Chapter 104 Paying Debts
After hearing Lin Qiushi's words, Zhou Hanshan's gaze fell on the statue and he remained silent for a long time.
The statue's tears had dried up, and its eyes had returned to their previous indifference and lifelessness, as if the hint just given to them was just an illusion.
Gu Longming bent down and picked up the wooden figure. He stared at it and asked, "Zhou Hanshan, how long have you and Zhu Ruyuan been dating?"
"Half a year," Zhou Hanshan replied. He walked to the corner of the utility room, found a random wooden stool, and sat down on it, not caring about the dust on it. "We usually meet at events... She said she was busy with school, and I understand." He complained that people in love tend to have lower IQs, and now that he thought about it, it was true. There had been a sense of awkwardness between them from the moment they met, let alone knowing and falling in love.
The beginning of this story was a mistake, and he was so foolish that he continued this mistake and paid a heavy price for it.
Lin Qiushi listened to Zhou Hanshan's words but didn't respond until he finished. Then he said, "Let's make a wish tonight."
"What?" Zhou Hanshan initially thought he had misheard, but after seeing Lin Qiushi's calm expression, he was certain that Lin Qiushi had indeed said that. "You mean... we should make a wish to this statue again?"
"Time is running out." Lin Qiushi picked up the broken wooden figure in his hand. "You don't want to end up like this, do you?"
Their wooden men were broken. They could only defend themselves for a while, but not forever. Accidents could happen at any time and take the lives of the three people.
So leaving this world and ending it all is the best choice. Although making this decision is not an easy thing.
"I don't sense any malice from it. What about you?" Lin Qiushi looked at the statue in front of him.
The statue before them now resembled a human. Its warmth and touch were all approaching that of a human. Zhou Hanshan stared at the statue for a moment, then suddenly stood up and pressed his cheek against its chest. After a moment, his expression changed, and he turned to look at Lin Qiushi.
Lin Qiushi guessed what he was thinking from his expression.
As expected, Zhou Hanshan's next words were: "I heard the sound of a heartbeat."
Gu Longming was stunned: "Heartbeat?"
Zhou Hanshan was already numb from the shock. He said, "Yes, the sound of a heartbeat." He looked at the sculpture in front of him and carefully touched her cheek with his hand. "Is she going to become a human..."
Although this sentence is a question, everyone actually knows very well that the statue in front of them should be able to turn into a human in a few days. However, they don't know what price it will take for her to become a human.
Lin Qiushi had decided to stay in the activity room that night and make another wish.
Zhou Hanshan sat in the activity room, silent and no one knew what he was thinking.
Lin Qiushi was playing Sudoku, while Gu Long lowered his head to study the wooden figure in his hand. The atmosphere in the room was eerily stagnant.
Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming went to the restroom together. On the way, Gu Longming asked, "What are you thinking about, Yu Linlin?"
Lin Qiushi said, "I'm thinking about Zhou Hanshan."
"What do you want him to do?" Gu Longming now had a much worse impression of Zhou Hanshan. To put it bluntly, it was him who brought this up. "If he hadn't been in a relationship with Zhu Ruyuan, this might not have happened."
"Yes," Lin Qiushi said, "Do you think he's lying about something else?"
Gu Longming nodded.
Everyone has some secrets, but these secrets may remain until the moment of death.
"You have to be careful at night," Lin Qiushi said. "I don't think making a wish is that simple."
"Will she come to stop us?" Gu Longming asked.
Lin Qiushi lowered his head to wash his hands, watching the cold water wash over the neat lines on his palms. He said, "Is the one you're talking about Zhu Ruyuan or Zhou Hanshan?"
"Zhou Hanshan?" Gu Longming didn't understand. "Why would he stop us from making a wish?"
"Because perhaps our wishes are at odds with his." Lin Qiushi turned off the water and wiped his hands with a piece of paper. "Do you remember where we met Zhou Hanshan?"
"It's in the classroom... Wait, those three..." Gu Longming suddenly remembered something. He remembered what those three students did in the classroom. "Are they also making new wishes?"
"Yes." Lin Qiushi smiled faintly. "Just how much has Zhou Hanshan hidden from us?"
When he and Gu Longming first met Xiao He, who had been cut in half, his friend who had been beheaded, and Zhou Hanshan, the only one left, they were smearing blood on a wooden figure in the classroom. According to Zhou Hanshan, smearing blood on it was part of the process of making a wish, but there was an unconcealable loophole here - there was no statue in the classroom.
