CH 67

Seeing its skeptical expression, Gu Xizhou pinched its neck and deliberately shook his hands, donning a fearful look as he whispered, “Don’t you feel my little hands trembling? I’m actually very scared.”

When Gu Xizhou pinched its neck, it could hear the sound of bones fracturing. The ghost looked unwell. 

“Now I’m going to release your neck, and you’re going to answer my questions. Okay?” Gu Xizhou showed it what he considered a very friendly smile.

It: qaq

After seeing it nod as if its life depended on it, Gu Xizhou loosened his hand.

Because of the inexplicable logic of the death conditions, Gu Xizhou was left at a loss and, at the same time, he felt a lingering fear. 

If it weren’t for promising Si Yu not to wander around after entering the mission world and always following him, he would have already triggered a death condition as soon as his luck turned sour, and he would have already turned cold.

Thinking of this, Gu Xizhou’s mood was naturally poor.

Gu Xizhou cut to the chase. “It’s simple. How can I find the door?”

It shook its head. “I don’t know.”

Noticing Gu Xizhou’s cold gaze, it felt like something bad was going to happen.

“Peng!”

Its face was dumbfounded as a slap fell on its head, and it was unable to understand why it was beaten.

“Hah,” Gu Xizhou raised his eyebrows and said, “Cooperate nicely, and don’t tell me you don’t know! 

It: “But I really don’t know!”

After going through this several times——

“Wuwuwu… I really, really… don’t know… wuwuwu…”

“Even if you beat me to death… I still don’t know… wuwuwu.” 

Gu Xizhou listened to the ghost and watched it weep wretchedly. Its voice was a little loud. He put his finger up to his thin lips and said, “Hush, speak quieter. The one sleeping next door is even more ruthless than me when it comes to beating ghosts. If you’re too loud, he’ll wake up, and you’ll have to suffer another beating.”

In an instant, it stopped its weeping and turned its colorless face to look at the brightly lit room next door.

After several beatings, it insisted it didn’t know. Gu Xizhou also expected that it didn’t dare to cheat him and plainly asked, “You say you don’t know, then do you know how you became a ghost?”

It shook its head. “Don’t know.” 

Gu Xizhou’s temper flared, and he raised it up by the hair. He lifted the corners of his mouth. “I asked you something, and you don’t want to tell me so you say you don’t know. Do you think this is cooperating?”

Its body trembled and it cried out yingyingying. Other people wept tears, but it wept blood from its seven apertures sounding utterly aggrieved. “I didn’t! I really don’t know!”

“Ktfc ktja vb sbe xcbk?” Xe Wlhtbe gbiifv tlr fsfr.

Pa atbeuta obg j nfgs ibcu alwf yfobgf rtjxlcu lar tfjv. 

“Xbbv.” Xe Wlhtbe abbx j vffq ygfjat, atfc revvfcis yfja atf atlcu lc ogbca bo tlw jujlc lc j nlbifca beayegra.

Pa: “Tbe’gf rb ecgfjrbcjyif! P gfjiis vbc’a xcbk! …Qekeke, P vbc’a fnfc xcbk kts P yfmjwf ilxf atlr!”

Gu Xizhou: “Be quieter!”

It: “Oh…” 

Gu Xizhou looked at the brightly lit balcony before continuing. “Okay, you don’t know about the rest, but you’ve seen that short-haired woman inside the school, right?”

It nodded its head like a chick pecking rice.

“The contents of the newspapers in the past three days are as follows: One, a madwoman left home and was in a car accident, two, a vagrant didn’t eat for five days and starved to death, and three, a textile worker was stalked and murdered. How is the short-haired woman connected to everything?” Gu Xizhou asked.

This time, it was silent for a long time. Gu Xizhou looked at it expectantly. This ghost definitely knew something important. 

One man and one ghost stood opposite each other for ages. After approximately two minutes, under Gu Xizhou’s encouraging and expectant gaze, the ghost opened its mouth, appearing to summon a great amount of courage, and said, “Don’t know.”

Gu Xizhou’s face turned black, and he raised his fist to smash the ghost, drawing blood.

It: “Why are you beating me!”

Gu Xizhou: “After thinking for so long, you still don’t know?” 

It: “Wuwuwu, if I answered you right away, you’d tell me again——you think I don’t want to immediately answer you, and I’m cheating you.”

“You…” Gu Xizhou kneaded his forehead. He could be considered to have met his match. This ghost was so foolish it made one want to beat it to death. “Okay, then tell me about that employee you killed.”

“You know her, ba?” Gu Xizhou raised his brows.

It solemnly and cautiously glanced at Gu Xizhou’s expression and asked probingly, “What do you want me to say? I killed her and died in the process; it’s all in the newspaper.” 

Gu Xizhou lowered his voice. “I want to hear the whole story.”

“Gu Ge?” Gu Xizhou hadn’t returned to the room for a long time, and the ever present cackling and footsteps disappeared, following Gu Xizhou to the bathroom. This made Fang Zhi a little nervous. He got out of bed and lightly called outside, “Are you alright?”

Gu Xizhou heard the sound of footsteps from the next room and immediately replied, “ I’m fine, my stomach hurts. Wait a minute, don’t come over! I’ll be right there.”

Quickly walking to the balcony, Fang Zhi agreed without a hint of suspicion. 

