Chapter 15 Stairway to Hell

Block C, next to the staircase at the corner of the corridor.

A fat and a thin figure stood there, their eyes fixed on the ground not far away.

"Doctor," the fat man's tongue seemed to be malfunctioning as he spoke with a trembling voice, "this is..."

About two meters ahead, a severed arm hung limply on the ground.

From their position, they could see the twisted muscles and shattered bones at the cross-section.

"It's Yu Wen," Jiang Cheng nodded.

The fat man couldn't help but swallow. He shifted his gaze to the walls around him, where large patches of blood had splattered, even reaching the ceiling.

Although he hadn't seen Yu Wen's body with his own eyes, it no longer mattered.

Around the bend and a short distance further was the music room.

The fat man craned his neck, glanced at the darkness ahead, and said thoughtfully, "So... Yu Wen was trying to go to the music room, but she didn't expect to be killed by the ghost on the way."

Jiang Cheng turned his head to observe both sides of the corridor. After a long while, he replied, "No, she was killed here after coming out of the music room."

Just as the fat man frowned, wondering how Jiang Cheng had reached this conclusion, a ringtone suddenly sounded in his ear.

A cell phone ringtone.

The two of them looked down and realized the sound was coming from the palm of the severed arm.

It was a red cell phone.

Because it was so close in color to the blood, it hadn't been noticed immediately.

The fat man was trembling uncontrollably. If Jiang Cheng hadn't been by his side, he would have almost fainted.

Jiang Cheng stepped forward, pried open the fingers clenching the phone one by one, and then picked up the phone, held it to his ear, and pressed the answer button.

For a moment, the air seemed to freeze.

Because of the distance, the fat man could only tell that the person on the other end was a woman, and her voice was very strange.

"I'm not," Jiang Cheng said for the first time after listening for a while. "Yu Wen, she..." Jiang Cheng glanced at the severed arm on the ground, then said in a calm tone, "She's by my side. She's fine. Don't worry. It's just not convenient for her to answer the phone right now."

After hearing something, Jiang Cheng walked a few steps away, covered his mouth with his hand, and whispered a few replies.

The fat man wanted to follow, but Jiang Cheng stopped him with an extremely stern look.

It wasn't until they left Block C that the fat man seemed to come back to life, peppering Jiang Cheng with questions.

"Doctor, who was that on the phone just now?"

Jiang Cheng put the phone into his pocket. His pockets looked bulging, and it was unclear what he had stuffed inside.

"Feng Lan," Jiang Cheng said without turning his head. "She said Yu Wen had made an appointment to talk to her, but she waited at the agreed location for almost two hours and never saw her."

Of course, she didn't wait for her, because the person had already died outside the music room in Block C.

As if realizing something, the fat man's expression suddenly became tense. "Doctor," he looked at Jiang Cheng and asked in a flustered tone, "That Feng Lan who called, she's not a ghost in disguise, is she?"

Jiang Cheng stroked his chin. "Probably not, but we can't completely rule out that possibility."

"Then you have to be careful," the fat man said with concern. "Maybe answering the phone is one of the triggers for the evil spirit to kill. You might already be targeted by the ghost."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Cheng turned around, patted the fat man on the shoulder, and said with emotion, "Good brother, you don't have to worry about me. I've already thought of that and prepared countermeasures in advance."

The fat man admired Jiang Cheng even more, feeling that meeting such a person to guide him in his nightmare was a blessing from a previous life. He also reached out and patted Jiang Cheng on the shoulder, asking excitedly, "Doctor, how did you do it?"

"She asked me who I was at the end," Jiang Cheng said slowly. "I told her my name was Wang Fugui."

"Doctor, I thank you to your eighth generation of ancestors!"

......

Downstairs in the old dormitory building, a woman wearing a scarf breathed into her hands.

She wasn't particularly tall, but she had clearly put a lot of effort into her appearance. The collar of her pink sweater was turned out, making her look especially cute.

Light blue jeans hung straight down, and underneath were a pair of white, wide-mouthed leather shoes with a small red heart on the edge.

It was a subtle touch of feminine charm.

She had been waiting here for a long time, but the person she was waiting for had never appeared.

The sky gradually darkened, and the temperature dropped.

She took her hand out of her coat pocket, looked at the phone in her hand, and her eyes suddenly became blurred.

"Miss Yu..." she whispered.

"Why is the phone I gave you in a man's hands..."

Clenching the phone, her eyes suddenly turned cold. She stared at the distant night, her lips drawn into a straight line.

"Wang Fugui..."

......

"Fatty," Jiang Cheng asked, "are you feeling better?"

After leaving Block C, Jiang Cheng and the fat man walked along the road with streetlights towards the equipment room.

When they passed the cafeteria along the way, Jiang Cheng smelled a strong aroma of meat, so he forcibly dragged the fat man inside under the pretense of giving him a welcome meal.

He generously told the fat man to order whatever he wanted, saying it was on him.

"I feel like something's not right here," the fat man said, his face pale with fear as he looked at the empty cafeteria.

There wasn't a single person here, but all the lights were on, and the glass behind the food counters was filled with freshly cooked dishes.

Jiang Cheng reached out and touched them, and they were still very hot.

The two of them also took the time to wander around in the kitchen. The door was open, and several chef's uniforms were hanging on the backs of chairs.

Everything was in perfect order, as if everyone had left at the same time just a second before they came in.

When they lifted the lid of a pot, there was still meat broth simmering inside.

The heat and aroma wafted out.

Jiang Cheng stared at the meat broth in the pot, seeming to think of something. He went to a nearby cabinet, found a clean spoon, took a little bit, and tasted it.

The fat man was shocked by Jiang Cheng's actions. He didn't understand what the latter was trying to do.

But then—

"Ugh..."

Jiang Cheng's face suddenly changed, and his entire expression twisted together.

"Doctor," the fat man called out, "what's wrong?"

He instinctively looked at the pot of soup, and based on his many years of experience in watching movies and TV shows, there might be poison in the soup.

But... the fat man wondered, would ghosts even use poison?

Was it necessary?

Just as the fat man was thinking about how to save Jiang Cheng, the latter suddenly spoke.

"So hot," Jiang Cheng opened his mouth wide, fanning the air with his hand and taking deep breaths.

"Hot?" The fat man's eyes widened.

Feeling that it was about time, Jiang Cheng covered his mouth, put down the spoon in his hand, and picked up a soup ladle used by the chef to serve soup from the shelf next to him. While scooping, he said to the fat man standing next to him, "Let's scoop it out first and drink it after it cools down."

Fatty: "..."

Jiang Cheng turned to look at the fat man and asked, "Aren't you drinking?"

The fat man was silent for a while and then said very seriously, "Doctor, have you ever thought that maybe the fact that you're an orphan isn't a coincidence?"