Chapter 50 - Three Years Ago

After Jiang Xinhong was called out by them once, he refused to talk to them again. He just sat in the classroom and refused to move no matter what. The four of them were quite helpless. In order not to attract the attention of other NPCs, they decided to come back tomorrow and find an opportunity to have a good talk with Jiang Xinhong then. It seemed that the most critical clue was on him.

"Let's call it a day today and go back to sleep early. I'm tired too," Ruan Nan Zhu yawned and said. 

"Sure." Ever since he entered the door, Li Dongyuan rarely objected to Ruan Nan Zhu's suggestions. He did whatever Ruan Nan Zhu said, and it could be said that he was very thoughtful.

The four of them randomly ate something and then went back to the dormitory. When they arrived at the door of the dormitory, they saw the new girl who lost her teammate standing anxiously at the door, pacing around in circles.

"What's the matter?" Lin Qiu Shi asked her.

The girl stammered and hesitated before answering, "That...I have a teammate...who hasn't come back yet."

"Where did you guys go?" Ruan Nan Zhu asked. 

"The old school building," the girl said. "I went to the bathroom for a bit, and then I found out he was gone when I came back. I looked all over the building but didn't see him anywhere. I was so scared that I came back first."

"He disappeared in the old school building?" Li Dongyuan glanced back at the completely dark sky outside. "It's useless to panic now. It's late and we definitely can't go back to look for people now. I advise you to rest well tonight and we'll go with you tomorrow to take a look."

Although the girl still looked very worried, she nodded obediently. It seemed that she didn't want to go back to the creepy old school building at this time of night either.

So the group returned to their room to rest. 

With more experience inside the doors, everyone clearly knew what a disappearance meant. In this world full of deadly traps, people who suddenly disappeared rarely survived. It seemed that the girl's missing teammate probably didn't stand much chance.

Lying in bed, they analyzed the information obtained today. 

Ruan Nan Zhu then raised another very critical clue: "Aren't they about to take the college entrance examination?"

"Right, so what?" Lin Qiu Shi asked.

Ruan Nan Zhu: "The weather now is definitely not winter. The temperature is moderate, even a bit hot, so the final exam should not be the winter exam." 

Lin Qiu Shi instantly understood Ruan Nan Zhu's implication: "You mean they are about to take the college entrance exam?"

"Yes," Ruan Nan Zhu said. "I think this is a critical time point. Once the college entrance examination is over, he will no longer be a student at this school."

Xia Rui Bei also realized: "So the final exam at the end of the term is actually the college entrance examination. Is this our deadline? What if...what if we haven't found the key by then?"

Ruan Nan Zhu smiled and said, "If we can't find it, there are two possibilities. One is that time resets and we have to repeat the last few days again. The other is that the ghosts will go on a killing spree, leaving only one survivor, and the door will open automatically."——No matter which situation, it would be extremely terrible. 

Hearing this, Xia Rui Bei shrank her neck and didn't say anything. 

"Mengmeng, how many doors have you actually been through?" Li Dongyuan suddenly asked. "You seem to be very experienced!" 

"Mr. Li, has no one told you not to ask about other people's hole cards?" Ruan Nan Zhu was not polite to Li Dongyuan at all. "Besides, no matter how capable I am, I can't be more capable than the leader of White Deer, right?"

Li Dongyuan raised his eyebrows: "That's not necessarily true." 

After chatting about these things, they started to rest.

Staring at the bunk bed above him, Lin Qiu Shi fell asleep groggily. 

It was a dreamless night, a peaceful one. Lin Qiu Shi welcomed the morning sun calmly the next day. 

At seven o'clock in the morning, the four of them got up on time. After washing up, they were going to go to the old school building with the girl who lost her teammate yesterday to see what was going on.

"My name is Luo Xiaoyu," the new girl introduced herself in a low voice. She obviously didn't sleep all night. There were dark circles under her eyes, and her expression was full of confusion. "Do you mean he's already dead...?"

