Unsolved Mystery on Campus: The Old Mop in the Storage Room

Chenming walked into the storage room, a dimly lit room filled with all sorts of odds and ends, covered in a thick layer of dust as if it hadn't been used for a long time. The stale air was filled with a musty smell. Leaning against the wall, Chenming wore a troubled expression.

"This is really not a good job," he couldn't help but complain in his heart. "How can these guys treat a new classmate like this?"

Chenming was a transfer student at Tianchen High School, and he had just joined a new class today. Because it was the third year of high school, everyone was busy reviewing for the college entrance examination, and they all seemed indifferent to him, the new transfer student. To make matters worse, the class leader directly entrusted him with the task of cleaning the classroom at the end of the school day. It was really despicable.

More importantly, the mop in the class had already been broken, so he had to personally go to the school's storage room to find a new one. For Chenming, who had originally intended to build good relationships with the students in the new class, this made him feel extremely frustrated.

Thinking this way, Chenming kicked the wall in frustration. Then there was a sound as something was kicked and fell to the ground. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a mop.

Picking it up, it looked a bit old and hadn't been used in a long time—the cloth was dried and twisted together. He was about to find another one, but after looking around, he found that there were no others, so he had to leave with this somewhat worn-out mop. By now, it was already evening, the sky was overcast, and most people had already left the school, leaving only a few scattered groups of students on the playground. Chenming felt a bit unhappy, pursed his lips, and started to complain about the way the students treated him as a new student.

Slowly making his way back to the classroom, Chenming was surprised to find that there was still a girl left in the empty classroom. She was a very beautiful girl, and she was hunched over the desk working on a set of exercises. Noticing Chenming, she turned her head and gave him a slight smile.

As a newcomer, Chenming didn't know this very beautiful girl, but he felt that she was the type of person who was easy to get along with, so he also nodded and smiled, asking her, "Hi, I'm Chenming, what's your name?"

"I'm Lin Qin," the girl nodded, then asked him, "Why are you still here so late?"

Chenming pointed to the mop in his hand and said to Lin Qin, "I have to do the cleaning duty, assigned by the class leader. What about you, why haven't you left?"

"I'll leave after finishing this set of exercises," Lin Qin picked up the papers on the table and said to Chenming, showing that she was a studious girl.

"Well, take your time," Chenming started to clean the classroom diligently, sweeping the floor with great care.

After finishing the cleaning, Chenming grabbed the mop and headed to the washroom to rinse it. As he walked out of the classroom, the empty corridor echoed with his footsteps, making him feel a bit hollow.

Students in the third year of high school had an extra self-study session compared to other grades, so by the time they finished school, the school was almost empty. The corridor was dim, and the overhead lights were very dim. Chenming felt a bit scared for no reason, and then thought about how Lin Qin, a girl, was still studying alone in the classroom at this time. She was really brave.

2

The washroom had no lights on, making it even darker than outside. Chenming stood at the door, feeling a bit hesitant to enter. Just as he hesitated, he suddenly heard the sound of running water coming from inside the washroom. At first, he was startled, but then he realized that there must be someone inside, so he called out, "Who's in there?"

The sound of running water stopped, and a hoarse voice of a boy answered in a joking tone, "Of course, it's a person."

Chenming felt relieved and replied, "I'm doing cleaning duty here, just rinsing the mop."

With that, he walked in and saw a boy's figure washing his hair under the faucet at the end of the row of sinks. Chenming placed the mop under another faucet and washed it vigorously. Curious, he asked the boy, "What are you doing here so late?"

"Just finished playing basketball and sweated a lot," the boy replied.

"Oh, washing like this might lead to a cold," Chenming said kindly.

"No worries, I have a strong body," the boy laughed and the sound of water splashing onto his hair could be heard, "But thank you."

Chenming quickly told him not to worry, and as he vigorously shook the mop, a dark red liquid flowed out, but he couldn't figure out what it was. Chenming pursed his lips, an action he unconsciously performed when he felt annoyed, then he squeezed the mop even harder, as if holding a grudge. The red liquid stained the drain in the washroom, and despite his efforts to wash it away, more of the red liquid continued to flow from the mop. In the end, Chenming sighed and gave up on further rinsing. After shaking the mop, he said to the boy, "I'll go now."

The boy, still rinsing his head under the faucet, just made a noise in response and waved his hand.

