Chapter 37
Chapter 37
Wei Sen thought of Zhou Junjie. He still hadn’t taken her warning to heart. That night, he had gone to the Gymnasium alone to look for Wang Hua.
“Xiaolan, can you stop them?” Wei Sen tried asking.
Guo Xiaolan shook her head. “Teacher Wei, I should go.”
Wei Sen checked the time. 10:50 p.m.
Guo Xiaolan turned and left, her figure quickly vanishing into the thick fog.
Wei Sen locked the door, placed the exercise books on the desk, then quickly sent Huang Xinze a private message.
[Wei Sen: They’re at the Gymnasium. After your shift ends, no matter what you hear, ignore it and go straight back to the dormitory.]
Only after finishing all that did she sit down at the desk and begin flipping through the composition books in front of her.
She opened one at random. The title inside was My Mom.
The content was childish, the handwriting crooked and uneven. Since third grade had only just started learning to write compositions, this was fairly normal.
Wei Sen then flipped through the lesson plan beside her.
According to what Guo Xiaolan had just said, this was the assignment their language arts teacher had given them last week. Wei Sen searched through last week’s lesson plan and found the so-called assignment: write a composition about “the person I like most.”
Among all the exercise books, Wei Sen found the ones belonging to Wang Hua, Guo Xiaolan, and Yu Ming.
Wang Hua had written My Friend:
My friend’s name is Sun Qiang. He’s in Class One, Grade Five. Mom and Dad are usually very busy with work and aren’t home, and I don’t want to go home either. I like playing outside with Sun Qiang more. His family is very poor, so I often share my allowance with him. After school, we like going to the Gymnasium to play, but recently we can’t go into the Gymnasium anymore, so we can only play at the entrance. Good friends have lots of secrets between them, and Sun Qiang and I do too.
Guo Xiaolan had written Dear Principal:
The person I like most is Principal Lin. She is kind and friendly, and she treats the students very well. I have a secret. I don’t dare tell anyone, because I’m scared. Then my best friend discovered my secret. Because he encouraged me, I finally had courage! Our teacher said that when we run into problems, we can go to a teacher or our parents. But I think maybe only the principal can help me. So I told Principal Lin my secret. She was very gentle and told me not to be afraid anymore. After that day, I never saw School Doctor Xie again, but I never saw Principal Lin again either. I really miss her, and I’m very grateful to her.
Yu Ming had written My Good Friend:
The person I like most is my good friend Guo Xiaolan. She’s pretty, gets good grades, and is always willing to help others. Whenever other students pick on me, she’s always the one who shows up and helps me. But recently, I discovered a secret. She always goes to the Infirmary during PE class. I thought she must be sick, and I really hoped she would get better soon. But one day, I secretly went to the Infirmary too. I discovered her secret, and then she shared her secret with me. I know some secrets are like candy, but some secrets are nightmares. I told her she had to wake up from the nightmare, just like our teacher taught us.
After Wei Sen finished reading their compositions, she went through all the other students’ compositions as well, but found nothing more.
Wang Hua, Yu Ming, and Guo Xiaolan had each mentioned a “secret.”
And the first condition for clearing this place was to find “It”‘s secret.
Wei Sen suddenly realized she had fallen into an important misconception.
Because the one who had created that false rule was the principal, she had instinctively assumed that the “It” in the Clearance Condition referred to the principal.
But in this school, aside from the ten living people, everyone else was an Eerie Entity. And so far, more than one “secret” had been mentioned. So there was still no way to directly conclude who that “It” actually was.
Furthermore, the “It” in the first and second Clearance Conditions might not necessarily refer to the same “It.”
Once she figured this out, Wei Sen returned to bed and lay down.
She already knew most of what had happened at Zhihui Primary School. As for “It” and the “secret,” she had a guess in mind as well.
However, she still needed some time to confirm it.
Early the next morning, Wei Sen was still brushing her teeth when she faintly heard a piercing scream from far away.
Messages came through in the main group chat right after that.
[Zhao Yue: Someone’s dead!]
Wei Sen stared at the message calmly.
Zhou Junjie had gone to the Gymnasium last night to meet Wang Hua. The odds had never been in his favor, so this was no surprise.
