Chapter 1: Midnight Mystery on Campus

  At 10 o'clock in the evening, the school library closed and music began to sound, students came out one after another, in twos or threes, heading towards their dormitories.

  The lights in the reading room went out floor by floor, from the first floor to the seventh floor. The staff took a quick look around and then locked up and left the library.

  After a long time, the door of the safe passage opened, and two heads came out. One of them held a flashlight and looked around, lowering his voice to ask, "Has everyone left?"

  Another person looked a bit scared and shrank behind her: "Yes, Pingping, otherwise, let's go back, this place is eerie."

  "Hey, we're about to graduate, don't you want to figure out what secrets our school library has before leaving?" The girl named Pingping rolled her eyes.

  The person behind her didn't say another word, but tightly grasped the hem of Ping's clothes. The two people quietly closed the door and walked into this seventh-floor history reading room. Twenty or so rows of bookshelves stood silently in the hall, in the dark night, like twenty giants looking down on these two girls.

  A flashlight emitted a strong beam of white light, back and forth in the corridor.

  In the empty reading room, only two people's light breathing sounds and the faint sound of shoes rubbing against the tile floor remained.

  "Ah!" Pingping was startled and quickly turned her head, only to see the girl pale-faced and holding onto the chair by her feet, saying somewhat awkwardly: "I'm sorry, I accidentally bumped into you."

  Pingping said in a bad temper: "If you're afraid, then go back by yourself."

  "I, I..."

  Pingping didn't bother with her anymore, turned around and walked towards the fourth row of bookshelves. Above the passageway behind the fourth row of bookshelves was a ventilation duct, she stood there, lifted her head up to look upwards.

  "Bring me a chair," she called out without turning her head.

  However, there was no sound behind him.

  Pingping was taken aback, turned her head back, but found that there was no one behind her. She walked out of the fourth row aisle, holding a flashlight to look around both sides, and called out softly several times, but still no one responded to her.

  She frowned, somewhat unhappy: "Coward, saying go and then going, really no sense of justice. Go ahead and go, I knew better than to bring you along."

  She hummed a sound, moved a chair next to her and stood on it, holding the flashlight to look into the ventilation duct.

  The air vent was pitch black and couldn't be seen clearly. She steeled herself to get to the bottom of the rumor about the library being haunted at midnight, so she moved two more chairs over, placing two below and one on top, then climbed up again. This time she could reach the vent cover with her hand, so she simply took it down.

  A blast of cold air suddenly poured out from inside, and Pingping shivered violently.

  She raised her hand, shone the flashlight at the exhaust pipe, took a closer look, and suddenly her pupils dilated. Her heart seemed to skip a few beats. She let out a sharp cry: "Ah!"

  Then came the sound of the chair falling over.

  "Help... help..." A faint voice came from behind the fourth row of bookshelves, and a hand stretched out from there. Then, Pingping crawled out from behind, looking back with a pale face, as if she had seen something terrifying.

  As she was halfway out, something suddenly pulled her back. Sharp fingernails scraped against the ground, making a chilling sound.

  She turned her head and saw another girl running back at the last moment.

  "Save me..."

  The girl covered her head and screamed, turning around to escape. She ran all the way from the seventh floor to the lobby on the first floor, knocking open the safety passageway doors along the way. However, all the doors in the lobby had been locked by the administrator. She desperately pounded on the door, crying out: "Is there anyone? Is there anyone? Help! Help!"

  A gust of wind came from somewhere, she turned her head and looked towards the safety passage.

  The door of the stairwell was half open, and a pale hand stretched out from inside.

  "Ah!"

  Suddenly, footsteps came from behind, and several flashlight beams shone on her. She turned around to see three security guards running towards her.

  She fainted and lost consciousness.