"Most likely," Li Dongyuan said. "If he was still alive, it would be impossible for him to sleep one night in the old school building." 

That made sense. Luo Xiaoyu hugged her arms with a chill all over her body.

When they arrived at the old teaching building, they saw that the iron gate was open instead of locked. Luo Xiaoyu said they had opened it when they first came. She was afraid that the person would be locked inside when she left yesterday, so she used a stone to prop the gate open. As it turned out, nothing had changed from yesterday. This confirmed that the person did not actually come out of the school building. 

"Which floor did you lose contact on?" Ruan Nan Zhu asked. 

"The fourth floor," Luo Xiaoyu remembered very clearly. "It was a classroom at the end of the fourth floor, I think it was Class 2 of the second grade..."

Hearing the words "Class 2", Lin Qiu Shi and Ruan Nan Zhu made eye contact very tacitly. 

"Let's go up and take a look first," Li Dongyuan said.

The five of them walked towards the fourth floor. As they climbed up, Lin Qiu Shi kept listening for sounds. He was afraid of hearing the thumping sound on the floor again. That would mean Zo-chan was nearby. Fortunately, they didn't hear anything like that all the way up to the fourth floor.

At the end of the hallway was a classroom with a sign that read "Class 2" in large characters. Looking through the classroom window, they could see the scene inside clearly. 

The classroom was not big. With desks and chairs neatly arranged inside the otherwise empty classroom, there was no sign of Luo Xiaoyu's missing teammate. 

"Not here," Li Dongyuan said. "Maybe he went somewhere else. How exactly did you get separated?"

Luo Xiaoyu tremblingly answered, "I went to a bathroom around here at that time. When I came back, I found he was gone. I didn't see him later either..."

"Shall we go check other floors?" Lin Qiu Shi suggested. 

"Okay," Ruan Nan Zhu nodded. 

Just as they were about to head for the stairs, a loud bang suddenly came from behind them, as if something had fallen from the air and hit the ground heavily. 

Everyone was startled by the sound. They followed the sound and soon discovered its source——it was Class 2, where there was nothing just now. 

At this moment, in the classroom that was supposed to only contain desks and chairs, there was a mangled corpse that seemed to have fallen from the ceiling, smashing the neatly arranged desks and chairs below into a mess. 

Seeing this scene, Luo Xiaoyu screamed involuntarily, while Xia Rui Bei did a little better by just covering her mouth with her hand and staggering back a few steps without making a sound.

"Let's go in and take a look," Ruan Nan Zhu said, taking out a hairpin and starting to pick the lock. 

Lin Qiu Shi was already used to his operation and just stood by watching quietly. Xia Rui Bei was a little curious but also afraid, so she just tiptoed and supported her head with her hands to watch from afar, looking rather cute in that posture. 

After a while, with a click, the not very complicated lock in the teaching building gave way. Ruan Nan Zhu was the first to push the door open to see the mess inside. 

Following behind him, Lin Qiu Shi soon discovered something wrong when he entered the classroom: "These things..."

Ruan Nan Zhu: "Interesting." 

Among the corpse and debris, there were also piles of books scattered around. From a distance, these books should be textbooks for students. At this time, these textbooks were scattered messily around the corpse, looking very strange. 

Li Dongyuan was bold enough to walk right next to the corpse and picked up one of them: "Textbooks." 

Lin Qiu Shi and Ruan Nan Zhu also walked over to see what was in Li Dongyuan's hand. 

They were indeed textbooks, all kinds of them, and these books were scribbled all over in red marker, with almost every page full of vicious curses like "die", "go die" and the like. 

Ruan Nan Zhu randomly grabbed another one. It was similar to the one in his hand, anyway just full of cursing words everywhere. After thinking for a moment, Ruan Nan Zhu closed the book and flipped it open to the first page again. Standing next to him, Lin Qiu Shi clearly saw three delicate words written on the first page of the book: Lu Zuo Zi——this was Lu Zuo Zi's book!! 

