"Bang!" The broom in Wu Lingling's hand fell to the ground. Her face turned pale and she was shaking all over. "Help... Help..." She screamed frantically, "Help!!!"
Several taskers in the corridor were so frightened that their faces changed drastically. Yang Xue was the first to run into the classroom: "Lingling, what's wrong? What happened?" She looked around the classroom, "Where is your classmate Huang Yu?"
Wu Lingling looked at Yang Xue with tears in her eyes and pointed at the iron cabinet next to the podium with trembling hands.
Yang Xue's gaze moved in that direction reflexively. A possibility exploded in her mind with a loud bang. At the same time, she was attacked by a chill and her limbs were cold.
"Stop using sign language. What's going on? Can't you just say it directly?" A timid female tasker who didn't dare to come in didn't know the current situation and started complaining.
"What's in the iron cabinet?" The other five girls squeezed together, unable to bear the anxiety of "others understand but I don't". They felt isolated by the team and their IQ was trampled. They looked at the only male present, Lin Chengye. The sweet-mouthed one among them asked for help, "Brother Lin..."
"Don't panic, I'll go and take a look." Lin Chengye closed the lunch box with only the remaining food, wiped his greasy mouth, and his chubby face showed a serious and steady look. He walked to the iron cabinet, took a deep breath, and opened the cabinet door.
Then... he saw a twisted and deformed corpse.
Lin Chengye turned his head to look at Wu Lingling, who was shaking with her back to him, Yang Xue, who was covering her mouth, and the three girls standing at the door who dared not breathe. He looked around and then turned his eyes to the corpse, moving his thick lips slowly: "Ah... Ah! Ah—"
Each sound is louder and sharper than the last.
The talking downstairs stopped instantly. Chen Yang hurriedly swallowed a mouthful of food, threw the iron spoon into the lunch box, jumped up and rushed upstairs like an arrow.
"When can I reach that speed?" Wen Qing smacked his lips and turned his head. "Old Jin, what are you still doing here? Get on!"
Jin Xiaochang chewed his food slowly with his mouth closed. He spoke only after he finished eating: "You should spend the time you spend playing with coins on shooting and close combat. Chen Yang may not be able to beat you."
"Oh, don't say that. I'm too thick-skinned to help but praise him..." Wen Qing approached him with interest, "Wait, you mean, Chen Yang can play and shoot? Even my old teammate and neighbor doesn't know about it, so where did you get the news?"
Jin Xiaochang continued to eat the cold food.
"Forget it, I'm not curious. Life is full of stories, and we can have one or two." Wen Qing propped up his legs with his arms and held up his red face with his hands. "But then again, I still like stories that end in a comedy. Tragedy is really boring."
Wen Qing caught a glimpse of a slender figure following Chen Yang into the corridor, and said with a smile, "Our Brother Yang never lacks followers." He then glanced at the Qian brothers and Zeng Jin who were still sitting downstairs, pretending to be surprised, "Oh, I didn't know until I saw it, I was shocked, there are not many people left."
"That's normal. It's easy for a team of 20 to be left with only a few people." Wen Qing suddenly looked at Qian Qin, "Right, Mr. Qian."
Qian Qin was talking to his younger brother. He tilted his head and his face became grim when he heard this.
Literary pen refill.
Qian Qin turned his head away woodenly and continued whispering to his brother.
Wen Qing looked shocked and went to Jin Xiaochang to cry and complain: "Old Jin, he doesn't like me."
Jin Xiaochang said "So what" in German, his pronunciation was so correct that it had an ancient flavor, and his voice was low, lazy and sexy.
"Brother's voice is so nice." Wen Qing covered her ears exaggeratedly, "I'm pregnant, I'm pregnant."
"Then you should cover here, Qingqing." Jin Xiao flicked his finger on his stomach.
Hipster: “…” You’re crazy!
He stood up and looked up at the fourth floor, licking his cracked lips with the tip of his tongue: "What happened? Our classmate Lin must have been scared out of his wits. Oh my, it looks so exciting."
When Chen Yang was about to reach the fourth floor, the cold air in the corridor seemed to be sucked away by something. The temperature jumped sharply, from several degrees below zero to over thirty degrees in the blink of an eye, and the heat wave in the air hit his face.
