Chapter 48 Sako
This school is quite big. In addition to teaching buildings, it also has public facilities such as libraries and cafeterias.
After finishing their meal, the four of them headed towards the old school building. On the way, they ran into three other members of their team. They seemed to be a newly formed group, too, and smiled and greeted them.
"Are you also going to the old school building?" asked the leading man.
"Yes." Lin Qiushi nodded. "You too?"
"We're planning to go over and take a look. Since we're all going, why not go together? It'll be nice to have more people around for company," the man said. "My name is Liu Zhuangxiang."
"Yu Linlin." Lin Qiushi also introduced himself.
So the seven of them walked towards the old school building, chatting as they walked.
Although they were chatting, everyone was actually quite cautious with strangers, revealing very little information during conversation. After all, there was only one clue on the door; whoever exited first got it. So while they were collaborating, they were also potential competitors. Unless they were in dire straits and had to cooperate, someone would always have ulterior motives.
Liu Zhuangxiang seemed to have some interest in Ruan Nanzhu. Although he pretended not to care, his eyes stayed on Ruan Nanzhu for a long time.
Even when they arrived at the old school building, the two teams were still reluctant to leave.
Lin Qiushi initially suspected that Liu Zhuangxiang had discovered something, but later realized that Liu Zhuangxiang had not discovered anything at all and simply liked Ruan Nanzhu's appearance.
To be honest, given Ruan Nanzhu's appearance and temperament, it is very normal for men to be interested in him.
The old school building is sealed and students are prohibited from entering.
Before leaving, the person who brought them here gave them a few keys, saying they were used to open the iron gate at the old school building. Lin Qiushi took out a key, opened the iron gate, and several people filed in.
The school wanted to renovate the entire building, from the walls and floors to the tables and chairs. This was a huge project.
"This school building isn't old." Ruan Nanzhu observed it from outside the teaching building for a while and came to this conclusion. "It looks like it's been under construction for six or seven years at most."
"It's not old." Lin Qiushi began to listen to the man's description. He had originally thought the old school building was a decrepit structure that had been used for many years, but upon arriving, he discovered it wasn't as old as he'd imagined. It was just an ordinary teaching building. The building had six floors, primarily red and white. From a distance across the playground, it looked a bit like a piece of distinctly colored pork belly.
"Let's go in and take a look," said Ruan Nanzhu.
The other three people who were with them also came in, but they didn't join them, saying that they wanted to check upstairs first.
Lin Qiushi and his team started their inspection from the first floor.
The school building was now empty and quiet. Each classroom was neatly arranged with desks and chairs, and the black curtains were all drawn.
Next to the classroom is the teacher's office, which has been cleared out, leaving only some tables and chairs.
The rooms were all the same and seemed to have nothing special about them. There were six floors in this building. Without any definite clues, checking each room one by one would be a very time-consuming and laborious task.
They went up from the first floor to the third floor, and when they were about to continue checking the third floor, they heard a sudden banging sound from the roof.
"What are they doing upstairs?" Xia Rubai asked a little confused.
No one spoke, everyone looked up at the ceiling.
The few people who had just separated from them at the door should be on the floor above them now. No one knew what they were doing, but the ceiling was making a banging sound. The sound moved from one end of the corridor above their heads to the other, and it was very uncomfortable for people to hear it continuously.
"So annoying." Xia Rubei was annoyed by the noise. "Are they crazy?"
Just as they were about to go up the stairs to see what Liu Zhuangxiang and the others were doing, Ruan Nanzhu suddenly gestured to stop and said, "Don't go up, something's wrong."
"What's wrong?" Xia Rubei and Ruan Nanzhu had always been at odds, and now she was very unhappy to be stopped by Ruan Nanzhu. "Are you afraid of this?"
Ruan Nanzhu didn't say anything and pointed downstairs.
They looked in the direction Ruan Nanzhu pointed and found that Liu Zhuangxiang and the other two who came with them were actually standing in the open space downstairs talking about something. When they saw them looking over, they waved at them in a friendly manner - these people were not upstairs at all.
