Along the familiar path, he was carefully arranging his emotions and expressions.

Seeing Yuan Xiaoyi waiting at their usual spot, his accumulated emotions instantly poured out.

"Xiaoyi!"

Jiang Cheng's micro-expressions were perfectly controlled, from the initial joy of meeting to the guilt of remembering the failed mission. By the time he reached Yuan Xiaoyi, the complexity and entanglement on his face defied description.

"I'm sorry, Xiaoyi." Jiang Cheng's eyes were red, and he choked back tears, "It's all my fault. I couldn't save Xiaoyu. It's... it's because I'm useless!"

Upon hearing the bad news, Yuan Xiaoyi froze for a moment, then staggered as if she couldn't stand, her eyes dazed and her lips trembling slightly.

A few seconds later, large tears gushed out like a dam breaking. "Xiaoyu, she... she wouldn't... she wouldn't!"

Seemingly for the last time acting together, Jiang Cheng and the Heart-Eating Demon cherished this opportunity. Their emotions were delicate, the dialogue appropriate, and the actions and plot seamlessly connected. After a long while, they reluctantly entered the next stage.

"Senior." Yuan Xiaoyi seemed to have given up. Her eyes were filled with despair as she looked at Jiang Cheng, and she said in a trembling voice, "I saw Xiaoran last night."

Jiang Cheng's pupils contracted slightly.

The final mission... had begun.

Xiaoran was the one who disappeared in the school swimming pool. In Jiang Cheng's memory, Yuan Xiaoyi had once shown him a photo, saying it was sent to her after Xiaoran's disappearance.

The photo was taken inside the swimming pool. In the distance, there was a diving platform with a pair of bluish-gray feet on it.

"What did Xiaoran say to you?" Jiang Cheng rubbed his face and then asked in a low, hoarse voice, clearly still unable to escape the deep self-blame.

"She... she didn't say anything. She just stood by my bed, completely... completely drenched." Yuan Xiaoyi recalled, "I couldn't see her face, couldn't see it at all. Her face was covered by her hair, hanging down, dripping wet, and still... still dripping water."

"If you didn't see her face, how can you be sure it was Xiaoran?" Listening to Yuan Xiaoyi's description, Jiang Cheng suddenly had a familiar feeling.

Completely drenched, constantly dripping water, leaving puddles wherever she went... wasn't this the same as that thing that had been following them?

"The swimsuit, she was wearing Xiaoran's swimsuit. I couldn't be wrong, it was Xiaoran. She came back to find me..."

"I thought it was an illusion, no, that's not right, it wasn't an illusion..." Yuan Xiaoyi's mind seemed to be on the verge of collapse, and her words were illogical. "But that's what I thought at the time. I don't want them to come to me, don't come to me, I'm going crazy!" She covered her head, looking very distressed.

"Calm down, Xiaoyi," Jiang Cheng comforted. "You've already done a great job."

"Senior!" Yuan Xiaoyi suddenly raised her head, revealing bloodshot eyes. "I can feel Xiaoran looking at me, through the gaps in her hair, there are eyes looking at me!"

"When I woke up in the morning, there was water on the floor, the floor in front of my bed, the same spot where Xiaoran was standing last night!"

"And there were footprints, from the bedside all the way to the door. There was water on the doorknob too..."

Seeing Yuan Xiaoyi's reaction, Jiang Cheng felt strange. She seemed very scared, not scared of losing Xiaoran as a friend again, but... scared of Xiaoran.

When she introduced the situation of the other missing people, she wasn't like this at all.

Was there something special about this person named Xiaoran?

Also, why did her description of Xiaoran sound so much like the thing that had been following them?

Soon, under Jiang Cheng's comfort, Yuan Xiaoyi finally calmed down and began to talk about the urban legends surrounding the school swimming pool.

"Senior," Yuan Xiaoyi's voice was muffled, as if she was struggling internally. "The school swimming pool is different from places like the library or the abandoned playground. It's newly built, only a few years old."

"The construction went smoothly, and I haven't heard of anything happening."

"Maybe because something like this happened before, the school was very cautious and had someone check the land in advance. Anyway... anyway, it's very clean. Nothing strange happened on that land, and there were no similar rumors."

"I'm saying... saying you understand, right, Senior?" Yuan Xiaoyi looked at Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng nodded. The sculpture hall had been built on a mass burial ground, and strange things had been happening since the construction began. Obviously, the school had learned its lesson this time.

After thinking for a moment, Jiang Cheng asked, "So this incident happened after the school swimming pool was built, right?"

"That's right, Senior, that's how it is." Yuan Xiaoyi looked a little nervous, clutching the hem of her clothes with both hands. "I've heard rumors about the swimming pool before, but they weren't detailed, just scattered fragments. Until that day, Xiaoran told us, that day..."

"The night they disappeared," Jiang Cheng added.

Yuan Xiaoyi nodded, her face pale.

"What happened at the swimming pool?" Jiang Cheng asked, trying to suppress his anxiety and speaking in a steady voice.

"It's... it's about a few girls, not our university students, a few high school girls. I heard they were going to participate in some important competition."

"Because our university's swimming pool is newly built and the facilities are better, they discussed it with the school and borrowed our university's swimming pool for training."

"The school agreed, but our own students still needed to use it during the day, so they arranged for those girls to train in the evening."

"The school also arranged a teacher specifically for them to guide their movements and accompany them during training every night."

"At first, nothing special happened. Under the teacher's guidance, the girls improved quickly."

"One of the girls was particularly outstanding. I heard that her grades already met the standards, and several prestigious schools had noticed her. As long as she performed normally, she could be recommended as a special student."

"But no one expected that on the eve of the competition, the coach arranged by the school had something come up temporarily and left for a while. But when he rushed back, that girl with the particularly good grades..." Yuan Xiaoyi paused, "was already dead."

"The body was floating in the pool, rising and falling with the water. The remaining girls were scared silly, like they had lost their souls, only knowing how to cry."

"How did she die?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Drowning." An unspeakable emotion flowed in Yuan Xiaoyi's eyes. "The final investigation result was that the girl had muscle spasms in the pool, that is, cramps. The situation was very serious, and then... then it led to the tragedy."

"What were the other girls doing when she drowned?" Jiang Cheng asked a question that any normal person would notice.