Chapter 332: Beware of the Rabbit (Part 6) — Looking Back, No One There

In any case, the office was off-limits for the time being.

Although the Destiny Pocket Watch could rewind several more times, the souls in his hand were chips for future gambling, and each use meant one less. Qi Si still intended to conserve them.

He waited at the stairwell for a moment, then saw Ling Zi’s figure appear from around the corner of the hallway, casting a long, narrow shadow behind her, all alone.

Ling Zi also saw Qi Si and asked with a smile, “Lu Ming, did you give your self-criticism to Teacher Li?”

Qi Si put on a troubled expression and said, “I just made her angry this afternoon, and now I don’t know how to face her. Ling Zi, you have a better relationship with Teacher Li, could I trouble you to give her my self-criticism and say a few good words for me?”

He held out the self-criticism, and Ling Zi reached out to take it, smiling reassuringly. “Teacher Li is really nice. As long as you sincerely admit your mistake, she won’t hold it against you too much. But I’ll hand in your self-criticism for you first.”

Qi Si repeatedly thanked her, watched Ling Zi enter the office, and then come out again.

“Teacher Li isn’t in the office,” the girl said regretfully, returning the self-criticism to Qi Si. “Something like a self-criticism should really be handed in person.”

“Is that so?”

Qi Si was absolutely certain that Li Fang was in the office. At this point in time before the rewind, Li Fang was sitting in her office, so there was no reason for the situation to be different after a rewind. Was Ling Zi entering a different space than him? Or was it due to the ‘one mountain cannot hold two tigers’ principle, meaning Ling Zi couldn’t see Li Fang, who was also an important NPC? Then what about class?

Was Ling Zi entering a different space than him? Or was it due to the ‘one mountain cannot hold two tigers’ principle, meaning Ling Zi couldn’t see Li Fang, who was also an important NPC? Then what about class?

Qi Si deliberated before asking, “Ling Zi, do you have Teacher Li’s class tomorrow?”

“Yes, I do.” Ling Zi nodded and readily agreed, “Then I’ll speak to Teacher Li for you tomorrow.”

“Alright, thank you.”

The bell for evening self-study rang at the opportune moment, and students in the hallway hurried to their respective classrooms.

Qi Si returned to his seat in Class 9, Grade 3, and saw the day’s homework written on the blackboard in chalk, with a teacher-like figure sitting at the podium maintaining order—everything was no different from a normal middle school evening self-study session.

He took out Lu Ming’s homework and began to write it very patiently.

Middle school knowledge was simple, and the assigned homework had no out-of-syllabus requirements. He had already finished all the written assignments by halfway through the first evening self-study session.

Voices came from afar, sounding like a teacher scolding students.

“Why are you so distracted doing homework? What are you looking at outside the window?”

“How much homework do you have left? Are you still going to do the extra problems?”

“Lazy and stupid, why are you still sitting here? Why don’t you just die?”

Qi Si roughly understood. It seemed a teacher on patrol had found students not focused enough during evening self-study, leading to a harsh scolding.

In some middle schools with militarized management, such strictness would be normal; but in this instance, it felt very out of place.

Qi Si clearly remembered that the Hope Middle School’s bulletin board loudly proclaimed that they implemented a happy education that fostered students’ natural talents; the students during the day also seemed quite unruly, not like they were living under high pressure.

This instance had a strong sense of disjunction, as if two completely different sets of rules were forcibly blended together, indiscriminately incorporated, resulting in chaos and Miscellaneous.

The patrolling teacher finished scolding the students in one class, and footsteps sounded again, stopping at the next class.

“Why are you standing up? Did you get the teacher’s permission to use the restroom?”

“The teacher didn’t see you raise your hand? Then keep it raised…”

Just like that, the patrolling teacher walked to Qi Si’s class.

Qi Si held his pen, his eyes fixed straight ahead, writing line after line on his scratchpad—it was a sincere self-criticism.

His homework was done, and just holding a pen for inspection could easily be seen as slacking off. He had searched through Lu Ming’s drawer but found no extra problems… so he could only write a self-criticism.

Footsteps entered the classroom, and two students were singled out, trembling in fear, ready to be scolded.

The teacher supervising evening self-study at the podium immediately stood up, grabbing one student with each hand and pulling them out of the classroom.

The footsteps stopped beside Qi Si, and a pale hand snatched the scratchpad from under Qi Si’s pen: “Stand up, what are you writing? Your class doesn’t have a composition assignment, does it? What time is it that you’re still writing this nonsense?”

Qi Si stood up, finally seeing the patrolling teacher’s appearance.

