Chapter 14: Utter Chaos

I paid no heed to their shock and continued speaking.

And then there's Liu Jianzhou's death. The day before he died, you were punished and sent to clean the library. While cleaning, you discovered a bookshelf about to collapse, which gave you another murderous idea, and you sent me a text! Under your hypnosis, Liu Jianzhou walked right beneath that unstable bookshelf.

Why did the shelf fall exactly when Liu Jianzhou was there? I think you set it up while cleaning. The rotten shelf was originally propped up by a small stone slab. If you hypnotized Liu Jianzhou and made him remove that slab, the shelf would lose its balance and topple.

"Tong Yang, I have to admire your imagination. It's a shame if you don't write detective novels!" The chemistry teacher sneered at me.

"Still won't admit it? Fine, I'll continue!"

Chen Bin's death was actually just an accident. As a science undergraduate, you're very familiar with physics. I suspect you tampered with the falling fan, using a simple physical principle to make it drop.

I could have stopped the accident, just by turning off the fan. Then there would have been no casualties, and Chen Bin wouldn't have died. But you didn't expect I wouldn't think to turn it off, so Chen Bin's death became an accident.

Then there's Li Yizhong, the very first. I don't know why you targeted him, but I guess it has something to do with his girlfriend.

I suspect you got involved with his girlfriend, and she wanted to end the illicit relationship because of Li Yizhong's temper. So you decided to kill Li Yizhong, so you could continue with her.

Everyone knows about the discord between Xiao Zheng and Li Yizhong, so you used this, hypnotized Xiao Zheng, and orchestrated Li Yizhong's fatal beating. And that's also why you sent me those texts...

"Wait!" The chemistry teacher suddenly interrupted me.

He looked at me and said, "Tong Yang, honestly, you'd make a good novelist or screenwriter. I can't make sense of any of this! Yes, I can hypnotize, but what you're saying about hypnotizing the art teacher or Song Qian is nonsense, let alone being involved in Chen Bin's or Liu Jianzhou's deaths! And those texts you mentioned—when did I ever send you texts? Where are the texts? Show me!"

He didn't seem to be lying. I took out my phone, opened the messages, and handed it to him. The chemistry teacher, angry, scolded, "Tong Yang, are you brain-damaged? Do you think I'm blind? Where are the texts?"

"This..."

"Tong Yang, are you alright?" Ye Xinran asked, concerned. She glanced at my phone, presumably seeing no texts.

Thunder rumbled—my mind spun. Wrong! Everything was wrong! Why, when my deductions were flawless? Everything fit logically, but why couldn't he see the texts?

Wait, couldn't see the texts?

Damn! How could I be so stupid—the sender wasn't the chemistry teacher at all. No one can see these messages!

I had overlooked when I showed the texts to the class advisor; she couldn't see them either! And Ye Xinran mentioned similar incidents happening in many schools—it couldn't possibly be human-made!

If it's not human, then what is it?

I'd been misled, misled by my own reasoning! I was too anxious, overlooking details that proved none of this could be accomplished by a person!

How foolish I was!

With that realization, I was plunged into turmoil.

Ye Xinran patted my shoulder. "Tong Yang, are you alright?"

I looked up at her. I don't know if it was my pale face or something else, but she seemed frightened when I looked at her.

I guessed she thought my wild speculation meant I was losing my mind.

I brushed her hand aside and shook my head. "I'm fine. I'll go now."

At that moment, Li Moran's mocking voice sounded in my ear. "I thought you were something special! Turns out you're just a lunatic. Xinran, I've always said relying on him is useless!"

I snorted. Indeed, in their eyes, my actions today were like those of a madman.

As I left the student council building, my phone vibrated.

[Half an hour left…]

The text reminder appeared again, confirming none of this was the chemistry teacher's doing, but someone—or something—else.

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Since that's the case, the game continues!

Never mind the chemistry teacher; I've wasted too much time on him. There's only half an hour left, and someone is bound to die from suffocation. I must try to prevent it!

If this can't be done by humans, then it's ghosts or something else.

Ghosts? Ye Han!

Suddenly, I remembered what Fatty told me about Ye Han investigating these incidents.

I immediately found Ye Han's contact in the class WeChat group and sent him a message.

Ye Han quickly replied with a question mark.

I asked where he was.

He answered, "Doing important things!"

I pressed him, "Just tell me where you are!"

He replied, "On the teaching building's rooftop!"

I rushed to the rooftop, thinking if it really was some ghostly entity, perhaps Ye Han would discover something.

