Huang Qingyang

Shi Yu wanted to speak, but said nothing in the end. He and Han He watched Liu Yiyi and He Siying walk away, each lost in his own thoughts.

For a moment, the atmosphere grew stifling.

"Ahem."

Huo Qiuliang, who had been left to one side, coughed twice. When Shi Yu and Han He looked up at him, he pointed at Hu Zihao and said:

"Let's move somewhere else too. We can't just leave him lying on the floor."

The two nodded and carefully lifted Hu Zihao. After some thought, they decided to go to Huang Daye's surveillance room.

When they arrived, Shi Yu noticed that Huang Daye was not there, sunk in deep sleep like the others. After they laid Hu Zihao on Huang Daye's bed, Shi Yu asked:

"By the way, Huang Daye..."

"Huang Daye... was killed. He was the one who called the police last night. That Evil Sin discovered something was wrong by reading memories and killed him."

Han He cut Shi Yu off halfway through. Shi Yu looked at him in surprise.

Shi Yu felt sad. Thinking of that old man, who had always been so cheerful, going to confiscate students' phones that night, he had already felt that something was strange.

"So Huang Daye really was calling the police that night..."

Shi Yu was not stupid. He had already had his suspicions, and the instant he learned of Huang Daye's death, he understood the old man's unusual behavior that night.

"I thought Huang Daye was in league with Yang Desheng and the others..."

Shi Yu looked around the empty room, his hand slowly brushing across the surveillance desk.

When Liu Zhipeng went missing, Shi Yu had stopped trusting any of the school administrators or the people around them. Even if Yang Desheng had not visited his classroom, he would have kept his distance from every adult at school, Huang Daye naturally included.

Although Huang Daye's phone call that night had been unusual, Shi Yu had been afraid it was a trap and had not dared speak to him. He had never expected that Huang Daye really had called the police.

He wondered whether Huang Daye had known about that Evil Sin's ability. If he had, what kind of resolve had he carried when he made that phone call, knowing it would mean certain death?

Just for these children who were not related to him by blood?

He only had to wait until Friday for his shift to rotate out. He knew the inside story and most likely had some way of reminding himself not to return to school.

As Shi Yu thought about it, his grief grew more intense.

Surely Huang Daye... must have left something behind.

"Ugh..."

Hu Zihao groaned on the bed. He seemed to have recovered a little strength.

Hearing him, Shi Yu hurriedly turned around to check on him again. But in his haste, he accidentally knocked over the tea mug at the edge of the desk.

Clang-

The mug rolled off and fell beneath the desk.

Shi Yu hurriedly bent down to retrieve it. Just as he picked it up and began backing out, his foot slipped, his limbs splayed, and his head struck the underside of the desk.

The loud bang made the other two look over.

"Are you all right?"

"Ouch, that sounded painful."

Han He's and Huo Qiuliang's voices came from nearby.

The blow left Shi Yu dizzy. He silently cursed his bad luck while saying, "I'm fine."

Then Shi Yu moved more carefully. Holding his head, he opened his eyes and was about to crawl out from beneath the desk when the rustle of paper fluttering in the air brushed his face with a faint breeze.

Rustle...

"Hm?"

Shi Yu looked at the floor in front of him. A sheet of paper folded in half lay there.

Shi Yu carefully reached out and picked it up, finding quite a few words written on the outside.

"I found a sheet of paper... Huang Daye might have written it. Let me see."

Shi Yu let Han He and Huo Qiuliang behind him know, then stood and held the paper up to the light.

Behind him, Han He and Huo Qiuliang had also settled Hu Zihao, who had just been groaning in pain, and came over to see what it was.

"Yang Desheng, you little bastard. Zhang Ya, you stupid pig. Liu Hedong, you dimwit."

"...?"

The outside of the paper opened with three insults in a row, and what followed was even more extreme, cursing practically every school administrator in every way imaginable.

Looking at the page full of curses and obscenities, Shi Yu pictured the late Huang Daye wearing his reading glasses, furiously writing these words when no one was around. A jumble of feelings filled him, and for a moment he did not know whether to laugh or cry.

"Huang Daye really had... quite a way with words..."

Beside him, Huo Qiuliang could not help making a tactfully phrased comment after reading it.

Shi Yu felt helpless, but kept reading.

It did not disappoint him. Amid the page of abuse, Shi Yu suddenly spotted a sentence.

"Stop reading. Turn it over."

Shi Yu paused slightly, then turned the paper over.

The handwriting on the back was clearly much more serious. The three crowded together and read it closely.

"If anyone sees this paper but doesn't remember a dorm supervisor named Huang Qingyang, do everything you can to leave the school, whatever the cost. But don't ask the school administrators for help.

Because there are man-eating monsters in this school. The administrators are their accomplices. They want to turn the school into a breeding farm. People killed by the monsters gradually fade from everyone's memory. So as long as no one reacts immediately, the monsters' existence will never be discovered.

How do I know? Because I've become one of the monsters too. In theory, they know my every move.

But that's only in theory. Later, I discovered something that was incredibly good news for me.

The fucking monster can't read, hahahahaha!! An animal wearing human skin still can't become human! And it can't watch me all the time. When there's a lot of noise around me, it can't hear me all that clearly either.

I've watched the children disappear one by one ever since that monster came. Yesterday it was the boy from 225... He was the seventeenth. I have no choice. I have to work out the method most likely to succeed, or none of the children can be saved.

I've thought of a way. At least, I have no other way. I'm old, and my brain doesn't work as well as it used to.

Anyway, I've decided to take a risk. Although I'll certainly die afterward, it might win the children a chance to live.

Besides... do I really still count as alive now? Maybe it's better to die.

If you see this paper, and Yang Desheng and the others have all been dealt with, please bury the two rings inside my pillow for me. If you like them, you can wear them too, but don't wear them separately. My wife can't stand being lonely.

If you're Yang Desheng (crossed out) that dumb fuck can't read, if you're Zhang Ya or another school administrator.

Then fuck your mother!!"

Shi Yu took a deep breath. He felt the aching sting in his nose creep toward his mouth. He blinked and tilted his tears back into his head until the root of his tongue tasted bitter.

Han He remained silent. Flying blood and eyes blazing with rage were branded into his mind. In silence, he chewed on his anger and grief.

"What a capable old man..."

Huo Qiuliang keenly sensed Shi Yu's and Han He's sorrow. With that sigh, he drew the paper from Shi Yu's hand.

Then he carefully folded it, tucked it into his clothes, and headed for the door, looking back as he said:

"I'm going to the bathroom. I'll keep the paper safe and give it to the captain later. I'll be right back."

With a click, the door lock fell into place after he finished speaking. Huo Qiuliang left the guardroom.

The sound of falling raindrops rang out in the room where only three people remained. The sobbing wind was swallowed back into their bellies, on an afternoon when someone had died.

Shi Yu would remember forever.

On an autumn day that was not quite sunny, he let the bitter dampness spread through his memories.