SSSG Chapter 9: Haunted School (9)

Werewolf

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“So that’s the key?” The man comes to take a peek but then seems to lose interest, “now, tell me more about that friend of yours.”

So he really isn’t interested in escaping?

Du Yixin answers, “I don’t know. He was inside just now, with the teacher too, but he disappeared.”

Suddenly, the man grabs him by his collar, dragging him outside the room and throws him onto the ground.

“What…” Du Yixin reflexively tries to swear, but looking at the man, he swallows his words back, and instead says, “… are you doing?”

“Two questions,” the man kneels down, tapping his metal bat lightly on Du Yixin’s shoulder.

“Does your friend actually exist?”

“I told you already! He was inside, but then to save me, he closed the door to the room with the teacher-on-duty inside! I don’t know how they disappeared either!”

“You didn’t lie?”

Du Yixin nods confidently.

“I see. Next question,” the man narrows his eyes, “does the kid you said is hiding actually exist?”

“No.”

“Hah?!” This time, it’s the man who is blanking out. He thought Du Yixin was lying, but he didn’t expect him to admit it outright.

Du Yixin is admitting it after some consideration though. If he is asking this on purpose then he probably already has an answer in his mind. If he tries to bluff his way some more he might just get annoyed enough and bonk him directly on the head. Now, he has to try something else to delay his murderous spree.

“If I didn’t say that, you definitely would’ve killed me on the spot,” Du Yixin says, “isn’t that right, Ying Sheng?”

Hearing his own name from a stranger’s mouth drains the expression out of Ying Sheng’s face. He doesn’t say anything, but his fingers holding the metal bat are gripping stronger already.

Du Yixin can feel the danger to his head already, but still continues on, “you’re looking for someone. Although I’m not sure who they are, but I can help you.”

“Help me?” Ying Sheng raises his brow, and says, “you definitely are the most suspicious one right now.”

“You want to know where everyone is in the school, right? I know the answer to that. When I came here I found a clue and got everyone’s information. That’s how I know your name.”

Ying Sheng taps his forehead with his finger and says, “yeah, I’ve heard enough. Really, if I kill you right now I won’t have to listen to you blabbering anymore.”

Shit. He tried to set up a convincing excuse for him not to kill him for too long and has made him lose patience.

“If you kill me, you’ll never find the others!”

“Ah, that’d be a big waste of him,” the man thinks then smiles, “I guess I’ll just pry it out of your mouth before killing you.”

… Oh, great. He really dug his own grave now.

Du Yixin immediately jumps and starts running. The man does not chase after him, but instead makes a baseball-throwing pose with one leg raised and his hand pulled back, then makes a powerful throw forward——And Du Yixin can feel something crashing into his thigh. It is… a metallic ring.

…

Recalling something, he quickly darts and crashes into the storeroom door that’s besides him. Before he could close the door though, a wave of heat rushes towards him, and his body is lifted up by the explosion, throwing him a few metres through the air; unexpectedly, it’s the heavy padding of dust on the ground that sees him escape with only scratches, bruises, and burns on his back and legs.

“Cough cough,” Du Yixin climbs back up from the smoke and sees that, like the teacher’s room next door, the door to the storeroom has also been turned into a crater.

His leg is really hurting, but he can still stand, so it’s probably fine for now. Before he could try to run away again though, the man is already here, through the smoke.

“A toughie, aren’t we?”

Du Yixin feels like making the orz pose already. He yells out, “I’ll take a step back! Just tell me who you’re looking for, I can help you!”

Ying Sheng, though, cocks his head a little, his attention attracted to something else. Du Yixin follows his gaze, and realises he’s looking at the blackboard to the right of him.

This really is all he was betting on. If he also found this out, he’ll be all out of stakes.

Too late, though, as Ying Sheng has already seen the words on them, and then says, “so this is the clue you were talking about?”

“It’s…” Du Yixin says without a twitch, “one of them.”

“There’s three intact names on there,” Ying Sheng ignores him and raises his chin, “hey, which name is yours? Ai Le? Du Yixin?”

“I’m obviously…”

Wait, three names?

Du Yixin suddenly reacts and looks at the blackboard himself, and realises Ai Le’s name wasn’t crossed out. So, he’s still alive?

It at least gives him a little bit more hope.

Observing his reaction, Ying Sheng then says, “so now it’s just the two of you left. The one I’m looking for is definitely one of you.”

That is when Du Yixin turns and asks, “you’re trying to kill them, right? Can I ask why?”

“You don’t know?”

“How should I know?”

The two of them stare at each other silently for a while. It certainly is unsettling that two grown men, in a decrepit, half-blown-up, unlit sports storeroom are staring at each other.

Du Yixin, recalling Ai Le, suddenly makes a ridiculous logical leap, and says, holding his left chest, “why are you looking at me like that? You can’t have fallen in love with me, right?”

“Hah?” Ying Sheng is shocked to hear something in such an obviously non-jokey environment, then yells out, “are you mad?!”