Chenming then left with the wet mop and as he walked a few steps in the corridor, a figure suddenly stood in front of him, startling him so much that he almost jumped—It was an old man, small and thin, with his hands behind his back and a pair of small eyes staring stubbornly at Chenming.

"Who are you? You scared me!" Chenming shouted at the old man, feeling a little annoyed.

"I'm the school's security guard," the old man pointed to his clothes to indicate his identity, then he stared at Chenming and asked in a rather unfriendly tone, "Why are you still here at this late hour?"

"I'm on cleaning duty," Chenming pointed in the direction of his classroom.

"Then you'd better hurry, the school building is about to be locked up soon," the old man warned. Suddenly, he noticed the mop in Chenming's hand, and his body shuddered slightly, as he asked sharply, "Where did you find the mop?"

"In the storage room," Chenming was startled by the sudden sharpness in the old man's voice.

"The storage room? It was clearly thrown away, you must have seen it wrong," the old man shook his head and muttered to himself. Then he glanced at the washroom and asked Chenming, "Is there someone in there?"

"There's another person washing their hair," Chenming said and quickly pulled the mop away, afraid that the old man would keep nagging at him.

After a few steps, when he looked back, the figure of the old man was slowly moving into the washroom. Chenming suddenly felt that the old man's figure was like a ghost without substance, floating lightly. This idea made Chenming shudder uncontrollably, and he hurried back to his classroom.

Lin Qin was still quietly lying there, working on the test papers.

Chenming's heart started to beat faster due to the recent events, and it took a long time for him to calm down, but he couldn't help but laugh at himself and curse himself for being such a coward. Then he bent down and started mopping the floor. Although he was so unhappy, it was the first time he had cleaned the classroom for the new class, so he did it with special care. Sweat dripped from his face.

The sky outside had completely darkened, and all that could be heard in the classroom was the sound of the mop sweeping the floor.

Chenming panted slowly, with a sense of eeriness that he seemed to never finish sweeping, and as time passed, he began to feel panicky. Suddenly, he looked up and saw Lin Qin sitting on the windowsill next to him, wearing a resentful expression on her face as she looked at him.

"What... what are you doing?" Chenming was shocked and shouted.

Tears streamed down Lin Qin's cheeks, as if she was very sad. Without saying a word, she suddenly leaned back, and fell out of the window. A few seconds later, a dull thud was heard outside.

The sudden turn of events left Chenming standing stunned in the same place, surrounded by silence, except for the sound of his own accelerating heartbeat, clear and distinct, dripping with sweat, slowly falling to the ground. After a long time, he couldn't believe himself and muttered hoarsely, "Lin Qin... committed suicide?"

Chen Ming's classroom is on the fifth floor. He hurried downstairs and in the dim light, he saw a red mark under the window, a human-shaped shadow crouching there. Chen Ming stopped, panting, filled with fear and confusion, not knowing what to do. Sweat soaked his clothes, and in the eerie moonlight, Chen Ming felt like his heart was about to jump out of his throat. The campus was now deserted, plunged into darkness, with only a faint light emanating from the teaching building.

"Call the police!" Chen Ming suddenly thought, and then he wanted to find a place with a phone. But just as he turned around, he suddenly saw a person standing behind him. He let out a startled cry, his body almost collapsing to the ground.

“What's wrong with you?” Despite the dim light, the boy from the water room was still recognizable.

“Someone...someone committed suicide,” Chen Ming said incoherently, pointing towards the nearby body.

"Suicide?" The boy glanced in that direction and then said, "Another one?"

"What do you mean, another one?" Chen Ming asked in surprise as he heard the boy's low voice.

The boy didn't answer Chen Ming directly, but his expression suddenly changed. "Do you know that girl who jumped off the building at our school three years ago?" he asked.

Chen Ming shook his head, fearfully saying, "I just transferred here today; I don't know."

"Then let me tell you. Three years ago, there was a girl who jumped off the building at night. She was forced to do it by someone." The boy's voice was low, and in this eerie environment, it was particularly terrifying. He continued, "There is a janitor at our school, and he saw that the girl, who loved studying, was the only one left in the classroom that night when he had evil thoughts and wanted to harm her. However, the girl didn't listen to him and jumped out of the window and died."

"The janitor?" Chen Ming suddenly thought of the old man he met outside the water room.

