Chapter 11 Our Promise 3 The City Flooded
Strange death rules are always the top priority for players to find in the game. When players die in bizarre turns, the surviving players will naturally start to analyze why they died.
But in the current instance, even the simplest thing like gathering can't be done. Who knows whether those players who didn't come didn't want to come or were already dead?
Wu Wangwang said indifferently, "I'm fine with either way, but even if the three of us exchange information, there are only three of us. You're still living together, so it's difficult to gather information about the others."
The two female players exchanged a glance, and the shy one said, "That's not necessarily true. I've actually met other players. It's work, so there are bound to be some overlap among so many people, but it's true that it's impossible to contact everyone."
The composed female player said, "My idea is that we should confirm the identity of one person as soon as we can, and leave the others for later if we can't find them. As long as we can track the information of half of the players, the scope of information collection is still quite large."
Since both of them agreed, Wu Wangwang didn't hesitate any longer and exchanged information with them.
Based on their identities, Wu Wangwang provided information about Fu Mei. The players' real information is not very useful, so everyone can communicate based on the information they are playing as NPs.
The shy female player said her name was Jiaojiao. Her family was relatively wealthy, slightly richer than a middle-class family. Originally, she was supposed to go abroad with her parents to live, but for some reason, she didn't go abroad. Instead, her parents bought her a large apartment in the city center, and she stayed home as a full-time writer.
The player wasn't originally in this line of work, and after the recent update with a new player, their earnings dropped significantly. But Jiaojiao couldn't do anything about it; she had never written a novel before, and after the college entrance exam, she had only written various documents. She tried to expand on the content based on her remaining memories of the college entrance exam and the outline left by the original Jiaojiao, but everyone said it was getting worse and worse.
Fortunately, Jiaojiao has a lot of money, so even if the income is less for two months, it's not a big problem. Anyway, this is a dungeon, and players won't starve to death because of these bizarre reasons.
As for the composed female player, her name is Du Luo. The player doesn't know why she has this name. There is very little information about her. It seems that she and Jiao Jiao have been good friends since childhood. They have been playing together, going to school together, and even being in the same class since elementary school.
Later, the two got along well. After finishing junior high school, Du Luo's grades were better than Jiao Jiao's. They should have separated, but Jiao Jiao begged her parents for a large sum of money and got a spot to attend a key high school with Du Luo. They stayed together until they went to university.
In terms of family background, Du Luo's family was just average. Jiao Jiao's family wasn't that wealthy when she was little. Back then, her family and Du Luo's family lived in the same neighborhood, so they naturally became friends.
After starting university, the two had little contact. With the change of phones, they no longer had any records of their past lives. All they knew was that after university, Jiao Jiao did not go abroad, while Du Luo, who went to university in another city, returned to this city to take the civil service exam because of work issues. However, she failed several times, whether it was the national exam, the provincial exam, or the public institution exam.
Du Luo hasn't given up yet, but her family seems to no longer want to support her. So Du Luo went out to find a job. While looking for a rental house, she met Jiao Jiao, who was out collecting folk songs. Jiao Jiao was so happy that she rented one of her rooms to Du Luo at a very low price.
Du Luo can draw, and on Jiao Jiao's suggestion, she started making covers for Jiao Jiao's novels. Later, she became a graphic designer. Those young authors always need a lot of covers, and they will buy them regardless of whether they are ultimately used. Sometimes Du Luo can sell several covers a day.
But this job wasn't a long-term solution, and the cover prices were too low, so Du Luo later learned digital painting and started drawing things for people. He didn't earn much, but at least he could support himself.
Judging from their information, their lives are clearly those of ordinary girls from reasonably well-off families who choose to pursue their hobbies. They don't earn much money and their future is not absolutely secure, but they have their families as a safety net. If they have a partner in the future, they will rely on him for support; otherwise, they will go home and let their parents support them. In any case, they will not starve to death.
Wu Wangwang wrote down the information they provided, and then told them about her own life. Her life was even simpler; she didn't even have any hobbies like writing or painting. She lived a monotonous life, going back and forth between two points every day, like an NPC with a fixed program.
After sharing their situations, everyone fell silent. They had so little information about each other, having only gleaned what they had from their phones and tablets. There was no way to find out more.
After looking at each other for a while, Wu Wangwang broke the silence first: "It seems there's still one thing we haven't explained to each other. What was the initial information you received?"
For players, this initial information is the most important, especially in the game. While other things can be shared, this information should not be revealed unless absolutely necessary.
The reason why everyone shared the previous instance from the beginning was because the Ghost Mother Goddess protected them and they wouldn't die. Naturally, they wouldn't hide anything. Given that they wouldn't die, they were more eager to clear the instance as soon as possible than to keep it a secret.
But in this instance, everyone seems to be avoiding sharing the initial information. The content must be very important, so important that it relates to life and death.
After listening to Wu Wangwang's words, Jiaojiao and Du Luo exchanged a glance. They hesitated for a moment, but still took out their notes and showed them to Wu Wangwang. In return, Wu Wangwang gave them hers as well.
Jiaojiao's note read: "Don't leave, don't make a sound, grow up quietly, like a mute who can't speak, just like we used to do. We can definitely do it."
Du Luo's note read: "Don't trust anyone. We only have ourselves. If necessary, we are all strangers."
After reading it, the three returned the note, followed by a long silence.
Wu Wangwang recalled the three sentences, and now she roughly understood what the information on the slips of paper each player had received was.
It's an oath, an oath these nine NPCs once made. This oath shaped them into who they are today, and each of them has tried their best to live up to it.
Fu Mei's vow was to become an ordinary person, so she grew up step by step, living like an NPC.
Jiaojiao's vow was to remain mute and not speak, so she didn't go abroad with her parents and ultimately didn't go to work. Instead, she became a freelancer who couldn't speak to people.
Du Luo's vow was to trust no one. She doubted everything, so she didn't approve of sharing information with others and preferred to be alone. She and Jiao Jiao didn't seem very close; they only became roommates out of necessity.
Everyone has their own secrets and vows. What is it that makes nine NPCs make vows that can be linked together?
Wu Wangwang glanced at Jiao Jiao and Du Luo's faces and suddenly asked, "Speaking of which, has anything special happened to you two during these ten days in the dungeon?"
"Why do you ask that?" Du Luo didn't answer directly, but asked back.
Jiaojiao also looked at Wu Wangwang, and she felt that Wu Wangwang's question was very strange.
Wu Wangwang looked at the two of them suspiciously: "You two really didn't notice anything? Ever since I came to this instance, whenever I turn off the lights to sleep at night, after 3 a.m., I hear a dripping sound, and recently the dripping sound has been getting louder and louder."
