Chapter 55

"So... this is the method you thought of?"

In the female dormitory, Xiao Guo tried hard to control his tone, but he couldn't help it, and the ending tone was slightly raised:

"You wrote threatening letters to them?"

"Strictly speaking, this is not called a threatening letter." Xu Ming corrected seriously, while he was lying on the desk under his bed, writing something quickly, "This is a well-intentioned suggestion, but the wording is a little harsh."

Xiao Guo: ...

No, it is a threatening letter.

Da Guo's focus is different. She was just glad that she and the two sports students were not in the same class, and they didn't have much interaction - she suddenly felt that the air around her was much fresher.

"But are you sure this will work?" Lu Yueling couldn't help but say, "Once a person wants to die, ten oxen can't pull him back. Not to mention it's just a threatening letter."

Xiao Guo, who was listening silently at the side:...

See, you guys also called it a threatening letter!

"Let me emphasize again, it's not a threatening letter, it's just a little well-intentioned warning." Xu Ming corrected their wording again, then turned around in his chair and looked at it carefully:

"About this, I have actually considered it. After all, some people really don't remember being beaten... So as a supplement to the plan, I plan to release some more A Jiao."

"A Jiao..." Xiao Guo was stunned for a moment before he realized that she was referring to the charred corpse of A Piao - but then again, why is it "some"?

"There are two bathhouses for boys in the whole school, right? The small bathhouse in the dormitory, and the one for the track and field team." Xu Ming counted with his fingers, and there was a bit of confirmation in his tone. After making sure that he remembered correctly, he immediately said, "In order to prevent the two gym students from committing suicide and triggering the death condition, I plan to hide two more A Jiao in the locker rooms of these two bathhouses."

The reason for hiding in the locker room is because it is not safe inside the bathhouse. If the timing is not right and they happen to run into the monster from the artificial lake, the lone A Jiao will definitely be just a dish - of course, even if there are more people, the result is estimated to be the same. The difference is that there are more dishes.

Usually hide, once you find the two sports students coming in, come out and scare them away... In theory, this idea should work.

Not only that, based on the same idea, and the idea of ​​just in case, Xu Ming is also preparing to further expand the scope of Ajiao's cultivation -

bathrooms have been arranged, toilets must also be arranged, and there are also water dispensers and dormitory water heaters, one can also be hidden. There is also a comprehensive building...

"Wait." Hearing this, Xiao Guo finally couldn't help but speak, "Why do you want a comprehensive building as well?" "

But there is a toilet there too. There is also a big fish tank in the middle of the lobby." Xu Ming said seriously.

"Yes, I know." Xiao Guo tilted his head, "So I wonder why there is also a need there..."

In school, students' daily activities are in the teaching building and dormitory building. The comprehensive building has many functions, including the administrative building and multimedia teaching, but students don't have many opportunities to go there on a daily basis, and they only go there when they have special courses. The toilet is also rarely used.

As for the big fish tank... Xiao Guo also knows it. It is a large decorative fish tank, flat in shape, standing in the middle of the lobby, full of beautiful little fish that cannot be named.

The most important thing is that the fish tank is completely enclosed - and it is very high.

I just don't know how the people who raise these fish usually feed them. The last time she passed by the comprehensive building, she found that many of the fish inside had died.

"Well, but there is water in it after all." Xu Ming said, "It is possible that the fish tank will suddenly break one day, and the two gym students will just pass by, so put A Jiao there to be prepared."

She has never come into direct contact with the monster in the artificial lake, and her understanding is limited. However, from the movie plot given by Lu Yueling, two very important rules can be summarized-

first, in the early stage, the monster can not only kill specific people, but also in order. It cannot jump. In other words, even if two boys are in trouble, it must kill one of them first before it can go to the second one. Second,

the monster will only appear when there is enough water around the target. The strength of the ability displayed is related to two dimensions, one is the amount of liquid around the target, and the other is the number of people who have been killed.

Although the fish tank is closed, it has a large capacity after all, so it is better to be vigilant and not let the two gym students get close.

Fortunately, those A Jiao are "light" enough to hide everywhere, and they are flexible in movement, so they can do this kind of work. Otherwise, Xu Ming would be really troubled.