The boy went on, "When the janitor saw the girl's death, he didn't want anyone to know about it, so he quietly buried her somewhere. There was blood all over the place where the girl fell, and he used a mop to clean it up. Since then, that mop has become eerie, and there have been frequent cases of suicide by jumping off the building at our school, all related to that mop."

Chen Ming understood what the boy was saying. "Are you saying that Lin Qin jumped off the building because of that mop?"

The boy nodded and said, "Yes, she was possessed."

"Posssessed?" Chen Ming shivered and then looked at Lin Qin's body, swallowing hard. "What should we do now, call the police?"

"We can't call the police!" The boy hurriedly said. "If we call the police, both of us will be suspected, and the police won't believe that the mop is causing trouble. In the previous suicide cases, several innocent students were taken away."

"So...what should we do?" Chen Ming started to rely on the boy without realizing it.

The boy approached Chen Ming, lowered his voice, and said in a serious tone, "We need to find a place to bury her, so no one knows what happened."

“What?”

4

There is a deserted area behind the school that was originally an abandoned orchard. The school had planned to build a cafeteria here, and construction was about to begin.

Shaking with fear, Chen Ming dragged Lin Qin's body to this place. As he stopped to catch his breath, he suddenly felt the same emotion: what was he doing, burying a body under the moonlight? Why was he doing such a terrifying thing?

He thought to himself, no matter what, if he discovered someone missing at the school, as the duty student, he would be the first suspect. And if he was found burying Lin Qin's body, he would be in even more trouble. Lin Qin had clearly committed suicide, and he, a new transfer student, had no grudges with her. Why would the police suspect him? All he had to do was explain.

Countless thoughts swirled in Chen Ming's mind, but in the end, the boy's comforting words came out of nowhere: "I'm helping you. There's an abandoned area behind the school. You dig a hole with a shovel, and I'll help you clean up the bloodstains here." As if by some magical power, Chen Ming's mind suddenly calmed down, and he seemed to have made a decision. He no longer thought about anything else and picked up a shovel to start digging a hole in the ground.

In the dim moonlight, all that could be heard were the sounds of the shovel scraping the earth among the desolate vegetation.

"What are you doing?" A voice boomed in Chen Ming's ears, shocking him, causing him to turn and face the source. In the dim light, a small figure stood in front of him, the same old man he had seen outside the water room.

Seeing Chen Ming's stunned expression, the old man stepped forward, revealing the countless wrinkles on his face, creating a terrifying feeling. The old man asked sternly, "What are you doing here? Why haven't you left yet?"

Chen Ming hesitated, looking anxiously towards Lin Qin's body, hoping that the old man hadn't noticed the nearby corpse. But as he looked over, he couldn't help but cry out in surprise as he found the space empty; Lin Qin's body was gone!

The old man seemed to be unaware of Chen Ming's shock but continued to speak. "Just then, you lied to me. You said there was someone in the water room. Who is it? Are you playing tricks on me, an old man?"

"What?" Chen Ming was startled by the old man's words. "You mean...there was no one in the water room?"

"Of course not!" The old man grabbed Chen Ming's arm and demanded, "Tell me, what are you doing here?"

"I..." Chen Ming felt as if he had fallen into an icy river in winter, complete bone-chilling cold.

At that moment, the old man suddenly exclaimed, showing a puzzled expression and said urgently, "Hey, kid, did you see someone jump off the building, and then a boy asked you to come here and bury the body?"

This startled Chen Ming, creating a palpable sense of dread. After hesitating, he nodded.

"Oh no!" Without delay, the old man dragged Chen Ming away, speaking quickly, "You foolish kid! You've been deceived, that boy is a vengeful spirit. He almost lured you here and buried you alive!"

"What are you saying?" Chen Ming exclaimed in surprise.

The old man continued, "Three years ago, a boy and a girl at the school were in love. When their teachers and parents found out, they couldn't bear the reprimands, and they both committed suicide. The girl jumped off the building, the boy cut his wrist, it was truly tragic. At that time, there was a pile of bloodstains in front of the teaching building, and I worked for several days to clean it up with a mop. After that, strange things started to happen. That mop became sinister and no matter where I threw it away, it always mysteriously returned to the school. Then strange things started happening at the school. Some people went missing, and were later found buried in this abandoned area. It was all the doing of that dead boy. He was driven to death by those adults and began to haunt the people at this school."

