The first casualty appeared in the team, and the atmosphere of the entire team became stagnant.
The new girl looked at the mess in the room and carefully asked if they needed to clean up the scene and dispose of the corpse. Ruan Nan Zhu shook his head and said, "No need, this corpse will disappear soon." It was the rule inside the doors that corpses would always disappear in various ways.
The girl didn't seem to understand what he meant by disappearing soon. There was nothing but unease on her face, and her whole body was shivering. And she was clearly not the only one afraid. The others also looked uneasy, and no one even spoke a word.
Lin Qiu Shi was already used to things like this, so he still looked relatively calm. Xia Rui Bei, on the other hand, was deathly pale. After taking a glance at the corpse, she hid in the house and refused to come out no matter what.
Seeing how timid she was, Lin Qiu Shi became curious about how she had passed through the first three doors. Could she have relied entirely on Li Dongyuan? But Li Dongyuan didn't seem to be the kind of person who would go out of his way to help others unconditionally. He wondered what attractive qualities Xia Rui Bei had that made Li Dongyuan protect her so much.
"Let's go. Today we'll go to the archives first to see if we can find information on Class 23 of Senior Year 3," Ruan Nan Zhu suggested after looking at the corpse.
"Okay," Li Dongyuan nodded.
So the four of them prepared to go out to the cafeteria to eat breakfast first, and then head to the archives.
Perhaps because she had seen the corpse, Xia Rui Bei had lost her appetite. She didn't touch the food in front of her at all, and her eyebrows were locked in a frown.
Fortunately, Ruan Nan Zhu seemed to be pondering something at the moment, otherwise he might have put on another act.
Seeing that Xia Rui Bei had no appetite, Li Dongyuan persuaded her to eat a few times, but when he saw that she stubbornly refused, he could only sigh and give up. He figured she would want to eat when she got hungry.
The archives were located in a remote corner of the school. The entire archive was three stories tall and looked quite old. The manager was an old man in his sixties. Ruan Nan Zhu took the initiative to negotiate with him, and surprisingly, the old man didn't stop them and agreed to let the four of them look up information in the archives.
The archives were filled with the musty smell peculiar to old paper, which made people very uncomfortable. As soon as Xia Rui Bei walked in, she started coughing softly and said she seemed to be allergic to dust mites.
"Then just wait outside," Li Dongyuan said without forcing her.
Xia Rui Bei happily nodded her head. The light inside the archive room was dim, and tall file cabinets were everywhere, looking quite terrifying from the outside, let alone the inside. Of course she was happy to avoid going in. Li Dongyuan told her to sit by the door and not wander around, saying they would come out soon.
As the three of them walked inside, Ruan Nan Zhu said with a half-smile, "I didn't expect that the leader of the White Deer would be such a caring person."
"Are you jealous, darling?" Li Dongyuan asked with a smile.
"Not jealous enough, I'm just curious what charm this Xia Rui Bei has that makes you dote on her so much," Ruan Nan Zhu said.
Li Dongyuan didn't answer at all, just said with a smile, "You really are jealous."
Seeing that he refused to speak, Ruan Nan Zhu stopped asking and turned to walk into the archives.
The archives were organized chronologically. After searching for a while, they soon found the records of Class 23 from three years ago, when the current third-year high school students were new first-year students.
Ruan Nan Zhu reached out and took their file. Flipping open the first page, there was a group photo with the words "Class 23, Senior Year 2" written on the back in black carbon ink.
"Found it," Ruan Nan Zhu said. "This is their class photo."
Lin Qiu Shi leaned over to look at the photo in Ruan Nan Zhu's hand.
The photo looked very ordinary, with nothing peculiar about it. The students in the photo had very young and tender looks, and teachers from various subjects stood on both sides.
"There are 34 students in total in this class..." Ruan Nan Zhu suddenly frowned. "I feel like something is off about this photo."
Lin Qiu Shi didn't notice anything wrong with it, but since Ruan Nan Zhu said so, he must have sensed something dissonant. However, he couldn't immediately pinpoint what exactly felt off.
"Wait..." Lin Qiu Shi suddenly discovered something new. "Thirty four people? But there are only thirty three in this photo!"
