Countdown

Because of the sudden assault, the three sat through the night like this inside the room.

The next day, Lin Qiushi only exited the room after seeing sunlight spill into the hallway. The moment he stepped out he smelled a thick, gamey scent. It was a scent he was familiar with—the scent of blood.

"Something happened?" Gu Longming had also smelled the blood and began to look wary. "Where's it coming from?"

Lin Qiushi sniffed, and determined the direction of the source. He said, "it seems to be downstairs. Come on, let's go take a look."

They turned for the stairs and saw at the bottom two people standing before the room furthest on the right. The door was wide open, and that piercing gamey stink was coming from that precise room.

Gu Longming, walking in front, asked, "what happened?"

"People are dead, right?" Zuo Sisi's tone was somewhat uncaring; she clearly had a high tolerance for the matter of death already. "Two of them. Dunno how they triggered a death condition."

Gu Longming sidled up to the window and took a peek in. Face going pale, he gestured with a hand.

"Ugh…It's pretty bad."

Lin Qiushi stepped up as well and approached the window. "Let me take a look too."

Through the gap in the curtains, he could see into the room. Everything inside was covered in blood, and the two dead people were stood right in the center. Something had switched their heads out for two plaster busts, and the white plaster was caked in congealed blood as well. It was a terrifying sight to behold.

"Where are their heads?" Gu Longming asked. "Have you found their heads?"

"No." Zuo Sisi crossed her arms. "We've only just discovered them too."

"No one knows who these two are?" Lin Qiushi asked.

Zuo Sisi shook her head. "I don't know. If you guys want to find out you'll probably have to wait a while. Some people aren't even awake yet…Look all you want, I'm going to breakfast."

Along with her companion, she turned and left, their silhouettes completely uncaring of the two corpses.

Gu Longming quietly asked Lin Qiushi, "do we go in for a look?"

This place really didn't give off any good feelings at all.

"Let's." Lin Qiushi thought that there might be some clues on these two bodies, though if they didn't have to, he certainly didn't want to go in either.

As the two spoke, Ai Wenrui stood behind them trembling with vigor. He looked practically electrocuted. When he heard Gu Longming mention going in, he honestly almost cried, saying, "I'm not going in, I'm not going in—"

"Enough already, just wait out here. No one's asking you to go in." Gu Longming never once thought Ai Wenrui had the guts to enter. As he spoke, he took the first step in.

It looked like some other people had already came in for a look-around—Gu Longming spotted scattered footprints along the edges of the room.

Lin Qiushi approached the two corpses and discovered their bodies oddly transformed. Though they were dead, their bodies had not softened. In fact, they'd hardened like cement, posing in a state of rigidity.

Their heads had been physically ripped off—the muscles on their neck were even visibly torn. Gu Longming searched around the room but could not find their heads.

"No skulls."

Lin Qiushi nodded his understanding. He bent down before the two dead bodies for a closer inspection, but all of a sudden spotted something. With a cautious hand, he reached into one corpse's pocket and patted around. Moments later, he pulled out a tiny wooden doll from the pocket…

Lin Qiushi had seen this wood doll just yesterday. It was the type Ai Wenrui's two friends were holding. This doll though was different from the ones Lin Qiushi saw the day before—the head on this doll was gone.

This doll was also stained with some blood. Lin Qiushi got out a tissue and wrapped the doll up inside. Then he discovered another identical doll on the other dead body.

Beside the wooden dolls, there didn't seem to be any other clues inside the room.

Lin Qiushi left the room and showed Ai Wenrui the dolls in his hands. He said, "you know what these things are, right? Are they your friends'?"

"Where did you find those?" Upon seeing these dolls, Ai Wenrui's eyes went wide. "Let me see them?"

Lin Qiushi handed the dolls over.

After inspecting them, Ai Wenrui's expression became scared.

"Isn't, isn't this Xiao Su's figurine?"

Lin Qiushi frowned. "What do you mean? Are you saying the dolls each of you have are different?"

"Yeah," Ai Wenrui said. "They're different. This is Xiao Su's doll. I remember because her doll doesn't have a head—"

Lin Qiushi, "where's your doll?"

"I tossed it," Ai Wenrui said. "When the things started happening we were all scared, so I found a random place and threw the doll away…This, this is…"

Gu Longming said, "could this doll have something to do with the ways they died?"

Lin Qiushi had thought of this too, and so both of them looked over at Ai Wenrui.