And the corpse in the center of the classroom was missing a leg. It seemed that this was indeed done by Lu Zuo Zi, only they didn't know what method Lu Zuo Zi had used this time to make the person read that one unreadable lyric. 

...

Nie Chenghe came to the old school building together with Luo Xiaoyu. 

When Luo Xiaoyu went to the bathroom, he stood quietly at the classroom door waiting. The whole teaching building was eerily quiet. Even talking had an echo in the empty corridors. 

Looking at the endless corridor, Nie Chenghe somehow felt a little panicky for no reason. He took out his phone, intending to play a couple of mobile games to ease the tension, but his expression suddenly froze——he heard a strange sound coming from the classroom, like a noisy whisper, which made his hair stand on ends. 

How could there be whispers when no one was in this school? However, the whispers grew louder and louder, eventually turning into a noisy clamor. 

Nie Chenghe slowly moved his steps to the window and finally saw the source of the sound through the glass——it was the classroom right in front of him. 

He saw that the originally empty classroom was now filled with students who were either sitting or standing, with excited expressions, discussing something. 

This scene was truly horrifying. Nie Chenghe involuntarily wanted to retreat, but just as he was about to leave quietly, the students in the classroom suddenly started singing a song in unison. The tune was weird: "Zozi has been calling herself Zo since she was little, how funny. She likes bananas a lot but can only eat half each time, how pitiful. Zo has gone far away and must have forgotten me, how lonely..."

Nie Chenghe had never heard such a song before. As the singing continued, he felt colder and colder, as if he was frozen stiff in the cold winter. He wanted to move his body but felt as if his body was frozen. 

"Zozi has been calling herself Zo since she was little, how funny. She likes bananas a lot but can only eat half each time, how pitiful. Zo has gone far away and must have forgotten me, how lonely..." ...The song kept repeating while the people in the classroom noticed Nie Chenghe's existence outside. 

They turned their heads and looked at Nie Chenghe. Facing those faces, Nie Chenghe only then realized that these people's eyes had no pupils, only two black holes, which looked ghastly with their pale complexions, clearly not belonging to the living.

Nie Chenghe was so frightened that he staggered back a few steps. He opened his mouth, and heard them sing the last line of the lyrics: "I have no legs, can I have yours, I have no legs, can I have yours..." 

Over and over again, this sentence seemed to have become a magical spell. Nie Chenghe's expression gradually became blank. His lips moved slightly as he whispered, "I have no legs, can I have yours?" 

The classroom instantly quieted down after he uttered this sentence. 

Those ghastly pale faces all grinned hideously. 

Only then did Nie Chenghe realize what he had done. He immediately understood and turned to flee, but he heard thumping sounds behind him. Panicking, he looked back and saw a figure standing in the shadow of the corridor, slowly approaching him. The singing still continued: "I have no legs, can I have yours..."

Nie Chenghe felt a sharp pain in his legs before his vision went completely dark. 

...

After leaving the old school building, Lin Qiu Shi and the others were going to find Jiang Xinhong again to chat. 

However, given Jiang Xinhong's sensitive attitude yesterday, Ruan Nan Zhu suggested ambushing him at the school gate and taking him to a place that wouldn't attract other people's attention to interrogate him carefully. 

As usual, Li Dongyuan actively responded to Ruan Nan Zhu's call and said he was strong enough to bring Jiang Xinhong over by himself. 

In Lin Qiu Shi's mind, fortunately this was not reality, otherwise the four of them sneaking around would have long been taken away by security guards.

It was six o'clock in the afternoon, and students were leaving school one after another. 

Under normal circumstances, high school seniors would stay at school for evening self-study, but probably because of the events that had occurred in this school, all students would leave before seven o'clock, and the originally bustling campus would become deader than a graveyard afterwards.

The four of them kept staring at the school gate, but didn't see Jiang Xinhong for a long time. 

Finally, Xia Rui Bei couldn't stand it anymore. She doubted: "Did we lose sight of him? How come we haven't seen Jiang Xinhong at all?"

"It's impossible to lose sight of him," Ruan Nan Zhu was very confident in his vision. "He definitely hasn't come by."

