Chapter 102 True Identity
Zhu Ruyuan wasn't human, which meant they had no way of finding her. But even if they couldn't find her, they could still find Zhou Hanshan, who was still alive.
Ai Wenrui knew the address of Zhou Hanshan’s dormitory, so the three of them went straight to the dormitory.
On the way there, Lin Qiushi met the girl named Zuo Sisi again. She and her partner were sitting by the school's flower bed, holding something in their hands, and seemed to be discussing something.
Gu Longming saw what they were holding from afar and exclaimed in surprise, "It's a puppet. Where did they find this puppet—"
Lin Qiushi thought of the two outsiders who had died last night. After a moment's thought, he walked over to Zuo Sisi and greeted them, "Zuo Sisi, what are you doing?"
When Zuo Sisi saw them coming, she conveniently hid the wooden figure and said with a smile, "Nothing, just chatting."
Lin Qiushi had a good impression of this girl, so he didn't beat around the bush and asked, "Did you find the wooden man too?"
"Hmm..." Zuo Sisi said vaguely, "What?"
"Now that we've found it, let's preserve it properly," Lin Qiushi said. "I also found a wooden figure on the body of the man who died this morning. The head is missing. I suspect the figure is related to how those two people died."
Zuo Sisi's companion's expression changed drastically when he heard this: "What?"
Seeing him so flustered, Gu Longming said, "Hey, you haven't thrown it away yet, have you?"
"I...I..." He pointed to the pond behind him, his face pale, "I just thought this thing was unlucky, so I threw one in there!"
"What should we do? I hope nothing will happen to you!" Zuo Sisi was also panicked.
"I'll go get it back!" his companion said hurriedly.
"Wait—" Before Lin Qiushi could remember to stop them, he saw Zuo Sisi's companions jump directly into the pond behind them.
This is the school's landscape pond. It is very shallow. A man about 1.7 meters tall standing in it will only have the water reach his knees. Normally, he will not drown in it.
But the world inside the door obviously cannot be measured by the word "normal".
The man entered the water and was bending over, trying to get the wooden man out. The water around him seemed to boil, and the surface began to churn violently. Seeing this, Lin Qiushi hurriedly called out, "Come out quickly—"
Upon hearing this, the man took a step towards where they were when countless pairs of stiff, pale hands emerged from the emerald water, grabbed his body, and began to drag him to the bottom of the pond.
Lin Qiushi reacted the fastest. He rushed to the edge of the pond and grabbed the man's frantic, waving hands: "Help him quickly—"
Zuo Sisi, Gu Longming, and Ai Wenrui also hurried to catch up, hugged Lin Qiushi's body and dragged them both back.
The four of them worked together and finally rescued the man who was almost dragged into the pond. When the man was dragged out, he almost cried and said, "It's so fucking horrible - my pants were dragged off -" His outer jeans were dragged into the pond, and now he was only left with a pair of tattered boxer briefs on his body.
"Tsk." Zuo Sisi gave him a look of disdain. "You're actually wearing pants like that."
Companion: “…” Yeah, if he had known he would be taking off his pants in public, he would have chosen a prettier pattern.
Lin Qiushi exhaled and said, "I suggest you stay away from water for the time being."
"Okay, thank you for the reminder. Where are you going?" Zuo Sisi also felt that Lin Qiushi's team was a little different.
Lin Qiushi said, "Let's go to the dormitory... Where did you find this wooden man?"
"It was in the Sculpture Club's activity room," Zuo Sisi answered Lin Qiushi's question this time. "We heard that the deceased students seemed to have participated in the Sculpture Club, so we went there to take a look."
It seems that almost everyone knows this information, but their luck is not as good as Lin Qiushi's, and they have not met an NPC like Ai Wenrui who knows the details.
"Let's go. If we don't go now, class will start again." Ai Wenrui whispered beside him.
Zuo Sisi glanced at Ai Wenrui, her eyes carrying a hint of something else. She said, "Good luck to you."
"Good luck." Lin Qiushi nodded and pointed at Zuo Sisi's companions. "Go find some pants first."
Companion in underwear: "...Okay, thank you for your concern."
The three of them went to the dormitory. According to Ai Wenrui, Zhou Hanshan lived in room 307.
But the three of them knocked on the door for a long time, but no one inside responded.
"He's not here. Let's go." said Ai Wenrui.
Gu Longming said, "Why are you walking? Why are you walking? Can't you go in?" He turned his gaze to Lin Qiushi.
Lin Qiushi: “…” He was silent for three seconds. “Please keep an eye on me to see if anyone else saw this.”
