Chapter 38
Chapter 38
The group arrived outside the Gymnasium.
At some point, the seal that had originally been pasted across the main doors had been torn open.
“Someone went in?” Xu You took a step forward and looked around at everyone. Only then did she notice that aside from the already-dead Wang Wenlei, another man was missing too.
“I’m not going in.” Lin Xiaoxue waved her hands repeatedly. What had happened in the cafeteria had already left a deep psychological shadow over her.
Chen Lin also shook her head and backed away. “Xiaoxue and I will wait for you here.”
“I… I have to go to class…” Zhao Yue’s deathly pale face had yet to recover. As if she’d lost her soul, she headed toward the teaching building.
Everyone understood. Something had clearly happened inside the Gymnasium as well, and Zhou Junjie still hadn’t shown up.
Most likely, there was another horrific scene waiting inside.
Huang Xinze stepped up to the door and said, “Ladies, stay back. I’ll go in and take a look first.”
“I’ll go with you.” Xu You stepped forward, pulled a compass from her coat, and saw that the needle showed no reaction. “There are no ghosts inside.”
Hearing that, Huang Xinze also breathed a sigh of relief. “As long as there isn’t one of those things, it shouldn’t be a big problem.”
With that, Huang Xinze slowly pushed open the door and walked in, with Xu You close behind.
“Do you dare go in and look?” Wei Sen asked Bai Xue pointedly.
Wei Sen suspected that Zhou Junjie had most likely been coaxed into coming to the Gymnasium by Bai Xue. Yet now that something had happened, Bai Xue showed no trace of guilt whatsoever.
Before Bai Xue could answer, Xia Susu stepped forward and hooked her arm through Bai Xue’s, doing her best to hide her fear. “What would Sister Bai Xue be afraid of? You think you’re the only brave one?”
Wei Sen looked at Xia Susu, lowered her head with a cold laugh, then stopped wasting words on them and turned to enter the Gymnasium as well.
Xia Susu’s eyes widened. “Sister Bai Xue, look at her! What’s she laughing at?!”
“You really don’t like her?” Bai Xue asked Xia Susu in confusion.
“Ever since we woke up on the field at the very beginning, she’s been acting all clever and putting on this aloof act. Who does she think she’s impressing? I hate people who put on airs the most!” Xia Susu ranted without any attempt to hide it.
Bai Xue smiled faintly and pulled her hand away. “You should stay outside. It’ll probably be very bloody in there.”
At that, Xia Susu took a terrified step back, then forced a smile onto her face. “Sister Bai Xue really is the best. Be careful, okay?”
Inside the Gymnasium, Huang Xinze, Xu You, Wei Sen, and Bai Xue stood silently in the dilapidated basketball court.
As they looked at the scene before them, cold sweat broke out over all of them.
As expected, Zhou Junjie was dead. His death was terrifyingly gruesome.
His hands and feet had been tightly bound with a jump rope, tying him to the iron railing at the very bottom row of the stands.
A long gash had been cut across his abdomen by some sharp object. His intestines had been ripped out by force and had fallen to the floor, merging with his blood into a single pool.
The ropes around his wrists and ankles had bitten deep into his flesh, clearly caused by his desperate struggling before death. His eyes were wide open, as if he had watched with his own eyes as his intestines were dragged out of his body.
“Fuck! This is way too damn brutal!” Huang Xinze couldn’t help saying.
Wei Sen thought of Wang Hua’s smiling face in the classroom yesterday, and a chill ran down her spine. Her gaze slowly shifted to Bai Xue beside her.
Bai Xue covered her mouth and nose in disgust, then stepped forward and began searching around, as if she were looking for something.
Seeing her actions, Wei Sen suddenly understood a few things. She asked coldly, “You persuaded Zhou Junjie to come to the Gymnasium to meet Wang Hua. What exactly were you after?”
Bai Xue paused slightly and glanced at Wei Sen from the corner of her eye. “You’re so smart. Can’t you guess?”
Wei Sen said nothing more.
She gave Huang Xinze and Xu You a look, and the three of them left the Gymnasium together.
“Sister Sen, is Zhou Junjie’s death related to Bai Xue?” Xu You asked.
“When I went to find Zhou Junjie yesterday, I saw a flashlight on his desk. At the time, I wasn’t sure whether Bai Xue had given it to him. But judging from Bai Xue’s reaction in the Gymnasium just now, she probably did,” Wei Sen replied.
Huang Xinze asked in confusion, “No wonder she wasn’t surprised by Zhou Junjie’s death at all, and instead started searching! But what exactly is she looking for?”
