Chapter 52

Their homeroom Teacher Lu announced that class was over then walked out of the classroom.

Instantly, the originally quiet classroom became chaotic, and everyone started talking about this matter. Such a terrible thing had happened, so majority of the students didn’t want to continue staying in the dorm, and quickly ran to the office to find Teacher Lu and get a permission slip.

Qian Wenhao and Zhang Cheng came over to Lu Chu’s seat at the same time.

Zhang Cheng was very anxious, “Lu Chu, Li Bo, what do the both of you think? I’m not going to stay in the dorms for a while. Seeing the actual scene was really very scary. Now, my brain is filled with the images of that person’s death…… I feel as if I can’t sleep well even when I go home.”

Qian Wenhao echoed, “me too, I already want to go through the procedure and transfer from the dorm to travelling from home.”

Liu Yang was packing up his bag, heard their conversation, and asked, “you guys share a dorm, right?”

sorry to readers who use mtl translations or readers, but this is copy protection. Simply erase the parts that don’t match the original on the site for MTL.

“Yeah,” Zhang Cheng said, “what’s up?”

Liu Yang asked, “how many people are in your dorm? If the two of you leave, will there only be Lu Chu and Li Bo left?”

“Eh,” Zhang Cheng was surprised, and looked towards Lu Chu and Li Bo, “the two of you really are leaving?”

Lu Chu shook his head, “it’s not convenient for me to go back.”

Zhang Cheng heard what he said and said, “don’t, how can you sleep well at night if you stay in school? If you can’t go back, why don’t the both of you come stay at my place?”

Qian Wenhao immediately said that it would be okay to stay at his place too.

Seeing that all three of them were so enthusiastic, Lu Chu smiled and said, “it’s okay, there’ll definitely be more than the two of us in the school. And since something like this happened, the school might get some teachers to stay behind, and maybe there would be someone from the police here. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

see this? it’s a scrambled text.

Zhang Cheng and the rest tried to persuade them again, and when they saw that Lu Chu insisted on staying in the school, they stopped trying to convince the both of them, and only told him and 7 that in case anything happened, they shouldn’t forget to call their bros.

Lu Chu was slightly startled. He met eyes with 7, and instantly, the previous game came to his mind, when 7 had made a gentle smile as he fell down in front of him, stained with blood.

Lu Chu’s tablemate was called Liu Yang, and he was a slightly chubby teen. Liu Yang said, “what were you thinking about just now? Your mind kept wandering. I said, the new classmate looks quite good, just look, all our female classmates are all so excited.”

7 turned to look at him, “can I sit here?”

Lu Chu’s smile was as gentle as ever, “it’s an honour.”

7 took a book out and flipped the pages, letting out the slight sound of papers rustling. Lu Chu listened, and didn’t know why, but his heart relaxed a little, and he finally started to write, filling in what he needed to.

In the second half of the evening self-study session, Lu Chu took out a piece of paper, tore it into small pieces, wrote a couple of words on it, folded it, and pushed it onto 7’s table.

7 paused a little, and the contours of his face became softer. He reached out to open the note, and on it was Lu Chu’s words.

Once there weren’t as many people in the office, Lu Chu and 7 went in.

Zheng Wei was also in the office, helping the physics teacher at the next desk in organising some test papers.

Teacher Lu’s had a serious expression on her face, and after she thought for a moment, she looked at Lu Chu and 7 and asked, “the two of you really can’t return home?”

“En. It’s like this, Teacher,” Lu Chu politely explained, “our homes are located somewhere further away from here, and our parents are busy with work, so there’s nobody at home. With something like this happening, rather than taking a long ride back to sleep alone at home, it might feel safer to stay with everybody here in school.”

Teacher Lu thought for a moment and nodded, “okay. Other than the two of you, there’s a few other people in class who have families outside the city, and those that didn’t have time to get transportation to go back to home, will have to stay on campus for a while. The school has arranged several empty floors from the new dormitory buildings for those who couldn’t return home to stay in first. I won’t be going home today, and will stay with you guys. This will give your parents some assurance.”

