CH 2

Chapter #02 — Life Countdown

*The Author has something to say: There are unlimited worlds, this story doesn’t just take place on a school campus, this is only the first world!

“Xiao Lian don’t be afraid, it’s alright.” A round faced girl took out a tissue from her bag and handed it to Xiao Lian. If it weren’t for the fact that the girl’s hand was trembling, Gu Xizhou might have believed her words.

Gu Xizhou turned his head to look at the roof of the three-story school building, it was about ten meters high, even if they had fallen face first, they still shouldn’t have ended up so……gruesomely.

“What happened?” Gu Xizhou muttered, frowning. Just as he was about to go examine the situation, several teachers suddenly rushed over.

“Everyone, return to your classes.” A short and stout man holding a ruler dispersed the surrounding students, among the students many were evidently scared into stupidity. It wasn’t until when some fellow schoolmates dragged them did they finally react sluggishly.

“It’s her, it was her who came to find us, it was her who came to find us!” At this moment, abruptly, a girl with dyed hair said this to the person beside her, crazily as if she were insane. 

Among the teachers that had came over, a female teacher suddenly rushed forward and slapped the girl’s face, angrily saying: “You shut your mouth! Those three couldn’t handle the pressure of being a third year, they couldn’t handle the pressure so they committed suicide!”

“No, it’s her, it’s her……”

The girl hardly paid any attention to the slap, both hands holding her face, she seems to have lost all her strength in that split second.

The female teacher was evidently very unhappy, just as she was about to chide the girl, she suddenly heard the clear and cold voice of a male right next to her ears.

“Teacher Wang, Student Lin must have witnessed this……and was frightened by it. Let me first send her to the infirmary ba.” The loose fitting black and white uniform could not conceal even the slightest bit the extraordinary neat and clean temperament of the boy.

The female teacher by the surname of Wang glanced at the boy and then looked at the three corpses on the floor that was already covered by a cloth. She nodded at the boy, “Then I’ll trouble you to take her there.”

“What are you still standing here for? Hurry up and get lost to your morning self-study class!” The man chided Gu Xizhou. Gu Xizhou glanced at the man, his lips twitching but in the end he didn’t retort back and entered the school building.

Year three class ten.

Gu Xizhou had just walked in when he saw that all of the students in the classroom were without exceptions, all standing in groups of twos or threes, speaking in low whispers about what had just happened and in the back of the room was a small group of about ten people. In the group there was both males and females, whispering to each other.

At this time, the English teacher walked in holding a textbook, Gu Xizhou raised his eyes to take a look and saw that it was actually the female teacher by the surname of Wang from before. She had a serious expression on her face and upon seeing that the students weren’t in their seats, she harshly banged the textbook against the lectern.

“Go back to your own seats!” Her eyes indifferent, she berated with a scowling expression. In an instance, the people that were still talking just now dispersed and sat down in their own seats. 

Gu Xizhou: ……

Gu Xizhou didn’t know where his seat was so he randomly found a seat and sat down. The teacher at the lectern didn’t seem to notice this or maybe she herself wasn’t too familiar with where the students sat. She merely told all the students to open their textbooks up to the fifth unit so they can review following after the tape recorder.

Gu Xizhou sat in his seat for a few minutes and realized that the students around him didn’t question why he was sitting in this seat, in fact, none of the students even so much as glanced at him.

Strange, could it be that his luck was so good that the seat he’s sitting in is his own?

Unknown to him, sitting behind him were two males who were currently staring at his back with a frightened expression. 

The male with short hair used a trembling hand to pull the hand of the guy next to him, speaking in a voice that only the two of them can hear.

“He, wasn’t he already dead?”

“I, how am I supposed to know, we saw it with our own eyes yesterday ah, he was killed by that female ghost……he was killed.” The two people panicked, their voice trembling.

“Those three all jumped off a building today, he, why is he still here?”

The two people couldn’t help but shiver, a chill traveling up their spine.

“Unit 5……”

“Kuang dong!”

In the murmuring classroom, a loud noise suddenly sounded. In a split second, everyone in the room turned their head towards the source of the noise.

The teacher at the lectern revealed an annoyed expression and used her hand to raise the glasses at her nose bridge. “Lu Bing, what’s the matter?”

“S-sorry teacher, I- I didn’t sit properly.” The boy that was addressed as Lu Bing toppled onto the floor along with his desk and chair, his books smacked onto his body. 

