At 3 p.m., an hour before the final assembly, the students returned one after another. They packed their luggage and gathered in the main courtyard, where several sun umbrellas were set up and plastic tables and chairs were placed underneath.
The students sat there in twos and threes, still discussing Chi Bo and the school beauty.
Chi Bo remained in his room, not coming out. It was unclear whether he was still sick and feeling unwell, or simply unwilling to face the situation.
"Are you satisfied now?" Chi Bo, who was in the room, woke up from his coma and was told that he had a fever and needed to rest. He endured the burning pain in his throat and sent a text message to the mysterious person.
"Good, keep up the good work," the mysterious man replied quickly.
Chi Bo stared at his phone for a long time, then after a few seconds of silence, he slammed it against the wall. The phone, which he had previously cherished like a treasure, shattered into two pieces and fell to the ground.
"What's wrong?" Blackie walked in with a kettle. The doctor had told the patient to drink more hot water.
Chi Bo cried bitterly, covering his head with the blanket, like a sapling that had just weathered a storm.
A sudden loud rumble outside startled him. It was thunder; the sky outside instantly darkened, with dark clouds gathering over the village.
"Is it going to rain?" People in the courtyard could feel the wind, which carried moisture. The dark clouds hung low, almost pressing down on the students' hearts.
An unfamiliar village, eerie legends, a storm, and tourists—many elements inadvertently connected at this moment. An instinctive fear rose within them; only when they looked down and saw the signal was still working did they feel slightly relieved.
Ren Yifei sat on a small stool in the corner, scrolling through his phone. His suitcase was at his feet; the booklet inside, having been memorized, had become useless and had been torn up and disposed of.
He cleaned up the records on the computer and casually stuffed the nail polish into a girl's bag. Everything in the black bag, except for the phone, had been disposed of. Then he put the clothes he planned to take home to wash into the black bag.
If a disappearance or death occurs, they will most likely call the police. He anticipates some minor inconvenience when the police arrive.
He opened the electronic key in his pocket and checked it; it was indeed a remote control switch.
The original owner was quite carefree, just stuffing it in his pocket all day. What if he accidentally pressed it?
Not far from him sat a group of players at a table. These players, ostracized by the NPCs, naturally sat together, and Saman was among them.
Samantha held a village logbook in his hand; no one knew where he had found it, nor why he had suddenly become interested in the village's history. Could this village hold some astonishing secret?
As for the other players, judging from their expressions, they didn't gain much. This dungeon wasn't easy to die in, but it also didn't offer many opportunities for players to make a difference.
They all have a spectator's expression now, because they know they definitely won't be leaving today.
They are looking forward to what will happen next.
As the thunder grew more frequent, the students became more actively involved in the discussion, trying to relieve their stress and fear in this way.
Under the dim parasol, streaks of white light reflected off their faces, making them look like ghost masks from a distance.
Teacher Wang and the driver were also there. They frowned, feeling that this trip back might not go as smoothly as they had imagined.
"Call the classmates who are still outside and tell them to come back quickly."
It got dark quickly, and by almost four o'clock, the courtyard was so dark that only outlines and pale faces could be seen. But some people hadn't returned yet: Xiangxue and Jiang Min.
Teacher Wang checked the time; she was about to call Xiangxue when Xiangxue called first.
"Teacher, help... Someone is chasing me, I'm so scared." He Xiangxue's voice on the phone was broken and tearful.
"Xiangxue? Are you with Jiang Min? Where are you now?" Teacher Wang stood up abruptly, overturning the water glass she was holding, spilling water onto the table like raindrops.
"I don't know. Xiaomin was with me just now, but we got separated. Now I'm lost and don't know where I am. Teacher Wang, please come and save me."
Teacher Wang covered her forehead and took a deep breath: "Xiangxue, send me your location and describe the surrounding environment."
Xiangxue's voice was tinged with panic: "Okay, wait, I think I see a house, and there are lights inside."
Teacher Wang clenched her fist tightly: "Don't go yet!"
"teacher?"
She tugged at her collar, her tone softening: "Don't go yet. We don't know if the people ahead are friend or foe. This village... Anyway, get to the main road as soon as possible. What else is around here besides this house?"
"There are many trees, some that look like pine trees, and others that I don't recognize. There's a path here, paved with stones… Ah, I see the main road, and I also see many houses."
He Xiangxue's voice became excited and joyful, and Teacher Wang breathed a slight sigh of relief: "Go to the main road first. There should be road signs on the main road. Follow the directions on the road signs..."
Before she could finish speaking, she heard a short scream on the other end, followed by the sound of a phone falling to the ground, and then the call ended.
"Xiangxue? Xiangxue?" Teacher Wang called again, but there was no response.
Teacher Wang called again, but no one answered. She gritted her teeth and called Xiaomin again, but Xiaomin's phone was switched off.
Now, both students are out of contact.
The courtyard became very quiet; you could hear a pin drop. The students' faces looked even paler in the light: "Teacher, Xiangxue... something happened to her?"
"No, he probably fell and broke his phone." Teacher Wang forced a smile. "You all stay here and don't move. I'm going to make a call."
Teacher Wang went outside to another courtyard to make a phone call.
As soon as she left, the students in the courtyard erupted in excitement. A tall, burly boy stood up: "Xiangxue and Xiaomin must be in trouble. We have to go save them."
"How can we save him?" a student asked, trembling, his legs shaking.
The first boy thought for a moment and said, "Let's split into several groups to go find her, and keep in touch by phone."
"You go if you want." Others held different views: "Do you know what this kind of group suicide is called in horror movies? It's called a 'split' operation!"
Knowing there was danger outside, they still ran out; their relationship wasn't that good.
"Then what should we do?"
"How would I know? We're still students. Let the teachers and the police decide these things."
