Lu Xingchen and Su Tianle hid in the stands above the soccer field.
Lu Xingchen had been crouching on the ground. When he saw Huo Chuyun get caught, he could not help standing up and gripping the railing, watching Huo Chuyun with reddened eyes full of worry.
I knew it was dangerous. I shouldn't have let Brother Chu go.
Noticing Lu Xingchen's stubborn figure, Huo Chuyun shouted anxiously, "Crouch down! Hide, hide!"
As he spoke, Huo Chuyun held the hunter by the shoulders and turned him in the opposite direction. "Let's go. There's no one else here."
It was Su Tianle's first time seeing the usually even-tempered Lu Xingchen so agitated. He quietly edged closer and offered a few words of reassurance.
Lu Xingchen immediately turned to look at him in disbelief. "Really?"
Su Tianle nodded, indicating that his source was reliable.
Once the hunter left, Lu Xingchen immediately rushed onto the soccer field. He came to a stop between Huo Chuyun's legs and spoke excitedly.
"Brother Chu, Tianle told me the first two people to find Xiao Qian have a chance of getting a revival card. Wait for me to save you."
Huo Chuyun brushed the redness at the corners of Lu Xingchen's eyes and soothed him.
"I'll wait for you to save me, baby. Don't put too much pressure on yourself. The game's almost over anyway. I'll make you cola chicken wings when we get home."
After watching the staff lead Huo Chuyun away, Lu Xingchen untied the card beneath the pink balloon.
Su Tianle hurried over and huddled with Lu Xingchen to read the clue.
There were only four words on the card: Public Opinion Is Fearsome.
Lu Xingchen frowned in thought. As the phrase Public Opinion Is Fearsome suggests, people's gossip is frightening, which meant the upperclasswoman had most likely lied about Xiao Qian.
But Public Opinion Is Fearsome could also refer to the horrors of cyberbullying-that online abuse had further driven Xiao Qian to jump to her death.
Su Tianle glanced at his phone and said,
"Jingyi and Anran sent me the clues they found. The cards said some students had seen what the shadowy figures really looked like. They wore black clothes and face coverings, revealing only a pair of piercing eyes. Some were also dressed like jailers from ancient times."
Su Tianle ventured, "Why do I feel like the masked figures in black described on the card were dressed like ancient covert guards or assassins?"
Lu Xingchen recalled the shadow that had flashed past in Room 414. "If they're covert guards, that would explain why they can come and go like ghosts."
"Do you remember that upperclasswoman crying and begging them not to take her? Could she not have been dreaming at all, but frightened by those shadowy figures because they were trying to take her away?"
Lu Xingchen asked in puzzlement, "What connection does Xiao Qian have to these people? They're clearly from completely unrelated times and places, yet these shadowy figures are obviously helping Xiao Qian get revenge."
"The Public Opinion Is Fearsome clue most likely means the upperclasswoman lied. Otherwise, why would the shadowy figures only give the others at school, including Lu Yichen and Lu Yihao, a simple scare, while openly retaliating against the upperclasswomen?"
Su Tianle rubbed the goosebumps on his skin. "Could Xiao Qian be Dou E reincarnated? So when she reached the King of Hell's court, she asked friends she knew in ancient times to help."
Unable to deduce anything further, Lu Xingchen checked the time. There was 32:18 remaining, with twelve minutes left until the mission ended.
Lu Xingchen suggested, "Brother Chu said there's an area below the cafeteria piled with sand. Let's take a look. There might be a clue."
Su Tianle sent the clues they had found to Jiang Jingyi and Song Anran, then followed Lu Xingchen. "Okay. Come to think of it, we still don't know where Xiao Qian died. Where did she jump from?"
Lu Xingchen abruptly turned and hugged Su Tianle, saying excitedly, "Tianle, you're brilliant! That area by the cafeteria is inexplicably piled with sand. I strongly suspect it's there to cover the bloodstains and mask the smell of blood."
On their way to the cafeteria, they found another black balloon. The card had a web address on it, which Lu Xingchen entered into his browser.
The school's Entertainment Forum appeared on his phone.
As he scanned the contents, Lu Xingchen suddenly tightened his grip on his phone. The most prominent anonymous hot post on the Entertainment Forum read: "Qian, top student in the Chinese department, has a promiscuous private life, went to the hospital for an abortion, and contracted HIV." A red "Viral" tag followed it.
Lu Xingchen tapped the screen, bringing up a photo of a girl from behind as she entered a gynecological hospital, wearing a white floral dress and two braids.
Lu Xingchen scrolled to the comments. At the sight of the vile remarks, he closed his eyes, unable to bear it. There were all kinds of comments, a sea of abuse.
[God! I know her. Her family's poor, and she's always working part-time on campus to cover her living expenses.]
[I know her. Isn't she the girl in those nude photos that got sent to everyone's phones?]
[I'm in her class. I was wondering why she hadn't been working lately. Turns out she found herself a sugar daddy.]
[I bet she found more than one sugar daddy. That's how she caught an STD and ended up needing a gynecologist.]
[Ew! She has HIV? What if she infects us? Isn't the school going to do anything?]
[Oh, that poor baby. Robbed of its life before it could even see the world. What a heartless mother.]
[Shameless, hooking up with everyone. Why else would she catch a filthy disease and need to see a gynecologist?]
[Get Qian out of our school!!!]
[Someone like her gets a scholarship? Revoke it!]
Su Tianle had also been reduced to tears by hateful comments from anti-fans. He covered his mouth and said, his heart aching,
"Why would they say so many horrible things to a girl? What does a photo of her going into a gynecological hospital prove?"
Lu Xingchen sighed. "People can be vicious. Besides, this forum is anonymous, so they can spread their malice without restraint. They're jealous, or simply can't stand seeing anyone else do well. They don't care what the facts are. That's why our country requires real-name registration online, because the internet isn't beyond the law."
Lu Xingchen returned to the Entertainment Forum and casually swiped a few times. Suddenly, his finger stopped, his gaze fixed on a post that had attracted little attention.
The title was: "Live updates: Qian, top student in the Chinese department, jumping off a building."
Lu Xingchen noticed that the person who had posted it was the same person who had posted about Xiao Qian visiting the gynecological hospital.
He opened the video. It was short, only twenty-odd seconds. The person filming had pointed their phone at a girl sitting on the edge of the rooftop, wearing a white floral dress and braids.
High above the ground, the fierce wind whipped the girl's snow-white floral dress like a flag, as though telling a sorrowful story.
Her glossy black hair, like flowing ink, drifted gracefully into the distance with the wind. Every strand seemed to have been given life, dancing freely in the wind, as though about to fall the very next second.
The person filming led the jeering laughter, their voice altered: "Jump! I don't believe you actually have the guts!"
Some of the people around her watched with gloating eyes, some looked on for the spectacle, and others stared at the girl with outright malice.
The girl's pale face was faintly flushed in the wind, her eyes glimmering with anguish and confusion, as though she paid no heed to the raging gale.
The girl weakly gazed down at the dense crowd below, a mocking smile curling her lips.
"You're all accomplices. I curse every one of you to find no taste in food and no sleep at night, to be hounded by ghosts and monsters in your dreams, without end until death!"
Before you continue