Chapter 42 - Escaping From Flowers In The River And The Moon’s Reflection In The Lake (I)
Editor: Kitty
The last piece of the mirror that Luo Jian found earlier had been hidden in a crack on a corpse’s skull. This made Luo Jian realize that objects could be hidden in the human body, and that the body could potentially hide many things. He had smashed almost all the bodies and found only a small fragment of the mirror. With that, he was left with only two corpses that he had yet to inspect.
“Sorry for the offence.” After some deliberation, Luo Jian acted. He carried the teacher’s body down from the ceiling, gritted his teeth, and ripped the clothes off of the corpse. There was some thick and disgusting carrion still hanging on the skeleton. When he took off all the clothes, the entire rib cage was exposed. The internal organs had turned completely into a pool of black water. After searching for a long time, Luo Jian finally found a key in the teacher’s mouth and a piece of paper with the printed purple patterns commonly used by the Secret Chamber.
The key was rusty. When he unfolded the note, the contents were as follows:
[Dear Mr Luo Jian:]
[At this point, perhaps you have realized certain things about this secret chamber, so it is of no harm to tell you frankly that there is another key in the illusory chamber.]
[An exception was made, and hints will be given to you:]
[First, you should never open the real door with a fake key because that will cause you to fall into the illusory world forever.]
[Second, for the same reason, do not use the real key to open the illusory door. Otherwise your end will be as described above.]
[Third, finding the last person who disappeared is the right method for you to leave this secret chamber.]
[With that, all the hints have been provided. Good luck.]
“It seems that even if I’ve found the key, I’m not in a very good situation.” Luo Jian fiddled with the key he had found. It looked very old and was rusty and discoloured. If one looked at it closely, one would find a small crack on the key’s handle.
Luo Jian put the key into his pocket. This time, he began to search through the female corpse, and he found something shocking. He actually found a cellphone in the belly of the dead woman!
It was another old Nokia phone!
The cellphone was in the stomach of the female corpse, so it was soaked in some sort of disgusting black fluid. Although Luo Jian felt sick and wanted to vomit when he found it, he still reached out his trembling hands and pushed them into the abdomen of the female corpse. The corpse was not very clean, and a large amount of meat and viscera were still present. At this time, Luo Jian would have preferred if the corpse was a bare skeleton.
“Don’t blame me, don’t blame me,” Luo Jian searched while he muttered to himself. He was afraid that the body would suddenly move. Although Luo Jian had experienced many things and should have been used to it long ago, he was still afraid. That was because the definition of death seemed to be meaningless in this strange secret chamber, and the chamber was so confusingly bizarre that precautions were useless.
When Luo Jian took out the cellphone, he was still in disbelief. Subconsciously, he reached for the other phone in his pocket and saw that it was still there! The two cellphones looked exactly the same—both were black models, and the sizes were identical. Luo Jian was stunned, but he soon reacted, pressing the b.u.t.ton to turn on the phone. He waited for about a minute, and just as Luo Jian was about to lose hope, believing that the phone was out of battery and therefore worthless, the screen suddenly brightened.
The battery bar showed that there was one bar of power left. The time reflected was 00:00:00, and a prompt popped up within a few seconds after the power was turned on to inform him that the battery was insufficiently charged. Luo Jian immediately opened the address book, and he found that it was blank. Then, he pressed several b.u.t.tons to enter the mailbox, which was almost empty; in it, there was only a very short and familiar message:
[Please help me.]
After staring at the message for a second, Luo Jian suddenly felt as if there was a fishbone stuck in his throat and his chest was being compressed. It was as if nothing could enter his lungs, and it caused a piercing pain that was hard to endure. Luo Jian opened his mouth and slowly took out the other Nokia phone. He opened it and looked through the mailbox. In it, there was only one text message, and it had the same few words:
[Please help me.]
“Who does this cellphone belong to?” Luo Jian mumbled to himself. The phone pulled out from the belly of the female corpse obviously belonged to her. She’d sent a text message to ask for help before she died, but it was strange…… because she was not asking for help from her teacher, the lover who she was dating and exchanged rings with, but……
Who did it belong to? Luo Jian stared at the Nokia phone in his hand. This phone was the one that he had found in the drawer when he woke up in the beginning. There was no name written on the books and notes where he sat. Obviously, the seat Luo Jian was in belonged to the missing 35th person.
“The last, missing person is pivotal to this mystery,” Luo Jian said, “But, I don’t even know what their name is. They only left a few strange textbooks and a cellphone. What does this person have to do with this incident? Similarly, why did she ask them for help?”
Luo Jian sighed, confused. The dead woman’s cellphone soon ran out of power and turned off. There was no use dabbling with it, so Luo Jian could only throw the cellphone away. He thought that his next move should be to go into the illusory chamber in order to find the other key.
Once Luo Jian thought of this, he executed his plan immediately. Luo Jian put away the cellphone and dug out the mirror pieces. It was such a ha.s.sle for him to deal with the mirror. Every time he wanted to use it, he had to piece it back together, put it in the palm of his hand, and read out the ridiculous poem again. After that, what followed was the feeling of dizziness. When he opened his eyes, he saw the complete reverse of the previous scene.
