Chapter 50 Three Years Ago
After being called out once, Jiang Xinhong refused to speak with them again, sitting in the classroom and refusing to move. The four of them were quite frustrated. To avoid attracting the attention of the other NPCs, they decided to come back tomorrow and find an opportunity to have a proper conversation with Jiang Xinhong. It seemed that the most crucial clue lay with him.
"That's all for today. Go back and go to bed early. I'm sleepy too." Ruan Nanzhu said with a yawn.
"Okay." Li Dongyuan almost never opposed Ruan Nanzhu's proposal since he entered the door. He did whatever Ruan Nanzhu said. It can be said that he was very considerate.
The four of them ate something and returned to the dormitory. When they arrived at the door, they saw the new girl standing in circles with an anxious look on her face.
"What happened?" Lin Qiushi asked her.
The girl stammered and spoke hesitantly, "Well... one of my teammates... hasn't come back yet."
"Where did you go?" Ruan Nanzhu asked.
"The old school building," the girl said. "I went to the restroom and then I realized he was gone. I searched the entire building but couldn't find him. Then I got so scared I came back."
"He disappeared in the old school building?" Li Dongyuan turned his head to glance at the completely dark sky outside. "There's no point in rushing. It's already late, and we definitely can't go back to look for him. I advise you to get a good night's rest. We'll go with you tomorrow to check it out."
Although the girl's expression was still very worried, she nodded obediently. It seemed that she didn't want to return to the gloomy old school building at such a time.
So the group returned to their rooms to rest.
After so much experience inside the Gate, everyone knew exactly what it meant to be missing. In this world filled with death traps, very few people could survive a sudden disappearance. It seemed the teammate the new girl mentioned was also in grave danger.
They lay in bed and analyzed the information they had received today.
Ruan Nanzhu then offered a crucial clue: "Aren't they about to take their senior year exams?"
Lin Qiushi asked, "Yes, what's the matter?"
Ruan Nanzhu: "The weather now is definitely not winter. The temperature is moderately warm and even a little hot. So the final exams are not winter vacation exams."
Lin Qiushi instantly understood Ruan Nanzhu's meaning: "You mean they're about to take the college entrance exam?"
"Yes." Ruan Nanzhu, "I think this is a critical moment. Once the college entrance examination is over, he will no longer be a student of this school."
Xia Rubei also suddenly realized: "So the final exam is actually the college entrance examination. Is this our final deadline? What if... what if we can't find the key?"
Ruan Nanzhu smiled and said, "There are two possibilities for not being able to find it. One is that time is reset and we have to go through these days again. The other is that the ghost goes on a killing spree, leaving only one survivor, and the door opens automatically." - No matter which situation it is, it is very bad.
Upon hearing this, Xia Rubei shrank her neck and stopped talking.
"Mengmeng, how many doors have you been through?" Li Dongyuan suddenly asked, "It seems like you have a lot of experience."
"Mr. Meng, didn't anyone tell you not to ask for other people's cards casually?" Ruan Nanzhu was not polite to Li Dongyuan at all. "Besides, no matter how powerful I am, I can't be as powerful as the leader of the White Deer."
Li Dongyuan raised his eyebrows: "That's not necessarily true."
After they finished talking about these things, they began to rest.
Lin Qiushi stared at the bunk above him and fell asleep in a daze.
It was a peaceful night without any dreams. Lin Qiushi calmly welcomed the sunrise of the next day.
At seven o'clock in the morning, the four of them got up on time, washed up, and planned to go to the old school building with the new girl who lost her teammates yesterday to check the situation.
"My name is Luo Xiaoyu." The new girl introduced herself in a low voice. She had obviously not slept all night. There were big dark circles under her eyes, and her expression was full of confusion. "You mean, he's gone..."
"It's highly likely," Li Dongyuan said. "If he were still alive, there's no way he would have slept in the old school building for a night."
That's true. Luo Xiaoyu hugged his arms, looking cold all over.
They arrived at the old school building and saw that the iron gate was open and not locked. Luo Xiaoyu said that the door was open when they came. When she left yesterday, she was afraid that the man was locked inside, so she blocked it with a stone. She didn't expect that it would be the same as it was yesterday. However, this confirms that the man did not come out of the school building.
"Which floor were you on when you lost contact?" Ruan Nanzhu asked.
"The fourth floor." Luo Xiaoyu remembered it clearly. "A classroom at the end of the fourth floor, it seems to be Class 2, Grade 12..."
Hearing the words "Class 2", Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu looked at each other in tacit understanding.
"Let's go up and take a look first." Li Dongyuan said.
The five of them walked towards the fourth floor. Lin Qiushi listened to the sounds as they walked. He was now afraid of hearing the same thumping sound as before, which meant that Zuozi might be nearby. Fortunately, the sound did not appear until they reached the fourth floor.
