Chapter 98 Sculpture
Accompanied by Gu Longming's mumbling, Lin Qiushi slowly fell into sleep.
Ruan Nanzhu's thoughts were always difficult to guess, but Gu Longming's words did give Lin Qiushi a hint. Ruan Nanzhu's change occurred after he brought Zhuang Rujiao back from Bailu. Could it be that his concerns only arose after seeing Zhuang Rujiao? Lin Qiushi thought, I must ask him about it when I get back. If there's anything, maybe they can talk it out.
The night passed uneventfully, and the next morning, everyone awoke. Some were full of energy, while others had dark circles under their eyes. The two newcomers, in particular, were clearly having a hard time adjusting to the world beyond the gate. One of them, Xiao Mian, even attempted to leave the school, but ultimately returned, looking disheveled and exhausted.
"I told you you couldn't get out, why didn't you believe it?" His roommate was an old man who had passed the fifth door. His name seemed to be Wang Yao. Seeing that Xiao Mian insisted on wasting time on such things, he disagreed.
Xiao Mian forced a smile and said, "I just thought it was a prank..."
"What did you see in the end?" Wang Yao sneered.
"It's all fog," Xiao Mian said. "At first I thought it was just morning mist, but when I went outside, I found no one on the street..." It was past eight o'clock and the streets were deserted, which was obviously not normal. Moreover, this was a school, and so many students seemed to appear out of thin air, making one's scalp tingle. At this moment, Xiao Mian also clearly realized that the place he had entered was indeed different from the real world. This was not a TV show, nor a hoax, but a real alternate dimension.
"It's a good thing you came back." Wang Yao said, "otherwise this morning might be the last time we see each other." Although he was smiling when he said this, Xiao Mian's face became even paler because of this sentence. He stopped talking and lowered his head to eat the food in front of him.
Lin Qiushi listened to their conversation, then turned to Gu Longming and said, "Shall we go check on the class where the incident happened first?"
"Okay." Gu Longming nodded.
Last night, Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming exchanged clues about this door. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" is a saying from the Bible, which means that if you damage someone else's things, you must pay the same price for them. There is no horror background story behind it.
So Lin Qiushi didn't understand for the time being how to use this sentence in this door.
Gu Longming was also confused by this, so the two of them decided to go to the place where the incident happened first to find out more before making any plans.
When the NPC took them to the dormitory yesterday, he provided everyone with the most basic information. The first accident was in Class 3 of the Sculpture Department. Within a week, three people died in this class, and all of their deaths were very tragic. Of course, the police investigation concluded that all of these people committed suicide.
The deaths of these three people were just the beginning. After that, the horror began to spread and involved the entire class. Within half a year, eight people died in the entire school. This matter became a big deal for a while. The police were never able to find a breakthrough in the deaths. In desperation, the school had to find a private detective to solve the matter as soon as possible.
The university schedule is a bit chaotic, but yesterday the NPC gave them a three-shift class schedule.
Lin Qiushi took a look and saw that they had two wooden carvings this morning.
Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming found the classroom and saw that there were about a dozen students sitting scattered inside.
They came with other members of the team. These people walked ahead of Lin Qiushi and the others. After arriving at the classroom, they randomly found a student and tried to extract some information.
"Excuse me, can I bother you for a few minutes?" The first person to ask was a girl in the team. She was sweet and cute, the type that people like very much. Her name was also very cute, Zuo Sisi.
"Is there something wrong?" The person being asked was a male classmate.
Zuo Sisi smiled and said, "It's like this. We were invited by the school to investigate that matter..."
Upon hearing about that incident, the boy's expression changed immediately. He waved his hands to indicate that he knew nothing, then turned around and ignored the other person's questions.
Zuo Sisi was initially very polite, but after seeing the boy ignore her, she could only deliberately say, "Are you really not going to tell us something? You know this isn't over yet, right? Aren't you afraid that someday misfortune will befall you?"
The male student still didn't speak, but his expression was slightly hesitant.
Seeing his attitude soften, Zuo Sisi quickly struck while the iron was hot: "We are all professionals and will definitely be able to help you. Wouldn't it be good for you to end this sooner rather than later?"
"What do you want to ask? I'm about to start class." The male student finally relented.
"Three people died in your class, right? Who was the first one to die? How did he die?" Zuo Sisi asked.
