CH 70

It was raining heavily outside the window. Although he couldn’t hear what Xing Conglian was saying, the vibration on his phone grabbed all of Lin Chen’s attention.

He lowered his head. In just a few seconds, countless messages poured into the WeChat group, and new messages kept appearing one after another.

[The students are leaving, and we can’t stop them.]

[When will the electricity come back on?]

[They’re starting to tear up the exam papers.]

[I’m scared too… Why did the power go out all of sudden?]

[Excuse me, what’s going on? When will the electricity come back on?]

[Shit, shit, shit. Too scary.]

[Can we really not let them go?]

[Our door is blocked. What do you want us to do next?]

—-

The screen showed a faint green light. Xing Conglian came over, took a look, and said, “They’re tearing up the exam papers… Are these kids crazy?”

“But this kind of thing makes people’s blood boil, no?” Lin Chen hugged his arms and looked coldly at the dark night in front of him.

“Blood boil?”

Lin Chen put his fingers on his lips and motioned for Xing Conglian to be silent. “Listen.”

Outside the window were muffled screams, sometimes high, sometimes low, and sometimes completely silent, as if there were no sound at all.

“You mean the screaming?”

As soon as Xing Conglian’s voice fell, there was a loud bang that sounded in the rainy night.

The sound was booming, as if something heavy had fallen from the sky, and the tail end had a metal-specific vibrato.

Lin Chen shook his head and looked into the depths of the night, but there was nothing in the distance except for the rain curtain and the unextinguished streetlights that looked like duckweed under the heavy rain.

The torrential rain was accompanied by roars that seemed to envelope the campus.

The sound that was similar to a heavy object falling reminded the students of the suicide incident today. Those cries became more manic, like those of ghosts buried underground who were trying to overturn the soil so they could rush into the world.

Lin Chen’s phone began to vibrate non-stop, with continuous messages pouring in like it was cursed.

[The door can’t stop them!]

[Did someone jump off the building again???]

[Someone is calling for help!!!]

[What should I do?]

[What should I do???]

[Is it okay to let them go? Besides, there’s a power outage!]

[I really can’t stand it anymore!]

—-

The text on the screen flowed frantically as Lin Chen spoke as if he were talking to himself. “Yes, the collective unconscious.”

After he finished, he glanced at Xing Conglian and rushed out without even having time to explain.

[Be sure to guard the door and prohibit any students from leaving.]

[Tell the students that it’s raining right now, so they need to wait to see if power will be restored.]

It was just a three-story building but was so long. Lin Chen typed as he ran.

The moment he stepped out of the eaves, the torrential rain instantly soaked him. Suddenly, a powerful force pulled from behind. Lin Chen staggered and was yanked back violently, stopping in his tracks.

“Is it useful for you to rush out right now? Calm down.” Xing Conglian held his hand tightly as he stressed his words.

“I’m calm!” Lin Chen panted heavily. The rain felt as if it were hail at this moment. “There’s a power outage and the sound of falling objects. All the while someone is inciting students to rush out of the classroom!”

“You mean someone is trying to make the students riot? I doubt you alone can control those crazy students. Okay, tell me. If the students rush out of the classroom now, what are the worst consequences?” Xing Conglian’s voice was as calm as ever. His breathing wasn’t even the slightest bit chaotic.

“Casualties, stampede…” Lin Chen’s mind spun as countless possibilities circled through his thoughts.

Xing Conglian said suddenly, “Stairs?”

“Yes, the stairs. I’m afraid someone has tampered with them.”

“Okay, I see. You go back for now. I’ll send someone to check the stairs.”

Lin Chen was about to speak when he felt his shoulder get heavy. Xing Conglian was pressing down on them as he said in an extremely calm voice, “It’s also possible that someone set up this trick to lure you out, so it’s best if you give instructions here.”

After Xing Conglian finished speaking, he let go of his hand and ran into the depths of the rainy night in Lin Chen’s place.

Lin Chen’s vision was blurred from the rain.

“I understand,” he said this to Xing Conglian’s back.

The sound of rain continued. Lin Chen walked back and sat on the steps of the stairs. Although he was dripping wet, he couldn’t feel the slightest bit of coolness.

The sound of thunder and lightning still alternated, but perhaps it was because Xing Conglian’s figure running into the rain curtain at the end was a bit too righteous that it made him feel a strange sense of calmness in his heart.

He suddenly felt that the heavy rain seemed to be a blessing from God.

[The teacher is in better condition now.]

[Holy shit, that was too dangerous just now. Crazy.]

[Can you believe that our class tore up all their exam papers?]

[Luckily, it was raining, so they were hesitant. Otherwise, I definitely couldn’t stop it.]

Lin Chen took a deep breath. His breath was filled with the coldness of the rainy night. He wrung out his shirt and wiped his hands, then touched the phone screen and typed:

[Inform the students who want to leave that it’s raining too hard right now. If it doesn’t get better after ten minutes, have them go downstairs in an orderly manner from class 1 to class 10.]

—-

When Xiao Conglian rushed to the bottom of the teaching building, he was greeted by paper scraps all torn up like confetti all over the floor.