There were two big Chinese characters "Class 2" written on the nameplate of the classroom at the end. They saw the scene inside through the classroom window.
The classroom was not big and could be seen from the outside. The empty classroom was neatly arranged with tables and chairs, but there were no teammates as Luo Xiaoyu mentioned.
"He's not here." Li Dongyuan said, "Maybe he went somewhere else. How did you two separate?"
Luo Xiaoyu replied tremblingly: "I went to the toilet nearby, and when I came back I found that he was gone. I haven't seen him since..."
"Shall we go to other floors?" Lin Qiushi suggested.
"That's fine." Ruan Nanzhu nodded.
The five of them were walking towards the stairs when they suddenly heard a loud noise behind them, as if something fell from the sky and hit the ground heavily.
Everyone was startled by the sound. Several people went to look for the sound and soon found the source of the sound - it was Class 2, which had nothing there before.
At this time, in the empty classroom where there should have been only tables and chairs, there was a bloody corpse. The corpse seemed to have fallen from the ceiling, smashing the neatly arranged tables and chairs on the ground into pieces.
When Luo Xiaoyu saw this scene, she couldn't help but scream. Xia Rubai performed better than her. At least she didn't scream, but just covered her mouth with her hands and took a few steps back.
"Let's go in and take a look." Ruan Nanzhu said, took out a hairpin and started to unlock the door.
Lin Qiushi was already accustomed to his operation and just watched silently from the side. Xia Rubei, on the other hand, was a little curious but also afraid, so she watched from a distance, tiptoeing and supporting her head. Her posture was quite cute.
A moment later, the simple lock of the teaching building snapped open with a click. Ruan Nanzhu was the first to push the door open and saw a mess on the floor.
Lin Qiushi followed him into the classroom and quickly noticed something was wrong: "These things..."
Ruan Nanzhu: "Interesting."
There was a pile of books scattered around the place where the body fell. From a distance, these books should be students' textbooks. Now these textbooks were scattered around the body in a mess, which looked very weird.
Li Dongyuan was also very brave. He walked directly to the corpse and picked up one of the books: "It's a textbook."
Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu also walked over and saw what Li Dongyuan was holding.
They were indeed teaching materials, and they were all textbooks. These textbooks were scribbled all over with red marker, and almost every page was covered with vicious curses like "die, die, die, die".
Ruan Nanzhu picked up another random book. It was similar to the one in his hand, but it was covered in curse words. Ruan Nanzhu pondered for a moment, closed the book, and flipped to the first page. Lin Qiushi was standing next to him, so he could clearly see the words written in elegant handwriting on the first page: Lu Zuozi—this was actually Lu Zuozi's book!
The corpse in the middle of the classroom was indeed missing a leg. It seemed that it was Lu Zuozi who did it. I just don’t know what method Lu Zuozi used this time to make this person read the lyrics that he shouldn’t have read.
…
Nie Chenghe came to the old school building with Luo Xiaoyu.
When Luo Xiaoyu went to the bathroom, he stood at the classroom door and waited quietly. The whole teaching building was eerily quiet, and even the empty corridors echoed.
Nie Chenghe looked at the endless corridor and felt inexplicably nervous. He took out his cell phone and was about to play a few small games to relieve his tension, but his expression suddenly froze - he heard a strange sound, which came from the classroom, like noisy whispers, which made his hair stand on end.
There was no one in the school building, so how could there be whispers? However, the whispers grew louder and louder, and finally turned into a loud noise.
Nie Chenghe slowly moved to the window. Through the window glass, he finally saw the source of the sound - it was the classroom in front of him.
I saw that the originally empty classroom was suddenly filled with students. They were either sitting or standing, discussing something with excited expressions.
This scene was so horrifying that Nie Chenghe couldn't help but want to step back. However, just as he was about to leave quietly, the students in the classroom began to sing a strange song in unison: "Sachiko has called herself Sako since she was a child. How ridiculous! She loves bananas 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..."
Nie Chenghe had never heard such a song before. The song made him feel colder and colder, as if he was in the dead of winter. He wanted to move his body, but it felt like it was frozen.
"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 will probably forget me when she goes far away. Sako is so lonely..."... The song was still repeating, but the people in the classroom discovered Nie Chenghe's presence.
They turned their heads and looked at Nie Chenghe outside the window. Facing these faces, Nie Chenghe realized that these people's eyes had no pupils, only two pitch-black holes. Combined with their pale faces, it was obvious that they were not living people.
Nie Chenghe stumbled a few steps in fear. He opened his mouth and heard them sing the last line of the lyrics: "My legs are gone, please give me yours, please. My legs are gone, please give me yours, please..."
