IWOL Chapter 42: Convergence

[April 25 \ Thursday \ Overcast]
[The teacher asked everyone to bring their favorite toys to school. I put a beautiful dress on Xiaomei and brought her over. Agatha brought an old teddy bear, and we played together during class.

Chen Hao wants to play with me while holding a dinosaur. I don’t want to. The green dinosaur is too ugly. The doll and the bear can dance together. I still sing that song.

During school, Agatha found that the teddy bear was gone, and she and I found the bear in the trash can. One of its arms was cut off. Agatha cried and I gave her my doll.]

Bang—

The classroom shook abruptly, like an earthquake had occurred. The lamp hanging overhead creaked and shook. Dong Zheng stabilized his body and listened tensely for a long time, but there doesn’t seem to be any other abnormalities.

He accelerated his reading speed.

[April 26 \ Friday \ Light rain]
[Agatha returned the doll to me, saying that the bear’s arm was sewn back by her mother, so I shouldn’t feel sad.

The water pipe above the classroom leaked and the water would drip down. The teacher temporarily used a bucket to catch it, but they poured all the water over Agatha’s head.

The teacher came over and scolded them, threatening to call their parents. They deserved it.]

Water pipe?

Dong Zheng raised his head and walked to the back of the classroom again. He illuminated the wall of the ceiling with a flashlight and really found a leak. Because the water made no sound when flowing down the wall, he didn’t notice it the first time. .

This wasn’t like how it was written in the diary.

There was a bit of a blackening due to corrosion from the perceptual water leak, and much of the wall plaster had fallen off. Dong Zheng picked up the mop and used the wooden pile to poked at. Unexpectedly, the ceiling could suddenly be lifted.

Realization dawned.

There was a narrow space for laying pipes between the third floor and the second floor ceiling of the teaching building, which was separated by boards. Generally, several of them could be moved. If it was necessary to push the construction directly upward, this design would allow access points into the large building. He didn’t expect it to be used even in a small classroom.

Was it intentionally designed for hiding things?

Pushing the board aside, Dong Zheng stepped on a desk and pushed his hand into the space above the ceiling. He pulled out a small wooden box.

There was a key still in the box. Dong Zheng probed the depth of the lower box with his fingers and found that it was shallower than it looked. He fiddled with it for a while and successfully pulled out a thin wooden board at the bottom of the box.

Within the dark layer was a note: [I hid something important in the classroom, in a place where no one can find.]

Where no one can find? Dong Zheng frowned, he had already turned over all the places he could find, and found nothing unusual.

At this time, he couldn’t help thinking of Dong Linhai. Linhai seemed to be able to collect supplies and clues in the shortest time every time. If he was there, would things be much simpler?

The wall clock showed that it was 8:10 pm. It had been more than forty minutes since he’d entered the school.

Dong Zheng began to search again. Now he’d learned from the experience with the ceiling and began to knock on the wall inch by inch. Finally, when he knocked on the blackboard bulletin used for compositions, he heard a hollow sound.

He glanced at Cui Zuojing, picked up the nearest stool, took a deep breath, and hit the blackboard hard.

Boom!

The blackboard cracked a gap.

Boom!

The chair in Dong Zheng’s hands seemed to shake, as if the frame themselves were about to fall apart.

Boom!

This deconstruction-like sound was like a live target in the silent campus. After smashing three to four times, the blackboard finally shattered and revealed the secret space behind it.

It happened to be right behind the drawing of the demon girl on the blackboard.

Behind the blackboard was another classroom.

The layout was the same as other classrooms, but all the seats were full of… people.

Tonight, it was full of all the children in the class who had failed to return home on time.

Cui Zuojing extended his head to look through the hole and asked Dong Zheng with a smile, “Do you want to see it?”

The classroom they entered was at the end of the hallway. From the outside of the building, there didn’t seem to be any excess space left to hide a secret classroom. Did it really exist?

Dong Zheng didn’t know.

