Split Up and Find Something to Eat

He stood at the edge of the crowd, his back against the corridor railing, watching everything happening over here.

Everyone turned in unison to look where the girl was pointing.

His pupils contracted.

"Me?" He pointed at himself, his voice quiet and rising slightly at the end.

"Yes! It was him!"

The girl finally forced the words out of her throat, sharp and rapid.

"When I came around the corner just now, I saw him standing over there! Right next to the body! I thought he'd just arrived too, so I didn't think much of it, but he was the only one standing there!"

The crowd erupted.

The flat-top man's credibility was already shaky.

Fatty was the first to rush forward, grabbing the flat-top man by the collar.

He moved so fast that the flat-top man had no time to back away. His back slammed against the railing, and rust showered down from its joints!

"You moved while you were on watch yesterday, and then someone died!"

Fatty's face flushed crimson, flecks of spit spraying onto the flat-top man's face. "And now it's you again today! That's twice! You still fucking say you're not a Faceling?!"

The flat-top man's Adam's apple bobbed. He raised both hands slightly, his brow tightly furrowed. He neither pushed Fatty's hand away nor struggled.

"I didn't kill anyone! I'm not a Faceling!"

"Then why were you standing next to the body?"

"I heard a sound!" The flat-top man's voice was still quiet, but his words were clear.

"I heard something over here, so I came to take a look. She came over just as I got here!"

He jerked his chin toward the girl who had screamed. "She got here about two or three seconds after me."

"Something?" Fatty sneered, tightening his grip a little more.

"Then what did you see? Come on, say it! What did you see?"

The flat-top man opened his mouth. His lips moved twice, as though he wanted to say something, but in the end, nothing came out.

His gaze flickered and shifted away. He looked neither at Fatty nor at Lin Yang, but at the shadow-covered wall around the corridor corner.

"Nothing to say?"

Fatty raised his voice, excitement at having caught a flaw in his prey hidden in it.

"Go on, make something up! Say you saw a shadow, for all I care! Didn't those people on watch yesterday all see a shadow? Make one up too! I'm waiting to hear it!"

The flat-top man's name was Liu Jialiang. His lips pressed into a line and his jaw muscles tightened. Finally, he shoved Fatty away!

"I told you! I'm not a Faceling! I didn't kill anyone!"

The woman named Liu Yan leaned halfway out from the crowd.

She stood behind and to the side of Lin Yang, her arms folded across her chest, a perfectly timed eye roll on her delicate face, mixed with fear and a sense of justice!

She looked at the flat-top man as though he were a rat backed into a corner. She said sarcastically,

"Both times someone died, you were right there. If you have nothing to hide, why can't you say anything? I think you are one!"

"Shut up," Lin Yang said.

Liu Yan's words caught halfway out. She glanced at Lin Yang, then sheepishly drew back into the crowd.

Fatty turned to look at Lin Yang, the fierce expression still lingering on his face, though his excited tone had turned to confusion.

"Brother Lin, do we even need to think about it? Twice! He moved on watch, and he was there when someone died. If he's not a Faceling, what is he? If we kill the wrong guy, it's on me!"

"On you?"

Lin Yang repeated the words, his tone as flat as if he were reading a list.

"How are you going to take responsibility? With your life? Is your life worth that much?"

Fatty froze.

"I said, without absolute proof, no one is to kill anyone!" Lin Yang said, looking away from Fatty and sweeping his gaze over everyone present.

"Anyone who thinks they don't have to follow that rule can leave now!"

No one left. Liu Yan lowered her head and began concentrating on straightening her cuffs.

Several people who had been whispering to one another also fell silent, looking away from the flat-top man and pretending to study the bloody handprints on the corridor walls.

Lin Yang walked forward two steps and stopped in front of the flat-top man.

Fatty had completely released his grip and stepped aside. He muttered something, but his voice was too low for anyone to make it out.

"What's your name?" Lin Yang asked.

"Liu Jialiang," the flat-top man said. His voice was a little hoarse, as though he hadn't had water in a long time.

"You noticed something was wrong. Why did you dare come over alone instead of calling everyone to come with you?"

Liu Jialiang looked at Lin Yang. There was something complicated in his eyes. As if he were weighing his options.

He sighed, his fingers rubbing unconsciously at the seam of his pants.

In the end, he still said nothing. He only shook his head.

"I... I don't know."

Lin Yang looked into his eyes for three seconds. They were bloodshot, and the skin around them was slightly dark. It was clear he hadn't slept much these past two nights.

"All right."

Lin Yang didn't press him or say anything more. He simply turned around, putting his back to Liu Jialiang and facing everyone else.

"From now on, no one is to accuse anyone on their own. If you have evidence, bring it out. If you don't, watch your mouth. Whoever incites a lynching again, I'll deal with them first!"

His voice was calm, so calm that it carried more weight than Fatty's shouting.

Fatty drew in his neck and thumped the table leg against the floor, as if giving himself a way to back down.

"One more thing." Lin Yang's gaze fell on Liu Jialiang.

"From now on, you stay with me. Don't leave my sight! We can't kill an innocent person by mistake, but we can't let a single Faceling go either!"

Those words carried weight.

The crowd, some of whom had still been resentful, now nodded, finding nothing wrong with it.

Lin Yang was personally keeping the suspected Faceling with him, which also showed his resolve not to fear death!

Just then, the broadcast sounded.

That voice, like Belial's, seeped out of the loudspeaker overhead, dry and deep.

"Current survivors: 29. Current Facelings: 5."

"A friendly reminder: Facelings are highly intelligent creatures, and they love imitating human behavior. Please be extra careful."

"Good luck."

Another person had just died, and counting the thin man who had been dragged away by a tentacle while climbing over the wall, two of the thirty-one people brought out of the classroom were now gone.

There were still five Facelings; not one was missing. The vacancy left by Li Wei's death seemed to have been filled among those who died afterward.

Lin Yang silently worked out the numbers in his head but didn't say them aloud.

After the broadcast fell silent, a brief hush settled over the corridor.

Twenty-six people crowded into a corridor covered in bloody handprints, with gray daylight overhead,

dried bloodstains beneath their feet, and the far end of the corridor disappearing into the gloom, its destination unknown.

That was when hunger surged back.

Fatty pressed a hand to his stomach, his Adam's apple bobbing.

As though the gesture were contagious, several people beside him clutched their stomachs too.

Their last meal had been that little bit of bread the night before. After all the turmoil that morning, fear had temporarily suppressed their hunger.

But now that the fear had receded a little, hunger came back twice as hard.

"Brother Lin," Fatty said, his earlier bluster gone, replaced by a hint of guilty uncertainty.

"What do we do next? How about we find something to eat first?"

Lin Yang was hungry too. He looked around.

The corridor stretched away in both directions. The school building was larger than they had imagined.

Besides the classroom where they had spent two days, there were several other doors along the corridor, some open and some closed.

The building opposite also had three floors, its windows dark and hollow, making it impossible to see what was inside.

An elevated walkway connected the two buildings. A banner reading "False Person Experimental Middle School" hung from its iron frame, swaying in the wind.

The dormitory building, the sports field, the cafeteria-any of the facilities a school ought to have might contain food.

"From now on." Lin Yang turned to face the crowd behind him.

"We'll look for food. Everyone split into five groups, five people per group.