But if, as Zhou Hanshan said, the object of their wish was the statue, then why did these three people hold a ceremony in the classroom? Either the wish was completely ineffective, or the statue was completely useless.
"Actually, Zhou Hanshan isn't the only survivor in the school," Lin Qiushi said. "Do you still remember the librarian?"
"I remember." Gu Longming's mind was in a mess, but he always felt that there was a most crucial point among these complicated clues. That point was the thread that sorted out everything. "Librarian...you mean..."
"He's still alive," Lin Qiushi said. "He also has that wooden figure on him, which means Zhou Hanshan is indeed lying."
Gu Longming smiled bitterly: "I feel like I'm doing a very difficult math problem."
Lin Qiushi spread his hands. "Math problems are much simpler than this. We just haven't considered many details. The fact that the librarian is still alive proves one thing."
"What's the matter?" Gu Longming could only ask.
"Making a wish won't kill you," Lin Qiushi said. "It might indeed come at a price, but that price isn't necessarily your life."
Gu Longming suddenly realized and fell silent: "Then why are they-"
"I now suspect that the statue and Zhu Ruyuan are not the same thing at all," Lin Qiushi said. "The statue grants wishes, while the vengeful spirit goes on a killing spree. Of course, this is just my speculation, without any basis."
Gu Longming: "So you want to make a wish?" He was wondering why Lin Qiushi wanted to make a wish to the statue. Now it seems that he obviously wants to prove something.
"Right," Lin Qiushi said, "By evening, all the mysteries will be solved. Then you'll keep a close eye on Zhou Hanshan."
"Okay." Gu Longming nodded.
"Let's go." Lin Qiushi said, but he found Gu Longming staring at him. He was a little confused and asked, "Why are you looking at me?"
"I just think you seem to have changed a lot." Gu Longming said, "After entering with me, have you entered many more doors?"
"No," Lin Qiushi said, "I just entered a low-level door with my friend...what's wrong?" He felt that Gu Longming's question was a bit puzzling.
"No, you've grown really fast," Gu Longming said. "Compared to last time, you're even better." He sighed, "Maybe some people are born to be in this sect."
Lin Qiushi raised his eyebrows. He hadn't expected to hear such a statement from Gu Longming. Although Ruan Nanzhu had said something similar before, he didn't feel anything special about it, simply taking it as Ruan Nanzhu encouraging a newbie.
The two returned to the room and saw Zhou Hanshan with his face pressed against the table, looking listless.
Lin Qiushi checked the time and said, "Let's go. We can have lunch."
"I'm not hungry." Zhou Hanshan said, "I don't really want to eat."
Gu Longming: "Aren't you afraid of staying here alone?"
Zhou Hanshan thought about it, still a little scared, and said, "Well, the lively cafeteria is still more comfortable."
They all had things on their minds, so eating wasn't particularly enjoyable. While Lin Qiushi was eating, he saw Zuo Sisi. After a moment's thought, he went over and greeted her.
"What are you doing?" Zuo Sisi said, "I haven't seen you all morning, and I was looking for you."
"In the activity room," Lin Qiushi said. "What's up?"
Zuo Sisi glanced over there and asked, "Do you know who the NPC you're with is?"
Lin Qiushi asked, "What happened to him?"
Zuo Sisi seemed to have discovered something and had come to tell Lin Qiushi. She said, "His name is Zhou Hanshan... and he had a very good relationship with the group of students who died."
Lin Qiushi nodded, indicating that he understood.
"His classmates said he's dating a girl named Zhu Ruyuan." Seeing Lin Qiushi's calm demeanor, Zuo Sisi lowered her voice. "But I checked, and there's no girl named Zhu Ruyuan in the senior year."
"Thank you." Lin Qiushi thanked her. "Zhu Ruyuan is indeed not in her senior year."
"How old is she?" Zuo Sisi's eyes widened.
"She's dead." Lin Qiushi thought about it and decided to tell Zuo Sisi about it.
Zuo Sisi: "..." Her expression twisted, "Are you serious?"
Lin Qiushi said, "Yes."
Zuo Sisi: "Then why are you so calm?" After hearing the news, she got goose bumps on her arms.
"No, I've been scared before." Lin Qiushi.
Zuo Sisi sighed. "Well, you guys are amazing. I finally found this, but you already knew it...Do you have any clues about the door and the key?"
Lin Qiushi said, "A little bit."
Zuo Sisi definitely knew more about this than they did, but the two of them were not yet familiar enough to exchange information with each other casually, so she tactfully did not ask, but only told Lin Qiushi to be careful of Zhou Hanshan, saying that this NPC might be a problem.