Teacher Lu was a good and responsible teacher, and Lu Chu respecter her quite a bit, “thank you, Teacher.”

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“It’s nothing,” Teacher Lu said, “you guys can go back and tidy up your bed in the dorm, we’ll meet in front of the new dormitory, wait for the rest, then I’ll bring you guys to the temporarily dormitory rooms assigned by the school.”

7 said, “thank you, teacher. Then, we’ll go first.”

“Okay, you guys can go back first.”

After writing the word down, 7 was afraid that his tone would come off as too cold and indifferent, so he pulled back the note that he had pushed out, thought for a moment, and added a couple more strokes before returning the note to Lu Chu.

Lu Chu opened the note, looked at the solemn smiley face after the ‘okay’, and couldn’t help but smile.

They were obviously tablemates, yet the two of them happily passed notes to each other, enjoying this simple and mundane fun.

——————

Of course, the contents of the notes were nothing more than minor things about their daily lives and studies. As for things concerning the ‘rules’ and ‘games’, they couldn’t talk about them through paper, in order to prevent unnecessary troubles.

The dorm that 7 stayed in was a mixed dorm, with students from several classes. After Lu Chu and the rest returned, they helped 7 get ready his things in the dorm, before going to wash up. By the time they returned to their rooms, it was time for lights out.

Lu Chu said goodnight to 7 at the door, and when he returned to the dorm, he thought to himself, it was too bad that they weren’t in the same dorm, even if he lived next door, they were still separated by two doors.

Back at the dorm, Lu Chu and 7 weren’t surprised to find out that the stairs on the west side of the old male dorm had been sealed, and if they wanted to enter inside, they could only enter in from the east side.

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When they reached the third floor of the dorm, the two of them found that several rooms and the washroom on the west side of the floor were separated from the rest by a board.

“This to protect the scene?” Lu Chu was puzzled.

Wednesday’s morning self-study session was for English. The English class representative had written the requirements for today’s self-study on the blackboard early in the morning, and the students on duty that day got ready, then returned to their seats.

7 looked over, “it is to protect the scene, and continue the investigation.”

– Whoa, whoa! Lu Chu, did you know, the thing that I told you about yesterday, about Liu Qian’s dorm? All of them fell ill, every single one, a fever! It’s really too strange!!!

Lu Chu heard this, and was thoughtful.

Lu Chu was a little confused. He opened it, and discovered that it was Zhang Cheng’s handwriting.

They went back to their bedroom and cleaned up, stuffed their bed sheets, blankets and flattened their pillows to fit into the two suitcases, carried their toiletries and important belongings in their school bags, then went downstairs to the new dormitory to wait.

Lu Chu took out his English book, opened to the page number written on the blackboard, and just as he was about to start reciting, he realised out that there was an empty seat. He recalled for a moment, and remembered that it was Liu Qian’s seat; Zhang Cheng had mentioned her yesterday.

This newly built dormitory building was only completed last semester. Since it was newly constructed, it was placed aside for half a year, and would be prepared for the new students the next semester.

Now, because of someone’s bizarre death, the school opened the new building ahead of time.

Lu Chu and 7 waited downstairs for a while, and then three male and one female student came over with Teacher Lu carrying their luggage.

Amongst the boys, Zheng Wei wasn’t there. Seems like he chose to go home.

Seeing that everybody had arrived, Teacher Lu said, “those in other classes who need to stay have been led by their own homeroom teacher to their new dormitory. Just now, I reported the number of students from our class who needed to stay in school, and applied a bed for each of you. The first floor on the new dormitory building will be given to the boys who need to stay overnight, while the second floor will be for the girls. In a while, I’ll bring you guys to your own dormitory rooms.”

Teacher Lu paused for a moment, then her tone became more serious and said, “tonight, I hope that all of you would be able to stay in your dorms, and don’t leave your room after dinner. Because today’s matter… is really unusual, and since you’re staying in the school, the school must protect your safety. Additionally, I also applied to the school to stay here overnight, on the first dormitory room on the first floor, with the other teachers on duty. If you need anything, please come and find me directly.”

All of them nodded.

Then, Teacher Lu arranged the female student’s dorm first, then led the four boys to the dormitory room on the first floor.