"The season has changed." Bai Tang, who had caught up, said breathlessly.
Chen Yang climbed up to the fourth floor with a few big strides. He quickly passed the corner and saw Lin Chengye, Yang Xue, Wu Lingling and nine others standing stupidly in the corridor outside the classroom.
The fragrance of the camphor tree wafted up faintly, and the campus had changed from a silvery white to a blazing sun with green trees in the shade.
Chen Yang looked up at the doorplate above the classroom. Class 1 (1) had become Class 2 (1).
"Did I see it wrong? He's in the second year of high school..."
"Oh my god, it's my sophomore year."
"Ahh! It's the second year of high school! We are the second year of high school!!!"
Several girls screamed in surprise. Forced back to adolescence, they could not feel young again. Their young faces were full of panic. They knew that time would fast forward and seasons would skip, but they were still at a loss about the sudden life of sophomore year in high school.
Whose timeline is this? The three years of high school jumped too fast! One moment they were taking their final exams in the first semester of their first year of high school, and now they are sophomores.
The wind was strong and the corridor was silent. Chen Yang looked at Lin Chengye, who had his mouth wide open: "What did you yell just now?"
"In the cabinet next to the podium there is..." Lin Chengye pointed at Wu Lingling. He swallowed his cigarette and spit, and it took him a long time to finish the second half of the sentence.
Wu Lingling's wig stuck to her face, her pale face looked haggard and embarrassed: "It was the heavy rain, the heavy rain she...she..."
"Climbed in?" Chen Yang continued.
Wu Lingling cried and nodded: "The cabinet is so small, how could she be in it... I don't know how it happened. We were cleaning and everything was fine. She suddenly asked where it was. She said it many times, over and over again. At that time, I... But I still didn't think of the worst..."
"The moment we enter the mission world, we must be mentally prepared." Yang Xue gave Wu Lingling a tissue.
Chen Yang glanced at Yang Xue and walked into the classroom, going straight to the iron cabinet next to the podium. The door was closed. He bent down and opened it. There was no corpse inside, only the smell of rust.
The newspapers on the windows were removed, the chairs on the tables were neatly arranged, the classroom was bright and tidy, and on the blackboard at the back was a picture of the sea and a sail, with a line of big words written next to it - school is starting! Good luck in the second year of high school!
It was as if fear and death had disappeared in that invisible period of time, and it was a brand new, hopeful beginning.
"I skipped the remaining six subjects, and also skipped the midterm and final exams for the second semester of senior year." The two girls in the corridor looked at the current situation from another perspective, thinking it was a great thing, no less than a life-saving opportunity. They happily grabbed each other's hands and jumped, "Great, we don't have to take the exams!"
As soon as Wu Lingling stopped crying, she clasped the tissue soaked with sweat and glared at them angrily: "What are you laughing at? He's dead, what's so funny?!"
The two girls stopped jumping immediately.
Chen Yang came out and asked Wu Lingling: "Didn't the person die while cleaning?"
"No." Wu Lingling didn't hesitate at all. She blew her nose and tears were about to flow out again. "Definitely not."
Chen Yang glanced downstairs. Wen Qing and his friends were still sitting there, surrounded by green trees and full of vitality. He asked Wu Lingling another question: "Why are you so sure?"
"When Da Yu opened the door, I smelled blood and the stench of a corpse. There was a body inside. Before she crawled in, she said 'here,' which means she was looking for me," Wu Lingling shuddered. "She kept asking where I was."
Chen Yang looked past Wu Lingling and at Bai Tang. Your students are very good at self-regulation. Their logical awareness recovered so quickly.
Bai Tang did not respond to Chen Yang. He looked at his student Wu Lingling and said, "Based on the current situation, Huang Yu saw the eyes in the gap of the newspaper that night, and in the chaos she bumped into her deskmate Xu Lulu who was doing homework, which violated the death taboo. She didn't die at that time, so she escaped a disaster."
Wu Lingling cried until her voice was hoarse: "I thought she was lucky..."
Lin Chengye, who had said that Huang Yu was lucky, coughed and said, "What is supposed to come will come."