"Then shall we go to the teaching building and take a look?" Li Dongyuan suggested. 

"Okay," Ruan Nan Zhu said. "You two stay here and keep watch. Yu Linlin, come with me." 

Just as Lin Qiu Shi was about to agree, Li Dongyuan said with a smile that was not quite a smile: "Mengmeng, this is not appropriate." 

Ruan Nan Zhu raised his eyebrows: "What's not appropriate?"

Li Dongyuan said, "What if we meet Jiang Xinhong at the door and get some information from him that we don't tell you?" 

Ruan Nan Zhu glanced at Li Dongyuan. Obviously, although Li Dongyuan was just giving an example, he was implying that he was worried there might be some concealment between Lin Qiu Shi and Ruan Nan Zhu. After all, they belonged to two different organizations, so it made sense to have reservations. 

"Why don't you stay here with Xia Rui Bei to keep watch, and I'll go over there to take a look with Yu Linlin," Li Dongyuan said. "That way we can both feel reassured."

After thinking for a moment, Ruan Nan Zhu actually agreed to Li Dongyuan's proposal: "That works too." He looked at Lin Qiu Shi again, "Come back soon."

Lin Qiu Shi nodded. 

So Lin Qiu Shi and Li Dongyuan started walking towards the teaching building, wanting to see where Jiang Xinhong was. On the way, Li Dongyuan kept asking about Zhu Meng, the relationship between Yu Linlin and Zhu Meng, Zhu Meng's status within Black Obsidian, while Lin Qiu Shi firmly rejected his probing by using standard answers like "I don't know", "I'm not clear" and "I don't understand". 

Being rejected like this, Li Dongyuan didn't get angry at all. He smiled at Lin Qiu Shi and said, "Are all the people from Black Obsidian this interesting?"

Lin Qiu Shi: "Just ordinarily interesting." 

When the two arrived under the teaching building, they saw that almost all the people inside had left. Only a few classrooms still had the lights on, one of which was Class 3 of Grade 3. 

"Let's go, go upstairs and take a look," Li Dongyuan said. 

Lin Qiu Shi went upstairs with him. When they walked near Class 3 on that floor, they heard a heated quarrel coming from inside the classroom. After listening carefully, one of the voices turned out to be Jiang Xinhong, the person they were looking for. It seemed that he was arguing with someone about something. 

"Did you know something from the beginning—", this was an unfamiliar voice, but it sounded quite young, probably a student.

"I don't know anything!! I don't know anything at all. Don't come to me again. When the college entrance examination is over, everything will be over!!" Jiang Xinhong also sounded very emotional. 

"How could it possibly be over! What if she follows you to university too! And things like this, there is no 'over'!" The voice grew louder and louder, even starting to pound the table hard. "Are you really completely unaware?"

"I really don't know anything!" Jiang Xinhong said. "I would never have watched them die so tragically if I knew!" 

"But why did you survive -" that person said, "You're the only one, the only one still alive and well!"

Jiang Xinhong was provoked to anger by these words. He angrily cursed, "What the f**k do you mean, why am I the only one alive and well? Aren't you alive too?!"

"If it weren't for what you told me back then, I wouldn't have survived either. Now they're all dead and I'm still alive, what's the point? I'm telling you Jiang Xinhong, if I find out this is really related to you somehow..." That voice was extremely cold, sending chills down people's spines. "I will definitely not let you off."

Jiang Xinhong scolded: "Get lost! Ungrateful bastard!" 

That person gave a cold laugh and said, "No need for you to say it, I'll leave by myself. You...be careful yourself." After saying that, he rushed out of the classroom without noticing Lin Qiu Shi and Li Dongyuan hiding around the corner. He hurriedly went downstairs.

Jiang Xinhong burst out a few more curses in the classroom before finally calming down his anger. Carrying his schoolbag, he came out of the classroom. 

But when he came out, seeing Lin Qiu Shi and Li Dongyuan standing outside, his face instantly became even uglier: "What exactly do you want to do? I said I don't know anything!"