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Teacher Lu told them, “there’s more boys from our class who stayed behind. Other classes only have one or two people, so they’re living together with people from other classes, while our class has five male students together in the same bedroom. You guys decide which bed to take by yourself, make your beds, and come to eat dinner in a while. Remember to return early, as the dormitory door will be locked by 7pm tonight.”

Lu Chu and 7 chose the same top bunk that they had in 318, and the other three boys also chose their own beds. There was a mattress on the bed, and everybody only needed to lay a thin mat down, and could sleep after placing their bedsheets.

After they set up everything, one of the boys said softly, “shall we go to dinner together?”

The other two quickly agreed, “sure!”

Everybody was very scared, but they had to stay in school due to several reasons, so, when people were afraid, they would want to huddle together.

Lu Chu and 7 looked at each other, and gave the rest a smile, “okay.”

After Lu Chu read it, he frowned and looked back, and saw Meng Yu, Zhang Cheng, Gao Shimeng, and Li Lan enthusiastically discussing something together. Speaking of enthusiasm, Meng Yu’s and Li Lan’s voice was a little too loud, and even started to cover the sound of whole class reciting the text, which caused their classmates to look at them again and again. This caused the class monitor, who liked to study, to speak loudly in class, “please carefully recite and memorise the text during morning self-study, and don’t whisper and talk!”

After everybody quickly ate their meal together, they returned to the new dorm, and sure enough, as Teacher Lu said, at 7pm, the dormitory door was locked.

“A high fever,” Zhang Cheng said in a fearful tone, “Meng Yu said that she saw Liu Qian on the way back to the dorm last night, and felt that she didn’t look that good, so after she washed up, she ran over to Liu Qian’s bedroom. But, she didn’t expect that everybody in the dorm didn’t look that good. Meng Yu had a thermometer, so they measured, and holy shit, all of them had a high fever. Look, nobody came to class this morning; all of them were sent to the hospital.”

Teacher Lu came over to check on their room, and after confirming that everybody was there, she said a few more words before going out.

“It’s really a common fever,” Zhang Cheng said, “last night, they alerted the dorm manager. At first, the dorm manager thought it was some sort of infectious disease, and told everybody to keep away. Then, they called the ambulance and rushed to the hospital at night. The dorm manager also followed them, and contacted their respective homeroom teachers and only returned the next morning. Meng Yu didn’t feel at ease, and didn’t sleep well the whole night, and specially went to the dorm manager to ask about it once the dorm manager returned. The dorm manager said that it was just a common fever, and simply found it a little strange that everybody in a dorm room would suddenly contract a high fever all at once.”

After Teacher Lu left, the boy who proposed that they should eat together said first, “that, why aren’t you guys going back?”

The other male student said, “I live quite far away, Xu Yuan, what about you?”

Xu Yuan, who was the boy that proposed that they eat together, replied, “of course, it’s the same for me too. I live in one of the neighbouring counties, so I have to take a roundabout in the middle. Teacher said that we were going to end early during the third lesson, and it was a little too late by then. Even if I take the first bus back home to the transfer station, there won’t be any transport left.” Saying that, he sighed, “if I can go back, who would want to stay here?”

“Yeah, in this situation, I don’t think there’ll be any classes tomorrow. I’m going to get up early, and catch the earliest bus home.”

Until here, Zhang Cheng started to whisper, “do you still remember the thing I told you about yesterday? The girls suspected that there was something unclean in their dormitory, now, the school’s given all of these girls a few days off, to let them stay at home to rest for a few days.”

The other two quickly said, “me too!”

When Xu Yuan saw that Lu Chu and 7 didn’t answer, he asked, “the two of you aren’t going back?”

“But this matter is really quite scary,” Qian Wenhao said, “it’s better to believe it than not to believe it, I think it’s time for me to burn some incense and pray to Buddha.”

“I don’t think we can go back tomorrow; it’ll have to be later.” Lu Chu didn’t say that he definitely wouldn’t go back.

After listening, before anything else was said, Qian Wenhao sighed, “Zhang Cheng, you really know a lot, don’t you?”

