Chapter 330 - 143: Spine-chilling

Chapter 330: Chapter 143: Spine-chilling

He changed the subject.

"Where did you learn to ride a bike?"

"Something this simple doesn’t need to be learned," she said dismissively.

"But you even had to ask how to eat an Oreo..."

A cold glint appeared in Lu Qinglian’s eyes.

"Zhang Shutong, if you can tell that I don’t feel like talking right now, then please be quiet."

’Alright, so she does react when she’s in a bad mood.’

Zhang Shutong fell silent, but Lu Qinglian coldly added,

"Also, you’d better figure out how you’re going to explain this to our homeroom teacher."

"Explain what?"

"The fact that you’ve already skipped half of the period."

Zhang Shutong glanced at his phone. Half an hour had passed since the lunch break ended. He hadn’t just skipped half the period—class was almost over.

His scalp suddenly tightened.

"What was first period, again?"

"English."

Zhang Shutong’s eyelid twitched. ’This is bad,’ he thought.

English.

That was Teacher Xu’s class, their new homeroom teacher.

And so, the two students who had just been designated as "role models" that very morning had skipped the first class of the afternoon.

Worse, she already didn’t like him.

He was starting to regret asking the driver for a receipt. ’Speaking of which, can you even get a receipt from an ambulance?’

In any case, this whole affair taught him that life isn’t just about the mystery at hand; there’s also the homeroom teacher to answer to.

Zhang Shutong suggested,

"We should come up with an excuse beforehand. We can back each other up."

But the moment he said it, Lu Qinglian shut him down.

"Forget it."

"Oh, right. I almost forgot. You have a special advantage against middle-aged women."

But Lu Qinglian said calmly,

"No. It’s because I’m the Academic Monitor. I can just write your name down directly."

"Don’t do that, that’s a bit cruel..."

"I’ve been meaning to ask since this morning," Lu Qinglian said, cutting to the chase. "What exactly is this ’special advantage’ you keep mentioning?"

Zhang Shutong wasn’t sure how to explain it. ’Where did that term come from, anyway?’

He’d learned it from Pokémon. ’Right, so I should ask Gu Qiuyan about this. She’s the Pokémon master.’

Zhang Shutong joked,

"It just means you’re well-liked."

"I take back my previous assessment of you."

"What assessment?"

"That you’re even more childish than I thought."

Zhang Shutong’s mouth fell slightly open. ’How long ago was that assessment?’ he wondered. ’I think it was back when I sprained my ankle. She was soaking her feet and mentioned our classmates, calling them, "Oh, that kid."’

He decided to switch to a more mature topic.

"So, how do you think that person actually disappeared?"

"You may be childish, but don’t expect me to solve everything for you."

’What a sharp-tongued woman.’

Zhang Shutong was left speechless.

The two of them stood side-by-side under the main entrance of the dormitory. He thought the conversation was over, but Lu Qinglian stared ahead and spoke again.

"I don’t have any leads either, but I’d suggest you narrow your focus. If you try to investigate everything, you’ll end up with nothing."

Zhang Shutong thought for a moment.

"Can I interpret that as a word of comfort, or perhaps advice?"

"It’s a warning." After speaking, Lu Qinglian glanced at the sky. "It’s going to rain. Hurry up."

As her words fell, a cold wind howled past, pressing strands of her hair against her face and making her green robe sway.

The world was a vast expanse of gray. As the wind bent the grass low, she took a step, her slender figure disappearing into the overgrown weeds.

Lu Qinglian always walked quickly. Even though the weeds around her were knee-high, they couldn’t hide her long, slender legs.

Zhang Shutong took one last look at the rooftop, then followed after her.

He couldn’t ride the bike right now, and he needed her help. It would be bad if she left him behind.

’Her foot hasn’t even fully healed yet. It’s hard to say if she’s walking this fast on purpose.’

So Zhang Shutong couldn’t afford to walk slowly either. He picked up his pace, rounding the side wall of the dormitory.

One step, two steps, three, four... seven, eight, nine... eleven steps.

On the twelfth step, he reached the back of the dormitory.

But then, Zhang Shutong stopped.

He looked at the dormitory building again.

