The next morning.
Su Qing and Shen Qingyue went to the administration office to apply for a dorm change.
The teacher looked at them both.
“Changing dorms? What’s the reason?”
Su Qing opened her mouth, but suddenly didn’t know what to say.
Tell them the dorm was haunted?
She clenched her teeth.
“Shen Qingyue isn’t in good health and needs a quieter environment. Our floor is too noisy.”
The teacher flipped through some records.
“Are there any empty rooms on the third floor? Let me see…” She typed on the keyboard a few times. “There’s one on the fourth floor. Room 406. Want to move there?”
Su Qing hesitated for a moment.
Fourth floor.
Zhou Duoduo was also on the fourth floor.
But then she remembered last night—
“We’ll take it,” she said.
The teacher processed the paperwork.
Su Qing and Shen Qingyue returned to the dorm with their new keys.
The two packed their things.
“Fourth floor,” Su Qing said.
Shen Qingyue nodded.
Dragging their suitcases behind them, they headed upstairs.
The hallway was quiet.
As they passed Room 406, Su Qing noticed the name tag on the neighboring room, 405:
Zhou Duoduo, Wang Xue
She frowned.
Then, as if she suddenly thought of something, she smiled faintly.
A very subtle smile.
They opened the door to 406 and entered.
The room was slightly smaller than the one on the third floor, but it was clean. The window faced south, sunlight pouring inside.
Shen Qingyue set her things down and sat on the bed.
She looked at the sunlight outside. Her complexion was still poor, but much better than last night.
“Qianqian,” she suddenly spoke.
“Mm?”
“What do you think… that thing from last night… actually was?”
Su Qing didn’t answer.
She didn’t know.
And she didn’t want to know.
“Maybe… someone was playing a prank,” she said.
Shen Qingyue looked at her.
“A prank? Then how do you explain all those things?”
Su Qing couldn’t respond.
Shen Qingyue lowered her head.
“Forget it. I don’t want to think about it anymore.”
She lay down and closed her eyes.
Su Qing sat beside her, mind in chaos.
Someone was targeting Shen Qingyue.
She knew that much.
But she didn’t know who.
And she didn’t know how to help.
She picked up her phone and messaged Alice:
“Someone’s targeting Shen Qingyue and me. Can you investigate?”
Alice replied instantly:
“What?”
Su Qing typed:
“I don’t know. Weird supernatural stuff’s been happening these past few days… maybe something else. Is there some kind of ability related to raising ghost children or spirits?”
Alice was silent for a while.
Then replied:
“I’ll look into it.”
Su Qing set her phone down.
Her thoughts were a mess.
That evening.
After dinner at the cafeteria, Su Qing and Shen Qingyue returned to the dorm.
As they reached the fourth-floor hallway, Shen Qingyue suddenly stopped.
“What’s wrong?” Su Qing asked.
Shen Qingyue stared toward the end of the hallway.
There was a mirror hanging on the wall, probably for students to fix their appearance.
In the mirror, the hallway looked empty.
Nothing unusual.
“Nothing.” Shen Qingyue looked away.
The two continued walking.
As they passed the mirror, Su Qing glanced at it instinctively.
In the reflection, she and Shen Qingyue walked side by side.
Completely normal.
She was about to look away—
When the Shen Qingyue inside the mirror stopped walking.
Not the real Shen Qingyue.
The one in the mirror.
She stood still, watching Su Qing’s back.
Then slowly curled her lips upward.
Smiling.
Su Qing stopped dead in her tracks.
Her body stiffened as she slowly turned around.
The real Shen Qingyue was standing behind her with a perfectly normal expression.
Seeing Su Qing suddenly stop, she blinked in confusion.
“Qianqian, what’s wrong?”
A chill crawled up Su Qing’s back.
She slowly turned toward the mirror again.
Inside it, both of them stood there normally.
That smile…
Was gone.
“N-Nothing.” She quickened her pace.
Shen Qingyue hurried after her.
“You look awful. What happened?”
“Nothing. Just tired.”
The two entered Room 406 and shut the door.
Su Qing leaned against it, heart pounding violently.
That just now…
Did she imagine it?
Things had been wrong lately.
Maybe she hadn’t slept well and was hallucinating?
“Qianqian.” Shen Qingyue’s voice came from beside her.
“Mm?”
“Did you… see something just now?”
Su Qing looked at her.
“No,” she replied. “I just felt dizzy.”
Shen Qingyue nodded.
She didn’t ask further.
11 PM. Lights out.
Su Qing lay in bed.
Shen Qingyue was on the neighboring bed, facing the wall.
Neither spoke.
The dorm room was silent.
At some point, just as Su Qing was drifting toward sleep, she suddenly heard a strange noise.
A sharp, grating sound.
Like fingernails or a pen scratching against glass.
Her whole body jolted awake.
The sound was still there.
Coming from the direction of the window.
She wanted to turn her head toward it.
But she was afraid.
“Su Qing, don’t be scared. Ghosts don’t exist. Just look. One glance.”
Finally convincing herself, she slowly turned toward the window.
The curtains were closed.
She couldn’t see anything.
The sound stopped.
Su Qing let out a breath, still calming herself down.
“Qianqian.”
Shen Qingyue’s voice suddenly rang out.
Su Qing jumped.
“What?”
“Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
Shen Qingyue didn’t answer.
She sat up, staring at the window.
“Shen Qingyue.”
A voice suddenly echoed through the room.
Not Su Qing’s.
Not Shen Qingyue’s.
It came from inside the dorm itself.
Very close.
Su Qing shot upright in bed, immediately turning on her phone flashlight and sweeping it around.
Nobody.
Only the two of them.
“Shen Qingyue.”
Again.
This time she heard clearly.
