Gentle Sleep Instructor

Chapter 54 Rainy Night

"It was raining that day," the woman said, "It was pouring. I had an umbrella, but half of my body was still soaked."

"But when I folded up my umbrella and rushed to the entrance of Building C, I found that the doors were locked with two very thick iron chains."

Zhou Taifu's expression changed slightly upon hearing this. He then turned as if to say something to Yu Wen, but she didn't even look at him.

"I was very anxious at the time because I was new here and didn't have any close friends, so I was too embarrassed to ask other teachers for a place to stay."

"Perhaps out of wishful thinking, I pushed the door, thinking that maybe the security guards had been negligent and hadn't locked it properly..."

As she said this, the woman's expression suddenly became strange.

Yu Wen stopped writing, looked at the woman expressionlessly, and said calmly, "It seems that the 'maybe' really happened."

After a moment, the woman nodded. "That's right, both locks were open, as if someone had deliberately placed them there as a mere formality."

"But at the time, all I could think about was getting the key and not bothering anyone else, so I didn't think much about anything else. I just rushed to the office."

"Which floor is the office on?" Yu Wen asked, looking up.

"3rd floor," the woman added, "304."

Yu Wen picked up her pen and wrote it down in her notebook.

This might be important information.

"The whole building was very quiet at the time. All the classrooms were pitch black, with only a few emergency lights dimly lit in the depths of the corridor, which made me feel uneasy."

Zhou Taifu listened very carefully. He had already imagined himself in that rainy night. When the woman mentioned some strange things, he became nervous as well.

"I had to turn on the flashlight on my phone and run to the third floor in one breath. After opening the office door, I turned around and locked it. I don't know why, but if I had to explain it, it would be intuition."

Zhang Yinyin, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke. "What did you notice?"

"I... I don't know," the woman shook her head. "Even now, I don't know what exactly happened. In short, I just felt that something was wrong. That sound... the sound..."

Yu Wen stopped writing and her expression finally changed as she looked at the woman.

"Sound?" Zhou Taifu, huddled between Yu Wen and Zhang Yinyin, asked with a weak voice, "What... what sound?"

"Footsteps," the woman turned her head and answered Zhou Taifu. "The sound of my own footsteps as I ran. Because it was extremely quiet at night, the sound of my footsteps echoed in the empty corridor, very clearly, but..." Her expression suddenly changed. "But the footsteps were wrong!"

"That was definitely not the sound of my footsteps alone!" the woman exclaimed.

"You mean someone was following you?" Yu Wen frowned.

The woman shook her head. "I don't know. I didn't see anyone."

"Then how did you know the footsteps were wrong?" Zhang Yinyin interjected. Her tone was very gentle, and coupled with her cute appearance, it was easy to leave a good impression.

"Maybe it was your fear playing tricks on you," she comforted. "The scene at the time, and the eerie atmosphere it created, would amplify the unease in your heart. The sound of another person's footsteps you heard may just have been an echo."

But the woman's next sentence made Zhang Yinyin's smile instantly freeze.

"Impossible!" the woman suddenly raised her head, her eyes filled with bloodshot veins. "I was wearing sneakers at the time, but there was clearly the sound of high heels in the footsteps!!"

Zhou Taifu was stunned for a few seconds, then a chill ran down his spine.

"But after I closed the office door, all the sounds disappeared. I hid behind the door, not daring to move. I listened for a long time, about 10 minutes, and the outside was indeed very quiet, without any sound."

"I turned on all the lights in the office, and the room was brightly lit."

"Did you finally choose to stay in the office overnight?"

Hearing this, the woman slowly shook her head. "I thought about it, but I gave up in the end," she said, glancing out the window, her eyebrows twitching unnaturally.

"I... I didn't dare to. This building gave me such a strange feeling that I didn't want to stay for even a second longer."

"After finding the key, I thought about it for a long time and decided to leave. At the time, I was thinking of using my phone as a light and rushing out in one breath."

"But just as I mustered up the courage to open the door, the office phone suddenly rang."

"You may not understand, but I was really almost scared out of my wits."

"I hesitated again and again, and finally moved to the phone. Fortunately, I recognized the number displayed on it. It was the school security department. After answering it, I learned that they had seen the lights in the Building C office from a distance and didn't know what was going on, so they called to ask."

"I was almost crying. It was the first time I felt so happy that someone had called me. After they learned about the situation, they agreed to come and pick me up, telling me to stay in the office and not wander around."

Yu Wen's face showed an unnatural look upon hearing this, but it was fleeting and did not attract the woman's attention.

"What happened after that?"

"Soon I heard a rush of footsteps, about 3 or 4 people, approaching from a distance. Then someone knocked on the door."

"When I opened the door and saw them, I felt like I had come back to life in an instant. Tears and snot poured out uncontrollably."

"The leader was a man, bald, with a big waist and round shoulders, looking very strong. There were also two men and one woman behind him."

"They were all wearing security uniforms and immediately gave me a scolding, asking me why I didn't follow the school's regulations."

"At that time, I didn't care about anything else. I just kept apologizing to them, after all, I had troubled them because of my own problems, and in such weather."

"The second point was that I hoped they wouldn't report it to the school. I just started working here and didn't want to leave the leaders with the impression that I was disobedient..."

"At that time, they saw that I was just a young girl and it wasn't easy for me, so they didn't say anything more. Only the bald leader would occasionally glance at the dark corridor, as if he was wary of something."

"I remember that he was the one who scolded me the most at the beginning," the woman recalled, as if she had thought of something. "I remember him repeatedly saying something like 'you don't value your life' and looking particularly scary."

"Then they told me to pack my things and prepare to leave. But when I was about to walk out the door, I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten my umbrella next to the desk, so I turned back to get it..."

After saying this, she suddenly stopped, then stared at the people in front of her with a strange expression, her face gradually turning pale.

"I suddenly realized something," the woman's whole body began to tremble abnormally. Her pupils gradually contracted, and the following voice seemed to be squeezed out of her throat little by little.

"They... they didn't bring umbrellas, and they weren't wearing raincoats. Their clothes looked brand new, with absolutely no traces of getting wet."