Upon hearing this, Jiao Jiao and Du Luo exchanged a glance and shook their heads simultaneously, clearly neither of them had encountered this situation.
Du Luo pondered for a moment and said, "Could it be that our situations are different? Jiao Jiao, what do you think? You usually write novels very late at night, have you noticed anything unusual?"
Jiaojiao replied, "No, when I was writing things for the NPC at night, I felt that the surroundings were very quiet and there was nothing unusual."
“Is it possible that you didn’t notice it because you’ve been staying up late? I didn’t notice it at first either, but after I started sleeping normally like an NPC, when the lights were turned off and the whole room was dark, that sound appeared.” Wu Wangwang felt that they might have misunderstood something, so she quickly repeated the premise.
The reason why Jiaojiao and Dulu haven't run into each other is probably because Jiaojiao is staying up all night, and the sound of dripping water only comes in the middle of the night and disappears at dawn, along with all traces. They have always lived a life of the underworld, so naturally they don't run into each other.
Upon hearing this, Jiao Jiao and Du Luo realized that the NPCs they were representing were creative roles. Even though Du Luo herself could draw, she still had to stay up all night when dealing with various orders, so there was no chance for any anomalies to occur.
Jiaojiao hesitated for a moment: "Since they won't come as long as the lights are on, then we can just leave the lights on even when we're resting, right?"
Du Luo chimed in, "Indeed, we haven't noticed anything unusual these past few days. So, could it be that as long as there's light, the dungeon rules won't be triggered? Or, we now know that turning off the lights at night will cause unusual things to happen, but we don't know if it's fatal. It's a semi-transparent rule, so there's no need for us to test it, right?"
Both of them made a lot of sense. According to normal thinking, since the dripping sound was not an accident, one should have kept the lights on to avoid getting caught up in the rules. Only someone as fearless as Wu Wangwang would want to communicate with that clump of hair.
Wu Wangwang felt that she still had a long way to go in playing the human role, and suddenly felt a little guilty. After thinking for a moment, she said, "Okay, anyway, you should still be careful. I always feel that since strange things exist, sooner or later, no matter how much we guard against them, they will still appear."
Jiaojiao and Dulu naturally understood this principle, but isn't the escape game all about prevention, escape, and surviving to the last moment?
"It's okay. As long as we survive to the morning of September 1st and get on the bus, we'll have won," Jiao Jiao said earnestly.
At this point, there was nothing more to tell each other in the story. Seeing that it was still early, the three of them decided to explore the city together. After all, it was a survival game, and being familiar with the map was very important.
Wu Wangwang thought for a moment and said, "Then let's go and familiarize ourselves with the locations of all the police stations and public security bureaus in the vicinity. That's the only safe zone. I feel from what the referee said that we will definitely need it later, otherwise they wouldn't have set up so many safe zones. There are quite a few police stations and public security bureaus in a city."
Jiaojiao and Dulu agreed with Wu Wangwang's idea. They bought three maps with Wu Wangwang at the newsstand in the square, and then started wandering around the nearby police station according to the maps. They wandered around until noon, and when they felt hungry, they went to eat together.
Since Wu Wangwang needed to go to work, she parted ways with Jiaojiao and the others after lunch and went directly to the company to clock in for the afternoon and also to apply for a leave slip.
As expected, the minister didn't say anything. Whether or not Wu Wangmian should make up for missing a day of full attendance is her own business. It's better not to make it up, as the company can pay her less.
When she returned to her office, Wu Wangwang realized something – she was able to go to the square this morning because she had given up her perfect attendance and asked for leave. Jiaojiao and Dulu were self-employed, so they didn't need to ask for leave.
To be precise, Wu Wangwang gave up on full attendance because she wouldn't starve and didn't necessarily need to eat. She could just pretend to eat less each day. But what about the other players?
Other players are just ordinary humans. If they don't attend every game, they might not be able to eat. Rather than starve to death in the dungeon, knowing a few less pieces of information is fine, but they can always find a way to survive if they have no other choice. Their wages can't be reduced.
Thinking about this, Wu Wangwang took advantage of the fact that there were no people around and secretly took out her phone to chat. She quickly sent messages to Jiaojiao and Du Luo, telling them her guess. She wasn't sure if it was true, but if other players couldn't come because of work, it would be too much to judge them as having ulterior motives.
For human beings, nothing is more important than food. If you can't get enough to eat, all other problems can take a back seat.
Learning to type wasn't difficult for Wu Wangwang. After watching humans do it once, she gradually learned it. Pinyin was also simple, with only a few combinations, so she can type very smoothly and quickly now.
Jiaojiao replied immediately. When they were online, she seemed less shy.
[Jiaojiao: Meimei, you're right, but how are we supposed to contact other players like this? We should have created a group chat on the first day.]
Some instances don't even have cell phones. Like the previous village instance, although there were phones, not every household had one. Now, in this instance, everyone has a cell phone and a chat account. Why didn't anyone think of creating a group chat?
Wu Wangwang thought for a moment and replied: I met a player at the company, but he ignored me. Maybe his note said not to trust any strangers. If I meet someone in the future, I'll try to recruit them depending on the situation.
There are only the three of them in the group now, just like a private little group.
Considering that they had already exchanged contact information, she might not need to personally come to the square to meet on the 29th. Therefore, Wu Wangwang decided that she should still follow the normal mindset of an office worker and start working overtime at the company.
If you miss a day of full attendance, you have to make up for it with a week of overtime. There's only one chance. Wu Wangwang looked at the calendar on the table and marked out all the nights that required overtime.
If you want to work overtime, you need to report to the department head, because not every department needs to work overtime. In particular, in the copywriting team where Fu Mei works, she needs to report to the department head so that the department head can lend her to other departments that need to work overtime, and then she can go and help.
After receiving the application, the minister looked at her speechlessly and said, "I told you to be careful when taking leave. Now look what happened. You weren't injured at all, but you still have to work overtime to make up for the missed days. You should have come to work in the morning if you looked fine, and then gone to the nearby hospital at noon. Wouldn't that have been better?"
He went on and on, mostly criticizing Wu Wangwang for taking leave. He knew the company rules were weird, so why couldn't she be more tactful?
Wu Wangwang nodded in agreement. Since they had already invited him, it didn't matter how much the minister nagged, as long as they could make up for the missed attendance.
Because she had to stay and work overtime, Wu Wangwang didn't plan to go back for dinner. The company cafeteria didn't provide dinner, so she would have to eat at a nearby restaurant or order takeout.
The teams that work overtime at night are mostly in the warehouse, materials, and live streaming room. They don't care whether they can sell anything or not; they're just hanging out to get traffic, hoping that the traffic will come.
Wu Wangwang was assigned to the live broadcast room by the minister again. He said that crochet is becoming more and more popular online, and many girls like it. Some of them buy it because they like it, some want to see tutorials, and some want to crochet it and resell it to earn some extra money.
