CH 44

Chapter 44

Lin Yi turned over and jumped off the bed. He slammed the door back close with a bang. After slamming the door shut, without any hesitation, he moved the full-length mirror from its position at the end of the bed to the door, with the bottom of the mirror against the bed and the top against the door, using the mirror to make a simple latch. 

After doing this, Lin Yi quickly scanned the room again for anything else that could be used to block the door.

After a quick glance, Lin Yi moved the clothes hanger over and put it against the door just like the mirror. After doing so, Lin Yi sat on the edge of the bed and sat down, panting.

Lin Yi rested his forehead against his hand. “…F*ck.”

Blocking the door had almost been a subconscious reaction, an inseparable relationship from the Rule World he’d already experienced. Lin Yi felt that if he wasn’t blocking doors and windows, he was simply preparing to block doors and window. It had now become a habit. 

Outside the door, the lock was turned again but because there was something blocking it from behind, even if the woman in red opened the reverse lock, she wouldn’t be able to push it open for the time being.

This confirmed one thing for Lin Yi.

NPCs kill people at night. But the woman in red had never appeared during the previous two nights. Her appearance tonight meant that he must have done something to trigger the woman in red’s Rule of Death.

But the unopened door proved that the woman’s Rule of Death had not been fully satisfied or rather, it hadn’t yet been fully established. Just like in the 7-7 Rule World, the night the old dorm manager killed Qu Jialiang. At the time, only the Rule of Death “letting the vase girl climbed in through the window” was active. The new Rules of Death — “being seen by the vase girl” and the old dorm manager’s triggered Rule of Death “leaving your room at night” — were both up in the air to be established as the second Rule of Death.

Whichever Rule of Death succeeds first in scoring a kill, becomes the established Rule of Death.

At that time, Lin Yi wanted to prevent the vase girl from climbing in through the window without being seen by her. But he was sure he’d failed, he’d been seen by the vase girl and just as he expected, the vase girl got a burst of strength; she would have been unstoppable. But this strength didn’t last long. And this was because the old dormitory manager had killed Qu Jialiang, making “leaving the room at night” the established second Rule of Death.

The current situation seemed to be the same.

When Lin Yi was slamming the door close, he heard Ou Ying’s voice from the opposite room. 

“Knock him out, hurry—”

The ferocious ghost had been drawn to the other room.

Lin Yi took a deep breath. He stared at the door lock. The woman in red was still poking the key into the lock. It seemed that by knocking out whoever that someone was in the room opposite, they’d managed to fend off the ferocious ghost. The second Rule of Death was still not established and so the woman in red continued on trying to open the door.

Having two candidate Rules of Death running parallel at this time was very bad. If the ferocious ghost doesn’t succeed, the woman in red will keep hunting him. And if the woman in red doesn’t succeed then the ferocious ghost who’d been drawn to Ou Ying’s group would keep hunting them. 

If he wanted the woman in red to stop, either the ferocious ghost succeeds in establishing “believing in the existence of ghosts” as the second Rule of Death or he stays in a stalemate with the woman in red until dawn. But even if Lin Yi could draw out this stalemate the entire night, what if the ferocious ghost succeeds? If the ferocious ghost succeeds, then it was likely, that it would be as Cheng Yang would put it ‘GG’.

No one would be able to hold firm in their atheistic beliefs after witnessing the ferocious ghost kill someone.

The current situation was like a seesaw — one end sinks and the other rises; the one end rises and the other sinks. That wasn’t to say that a phenomena of achieving some sort of balance wasn’t possible but the probability of that was very low. Even with people of the same weight on both ends of the seesaw, other factors come into play that prevent the seesaw from balancing.

It was difficult to balance a seesaw. That was unless the people at both ends simply leave. That way, they won’t even have to care about balance. 

As Lin Yi thought this, an idea gradually formed in his mind.

He quickly thought back to what he had done during the day.

The woman in red came looking for him armed with a sharp knife. He must have done something to trigger the woman’s Rule of Death during the daytime. He doubted she was here to look for him regarding Linlin’s message. After all, it was a cock-and-bull story Lin Yi had made up in order to be able to escape from the refrigerator.

The Rules of Death were fixed and made no considerations for the things participants might do on a whim. Just like how the old dorm manager’s Rules of Death had revolved around the “Occupancy Agreement”. Lin Yi destroying the pinhole camera in Room 304 and Qin Zhou’s action of smashing a chair against the gate to the second floor were outside the old dorm manager’s Rules of Death. 