Listening in on their conversation, Ai Wenrui clearly remembered something as his face was painted instantly over with terror. "No, no way right…But Xiao He's doll, it's completely fine isn't it? Then why is he dead too?"

"Who told you his doll is fine?" Lin Qiushi asked.

"I saw it. You guys saw it too right—the ones they were holding—" Ai Wenrui said.

"That might not be Xiao He's doll," Lin Qiushi said. "Wasn't another friend of yours present then? He's still alive. Could that doll be his?"

At Lin Qiushi's reminder, Ai Wenrui seemed to understand. His complexion got worse and worse until he seemed to have lost all blood, going horridly white. He chewed on his lips, and like he'd lost all his energy, spoke from between tightly pressed teeth: "I don't know. When I got there they'd already had the dolls out."

So he couldn't be sure either, whether that doll belonged to the bisected Xiao He or to the friend who had rushed out of the room first.

"Let's go look for information on Zhu Ruyuan," Lin Qiushi said. "There's also your figurine. Where did you throw it?"

Ai Wenrui's face was ashy as he shook his head. "How would I know, I tossed it in the trash—"

Who knew what kind of state it was in?

Gu Longming said, "alright, stop thinking about it. If it's gone it's gone."

For a long while Ai Wenrui didn't make a sound. His soul seemed to have completely left his body.

Lin Qiushi felt inexplicably tender toward this kid, and gave his fuzzy little head a pat. "Come on, if we finish everything quickly then there's nothing to worry about."

Ai Wenrui didn't respond.

Zhu Ruyuan was a five-year-old incident. Most students in the school had little reaction to the name, but a majority of teachers who had been around for the long-term knew about her. At the mention of her name, even, they reacted quite strongly.

Lin Qiushi went and asked a lot of people. One teacher finally provided them with a key piece of intel: "If you really want to know, why don't you ask the head teacher from back then?"

"Oh? He's still at the school?" Lin Qiushi asked.

"Yeah," the teacher said. "But he's not teaching anymore. He's managing the books over at the library."

Lin Qiushi immediately remembered the librarian. After thanking the teacher, the three began heading for the library.

"I need to go to the bathroom first." Ever since Ai Wenrui learned about that wooden doll, he'd looked awful. Lin Qiushi was a big worried, and said, "go ahead. It'll be fine."

"Mh." Ai Wenrui nodded.

After he went in, Lin Qiushi glanced at Gu Longming.

"What do you think about him?"

"What do I think? What do you mean what do I think?" After staring for a moment, Gu Longming hurriedly added, "I don't like guys—"

Lin Qiushi, "…" He worked hard to contain himself, so that his expression wouldn't twist up.

"That's not what I'm asking!"

"Then what do you mean? Oh…You mean whether or not Ai Wenrui is trustworthy?" Gu Longming said. "I think he's definitely keeping something from us, but it's probably not something especially important."

"Mh." Lin Qiushi fell into silence, contemplating some matter.

Ai Wenrui went fast and returned fast; it didn't take long for the sound of flushing to come from inside. When he came back out, he told Gu Longming weakly, "I think I have diarrhea. I really don't feel well."

"You don't feel well? Want me to carry you?" Ai Wenrui was skinny as all hell, so Gu Longming had no problem at all carrying him. It was like hauling a sack of rice.

Lin Qiushi had thought Ai Wenrui would turn the offer down, but he nodded instead and agreed.

Gu Longming bent down and hoisted Ai Wenrui up on his back, saying, "let's go let's go, time's a-wasting!"

Lin Qiushi made a sound of agreement. The three walked ahead, and were just about to enter the elevator when from behind them, there came a terrified scream. The moment they heard this scream, Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming both went stiff, because that scream should have came from Ai Wenrui, who was currently on Gu Longming's back.

"You—What are you carrying—" Lin Qiushi looked back and saw Ai Wenrui standing in front of the bathroom, staring at them in utter horror.

Gu Longming also screeched, throwing the thing on his back straight down onto the ground.

Lin Qiushi heard the sound of something hard shattering. Looking down, he saw that Gu Longming had been carrying a plastic statue. The statue had fallen and broken into pieces on the floor.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck—" Gu Longming kept swearing as he swatted endlessly at his back. "Fucking hell what is that thing!"

Lin Qiushi looked at the statue and slowly bent down. From its pieces he dug out a few shards of debris, and frowned.

"This…"

He picked the shards and discovered that, made of wood, they seemed to belong to the same figurine.

