“How is that possible?”
Chen Chen looked surprised. “How can they disappear after entering our dormitory? Tutor Wang, are you kidding me?”
“I…”
Hearing these words, Wang Yi suddenly lost interest in interrogating Chen Chen and said irritably, “The ones missing are all students in your class. Do you think I’m not puzzled myself? I even called the other people in your Dorm 404 specifically, but Wang Wei from your dormitory…”
When talking about Wang Wei, Wang Yi’s expression changed again.
Chen Chen felt a chill. Although he understood that Wang Wei was going to die sooner or later due to the grudge-curse, like himself, he was still a bit sad. Nonetheless, he still pretended to look mystified. “What happened to Wang Wei?”
“Wang Wei has passed away due to sudden epilepsy.”
Wang Yi waved his hand as if he did not want to say more, but Chen Chen certainly would not let this go. He continued to ask, “Tutor Wang, Wang Wei has no problems with his health. I know this very well…”
“That’s enough!”
However, Chen Chen only said one sentence before Wang Yi immediately interrupted him. Wang Yi adopted a stern expression and said strictly, “This matter doesn’t need to be discussed again. Wang Wei died of epilepsy-induced muscle twitches — that’s the forensic doctor’s diagnosis and that’s final! Chen Chen, don’t spread any rumors. If it affects the reputation of the school, no one will be able to take responsibility for it, understand?”
Hearing Wang Yi’s words, Chen Chen could not help feeling cold. He nodded. “Tutor Wang, I understand. I won’t speak without thinking.”
“Good…”
Hearing Chen Chen’s assurance, Wang Yi’s expression relaxed slightly and he waved his hand. “The police couldn’t wait for you just now, so they have already left. Now that you’ve returned, take a taxi to the police station to make a statement. Don’t worry, this is just a procedure. The rest of your class has done it.”
“Okay.”
Chen Chen nodded, then watched Wang Yi hurriedly leave again.
Staring at the other man’s anxious expression, Chen Chen sneered secretly in his heart.
Even with the state of things, the school was still trying to pretend they could suppress everything. Little did they know, today’s death and disappearances were just the beginning.
The next few days would be when the spiritual abnormality of the grudge-curse erupted. At that time, the school could forget about holding on to their official positions. The main question would be whether they could hold on to their very lives.
This sort of incident could be called a “spiritual abnormality”.
Thinking of this, Chen Chen turned around and walked toward the campus gate.
It was not that he wanted to deliberately conceal this and watch this group of students die in cold blood, but because Chen Chen understood that whatever he did now would be futile. It could be seen from the fact that the police did not block off the dormitory at all and still allowed these students to go in and out. The authorities had no experience in dealing with such cases.
As the largest commercial city in Mainland China, the importance of Shangdu in this country was second only to the capital city. If there were no relevant emergency measures for Shangdu, did it mean that everything Chen Chen had experienced now had never been experienced by the government?
Therefore, what could be done even if he headed to the police station, told them everything, and selflessly handed the USB drive over?
He would only be regarded as someone insane. Even if there were strange disappearances and Wang Wei died under peculiar circumstances, under the interference of the school, it would still be difficult for Chen Chen to be taken seriously by the higher-ups in Shangdu, let alone the core leaders of China.
If it was not a case where dozens or hundreds had died, this sort of matter would not reach their ears at all…
Therefore, Chen Chen had to wait until enough people had died at school and the entire issue was blown up enough before he would have a chance of being heard by the top dogs!
Of course, this was assuming he could survive to that point.
At this time, Chen Chen was already outside the campus. He hailed a taxi, gave an address, and headed to the nearest police station.
His tutor had asked Chen Chen to make a statement, which was in line with Chen Chen’s expectation because he knew the police’s usual procedure. After his statement was recorded, these statements would be sent to a higher level of authority.
In the next few days, this matter would become critical and Chen Chen’s statement would naturally be taken seriously. Then, Chen Chen would have the opportunity to speak to the ones at the top.
Considering this, Chen Chen thought to himself about how to phrase all this.
Soon, the vehicle stopped in front of the gate of the police station. As soon as Chen Chen entered the duty room, he explained his intentions to the people in the duty room. After a while, a policeman called Chen Chen into the office.