“I’m just kidding,” Du Yixin puts his hand back down, then says, “so we’re just gonna keep staring at each other? If you think it’s one of us, then are you going to kill me right now?”

“Nope. You’re trying to help, aren’t you?” Ying Sheng raises his brow, and says, “take me to your friend first.”

That said, Du Yixin doesn’t actually know where Ai Le is. It seems like he has been kidnapped by the teacher-on-duty, but he cannot think of any reason why.

Like walking a criminal out, Ying Sheng has him lead the way, poking him with the metal bat whenever he’s too slow too.

They leave the stadium and head back into the long courtyard corridor. Hearing the rain and feeling the moist air outside almost makes Du Yixin feel unreal. Before he walked through here once, both Su Yin and Ai Le were still fine. But now, Su Yin is dead who-knows-where, and Ai Le is missing. His life is also held in the hands of this murderer.

Although he’s not killing him now, but that’s only for as long as they haven’t found Ai Le yet.

What is Ying Sheng’s motive? Instead of escaping, he’s looking for someone who’s concealed himself.

It reminds Du Yixin of a party game called ‘Werewolf.’ The werewolf, hidden among the villagers, has to be found before all the villagers are killed to win, for the villagers, at least.

He suddenly stops.

“What. Move,” Ying Sheng pokes his back with his bat, impatient.

Du Yixin turns around, and says, “we can’t leave even if we find the key, right?”

Ying Sheng narrows his eyes. He resembles a wolf, ready to prance, and does not answer him.

“You believe that the perpetrator is among us——The one who brought us into this… ‘instance.'”

The two of them fall into another silent staring contest, or rather, it would be silent if there wasn’t the rain.

Finally, Ying Sheng speaks up, “it’s not your first time here.”

This does verify Du Yixin’s guess mostly. Ying Sheng is a veteran ‘player’ and knows the real way to leave this place. The one who brought them here is hidden among the players.

“I am, but I don’t understand what you’re doing. Instead of trying to escape, you keep looking for someone.”

“… What you thought is right,” Ying Sheng says, “now there’s only the three of us. You, I, and that friend. And it looks really like your friend is the perpetrator right now.”

“Maybe there’s a fourth person! He could have hid somewhere and not take a risk and mingle with us.”

“Ho…” Ying Sheng says, with what resembles a smile, “impossible.”

“Why?” Du Yixin asks.

Ying Sheng does not seem to want to respond, though. He pokes his back again.

Helpless, Du Yixin can only put the questions to the back of his mind. What he just said did certainly require urgent thought.

Throwing aside his impression of Ying Sheng at this point, assuming he’s speaking the truth, then Ai Le, who’s currently missing, is certainly the most suspicious. Yet, up to the point when he disappeared, he always looked frightened. Could he really be the one who caused all this?

Acting?

Pulling all these innocent people inside for such a stupid… lethal game, while hiding besides him and acting like he’s scared on purpose? That is really hard for him to take in.

And, though he didn’t really know him much, but Ai Le at least only looked to him like a little junior who isn’t exactly talkative and easy to blush. He’s just a normal, human, like him. How did he make this instance and pull people inside without others noticing?

They’re back in the ground floor of the main building, yet Du Yixin’s mental state is completely different. They pass by where the teacher’s body was, where only a puddle of blood is left. When they pass by the staff room, he can’t help but think how Ye Wen’s body might still be inside.

Back when Su Yin wanted to come collect his belongings, he was worried about Ying Sheng and rejected her. Now, not just belongings, but the couple are both buried deep now, inside this strange, enclosed space.

Ying Sheng is already yelling behind him, “I have Du Yixin in my hands now! Get the fuck out here or I’ll kill him!”

His voice echoes through the corridors like waves propagating deep into the ocean… And disappears the same way. No response comes.

Ying Sheng smirks, “looks like your friend doesn’t really care about you either.”

Du Yixin “…”

Perhaps that’s the case, assuming he did pull him into this terrifying nightmare. But what was that confession beforehand? Is he trying to torture him because he rejected his confession?

Ying Sheng keeps pushing for him to go forward. Second floor, third floor… And now, they’re on the roof.

It’s really windy up here, blowing the rain right onto their face. Ying Sheng pulls his hoodie back up, and pushes Du Yixin outside.

The sky is really dark, and barely any light makes it through. It’s only largely lit up by Ying Sheng’s phone at this point, as his is almost out of battery.

The fences surrounding this place are barely above his kneecaps. If the wind strengthened he might just fall down like that. Yet Ying Sheng doesn’t look like he’s stopping any time soon, and keeps ordering Du Yixin forward, until he’s already at the fence.

“Cross it.”

Du Yixin already feels terribly unsafe on this side of the fence… And now he orders him to step beyond the fence?!

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TL’s notes: Ooh, unexpected, no? Though there were some flags about Ai Le’s potential involvement already in the previous chapters.