Chapter 173: Chapter 153: Mr. Chu, I’m Sorry_2
"Why?" While extracting intelligence, Yang Xiao carefully made his way back up the stairs with Nie Hexiang, heading to the second floor, where the building was as silent as a pool of stagnant water.
"We... we didn’t want to work for Ms. Shengnan, she’s too domineering. The task for Azhen coming back was to prepare for this movie, and the original leading actress was supposed to be her."
Yang Xiao began to understand, "Not just Azhen, you and Xia Xiuyan have also not been back for a long time, right?"
Upon hearing this, Nie Hexiang nodded, a strange expression crossing her face as she spoke in a hushed tone, "You all know the plot of the movie now. After... after such things happened, how could we have the face to keep living in the countryside? Here... here is a nightmare for us, and inevitably we get talked about by the locals."
Yang Xiao originally wanted to ask if the male teacher really had hurt you, but the question coming out of his mouth changed to "What did the male teacher do to you?"
Nie Hexiang hurriedly shook her head, "No, Mr. Jiang didn’t do anything to me, but he did hurt Xia Xiuyan, and many other students too. Everyone says so. There were many who signed their names and jointly lodged complaints. It’s all true, the incident was a big deal at the time, and you should be able to find it if you look up newspaper archives."
"So, to silence someone, some people conspired to kill this Mr. Jiang first, and then staged it as a suicide?" Yang Xiao scoffed.
"No, Mr. Chu, don’t talk nonsense. Mr. Jiang really committed suicide. If you don’t believe it, Ms. Shengnan is coming tomorrow; you can ask her yourself," Nie Hexiang was flustered, "She was the one who first reported it back then."
"I know, she was supposed to be the character Xia Xiuyan in the play, that female teacher who peeped outside the dormitory," said Yang Xiao disdainfully.
To his surprise, Nie Hexiang shook her head vigorously upon hearing this, "No, no, there was no such whistleblowing female teacher at all, that was all... that was all artistic fabrication by the director. Ms. Shengnan herself was originally..."
"Bang!"
Before she could finish, a light tube exploded at the end of the corridor, scattering fragments all around.
Nie Hexiang was like a startled cat, suddenly leaping behind Yang Xiao.
They had now made it to the second floor via the staircase, yet the scene before them was despairing—the same lobby, the same corridors extending out, the same glass doors, and outside the doors, the same lineup of tireless students.
They had returned to the first floor, back to the starting point.
This time, however, there was a slight difference—the shattered light tube at the end of the corridor.
What the two of them didn’t expect was that this was merely the beginning.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
...
From far to near, the overhead lights exploded like fireworks, with shards flying everywhere. More troubling, as the number of lights dwindled, the entire building slowly darkened, the far-off darkness approaching them like an incoming tide.
"Mr... Mr. Chu!"
Nie Hexiang’s urgent call broke Yang Xiao’s train of thought. As he turned around, he was met with a chilling sight—those students outside had quietly closed in at some point, and now dozens, even hundreds of them were crowded against the glass door, faces pressed to the glass, staring in with bulging dead-fish eyes at the two people inside.
They were waiting, that was Yang Xiao’s first instinct. Once all the lights went out, they would rush in!
What to do?
Now... what to do?
Yang Xiao had been considering whether Song Yan and the others might be able to come to their aid, but it appeared now they might not even be in the same building—or perhaps they were in entirely different spaces!
All the lights in the corridor burst. The scene was quite shocking. In the corner of his eye, Yang Xiao suddenly spotted something. On one side of the lobby, right against the wall, was a black jacket, and near the jacket, there lay a handheld emergency light.
It must have been left by the teachers!
In just a moment, Yang Xiao realized that this light represented their chance for survival.
Instinctively, he wanted Nie Hexiang to turn on this light; after all, there could also be a trap hidden within it. Yang Xiao did not believe that the Ghost would leave such a significant loophole for them.
However, on second thought, even if Nie Hexiang did not seem to be very smart, she was cunning. If he forced her to grab it, she would surely refuse, and it could backfire.
"Nie Hexiang, that light is critical, you must not touch it," Yang Xiao postured nobly, "I will look for a chance to see if I can break out first. You must wait for me to return; you mustn’t use that light on your own."
After saying this, Yang Xiao walked towards the glass door. Even knowing he was still safe for now, and that the glass door seemed fragile—a punch could shatter it—he knew these ghosts wouldn’t rush in as long as the last light didn’t go out.
"Bang!"
The light right next to the lobby went out; it was the last one in the corridor, and now everything plunged into darkness.
Nie Hexiang started to panic. After all, she was closer to the corridor than Yang Xiao at this moment, and if anything emerged from the darkness, she would be the first to suffer.
Yet she dared not, nor was she willing to rashly run to Yang Xiao’s side, as the emergency light was still before her, a lifeline.
"Mr. Chu! Mr. Chu!" Nie Hexiang cried out in desperation, her eyes fixed on the pitch-black corridor, as if a monster might burst out at any second.
But Yang Xiao, as if he hadn’t heard, stood behind the glass door on his own, staring at those ghostly students outside, his body subtly swaying, as though his soul had been captured.