The male student pursed his lips and spoke in a low voice: "The first person to die was Liu Xiaoyu. I don't know how she died... I only know that she died in the classroom where the stone sculptures were kept."
Zuo Sisi said, "You really don't know how she died?"
"I don't know." The male classmate said in a firm tone, but Lin Qiushi inexplicably felt that he was lying, because while he was speaking, the hand on his leg was gently picking at his pants, and he looked extremely nervous.
"Let's go." Lin Qiushi turned and looked at Gu Longming.
"Are you leaving now? Without asking any more questions?" Gu Longming said.
"Yeah," Lin Qiushi said, "They're too scared. It seems like we can't get anything out of them. We might as well check the school's previous records."
Gu Longming glanced at the male classmate who was trembling with fear at Zuo Sisi's question, and thought for a moment: "That's fine."
The two left the classroom and went to the nearby library to find out what had happened in the school in recent months.
After arriving at the library, Lin Qiushi explained his purpose to the librarian. The librarian glanced at them and handed them a document, saying that it was left behind by the police investigation and might be helpful to them, but asked them to return it promptly after reading it.
Lin Qiushi took the information and thanked him gratefully.
Then he and Gu Longming found a corner and began to look through the information.
This document contains all the information of the eight deceased. Among the eight deceased, there are three boys and five girls. They are all third-year students in the sculpture department. The only difference is that they are in different classes.
Of the eight victims, the first was found in a sculpture classroom. Her head had been torn off and impaled on a human sculpture. The scene was extremely brutal. Lin Qiushi had also seen photos of the crime scene in the archives. Although the images were blurred, one could still vaguely imagine the horrific scene.
The second victim was also found in the sculpture classroom. It was a boy. His death was similar to that of the first girl. The only difference was that his eyes were gouged out, leaving only two empty bloody holes.
The third victim died in the sculpture classroom again. His death was slightly different from the previous two. He was frightened to death.
If the deaths of the first three victims had some pattern, then the deaths of the next five were simply random killings. The locations of the next five victims were almost spread throughout the school, including toilets, classrooms, and even the library.
Their ways of death were all strange and bizarre. Lin Qiushi even saw one whose eye was pierced by a compass.
"Fuck, that hurts just looking at it." Gu Longming lowered his head and sighed in amazement. "It's like all my fantasies about death from school have come true."
Most students have thought about what it would be like if they accidentally poked a compass into their eyes, but they didn't expect to see it happen here.
Lin Qiushi carefully looked through the information and found some of the relationships between the deceased during their lifetime at the end of the information, as well as a group photo.
There are four people in the photo, three of whom are dead, and the only one left is a boy, whose appearance in the photo is obscured by a black stain.
"He's not dead?" Lin Qiushi was slightly surprised.
"Hey, this person is not dead?" After seeing the group photo, Gu Longming turned it to the front again and found that there were indeed only three people dead in the photo, and there was still one survivor.
Obviously this person is the breakthrough point. The relationship between these four people must be very good, but three of them are dead now. How did the remaining person survive?
Lin Qiushi thought for a moment, took the photo out of the file, and put it in his pocket. He said, "These people actually have one thing in common."
"Huh?" Gu Longming looked up in confusion.
"They all joined the same club." Lin Qiushi pointed to an inconspicuous corner of the information, where each deceased person's interests and hobbies and the school clubs they joined were written.
After all, they were art students, and most of the deceased had a wide range of interests. However, each of the eight people participated in a club called the Sculpture Lovers Association. This club was nothing special for students in the sculpture department, and Lin Qiushi only mentioned it casually in case the two of them missed it.
"Yes, but they are from the sculpture department, so it's normal for them to join this club. I think this student is a big problem." Gu Longming was still struggling with the photo. "He's not dead, so the breakthrough must be him, right?"
"Well, we can go check it out first. He's also in Class 3." Lin Qiushi glanced at his watch. "They should be almost done with get out of class. Let's wait for him outside the classroom."
"Okay." Gu Longming nodded.
The two returned the materials to the librarian and walked out of the library.
This library is relatively new, with six floors in total and what seems to be four or five elevators. Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming took the elevator to the first floor and were about to walk out when they noticed something - there were many white statues in the lobby on the first floor. Most of these statues looked like students, wearing school uniforms and with long flowing hair. Some were walking out with backpacks on their backs, while others were reading with their heads down.
