Nightmare Assault

“After he got the four keys from the woman, he kept them in his left pocket.” Jiang Cheng said calmly, “Then, he kept his hand in his left pocket ever since. At the same time, he kept talking to distract us.”

Fatty felt rather dumb. He asked in alert, “Did he do something to the keys?”

“I can’t tell for now.” Jiang Cheng answered, “I inspected the key. I saw nothing strange on it.”

Fatty nodded and explained to himself, “Doctor, was that why you sent those people to him to interrupt him?”

“Yes. However, I’m not sure if I succeeded or not.”

Fatty gritted his teeth. “Doctor, this man looks nice on the surface, but he’s actually so cunning. He even assigned us Room 404 as revenge.”

“I’ll take a quick nap.” Jiang Cheng ignored him and turned around, “Wake me up after an hour.”

“Okay.” Fatty took the watch Jiang Cheng tossed over. The watch was too tight for his wrist, so he held it in his palm. Even though he was not that sleepy, to prevent himself from accidentally falling asleep, he sat up and wrapped the blanket around him.

The night was quiet, like the school was dead. Fatty believed there were no students around them, or it wouldn’t be so quiet. Once the one hour was up, Fatty left his bed to shake Jiang Cheng awake.

Jiang Cheng slept so lightly that he was already awake when Fatty moved from his bed. However, he still waited for Fatty to shake him before he opened his eyes blurrily. After he sat up, he worked his neck and shoulders. He was used to the hard pillow at home, so the cotton pillow made him uncomfortable.

“Did anything strange happen?”

“No.” Fatty answered, “Doctor, don’t you worry. I’ll wake you up even if I see a cockroach. You should know how alert I am.”

Jiang Cheng stood up and moved to the door. He didn’t stick too close to it. He listened to the movement in the corridor. Then, he returned to his bed and leaned against the wall to listen to the movement next door.

“Doctor,” Fatty said, “They should be asleep. It’s so quiet around here.”

Jiang Cheng looked at him and said nothing. He took the watch back and put it back on his wrist. Even though Fatty was no longer hungry after eating the chocolate, he was thirsty.

Another half an hour passed. Jiang Cheng thought it was about time and prepared to move. He told Fatty that no matter what happened, he had to pretend that he didn’t know anything. Fatty was very confused, but he agreed due to his innate trust in Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng pulled out an old coin from the corner of the room. Then, he crawled back to his bed and slowly used the coin to scrape against the wall.

He did this again and again.

The sound was low, but it was very clear in the quiet night.

“What are you doing?” The scraping sound caused Fatty to break out in goosebumps. Jiang Cheng didn’t answer and kept scraping. Eventually, sounds came from next door. It was also very soft, but the uneven movement betrayed the person’s panic.

Their next door was Room 405, the room of the suited man and the young man with the cap.

After a while, the sound of a door opening came from the corridor. It was followed by rapid and uneven footsteps. Hearing that, Jiang Cheng immediately stopped his action. He carefully removed the traces of the scraping off the wall and then tossed the coin back into the inconspicuous corner.

However, the footsteps moved away from Jiang Cheng’s Room 404. Then came the sound of knocking and the voices of the suited man and the young man in the cap. Soon, the corridor became noisy again.

Jiang Cheng acted like he had just woken up and slowly opened his door. His face was one of fear as he saw everyone outside his room, “What’s wrong?”

Seeing Jiang Cheng, the man in the suit was startled, and then he asked curiously, “Did you hear a strange sound?”

“Strange sound?” Jiang Cheng scratched his head, “No. I just went to sleep. It’s very quiet around here.”

“No?” The man’s face darkened. Then, he added urgently, “What about the fat guy in your room?”

“I’m here.” Fatty heard him and poked his head out. “Guardian angel, are you looking for me?”

In the urgency of the situation, the man didn’t care about the term of reference. He asked directly, “I’m asking you. Did you hear anything strange?” He paused before adding, “A sound like a spoon scraping against something.”

Fatty widened his eyes and said, “No. I’ve been sleeping and heard nothing.”

Hearing their answers, other than the suited man and the young man in the cap, the others sighed in relief. Then, they looked at the suited man strangely. Only people in Room 405 heard that strange sound… Did that mean they were the first to encounter those things?

In other words, they would die first.

“We’re going back,” The woman in the qipao said. Then, she walked back to her room. The girl in the pyjama followed her obediently.

The three from Room 406 saw this and decided to leave. After saying a few things, they ran back to their room too. The room door closed like they were afraid of something. Only the suited man and the young man in the cap remained. Their expressions were dark.

Jiang Cheng leaned against the door with confusion. Then, he gasped as if he had just realised something horrid, “Is hearing strange noises the condition to trigger the ghosts? How scary that is!”

“Fatty,” Jiang Cheng turned around and asked in a hurry, “Did you really not hear anything?”

Fatty cooperated fully. “Brother, I really didn’t hear anything. What about you?”

“I was asleep like the others. I didn’t hear anything.” Jiang Cheng shrugged and showed an innocent expression.

“Good.” Fatty sighed, “Then, we won’t die.”

Then, the two closed the door, leaving the suited man and the young man in the cap standing under the dim lights in the corridor.