C3 Chapter 3

“Where am I?” Chen Rui opened his eyes and reached up to rub the back of his head—only to be hit with a sharp, searing pain.

“Don’t move. With an injury like that, you need to stay still,” a voice said from beside the bed—stern, but still gentle. Chen Rui turned his head and saw it was his younger sister, Chen Xin.

“What are you doing here?” Chen Rui stared at her, suddenly on edge. Had Dad found out about the fight?

“Look at you—you’re in the hospital. How could I not know?” Chen Xin shot back. “Shi Dian told me.”

“Oh, right. Is he okay? I remember he got grabbed…” Chen Rui frowned, trying to piece it together while holding his head.

As he spoke, the hospital room door creaked open, and a head poked in. “Chen Rui, you okay?”

“Shi Dian!” Chen Rui called out, relieved.

Seeing that Chen Rui was hurt this badly and still worried about him, Shi Dian looked embarrassed. He set the water he’d brought on the table and sat down.

“Tell me—what happened after I passed out last night?” Chen Rui asked, eyes full of curiosity.

Shi Dian froze. Truth was, he couldn’t remember last night at all. He’d only just woken up himself, but since he wasn’t injured, the doctor had already discharged him. So he said, “I just remember seeing you get knocked down… and then I think I fainted at the sight of blood. After that, I don’t remember anything.”

“Wait—you faint at the sight of blood?” Chen Xin looked at him like she didn’t buy it.

Shi Dian could only nod helplessly. It was pretty awkward for a guy to admit.

“Either way, I’m just glad you’re okay,” Chen Rui said, finally letting out a breath.

But Chen Xin wasn’t having it. She pinched him and said, “Bro, what are you talking about? You’re the one who got hurt the worst!”

“Heh,” Shi Dian couldn’t help laughing. Chen Rui’s sister really was adorable.

Even though he’d been covered in bruises, Chen Rui recovered shockingly fast—within a week. Aside from a few dark marks on his face, he was basically back to normal.

After class that day, Chen Xin stopped Shi Dian, pulled him into a corner, and whispered, “Shi Dian, have you heard? A few of the old dorm buildings on the south side of campus are supposed to be haunted.”

“Haunted?!” Shi Dian blurted out. He wasn’t exactly new to that kind of talk—he’d grown up hearing older folks tell stories like that.

“Shh—don’t say it so loud. If my brother hears, we’re dead,” Chen Xin said quickly, raising a finger to hush him.

Shi Dian nodded right away. He knew perfectly well Chen Rui was scared of ghosts. The problem was, Chen Rui also loved to act tough—so if he heard there was something “haunted” on campus, he’d definitely go investigate. And he’d definitely come back scared out of his mind.

“I think it’s probably just people spreading rumors,” Shi Dian said quietly. “There shouldn’t be ghosts in this world.”

“I think so too, but the girls in our class won’t stop talking about it,” Chen Xin sighed. She was Chen Rui’s sister, but only a few months younger, so they’d started college the same year. She was majoring in ancient languages, though, so she wasn’t in the same program as Shi Dian and the others.

“Don’t worry. Stuff like this dies down after a while,” Shi Dian said, trying to reassure her. “And aren’t those dorm buildings getting torn down soon anyway? Just don’t go over there.”

After calming Chen Xin down a bit, Shi Dian headed back to the dorm. But the whole thing turned out to be a lot less simple than he’d assumed.

The next day, Chen Rui came rushing up to him, pale and panicked, barely able to catch his breath. “Shi Dian, you… you…”

“Don’t panic—what happened?” Seeing that Chen Rui couldn’t get a full sentence out, Shi Dian couldn’t help cutting in.

“Have you seen Chen Xin?” Chen Rui finally managed to get the words out.

“Chen Xin? She came looking for me yesterday, but I haven’t seen her today,” Shi Dian said after thinking for a moment.

“She looked for you? What did she say?” Chen Rui asked urgently.

“Well…” Shi Dian hesitated, unsure whether he should say it.

“What are you thinking? Chen Xin is missing, and you’re still holding back?” Chen Rui snapped, fed up with Shi Dian dragging his feet.

“What?” Shi Dian shot to his feet, staring at Chen Rui in disbelief. “Explain. Now.”

A little while later, Shi Dian finally got the full story. That morning, Chen Xin’s homeroom teacher had called Chen Rui to ask where she was. Chen Xin hadn’t returned to her dorm room all night—and neither had two other girls who lived in the same room. None of their phones could be reached.

The moment he heard, Chen Rui called home, but Chen Xin wasn’t there either. Not wanting to worry his family, he made up an excuse. And filing a missing-person report meant waiting forty-eight hours—but Chen Rui was frantic. There was no way he could sit around that long.

After they pieced everything together, Shi Dian told Chen Rui what Chen Xin had said when she met him yesterday. Even so, neither of them could figure out how it connected to her disappearance.

Still, Shi Dian felt they needed to dig into that “haunted” rumor, so he searched online. To his surprise, he actually found posts about it on a forum.

After reading through everything, Shi Dian suddenly said, “I think Chen Xin might’ve gone to that old dorm everyone says is haunted. Let’s go check it out.”

“No way. Why would Chen Xin go there?” Just hearing the word “haunted” made Chen Rui break out in goosebumps.

“I’m just guessing. We’ll talk more on the way!” Shi Dian snapped the laptop shut, turned, and headed for the door. With no other choice, Chen Rui followed.

Getting to the old dorms on the south side of campus was about a half-hour walk. Along the way, Shi Dian laid out his theory for Chen Rui.

Three days earlier, a girl in Chen Xin’s school was supposed to meet a guy at the old dorm building. They’d agreed on 8:00 p.m., but for some reason, the guy never showed.

Disappointed, the girl was about to leave when she suddenly noticed a flickering light inside the abandoned dorm. Her first thought was, Is he up there waiting for me?

At that, Chen Rui blurted out on instinct, “Are girls in love always this dumb?”

Shi Dian could only give a helpless smile and kept going.

The girl’s heart leapt. Without hesitating, she went inside. The light was coming from the far-right room on the third floor. She found it—only to realize it was a bathroom. The moment she stepped in, she froze at what she saw.

There was no guy waiting for her. Just a ball of flame hanging in midair—no support, nothing feeding it, not even any fuel.

She screamed and bolted. She didn’t know whether the flame chased her, but at the stairwell she tripped and went down hard. Lying there, she saw something even worse: blood was seeping up through the floorboards, spreading as if it were trying to crawl onto her body.