“Name?”
“Chen Chen.”
“Age?”
“19 years old.”
“Why did you come to the police station?”
“I was called to the police station by you guys because some people in our Dorm 404 are missing.”
After some standard inquiries, the statement officially entered the main subject.
However, as questions and answers were exchanged, the policeman lifted his head from the computer screen and his professional expression shifted. He looked at Chen Chen as if he were an idiot.
“Student, this is the police station and I’m recording your statement, not writing online novels for you,” the policeman said with annoyance.
“I can guarantee that what I said is true.”
Chen Chen looked serious. “The reason why a few students disappeared in Dorm 404 is that they were infected with the curse in the Japanese horror film Ju-on. Now they are probably dead. The death of my roommate Wang Wei is also related to this kind of curse. Mr. Policeman, please record the full statement as I dictated it, okay?”
Seeing this, the policeman reluctantly wrote it down and then grinned. “I say, you’re interesting and you seem to take this very earnestly. But do you know that you can be held legally responsible for saying nonsense?”
“I know, I’m willing to take full responsibility.”
Chen Chen nodded and suddenly asked, “By the way, I also have a roommate named Li Bo. You should know him. Where’s he?”
“Li Bo is making his statement in the office next door.”
The policeman pointed to the wall beside him.
“In that case, please ask the next room if, after he’s done, he could wait for me to go with him.” Chen Chen suggested.
“Okay, hold on.”
The policeman taking the statement readily agreed. He walked out and then walked back in again within ten seconds.
Then, he continued to ask Chen Chen various questions.
“In the next few days, this curse will continue to spread and even turn into a kind of spiritual abnormality. By that time, hundreds of people will die…”
Chen Chen said with a solemn expression, “And I have a way to stop all of this, so if you want to stop everything, come to me. I want to speak directly with the central government of China!”
When Chen Chen walked out of the office, it was late at night.
In the duty room of the police station, Li Bo had been sitting in a chair waiting for a long time.
Seeing Li Bo’s white face and dull eyes, Chen Chen suddenly understood that Li Bo had seen something.
“Lil Chen.”
Seeing Chen Chen coming out, Li Bo stood up with a blank look. “Lil Chen, Brother Wei is gone…”
Chen Chen came forward and patted Li Bo on the shoulder. “I know. Lil Bo, tell me the truth, what happened before?”
However, after hearing Chen Chen’s words, Li Bo fell silent. He just kept shaking his head, but he would not say anything.
“Lil Bo!”
Chen Chen looked around and instantly saw the vending machine outside the police station’s duty room. He immediately went out, bought two cans of Sprite, and helped Li Bo open one can.
“Lil Bo, sit down and tell me!”
Chen Chen asked Li Bo to take a seat and then asked in a low voice, “Lil Bo, this concerns our lives. You must tell me everything or we’ll probably die as Brother Wei did!”
Hearing Chen Chen’s words, Li Bo finally trembled. He raised his head in disbelief and stared at Chen Chen. “You mean, we’ll also hear that ringtone and die as Brother Wei did?”
“Ringtone?”
Chen Chen was startled. His voice suddenly leaped by an octave. “What ringtone are you speaking about?”
“It’s that, that…”
Li Bo frowned, deep in horrifying thought. “It’s that weird ringtone. You and I both know Brother Wei’s ringtone was set to be Wowkie Zhang’s ‘Sunshine, Rainbow, White Pony’. Whenever he gets a call, it goes ‘You’re that~ that~ that that that~ Sunshine rainbow white pony…
“But in the cafeteria today, as soon as you walked away, there was a ringtone on Brother Wei’s mobile phone that I had never heard before. It was an a cappella tune sung by a little girl and the entire song was just constantly going la la la la…”
Hearing this, Chen Chen could not help gasping, only feeling cold sweat trickling down his back.
The ringtone mentioned by Li Bo immediately reminded Chen Chen of the other movie that was as horrible as Ju-on — One Missed Call.
One Missed Call had three movies. In the first two, due to the limits of that era, the sign of getting cursed was that the phone would ring with a polyphonic ringtone. However, by the third movie, although the pitch had not changed, the original polyphonic ringtone was replaced by a little girl singing la la la.
