Forbidden Land – CH 024

Zhang Chao jogged along the central road, past the iconic, sloping-roofed Student Activity Center, and then ran along the path beside Qizhen Lake from the West Campus Teaching Building. Along the way, he only encountered a few security guards and a few students acting like lunatics, talking intimately in the middle of the night.

Zhejiang University was an open university; the security guards wouldn’t bother with someone walking around like that at night.

Upon reaching the West Campus, apart from the streetlights and the shimmering water of Qizhen Lake, everything was quietly shrouded in the night.

The grass in March was still withered and yellow, with few new shoots. No insects or birds were chirping in the bushes by the lake; everything was so quiet, so unusually quiet.

Zhang Chao didn’t care. After crossing Qizhen Lake, he ran across a large meadow, reached the road to the south, and continued west along the road for several hundred meters before arriving at the School of Medicine complex.

He gazed intently at the empty, desolate buildings and the thousands of square meters of wooden-floored School of Medicine plaza beneath them, a sense of loneliness and desolation settling over him.

After a moment, he walked to the westernmost Teaching Building in the School of Medicine complex. He had been to this building countless times, each time leaving a powerful impression.

Could this time bring another surprise?

There was an old saying: Never open a box given by a stranger.

It was like what old folks in the countryside would say: When walking on a mountain path, never pick up anything dropped by someone you didn’t know.

Zhang Chao took a deep breath, picked up his foot, and walked to the foot of the Teaching Building. He glanced at the dark corridor above, sighed, and was about to go up when he suddenly remembered he hadn’t brought his high-powered flashlight.

While a flashlight wasn’t a weapon and couldn’t protect you, light always gave people courage and confidence.

Zhang Chao stood downstairs, facing the stairs, and called out a few times, “Bai Qiu, Bai Qiu!”

“Bai Qiu, Bai Qiu!” he called out, and several echoes responded. After the echoes subsided, silence returned.

Was Bai Qiu upstairs? He didn’t know.

But then, “knock, knock,” the knocking that had only occurred every few seconds began again.

The sound was faint; only by listening intently could one hear the indistinct sounds.

“Damn it, whether you’re human or ghost, I’m going all out this time.”

The thought that Bai Qiu had developed a mental illness here instantly transformed his anger into courage.

This time, he didn’t go up the north staircase but ran directly to the south staircase and ran up from there.

This time, he didn’t try to keep his footsteps quiet; he ran three steps at a time.

When he reached the third floor, the knocking seemed to stop.

Zhang Chao stood there, listening for over ten seconds, but the knocking stopped.

“Damn it, even if we meet face-to-face, I’m not afraid of you!”

He quickly ran up the stairs. Reaching the fifth floor, his gaze fell, and his heart skipped a beat.

The pair of worn-out cloth shoes he’d thrown away a few hours earlier were still there, but now they were neatly placed in the corner, toes pointing towards the wall.

“Damn it, who are you trying to scare?!”

He gritted his teeth, snorted, and turned to continue upstairs. Reaching the sixth floor, he turned the corner, right at the door of the last classroom. The iron door was tightly shut.

The corridor was empty, moonlight streaming in through the glass, making it somewhat dim. The stairwell opposite was completely dark; he couldn’t see if anyone was standing there.

Zhang Chao stood before the door of that room, examining it closely for the first time. This door was larger than that of the two adjacent classrooms, consisting of two hinged doors that closed together, appearing to be a very heavy iron door. Not only was the door itself locked, but the outer doorknob was also secured with a thick silver iron chain.

What was this room used for?

The other two rooms were used to store corpses and specimens, so what about this one? Why had no students ever seen it opened?

Chen Rong said that the students joked that a woman’s singing could be heard coming from this door at night.

He reached out, stopped in front of the door, hesitated for a moment, and finally knocked.

“Knock, knock,” a heavy knocking sound—yes, that was the sound.

He had knocked on the other two doors, and the sound was somewhat crisp, not as heavy as this one.

This time, he was 100% certain that the knocking he had heard earlier had come from this door!

Just then, a soft, intermittent “creak…” sounded, weak and faint, like the sound of a traditional opera he had heard as a child. So this was what they called a woman’s singing?

But the singing seemed to be coming from inside this room!

How could someone be inside?

Zhang Chao’s face turned deathly pale. But the singing only lasted three or four seconds before stopping.

Zhang Chao gritted his teeth, stuck his head out, and pressed his ear tightly against the iron door.

“Pop—plop—pop—plop,” it sounded like bubbles rising from the bottom of the water, gently bursting at the surface. Then the sound stopped, and silence returned.

Why was there a woman singing?

Why was the sound coming from inside the room?

Did he really hear wrong?

Right, where was Bai Qiu? Where did Bai Qiu go?

Only then did Zhang Chao realize that he had come here to find Bai Qiu. If Bai Qiu wasn’t here, where could she be?

Zhang Chao thought for a moment. Regardless of that, he needed to find Bai Qiu tonight. He immediately decided to go downstairs. Reaching the fifth and a half floor, his gaze involuntarily drifted to the neatly placed pair of black cloth shoes in the corner. He couldn’t help but shiver, turning his head away from the “old thing” and continuing down.

Just as he reached the fifth floor, he clearly heard footsteps below.

That bastard, actually turning around to greet him?

His mind raced. How should he react? Was it a person or a ghost? If it were a person, what should he do? If it were a ghost, then what?

A moment later, he breathed a sigh of relief because he heard someone shouting from below: “Zhang Chao! Zhang Chao!”

“Zhang Chao! Zhang Chao! You beast, if you dare say another word, I’ll find you and push you off the cliff!”

One voice belonged to Chen Rong, and the other to Lin Yi’ang. Hearing Lin Yi’ang’s angry roar, Zhang Chao felt a strange sense of relief. He finally relaxed and smiled.

But by the way, how did Chen Rong end up here?