Chapter 4: The Reasoning of an All-Night Conversation

  "What's wrong with your face?" I asked, looking at his pale face. Wang Xue then looked at me with a knowing expression and said: "You should ask yourself that. Don't you see what he just touched?!" I turned to look at the Bone Chilling Ring hanging on the door handle, could it be this thing?!

  "We've already passed away, we can't touch those things. He touched them and felt uncomfortable, it's normal." When saying the word "passed away", Wang Xue paused for a moment, with a hint of sadness flashing in her eyes. Ye Zikai stood up and asked: "I just found out that I'm no longer in this world too, Wang Xue, what about you?!"

  Wang Xue tilted her head to one side: "Me? I found out a year ago." "A year ago?" I looked at Wang Xue's calm face in incredulity. "Before that, I didn't notice anything unusual, just felt like some things kept repeating, like today's opening ceremony, it seemed like every once in a while it would happen again. And the school's strange rules made me suspicious all along, why can't we leave the dorm after 7 pm? I've always been a careful person, so one night, I snuck out and unexpectedly saw the corpse pool in the lab building."

  Although Wang Xue seemed calm while narrating, the subtle expression on her face told me that she couldn't fully accept this fact. I suddenly remembered that among the corpses in the morgue, Wang Xue was the only one with open eyes, and when leaving, I also caught a glimpse of Ye Zikuo's open eyes - what's going on? I shared my doubts with Wang Xue, but Ye Zikuo explained: "Perhaps the open eyes mean we know we're already dead?" "Right?" Ye Zikuo looked at Wang Xue. Wang Xue nodded: "You're quite clever!"

  "So, it seems that only those who are aware of their own death will open their eyes, and the rest will still be in a state of confusion." Ye Zikai expressed her thoughts. "That's right, but sooner or later everyone will have a day of awakening, just don't experience a second death before then." Wang Xue's words shocked both me and Ye Zikai. "Second death? What does that mean?" I asked.

  "Wang Xue let out a sigh and said, "Even if we're already dead, trapped in this space, with the rule that we can't go out after 7 pm, what else could be the reason?!" "Will we run into that ghostly man again, will we be killed once more?" I expressed my own opinion. Wang Xue bitterly smiled and said, "If we're attacked again, I reckon even this unreal self of ours won't exist anymore."

  Ye Zi Ke leaned against the wall and said, "Were we killed by that man?! But I don't have any impression of it, only some impression of the corpse pool classroom." "Would you have an impression? Of course you would! You know, actually every night when we sleep in our dormitory, it's just a small part of our soul, most of our consciousness is in the corpse pool, so having fragmented memories of that place is completely normal!" Wang Xue replied.

  At this moment, the doubts in my heart began to clear up slowly. "This man killed the students of 2007, put their bodies in the classroom of the experimental building, sealed off the space, locked the unsuspecting students in this space, and set a rule that they could not leave after 7 pm. What was his purpose? How did he kill these students without them realizing they were dead?" I said my analysis in detail, looking at Ye Zikuo and Wang Xue.

  Ye Zi Ke looked up at the ceiling: "So I've been dead for three years? What is the world like now?" Hearing this, my mood inexplicably became heavy again, and I could only close my mouth and stop talking. "Ning Xie, do you know why I pretended to be your other half's soul last night?" Wang Xue asked me seriously.

  "I don't know, all I know is that I got sick this morning and threw up a lot of black water." I looked down at my canvas shoes, also puzzled about this point. Was it Wang Xue's doing? If not her, then who? "Don't suspect me, you should thank me. If it wasn't for me, the black water in your stomach would have corroded your internal organs!" Hearing Wang Xue's words, I widened my eyes and asked with a trembling voice: "Corrode internal organs? This... is too far-fetched, right?"

  "Has someone put a curse on you?! I'm starting to suspect that we didn't die at the hands of that man, but perhaps under some kind of curse. As for whether it was that man who cast the curse, I'm not clear about that." Wang Xue continued, "Ning Lie, wasn't Xu Laoshi from the infirmary also very strange?!"