Li Dongyuan smiled, "We haven't asked you anything yet, classmate Jiang."

Jiang Xinhong said, "I don't know anything—" He repeated it again and turned to leave, but was grabbed by Li Dongyuan.

"What are you doing!" Jiang Xinhong was a little angry now. 

However, the smile on Li Dongyuan's face faded. He said, "Kid, don't refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit."

Jiang Xinhong said, "You..."

Li Dongyuan interrupted his words: "People often die in this school, right?" 

Jiang Xinhong stared with rounded eyes.

Li Dongyuan said, "If you suddenly disappear, do you think they will feel that you were killed by someone or killed by a ghost?"

Jiang Xinhong didn't speak anymore. Obviously Li Dongyuan's words had grasped his vital point. There had been countless accidents in this school, and these accidents had no results. It could be said that people in the school were well aware and knew that these were unspeakable things. 

Moreover, he also had a special identity - he was a student from the missing Class 2. Even if he disappeared, those people would probably think of this incident as supernatural.

"Okay, just ask what you want to know quickly," Jiang Xinhong weighed the difference in physique between himself and Li Dongyuan before giving up struggling. "I don't know much either!"

Only then did Li Dongyuan let go of his hand and resumed his smiling appearance. Lin Qiu Shi secretly thought that Li Dongyuan was indeed black-hearted. He looked so gentle when he smiled, but was very skilled at threatening people when necessary.

"Don't look at me like that, Linlin." As if knowing what Lin Qiu Shi was thinking, Li Dongyuan didn't forget to explain, "I'm not usually like this."

Lin Qiu Shi: "Do you usually get physical directly?"

Li Dongyuan: "Haha, you're so funny." 

Lin Qiu Shi: "..." This person didn't even deny it.

Jiang Xinhong crossed his arms defensively, apparently very resistant to both Li Dongyuan and Lin Qiu Shi. He said, "Hurry up and ask, I still have to go home!"

"You were originally from Class 2, right? The one just now was your classmate?" Li Dongyuan asked.

"Yes," Jiang Xinhong said. "He's also from Class 2."

"How many people are left in your Class 2 now?" Li Dongyuan asked. 

Jiang Xinhong said, "Just the two of us."

Li Dongyuan: "So you know what Lu Zuo Zi has done in the school, right?"

When this name was mentioned, undisguisable fear appeared in Jiang Xinhong's eyes. His whole body even shook a little. He gritted his teeth and nodded.

"Tell us about what happened between you and Lu Zuo Zi at that time," Li Dongyuan said. "Also, what does that sentence yesterday mean by her being someone who should not exist?"

Jiang Xinhong raised his hand to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead. He said, "There's not much to say. When she first came to our class, she was bullied by some people who often bullied Lu Zuo Zi..."

"Like writing words such as 'die' in her books?" Li Dongyuan said. 

"How do you know?" Jiang Xinhong looked at Li Dongyuan in horror.

"We know a lot more," Li Dongyuan smiled. "So when you speak, you'd better think it through. If we find out that what you said is different from what we know... don't blame us for being impolite."

Jiang Xinhong swallowed hard. 

"You should know, sometimes people can be more terrifying than ghosts," Li Dongyuan said. "If I let the person next to me take action, I think you might rather die sooner." 

Lin Qiu Shi thought, Li Dongyuan, you were definitely influenced by Ruan Nan Zhu, unnecessarily hyping me up for no reason.

"Right, Linlin?" Li Dongyuan even turned his head expectantly to see Lin Qiu Shi's reaction.

Lin Qiu Shi: "...Right."

Li Dongyuan winked playfully at him, while Lin Qiu Shi thought, to a certain extent, Li Dongyuan and Ruan Nan Zhu were indeed very suitable for each other.

The most miserable one was Jiang Xinhong who actually believed Li Dongyuan's words. He looked at Lin Qiu Shi in horror and even took a step back subconsciously. He said, "I really don't know much..."