The boy that fell was in the row just behind Gu Xizhou. Gu Xizhou put down the English book in his hand and reached out to grab this Lu Bing and pulled him up from the ground. Using his hands to dust him off, he felt that the boy’s body was stiff all over. Gu Xizhou stared blankly for a moment, maybe he doesn’t like close body contacts?

He very naturally loosened his grip and uprighted the desk and chair that had fallen onto the floor, “Are you alright?”

“A-alright……” Lu Bing’s quivering voice had a hint of tears in them. “I-I’m fine.”

Gu Xizhou was helpless, he clearly helped him with good intentions, yet why does this person have on an expression like his mom dad had died, does he look like he was going to eat someone?!

“It’s good that you’re alright.” Upon hearing his response, Gu Xizhou released his hand and returned to his seat. Although he was annoyed at heart, he didn’t say anything else.

The English teacher at the lectern impatiently said, “If you’re fine then take a seat. Don’t tell me that I have to invite you to sit?”

Lu Bing’s hands and feet were ice-cold, after hearing Teacher Wang’s words he didn’t react for a while, it wasn’t until when the guy beside tugged at his cuff did he finally reacted. Dazedly he sat his butt down.

“I- am I going to die today……I don’t want to die yet, my wife is still waiting for me, waiting for me to go home……” Lu Bing’s entire body seems to have collapsed, a big strong man sprawled out onto the desk, crying in a muffled voice.

The guy sitting next to Lu Bing lowered his voice, “He must have been possessed by that female ghost, you be more quiet, in case she hears you.”

“You’ll definitely be alright, this isn’t the death condition.” The guy could still be considered calm, his face deathly pale as he earnestly shared his analysis.

“B-but what if the conditions were wrong……”

“Impossible, the five that died before had all fulfilled the death condition but we didn’t!” The guy said this but doubt still formed in the bottom of his heart.

During the twenty minute duration of the morning self-study class, the two people were constantly on edge, afraid that if the person ahead of them turns around, he will turn into a female ghost. At all times their gazes were fixed at the back of Gu Xizhou’s head, their hearts almost jumped up to their throats!

“Class dismissed.” Up at the lectern, the teacher grabbed the textbook and hurriedly left, leaving the students in the classroom. In an instance, the atmosphere in the classroom exploded.

“Lu Bing, why did those three people from your dormitory committed suicide? Committing suicide hand in hand.” A male student walked to the back of the room, slapping his hands against the desks of the two people behind Gu Xizhou while asking in a teasing tone.

The other students also successively came up to inquire about this matter. Gu Xizhou also subconsciously turned his head in the direction of the two people given that the three people who committed suicide were from his dormitory. Yesterday night, the two empty beds in the dormitory had belonged to these two people. Unexpectedly, these two people are his roommates.

As they spoke, Gu Xizhou also joined in on the conversation, “Do you guys know what happened?”

The face of the two paled. Frightened, they ran while saying, “W-we didn’t return to the dorm room yesterday!”

Gu Xizhou: …… their mentality is too weak, they were actually scared into running?

After the class bell rang, Gu Xizhou sat in the back row while roommate Lu Bing and roommate Li He also changed their seats, staying far, far away from Gu Xizhou.

The two people trembled with fear as they stared at the back of Gu Xizhou’s head, their hands and feet were ice cold as they murmured in cold sweat.

First period was the literature teacher’s class, but because three people had died this morning, the first thing that the literature teacher did was simply talk about what had occurred.

“Three students due to academic pressures had chosen to commit suicide, I believe that all the students in our class are in good psychological state and won’t be as fragile as them. The three remaining students, Gu Ran, Lu Bing, Li He, don’t live in the original dormitory anymore, 105/106 these two dorms all have empty spots, which room you want to live in, I’ll arrange it for you.”

Lu Bing and Li He all chose 106. Gu Xizhou looked at the two people and smiled, they definitely know about what had happened in the dormitory last night, that’s why when the teacher asked him, he didn’t even think about it before answering: “I’ll also live in 106 ba.”

When Lu Bing and Li He saw Gu Xizhou’s smile, it was as if they saw the grim reaper smiling at them. Hearing this sentence, they unconsciously revealed a face like their mom and dad had died, both of them jumping, “Teacher, we take it back, we want to live in 105!”

Clearly they don’t want to live with him.

Gi Xizhou wrinkled his eyebrows and looked in the direction of the two people. These two people, do they know something?