Lin Yi purposefully sifted through his memories. He looked for those things he’d done but others hadn’t. Otherwise, the woman in red wouldn’t just be hunting him.

Soon, Lin Yi had several answers.

Lin Yi dismissed the third answer almost immediately. Throughout the Anke game, only the woman in red is ever active. Everyone else are just passive listeners.

Although Lin Yi hadn’t been in the living room, the woman’s voice could still be heard through the dining hall and into the kitchen. It was just that Lin Yi had passed out due to lack of oxygen. But then, the woman in red never said that they had to listen attentively to her dice rolls. 

So his possible violation was between option one or two.

So woman in red’s Rule of Death was either ‘mentioning the name of a friend’ or ‘touching the woman in red’.

The hatred of the woman in red for her friends and the unnatural behavior of the woman in red in the photo, made it impossible for Lin Yi to choose between these two options. Either could be a Rule of Death specific to the woman in red.

Lin Yi stopped hesitating. He raised his head and turned his attention back to the door. Because she failed to open the door despite trying for a long time, the woman in red grew angry and she raised the sharp knife and stabbed it fiercely into the door panel. She’d stabbed with such strength that Lin Yi could see the sharp end of the sharp knife pierce through the door. 

Lin Yi thought to himself, ‘it’s not much compared to the vase girl’s nails’.

He rubbed his hands together and took a deep breath.

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Then he immediately yanked the door open. 

Outside the door, the woman in red wasn’t expecting the door to suddenly open. She was holding sharp knife up, ready to bring it down against the door, but with no door to block her way, the woman stumbled and fell into the room. The sharp knife flew out of her hand, clattering against the floor.

Lin Yi quickly kicked the knife underneath the bed. He didn’t have much time. So without checking whether the woman would go and reclaim her knife, Lin Yi took advantage of the woman’s surprised tumble and leapt out the door.

‘Kachak’——

He closed the door from the outside. Looking down at the doorknob, sure enough, just as he’d heard, the key was still inserted in the lock. 

Lin Yi reached out and turned the key, locking the woman in red in the room.

Then he pulled out the key and put it in his pocket.

After doing this, Lin Yi took a step back. Sure enough, the sharp knife pierced through the door panel from inside the room. If Lin Yi hadn’t dodged quickly, this knife would have poked out his eyeball.

The door seemed strong enough to stop her from killing someone. Lin Yi raised his head and glanced at the opposite room. 

He could hear Ou Ying’s voice. Ou Ying was telling stories to distract everyone from thinking about ghosts and turning to look at the ferocious ghost that had already appeared in their room.

To distract others’ attention at a time like this, Ou Ying’s story must be absolutely amazing.

Lin Yi heard Ou Ying speaking quickly, “I’m gonna tell you a secret about Zhou Ge. But before that, you’ve got to promise that this stay between us. Otherwise, Zhou Ge might kick me out of the student council.”

It is easier to grip the audience’s attention with proper foreshadowing. Ou Ying said, “Zhou Ge actually swings for the other team.” 

Cheng Yang: “F*ck, is that true!”

In order not prevent themselves from letting their thoughts run places it shouldn’t, those who were still awake actively joined the topic. Based on the voices, Lin Yi could tell that the person who’d been knocked out was Su Tianle. Su Tianle probably couldn’t control his thoughts and summoned the ferocious ghost into their room.

Chen Jinnan: “Did Zhou Ge come out of the closet?!”

“No.” Ou Ying’s voice was calm overall but there was still a little wavering at the end. “I could tell.” 

Zhou Qian: “How? Is it from the way he moves?”

Ou Ying said, “Not at all.”

Li Dang: “Then how’d you find out, Ou Ying Jie?”

“Our school might be different from other universities but it’s not like everyone’s given up on dating. In fact, our student union encourages everyone to form romantic relationships.” Ou Ying explained, “But our president has never, even once, dated. I’ve worked with him for more than two years and I’ve never seen him spare a look for any girl.” 

Li Dang said, “Maybe he just hasn’t found a girl his type? It’s not that strange. You can tell at a glance that Zhou Ge’s a good guy. He’s not some slag man who’ll casually play with a girl’s feelings.”

“That’s what I thought so too at first.” Ou Ying said, “I wasn’t completely sure until two days ago.”

Chen Jinnan: “Huh?”

