The Danger of Evening Self-Study
You can come today!
Seeing the calm expressions on the faces of the transfer students, the Physics Teacher's smile deepened, and he added another sentence.
"Thank you, teacher," they all said in unison, sitting in their scattered spots, but none of them actually asked a question.
After four afternoon classes, it was 5:10 PM, time for dinner. Evening self-study was at 8 PM, so they had plenty of time.
Almost the instant the Physics Teacher left the classroom, more than half of the students rushed out, their shouts echoing as they sprinted, their destination the cafeteria.
The sight of a group of students running wildly was quite spectacular. Their reason was the same as at noon: they all wanted to grab the food at the window where the bird fell, because if they were late, there wouldn't be any left.
Yu Xing didn't go with them this time. School rules stipulate that students must eat in the cafeteria at noon, but it's not explicitly stated that they can choose to eat in the evening or not.
He and the other four were in good physical condition, meaning they were able to maintain their nutritional needs by eating only one meal a day when they were starving.
Clearly, it wasn't just the transfer students who thought this way; a small group of students also didn't plan to go to the cafeteria. They slowly packed their things, Yu Xing heard someone complain, "When will this ever end? I have to do test papers again when I get back. I'm so sick of it."
"It'll be soon, aren't we graduating soon? As long as we survive the last few big exams..." The boy's companion said, sounding a little sad. The two fell silent, then quietly walked away with their schoolbags.
A major exam, a test.
Yu Xing pondered these words, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Oliver packing his things. The brown-haired girl had already left, but Jack was still watching her intently, seemingly looking for an opportunity to cause trouble.
Rebecca and Parey were nowhere to be seen either, probably mixed in with the line to the cafeteria. He thought for a moment, then turned to Oliver and said, "Oliver, nothing to tell me?"
Oliver did not react, like a doll that had been confined to a small box for years.
Yu Xing chuckled, reached for the physics textbook, and deliberately frowned at the points she had covered in class.
"To be honest, physics is too hard for a poor student like me. Anyway, I don't eat, so maybe I should go to the office and take a look..."
"Don't go looking for him," Oliver suddenly said.
This person's voice was very weak, like that of a frail patient, small and easily overlooked if you didn't listen carefully. The word "he" in this sentence seemed a bit abrupt, but combined with Yu Xing's murmur, it can be inferred that the "he" Oliver was referring to was the Physics Teacher.
Yu Xing acted as if he hadn't heard, and when Zhao Yijiu came over to him, he took the initiative to ask Zhao Yijiu, "Do you want to go to the Physics Teacher for tutoring?"
Zhao Yijiu glanced at him. "If you want me to come with you, then I will."
"Then let's..."
"Don't go." Oliver turned his head, lowering his voice—this time with a slight improvement in volume—"He's not a good person."
Because there were red armbands in the class, Oliver was even more careful about saying anything detrimental to the teacher.
"He seems like a decent guy, and he's an upperclassman, so he should at least have some empathy for us, right?" Yu Xing raised an eyebrow, feigning confusion. "What's so scary about him? Could he be scarier than our homeroom teacher...?"
Just then, a man in a red armband looked over. Yu Xing swallowed the rest of the words and just looked at Oliver with a knowing look.
Oliver met his gaze, and with great difficulty, raised his head. His dark circles unexpectedly caught Yu Xing's eye, prompting Yu Xing to think to herself, "Does this guy not sleep at night?"
"..." Oliver remained silent for a long time, then lowered his head again. "I don't believe you couldn't guess."
After saying that, he didn't care whether Yu Xing listened or not. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and walked out, as if he felt that he had done more than enough by reminding her.
Someone kicked Oliver's backpack on the street, causing him to stumble and almost fall. He adjusted his posture as if it were nothing and continued walking without saying a word, leaving only half a dark footprint on his backpack.
"Your deskmate is interesting." Zhao Mou also walked over; he had heard everything. "Really want to go to the office?"
"Just kidding, are you looking for trouble?" Yu Xing shrugged. "Go back to the dorm, come back after evening self-study."
"Where's Qu Xuanqing?" Zhao Yijiu suddenly noticed that a familiar figure was missing from the classroom. Wen Qinghuai was talking to his new deskmate, seemingly planning to get along with him and steal information from him.