He calmly swallowed hard, nodded, and took the lead in crawling through the hole in the blackboard. When he landed, he ended up stepping on a broken finger.

A balding, middle-aged man stood crookedly at the corner of the podium. His arms were missing, and he stared out with dull, bloody eyes. His lower body was completely red with blood and a javelin punctured through his chest, nailing him to death onto the podium.

The bloody smell and the dull, humid breath in the air was thick enough to condense into liquid.

Dong Zheng walked through the desks. The children were lying on the table without a sound. Among them, there were a few boys in the back row whose bodies were more damaged. Chalks smeared a large, unknown pattern on their desks.

There was also a picture on the blackboard against the back wall. A girl was lying alone on the ground, with messy lines painted on her. She held a teddy bear tightly in her arms, while her mouth drooped open with tears streaming down her face.

In the corner of the last row, Dong Zheng saw a familiar-looking wearing the same clothes from the photo at home. Dong Zheng pushed him up through his shoulders and saw the boy’s frightening face. A twisted, bloody “sin” had been carved across his face with a utility knife.

In the task pane, the line [Live Through the Night/Find Son] disappeared slowly, replaced by [Collect Key 2/5]

Dong Zheng put the boy down and found that he was missing three fingers.

There were two empty places. One was the same place where the diary was found, and the other was on the far right of the second row, where the stool still showed a crack. The sparrow inside the table was replaced with dozens of fingers in varying thickness. Among them, one clearly belonged to an adult and still wore a ring.

The moment all these residual body parts were poured out, Dong Zheng finally couldn’t hold back anymore and cussed, “Fuck.”

Inside the table where the diary had been was a worn teddy bear. The bear’s left arm was clearly stitched back on with a needle and thread.

This was probably the “most important thing” mentioned in the note.

On the other side of the hidden classroom, Cui Zuojing tentatively pushed the door. The moment he gently touched it, the door opened slowly.

There was only an upward staircase outside the door, and Cui Zuojing asked quietly, “Do you want to go up?”

Dong Zheng didn’t want to continue searching anymore. He took the teddy bear and nodded, “Let’s go.”

He passed by the big hole that he’d smashed open on the blackboard and the flashlight’s illumination briefly entered the locked classroom on the other side. He clearly heard the sound of cracking wood and saw five sharp claws pierced through the door panel.

The monster that had chased after Lin Hangzhi had returned!

Dong Zheng quickly walked through the door and went upstairs with Cui Zuojing. The stairs were dark, and the corners were covered with thick cobwebs. They ascended the last step and found themselves in the hallway on the third floor.

They walked out of the staircase and looked back, only to see that the way they’d came was suddenly blocked by a wall.

The third floor…had an unbearable smell.

It was as if a septic tank had exploded in a sweltering summer heat, followed by a heavy rainfall, causing the scent to become densely fermented. Each breath stimulated the nerves, making people unable to suppress the desire to vomit.

Dong Zheng and Cui Zuojing both covered their noses tightly. Cui Zuojing stopped walking and was reluctant to go forward. In a muffled voice, he said, “Can I go back first?”

Dong Zheng really wanted to sigh, but because of the smell, he held back. “Work hard a bit more and accompany me for a while. Once I meet other people, you can go back.”

There was a water dispenser with the red light off, and there were a few pots of flowers beside it. Because children liked to pour water that they can’t finish into the pots, the flowers were on the verge of dying.

All the classrooms on the third floor were locked, and a chaotic sound could be faintly heard from the corner of the campus. Dong Zheng looked out the window but couldn’t find any traces of others.

This building had a total of four floors. The stairwell between the third and fourth floor had an overpass toward the back that led to another building. As Dong Zheng walked to the stairwell at the fastest speed possible, he heard the sounds of heavy footsteps approaching.

It was the toy dinosaur that had chased after them from the classroom!

He promptly took off into the overpass and soon came to the junior high school building. As he passed halfway through the bathroom, he heard the faint sound of weeping coming from within.