"Okay..." Xiao Guo didn't understand these things at first, and after hearing her say this, he could only try to digest it.

"Ah, it's getting late! How about we leave first?" Da Guo, who was standing aside, glanced at the time and suddenly spoke.

Since the first boy got into trouble, the school has strengthened the management of boarding students. Evening self-study was cancelled, the teaching building was closed at 7 pm, and the dormitory door was closed at 8 pm. It was not yet six o'clock, and Xu Ming had just defeated the monsters in the toilet alone during the day, so the bathroom was safe now. They said that while they had time, they would go to the teaching building to check the mutual aid boxes and measure the opening hours of the transmission points.

On the other hand, they and Xu Ming were not originally in the same dormitory.

Xu Ming nodded indifferently and watched them go out. Xiao Guo turned around and followed Da Guo out. After a few steps, he turned back and hesitated for a while. Finally, he couldn't help but ask the question in his heart.

"That." She whispered, "I wanted to ask before, your company trains... I mean, trains so many, um, special employees...

" "What is the nature of your company?"

"A formal company." Xu Ming said without hesitation, "Absolutely formal, we have an official seal! And it is widely recognized in the industry! "

No, that's not what I want to ask you... Xiao Guo thought silently, but finally gave up the question wisely.

"Okay, I understand." With the idea of ​​"Okay, if you say it's formal, then it's formal," Xiao Guo nodded slightly and turned to walk out. Just as she walked to the door, she heard the voices of Lu Yueling and Xu Ming talking again:

"Hey, what are you writing again? I saw you just now... Are you sorting out clues?"

"No." The next second, Xu Ming gave a reply, still without thinking, "It's a threatening letter."

Xiao Guo, who had not yet left: "..."

Formal...yes, formal.

She repeated these two words in her heart again, took a deep breath, and walked out quickly.

*

...Strictly speaking, what Xu Ming wrote this time was not really a threatening letter.

It was just a superstitious message at best.

"'If you have been close to the artificial lake in the past two days, please copy this message and pass it to seven people after seeing it, and do not go close to the artificial lake again in the next week! Otherwise, you will be found by the black shadow...'" In the dormitory where only two people were left, Lu Yueling looked at what Xu Ming had just written, and her head was full of questions, "What is this?" "

A way of diffusion." Xu Ming continued to copy the note, and said, "Didn't you hear the story of 'Red Cheongsam' when you were a child? It's similar to that."

"...Of course I've heard of 'Red Cheongsam'. I mean you did these...oh." Lu Yueling said halfway, and suddenly reacted, "You want others not to go close to the artificial lake again?"

"Yes." Xu Ming nodded, "Now we only need to control the two sports students. It's relatively easy to deal with. But if someone violates the rules of the artificial lake during this period, it will inevitably lead to a new round of spread."

It will be even more troublesome to deal with it at that time.

Lu Yueling suddenly realized: "So you have to send curse letters to students."

"This is not a 'curse letter'." Xu Ming corrected seriously, "This is just a well-intentioned suggestion, but the way it is presented will make people feel a little psychologically stressed."

Lu Yueling: "..." No, it is a curse letter.

Xu Ming shrugged without responding, and turned around to continue copying her own small notes - the first batch had been written, and what she had to do next was to add a signature at the end of each note, "Strange Tales Demolition and Relocation Office."

This was also the second reason why she was doing this kind of superstitious activity: taking advantage of the crowded place, seizing the time, and doing a wave of publicity.

The more people know about the "Strange Tales Demolition and Relocation Office," the greater the probability that it will be promoted to the second-level basis. For Xu Ming, having one more means of dealing with it is never a bad thing.

- And judging from the situation in the next two days, Xu Ming's goal was at least half achieved.

Although the basis level of the "Strange Tales Demolition and Relocation Office" did not increase, the number of students staying by the artificial lake during the day was visibly reduced.

It must be said that the curse letter quietly circulated among students, combined with some of A Jiao's mysterious appearances, really worked well.

The two sports students have also been living steadily. It is said that in order to avoid the embarrassment of not taking a shower, they both applied to cancel the track and field training for the past two days, which saved Xu Ming and the others a lot of worry.

