Let’s talk about the dormitory opposite.
On the bed opposite to where he was crossing his arms was a man with an oval face. He woke up and stared at the top of his head in a daze for a long time. Then he remembered that this was not the real world he was familiar with, so he gave up the idea of getting out of bed.
It was difficult to fall asleep again after waking up in the middle of the night. He tossed and turned in bed, forced himself to stay awake until dawn. Finally, he got up, put on his slippers, walked to the bathroom, and opened the door with his legs together.
"Crash——", the roller skates rolled over the grooves.
Something fell over.
The man with the oval face was startled by the thing that hit him, and he pushed it away reflexively. He instantly regained consciousness and saw from the corner of his eye that the thing he pushed away hit the wall with a loud noise.
It's a person.
It was the player who was supposed to sleep in the bed opposite him.
At this moment, his face was facing upwards, his mouth was open, his eyes were bloodshot, and there was a circle of purple marks on his neck.
Like an invisible shackle, it tightly grasped his throat.
The cold, stiff touch that had hit me just now came back to me belatedly.
The oval-faced man's legs went limp and he fell to the ground. He made two difficult sounds in his throat, but could not utter a complete word.
※
Shi Yu was awakened by the alarm ringing on the radio in the morning.
The ringing and shouting sounded at the same time. He curled up in the quilt for half a minute, but finally gave up: "Five minutes."
Shang Xia laughed: "Okay."
As if it had been set up in advance, Shi Yu slowly got off the bed within five minutes and a second. When he raised his eyes, he saw the door was open and a crowd of people gathered in the room opposite.
In the morning, Oval-Faced witnessed the tragic scene of his roommate dying with his eyes wide open. Not only did he wake up the remaining two roommates, but he also tripped over the threshold and fell towards the door opposite when he was escaping.
Shang Xia and Lin Chenghuan heard the noise, dragged him back to the scene, squatted beside the player's body and checked for a while, and when they came back they happened to meet Shi Yu.
Time was tight in the morning, and Lin Chenghuan, who was not on the same path as them, left first. Shang Xia pushed the wheelchair while describing the appearance of the player's body he saw in the morning: "There were bruises all around his neck, as if he was strangled to death."
Shi Yu took a piece of white paper that he had torn from somewhere, folded the rectangle along the diagonal, spread it out, and folded up the excess part under the right triangle. At first glance, it looked like a regular square.
"I later asked Lin Chenghuan what he did in the morning. He said he didn't know what he did to offend the ghost. The window was closed, and the ghost had even been standing outside the window before attacking him. No one knew how it passed through the glass in the blink of an eye." Shang Xia turned around the corridor, "He said that at that moment it was like being in deep water. The oppressive feeling around him was like the water pressure you feel in the deep sea. It was completely suffocating."
Shi Yu drooped his eyelashes and folded the four corners of the paper in his hand. It was unclear whether he heard it or not.
"He couldn't move, so he concentrated on summoning a prop. I heard the sound of the prop hitting the ground. Then I appeared, and the ghost disappeared, and the oppressive feeling on him disappeared. I don't know if it was real in front, but I didn't see anything when I ran over."
"As for the strangulation marks on his neck, they were exactly the same as what I saw on the dead player later. It's a pity that one died and the other is still alive."
Shi Yu folded the block in his hand in half and then turned it over. Then he pulled the white wings on both sides and pulled out a thousand paper cranes.
He seemed to be overly strict about rules. His school uniform had to be folded neatly, the books on his desk had to be placed from large to small, and even the paper had to be folded so that no seam could be seen.
Shang Xia: "Do you think what Lin Chenghuan said is true?"
Shi Yu folded the head of the paper crane inward three times, and folded out three heads, which were as delicate as a handicraft: "Is it important?"
Shang Xia watched his movements and asked, "If it's fake, wouldn't it interfere with judgment?"
"If he's telling a lie, it means he won't tell the truth, and you can't force him." Shi Yu folded the tail of the paper crane, "Just push on, and you'll naturally know the answer once you come up with the contradiction."
Shang Xia thought that he could actually use force to force them.
But he maintained a harmless expression and said nothing.
When they returned to the classroom, Cen Biexi, who had been missing for the entire early morning, was already there, using his body to cover his surroundings as he put a portion of breakfast into Lin Zhi's drawer.
My deskmate returned the homework like a sacrifice and continued to chat happily with the person in front of him. This time, he didn't talk about the messy gossip between Lin Zhi and Cen Biexi, but talked about the imminent monthly exam: "Have you reviewed?"
"Already lying flat on the ground."
"...Don't do that. I can't help but be influenced by the bad company."
"Pfft, you can ask the teacher to move to Lin Zhi's side. Maybe you can get some if you get closer."
"Sucking luck?"
"This 'washing' is not the same as 'absorbing'. What are you thinking? Since the beginning of the school year, I have never seen her not doing exercises or reading books in the classroom. This is the real result of having better grades and working harder than you. Go to her side to cleanse your soul. Maybe you can be sublimated before the monthly exam."
"Come on, if I really sit with Lin Zhi, I'm afraid I'll be cursed and have bad luck before I even take the exam. I might as well choose Cen Biexi."
"Cen Biexi is always the best in every exam. If you go there, you will probably just doubt your parents for not giving you a brain."
