51 Taboo 12 || Lying

"She kept crying after she came back, and no matter how we asked, she wouldn't say anything," Gao Yan said. "A few days later, we found out that her teacher hadn't brought her to the competition that day. As a result, the students' comments to her became increasingly harsh, and some even started asking her directly how much she charged per night."

The school is a small society. Once something is started, it will spread at an alarming speed. Later, a girl became the target of exclusion by the whole class and even the whole school.

"Then what?"

"Not long after..." Gao Yan recalled the scene, her eyebrows knitted together, her body shaking uncontrollably, "she died..."

The three of them did not urge her, but waited quietly for Gao Yan to continue.

"I don't know how she died," Gao Yan said. "She was found collapsed in her dorm room, with marks on her body that looked like she'd been beaten. Seeing the situation was becoming a big deal, the school had no choice but to step in and say it was suicide."

"In fact, we all know that she definitely didn't commit suicide. We were all very scared at that time, after all, she died in the dormitory."

"Not long after, several people disappeared from the school one after another," said Gao Yan.

"Are all the missing people going to participate in the competition?" Jing Ning asked.

"How did you know?" Gao Yan asked in surprise, not expecting them to guess it so easily.

So this was the fundamental reason why there was no competition that year, because the school was afraid. However, Jing Ning did not say anything and looked at Gao Yan, "You continue."

"During that time, everyone thought that Liu Nian had come looking for them, and that someone in the dormitory had seen Liu Nian's ghost. This made everyone panic, afraid that they would be the next person to go missing."

"Then the school suddenly demolished the old building and rebuilt it."

"Why are you afraid that she will come to find you? Are you also one of those participating in the competition?" Yan Shuang asked.

"Yes." Gao Yan said anxiously, "But I never said anything bad about her."

Jing Ning raised his eyebrows slightly, and the corners of his mouth curled up meaningfully, "Interesting."

"That's all I know. I have to go back to class." Gao Yan said in a panic.

Jingning nodded and let her go.

Gao Yan had long wanted to escape from the others and was now running towards the classroom. Jing Ning folded his arms, looking at her back, then tilted his head to glance at Yan Shuang, "You seem to have discovered something?"

"She's lying," Yan Shuang said. "She's inconsistent."

"She was indeed lying, but she didn't know why she was lying. When you hate someone, you can't hide your expression even when you are reminiscing about them. At first she said she didn't know why Liu Nian was crying when she came back, and that they were going to participate in the competition together, but it was only a few days later that she realized she didn't take her with her." Jing Ning said.

"The NPCs in this game are so advanced?" Ye Jing'an acted as a bodyguard throughout the game.

Of course, these were all speculations. Gao Yan said that when Liu Nian was often alone with Zhang Bin, she could not hide her disgust in her eyes, but in the end she said that she had never said anything bad about her. It seemed that Zhang Bin had to be held responsible for everything.

With these questions, they returned to the laboratory building.

I don’t know what happened to them in the laboratory building, but Lin Yue looked like she had been crying.

There were some scratches on Zhang Fan's arms, and a thin layer of scabs had formed.

"What happened?" Ye Jing'an asked.

Lin Yue wiped away her tears and sobbed, "I...I accidentally knocked over the file shelf."

"Well, it's not like you fell down..." Ye Jing'an wanted to comfort her, but he stopped talking. Is this considered a violation?

"I really didn't move it. It fell over on its own," Lin Yue explained anxiously. "Zhang Fan and I were in the archives room. I reached out to grab a file, and for some reason the shelf fell over towards us, like someone pushed it from behind."

"Zhang Fan was standing between the shelves at the time and was crushed beneath them before he could escape. But when the shelf fell, there was no one behind it. Does this count as vandalism?"

Zhang Fan added: "There were only two of us in the archives room at the time. It would have been impossible for it to fall without someone pushing hard from behind."

"The game might make us violate the rules intentionally," Jing Ning said.

"Does mine count?" Lin Yue asked with a glimmer of hope.

Jing Ning did not give him a definite answer, but just said, "I don't know." Life or death depends entirely on luck. Of course, most of the time it is a life-or-death situation.

Yan Shuang changed the subject and told Lin Haichen about their conversation with Gao Yan. After hearing this, Lin Haichen also felt that Gao Yan was lying. The most important thing now was to open Zhang Bin's safe.

"I tried four times and was about to be locked again. I feel that if the lock is unlocked this time, the time it takes will be extended." Lin Haichen said.

Although Hongmao did not tell the others the number he tried, he still tried the remaining passwords under Lin Haichen's supervision.

We are still two sets of numbers away. If nothing goes wrong, we will be able to open the safe tomorrow.

With only three days left until the college entrance exam, they had to hurry up. Otherwise, if they didn't find the door on the day of the exam, they would be assimilated into the NPCs in the game.

Before the last exam today, Lin Haichen warned Hongmao not to touch the safe, but halfway through the exam, Hongmao still went out early.

Yan Shuang thought to herself, "This is not good!" She quickly handed in her paper and rushed out, but she was still a step too late. Red Hair had already entered Zhang Bin's office.

At this moment, familiar footsteps came from the stairwell——

Yan Shuang was extremely anxious. Hongmao was still in the office and his footsteps were getting closer and closer. If she went downstairs now, she would definitely meet him.

He didn't have Jing Ning's lock-picking skills, so in a hurry, he could only open the window of the archive room next door and shouted to Hongmao, "Zhang Bin is here, come in quickly." After that, he climbed in.

Sure enough, there was a row of collapsed shelves in the archives room, with file bags scattered all over the floor. Yan Shuang walked around to the back of the shelves and found a symbol scribbled in blood on the shelf. He looked at it for a long time before he realized it was the word "death".

At this time, outside the house, there was a sound of footsteps coming from next door. Coincidentally, Zhang Bin's footsteps were heard on the other side, and he was about to finish going up the stairs.

"Hurry up!" Yan Shuang shouted.

Just as Red Hair put his hands on the window and was about to climb in, the footsteps going up the stairs stopped.

The red-haired man outside the house stopped what he was doing and closed the window.

Yan Shuang listened carefully to the noise outside. Zhang Bin must be wearing leather shoes, which made crisp sounds when he walked. He walked slowly and steadily from the other end of the corridor and stopped opposite the red-haired man.

Yan Shuang squatted and slowly moved to the bottom of the window, trying not to make any noise. If he stood up at this time, he would definitely be discovered.

Unable to see the scene outside, and with no movement for a long time, Yan Shuang was just considering whether to stand up and take a look when a man's clear and smooth voice sounded, neither hurried nor slow, without any emotion, "What are you doing here?"