Chapter 3: Drudgery and Epiphanies
The glare the librarian had given him when he had asked for the location of the archives of yearbooks and school papers left him with a headache. It seemed classes weren't over for the day, but Liu Rong was searching for clues and not in class. His future as a delinquent student was all but guaranteed between that teacher and the librarian. He thanked the stars that this little debut as a student was only ten days long at the most. Hopefully, he could figure out the mystery behind Li Hong sooner and get out of this irritating flashback to high school.
On the one hand, searching through the archives instead of going to class would get this done so much quicker. However, on the other, he might run into the typical issues a delinquent student usually had like detention or suspension. Hopefully, this school was like his prior one and favored written self-reflections over suspension.
Being unable to investigate due to the school censuring him would be a poor start to his life as a Tasker. Liu Rong didn't even want to think about the consequences of not fulfilling a task due to acting inappropriately, considering that warning on the usage of violence to solve the mystery. And that wasn't even mentioning what the other Taskers like Luo Yanmei might do to him if he caused trouble during the task. They already thought he was an idiot, he didn't need them thinking him to be too stupid to live and taking it into their own hands.
He had definitely read enough novels to know just how unstable people doing tasks or missions like this could get, and he didn't want to be someone's first victim just because he didn't go to classes like he was supposed to. Now, if only he could find some information on Li Hong to make this little adventure worthwhile.
Liu Rong had been going through the archived school papers for what would have been the start of their first school year for the current third year students until the end of it but had no luck so far in finding anything on Li Hong. The school yearbook for that year showed no signs of her presence which was a little unusual for someone as popular as a school flower, even one who had committed suicide. It could be considered as the school covering up the incident though. It always looked bad nowadays when there was a suicide at a school with all of the new preventions being put into place to make sure they didn't occur.
Paging through the spring months, Liu Rong finally found something of note. There was a small article from April about a Li Hong who won an award for calligraphy with a matching small photo of a beautiful but sickly looking female student. The caption was simple, "Li Hong, 1st Place, Regional Calligraphy Contest", and gave him a face to match the name.
Looking at the photo more closely, it was easy to see just how she became the school flower in her first year of high school. She was beautiful like dolls were. Her looks matched the aesthetics of anyone preferring the pure type while also matching those who liked protecting others with her too slim figure showing slight signs of illness. Her wane figure and the tailored fit of her uniform showed that it was most likely a chronic illness she dealt with.
Between her beauty and sickly demeanor that must leave men falling over themselves to protect her, it was easy to see just how she ended up as the school flower. But Liu Rong didn't know what it was about the picture that was nagging at him. She was beautiful and sickly, that was easy to see. What was he missing that his subconscious picked up on?
Sighing, he scanned through the article's contents, figuring that his subconscious would eventually let him know what he was missing if it was important enough. Unfortunately, the article didn't have anything other than the picture that was helpful. It was just a short summary over the contest, Li Hong's entry, and congratulations for her. He would just have to hope that there were more articles in the next few months, although that was unlikely by itself considering Li Hong committed suicide in her first year.
By the time Liu Rong got to June's articles, he was giving up hope that he would find anything else. Yet staring out at him was an article, "Confession Letters: Conveyors of Love or Death", in an out of place side column squeezed into the paper. The article summed up the problems of confession letters leading to strange deaths that may or may not be as accidental as they seemed.
This student urges all students to quit writing confession letters in favor of confessing in other manners if you cannot prevent yourself from confessing at all. Any student who has sent a confession letter seems to be targeted by a malicious force, leading to their death. Already 13 students have fallen victim to this curse…
The article continued to expound on the lethality of writing a confession letter even without sending it out, how to confess without using confession letters, and the many strange deaths of those 13 students who fell victim to it. Liu Rong didn't know how this article managed to squeeze itself into the paper, but he was definitely going to take advantage of it.
His amber eyes traced the title before dipping below to see the author's name, "Yang Zhiyue". If this Yang Zhiyue was still a student, then he could easily be tracked down for more detailed information. And if he wasn't, then Liu Rong would just have to see if there were any boundaries keeping him isolated in the school area before he went wandering around looking for recent graduates of the same name.
