Seigetsu Zhu was startled.

The girl widened her eyes. When she tried to carefully see what was going on, the glass window turned pitch black again. The shadow that had just passed by seemed like it was just her imagination.

Seigetsu Zhu stood still.

She suddenly felt a chill in the room.

The wooden floor of the corridor continuously transmitted cold air to the soles of her shoes, spreading throughout her body. No matter how tightly wrapped she was, it was difficult to dispel this eerie coldness.

Could it really be an illusion? She couldn't deny this possibility. In a highly nervous state, people are indeed prone to hallucinations. Sometimes, what they see or perceive cannot be determined solely by their eyes.

But regardless of whether it was real or not, she had to be mentally prepared and not turn a blind eye to potential threats.

Seigetsu Zhu stiffly returned to the bathroom and locked the door.

Leaning against the cold back of the door, she let out a long sigh of relief and looked at herself in the mirror, starting to calmly consider the situation.

One thought and idea after another emerged in her mind, only to be rejected one by one.

First of all, who was that figure?

Although there was a long distance between them in the corridor, and the scene she witnessed was fleeting, Seigetsu Zhu still felt a sense of familiarity.

The distorted and bizarre posture of the person, even if she wanted to forget, she couldn't. It was highly likely that it was the lunatic who invaded the school!

Should she go downstairs to call the police now? Or inform the security personnel in the community? These two options could be considered as the same category, and she could do both at the same time...

However, even so, it still wasn't safe enough.

Putting aside the issue of time, with the speed of this person's actions and their ability to climb the exterior walls of a dozen-story building, it was highly likely that they wouldn't be noticed by the people who came to investigate the scene.

She also had to consider the consequences: the weird person who invaded the school could walk on walls and roofs, she had witnessed it with her own eyes. Since it came the first time, it would come a second time. Even if it was driven away, it would come back. She didn't want to become the child in the story "The Boy Who Cried Wolf," who had to call the police out of curiosity and ended up receiving education from the police...

Should she seek help from someone who could potentially solve the situation?

If it was those two people, maybe they would have some way.

...Unfortunately, she didn't know Sunny Xu or Starry Lin's contact information.

Should she hide first?

In the wardrobe, or in a cabinet? In a room that was rarely used? Should she lock the bedroom? Should she lock all the windows and block the door with furniture? Would that be effective? Or should she do something more decisive and immediately leave home?

Unconsciously, Seigetsu Zhu walked from the door to the bathtub. She leaned against the tiled wall, as if staring in the direction of the door, her gaze shifting from the door to the sink, and then to the fluorescent light... The girl took several deep breaths, and her chest under her pajamas rose and fell slightly.

Seigetsu Zhu saw a small shadow flickering on the fluorescent light, probably a light-seeking insect flying towards it.

Yes, that's it!

Just like moths to a flame, there are creatures in this world that love darkness and dislike light.

That monster is afraid of light!

The first time, Seigetsu Zhu deduced its actions based on the fact that it only moved when she turned off the lights, and she boldly speculated. The result was that she caught it off guard with a light-on operation. The second time, she seized the opportunity and directly shone a flashlight into its eyes.

The results obtained from these two experiments were enough to draw a conclusion.

And in contrast, Seigetsu Zhu's home was really dark. If it wasn't for the necessary lights at night, she wouldn't turn them on at all.

This couldn't go on. If that thing really invaded the room...

Seigetsu Zhu made up her mind and immediately opened the door, running out into the corridor.

"Pat, pat!"

The urgent sound of slippers colliding with the floor.

From upstairs to downstairs, from the east side to the west side, the girl ran back and forth in the empty room, as if hiding from an invisible enemy.

Seigetsu Zhu ran up and down in her own home, and the result of her breathless efforts was that she found a large and a small flashlight from the cabinet, along with spare batteries. She then turned on every light in the staircase, corridor, entrance, kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, storage room... every light in every room, including wall lamps and table lamps!

In an instant, the originally dark interior became brightly lit everywhere, like a hotel lobby hosting a banquet, except the guests hadn't arrived yet.

Of course, Seigetsu Zhu didn't forget about the bedroom upstairs.

Fortunately, her mother should be asleep at this time, otherwise, she might get angry.She also called the security guard through the call device next to the doorbell and said, "I saw an unfamiliar stranger, afraid that it might be a robber or thief."

Although she didn't expect ordinary people to help solve the problem, as long as someone else came, the intruder might be deterred.

After completing all this, Seigetsu Zhu returned to the corridor outside her bedroom.

Because of the late-night running, the girl's cheeks were flushed, and her nose was covered in glistening sweat.

She held a clothes drying pole in her hand, took cautious steps, and approached the window at the end of the corridor.

From a distance, all she could see was darkness; only when she got closer could she see the faint outlines of the houses in the night, the protruding corners of the exterior walls, and looking down, there were gardens, rockeries, and lawns.

...No one.

She turned on the flashlight, pushed open the window with the clothes drying pole, and stood there waiting for a while.

The night wind howled and rushed into the corridor through the window. The curtains on both sides were blown up, like fluttering scarves.

Seigetsu Zhu walked to the window sill and shone the flashlight outside.

The light emitted by the household flashlight was not so penetrating. The beam of light towards the end of the night quickly dimmed and disappeared into the darkness without extending far.