Li Dang: “Ou Ying Jie, spill already!” 

Ou Ying said, “Remember the 7-7 Rule? The occurrence rate was extremely high and the mortality rate was also extremely high. Zhou Ge had been meaning to tackle it but he keeps being bypassed by the 7-7 Rule. But on the first day of the freshmen’s term, he and Lin Yi got sucked into the 7-7 Rule World together.”

“According to the regulations of the student union, whenever someone successfully leaves a Rule World, the student union will hold a meeting to discuss how to deal with the corresponding rule.” Ou Ying said, “Zhou Ge rarely ever mentions anyone when recounting his experiences in a Rule World. Even when he does, he’ll only mention it in passing. But after Zhou Ge came out of the 7-7 Rule World, he mentioned Lin Yi’s name no less than a hundred times.”

Lin Yi, outside the door, scratched his head.

“A hundred times?” Li Dang was surprised. 

“I’m not exaggerating.” Ou Ying smiled, “Zhou Ge kept bringing him up.”

“So, that means…” Chen Jinnan: “Zhou Ge likes Lin Yi?”

“Damn.” Cheng Yang sighed and said, “I see, no wonder.”

Zhou Qian: “What do you mean ‘no wonder’?” 

Cheng Yang: “When Lin Yi Xiong called you guys ‘Senior’, our student union president got upset. Didn’t you see? Another time, Luo… Senior followed the president’s example and called Lin Yi ‘Little genius’. Didn’t you notice the president’s expression? He looked like he wanted to kill someone.”

Li Dang: “Now that you mention it, that does seem to be the case.”

“What do you mean ‘seem’!” Cheng Yang was now completely focused on this topic. So long as it had something to do with his good brother, Cheng Yang was more invested than anyone else. What ‘ferocious ghost’? This was more important! “Believe me. I’ll have you know that I’m known as ‘The Little Lover of Rong Province’. All my skill points had been put into EQ. And according to my fiery eyes and diamond pupils, our president probably doesn’t even know he’s begun to fall for Lin Yi Xiong.”

Lin Yi: “…” 

Li Dang: “Zhou Ge doesn’t know that he likes Lin Yi? Are you saying we found out before even he has? What the gh-… what the f*ck!” He almost uttered the word ‘ghost’ and quickly slapped himself to stop it.

“My dear Li Dang Xue Chang, think about it carefully.” Cheng Yang looked very much like an expert on the topic. “If you knew you liked someone and also knew that someone didn’t have a partner, wouldn’t you initiate pursuit?”

Li Dang: “What’s wrong with a little pining from afar, huh?”

Our president is as a jade tree facing the wind, he’s also the top leader of our school. Do you think, Li Dang Xue Chang, that such a tough man like our president, if he likes someone, would resort to pining from afar?” Cheng Yang said, “To be honest, these sharp eyes of mine are never wrong. People like our president, once they know who they like, they would confess bravely. Even if they are rejected, they would still look handsome. Am I right, Ou Ying Xue Jie?” 

Ou Ying said, “Well, from what I know of Zhou Ge, Zhou Ge would indeed be such a person.”

Cheng Yang: “See, see, see?”

Li Dang: “It does kind of make sense.”

“Didn’t you say that monsters can’t muster emotions? Chen Jinnan asked, “If Zhou Ge himself doesn’t even know that he has a crush on Lin Yi, how can the Monster produce that kind of reaction? Cheng Yang’s analysis is all based on Zhou Ge’s behavior in the 2-6 Rule World when he’s already being possessed by the 2-6 Monster.” 

Li Dang: “Yeah. How can we explain this?”

“Something must have put Zhou Ge in a bad mood before we entered the 2-6 Rule World. Oh, I remembered. When the student union called the freshmen to introduce the school rules, Cheng Yang and Lin Yi were always together and the two of them even kept whispering to each other the entire time. My guess is that Zhou Ge was feeling upset back then.” Ou Ying said: “But people’s emotions are complicated and this is something that Monsters can never understand. I think the 2-6 Monsters after reading through Zhou Ge’s memories, saw he would react annoyed whenever he saw Lin Yi talking to someone. Since the 2-6 Monster has existed for this long, it’s obviously not some low-level Monster. It may have tried to analyze Brother Zhou’s memory and it firmly believed that Zhou Ge would show a displeased reaction whenever he sees Lin Yi getting close to someone and not simply because Lin Yi is talking with someone. And that’s really how it is, whenever Zhou Ge feels upset, he looks like he wants to stab someone.”