In short, this kind of business is all about cycles, selling from one hand to the other, it's all the same group of people, but it's tough on the live streamers, they have to take turns broadcasting, they can't stop.
So whenever the topic of working overtime comes up at night, people always end up commenting on the live stream.
Wu Wangwang's shift is from 6 PM to midnight, a total of six hours. She doesn't necessarily do only one thing; it depends on the situation in the live stream. After finishing overtime, she can go home to sleep, but by then there are no buses running, so people won't choose to go home. Instead, they'll sleep in the crowded live stream room, since there are only a few hours left until dawn anyway.
The knitting livestream room isn't too noisy; there are only very soft voices. Most employees can treat those sounds as white noise to help them fall asleep. They can then go to the company in the morning, quickly wash up, and continue working.
Fu Mei had experience before; whenever she needed to work overtime, she would go home in advance to prepare toiletries and a change of clothes so she could wash up and change at the company and feel less uncomfortable the next day. But Wu Wangwang didn't know that she only realized she hadn't brought anything after she finished working.
But if I sleep at the company, I won't have washed up the next day, and with the weather being hot, I'll probably smell terrible.
Even though Wu Wangwang wasn't sweating, she was a clean freak and felt uncomfortable no matter how she thought about it, so after she found another streamer to switch with, she prepared to go home.
There was also an assistant in the live stream. When he saw Wu Wangwang walking out, he hurriedly lowered his voice and asked, "Fu Mei, where are you going? The lights outside are all off. Don't wander around. It's dangerous at night."
“I’m going home. You said it’s dangerous. Where is it dangerous?” Wu Wangwang didn’t know where the danger was. Actually, several people were left at the company. Only the offices of those colleagues who weren’t working overtime had their lights off, so it was impossible to see where the danger was.
The young man stepped closer and said, "Haven't you heard? Lately, we've been hearing strange noises at night in the company, in every office. But as soon as we turn on the lights, everything is fine. Isn't that strange?"
This sounds similar to the situation at Wu Wangwang's house. Wu Wangwang walked back a little: "Is it because everyone can hear it? And maybe there are rats or something at night, which is why it made a noise."
Seeing that Wu Wangwang was completely unafraid, the young man hesitated for a moment: "I haven't heard it. In fact, no one in the live broadcast room has heard it. Only people working overtime in other offices can hear it. They usually don't come over to bother us. We are also afraid of running into some kind of murderer who can hide, so we try to be careful."
In today's society, people are scarier than ghosts. If it were really a ghost or a rat, it wouldn't affect the mindset of workers at all; they would only feel annoyed and it would affect their work. But if it were a person, then you have to think twice. What a loss it would be if you ran into a murderer and got killed yourself.
Wu Wangwang thought about it and agreed. However, she wasn't afraid, so she said, "It's okay, I'm not afraid of these things. If it's really a person, I'll call the police. Maybe I can even earn some reward money? I'll go back first tonight. I came from the hospital this afternoon, so I didn't bring any toiletries. It's hot, and I feel uncomfortable if I don't wash up."
Ignoring the young man's advice, Wu Wangwang packed her things and left. She only turned on one light while packing in the office, but didn't hear any noise.
The building where the company was located was mostly dark. The only people with lights on were working overtime. Taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention, Wu Wangwang walked around the company and didn't find any strange people or things. She didn't even find any similar sounds of water that she had heard at home.
Well, the whole building exudes a kind of quiet that belongs only to the night, which is generally not strange.
But how could people in the company hear other voices?
After leaving the building, Wu Wangwang stood downstairs and looked back. She roughly located the company's location. Only two windows were lit up: one was the live-streaming room, and the other was the packing room. The packages were packed up, and tomorrow afternoon, a courier company would come to pick them up.
Wu Wangwang sighed, turned around and looked at her surroundings. She didn't know the way at all, but if she didn't go home, there seemed to be nothing she could do at the company, and she couldn't sleep well either.
Although it's quite late, there are still many cars on the road, coming and going, as if they can't rest even at night.
After looking at the bus stop sign for a while, Wu Wangwang saw that the earliest bus to pass by tomorrow that could take her home would not depart until 6:25. By the time it reached the area near her company, she would be home and then definitely be late for work.
After much deliberation, Wu Wangwang decided to take a taxi. She needed to make up for her missed attendance bonuses, and if she could do so successfully, she wouldn't be so short of money and could splurge a little and take a taxi.
There are still express taxis available in the middle of the night. This is Wu Wangwang's first time using it. She had only seen advertisements online and in Fu Mei's bills before. The taxi fare is not expensive, just the cost of a meal. Even if she doesn't use the money for the taxi, she will probably use it to buy fruit later.
So Wu Wangwang opened the mini-program on her phone and started selecting a location. Not long after, a white sedan drove up. The driver was a woman wearing a mask, so her face couldn't be seen. Her long hair was tied up behind her head, and she looked very neat and clean.
Wu Wangwang checked the license plate number before getting into the car. The driver glanced at her in the rearview mirror and asked, "Is the last four digits of the license plate XXXX?"
“Yes, drive faster on the road, I have a document to bring to the company.” Wu Wangwang hesitated for a moment before remembering that it was Fu Mei’s phone number, and then added a sentence that she had been taught in a short video.
Wu Wangwang didn't know if this rhetoric was effective. She had only heard from short videos that if you go out at night and meet strangers, you must act as if you have someone to meet you, especially from the company, because if someone disappears, the company will be eager to find you to go back to work.
The driver hummed in response, remaining silent.
It took a while to get back to Fu Mei's house from the company. Perhaps because it was too quiet on the way, the driver turned on the car radio, which was playing a nighttime ghost story station.
"Dear listeners, welcome to Nighttime Ghost Stories. Today's first story is a personal experience sent in by a listener. We will not modify the story and hope it will help you fall asleep..."
The driver and Wu Wangwang remained silent throughout the entire story.
The story is told from the perspective of the listener, whose gender is unknown. The listener said that when they were in high school, a major incident occurred at school: two classmates went missing, and the school searched for them for a long time without success.
Those two students didn't actually have a very good relationship with the audience; they were just acquaintances. They were classmates. In those days, high school teachers would usually arrange seating according to students' grades, and the student with the best grades could choose any seat in the class.
Apart from the students with the highest scores, everyone else had to sit in the seats assigned by the teacher.
The audience member consistently ranked in the middle, limiting their seating options to areas designated by the teacher. As a result, after a monthly exam, they ended up sitting next to one of the two missing classmates.
The original text refers to this classmate as A. Classmate A has mediocre grades and is usually a very quiet person. How to put it, most people like this seem to be in the middle class. Their grades are not outstanding, their character is not outstanding, and they don't have many friends. People may not even recognize them when they meet. They are like invisible people in the class.
