Chapter 39
Chapter 39
No one stepped forward to stop Zhao Yue. She only slowly came to a halt when the corpse beneath her feet had already been reduced to a bloody pulp.
Zhao Yue’s eyes were wide as she stared fixedly at the body. After confirming it was no longer moving, she burst into crazed laughter and looked toward Wei Sen and the others.
“See that? It’s dead! As long as we kill them all, we’ll be safe!” Zhao Yue said, nearly hysterical.
Chen Lin whispered in fear, “School Rule No. 6: As faculty and staff, do not harm students, or the consequences will be extremely severe…”
Zhao Yue whipped her head toward Chen Lin. “Rules?! Rules are made to be broken! What consequence could be worse than getting killed by them?!”
The moment she finished speaking, Zhao Yue’s mouth suddenly gaped open. Her face twisted in pain as she tilted her head back, as if something were writhing inside her body.
“Everyone, be careful!” Huang Xinze said, stepping forward to shield the others behind him.
Zhao Yue’s expression was full of agony. Her gaze suddenly snapped toward the school gate, and then she flailed both arms and ran in that direction, forcing out the words, “Home. I want to go home!”
“What’s happening to her?” Lin Xiaoxue clung tightly to Xu You’s arm, trembling uncontrollably.
“She’s lost her mind,” Xu You said.
Wei Sen’s gaze darkened, and she quickly followed in the direction Zhao Yue had gone. Seeing this, the others hurried after her as well.
“We can’t let her open the gate, or the things outside will get in!” Wei Sen said, looking at Huang Xinze.
“Don’t worry!” Huang Xinze broke into a hundred-meter sprint and reached the school gate one step ahead of Zhao Yue, blocking the entrance.
But just as Zhao Yue neared the gate, she suddenly collapsed to the ground.
“Ah! She… She…” Lin Xiaoxue was so frightened that she fell limp to the ground.
“Her legs are broken…” Chen Lin said blankly.
Wei Sen and Xu You also stopped and looked at Zhao Yue. She had been running at full speed, but for some unknown reason, both her legs had been severed at the thighs. Blood instantly sprayed everywhere.
Yet Zhao Yue seemed completely unable to feel pain. She braced both hands against the ground and dragged the remaining half of her body toward the school gate.
“Home… Home…” Zhao Yue’s eyes rolled white as her body left a horrifying trail of blood across the ground.
Immediately after, both her arms suddenly snapped as well, and her face slammed heavily into the ground.
Deprived of all four limbs, she wriggled forward across the ground like some bizarre giant insect.
“This is the result of her violating School Rule No. 4,” Wei Sen said with a frown. The smell of blood in the air was growing stronger and stronger.
Zhao Yue kept wriggling forward. It was not until she was about to reach the school gate that she finally ran out of strength. She struggled to lift her head and look at the school’s sheet-metal gate. Her eyes turned completely clouded, and her entire body froze there in an extremely grotesque posture, never moving again.
“Hey.” Huang Xinze stepped forward and tentatively nudged the person on the ground with his foot. There was no reaction at all. He looked back at the others and said, “She’s dead.”
Wei Sen and Xu You walked over. Wei Sen crouched down and examined the places where Zhao Yue’s arms and legs had been severed. It looked as though they had been forcibly twisted off by some tremendous power.
Xu You, meanwhile, took out her compass and walked a circle around the corpse, murmuring under her breath as she performed a brief rite to send the spirit on.
The class bell rang. Huang Xinze said, “I have to start patrolling. You all shouldn’t stay here either.”
Holding her compass, Xu You said, “I’m going back to the Infirmary.”
Wei Sen stood up and said, “I’m going back to the dorm to get my lesson plan. The next class is mine.”
“Xiaoxue and I will head back to the dorm too and calm down for a bit,” Chen Lin said as she helped Lin Xiaoxue up from the ground.