Ai Wenrui's expression had gone lifeless. He hovered forward a few steps, saw what was in Lin Qiushi's hand, and stammered, "this, this is my doll."

Lin Qiushi, "…"

Ai Wenrui said, "this is my doll—"

His wooden doll had been smashed into pieces, the limbs becoming shards that were so broken up they couldn't be put back together. If their supposition was right, then he too would die like this, leaving the world in a state of abject misery.

Lin Qiushi had thought that upon seeing the doll, Ai Wenrui would cry. But instead, he pulled up a smile that looked near tears.

"I, am I, also about to die?"

To tell the truth, having been entering doors for so long, Lin Qiushi rarely saw such a lively NPC. He even gave Lin Qiushi the illusion of being a person from the outside. Most NPCs inside the doors were scary or creepy, and the only one who'd left an impression on Lin Qiushi, Xu Jin, had been an NPC disguised as an outsider.

"Don't worry, nothing's gonna happen to you," Gu Longming comforted. "Let's head to the library and find Zhu Ruyuan ASAP. Maybe we can end this thing soon."

Ai Wenrui didn't speak, just nodded woodenly.

They didn't dare dawdle this time. The three of them sprinted for the library.

The librarian they'd met earlier was currently seated at the front desk reading a book. He heard their footsteps, but didn't look up once. He only coolly said, "the file is upstairs. No one's perusing it right now."

"Hello," Lin Qiushi said. "You were the head teacher of Zhu Ruyuan's class, correct?"

Hearing Zhu Ruyuan's name, the librarian's motions halted. His gaze grew dimmer.

"Where did you hear that name?"

Lin Qiushi said, "she was your student, right?"

The librarian: "Mh."

"Will you tell me about her?" Lin Qiushi pointed at the first floor lobby and the myriad of sculptures inside. "And those statues."

"She was my student, I was her teacher. That's it," he said. "What do you want to know?"

"How did she die?" Lin Qiushi said. "Or rather, did her death have anything to do with these statues?"

The librarian set down the book in his hands and spoke evenly: "She committed suicide. As for what these statues have to do with her, have you seen Zhu Ruyuan's sculpting project before?"

Lin Qiushi thought they probably hadn't, but then he recalled that sculpture of a woman hidden away in the activity room. He asked, "of a woman?"

Zhu Ruyuan's head teacher said, "yes. It's a woman modeled after herself. It's beautiful, but it's only got beauty. It lacked something important." He stood and pointed at the sculptures that were all posed differently, but all with very similar appearances in the lobby. "These sculptures, however, aren't missing that thing. They're all perfect pieces."

Lin Qiushi, "…"

Gu Longming was clearly unhappy with how the head teacher was putting on airs. He said, "perfect? They basically look the same, how can they be perfect?"

The head teacher only laughed contemptuously. "You people don't understand a thing at all."

"What was Zhu Ruyuan like as a person?" Lin Qiushi continued to ask.

"Her? A harsh creator." Like he was just fulfilling obligations, the head master informed them flatly of information on Zhu Ruyuan. "She couldn't tolerate any flaws…"

"What did she do with flawed pieces?" Lin Qiushi asked.

"Destroyed them of course," the head teacher said. "There is indeed no value in flawed creations."

Lin Qiushi, "so when she discovered that the sculpture that used her as a blueprint was flawed, she destroyed herself?" His gaze fell on the head teacher's shirt pocket. "What's in your pocket?"

The head teacher didn't reply, only shot Lin Qiushi a cold look.

Lin Qiushi, "can you show me what's in your pocket?"

He still wasn't moving. Gu Longming, however, had no more patience to dally about with him. With an outstretched hand Gu Longming yanked the teacher forward by the shirt collar. His actions were rough. Evidently, he had just about had enough with this NPC's poor attitude.

"What are you do—" the head teacher shouted. Before he had time to react, Gu Longming took hold of his pocket.

Gu Longming removed what was inside the pocket—a wooden doll, just like the ones they'd seen.

"A wood doll?!" Ai Wenrui's eyes went wide. "Where did you get that? Did Xuejie give it to you too?"

Seeing the doll pinched between Gu Longming's fingers, the head teacher became instantly on-edge. "Give it back—" he said, before reaching out to grab it.

But Gu Longming wasn't letting go so easily. The two pulled and yanked, and that inexplicable wooden doll was broken apart just like that.