  When it comes to Teacher Xu, Ye Zikuo's body obviously trembled for a moment, but immediately returned to calm and said: "That Teacher Xu is indeed very strange, especially in her eyes, I always see some pretty scary things." Ye Zikuo's words coincided with mine.

  "Who cast a spell on me?" I was still entangled in the previous question, "Have you been in close contact with anyone?" Wang Xue asked, "I met Ye Zikuo when I just went up the stairs yesterday, and then there's you." I remembered that it was Ye Zikuo who spoke to me first when I came through the stairs, and it was Wang Xue who took me to find the dormitory. It seemed like someone was missing, "And a girl with a red face told me that the girls' dormitory is in Building 5!" I exclaimed.

  "Blushing girl?" Ye Zikuo muttered to himself with a puzzled face, "Right! Did you forget? She was always by my side when I talked to you!" I explained. "I clearly remember that when I talked to you, there was no one on your left hand side, did you forget that you were walking against the wall? I was on the right handrail of the stairs, how could there be someone on your left hand side?" Ye Zikuo looked at me with an unusual expression.

  "Ah, how could I have forgotten? I was leaning against the wall! How did that girl appear beside me?" In response to my terror, Wang Xue spoke up, "It must be her curse! The person who appeared on the wall confused your senses, making you think she was your classmate." I took a step back, and things were far more complicated than I had imagined. Ye Zikuo seemed to muster up great courage to ask, "What's going on with the person on the wall? Could it be...?" In response to Ye Zikuo's hesitation, Wang Xue said slowly, "You're so clever, shouldn't you have figured out how someone could be on the wall? The thing on the wall isn't a person, it's actually human skin stuck to the wall." My stomach churned, and I knelt on the ground, desperately suppressing my urge to vomit. My face was pale as I stared at the floor, unable to say a word.

  "That girl probably doesn't know she's already dead, right?!" I finally stuttered out this sentence after a long time. Wang Xue thought for a moment and said: "It should be, that girl was killed and her skin was pasted on the wall. Maybe the curse on you was unintentional, or maybe she was controlled by this curse herself?!" Ye Zikuo also had an urge to vomit, but quietly leaned against the wall, lost in thought.

  "Ning Ke, you must hurry up and leave this place." Wang Xue suddenly said such a sentence, I remembered the pendant that Nagu Yun'er gave me, took it out to look at it, only to find that the snow-white crane had already turned half into a bloody color. My hand also started trembling at this moment, and I recalled Nagu Yun'er's warning: "When this pendant starts to turn red, you must come back!" Ye Zikuo walked towards me and said: "What Wang Xue said is right, hurry up and leave! If things go on like this, you'll probably end up like us, dying without a clear reason."

  I really want to leave, I miss my friends and mom, but now Yezi Ke and Wang Xue are also my friends, and I promised Uncle Wang's things, which have not been solved yet. "I will definitely uncover the truth! I came here for this purpose too." I replied. Wang Xue's eyes flashed with tears, she smiled: "So my dad was worried about me like that? My relationship with him has always been bad, we often quarrel. Now thinking back, I was too selfish, but now everything is too late, I can no longer go back to my dad and be a good daughter, I regret it so much." By this point, Wang Xue was sobbing uncontrollably, "If time could come again, I would not have been like that."

  As I listened to Wang Xue's words, my heart also sank to the bottom of the valley, and it was hard to bear the weight as I walked to her side. "So I came, I will take you out of this space," I said softly. Wang Xue grasped my hand and said, "I really don't want to be locked in this space anymore, I don't want to keep repeating these days." "I know, so let's go out together!" I said. Wang Xue nodded, and unintentionally, I saw Ye Zikuo turn his face around, saw the tear at the corner of his eye, heard Wang Xue mention her father, Ye Zikuo must also be missing his family very much! I must take you all out, I vowed silently in my heart.

  "If we are trapped in this space, then the day and night here should also be fake, right?!" Ye Zikuo said after a long silence. "No, daytime is real, so that man has never appeared during the day, and appearing at night creates an illusion of dusk. So once we see the sunset, we should hurry up and hide." Wang Xue replied.

