บท 49: Sachiko
The air around the remaining people froze as the first sacrifices were taken from their team.
As the female newcomer looked at the sorry-state of this room, she tentatively asked whether they should be taking care of the corpse. Ruan Nanzhu shook his head and said, "No need. This corpse will be disappearing soon enough." After all, corpses vanishing in all sorts of ways was simply a norm within these door worlds. .
That lady seemed to fail to understand what he meant by 'will be disappearing soon enough'. She appeared to be in a state of great unease, for she was violently shivering from head to toe. However, she wasn't the only one who was afraid; the others' faces were also marred by unsightly expressions, and not a single person spoke.
Used to these happenings, Lin Qiushi appeared outwardly calmer. Xia Rubei's expression, however, had long turned pale. After one look at the corpse, she immediately entered her room and refused to come out regardless of how she was persuaded.
Seeing how timid she was, Lin Qiushi was curious about the methods she'd used to get through her three previous doors. Could it be that Li Dongyuan had taken her through all of them? But judging from Li Dongyuan's personality, he didn't look like someone who'd do a favour in return for nothing. Only, he didn't know what was so good about Xia Rubei that made him so willing to protect her.
"Let's go. Today, we should go take a look at the archives, and see whether we can find any information about Class 2 of the Third-Years." After he'd finished examining the corpse, Ruan Nanzhu suggested their schedule for today.
"That can be done." Li Dongyuan nodded his head.
And so, the four of them prepared to have breakfast in the canteen before heading towards the archives.
Xia Rubei's appetite was terrible, probably from having just seen a corpse. She left the food in front of her untouched, and her eyebrows never stopped furrowing in distaste.
Thankfully, Ruan Nanzhu appeared to be pondering over something at this moment, so he didn't pay her any heed; otherwise, they would surely be watching another round of drama between the two.
Having seen that Xia Rubei had lost her appetite, Li Dongyuan tried to convince her to eat, but faced with her persistent refusal, he had no choice but to give up with a sigh and assume she would eat whenever she was feeling hungry again.
The archive was located in a rather far corner of the school. There were a total of three floors in the entire archive, and from the looks of it, it was quite outdated,a s well. The manager was an old man over the age of sixty. Ruan Nanzhu interacted with him rather casually, and surprisingly, he didn't stop them; rather, he gave the four of them permission to enter the archives to look for information.
A mouldy stench that had accumulated over the years, filling the entire archive, was enough to make one feel extremely suffocated. Xia Rubei began coughing softly after she'd just entered, causing Li Dongyuan to inquire about her well-being.
"I think I am allergic to dust." Xia Rubei said with great difficulty.
"Then you could wait outside." Li Dongyuan didn't force her.
Xia Rubei happily nodded her head. The lights in the archives were dim, and towering shelves filled with records decorated the entire room. It was a frightening view to see from the outside, let alone from the inside . Xie Rubei was, naturally, happy that she didn't have to follow them in; Li Dongyuan reminded her to sit still near the doorway, and said that they would be coming out as quickly as possible.
As the three of them headed inside, Ruan Nanzhu smirked and remarked , "Wouldn't have expected that the leader of the White Deer would be such a kind gentleman towards girls."
"Mengmeng, are you jealous?" Li Dongyuan's lips curved upwards into a smile as he looked at Ruan Nanzhu.
Ruan Nanzhu: "Not to the point of jealousy. I am only curious. What is so attractive about this Xia Rubei, that you'd spoil her so."
Li Dongyuan didn't plan to give an answer, he only smiled and responded, "You really are jealous."
Since he refused to give an answer, Ruan Nanzhu no longer asked. He turned around and went into the archive.
The archives were arranged in chronological order. After some time was spent searching, they quickly found the information regarding the Third-Year students of Class 2 from three years ago. Those same students were only First-Years when they had just enrolled in the school.
Ruan Nanzhu reached out to take the files that belonged to them. He flipped open the first page and saw a group photo with black letters written in charcoal on the back that said, "Second-Year Class 2."
"I've found it." Ruan Nanzhu announced. "This is their group photo."
Lin Qiushi leaned in close to Ruan Nanzhu and saw the photo in his hand.
This photo was rather ordinary; there was nothing special about it. The group of students in the photo looked young and tender, with teachers of all subjects standing on both sides of the crowd.
Ruan Nanzhu observed, "There's a total of thirty-four people in their class…" He suddenly furrowed his brows, "Something doesn't feel right about the photo."
On the contrary, Lin Qiushi didn't find anything wrong about it, but since Ruan Nanzhu had said those words, then he must have found something odd. But, as of this very moment, they couldn't exactly figure out what it was.
