Chapter 44

"I'm alive, I'm alive!"

Lu Shun walked out with a smile, cheering as he walked.

"Those fools! They have no brains at all! This is a playground, how can they be so affectionate?" Lu Shun laughed. "This playground exists just like that, it's just there to make us fight each other."

"There's nothing else!"

"I succeeded, I did it, I can't die, so I can leave the game and only these fools will be left!"

"Audience! Am I right?" Lu Shun laughed and opened his mobile phone.

But the smile on his face froze when he saw the live broadcast comments.

There was no mockery or agreement. There were very few comments on the live broadcast and almost no audience members were speaking. They were very quiet, unusually quiet.

Lu Shun instinctively sensed that something was wrong.

Creak, creak... Lu Shun heard a strange sound. The sound was not far away from him, like someone was digging a hole on the construction site. But he was on the playground track now, and the long jump sand pit was very far away from him. Who could dig a hole on the track?

He slowly turned around and saw the familiar person.

The thing was wearing the same security uniform as always and held the hoe high.

【Alas, being too clever may lead to mistakes. 】

[The playground is indeed a game for people, but that doesn't mean you can succeed by killing each other.]

It makes you think you can leave by doing this, and then you realize it's completely useless.

[If this continues, anyone with a conscience will be driven crazy.]

[Hahaha, I don't think he has any conscience. Anyone capable of doing something like this has long since abandoned it. They just want to stay in this playground.]

[We're all crazy anyway, so what's the difference?]

[There's a difference. Looking at him, I think he's really normal. He's more like a human being. What the hell is that Shen Yunzhe? He's so crazy that it's hard to understand.]

[A normal person going crazy is called a mental breakdown, but Shen Yunzhe's going crazy is... I don't know why he went crazy.]

The screams could be heard from far away, not to mention the players next to the teaching building. They all turned their heads to look at the playground outside, confirming that the sound was coming from there.

"Who?" Bei Chuanchuan asked, "Lu Shun?"

"It sounds like him." Yuan Jing was still sobbing, her voice stumbling. "What, what's going on? Isn't he alive?"

They looked at each other, and finally ran quickly to the playground.

Li Yuluan ran two steps and turned back, grabbed Shen Yunzhe who seemed to have fallen asleep while sitting on the ground, and dragged him to run together.

Shen Yunzhe was not angry when he was grabbed. He was dragged away lightly, just like a ghost.

They came to the playground and saw a trail of blood on the track. They followed the trail and finally saw a deep pit in the middle of the track. The pit was filled with cement. Li Yuluan tried to touch it with his hand, but the cement had already hardened for the most part and he could only press it out to make a small shape.

Shen Yunzhe looked at the cement pit and said, "Is Lu Shun buried in it?"

"I've seen people encased in cement, dying... Oh yeah, I shouldn't be talking about that now."

Bei Chuanchuan looked unconvinced. She picked up a stick from the side and started pounding the cement. The semi-hard cement was broken apart by her, and after a moment a pale hand was picked out.

Looking at the familiar watch, everyone present finally believed that it was really Lu Shun.

He let Bi Jiayin die in the wall in his place, but the next moment he was built into the ground and covered with cement.

No one was in the mood to talk; they just stood there quietly, unable to say anything.

They really couldn't find any new clues, nor did they know where to go or how to leave this playground. They could only wait. Everyone's heart was empty, even fear no longer existed, leaving only a weak soul.

Finally they spread out to look for clues, but no one had any hope.

Bei Chuanchuan fell to her death again, this time in the corridor. Her head hit the windowsill and she lay there motionless.

The order has not changed, the time has not changed, it's like Lu Shun's postponement was just a minor episode.

Shen Yunzhe stood in front of the birdcage, listening to the strange bird singing over and over again. Finally, he simply sat in front of the birdcage and stared at it.

Yuan Jing felt something was wrong and tried to pull him but couldn't. Shen Yunzhe looked extremely silent, as if the whole world had nothing to do with him. His mind and eyes were filled with this strange bird. If other players were still there, they would definitely think that he was possessed by a ghost or had gone crazy.

In the end, Li Yiluan and Yuan Jing went to investigate, leaving Shen Yunzhe here alone.

They have understood one thing: without anyone's interference, they will die in the exact order and time as originally planned.

Shen Yunzhe is the last one.

"Are you tired?" Everyone left, leaving Shen Yunzhe alone. He sat on the ground and talked to the bird, "We can't sleep, and it seems you haven't slept either. You've been up for so long, aren't you sleepy? I'm so sleepy, I feel like sleeping."

"But I have insomnia and can't sleep. How about you?"

The bird didn't answer him.

The strange featherless bird squatted in the cage, staring at Shen Yunzhe and occasionally making sounds that sounded more and more like human screams.

"Don't ignore me." Shen Yunzhe started to yell randomly, "Senior? Senior? Teacher? Classmate?"

The hall of the teaching building was chilly at night, with the wind blowing in. Shen Yunzhe felt cold, so he wrapped his coat tightly around him, stood up, and walked around in place, trying to warm himself up.

At this moment, the bird suddenly began to sing, still the school song.

