CH 38

Although Lin Yi was not like Cheng Yang who would faint when frightened, he could still clearly feel his calf twitching uncontrollably. He even tried moving his legs and found that they were a little weak. 

There was a ‘humming’ tinnitus in his ears.

Lin Yi could only pretend to be calm. He stared at Qin Zhou, paying attention to Qin Zhou’s every expression and every movement. He said as casually as possible, “Senior, what happened to your face?”

He still wanted to continue pretending not to know. It all depends on Qin Zhou’s reaction, whether he would believe that he had selective amnesia.

Qin Zhou also stared at him but he didn’t say anything, simply showing a secretive smile. 

Alarm bells were going off in Lin Yi’s heart and a voice suddenly shouted in his head: Run! run!

Almost the same moment the voice in his head shouted, Lin Yi turned and ran. Regardless of whether Qin Zhou would believe his feigned madness or not, his intuition was screaming that he was in imminent danger. This place was very dangerous, Qin Zhou was dangerous. He had to get out of here! He had to leave fast!

However–

Lin Yi was still one step slower. He had the instinctive perception of approaching danger but his weak legs dragged him down.

Lin Yi only felt a heavy hit on the back of his neck and he instantly felt dizzy. The nausea caused by lack of oxygen to his brain became the last impression he had before he lost consciousness.

Darkness surged from all around like a tide. This time, even Lin Yi couldn’t see anything in this darkness.

Lin Yi, who had been hit by Qin Zhou, passed out. It didn’t matter that Lin Yi was a small guy at 1.8 meters tall, falling down because of fainting, he would cause some noise.

So Qin Zhou caught Lin Yi before he hit the ground but he didn’t dare to get too close. He carried him over his shoulder and walked step by step towards the kitchen. 

Qin Zhou glanced at the sharpened chopsticks and then looked away.

He walked to the refrigerator, opened it and stuffed Lin Yi inside.

Bam–

The refrigerator door was shut. 

In the second floor of the villa.

The woman in red shouted, “So what if the photo’s been stolen! I can’t forget! It’s impossible!”

Because of the loss of the photo, the woman in red was no longer in the mood to prepare breakfast for the guests. She angrily paced back and forth in the second floor corridor. Though they usually couldn’t hear her footsteps, now, every students drawn into the Rule World could hear her anxious pacing through the walls.

“Cheng Yang, how are you? Are you feeling better?” Ou Ying asked Cheng Yang after listening to the movement though the door. 

If the woman in red rushed in out of anger, Ou Ying would definitely not be able to subdue the woman and she would need to rely on Cheng Yang.

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Ou Ying said, “Cleaning up the mercury is delicate work and you have to find a place to dispose of it. It’s not gonna be that fast.” 

“Ou Ying Xue Jie.” Cheng Yang said, clutching his chest, “I keep feeling like my heart is beating a little too fast.”

Ou Ying quickly asked, “Are you still feeling uncomfortable? In that case, you can still rest for a while.”

“No, I don’t have any problems with my breathing anymore. I just have a fast heartbeat. How can I describe it…Heart…heart…heart palpitations!” Cheng Yang said, “My intuition is the kind that doesn’t ping when it’s something good but it definitely does when its bad. Right now, I’m having that kind of feeling. Ou Ying Xue Jie, I feel like Lin Yi Xiong is in danger.”

Ou Ying took a few more glances at Cheng Yang. Not only Cheng Yang’s, in fact, her own sixth sense has been clamoring — Danger, danger, danger! 

“Think you’re ok now?” Ou Ying asked Cheng Yang.

Cheng Yang nodded. “My heart’s beating a little fast but everything else is fine.”

“Alright,” Ou Ying said, “Let’s go find Lin Yi.”

The two of them exited their room. The woman in red turned to look at them immediately. Cheng Yang suddenly felt his back grow heavy. After finally leaving the woman’s sight, Cheng Yang still didn’t feel very relaxed. 

He didn’t know if it was because the woman in red was able to kill 12 of her friends with her own hands or because he was worried about Lin Yi.

Cheng Yang and Ou Ying went directly to the first floor of the villa. When they’d gone to kitchen to look for that sawtoothed knife last night, they’d seen the broken thermometer on the ground. It was then that Cheng Yang had inhaled some of the mercury.

“The mercury’s already…” Ou Ying looked at the spotless tiles. The scattered mercury that had been there last night was cleaned up now leaving only some faint scratches. “been cleaner up.”

Cheng Yang looked around. “What about Lin Yi Xiong?” 

Ou Ying said, “He must have gone to dispose of it.”

This villa was poorly ventilated. She had taken Cheng Yang to stay in the bathroom all night last night because it was the only room with an exhaust fan. She thought, after Lin Yi cleaned up the mercury, he must have also taken it to a well-ventilated place.

Even if it wasn’t somewhere well-ventilated, it should be somewhere the others wouldn’t come in contact with it.

“Let go check the bathroom,” Ou Ying said. 

Cheng Yang: “OK.”

There was a shared bathroom on each floor of the villa. Ou Ying and Cheng Yang first went to the bathroom on the first floor to look for Lin Yi. When he was approaching the bathroom, Cheng Yang suddenly heard a very faint ‘bang’. He straightened up like a frightened rabbit and listened for the movement with his ears up.

“What’s wrong?” Ou Ying hadn’t heard anything.

Cheng Yang said, “I thought I heard someone banging on a door.” 

“Door?” Ou Ying glanced at the main doors of the villa.

The doors were closed. When she looked at it, the main doors of the villa seemed steady, there was no sign of the pounding Cheng Yang had said.