Gu Xizhou had just heaved a sigh of relief when he heard a voice asking Fang Zhi, “Where is he?”

Fang Zhi said, “Gu Ge is in the bathroom.”

“Fuck… How did he wake up!”

Noticing the change in Gu Xizhou’s expression, the ghost took advantage of Gu Xizhou not paying attention and jeered as he ran to the room next door. 

Gu Xizhou stared at the ghost disappearing onto the balcony next door and raised his eyebrows. He followed, jumping over and quickly entering the room to see Si Yu, awake. He waved at Si Yu with a smile. “You’re awake.”

Si Yu looked at him, agreeing indifferently.

The echoing footsteps returned to the room along with Gu Xizhou’s return. Fang Zhi lay down to the side of Gu Xizhou, covering his ears and looking around nervously.

Gu Xizhou opened the quilt and lay down in bed, saying indifferently, “Do you want to die? How can I sleep when you’re walking around?” 

Fang Zhi originally thought that the ghost would only let out its cackling laughter, but he absolutely didn’t expect that the footsteps would become more distant as if they were leaving the room. At the same time, from beside him, Gu Xizhou said, “What are you leaving for? Going to scare the neighbors?”

Fang Zhi looked on, dumbfounded, as the footsteps came to a sudden stop.

If they turned off the light, they would see a ghost, bleeding from the seven orifices sitting upon the floor and staring at Gu Xizhou’s back with a face full of grudges.

Lying on the bed, Gu Xizhou thought about the ghost’s narration of the events——It was more or less the same as the newspaper. The only information that wasn’t in the article was that the textile worker’s age wasn’t so different from the students at the school, about twenty years old. The newspaper didn’t mention it because it was considered insignificant. 

Taking advantage of the time during breakfast, Gu Xizhou quickly and effortlessly finished eating and took a few teammates to make a beeline for the dormitory to find the dormitory supervisor.

“Here, the newspaper.” The dormitory supervisor saw Gu Xizhou as an acquaintance. After he handed yesterday’s newspaper to Gu Xizhou, he took out the freshly printed edition of today’s newspaper and handed it over. “Put it on my desk when you’re finished.”

The newspaper smelled strongly of ink and was a bit wet. Gu Xizhou thought that today should also be related to murder, but when he opened the newspaper he saw an accident about a fall.

‘At a construction site, a small worker unfortunately fell to his death. His 40 year old mother cried until she fainted at the scene.’ 

“Falling off a building?” Cheng Yue moved his head closer to see, looking at the headline. “Controlled… to fall off a building? Does it say how many stories he fell from to his death?”

Si Yu held the newspaper, calm and collected.

Gu Xizhou tilted his head and swept his eyes over the article before answering Cheng Yue. “The newspaper doesn’t say.”

“……” Xiao Yue was silent for a moment before she spoke hesitantly. “Then how do we look for Su Xiaomian later?” 

Gu Xizhou waved his hand. “No problem, we can find the death condition just like before. If we find the floors those students never go to, we can determine the ‘death floor’.”

Xiao Yue sighed with relief, and her complexion improved.

Si Yu immediately confirmed Gu Xizhou’s assertion. After leaving the dormitory, Si Yu’s brows were pinched into a ‘川’ the whole way. It was the first time Gu Xizhou had seen this expression of his.

After making a round inside the school, it was almost lunch time. After the group confirmed that they couldn’t go to the fourth floor, they went directly to the dining hall for a meal. 

Bai Dongyang: “What’s the connection between these people and the NPC being replaced by someone else?”

Xia Hang: “I don’t get it at all. There’s absolutely no… common ground.”

The feeling of hunger became more and more distinct. They ate and ate, but their stomachs were never sated. It was a constant reminder that they only had three days until they starved to death after today.

Everyone’s expressions were foul. Even Si Yu was somewhat taciturn. 

Gu Xizhou recalled the contents of the newspaper and looked at everyone’s miserable faces. “Actually, there is something they have in common.”

Si Yu: “What?”

Gu Xizhou: “Could the fact that they were all very young be regarded as common ground?”

Si Yu: “What?” 

Fang Zhi: “?”

Everyone: “?”

Gu Xizhou said, “The fallen worker’s mother was only forty years old, so he should be about twenty years old. Yesterday, the woman who died was also about twenty years old.”

Si Yu looked at him. “That woman’s age wasn’t written in the article.” 

Gu Xizhou: “Then maybe I remembered it wrong, ba.”

Si Yu looked at Gu Xizhou suspiciously and didn’t speak. Then Gu Xizhou saw Si Yu take out all the old newspapers and place them side by side to look them over. The others immediately came over to lend a hand.

“The woman really was awfully young.” Si Yu pointed at a small article about a factory abusing child labor as cheap labor. The oldest was only nineteen years old. He said to Gu Xizhou, “You might be right. Look at the rest of the articles so we can verify it!”

It took about an hour to determine that the age range of the deceased was within 18-22 years old. 

“18-22 years old, just like the students in the school.”

Si Yu was obviously pondering over the connection between them. Gu Xizhou also looked thoughtful, but he simply couldn’t figure out the relationship between them at all.

His expression turned regretful: This young worker died from falling off a building, which meant there was no new ghost for him to beat up and question.