I have to say, it's okay during the day. If you come here at night and see these statues, you would probably be scared.
Gu Longming was quite interested in these statues. After observing them, he said, "These statues are so strange."
"What's wrong?" Lin Qiushi asked.
"They all seem to look the same." Gu Longming touched his chin and looked left and right. "All the statues seem to look similar..."
Lin Qiushi also took a look and said, "It seems similar, but aren't all statues similar?"
"That's different." Gu Longming said, "At least the ones upstairs are different from those on the first floor."
There are also statues on the other floors, but not as many as on the first floor, only one or two.
Lin Qiushi thought for a moment, then grabbed a student and said, "Classmate, can I ask why there are so many statues on your first floor?"
The student was confused by Gu Longming's arrest: "This is the school rule."
Gu Longming perked up and asked, "Rules, what rules?"
The students said: "Any sculpture that wins an award outside of school can have a replica placed in the school library..."
Lin Qiushi: "Then there will be a lot of sculptures in the library?"
"How can there be so many?" the student said. "It's just this year. In previous years, almost no one won an award. These sculptures are changed every year, so they won't be there for long."
"Do you have a list of winners this year?" Lin Qiushi asked.
"No," the student said, puzzled. "Isn't it easy for you to find the list of winners?" He pointed to the brochure outside the library entrance. "That's the school's brochure. It's all the winners. Can I go now? I still need to read."
Lin Qiushi then let go, thanked him, and turned to pick up the brochure at the library entrance.
Turning to the last few pages, there was indeed the list of award winners that the students had mentioned. After seeing the list, Gu Longming cursed and said, "This is the list of award winners? This is the list of people who will be executed today..."
It is not an exaggeration to say that this is the list of people who were executed today, because almost all the winners this year are dead, and each of them died in a miserable way.
"But then again, there must be more than just students from this school who won the award. How come almost all the students from their school died?" Gu Longming said.
"I don't know," Lin Qiushi said. "Let's go back to the classroom and check." He said, "I want to find the student in the photo."
"Okay." Gu Longming nodded.
So the two of them planned to go back to the classroom.
But their luck wasn't great. Halfway through their journey, the bell rang, and students began pouring out of the teaching building like a tide. The sculpture department only had two classes that day, and afterward, they were free to do whatever they wanted. If they went there now, the students might have already left, and they wouldn't be able to find the person they were looking for.
But even so, Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming returned to the vicinity of the classroom.
The classroom was on the sixth floor. As soon as Lin Qiushi got out of the elevator, he felt something was wrong with this floor. He frowned slightly and said, "Be careful."
"What's wrong?" Gu Longming felt a little weak.
"Something seems a little off," Lin Qiushi said. "It's too quiet." This is a teaching building. Even after class, it shouldn't be this quiet. It's so quiet that you can hear a pin drop.
Gu Longming nodded, his expression becoming more cautious.
The two of them walked slowly towards the classroom where the get out of class was over. Before they even got there, they heard a quarrel coming from inside: "I told you not to do that, why didn't you listen to me? Don't you want to live anymore?"
Another person replied angrily: "You are so naive. You think if you back down now, everything will be over? No, I tell you, it will never be over. It will cost us all our lives——"
"What should we do then?" The third person said dejectedly, "If we hadn't done this then..."
"Then is it interesting for you to say this now? It's already happened—" The person who started talking became even angrier. He said, "Why don't you come here quickly!"
Then there was a rustling sound. Lin Qiushi quietly walked to the window and looked inside. Through the curtains, he saw three students standing in the room.
The three of them were gathered around something on the table, seemingly discussing something.
Gu Longming stood behind Lin Qiushi and suddenly cursed softly, "Fuck!"
"What's wrong?" Lin Qiushi turned his head and looked at him.
Gu Longming said hoarsely: "Look under the table."
Lin Qiushi looked under the table and discovered that there were four pairs of legs standing underneath... but there were clearly only three people in the room.
He felt goose bumps on his arms and saw one of the three people in the classroom take out a paper cutter and cut it against his arm.
Blood dripped down his arm onto the items on the table. As soon as he finished this action, Lin Qiushi clearly saw another pair of legs appear under the table... The number of items in the room had increased...