Shen Yunzhe looked at the bird. After a while, he took out his cell phone to check the time. It turned out that the time had come when Li Yuluan and Yuan Jing were in trouble.

Putting the phone back into his pocket, Shen Yunzhe walked towards the birdcage. At this moment, a strong wind blew in, and a photo was blown in by the wind and stuck to the birdcage. There was bright red blood on it. Shen Yunzhe reached out to peel the photo off and found that it was the photo of the teacher and the student again.

But this time, the person circled in black was no longer the teacher, but the student.

He turned the photo over and new words appeared on the back.

'On the third day, the third student died.'

"Why do different people commit suicide by jumping off buildings every day? Why does no one remember this? Why does everyone look at me like I'm crazy?"

"I'm not crazy. There are indeed different students who have committed suicide by jumping off buildings, but they are all still alive."

After sticking the photo back on the birdcage, Shen Yunzhe began to study the cage. He tried and found that he could not open the cage with his bare hands, so he took a wrench from the security booth next to him and used the wrench to hit the lock of the birdcage. The sound was particularly obvious in the dead of night.

The bird was not afraid and it stayed where it was.

The lock was finally broken open, and Shen Yunzhe cheered and pulled open the birdcage door.

"You are free!" Shen Yunzhe said, "The world in the cage is too small. Go and see the new world, and help me find a place to leave."

The bird stared at him with its black bean-like eyes.

"You have wings to fly, hurry up, I also want to see the outside world."

The bird doesn't move.

"Don't you have a dream?" Shen Yunzhe earnestly lectured it, as if someone had once lectured him in the same way. He modified the words and poured them into its head. "What's the point of life without dreams? What are dreams? Dreams are the driving force of life. If you live in this muddleheaded way, you might as well be dead."

"I tell you, this is the chance I give you. If you don't leave now, you won't have another chance."

The bird still didn't move. Just as Shen Yunzhe was about to reach out and pull the bird out, the bird suddenly started singing.

It’s still the school song, and it’s still the same tune.

Shen Yunzhe saw a clock appear on the birdcage. The clock was ticking little by little, and there was a date on the clock. Shen Yunzhe felt familiar with the date. He began to look for these numbers in his muddled mind, but poor sleep made his brain dull and he couldn't remember them at all.

A hand slowly emerged from the photo, the pale hand tightly grasping the cage. Shen Yunzhe thought about it, then he pulled the photo off the cage, threw it into the cage and locked the cage door again.

I know it's useless, but it's fun enough.

It’s a pity that I didn’t see the female ghost huddled together with the bird in the cage.

…

In the fourth reincarnation, Shen Yunzhe went up and smashed the birdcage, trying to pull the bird out of the cage with force.

The strange bird let out a miserable cry, its legs broken in the cage, but even though the cage was pulled out of shape, the bird did not come out.

The people present were frightened by Shen Yunzhe again. Li Yuluan and Bei Chuanchuan pulled Shen Yunzhe hard to stop him from doing this.

Only Yuan Jing was surprised to find that... Bi Jiayin did not come back.

This time, there were only six of them.

Why did Bi Jiayin disappear? After much thought, they could only come up with that one reason: Lu Shun tricked Bi Jiayin into leaving in order to survive, and Bi Jiayin died.

"You killed someone!" Bei Chuanchuan angrily threw things at Lu Shun, "You killed Bi Jiayin!"

"What do you mean I killed her? I didn't!" Lu Shun argued, "You can't accuse someone without evidence!"

"Besides, who knows if she's really dead? Maybe she's left this playground. She should thank me for helping her!"

"Fuck you!" Bei Chuanchuan threw a stone at him.

Lu Shun dodged and ran, and disappeared in an instant.

Lan Sicheng, who had always died very early, shed tears silently. She also cried quietly, with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"At least we can keep looking for clues and won't really die, right?" Yuan Jing comforted Lan Sicheng.

Lan Sicheng shook his head. "I'm sorry, I died too early. I didn't know anything. I opened my eyes and saw the playground. Before I could see anything, I died. Then I opened my eyes again and saw the playground again. Death kept repeating over and over again."

"I'm so tired and in so much pain. I don't want to die anymore."

"Please, someone please save me."

Lan Sicheng hugged himself and cried so hard, "I can't hold on any longer."

Yuan Jing stopped talking.

Because no one is indifferent to this, everyone is tired.

They are repeating the same day, dying every day. They cannot change, move forward, or escape.

After Lan Sicheng committed suicide by jumping off a building again, the air pressure around them dropped to the lowest level.

Shen Yunzhe has been very quiet. He didn't do anything out of the ordinary this time. He just followed Li Yuluan quietly. Even the obedient Li Yuluan was surprised. Yuan Jing became more and more silent. She no longer had the energy she had at the beginning. She also stopped crying because crying was useless.

"4.08." Shen Yunzhe suddenly spoke.

Li Yiluan turned around and looked at him, "What did you say?"

"4.08, I seem to have seen this number somewhere." Shen Yunzhe said, "But my memory is very bad, I forgot it, you know?"

"number?"

