CH 31

“What is that?” I looked puzzled, lowering my head to look at Hideki, who was already huddled up in fear, shivering and muttering something incoherently.

My phone displayed that the woman in the red dress was still lingering outside the door, showing no signs of leaving.

I took a deep breath and tried to recall all the campus legends I knew, but it seemed that there was no mention of a woman in a red dress.

“Stay calm; at least for now, we are safe.” With the door blocked and no way to escape, I began to rummage through the room. “The deceased Shen Mengting lived in bed number one. For boarders, the dorm room is where secrets are kept, and I might be able to find something here.”

It wasn’t that I was fearless, but as I watched the eerie scenes on the live stream of the underworld show’s cell phone, I always calmed down. In addition to the scary figure, there was also a barrage of comments from the viewers.

“Wow, what a scaredy-cat! The host left the live stream and ran away by themselves.”

“Where did the host go again? Please cherish your own live stream room.”

“Damn, what is this thing floating around? It’s scaring the crap out of me!”

“Gods and Buddhas, may Lord Buddha protect us. Barrage shield!”

“What is a barrage shield?”

The comments from the viewers flew by quickly, and with each comment, the red-dressed figure outside the door seemed less terrifying.

There were four girls living in the room 4118, with their beds situated on the second floor and desks and wardrobes occupying the first floor.

“Shen Mengting was in bed number one.” Opening the corresponding wardrobe, most of the things had been taken away, leaving only a few pieces of old and worn-out clothing.

I tried to search the pockets of the clothes, but there was nothing inside. My gaze then fell on the desk, and I opened the drawer to find a book buried under some scraps of paper and tests: “Love Disguised as a Monologue.”

“Love is unbearable to watch; loneliness is the only truth. You are dangerous and cunning, leaving me only with decadence and desolation.” I pursed my lips; this book was not something a high school student would normally like to read.

Opening the first page, a delicate bookmark with a sentence written on its front caught my eye: “Your own knight, Guo Junjie.” Interestingly, the back of the bookmark had another line of elegant handwriting: “My lovely slave.”

The book was in mint condition, and the bookmark had never been moved from the title page, suggesting that its owner didn’t care for it much. Flipping through a few pages, some letters fell out.

I picked one up and saw a date and a name on it. These were the love letters Guo Junjie wrote to Shen Mengting. They were all still sealed and unopened, and Shen Mengting had not opened any of the love letters. Poor Guo Junjie had been persistently holding on silently, but in Shen Mengting’s mind, he was not even worthy of being a backup plan and was merely considered a slave who could be ordered around at will.

I arranged the dusty love letters by their postmarks, starting with the first one written six years ago. As expected, it was a confession of love written by a naive young boy who mustered up all his courage to put his feelings into words.

In my opinion, the language used was childish and ridiculous, but for Guo Junjie at that time, every word contained a deep sense of love. The second and third letters were still declarations of love, but in the fourth letter, I detected something unusual.

“Why did you give the gift I gave you to him? Why did you make me run errands for him? Why did you make me hide in the closet and watch you two be intimate? You deliberately show off your body in front of him; don’t you know how much that tortures me?”

Upon reading this, I stroked my chin and thought to myself, “To make someone perish, you must first drive them crazy. Guo Junjie’s sanity is slowly being worn away by Shen Mengting.”

Opening the fifth letter, I realized that it had been sent five years ago.

“I’m sorry; it’s my fault, all my fault. Please don’t ignore me. I can give you everything and even be your dog! This school is full of monsters, but you’re different. I can’t live without you. I’ll do whatever you say!”

In the letter, Guo Junjie constantly cried and pleaded. Perhaps, at that time, Shen Mengting had already been with someone else and had grown tired of this slave who always followed her obediently.

“You wrote very sincerely, but unfortunately, the other party never bothered to read your letters,” Shen Mengting never took Guo Junjie seriously. When she received the letters, she simply clipped them between the pages of a book and buried them at the bottom of the waste paper.

“He’s a stubborn fool.” Forced love is never sweet, and I had a feeling that tragedy was about to unfold.