"Should we go in?" Gu Longming said with some worry, "I always feel like they are courting death."
Lin Qiushi said, "Go in." He had a feeling that if they didn't interrupt what was happening in the classroom, these three students would probably be dead.
"Okay." Gu Longming walked to the classroom door, knocked on it, and asked loudly, "Is anyone in there?"
There was a flurry of panic in the room, and after a moment, someone hesitantly said, "Anyone, is there anything wrong?"
"I'm coming in." Gu Longming pushed the door open.
The doors of the classrooms in the teaching building cannot be locked from the inside, they can only be locked from the outside. Of course, under normal circumstances, they are opened as study classrooms for students to use. Of course, since the murder occurred in this building, almost no one studies here. After all, it’s creepy to think about it.
The three students showed vigilance when Gu Longming pushed the door open, and took a step forward in unison to cover the things behind the table.
"What are you doing?" Gu Longming said.
"What we do is none of your business," the man on the left said in a very unfriendly tone. "Could you please step out? We're doing some wood carving."
"No." Gu Longming said, "The school classrooms are open, I can go wherever I want." He said, "What are you doing? Collective self-mutilation?" His eyes fell on the student's arm that was still bleeding.
"It has nothing to do with you!" The three of them were a little anxious.
Lin Qiushi asked, "What's on the table?" He spoke slowly, "We saw four people in the room from outside, so why are there only three after we came in?"
When the three heard what the four people said, their faces changed drastically.
One of them forced a smile and said, "What nonsense are you talking about? There are only three of us here."
"There are four of them." Lin Qiushi calmly broke down their psychological defenses. "Where's the guy wearing red and black striped sneakers and light blue jeans?"
As soon as this description came out, the three students fell silent instantly, their faces turned as white as paper, and the last bit of blood was lost. One of them, who was in a bad mood, started crying. He covered his arms and cried, "I said we would die, we really will die..." His body slowly withered, and he squatted on the ground, revealing the things on the table behind him.
Lin Qiushi saw clearly what it was. It was a small human-shaped wooden sculpture placed on the table. The wood sculpture was soaked with blood. Due to the distance and the angle, Lin Qiushi could not see the specific appearance of the wood sculpture very clearly.
"Stop fucking crying!" The irritable man cursed, reached out to pick up the wooden sculpture, stuffed it roughly into his pocket and wanted to leave the classroom.
Gu Longming stepped forward to stop him and said, "Are you leaving just like that?" He slowly rolled up his sleeves, revealing the strong muscles on his arms, "Little brother, let's chat for a while."
I have to say that Gu Longming is a strong guy and looks like a bad boy. When he threatens people, he really looks like one.
Lin Qiushi frowned.
Gu Longming thought Lin Qiushi was unhappy and was about to explain, but he saw Lin Qiushi walk over to the defensive student and ask, "What's that on the corner of your clothes?"
The student said, "What, what..." He lowered his head and saw a red pattern on the corner of his light blue shirt, and then his whole body began to tremble.
When Lin Qiushi first saw the pattern, he thought it was just a decoration on the student's clothes. But after taking a closer look, he realized that it was not a pattern at all, but clearly a series of bloody handprints. From the angle, it looked like something was dragging from the bottom up... and judging by the student's reaction, it seemed that he didn't notice anything at all.
"Wuwuwu..." The person squatting on the ground cried even more miserably.
Gu Longming said, "Can you please stop crying? We are here to help, not to harm anyone. Why are you resisting us so much?" He reached out and held down the thin body of the student in front of him, his tone gentle, "Come on, tell your brother that you are a good person and will definitely help you." He grinned, revealing his white teeth, as if to express that he was a gentle and kind person.
Who knew that when the student saw his smile, he shuddered all over, turned around and ran away. Gu Longming didn't have time to stop him before he saw the man rushing out like a gust of wind.
"Why did he run away?" Gu Longming looked at Lin Qiushi aggrievedly, "I even smiled at him."
Lin Qiushi: “…” Although it was very discouraging, he had to admit that seeing Gu Longming’s smile made him want to run away.
The author has something to say: Ruan Nanzhu is overthinking things. He is no longer at the age where he can do anything for love. In fact, if he really does not care about anything else just to get Lin Qiushi, it would be a very selfish act. Of course, the road is tortuous, but the future is bright (fist)
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