The scene of Ying Xiaoya's fall was quickly cleared, and other classes ended as normal. The hungry students filed out of the school building, their faces filled with confusion, and gathered in small groups to discuss the situation.
"What happened?"
"That car that just drove out of the school looked like a police car? Could it be that the police came looking for us?"
"Is it a problem with Class 3? I saw them playing basketball in this class, and it looked like Yu Hui and Xie Xinghe were fighting."
" Yu Hui and Xie Xinghe have never gotten along, right? I heard from Class 3 that they often argue."
" Xie Xinghe got first place in the whole grade again in this monthly exam. I really don't know what his brain is made of."
"Math is so difficult, yet he got a perfect score, and he scored 295 in the combined science exam. He's a monster!"
Fenglin High School is a day school and does not have a student canteen.
School ends at 12:00 in the morning and classes start at 14:30 in the afternoon. There is a two-and-a-half-hour break at noon. Most students walk home for lunch, while some who live further away ride their bicycles and rush out of the school gate. Today, I was inexplicably kept in the classroom by my homeroom teacher for almost an hour, so lunch time was very tight.
In the blink of an eye, the students left the school, and the campus became quiet.
Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou hid near the school gate, listening to the discussions among the students coming and going. Yu Hui and Xie Xinghe were clearly prominent figures in the school, and it was common knowledge among the students that the two did not get along.
13:30.
Yu Hui, Xie Xinghe, and Yi Ru arrived at the school gate one after another.
Xie Xinghe quickly caught up with Yu Hui and said, "Don't be too sad about Xiaoya's matter..."
Yu Hui turned around and glared at him, her eyes bloodshot: "Stop pretending to be kind! If you hadn't deliberately bumped into me while playing ball, Xiaoya wouldn't have disappeared right under my nose!"
Xie Xinghe frowned, clenching his fists at his sides: "I'm sorry, I didn't expect this to happen either."
Yi Ru walked past the two of them, ignoring their argument.
The girl seemed to have left her body; her expression was blank, and she walked like a robot that had lost its ability to think. Yu Hui grabbed her and said, "Xiaoya left with you. What did you say to her?"
He's like a mad dog now, biting anyone he sees. Yi Ru was startled, her face pale as she stammered, "She asked me to buy food, she didn't say anything else... I don't know why she jumped off the building to commit suicide, her expression was normal at the time..."
Yu Hui roared, "Shut up! She wouldn't have committed suicide, there must be a reason. Did you push her off the building?!"
Yi Ru took a step back in alarm: " Yu Hui, what nonsense are you talking about..."
Yu Hui said, "You have a crush on Xie Xinghe, but Xie Xinghe likes Xiaoya more. Are you jealous of her?!"
Xie Xinghe, with a stern face, stopped Yu Hui: "Enough, stop talking nonsense, okay? Yi Ru and Xiao Ya have such a good relationship, how could she do such a thing?! Take leave this afternoon and go home to calm down. Come back to class when you're ready."
Yu Hui glared at him fiercely, then turned and walked away with red eyes.
Xie Xinghe glanced at Yi Ru's pale face and said, "You should also ask for leave and get some rest. I'll talk to the homeroom teacher."
Yi Ru nodded: "Thank you, class monitor..."
The three walked out of the school gate one after the other. Since Challenger's activity area was limited to Fenglin High School after the escape room plot began, and they couldn't chase him out of the school, Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang could only turn around and leave.
During lunch break, the campus was unusually quiet.
With an hour to go before afternoon classes, Xiao Lou's stomach was growling loudly—he suddenly remembered that he hadn't eaten anything since arriving at Card World, and he had slept in the stairwell all night. Now he was both tired and hungry.
Seeing Yu Hanjiang's furrowed brows and apparent deep thought, Xiao Lou couldn't help but remind him, " Captain Yu, why don't we eat something first? This case won't be over today, and if we don't eat, we won't have the energy to continue gathering evidence tonight."
Yu Hanjiang nodded and walked into the convenience store with Xiao Lou.
They couldn't leave the school gates, and the gold coins they earned in the Plum Blossom Secret Chamber could only be spent at the convenience store.
The shopkeeper, a middle-aged woman, was curious when she saw the two unfamiliar faces. Xiao Lou calmly smiled at Yu Hanjiang and said, "Teacher Yu, what would you like to eat?"
Yu Hanjiang reached out and took a bag of instant noodles, two sausages, and two braised eggs from the shelf, placed them on the table, and said, "This is enough for me."
Xiao Lou, who only took a packet of instant noodles: "..."
Captain Yu is nearly 1.9 meters tall and has a robust physique, so it's normal for him to have a large appetite.