He was wearing a pure black suit, his face as pale as paper, his features flat as if painted on, and his limbs gaunt and elongated, easily bringing to mind mummies and human skin.

His art style was clearly out of place with other NPCs; if others were as real as living people, he was clearly a ghost, and the kind that had just walked out of a low-budget text-based game, not yet three-dimensional.

“I’m writing a self-criticism for Teacher Li,” Qi Si said truthfully.

Although he had already finished one, who said he couldn’t write a few more?

“Which Teacher Li?” The patrolling teacher’s dark, lifeless eyes stared intently at Qi Si, as if trying to judge if he was lying.

Qi Si met his gaze directly and quietly replied, “It’s Teacher Li Fang.”

“Li Fang?” The patrolling teacher’s voice was cold and hoarse. “What time is it, and you’re still doing these useless things… I’ll have to go find her tomorrow.”

Qi Si successfully shifted the blame and continued to look at the clearly ghostly teacher before him with a deferential expression. Then he saw the latter gesture downwards: “Sit down, hurry up and do your homework.”

“I’ve finished my homework. I originally wanted to do extra problems, but Teacher Li collected them and hasn’t given them back yet,” Qi Si added, embellishing the story.

He had searched other students’ desks before dinner and confirmed that no one had extra problems in their drawers. And that afternoon, when he was called to the office, he saw stacks of extra problems and practice sheets under Li Fang’s desk.

Although he didn’t know why Li Fang would collect students’ extra problems and not return them, it was a good opportunity to shift the blame now.

As for whether Li Fang was a good teacher or a bad teacher, what did that have to do with him?

In fact, precisely because the system notes and Ling Zi both said Li Fang was a good teacher, Qi Si dared to openly deal with her like this. After all, good teachers generally have the professional integrity of “not taking anger out on students.”

Sure enough, after hearing Qi Si’s words, the patrolling teacher’s expression grew even more displeased, and he murmured, “Li Fang is too out of line. I must talk to her, I must!”

He turned and left, no longer bothering with the remaining students. Several of them visibly breathed a sigh of relief at the sight.

Qi Si lowered his eyes and sat back in his seat, casually picking up a Chinese textbook to flip through… The bullet comments in the live stream were quite lively.

“Isn’t Si Qi going too far? I feel like Li Fang is indeed a responsible teacher. If he tattled like that in my middle school, other teachers definitely wouldn’t like him either.”

“Oh, please, save your sanctimony. This is a ghost game instance. No matter how responsible Li Fang is, she’s still a ghost. What normal person would empathize with a ghost?”

“By the way, isn’t Qi Si worried about the consequences of doing this? Oh, he’s already isolated by classmates and disliked by teachers, so never mind.”

“This instance feels so real. If that patrolling teacher hadn’t appeared, I would have thought it was a real junior high for further education…”

…Qi Si couldn’t see the bullet comments, but he could see the continuous stream of donations and the emotional pie chart, flashing annoyingly.

He couldn’t be bothered, so he simply hid the interface, out of sight, out of mind, and studied the textbooks for various subjects, recalling most of his middle school knowledge.

The underlying settings of this instance world were almost identical to reality, and even the textbooks were versions Qi Si was familiar with. For a few moments, Qi Si truly thought he was re-attending middle school.

He reviewed and previewed the corresponding lessons according to tomorrow’s timetable, in case the instance had sinister intentions and pulled a surprise check, or added common school instance settings like being chased by ghosts if you failed a test.

The first evening self-study session ended, and the dismissal bell rang. All students recovered from their trepidation and scattered.

Some picked up their water cups and went out to get water, some held their homework and compared answers with those in front and behind them, and others whispered amongst themselves.

“The Dean of Students is getting fiercer and fiercer. He’s terrifying. I almost died of fright the moment he entered the classroom.”

“Lu Ming actually tattled on the old hag, hahaha. They’ve always been at odds. I wonder who will win this time.”

“I feel like Lu Ming is going to have a rough day tomorrow. He’s been so different lately, always getting on the old hag’s bad side.”

Qi Si heard every word clearly and thus learned that the patrolling teacher was the Dean of Students, and had a long-standing grudge against Li Fang.

He just didn’t know if this hatred stemmed from ideological differences between colleagues or the territorial instincts of ghosts… Qi Si looked out the window. The two students who had been called out earlier were gone, perhaps they had gone to the Dean of Students’ office to repent.

He walked out and circled the hallway, but saw no one standing in punishment. All those who had been punished to stand were completely gone.

Qi Si returned to the classroom and asked the boy behind him, “They’ve been taken away by the Dean of Students for fifteen minutes now. I wonder when they’ll be back. Spending so much time lecturing, aren’t they afraid of affecting their studies?”