Xia Rubei's skin broke out in goosebumps when she saw this scene. She looked at the ceiling in horror, where the noise was still coming from, and asked in a trembling voice, "What is this?"
"What do you think it is?" Ruan Nanzhu did not answer and shifted his gaze to Lin Qiushi.
Lin Qiushi was silent for a moment, then gave Ruan Nanzhu his answer: "I think the sound is like a one-legged person jumping up there."
When these words came out, Xia Rubei was almost scared to tears.
In fact, Lin Qiushi felt something was wrong the moment he heard the sound. It should have been just a "dong dong dong" sound, but he couldn't help but get goose bumps all over his body, and even felt an indescribable resistance to going upstairs.
"Oh." Ruan Nanzhu was very calm, "Then it should be Zuozi in the clue who jumped on it."
Xia Rubei: “…”
Li Dongyuan saw Ruan Nanzhu's calm demeanor and smiled, "Aren't you afraid?"
Ruan Nanzhu had been asked this question countless times. Just when Lin Qiushi thought he would give the same cold answer as before, this dramatic actor hugged Lin Qiushi's hand and said, "Of course I'm scared, Brother Lin Lin. I'm scared to death."
Lin Qiushi: "..." Isn't it a bit late for you to act now?
"I was so scared that I couldn't walk. I had to get a kiss from Brother Linlin before I could continue walking," said Ruan Nanzhu.
Xia Rubei's expression twisted when she heard this. Lin Qiushi felt that if she had something in her hand at this moment, she might have already greeted Ruan Nanzhu, but she didn't, so she just had a severely distorted expression and endured it.
"Okay, I was just kidding." Perhaps Xia Rubei's expression was too distorted, so Ruan Nanzhu spread out his hands. "I think we should not go upstairs before we know what happened. Why don't we go to the library and check some old newspapers to see what really happened in this school?"
"Aren't you curious?" Li Dongyuan raised his eyebrows.
Ruan Nanzhu said, "Curiosity kills the cat. Haven't you seen that those who die quickly in horror movies are all particularly curious?"
Li Dongyuan remained silent, his expression half-smiled, clearly not believing Ruan Nanzhu's words. However, he did not refute it, but agreed to Ruan Nanzhu's proposal.
So the four of them ignored the nerve-wracking thuds and left the old school building.
The old school building is far away from other teaching buildings, with a huge playground in the middle. I don’t know what the school was thinking when they built a school building here. It seems very inconvenient whether it is for classes or not.
The library is on the east side of the old school building. Since it is still class time, it is empty and there is not a single student inside.
Lin Qiushi originally thought that the library should be quite large, but he didn't expect it to have only one floor. It seemed that there was indeed some difference between high school libraries and university libraries. After all, high school students spent most of their time studying and taking exams and did not have the energy to read extracurricular books.
The person guarding the library was an older female teacher. When Lin Qiushi and the others came in, she simply took out a notebook and asked them to register, and then left them alone.
They soon found a place in the library where the old newspapers were kept, all sorted and stapled together into a thick volume.
"Let's look for it," Ruan Nanzhu said. "Since they invited us here recently, something must have happened recently. Let's slowly look back."
Lin Qiushi nodded and began to flip through the pages.
As Ruan Nanzhu had expected, an accident had indeed occurred in the school recently, and the accident took place in the old teaching building.
Three students died in Class 2 of Grade 3. All three died in the classroom. Their deaths were tragic and the cause of death was unknown. The only thing they had in common was that one of their feet was chopped off, and the remains have not been found to this day.
"Class 2, Grade 3, is either on the fourth or fifth floor," Ruan Nanzhu said. "It's possible that we heard their voices."
Lin Qiushi continued flipping through the newspapers, realizing that the school had been plagued by numerous disasters recently. Accidents had occurred frequently, almost all of them within the school itself. It was no wonder the school authorities wanted to renovate the building. After all, even though it was called the old building, it hadn't actually been built for many years. Just leaving it abandoned was a huge loss.