It's just that the reputation of the "Ghost Story Demolition Office" seems to have been affected... As the last name that appears in the curse letter, it is inevitably tied to the curse letter and has become an unspoken taboo among students.

After some teachers were keenly aware of these superstitious behaviors in private, they conducted a search responsibly, and regarded the note and the "Strange Stories Removal Office" as pranks by individual students. They criticized them in class meetings or in class, and tried to teach students earnestly that "superstition is wrong"...

Thanks to them, those who did not receive the note now also know about the Strange Stories Removal Office.

Xu Ming was even more indifferent to this. He even suggested to the teacher privately that he could mention this matter in the morning meeting broadcast and severely criticize this Strange Stories Removal Office... Unfortunately, the teacher did not agree.

Another good news is that in the past two days, Xu Ming and her friends have made considerable progress in finding time to pass on the points.

In order to confirm the time of the transmission, the first problem to be solved is how to deal with the monster in the toilet. Fortunately, Xu Ming already had some ideas in this regard -

she always remembered the case of escaping death mentioned by Da Guo, and on this basis, she made a simple mechanism.

The monster in the toilet is obviously of a very difficult level to deal with. Even if she can't see it, Xu Ming can feel the strong pressure emanating from it. According to the case provided by Da Guo, she accidentally bumped into other people while running away and heard other people's voices, so she escaped from the distorted space caused by the monster; Xu Ming used her own way to restore it as much as possible.

The small bell given by Lando, matched with the hair donated by Lu Yueling. The bell was worn on her hair, one end of the hair was fixed on Xu Ming, and the other end was handed to the person guarding outside the bathroom.

"Wait, I'll go in first, you watch from outside." On the day of the experiment, Xu Ming explained to the others carefully, "I'm not sure if you can still see the monster appearing in the bathroom if you are outside, so you just need to focus on my movements."

Once she saw her making an abnormal movement, she would immediately pull the hair from the outside. In this way, Xu Ming could feel the touch and sound from the outside at the same time, and maybe she could get rid of the monster's pursuit directly.

The reason for arranging a bell is to ensure that the source of the sound is not too far away. If the sound comes from outside the bathroom, Xu Ming suspects that it may not have any effect; Lu Yueling's hair is used because he is worried that ordinary objects are not strong enough.

Of course, there is actually a simpler version of this plan. For example, just find a kind female classmate who is not Guo Shuyi to come and help; or let Lu Yueling directly put her hair in from the outside to touch... But, how to say it.

After all, this is a world that looks relatively normal. Xu Ming thinks it is better to be relatively low-key.

Fortunately, judging from the results, her method is indeed useful.

...It is even a little too useful.

As everyone knows, on the day of the first experiment, Xu Ming walked into the bathroom alone. Just as she had thought about the plan in her mind, she heard a burst of ringing bells in her ears

. She turned her head in confusion and met the shocked eyes of the other three people.

...After asking, she found out that even if they were standing outside, they could see the monster appear in the toilet.

"…I'm sorry, I saw the monster crawling outside, and I was a little nervous. I called you several times, but you didn't respond, and your expression didn't seem to change…I thought you were controlled, so I urged classmate Lu to pull the rope."

Da Guo said apologetically, and then he thought about it and found it unbelievable: "So you were sober at the time? You were too calm!"

The people outside could see it clearly. The monster came out from the ceiling in front of Xu Ming, and its long claws were hanging upside down and sticking out from the shadow of the ceiling. If it moved a little further forward, it would be able to grab Xu Ming's face.

Xu Ming: "…" It was indeed a bit scary.

The main reason was that she was not sure, at such a close distance, if the monster crawled out completely, she would not be able to get out in time...

Of course, she was scared in her heart, but her face showed it. Xu Ming did not explain this matter too much, and only vaguely said "I just wanted to wait a little longer"; after saying that, he followed the others out, and then thought about it and asked curiously: "By the way, did you see what the monster looked like?"

In response to her, the other three shook their heads at the same time - Lu Yueling had never seen this kind of toilet monster before; as for the other two, even if they had encountered it before, they ran out before the other party completely refreshed, and they also had never seen the whole picture.

Hearing this, Xu Ming sighed with some regret, pondered for a while, and then said: "Then next time I go in to fish, you can take a good look. The image and characteristics are also information."