After circling around the illusory chamber, Luo Jian suddenly thought of a question: where was the last student who had disappeared? The secret chamber was only that big. One could clearly see every corner of the cla.s.sroom by standing on the podium. There was no place to hide. Regardless of it being the illusory or real secret chamber, there were completely no places to hide. So where was the missing person? Were they dead? Had they turned into a corpse? Or was the person invisible?
“There is no other living person but me.” Luo Jian circled around the illusory secret chamber again and again, turning over the things that he could again. The time in the illusory secret chamber would not flow. When Luo Jian had left the illusory chamber, he had looked at the cellphone, and the time that stopped had started to move again. When he came into the illusory chamber again, the time stopped.
Because there was no time limit, Luo Jian searched through more carefully this time, but he still did not find anything useful. His wounds were aching again. Luo Jian felt a little weak, so he found a stool to sit down and rest. He leaned against the back of the chair and looked at the ceiling that was above his head. There was a rusty iron fan and a dim, yellow chandelier on it. The edges had started to decay due to the water stains on the wall, and he could see black patches on it.
As Luo Jian gazed up, his eyelids drooped down. Unknowingly, his eyes began to narrow, and he unwittingly fell asleep.
The dim cla.s.sroom was empty, and only the sound of Luo Jian’s breathing could be heard.
Time had come to a stop, the light remained dim and dark, and chalk was still scrawled on the blackboard. Suddenly, with a squeak, the door of the cla.s.sroom opened!
Yes, the illusory door had been opened! A shaky, low voice sounded as a clean hand pushed the door open from the outside. Beyond the door was a dark world, but this man walked in from the darkness. Once he entered, the mahogany door squeaked loudly as it closed again with a slam. The sound immediately woke Luo Jian. He shivered and opened his eyes.
As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw a magnified, handsome face in front of him. A pair of bright red eyes stared at him without blinking. All this happened so suddenly and without a sign, so Luo Jian was given a fright. He instinctively backed away and almost fell from the chair. But the man reached out his hand and hugged Luo Jian.
“Stalk…… stalker! ” Luo Jian shivered and grabbed the collar of the man with a hand. It really scared Luo Jian when he saw such a huge monster. But while he was scared, Luo Jian had been mentally prepared for the stalker to appear. Luo Jian was not stupid. The ouroboros mark on his neck was obviously a way for the stalker to track and locate him. Luo Jian just did not expect the stalker to keep chasing him in such a way that he showed himself in every secret chamber Luo Jian entered.
But……
Luo Jian suddenly felt his heartbeat get faster. He could only stare at the man. For some reason, as soon as the stalker appeared, Luo Jian felt at ease. No matter how terrible the secret chamber was, Luo Jian was not afraid.
But Luo Jian didn’t want to think this way. He knew that this mindset was not good. He could not rely on an unknown existence that he was completely unfamiliar with, especially since the other party may cause great harm or be a threat to him.
But the stalker did not care about it so much. It seemed that he was excited when he saw Luo Jian. He placed his arm around his waist and pulled him desperately into his arms. Luo Jian could not compete with the other person in terms of strength, so he compromised and resigned himself to the man’s embrace.
Of course, just cuddling was not enough for the stalker. Luo Jian rolled his eyes and stared at the man wordlessly as he began to nibble at Luo Jian’s lips. Why did this fool kiss him every time they met? Could it be that…… Luo Jian suddenly thought of the first time he had met this fool in the secret chamber. Could it be that the incident…… gave him too deep of an impression? Which caused him to be reluctant to part with Luo Jian and made the stalker chase him to nibble on his lips?
Luo Jian did not know that he’d accidentally figured out the truth.
The stalker happily nibbled at Luo Jian’s lips. He felt that it was not enough to nibble his lips alone, so he nibbled his neck. But similarly, he felt it was insufficient just nibbling on his neck. He began to remove Luo Jian’s clothes. At last, Luo Jian could not stand his actions. Bearing the risk of being beaten to death by the stalker, he kneed the other in the stomach.
In fact, the stalker did not feel any pain at all, but he thought that maybe this little human did not like his behaviour. Xing Yan hesitated for a moment and promptly released Luo Jian. He thought of what Ying had said to him in the Crimson Asura Realm.
Ying had said that the reason why he liked to hug this human is because he liked him.
Not only did Xing Yan completely not understand the concept of liking someone, but he also completely did not understand human emotions.
Therefore, Ying had asked Xing Yan: “Would you miss that human if you were not able to see him?”
Since he would miss him, Xing Yan nodded.
Ying asked again: “Would you want to hug that human when you see him?”
That’s right, that’s right! Xing Yan nodded again.
Ying continued to ask: “Is hugging enough for you, or do you want to kiss him?”
Kiss? Xing Yan thought about it for a while. He considered it an act of biting his lips. He really liked doing it! Therefore, he nodded incessantly.
Hearing that, Ying had an enigmatic look on his face and declared: “This means you like him. If you like him, you should treat him well!”
En, he should treat Luo Jian well! Xing Yan obsessively stared at Luo Jian.
Under his stare, Luo Jian felt the hairs all over his body stand up. He cowered and rolled himself into a ball. Was this fool angry? Why did he have such a terrifying look in his eyes and seem as if he wanted to take a bite of him? Mommy!
T/N: Xing Yan appears! I feel like he’s like a 3 y/o kid looking at candy though…
Thank you LurkingReader for the Ko-Fi!