"When was the school building repaired?" Ruan Nanzhu found something. "Seven years ago... but it seems like the problems only started recently."
Li Dongyuan: "Can you find any news about the car accident?"
Lin Qiushi shook his head, feeling it wasn't feasible: "This range is too broad."
"I'll go ask." Ruan Nanzhu stood up and walked outside, apparently to chat with the librarian. As soon as he left, Xia Rubei said softly, "Brother Li, I'm so scared. What on earth is that Zuozi? Are they still going to the old school building?"
"According to past rules, at such a key location, you either have to show your key or go out. So, of course, we have to go." Facing the fragile Xia Rubei, Li Dongyuan showed no pity at all. "If you're afraid, why don't you just stay in the dormitory?"
Xia Rubai thought about the old dormitory and said nothing.
Ruan Nanzhu was gone for a long time, and when he came back he had found some important clues.
"There was indeed a car accident on campus three years ago," Ruan Nanzhu said. "A freshman died in the winter. We don't know her name yet, but she was a girl."
Li Dongyuan: "Which class is she from?"
Ruan Nanzhu: "Since the dead were students from Class 2, Grade 3, then they must be related to this class. Besides, didn't that group of people happen to enter this school three years ago?" He tapped his finger on the table. "It would be great if I could get the class roster."
"The school archives definitely have the roster," Li Dongyuan said. "How to get it is the problem."
Lin Qiushi had originally thought that Ruan Nanzhu would suggest stealing at night, given his personality. Unexpectedly, he turned his head, glanced out the window, and said, "It's getting late. Let's call it a day today. Let's go back and rest after dinner."
Li Dongyuan actually responded with a "OK".
So the four of them went to the cafeteria again, ate something quick, and then returned to the dormitory.
Only their three rooms in the dormitory building had lights on; the rest of the area was completely dark, without even a single streetlight. Lin Qiushi simply pulled out his cell phone to use as a light.
After a simple wash, they each lay down on the bed. Lin Qiushi was on the lower bunk beside Ruan Nanzhu, while Xia Rubei lay on the upper bunk beside Li Dongyuan.
"Guess if anyone will die tonight?" Ruan Nanzhu seemed a little bored.
"Yes." Li Dongyuan said.
"I guess so," Ruan Nanzhu said, "then how many do you think will die?"
Li Dongyuan: “Two.”
Ruan Nanzhu: "Linlin, what do you think?"
Lin Qiushi was quietly playing Connect the Dots on his phone and wasn't really listening to what Ruan Nanzhu was saying, so he let out a loud "Ah!"
Ruan Nanzhu poked his head over from the upper bunk and said in a resentful tone, "All you know is playing connect-the-dots. You don't care about me at all."
Lin Qiushi: "...I'm not. I don't."
Ruan Nanzhu: "Then what did we just say?"
Lin Qiushi: “…”
Ruan Nanzhu: "Oh, man."
Lin Qiushi was instantly at a loss whether to laugh or cry.
However, Ruan Nanzhu was just joking and didn't mean to really blame Lin Qiushi. They chatted for a while and then turned off the lights and went to bed.
Before falling asleep, Lin Qiushi secretly prayed that he would not be woken up by strange noises at night. He really didn't want to see those things.
…
Wu Xuelin lay in bed, feeling a little angry when he thought about what happened during the day.
He teamed up with two other people and lived in a dormitory. But before they had even moved in for a while, they found a large pile of red talismans in the room. These talismans were stuck deep in the cabinets and under the mattresses, which made people's scalps tingle.
After seeing these talismans, Wu Xuelin's first reaction was to tear them all off.
But the people traveling with him expressed their disapproval.
"What if these talismans are used to ward off ghosts?" the man asked. "Wouldn't it be the end of us if we tear them off?"
Wu Xuelin expressed great disdain for this statement. He said, "What if that attracts ghosts?" Then he tore off all the talisman papers on the bed and threw them into the trash can.