Big Guo and Little Guo nodded in confusion, and then saw Xu Ming walking downstairs quickly - it was almost time for class, and Xu Ming's class happened to have physical education class, so they needed to go directly to the playground.

The remaining three people continued to walk slowly towards the classroom. After walking a few steps, Big Guo suddenly understood: "Oh, I understand. So she didn't move at that time, just to see the monster clearly, right!"

As a result, they rang the bell in advance, which ruined it.

"Then there is no need to observe so closely." Little Guo recalled what he saw at that time, and still felt a tingling sensation on his scalp. Thinking about Xu Ming's position and expression at that time, the more he thought about it, the more incredible it seemed...

"Hey, classmate Lu." She couldn't help but turn to Lu Yueling, "So classmate Xu is indeed a human, right?"

"...Ah?" Lu Yueling was still taking care of her hair and didn't hear her words clearly - because of school regulations, her long hair must be tied up, which always made her feel a little uncomfortable.

Even when she looked at Little Guo, the ponytail hanging behind her head was twisting slightly uncomfortably.

"What did you say?" She looked at Xiao Guo and asked again.

Xiao Guo, after staring at her squirming hair for a while, finally looked away slowly.

"Nothing, just some unnecessary questions." She said in a trance, "It doesn't matter, just think I didn't ask anything."

Lu Yueling: ...

?

From another perspective, Xu Ming's successful experiment means that more than half of their problems have been solved -

the monster will only appear once a day, and Xu Ming only needs to catch it successfully once, which means that he has earned a day of safety. During this day, they can freely try the time of transmission.

Of course, there are also restrictions. At least according to what Da Guo and Xiao Guo said, "hard squatting" or "hard brushing" are not feasible.

- If you stay in the compartment all the time, no matter how long you stay, the transmission point will not appear. Not only that, the frequency of opening the compartment also seems to be particular. If you try it every hour for several hours in a row, the transfer point will also be delayed.

At the same time, if the time for the transfer point to refresh comes and there is someone in the compartment, no matter who is waiting, whether it is Guo Shuyi or not, the transfer point will be directly invalidated...

Xu Ming tried to summarize the relevant rules, and finally came to a conclusion that the transfer point is a shame.

You can't keep staring at it, and you can't pay attention to it frequently. Otherwise, it will disappear for you to see.

In addition, their current identity is "students" and they need to cooperate with the schedule activities given by the school, which makes the task of confirming the time point even more difficult.

Fortunately, they quickly found solutions to these two problems.

The simplest one is the compartment problem. Letting A Jiao go in early, lock the door and then come out is equivalent to taking up a seat. Secondly, how to go to the bathroom to check on time without violating the school schedule - it is not practical to skip classes all the time. The most typical example is Da Guo and Xiao Guo. On the day when Xu Ming just came, they missed classes together in order to find Xu Ming. As a result, they were found out the next day and forced to go to the teacher's office for an hour of education, which delayed the time.

It's the same old saying. In this relatively normal world, being too abnormal is not a good thing.

The solution that several people finally discussed was to take turns to ask for leave during class to visit. On the first day, we mainly tried the key time points of the movie listed by Lu Yueling. We tried most of them, including the opening and ending times of the movie, but unfortunately none of them were correct. So Xu Ming took the lead and held another small meeting that night. Everyone brainstormed based on the plot of the movie and soon came up with a new version of the plan.

Although Lu Yueling did not watch the entire movie, from her retelling and the rich experience of watching movies, everyone guessed that at the end of the movie, someone should survive.

When Lu Yueling finally left the theater, she clearly remembered that there was a close-up of the clock in the movie, and the time was 13:00.

Assuming that the plot is meaningful, the time when humans survived in the movie is likely to be the time when the transmission point opens. And this time must be after 13:00.

After eliminating all the time points that had been tried, they soon came up with a new timetable as the focus of their experiment.

And it turned out that they really guessed right.

The next afternoon, someone finally saw the refreshed transmission point in the bathroom.

It appeared at 3:00 p.m. and it was observed that it could last for half an hour. There happened to be a break during this period, which made it convenient for them to run away. The

one who tried this result was Da Guo. When she saw the transmission point come out, she immediately came back to inform everyone. When she returned to the bathroom, she did not leave directly, but kept observing in the cubicle, confirmed the complete time period, came out and wrote a reminder, and put it in the sanitary napkin mutual aid box.