"Wait…" Lin Qiushi suddenly discovered something amiss, and he said, "Thirty-four people? But there are only thirty-three in this photo."
Everyone was neatly arranged into a total of three rows, with eleven people making up one row. At a glance, one could clearly see the total number of students in this class.
"That's right, it's the number of people!" Ruan Nanzhu agreed. "There are thirty-four biographies listed here, so where is the remaining one?"
Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu exchanged glances and found the same expression in each other's eyes. Obviously, they had both guessed that the missing person was Satchan.
"The general information of the students should be listed." Li Dongyuan took the files over and began to meticulously flip through them. He promptly found the student's biography, "…This page was torn off by someone."
There should have been thirty-four pages of biographies, but at this moment there were only thirty-three present. One of the pages had been torn off, just like that person who was missing from the photo.
"I've seen this person before." Ruan Nanzhu suddenly pointed at someone in the photo.
"Seen before?" Lin Qiushi was startled by his comment.
"Don't you remember?" Ruan Nanzhu said, "The Third-Year student we met yesterday at the canteen ."
Naturally, Lin Qiushi remembered him. "But isn't he from Third-Year Class 3?"
Ruan Nanzhu added, "Of course he is from Third-Year Class 3. It's already a problem that Third-Year Class 2 exists wtihin this school."
Lin Qiushi: "Are you saying that everyone in Third-Year Class 2 is dead?"
Ruan Nanzhu: "Possibly."
Since that person wasn't dead, then it proved that he was exception or had done something out of the ordinary to escape from that fate. And this was an extremely important clue.
The three of them looked around for a while, wanting to see whether there were other clues.
As they bowed their heads, looking through the information, Lin Qiushi heard the sound of footsteps coming from the adjacent shelf. At first, he'd thought it was Xia Rubei and had even called her name, but no sooner, he realized something wasn't quite right because these footsteps were not rhythmic. Rather, what he heard was a very soft thump thump thump…. the very same sound of someone jumping that he'd previously heard in the school building.
Lin Qiushi reached out to grab ahold of Ruan Nanzhu's hand and jerked his chin to gesture in that direction.
Ruan Nanzhu obviously did not hear that sound, but from the looks of Lin Qiushi's expression, he understood that the other had noticed something.
"Let's go now," urged Lin Qiushi. "We've practically looked at everything."
Li Dongyuan appeared to have something to say, but Ruan Nanzhu hushed him with a gesture. As realization dawned on him, he said, "Alright."
The three of them placed down the files and began walking towards the entrance.
After taking a few steps, the bulky shelf behind them suddenly fell heavily upon where they had just been standing.
This alarming crash caught the attention of the manager. He grew extremely angry upon seeing the shelf that had fallen down and he began lecturing them.
Ruan Nanzhu didn't have any excuses either; he apologized in a low voice. Considering that he was quite the pretty lady, and it was easier to make one feel pity for him when he was behaving so submissively, the archive's manager eventually let them off, no longer lecturing them.
Only then were the three of them permitted to leave. After making their way to the door, Ruan Nanzhu quietly asked, "Did you see that?"
Lin Qiushi: "See what?"
Ruan Nanzhu: "The bloody handprints behind that shelf."
Lin Qiushi: "No."
Li Dongyuan chirpily replied from the side, "I saw it."
Ruan Nanzhu: "It doesn't matter. There is no use even if you saw it."
Li Dongyuan: "…"
Lin Qiushi was torn between crying and laughing at their conversation.
The three of them arrived at the door, and saw Xia Rubei sitting on top of a chair next to it, bored out of her wits. Upon seeing them come out, she said, "How quick of you guys! What was the sound that came from inside?"
"One of the shelves in the archive fell." Li Dongyuan added, "Someone did it intentionally."
"Intentionally? Was it the person who just went in just now?" wondered Xia Rubei.
"The person who just went in? There was someone else who went into the archives?" Ruan Nanzhu's ears perked at her statement.
"There was. A girl. She claimed to be a student of the school. Then, the manager let her in." Xia Rubei hugged her arms, terrified. "Didn't you guys see her?"
"No." Ruan Nanzhu shook his head.
Lin Qiushi did hear the sound of someone walking in, but judging from the incident that happened just now, perhaps the one who came in wasn't a person at all.
"What did that student look like?" Li Dongyuan asked.
"It was a girl. She looked quite young. I didn't have a good glimpse of her face, but she had long hair," described Xia Rubei. "In fact, she was such an ordinary young girl."
