Chapter 9  

Xiao Chen was shocked. He looked towards the place the finger pointed to.

It was near the window, with bookshelves almost completely blocking the view. He couldn’t see that clearly, and could only vaguely detect that there was a rather petite, short-haired girl.

Observing this distant figure, Xiao Chen already had an incredible guess in his mind.

The short-haired girl’s eyes didn’t move as she intently flipped through the books, even pulling her own hair in irritation.

Xiao Chen walked to her step by step, finally being able to discern the girl’s face under the faint light——it was the leader of the group of girls he had met earlier!

What was going on?

His heart beat faster, and he felt that this situation was unimaginable.

He hadn’t known the girl for a long time, but he could tell that her temperament was very firm. She was logical and had her own ideas. Xiao Chen found it hard to believe that someone like her would bully Xu Sheng. How could she be a sinner?

Was he thinking in the wrong direction?

What crime did the sinner commit?

Could the shadow be lying to him? No, that was impossible. Xiao Chen swiftly rejected this thought. The other had assisted him many times before, so he deeply trusted that Mr. Shadow would not deceive him.

It was at this moment that the broadcast continued. {It was you who tricked him here, remember? Keke.} This time the broadcast wasn’t the same as the previous two. Those were spoken by a mechanical male voice, but now it was evidently a normal youth’s. This new voice dragged out each word, and its pitch was slightly low. It was as if the speaker had covered their mouth and nose, leading people to involuntarily shiver when they listened.

Xiao Chen recalled the dream he had before, and this voice...

Was it Xu Sheng?

Everyone present had clearly heard the broadcast, and they all stiffened. In an instant, the library was terribly quiet.

Because Xiao Chen was so close to the short-haired girl, he distinctly noticed that her fingers tightened around the book in her hand, and that she couldn’t stop shaking. Soon, her legs unexpectedly softened, and she directly knelt on the ground.

“Yang Jie, is it you?!” The curly-haired girl who had screamed earlier was nearby. She quickly reacted and moved towards the short-haired girl, her face ferocious. Her harsh voice interrupted the surrounding silence.

Yang Jie’s expression collapsed. “No, it’s not me!”

“It’s not you? Within our sisters, who doesn’t know that you used Xiao Chen’s name to lure Xu Sheng to the library!” The curly-haired girl aggressively stepped forward to grab the collar of Yang Jie’s uniform.

Xiao Chen was stunned.

What did they mean, his name?

Yang Jie staggered after her collar was pulled, and she couldn’t help but glance at Xiao Chen in shame.

The curly-haired girl sneered. “You still don’t want to admit it? Don’t you like Senior Xiao Chen? When you heard that Xu Sheng liked Senior Xiao Chen too, you couldn’t hold back, right? Bai Qiaoqiao told you to bring Xu Sheng to the library, and didn’t you do it?”

“I’m not, I didn’t!” Yang Jie choked out as she sat paralyzed on the ground.

“It still wasn’t you? You used Xiao Chen’s name to schedule a meeting with Xu Sheng, and then you humiliated him in the library!” Then Wang Tong led people to drag Xu Sheng to the bathroom to take photos.

But the curly-haired girl didn’t say this last sentence.

“It was actually her?”

“It couldn’t be, wasn’t she the one who especially couldn’t bear to see other people bully Xu Sheng?”

“Who knows, knowing people only means knowing faces, not knowing hearts.”

The murmuring began again, and a few people even sneaked a peek at Wang Tong’s expression. After all, the one who bullied Xu Sheng in the bathroom was him.

Half of the people in the library even concluded that the next one had to be Wang Tong!

Some of them were secretly relieved. Fortunately, they hadn’t bullied Xu Sheng. But they forgot that they had stood by with cold eyes, resulting in Xu Sheng choosing to commit suicide. How could Xu Sheng spare them?

Wang Tong’s face was extremely ugly, but he rapidly recovered. Without any explanation, he walked forward and seized Yang Jie’s arm, loudly yelling, “Tie her up!”

Yang Jie’s eyes widened. She wanted to break free from Wang Tong’s hand, but was caught by the curly-haired girl. When everyone saw the situation, they went to help with barely any hesitation.

“Don’t! Don’t! Let me go!” Yang Jie started to scream like she was a maniac. She opened her mouth and madly bit Wang Tong’s hand. Along with using both her hands and feet, her struggle was showing some success.

After Wang Tong was bitten, he immediately threw away Yang Jie. His eyes were burning with fire as he slapped her face.

Yang Jie was directly flung to the ground from the force.

Xiao Chen was astonished by the scene in front of him. He was the only one still staring blankly at the scene, but he recovered shortly. Just as he was going to go save Yang Jie, he was tightly hugged by a pair of hands and pulled into an embrace.

Was it that Mr. Shadow?

Before Xiao Chen could act, he sensed Mr. Shadow move close to his ear. The other’s teeth gently grazed Xiao Chen’s earlobe. “Don’t go. Death here is not a real death.”

What did that mean?

Was this not the Otherworld?

Wait.

He suddenly thought of a question. Why didn’t the people here need to drink water, eat, or go to the bathroom, even though they had been staying here for so long?

And he had obviously entered the world at noon, so why was it already night? Furthermore, the others had supposedly been here for a day and a night!

If even their deaths weren’t real, then where would this really be?