With eleven people per row and three rows total, all the positions were neatly aligned, making it easy to count the exact number of students in this class at a glance.
"That's right, the number of people!" Ruan Nan Zhu said. "The information here says 34 people, so where did that missing person go?"
Lin Qiu Shi and Ruan Nan Zhu looked at each other, seeing the same expression in each other's eyes. They both felt that the missing person must be Zo-chan.
"There should be detailed records on the students in this class," Li Dongyuan said as he took the file and started flipping through it carefully. "Ah...this page has been torn out."
Of the 34 pages of records that should have been there, only 33 remained now, with one page torn out, just like the person missing from the class photo.
"We've seen this person before," Ruan Nan Zhu suddenly said, pointing at someone in the photo.
"Seen before?" Lin Qiu Shi was startled by Ruan Nan Zhu.
"Don't you remember?" Ruan Nan Zhu said. "That third year student we ran into at dinner yesterday."
Lin Qiu Shi certainly remembered. "But isn't he from Class 33?"
"Of course he's from Class 33 now. Whether Class 23 even exists now is questionable," Ruan Nan Zhu said.
"Are you saying everyone from Class 23 is dead?" Lin Qiu Shi asked.
"It's possible," Ruan Nan Zhu replied.
Since that student hadn't died, it meant he must have done something special to escape misfortune. This was an extremely important clue.
The three of them searched for a while longer to see if there was any other useful information.
As they were bending over the files, Lin Qiu Shi suddenly heard footsteps coming from the direction of the bookshelves next to them. At first he thought it was Xia Rui Bei and called out. But he soon realized something was off, because these footsteps didn't have the rhythmic pattern of left foot, right foot. Instead, there was a subtle "thud, thud, thud" sound, like the hopping sounds he had heard in the teaching building before.
Lin Qiu Shi grabbed Ruan Nan Zhu's hand and jerked his chin to indicate he should listen.
Ruan Nan Zhu clearly hadn't heard the sound, but seeing Lin Qiu Shi's expression, he understood something must be wrong.
"Let's go," Lin Qiu Shi said. "We've found enough anyway."
Li Dongyuan seemed about to say something, but Ruan Nan Zhu made a "shush" gesture, so he also caught on and said, "Okay."
The three put the files down and started walking towards the exit.
Just as they had taken a few steps forward, the heavy file cabinet behind them suddenly crashed down, landing heavily where they had just been standing.
The loud noise brought the manager running. Seeing the fallen cabinet, he was furious and started yelling at them.
Ruan Nan Zhu didn't try to defend themselves, just softly apologized. As a beautiful girl, her apologetic manner made people pity her. The manager finally let them off without further scolding.
Only then could the three of them leave. After walking out the door, Ruan Nan Zhu whispered, "Did you see?"
"See what?" Lin Qiu Shi asked.
"The bloodied handprint behind the cabinet," Ruan Nan Zhu said.
"No, I didn't," Lin Qiu Shi replied.
Li Dongyuan enthusiastically piped up from the side, "I saw it!"
Ruan Nan Zhu said, "It doesn't matter if you saw it or not."
Li Dongyuan: "..."
Lin Qiu Shi listened to their conversation with amusement.
When the three came out, they saw Xia Rui Bei sitting bored on the chair by the door. Seeing them emerge, she asked, "You're done already? What was that sound inside, did something happen?"
"A file cabinet fell," Li Dongyuan said. "It was pushed down by someone."
"Pushed down by someone? Could it be that person who just went in?" Xia Rui Bei asked.
"What person? Someone else entered the archives?" Ruan Nan Zhu seized on that key point in her words.
"Yeah, a girl. She said she was a student at this school, so the manager let her in," Xia Rui Bei hugged her arms, looking terribly frightened. "Didn't you see her?"
"No," Ruan Nan Zhu shook his head.
Lin Qiu Shi did hear someone come in, but based on what had just happened, the person who entered probably wasn't human at all.
"What did that student look like?" Li Dongyuan asked.
"A girl, looked quite young, I didn't get a very clear look at her face. She had long hair," Xia Rui Bei said. "Just an ordinary young female student."