A quick scan through the few weeks of papers left of the school year showed no other signs of Li Hong or her ghost. Li Hong's death would be dated sometime before June judging by the contents of the article he just read, so he had a basic timeline. She was still alive in April when she was in the paper for winning the calligraphy contest, but she was dead by the time June rolled around. Her ghost had most likely also left behind 13 victims by then as well.
Gathering the two articles he had found, Liu Rong shot up from his seat before sitting back down just as quickly. He might have found information on Li Hong, but now he had to go back through all those papers for information on Yang Zhiyue to see if he could find the guy.
Sighing deeply, he gathered himself together and prepared to dive back into the past articles.
Groaning wearily and stretching out his tired body, Liu Rong unhappily considered his findings. This Yang Zhiyue appeared rarely as the author of articles on all sorts of occult or superstitious topics. Was he even part of the newspaper club with how few articles he had written?
Suddenly a voice sounded in the quiet of the library, "The library is closing in five minutes," resounded over the intercom in the strict tones of the librarian he had met earlier.
Looking around, he saw through the windows that the sky had already darkened for the night. Feeling the grumbling of his stomach, it must be past dinner time as well.
Did he even know where his dorm was? He had appeared in the middle of class, and he hadn't found a dorm key, unless… Ah, even for a character, this student was similar enough to him, putting his dorm key in the inner pocket of his blazer.
According to the key, his dorm number was 317. An odd choice of room number for a first year student. Most dorms had first years on the first floor, second years on the second floor, and so on. A thought niggled at the back of his mind, Maybe the system sets up accomodation with other Taskers?
It would certainly prevent any other students or teachers from getting caught up in their task, which seemed to be a priority for the system if its violence warning was any clue. But thinking about it more, most dorms were four to a room at least. There were only three male and female student characters each for Taskers and a teacher certainly wouldn't be rooming with them.
So maybe it was just that the typical organization was flipped for this dorm. He would be able to see which it was soon enough anyways. Liu Rong had, by this stage in his thoughts, already slipped quietly out of the library with the accompanying articles mentioning Li Hong or Yang Zhiyue. Sneaking out to avoid the librarian was his best bet to avoid them getting confiscated.
He pulled out the handbook to follow the map to the boys' dorms, enjoying the faint breeze easing up the muggy summer weather. His student ID had been in a wallet, so he pulled that out to check if he had any cash to buy something for dinner from the market he saw on the map on his way to the dorm. Seeing a meager amount in it, Liu Rong figured he could get a sandwich or something similarly cheap to knock the edge off his hunger but that was it.
It looked like he would have to go to classes regularly or he'd be dragged out of the student cafeteria for disciplinary action when he was trying to eat. There just wasn't enough money in his wallet to get by buying food from the student market.
Passing under a flickering streetlight, Liu Rong caught sight of the market just before they were about to close and rushed in to buy a sandwich and some chips. Thank god for cheaply priced food for students.
He started eating while walking despite the bad manners of it as he headed towards the nearby boys' dorm. The sandwich was dry and the chips too salty, but that was to be expected of cheap food. At least it was filling enough.
Finishing off the last chip, he scrunched up the empty plastic and threw it in a convenient trash can lining the road. He had forgotten just how many trash cans tended to line school campuses.
Walking along the paved path to his dorm, he saw two silhouettes in the dim lighting of the street lights. A shorter teen was reclining against the dorm walls while what looked to be a girl bounced around him. As he got closer, he identified them as the Taskers he had met earlier: Meng Luli and Xiao Yongrui.
Liu Rong couldn't help but overhear their conversation either as Meng Luli tried to coax Xiao Yongrui into talking. "Xiao Rui, what's the point in staying out here instead of going to your dorm room and sleeping? We'll meet up with the other Taskers tomorrow after school. There's no point in waiting to ambush them for information here."
Xiao Rui, what kind of cutesy nickname was that for such a dark person. That glowering look on his face had made Liu Rong want to retreat a few steps if not for the look not being directed at any specific person like himself.