Unfortunately, the listener was also that kind of person, so they calmly sat at the same desk and studied together silently for a month, until the next monthly exam separated them.
The audience itself is not the type of person who will remember such classmates. After all, most people will only remember the most distinctive ones in the class, especially those with good grades and good looks. There seems to be no need to remember the other students, nor is there any need to develop such connections in the future.
Until, two classmates were found to be missing.
However, the audience felt that the two missing students were discovered not by their teachers and classmates, but by their parents.
It wasn't until the parents came to the school that the school realized, oh, it seems like two students are missing.
The parents caused a scene at the school, demanding that the school return their children to them, but the school was helpless because no one knew where the two students had gone. Strangely, even though roll call was taken every day, why hadn't they noticed that the students were missing?
This is so strange. The teacher checks attendance every morning, during morning reading, classes, recess exercises, and PE class. There are countless roll calls throughout the day. How could someone disappear and no one notice?
The school panicked; they didn't want to be blamed for a student's disappearance. So they quickly checked the surveillance footage, but unfortunately, the footage was only updated weekly. This meant that footage from a week ago was no longer available, and the latest footage might not be found.
There was no other way, so the school called the police and let them investigate, which would also help prove the school's innocence.
If the matter had been discovered at this point, no one would have thought anything of it. The problem is that the police arrived, but the person hadn't been found.
The only remaining surveillance footage shows that the two students were nowhere to be found at the school for a week, meaning they had been missing for at least a week.
The surveillance footage from a week ago is all gone.
Back then, surveillance footage wasn't like it is now, where it can be automatically uploaded to the cloud and stored indefinitely as long as the server isn't broken, making it easy for the police to access. If a school said its surveillance footage was only for one week, it really was only for one week. The previous footage would be automatically deleted to free up memory for the next week's footage.
Since they couldn't find it in the surveillance footage, the police had to ask the students and teachers in the class, and even the student council members who were being investigated.
The final result was quite strange—during the period when the two students were missing, their traces were intact, which is why the teachers and classmates did not notice that they had disappeared.
For example, when the homeroom teacher comes to check in the morning and finds that two students are missing from the class, the class leaders will say that they went to the toilet. This is very normal. In high school, everyone is sleep-deprived and gets up early. They may have to go to morning reading as soon as they get up. After washing up, there is no time to go to the toilet. It is better to sign in in the classroom first and then go to the toilet.
Many students do this, not just two. The teacher knows the students are tired, and since it's just going to the toilet, he won't interfere.
During morning exercises, they would say that other teachers were looking for them and that they had gone to the activity room. No one would notice if one or two people were missing during morning exercises, and many students were helping out in the activity room during that time, so the teachers wouldn't notice either.
As for physical education class, it's entirely possible that you've asked for leave, another teacher has contacted you, or you've been kept after class. The physical education teacher certainly won't care, since the physical education teacher is always "sick."
In this way, two people went missing, and the school's teachers and classmates had no idea. They would always disappear from sight for various excuses, and those excuses were not recorded. They were all given verbally, and after that, the class leaders would write that everyone had arrived.
Having been kept in the dark for so long, no one knows exactly when the missing classmate first went missing.
Police also tried to find more surveillance footage near the school to look for traces of the missing student, and even searched the area around the school, but still couldn't find him.
As the days went by, the police and the family lost hope. They wanted their child to come back, but as time went on, it seemed that as long as their child was alive somewhere else, it didn't matter whether they came back or not.
Later, the police also tried to find the last route the two children took before they disappeared through profiling and other means, but the school was a boarding high school, and the children would not leave for six days after entering the school, so it was impossible to profile their whereabouts before and after their disappearance.
However, during their senior year of high school, the audience discovered something very strange.
By the second semester of senior year, the school was not so strict with student management. Or rather, after the disappearance, the school thought that if students did not want to come to school for evening self-study and their parents agreed, they could stay at home. There was no need for them to stay at school all the time. If something else happened, the school really could not afford it.
As a result, at the start of the second semester of senior year, many high-achieving students went home to rest and recuperate, while those with poor grades sought tutoring from teachers during evening self-study time. They attended school as usual during the day. In short, with the college entrance examination approaching, everyone was making their final efforts to achieve a high score.
The listener's grades were average. For him personally, as long as he performed normally, he would be fine to get into a second-tier university. So he continued to attend school as usual. However, since there were fewer students during evening self-study sessions, he sometimes didn't want to stay in the classroom while doing his tests at night and wanted to go out for a walk on campus.
Walking around campus is generally fine. Many stressed people memorize vocabulary under the streetlights on the school playground, which might make them feel more comfortable and help them become more familiar with the words.
However, one day while walking in the school, the listener suddenly heard cries for help, like the sound of someone falling into water. But there was no lake in the school, and no particularly deep water. The listener was frightened and looked around, but could not find the source of the sound.
After walking that stretch of road, I could no longer hear it.
The audience was very concerned about this matter, worried that because you were cowardly, you missed the chance to save a life, and that you might not be able to concentrate on the college entrance examination in the future.
So the next evening during self-study, the listener told the teacher that she was going to recite her lessons on the playground downstairs. When she passed by again, she clearly heard the sound of water, which sounded like a non-swimmer splashing in the water. But normally, a drowning person cannot shout for help because water will enter their mouth and nose.
This was terrifying. The audience immediately reported to the teacher that they heard the sound of water and even cries for help. Could it be that a classmate had fallen into the water nearby?
For example, the water tower on the teaching building?
The teacher was startled by the audience, but didn't quite believe it. Because they were afraid the students would jump off the building, the path to the rooftop was locked, and it was impossible for any student to open it and get up there.
The teacher then followed the listeners to that section of road, but heard nothing. Moreover, that section of road was far from the building with the water tower at the school, so even if there were people in the water tower, they wouldn't have been able to hear it from the listeners' location.
Out of caution, and given that two students had previously gone missing, the teacher still called the police that night. At the same time, the teacher contacted the listener's parents, partly to have the police check what was going on in the water tower, and partly to have the parents take the listener to the hospital to see if the auditory hallucinations were caused by the pressure of the college entrance examination.
The police inspected all the water towers, tanks, and pools in the school but found nothing wrong. They even dug up the section of road where the listener heard the sound, but found nothing suspicious in the sewers below. However, the parents later received the examination results from the mental hospital, which said that the listener had no problems, was perfectly normal, and did not show any signs of anxiety.
Everyone found it strange. After further investigation by the police and teachers, they discovered that the listener had briefly been deskmates with one of the missing classmates when he was in his first year of high school. So the police asked the listener if he missed his deskmate so much that he had this thought that the missing classmate had drowned.