The current situation is like someone accidentally falling into the water and not knowing how to swim. There are many people standing on the shore; some want to go down and rescue them, while others say to wait for someone who has first aid training to arrive.
"If you can't guarantee your own safety, going to rescue someone now will only result in another person being killed."
His classmate's safety and his own safety were weighed on opposite ends of a scale. After the initial excitement subsided, the boy calmed down, but he didn't bravely stand up again to go find someone.
"If we're going to search, we can split into three groups of ten people each. As long as we don't leave the group, there shouldn't be any danger under normal circumstances," Ren Yifei, who had been as invisible as a man, suddenly spoke up.
The students all turned to look at him as he took out a map and a black pen: "From Xiangxue's perspective, she is on the edge of a forest with many pine trees, and there is only one house nearby with lights and people. Then she said she saw a main road."
He used his pen to isolate a piece of land surrounding Widow's Castle: "First of all, we can rule out that she is not around Widow's Castle."
"Why?" a student asked instinctively.
Ren Yifei reached up and adjusted his glasses, continuing to draw on the map: "A normal person's visibility is around 25 kilometers. Now it's cloudy, and the mountains and forests are blocking the view, plus the panic, so the range they can identify is less than the theoretical range. However, even if it's less than the theoretical range, if the three-story Widow's Castle is within 10 kilometers, they will still be able to find it."
After all, it's a standalone building in the suburbs, with no other obstructions nearby.
Ren Yifei's calm and composed academic aura was convincing, and others gathered around to ask him which three places were most likely where Xiangxue had disappeared.
Using the same method to eliminate the area near the chastity archway, Ren Yifei drew three circles on the paper at three places marked with mountains and forests and main roads: "These three are the most likely."
"Shall we split into three groups and go look?" The tall boy looked at the other students expectantly.
To his disappointment, these people avoided eye contact with him, expressing their rejection through silence.
Ren Yifei wasn't surprised at all. They backed down when their sister needed clarification the most, preferring to watch her jump rather than say even a word like "she's not that kind of person." Naturally, they would back down at this time as well.
Ren Yifei took a step back, pretended to check the time, and took out his phone.
From Unit 2, the artist wrote: "A pesky hound has arrived, so let my lovely little bird fly a little longer. Also, this place is really interesting; how did you find it?"
Time: Two minutes ago.
"What a pity," he thought, then stared at the place for a couple more seconds, thinking, "This place is really interesting."
Is this place, Wutong Village, really interesting?
"Hmm?" Large raindrops fell on the parasol, startling Ren Yifei awake. He looked up at the courtyard, and in just a moment, the ground was soaked.
The rain was so heavy that the white streaks of rain blurred the vision, making it impossible to see each other's faces clearly.
Golden lightning flashed in the torrential rain, splitting the deep sky. The students all left the courtyard and sought shelter under the eaves. They huddled together like helpless chicks, drawing warmth from the group.
However, each of them simply hugged themselves, and even huddled together, the air remained icy cold.
Faced with the heavy rain, the students were at a loss. Just then, Teacher Wang walked in, her face grave: "The nearest police station won't be here for another four hours. So we..."
The door suddenly opened, and a beautiful illustrator rushed in, carrying a sketchbook on her head, complaining as she went, "I should have brought an umbrella, it looks so scary outside... Ah, what's going on here?"
"We're going back now." The classmate had a very good impression of the young and beautiful illustrator.
"Now?" The illustrator looked at the sky and shook his head. "Or you can wait until the rain stops before you leave? It's best not to go out in this kind of thundery weather, especially since this is a mountain forest."
The students felt warmed by the strangers' concern, but they were afraid of the mysterious person Xiangxue had mentioned, and none of them wanted to stay any longer. Even in the thunderstorm, they wanted to go back as soon as possible.
"I'm not going to say anything more, I'm going to change my clothes first." The illustrator shook the raindrops off his hands and went back to the back room.
Seeing that the 'stranger' had left, Teacher Wang continued the previous topic: "Students He Xiangxue and Jiang Min need our help. We came in one car, and we'll be going back in another. I'm going to go find them, so you..."
The corridor was quiet; no one spoke, and no one made eye contact with Teacher Wang. Wherever Teacher Wang's gaze fell, the head would turn away.
Should they go out to find Xiangxue and the other girl? The students disagreed on the answer to this question.
"That's a psychopathic stalker," someone muttered to themselves.
If they're going to see each other every day from now on, they might risk going to find someone. But please, this is a graduation trip, and we might not see each other again. Why put yourself in danger just to maintain a beautiful friendship?
"Don't joke around. They insisted on running away. Why are we stuck cleaning up this mess? They're not children!"
Under pressure, one student finally spoke his mind: "I'm not going out. If you want to go, you can go by yourselves!"
"Exactly, with such heavy rain and no flashlights or alarms, how are we supposed to find it?"
"It's so annoying that they're doing this right before graduation!"
After the first person spoke up, the others seemed to have suddenly found a moral high ground. Ren Yifei, standing in the crowd, sensed that they all breathed a sigh of relief.
Time passed by, the sky grew as dark as if ink had been spilled, thunder rumbled, and the rain grew heavier and heavier; even standing a little further away, one could not see the other side clearly.
With such harsh conditions, forget about going out to find someone; just avoiding getting separated would be a miracle. I don't want to get soaked in the rain and catch a cold.
At this point, even the tall boy who had spoken first gave up: "Let's wait for the police to come."
Ms. Wang's lips trembled slightly, a chill running down her spine. She looked up at the others in the corridor.
The dark corridor was like a thick black fog, through which the faces of students were visible. Each of them had a different personality, some were outgoing and some were reserved, but at this moment, all of them had the same expression.
Indifference that doesn't concern them.