Chapter 22
Chapter 22
“Yes. I brought several students to try the escape room, and I’m waiting for them here,” Li Que replied calmly. “What about you?”
The beautiful woman smiled. “Something like that.”
“My name is Qin Shiyu. And you are?”
“Li Que.”
Li Que lifted his coffee and took a sip.
“Oh… You’re a teacher at Mingjiang No. 7 Special School?” Qin Shiyu probed.
She couldn’t sense anything unusual about Li Que.
Yet he had clearly arrived with Rain.
There were even two other students who looked perfectly ordinary accompanying her.
It was extremely strange.
Rain was more unusual and possessed greater intelligence than other anomalies because she carried the Water God’s bloodline. But an anomaly was still an anomaly.
How could she blend perfectly into human life, much less become a student at a school?
Something was wrong.
That was why Qin Shiyu had approached Li Que. She wanted information.
Li Que gave her another look. This woman was acting strangely. She had come over to chat him up and even knew where he worked.
Had some relative arranged a blind date without telling him?
But he dismissed the thought immediately. Why would a woman like this ever need a blind date?
“How did you know?” Li Que asked.
Qin Shiyu casually invented an excuse.
“I used to sponsor children with special needs, so I know a little about Mingjiang No. 7 Special School.”
Li Que understood.
So she was a philanthropist.
“You teach at the school, Teacher Li. Haven’t you noticed anything unusual about the students?” Qin Shiyu asked.
“Of course there are unusual things about them. Nearly every student sent to our school has certain challenges, so naturally they’re different from ordinary students.”
Li Que spoke calmly.
The two chatted casually. Qin Shiyu listened in silence, smiling from time to time.
…
Meanwhile, inside the Southern Suburbs Escape Room…
In the darkness, countless horrifying things seemed to be crawling toward Lin Xiaoyu and the others. The rustling sound made the skin crawl.
“Xiaoyu, Xiaoyu… What are you looking for?”
Nian Youyu’s voice suddenly sounded beside Lin Xiaoyu’s ear.
But an inexplicable chill laced his tone.
Rule Three: Never speak to your companions.
Your companion might no longer be your companion.
Lin Xiaoyu answered anyway. “A red knot. Have you seen it?”
“Hahaha! You answered me!”
The thing wearing Nian Youyu’s face suddenly lunged in front of her, its expression twisted with exaggerated savagery and delight.
It thrust out one hand. Fingernails sharp as knives stabbed straight toward Lin Xiaoyu’s heart.
Its hand plunged into her body.
Lin Xiaoyu didn’t move.
Shock appeared in the impostor’s eyes. It stared at her in disbelief.
“I’m looking for a red knot. Have you seen it?” Lin Xiaoyu asked calmly.
The Damp Drizzle fell upon it.
Every expression vanished from the false Nian Youyu’s face. Fear and anger disappeared, leaving only the calm of utter despair.
“The red knot… The red knot is over there…”
It instinctively pointed in another direction.
“Lead the way,” Lin Xiaoyu ordered.
The false Nian Youyu obediently guided her forward.
Elsewhere…
Bai Lu seemed not to notice the changes around her. As always, she took out her little mirror and began arranging her bangs.
The mirror suddenly began to glow.
Ghostly silhouettes appeared within it, one after another.
Rule Two: When facing a mirror, cover your eyes.
Bai Lu continued staring calmly into the glass.
A woman in blue opera robes slowly appeared in the mirror, her face concealed behind long hair.
She suddenly tore her hair aside, revealing a deathly pale face. Her eye sockets were empty, and she opened her mouth wide as she lunged at Bai Lu.
Bang!
She slammed into the surface of the mirror and rebounded.
“I’m… trapped?!”
Terror spread across the pale face.
“How annoying.”
Bai Lu sounded impatient.
The anomaly inside the mirror barely had time to release a shrill scream before dissolving into a wisp of blue smoke and vanishing completely.
“What a waste,” Nian Youyu muttered nearby.
Bai Lu smoothed her bangs. “If you want something to eat, there are plenty behind you. This is a haunted house, so it’s full of thrall wraiths that died here. The Haunted House Anomaly’s main body isn’t bad either.”
Nian Youyu turned around without hesitation.
Rule One: Never look back.
The moment he did, countless corpse-like faces appeared before him. Undead anomalies reached out and opened their mouths, clawing toward him.
Nian Youyu opened his jaws and bit straight through one of their arms.
He swallowed it in a few quick bites. His eyes lit up, and he tossed aside his bag of potato chips.
…
“So he really is just an ordinary person.”
Inside the café, Qin Shiyu’s smile faded slightly. She was disappointed.
She had hoped to coax useful information from Li Que.
But after talking for so long, all he discussed was ordinary classroom life.
Li Que didn’t even know Lin Xiaoyu’s true identity.
A thought flashed through Qin Shiyu’s mind. What expression would Li Que make if he learned that he was teaching an S-class anomaly?
This unremarkable little teacher would probably faint from terror.
The thought quickly passed. She lifted her cup and took a sip.
“Teacher Li, I can tell that you genuinely care about education.”
“But I don’t think Mingjiang No. 7 Special School is right for you. You should transfer somewhere else as soon as possible.”
An ordinary person like Li Que had been fortunate to survive so long beside an S-class anomaly.
But good fortune wouldn’t remain with him forever.
Li Que merely smiled.
“Thank you.”
“But I think things are pretty good there right now.”
Qin Shiyu said nothing more. After hearing how deeply Li Que cared for the school, a trace of compassion had stirred in her, prompting the warning.
If he refused to listen, then whatever happened was his fate.
She waited calmly.
Li Que checked the time. They should be almost finished.
Sure enough, three figures emerged from the Southern Suburbs Escape Room the next moment.
Bai Lu was immaculate, as though she hadn’t experienced the slightest chase or struggle.
Nian Youyu had picked up a fair amount of dust. He gave a satisfied belch.
Lin Xiaoyu remained quiet, but a weathered red knot now encircled her slender white wrist.
Qin Shiyu was slightly surprised. Rain’s escape was expected. The Haunted House Anomaly ranked below her, and Qin Shiyu’s plan had always included allowing Rain to obtain the Water God’s Knot.
But how had the other two students survived?
Had Rain protected them?
Qin Shiyu’s expression grew increasingly grave. Did this mean Rain had truly developed some degree of humanity?
While she pondered, Li Que rose and went outside.
“Well? Did you have fun?” he asked with a smile.
“It was great, Sir. Really great!” Nian Youyu praised enthusiastically.
“Glad to hear it. Come on. It’s time to head back to school.”
Li Que led the three students away.
Long after he left, Qin Shiyu rose and entered the Southern Suburbs Escape Room.
“Hm? Where is everyone?”
She looked around in confusion.
The deathly pale employee had vanished.
Even the escape room itself was gone. Nothing remained in the space but concrete and steel reinforcement stripped bare by teeth.
“What the hell?!”
Qin Shiyu stared, dumbfounded.
Even if the Haunted House Anomaly had been defeated or killed, the place shouldn’t have been picked this clean.
What had happened here?
Then she detected a faint trace of familiar anomalous aura in one corner. She approached and found several crooked words scrawled on the floor.
“Terrifying… too terrifying…”
Qin Shiyu’s mind went blank. Judging from the aura, these had to be the dying words left by the Haunted House Anomaly’s true body.
But what in the world had happened inside the escape room that could make an anomaly like the Haunted House Anomaly cry out in terror?
This was wrong!
She rushed outside, but only caught a distant glimpse of Li Que and his three students climbing into a taxi and disappearing into the traffic.
…