Shen Cheng Is the Seer

[Ordinary person.]

Lin Yang sighed. "He acted so strangely, but he was an ordinary person too?"

But as he looked at those words, his brow remained furrowed.

His gaze swept casually over the middle-aged man's hand. The calluses on the web between his thumb and forefinger and the inside of his forefinger were hard, concentrated in two specific spots and formed by prolonged, repeated friction against the same places.

He figured these two weren't Facelings, but they probably weren't ordinary civilians either!

He kept the discovery to himself.

He had already used tonight's inspection, so the four remaining suspects would have to wait until tomorrow.

Time crawled from late night into the early hours, then from the early hours to daybreak.

No one died that night.

By the latter half of the night, the fire had burned down to dark red coals. The person on watch added a few pieces of scrap wood, and the flames leaped up again.

When the gray light of dawn filtered through the windows, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"We made it through another night!"

Shen Yue sat beside the fire, holding an enamel cup. Her eyes were still swollen, but they looked much better than they had yesterday.

Lin Yang went over and sat beside her. He broke the half-piece of roasted meat in his hand into two and offered her one half.

Shen Yue took it and murmured, "Thank you." She took a small bite and chewed slowly.

Lin Yang talked with her for a long time. She was only a high school student, raised by her older brother, who was her only family. That was why she was so heartbroken.

"He'll come back," Lin Yang said.

Shen Yue turned to look at him, tears glistening in her eyes. "Yeah. Brother Lin, you have to stay alive too."

Lin Yang paused, then nodded. "I will."

During the day, everyone caught up on sleep and rested.

Someone by the fire called for Fatty to add more wood. Fatty cursed and said all the wood had been chopped last night; if they wanted a fire, they could tend it themselves.

Someone else chimed in that they should burn his fat instead. Fatty grabbed a handful of ash and flung it at them, drawing a chorus of laughter.

But after the laughter died down, the mood in the classroom gradually grew heavy again.

There wasn't much food left. No matter how carefully they rationed the tentacle meat, it wouldn't last more than a few days.

More importantly, three Facelings remained, and no one could find them!

Before they knew it, the next day had arrived.

There were no Facelings, but they hadn't found any Facelings either.

Fatty sat beside the fire, turning his craft knife over and over as he wiped it, a helpless look on his face.

"Fuck, without a seer, how long are we going to be stuck here before we find those last three Facelings?

We can't just search classroom by classroom, can we? Even if we did, we wouldn't find them. Those things don't have it written on their faces."

Several people nearby agreed.

"Yeah, without a seer, all we can do is guess."

"What if we guess wrong? I don't want anyone to die."

"Either the seer is dead, or there was never a seer in the first place."

Either way, they were feeling their way through the dark, not knowing which light might come on.

Lin Yang listened to them without expression. It wasn't that he didn't want to reveal his identity.

He knew better than anyone that as soon as he revealed himself as the seer, these people's despair would instantly turn to hope.

But he couldn't. Zhang Lei had pretended to be the seer and died after living for one day and one night.

The Facelings would kill the seer at any cost!

If he revealed himself, more than one Faceling would come after him tonight, ready to fight him to the death.

The price that would bring was more than he could bear.

But after thinking it over carefully, he came up with a plan.

One that could draw out the Facelings without exposing himself!

He could find an ordinary person to pose as the seer and stand in the spotlight to draw fire. When the Facelings attacked the fake seer, the real Facelings would give themselves away!

At that thought, he nodded.

But just as he was about to speak and make arrangements, a sound came from outside the classroom!

"Anyone there..." It was a man shouting, his voice a little hoarse. It also sounded familiar!

Shen Yue's pupils contracted! The enamel cup in her hand fell to the floor.

She sprang up, stumbled out of the classroom and down the corridor, then rushed to the railing and looked down. She let out a delighted scream.

"Brother!!"

Shen Cheng was lying on the concrete just inside the school gates!

His clothes were torn to strips, and his back was covered in dried mud and bloodstains. One leg was curled up, the other stretched straight, and he had lost one shoe.

His face was covered in dust and mud, and the blood from a cut at the corner of his mouth had already dried. He slowly raised his head.

That face was Shen Cheng's!

"Shen Cheng?!"

Fatty nearly knocked over the grill as he rushed out of the classroom.

He ran to the railing and glanced down, then turned and raced for the stairs, his footsteps echoing through the empty school building.

The others gathered around one after another.

Lin Yang stood by the railing on the third floor, looking down.

Shen Yue had already rushed to the school gates. Kneeling on the concrete, she cradled Shen Cheng's head in her arms, crying and calling his name as she wiped the mud from his face.

Fatty ran to the gate and froze for a moment. Then he rushed forward, snatched Shen Cheng out of Shen Yue's arms, and gave him a great big bear hug.

"You bastard! You're not fucking dead! You're really not fucking dead!"

"Brother!! You're alive!"

Liu Yan's eyes were red, and tears were already falling. "That's so touching..."

Fatty was hugging Shen Cheng so tightly he could barely breathe. Shen Cheng patted him on the back, signaling him to let go.

After Fatty released him, he pushed himself up from the ground. His legs were still a little weak, and he couldn't stand steadily, so Shen Yue hurried to support his arm.

He looked around at the familiar faces before him and gave a weary smile. "I'm back!"

Lin Yang gave him a couple of surprised glances and handed him a cup of water.

"How did you survive?"

Shen Cheng took the water, looking relieved, as though he finally no longer had anything to hide. He took a deep breath.

"How did I survive? Haha... At this point, I won't hide it from you anymore. Actually..."

He paused.

"I'm the seer!"