“So it’s like this,” Xu Yuan said, “it’s better if you guys can go back earlier.”

Lu Chu smiled, “en, I know. If we can, I want to go back as soon as possible.”

In order to ease the tension, Xu Yuan kept picking different topics to talk about.

As Lu Chu chatted with them, he continued to analyse the current situation in his mind. Now, he still didn’t know who the deceased was, and so, he wouldn’t be able to investigate many things, and could only continue to assume. Until now, Zheng Wei, who had been of a great concern to him this whole time, didn’t seem to have the time to commit the crime. During the time of the incident, he was lying on the bed during lunch break, and everybody in the dorm room could be a witness.

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Seems like he’s still far from the truth.

After chatting for a long time, they finally weren’t as afraid or worried, and climbed back onto their own bed to sleep.

In the middle of the night, Lu Chu heard a slight noise, and immediately woke up, only to see Xu Yuan stepping on his own bed, leaning against the head of his.

“Don’t,” Liu Yang, who had been listening and watching this whole time, couldn’t help but interrupt, “although it sounds really exciting, it’s a law-based society now. We’re the flowers of our country, and should have a heart for science. All the supernatural events in this world can be scientifically explained, if there’s something that we can’t explain, it’s simply because we haven’t discovered this ‘science’ yet.”

Lu Chu: “……”

7 had completed all the single-player tasks, this meant that 7 must have definitely gone through this game, and knew the beginning and end of this game, but Lu Chu didn’t directly ask him about what to prepare. Just like in the previous games, 7 had always been protecting him, guiding him, but he wouldn’t directly tell him the answers. The reason was simple, it was because 7 couldn’t guarantee that he would be around Lu Chu every single minute and second, so, he need to develop Lu Chu’s own abilities, and let him become stronger.

For a moment, Lu Chu thought he had been possessed by something, and instinctively wanted to kick him down, then, he heard Xu Yuan whisper and apologise, “Lu Chu, sorry to wake you up, but those two are sleeping like a pig and I couldn’t wake them up at all, and I don’t really dare to call Li Bo up. That, I just want to go to the toilet. You know, since something like this happened, I don’t dare to go alone, could you go with me……”

The gap between the railings was quite large, and their arms could freely reach across it. Lu Chu laid in bed and closed his eyes to rest, and he could hear the sound of 7 calmly breathing.

Lu Chu immediately let out a sigh of relief, “I’ll get up.”

In the second half of the evening self-study session, Lu Chu took out a piece of paper, tore it into small pieces, wrote a couple of words on it, folded it, and pushed it onto 7’s table.

“Also,” Xu Yuan was a little embarrassed, “now, my mine is filled with horror movies, and I won’t even dare to close the door while going to the toilet. Luckily, I’m just going for a small one, and there’s no need to enter the cubicle. So, could you, that…… that is…… could you wait for me at a place where I can see you……”

7 paused a little, and the contours of his face became softer. He reached out to open the note, and on it was Lu Chu’s words.

“……”

Now, Lu Chu understood why he was so embarrassed. Although boys usually stood next to each other when they go to the toilet, and didn’t think much of it, but Xu Yuan’s request for Lu Chu to watch him take his pants off and go to the toilet was a little embarrassing. Just as Lu Chu wanted to nod and agree, he saw 7 next to him suddenly sit up, put on his clothes and jump out of bed, then glanced at Xu Yuan and said in a calm tone, “I’ll go with you.”

With this glance, Xu Yuan felt his whole body tremble, and his body started to feel cold. Without even thinking, he shook his head and refused, “no, no! I’m old now, there’s nothing for me to be afraid of, I’ll go by myself!”

7 stayed silent, opened the dormitory door, stood to the side, and hinted with his gaze, come, I’ll go with you.

sorry to readers who use mtl translations or readers, but this is copy protection. Simply erase the parts that don’t match the original on the site for MTL.

Xu Yuan gave a bitter smile, and rejected a couple of times.

In the end, 7 waited for him in the corridor in front of the toilet.

When Xu Yuan came back from the toilet, he was half-running – he felt that the new student was scarier than a ghost.