As soon as they entered, Fang Ruiyang’s anger, suppressed the entire way, finally erupted completely.
He whipped around, grabbed Lin Wen by the collar, and slammed him against the dust-covered wall.
“Bang!”
“Do you fucking know what you just did?!” Fang Ruiyang’s eyes were bloodshot. Though his voice was pressed very low, his fury was unmistakable. “You just sent her off to be that monster’s food!”
Lin Wen’s back hit the brick wall, and he sucked in a sharp breath from the pain.
He gripped Fang Ruiyang’s wrist tightly. “Fang Ruiyang, are you insane? Didn’t you see the NPC’s eyes? If you’d talked back one more time, what if it triggered the death condition?!”
“The system named Shen Ning, so it’s just her bad luck! She’s the one who triggered the death condition! One of her dying is better than all of us being wiped out, isn’t it?!”
“Bullshit!” Fang Ruiyang raised his fist to strike.
“Enough.”
Xu Jixing stepped forward and grabbed Fang Ruiyang’s arm.
His strength was surprisingly great, and he forcibly stopped Fang Ruiyang’s movement.
Xu Jixing pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose; the lenses reflected a cold light under the dim bulb. “Fang Ruiyang, you want to be a hero, but you can’t gamble with all of our lives.”
“You…”
Fang Ruiyang shook off Xu Jixing’s hand, his chest heaving violently, but in the end he gritted his teeth and let go of Lin Wen.
He slumped over to the bedside and sat down.
Fu Songcheng, who had been watching coldly the whole time, did not join their argument.
He silently walked to the corner and opened the pink suitcase labeled “Zhang Xinci.”
Lin Wen, his face dark, said, “Everyone check your own stuff. The NPC held back a few suitcases—it’s definitely not as simple as them kindly helping us carry our luggage.”
Fu Songcheng crouched down, his gaze falling on the combination lock of the pink suitcase.
The edges of the lock showed obvious signs of violent prying. Although it had ultimately been forced back into place, a trace of dark brown grime was lodged in the gap.
He entered the code provided by the system and flipped the lock open. With a click, the suitcase popped open.
The clothes inside still maintained their folded arrangement; at first glance, nothing seemed to be missing.
But Fu Songcheng’s eyes were sharp—he immediately sensed something was wrong.
He reached out and picked up the topmost piece of clothing, a pure white girl’s T-shirt.
On the originally clean garment, several extremely faint gray-black fingerprint marks were clearly stamped.
Not just this one—the jacket, trousers, and even the undergarments below all had a thin layer of dust on their surfaces, emitting an indescribable sour stench resembling some kind of animal grease mixed with dirt.
Something—or rather, some “person”—had taken these clothes out one by one, carefully handled and rubbed them, then folded them and put them back.
Fu Songcheng suppressed the disgust in his heart, pushed the clothes aside, and unzipped the toiletry bag at the bottom.
He took out the shampoo and body wash.
These two bottles of toiletries should have been full, but now, holding them in his hand, their weight was noticeably lighter by a third. There was even a trace of dried foam residue at the bottle openings.
“My things have been tampered with.”
Fu Songcheng lowered his eyes, perfectly letting a trace of a girl’s characteristic terror and helplessness enter his voice. “The clothes are covered in gray handprints. My body wash and shampoo—half of it’s gone.”
Hearing Fu Songcheng’s words, the others’ expressions also turned extremely ugly.
Lü Jia looked displeased. “The protein powder I brought was opened by someone. More than half of it is missing.”
Xu Jixing held a razor in his hand, his voice cold as ice. “My razor has been used.”
At the thought of that nauseating greasiness on the villagers’ bodies, Fu Songcheng immediately felt as if his suitcase were filled with viruses.
“Don’t touch anything inside. Who knows what they smeared on it.”
Xu Jixing made a decisive call, tossing the razor into the trash bin. “Tonight we all sleep in our outer clothes. Stay alert. We’ll take turns keeping watch.”
The next hour was extremely long and agonizing.
The wind outside grew louder and louder, as if countless ghosts were whimpering outside the window.
No one spoke. Everyone sat on their own bed, staring at that flimsy wooden door.
Lin Wen huddled on the innermost bed, his body trembling uncontrollably.
Fang Ruiyang, on the other hand, gripped an iron rod he had removed from the bed frame, staring motionlessly at the doorway.
Fu Songcheng closed his eyes to rest, but his mind kept replaying everything that had happened tonight.
Why did Li Guoping take Shen Ning away?
If his primary target was “Zhang Xinci,” then was Shen Ning being called away a certain death trap, or the trigger of some kind of story line?
Just as everyone was about to be driven mad by that dead silence—
“Rumble… rumble…”
A heavy, dragging sound slowly came from the muddy road in the distance.
The sound of suitcase wheels rolling over gravel seemed extremely jarring in this deathly silent village.
Everyone’s nerves instantly tensed. Fang Ruiyang shot to his feet, gripping the iron rod in his hand.
The sound grew closer and closer, finally stopping outside their dormitory door.
“Knock, knock.”
Two extremely faint knocks on the door.
Fang Ruiyang and Xu Jixing exchanged a glance. Xu Jixing nodded.
Fang Ruiyang took a deep breath, carefully walked to the door, and peered outside through the crack.
He quickly drew the door bolt open.
Standing outside the door was Shen Ning.
She was still alive.
Except that at this moment, Shen Ning looked as if she had just crawled out of hell.
Her originally neat clothes had become somewhat disheveled, and her hair had come loose, covering most of her face.
Her face was as white as a sheet of paper without a trace of blood, her eyes hollow and unfocused, as if she had lost all ability to focus.
Behind her, Li Guoping held that kerosene lamp, half his body hidden in the darkness.
“Still not asleep, teachers?”
Li Guoping grinned, revealing that mouthful of disgusting yellow teeth. His gaze passed over Shen Ning and swept faintly around the room. “Teacher Shen and I were reviewing the teaching materials. She worked very earnestly. I’m very satisfied.”
He deliberately emphasized the word “satisfied,” making everyone’s hair stand on end.
“Alright, Teacher Shen, go inside and rest. Remember what I told you just now.” Li Guoping patted Shen Ning’s shoulder.
Shen Ning’s body gave a violent shudder, but she made no sound. She merely dragged her suitcase woodenly into the room.
“See you tomorrow, teachers.”
Li Guoping smiled at the room, then turned and left with the kerosene lamp.
It wasn’t until that dim yellow light had completely vanished from sight that Fang Ruiyang slammed the door shut with a “bang” and firmly threw the bolt.
“Shen Ning! How are you? Are you hurt?”
Fang Ruiyang immediately rushed forward, anxiously asking, “What did the principal take you to the office to do? Did you manage to extract any new rules?”
Xu Jixing also walked over, his gaze fixed tightly on Shen Ning. “Shen Ning, we’re a team. If you obtained any key clues over there, or triggered any new death conditions, you have to tell us.”
Lin Wen hid in the corner, not daring to raise his head to look at Shen Ning at all.
Shen Ning stopped in her tracks.
She slowly raised her head, her gaze sweeping across Fang Ruiyang’s and Xu Jixing’s faces, and finally glanced at Lin Wen, who was hiding behind them.
The corner of her mouth twitched, as if she wanted to smile, but that expression was more despairing than crying.
Shen Ning’s voice was terribly hoarse, as if her throat were stuffed full of sand. “I don’t know anything. And I won’t say anything either.”
Leave a Reply