"This isn't my phone..." Zhang Leyao said timidly.
Her hand subconsciously pressed against the test paper, but the seeping blood flowed down, staining one of her answers.
The invigilator's eyes were bloodshot with anger, and her voice was sharp and piercing.
"If it's not your phone, why do you have it? Are you trying to cheat?"
She suddenly reached out, trying to snatch Zhang Leyao's test paper away.
Zhang Leyao instinctively tried to protect it, but in the struggle, the paper was torn straight across.
Riiiip—
Along with the harsh sound of tearing paper, she felt as if her own heart had been ripped open.
The test paper was crumpled into a ball and thrown at her face.
"Zhang Leyao!"
That voice rang out furiously. "You're still lying!"
But by this ti, Zhang Leyao already felt the entire world becoming unfamiliar and distant.
"This isn't my phone, this isn't my phone, this isn't my phone..."
She clamped her hands over her ears and muttered repeatedly, the whole world seemingly plunging into gloom.
And right then, a crisp, childlike laugh rang out behind her.
Like a hallucination.
Seeing this scene, both Chen Bingwen and Gao Fan clenched their fists.
That sense of grievance and indignation seeped out from within it. Like black ink soaking through white paper.
Only Ming Po's narration did not pause—
"Afterward, the collective cheating incident in Grade Two, Class 13 caused a massive uproar.
"Every teacher knew about it, and all the students claid you were the mastermind.
"Because before this, Class 13 had never had a cheater. This incident genuinely only happened after Zhang Leyao transferred here. If the incident was categorized as 'all students have been engaged in a long-standing, tacit collective cheating ring and are framing the transfer student,' then the matter would blow up. Even the provincial authorities might be alard... no, they would definitely be alard.
"Even if they knew Zhang Leyao might be innocent..."
Following Ming Po's narration, the world shattered once more.
The cara shifted to a middle-aged man inside an office.
"Yes, yes, I am (censored)..." he said, inquiring over the phone. "I wanted to ask... that student who transferred away from your school a year ago, Zhang Leyao. Did she have any bad records?
"Oh... oh, she cheated, that's fine then. Oh, no... no, it's nothing. No. We're just confirming..."
Watching this scene, Ming Po revealed a mocking smile.
"And obviously..." he said casually, "he checked with your previous school and found that you had a history of cheating. Then making you take the bla couldn't be more perfect."
Subsequently, the scene shifted again.
It returned to the familiar office.
But here, sitting around the desk were not the four of them.
Instead, it was a teacher, along with Zhang Leyao and three students.
The four of them stood on the outer periter in four directions, behind each person.
"Tell ," the voice of that middle-aged man who had made the phone call rang out, "who is the mastermind?"
"No, I'm not..."
Zhang Leyao had just tried to deny it when the teacher suddenly received a call and stepped out.
Before leaving, he covered his phone and warned them:
"I received word that the person who organized this collective cheating is right among you four.
"I'm going to call your parents right now. You all think it over carefully.
"Whoever admits it, and when they admit it, is when you can leave!
"If nobody admits it, then nobody is leaving!
"—No one is allowed to lie!"
It was the exact sa phrasing as when their ga started.
Zhang Leyao wanted to explain that she was innocent.
But the other two remained completely silent.
"Yaoyao," soone suddenly said softly, "I'm sorry."
"—I didn't do it!"
Zhang Leyao realized sothing and instantly felt a chill run down her spine.
"But, you were the one who got caught checking the phone."
Another person said sternly, "Without you, nobody would be in trouble.
"If this matter blows up, everybody is going to get expelled!"
"But I..."
Zhang Leyao's face was pale.
"—Please, Yaoyao..."
"—Soone has to take responsibility, right, Zhang Leyao?"
"—I don't want to get expelled. I still want to go to university..."
"—Didn't you bring this upon us?"
"—We can still be friends later, Yaoyao. Please. You can just transfer schools again, nobody will know you, but we have no choice..."
"—I've heard about it, you've cheated before, right? The teachers definitely won't let you off. There's no point in denying it. They already believe it."
The alternating voices sounded like an incantation.
Clearly words from her peers, yet so vicious they felt like a ghost's curse.
"I... I..."
Zhang Leyao's eyes were red, utterly at a loss.
Ming Po patted her shoulder, letting the girl turn around and throw herself into his arms to cry.
He sighed softly. "And at that ti, you obviously didn't understand...
"—So things simply cannot be confessed."
Soon, Zhang Leyao confessed to being the instigator of the collective cheating and was expelled.
The matter ended there.
But unlike what Zhang Leyao had expected—
She did not beco the one who 'bore all the sins' and receive everyone's gratitude and love.
Instead, she truly beca soone unforgivable.
The most ironic part was...
After she was expelled, the people in her class genuinely stopped cheating.
Thus, people increasingly believed that Zhang Leyao was purely evil, corrupting the students of an elite class.