The listeners disagreed, because they clearly heard the sound on those two nights.
Confucius said, "I do not speak of strange phenomena, physical prowess, disorder, or spirits." Naturally, the police could not believe in such feudal legends. After instructing the parents to pay more attention to their child's mental health, they left.
Afterwards, the listener went home to rest for a month. When he returned to school, the teachers forbade students from running around during evening self-study sessions. They were told to go back to their dormitories when class ended on time, as the college entrance examination was approaching and they didn't want to cause any more trouble for the school.
The listeners were much more well-behaved, but they still couldn't resist trying it out on the nearby roads. Strangely, when they returned this time, they no longer heard the sound of water or cries for help.
Until one of his roommates, let's call him Student C, one night in late April, he told the audience that other people had actually heard the cries for help, but no one paid any attention to them.
It was only then that the listeners realized that with so many people passing by at night, someone must have heard it, but only the listeners chose to report it to the teacher, who then called the police, and as a result, nothing was found.
"Why didn't you tell the teacher? That way I wouldn't have been sent to a mental hospital for examination as having a mental problem!"
“But isn’t the most important thing for us the college entrance exam? Even if those two missing classmates really are there, what does it have to do with us? We didn’t kill them,” said student C.
The audience remained silent for a long time before asking, "Then why are you telling me this?"
Student C sighed: "Because I can see that you still care a lot, but there's only a month and a few days left until the college entrance exam, and we've been in the same dormitory for so long, I still think you should focus your energy on studying. Right now, there's really nothing more important than the college entrance exam. You heard me right, but this matter is actually none of our business."
Perhaps they took Bing's words to heart, because the listeners avoided that road afterward and started preparing for the college entrance examination like other students. After taking graduation photos at the end of May, they left school and went home to rest until the college entrance examination.
After the college entrance examination, top students went to key universities, students with good grades went to first-tier universities, average students started to choose various second-tier and undergraduate universities, and some went to junior colleges.
The listener's grades didn't fluctuate much, and he normally chose an undergraduate university. After liberation, he had a lot of fun for more than a month. When he returned to school to pick up his admission notice, he remembered this incident again. When he went to that road again, he heard the sound of water again, but this time, there were no cries for help. It was as if... the person who cried for help had finally drowned.
For many years afterward, the listeners did not return to their alma mater. Until recently, the class wanted to hold a reunion to go back to school and reminisce about their youthful days. After dinner, during evening self-study, they went to the school to see many teachers, who had all aged a bit.
In the evening, we borrowed an empty classroom to eat cake and catch up on each other's lives.
The listener had drunk too much and felt a little dizzy, so he went to the toilet. After using the toilet, he still felt dizzy, so he walked downstairs and remembered what happened before the college entrance examination. He went back to that road, but this time he still heard the sound of water. This time he heard it more clearly. It was the sound of someone being pushed into the water.
It was like listening to a radio drama. The listener clearly heard several people pushing one of them into the water without any hesitation or mercy. Those voices were so familiar, so familiar, as if they had heard them speak every day before.
While no one was aware of it, some members of their class conspired to kill two people and staged their disappearances. The police were unable to find any clues, and the case remains unsolved to this day.
This was...the perfect crime.
"The story ends here. The radio station only guarantees the quality of the story, not its veracity. However, if what this listener said is true, the host suggests that you call the police as soon as possible and let them handle it. Okay, now let's listen to—"
The story ended, and the radio suddenly turned into a piercing crackling sound, like a disc that had stuck. The driver found it unpleasant and turned off the radio while the light was red.
Silence returned to the car. There were still many cars around, and the city was still bustling, but the car was eerily quiet, as if it were in another dimension.
There were still two traffic lights to go before Fu Mei's house. The car started moving again, and the driver slowly asked, "Miss, do you think the story we just heard was true or false?"
Wu Wangwang glanced at her and said, "The story you told me on purpose is probably true, but the rules haven't been met yet, so death won't come."
If Wu Wangwang didn't know the specific content of this instance before, she has pieced together the only information she had through the story of this radio station.
In the background story of the dungeon, when Fu Mei and the others were about fifteen, sixteen, or seventeen years old, in their first year of high school, nine people conspired to kill two classmates. These two classmates, for some unknown reason, offended these nine people, so after killing them, in order to cover it up for each other, they made the same vow.
"We swear that we will all become the most ordinary people in the world, grow up to be ordinary, become mediocre adults, and no one will ever know what kind of people we were originally."
"Don't leave, don't make a sound, grow up quietly, like a mute who can't speak, just like we used to do, we can definitely do it."
"Don't trust anyone. We only have ourselves. If necessary, we are all strangers."
These are just three of the vows. The other six should contain similar content, all reminding themselves that they had killed two classmates and that to protect themselves, they must cooperate with each other while remaining separate, testifying to each other while remaining strangers to one another. Only in this way can their testimonies be trusted.
Similarly, if they want to avoid being discovered, they should act as nine ordinary people. They cannot be seen by too many people, nor can they stand out. They don't even dare to go abroad, because once they go abroad, they will become "that rich lady who went abroad" at future gatherings, and the chances of the truth being exposed will be very high.
Given the typical nature of dungeons, since all nine people are murderers, the dungeon will definitely be a battle royale scenario. From the beginning to the end of the game, players will be constantly being haunted by vengeful spirits.
However, Wu Wangwang did not understand the rules of taking lives. Although she was not human either, Wu Wangwang mostly gave people hope and was a ghost-eater, so she did not understand the practices of ordinary vengeful ghosts.
The moment Wu Wangwang finished answering, the surrounding streets seemed to suddenly empty out, the city's reddish sky turned dark, and even the streetlights went out one by one. On the pitch-black road, only the high beams of this car illuminated the way ahead.
The car continued forward, but the road ahead was no longer leading to Fu Mei's house.
"How do you know the rules of death haven't been reached yet?" The driver's exposed eyes suddenly became rotten, red, swollen, and oozing pus. His eyeballs were filled with all sorts of tiny creatures that only live in water. Blood and tears flowed out, mixed with pus, maggots, and mosquito larvae, all falling down together.
Judging from the state of his eyes, the driver had been submerged in water for at least several months, and his body had become enormous food for those creatures.
Wu Wangwang looked at her silently for a while: "Because I did not break the rules, I kept our oath. If the oath was useless, you should have taken action long ago."
Those vows that guaranteed the perfect crime were, in essence, the killers' ability to prevent themselves from being killed by vengeful ghosts.
The oath is also a punishment, a punishment that they can only atone for killing two people forever. As long as they keep up the act, they can live like ordinary people.
The driver suddenly burst into laughter, a sharp laugh that sounded like sonic attacks, pounding on the listener's head. However, Wu Wangwang didn't react much to this common ghostly tactic; she hesitated whether to feign pain and tension.
