Chapter 24: The Ghost Phone

Hearing the word "ghost," I froze for a moment.

Li Xiang is usually a bit of a fool; hanging around with Jin Yuan, he spends his days bragging and spouting nonsense, making it impossible to tell when he’s actually speaking the truth.

I hesitated and said, "You’re joking, right? There aren't that many ghosts in this world."

Hu Tou—the guy in the upper bunk, also known as Fatty—chimed in, "Ghost, my foot! Li Xiang, cut the crap, it’s the middle of the night, can you not?"

At this moment, Li Xiang was trembling all over, his face deathly pale. Although he was usually unreliable, the look on his face now made me believe him. I immediately asked, "How can you be sure it was a ghost? Are you certain you didn't see it wrong?"

Li Xiang raised his face, which was twisted with terror. "I saw Ren Yunwen. It was Ren Yunwen, the one who died after being hit by a truck at the school gate a while ago."

In an instant, both the fatty and I fell silent, staring blankly at Li Xiang. A chill ran straight down my spine.

Even for me, the mention of Ren Yunwen was enough to inspire fear.

A while back, something had happened at our school. Ren Yunwen, who had been perfectly fine, was suddenly struck and killed by a truck right at the school entrance. According to the surveillance footage, it was clearly a suicide. He had run straight toward the truck, slammed into it, and died a gruesome death.

After his death, rumors spread through his dormitory about the terrifying things he had experienced in his final hours.

It was said that one night, Ren Yunwen had taken a smartphone from a grave. The phone had been placed in front of the tombstone of a young girl. People said that the girl had always wanted an iPhone before she died but never got one. After she passed, her family bought one and left it at her grave. Ren Yunwen, somehow, had taken it.

Once he returned to his dormitory, horrific things began to happen throughout the night.

It must have been the middle of the night; all the lights in the men’s dormitory building had been turned off, leaving everything in pitch-black darkness. Ren Yunwen’s room was no different; you couldn't see your own hand in front of your face.

Yet, just then, Ren Yunwen’s phone suddenly lit up. Dazed and sleepy, he reached out to touch the screen. The moment he pressed the answer button, he tumbled out of bed with a thud.

He had answered a call from his grandfather—who had passed away years ago.

When Ren Yunwen scrambled up from the floor, he was drenched in a cold sweat. The phone screen went dark, and the room plunged back into silence. Still feeling groggy, he climbed back into bed to sleep.

But as he drifted off, his phone lit up once again.

He received another call, this one from his third aunt. His third aunt had died in a car accident five years prior.

Ren Yunwen began to sense that something was wrong, and he lay on his bed, trembling with fear. Then, the calls began to come in one after another: first his uncle, then his second uncle, then a childhood friend.

Everyone who called him was already dead.

Most chilling of all, they all said only one thing: "We’re almost there."

That night, Ren Yunwen lost his mind. The next day, he rose from his bed with hollow, vacant eyes and staggered toward the school gate. Finally, as a truck drove by, he threw himself in front of it, ending his life on the spot.

Hearing Li Xiang mention Ren Yunwen’s name, I felt cold sweat breaking out all over my body.

My scalp tingled. I asked Li Xiang, unsure of myself, "You're not kidding, are you? Ren Yunwen?"

Li Xiang looked lost. He nodded. "It was him. I’m certain. The person sitting next to Qiu Xiaoli was Ren Yunwen."

It seemed Li Xiang was truly terrified; pressing him further would surely drive him over the edge. At least he was safe for now. I told him, "As long as you're okay, just forget about it. Go get some sleep."

But as I said this, I realized something was wrong. Why was Li Xiang here alone, without that spendthrift Jin Yuan?

I grabbed Li Xiang by the collar. "Didn't you say Jin Yuan was with you? How come you came back alone? Where is he?"

"He..." Li Xiang stammered. "I tried to warn him, but he wouldn't listen. He insisted that the Ren Yunwen sitting next to Qiu Xiaoli was a fake, just someone playing a prank."

"Where is he?"

Li Xiang looked up at me, dazed. "Still by the lake."

I told the fatty to look after Li Xiang and then bolted out of the dormitory. I feared that those two fools, Li Xiang and Jin Yuan, had really gotten themselves into trouble. If what Li Xiang said was true and that person really was Ren Yunwen, then Jin Yuan was in grave danger. I hoped I wasn't too late.

As I ran, I prayed silently.

The dormitory was some distance from the lake—a ten-minute walk usually, or four to five minutes at a dead sprint. I didn't dare stop, running as hard as I could.

Finally, panting and exhausted, I reached the destination. From afar, I saw the lake and the benches along the shore.

A person was sitting on one of the benches. From that direction, bouts of laughter drifted toward me.

The lake, the bench, the long-haired figure sitting on it, and the sound of that vacant laughter—in the dead of night, it was bone-chilling. Even I felt my teeth chattering and my entire body trembling uncontrollably.

Still, I forced myself to walk toward the bench, my eyes locked on the back of the figure sitting there.

I stopped five meters away, afraid to go any further. The person on the bench kept laughing, completely unaware of my presence.

But from the sound of the laughter, I realized the person laughing was none other than Jin Yuan.

*Hehehehe...* Jin Yuan’s foolish laughter drifted across the lake. It sounded bizarre and carried a strange, mournful tone.

I steeled myself and called out to him, "Jin Yuan, stop fooling around! Come back to the dorm with me right now."

"Huh? Li Xi? Why are you here?" Jin Yuan stopped laughing abruptly and turned to look at me. In the dim light, his face looked blurred.

I swallowed hard. "What were you laughing at?"

"Nothing. I wasn't laughing," Jin Yuan lied.

A chill crept up my back. This guy was clearly not right. I looked around involuntarily; the lakeside was empty. There was no one else there. I asked, "What about Qiu Xiaoli? Why are you here all by yourself?"

"Ah, Qiu Xiaoli? What Qiu Xiaoli? I don't see anyone," Jin Yuan lied again.