Chapter 3 The Unexpected Discovery of the Corpse Pond

  "It's possible that we'll run into that terrifying person, you'd better be mentally prepared!" Ye Zikai said casually as he walked. "If we do meet him, we can just run away, and if we can't, then we'll just have to accept our fate!" I rolled my eyes in response. Ye Zikai turned around and spoke very seriously to me: "If you really do encounter him, just escape! Don't worry about anything else!" "What about you?" I asked. "Me? Of course, I'll draw him away."

  Ye Zi Ke finished speaking and didn't say another word, only furrowing his brow as he walked upstairs. I chuckled and said: "Friends won't abandon friends! I won't escape alone, either we die together or escape together. So let's not be heroes, let's just run!" As I spoke, we had already reached the sixth floor, and the corridor leading to the seventh floor was once again a scene of deathly silence and darkness.

  "It seems he's on the seventh floor!" Ye Zikuo said, looking around. I nodded, looking at the sixth floor with suspicion. "Don't you think the sixth floor doesn't look like a classroom? It looks more like a secret room." Ye Zikuo also looked puzzled and said: "I still have an impression of this place, it feels like I've been here before, but I also can't quite remember."

  He fumbled along the corridor, as if with a familiar feeling. In front of a classroom door, he stopped his footsteps: "Ning Lie, I think I've been here before!" His expression became very solemn in the sunset, as if there was some painful memory, and he pushed open the door. The door creaked open, but it was the pungent smell of disinfectant that rushed out, causing Ye Zikuo to cover his nose and cough uncontrollably. I covered my mouth and nose and walked in, but was startled by a water tank and fell to the ground.

  The pool water, glowing with a greenish hue, was filled with numerous corpses. I could even see the peaceful expressions on their faces. "What's going on?!" Ye Zikai tried to help me up, but was stunned by the sight of the corpse-filled pool and stood frozen in place. I got up and walked towards the pool, "Don't go over there!" Ye Zikai came over and covered my eyes, "Let's just leave!" he said with a trembling voice. I pushed his hand away: "We've already come this far, let's see what's really going on!"

  I walked closer to the pool of dead water, and the first one was surprisingly Wang Xue, Uncle Wang's daughter. Her eyes were wide open in disbelief, as if she had seen something. The rest of the bodies had their eyes closed, with a peaceful look on their faces. I looked around slowly, and saw Zhang Yi, Chen Ying, Mo Xi, Liu Bei, Zhang Xin, Qi Qi, and some other people whose faces were familiar but whose names I couldn't remember.

  "Zhou Wei?" Ye Zikai's voice came over, stuttering and intermittent. I turned around to see him clenching his fists, staring at a corpse and muttering to himself. "Is he... already dead? How is that possible? We just played basketball together yesterday and saw each other this morning." I walked quietly up to Ye Zikai's side, looking at the corpse of Zhou Wei not far from Ye Zikai's own body, unsure of how to start speaking.

  "Hey, Ning Lie, do you think I'm already dead too? The me in front of you, is it real or just an illusion?" Ye Zikuo's head was lowered and his hands were trembling slightly. I pretended to be confused and said: "What are you talking nonsense about?" Ye Zikuo lifted his head, and I saw tears all over his face. He spoke to me word by word: "I saw my own corpse, just not far from Zhou Wei's place, isn't that me?!"

  Ye Zi Ke sat on the ground, staring at his own hands, then pinched himself hard: "I feel pain! Why am I dead?! Ning Xie, why is this?!" My eyes felt moist, unsure of what to say. Instinct told me that the disappeared ones were indeed dead, and this was their corpse, like a sealed room. It was as if no one could find it, not even the deceased knew they were already dead.

  Tears finally flowed down my cheeks, the fact that I couldn't accept was that they were in their prime of youth, yet suffered such a calamity, trapped in a space, repeatedly reliving their life before death, without any awareness. I didn't know how to comfort Ye Zikuo, and could only squat quietly beside him, looking at this boy with a sunny smile, crying so desperately and helplessly in front of me.

  I gently hugged him: "Ye Zikuo, let's cry together! Will it be better if someone is with you when you're feeling unwell?!" I continued to speak with a choked voice: "This is the only way I can think of to comfort you, sorry, I'm really helpless." Ye Zikuo stared blankly at the mortuary pool, his eyes red-rimmed, silently looking at himself lying there peacefully as if asleep. My heart also felt like it had sunk to the bottom of a lake, and looking at these children in front of me, I knew that something must have happened three years ago, but no one knew. They were just quietly staying here, year after year, forgotten.

  "Hahaha" The familiar voice came from outside the corridor, Ye Zikuo hastily pulled me behind him and pointed to the back door of the classroom: "You hurry up and leave! I'll take care of this place." "Didn't I tell you?! I won't abandon my friends!" I stepped forward and grabbed his hand: "If we're going to leave, let's go together!" Ye Zikuo looked at himself in the dead water pool with a mocking gaze: "I'm already dead! If I get caught again, I'll just die once more! But you're still alive, Ning Xue, hurry up and leave!"

  As soon as he finished speaking, he tried to break free from my grasp, but I held his hand tightly and refused to let go: "Then I'll die with you, this is a promise I made before, I'm not a person who goes back on their word." At that moment, the one-armed man outside the door walked in, with his severed arm still attached behind him. I pulled Ye Zikuo back a step and asked: "Who are you? Are you human or ghost?! Did you kill these children?!" The man's face turned even greener, the veins on his face bulging out even more, his eyes glaring at me with an evil intensity, suddenly his eyeballs dropped to the ground and rolled towards us. Mixed with eerie bloodiness, Ye Zikuo's hand was shaking visibly. "Run quickly!" I pulled him and ran towards the back door, my peripheral vision catching a glimpse of Ye Zikuo in the pool of water, slowly opening his eyes.