"That's probably her." Ruan Nanzhu stated. "Congratulations. You may have been the very first one to have met the BOSS."
Xia Rubei: "…"
Ruan Nanzhu: "Since you're so in luck, you might even be rewarded with twice the experience."
Xia Rubei was a hair's reach away from being frightened to tears by Ruan Nanzhu.
Li Dongyuan felt powerless as he tried to convince Ruan Nanzhu not to scare Xia Rubei anymore, since there was nothing to benefit from scaring the lady out of her wits.
Ruan Nanzhu leaned against Lin Qiushi and whimpered coquettishly, whining "I'm also very afraid, why aren't you worried about me?"
Li Dongyuan: "…" Are you really afraid? Why do I feel like you're even braver than me?
Just when the three of them were on their way out, Ruan Nanzhu suddenly declared, "I want to go to the restroom. Linlin, please accompany me."
Li Dongyuan protested, "Let us all go together."
Lin Qiushi thought in his heart: Friend, why are you so nervous? Could it be that you've realized he could actually go to the same toilet as I? Thankfully, the toilets in this school were all separate cubicles , or Ruan Nanzhu truly might've risked exposing his identity otherwise.
When the four of them arrived outside the bathrooms, Xia Rubei and Ruan Nanzhu entered the female's toilet, while Lin Qiushi and Li Dongyuan entered the males'.
Lin Qiushi entered the stall and was just about to take off his trousers, when he heard someone knocking at his door. Just as he was about to ask "Li Dongyuan, why are you knocking on my door?", he felt something was awfully wrong… Li Dongyuan was obviously using the stall to his right, so why were the knocking sounds coming from his left?
"Yu Linlin." Li Dongyuan's voice sounded from the other side, "Are there any words on the walls?"
Lin Qiushi was rather taken aback after he heard that. He soon realized there, indeed, were a few rows of words written on the wall. After reading the words carefully, the hairs on Lin Qiushi's back immediately stood on end.
On the white-painted walls, written in small characters were a few lines: Satchan's name is actually Sachiko. But she's called herself Satchan ever since she was little. Oh, how funny! Satchan really loves bananas. But she can only eat half of her favourite bananas. Oh, how pitiful! Satchan has left for a faraway place. And she'll soon forget about me. Oh, how lonely, Satchan!…
And the final line of these lyrics was the forbidden sentence that should never be sung: My legs are gone, so won't you give me yours?
"Do you see them?" Li Dongyuan wondered.
Lin Qiushi stared at those words in silence, then regretfully replied, "Sorry. To be honest, I can't read."
Li Dongyuan on the left: "…"
Lin Qiushi: "My family was poor so I wasn't able to attend school. I actually don't know that many words. Why don't you come in and take a look yourself afterwards?"
The other side no longer spoke. Lin Qiushi guessed that the person who wanted him to recite these words out loud was rendered speechless by his ignorance.
At any rate, Lin Qiushi didn't continue his business, and he quickly rushed out of the bathroom stall. Yet, who could have guessed that when he walked to the door, the three of them were already waiting for him.
"Why did you take so long?" Ruan Nanzhu asked him.
"Kidney deficiency, huh?" Li Dongyuan chuckled as he verbally attacked Lin Qiushi.
Lin Qiushi paid him no attention. "How long did I take?"
Ruan Nanzhu took a look at his watch. "More than ten minutes."
Lin Qiushi sighed, "Just now, I met Satchan inside."
The other three's expressions froze abruptly at his words, especially Xia Rubei's. Nervous to begin with, she was so shocked that she staggered a few steps back. "Satchan? The Satchan from the clue?"
"Yes." Lin Qiushi confirmed. "She mimicked Li Dongyuan's voice and wanted me to read the words on the wall out loud. If not for the clue, I might already have read those lyrics."
"Let us go in and take a look," suggested Ruan Nanzhu.
Once again, the four of them entered the men's bathroom. Fear aside, Xia Rubei was a little shy, but Ruan Nanzhu, on the other hand, didn't reveal the slightest discomfort—after all, this was where he truly belonged.
Lin Qiushi found the stall he'd gone into earlier. He pushed the door open only to be greeted by the sight of red handprints plastering all over the once-white walls, covering up every single word he'd seen just now. These bloody handprints were even more obvious in the cabin to its left; there, there was a thin layer of blood caking the surface of the floors. It looked as if someone, who was heavily wounded, had waited in this cabin for a long time.
"Wait, I suddenly remembered something—" Xia Rubei's eyes widened at the sight of these blood-red handprints, "The girl who entered the archives just now was a cripple!!"
