Lonelytree

  Millman97

  The dance studio was extremely quiet. In the mirror, the man was the first to recover. He stood before the five girls and started to glare threateningly at them. One of the girls started to weep, so the man yanked her up from the floor and pointed his finger at her face while his lips moved. The girls shook her head vehemently.

  Then, the girl who was as tall as Zhang Ya stood up. She walked over to the man and started to help him persuade the other girls. From how she carried herself, she seemed to know the man and shared a more than friendly relationship. Perhaps it was even she who planned for the man to appear just after the female teacher left.

  With the girl’s persuasion and the man’s threat, the other girls finally nodded. After a few more minutes of discussion, the man was the first to leave. The five girls then entered the dressing room to change, and they all left soon after.

  The mirror returned to normal, but the atmosphere in the dance studio grew tense. Chen Ge could feel the chill coming from his back; it felt like he was carrying a frozen dead body.

  The mirror only recorded what had happened in the dance studio but did not go into what happened next. Chen Ge believed there had to be more than that. After falling from the fourth floor, as long as it wasn’t head first, Zhang Ya still had a chance of being rescued.

  As the thought cropped up in his mind, Chen Ge rejected it. Zhang Ya was lost inside the school, so the police had to have been involved. Furthermore, cleaning up a body was not as simple as depicted on those crime dramas. Sometimes, the more one tried to hide, the more obvious it became.

  Chen Ge was curious what happened next, but the mirror had stopped moving.

  Chen Ge’s idea was not bad, but when he planned to pick up his phone, a scream came from behind him. Zhang Ya’s hair started to twine up his shoulders like snakes curling themselves around his neck and chest, tying them close together.

  “I’m not leaving; I just want to help you!” Chen Ge argued before his breath was choked out of him. However, the black hair continued to constrict like a boa constrictor suffocating its prey. Perhaps from Zhang Ya’s perspective, this was the only way the two of them could be together—this was true love.

  Chen Ge had escaped from the wolf’s den to enter the tiger’s cave. Now he understood why Zhang Ya’s love letter was a curse; this lady did not like living man, and the more she loved a man, the greater her desire to kill him.

  Standing back to back, his limbs too weak to even resist, all Chen Ge could do was to argue his case. “I will help you call the police and have law enforcement provide justice by bringing all who have harmed you to the judgement of law!”


  The words felt ineffective even to Chen Ge’s ears. Zhang Ya’s situation was unique. Unlike the family of four at Ping An Apartments, she did not need him for revenge. Those who had harmed her were trapped inside chairs already! And Chen Ge believed she had plenty to do with that.

  The kind and graceful Zhang Ya had been completely corrupted into a mad specter. Chen Ge did not even dare to imagine the type of disaster that had befallen the five girls before they were trapped inside the chairs.

  Chen Ge had given up—this was how he was going to go—but as he prepared for death, the black hair stopped attacking.

  “What’s wrong? There are still people who haven’t received their just punishment?” he uttered quickly, to stress that he would help Zhang Ya capture all those who had harmed her. The black hair started to release as if Zhang Ya was also considering the options. All Chen Ge could do then was wait.

  The dark dance studio returned to silence. Ten seconds later, an unexpected thing happened. While he was dancing on the line of life and death, the door to the dance studio was suddenly pushed open, and a lanky guy poked his head in to look around.

  When he saw Chen Ge, a cruel, excited grin lit up his face, and the hand with the peony tattoo pulled out a fruit knife from his back pocket. However, coincidentally, when Chen Ge saw the man, he also smiled, his expression saying—’You’re finally here!’


  “Surprise to see me? You’ve left too many clues; the bricks on the outer walls had your footsteps, and the window on the first floor of this building had fresh dirt and grass stuck to it. After entering the building, your footprints are practically everywhere. You’re too careless, and now, you shall pay!”


  The man standing at the door was naturally Zhang Peng. His eyes were bloodshot, and his mental state was unusually animated. He held the fruit knife in his usable arm. However, to Chen Ge’s surprise, after Zhang Peng said that long speech, as he took the first step into the dance studio, the expression on his face shifted drastically. Earlier, he had been vicious, but now, he retreated worriedly, his eyes glowing with caution and resentment.

  Before Chen Ge could react, Zhang Peng started to race down the stairs. He seemed to have spotted something scary. His limbs were twisted in unnatural angles as he ran, which gave him the impression of a puppet being pulled along by his master.

  The black hair around Chen Ge disappeared, along with the girl behind him. All he could see was a red flash across the mirror; a chase seemed to have begun. The chilliness from his back gradually dissipated, and life returned to Chen Ge’s frozen limbs. He picked up his phone and backpack before racing toward the stairs, his speed no less than Zhang Peng’s.

  Chen Ge dashed out of the Activities Centre. He took a glance at the surrounding dark forest and used his phone to call Inspector Lee.

  The phone rang once before it was picked up, and Inspector Lee’s voice came through. “Xiao Chen? Did you run into Zhang Peng?”


  “Western Jiujiang’s Private Academy! Zhang Peng is here! Other than that, I have something important to tell you,” Chen Ge said through heavy breaths as he raced toward the school gate.

  “Fu Jun, Da Yong, contact the investigation team immediately.” Inspector Lee didn’t hang up. After he gave his orders, he returned his attention to Chen Ge. “What is this other thing you want to talk about?”


  “I discovered another murder case at Western Jiujiang’s Private Academy!”