Chapter 41 Closing the Door
Seeing that both of them were silent, Qing Bai looked at them as if nothing had happened, with an innocent expression that said, "You guys continue talking, I'm listening."
Seeing him like this in the ninth year, he instantly realized that all his previous subtle and indirect warnings had been discovered.
This was also the first time he had to act so cautiously and in a roundabout way. Although it was not a big deal, he had already made the preparations to protect and guide the elders. However, as soon as he took action, he was noticed by the "taught" cubs, and was tolerated and cooperated by them. He felt a little... embarrassed, which he had not felt in nine years.
Qing Bai immediately noticed the emotions hidden under Jiu Nian's gentle face, and suddenly became excited. When he was about to say something, Zhou Xiaoya, who had been ignored by them for a long time, suddenly moved.
She stood up straight, looking as frail and lonely as a piece of paper hanging in the air. Fat Qi secretly glanced at her feet... She was really hanging, with her heels not even touching the ground!
After taking a look at Qi Xiaopang, she quickly averted her gaze and dared not look again. However, Zhou Xiaoya did not stop moving. She slowly turned around on the spot. When ordinary people move like this while standing on the ground, their shoulders, back and arms will inevitably follow the movement. Even if they try hard to control it, they will stabilize their legs and feet first. But Zhou Xiaoya is just the opposite. Her upper body is almost motionless, even her long hair has remained in its original shape, but her dangling feet occasionally sway slowly, as if... she is hanging in the air, moving with the wind.
"What is she doing? Spinning against the wind?" Fat Qi was really scared, but the more scared he was, the more he wanted to talk.
Qing Bai looked for a while and said calmly, "Looking for directions."
"Looking... in what direction?"
Without Qing Bai's answer, Zhou Xiaoya, who had found the direction, quickly gave the answer - she stopped spinning and slowly floated towards the sports equipment room in the distance.
Her upper body was still motionless, and her feet occasionally swayed as she floated. Qing Bai couldn't help but look above her head twice, suspecting that there was an invisible string hanging her... like a puppet.
"Let's follow?" Qi Xiaopang's idea was simple and crude. At this point, to know if the lord was actually Zhou Xiaoya, all he had to do was see what happened to this 'Zhou Xiaoya'. If he just glossed over it, then the lord who dominated this crevice was most likely not her. But if he followed the events of that year in detail without missing a single detail... then what were we waiting for! Qing Ge could just pick anyone up in his nine years! Whether it was through force or psychological counseling, the right thing to do was to send the old class teacher to the hospital immediately!
As Ban Bieyi's humanoid intelligent armrest, Qi Xiaopang has been feeling anxious...Ban Bieyi's body temperature seems to be getting higher and higher.
Qing Bai nodded: "Follow."
Fortunately, Zhou Xiaoya seemed to have some concerns. She floated hesitantly, and the closer she got to the sports equipment room, the slower her speed became, so that their team, which still had wounded soldiers, would not fall behind.
It should be said that not only did they not fall behind, but the team became increasingly stronger.
Qing Bai turned his head to glance at the three people who were silently following them a few steps away. He said nothing, but slightly curved his eyes before looking away... At some point, Jiu Nian, who was originally walking side by side with him, fell behind by a step, vaguely separating him from the people behind him.
Qing Bai didn't feel very happy about this silent and meticulous protection, but there was still a second that made him dazed, just a second. After a second, Qing Bai began to think about how to break the damn cub filter.
Before Qing Bai could come up with a solution, the team arrived at the sports equipment room. However, Zhou Xiaoya stood still three steps away from the door... and no one dared to urge her.
But there are always one or two people in the group who have a bad temper and no patience. Qing Bai originally thought it would be Chang Qiuqiu, but he didn't expect that the first one who couldn't help it was Gao Tai.
"Why doesn't she go in?"
As Gao Tai spoke, his gloomy demeanor instantly cracked. Qing Bai was stunned for a moment. He hadn't expected this Rift Lord to be so meticulous, not only shrinking people but even paying attention to such minute details as their voices... The gloomy and cold Gao Tai actually had a hoarse voice. Judging from his stature, he was indeed going through voice change in the third year of junior high school.
After being surprised by the sound, Qing Bai noticed the word "still". Looking at Gao Tai's expression, he was anxious, flustered and confused. He didn't know whether he was anxious about Ban Bieyi's increasingly worsening condition, or whether the scene before him was beyond his imagination... or memory.
Chang Qiuqiu wasn't in a hurry at all. Her eyes darted around the room, and she said sarcastically, "What are you so anxious about? Are you so anxious to see your old classmate die?"
Gao Tai didn't even look at Chang Qiuqiu, but just stared at Zhou Xiaoya. No one responded, and Chang Qiuqiu couldn't make a fuss on her own, so she snorted coldly and shut up.
So the group watched Zhou Xiaoya silently pulling herself apart at the equipment room door as if they were watching a commotion on the street.
After watching for a moment, Qing Bai frowned slightly and whispered, "She seems to be... afraid."
As soon as he said this, Qing Bai himself was at a loss for a moment. He had never thought that the lord of this chasm that trapped them was Zhou Xiaoya. But often, he would discover something that contradicted his assumptions.
If the "appearance" of the "class teacher" in the office is too similar to the scene of Zhou Xiaoya's death described by Ban Bieyi, and it can be explained as the lord's manipulation to create confusion, then how should he explain the emotions he felt from the "Zhou Xiaoya" in front of him?