But the man was still stubborn and refused to tear it apart.
Wu Xuelin was completely furious when he saw this, and called the trembling girl with him to go to the next room. He was convinced that these talismans were not good things and would definitely attract ghosts, so the first thing he did after entering the house was to collect all the talismans in the house and throw them all away.
The girl with him was called Xiaoqin. She was lying on the upper bunk at the moment, and it was unknown whether she was asleep or not.
Wu Xuelin was feeling a little irritable. It was already dark, but he couldn't fall asleep, tossing and turning. He felt cold all over.
"Xiaoqin, are you asleep?" Wu Xuelin asked in a low voice.
There was no response from the person on the upper bunk. It seemed that Xiaoqin had fallen asleep.
Wu Xuelin rolled over again, facing the wall. It wasn't cold, and the blanket wasn't thin, but Wu Xuelin felt increasingly cold, as if he were in the depths of winter. He wrapped himself tightly in the blanket, staring at the wall, trying to fall asleep, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't fall asleep.
Just as Wu Xuelin was becoming increasingly anxious, he suddenly noticed something stuck in the crack of the wall. Wu Xuelin reached out and carefully took the object out of the crack.
It was a small piece of paper with a few lines of words written on it in black font.
Wu Xuelin took out his phone and read the contents of the note carefully. He read it out softly: "Sachiko has called herself Sako since she was a child. How ridiculous! She likes bananas very much but can only eat half a banana at a time. How pitiful! Sako must have forgotten me when she went far away. I feel so lonely Sako..."
"What the hell is this?" Wu Xuelin felt a little uncomfortable with this thing. He felt that these lines of words were like poems, or lyrics, or something like that. He was creepy for a moment, and he involuntarily crumpled the note into a ball and threw it aside.
"It's so cold." After a while, Wu Xuelin couldn't stand it anymore. He sat up from the bed and said, "Xiaoqin, aren't you cold?"
No reply.
Wu Xuelin looked up at the upper bunk. There was only a mattress between them, so he could hear everything clearly. Xiaoqin didn't respond after he asked, but another strange sound came from the upper bunk: thump, thump, thump. It was almost like... someone was jumping on the bed.
"Xiaoqin?" Wu Xuelin was a little scared. He swallowed hard, "Xiaoqin?"
"What's the last sentence?" Xiaoqin's voice suddenly rang out.
Wu Xuelin was a little stunned: "What's the last sentence?"
Xiaoqin asked, "What's the last line of the lyrics?"
Wu Xuelin: “…What?”
Xiaoqin: "The lyrics you just read."
It took Wu Xuelin a moment to realize what Xiaoqin was talking about. He casually picked up the crumpled piece of paper beside him and asked, "The last sentence?" He searched for it and found the last sentence on the back of the paper: "My legs are gone. Can you give me yours?"
After reciting this sentence, Wu Xuelin suddenly felt something was wrong. How did Xiaoqin know these were lyrics? It wasn't something else. And he was reciting it so softly, how could Xiaoqin possibly hear it? Unless, the person asking him the question wasn't Xiaoqin, but something else.
Wu Xuelin's expression froze. He heard the "dong dong dong" sound of jumping getting louder and louder, as if it was going to shake the bed down.
Wu Xuelin was so frightened that he scrambled off the bed. However, as soon as he got off the bed, he was stunned by what he saw on the ground. Xiaoqin, who was supposed to be lying on the upper bunk, lay silently on the ground, already dead. Her expression was terrified, her eyes still wide open. Most frightening of all, her left foot was neatly severed.
The noise from the bunk above Wu Xuelin was getting louder and louder. The thing laughed sharply in the voice of Xiaoqin and began to repeat the last line of the lyrics: "My legs are gone, can you give me yours? My legs are gone, can you give me yours?——"
"Ahhhhhhh!!!" Wu Xuelin let out a shrill scream and rushed towards the door, but when he got there, he couldn't turn the lock in front of him.