"That must be her," Ruan Nan Zhu said. "Congratulations, you might be the first to see the boss. With such good luck, maybe you'll get a double experience bonus."
Xia Rui Bei was nearly scared to tears by Ruan Nan Zhu.
Li Dongyuan helplessly stopped Ruan Nan Zhu from frightening Xia Rui Bei further. It wouldn't be good to really scare the poor girl out of her wits.
Ruan Nan Zhu snuggled up to Lin Qiu Shi and pretended to cry, saying why don't you care about me being scared.
Li Dongyuan: "..." Are you even scared? I feel like you're braver than me.
"I need to use the bathroom," Ruan Nan Zhu suddenly said as the three were walking out. "Linlin, come with me."
Li Dongyuan said, "Let's all go together."
Lin Qiu Shi wondered why his friend was so nervous. Could he know that Ruan Nan Zhu could actually use the men's room with him? Fortunately the stalls in the school bathrooms had locks, otherwise Ruan Nan Zhu's disguise might really have been exposed.
The four arrived outside the bathrooms. Xia Rui Bei and Ruan Nan Zhu entered the women's restroom while Lin Qiu Shi and Li Dongyuan went into the men's.
After Lin Qiu Shi entered a stall and was about to pull down his pants, he heard a knock on his bathroom door. He was about to say, Li Dongyuan, why are you knocking on my door, when he suddenly felt something was off... Li Dongyuan had entered the stall to his right, so why was the knock coming from the left?
"Yu Linlin," Li Dongyuan's voice rang out. "Is there any writing on your wall?"
Hearing this, Lin Qiu Shi was stunned to discover that there really were several lines of words written on the wall behind him in white. But after reading those words clearly, the hair on Lin Qiu Shi's back stood on end.
He saw that written on the white wall in red letters were several lines: Zo-chan has always laughably called herself Zo since she was little. She loves bananas but can only eat half each time, poor thing. Now that Zo-chan has gone far away, she's probably forgotten me already, how lonely...
And the last line of the text contained those forbidden words that could not be read aloud: My legs are gone, can I have yours?
"Do you see it?" Li Dongyuan asked.
Staring at the words, Lin Qiu Shi was silent for a moment before replying, "I'm sorry, I actually can't read."
Li Dongyuan on the left: "..."
Lin Qiu Shi: "I'm from a poor family so never got schooling. I only recognize a couple big characters. Want me to come out so you can see for yourself?"
There was no more sound from the other side. Lin Qiu Shi guessed that whatever was trying to get him to read those lines was shocked by his illiteracy.
Still, Lin Qiu Shi didn't dare continue using the bathroom. He hurried out of the stall, only to see the other three already waiting outside.
"What took you so long?" Ruan Nan Zhu asked him.
"Kidney problems?" Li Dongyuan smiled at Lin Qiu Shi, attacking him personally.
Lin Qiu Shi ignored him. "How long was I in there?"
Ruan Nan Zhu checked his watch: "About fifteen minutes."
Lin Qiu Shi sighed. "I met Zo-chan inside just now."
Hearing this, the expressions of all three people froze for a moment, especially Xia Rui Bei. Her already taut nerves seemed about to snap. She shrank back several steps in terror: "Zo-chan? The Zo-chan from the clues?"
"Yes," Lin Qiu Shi said. "She imitated Li Dongyuan's voice to try to get me to read the words on the wall. If not for the clue's warning, I might have really read them."
"Let's go take a look," Ruan Nan Zhu said.
The four re-entered the men's bathroom. Despite her extreme fear, Xia Rui Bei also felt somewhat embarrassed. Ruan Nan Zhu, on the other hand, showed no discomfort at all - after all, this was where he belonged.
Lin Qiu Shi found the stall he had used. But when he opened the door, he discovered the white walls were now completely covered with densely packed red palm prints, obscuring the words he had seen earlier. The blood stains were even more obvious in the stall to the left, with a thin layer of blood accumulated on the floor, as if a severely injured person had stayed there for a long time.
"Wait, I suddenly remember!" Seeing the blood, Xia Rui Bei's eyes widened. "That female student who entered the archives was limping!!"
Hearing about the limp, they immediately thought of Zo-chan's missing leg.
