Nightmare Strikes

Translator: Cinder Translations

--------

"Her name is Chen Yao," Director Li stared at Jiang Cheng and spoke after a long pause.

Fatty had just woken up and his mind was still foggy. He didn't immediately grasp what Director Li meant, so he instinctively asked, "Who? Who are you saying is named Chen Yao?"

"The girl who went missing in the archive file," Director Li stopped abruptly as she spoke, then turned her head, and with a voice filled with deep restraint, she slowly said, "The one you've been searching for—the ghost."

As soon as the word "ghost" came out, both Jiang Cheng and Fatty's expressions shifted.

In their mission, there were indeed some NPCs who had sensed the existence of supernatural events, like Feng Lan.

But Director Li was the first person to directly say it out loud, face to face.

Jiang Cheng looked at her and asked, "Do you know her?"

From the clues they had so far, the incident involving the girl in the file happened ten years ago. Given that the woman in front of them had risen to the position of Academic Director, she must have been working at this school for quite some time.

There was a chance that they had crossed paths.

Fatty seemed to have thought of this too. He hesitated and asked, "Have you seen her before?"

"Or... was she once your student?" Fatty asked again, his eyes widening.

Director Li's face was hidden behind sunglasses and a mask, so her expression was unreadable. However, her voice subtly trembled, hinting that she was not as calm as she appeared.

Fatty became more convinced that his guess was right.

Director Li raised her head. The sunglasses gave Fatty an eerie feeling, as if he were staring into an abyss. He couldn't help but shiver.

"She was my classmate," Director Li said. "We were in the same class."

Fatty's eyes suddenly widened.

Jiang Cheng hesitated for a moment but then quickly masked it, looking at the woman in front of him. He raised his head slightly and casually asked, "Class of '09, Dance Department, Ballet major, second class?"

"Yes," Director Li nodded.

"But that's not right," Fatty exclaimed, his excitement rising. "I remember you weren't in the photo!"

As soon as Fatty said that, he regretted it. Given her current disguise, even her own mother might not recognize her, let alone strangers.

Besides, the photo was from ten years ago.

When the woman shifted her gaze to Fatty, his face turned pale, but fortunately, Jiang Cheng stepped in just in time, drawing her attention back to him.

"Can you tell us more?"

"He's right," the woman said, "I wasn't in the photo. I transferred in. I was originally studying vocal music but later switched to the second class of the Dance Department, majoring in ballet."

"My detailed records are in the archive," she said, stepping back slightly to clear the way to the archive room. Her voice, behind those dark sunglasses, sounded like stagnant water. "If you don't believe me, you can go check."

Jiang Cheng shook his head, "No need. I believe you."

After what had just happened, Fatty wisely chose to stay quiet. He pricked up his ears, his small eyes darting around.

"Why did you change your major?" Jiang Cheng continued, his voice now tinged with emotion. "I suspect it has something to do with Chen Yao."

The woman raised her head as if recalling something, and then her face tensed. The skin around her exposed eyes became twisted and fierce. "Chen Yao was a bitch!" she spat out angrily.

Jiang Cheng immediately looked around, especially in the darker corners where the sunlight couldn't reach.

He quickly added, "Don't say that. From my perspective, she didn't seem so bad. Maybe she had her reasons, who knows?"

"I think Brother Hao Shuai is right," Fatty chimed in smartly for once, edging closer to the sunlight. He spoke earnestly, "I think the girl looked pretty nice, not the type who would be unreasonable. There must be some kind of misunderstanding here."

Seeing that nothing strange was happening around them, Jiang Cheng and Fatty finally relaxed.

"A misunderstanding?" The woman was infuriated by their baseless words and began trembling all over. "That bitch seduced my fiancé! Is that a misunderstanding too?"

Jiang Cheng stroked his chin and paused for several seconds before saying, "Your fiancé was Chen Yao's dance instructor."

Indeed, one of the men in the group photo was missing.

Her chest heaved violently, and it took a long time for the woman to calm herself.

It was clear that the incident had deeply scarred her, so much so that even after ten years, she still harbored hatred.

She took a deep breath, her chin moving ever so slightly. "Yes."

"What was your fiancé's name?" Fatty jumped in, asking.

"Su Yu."

Jiang Cheng frowned and then said, "He's the one from the Equipment Management Center, that ol—" He abruptly stopped and, after a few seconds, corrected himself, "That male teacher?"

The woman seemed surprised that Jiang Cheng knew even that. She was silent for a long while before nodding slowly. "Yes, he was my fiancé, Su Yu."

From the way she addressed him, it seemed they had never progressed beyond the engagement stage, and had not ended up together.

The missing girl—Chen Yao—appeared to be the cause.

The woman's gaze kept shifting between Jiang Cheng and Fatty, her movements oddly unnatural, with her neck constantly tilting at strange angles.

Fatty suddenly had the eerie feeling that this Director Li was like a cobra preparing to strike its prey.

The thought sent a chill down his spine.

He swallowed nervously and instinctively hid behind Jiang Cheng.

But to his surprise...

Jiang Cheng moved even faster. At some point, he had already ducked behind Fatty, leaving only a sliver of his body exposed to continue talking to the woman.

As Jiang Cheng continued the conversation, he kept scanning their surroundings.

After spending so much time with Jiang Cheng, Fatty could tell what his plan was.

That guy was definitely thinking of an escape route.

If negotiations fell apart, he'd be ready to bolt.

"How did Chen Yao die?" Jiang Cheng finally asked, cutting straight to the point.

Fatty tensed up at the question, fearing that the next moment Director Li would coldly confess, "I killed her."

Fatty played out the scenario in his head, imagining a line like, "You know too much, and I only trust the dead to keep secrets." In the next moment, the villain would pull out a gun to silence them.

If things really escalated to that point, though they outnumbered her two to one, Director Li's confidence in showing up alone suggested she had some kind of hidden advantage.

Fatty eyed Director Li from head to toe, his gaze becoming increasingly suspicious.

Indeed, there was something too strange about this woman. Her body language wasn't exactly wrong, but there was a deeply unsettling disjointedness to it.

The longer he looked, the eerier it became.

It was almost as if... her upper and lower halves didn't belong to the same person, like they had been pieced together from two different bodies.

(End of the Chapter)

---

Want More of (NS)?

Read ahead on [Pa.treon](pa treon . com / CinderTL) – up to Chapter 160. (+10)

Early access starts at $1. Your support keeps this going!

🎁Use Code CINDER2025 to get 50% first month discount on TUR and TUP Tiers. Valid Till 15Jan2025.🎉

You can susbcribe $1 Tier for this novel or you can subscribe to any of my other 2 novels and get 2 novels for the price of 1 at just $5.

Translated 1.3K+ Chapters and 1.5M+ Words.