CH 8

Tang Xin was an especially timid villain. The one time she finally mustered up the courage to confess her love she just had to die. She came to such a dangerous place after death and now she was forced to enter this kind of exam room. She has nowhere to turn to and cry.

Chai Yong collected her points and took her down the mountain. It was originally a transactional relationship, yet now he was throwing a tantrum at her and making it clear that he views her as an easy target to bully.

Tang Xin was unwilling to put up with him, but she didn't know how to push back.

She went back to her room with a wooden expression.

She turned on the lights and was nearly scared out of her wits.

The eeriest painting was hanging on the center of the wall.

It was a painting of a red-clad woman with long, flowing hair and a small, palm-sized face devoid of any facial features.

The room was heated but at this moment, she felt the temperature plummet over ten degrees. It took her a long time to recover her frightened soul which had wandered away. She shakily moved a chair over, stood on it, and removed the painting.

She rolled it up and stored it in the cupboard.

She was completely exhausted by now after climbing down the mountain for five or six hours. She laid down on the bed and fell asleep as soon as she closed her eyes. After a while had passed, Tang Xin felt a cool breeze next to her ear. Her eyelashes trembled. She opened her eyes and immediately screamed in terror.

The painting was hanging in its original place again.

The woman in red still didn't have any facial features. Maybe she was imagining things but she felt like the woman's face was slowly distorting. She was so scared that all her sleepiness disappeared. She sat up tremblingly and grabbed the bedsheets with one hand and quickly shuffled backward but when she touched the head of the bed, she felt something wet drip down.

She stretched out her hand. It was dark, crimson blood.

Her whole body seemed to freeze from head to toe.

She could feel a small, cold, child-like hand slowly reach out from behind her. It stroked her cheek.

She turned her head.

There was a face with five mouths. Its bloody mouths opened wide and the blood-red eyes reflected her weak and powerless image.

Tang Xin sat on the bed, completely paralyzed with fear. She watched helplessly as the five gaping mouths approached her slowly and bit her hair.

With a sneer, the five-mouthed monster ripped off half her hair with one strong bite. It giggled. Kekeke.

There was a sudden knock at the door.

Knock knock knock. The rapping was loud and rapid. It was accompanied by a pleasant voice: "Open the door."

Tang Xin recognized it as Lin Xinghe's voice.

At the same time, the monster cowered next to her and vanished in the blink of an eye.

When she fixed her eyes on the wall she noticed that the painting had also returned to its original state and the face of the faceless, red-clad woman was no longer distorted.

Tang Xin's body was suddenly hit with the aftermath of surviving a crisis and she frantically stumbled her way to the door. Once she saw Lin Xinghe, she immediately threw herself at her without thinking.

"Th-There's a ghost..."

Lin Xinghe said: "I'll go in and take a look."

Tang Xin didn't dare to go back in but looking at the empty corridor, she was overcome with fear again and she clutched Lin Xinghe's arm tightly and went in with her.

Lin Xinghe was unfazed after seeing the painting on the wall. Her eyes darted around and finally, she asked in a calm voice: "What type of ghost did you meet?"

From her tone, it sounds like she had the same encounter.

Tang Xin said anything and everything she knew. After she finished, she saw Lin Xinghe looking at her with a thoughtful expression. She murmured: "Sure enough, it's just as I suspected..."

Lin Xinghe started to head out of the room.

Tang Xin hurriedly said: "Wh-Wh-Where are you going?"

Lin Xinghe tilted her head and looked at her.

Tang Xin said: "Let me follow you. I-I can give you ten points. Don't leave me alone."

Lin Xinghe was surprised: "You can even trade points with other candidates?"

Tang Xin said: "Chai Yong asked me for five points as a deposit and promised to take me down the mountain. He scanned my bracelet. Our transaction was successful," Tang Xin hastily raised her arm and added, "You can scan my bracelet right now."

Lin Xinghe was a little moved but on second thought, she knit her eyebrows and added: "No, that's wrong. If points could be traded in the exam room, the big shots from the other departments would have graduated a long time ago. So why would they stay in school? There are also teachers proctoring the exam room and the role of a proctor is generally to oversee the discipline of the exam room and to prevent cheating... They practically left out the rules of the exam room when we entered. It might be a trap."