As the old man spoke, he pushed Chen Ming out of the school gate without hesitation. Then, he warned Chen Ming with a serious expression, "You need to hurry home, but remember, you must not tell anyone about this. Otherwise, it will bring disaster upon you, understand?"

As the old man spoke, there was a faint hint of a sinister expression on his face.

Chen Ming hurriedly nodded and said, "Yes, yes, I understand."

With a mind blank, he turned and ran back home, not looking back. However, as he turned around, he saw the old man standing behind the school gate, staring at him without moving, his face seemed to be pale in the moonlight, looking particularly grim. In the distance, at the classroom where Chen Ming attended, two figures were reflected on the window, the same boy and Lin Qin, gazing in his direction. Chen Ming felt a chill surge through his body once again and then turned and ran.

As he walked to the bustling street, Chenming finally breathed a sigh of relief after his terrifying experience. The recent events were still vivid in his mind, leaving him with lingering fear and a memory he would never forget. The thought of being misled into digging a grave and burying a non-existent female corpse sent shivers down his spine. It was fortunate that he encountered the old man; otherwise, he might have been buried alive. However, there was still an eerie feeling lingering within Chenming.

Lost in thought, he strolled through the crowded street. Suddenly, someone tapped him on the shoulder, causing Chenming to almost scream in terror. His face turned pale, and in his subconscious, he thought it was the ghostly figure following him. However, when he turned around, he realized it was the class monitor.

"Hey, new student, I've been waiting for you for a while!" the monitor said with a smile.

"Waiting for me?" Chenming looked bewildered.

"Yeah, it's like this. With the college entrance exam approaching, everyone in the classroom was too preoccupied to pay attention to a new student like you. They seemed distant, and in the end, they even nominated you for duty. I felt guilty about it, so I waited for you here and invited you for barbecue skewers," the monitor explained warmly while reaching out to grab Chenming's arm.

Chenming felt touched. "It's nothing, I can understand everyone."

"Haha, let's not talk about it, shall we? The barbecue skewers here are very delicious," the monitor continued.

"Monitor, I have a question for you." As the two headed to the barbecue stall, Chenming asked cautiously, "Do deaths happen often at our school?"

"Deaths?" The monitor was puzzled by Chenming's inquiry and asked, "How is that possible? If people were dying frequently, our school would have closed down long ago. Why are you asking, Chenming?"

"I... I don't know how to answer. I'm filled with suspicion," Chenming admitted. "That caretaker, he clearly said that there have been frequent disappearances at school lately."

"What caretaker?" the monitor asked in confusion. "There's no caretaker at our school."

"What?" Chenming stopped in surprise.

The monitor, looking enlightened, continued, "I remember now. There was indeed a homicide at our school three years ago. At that time, a couple of students were involved in a secret romance, doing some suspicious activities at night in school. They were caught by a caretaker, who's no longer here. We don't know what he said to the couple, but the girl ended up jumping off the building, and the boy, in a fit of rage, wanted to fight the caretaker. However, accidentally, the ex-soldier caretaker, who had some fighting skills, ended up killing the boy in self-defense. To avoid responsibility, he secretly buried the two of them."

Chenming trembled as he asked, "What about the caretaker?"

After a moment of thought, the monitor continued, "The caretaker successfully covered up the murders. As the two students disappeared for no apparent reason, everyone thought they had eloped. It wasn't until later, when the caretaker accidentally blabbed about it while drunk, that others found out the truth. When the police went to arrest him, the caretaker committed suicide. The incident led to quite a sensation due to the loss of three lives. However, to this day, the bodies of that boy and girl have not been found."

"I know where they were buried!" Chenming suddenly exclaimed.

"You do?" the monitor looked at Chenming in confusion.

Chenming finally realized that the three people he encountered at school were all ghosts. Lin Qin and the boy had been killed by the caretaker three years ago, but their bodies had never been found. They had pretended to discover the burial site themselves. If he wasn't mistaken, the place he had dug earlier was likely where their bodies were buried. Unexpectedly, after the caretaker's death, he had turned into an evil spirit, unwilling to let others discover the burial site, which is why he had appeared to stop Chenming, and warned him not to discuss these events.

But the question remained: Should he reveal this secret?

Originally posted 2024-04-02 15:36:23.