The other three did not leave directly either. Xu Ming left because she was too late. She had arranged A Jiao too scattered and there was no means to notify them remotely. Half an hour was not enough to wait for everyone to come back one by one. Lu Yueling obviously wanted to accompany her. Xiao Guo was the only one left. She originally planned to leave, but when she arrived at the bathroom, she happened to see Da Guo taking notes next to her. She also learned that the other two had not left yet. After thinking about it, she came out again.

According to her, there was no special reason. She just felt a little exhausted to leave alone. Moreover, after this separation, she didn't know if she would meet again in the future. At least before leaving, she wanted to say goodbye and thank them properly. They

had another small meeting in the evening. When Xu Ming heard the reason, he felt a little numb.

"It's a good idea, don't think about it next time." She said to Xiao Guo seriously, "If passing on the point can guarantee that we will be together in the next world, then it would be best if we go together. Since it's not the case, there's no need to wait next time, whoever can go is the best."

Xiao Guo nodded a little embarrassedly and smiled awkwardly. Lu Yueling poked her arm with her hair, but her tone was cheerful:

"Don't worry, everything that needs to be solved has been solved anyway, why are you panicking.

"The time is set, let's go together tomorrow, maybe we will be together in the next round. "

...That's right..." Xu Ming glanced at her, opened his mouth to say something, then swallowed his words after thinking about it.

That's right. It will only be a dozen hours until 3 p.m. tomorrow. She has taken care of all aspects, and unless there is a sudden flood, the probability of an accident is indeed very low.

So she didn't say anything more, just reminded everyone to have a good rest at night and not to miss the time tomorrow; however, early the next morning, she realized what it meant that the probability of a car accident was very low, but not impossible.

There really wasn't a flood in this world.

But it was raining heavily.

*

Strictly speaking, the rain didn't fall in the morning.

In the morning, there were only some signs. The air was stuffy, making people feel sticky for no reason; at about two o'clock in the afternoon, the signs were very obvious - the whole world seemed to be covered by a yellow filter,

and thunder could be heard faintly in the sky. Xu Ming was still feeling a little lucky at the time, and ran to ask Lu Yueling if it had rained heavily in the movie she watched. When she heard that it hadn't, she was relieved to her self-deception; but within ten minutes, there was a thunderclap, and heavy rain came down, so heavy that it seemed as if someone was pouring water from the clouds.

"..." Xu Ming's face turned green almost instantly.

"Damn." Lu Yueling looked at the rain curtain outside that blocked out the sun and was also stunned, "Such a heavy rain..."

"It's over." Xu Ming couldn't help but hold his forehead and murmured, his face was rarely ugly, "I really can't play anymore this time."

She now feels more and more that the one in the artificial lake is the domain master.

Otherwise, this kind of coincidence can't be explained without the protagonist's halo!

"Don't, don't give up!" Seeing her like this, Lu Yueling hurriedly said, "Anyway, it's only more than half an hour, as long as you can get through it... Oh, by the way, why don't you try to submit a petition? Hurry up and write a piece of paper praying for drought in the name of the Ghost Story Demolition Office, and then burn it..."

Xu Ming: "..."

Friend, I was just pretending to be superstitious before, but you are really superstitious!

"No, it's too late to do it, and I haven't learned it." Despite this, Xu Ming still thought about the feasibility of this plan for two seconds. After shaking his head decisively, he said, "But what you said makes sense. Just think of a way to survive this half hour."

Lu Yueling: "Yeah."

"By the way, do you have experience in kidnapping?" Xu Ming followed closely.

Lu Yueling: "Yeah... Yeah?"

So, a few minutes later.

The four Guo Shuyi in the school had a class together.

Big Guo and Little Guo hid near the toilet first, waiting for the transmission point to open, and then left on time; Xu Ming began to run around the school, collecting the released A Jiao one by one, and then went to various high-risk locations to check; Lu Yueling went to the class where the two sports students were alone, but saw a lot of people packing up their things, and the seats for the two were empty.