“…”
Shi Yu placed the paper cranes on the corner of the table and opened the textbook. The paper had a slightly rough and grainy feel.
He pressed the paper, and the person in the front row suddenly turned around and leaned over.
It was a girl: "That..."
Shi Yu raised his eyes: "?"
It was break time, and his desk mate and the girl's desk mate ran away together, leaving only the two of them in the corner of the back row.
The girl covered her face with her piled textbooks and whispered, "Can we form a team?"
Shi Yu lowered her eyes and closed her textbook. She took a math homework book from the table and started writing: "No."
Yi Shengsheng's expression froze slightly, and he uttered a small "ah": "Why?"
...Why else could this be?
Yi Shengsheng also realized that what he said was really weak, and quickly said: "Something happened in our dormitory."
Shi Yu wrote down a line of formula and drew a coordinate axis.
Yi Shengsheng continued, "One person was missing, and Lin Zhi was not there at the time."
Shi Yu started a new line.
Yi Shengsheng: "I've also heard Lin Zhi talk about Cen Biexi."
"Is this your bargaining chip?" Shang Xia said.
Yi Shengsheng's heart skipped a beat, and he turned around with his eyes wide open: "When did you come? And you're eavesdropping?"
The question that he had just asked others yesterday was put back on his head. Shang Xia remained calm and put the breakfast in his hand on the desk: "Remember to eat it."
Shi Yu finally raised his eyes to look at him, then lowered his eyelashes and continued to do the questions.
Yi Shengsheng stared at his actions in shock.
"I'm going to the teacher's office." Shang Xia finished his instructions and finally turned to look at the girl with a smile, "He is my teammate, I am listening openly."
Yi Shengsheng savored the words and inexplicably tasted something unusual in them: "So you have teammates, so you don't want to join me?"
Shi Yu was speechless and could only remain silent.
Because he didn't understand when his relationship with Shang Xia changed from a simple transaction to teammates.
※
The head teacher of Class 414 where the players are located teaches mathematics, which gives everyone a perfect excuse to approach when necessary: if you don't know how to do a question, ask the teacher.
Shang Xia stood in the office, listening to the head teacher talking while leaning over the desk. Before he could take a closer look, his hand touched a pile of class information sheets next to him and he accidentally pushed them over the edge of the table, causing them to fly all over the place.
The head teacher suddenly put down the question: "Hey!"
"I'm sorry, teacher!" Shang Xia quickly squatted down to pick it up, apologizing repeatedly.
The head teacher collected the forms one by one and said, "Forget it. I know you didn't do it on purpose."
The office was so small that the two of them worked together to quickly collect all the papers. Shang Xia handed the stack he had picked up to the head teacher, and inadvertently looked down at the age filled in on the top sheet, and uttered a puzzled interjection: "Cen Biexi is eighteen years old?"
The head teacher was counting the number of students, and half-jokingly said, "Yes, he is older than you. Strictly speaking, all of you in the class should call him brother."
Shang Xia pursed his lips, looking resistant: "Shouldn't he go to college at his age?"
The head teacher counted and found no missing, then answered: "Something happened to him before, and he applied for a leave of absence, and he just came back now."
Shang Xia: "There was a three-year age difference, so he took a three-year break? Why?"
"How should I know that? Why do you ask so many questions about other people's affairs?" The head teacher put the form back and took out the textbook and lesson plan from the bookshelf. "Okay, the class bell has rung, hurry back!"
Shang Xia realized that he couldn't get any information from him, so he held the exercise book he had used as an excuse.
As soon as he went out, the smile on his face faded. He shook his lowered wrist and shook out a folded piece of white paper from his long sleeve, which he slowly unfolded.
It was the one on top of the stack of information sheets that belonged to Cen Biexi.
※
My deskmate came back just as the bell rang.
At that time, Shi Yu happened to be looking at the window on the other side of the corridor and met his deskmate.
My deskmate sat back in his chair, gulped down a big gulp of water, and looked in the direction he was looking: "What's going on over there? Why are you staring at them?"
Shi Yu still looked in that direction: "Which class is in that building?"
My deskmate had a look on his face that said, "What kind of question is that?" He said, "All the people in that building are seniors. Which class are you referring to?"
Shi Yu retracted his gaze: "Are all students in this building in the first year of high school?"
"Yes." My deskmate pointed to the window on the other side of the corridor and said, "The South Building on the left is full of sophomores, our Middle Building is full of freshmen, and the North Building on the right is full of seniors. Have you become stupid from studying? You don't even remember this?"
Shi Yu: "But the classroom opposite is empty."
"There are only a few senior high school students, with only ten classes totaling more than 600 people. The two lower floors of classrooms are enough for them, so the third floor and above are of course empty." My deskmate was puzzled. "There are many people in our grade, so the classrooms are arranged on four floors. It's been three months since the start of school, and you just remembered to ask this question?"
Shi Yu responded: "It suddenly occurred to me."
These were not questions worth exploring. My deskmate just spoke of them as idle talk and forgot about them as soon as he thought about them.
Shi Yu turned his head and glanced at the window beside him.
He was sitting away from the wall of the corridor. Outside the window was the South Teaching Building, and he could clearly see the students sitting at their desks in the other building.
In the teaching building for high school students, the classrooms are also arranged up to the fourth floor.
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