Chapter 233: 229 The Curse of Hanako

"Tsk, the last restroom. Even now, you don't intend to show yourself? Little one." He Jia'an fished a crumpled, falling-apart cigarette pack from his pocket, pulled out a cigarette that had been warped by water and even emitted a strange odor, and clamped it in his mouth. With his front teeth biting the filter, his piercing gaze swept across the surroundings of the restroom before he withdrew it with regret, saying with slightly slurred speech, "Uncle here, you see, really wants to meet you."

Biting the unlit cigarette as he walked out of the last restroom in the teaching building, He Jia'an stood in the corridor, looking at the clear, cloudless sky, his eyes drifting slightly as he pondered in place.

"Right, the place called a restroom isn't only found in the teaching building and Xingzhenglou." He Jia'an turned to head downstairs, walking toward the Gymnasium at the edge of the playground. "Almost forgot there's a restroom in the Gymnasium too."

Drip—

The moment he stepped into the Gymnasium, a gust of cold, sinister wind rushed toward his face.

The vast Gymnasium, with its indoor lights off, was dark and cold. Any sound made here would form an echo and be amplified manifold. It was likely a place like a shower room or a washroom; the sound of dripping water, like the buzzing of mosquitoes lingering by his ears, was extremely annoying, as if it were truly dripping right beside his ear. The physiological reaction brought about by the cold wind blowing past his ears complemented this sound perfectly.

He Jia'an walked straight past the volleyball court and the badminton court, arriving at the rear of the Gymnasium. Walking into the corridor at the back, one could see one end leading directly to the men's locker room and men's restroom, while further down the corridor, a corner branched off, and that corner corridor led directly to the women's locker room and women's restroom.

Standing at the corner where he had to choose his path, He Jia'an was just about to think on the spot whether to go to the women's restroom or the men's restroom first when he discovered that the entrance to the women's restroom was flickering with eerie lights.

The obvious Abnormal caught He Jia'an's attention, and he walked toward the women's restroom without hesitation.

"It couldn't possibly be unstable wiring," He Jia'an thought, biting the cigarette filter, "because the entire school has had its power cut now."

Lifting the curtain at the entrance of the women's restroom, He Jia'an walked inside. Then, a thick, cold, sinister aura crawled over his entire body like ten thousand tiny snakes. A strong, chilling sensation surged from the bottom of his heart, piercing his brain like a cold ice pick.

Everything was so sudden, making it hard to fend off.

But He Jia'an was far too familiar with this feeling. He had felt this power called a "Blessing" more than once; it was a blasphemous thing constructed from all extreme negative emotions and malice, which would launch malicious attacks against all living beings.

He had finally found Hanako, right here in the women's restroom of this Gymnasium.

The perception of the eerie and the cold far exceeded his nose's sense of the stench inside the restroom. He Jia'an's attention was completely drawn to the last stall in the left row of the restroom. He saw the stall door slowly opening. The dim stall, which even the flickering lights could not illuminate, was not at all what a stall should look like; it seemed as if behind that stall was not the restroom people were familiar with, but the ultimate darkness leading to the netherworld.

He Jia'an watched the movement of that restroom stall quietly, remaining motionless himself.

At one moment, He Jia'an noticed a pale blue little hand slowly reaching out from behind the door. The little hand, covered in wounds of varying sizes, clawed at the edge of the door. From inside the stall came a girl's hoarse clicking sound; a girl who had died a miserable death was about to crawl out from behind the door.

He Jia'an spat out the cigarette that had long been soaked in saliva and quickly took a few steps closer.

The girl behind the door seemed dissatisfied with He Jia'an's reaction; her movements suddenly accelerated significantly, and her entire arm wrapped around the edge of the door.

"Ah—"

He Jia'an slowly looked up. At this moment, he heard that the sound was coming from above. Immediately after, he saw the head of a girl who had died a violent death, topped with those world-weary, venomous black eyes, staring straight at him, her mouth wide open, continuously emitting strange cries.

While his attention was focused on the girl's eerie head, He Jia'an suddenly felt a weight on his left calf and it tightened abruptly. Looking down, he discovered a headless torso clutching his calf tightly. The severed cross-section on the neck was rough and unbearable, the wound fresh and bright red.

"Ah!" A loud scream rang out. He Jia'an saw a black shadow descending from the sky out of the corner of his eye. He immediately pulled back to dodge, only to see a round human head fall to the spot where he had just been standing.

"Uncle doesn't like being held like this." He Jia'an's forehead was covered in cold sweat. He tried to shake off the girl's limbs from his calf, but it was like the constriction of a python; the more he struggled, the tighter it became. The harder he tried to pry her off, the stronger the binding force grew, so tight that he could clearly feel the lack of blood supply to his calf, a wave of weakness.

The pain in his calf made He Jia'an's brain race. He suddenly thought of something, and one hand quickly took the New Year Red Envelope from his pocket, then he pressed it fiercely onto the back of the headless corpse.

The New Year Red Envelope sensed the evil power harming He Jia'an and erupted with a strong red light. When the cover of the Red Envelope pressed against the corpse's back, it was as if a red-hot branding iron had been pressed onto the skin.

Hanako felt immense pain and released her hold on He Jia'an. The separated corpse suddenly turned into two thick streams of black smoke that quickly converged and intertwined, then suddenly darted out of the restroom.

He Jia'an watched as the cover of the New Year Red Envelope became damp as if it had been dipped in water. That corner, originally bright red, turned dull and lusterless, as if signaling the usage limit of the New Year Red Envelope.

He did not dwell on it. After putting the Red Envelope away on his person, he immediately chased after it, tracking the black smoke weaving through the shadows all the way. From the rear exit of the Gymnasium, he passed through the corridor connecting the teaching building and the Gymnasium, ran back to the teaching building, and sprinted all the way, finally seeing the smoke dive into the men's restroom on the first floor of the teaching building.

He Jia'an raised an eyebrow; he was all too familiar with this restroom. This was the very restroom where Ju Xiuyi had finally vanished into thin air.

Could it be that this was also the place where Hanako had died?

He Jia'an chased into the restroom and saw the smoke turn back into a human shape. A girl with a distorted physique, emitting strange cries from her mouth—part weeping, part resentment—slowly walked into the stall where Ju Xiuyi had finally disappeared.

"Don't run!" He Jia'an could not easily let Hanako go. He steeled himself and chased after her, rushing into the restroom stall right behind her.

Clang!

The stall door slammed heavily against the doorframe. As the door panel bounced back and forth, the flickering lights in the restroom gradually calmed down, and the scene inside the stall switched back and forth between absolute darkness and the dim restroom view.

Bang!

When the Chosen Alliance Investigator who had been tracking He Jia'an in secret arrived and pushed open the door, the scene inside the stall had already calmed and stabilized; it was just a restroom stall in the dark.

However, He Jia'an's figure could not be found anywhere.

A moment later, the Chosen Alliance Investigator had no choice but to report this fact to Matsumoto Gin.

"Senior Matsumoto, He Jia'an... He Jia'an seems to have vanished into thin air too!"