"Zhang Shutong," Lu Qinglian sighed without turning around, "if you still don’t want to go, I can leave the bike for you."

"Something’s wrong."

Zhang Shutong said suddenly.

Ignoring Lu Qinglian’s impassive gaze, he walked back along the side wall of the dormitory.

Zhang Shutong counted again.

It was still twelve steps.

He stared at the side wall of the dormitory, his brow furrowing bit by bit, and asked gravely,

"How many meters wide do you think this wall is?"

Lu Qinglian frowned as well.

She seemed to have realized something.

"Are you saying..."

"At least seven or eight meters, right?" Zhang Shutong cut her off, his speech quickening unconsciously. "Around that much. It takes more than ten steps to walk its length. But how wide was it inside Song’s dorm room?"

"Only five or six steps. About three meters, by my estimate."

The more Zhang Shutong thought about it, the more wrong it felt.

"I know this building has a public hallway, but that hallway is less than a meter wide. Even if you add the thickness of the walls, let’s just say two meters in total. So..."

He looked at the exterior wall in disbelief.

"Where did the rest of the space go?"

"And why isn’t there a single window on the entire back wall of the building?"

Zhang Shutong stared intently at the building. It was only two stories high, built in the last century. The paint was peeling from the walls, and the roof was actually covered in tiles...

From any angle, it looked like nothing more than an old staff dormitory, as ordinary as could be.

But in that instant, a chill ran down Zhang Shutong’s spine.

The problem wasn’t the falling figure!

Or rather, it wasn’t *just* the falling figure!

It was the entire dormitory building!

He quickly turned and dashed into the dormitory. This time, Lu Qinglian was right behind him. The two of them flew up the stairs and arrived at the door.

While Lu Qinglian was sticking the key into the lock, Zhang Shutong noticed even more anomalies.

"In this kind of dorm, one unit is just one room. You saw it just now—it’s a very standard rectangle. You walk a few steps in from the door and you hit the far wall. This building is from the last century. Even if they didn’t cut corners on construction, even if they were incredibly meticulous, the question remains: who would build a wall a full two meters thick?"

"Even if you didn’t count your steps carefully, do you remember that clothesline in Song’s room? How many meters long do you think that electrical wire was?"

Lu Qinglian didn’t say a word. She pushed the door open with a BANG.

Zhang Shutong took in the entire room at a glance.

That’s right, on the surface, it really was just an ordinary room.

He went to one side of the wall first, curled his fingers into a fist, and knocked hard on the surface.

The solid concrete wall returned a heavy, dull sound.

Zhang Shutong continued knocking along the wall. Lu Qinglian simply pulled Song’s single bed away, clearing the obstacle. Without pausing to thank her, his movements grew faster and faster, until...

He stopped in front of the giant poster.

This time, the sound echoed hollowly.

Zhang Shutong stared at the poster, silent for a long time. The poster was indeed huge, about the size of a teenager, just a head shorter than him. But the poster wasn’t the point at all.

The point was—

there was really something hidden behind it.

If he hadn’t paid attention to his steps just now, he probably would have never discovered it.

He glanced at Lu Qinglian, who looked back at him.

"A secret room?"

"Looks like it."

"Related to Teacher Song?"

"...I don’t know."

"Let’s pry it open," she said calmly. "Nothing will happen with me here."

"Okay."

Zhang Shutong turned to look for a tool. His eyes soon fell on Song’s desk. There was a pen holder on it with a utility knife inside.

He didn’t rush to break anything. Instead, he carefully used the blade to scrape the poster off. The double-sided tape behind it had long since dried out, making the process surprisingly easy. However, the latex paint on the wall had turned to powder. As it filled the air, Zhang Shutong coughed a few times.

He waved his arm, clearing the white dust from in front of him, and examined the wall again.

Song was a heavy smoker, so all four walls had turned yellow, leaving only a clean white space where the poster had been.

And at the border between the white and yellow, Zhang Shutong discovered a thin crack. Although the entire wall had been painted over with latex paint, running a finger over it still revealed an uneven texture.

Zhang Shutong scraped the wall with the knife blade, quickly carving out a clearer rectangular outline. It was obvious—

it was the shape of a door!