The girl leaned on the window sill, moving her head left and right, her gaze moving up and down. The dim beam of light swayed on the rough wall, leaving behind elliptical spots of light.

Sure enough, it was empty, there was nothing.

Maybe it had already crawled far away, or maybe...

Seigetsu Zhu felt cold, her face stiffened by the night wind. She closed and locked the window, and then pulled the curtains.

Was it just a coincidence? She wondered.

In this world, there might be more than one monster, so even if "seeing a crawling figure on a window on the twelfth floor" was not her illusion, the other party might just be passing by.

On the other hand, if the monster that climbed over the wall just now was indeed the strange person she encountered tonight, then there was a high probability that it was coming for her...

But why?

Seigetsu Zhu couldn't understand.

...

She went downstairs and sat quietly on the sofa in the living room, waiting for a while. Sleepiness gradually overwhelmed her mind.

She originally came back later than usual today, and coupled with the commotion just now, it had exceeded her planned sleep time.

The clock on the wall pointed to one o'clock in the morning.

"Knock, knock."

The door was knocked.

Seigetsu Zhu was initially startled, and then she heard someone speaking outside.

"Is anyone home? I am the security guard. Someone contacted us just now."

Seigetsu Zhu walked to the door and looked outside through the peephole.

It was indeed a person wearing a security guard uniform, and she often saw this person standing guard in the guard room.

"There is currently no problem, but I just saw..."

Seigetsu Zhu opened the small window on the door and talked to the security guard through the glass for a while.

The other party said that they did not see any suspicious individuals passing by. They would arrange for more patrols on the nearby floors tonight and asked her to contact them promptly if she discovered anything.

After watching the security guard leave, Seigetsu Zhu couldn't help but sigh.

Just as she thought, when facing monsters beyond imagination, there wasn't much ordinary people could do.

It was even difficult to make them pay attention.

In the eyes of ordinary people, the walls of the twelfth floor were like a cliff wall with no place to climb. Although there were corners, wall cracks, and window sills, they were simply not enough to stand on.

Even if there was an invader who could climb four or five stories without any tools, the skeptical patrol personnel would probably find it difficult to spot the monster moving in the darkness.

"Ah..."

Seigetsu Zhu rubbed her eyes and decided to rest for a while. Driven by drowsiness, she walked up the stairs and headed towards her own bedroom.

From the room to the corridor, it was as bright as daylight, which made her, who was used to moving in the dark at night, feel a little uncomfortable.

Just as she stepped into the room, Seigetsu Zhu couldn't help but shiver.

The wind coming in through the window blew the books on the table with a "rustling" sound.

She quickly closed the open glass window, took off her shoes, and slowly climbed onto the bed.

Her cold and exhausted body gradually warmed up under the covers.

The girl closed her eyes and wanted to rest, but she found that she couldn't fall asleep.

She didn't know if it was because of the lingering worries in her heart or because the bedroom was still lit.

Her eyelids trembled slightly, and her eyeballs could sense the faint light falling down. She always felt a little uncomfortable, and even her breathing became unusually heavy, as if...

...

Wait, breathing?Seigetsu Zhu noticed something was amiss. She kept her eyes closed, but quietly held her breath.

Then, something that sent chills down the spine of the girl lying in bed happened:

The sound of breathing in the room did not cease!

Even though she had stopped making any noise, the room still echoed with the sound of breathing close at hand.

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Seigetsu Zhu felt as if she were lying in an ice cave, her hands and feet becoming as cold as a corpse. The thick quilt could no longer provide any warmth to her body.

Her heart pounded in her chest, but her body was like a piece of wood, unable to move.

Where, exactly where?

Where was that breathing sound coming from?

Was it her mother? Had she come out of her room?

The girl finally mustered the courage to slightly open her eyes. Her thick, dense eyelashes obscured her vision like curtains, making everything nearby blurry. However, she could still see clearly that aside from herself lying in bed, there was no one else in the room.

The door was still properly closed.

Her gaze swept over the long table, bookshelf, chair, vanity mirror, and window in the room—

At that moment, Seigetsu Zhu suddenly remembered something.

Before she left her bedroom to go to the bathroom, she had been sitting at her desk studying. The window should have been closed then; but when she returned from the living room, she had closed the window again...

Someone had indeed broken in!

Seigetsu Zhu's breathing became erratic again, almost causing her to cough. She tried to calm her heartbeat, fearing that if it was too rapid, the intruder might notice something was wrong.

By then, she could already discern where the second breathing sound in the bedroom was coming from.

In fact, anyone could guess the answer.

In the brightly lit bedroom, there was only one place where someone could hide without being noticed by the girl.

—Under her bed.

The muffled sound of breathing was coming from beneath her.

Seigetsu Zhu's hand tightly gripped the corner of the quilt, trying to act as if she hadn't heard anything. She once again adjusted her breathing to match the intruder's, pretending she hadn't noticed anything.

However, the "person" under the bed was not willing to let her off so easily.

"Creak—creak—"

A sharp, piercing sound echoed in the room, making one's skin crawl. It was like the sound of glass shards scratching on a blackboard.

She quickly realized that it was the sound of fingernails scratching the bed board.