Chapter 1

In the dead of night, muffled moans of passion drifted from the neighboring dorm room.

Fed up with the noise, I tagged the couple in the school's group chat: [Hey the couple next door, can you keep it down a bit?!]

The guy quickly replied: [Already slit her throat. She definitely won't be making any more noise.]

He even sent a picture.

In the image, the woman's neck was slashed open, the bed drenched in a gruesome pool of blood.

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I startled awake.

The photograph looked incredibly eerie.

Blood spattered the woman's face, which still bore a flushed glow. Her eyes held a dreamy, unfocused expression.

It appeared as if she had been in the throes of passion when suddenly a sharp blade sliced through her throat.

Shaken, I typed with trembling fingers: [Hey neighbor, you... you didn't actually kill someone, did you?!]

Our college is a regular state school.

It's summer break now, but some work-study students are still living in the dorms to save on rent.

To avoid detection by school administration, those of us secretly staying in the dorms created a group chat.

But I never imagined that the girl in room 303 next door would be so brazen as to bring her boyfriend to stay in the female dorm!

Her moans were so loud I couldn't sleep, so I couldn't help but ping her in the chat.

But now... has her throat really been slit?!

Panicked and terrified, I hurriedly messaged: [Dude, did you really kill your girlfriend?]

After a moment, the guy from 303 replied: [Come on, murder is illegal. How could I do something like that?]

He quickly deleted the bloody photo of the woman's corpse.

I lay in bed, letting out a huge sigh of relief.303 seems to be deliberately trying to intimidate me.

I was just feeling a bit dissatisfied, and he directly used a photo of a dead person to scare me!

Thinking about it this way, I couldn't help but feel some resentment.

Just as I was about to vent my frustrations in the group chat, I suddenly saw that 402 had sent me a private friend request on WhatsApp.

Her verification message read: [303 isn't joking with you, he really killed someone!]

My heart skipped a beat.

After accepting the friend request, I immediately asked 402: [There's no way 303 could have killed someone, right? You know, murder is illegal!]

402 replied: [My major is forensic medicine, so I often see photos of deceased individuals.

[After death, the pupils dilate. In the photo 303 just sent, that woman is clearly dead!]

I took a deep breath and shakily typed out a message: [Should we maybe call the police?]

402 immediately responded: [No! We absolutely cannot call the police!

[You should be aware that it's already vacation time, and the school doesn't allow students to stay in the dorms. If we call the police, once the school deals with 303's dead body situation, they'll come after us next!]

I was stunned for a moment.

What 402 said wasn't without reason.

A death in the school dormitory would be a scandal, and it would definitely affect the school leadership. The leader's anger could result in the immediate expulsion of us students secretly staying overnight in the dorms!

But if we don't call the police, are we just going to let the murderer from 303 run wild?

Feeling hesitant and uneasy, I sent a message to 301, the dorm room to my right, asking: "Did you see the pictures in the group chat of 303 killing his girlfriend? What do you think, should we call the police?"

301 and I are pretty close. We work together as servers at the same coffee shop.

I wanted to get 301's opinion on the matter.

But after waiting over ten minutes, I still hadn't gotten a response from 301.

Did she not see my message?

I was a bit puzzled.

301 had just gotten off work not long ago. Logically, at this time, she should definitely be playing League of Legends.

Could it be that she was so engrossed in the game that she forgot to respond to me for a moment?

As I was about to video call 301 on WhatsApp.

The guy from 303 posted another message in the school dorm group chat: "Why has everyone gone quiet? Don't tell me you were all scared by the photo I just posted?"

"Let me tell you all, that photo was Photoshopped. There's no need to be afraid."

Right after, he posted a short video.