INSIDER Chapter 50

A Good Night’s Sleep.

The next day, a day that would make listeners sigh and onlookers shed tears arrived—Monday.

For the day students, it was tolerable, but for the boarders, it meant reluctantly leaving their homes to arrive at school for early morning study.

Lu Chu and 7 were among the first to arrive in the classroom. However, Zhang Cheng, who had promised to come early to copy homework, barely made it in as the bell rang.

Monday mornings meant changing seats, causing a commotion in the classroom. Some wailed while others were secretly pleased.

After the seat changes, Lu Chu and 7 moved one row to the right and downwards, going from the third and fourth rows in the middle to the fourth and fifth rows near the door. Qian Wenhao ended up in the sixth row, while Zhang Cheng moved from the back row to the front row.

As soon as the early morning study session began, Lu Chu received a note from Zhang Cheng, asking him to pass his homework over.

Lu Chu shook his head helplessly and passed his homework and test papers over.

When the session started, Lu Chu looked at Liu Qian’s seat and saw that she had come to class despite having taken a few days off due to a high fever.

With the seat changes, Liu Qian moved from the second row by the door to the third row by the window, which was now quite far from Lu Chu’s seat.

She was reading a book, her face still pale from the recent fever, with heavy dark circles under her eyes, looking drowsy and unwell.

Lu Chu had never had close contact with Liu Qian and had only seen her from a distance, so he couldn’t determine if her recent illness was due to some evil influence or just a coincidence.

Lu Chu shifted his gaze to Zheng Wei, who was sitting a few seats away and seemed normal, so he focused on his book.

After the early morning study session, Zhang Cheng returned Lu Chu’s homework and test papers. Meng Yu moved from the back row to the front, plopping down in his seat to chat with Li Lan.

Seeing his seat occupied, Zhang Cheng stayed where he was and started chatting with Lu Chu.

“Guess what?” Zhang Cheng suddenly said, glancing in Meng Yu and Li Lan’s direction.

Lu Chu put down his pen and paper, curious. “What?”

Zhang Cheng spoke mysteriously, “Li Lan told me that she went to bed very late last night because Meng Yu went back to school to get a forgotten homework notebook and—she saw a ghost!”

Lu Chu’s deskmate, Liu Yang, was the first to express surprise, directly asking, “What happened?”

“Li Lan said that Meng Yu called her late at night, her voice trembling with fear. Meng Yu remembered she had left her homework notebook in the dormitory during the afternoon nap. Thinking the dormitory would still be open since some students stay there, she went back to school to get it. As she was going up the stairs and walking down the corridor to her dorm room, she glanced into room 604 and saw a girl in a white dress standing in the middle of the room, facing away from her in the dim light! It scared her so much that she ran out of the dormitory without looking back,” Zhang Cheng explained.

Liu Yang gasped and whispered, “That can’t be true…”

Room 604 was Liu Qian’s mixed dormitory. The story of it being haunted had already spread among the girls, but only Lu Chu and a few others had heard it from Meng Yu among the boys. So Zhang Cheng retold the ghost story of room 604 to Liu Yang, combining it with the fact that everyone in Liu Qian’s dorm had fallen ill, which scared Liu Yang even more.

After Zhang Cheng finished his tale, Lu Chu asked, “How did Meng Yu determine she saw a ghost? Could it have been a girl in a white dress?”

“No,” Zhang Cheng replied. “Because Liu Qian and her roommates were all on sick leave, no one was in room 604 on Sunday night.”

Liu Yang interjected, “What if it was someone from another dorm?”

“I asked Li Lan the same thing. She said Meng Yu clearly saw the figure in the white dress was floating,” Zhang Cheng whispered.

Liu Yang shook his head, still skeptical. “I think it’s more likely she saw something wrong.”

Zhang Cheng countered, “But even if she did see something wrong, what would a girl be doing alone in someone else’s dormitory in the middle of the night, without turning on the lights?”

“Maybe… stealing something?” Liu Yang suggested after a pause.

Zhang Cheng scoffed, “There’s nothing valuable in our dorms except books, sheets, and pillows.”

Liu Yang conceded, “True.”

