Eldritch Horror Theatre

'That direction...'

A scream filled with the terror of death. A sudden outburst like that in this setting was undoubtedly enough to set anyone's nerves on edge.

Even as he marveled at that fact, Fu Qian's immediate reaction was to rapidly gauge the scream's location and height, cross-referencing it with the path of the footsteps.

He didn't waste any time, promptly stepping out of the women's restroom and putting an end to his impolite behavior.

Once outside, Fu Qian immediately confirmed that the now incredibly faint footprints did indeed head in the direction of the scream, and he followed them.

He continued to heed the warning, avoiding counting the room numbers, but he still didn't hear any piano music.

It wasn't long before Fu Qian arrived near the source of the scream.

Nestled in a corner of the building, it was noticeably darker than everywhere else. At a glance, it was impossible to distinguish man from ghost.

Fortunately, Fu Qian didn't intend to try.

The light was dim and yellow, but it still illuminated Mister Wolf's figure clearly.

"Need any help?"

Not only that, but the next moment Fu Qian tossed the casual question straight ahead.

After waiting quietly for a few breaths, a figure with a jacket wrapped around its head slowly leaned out from behind one of the corners.

"Wolf?"

After a brief exchange of glances, the newcomer actually reached up and pulled off the jacket, staring at Fu Qian's face in confusion.

...

It was the very same person who had passed by the storage room earlier.

It wasn't hard for Fu Qian to recall the color and style of the jacket. It was undoubtedly a match.

Beyond that, the voice and the face matched as well.

The school urban legend that had previously blocked him and Eva in the storage room wasn't just a person with a jacket wrapped around their head—it was someone he had actually met before.

At the All Fools' Day Party, this was one of the two lackeys flanking Butters—the guy with the exaggeratedly high nose bridge.

And it was obvious the guy remembered him, too.

"Run into some trouble?"

Nodding slightly as he studied the startled student, Fu Qian didn't even ask why he had been wearing that getup, instead simply confirming in a flat tone if he needed help.

At the party, apart from Butters, the posture of his two lackeys had also been rather peculiar, leaving quite an impression.

If that had been a prank, their acting was mediocre at best.

But if they had genuinely been looking for him to solve a problem, then their motives and attitudes were truly intriguing.

After all, anyone with half a brain could figure out that Butters accidentally killing someone had nothing to do with them.

It wasn't as if they had gang-beaten the guy to death. Besides, compared to Butters, Joshua was clearly much closer to them.

Yet after Butters caused a disaster and said he was calling someone to help handle it, they had actually chosen to help?

This kind of behavior was simply not something anyone with a normal brain would choose.

Unless they knew more beyond the immediate plot.

That would also be the reason why they showed up here at this time and made such bizarre moves.

Exactly. If the fat-headed monster could be a real person, why couldn't the shadow trailing far behind him and Eva be one as well?

Don't forget that after the two of them likely bumped into each other, there hadn't been any commotion. At the time, he had even suspected they might have successfully linked up.

As for why there was only this one here right now?

Simple. If they could group up, they could naturally split up to take action.

If they were searching for or chasing something, blocking it off from both ends obviously made it harder to miss.

"No..."

Unfortunately, the high-nosed student still seemed a bit distrustful of this outsider.

While staring over in shock, he shook his head almost subconsciously in response to the question.

"Why are you here?"

Not only that, the next moment he even asked back with clear vigilance.

"Why was I at the party?"

Too bad for him, answering a question with a question was an art Fu Qian had long since mastered to the Grandmaster Realm.

Leaving that remark to spark boundless imagination, Fu Qian didn't care about the other party's reaction; he walked straight forward, brushed past the high-nosed student under his gaze, and went deeper behind him.

...

Not too far away, a small window on the outer wall was already open.

It truly wasn't very big, but it could indeed let a person pass through.

Fu Qian poked his head out and saw a human figure curled up on the flagstone path below the building, completely motionless.

That miserable, shrill wail from earlier had clearly come from this person's mouth.

As for why he would do something so self-destructive?

The fear brought on by being chased all the way by the high-nosed student nearby might have been a major reason, but was it possible that the person on the ground hadn't actually intended to commit suicide?

Like many old buildings, the exterior outside the window wasn't a slippery, flat wall, but a decorative ledge extending out to both sides.

With no way left to run, hiding outside in that manner wasn't a bad emergency measure.

As for why he was so sure it was an accidental fall and not the result of being thrown down?

Fu Qian cast a glance to the side.

Amid the sound of footsteps, faced with Mister Wolf's surgically precise movements, the high-nosed student—still mulling over that question from earlier—finally followed him over after a moment of hesitation.

That was naturally a possibility, too, but considering the size and height of this window, squeezing out on one's own already took quite a bit of effort. Forcibly stuffing a struggling young adult out of it?

For an ordinary person, pulling that off would be a bit too much to ask.

Besides, from that angle, this actually aligned in a bizarre way with the taboo Eva had mentioned—that anyone leaving this building through unconventional means would die.

"I was looking for... Joshua."

As Fu Qian mused inwardly, the high-nosed student finally cracked under the pressure of the silence. Staring blankly downstairs, he took the initiative to explain why he was here.

"That's not Joshua."

The answer didn't surprise Fu Qian too much, and he shook his head almost the instant the student finished speaking.

"Ah? How do you know?"

The high-nosed student was visibly shocked in that moment, unable to understand why Fu Qian was so confident.

After all, looking down from this height, it was practically impossible to make out any details.

'How would I not know? Joshua is still sitting in the storage room.'

Fu Qian only kept that thought to himself.

He could almost confirm that this guy wasn't the one who had propped Joshua up in the storage room.

And aside from that reason, there was another reason Fu Qian was so certain—

Although the miserable scream had cracked slightly, it had still sounded faintly familiar. It actually sounded a bit like Wen, who had explored the Old House with him earlier.

However, Fu Qian didn't voice this deduction. Instead, he looked past the other party's shoulder at what was behind him.

Beneath the glow of the turned-on light, another figure was hesitantly walking over.

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