At the mention of cripples, they all immediately recalled the leg Satchan had lost.
"She was limping while she walked. I didn't paid attention to it back then, but thinking of it now…" Even more intense shivers spread through Xia Rubei's entire body.
"Let's go." Ruan Nanzhu continued, "In any case, we know the general death conditions now; just don't recite those lyrics, and we will be fine."
The importance of the clue became ever more obvious at this moment; it would have been very difficult not to fall victim to it had they not known about it beforehand. If worse came to worst, they might have even died without being aware of the situation. To think Satchan even knew how to destroy evidence…
The mild rays of the sun washed over them as the four left the archives, melting away the icy sensation.
"What should we do now? Find that Third-Year student?" Lin Qiushi asked.
Ruan Nanzhu answered, "Let me take a look…" He fished out something from his pocket, and at a closer glance, Lin Qiushi realized that Ruan Nanzhu had stolen the photo of Class 2 from the archive.
Lin Qiushi: "…Since when did you take that?" This entire time, he was standing right next to Ruan Nanzhu, and yet he didn't even realize the other was hiding that photo.
Ruan Nanzhu: "Just now."
Lin Qiushi: "…" Not only was this fellow an expert at picking locks, but he was even better at stealing things. He had already begun to question the true nature of Ruan Nanzhu's occupation
Ruan Nanzhu seemed to know what he was thinking about. He didn't even raise his head before saying, "Ah, I'm not a thief."
Lin Qiushi: "Oh, I see…"
The group photo looked even stranger under the sunlight; it's colours were dim, and everyone's expressions looked incredibly stiff. Ruan Nanzhu held on to it for a while, before suddenly asking, "Do you guys see this?"
Lin Qiushi: "See what?"
Ruan Nanzhu explained, "There is a looming shadow on their faces."
Lin Qiushi observed the photo in Ruan Nanzhu's hands and firmly shook his head, indicating he didn't see the shadow Ruan Nanzhu was referring to .
"Oh, then forget about it." Ruan Nanzhu no longer continued discussing the subject matter.
At the side, Li Dongyuan revealed an expression that spoke volumes at that.
After having killed some time in the archives, it was already noon. It was just in time for lunch. They decided to head over to the canteen to eat, and discuss their plans for the afternoon.
During their meal, Lin Qiushi looked around to see if he could catch sight of that Third-Year student; alas, as expected, the chances of running into the student again were slimmer than ever.
Xia Rubei had no appetite in the morning, and she didn't have one in the afternoon, either.
Li Dongyuan tried to persuade her to eat, but seeing how she still refused to, he ended up giving up.
If there was anyone who was capable of eating to their heart's content, it was Ruan Nanzhu. After wolfing down his meal, he went as far as to coquettishly pester Li Dongyuan to buy him two chicken drumsticks.
"I want some chicken too!" Xia Rubei, who originally didn't intend to eat, suddenly spoke up as she told Li Dongyuan, "Big brother Meng, I want three of them!"
Ruan Nanzhu: "I want four of them."
Xia Rubei: "I want five!"
Ruan Nanzhu: "I want six."
Xia Rubei gritted her teeth and her eyes reddened. She forced herself to say: "I want seven—"
Lin Qiushi: "…" What are you guys competing over? Also, Ruan Nanzhu, why are you so well-versed in bullying little ladies? Isn't it a bit too unfair for a big man to compare his appetite to a little lady's….?
Li Dongyuan exposed a defeated look. "Could you people really finish all of them?"
Ruan Nanzhu: "I could finish double that amount, but I don't want to eat too much." He bashfully looked at Xia Rubei and smiled, "I'm afraid of being fat." He even purposely glanced at Xia Rubei's waist.
Xia Rubei almost fainted in fury at Ruan Nanzhu's words. She fumed angrily, "I can finish it!! I'm not afraid of being fat!!"
Li Dongyuan was at a loss for words. He got up and went to buy chicken legs for the two.
A few minutes later, Ruan Nanzhu and Xia Rubei were both munching on drumsticks. The chicken legs in the canteen of this school were delicious; they were marinated, scrumptiously tender on the inside and packed with rich juices with every bite, exuding the unique, flavourful scent of spices that were used to season them.
Xia Rubei was starving after having not eaten for an entire day. These chicken legs had fueled her appetite; she finished four in a single breath and forcibly stuffed the fifth one down as well, then looked at the remaining two, rather troubled.
Ruan Nanzhu took his time finishing four chicken legs, then picked up the fifth one before waving his hand at Lin Qiushi, "I can't eat anymore."