Only then did Ai Wenrui remember that Lin Qiushi could unlock the door. His expression was a little complicated and he nodded softly.
A few minutes later, they entered Zhou Hanshan's dormitory.
But once inside, I found the dorm empty. No one was living there at all. Both the inside and the outside balcony were empty, and judging by the state of the sink and the dust, it seemed like no one had lived there for a long time.
"Zhou Hanshan went home?" Lin Qiushi asked.
"I don't know. I haven't seen him for a while since the accident," Ai Wenrui said, "but I haven't heard about him dropping out of school." He finished speaking with a self-deprecating laugh, "Maybe he dropped out, but I didn't know... After all, at a time like this, who has the extra energy to care about others?"
Lin Qiushi thought for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Can you contact that friend from before?"
"Which one?" said Ai Wenrui.
"Those three people who were in the classroom at the time," Lin Qiushi said. "You, Xiaohe, and the other one who ran away—can you contact that person?"
"I'm not sure." Ai Wenrui shook his head, "I'm sure he won't answer my call..."
Lin Qiushi said, "Hit him first."
Ai Wenrui nodded, picked up his phone and dialed a number. After the phone rang for about ten seconds, it was finally connected. A boy's voice came from the other end, saying, "Hello."
Hearing this man's voice, Ai Wenrui was about to speak when the glass next to him made a loud noise. Lin Qiushi looked up and found that a round object was thrown directly in from the window. After smashing the glass, the object rolled straight in front of them.
Ai Wenrui looked at the things on the ground and fell into a daze. His cell phone was on speakerphone and his friend's voice was still coming from the speakerphone.
"Why aren't you talking?" the person on the other end asked. "Is there something wrong? Do you need me to come over to you?"
Ai Wenrui lowered his head and looked at the things on the ground.
It was a human head, severed from the neck by a sharp object, still dripping with blood. If it were just an ordinary head, it would be fine, but...
Ai Wenrui turned his head stiffly and looked at the phone that was still ringing. The head of the phone owner was lying quietly in front of him, staring at him with those lifeless eyes.
"Come on, speak up! Why aren't you speaking anymore?" Something on the other end of the phone was still making sounds, but the voice had a weird and twisted flavor to it. "Come on, speak up! Why aren't you speaking anymore?" There was some messy background music in it, which made it sound even more creepy.
"It's obviously you..." The voice continued, but Ai Wenrui seemed to have been unable to bear it any longer. He screamed and threw the phone out of the window, saying, "Ahhhhhh!!! He's dead, and I'm going to die too! Help!! Help!!"
"Calm down!" Gu Longming saw that Ai Wenrui was about to go crazy, so he quickly reached out and grabbed him. He was really afraid that the child would be too shocked and jump out of the window.
"Help, help, I don't want to die--" Ai Wenrui cried.
Lin Qiushi said, "Take him back to the dormitory!"
Gu Longming said, "What about you?"
Lin Qiushi said, "I have something to confirm—"
Gu Longming glanced at Ai Wenrui, then at Lin Qiushi, his expression hesitant, clearly torn between Lin Qiushi and Ai Wenrui. Although Ai Wenrui seemed genuine, he was ultimately just an NPC within the sect. If protecting him led to something happening to Lin Qiushi, it would be a loss.
"It's okay, go ahead," Lin Qiushi said. "I'll be back soon."
Seeing Lin Qiushi's determined expression, Gu Longming could only nod and carry Ai Wenrui on his back and leave.
Looking at the two men's backs, Lin Qiushi turned his gaze to the smashed window and the head lying on the ground with its eyes open.
"When did you die?" Lin Qiushi looked at the head and muttered to himself, "Was it today, yesterday, or..." He stopped here, turned around and went downstairs, looking for what he was looking for.
Soon, Lin Qiushi found a cell phone with a cracked screen in a corner of the bushes. He pressed the power button and prayed inwardly. Luckily, the phone displayed the power-on screen. Although the screen was cracked and some details were unclear, it was generally not a big deal.
Lin Qiushi took his phone and began to search through his address book. He found the row of names beginning with the letter Z, but couldn't find Zhou Hanshan.
It seems that Ai Wenrui was not lying when he said he was not familiar with Zhou Hanshan.
Lin Qiushi held the phone and suddenly thought of something else. He opened the call log and saw the name noted on the latest call record: Xiaozhuan.
Xiaozhuan should be the name of Ai Wenrui's friend.
Lin Qiushi returned to the desktop and clicked on the text message list. He saw the message sent by Xiaozhuan to Ai Wenrui. He clicked on it and saw the most recent text message.