Before he could finish his hesitation, the driver had already finished laughing and continued, "You're right. You didn't break your oath, but no one can live the same kind of life forever. You'll grow up and become greedy scum who are unwilling to be just ordinary people. Once you've killed someone, you can never be an ordinary person again. It's impossible."
Amidst shrill laughter, Wu Wangwang was brought back to the entrance of the residential area. The car and driver were gone, and everything around her returned to normal. It wasn't a ghost wall or an illusion; the vengeful ghost had truly brought her home.
Wu Wangwang pondered for a while, then turned and walked into the residential area. Back in her rented room, she looked around but didn't find anything special. So she looked at the door and started looking for clothes to take a shower.
It was almost 1 a.m. Normally, Wu Wangwang would have already turned off the lights and gone to sleep, but after what happened with the driver tonight, she was thinking about how to get through this dungeon. Why did the driver suddenly tell her the plot?
It's not because the vengeful ghost wants to be like in horror movies, giving a heads-up before taking revenge.
The storyline of the instance isn't entirely useless; the fact that she brought it up proves that informing Fu Mei about this matter is very important.
After thinking for a long time, Wu Wangwang took out the note again, and at the same time found paper and pen, and wrote down what Jiaojiao and Du Luo had written on their notes, and put them together.
These vows all conveyed the same message: they should not become too close to each other in the future, forget about this incident, and live as ordinary people from now on.
In other words, what has protected them to this day are these vows. So, thinking about it the other way around, could it be that the driver played that ghost story for Fu Mei because... the driver wanted to scare Fu Mei and make her realize that what they did back then is already known to others?
It was that listener, or rather, their classmate from back then.
To be honest, classmates are always the easiest to discover when someone commits murder. If they behaved strangely, their classmates and teachers would definitely notice. The fact that they haven't been discovered for so long means that the people in the class trust them a lot.
Of course, it's impossible for all nine people to believe it. Rather, among these nine people, some are absolutely believed, while others are absolutely ignored, just like those two classmates who disappeared. They were inconspicuous and therefore not remembered by their classmates.
However, once the students realize that they have killed someone, their impressions of them will become clearer through repeated recollections.
According to ordinary people's thinking, it's impossible to kill someone without any reaction, even if a long time has passed. Regardless of whether one has done any psychological preparation afterward, putting oneself back in the position of a human being or a scumbag, one will always be afraid of one thing—being discovered.
The story the driver told must have been the one that Fu Mei feared most. They had been pretending for so many years, but their classmates found out because of the noise they made while fooling around. How could Fu Mei and the others not be afraid?
No, Fu Mei would be so scared that she couldn't help but contact other familiar murderers. She might not contact all nine, but she would contact a few easy-going people. At the same time, she would feel nervous, anxious, and hesitant.
Now that they've already killed two people, shouldn't they try to eliminate them completely years later?
Or should we pretend we know nothing about it? If anyone speaks up, should we simply use the lack of evidence to send those classmates who guessed the truth to a mental hospital?
However, once Fu Mei contacted other murderers, she broke her oath with them. Without the protection of the oath, they died even faster.
The police need evidence to catch the murderers, but the dead victim doesn't need revenge. She only needs the murderers to break their vows.
After sorting out the whole logic, Wu Wangwang hesitated for a while. She had been thinking about whether to tell Jiaojiao and the others, or even tell other players if she encountered them. But after thinking about the ghost's purpose, she felt that she didn't necessarily have to tell them.
If they say it, the ghost's scheme will succeed. Once they break free from their ordinary identities, the ghost will naturally come knocking.
But if she doesn't say anything, the players will be completely unaware, and the ghost will find other people and then contact her, which will still break the oath.
In other words, no matter what Wu Wangwang does, the final result is that they will enter the battle royale stage. There are only two ghosts and nine players. Even if the ghosts attack at the same time, they will only chase two people. Then the remaining people will still have a chance to come up with a countermeasure. As for those who are being chased, they can only try to hide in the police station.
Now Wu Wangwang understands why the safe zone is set up in the police station. It's the only chance for the murderers to survive. They were young when they committed the crime. Although they are over fourteen years old, there are nine of them. In addition, they surrendered themselves, which will reduce their punishment.
The ghosts will watch them go to detention centers, be sentenced, and go to prison. The hatred may not dissipate, but at least it can make them feel a little better.
As for whether to continue seeking revenge after the murderers are released, that's up to the ghosts themselves; by then, the police station won't be able to save them.
There is a way to avoid it now. You can be bold and turn yourself in. The sentence won't come down so quickly, so it's highly likely that the person will still be in the detention center by September 1st. So, as long as the players can escape from the detention center and take a bus on the morning of September 1st, they will have completed the game.
Of course, Wu Wangwang checked the location of the detention center, which was quite remote. It was a long way from the detention center to the bus stop next to the city center square, and the ghosts along the way could kill the player a hundred and eighty times.
Neither option seemed right, and Wu Wangwang was extremely conflicted, unsure of what the best course of action would be.
After thinking about it all night, and with work approaching, Wu Wangwang went into the bathroom to change. Looking in the mirror at her somewhat youthful, baby-faced reflection, she muttered to herself, "If it were you, what would you do?"
After a while, Wu Wangwang laughed again: "You said that in any situation, you would only put your own life first, because you want to live and death is too painful."
Since the original owner of this body wanted to live, Wu Wangwang would certainly not risk doing anything outrageous. So she went to work as usual today, remembering to bring a change of clothes and toiletries, because she had to work overtime tonight and didn't want to hear ghost stories again in the middle of the night.
Ghost stories at night are great, but don't overindulge.
Jiaojiao is clearly a night owl, or rather, once you start working as a freelancer, very few people can maintain a regular schedule; they all become night owls who work like crazy at night and sleep like crazy during the day.
Of course, Du Luo was in much better shape than Jiao Jiao. She would go to bed earlier, while Jiao Jiao, who couldn't write novels at all, would work hard every day until almost dawn before she could go to sleep, and rarely showed up during the day.
Last night, neither of them said anything in the group chat. Ever since Wu Wangwang reminded them, they haven't shown up, probably because they were busy with something.
Wu Wangwang went to work as usual. Today she had no copywriting to write and spent a long time spacing out in the office. Her boss couldn't stand it and asked her to pack up the yarn. The yarn that wasn't being packed in the main warehouse was from orders placed in the live stream and online store, so it could be shipped directly from the company. There was no need to go through an extra process from the warehouse.
For Wu Wangwang, packing yarn is no different from crocheting things in her live stream; it's all repetitive handicrafts.