The literature teacher was a middle-aged man without much patience, irritatedly he waved his hand: “Do as you want, discuss it over among yourselves.”

After class, the two people hurriedly ran to the bathroom.

Lu Bing looked outside the bathroom to check that there was no one else before saying: “He already died yesterday, I saw it with my own eyes, his neck was stabbed by a fruit knife…… but I don’t know why, why didn’t he jump with the other three……”

“Fuck how would I know? Are you sure you didn’t see wrong yesterday?” Li He anxiously questioned him.

“I didn’t see wrong! He really did die, a knife like that ah, directly impaled him from up to down!”  Lu Bing also became more anxious, animatedly waving his hands as he talked.

As the two were talking, footsteps sounded from outside the stall, causing the both of them to freeze and listen.

“Thump thump thump!”

“Thump thump thump!”

Li He and Lu Bing were both frightened, none of them dared to talk anymore as they stared at each other, the fears in their eyes deepening more and more.

“Wei, Li He, Lu Bing, come out, what are you two doing in there?”

Hearing this voice, Li He who had a little bit more courage opened up the stall door a crack and peeked through it. The people outside rolled their eyes at him while impatiently saying: “Hurry up and come out.”

“Ma Ge told me to ask you, what exactly happened yesterday?”

Seeing that the person outside wasn’t Gu Ran, the two people let out a long sigh. Lu Bing had also calmed down and could speak properly. 

“If the condition confirmed from before is right, he should have died yesterday, I personally saw the female ghost catch him!”

Having heard this, two male and one female looked at Lu Bing with doubts, “You really saw it?”

”Really, three days without sleep is impossible for anyone, I also don’t remember when I had fallen asleep but me and Li He both saw him in the dream yesterday, he had definitely slept!”

“In the dream, the three of us met the female ghost. I saw it with my own eyes when he was impaled by a fruit knife right here, in this place it was stabbed into a hole! I was too scared so I just, I just ran. After that, I woke up from the dream but because I was too scared yesterday, I ran outside and didn’t sleep for the whole night.” Lu Bing’s thoughts appear to be coherent as he recounted what had happened last night. 

“The death condition that you’ve observed is it accurate or not?” In reality, Li He was also afraid it’s just that compared to Lu Bing he was still more calm. Right now he couldn’t help but ask the question, his emotions palpitating.

“Should be right, all the people before died like this, if you die in the dream then on the second day you would commit suicide by jumping off the building!” one of the male students wrinkled his eyebrows and said: “People like Ma Ge are veterans, they know more than us, if it weren’t them figuring out the death condition, we wouldn’t know how we died!”

As they talked, a male student suddenly came in to use the bathroom, when he saw that inside the bathroom was a girl, he stared blankly for a second and raised his head to look at the bathroom sign.

En……he didn’t walk into the wrong place ah.

The female student in the male’s bathroom creased her brows, “Let’s go back and tell Ma Ge about what had happened yesterday first!”

When the people told the students in the classroom this, Ma Yu’s face changed color, “Maybe some changes occurred in the rule.”

“What about tonight? I don’t want to live with him!”

Not only him but the other people also felt the same way, including the four female students. 

A person proposed: “How about we let him live in 106 alone and the other people can live in the same room?”

“No.”

The girl showed a confused expression, “Why not?”

Le He: “Ma Ge explained the rules before, if everyone is in the same room then all of us will die. Also, everyone hasn’t slept for three days already, today is the fourth day, who can still endure this? If we live together then we will all encounter the ghost at the same time, the condition for the female ghost to kill is to kill within the dream, are you hating that we aren’t dying fast enough?”

The round faced girl heard Li He’s explanation and responded by sticking out her tongue. Asking in a vexed tone: “Then what do we do?”

For a moment, no one said anything, asking someone to go live with ‘him’, who would be willing, not even the experienced and audacious Ma Yu dared to.

Among the people here, those who lived in dorm 105 immediately said: “Anyway we definitely won’t go! You 106 people decide who stays ba!”

“En……” Ma Yu’s gaze swept over the four female students. “Everyone from 106 will draw lots to decide which person will be left behind to live with him, the female students don’t need to participate.”

Hearing this, the female students rejoiced as if they have gained a new lease on life. Just as the remaining people of 106 were about to draw their lots, the rear classroom door was opened from the outside by someone and in walked in a boy.