The text message was sent last night. When Lin Qiushi saw the content of the message, his expression froze.
Because at the very beginning of the text message, there was a name they were very familiar with: Zhou Hanshan, what should we do.
After seeing this text message, Lin Qiushi felt that the situation was not good. He immediately thought of Gu Longming who brought Ai Wenrui back to the dormitory, and immediately turned around and ran towards the dormitory.
Along the way, Lin Qiushi was sorting out the information that Ai Wenrui gave them.
Almost all the information they knew about the sculpture, Zhu Ruyuan, and the wish was given by Ai Wenrui, which meant that even if Ai Wenrui lied, they would have no way of telling. Ai Wenrui said he was just an innocent victim, but the address of the phone owner in the text message gave him away.
He is Zhou Hanshan, the Zhou Hanshan who was in love with Zhu Ruyuan.
He tricked the sculpture club members into smearing their blood on the wood carvings and then making a wish. Ai Wenrui naturally wouldn't die, as he was most likely the only one who knew the truth... Of course, all of this was just Lin Qiushi's speculation.
Lin Qiushi arrived at the dormitory building, breathlessly. He climbed up to the second floor with difficulty and knocked heavily on the door: "Gu Longming, Gu Longming, are you there?"
After a while, the door opened, revealing Gu Longming's face: "Be quiet, he's asleep."
"Is Ai Wenrui asleep?" Lin Qiushi looked into the room and saw a thin figure curled up on the bed in the corner. From the back, it was Ai Wenrui.
"Yeah." Gu Longming said softly, "Why are you so anxious? What did you find out?"
Lin Qiushi said, "Come out and tell me."
The two walked to the end of the corridor and found a secluded corner. Lin Qiushi got straight to the point: "Ai Wenrui is not Ai Wenrui, it's Zhou Hanshan."
"What? What?" Gu Longming clearly didn't immediately grasp what Lin Qiushi meant. He repeated it several times, even reaching out to grab Lin Qiushi's arm, and asked in astonishment, "Zhou Hanshan? That Zhou Hanshan?"
"Yes, that's right." Lin Qiushi said, "That's him."
"Then what is going on?" Gu Longming said, "He has been lying to us... Does he want to kill us? Or does he have some other purpose..." He was a little confused now. Ai Wenrui... no, it was Zhou Hanshan, who almost took them all the way to understand the whole picture of the whole thing.
From the sculpture club, to Zhu Ruyuan, to the supernatural game, and the wishes they made, Gu Longming really didn't understand what he wanted to do.
"Then what should we do next?" Gu Longming touched his face. "Damn it, he actually lied to us. I carried him on my back for so long."
"Let's show our hand," Lin Qiushi said. "Don't waste time guessing."
"That's fine." Gu Longming said, "He's a human being after all, so we don't have to worry about him doing something naughty."
He seemed a little angry at being deceived by Ai Wenrui. He turned around and pushed the door open angrily, grabbed the half-sleeping Ai Wenrui from the bed, and said, "Zhou Hanshan——"
Zhou Hanshan was bewildered after being woken up: "What's wrong?" Two seconds after he asked this question, he realized that the name Gu Longming called out was not Ai Wenrui but Zhou Hanshan. His face changed drastically and he said in a trembling voice: "You know..."
"Yeah." Lin Qiushi threw the phone in front of Zhou Hanshan. "You mentioned this name in your text message."
Zhou Hanshan looked dazed.
"Tell me, who are you and why are you lying to us?" Gu Longming said, "What do you want?"
Zhou Hanshan smiled bitterly: "I...I didn't mean to lie to you, but if I told you that I was Zhou Hanshan, you definitely wouldn't believe me."
Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming remained silent.
"They all know that Zhou Hanshan is in love with Zhu Ruyuan." Zhou Hanshan said, "I'm just afraid that you will think I have bad intentions... Actually..."
"You actually didn't?" Lin Qiushi looked into his eyes. "Do you think we can believe it?"
Zhou Hanshan was silent for a moment: "What do I need you to do to believe me?"
Lin Qiushi: "Did you know Zhu Ruyuan was dead?"
Zhou Hanshan shook his head. "I didn't know until that time when we were playing games..." He covered his face with his hands, his shoulders shaking. "I realized, I realized she had no shadow."
At that time, everyone's attention was focused on the sculpture. Zhou Hanshan was holding the smiling Zhu Ruyuan in his arms. The two were whispering something, but Zhou Hanshan felt something was wrong.
He lowered his head, a hint of doubt appeared on his face, and he even raised his hand to rub his eyes.