But the next message was something Wei Sen had not expected.
[Zhao Yue: In the cafeteria!]
Wei Sen quickly washed up, left the dorm, and headed for the cafeteria.
When she arrived, Bai Xue, Huang Xinze, Chen Lin, Lin Xiaoxue, and Xu You were already there.
Zhao Yue was sitting in a chair, trembling all over, not daring to look toward Window 1 even for a second.
“Sister Sen.” Chen Lin was leaning against a pillar, retching. She looked up and saw Wei Sen.
Wei Sen walked farther in, her gaze shifting to the serving windows.
Xia Susu stood inside Window 2 in a blue uniform. Her face was deathly pale, and she was too frightened to say a word.
Inside Window 1, the cafeteria auntie, Wang Mei, wore a red uniform. In front of her window hung strings of horrifying “cured meat.”
Those chunks of flesh were clearly human limbs and organs. The blood had not yet congealed, and they gave off a thick, raw stench.
Judging by the state of the dismembered corpse, the person must have died last night.
“Kekekeke…” Wang Mei’s smile was grotesque, her hollow eyes staring straight ahead. “Care to try some? Fresh roast meat.”
“Urgh!” Chen Lin could not hold it in and turned away to retch again.
Lin Xiaoxue could not bear it anymore either. Clapping a hand over her mouth, she ran out of the cafeteria.
Wei Sen stepped forward to examine the body parts. It was a man’s corpse, but the head was nowhere to be found.
Then she looked around at everyone who had come to the cafeteria. Zhou Junjie and Wang Wenlei were missing.
“Whose body is this?” Wei Sen asked Bai Xue.
“It should be Ah Wen. He had a wedding ring on his right ring finger.” Bai Xue’s expression was exceptionally grim.
Wei Sen looked at the bloody arm hanging there. Sure enough, there was a ring on the ring finger of the right hand.
Crying, Zhao Yue said in a trembling voice, “At midnight last night, Ah Wen said in the group chat that someone was knocking on his door. I hadn’t fallen asleep yet either. I clearly told him not to open it…”
Wei Sen looked at the others and asked, “Did any of you hear knocking last night?”
Xu You, Chen Lin, Bai Xue, and Zhao Yue all said no.
Xia Susu, inside Window 2, also shook her head.
Wei Sen figured Lin Xiaoxue probably had not heard it either, because if Lin Xiaoxue encountered anything abnormal, she would report it in the small group chat immediately.
“I heard it! Around midnight, I think. I’d just fallen asleep and thought I was dreaming, so I ignored it,” Huang Xinze suddenly said.
Wei Sen considered this. Last night, she had also heard knocking, but the person knocking on her door had been Guo Xiaolan.
If the ones knocking on their doors had also been students, then they could have demanded that the doors be opened just like Guo Xiaolan had. But Huang Xinze had ignored it and had not violated any rules, so the person knocking was probably not a student.
Based on the timing, around midnight in both cases, the person who knocked on Huang Xinze’s door and the person who knocked on Wang Wenlei’s door should have been the same person. Most likely, it was Wang Mei!
As for why Wang Mei had knocked…
Wei Sen drew in a light breath and looked toward Wang Mei at Window 1. Although the color of Wang Mei’s clothes had changed, she was still bound by the Cafeteria Rules and had not attacked them.
On the first day, Wang Mei’s clothes had always been blue. Now, Wang Mei’s clothes had turned red, with a few faint patches of blue still visible beneath the red.
Wang Mei’s clothes had been dyed red with blood!
And the body parts had been found at her window, so Wang Wenlei must have been killed by her.
But Wang Mei had not killed anyone on the first night. She had only started killing on the second night…
Wei Sen guessed that this was probably because she had mentioned Wang Mei’s husband in front of her yesterday, triggering the consequences of violating a Hidden Rule.
“Do you have any thoughts?” Bai Xue looked at Wei Sen as though she had seen through everything, her eyes tinged with the amusement of someone watching a show.
“Why don’t we go check the Gymnasium first?” Wei Sen met Bai Xue’s gaze, her own eyes just as meaningful.
A hidden sneer flickered across Bai Xue’s face.
The two of them understood each other without a word, because they both… had caused someone else’s death.