Chapter Thirty-Six: The Vanished Wang Ming

These people kept climbing the stairs, but soon after, they discovered something truly terrifying.

Among them was a man with a peculiar habit: whenever he ascended a staircase, he would count the steps. After everyone had reached the landing, he suddenly called out to the group.

“Everyone, stop! Something’s not right!”

His words left everyone puzzled. They looked at him in confusion. “What do you mean, not right?”

“When we came up just now, I counted thirteen steps. But look—now there are only twelve.”

His statement left the group bewildered.

“You must have miscounted. How could the number of steps change?”

“Impossible. I’ve had this habit since childhood. I might forget how many people live in my own house, but I would never miscount the steps!”

With no alternative, the group humored him by descending the stairs again, counting aloud as they went.

“One.”

“Two.”

And so on.

When they reached the bottom, they spoke aloud the number none of them wished to believe.

“Thirteen.”

Just moments before, at the top, they had all counted only twelve steps. Why had it become thirteen now? Where had the error occurred?

Standing on the last step, they counted again and again, confirming there were indeed thirteen. Then they went down, and upon stepping off the final stair, found there were once more only twelve.

“What the hell kind of stairs are these? This is freaky!”

Everyone felt a chill creep into their hearts. Still, remembering their purpose for coming, they forced themselves onward, ignoring the mysterious steps, and continued climbing.

They did not stop until they reached the second floor.

“That infamous bathroom is on the second floor, right?”

“Yes.”

Relieved that they didn’t have to ascend any higher, everyone let out a sigh.

Back then, the dormitory building hadn’t yet been renovated. The electrical wiring was unstable, and the lights flickered constantly. The atmosphere was ominous, but having come so far, no one intended to turn back, so they pressed on toward their destination.

When they reached the door to the bathroom, a new problem arose.

This was a dorm for teachers, meant to be inhabited. Even if it was midnight, shouldn’t there be some sound? Snoring, perhaps, or maybe a teacher woken by their loud conversation?

It was years ago, in the old dormitory, where the walls were thin. Snoring could be heard easily, and surely the teachers inside should have heard their voices.

But in moments of danger, people instinctively deceive themselves. They reasoned that teachers must be exhausted from the day’s work and sleeping deeply, and that educated people wouldn’t snore anyway.

Summoning their courage, they walked straight into the bathroom. The only oddity was the flickering of the lights; otherwise, nothing strange occurred.

After exchanging glances, none of them hesitated. They all entered together.

They looked around, searching every corner, but found nothing unusual.

With nothing left to do, they decided to leave.

As they were about to exit the dormitory, one of them suddenly declared he needed to use the bathroom and returned alone to the second floor.

Time passed, and he didn’t come back.

The others grew anxious. Could their friend have vanished mysteriously? Fearful, none dared to investigate.

In the end, they drew straws to choose someone to check.

The unlucky one made his way to the bathroom, searched, but found nothing. He returned quietly.

But when he reached the lower floor, he realized everyone else had already left. Furious, he thought they had all conspired to frighten him, and guessed the one who’d gone back to the bathroom had simply left with the others.

Resolving to get to the bottom of it, he decided to find them the next day and demand an explanation.

But as he left the campus, he glanced at the statue of the first principal standing in the center of the grounds. To his horror, one eye was suddenly shut, and the one that remained open glowed a deep, unnatural red.

Terrified, he quickened his pace and hurried out of the campus.

The next day, he confronted the group.

“You bastards! You just left me there alone last night!”

They looked at him, utterly bewildered. “Did we go anywhere last night?”

“Come on, quit messing with me! After Wang Ming went to the bathroom, I went to find him, and you all vanished. By the way, where’s Wang Ming?”

At the mention of that name, his friends stared at him blankly. “Who’s Wang Ming?”

Certain now that they were faking, he grew furious. He grabbed a classmate at random. “Get Wang Ming from our class. I need some answers!”

But the classmate looked at him, confused. “You must be mistaken—there’s no Wang Ming in Class Two.”

Now he was the one who felt lost. Was everyone in on this elaborate prank?

He hurried back to his own classroom, asking everyone he saw if Wang Ming was around, but the answer was always the same: no one knew anyone by that name.

At last, he realized something was genuinely wrong. He looked around in panic, but there was no trace of Wang Ming.

Then he remembered—everyone else might lie, but not the teacher. His teacher was a strict, by-the-book type.

He went straight to the teacher and asked about Wang Ming. What happened next shattered him.

Even the teacher had no idea who Wang Ming was.

He searched his contacts, class roster, even old group photos with Wang Ming.

But everything was gone. All traces had disappeared.

Wang Ming had truly vanished from this world…

“Well, that’s the end of the story.”

Wang Hui yawned and looked at the group.

He found everyone staring back, faces pale as death, clearly shaken.

Seeing their reaction, Wang Hui gave a wry smile. “It’s just a story. I heard it from someone else. Who knows if it’s true.”

But the more ambiguous the tale, the more it unsettled people.

Li Dongxu edged closer to Wang Hui, nerves taut. “So, who did you hear this from?”

“Oh, from a relative of mine. Though he’s already passed away.”

At this, fear rose another notch among the group.

It made sense—Wang Hui and Wang Ming, perhaps relatives. It lent a new layer of plausibility to the tale.

The story teemed with strangeness and uncertainty, more than these teenagers could bear.

Satisfied with the effect, Wang Hui glanced toward the teachers’ dormitory, his voice calm.

“Actually, I’m still curious about whether any of this is real. Who wants to come with me tonight and check it out?”