"Help, help!!!" Wu Xuelin was trembling all over. He heard the thumping sound coming from behind him. A pair of cold hands touched his shoulders. Severe pain came from his left foot. Wu Xuelin fell to the ground and saw a foot covered in blood standing abruptly on the black floor.
Darkness began to appear before his eyes, and in his mind, the lyrics kept repeating: "I have no legs, can you give me yours?"
Everything became quiet and Wu Xuelin lost consciousness.
…
It was a peaceful night.
Lin Qiushi slept until dawn. He yawned and opened his eyes, only to see Ruan Nanzhu had woken up at some point and was sitting beside the bed, looking at him with a smile.
"Good morning." Ruan Nanzhu smiled at him.
"Good morning." Even though he knew Ruan Nanzhu was a man, Lin Qiushi still blushed for some unknown reason. Seeing such a beautiful person speaking to him with such a beautiful smile so early in the morning was, to be honest, a very pleasant thing.
Li Dongyuan next to him came over and said, "Mengmeng, you haven't said good morning to me yet."
Ruan Nanzhu glanced at him and said, "Okay."
Li Dongyuan: “…” Is it so difficult to say two more words?
Xia Rubei said, "Brother Li, good morning."
Li Dongyuan: "Okay."
Xia Rubei: “…”
Lin Qiushi really wanted to laugh after seeing this. These three people were simply an ecological chain that hurt each other.
At this moment, a sharp cry was heard outside their house: "Ahhhhh, someone is dead!!!"
Several people hurried out to see what was happening.
I saw several people gathered outside the room at the very back. Some of them were trying to open the door, and some were whispering.
Lin Qiushi took a look and found that red blood was overflowing from the door of the fenced-off room and flowing out along the corridor. Judging from the amount of bleeding, the person inside was definitely in danger.
The one who screamed was a new girl who had just arrived in this world. When she saw the blood, she was so frightened that her face turned pale. She hid in horror at the back of the crowd, not daring to look again.
Li Dongyuan and several men found tools and tried to break the door open. Fortunately, the doors in the dormitory were relatively old, and they opened after a few knocks, revealing the situation inside.
In the middle of the room lay a man and a woman, both lifeless in a pool of blood. However, the most striking thing was the missing part of their feet—both had lost their left legs.
"Isn't this the guy who insisted on tearing up the talisman paper yesterday?" Someone in the crowd recognized him. "Is that talisman paper really for suppressing ghosts?"
"It seems so." The crowd whispered, "otherwise why are both of them dead?"
"Wow, I want to go home, I want to go home." The fragile newlyweds began to cry, and their crying made the scene even more chaotic.
Ruan Nanzhu cautiously entered the room and began to survey his surroundings for any clues. Lin Qiushi followed him and approached the body.
These two people must have seen something extremely terrifying before they died. Even after death, there was unspeakable fear on their faces, and they didn't even close their eyes.
Blood flowed from the missing left leg, all over the floor and covering the entire room.
Ruan Nanzhu seemed to notice something. He bent down and picked up a small piece of paper from the corner. The paper was also stained with blood, and only a few words could be seen.
Others also saw this thing and came over to take a look: "What does this say?"
Ruan Nanzhu handed the note to the man and said, "I don't know."
"Banana... loneliness... all that nonsense." The man didn't understand. "Does anyone understand?"
No one understands it, or maybe some people understand it but are unwilling to say it out loud.
However, the other three, including Lin Qiushi, immediately determined the cause of death of the two people in front of them. They were indeed killed by Zuozi's hands, but they didn't know whether the cause of death was the torn talisman paper or the note with the lyrics written on it... or perhaps both?
The author has something to say: Ruan Nanzhu: I need Lin Lin’s kiss before I can get up.
Lin Qiushi kissed him.
Lin Qiushi: Didn't you get up? Why are you still sitting?
Ruan Nanzhu: It’s getting up down there.
Lin Qiushi: ………………
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