“It’s not this door.” Cheng Yang said, “It’s a banging sound but it’s not from the villa’s main doors. I think it came from the kitchen. It’s very quiet, but it’s definitely there. Ou Ying Xue Jie, listen…”

‘Bam’. 

There was another faint sound.

Cheng Yang pointed to the dining hall. They had to go through the dining hall to reach the kitchen. “Ou Ying Xui Jie, do you want to go and have a look?”

Although Ou Ying hadn’t heard anything, she still nodded, “Okay.”

The two temporarily gave up looking into the bathroom and hurried through the dining hall to the kitchen. However, when they arrived at the dining hall, Cheng Yang could no longer hear the banging. 

Cheng Yang walked quickly to the kitchen. He stretched his neck and looked in but he didn’t see anyone or find anything strange.

Cheng Yang was about to take a closer look inside but Ou Ying quickly called him from behind, “Cheng Yang, come out.”

When Cheng Yang turned his head, the woman in red was standing behind him, staring at him.

Cheng Yang was so frightened that he almost jumped in the air. The woman in red asked gloomily, “What are you doing?” 

The more anxious Cheng Yang is, the faster his brain turns. This was a skill that he had cultivated from being scolded by his father for doing bad things since he was a child.

“I… I… I’m hungry.” Cheng Yang said, “I was looking for something to eat.”

The woman in red said, “Get out of the way, I will notify you when I’ve prepared breakfast.”

“O-o-o-oh, o-o-okay.” Cheng Yang returned to Ou Ying with his badly scared guts. “The-then hurry up, I’m hungry.” 

The woman in red gave Cheng Yang a sideways glance but she didn’t ask or demand for any answer. She walked into the kitchen, looking very displeased.

Ou Ying whispered to Cheng Yang, “Let’s go back and talk.”

The two returned to their room on the second floor. Ou Ying closed the door and asked Cheng Yang, “Did you see anything?”

“N-no.” Cheng Yang scratched the back of his head in embarrassment and said, “I must have misheard. There was nothing wrong in the kitchen, everything was normal. How it was when we went last night is how it is now.” 

Ou Ying frowned. She and Cheng Yang had stayed in the kitchen long enough for Lin Yi to come back after dealing with the mercury. But there was still no sign of Lin Yi.

The uneasiness in Cheng Yang’s heart became more and more intense. “Ou Ying Xue Jie, Lin Yi Xiong… something couldn’t have actually happened, right?”

Trufthfully, he just wanted to find some comfort from Ou Ying. Ou Ying looked at Cheng Yang and said, “I hope Lin Yi hadn’t met with some mishap but we still have to make plans.”

Cheng Yang was silent for a while and asked, “What plans?” 

“Something must have happened for Lin Yi  for him not to come back after so long but we have no way to determine what that is.” Ou Ying said, “It’s possible that Lin Yi suddenly had some idea, like when he was playing pretend with the 2-6 Monster. If we go searching for him rashly, it might mess up his plan.”

It was precisely because of this thought that Ou Ying hadn’t followed Cheng Yang, who’d been hijacked by Luo Yi at the time to find the 2-6 Monster.

“Then what if Lin Yi Xiong is…” Cheng Yang felt it would draw bad luck and didn’t complete his sentence. Ou Ying knew what Cheng Yang meant and Ou Ying said, “So, once the Anke game starts and Lin Yi still hasn’t come back, we’ll go do the Replay.”

The woman in red said on the first day that everyone had to participate in the game. If Lin Yi was off doing something, he would definitely come back before the start of the Anke game. 

If Lin Yi didn’t come back, then something must have happened to him. By that time, they would be wasting time looking like headless chickens for someone in the villa. The only way was to move do the Replay in advance, instead of doing it tonight, they would do it while it was still light out.

After the Replay, so long as Lin Yi was still breathing, he would also be ejected from the 2-6 Rule World. Any damage received in the Rule World won’t be carried over into the real world. Lin Yi would live.

Cheng Yang couldn’t think of any other way. While pulling his hair in frustration, he prayed for Lin Yi in his heart.

Ou Ying comforted, “Cheng Yang, don’t worry. The woman in red has already started preparing breakfast. According to the time she used to prepare meals in the past, she won’t delay too long. We’ll wait for her to prepare the meal and then think of a way to speed up the eating time so that today’s Anke game can start as soon as possible.” 

Cheng Yang had no choice but to nod. He then looked up at a spot above his head. “They say that the gods are watching. To any and every god out there, bless our Lin Yi Xiong and keep him safe…”

In the kitchen.

Boom boom boom.

The woman in red was slapping the chopping board angrily. She must make the person who stole the photo pay! 

In the large refrigerator next to the woman in red, Lin Yi going in and out of consciousness. He would wake up and faint again.

The temperature in the refrigerator was extremely low, resulting in very little oxygen available. Every breath Lin Yi took consumed the limited oxygen there. Gradually, breathing became difficult and his limbs grew weaker and weaker.

He pushed the refrigerator door with the last of his strength but Lin Yi also knew that it was useless. The atmospheric pressure outside the refrigerator was stronger than the pressure inside.

But there was no other way. Lin Yi tried to make noise to attract the attention of the people outside. 

He had to get out.

If he was trapped in there, he wouldn’t be the only one who would die in the 2-6 Rule World. Everyone would die.

Last night, Qin Zhou knew to wait in the kitchen so how could he miss the room of the woman in red which was even more important than the kitchen?

Ou Ying had brought out the photo. There had to be something that wasn’t right. 

There was a problem with this photo and that meant that the main line of the 2-6 Rule World they had inferred was definitely problematic as well…

Once they did the Replay, everyone would die.