After explaining this, Ou Ying suddenly stopped. Actually, she should have figured it out a long time ago from Qin Zhou’s abnormal reaction to Lin Yi. This was the Rule World, no matter how unhappy Qin Zhou might be with whoever Lin Yi was being close to, he wouldn’t act all jealous here.

If she’d realized sooner, Luo Yi might not have died. 

“Then what about Lin Yi?” Li Dang asked with interest, “Does Lin Yi like Zhou Ge?”

Cheng Yang said, “Li Dang Xue Chang, you should ask first if my Lin Yi Xiong likes guys.”

Li Dang: “I kind of assumed he does?”

“That’s a pretty big assumption.” Cheng Yang said: “Let me give you an example, Li Dang Xue Chang, if a beautiful and outstanding goddess turns out to like you, the probability of you liking her back is 90%, right? Don’t say no, our current society is superficial like this. Our president is in such a situation now. If I liked guys, the probability of me liking Zhou Ge is 90% but if I don’t like guys, that probability plummets to negative 90%.” 

Zhou Gan said, “We’re gossiping about Lin Yi right. Why are you inserting yourself in this discussion?”

Cheng Yang said, “It’s for illustration purposes.”

Li Dang asked, “Why would it be a negative probability?”

“Everyone tends to compare themselves against others.” Cheng Yang said, “Would you like someone of the same sex who could beat and string you up? In any case, I certainly don’t. If you’d allow me to be a bit more vicious, I would tell him to drop dead. But my family’s Lin Yi Xiong is also very strong. But, as the saying goes, ‘with my luster why his brilliance‘? 

Li Dang: “It makes sense.”

Chen Jinnan: “Enough talk. So, does Lin Yi like guys or not?”

Cheng Yang: “I don’t know.”

Chen Jinnan: “…” 

Li Dang asked Ou Ying, “Ou Ying Xue Jie, since you could tell that Zhou Ge likes guys, can you also tell Lin Yi’s sexual orientation?”

“I’m not sure.” Ou Ying said, “But I asked Lin Yi if there were any girls chasing after him and Lin Yi said that only guys have ever chased him.”

Lin Yi: “…”

When did he say that! 

Li Dang: “Lin Yi being chased by guys means that Lin Yi must also like guys. Since Lin Yi also likes guys, doesn’t that mean that he also like Zhou Ge?”

Lin Yi: “…”

Li Dang: “Then between them, ahem, who's 1 and who's 0?”

Chen Jinnan: “Is there any need to ask? Naturally, Zhou Ge’s 1 and Lin Yi’s 0.” 

Cheng Yang: “You’re profiling based on stereotypes. My family’s Lin Yi Xiong is also very fierce, okay…? Alright, fine, our president is indeed very powerful.”

Lin Yi: “…”

He let out a foul breath, suddenly feeling a little sorry for the ferocious ghost in their room, forced to listen to this bunch of groundless gossip.

Lin Yi decided that once he made it out of the 2-6 Rule World, he was going to court martial each and every one of them in that room to protect his reputation. 

Why can’t he be the top against Qin Zhou!

Hateful stereotypes!

Damn it, QAQ.

Realizing that he was wasting time by eavesdropping on gossip by the door, Lin Yi felt relieved. If even he couldn’t help but listen in to this gossip, the people involved in the discussion were surely distracted enough not to let their minds go wandering. 

Reassured, Lin Yi walked towards Qin Zhou’s room.

The closer he got to Qin Zhou’s room, the more solemn Lin Yi’s expression became.

By the time he was standing in front of Qin Zhou’s room, all expression was gone from his face.

Lin Yi took out the key from his pocket and inserted it into the lock. 

The rooms on the second floor of the villa all looked the same. All the door handles were the same as well. Only the specific teeth of the keys to each door might be different.

Lin Yi had only just seen this key. There was no number or mark to indicate which room this key corresponded to but the woman in red was easily able to open his door. Lin Yi’s guess that what he had was a master skeleton key.

He put the key in the lock and tried turning it.

There was a ‘clack’ sound. 

He opened the door.

Lin Yi gently pushed the door, then looked into the room through the crack. He saw Qin Zhou leaning against the wall with his hands behind his back, as if he would kill him with what he was hiding behind his back as soon as he came in.