"Aaaaahh!!" When he saw the broken figure, the teacher let loose a terrifying howl, his expression scary as all hell. "Give it back, give it back to me!"

Gu Longming jumped and let go on reflex. The wooden figure fell to the ground.

The librarian picked it up in a state of frenzy, glanced once at the first-floor sculptures, and then took off in a panicked run, as if ghosts were chasing behind him.

Gu Longming said, "holy fuck, why would he have that thing? Unless—"

His eyes met with Lin Qiushi's, and the two said at once the answer they'd both already thought of: "Unless, he's also made a wish?"

But it seemed that this question did not currently have an answer. The source of everything, however, seemed to be Zhu Ruyuan.

As Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming were talking, Lin Qiushi suddenly heard a strange crackling—as if rocks were being broken apart. He was immediately on his guard, looking upward for the source of the noise. It was the chandelier on the first floor ceiling—and it was swaying, about to fall.

"Move!"

Lin Qiushi immediately grabbed the two others and ran. Two steps out, that chandelier smashed onto the floor. It was apparent that had they still been underneath, they would have been smashed to pieces like a watermelon.

One too many accidents meant that they weren't accidents; this wasn't the first time such a thing happened. The glass from before and the chandelier this time both seemed part of a deadly countdown. They were telling Ai Wenrui that his life had entered its last moments, and could be taken by ghouls at any time.

"I don't know what to do." Ai Wenrui was crouched on the floor like all the energy's been scared out of him. "Am I going to die? I don't want to die…"

Lin Qiushi said, "is there something else you're not telling us?"

Ai Wenrui glanced at Lin Qiushi.

Gu Longming said, "things are already this bad. You're almost done for, and you still won't tell us?"

After some silence, Ai Wenrui said quietly, "I don't know if I should say it or not."

"Why wouldn't you say it?" Lin Qiushi didn't understand.

"Because they wouldn't let me say it," Ai Wenrui told them, leaning against the wall. "They had me keep this a secret. I thought I would hide it for them forever."

"So what is it?" Gu Longming pressed.

Ai Wenrui said, "you remember the guy who survived from the group photo? The one named Zhou Hanshan?"

Lin Qiushi nodded that he remembered.

"He and Zhu Ruyuan were dating," Ai Wenrui said. "They've been dating for a while…At least half a year now."

"What??" Gu Longming couldn't believe it. "He's been dating a dead person?"

"Yeah, I thought it was pretty unbelievable too." Ai Wenrui looked tired. "But they really were dating. I even saw them kiss. But not that many people know about this, they've been keeping it a secret…"

Lin Qiushi quietly waited for him to continue.

"He's the one who proposed we play this game," Ai Wenrui said. "He said we were all bored anyways. Why don't we play one of the school legends? Someone said to play the pen immortal, but nothing happened when we did. So Zhu Ruyuan said she knows an even more interesting game."

Gu Longming, "so she's the one who brought out all these dolls?"

Ai Wenrui said, "yes, they're from her. But we're the sculpting club. It's not odd to have these sorts of figures. Nobody took it to heart. And then Zhou Hanshan brought that sculpture out from the storage room…" Eyes downcast, he seemed to be carefully recollecting what actually happened that day. "After that, I don't think I've seen Zhu Ruyuan at all."

"She disappeared." Ai Wenrui's words slowed, like he was working hard to keep down the fright in his heart. "Then we got in front of the sculpture, cut open our hands, smeared our blood on the dolls, and made our wish…And after that, the wishes came true."

But the price of the wishes coming true was every single one of their young lives.

When a sculpture was placed in the library, one person died. The resentful, unwilling expressions of the dead all seemed to be etched onto these sculptures' stiff facades. It was terrifying.

"Zhou Hanshan. It was all him." Ai Wenrui finally seemed to have figured it all out. "He's the one who taught us to do this. He was helping Zhou Hanshan, so…" He looked up, a bit lost. "Does he know his girlfriend isn't alive?"

"Whether he knows or not, we'll know after we find him." Gu Longming tightened his hands into fists. "He screwed his friends over to help his girlfriend? What a motherfucker."

"Where could he be now?" Lin Qiushi asked.

"Maybe in the dorms," Ai Wenrui said. "But…I can't be sure either."

Author's Note:

Tomorrow, I have to go with a friend for anesthesia tests at the hospital again, so it'll probably be another evening update. I'm going to the hospital a lot lately. There are lots of things going on, sorry about that. I really don't like the hospital QAQ