Chapter 331 - 144: "Calling the Parents

Chapter 331: Chapter 144: "Calling the Parents

He knocked on the blank space again. Judging from the echo, the door was made of a wooden plank.

However, he couldn’t find a lock.

Or rather, it didn’t seem to be locked at all.

He pressed on the edge of the panel, and sure enough, it wobbled slightly.

"Step back a little." Lu Qinglian was also staring intently at the door.

Zhang Shutong did as he was told. He held his breath and had just taken one step back when, in the next instant, Lu Qinglian suddenly sprang into action. With a twist of her waist and a backward thrust from one leg, she delivered a sharp side kick. BAM! The wooden panel crashed to the ground.

In that instant, a cloud of dust billowed up. The two of them quickly turned away. Once the white dust settled, a hidden room was revealed.

Zhang Shutong turned on his phone’s flashlight. He moved closer to illuminate the space, and what appeared before them was—

a narrow staircase.

"There really is something hidden here..."

Zhang Shutong muttered.

But this staircase didn’t lead up, meaning it wasn’t an entrance to the roof.

It led down.

’A basement?’

’But this is clearly the second floor.’

Zhang Shutong couldn’t understand why a passage leading downward would be built on the second floor. Just then, Lu Qinglian held out her hand. Zhang Shutong understood what she meant and placed the phone in her hand.

"Don’t go in yet. We should wait a bit. The air in places like this hasn’t circulated for a long time. It could be dangerous."

Lu Qinglian nodded. They waited for about two minutes before stooping to enter the hidden room, one after the other.

Lu Qinglian led the way.

Zhang Shutong followed behind her, scanning the passage from side to side.

A faint, musty smell hung in the air.

The passage was very narrow, only wide enough for one person to pass through. The hidden space was only two meters deep, so the staircase didn’t go straight down; it made a turn after just a few steps.

Zhang Shutong’s heart began to pound. He called out a word of caution to Lu Qinglian as they carefully navigated the turn. But when his eyes adjusted to the scene before him, Zhang Shutong was completely stunned.

At the bottom of the stairs was another door.

This time, it wasn’t a wooden panel but a heavy, iron door with a round valve wheel in the center.

He saw a keyhole below the valve wheel. Zhang Shutong subconsciously glanced at the key to the dorm room; the iron door’s keyhole was much larger. It was impossible for them to match.

Zhang Shutong moved past Lu Qinglian. Refusing to give up, he tried to turn the wheel. Perhaps the lock mechanism was rusted. The wheel let out a CREAK, then wouldn’t budge an inch.

Lu Qinglian also stepped forward to try, but she couldn’t move it either.

A door like this was impossible to force open with brute strength alone.

’But where’s the key?’

’And where does this door lead?’

’Why go to such great lengths to hide a basement in a run-down dormitory?’

He looked back and estimated the length of the staircase. He figured they were now underground.

For a moment, they were at a complete loss.

The air down here was also oppressively stuffy; just breathing was enough to make one cough. Zhang Shutong was just about to call Lu Qinglian to go back up and discuss their next move when a cheerful tune suddenly rang out in the narrow space.

—his phone was ringing.

Lu Qinglian handed the phone back to him. Zhang Shutong glanced at the screen and saw it was Song. At that moment, his heart began to beat uncontrollably fast.

’What does this hidden room have to do with Song?’

’What other secrets is he hiding?’

He turned and walked back up the stairs. Taking a deep breath, he answered the call.

"Hey, Shutong, did you call me? I took a nap this afternoon and just woke up..." The man’s yawning voice came from the other end.

Zhang Shutong asked if he had seen the text message he’d sent.

"A text?" Song asked instinctively. "I haven’t had a chance to look. I saw the missed call and figured something might be wrong, so I called back first."

Zhang Shutong then told him about the shadowy figure and asked if he had any idea who it could be. Song sounded puzzled.

"I don’t think so. I haven’t seen anyone come around here, nor have I heard about any lunatics. There was a janitor from the school, an older lady, who used to live in the westernmost room on the first floor, but she quit a long time ago."

Then, out of habit, he added some advice.

"You’ve been out of the hospital for less than a day, kid. Get some rest, don’t go running around..."

"I’m in the dorm right now."

"Oh, right, to get your notes." After saying that, Song also fell silent.

Zhang Shutong surveyed the room.

"I just got here. The conditions are pretty bad. The walls don’t even have a window."

"Yeah, that’s true. It’s a bit confining, but you get used to it after a while."

"Should I help put your clothes away?"

"Just leave them hanging there," Song said casually. "I won’t be wearing them for a while anyway."

"I drank one of your Red Bulls. Forgot to mention it."

Song couldn’t help but chuckle.

"Go ahead, drink up. I’ve still got lollipops in my desk at school. Don’t forget to hand them out when you get back."

"By the way, the poster by the bed seems to be torn."

Zhang Shutong said deliberately.

But Song was taken aback.

"What poster? Oh, the one of Liu Dehua, right? I didn’t put that up. Your teacher here prefers Chow Yun-fat." Song was still in the mood to joke. "If it’s torn, it’s torn. I would’ve ripped it down myself if the room didn’t look so empty. I only kept it as a decoration."

"That poster isn’t yours?"

"Nope, it was here when I moved in," Song said in a conversational tone.

’That’s right.’

Zhang Shutong realized his thinking had been trapped in a misconception. This dormitory building was built in the last century. Song had only lived here for a little over three years—a very short time in the building’s long history.

Besides, he was an outsider who had moved to the island alone. How could he possibly have gone to the immense trouble of building a basement?

In other words, the man himself had never even discovered the existence of this hidden room.

Zhang Shutong quickly pressed him.