Instead of entering the room, he pushed the door open completely.

Then he raised his head to meet Qin Zhou’s gaze and made no other movement. 

The second ticked by. After an unknown amount of time, Qin Zhou finally spoke, his voice sounding strangely distorted. “…It’s…it’s you.”

Lin Yi didn’t know what ‘it’ would do when ‘it’ appeared. He only remembered that during the rare occasions when he caught sight of ‘It’ in the mirror, ‘It’ had this expression.

Right now, Lin Yi was pretending to be ‘It’.

The sound of the woman in red continuously stabbing the door with the sharp knife could be heard in the corridor. Lin Yi had deliberately pushed the door completely open so that the terrifying sound from the corridor could reach Qin Zhou’s ears more clearly. 

Lin Yi knew that Qin Zhou had guessed the conditions needed for ‘It’ to appear. Once Lin Yi’s thoughts went into hyper drive, especially when his life was on the line, ‘it’ would appear.

Lin Yi also knew that Qin Zhou was afraid of ‘It’.

Otherwise, Qin Zhou wouldn’t have locked him in the refrigerator instead of killing him outright. This superfluous method of killing was just Qin Zhou’s way of slowing down Lin Yi’s thinking to prevent ‘It’ from appearing.

The 2-6 Monster was well aware of the Rules of Death it had made. Qin Zhou hadn’t left his room and shown up tonight. He must have known that the woman in red would show up to kill Lin Yi and do his dirty work for him. 

The woman in red had just come looking for Lin Yi, sharp knife in hand. Lin Yi’s life had been in imminent danger, his mind was sure to be spinning. This was all in line with what Qin Zhou guessed were the conditions for ‘It’ to appear.

Now, Lin Yi had locked the woman in red inside the room while he himself appeared at Qin Zhou’s room safe and sound. By doing so, Lin Yi had created a false impression. Qin Zhou must think this was something only ‘It’ could have achieved, further reinforcing Qin Zhou’s belief that the one standing in front of him was ‘It’ instead of Lin Yi.

After hearing Qin Zhou’s “it’s you”, Lin Yi felt slightly relieved. He had already succeeded at half his plan — Qin Zhou believed that ‘It’ had appeared.

But Lin Yi’s relief was exceedingly brief. Compared with making Qin Zhou believe that he was ‘It’, the difficulty of the other half of his plan seemed to be in a whole other league. Lin Yi himself felt that the other half of the plan was harder than reaching heaven. 

The purpose of pretending to be ‘it’ was to frighten Qin Zhou and thus ensure his own safety.

Lin Yi had two guesses about the woman’s Rules of Death and now, he wanted Qin Zhou to violate it. This was the other half of Lin Yi’s plan and it was also the very core of his plan.

His first guess was mentioning the name ‘Linlin’. He suspected the woman’s Rule of Death to be ‘mentioning the name of a friend’.

Lin Yi said slowly, “What is one minus one?” 

He didn’t dare to ask Qin Zhou anything more advances. Qin Zhou had said that he was too smart for his own good so the simpler the question, the stronger the sense of weirdness it created.

He also didn’t purposely try to alter his voice. In front of him was the 2-6 Monster armed with Qin Zhou’s memory. If he made too many small movements, he didn’t know which of his movements would give him away to the 2-6 Monster.

Just this plan itself was dangerous enough already. Lin Yi’s palms and back were covered with a thin layer of sweat.

However, he didn’t dare let the slightest bit of nervousness appear on his face. Qin Zhou kept looking at him, frowning. The look in his eyes turned deep; he was thinking. 

Lin Yi couldn’t let Qin Zhou continue to think. He took two steps into the room. Seeing him come in, Qin Zhou took two steps back. Seeing Qin Zhou’s action, Lin Yi felt a little more at ease. Qin Zhou was still afraid of ‘it’.

Lin Yi looked solemnly at Qin Zhou and repeated, “What is one minus one?”

Seeing that Qin Zhou still wouldn’t under, he took another step further into the room.

Qin Zhou took another step back. It seemed he wanted to distance himself from Lin Yi; he didn’t want Lin Yi to push him into a corner. Qin Zhou said, “0“. 

Lin Yi asked again, “What is one minus one?”

His heart was beating violently in his chest. He was still short another ‘0’ to form ‘Linlin’ and complete what he guessed first to be the woman’s Rule of Death.

In the room, Qin Zhou stared intently at Lin Yi.