The packing went on until evening. As usual, Wu Wangwang went to the live stream room to work overtime. As soon as she entered, she saw the guy from last night. He was still on the night shift tonight. He said he wanted to work a few more days and then combine a long holiday with the Mid-Autumn Festival so that he could have a long vacation.
"Did you encounter anything when you went back last night?" the young man asked with concern. It was so late, and even men wouldn't dare to walk outside. Wu Wangwang was really brave.
"No, I went downstairs, called a car, and went home. It went smoothly," Wu Wangwang replied casually.
The young man bowed respectfully, then stopped asking questions, knowing he himself wouldn't dare.
When Wu Wangwang heard the young man's question, she remembered that she had hailed a ghost car last night. Did the ghost charge her?
Before starting her live stream, Wu Wangwang took out her phone to check her orders. There were no order details, indicating that she had opened the app the previous night but had not placed any orders.
In other words, the ghost gave her a free ride.
Well, that ghost was actually pretty good.
Wu Wangwang smiled silently, put away her phone, and started her live-streaming of crocheting with peace of mind.
In the evening, Jiaojiao and Dulu started their activities, but Wu Wangwang was going to do a live stream and didn't dare to take out her phone to check it when she felt it vibrating. She only had time to take out her phone when she finished the live stream, and she had sent dozens of messages.
The gist of it is that the two of them inexplicably received an invitation to a class reunion, but after searching through all the existing information, they couldn't find any relevant records. Jiaojiao and Dulu were both very nervous. Without any information, how were they supposed to play the roles of NPCs?
All the information the player can find is from after university; all the information before that has disappeared. Jiaojiao and Dulu know nothing except that it's a high school reunion.
Who were their high school classmates? Who were their teachers? What was their address? Was there anything they needed to remember from their three years of high school?
They knew nothing about these issues, but they were going to a class reunion.
After reading the chat history, Wu Wangwang suddenly realized something, so she asked in the group, "Where are the photos? I remember we have to take graduation photos, right?"
Perhaps because Jiaojiao was always online, she replied quickly: Du Luo and I have looked for it, searched the whole house, but we still couldn't find the graduation photo. But that's not surprising. Anyone who has moved will eventually lose their high school graduation photo. And college graduation photos might not be found in a few years either.
That's true, but Wu Wangwang always felt that the graduation photos were missing, or that they had disposed of them.
Everything about high school must disappear; only then can they become truly clean people.
Wu Wangwang read the replies quietly for a while, then asked: So what are you planning to do? Are you still going to this class reunion?
If the ghost is right, everything is about to begin with this gathering. It's not a story that has already happened; it's a prelude.
Fu Mei had never attended a class reunion before, and there was no record of it on her phone. Wu Wangwang didn't notice this at the time. Today, Jiao Jiao and Du Luo received invitations to the class reunion. Combined with the story told by the ghost, it means that the plot has started to move forward. When the reunion ends, the identity of the murderer will slowly come to light.
When they are discovered, the police station will truly be their only safe haven.
No one can guarantee that one of the murderers, when driven to desperation, will not implicate everyone in order to survive.
In that moment, vows didn't seem like very reliable things.
Wu Wangwang didn't say anything more in the group. She hadn't received an invitation yet, and saying too much now would only make things worse, so it was better to remain silent.
There were restrooms in the company, so Wu Wangwang took a quick shower, brushed her teeth and washed her face, and then went to sleep in the live-streaming room.
I had just finished packing up and was carrying my belongings back home when I suddenly heard the sound of water, just like I had heard it at home before.
Wu Wangwang slowly turned around and looked at the bathroom where she had turned off the lights. The sound was coming from inside, very clearly, even clearer than when she heard it at home.
The sound of water grew closer and closer. Wu Wangwang didn't linger and quickly left. The sound of water seemed to follow her, but it disappeared instantly when she reached one of the offices with the lights on.
The few employees in the office, both men and women, looked half-dead, busy with their own things, like corpses barely clinging to life.
Back in the live stream room, everyone else had already set their alarms for the second half of the night shift. There were some simple beds and frames around, so everyone could be assigned a small area to take a short nap before clocking in at dawn.
For the first time, Wu Wangwang pretended to sleep at the company. She usually doesn't sleep, but since there were so many people around, she simply closed her eyes and woke up from time to time, pretending that she was not sleeping well and was having trouble sleeping in the same bed.
In the middle of the night, the only person left in the live stream room was the streamer who was staying up late, slowly knitting. There wasn't even any talking. At that time, there weren't many people still awake watching the live stream; most people were just using it as white noise to lull themselves to sleep, so the streamer wouldn't make too much noise.
As dawn broke, the day shift anchors came to relieve them, and the company gradually became lively. Wu Wangwang got up, picked up her dirty clothes and toiletries, and went to wash up. There were other people in the washroom, and no one noticed anything unusual about last night.
The work during the day is the same as always. When it's slow, it's terrifying. It feels like I'm just collecting money for nothing at the company. When it's busy, I feel like I could blow the company up.
Wu Wangwang secretly slacked off, pretending to be writing copy, but actually waiting for the class reunion call.
If the ghost story is true, as one of the murderers, she should have been notified to attend the class reunion. She hasn't received it yet, probably because... Fu Mei changed her phone number after college, and now no one can find her.
Oh no, Jiaojiao and Du Luo can be found; they've become Fu Mei's contacts.
Sure enough, in the afternoon, Jiaojiao suddenly sent a message.
[Jiaojiao: Oh my god, what's going on? Our high school class monitor said he needed to contact Fu Mei, a classmate. Fu Mei, that's not a common name. Is it you, Fu Mei? Damn it, we don't have a graduation photo, we can't tell at all!]
After receiving Jiaojiao's message, Wu Wangwang thought for a moment and asked: "Jiaojiao, didn't you ask your high school class monitor for a graduation photo? Just because you don't have one doesn't mean no one else does, right?"
Jiaojiao said: "I wanted to ask, but the class monitor said that if we don't meet, then so be it. We can meet each other at the party and it can be part of the event. Maybe we can find our old friends and that would be a surprise. Anyway, he wouldn't even give me a digital copy or a picture."
The class monitor's idea is perfectly reasonable. After all, so many years have passed, and it's impossible to remember many people. Recognizing each other at the reunion using the few remaining photos will definitely be a way to pass the time, rather than just sitting awkwardly drinking and eating.
So Wu Wangwang said: I would like to take Fu Mei's place, but I can't take leave from my company this month. If it's okay next month, when is the gathering?
[Jiaojiao: The class monitor said it's not decided yet. He'll make a plan based on everyone's free time after he contacts everyone.]
Since that's the case, the class monitor will definitely choose a day when everyone's free time overlaps, so Wu Wangwang directly asked Jiaojiao to give her contact information to the class monitor so she could go along.
Jiaojiao hesitated for a moment and said in the group: But, we are all fake. What if we make a mistake in the performance?