Over and over again, this sentence seemed to become a magical spell. Nie Chenghe's expression began to become confused. His lips moved and he whispered: I have no legs left, can you give me yours?
As soon as these words were spoken, the classroom became quiet instantly.
Those pale faces all had weird smiles on their mouths.
Nie Chenghe suddenly realized what he had done. He immediately understood and turned to escape, but he heard a thud behind him. He turned his head in panic and saw a figure standing in the shadows of the corridor. The figure slowly approached him, and the song continued: "My legs are gone, can you give me yours?"
Nie Chenghe felt a sharp pain in his leg and everything in front of him went completely dark.
…
After coming out of the old school building, Lin Qiushi and the others planned to go talk to Jiang Xinhong again.
However, considering Jiang Xinhong's sensitive attitude yesterday, Ruan Nanzhu suggested blocking him at the school gate and taking him to a place where he would not attract other people's attention and then questioning him carefully.
Li Dongyuan still actively responded to Ruan Nanzhu's call, and said that he was very strong and could bring Jiang Xinhong over by himself.
Lin Qiushi thought to himself that it was a good thing they were not in reality, otherwise the four of them would have been taken away by the security guards long ago as they were sneaking around.
It was already six o'clock in the afternoon and students were leaving school one after another.
Under normal circumstances, high school students should attend evening self-study classes at school, but probably because of the things that happened in this school, all students will leave school before seven o'clock, and the originally bustling campus will become quieter than a grave.
The four of them kept staring at the school gate, but there was no sign of Jiang Xinhong for a long time.
Finally, Xia Rubei couldn't help but wonder, "Did we lose him? Why haven't we seen Jiang Xinhong?"
"It's impossible that he lost me." Ruan Nanzhu was very confident in his eyesight. "He definitely hasn't been here."
"Then let's go to the teaching building and take a look?" Li Dongyuan suggested.
"Okay." Ruan Nanzhu said, "You two stay here and guard. Yu Linlin, you and I will go over."
Lin Qiushi was about to say yes, but Li Dongyuan said with a half-smile, "Mengmeng, this isn't appropriate."
Ruan Nanzhu raised an eyebrow: "Why is it inappropriate?"
Li Dongyuan asked, "What if we run into Jiang Xinhong at the door? Aren't you afraid that we might get some information out of you?"
Ruan Nanzhu glanced at Li Dongyuan. Obviously, although Li Dongyuan used them as an example, he was implying that he was worried that Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu were hiding something. However, after all, they were from two different organizations, so it was normal for them to have some concerns.
"Why don't you and Xia Rubei stay here, and Yu Linlin and I will go over and take a look." Li Dongyuan said, "That way you and I can both rest assured."
Ruan Nanzhu thought for a moment and actually agreed to Li Dongyuan's suggestion: "That's fine." He looked at Lin Qiushi again, "Go early and come back early."
Lin Qiushi nodded.
Then, Lin Qiushi and Li Dongyuan began walking towards the teaching building, hoping to find out where Jiang Xinhong was. Along the way, Li Dongyuan kept asking about Zhu Meng, their relationship with Yu Linlin, and her position within the Obsidian Group. Lin Qiushi bluntly rejected all his inquiries, offering standard "I don't know, I'm not clear, I don't understand" responses.
Li Dongyuan was not angry despite being resisted so much. He looked at Lin Qiushi with a smile and said, "Are all you Obsidian people so interesting?"
Lin Qiushi: "Ordinary and interesting, right?"
When they arrived at the bottom of the teaching building, they saw that almost everyone inside had left, with only a few classrooms still having lights on, including Class 3 of Senior 3.
"Let's go up and take a look." Li Dongyuan said.
Lin Qiushi and he climbed upstairs together. When they reached the floor where Class 3 of Grade 3 was located, they just heard a fierce quarrel coming from inside. After listening carefully, they found that one of the voices was Jiang Xinhong, whom they were looking for. He seemed to be arguing with someone about something.
"Did you know something back then—" It was an unfamiliar voice, but it also sounded very childish, probably a student.
"How would I know anything?! I don't know anything. Don't come to me again. Once the college entrance examination is over, everything will be over!" Jiang Xinhong was also very excited.
"It's over! How could it possibly be over? What if she went to college with me? Besides, things like this never end!" The man's voice grew louder and louder, even pounding on the table. "You really don't know anything?"
"I don't know! I don't know!" Jiang Xinhong said. "If I knew, how could I have watched them die so tragically!"
"But why didn't you die—" the man said, "You are the only one who is alive and well!"
Jiang Xinhong was enraged by this and cursed angrily, "What the hell do you mean? What do you mean I'm the only one alive and well? Aren't you alive too?!"