Wei Sen arrived at the dormitory building with Lin Xiaoxue and Chen Lin, but instead of returning to her own dorm, she continued upstairs.
“Sister Sen, where are you going?” Lin Xiaoxue’s voice was still trembling when she spoke.
“Zhao Yue is dead. I’m going to check her dorm and see if I can find anything useful. And Wang Mei-she should be working in the cafeteria right now, so we might be able to take the chance to search her dorm too.”
“Sister Sen, aren’t you scared at all?” Lin Xiaoxue admired Wei Sen’s composure, but she couldn’t help feeling a little puzzled too.
How could an ordinary person see bodies that horrific and not have the slightest emotional reaction?
Wei Sen’s expression remained as calm as ever. “Did you forget I’m a pig butcher? At the end of the day, pigs and people aren’t all that different.”
Her words sent a chill down Lin Xiaoxue’s spine, and the awe she felt toward the woman before her deepened in silence.
Chen Lin took a deep breath, then slowly said, “Sister Sen, I’ll go with you to look for clues. Only one person can enter a dorm room, but I can keep watch for you outside.”
“That works.”
Wei Sen and Chen Lin took Lin Xiaoxue back to her dorm, then found Zhao Yue’s room on the fifth floor.
“Sister Sen, going into someone else’s dorm really won’t break the rules, right?” Chen Lin asked, still looking at Wei Sen with worry.
“I’m not sure if there’s a Hidden Rule, but as far as the Dormitory Rules go, they only say one person can live in each room. They don’t say you can’t enter someone else’s room.”
Chen Lin clenched her fists as if making some important decision. Then she stepped forward, grabbed the handle to Zhao Yue’s door, and said, “Let me go!”
Surprise flickered across Wei Sen’s face.
Her impression of Chen Lin had always been timid and reserved. She hadn’t expected the girl to volunteer for danger.
Chen Lin saw Wei Sen’s confusion and forced out a smile. “Doing nothing is just waiting to die. Once I think about how I’m going to die anyway, it doesn’t feel as scary.”
Hearing that, Wei Sen did not stop her. “All right.”
Chen Lin took another deep breath, opened the door, and walked into Zhao Yue’s dorm with the grim resolve of a warrior marching to certain death.
But after she stepped inside with her eyes shut, nothing involving an Eerie Entity happened.
“There probably isn’t a Hidden Rule,” Wei Sen reminded her.
Chen Lin gasped for breath, but she did not waste any time. She immediately began searching everywhere.
Wei Sen looked in through the doorway. The layout of every dorm room was almost identical, but there was no cassette player on Zhao Yue’s desk either.
A moment later, Chen Lin came out holding a stack of drawings. “Sister Sen, this is all I found. It might be useful.”
The two of them looked through them at the door.
“These are art assignments from Class 2, Grade 3,” Wei Sen said. “Look for Wang Hua’s, Guo Xiaolan’s, and Yu Ming’s.”
“Okay.”
They began flipping through the stack.
Wei Sen was the first to find Wang Hua’s drawing. It was covered in messy black scribbles, and within the chaos, the outline of a mountain peak could barely be made out. The whole picture radiated a sense of endless terror and suffocating oppression.
“This one is Guo Xiaolan’s.” Chen Lin handed the drawing she had found to Wei Sen.
It was another scribbled picture, drawn in red and black watercolor pen. It showed a human figure with no facial features, but a huge syringe was clearly gripped in its hand, as though it might stab down at any moment.
“Yu Ming-I found it!” Chen Lin handed over another drawing.
On it was the kind of simple little house elementary school students loved to draw. It had open windows, a chimney puffing smoke, and clouds and a sun in the sky.
Inside the doorway of the house was a woman bending over. By the entrance stood an apple tree heavy with fruit, and beneath the tree stood a little boy.
“I understand now.” Wei Sen held the drawing and spoke slowly.
Chen Lin looked confused.
Wei Sen looked at her solemnly. “Its wish!”