“My guess is, it might be the key for Group A to clear the instance…” Wei Sen narrowed her eyes slightly.
Wei Sen went to the field together with Huang Xinze, Xu You, Chen Lin, and Lin Xiaoxue.
The group once again synced up the information they had so far.
Huang Xinze took out a handwritten list and said, “Look. These are the call logs from the security office.”
“You’re actually kind of smart. How’d you think of that?” Xu You gave him a thumbs-up.
“Well, wasn’t I on night duty last night? I was bored out of my mind, so I figured I’d see if the landline in the security office could call 110. Of course, 110 wouldn’t go through anymore, but I ended up finding these call logs by accident,” Huang Xinze said with a grin.
The others studied them carefully.
To their surprise, the last call had been made a year ago. It was to the same number, and the security office had called it many times, but no one had ever answered.
“Did you call this number back?” Wei Sen asked.
“It was too late last night. I didn’t dare call it back rashly. I’ll try it in a bit. If I find out anything, I’ll update everyone in the group chat. Anyway, there aren’t many people left in Group A now. I’m guessing they’ll all have to come to us for help.” As Huang Xinze spoke, his expression turned extremely solemn. “I am the only man left now! I will definitely protect all of you!”
“Protect yourself first,” Wei Sen said, looking at him. “My guess is that the cafeteria auntie’s targets are men.”
Huang Xinze stared at her, dumbfounded. “Why?! Does she have some grudge against men?!”
“Yesterday, I mentioned in front of Wang Mei that her husband had violated a Hidden Rule, but the person who ended up getting into trouble was Wang Wenlei from Group A. And last night, out of everyone, only you, Wang Wenlei, and I heard knocking at the door.
“The one who came to see me then was Guo Xiaolan. She handed me the class’s homework books and told me Wang Hua, Sun Qiang, and Zhou Junjie were in the Gymnasium.”
Huang Xinze suddenly understood. “So that’s why you immediately sent me a message to warn me last night!”
“Right. Zhou Junjie had most likely already met with disaster by then, so the only people left who heard the knocking were you and Wang Wenlei. And the one knocking on your doors should have been Wang Mei.”
Chen Lin adjusted her black-rimmed glasses and analyzed, “The common point between Huang Xinze and Wang Wenlei is… they’re both men!”
Lin Xiaoxue also understood what had happened. “So Sister Sen unknowingly violated a Hidden Rule and triggered Auntie Wang’s killing condition. Then Auntie Wang started hunting men at night, and after she killed someone, her clothes turned red!”
Xu You gave another thumbs-up. “You’ve improved!”
Lin Xiaoxue chuckled, and the shadow that had been hanging over her faded a little. “Looks like all two hundred and thirty-eight murder mystery games I played weren’t for nothing!”
After the laughter passed, the atmosphere remained heavy.
Xu You stared at the compass in her hand and said, “The yin energy here is clearly much heavier than it was on the first day. Those strange powers will only get stronger and stronger. I doubt we’ll be able to survive until summer vacation.”
Chen Lin swallowed. “If we’re doomed either way, I’d rather risk my life to uncover ‘It’s’ secret and wish!”
Wei Sen looked in Chen Lin’s direction and said, “The secret and wish in the Clearance Condition may not come from the same ‘It.'”
“The principal, Guo Xiaolan, Wang Hua, Sun Qiang, the cafeteria auntie… any of these Eerie Entity who can hurt us could be that ‘It’!” Xu You’s eyes widened.
“This is so hard…” Lin Xiaoxue clutched her head in pain.
“Ah! Ah! Ah! I’m going to kill you! Ah!” Just then, a hysterical roar came from the direction of the teaching building.
Everyone was startled and quickly ran toward the sound.
When they reached the foot of the teaching building, they arrived just in time to see Zhao Yue push Wang Hua down from the third floor.
The third floor was not that high, but Wang Hua’s body still slammed heavily into the ground. Blood spread from his head, and his limbs kept twitching from the pain.
“Ah!” Zhao Yue charged downstairs like a madwoman. Her eyes were bloodshot as she stared at Wang Hua convulsing on the ground. She rushed forward, lifted her foot, and stomped his head with her high heel again and again without mercy.
“Teacher, I was wrong. Teacher, don’t…” Wang Hua’s voice was faint.
“Die! Die! Just die!” Zhao Yue kicked him frantically.
Her heel punched one hole after another into Wang Hua’s face, and blood poured out without stopping.
Wei Sen and the others did not dare rush forward. Although Wang Hua was an Eerie Entity, the sight of him dying so miserably still made their hearts tremble.
As for Zhao Yue, at that moment, she was nothing more than a madwoman scared out of her wits.