There were also scattered pieces of paper upstairs that were mixed with the rainwater.

However, most of the students’ cries had stopped, and what remained was a dark building that stood quiet and empty in the rainy night.

Xing Conglian thought it was probably due to Lin Chen’s arrangement that played a role in this.

School security had already heard the news, and there were a few figures in the distance running through the rain curtain. It should be the police officers he called Jiang Chao to find just now.

Because of the multiple suicides, the security guards were familiar with Xing Conglian, so he didn’t even need to flash his police badge for them to recognize him and call out to him in the pouring rain.

“Captain Xing, what’s going on?”

Xing Conglian looked up at the floor. The students were testing on the fifth floor, and some were poking their heads out looking at something. The teaching building had two staircases; one on the east and one on the west, and time was tight.

He pointed to the five security guards in front of him and said solemnly, “Have you checked this building? The five of you, check the first through fifth floor of the east stairs. Try to be as thorough as possible and strive to complete the inspection within five minutes. The rest of you will follow me…”

As he spoke, he turned to the last security guard left behind. “Give me your radio and headset.”

In the corridor, only the emergency lights were on after the power failure. Standing on the bottom floor and looking up, the entire corridor was shrouded in a vague dark green light.

The sound of hurried footsteps sounded behind him. Xing Conglian quickly turned around and made a silent gesture to the three police officers that rushed over.

“Five minutes to check the stairs. Silence your phone and keep the noise as low as possible…” After he finished speaking, his phone vibrated gently.

Lin Chen had sent a text as if he had calculated it right on time.

[If there’s no electricity in 6 minutes, the students will start to leave the venue. Be careful.]

Xing Conglian turned on the flashlight of his phone and bent down to touch the ground. The light in the upper and lower stairs were dim. Because of the rain, the ground was extremely slippery. He grabbed on to the handrail and walked upstairs.

The touch of the handrail was stable. Xing Conglian shook it hard, and there still weren’t any problems.

A drop of cold water fell on his forehead. He frowned as he noticed fine drops of water condensing on the iron rail. He quickly looked down at the floor of the corridor, which was a common imitation marble color that became even more blurry in the dim light.

He moved his flashlight down, and at the edge of the stairs, something vague had fallen there.

He took a few steps forward, crouched down, and found two small plastic beads.

One was yellow, and the other was pink.

At this moment, a depressed and nervous voice came from the radio.

“There are nails on the ground. Everyone should be careful.”

Although there was no wind, in an instant, Xing Conglian seemed to feel as if the air around him was so cold it could freeze.

Nails, plastic beads… If this was coupled with students running wildly down the stairs…

He seemed to imagine blood covering the floors and the cries of painful screams as students wandered the corridor.

After stabilizing his breath, he whispered on the radio, “Pay attention to safety. Quickly clean up the stairs and leave in five minutes as originally planned.”

After speaking, he leaned down, picked up the two plastic beads on the ground, and sealed them into an evidence bag.

The crackling sound of heavy rain echoed in the empty corridor. Listening to the sound of rain, Xing Conglian felt lucky that they managed to avoid a catastrophe.

—-

For the students in the teaching building, tonight was just a small attempt to rebel against the school’s occasional stupid decisions.

Besides, it was dark, and everyone was making trouble together. The simplest truth was that the law would not blame the masses.

Moreover, it was tearing a few papers, which wasn’t a big deal. Who made the school mentally ill and summoned them out to take a psychological test on a rainy day?

On top of this, the school was truly inept. From the time they started to leave the teaching building one by one, the power never came back on.

Xing Conglian stood in the dark without an umbrella as he watched the last student leave the teaching building safely, then took out a cigarette and lighter.

“Captain Xing, don’t you need to stop the students so we can investigate?” The police officer in front of him asked in a low voice.

“Can you stop 500 students?”

Perhaps he was really unlucky. Despite flicking the lighter a few times, he was unable to ignite the sporadic flame from it.

The police officers under Jiang Chao glanced at the backs of the students leaving; their eyes were looking at them as if they were terrorists. Xing Conglian frowned and patted one on the shoulder before reaching out his hand.

“Captain Xing… I… I don’t smoke…”

After being tossed all night, he had completely lost his temper. Like his luck today, if a lighter appeared in front of him, he would be willing to thank God.

He took out the sealed evidence bag from his pocket and handed it over. Then he said, “Together with the things you found on the ground, take them for inspection and focus on fingerprints.”

After he finished speaking, he turned and left.

The rain was still falling. Despite being a spring rain, there was a sense of bleakness in the air. Xing Conglian was walking under a tree when suddenly his phone began to vibrate.

On the other end of the line was Jiang Chao’s tense voice.

“Lao Xing, the power failure was man-made. I just discovered a timed power failure device. It seems that the power can’t be restored for a while. Are you okay?”

Perhaps it was because Jiang Chao’s voice was too loud, but Xing Conglian felt that the sound of rain around him became a bit quieter.

“Ah, okay for the time being.”

Xing Conglian glanced at the shimmer of the building in the distance. There seemed to be a thin figure sitting alone at the top of the steps.

He put down his phone and walked to where he just came from.