"If it weren't for what you said to me, I wouldn't have survived. Now they're all dead, what's the point of me living? I'll tell Jiang Xinhong, if you let me know that this matter really has something to do with you..." The voice was so cold that it made people feel cold all over. "I will never let you go."
Jiang Xinhong cursed, "Get out of here! You're repaying kindness with enmity!"
The man sneered and said, "You don't have to tell me, I can leave by myself. You... just be careful." After he said that, he rushed out of the classroom. He didn't notice Lin Qiushi and Li Dongyuan hiding in the corner, and hurried downstairs.
Jiang Xinhong swore a few more times in the classroom, but finally calmed down and walked out of the classroom with his schoolbag on his back.
But when he came out and saw Li Dongyuan and Lin Qiushi standing outside, his expression instantly turned even uglier: "What on earth do you want to do? I said I know nothing!"
Li Dongyuan smiled and said, "Student Jiang, we haven't asked anything yet."
Jiang Xinhong said, "I don't know anything—" He repeated it, turned around and was about to leave, but was grabbed by Li Dongyuan.
"What are you doing!" Jiang Xinhong was a little angry when he was pulled away.
The smile on Li Dongyuan's face faded, and he said, "Little friend, don't refuse a toast and then drink a penalty."
Jiang Xinhong said: "You..."
Li Dongyuan interrupted him: "People often die in this school."
Jiang Xinhong's eyes widened.
Li Dongyuan said: "If you suddenly disappeared, would they think you were killed by a person or a ghost?"
Jiang Xinhong fell silent. It was clear that Li Dongyuan's words had grasped his lifeline. Countless accidents had occurred in this school, and none of them had any consequences. It could be said that everyone in the school understood what was going on, knowing that this was something unspeakable.
Moreover, he has a special identity, that is, he is a student in the disappeared Class 2. Even if he disappears, I am afraid those people will think that this matter is supernatural.
"Okay, what do you want to know?" Jiang Xinhong decided to give up struggling after assessing the size difference between himself and Li Dongyuan. "I don't know much!"
Li Dongyuan then let go and resumed his smiling face. Lin Qiushi thought to himself that Li Dongyuan was indeed black when cut open. He usually smiled so gently, but was very skilled when threatening people.
"Linlin, don't look at me like that." Li Dongyuan seemed to know what Lin Qiushi was thinking and explained, "I'm not usually like this."
Lin Qiushi: "Do you usually just take action directly?"
Li Dongyuan: "Haha, you are so humorous."
Lin Qiushi: “…” This person actually didn’t refute.
Jiang Xinhong crossed his arms, clearly resistant to both Li Dongyuan and Lin Qiushi. He said, "Go ahead and ask. I still need to get home."
"You were from Class 2, right? Was that person just now your classmate from Class 2?" Li Dongyuan said.
"Yes." Jiang Xinhong said, "He is also in Class 2."
"How many people are left in your Class 2 now?" Li Dongyuan asked.
Jiang Xinhong said, "Just the two of us."
Li Dongyuan: "So you know what Lu Zuozi did in school?"
When this name was mentioned, Jiang Xinhong's eyes revealed unconcealable fear, and even his whole body trembled. He gritted his teeth and nodded.
"Tell me what happened between you and Lu Zuozi back then," Li Dongyuan said. "And what did you mean yesterday when you said she shouldn't exist?"
Jiang Xinhong raised his hand to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead. He said, "There's nothing much to say. When she first came to our class, she was bullied by some people. Those people habitually bullied Lu Zuozi..."
"For example, writing 'die' in her book?" Li Dongyuan said.
"How do you know?" Jiang Xinhong looked at Li Dongyuan in horror.
"We know a lot." Li Dongyuan smiled. "So when you speak, think carefully before you speak. If we find that what you say is different from what we know... don't blame us for being rude."
Jiang Xinhong swallowed hard.
"You know, sometimes people are much scarier than ghosts." Li Dongyuan said, "If the person standing next to me starts to attack, I think you might want to die sooner."
Lin Qiushi, who was silently serving as a background board at the side, thought to himself, Li Dongyuan, you have been infected by Ruan Nanzhu, what's wrong, he added more scenes to his role for no reason.
"Aren't you right, Linlin?" Li Dongyuan actually had the nerve to turn around and see Lin Qiushi's reaction.
Lin Qiushi: “…Yes.”
Li Dongyuan winked at him playfully. Lin Qiushi: “…” To some extent, Li Dongyuan and Ruan Nanzhu were a perfect match.
The worst part was that Jiang Xinhong actually believed Li Dongyuan's words. He looked at Lin Qiushi with horror and even silently took a step back. He said, "I really don't know much..."
Li Dongyuan asked, "So, Lu Zuozi, how did you die? Why did all your classmates die, but you, as an exception, survived to the end?"
Jiang Xinhong said: "This matter started three years ago..."
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