Arriving at the rooftop, I found Ye Han wandering about with a Bagua compass.

I approached him. "What are you doing?"

"Shh—!" He motioned for silence, then whispered, "There's something unclean in our school. All these incidents might be related to it!"

"What have you found?" I asked, curious.

He just shook his head. "Nothing, I haven't found anything!"

"Then why claim there's something unclean?" I said, exasperated.

"I heard it from someone else, so I came to try. You know I'm curious about feng shui and the like, so I followed some online methods," Ye Han chuckled.

I sighed in resignation; clearly, he was wasting my time.

But then Ye Han exclaimed in fear, "Tong Yang, look!"

"What is it?"

"Look, the needle on the Bagua compass keeps spinning, which means something unclean is here—something fierce! Who knows what kind of entity!"

He looked terrified.

I stared blankly at him. He explained, "According to the internet, unclean things disrupt the magnetic field, so the needle spins like this. When it stops, it points to the location of the entity!"

Magnetic field? This is physics—what's it got to do with ghosts?

Damn!

I cursed silently, thinking my brain really wasn't working today. Rather than wasting time here, I might as well return to the classroom and look for clues!

"I don't care what you're up to. I'm going back to class!" I said, ignoring Ye Han's antics and leaving the rooftop.

Back in the classroom, Ye Xinran was already at her desk.

She saw me return and came over to talk about the chemistry teacher, thanking me for exposing his depravity.

I just smiled and said nothing. The chemistry teacher was merely an accident—a misleading clue.

Still, I believed there must be some clue to find the sender of the texts, even if they're not human. Perhaps the solution was my original idea—clearing the game!

[15 minutes left…]

The text alert pulled me back to the game. Ye Xinran, seeing I said nothing, returned to her seat.

I refocused on the game's clues. From previous rounds, there must be some overlooked detail.

What is it?

Asthma? Disease? No, that's just a distraction from the chemistry teacher's affair, meant to divert my attention.

Wait—I remembered Fatty mentioning a curse. Everyone fears the curse, fears it striking them.

That means fear—they're terrified of this unknown curse. So all the senior students are possible targets.

Does that mean any person I choose is correct?

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But thinking further, that's not right. Every death, though bizarre, was an accident caused under certain conditions!

That means this round of the game is the same—there will be conditions leading to suffocation.

What conditions could cause suffocation?

Hanging? Poisoning? Unable to breathe?

...

But how could any of these happen?

Ring, ring, ring—

The class bell sounded. The last period of the morning.

Perfect—I can confirm if everyone is present. If all are in the classroom, suffocation is unlikely, as long as everyone is accounted for!

I texted Ye Xinran, asking her to have Li Moran check the attendance of each senior class.

Ye Xinran replied, "Why?"

I answered, "Don't ask, just do it! Best within ten minutes!"

Having sent the message, I looked at Ye Xinran; she was puzzled, but still messaged Li Moran.

I waited anxiously—there was no other choice; it was all I could do.

I was certain the extra time was given because I'd wasted time misdirected by the chemistry teacher.

Terrifying—the opponent is a terrifying entity!

[4 minutes left…]

As the countdown reached 4 minutes, Ye Xinran sent me a WeChat message.

It read: Class 1, Cheng Yong is absent for family reasons; Class 2, Ye Han is absent; Class 3, Chen Xin had an asthma attack and is in the infirmary; Class 4, all present; Class 5, two students were called to the office.

Reading this, I sighed in relief. Cheng Yong was absent—he couldn't be at school! Ye Han was fiddling with his compass on the rooftop, apparently unconcerned.

I knew this!

Chen Xin—I knew she was in the infirmary. The two students in the office wouldn't encounter anything.

So who would it be?

At that moment, my phone vibrated—I didn't need to look, it was the countdown!

But who?

Never mind—I thought carefully about who was most likely. It had to be Chen Xin; she had asthma, maybe something frightening in the infirmary had triggered an attack?

[1 minute left…]

I opened the texts, glanced at the countdown, and decided to send Chen Xin's name, though I hesitated!

[30 seconds left…]

I hesitated for thirty seconds, but finally sent it. This time, I was truly at a loss, confused by the chemistry teacher's misdirection!

When the message showed "sent," I anxiously awaited a reply, staring at my phone, palms sweating.

Correct, it must be correct!

I prayed silently.

Buzz, buzz, buzz...

The phone's vibration made my hand tremble.

A reply came...