In other words, whether it was a polyphonic ringtone or the clearer original ringtone, it meant one thing — Wang Wei was killed by the curse of One Missed Call!
Thinking of this, Chen Chen looked more solemn and he asked in a low voice, “Lil Bo, tell me! How did Brother Wei die!”
“Brother Wei… Wrung his neck with his own hands.”
It seemed that the tragic scene was flashing in his mind again and Li Bo’s eyes were full of terror. “I only heard a series of screams on the phone after he answered the phone and that voice was almost the same as Brother Wei’s. Brother Wei thought it was a prank but when he hung up and looked at the number of the call, it turned out to be his own number and the call time… Was five minutes later.”
Chen Chen’s pupils shrank slightly but he did not speak, only listened quietly.
Li Bo continued. “At the time, Brother Wei was a little scared. He told me that this situation was particularly like a movie named One Missed Call, which was one of the four horror films that Nostril had copied into the USB drive at noon. Then he told me the rules of the movie, but I was playing with my phone and didn’t listen carefully…
“Then, after about five minutes, I suddenly heard a groan from Brother Wei. I looked up and asked him what was wrong. He said that two of his arms were cramped…
“I was just about to soothe him, but his arms suddenly seemed to go out of control. They rose with a cracking sound and closed around his neck from both sides…”
Speaking of this, Li Bo was already shuddering. While shaking violently, he said intermittently, “Brother Wei seemed to have gone crazy. He kept twisting his neck with both hands, screaming and twisting, and even his tongue was bitten off… Just like that, Brother Wei took just a few minutes and forcefully broke his own neck…”
At the end of the narration, Li Bo’s face was already pale. He suddenly drank the Sprite in his hand, and his body seemed to slump.
Chen Chen patted Li Bo on the shoulder with a somber expression.
No wonder the school classified Wang Wei’s cause of death as epilepsy. Perhaps on a superficial level, Wang Wei’s symptoms before death were indeed similar to epilepsy but what epilepsy was able to cause someone to twist his head off?
Nonetheless, in the next second, Chen Chen shook his head. It did not make sense to bother about these things. After all, he had to save his own skin before saving others.
The most important thing now was to survive as far as possible during the time before the authorities confronted this matter. If he could not ride out the next few days, then everything would be for naught.
No matter how good his strategy, no matter how good his planning, it would all be meaningless.
He looked at the sky. It was late at night and the other students who made a statement seemed to have gone back but Chen Chen had no intention of returning to campus.
In the past, on Hong Kong and Taiwanese TV series, there was often a saying that ghosts dared not approach police stations as the place was filled with righteous energy. Although this saying was only a feudalistic superstition, staying here was better than going back to the cursed Dorm 404.
However, Chen Chen also understood that Kayako and Toshio from Ju-on were more like an incarnation of the rules. No matter where one stayed, whether there were many or few people, whether it was day or night, even if one stayed in a church or a temple, one would still die when one’s time was up.
Chen Chen only hoped that, by staying outside, he would be less likely to be killed by Kayako than by staying in Dorm 404.
Come to think of it, surely right now in the dormitory building, the slaughter under the grudge-curse had already begun?
Chen Chen took a deep breath. After comforting Li Bo, he walked out of the duty room again and bought two cups of instant noodles from the vending machine in front. The duty room of the police station had enough seats and automatic drinking fountains. Even if he stayed for one night, there would be no problem and Chen Chen planned to survive tonight before anything else.
Nevertheless, when Chen Chen bought the instant noodles, a girl who appeared to be only fifteen or sixteen years old came out of the duty room. Although the girl was not tall, being only over one and a half meters tall, the proportions of her body were extremely balanced.
Chen Chen immediately remembered her after seeing her face. This girl was the one who struck up a conversation with him at noon today.
At this time, after seeing Chen Chen, the girl also stepped forward in surprise.
“Chen Chen, we meet again!”
“You know my name?”
Chen Chen asked a little warily.
“I asked the other students about it.”
The girl beamed. “Oh right, you still don’t know, my name is Aixen!”