The items in the convenience store are ridiculously expensive; all these food items together cost 1400 gold coins.
Xiao Lou felt a pang of regret, took out two 1000-yuan gold coins from his pocket to pay, and asked, "Do you have hot water here? Could you make us some noodles?"
The shop owner said, "Yes, please wait a moment, teachers."
She brought a kettle of hot water for the two of them to make noodles, and also gave Xiao Lou 600 gold coins in change.
Yu Hanjiang suddenly asked, "Boss, do you have a flashlight?"
Shopkeeper: "Yes, 300 gold coins."
Yu Hanjiang looked at Xiao Lou with a questioning gaze: "Why don't we use the change to buy two flashlights?"
Currently, Xiao Lou is in charge of the accounts, and Yu Hanjiang wants to spend...
Xiao Lou had to ask for the money first. Since the flashlights were obviously for nighttime convenience, Xiao Lou had no choice but to hand back the 600 gold coins the shopkeeper had given him, smiling and saying, "Give us two flashlights."
I only have 17 gold coins in my pocket, and I spent 2 of them on lunch... How am I going to survive from now on?
After pouring hot water, the two carried their noodles to the maple forest and sat down to eat and chat.
Xiao Lou said with a headache, " The prices in Card World are really high. 2,000 gold coins can only buy this much. It feels like 20 yuan in the real world. We only have 15 gold coins left. We need to be more careful with our spending from now on."
Yu Hanjiang glanced at Xiao Lou, who was diligently calculating the bill, and chimed in, "Okay, let's be frugal." Then, he looked at the unopened sausages and braised eggs in his hand, and put one sausage and one braised egg into Xiao Lou's bowl: "You should eat more too."
Xiao Lou was both amused and exasperated.
He can cook, and usually eats either at the school cafeteria or at home. In the real world, he never eats fried food like instant noodles. But now, instant noodles are a luxury for the two of them—they won't be able to afford them if they eat them for a few more meals, which is really sad.
Xiao Lou paused for a moment, then sighed, " I hope to make more money at the Plum Blossom Secret Chamber in the future."
Yu Hanjiang: "...Hmm."
The two penniless men exchanged a glance and silently lowered their heads to eat their instant noodles.
**
At 2:00 PM, the two got up and returned to the teaching building.
Students gradually returned to school, and Fenglin High School returned to normal.
As the school bell rang, the teachers walked through the sky corridor to their respective classrooms. Only Class 3 of Senior Three was shrouded in a gloomy atmosphere. Yu Hui and Yi Ru's seats were empty; they had asked for leave to go home. Class monitor Xie Xinghe was still in the classroom.
The afternoon's schedule included Chinese, biology, and math, but the homeroom teacher, who was also the Chinese teacher, clearly wasn't in the mood to teach. Standing on the podium, he rubbed his temples wearily and said, "This period is for self-study."
At first, the students were quietly reading, but gradually they noticed that their homeroom teacher was lost in thought and not paying attention to them. Several girls sitting in the back row started secretly passing notes.
They didn't know what they wrote on the note, but their expressions were terrified. When they threw it forward, it veered off course and accidentally fell to the ground, startling the homeroom teacher on the podium.
The homeroom teacher frowned as he picked up the note, glanced at it, and his expression suddenly changed: "Don't believe this nonsense! What vengeful spirits, ghosts floating around—if anyone talks nonsense again, go run ten laps around the track!"
The girls turned pale with fright and immediately lowered their heads to make themselves as inconspicuous as possible.
The homeroom teacher walked out of the classroom, crumpled the note into a ball, and threw it into the trash can in the corridor.
Yu Hanjiang quickly turned around, picked up the note, walked to the corner, unfolded it, and read it with Xiao Lou.
The note had messy handwriting and contained a few lines of text.
"Do you think Ying Xiaoya was cursed when she jumped off the building?"
"That's possible. Our school used to be located on a site where prisoners were executed, and many people died here. It's said that some students have heard strange crying sounds when they passed by the school in the middle of the night!"
"After finishing my exams last week, I got home late and saw what looked like ghostly figures floating in the maple forest. It scared me to death!"
"Could it be a vengeful spirit seeking revenge?"
"It's said that turning 18 at school is cursed. Didn't a girl leave a suicide note and jump off a building on her 18th birthday the year Fenglin High School was built? Xiaoya is 18 today, what a coincidence..."
"It seems like someone went missing a few years ago!"
"Could it be that the ghosts of those who died unjustly are cursing our school?"
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang exchanged a glance.
The word "curse" has finally appeared.
****