"Not them. That fluffy haired guy stayed in the library all day. He must've found something," Xiao Yongrui said shortly.
Fluffy haired guy… must be talking about Liu Rong himself. How did he know that he'd been in the library all day?
Sighing, Meng Luli grumbled, "You already ambushed Gao Yiqin to see if he'd gotten anything out of those first year female students, and now you're going to ambush the other guy just because Gao Yiqin said he'd been in the library all day! Can't you wait until tomorrow? I could be in my nice, warm bed right now."
"Why aren't you?" Xiao Yongrui asked, looking annoyed at her persistence.
Seeing that Meng Luli was about to blow up at Xiao Yongrui, Liu Rong stepped forward and said, "Ahem, if you want to, we can share information now, but it will have to be quick." Pointing at the clock near the dorm's entrance, Liu Rong finished by saying, "The school handbook made it clear that students were to be in their dorms by nine, and it's already past eight."
Meng Luli looked faintly surprised at his entrance, but Xiao Yongrui just tilted his head back to stare into Liu Rong's eyes without any sense of surprise at all. He must've noticed when Liu Rong got close enough to eavesdrop on their conversation.
"Li Hong supposedly jumped off the female dorms, but she wasn't staying in those dorms. Her family donated a new science wing to get her a single room in the teacher's dorms just in case her illness flared up. No one named what her illness was, but it was serious and chronic apparently. She's connected to the female dorms, but the connection to confession letters and deaths would more likely have her at the male dorms to answer a confession letter," Xiao Yongrui reported clearly and concisely in a brisk tone. "Your turn."
"Li Hong died between April and June. She won a calligraphy contest in mid-April, and by late-June she had both died and likely killed 13 victims who wrote confession letters as a ghost. A student named Yang Zhiyue probably has more information on the latter as he wrote the article about it in the school paper. The school is covering something up since she wasn't in the school yearbook. Yang Zhiyue is likely still a student since I found articles written this year by him about occult topics and supernatural occurrences," Liu Rong reported in a similar tone to Xiao Yongrui.
Meng Luli looked between the two Taskers wondering if it would have killed them to actually discuss the topic instead of just reporting the relevant information. Then the two annoyed her even more as they both turned to head up the stairs to enter the boys' dorm without saying another word.
"Xiao Rui, where do you think you're going?" she yelled.
"It's almost curfew. You should hurry to your dorm too. I'm going to bed," he said lazily, seeming much more relaxed after hearing that formal style of report. "I've gotten all the information I can today."
Liu Rong's head suddenly perked up as if he had remembered something important. "Ah, there was one other thing," he said, pulling out the April article. "The calligraphy contest article had a picture of her."
Tilting the picture until the boy next to him on the stairs leading to the boys' dorm could see it, Liu Rong brought up the niggling feeling he'd had earlier in the day, "Something about this picture bothers me, but I can't think of what. Any ideas?"
Liu Rong's appreciation of smart people had long since overcome the slight fear he'd had over the dark looks Xiao Yongrui was capable of. In his mind, smart people were allowed a multitude of quirks and eccentricities.
"Li Hong is wearing the girls' uniform a bit strangely. Is that it?" Xiao Yongrui asked after thoroughly examining the photo to memorize her figure for future sightings of her ghost.
Liu Rong quickly turned to Meng Luli to examine the way she was wearing the uniform. Her annoyed look started to fade into slight embarrassment at the thorough examination given to her that reminded her of how Xiao Yongrui had just dissected the figure in the photo.
"Huh," Liu Rong managed to get out. "I didn't expect the school flower to actually be the school grass."
"What!?" Meng Luli exclaimed in surprise. However, the two boys didn't give her any further attention as they headed into the dorms ready to go to sleep and end this day.
The bubbly girl grunted in exasperation at this typical occurrence from Xiao Yongrui being matched by that fluffy haired idiot. Having to deal with two low EQ idiots during this task would be hell she decided before flouncing off to her own dorm. She was going to get in her nice, warm bed and enjoy a good night's sleep before she was dragged into any more idiocy and shocking proclamations.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone