Not only the school broadcast, but their class group also received the same message.
They say there's a seasonal, contagious disease at the school, requiring disinfection of the entire school. It will last about three days, specifically Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Actually, it doesn't have a special impact, since Saturdays and Sundays are for rest anyway.
"What kind of epidemic is so severe that they have to lock down the school?" The students eating breakfast next door were also discussing it.
"Who knows? But does that mean we don't have to go to class today?" another person said happily.
The first person to speak curled their lip: "Didn't you see?"
"What?" the second person asked, puzzled.
"They're going to check the dorms at 3 PM. Except for registered students renting off-campus accommodations and local students, all other students must stay in their dorms and wait for the inspection. What's the difference between not going to class and not being able to leave the dorm? Have you forgotten about the teachers' 'dingding' (a form of online communication)?"
As soon as the first person finished speaking, his friend immediately looked as if he had lost his parents.
Ren Yifei took out his phone and saw that it contained information about the dormitory inspection, requiring all students to stay in their dormitories before 3 p.m.
Did the school discover these anomalies and make this decision? He still doesn't understand why the deaths of seven players were not reported at all.
In this era where everyone has a mobile phone, it's not easy to block this kind of information.
He stayed outside until nearly nine o'clock, which was the time he had arranged with another member of the club.
Ren Yifei arrived at the milk tea shop and sat down on a black wrought iron stool. A moment later, two girls came in; they looked around and spotted Ren Yifei.
But only one girl walked over; she had her hair tied in a ponytail and was carrying a canvas bag.
"Are you Zhang Zhengyuan?" she asked timidly as she approached. Judging from her expression, she would run away like a frightened deer if Ren Yifei said no.
"I am... are you Zhao Rui?"
"Yes." She breathed a sigh of relief, sat down, and then waved to the long-haired girl leaning against the wall, as if to say: This is it.
The girl glanced at Ren Yifei, then nodded aloofly, still looking in their direction without saying a word.
It's clear they have a very good relationship.
"These past few days, I've been so grateful to my friend. Several times, I don't know what happened, I ended up on the edge of the balcony, even standing on a stool. And I was running along the edge of the stairs. If no one had pulled me back, I might have..."
She still feels lingering fear when she talks about these things.
Ren Yifei nodded: "I understand. Yesterday... a girl in our class rushed down the stairs like a madwoman. She's from the photography club, so she might have been here taking pictures."
"What? The photographer too?" The girl was devastated. She kept glancing at her friend. "What about my friend?"
"Did your friend also watch the sacrificial ceremony?"
"Yes." The girl nodded. "But she hasn't been affected much these past few days."
Ren Yifei turned to look at the long-haired girl over there: "It seems that only a portion of people will be affected. I suspect that it has selection criteria. Your friend is not within the selection range, at least not the first choice."
Just like the flu, there are susceptible people and immune people.
The girl breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good. If it weren't for me, she wouldn't have come to see the performance. She's not interested in these things anyway."
The girl herself was in such a terrible situation, yet she felt relieved that her friend wouldn't suffer any harm. This proves that the two girls' friendship was genuine and without any pretense.
"Why don't you call your friend over too? She's involved now," Ren Yifei said.
The girl agreed wholeheartedly, so she called her friend over: "They're from the same club, Zhang..."
"Zhang Zhengyuan," Ren Yifei said.
"Yes, yes, Zhang Zhengyuan." The girl was a little embarrassed, then turned to introduce her friend to him, "My good friend, Yu Yan."
Zhao Rui told her friend Yu Yan about the death of the 'bystander', and Yu Yan understood what she meant: "In other words, I was also involved."
She remained calm and was able to analyze her situation immediately: "It has been thirty-three days since the ritual began. People started experiencing hallucinations or other things, starting the day before yesterday. If the victims are in a certain order, I might be in the second or third batch."
"That's possible," Ren Yifei said with a wry smile. "And I'm undoubtedly in the first batch. Do you know about the deaths yesterday?"
Except for the third incident, which he had absolutely no contact with, the first person who jumped off the building landed right in front of him, almost giving him a mental breakdown. The second person went berserk right in front of him, and just thinking about it now makes his hair stand on end.
"Actually, there are others," Zhao Rui added softly.
She glanced around the bubble tea shop and lowered her voice further: "There are others like me who felt something a few days ago. Some of them got scared and went home. Apparently... two of them had accidents. One drowned at home with his head submerged in the sink, and the other ran a red light and had an accident."
Just then, a waiter from the milk tea shop came over. He was also a student from the school, working there to earn some living expenses. The three of them immediately shut up.
The waiter asked them what they would like to drink, and the three of them each ordered what they needed.
During this time, Ren Yifei was also observing them. This ritual involved many things, and he needed two helpers to search for more clues. However, he couldn't be completely sure that these were the two girls he was looking for.
"I now know that this ritual comes from Yunnan and is a special ritual of a certain tribe. Moreover, this ritual has a long history, even predating the existence of the ancient Dian people, and the ancient Dian people's rituals were also influenced by it."
"Legend has it that some of the ancient Dian people crossed the ocean to Indonesia, where they still retained the custom of headhunting and sacrificial rituals decades ago. When Europeans first saw these people, they called them cannibals from the East."
Ren Yifei explained what he knew: "In the ancient Dian people's sacrifices, the most indispensable and powerful figure was the female priest in the center. She was the presiding priest and the leader, and her significance was immense. If this was influenced by the sacrifices of another tribe, then it means that the sacrifices in that tribe were also presided over by a female priest."
"Therefore, if the sacrifice has special significance, everyone else can be fake, but the person presiding over the sacrifice must be real."
Zhao Rui's eyes suddenly widened: "This priestess is the vice president in drag!"
"..." Ren Yifei looked at the picture on his phone. He didn't know if it was because the resolution was too low, but he couldn't tell that it was a man at all. He could only see that the man was gloomy.
"When the vice president first said he was going to play a witch, everyone thought it was strange. But at that time we didn't think much of it. We just thought that the role was important and the vice president was afraid of doing a bad job, so he took on the role himself."
As Zhao Rui recalled the events of the past, the more she recalled them, the more chills she felt.
Many details were not apparent at the time, but upon reflection now, they reveal profound meaning.
"By the way, do you still have any video footage or pictures from that time?" Ren Yifei continued to probe the two. Although he had already quietly accepted his friend's identity.
Before Zhao Rui could react immediately, the girl named Yu Yan immediately understood what Ren Yifei meant: "I have it, I have the most complete video."
She took out her phone and said she could forward a copy to Ren Yifei, since they were all in the same boat anyway.
Since the girl said that, Ren Yifei naturally didn't hide it from her. He took out "Legendary Incredible Architecture" and turned to the page about Atlantis: "I have seen similar architecture in my dreams, underwater, in the bottomless depths of water."
Next, he took out paper and pen and sketched the underwater stone pillars. The monsters on the pillars weren't the most important thing; rather, the reliefs on the pillars held a lot of special meaning.
However, Ren Yifei couldn't draw it very carefully. There was an invisible and intangible layer between him and that memory, which made it impossible for him to perfectly recreate the stone pillar he saw in his dream.
He knew it was it that was interfering.
Generally speaking, these extraordinary life forms do not use humans to achieve anything as described in human texts, because their lifespan is very long, and they may wake up one day to find that a new civilization and a new generation of humans have emerged.
But this one was different, Ren Yifei was certain of that: it was watching the humans with great interest. Just like a human watching a group of ants fighting, occasionally wanting to interfere with a bit of mischievous fun.
"I don't understand at all. Yu Yan, do you know him?" Zhao Rui asked her friend.
"I don't know him, but I know an expert who studies the ancient Dian Kingdom civilization. Maybe he can help."
Ren Yifei was pleasantly surprised: "Who?" Their school had such a talented student hidden away?
Yu Yan glanced at him: "My dad."
Ren Yifei: ...Please go ahead.
Yu Yan was on the phone, leaving Zhao Rui and Ren Yifei at the table. Zhao Rui whispered, "I only told Yu Yan because I knew it was a ritual from Yunnan and found it very interesting. Yu Yan is from Yunnan."
I never imagined that I would end up harming my friend.
This is a truly unexpected and delightful surprise. It would be wonderful if Zhao Rui could provide clues, and now we can also contact an expert from the ancient Dian Kingdom through Zhao Rui's friend.
The meanings of these ancient rituals, symbols on certain relics, and even some behaviors still need to be explained by experts; otherwise, they'll just be wandering around aimlessly like greenbottle flies.
"He said it's okay. I've already sent him the video. I might get back to you later." Yu Yan came over after finishing the call.
Zhao Rui immediately took out her phone: "Then let's create a group chat, so we can know immediately if anything happens."
The three of them, along with Yu Yan's father, were added to a group chat. Zhao Rui was the group admin, and she named it the "Never Died Group".
The meaning is good.
This meeting can be considered a successful conclusion. More clues will emerge later. Ren Yifei took a big gulp of bubble tea, and his mood improved a bit.
Suddenly, a familiar bitter aroma wafted over.
Ren Yifei didn't confirm immediately because there was a cake shop next to the milk tea shop, and the aroma might have been coming from the cake shop.
But after taking a closer sniff, he was certain.
Following the scent, I saw a tall, somewhat gloomy-looking young man carrying a backpack. His skin was very pale, with a bluish-gray tinge, and his face was expressionless, making him look rather intimidating.
Ren Yifei glanced at it a couple more times, and Zhao Rui and the other person also noticed.
Zhao Rui's eyes widened, not because the person she was seeing had anything particularly strange about them, but because...
"Vice President?!"