The sixth letter read, “Enough! I’ve had enough! Shen Mengting, if you continue to be with him, don’t blame me for doing something that you’ll regret forever! I swear! I’ll destroy you both!”

“A person who is driven to madness is about to meet their demise. What will Guo Junjie do?” I couldn’t guess the answer, so I opened the seventh letter.

“See that! The table is covered in bright red blood, and the police have arrived. But who would suspect me? The weakest, most invisible person who has always been bullied by you! I am the murderer! Hahaha! Shen Mengting, I will make you regret this! I will kill all the bastards who seduced you! I am your knight, and you are my noble princess!”

Amidst a flurry of wild words on the paper, I could almost see a skinny, hysterical boy holding a knife standing right in front of me.

I opened the eighth letter: “You asked me what I could do for you? I could give my own life for you! The small gift inside the envelope is my proof of determination!”

Shaking the envelope, there was indeed something inside, which I dumped onto the table and shone my phone’s light on.

It was half of a severed finger, wrapped in layers of cling film!

“Is this child possessed by a ghost?” The severed part was a little finger, and although it was decayed and deformed, I could still recognize it at a glance.

The eighth letter was concise, but from what I could deduce, Shen Mengting’s attitude towards Guo Junjie remained lukewarm, even with a hint of disgust. The unopened envelope was proof of that.

I put the book aside and opened the last “love letter”.

“Shen Mengting, I know you’ve never liked me. I understand now, and I won’t ask for anything more. You’re just like them—no, even more despicable than them!”

Guo Junjie had finally faced the harsh reality. He had hurt himself but gained no sympathy or kindness in return. In this world, there was only malice toward him.

“Take my final gift, not just for you but for everyone who has bullied me! I have drunk the antidote given by the Buddha. I will jump into the water purification tank and drown myself. I want all of you to be cursed by demons! I will wait for you in hell! I will stare at each and every one of you scream in agony!”

After reading all nine letters, I felt a sense of horror and regret. If there had been someone in the school who sympathized with and cared for Guo Junjie, he wouldn’t have gone this far. If Shen Mengting had opened the envelope early and took a glance, the tragedy could have been prevented.

Unfortunately, there were no “ifs” in reality.

I held the last letter and read it over and over again, paying close attention to one particular sentence: “He drank the antidote sent by Buddha?”

“Buddha? I’ve never heard of any enlightened being who would cruelly kill innocent people for someone’s wish and not even enter the cycle of reincarnation. This doesn’t seem like something Buddha would do,”

“Could it be…the Two-Faced Buddha?” If we follow the actions of the Two-Faced Buddha at the Peace of Mind Hotel, then it would make sense. But what connection is there between the Peace of Mind Hotel and New Shanghai High School?

The letters revealed a lot of information, but they also raised many questions.

“There are still such foolish men in the world, willing to be a woman’s dog,” said Hideki, who was sitting next to me as I read the later letters. He spoke with a natural tendency to mock Guo Junjie, as if it were ingrained in his bones.

“Actually, he’s quite pitiful.” I refrained from judging Guo Junjie’s actions, as it was my personal habit not to define criminals’ character, since there was often a twisted life experience behind their insane behavior.

“How do you think he alone could retaliate against the whole school?” Hideki curiously tapped the severed finger on the table. “Oh my God, it’s so disgusting.”

“Didn’t the letter make it clear? He was supposed to have drunk some kind of poison, and then jumped into the water purification tank. As a result, everyone who drank the school’s tap water that day became mentally deranged. I suspect those few people in the health room jumped off the building because they mistakenly drank the tap water.” With a faint smile on my lips, I put away the ninth letter. “Do you think I’m right?”

Hideki nodded gravely, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

“You probably didn’t,” I chuckled lightly and continued as if nothing happened, “If you could have guessed it that day, you wouldn’t have drunk the school’s tap water.”

“That’s true,” Hideki agreed.

Suddenly, the air in the dorm room seemed to freeze, and the place felt so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.