Seeing Fang He's expression turn somewhat strange, Xiao Cheng belatedly realized that what she had just said might have been easily misunderstood.
"No, I didn't mean you have a problem caring about me, but you..." Xiao Cheng felt she was getting more and more confused, so she simply stopped explaining and sighed in despair, "Fine, you're not normal, and neither am I."
"It's okay, I know what you mean." Fang He nodded and patted her shoulder reassuringly. "Let's leave here first, calm down, and then we'll go find other players."
They ran into Liu Xiaoying, who had just arrived for lunch, at the entrance of the cafeteria.
"What's wrong? Little Orange, why do you look like that?" Liu Xiaoying raised an eyebrow and teased with a smile, "Did you find a fly in your food?"
Xiao Cheng gave her a deep look: "Number 2 is dead. He's in the second-floor bathroom."
"What?!" Liu Xiaoying's expression suddenly changed. She walked past the two of them and ran upstairs. A moment later, she ran back downstairs.
Now her face looked very pale.
"How could this happen? Does anyone else know?"
As Xiao Cheng looked at her, her thoughts drifted away, and her first thought was, "I'm so sorry for wasting her lunch time."
"Xiao Cheng?" Liu Xiaoying called out to her with a frown when she received no response. "Are you alright? You don't look well."
"Ah, it's nothing." Xiao Cheng snapped out of her daze and hurriedly shook her head. "I felt a little nauseous after seeing the corpse, but it's nothing. What were you asking just now? I didn't hear you clearly, sorry."
“And there’s number 3.” Fang He, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up. “Number 3 should have been the first player to discover the body, but… she seems to have gone mad.”
"Crazy?" Liu Xiaoying looked incredulous. "How is this possible? I just saw her at the activity center. Are you sure you didn't see wrong?"
"Activity center?" Xiao Cheng and Fang He exchanged a glance, seeing the same confusion in each other's eyes. "Where is that?"
"Back of the teaching building, didn't your teachers tell you to go to the activity center during your lunch break to check in?"
Fang He and Xiao Cheng were both certain that they had not heard any information about the activity center before.
With less than an hour and a half until afternoon classes, they planned to hurry over and take a look.
"By the way, do you have any clues about the school rules?" Xiao Cheng asked before leaving.
"Yes, it's about the activity center." Liu Xiaoying recalled briefly, "School rule number seven: balance work and rest. You'll obediently follow that, right?"
The activity center is located behind the teaching building, separated by a road, and next to it is the library.
The building wasn't large, but it had a distinctive look, resembling an upside-down bowl. As the two walked in through the door, they heard two beeping sounds overhead.
Then, an electronic announcement, accompanied by soothing music, echoed in the lobby on the first floor.
"Welcome to the activity center. Your new student status has been verified. This is your first time here. Please start checking in."
"There really is a check-in area?" Xiao Cheng looked up with some curiosity. "It looks so high-class."
"Hey? Why are you only arriving now?" Player #3 walked over from the stairwell, and upon seeing the two, covered his mouth in shock. "You have to complete an activity to officially check in. Do you even have time?"
When Xiao Cheng saw her for the first time, even though she was mentally prepared, she couldn't help but be surprised: "You didn't go to the cafeteria?"
"Tch." Number 3 said irritably, "I don't want to eat with Liu Xiaoying! So what if she's cleared eight dungeons? What's so great about that! You guys came from the cafeteria? Is she still there?"
Xiao Cheng was stunned by her words: "Wait a minute, she..."
She just went to the cafeteria.
But number 3 didn't let her finish speaking and walked out of the activity center on her own.
The electronic announcement sounded again.
"Student ID 3, this activity lasted 57 minutes, and the activity check-in has been completed."
Xiao Cheng felt like her brain was completely blank, and none of the few things she could think of completely aligned with her thoughts.
"Wait, I need to sort this out." She started counting on her fingers, preparing to begin.
"We'll sort it out later, let's go check in at the activity first." Fang He pressed her finger down, "After all, we now know the seventh school rule clearly."
Xiao Cheng was surprised that he would touch her directly. Feeling the lingering warmth on his fingers, he blinked blankly and said, "Ah... okay."
The first floor of the activity center is full of art studios, almost all of which are locked, except for the innermost one, whose door is ajar.
The two walked over, pushed the door open completely, and peered inside.
The walls of the studio were splattered with paint, the various colors mixed together, clashing with their vision.
On a separate display shelf hung framed student paintings, each signed, though most were in artistic cursive script, more symbolic than meaningful, and completely illegible.
In the very center is a decorative painting. Sunlight shines through thick clouds, outlining the head of a Buddha with lowered eyebrows. On the ground are piles of rotting corpses and bones, with insects crawling on them.
Directly below the painting, the name of the painting is written in black on a white label.
Compassion.
What is even more striking than the painting itself is the neatly signed signature at the top of the painting.
"Si?" Upon seeing this character, the first thing that came to Xiao Cheng's mind was the counselor's stern face with gold-rimmed glasses. "Could it be the counselor's painting?"
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