  If that man is the manipulator of this time and space, then what about that girl and Teacher Xu? They appeared during the day, one silently casting a curse on people, the other with terrifying images hidden in her eyes. "The girl on the wall and Teacher Xu should be that man's puppets, right?" I made such a guess, Wang Xue thought for half a day before responding: "I'm sure it is, otherwise how would they know you're a living person? Precisely because they know you're still alive, so they cast a curse on you, thinking of ways to harm you." "It seems like you need to be careful during the day too," Ye Zikou interjected. Wang Xue stared at me intently and said: "Ning Lie, you must survive. I will also protect you well, but you must remember, if we both encounter danger, you absolutely cannot turn back, run forward, run towards higher places, remember what I'm saying now!" At that time, I didn't understand, but when I finally understood the meaning of those words, my eyes had already welled up with tears.

  Unconsciously, we closed our eyes and fell into a deep sleep on the ground. In my dream, I seemed to see Nagi Kumo. Her face was serious as she asked me, "Didn't I tell you? When the pendant starts turning red, you must come back!" I tried to speak but couldn't open my mouth. Nagi Kumo's expression softened a bit as she said, "I'm now in your dream, so remember what I say. The students here have already died; a second death will make even their current illusions disappear. Don't be reckless; this isn't something you can handle - you're still just a child."

  I shook my head, refusing to agree with Nagu Yun'er's words. Nagu Yun'er continued to say something, but I couldn't hear a single word. All I felt was that my eyes were stinging from the light, and when I opened them again, I found it was the glow of the Xinqu bone ring hanging on the door handle. Yezi Ke and Wang Xue also woke up, and many girls' voices came from outside the door, sounding like they were going to class. "Looks like it's dawn," Wang Xue said. I walked to the door, took down the Xinqu bone ring, and put it back on my wrist. Just as I was about to open the door and go out, Yezi Ke pulled me behind her. "I'll go first, you just stay behind me." Yezi Ke said calmly. Wang Xue also pulled me behind her and said, "Ning Hong, remember to take care of yourself."

  The door opened, and we saw the sunlight outside was great. Many girls were surprised to see Ye Zikuo appear here, whispering to each other. Ye Zikuo smiled awkwardly at us: "Wang Xue is really good at bringing people to places, now I'd jump into the Yellow River and still can't wash myself clean, I'll leave first." As we watched Ye Zikuo quickly leave the five-story building, "Let's go out too!" Wang Xue pulled me out of the five-story building. The feeling of sunlight on my body was very unreal. "The real world is also sunny today," Wang Xue said. I remembered that three years ago, after this batch of students disappeared, the whole school became empty because of the laughter and reading sounds in the empty corridors and classrooms. It turned out it wasn't a ghost, but this space was living the same life as well. So how should I lead them out?!

  "Hey!" I turned around to look at Zhang Yi, who was patting my shoulder, and forced a smile as I said, "Morning!" Mo Xi and Chen Ying behind her quickly walked past me, heading in the direction of the teaching building. "Aren't you going to class?" I asked Zhang Yi. Zhang Yi looked at me with an odd expression and said, "I thought about a lot of things after I got back to my dorm last night, and suddenly understood many things." Wang Xue grasped my hand tightly and asked, "What did you understand?"

  Zhang Yi walked towards the empty little garden, beckoning us to follow her. Wang Xue and I exchanged a knowing glance, pretending to be in a hurry: "Oh no, we're going to be late! Aren't you worried?" Zhang Yi looked around cautiously, making sure there was no one nearby, then grabbed our hands and asked with a panicked expression: "Tell me, am I already dead?!" At that moment, another pair of eyes opened in the dark morgue of the experimental building. Faced with Zhang Yi's questioning, Wang Xue and I didn't know how to respond. "What class are we even taking? The truth is, there's no teacher in the classroom, they're all just illusions! Didn't you guys notice?" Zhang Yi asked again.