Lin Qiushi thanked her and turned back to their table.
"What wishes are you going to make tonight?" Zhou Hanshan had no appetite and asked while poking the rice in the plate with his chopsticks.
"What wish do you think we should make?" Lin Qiushi asked.
"Of course, I want this to end quickly." Zhou Hanshan said listlessly, "I can't hold on any longer."
"Alright," Lin Qiushi said, "let's end this quickly."
The waiting time is long. The night that usually comes quickly feels like a year today.
The three of them were waiting in the activity room, but Zhou Hanshan fell asleep on the table.
Lin Qiushi didn't dare to rest. The damaged wooden man in front of him was reminding him that accidents could happen at any time. When that thing wants to kill you, it doesn't care whether you are resting or not.
It started raining outside, and the clock hands went around and around, finally reaching eight o'clock in the evening.
The sky darkened, and the whistling wind mixed with rain poured in from the edge of the window. Lin Qiushi raised his hand to check his watch, then exchanged glances with Gu Longming for a moment, feeling that it was almost time.
Lin Qiushi woke up the drowsy Zhou Hanshan and said, "Get up! It's getting dark."
Zhou Hanshan shuddered, climbed up from the table, and said vaguely: "I had a dream."
"What did you dream about?" Gu Longming asked him.
"I dreamed of my friends," Zhou Hanshan said. "They said they missed me a lot." He wiped his face with his hand. "I... missed them too." He smiled wryly. "Maybe I'll have to go and be with them soon."
Gu Longming didn't say anything, but just patted his shoulder to comfort him.
After it got dark, they went to the utility room and pushed the statue out.
The statue still looked motionless, but it had the temperature and touch of human skin. This characteristic made the whole statue full of weird feeling. Zhou Hanshan touched it carefully and murmured, "It won't really turn into a human, will it? If it turns into a human, what should I do?"
Lin Qiushi said, "Can I make a wish now?"
"Alright," Zhou Hanshan said. "Cut your finger, smear the blood on the wooden doll, then make a wish to this statue..." He looked at Lin Qiushi. "What's your wish?"
Lin Qiushi did not answer. He took out the prepared dagger from his pocket, put it on his finger and was about to cut it, but suddenly stopped.
"What's wrong?" Zhou Hanshan asked.
Lin Qiushi lowered his head and looked at the ground.
There were three people in the room. They had not gone out since dinner. The rain fell after dinner, but at this time, there was a set of wet footprints in the room. The footprints extended from the door to their feet. Judging from the size, they belonged to women.
Just like what Lin Qiushi had seen in the classroom before, there was one more person in the room, but they couldn't see him.
Lin Qiushi paused and handed the dagger to Zhou Hanshan. He said, "You go first."
Zhou Hanshan was stunned, seemingly unprepared for Lin Qiushi's reaction. He said, "...but I've already made a wish."
Lin Qiushi: "Who said we can't do it a second time?"
"I don't know what to wish for." Zhou Hanshan seemed a little panicked, "I..."
Lin Qiushi looked him in the eye and said, "Zhou Hanshan, what exactly was the wish you made back then?"
Zhou Hanshan: "I——"
"Don't lie." Lin Qiushi said, "If you lie, I will smash the statue in front of you." As he spoke, he walked in front of the statue, and his expression did not seem to be joking at all.
Zhou Hanshan stopped talking. His expression was extremely complicated, as if he wanted to say something.
"Make a wish." Lin Qiushi's voice was soft, but no one would think he was joking. "Make a wish to make this all end."
Zhou Hanshan held the dagger, his expression changing unpredictably.
Gu Longming also noticed the change in Zhou Hanshan's attitude. He looked suspicious and stared at Zhou Hanshan and called out his name: "Zhou Hanshan?"
Zhou Hanshan laughed, put down the dagger in his hand, and said calmly, "You all know, right?"
Lin Qiushi sighed. His guess had indeed come true. Zhou Hanshan was hiding something from them, and this matter played a very important role in the entire incident.
Gu Longming also noticed the change in Zhou Hanshan's attitude and couldn't help but curse.
Lin Qiushi said, "Zhou Hanshan, let me guess. The wish you made back then certainly hasn't come true... but it's about to come true, right?"
Zhou Hanshan had a blank expression on his face. He was completely different from the timid and cowardly him at this moment.
"Very anxious?" Lin Qiushi asked, "When you discovered that the way your wish would be fulfilled wasn't what you imagined?"