"It could also be the date, April 8th." Shen Yunzhe squatted on the ground and scratched out the number with a wooden stick. "Where have I seen this number before? I can't remember. My mind is so confused. I've been awake for too long. I should put myself into a coma for a while."

Yuan Jing and Bei Chuanchuan left, and she wanted to try to prevent Bei Chuanchuan's death.

So Li Yuluan sat next to Shen Yunzhe and took advantage of the fact that he was still in a relatively normal state to talk to him.

"How did you get that number?"

"On the birdcage, I said there would be a clock at the end, and this number would be on the clock." Shen Yunzhe said, "Why is your memory worse than mine?"

Li Yiluan looked at him, "Aren't you a forensic doctor? How can a forensic doctor have a bad memory?"

"Why else would I resign?" Shen Yunzhe said confidently, "I've been suffering from insomnia for a long, long time. I feel like I've forgotten a lot of things and can't quite recall them."

"So that's why you're so..." Li Yiluan paused, then used an adjective, "carefree?"

Shen Yunzhe looked at him.

They looked at each other for a few seconds, and Shen Yunzhe's rare regained rationality became a little clearer because of these words.

Yes, the person with code name sleep disorder is mentally unstable due to long-term insomnia. Although he is sick, he is an absolutely selfish person. His memories of the past are vague, and he is unsure about the future. He may not even live to see the future, so the person with code name sleep disorder is having fun as much as he wants in the present.

After all, you can play for as long as you can. Once you die, you can’t play anymore.

"Why did you take down the birdcage?" Li Yiluan asked him again, "The strange bird in the cage did nothing but sing."

"Singing. People like to listen to songs when they are sad. It seems like singing has magic." Shen Yunzhe was babbling again. Then he said, "I think I remember where I have seen this number."

Li Yiluan was stunned for a moment. He looked at Shen Yunzhe, "Where?"

"In the photo." Shen Yunzhe said, "The one we got from the piano room, the teacher's photo. It says 'School Song Contest Commemoration' on the back."

"Of course there is a date for the commemoration, and that date is April 8th."

This is a new clue. The school song competition is very important because they know that it was this teacher and student who went to other schools to compete and brought back the sparrow.

Li Yuluan and Shen Yunzhe hurried to the music classroom. They wanted to get the information on the photo again to confirm it.

After turning on the piano, Li Yuluan pressed Shen Yunzhe down on the piano and told him to play quickly.

"Why do you want me to play?" Shen Yunzhe leaned over the piano keys, making a series of broken sounds.

"Why else? Because I can't play it." Li Yilun replied with his expressionless face: "Hurry up and play it. We'll leave after we get the photos."

So Shen Yunzhe started playing the piano with disdain. He even took out his cell phone and placed it in front of the piano, as if he was going to hold a concert.

“I invite everyone to listen to my performance.”

As he spoke, he began to play, but for some reason, Li Yuluan felt that his playing was not as good as last time. Although it was still smooth, it did lack a little emotion. However, seeing that Shen Yunzhe looked bored, he did not intend to ask.

After the song was over, the photo fell from the piano. Shen Yunzhe picked up the photo and ran out with Li Yuluan.

The second time they come here, they don’t want to play the piano cover and hit their hands again.

They looked at the photo in the corridor outside the music room and finally confirmed that April 8th was indeed written on the back of the photo, which was definitely the day the school song competition began.

"If the date on that watch is correct, then we should be on the day the school song competition begins," Li Yiluan said. "But what good is this clue?"

Shen Yunzhe looked at him and asked, "Guess what our identity as intern teachers is for?"

Li Yiluan was obviously stunned by the question. He had long forgotten the identity of this so-called intern teacher, or rather, under the current circumstances, their identity as an intern teacher seemed so transparent.

"It's just a guess." Shen Yunzhe said, "Just listen to it."

"Stop talking nonsense, hurry up and speak."

Shen Yunzhe looked at the scenery outside the window, with tall buildings reflected in his eyes.

"You said... Is the identity of a trainee teacher used to participate in the school song competition?"

Li Yuluan suddenly turned his head and looked at him.

"Only teachers and students can participate in the competition, right? But we can't be high school students at our age."

Shen Yunzhe smiled and said, "Actually, I really want to be a high school student again. My sleep quality was much better back then."

"Participate in the school song competition..." Li Yuluan completely ignored the second half of Shen Yunzhe's words, "The school song competition is held at No. 2 Middle School. The time loop is on this day because we haven't participated in the competition."

Shen Yunzhe stretched and said, "But there is one thing we need to confirm."

"What are you sure about? Did you discover anything else?"

"We have to wait until tomorrow." Shen Yunzhe said, "So, today I can only ask everyone, including me, to die."

"If I weren't so exhausted, I might have thought that this kind of death was the same as sleeping."

Li Yiluan looked him up and down, and after a moment he spoke, "Although I can't change your fate, I have learned a little bit of Chinese medicine, so I can prescribe a prescription for you to treat your insomnia. Do you need it?"

"Is this true?"

"I won't charge you any money." said Li Yuluan.

"Let me try it now! It's free and I'd rather miss it!"