The boy gave him a cold glance, said nothing, clearly intending to ignore him.

Qi Si pulled out the razor blade from his wristband, pointed it at the boy, and smiled very gently.

The boy swallowed hard and said, “They probably won’t be coming back. Lately, the Dean of Students has been expelling anyone he dislikes, and no one he takes out has ever reappeared.”

Just expulsion? Qi Si wasn’t convinced, but he didn’t plan to ask more questions.

The class bell rang, he turned around, watching the students return to their seats one after another, and the teacher also sat at the podium, staring gloomily at the students below.

The two students who had been caught by the Dean of Students and chased out of class indeed did not return.

The classroom was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, only the sound of pen tips rubbing against paper and the ticking of the clock’s hands could be heard.

Time passed minute by minute. Qi Si finished reading the Moral and Law textbook with great interest, then glanced at the face of the Destiny Pocket Watch.

It was 8:50, twenty minutes before the end of the second evening self-study session. The time was just right.

He raised his right hand, covered his stomach with his left, and trembled violently, looking exactly like someone in discomfort who was trying to endure it.

The teacher at the podium looked up, saw Qi Si’s raised hand, and asked, “Lu Ming, what’s wrong?”

Qi Si said in a faint voice, “Teacher, my stomach hurts, I want to go to the restroom.”

He was so weak he looked like he would die in the classroom the next second, making anyone who saw him feel unlucky.

The teacher quickly nodded: “Go quickly, be careful on the way.”

Qi Si said, “Thank you, Teacher,” and then ran out of the classroom through the back door.

He had already planned to end evening self-study early and search the dormitories while other students were absent.

From the Dean of Students’ scolding of other students for not raising their hands to report when going to the restroom, he knew that going to the restroom was allowed during evening self-study, as long as the teacher agreed.

So, leaving under the pretext of going to the restroom at the end of evening self-study was perfectly feasible.

Qi Si walked towards Class 10, Grade 3.

There were staircases on both sides of the teaching building, but except when rushing for front-row seats during meals, the staircase on the side of Class 10, Grade 3, was rarely used.

Because right next to it was a dirty and smelly restroom, the odor inside was enough to make people almost faint, an existence even more terrifying than the teachers’ office.

Qi Si held his breath as he walked past the restroom, when he suddenly heard an extremely low sob, mournfully emanating from inside, its lingering sound refusing to dissipate, echoing in his ears.

Someone was crying, seemingly a girl.

He looked sideways and once again saw a dark pool of blood slowly flowing out of the restroom, like a deliberately placed scar, stretching across the ground.

His footsteps paused, and Qi Si could no longer hold his breath. He took a light inhale, and the strong smell of rot, belonging to a corpse, filled his nasal cavity.

There was a dead person in the restroom. Someone must have come to the restroom during the ten-minute break of evening self-study, yet no one noticed anything unusual, indicating that the dead person in the restroom was the kind that NPCs couldn’t see.

Was it similar to the situation with Ling Zi’s head in the cafeteria’s utility room?

Qi Si held the Destiny Pocket Watch and approached step by step.

The pool of blood was flowing from the girls’ restroom. He followed the blood, his expression unchanged, and turned inside, pulling open the iron door of the continuously bleeding stall.

The stench from behind the door escaped its seal and assaulted him, a sight of blood and maggots filling his vision.

The girl’s limbs were bent into a ball, her entire body stuffed into the small squat toilet, her pale face resting against the rim.

Her expression was bewildered and innocent, as if she didn’t know why she had suffered this calamity, and as if she hoped anyone who witnessed this would offer help.

It’s Ling Zi again!

Including the instance’s opening CG, this was the third corpse of Ling Zi Qi Si had seen in this instance!

How could someone who was still alive and kicking have so many corpses in different locations, at different times, and with different causes of death?

Is it an illusion, or some other setting?

In front of him, a large number of system prompts refreshed.

【Congratulations! You have found three of Ling Zi’s corpses, discovering one of the core mechanisms of this instance.】

【The girl’s fate has been written by the gods; no matter how many times the cycle repeats, she cannot escape the endless seven days.】

【She is destined to die, and will become increasingly painful. No one can change her fate, yet some overestimate themselves by restarting the world.】

【Let the pain and sorrow end early. Please find all her corpses within seven days to let the dying soul trapped in the cycle rest in peace.】

【Main Quest Triggered】

Under the original main quest, “Attend the Fireworks Festival seven days later,” a new optional quest appeared prominently.

【Main Quest: Find all of Ling Zi’s corpses (3/7)】