Within seconds, Cheng Shuang's eyelids became sore that she could hardly open them, and the sounds of the wind and wind chimes outside the window faded away.
Something was clearly wrong. She fought off her drowsiness, her eyes tentatively darting around, but before she could make any more drastic movements, the door to the shared room was suddenly pulled open.
The sound was extremely soft, without any footsteps, more like the turning of gears.
Hidden behind her clothes, Cheng Shuang took out a cool mint candy, scratched it with her fingernail, trying to scrape off some crumbs, and then seemingly unconsciously put her hand to her mouth.
The gears made a noticeable pause, but it seemed to trust its abilities and resumed its movements the next second. It continued rolling into the room and stopped next to one of the students.
Cheng Shuang finally heard another sound, the sound of her classmate sobbing uncontrollably.
Then came strange giggles that spread throughout the dormitory. The student suddenly stood up, as if he had seen the most horrifying thing, and ran around the room, his cries growing louder.
Unfortunately, all the students in the room were fast asleep, and no one knew the pain he was enduring, except for one person.
Cheng Shuang slightly opened her eyes a crack and saw an ugly doll sitting in a small car with wheels, slowly approaching her classmate hiding in the corner. Cheng Shuang recognized the classmate; it was Yumi.
Calling the doll ugly is no exaggeration.
It was bald, had a sunken face, beady eyes of different sizes, a toad nose, a crooked mouth, buck teeth, one shoulder higher than the other, and a hunchback. It was also wearing a formal Japanese kimono.
In short, every kind of ugliness that humans can describe is vividly displayed in it.
Compared to this, all the other ghost dolls were much cuter.
Cheng Shuang didn't know what the person who created it was thinking; clearly, the doll had come to life.
Yumi can be unreliable at times, but her character is decent. Although she was terrified, she didn't push any of her sleeping classmates to take the blame. Instead, she hid from everyone and went to a deserted corner, where she hugged her head and trembled.
Cheng Shuang understood. This ugly doll didn't want to hurt Yumi; it seemed to want to scare her more. Otherwise, it wouldn't have given Yumi so much time to escape and hide. After all, space is limited, and there aren't many places to hide.
The little girl suddenly remembered that Yumi, in order to please the fifth-grade boy's sister, had once pointed to a doll and said it was ugly, and hinted that there was a prettier doll, hoping that the girl would bring her brother to her house to play.
Yumi's voice wasn't loud, but Cheng Shuang had excellent hearing. She was speechless at this infatuated little girl, so she didn't pay attention to which doll the other person was referring to.
Now it seems that the dolls were unhappy and started fighting!
Cheng Shuang observed from the shadows but did not choose to take action. Yumi should learn to restrain her personality; otherwise, a world full of ghosts and monsters would be too dangerous for her.
Whether they are called ghosts or wanderers, their nature doesn't change much. Within the rules, the slightest displeasure can lead to their death.
The rules of this land of death are clear: as long as you don't venture deep into the territory of the ghosts, they will not easily show themselves; but conversely, humans will become their prey.
It seems that humans and ghosts coexist!
Is it really that simple?
In the instant Cheng Shuang was pondering, Yu Mei broke down in tears, but no teacher came from outside, indicating that the dolls had already isolated the dormitory from the outside world.
While she was distracted, the doll shaved Yumi's hair into a Mediterranean style. It didn't seem to want to stop, letting out a broken and unpleasant roar, "You say I'm ugly, you say I'm ugly! I'll make you uglier than me!"
The large scissors snipped and swiped across Yumi's face.
Yumi was sobbing uncontrollably, regretting her actions and shouting, "I'm ugly, I'm uglier than you, okay!"
Upon seeing the meaningful smile on the doll's face, Cheng Shuang inwardly cried out in alarm and pounced on it, quickly pulling Yumi away.
The two beams of light that were originally shooting from the doll's eyes fell directly onto a tiger-shaped oil painting behind Yumi.
The tiger in the painting suddenly had a gleam in its eyes, while the puppet seemed to have lost its spirit and shattered on the ground.
Yumi hugged Cheng Shuang, stopped crying, stared at the painting and the doll, her mouth wide open, her face full of confusion.
Until the tiger roared, "You're hiding? You actually dare to hide! Aren't you uglier than me? I'll switch bodies with you and let you taste what it's like to be called ugly!"
Yumi almost collapsed from her weak legs. If it weren't for Yuko, if it weren't for Yuko... she wouldn't have dared to say anything out of line. Now, even her cries are soft and quiet, afraid that one wrong step will lead to another.
Cheng Shuang picked up the scissors from the ground, her face grim, and before the tiger could break free of the painting, she ruthlessly slashed it to shreds...
Everything returned to calm. The students woke up in twos and threes. Qianli jumped up and rushed to Cheng Shuang. When she saw the broken doll on the ground and the damaged painting on the wall, she immediately glared at Youmei knowingly and muttered, "Troublemaker!"
Yumi bit her lip, lowered her head and clung tightly to Cheng Shuang's arm. No matter what others said, no one could separate her and Yuko, no one!
Besides teachers...
In the afternoon, the visit to the vegetable garden was divided into groups. Because Yumi and Yuko were naughty, they damaged the shopkeeper's paintings and the doll that the shopkeeper's son made by hand for the first time (which had special sentimental value). Although the shopkeeper forgave the two children, the teacher could not tolerate it and specially punished them by not being able to be in a group.
At that moment, Yumi looked utterly shocked, as if the sky had fallen and she cried so hard she didn't care about her image anymore. In front of everyone, she clung to Cheng Shuang's leg and was ruthlessly dragged away by her group members.
The teacher subtly noted down Yumi's mistake, saying that the child's dependence was too strong and this couldn't continue!
The visit involved hands-on work. In groups of four, Cheng Shuang and three other classmates spent the afternoon picking radishes and feeding the radish greens to the rabbits. Afterward, the students gathered together, and each group wrote a reflection on their visit to the vegetable garden.
The central theme of Cheng Shuang's group was that farmers work very hard and food is hard to come by. Of course, the other two classmates emphasized that it was important to add that division of labor and cooperation were very important, and that everyone should have their own role. Their group did not need any outside help to cause trouble.
Qianli glanced sympathetically at Youmei, the 'foreign aid' who was staring longingly at Cheng Shuang, and the three teammates who had been abandoned by the 'foreign aid'. With a stroke of his pen, he added embellishments to the text.
The teacher couldn't handle Yumi, so her parents had to help. Apparently, Yumi's older sister is very strict!
In the afternoon, the proprietress made radish soup and radish cake to treat the students. Everyone ate with great relish, but suddenly a commotion broke out outside the quiet shop.
It turned out that a group of classmates from the second year of junior high school had come to soak in the hot springs and stayed at the hotel across the street.
Their teacher also led the group. Since it wasn't a school-organized activity, they took advantage of Friday, leaving school early to travel and check in, so they could have two days of fun over the weekend.
The class of forty people toured the area around the hotel in a lively manner. In order to attract customers, the owner of Cheng Shuang's shop also opened up part of his hotel area, allowing the group to come and go as they pleased.
These things are irrelevant to Cheng Shuang and the others. The happiness of elementary school students is simpler: drinking fragrant soup, eating sweet pastries, and gazing at the green mountains and white clouds, they are content and joyful.
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