Bai Tang pondered for a moment: "Wu Lingling, does Huang Yu only separate from you during exams?"
Wu Lingling nodded while sobbing: "After Da Yu was frightened by that eye, time jumped to the morning of the final exam. After that, we had breakfast and went into the exam room. That's when we separated and agreed to meet downstairs."
"That means, she died in the examination room, and it was her ghost who came down the stairs later?" Bai Tang said with a frown.
Chen Yang thought of Huang Yu's desk, which was as clean and tidy as an empty desk. "Maybe."
The topic was not expanded further as it was not important. The time of death of teammates had nothing to do with the mission.
One girl was slow to react: "No way, there is someone who doesn't know he's dead? How is that possible?!" When she saw that her teammates didn't respond, her face turned pale.
"On the day of the exam, all of us were separated. We don't know what the situation was like in each of us. Does that mean that there is a possibility that someone violated a taboo and was... not aware of it?" The more Yang Xue spoke, the lower her voice became, and her expression became more terrified.
The air flow in the corridor froze instantly, and was soon shattered by two screams.
"I know I'm not dead!"
"Me too!"
The same meaning was expressed for the other girls who were not called out. They are alive, still alive, and will continue to live.
Chen looked up at the blue sky in the distance. Four taskers died during the first semester of high school, and the four people stayed at different event points.
Zhang Quanliang stopped at the time of his self-introduction at the beginning of the school year, Wang Yang was on the way to evening self-study class, the third female tasker stayed in the final examination room, and Huang Yu was the fourth one, her life also remained in the examination room, and she found her own body while on duty.
Everyone has to rush to the end of the three years of high school without stopping, and their companions will continue to leave. This is in line with the true meaning of youth.
—Growing and losing at the same time.
Chen Yang withdrew his gaze from the horizon and inadvertently caught Lin Chengye looking at a girl's long hair blown up by the wind. A few strands of hair fluttered towards him, and he wanted to reach out to touch them.
"Bye!"
A head popped out from the corner, accompanied by the passionate and performative laughter unique to literary youths: "Got it!"
Chen Yang noticed that Lin Chengye immediately retracted his hand, with a hint of abnormal panic in his movements. He turned his head to look at the young man who had come close to him: "What did you catch? Hide and seek?"
"How did you know?" Wen Qing blinked, then turned to Lin Chengye and winked, "I'm playing hide-and-seek, classmate Lin, right?"
Lin Chengye tightened his chubby chin and said, "I don't understand what you are saying."
Wen Qing was unhappy: "How can you say that? I have been preparing for this moment for a long time." He pouted and smiled again, "Student Lin, thank you."
Lin Chengye was puzzled: "Why are you thanking me if you have nothing to do?"
"Of course I'm thanking you for something." Wen Qing walked closer to him, "Hey, I really hate campus backgrounds, what with the youthful sentiments that are always poems about eternal youth and long live youth, bullshit, it's meaningless, luckily you're here."
"You are the one who made the game more fulfilling. How can I not thank you?" Wen Qing smiled and acted like a gentleman. "I solemnly express my gratitude here."
Lin Chengye was frightened by Wen Qing's strange energy and he stepped back subconsciously.
Wen Qing approached him, and then... squatted down.
For some reason, Lin Chengye suddenly jumped up and down like a fish thrown into a frying pan, trying to run away. However, he was grabbed by Chen Yang after taking just two steps.
"Why are you running? You are the opposite actor and you can't leave. My friend hasn't finished his performance yet." Chen Yang threw Lin Chengye to the ground.
"China is a good neighbor!" The young intellectual gave two thumbs up.
Chen Yang: “…”
The next moment he saw Wen Qing do a strange thing. He grabbed Lin Chengye's right trouser leg.
Lin Chengye struggled like crazy. He was fat, and he was much fatter than Wen Qing, who was also in his youth. Wen Qing was kicked in the corner of his mouth, and he laughed darkly, "I'm angry."
As soon as the last word fell, Wen Qing pounced on Lin Chengye and grabbed his neck with both hands.