However, no matter how hard he rubbed his eyes, the shadow on the ground only belonged to him... and the girl in his arms seemed to not exist at all.
After discovering this, a chill crept up Zhou Hanshan's spine. The person beside him seemed to notice something was wrong with him and asked softly, "Honey, what's wrong with you?"
"Nothing," Zhou Hanshan said. "Just a little tired." He watched his friends standing in front of him, giggling and pricking their fingers, smearing their bright red blood on the wooden figurine. His arm was originally wrapped around the person next to him, but when he realized there was no shadow, he felt the area where their skin touched grow stiff and cold, as if... he was hugging a statue.
Zhou Hanshan was shaking all over when he recalled this. He said in a trembling voice: "I wanted to stop them, but I couldn't say anything."
"You also have blood on you?" Gu Longming asked.
"Yeah, I was the first one." Zhou Hanshan said this with a tone full of regret, "It's just that I wasn't sincere when I made the wish, and I didn't sign up for the competition afterwards."
Without registering, he naturally could not win the award, so Zhou Hanshan escaped the disaster.
Gu Longming asked, "Why didn't you sign up? Doesn't your sculpture club care about this award?"
"Haha." Zhou Hanshan laughed dryly. "It's just that my grades are not good..."
"Really?" Gu Longming still didn't believe it.
"It's true!" Zhou Hanshan said in despair. "Believe me... I have photos of my sculptures on my phone. If you don't believe me, just look at them."
Gu Longming took the phone with a suspicious look: "Don't think I won't look." He flipped through the photo album and really found Zhou Hanshan's sculptures.
Lin Qiushi took one look at the sculpture and fell silent with Gu Longming. Finally, Gu Longming muttered, "Holy shit, are you really an art student? What a stupid thing you've carved."
Zhou Hanshan: "...That's too much."
Although Zhou Hanshan was worried about his homework most of the time, he didn't expect that this time it would be a blessing in disguise and he actually escaped a disaster.
When the results were announced, the winners were all very happy and were discussing with each other that they had never expected the campus legend to be true... Of course, what they had never expected was the painful price that had to be paid for this award.
"So what exactly did you want to do by lying to us?" Gu Longming asked.
"Actually...actually, I just want to stop everything." Zhou Hanshan said in a trembling voice, "Everything started because of me, so I should naturally put an end to it all..."
"How does it end?" Lin Qiushi asked.
"I looked up a lot of information, and I found out this campus legend has existed for a long time," Zhou Hanshan said. "It's just that Zhu Ruyuan didn't tell us the last part of this campus legend."
"The last part?" Gu Longming sat up straight.
"It has to be an equal exchange. The statue helped you realize your wish, so you have to help the statue realize its wish," Zhou Hanshan said. "But I really can't figure out what the statue's wish is. What if she wants us to die?"
Listening to Zhou Hanshan's words, Lin Qiushi remembered the sentence in the clue: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
He and Gu Longming looked at each other for a moment, and at this moment they reached a complete understanding.
"Why didn't you tell us this earlier?" Gu Longming was still worried about Zhou Hanshan lying to them.
Zhou Hanshan lowered his head and said nothing.
Lin Qiushi understood the hidden meaning in his expression and asked, "Does Zhu Ruyuan's wish have anything to do with you?"
Zhou Hanshan trembled all over and cried, "I don't want to die..."
His words almost agreed with Lin Qiushi's guess.
Zhu Ruyuan and Zhou Hanshan are lovers, but Zhou Hanshan has never dared to tell them about this. So Lin Qiushi has reason to guess that Zhu Ruyuan's wish is to have Zhou Hanshan accompany him.
Since it is impossible to resurrect the dead, the simpler way is for the living to die.
"Please, I really don't want to die." Zhou Hanshan cried, "I'm really scared--"
"Do you like her?" Gu Longming asked with a frown.
"Maybe, I don't know." Zhou Hanshan said, "Ever since I found out that she was not alive, my memories of being with her before have become vague... I almost forgot them." He was talking at a loss, but stopped, looking at the window next to him with a look of deep fear in his eyes.
Lin Qiushi followed his gaze and saw a woman with long hair and a pale face standing quietly by the window, looking at the people in the room with an extremely resentful look - they were on the second floor, and there was nothing outside the window. There was no doubt that this girl was Zhu Ruyuan, the girl who had been with Zhou Hanshan.
When Zhou Hanshan saw Zhu Ruyuan, he let out a shrill scream and fainted on the bed again. In just a short moment, the figure by the window had disappeared, and the pale face just now seemed to be just an illusion.
But Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming knew full well that Zhu Ruyuan had really been there...
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com