The raging rumors spread wider and wider, and Zhang Leyao's illness grew more severe.
She couldn't go to school anymore and could only browse the internet at ho. Yet even then, she still considered herself a hero.
Until she saw accounts belonging to her classmates on the school's online forum, speaking ill of her.
It was as if they had believed their own lies, with many people describing the details of the incident from different perspectives.
In that mont, Zhang Leyao felt they were utterly repulsive.
She had been deceived, then abandoned.
And yet they, who were clearly the guilty ones, could live openly under the sun...
"—Are you really, truly willing to accept this?"
A little girl's voice whispered softly in her ear.
The depths of Zhang Leyao's eyes as she stared at the screen gradually ignited with a dim yellow glow, transforming into beast-like vertical slits.
That day, she received a package.
Inside was a USB drive.
"And after that, you sneaked into the school at night."
Ming Po narrated softly, "You believed the guilty parties were not just your classmates, but the entire school.
"You carved the curse into almost every Grade Two classroom, from Class 1 on the first floor to Class 13 at the end of the second floor.
"And right then, you were discovered by the security guard on night patrol.
"The guard chased you. You fought him but couldn't overpower a burly man.
"So you ran straight to the rooftop and left your shoes behind. Pretending you had jumped off..."
As Ming Po narrated, a disheveled Zhang Leyao ran to the rooftop, panting heavily.
It was raining on the roof, and she was gasping for air.
In a mont of inspiration, she pushed a small box filled with heavy objects off the edge and left her shoes behind, pretending she had jumped.
"Hey—"
And just as the security guard nervously approached to investigate, she suddenly dashed out from behind him, ramming him directly over the edge!
"Hey, you—"
The guard was startled, using his final bit of strength to shove her back.
Then, his entire body plumted heavily.
Blood blood in the rainwater.
And Zhang Leyao, trembling all over, knelt by the edge of the roof, realizing she had actually killed soone.
Just then...
Behind her, a little girl appeared.
"Jump,"
she whispered in Zhang Leyao's ear.
The next mont, Zhang Leyao's body pitched forward uncontrollably.
Falling straight down.
Thud.
A muffled sound echoed, and the scene transitioned.
"...From then on, the curse perated this school. This place beca a no man's land."
Ming Po stood beside Zhang Leyao, who had crashed to the ground, and said softly, "This is your story.
"And everyone we t in this ga... were all your avatars."
Zhang Leyao, lying on the ground with her limbs twisted, suddenly moved her neck and raised her head.
"...You only guessed one thing wrong, everything else is correct."
She revealed a smile. "Senior is really amazing, guessing everything.
"...How wonderful it would be if you had been there from the very beginning."
Ming Po did not reply.
"But... there are no such ifs."
Zhang Leyao sighed softly, speaking to herself. "Only one thing was wrong...
"—I didn't play that little girl. She was already here when I transferred.
"I thought back then... that I was purifying this school, and I truly believed that. Even though by then... I had already fallen into hallucinations...
"Because I felt they might all be controlled by that ghost..."
Zhang Leyao slowly shed two trails of bloody tears, shaking her head. "I didn't intentionally try to kill them... I didn't...
"I didn't... from the very beginning, I never wanted to kill anyone...
"In the very beginning... it was like this..."
She wept.
The heavy rain washed over everything.
The four of them remained silent, keeping Zhang Leyao company.
Ming Po crouched down, patted Zhang Leyao's head, and said softly, "I believe you.
"Just as I also believe that you never cheated."
A black cat stood quietly in the distance behind them, watching.
A little girl in a red dress stood peacefully on the rooftop, looking down at all this with a smile.
Naless seed to sense sothing and raised her head.
And when she looked up, that little girl had already vanished.
As Zhang Leyao beca completely transparent and disappeared...
The next mont, the entire world lted like butter.
[Deceptive School, Cleared]
[Host: Ink (Balance - Silver)]
[Difficulty: 5 Days]
[Special Worldview Solved: Phantom Specter]
[Logged into "Phantom Specter" Worldview]
[Deviation of "Phantom Specter" from the Material Realm: 65%]
[Reward Obtained: Ti Chips - Day's False Gold (7 pieces)]
[Evaluating...]
[Based on current highest authority level, Title obtained: Detective]
[Detective (Wisdom - False Gold)]
[Equip Effect: Thought Speed accelerated, able to view simple Item Description]
[Active Effect: Highlight Important Clues instantly, each use of this effect will drastically burn physical stamina]
[Title Acquisition Condition: Independently solve an unsolved mystery of many years]
[Title Branch Advancent Condition: In a single-player ga, continuously solve three unsolved mysteries / while wearing this Title, in a multi-player ga thed around a "murder case," personally kill the culprit / while wearing this Title, in three consecutive gas, solve the puzzles without engaging in combat]
["—There is only one truth."]
User Comments
0 comments from readers