【The new host is really smart. So many freshmen have fallen for this trap the first time they entered the exam room.】

【Chai Yong is screwed. He'll be punished later for taking Tang Xin's points.】

Gu Taoyao didn't tell Lin Xinghe about this rule of the exam room. This is one of the principal's evil tastes—banning older students from telling new students about this rule. Most students who have fallen for this trap wouldn't go out of their way to tell the new students anyway, hoping that others will suffer the same loss and make them feel better. She didn't expect her deskmate to deduce this rule by raising one and inferring three (1).

Tang Xin thought it made sense too after listening to Lin Xinghe's analysis. Stammeringly, she said: "I... I can do other things. I... I can do anything. Let me follow you..."

Lin Xinghe said: "You'll do anything?"

Tang Xin just wanted to save her life at this moment. Besides, Lin Xinghe was also a little girl. How dangerous could it be? She nodded frantically: "Yes, yes, yes. I'll do anything."

"If yes, then follow me."

Tang Xin followed Lin Xinghe back to her room.

She entered and saw the eerie painting again and it was hanging from the exact same position, except that... the faceless woman now had rather... cute facial features drawn on top.

Lin Xinghe said: "Oh, I drew that. Isn't it cute?"

The painting was originally a horror piece, but its style completely changed after adding kaomoji features. It should have given off the feeling of a monster crawling out of the abyss with an aggressive roar. Now that monster's face was a cute emote. After chasing you around, the giant abyssal beast used all its power to summon a weak and innocent 'meow' (1).

Tang Xin forced herself to say with sincerity: "It's cute."

Tang Xin was shaking from fear earlier but now she had completely calmed down. Lin Xinghe asked her, "Do you know where Little Xue Ji ran off to? The one who just attacked you."

Tang Xin was a bit dumbfounded: "Little Xue Ji?"

"Yes, it's the name I gave to the one with five mouths. She's a little girl but she's not human. I'm not sure if she's the Snow Woman. If she's not, she's probably related to her."

Tang Xin said: "I... I don't know. Sh-She disappeared after you knocked on the door. I didn't pay attention to where she went..."

Lin Xinghe said, "Here, do me a favour."

"What kind of favour?"

"Come with me to the file room. Keep a lookout for me and warn me when someone is coming."

"The file room?"

"Yes, the pilot of the rescue team mentioned that sixteen people went missing. These sixteen people must have called for help. There must be a record of them on file. I want to know the exact people who went missing."

Tang Xin sighed with relief and said: "Okay, that's not a problem."

The two easily found the file room.

It was locked.

Tang Xin asked: "Wh-What should we do?"

Lin Xinghe said: "There's always a way to open it."

She touched the lock and it unexpectedly opened.

But Lin Xinghe was not surprised at all: "God helps me..."

Tang Xin: ... What kind of luck is that? Is that a 100% wish-granting ability?

Lin Xinghe reminded her again before going in: "Call me when someone comes."

"Okay, no worries."

"If Little Xue Ji comes, hold her off for as long as you can."

Tang Xin shuddered: "This..."

Lin Xinghe said: "Don't be afraid of her. I studied it. She feeds off fear. As long as you produce fear, she can attack you and even take your life. But if you're not afraid of her and ignore her illusions, she can't do anything to you. This is one of the reasons why I think she can't be the Snow Woman. These kinds of monsters are generally low-level monsters. Their weaknesses are too obvious. In short, don't be afraid. Just treat her like a three-year-old girl."

Tang Xin: ... That three-year-old girl just bit off half my hair!

Lin Xinghe finished explaining and entered the file room.

Perhaps because of good luck again, it didn't take her long to find the files of the sixteen people who went missing on the mountain. She flipped through them one by one and made a discovery—All sixteen people were male and none were from the town. They were all outsiders.

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Footnotes:

(1) Raising one and inferring three: to deduce many things from one case

(2) Kaomoji: Japanese-style emoticon. I'm guessing she drew something like this on the woman's face.