But Qu Xuanqing has disappeared.
"She's really acting strange today... tsk." Yu Xing crossed her arms, her right fingers tapping erratically on her left arm, seemingly trying to figure out how to understand Qu Xuanqing's unusual behavior.
"Qu Xuanqing? She went to the restroom, she'll be back in a bit," Zhao Mou said. "She told me before she left."
Even so, Zhao Mou's tone clearly showed a sense of contemplation and hesitation, because they could all directly sense the strangeness about Qu Xuanqing, and at this time, going to the toilet, they really didn't know what she would do.
After greeting his deskmate, Wen Qinghuai also came over. The four of them waited in the classroom for a while, and finally Qu Xuanqing returned with a calm expression. By this time, almost everyone in the class had left, and the entire classroom seemed empty and quiet. Qu Xuanqing's figure strangely blended into the atmosphere of the class.
"I'm back, let's go." A faint smile appeared on Qu Xuanqing's lips, a polite smile devoid of emotion.
Yu Xing nodded, then suddenly noticed that the white-haired girl in front of him was still asleep on her desk. In this fast-paced class, the white-haired girl was practically a sleeping god. Most importantly, while everyone else was interested in bullying others, she remained aloof, which really piqued Yu Xing's interest.
The white-haired girl caught Yu Xing's attention.
Yu Xing planned to pay more attention to this girl later and wasn't in a hurry, so he glanced at her and then looked away.
They walked out of the teaching building and strolled towards the boys' and girls' dormitories. The road was full of students who had just finished school. Except for the seniors, the freshmen and sophomores were at the same time as them. However, for the two lower grades, if they did not want to attend evening self-study, then their classroom learning tasks for the whole day were already over.
The five remained silent for a moment, until Qu Xuanqing finally spoke first, and her opening statement was a piece of information. "The classroom becomes very dangerous during evening self-study."
"How did you know?" Zhao Yijiu asked first, contrary to her usual behavior.
"Otherwise, what do you think I was doing in the bathroom just now?" Qu Xuanqing smiled. "Since there's bullying in this class, it's not like I can't ask some people for some information, is it?"
"You went to the restroom to try and extract information from girls?" Wen Qinghuai was somewhat surprised. It was only the first day, and they had all been inclined to use gentler methods to gather information. He hadn't expected Qu Xuanqing to be so forceful and bold from the start. "Who did you talk to?"
"Lisa, that brown-haired girl... the one who kicked Yu Xing's table," Qu Xuanqing said calmly, "Generally speaking, the retribution for school bullying comes very late."
"Since we're both gathering intelligence, I don't mind bringing her retribution forward a little earlier."
Indifference was the only emotion on Qu Xuanqing's face. At this moment, Qu Xuanqing truly resembled the Personality Assimilation Degree Mutation Path of the one everyone called the Great Witch in the Deduction System, whose alienation level had increased. Yu Xing turned her head to look at her, neither saying that she did well nor that she did wrong, but instead stretched and asked, "What did you do to her?"
Faced with Yu Xing's question, Qu Xuanqing's eyelashes trembled slightly, then she curled her lips and answered in great detail, "When class ended, I saw her going to the restroom, so I followed her. There weren't many people in the restroom. I first stopped her, pretending to be very interested in Oliver's affairs, and asked her to tell me how many mistakes Oliver had made. She was naturally very willing to talk bad about others behind their backs, so she listed some of Oliver's insignificant flaws for me in the restroom."
"Then everyone else left, leaving just the two of us. I asked her what we did during evening self-study in our senior year of high school, but once the topic shifted away from Oliver, she became very impatient and didn't intend to answer me. Instead, she said she had to go back to her dorm to do her homework and told me that I would know everything after evening self-study tonight, so there was no need to ask her."
"I grabbed her by the neck, dragged her into the innermost cubicle, threatened her, and hit her a couple of times before she finally told the truth."
"During evening self-study, they usually do the homework assigned that day or extra tests and papers, but the school at night is terrifying. To this day, they still don't know why so many ghostly things appear in the school at night. Almost every night, senior high school students disappear in the school building and can never be found again."