Zhou Hanshan sighed deeply and said, "I really hate dealing with smart people." He stood up from his chair, walked over to the statue, and gently stroked its skin. "Yes, it's not quite what I imagined, so... I can't die." He turned and looked at Lin Qiushi, "So I'll have to trouble you to die in my place."
As soon as he said this, a strong wind blew in the house. The electric light above his head creaked in the wind and was about to go out.
Lin Qiushi heard a sticky sound of water, turned around, and saw Zhu Ruyuan standing behind him. Zhu Ruyuan was still wearing a long skirt, her face was pale, and she stared at Lin Qiushi with resentment. However, the water stains left behind had turned into red blood.
Gu Longming was startled by her sudden appearance and took two steps back involuntarily.
Lin Qiushi remained calm. He casually shoved his hand into his trouser pocket. When he took it out again, a streak of blood covered his fingers. He smeared the blood on the wooden figure in his hand and expressed his wish: "I hope Zhou Hanshan's wish will never come true."
Zhou Hanshan was initially calm, but after hearing Lin Qiushi's words, his expression changed drastically. He roared and lunged at Lin Qiushi, dagger in hand: "How dare you—"
Lin Qiushi reacted extremely quickly, dodging Zhou Hanshan's attack directly, kicking his hand and knocking the dagger in his hand away.
Zhou Hanshan was already weak, and he couldn't even beat Lin Qiushi, let alone Gu Longming.
Lin Qiushi punched him in the stomach, knocking him to the ground. Zhu Ruyuan, who was standing behind Lin Qiushi, grinned fiercely and said, "As you wish."
"No!!!" Zhou Hanshan screamed.
Then, the sound of stone breaking was heard in the house. Lin Qiushi looked up and found that the statues standing next to them began to break into pieces.
Zhou Hanshan threw himself on the statue, crying loudly, protecting it with his hands, trying to piece it back together. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop the statue from falling apart. Zhou Hanshan held the fragments in his arms, crying more desperately: "Just a little bit, obviously just a little bit -"
Lin Qiushi just looked at him.
Gu Longming's expression was very complicated. He asked, "What on earth did you do... Are you trading your friends' lives for something?"
Zhou Hanshan did not answer Gu Longming's question. All his attention was focused on the statue in front of him. The statue was completely shattered. Lin Qiushi walked up to the statue and saw a bronze key among the fragments.
Although he had guessed it before, he still felt relieved when he actually saw the key.
Zhou Hanshan sat on the ground in a daze, holding the statue in his arms.
"Zhu Ruyuan's wish was for the statue to have a soul, and your wish is to be with Zhu Ruyuan." Lin Qiushi picked up the key and said to Zhou Hanshan, "There are two ways for you to be together. One is for you to die, and the other is for her to become a human. You chose the latter."
Zhou Hanshan raised his head and looked at Lin Qiushi quietly.
Lin Qiushi: "Perhaps the one who can grant wishes isn't Zhu Ruyuan, but the statue...right?"
Zhou Hanshan's shoulders shook, as if he was crying, but also as if he was laughing.
Lin Qiushi said, "Your wish wasn't to win the prize...so there's no paradox. The price they paid was simply to fulfill their friend's wish."
It's not that easy to resurrect the dead.
Lin Qiushi even suspected that Zhu Ruyuan's statue had its own soul, a soul that looked exactly like Zhu Ruyuan. It was this soul that fulfilled Zhou Hanshan's wish.
"It wants to kill me." Zhou Hanshan looked exhausted, "Because it can't fulfill my wish." There is still a part missing from the soul. Without that part, Zhu Ruyuan will never be able to become a human being.
"No." Lin Qiushi put the key in his pocket. "Have you ever considered that it was Zhu Ruyuan who wanted to kill you?"
Zhou Hanshan was stunned.
"Perhaps she doesn't want you to continue," Lin Qiushi said. "Do you think her transformation from a statue into a human is a happy thing?"
Zhou Hanshan looked down at the fragments in his arms.
"Of course, this is just my guess," said Lin Qiushi.
After he finished speaking, he said to Gu Longming, "Let's go."
Gu Longming nodded and walked out with Lin Qiushi. When they reached the door, they heard a muffled groan from inside the house. Lin Qiushi turned around and saw Zhou Hanshan lying in a pool of blood with a sharp dagger stuck in his abdomen.
This scene is not surprising, but it makes people feel very uncomfortable.
Gu Longming sighed. Lin Qiushi turned around and walked out without stopping.
People always have to pay a corresponding price for their actions. Zhou Hanshan killed all his friends. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, he has to pay back this debt.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