Having heard his words, Xia Rubei heaved out a breath of relief and softly exhaled, "Big brother Meng, I can't eat anymore either."
"It's alright." Li Dongyuan replied, "Let me do it." He had initially thought that Ruan Nanzhu would continue to enrage Xia Rubei, provoking her until she finished them all and ruined her stomach, but he certainyl wouldn't have imagined that Ruan Nanzhu knew where to draw the line.
After finishing the chicken legs and wiping his hands clean, Ruan Nanzhu suggested that they take a look at the place where the Third-Years were having their classes.
Everyone agreed.
And so, the group of people headed towards the direction of the teaching building.
Ruan Nanzhu was in the midst of examining that strange group photo. He appeared to have found some sort of clue on the photo, but Lin Qiushi wasn't able to see the black-coloured shadow he mentioned… just like how they couldn't hear what Lin Qiushi could hear.
"It seems like they are having classes." Upon arriving at the school building , Lin Qiushi heard the voices of the teachers echoing from above.
"Aren't they about to take their final examination?" Ruan Nanzhu suddenly recalled. "How many more days until their finals?"
"I'm not too sure." Lin Qiushi shook his head, "We should ask."
As of right now, there were only ten minutes until recess The four of them walked around the school building for a while. Most of the students in this building were Third-Year students. Furthermore, there were a total of sixteen arts and sciences classes, dispersed throughout the four to five floors of the building.
Recess had yet to start, when they found Class 3 of the Third-Years—the classroom where the student in the group photo should've been.
The four of them waited outside for a while, before recess finally came.
Once the teacher left, Ruan Nanzhu immediately went inside the classroom and searched for his target.
The instant that student caught sight of Ruan Nanzhu, he gave a nervous look, seemingly recalling how they had briefly met in the canteen the day before.
"Could I talk with you for a moment?" asked Ruan Nanzhu.
"What do you want to talk about?" The student was awfully guarded.
"Are you sure you'd like to discuss it here?" Ruan Nanzhu looked around.
People who were born eye-catching would always catch people's attention anywhere they went. Because of Ruan Nanzhu, the gazes of the entire classroom had gathered on the two of them.
The student pursed his lips, his expression stiffening as he stood. "Let us talk outside," he said, "But, just so you know, I don't know anything."
The four of them followed that student to the little balcony at the end of the corridor. Ruan Nanzhu then asked, "Care to tell us your name?"
"My name is Ko Shinobu." The student stated. "Hurry up, and tell me what you want. It's almost time for me to head back to class."
"We are investigating something that happened in your class." Ruan Nanzhu went straight to the point. He immediately took out that photo they'd found in the archives, "We wanted to ask who the person missing in the photo is."
The instant he took the photo out, Ko Shinobu's expression changed for the worse. "Where did you guys find this?"
Ruan Nanzhu raised a brow, "Is this photo very special?"
Ko Shinobu didn't utter a sound, but Lin Qiushi could clearly see deep fear creeping out from within the depths of his eyes, as if this wasn't a mere photo in front of him, but a vengeful ghost who had died unjustly. He swallowed hard on his saliva, his voice cracking as he stuttered, "I-I don't know what you're talking about ."
"It's just as we have told you," declared Li Dongyuan. He then continued in a frighteningly calm tone, "It's not our intention to make things difficult for you. We only wish to inquire about the identity of the missing individual from this photo. What is her name?"
Ko Shinobu fixed his gaze on the photo and said nothing. He slowly took a step backwards, frightened and uncertain.
"Don't you want to end this quickly?" Li Dongyuan's voice was light and seductive, resembling that of an evil spirit trying to coax someone into opening Pandora's box. "Spill it. Spill it, and all will be well. Aren't you, yourself, afraid of it, too?"
Ko Shinobu's lips quivered, and he finally spilled a single word: "Sachiko."
Li Dongyuan: "Sachiko?"
"Yeah, that's her." Ko Shinobu stammered. "The person who should never have existed in our class…"
He looked to be in a trance, as though he would continue spilling everything, but just then, the bell rang, waking him from his stupor. He seemed to have realized what he had just uttered, and looked extremely frightened. No longer paying attention to Li Dongyuan, he turned around and ran.
Li Dongyuan stared at his retreating figure with helplessness, and sighed, "So close."
"Isn't that right." Ruan Nanzhu gave Li Dongyuan a knowing look, "So close. Truly, what a pity."
Author's Comment:
Explanation: There is only one door. As long as the door is opened, everyone can escape. However, whether there are monsters guarding the door on their way out would entirely depend on luck…
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