Qu Xuanqing touched his name tag. "Those empty seats in Class 4 of the third year of high school, apart from those who were killed for making mistakes, were mostly occupied by people who went missing during evening self-study. The next day, the missing people's name tags were found in the corridor, still stained with blood."
This is undoubtedly the most crucial piece of information at the moment, Yu Xing has not yet told them that he found the two books.
The news about evening self-study sessions directly revealed one of the most concentrated death spots in the game. They didn't know what would happen at school during evening self-study sessions, but at least they had an understanding of the dangers.
Qu Xuanqing added, "Evening self-study ends at 10 PM. No one should leave alone; everyone must go in groups."
"That's really timely intelligence. Knowing this before the first evening self-study session can prevent us from making a lot of unnecessary mistakes." Yu Xing acknowledged the effectiveness of Qu Xuanqing's actions. "Those people didn't seem to care at all. Even Oliver, who tried to stop me from going to the Physics Teacher, didn't mention evening self-study. My presence during evening self-study might have special meaning and be part of the rules for them. Qu Xuanqing, when Lisha told you this, did she show any extra expression? Like despair or resignation?"
"Yes," Qu Xuanqing answered without hesitation. "I could tell she didn't want to say at all, but maybe I was too harsh?"
Wen Qinghuai: "..."
Zhao Yijiu: "I see. Using force in this instance might save a lot of trouble."
Zhao Mou: "Wait, don't think like that!"
"And now? Is Lisha on her way back to the dorm too?" Yu Xing raised an eyebrow.
Qu Xuanqing said, "I tied her up and locked her in the toilet. If she wants to get out, she either has to break free on her own or shout for help so that others can see her embarrassing state."
The brown-haired girl, Lisha, was surrounded by many friends, clearly leading the group. It would be very difficult for someone like her to accept losing face in public. Qu Xuanqing's actions were undeniably malicious.
"Aren't you afraid they'll tell the teachers?" Wen Qinghuai was the least familiar with Qu Xuanqing among those present, so he only found Qu Xuanqing's current state strange, but didn't feel too much chill. He even had the mind to joke, "Even if we're transfer students, the teachers here probably won't forgive our violent behavior, right?"
"She's not a red armband wearer, so it doesn't matter if she gets bullied. Isn't that what they did to Oliver?" Qu Xuanqing glanced at Wen Qinghuai indifferently. "When bullying people in the classroom, she said something like, 'Why doesn't Oliver become a red armband wearer?' Her tone was sarcastic, clearly showing she had a bad impression of the red armband wearer and her attitude was poor. So I suspect that the student wearing the red armband wouldn't be close enough to stand up for Lisha."
"You've got it right, haven't you?" Wen Qinghuai said with a smile.
Yu Xing pressed his tongue against his cheek, a thoughtful look flashing in his eyes. As a result, his curiosity about evening self-study had now reached its peak, and he was even a little impatient.
Another person was very interested in the girls' dormitory, especially the room where Qu Xuanqing lived. He really wanted to know what had happened that morning to make Qu Xuanqing so strangely.
He is now inclined to believe that Qu Xuanqing has not been affected in terms of consciousness, because this method of judging whether an action can be done by looking at details is something he taught Qu Xuanqing. As long as Qu Xuanqing remembers even these details, he is probably in a state of complete self-control.
Therefore, her behavior, which is inconsistent with her usual self, may be intentional.
So what are the benefits of doing this?
He guessed that Qu Xuanqing was trying to mislead others.
The person being misled was certainly not one of their companions; it was either a teacher or Qu Xuanqing's roommate. Something must have happened that forced Qu Xuanqing to present a different image to this person in order to gain something from it.
Qu Xuanqing's initiative in providing this information and analyzing her psychological process was a subtle way of telling Yu Xing that there was no need to worry about her.
Otherwise, if she wastes a lot of unnecessary mental energy analyzing the storyline of the instance, then that's not her fault.
Thinking of this, Yu Xing felt wonderful, because he didn't need to worry too much about Qu Xuanqing for the time being, and in a little over two hours, he would be able to see just how captivating St. Johnis Middle School was at night.
It would be best to get him excited.