To be precise, it came from the female restroom.

Dong Zheng pressed against the wall and stood as far away from the women’s restroom as possible. He used the flashlight to illuminate inside but could only see that the first stall was tightly closed.

Cui Zuojing said in a timely manner, “According to my experience, when it comes to the mission of finding keys, you will need a great deal of luck in order to accomplish it by lying low and avoiding risks. Clues are generally found in more dangerous places. Of course, they’re also more scary. What are you going to do?”

“I’m going in,” Dong Zheng said immediately. He took a few deep breaths, touched the two jasmine flowers in his pocket with one hand, and then touched the cross hanging around his neck. He took a cautious step, and for the first time in his life, he walked into the women’s restroom.

The sound of crying became clearer.

Trying to make his footsteps as light as possible, Dong Zheng quietly walked closer to the source of the sound, which seemed to be coming from the last stall.

He whispered, “Is anyone in there?”

The crying stopped immediately.

Dong Zheng held his breath and waited, not letting go of the slightest movement. He was ready to turn his head and run when there was finally a response.

“They threw away my lunch, and I haven’t eaten enough food in a long time…” A girl’s cowardly voice quietly came through the thin stall door and into Dong Zheng’s ears.

“What do you want to eat? I can buy it for you in the cafeteria.”

After a moment of silence, the girl said, “Bean paste bread…”

“Okay, I’ll buy it for you later.” Dong Zheng was very calm. Although his voice sounded steady, only he himself knew that his heart was practically jumping out of his chest.

Really, truly scared.

The faucet wasn’t closed tightly enough, and every drip drop of water seemed to fall on Dong Zheng’s tight nerves.

“Thank you…” The girl wept a little and asked quietly, “Brother, do you know why they are bullying me?”

No, I don’t know, and I don’t want to know.

Dong Zheng stepped back slowly, his brain spinning quickly as he thought about the proper way to answer. He said, “Why?”

“Because… I’m a ghost!”

Two bloody hand prints suddenly appeared on the door in front of him. Blood gushed out from inside the stall, and the female ghost shrieked as she climbed over the top of the stall door.

Having already expected this terrifying turn of events for a long time, Dong Zheng made full use of the advantages given to people with long legs and sprinted out of the women’s restroom in the blink of an eye.

The blood flooded out from underneath the bathroom in an instant, and Cui Zuojing, who was waiting by the door with a flashlight, clearly saw the mirror that reflected Dong Zheng’s figure abruptly shattered. A huge, Western doll crawled out from the shattered mirror, holding a long machete in her hands.

The doll was two meters high and was wearing a dirty and worn skirt. The exposed, spherical joints displayed obvious cracks. Her plastic eyeballs were missing, leaving only two empty eye sockets, and her mouth was stretched wide open to emit a gurgling giggling sound.

Just as the blood was about to reach Cui Zuojing’s foot, Dong Zheng rushed over, grabbed his wrist, and dragged him out. “Run!”

They ran out of the teaching building through the stairs, chased by an unending flow of blood and a doll. Dong Zheng glanced at the playground, hoping the wide terrain and fences would help him get rid of the doll.

When he got halfway there, he turned his head to look behind him. The blood was gone, but the giant doll was still chasing him, her every step causing the ground to shake. The dinosaur who had been on Dong Zheng’s trail heard the movement and followed.

Dong Zheng rushed into the playground, glanced at the terrain, and fled toward the other side of the auditorium.

But, at this moment, he saw a red flash of light running toward him at an extremely fast speed.

Behind the man was an incredibly rotten Spongebob Squarepants doll, whose long tongue was continuously stretched out to attack. It truly looked like a rotten sponge that had been used to wash dishes for at least three years.

“Catch the jellyfish!” Spongebob growled.

“Brother!” Allen also saw Dong Zheng and the monsters chasing behind him and let out a wail. The two turned at the same time, shouting, “Go south!”

<<  Previous  |  Chapters  |  Next  >>