Upon seeing this question, Wu Wangwang smiled: Do you still remember what was written on the note? Those kinds of cringeworthy sentences are something only young people would say, so if it wasn't said in junior high or high school, and the NPCs still abide by it today, then it proves that they did the same thing in school.
In other words, these murderers, from the moment they started killing, never changed; their timeline was frozen on the day they swore their oath.
Jiaojiao suddenly realized what was going on and immediately notified the class monitor and Du Luo. Soon after, a stranger added Wu Wangwang on WeChat, and the verification message said that he was the class monitor of Class 6, Grade 12.
Upon seeing the class number, Wu Wangwang felt something was off, but couldn't quite put her finger on it, so she accepted the application.
The class monitor quickly sent a message to say hello; he was a very warm person.
[Class Monitor of Class 6, Grade 12: Fu Mei, I couldn't reach you through any of your old contact methods. I only found out about you after going through all this trouble. Luckily, Jiao Jiao had your contact information. Have you two kept in touch all these years?]
For some reason, Wu Wangwang felt that the class monitor's words had an uncomfortable sense of probing.
[Fu Mei: No, we bumped into each other in the square a few days ago, so we exchanged contact information. What's up?]
[Class Monitor of Class 6, Grade 12: It's nothing, it's just that I feel it's great that we can still keep in touch. If the time is right, we can go back and visit our teachers together. By the way, Fu Mei, everyone needs to contribute 300 yuan as a gathering fund. We'll use this money to cover the meals and gifts for the teachers when we get back to school.]
Wu Wangwang was unaware that parties required payment; she had never heard of such a thing, and the original owner of this body, having dropped out of school early to work, would certainly not know anything about it.
There were too many things she had never seen before. Somewhat bewildered, Wu Wangwang took a screenshot and sent it to the three-person group chat, asking Jiaojiao if this was the right thing to do.
Shouldn't the organizers pay for the gathering?
Jiaojiao replied: "It's pretty normal. How should I put it? To hold a party like this, either the organizer is willing but unable, or they have money and just invite everyone. I think the class monitor probably wanted to go back to see the teacher but didn't invite everyone, so he simply made everyone pay. If you don't want to pay, you can't go to the party."
[Fu Mei: But if that's the case, it means the class monitor will use this money to buy everything, so there will always be a lot left over, right?]
[Jiaojiao: Yeah, the rest is the class monitor's hard-earned money. A smart person might save quite a bit, but we're in a dungeon, aren't we? Let's just give it to them. We can't let money ruin the story.]
After reading Jiao Jiao's words, Wu Wangwang felt that what she said made sense. After a moment of silence, she went back and transferred 300 yuan to the class monitor. The class monitor accepted it very gratefully and then added Wu Wangwang to the reunion group. There were already about 40 people in the group, which showed that the class used to have quite a lot of people and was a large class.
The class monitor also asked Wu Wangwang if she knew the contact information of some high school classmates. Even if the people in the old class group are still there, few of them reply to messages. They may have changed their numbers. So, the only way to get them into the group is by having someone they know.
Fu Mei would never keep such a person in her contacts, so Wu Wangwang said she didn't know because she changed her phone after starting university and all her past records were gone.
Upon hearing this, the class monitor was somewhat disappointed, but didn't say much. He simply told Wu Wangwang that if he remembered anything else, he could tell him, and he would contact them. He also suggested that Wu Wangwang could reconnect with his old classmates in the group chat to build rapport and make the reunion easier.
Wu Wangwang didn't know how to respond to the class monitor's enthusiasm, so she could only awkwardly say okay. After a while, she remembered to ask how many people were in the class. There were already more than forty people in the group, and they were still looking.
[Class Monitor of Class 6, Grade 12: Number of people? I have a list of 62 people here, that is, the people in the graduation photo, a total of 62 people. I have tried my best to contact those I can, but I don't really know if I can contact the rest.]
There were 62 students in the class. Wu Wangwang suddenly understood why everyone only found out when the parents arrived that two students had gone missing—there were just too many people.
With 62 people, if the classroom is small, a bunch of people will be crammed together. If one or two are missing, the teacher won't notice them at a glance, especially the middle students near the back. They are usually inconspicuous and low-key, and the teachers usually just glance at them and forget about them.
The best students are present, and the worst students aren't skipping class. This is the most reassuring situation for teachers. They place too much trust in the middle-achieving students, thinking they won't cause any trouble for the teachers, so they just let it pass.
The class monitor continued to contact people, while Wu Wangwang remained silent in the group chat. Several classmates from the "She Niu" group were keeping the atmosphere lively, talking about interesting things from their high school days, but they were careful to keep the conversation light and tactful. If anyone showed that they didn't want to chat anymore, they would politely skip the topic.
Thanks to these few outstanding classmates with high emotional intelligence, the incredibly awkward class reunion group was kept in a delicate state.
After joining the group, Wu Wangwang stopped thinking about anything else and continued to slack off, while also doing some work assigned by her superiors.
After work that day, Wu Wangwang felt she should go home and rest for a day. The company didn't require her to make up for the missed days of overtime as long as she had enough time. So Wu Wangwang simply took her old clothes home and washed them before she could change into two new outfits and go back to work overtime.
The number of people in the group chat was slowly increasing. Jiaojiao and Dulu did not show up in the group. They were very cautious. When they were not familiar with each other, they pretended to be taciturn, but they did a lot of lurking. They would share any information they saw in the three-person group chat.
For example, someone used to have excellent grades and received a certain award, or someone else had a bright future. You could tell at a glance that they were no ordinary person.
Of course, it's mostly about reminiscing about our youth.
As we were chatting, someone suddenly brought up a classmate who had disappeared back in our first year of high school. Two classmates had vanished at once, and the police searched for them for a long time. Since then, the school has been much stricter in its management, fearing that another student might get into trouble.
When Jiaojiao saw this message, she kept recording the screen and simultaneously sent a lot of "Holy crap" messages in a small group of three on her tablet.
There were just too many messages. Wu Wangwang was still on vibrate mode. She was usually afraid of missing any messages from her superiors, but now she was forced to watch Jiaojiao's live broadcast.
[Jiaojiao: Oh my god, so that's where the plot is! Two students from this class went missing before! Based on my experience, those two students must be dead! But it's so strange, why do they all say they went missing in the first year of high school? Isn't this a senior class reunion group? They should have gathered together after the second year class reshuffle, how come everyone knows about the students who went missing in the first year?]
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Author's Note: [End of Chapter]
Here it comes! My period suddenly started! I've been saving up little by little every day when the pain isn't bad. Once the pain is completely gone, I'll keep going! Striving for consistent updates!
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Thank you for watching, and I hope you enjoyed the article.
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