear. "What's going on? What happened?"
The man in the suit froze for a moment when he saw Jiang Cheng, then asked in a strange tone, "Did you hear a weird sound?"
"A weird sound?" Jiang Cheng scratched his head. "No, I just fell asleep. It's really quiet around here."
"You didn't hear anything?" The man in the suit's face darkened. Suddenly, as if remembering something, he asked urgently, "What about the fatty in your room?"
"I'm here," Fatty responded, poking his head out of the room, his hair a mess as if he had just woken up. "Bro, what's up?"
Clearly in a rush, the man in the suit asked directly, "Did you hear any strange noise?"
He paused, then described, "Like something being scraped with a spoon or something similar?"
Fatty widened his eyes in confusion, "No, I've been awake the whole time and didn't hear a thing."
Hearing Jiang Cheng and Fatty's responses, everyone except the man in the suit and the guy in the baseball cap sighed in relief.
They all looked at the man in the suit with strange expressions.
Only the people in room 405 had heard the strange sound. Did that mean they would be the first to encounter something?
In other words, they would be the first to die.
"We're going back," the woman in the qipao said first.
She walked back to her room, followed by the woman in dinosaur pajamas, clinging to her like a shadow, afraid of being left behind.
Seeing room 407 act so decisively, the three from room 406 didn't hesitate either. After a few polite exchanges, they scurried back to their room as well, shutting the door as if trying to keep something from following them in.
Now, only the man in the suit and the guy in the baseball cap remained, their expressions dark enough to drip water.
Jiang Cheng leaned against the door, looking confused. Then, as if he had just realized something, he blurted out, "Wait… could hearing that strange sound be the trigger for a ghost to kill? That's terrifying!"
"Fatty," Jiang Cheng turned to him, flustered. "Are you sure you didn't hear anything?"
Fatty played along perfectly, "Brother, I swear, I didn't. What about you?"
"Same as everyone else, I was asleep. I didn't hear a thing." Jiang Cheng spread his hands, putting on an innocent, pitiful expression.
"Well, that's a relief." Fatty said, "Looks like we're safe."
With that, the two of them shut their door, leaving the man in the suit and the guy in the baseball cap standing alone in the dimly lit hallway.
TL: Damn, that's just pure diabolical... I love it!
(End of the Chapter)
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