chapter 10
I stood at the door of the Washroom.
It felt like I had been reminiscing for a long time, but in reality, it was only a few seconds.
Beside me, Qin Xiao was asking me in a tearful voice, “Ruanruan, what should we do? Where should we escape to?”
I was stunned for a moment, pinched my palm, and forced myself to calm down.
In my earphones, it was Xiaoran’s voice: “Don’t get distracted. Lure the Tomb Owner to the Window as planned. This is your last chance!”
I took a deep breath.
“Qin Xiao…” I stepped back and whispered, “Go inside.”
This Washroom was large; outside was the washing area, and inside was the toilet.
There was a Vent Window in the toilet, not big, but it should be enough.
“Go inside?” Qin Xiao couldn’t believe it. “It’s a dead end in there!”
“Trust me!”
My voice suddenly grew louder, and I turned and ran inside.
Qin Xiao gritted her teeth and finally followed me.
We reached the innermost part of the Washroom.
The narrow Vent Window stood quietly there.
This Window hadn’t been sealed by the School Worker, for a simple reason: it was too small, so small that not even a child’s body could fit through. It was absolutely safe.
Drip-drip-
More drops of water fell onto Qin Xiao’s and my faces.
Even the Ceiling of the Washroom began to leak.
Of course, this was also part of the Coffin Room.
Outside, the sound of the door being battered continued. In no more than a minute, Wu Lan would break through that door.
In my earphones, Xiaoran’s voice came: “Ruanruan, hold on for one more minute. Ji Zhao is almost ready-”
I thought for a moment and took out a piece of Red Paper from my pajama pocket.
It was a scrap I had just cut off from the Cartier bag while trimming Red Paper.
“This should work too,” I said. “Write Wu Lan’s birthday on it, then keep it close to you.”
Qin Xiao was stunned for a moment, but she didn’t ask much and took the pen from my hand.
“Sister Lan’s birthday is… what date again?”
“October 28th.”
Qin Xiao quickly wrote down the date and kept it close to her body.
“Ruanruan, did you write the same birthday?”
“Mm.”
“Okay…”
Qin Xiao nodded, and maybe it was just my imagination, but she let out a long sigh of relief.
For a moment, I seemed to see a faint smile at the corner of her mouth.
Suddenly, Qin Xiao cried out in alarm behind me, “Wu Lan!”
I spun around, and in the next second, a hand pierced through my chest.
…
There was nothing ahead, just emptiness.
The sound of the door being battered continued.
Wu Lan hadn’t come in yet.
The person who had thrust her hand into my body was Qin Xiao.
I lowered my head. In the dim light, that arm was covered with countless terrifying corpse spots.
She spoke softly behind me, “Surprised, aren’t you, Ruanruan?”
I closed my eyes.
A dying sound escaped my throat.
But only a moment later, I opened my eyes again.
My vision cleared, and I asked in a calm tone:
“Surprised by what?
“Surprised that you are the Tomb Owner?”
The next second, I gripped the arm that had stabbed into my body tightly.
My ribs, like a cage, trapped that arm firmly. Using the last of my strength, I crashed forward.
“Xiaoran!” I shouted, “Now!”
I lunged forward, the huge momentum dragging Qin Xiao with me, her body fully exposed within the range of the Vent Window!
Ji Zhao’s voice immediately sounded in my earphones, chanting as if singing an ancient ballad.
“Sweep East for Jia-Yi Wood, Sweep South for Bing-Ding Fire.
“Living Souls Exit, Dead Souls Enter.”
As he chanted, though it was clearly midnight, it was as if a sun had risen outside, blinding sunlight pouring in through the Vent Window.
Qin Xiao’s body seemed to be suddenly fixed in place, nailed in front of the Vent Window, unable to move, letting out a piercing scream.
She stared at me. I had already broken free from her, pulling her arm out from my body.
There should have been a bloody hole in my chest, but at this moment my body was completely unharmed. Only a piece of Red Paper fell from my arms, disintegrating into powder in the air.
Ji Zhao and Xiaoran hadn’t lied to me. This Red Paper, with the Tomb Owner’s birth date written on it, had indeed blocked a fatal blow for me.
“That’s impossible, you clearly wrote…” Qin Xiao muttered in disbelief.
“October 28th?” I curled my lips slightly. “I lied to you.”
Just now, when I took out the Red Paper and asked Qin Xiao to write a birthday, it was partly to buy Ji Zhao some final preparation time, and partly to lower Qin Xiao’s guard.
As long as she believed I had also written October 28th, she would attack me without hesitation.
“Sister Lan’s birthday is indeed October 28th, but that’s not what I wrote.”
I looked at Qin Xiao and spoke softly.
“Of course, it’s not February 15th either.”
February 15th was Qin Xiao’s birthday.
Qin Xiao stared at me. After a moment, a look of realization appeared on her face.
“You actually… you actually figured it out…”
“Yes, I figured it out.” I nodded.
“So what I wrote was January 22nd.”
January 22nd…
I looked straight into the eyes of the person before me, my voice cold.
“Meng Lier, you are the Tomb Owner.”
…
Silence.
A long silence.
After a moment, the “Qin Xiao” in front of me looked at me with a strange expression.
She spoke in a low voice: “When did you find out?”
“A while ago, before I left the Dormitory for the last time.
“Actually, if you carefully review every detail that happened tonight, you can deduce everything.
“The first time I left the Dormitory, saying I wanted to go downstairs for a walk, everyone was still alive.
“After that, I brought Wu Lan back. From our perspective, only Qin Xiao was left in the Dormitory.
“Then, you and Wu Lan left together, and I discovered that Meng Lier was already dead.
“Ghosts in this space must also follow the laws of physics; they can’t kill from a distance. So Wu Lan, who never had a moment alone with Meng Lier, had no opportunity to kill her-so she’s not the Tomb Owner.”
The “Qin Xiao” before me looked at me with a dark expression, saying nothing.
“Of course, up to this point, my conclusion was still that Qin Xiao was the Tomb Owner.
“But just as I was about to write down Qin Xiao’s birthday, I suddenly thought: since the Tomb Owner went to such lengths to set up this trap, she would definitely try every means to avoid exposing her own weaknesses.
“Since the method of writing a birth date on Red Paper is known to outsiders, the one who set up this trap likely knows it too. If I were the Tomb Owner, I’d definitely find a way to hide my true identity until the very last moment.
“What’s the best way to hide your identity? It’s to appear as someone else.
“That way, even if someone knows about the Red Paper method, the birthday they write will be wrong.
“Just like me-I was one step away from writing down Qin Xiao’s birthday.
“Fortunately, after thinking of this, I became more cautious and went to check the corpse.
“Sure enough, I wasn’t overthinking it.
“Although you went to great lengths to destroy her face, you missed one detail-you forgot to deal with her hands. Meng Lier always loved doing her nails. Even when I left the Dormitory for the first time, she was still painting her nails.
“But the corpse on the bed had clean nails.”
And now, the “Qin Xiao” before me had countless terrifying corpse spots appearing on her hands, but her nails were painted a bright red.