After asking, I found out that their class had to go to the computer room in the comprehensive building for this information class; one of the two sports students clearly asked for leave and returned to the dormitory, and no one knew the other one. No one knew whether he also returned to the dormitory or went to the comprehensive building in advance.

The comprehensive building is behind the teaching building, and the dormitory building is in front of the teaching building, both sides are a distance away. Lu Yueling hesitated for a moment, and quickly recalled what Xu Ming had said before -

only one of the two people should be tied up.

At this time, Xu Ming could not be contacted, so Lu Yueling could only make her own decision. After struggling for two seconds, she turned around and ran towards the dormitory building. The moment she rushed into the dormitory building, her body suddenly disintegrated and turned into a group of floating black hair, which quickly swam along the ground and soon arrived in front of 106 -

before she entered, she heard a commotion coming from inside.

The dormitory manager rushed out in a panic, took out his cell phone and called outside with shaking hands. He spoke in a vague dialect, and Lu Yueling could only understand the three words "dead"; she raised her body and looked into the room, and saw a boy lying on the ground, his face was blue and purple, and he was soaked in water. He looked like he had no life.

... It was too late.

Lu Yueling's heart skipped a beat, and she turned around and left without hesitation, like a black fish. In just a few minutes, she swam back into the comprehensive building, then suddenly raised her body, turned into a girl again, and ran wildly along the stairs. Finally, she found the computer room on the fifth floor.

She pushed open the door suddenly, and the teachers and students inside all raised their heads. Lu Yueling didn't care. She quickly scanned the room. When she saw Zhang Dewei sitting in the room, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Zhang Dewei!" she said immediately, "The teacher asked me to find you!"

After a pause, she added, "It's about... your roommate."

"?" Zhang Dewei obviously didn't know that his roommate had been in trouble. Hearing this, he showed obvious confusion on his face. Then he seemed to think of something and his face turned pale.

He hurriedly looked at the teacher in the classroom. After getting permission, he immediately grabbed his things and ran out. After catching up with Lu Yueling, he kept urging her.

"Hurry up, hurry up, what happened? Oh, I told you not to leave him alone... Ugh!"

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly felt a pain in his side neck.

Then he rolled his eyes and fell down.

Behind him, Lu Yueling was swallowing her saliva and retracting her hand, looking at her palm in surprise.

"It turns out that what is shown on TV is real, people can really be knocked out like this..." She murmured, then looked around nervously, and seeing that there was no one around, she hurriedly carried the unconscious Zhang Dewei on her back and ran downstairs with him.

There is a corridor between the comprehensive building and the teaching building, so they can go directly there without getting wet in the rain. According to Xu Ming, she only needs to ensure that one of the two is alive, and bring him within their field of vision, and make sure that he will not die before they leave...

But it is so troublesome to carry him like this.

Pulling the tall boy on her back up, Lu Yueling couldn't help but frowning. Thinking of the fact that this guy hasn't showered in the past two days, her face is even uglier.

Should I take him away in a different form? It will be faster. But I'm afraid of being seen...

Lu Yueling thought to herself, and after a lot of effort, she finally moved people from the fifth floor to the first floor. She let out a long breath and was about to move forward, her sight accidentally swept across the large fish tank standing in the middle, and the whole person was stunned.

In the fish tank, the water was sparkling, and the small fish were swimming leisurely. However, the water that was very clear just now has become turbid now.

There are large shadows floating above the fish tank, and small fish keep pecking at it. Lu Yueling pursed her lips, tried to take two steps forward, and finally saw the shadow more clearly -

it was a corpse.

The body was swollen and somewhat rotten, and the face was difficult to distinguish. It was obvious that he had been dead for some time.

The body was still wearing clothes, but not school uniforms, but vests and shorts, typical athlete attire...

Most importantly, even though the face of the body had rotted and swollen, Lu Yueling could still recognize it -

it was Zhang Dewei's face.

But if that was the case... then who was the person she was carrying on her back now?

Almost at the moment of realizing this, Lu Yueling felt the arm on her shoulder tighten suddenly, and the ornament on her wrist swayed slightly, making a slight sound.

She slowly raised her eyes, and through the reflection of the fish tank, she finally saw the thing lying on her back -

soft, twisted, and wet. The only thing she could see clearly was the black hair and the two thin arms wrapped around her neck.