  The sixth floor had many corners, we were running around in a fluster, sweating profusely and at a loss. "What's with that man?!" Ye Zikuo asked me breathlessly, I kept looking for an escape route, panting and saying: "Don't mind him for now, just don't let those two eyes catch up to us or we're done for!" A stairway appeared in front of me, I stopped and looked around, but whether it was upstairs or downstairs, everything was pitch black, I didn't know whether to go up or down.

  "Don't you think it's strange?! The man only appears where there is light, are we trapped in some kind of illusion, along with this building?!" Ye Zikai said, looking at the dark corridor.

  "What do we do?" I asked, feeling lost.

  "Do you trust me?" Ye Zikai asked, looking at me. I nodded, "I read a book before, if one is trapped in a nightmare, find a high place to jump off or find an exit to leave this place."

  Ye Zikai led me to a large window at the front of the corridor, "Let's go down from here!" Ye Zikai said firmly. The sound of "heh heh heh" was already coming from the other end of the corridor, Ye Zikai stood on the windowsill and stretched out his hand to me, saying: "Friend! I'll help you too!"

  I smiled slightly, grabbed his hand and climbed onto the windowsill. When the man was only a few steps away from us, Ye Zikai and I exchanged a glance, closed our eyes and jumped down from the building.

  We didn't feel the pain of falling from a high building, and when we looked around carefully, we found ourselves on the lawn under the experimental building. At this time, there was a bright moon hanging in the night sky, along with some stars.

  I looked up at the sixth floor, and the man at the window was staring tightly at us, making my hair stand on end. Ye Zikai seemed to notice it too, and pulled me saying: "We should be out of here!" I stared at the window and said: "We are out, but he may not let us go." "What do you mean?" Ye Zikai asked. "Look, now it's obviously evening, which means the sunset we saw in the lab building was an illusion." Ye Zikai nodded in agreement, "But look, the fifth floor is showing signs of sunset, I think it'll be on the fourth floor soon." My voice trembled with unease. Ye Zikai understood and said: "He's coming, right? Let's hurry up!" I lowered my head wearily: "Where can we escape to? Don't you feel like every building is eerie? Maybe we'll enter another space again, stuck on the playground with nowhere to hide."

  "Follow me!" A woman's voice came from behind - surprisingly, it was my own voice. I turned around to look at her back and asked, "Why should I trust you?!" "Because I'm your other half-soul!" She said this and walked straight towards the five-story building. Ye Zikuo looked at the brightness of the fourth floor of the lab building again, then looked at the woman who claimed to be my soul, and stood there in a daze.

  "Follow her!" I said. "Hurry up! If you don't want to get caught!" The woman ordered with a slightly urgent tone. Yezikou and I hastily followed her route towards the fifth building. As we walked further into the fifth building, the sky grew darker, first the stars disappeared, then even the moon was invisible. What's going on? I asked myself in my heart, "Do you think you've really escaped? The night scene under the lab just now was also part of the illusion, and only now have I completely brought you out of the illusion."

  But I think he'll still come after us. After all, the night is his territory!" The "I" seemed to know what I was thinking and answered my doubts and unease completely. As we entered the fifth building, we were about to go further inside when the woman stopped us, pointing to the first room and saying: "Let's hide in here for a while!" Facing my questioning gaze, she said: "This room is empty, do you want to go back to your dormitory, knowing that there are three people inside but you can't hear any breathing?"

  A chill ran from the soles of my feet to the top of my head, "Then let's go in this room!" We followed the woman into the room. "Don't forget to lock the door!" The woman finally turned around and looked at me, I subconsciously locked the door and exclaimed: "Wang Xue!" Ye Zikuo also reacted and asked: "How could it be you?!" Wang Xue returned to her normal voice and said to Ye Zikuo: "I suppose you also know that except for Ning Hong, we are all gone from this world?"

  "Yeah, I get it," Ye Zikuo said with a self-mocking smile. "I even cried about it!" Thinking of Ye Zikuo and Wang Xue's situation made my heart heavy. "How come this room doesn't have any windows?!" Ye Zikuo asked after walking around the room. "Do you want that man to climb in through the window?" Wang Xue laughed. Just when we were finally feeling a bit more relaxed, the sound of footsteps outside the door pulled us back into this suffocating reality.

  Wang Xue made a gesture to us to stand beside the door, and the knocking sound started again. My heart skipped a beat, and my hands and feet turned cold. Wang Xue grasped my hand with a knowing look in her eyes, telling me not to worry. I pursed my lips and nodded, and Ye Zikai gave me an encouraging glance. Before long, the knocking stopped, and we let out a sigh of relief, but were startled by the sound of kicking at the door. "What do we do?" I asked with a hand gesture, and Wang Xue shook her head in dismay. Ye Zikai grabbed my wrist, but was repelled by an unseen force because I was wearing the Bone-Chilling Ring. Ye Zikai clutched his painful hand and pointed at my wrist, and I suddenly understood. I used Fei Lide's method to remove the ring, first rubbing it to reveal its shape, then taking it off and hanging it on the door handle. The kicking sound stopped abruptly, and we all collapsed to the ground, exhausted. Wang Xue gave Ye Zikai a thumbs-up in praise, and Ye Zikai smiled weakly, giving me a thumbs-up as well.