"She was walking with a limp, I didn't pay attention then... Now that I think about it..." Xia Rui Bei's whole body shook even harder.
"Let's go," Ruan Nan Zhu said. "Now that we know the specific conditions, just don't read it aloud."
At times like this, the importance of clues was evident. Without the advance warning, it would be very difficult not to fall prey. The most tragic outcome was possibly dying without even understanding what had happened. And this Zo-chan even knew to destroy evidence...
The four left the archives. The not-too-intense sunlight outside dispelled some of the lingering chill.
"What now? Go find that third year student?" Lin Qiu Shi asked.
"Let me check..." Ruan Nan Zhu took something out of his jacket. Looking closely, Lin Qiu Shi discovered it was the class photo Ruan Nan Zhu had taken from the archives.
Lin Qiu Shi: "When did you take that?" He had been standing next to Ruan Nan Zhu the whole time and hadn't noticed him stealing the photo.
Ruan Nan Zhu: "Just now."
Lin Qiu Shi: "..." He was wondering if Ruan Nan Zhu was actually a thief in real life, since he could pick locks and was so skilled at pilfering things.
But it was as if Ruan Nan Zhu knew what he was thinking. Without raising his head, he said, "I'm not a thief."
Lin Qiu Shi: "Oh..."
Looking at the photo under the sunlight, the dim colors and stiff expressions of the people seemed even more bizarre. Ruan Nan Zhu held it and examined it for a while, then suddenly asked, "Can you see it?"
Lin Qiu Shi: "See what?"
Ruan Nan Zhu said, "The fog around their faces."
After scrutinizing the photo carefully, Lin Qiu Shi shook his head to indicate he couldn't see any fog.
"Oh, then nevermind," Ruan Nan Zhu stopped talking.
Li Dongyuan, however, had a thoughtful look on his face.
After all that activity in the archives, it was noontime again. They could go eat something at the cafeteria and discuss what to do in the afternoon.
While eating, Lin Qiu Shi kept an eye out to see if they would encounter that third year student again, but the low probability event did not occur again.
Xia Rui Bei still had no appetite after not eating all morning.
Li Dongyuan tried to persuade her to eat a few more times, but she stubbornly refused to eat a single bite. He was about to give up.
On the other hand, Ruan Nan Zhu was eating with relish. After finishing his own food, he coyly got Li Dongyuan to buy him two more chicken legs.
"I want chicken too!" Xia Rui Bei, who originally had no intention of eating, suddenly said. Facing Li Dongyuan who was getting up, she said, "Brother Meng, I want three!"
Ruan Nan Zhu: "Then I want four."
Xia Rui Bei: "I want five!"
Ruan Nan Zhu: "I want six."
Xia Rui Bei gritted her teeth, her eyes red, and stubbornly said, "I want seven--"
Lin Qiu Shi: "..." What exactly are you two competing over? Also, Ruan Nan Zhu, isn't it a bit unfair for a grown man to compete with a young girl over stomach capacity...
Li Dongyuan looked helpless: "Can you finish that many?"
Ruan Nan Zhu: "Even if it's double that amount, I can finish it all. But I don't want to eat too much either. I'm afraid I'll get fat." He deliberately glanced at Xia Rui Bei's waist.
Xia Rui Bei was nearly angered into fainting by Ruan Nan Zhu. Furious, she retorted: "I can finish them! I'm not afraid of getting fat!!"
Li Dongyuan was at a loss for words. He got up to buy chicken legs for the two.
A few minutes later, Ruan Nan Zhu and Xia Rui Bei picked up their chicken legs and started eating. The chicken legs from the school cafeteria were actually quite tasty, braised till tender and juicy, with abundant meat juices and a unique fragrant spice flavor.
Xia Rui Bei hadn't eaten all day and was actually somewhat hungry now. Gnawing on the chicken leg whetted her appetite, allowing her to gulp down four legs in one go. She barely stuffed down the fifth, then stared anxiously at the two remaining, wondering what to do.
Ruan Nan Zhu leisurely finished four chicken legs. Picking up the fifth, he elegantly ate it, then waved the bone at Lin Qiu Shi and said, "Can't eat anymore."