The voice was coming from Shen Qingyue’s direction.
“Qingyue?” Su Qing’s voice trembled.
Shen Qingyue didn’t answer.
She sat rigidly on the bed.
Under the flashlight, her face was deathly pale, eyes staring straight ahead.
“Qingyue!”
Shen Qingyue slowly turned toward her.
Her lips moved slightly.
“She’s beside me.”
Su Qing felt the blood in her body freeze solid.
She was so scared she nearly cried.
Thankfully she hadn’t drunk water earlier—otherwise she wasn’t sure whether she would’ve wet herself.
Slowly, she aimed the flashlight beside Shen Qingyue.
Nothing there.
But Shen Qingyue’s body trembled faintly.
“Go…” Shen Qingyue whispered weakly. “Qianqian… hurry and leave…”
Su Qing didn’t move.
She stared at Shen Qingyue’s shoulder.
There was a shadow there.
But it wasn’t cast by light.
It looked more like something was leaning against her shoulder.
“GET LOST!!!”
Su Qing suddenly screamed.
Her voice exploded through the silent dormitory.
The shadow shifted slightly.
Then slowly disappeared.
Shen Qingyue gasped for breath before collapsing weakly onto the bed.
Su Qing rushed over and grabbed her.
“Qingyue! Qingyue!”
Shen Qingyue trembled violently in her arms.
“She left… she left…”
“Who?! Who exactly is it?!”
Shen Qingyue shook her head, tears streaming down her face.
“I don’t know… I can’t see her… but she keeps… keeps calling me…”
Su Qing hugged her tightly without speaking.
She had no idea what to say.
Shen Qingyue’s phone vibrated.
She picked it up.
Another text from the same number.
“Having fun?”
Su Qing stared at the words, hands shaking.
She snatched the phone and typed furiously:
“What the hell are you? Stop pretending to be some ghost.”
After a long wait, the phone vibrated.
“Do you really want to see me?”
Su Qing stared at the message, cold spreading down her spine.
She looked around the dorm room.
Doors shut.
Windows shut.
Curtains tightly closed.
Yet someone could still see them.
Someone was watching them.
That person—
Was inside the dorm.
The third day.
Shen Qingyue developed a fever.
Su Qing touched her forehead.
At least 39°C.
“Qingyue, let’s go to the infirmary.”
Shen Qingyue shook her head.
“I don’t want to go. I’ll be alone there… I-I’m not going.”
“You can’t keep going like this—”
“I’m not going,” Shen Qingyue interrupted firmly. “Qianqian, stop worrying about me.”
Su Qing froze.
“What did you say?”
“I said stop worrying about me.”
Su Qing stared at her.
Even at a time like this, this girl was still thinking about others.
“I’m not leaving,” Su Qing said. “You’re my best friend. If I don’t take care of you, who will?”
Shen Qingyue looked at her as tears slid down her cheeks.
“Qianqian…”
“Enough.” Su Qing stood up. “I’ll go buy medicine. Stay here and don’t move.”
She grabbed her phone and left the dorm.
The hallway was quiet.
Passing Room 405, she glanced at the nameplate again:
Zhou Duoduo, Wang Xue
Then quickly walked away.
On the way back with the medicine, Su Qing saw the mirror again.
Instinctively, she slowed down.
In the mirror, the hallway looked empty.
Normal.
She was about to walk past—
When the reflection suddenly changed.
It was no longer the hallway.
It was a dorm room.
Her dorm room.
In the mirror, Shen Qingyue lay in bed under the blanket pulled to her chin.
Eyes closed.
Face pale.
Su Qing’s brain went blank.
Was this…
A live feed?
She stared at the reflection.
Suddenly, the Shen Qingyue in the mirror opened her eyes.
Not looking at the room.
Looking outside the mirror.
At Su Qing.
Ice flooded through Su Qing’s veins.
The mirrored Shen Qingyue slowly sat up.
She looked toward Su Qing.
Then smiled.
But that—
That wasn’t Shen Qingyue’s smile.
The face looked like Shen Qingyue, but somehow… not quite.
Something about it was horribly wrong.
Most terrifying of all was how sinister the smile looked.
Su Qing stumbled backward.
The mirrored Shen Qingyue lay back down again.
The reflection returned to normal.
An empty hallway.
Su Qing stood frozen, palms drenched in sweat.
Taking a deep breath, she hurried toward Room 406.
She shoved the door open.
Shen Qingyue was lying on the bed, blanket pulled to her chin.
Exactly the same as the mirror.
“Qingyue,” Su Qing called.
Shen Qingyue opened her eyes.
“Qianqian? You’re back?”
Su Qing stared at her.
Her expression looked normal.
Her eyes looked normal.
Completely different from the thing in the mirror.
“Mm. I bought the medicine.”
She placed it on the table.
Shen Qingyue sat up and accepted it.
“Thank you.”
Su Qing didn’t reply.
She sat on her bed, watching Shen Qingyue take the medicine while her mind replayed the mirror image.
That smile.
It wasn’t Shen Qingyue’s.
Then whose was it?
Shen Qingyue’s phone vibrated again.
Another message from the same number.
“One of you must stay with me. Medicine won’t help.”
Su Qing stared at the text and typed:
“Who are you?”
After a long while—
No response.
She lowered the phone and looked at Shen Qingyue.
After taking the medicine, Shen Qingyue lay back down again, face still pale.
Su Qing walked over and touched her forehead.
Still burning hot.
“Qingyue, let’s go to the hospital.”
Shen Qingyue shook her head.
“No need. I’ll be fine after some sleep.”
Then she hesitated before speaking softly:
“Qianqian… I-I’m scared. Can you call Lin Mo and ask him to stay in our dorm tonight with us? Boys have stronger yang energy…”