Chen Yang had personally experienced the way these kids fought. That was how the crazy woman fought him in the Nameless Town mission. It was simple and brutal, with only one goal: either you die or I live.
Chen Yang squatted down and completed the action that Wen Qing failed to do. He clamped Lin Chengye's right foot and used his other hand to lift up the other's trouser leg.
A black instrument was exposed.
"It's an electronic anklet!" Yang Xue couldn't believe it. "It's also called a mobile prison, an electronic torture device for monitoring prisoners."
All the surviving women in the team are here, including Yang Xue, a total of eight people. At this time, they all distanced themselves from Lin Chengye.
Chen Yang had an unpleasant expression. It turned out that Lin Chengye had bent down and pulled up his trouser legs in order to hide his shackles, and he had shouted at the beginning of the mission that he would not be on TV because he was afraid of being recognized.
"It's just as Old Jin said. It won't be fun even if I make a grand appearance." Wen Qing shook his head in disappointment.
Chen Yang glanced over and saw Wen Qing holding his chin with his hands and looking at him innocently.
"I've done so many missions, but this is the first time I've encountered a criminal in the team." Chen Yang sneered.
Bai Tang also looked very bad. Although all living beings suffer, when a person makes a mistake and is punished, others should give him a chance to start over, but that also depends on what the mistake is.
Being looked at with strange eyes by everyone, Lin Chengye roared as if he was humiliated: "I have served my sentence and been released!"
Yang Xue said in a deep voice: "Those who need to wear shackles after serving their sentences are either criminals who have committed violent crimes more than twice..."
Lin Chengye blurted out: "No, I'm not! I was just confused for a moment and said to the neighbor's kid..." Realizing what he had said, his chubby white face turned blue and red.
"Oh, they attacked minors." Wen Qing smiled and asked the knowledgeable Bai Tang, "Professor Bai, how is my reading comprehension, is it correct?"
Bai Tang's thin chest rose and fell a little, and even though he was a refined scholar, he was so angry that he kicked Lin Chengye.
Lin Chengye screamed. Before this, the female teammates would stand on his side out of their natural sensibility, maternal instinct, and sympathy for the weak. After all, he was a likable little fat boy. Now it would only cause them to be disgusted.
The second situation Yang Xue mentioned for wearing shackles after being released from prison was raping minors. She heard several girls next to her whispering, "How disgusting! I thought he was a good person. I want to slap myself." "He looks very ordinary, nothing special."
"Many murderers are ordinary people. Maybe when you go downstairs to throw away the garbage, they pass by you and you can't even remember them after just one glance," said Yang Xue.
Several people shuddered, and one of them remembered something and pointed at Lin Chengye on the ground and yelled, "Trash! You just wanted to touch Liu Xiaorong's hair!"
Liu Xiaorong was brushing her long hair that was blown to her face by the wind. When she heard this, she accidentally pulled out a few strands of hair. She was about to swear, but she held it back when she thought of the social news about revenge.
Girls are still afraid, even if it's not in the real world.
"Hey, do you like long hair, Lin? My classmate's ponytail was on your desk before, and I thought you were trying to get rid of it by reaching out your hand, but it turns out you didn't." Wen Qing said with a smile, "Long hair is your thing, Lin?"
Lin Chengye didn't say a word. He climbed up with the help of the wall, limped into the classroom, and sat down in his seat.
Bai Tang frowned. He was already in the second year of high school but he hadn't changed his seat. He still had to sit at the same table with Lin Chengye.
"Professor Bai, I'm sitting in front of you. If you're bored, you can come and play with me." Wen Qing patted Bai Tang's shoulder.
Chen Yang pulled Wen Qing aside and said, "Actually, you don't have to worry about it. With Lin Chengye's ability, he won't live long even if he survives this mission."
"I didn't want to care." Wen Qing peeled his gum. "Who made me go upstairs and saw him unable to control his hands? I couldn't help it. Impulse is the devil. I was so afraid of his revenge."
Wen Qing peeled the gum for a long time but couldn't peel it off. He crumpled it into a ball and stuffed it into his mouth along with the wrapper. He chewed it innocently and said, "It tastes bad. I want to vomit."
He said this, but he didn't spit it out. He swallowed it with a smile.