Seeing this, Xia Rui Bei also quietly breathed a sigh of relief. In a small voice she said, "Brother Meng, I can't eat anymore either."
"It's fine," Li Dongyuan said. "I'll take care of the rest." He had been worried that Ruan Nan Zhu would continue provoking Xia Rui Bei until her stomach burst. He hadn't expected that Ruan Nan Zhu actually knew when to stop.
After finishing the chicken legs and wiping his hands clean, Ruan Nan Zhu suggested they go see where the third year students had classes.
Everyone agreed.
So the few set off towards the teaching building.
Ruan Nan Zhu was still scrutinizing that strange group photo, seeming to have discovered some clues in it. But no matter how Lin Qiu Shi looked, he couldn't see the black fog that Ruan Nan Zhu mentioned... It was just like how they couldn't hear the sounds Lin Qiu Shi was able to hear.
"Looks like they're in class," Lin Qiu Shi said upon arriving below the teaching building and hearing a teacher lecturing upstairs.
"Aren't their final exams coming up soon?" Ruan Nan Zhu suddenly recalled. "How many days until the final exams?"
"Don't know, have to ask." Lin Qiu Shi shook his head.
At this time, there were still more than ten minutes until the end of class. The four wandered around the building for a bit. Most of the third year classes, both liberal arts and science tracks, were distributed over four to five floors in this building, comprising a total of sixteen classes.
Before the end of class, they found Class 33 of Senior Year 3, the classroom where the student from the photo was.
The four waited outside for a while until class finally ended.
When the teacher left, Ruan Nan Zhu directly strode into the classroom making a beeline for his target.
Seeing Ruan Nan Zhu, the student clearly recalled their chance encounter at the cafeteria yesterday. His expression became somewhat nervous.
"Can I talk with you for a bit?" Ruan Nan Zhu said.
"Talk about what?" The student's attitude was very wary.
"Here in the classroom?" Ruan Nan Zhu looked around.
With such a dazzling beauty, all eyes in the class were focused on the two.
The student pursed his lips, his expression extremely tense as he stood up and said, "Let's talk outside." He added, "I don't know anything."
The four followed the student to a small balcony at the end of the corridor. Ruan Nan Zhu asked, "Do you mind telling us your name?"
"My name is Jiang Xinhong," the student said. "Just ask me directly what you want. I have class soon."
"We're investigating something about your class," Ruan Nan Zhu cut straight to the chase, directly taking out the photo they had found in the archives. "We'd like to ask, who's the missing person in this photo?"
When Jiang Xinhong saw the photo with just a glance, his complexion greatly changed. "Where did you find this stuff?"
Ruan Nan Zhu raised an eyebrow. "Is there something special about this photo?"
Jiang Xinhong didn't say a word, but from the depths of his eyes, Lin Qiu Shi saw a kind of fear, as if the photo before him was not a photo but some evil spirit seeking his life. He swallowed heavily, his voice trembling, "I don't know what you mean."
"The literal meaning," Li Dongyuan suddenly spoke up. His tone was extremely calm as he said, "We don't mean to make things difficult for you either. We just want to ask clearly, who exactly is missing from the photo, what is that person's name?"
Jiang Xinhong stared at the photo without speaking. But his footsteps unconsciously retreated back a step.
"Don't you want this to end sooner?" Li Dongyuan's voice was soft, like a devil seducing one to open Pandora's box, carrying an irresistible charm. "Go ahead and say it, just say it and it'll be fine. You're afraid too, aren't you?"
Jiang Xinhong's lips quivered slightly as he uttered out a name: "Lu Zuo Zi."
Li Dongyuan: "Lu Zuo Zi?"
"Yes, it's her," Jiang Xinhong said. "A person who should never have existed in our class..."
Just as he was about to continue speaking, the bell suddenly rang signaling the start of next period. The sound jolted him awake, making him realize what he had said. His expression was filled with terror as he turned and fled without any more regard for Li Dongyuan's words.
Watching his retreating figure, Li Dongyuan looked helpless. "Almost had it."
"Yes, almost," Ruan Nan Zhu gave Li Dongyuan a profound look. "What a pity."