Everything in the cracks is formed by resentment, only emotions are real, joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love and hate, these feelings deeply rooted in the soul will not fade away because of the disappearance of the body, but will be infinitely magnified because of the loss of the body. And these magnified "emotions" cannot be covered by the mask-like expressions of laughter, anger and scolding that change at will, nor can they be hidden by the human skin that is unknown whether it is real or fake.
He is a man of great spiritual powers, born to heal wounded souls. Although he is now just an ignorant 'cub' in the eyes of some people, he is confident that his keen intuition about 'emotion' will not be wrong.
But if this feeling of fear is real... then who is afraid?
Lord? Or the real Zhou Xiaoya?
Qing Bai was lost in thought when he heard Jiu Nian's low, gentle voice beside him: "The dead will subconsciously fear the place of death."
Qing Bai withdrew his thoughts and turned his head slightly, and saw Jiu Nian looking at Zhou Xiaoya. His eyes, which were always reserved and tolerant, seemed to contain a lake of water, and the water rippled between the rise and fall of his thick eyelashes... Qing Bai seemed to hear a sigh.
Do the deceased subconsciously fear the place of death?
Zhou Xiaoya, who was repeatedly pulled by fear, finally moved. She was shaking violently. Because of the force, her pale and pretty face was distorted beyond recognition. The skin on her face was squeezed and wrinkled, and her waist-length hair kept sliding as the skin was squeezed, pulled and torn. It was as if the skin on the outside and the skeleton on the inside suddenly became incompatible, and the whole person was shaky.
But she did not fall down, and she was no longer floating. Instead, she walked forward step by step, staggering but firmly.
She broke free from the rope above her head, Qing Bai thought.
The tightly closed double doors slowly opened. The sports equipment room, which looked like a small matchbox from a distance, now looked like a huge abyss. Standing outside the door, they could only see a bottomless black.
As Zhou Xiaoya entered, the darkness slowly began to take on new colors and shapes. An orange-red basketball sat plumply in its net, a dusty jump rope tangled in a ball casually thrown against the wall, and behind it lay baskets of volleyballs, soccer balls, and shot puts. Barefoot shuttlecocks and shrunken, deflated ping-pong balls littered the floor. In the middle of the equipment room, a vaulting box and a dark green high jump mat lay cluttered.
This sports equipment room is not small, but it is filled with various sports equipment and is not properly planned and maintained. When everyone followed Zhou Xiaoya into the door, they didn't know where to start.
Especially Chang Qiuqiu and Chen Qiaoxi, in order to stay away from Zhou Xiaoya, the two of them stood almost against the wall, with all kinds of balls under their feet.
Qi Xiaopang was also afraid, so afraid that he wanted to sandwich himself between his brother Qing and the boss Jiunian like a sticky and useless heart in a sandwich, but Ban Bieyi's condition was not good. If he stood any longer, either the blade would split or he would split. Qi Xiaopang could only bite the bullet and stretch out his tentative little hands to pull the pile of cushions so that the old classmate could sit more comfortably... but he couldn't even move it!
Just as he was about to collapse, he suddenly felt a lightness on his body. He turned around and saw that Banbie, who had been half supporting and half leaning on him, was taken over by the high platform that had come over out of nowhere. Qi Xiaopang was so shocked that he tore off a large piece of the thick sponge in the high jump mat.
Qi Xiaopang was so frightened that he quickly put the torn sponge into Qing Bai's hand, then he thanked him repeatedly and reached out to support Ban Bieyi, who was sweating profusely, not sure whether it was because of the heat or the pain.
Gao Tai didn't say anything. He let go when Qi Xiaopang came to help him, as if he was really just lending a hand because they were former classmates.
But Qing Bai had sharp eyes and in the dim light he saw the anxiety hidden under his brows and in his eyes, as well as his knuckles covered with pinch marks.
At this moment, there was a sudden loud bang behind them, and the door that had been slowly opening by no one before closed again before anyone could react.
...No, maybe it didn't close by itself.
Light should have filtered through the tiny gap between the two doors, but now it was completely dark... Someone was standing outside the door.
The sound of the door lock colliding immediately afterwards confirmed Qing Bai's guess - someone was locking the door.
The one who was even more anxious than Zhou Xiaoya was Chang Qiuqiu. She almost rolled and crawled to the door, and threw the beautiful and exquisite high-heeled shoes that she had been holding in her hand down, mixing with those gray badmintons with bald hair.
She banged on the door hard, shouting in a shrill voice: "Open the door! Open the door! Open the door quickly! There is someone inside! Zhou Xiaoya is inside! Open the door! Open——"
With a 'click', the door was completely locked.
Chang Qiuqiu put down her hand that was about to knock on the door and stood barefoot by the door. Her carefully braided hair hung loosely beside her ears. She looked as disheveled as if she had just finished running 800 meters and was told that she failed and had to retake the exam in the next class.
She stood there for a moment, then suddenly turned around as if she finally realized something, staring at Zhou Xiaoya, who had not made any other movements after entering the room. Her pale face was distorted hideously, and the next second, Chang Qiuqiu slowly fell to the ground under the gaze of everyone.
As if possessed by a demon, she disregarded her appearance completely. Her dust-covered hands clawed at the crack in the door with such force that it was practically twisted. Her delicate, pretty face pressed against the ground, moving ever closer to the door until it was stuck. Finally, through the narrow crack, her eyes caught sight of a flickering silver light...
Her posture at this moment is exactly the same as Zhou Xiaoya's back then.
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