Lu Chu, meanwhile, was deep in thought. Could it really be another supernatural incident? He regretted not being able to enter the girls’ dormitory to investigate with his ability to sense spiritual energy.

The class bell rang, and everyone returned to their seats.

Liu Yang whispered to Lu Chu, “What Zhang Cheng said gave me the creeps, but Meng Yu probably saw something wrong, right?”

Lu Chu shook his head. “It’s hard to say.”

Still thinking about the incident, Lu Chu sat back, inadvertently swinging his legs until he accidentally kicked 7’s foot. Looking down, he saw a faint shoe print on 7’s clean blue and white sneakers.

Lu Chu turned slightly, smiled apologetically at 7, and tried to pull his foot back, but 7 gently trapped his foot with his own.

Feeling the warmth through their thin trousers, Lu Chu blushed. Liu Yang continued discussing the ghost incident, noticing Lu Chu’s odd expression. “Lu Chu, what’s wrong?”

Lu Chu shook his head. “Nothing.”

Liu Yang didn’t suspect anything and continued his thoughts.

Lu Chu gave up on pulling back his foot and lightly pinched his warm earlobe.

7, sitting behind, smiled softly, his eyes filled with tender affection.

——————

Meng Yu was a chatty girl who couldn’t sit still. After being frightened the previous night, she spent the entire morning telling anyone who would listen about her encounter, sharing her fear. By the end of the morning classes, everyone knew Meng Yu had seen a ghost in room 604, where Liu Qian lived.

Since everyone had friends in other classes, Lu Chu estimated that by the afternoon, the entire grade would know.

By tomorrow, the whole school would likely be aware.

Liu Qian was a quiet girl, not very talkative but well-liked. When people heard about the incident, they came to ask her about it. Already weak from her illness, Liu Qian almost cried from all the questions about whether her dorm was haunted. She kept saying she didn’t know and decided she wouldn’t stay at school or attend evening self-study sessions for a while, wanting to go home early.

For Class 2A students, even though they didn’t believe in ghosts, the mysterious and unknown always piqued their interest. In the dull and tedious high school life, any odd event became a topic of lively discussion.

Even during lunch, the topic hadn’t cooled down. Zhang Cheng couldn’t resist discussing it with Qian Wenhao.

Lu Chu listened but didn’t comment.

.

Returning to the dormitory after lunch, they chatted briefly before everyone lay down for a nap.

The nap didn’t last long. Before the alarm went off, they were awakened by loud screams from outside.

Zheng Wei got up silently and folded his quilt.

Zhang Cheng sat up, irritated. “Damn it! Can’t we get some sleep?”

Qian Wenhao pulled his quilt over his head. “What’s going on out there?”

“Not sure,” Lu Chu replied, folding his quilt. “Let’s go check it out.”

Hearing this, 7 folded his quilt and left the room with Lu Chu.

Zhang Cheng, thinking it was pointless to try sleeping for another few minutes, decided to join them, dragging Qian Wenhao along to see what the fuss was about.

They caught up with Lu Chu and 7 with a few quick steps.

“What’s going on?” Zhang Cheng asked.

A group of students had gathered at the west end of the corridor, all talking and looking frightened.

The dorm supervisor arrived, wearing slippers, and pushed through the crowd. “Why aren’t you all napping? What’s going on here? Be careful, or I’ll deduct points from your living quality scores!”

“Supervisor,” a pale-faced boy said, “something’s happened…”

“What is it?” the supervisor asked.

The students made way for him.

Lu Chu and the others took the opportunity to squeeze closer.

They saw that the students were gathered around the hot water room, where the hot water dispenser was. The top cover was open, and the part where the water was automatically heated was also open, with steam rising from the boiling water. A boy was slumped over it, his head submerged in the hot water.

From the side, they could see the boy’s face, scalded and distorted, grotesque and terrifying.

Zhang Cheng and Qian Wenhao stepped back in horror.

Some of the boys present were already vomiting. Someone, disregarding the school’s ban on electronic devices, had pulled out a hidden phone to call the police.

Lu Chu’s eyes stung, and he found it hard to speak.

.

If someone were to submerge their head in hot water, would they suffocate first, or be scalded to death?