Xiao Chen swallowed. He felt that all of this was a bit absurd. A guess was gradually forming in his mind.

The answer was certain.

This was a dream!

It wasn’t an actuality!

Perhaps, Xu Sheng didn’t want them to die! Instead, he opted to torture their minds, so that they would also experience the suffering of their own death!

The kind of suffering that was disgusted, hurt, and watched coldly by everybody.

When the students woke up, no one would be able to forget everything that happened in the dream. At that time, what sort of terrifying scene would be the reunion of these people in reality?

Would they go insane? Would they seek revenge because of their resentment from being killed by someone else in the dream? Or, would they choose to commit suicide because of their traumatizing experience? Would they never be able to distinguish between reality and dreams from then?

Therefore, everyone had to be killed by a companion, not by other things. Only that sort of betrayal would lead to more despair.

Xiao Chen frowned and was shocked by his own ideas.

But.

So what if he knew it was a dream? Would he be able to safely observe as a bystander?

Yang Jie had already been bound, and something had been stuffed in her mouth. She cried, tears flowing down her cheeks without pause. She squirmed in desperation, wishing to escape, but was powerless.

Xiao Chen saw that the faces of the people around her were numb to the point of indifference, and his heart cooled.

How could they be so ruthless?

Under everyone’s shocked gazes, Xiao Chen rushed up to protect Yang Jie with his entire body. “Wait, you guys stop!”

When Yang Jie saw him coming, her anguish turned to hope. She looked at Xiao Chen like she had been redeemed by God.

Wang Tong pursed his lips and said icily, “Step aside, this has nothing to do with you!”

Before Xiao Chen was able to respond, their surroundings were plunged into darkness. There was no light at all, so it was pitch black.

“Frick me, what’s the matter?”

“Why is it so dark? It couldn’t be that the monsters have arrived, right?”

“AHHHHHHHHH!”

Everybody abruptly scattered. Some leaned against the walls and some clutched their companions, terrified.

Xiao Chen was frozen in place. But it was because he sensed that his body was being caressed by someone again.

This feeling was very intense, and he couldn’t see anything else in the dark. But this person didn’t do too much, and only massaged his waist before letting go.

The moonlight from outside the window shone through once more, and the weak lighting was restored.

Yang Jie had already lost her life. Her eyes were closed, and blood pooled out beneath her.

Xiao Chen involuntarily shuddered.

{Congratulations to all the players who successfully found the sinner!} The mechanical broadcast sounded again.

All the people noticed it and cheered. They sighed deeply in relief, and didn’t even spare half a glance towards the dead Yang Jie.

Completely disregarding their former friendship.

The curly-haired girl merely took an emotionless glimpse at Yang Jie’s body. She found a spot to sit down, planning to rest.

Wang Tong’s gaze was complicated as he stared at Xiao Chen, but he quietly walked to the side. The others followed him and scrambled away, until Xiao Chen was the only one left.

Xiao Chen didn’t move.

He heard someone say to him, “As you wished, she died without any pain. She has woken up from her dream.”

The Bible says, "If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.”

The black shadow stood there indifferently, watching the farce. Only when his sight landed on Xiao Chen did it soften.

Senior.

Everything will be as you wish.

You are my god.

T/N: I have to admit that Wang Tong is a guilty pleasure of mine. (• ε •)

Keke: more information

科科, the sound for sneering and mocking laughter, like someone with bad intentions waiting to see a good show (sinister laughter). The sound can also be a form of self-mocking. It is commonly used in Taiwan by young people. It originated from the character Noguchi from the animation Chibi Maruko-chan, and its predecessor was “ㄎ ㄎ”. In Gu Amo’s various movie commentary videos, he includes 科科 at the end, which facilitated its spread on Weibo and bilibili. He has a Youtube channel as well. Fun Fact: 科科 (Keke) is also a nickname for the Chinese table tennis player Zhang Yike (張繼科).

“knowing people only means knowing faces, not knowing hearts”: more information as well

知人知面不知心, which literally translates to “knowing people, knowing faces, not knowing hearts”. Basically, it is easy to know a person’s surface, but not so much who they are beneath. It comes from the book on primary education, Zengguang Xianwen, or “Enlarged Writings of Worthies”. It is an expanded version of the earlier Xishi Xianwen, “Writings of Worthies from Old Times”, or also known as Gujin Xianwen, “Writings of Worthies from Ancient and Modern Times”. It includes aphorisms, proverbs, popular sayings, and famous quotations, which are mostly focusing on daily life, social relationships, and decent behaviour. The full sentence containing 知人知面不知心 is “畫龍畫虎難畫骨，知人知面不知心”, which is “It is easy to paint dragons and tigers, but it is difficult to paint bones, since it is easy to know people and know faces, but it is difficult to know hearts”. Simply, it isn’t a challenge to draw the outlines of dragons and tigers, but it is one to draw their skeletons.

Keke: what makes people want to make that sound (self-mocking version)

. spending money to buy bad movies (comes from Gu Amo’s movie commentary)

. being cheated by Taobao shops

. being as single as a pringle, but encountering lovebirds wherever you go

. meeting someone with a strange personality

. can’t get an SSR in the game

I’ll give you a keke (not self-mocking):

I’m getting married to Zhang Yike (not self-mocking):

I suspect that this game doesn’t actually have SSRs: