Ch42 - Sha, Sha, Sha

Maybe it was due to seeing a ghost before going to bed but Nan Zhou had a dream again. When he was a child, he was taken to the hospital by his mother for a vaccination. It was the BCG vaccine or something else. He had forgotten. For any child, the slender needle, the strong smell of disinfectant and the mist sprayed from the needle tube were excellent materials for nightmares.

Nan Zhou had grape-like eyes as he hid in her arms and obediently handed his arm to the nurse. He was scared but he didn’t want his mother to worry. Therefore, the young child hid in her arms and repeated in a soft and well-behaved voice, “Mom, I love you, I love you.” 

In the dream, Nan Zhou’s mother was dressed fashionably but she had a light and peculiar smell around her body. She embraced the slightly trembling Nan Zhou and told the nurse, “The child is just disobedient.”

She lowered her head and spoke to Nan Zhou in a discontented manner. “Why are you crying? You aren’t promising at all.”

Nan Zhou looked up in confusion, trying to explain that he wasn’t crying. However, he found himself unable to see his mother’s face.

…Then Nan Zhou woke up. It took 40 minutes for Nan Zhou to slowly emerge from the mud-like dream. Once he calmed down, the clock hanging in the international students dormitory told him that it was around 4 o’clock in the morning. 

The room was dark. Only the balcony was illuminated by the moonlight. The other objects were immersed in deep darkness like sleeping, dormant giant monsters. Nan Zhou turned his head to the side. He found that Jiang Fang was actually holding onto his wrist. He didn’t grip it. It was just placed lightly on top. This made Nan Zhou think that Jiang Fang was listening to his pulse to fall asleep.

Nan Zhou watched Jiang Fang and curiously traced this person’s eyes and eyebrows, wondering why Jiang Fang did this and thinking that Jiang Fang was really good-looking. However, Jiang Fang was very sensitive. Before Nan Zhou could watch for a long time, Jiang Fang opened his eyes.

Nan Zhou had been counting the eyelashes. Once Jiang Fang opened his eyes, his count became a mess. He couldn’t help feeling regretful.

Jiang Fang stared at him. “Mister?”

Nan Zhou was quick to react. “Please.”

After confirming each other’s mental state, Jiang Fang turned over and got closer so it was easier to talk to Nan Zhou. “Why are you awake so early?”

Nan Zhou answered, “I had a dream.”

“What dream?” 

“I remembered it when I first woke up. I don’t remember it now.”

“Do you want to sleep a bit longer?”

Nan Zhou said, “Yes” and closed his eyes. Five minutes passed. Suddenly, Nan Zhou asked a strange question. “Did you cry when you got an injection as a child?”

“…Huh?” 

Jiang Fang didn’t know why Nan Zhou had this question but he answered truthfully. “No.”

Every time he got an injection, his father would take him to eat what he liked. So every time he needed to get an injection, he would urge the nurse to finish it quickly.

Nan Zhou whispered, “I didn’t cry either.”

Then he stopped. After ending this strange topic, Nan Zhou gently held the awake Nanji Star who had come to rub against his face and placed Nanji Star on his stomach. Nanji Star lay on Nan Zhou’s abdominal muscles and spread himself out comfortably. 

Before falling asleep again, Nan Zhou seemed to hear Jiang Fang’s gentle voice. “I know you didn’t cry.”

Nan Zhou fell asleep before he could react. Still, this sentence was particularly comforting for him. The result of this peace of mind was that it was already 7:30 when Nan Zhou woke up again. He was awakened by the vibrating of someone mentioning him in the group chat on his mobile phone.

At this time, Jiang Fang and Li Yinhang were up. Jiang Fang was leaning against the door of the bathroom, watching Li Yinhang who was washing up as well as the sleeping Nan Zhou. Nan Zhou found that Jiang Fang’s bed was still warm when he woke up. Thus, he woke up with the warm residual temperature and took out his phone.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Nan Zhou read the messages for a while before abruptly sitting up. Jiang Fang’s ‘good morning’ was blocked by this fierce movement. He wondered, “What’s the matter?” 

Rjc Itbe rmgbiifv atgbeut atf mtja ibu lc j cbnlmf wjccfg yfobgf gjlrlcu tlr tfjv. “Ktf jgmtlafmaegf vfqjgawfca tjr j wlv-afgw fzjw abvjs. Ktf alwf obg atf fzjw kjr mtjcufv ogbw 2 q.w. ab 9 j.w. Ca atlr qblca, atf fzjw mijrrgbbw gfwjlcr ecmtjcufv. Pa lr gbbw 201 bc atf Sjra Mbegat Delivlcu.”

Jiang Fang, “……” This was probably the real ghost story.

He wondered, “Shouldn’t the mid-term exams be over?”

Wasn’t the gathering of seven people in Room 403 seven days ago to celebrate the end of the mid-term exams? 

Nan Zhou explained, “The teacher for this course was on a business trip some time ago and the exam was postponed.”

Li Yinhang stuck out her head, the disposable toothbrush bought from the supermarket yesterday in her mouth. “Don’t go. It isn’t good for the three of us to be separated.”

Li Yinhang had a reason for her words but Nan Zhou had his own reasons.

“The score for this exam accounts for 15% of the final mark.” Nan Zhou told her. “If this ‘Nan Zhou’ comes back, what will he do at the end of the term?” 

Li Yinhang, “…..” She defaulted to the idea that this was an instance that revolved around the players and everything would automatically reset after 120 hours. Even if ‘Nan Zhou’ of the architecture department could come back, he might not live for long after being tangled up with such a terrifying, unknown power.

Jiang Fang said, “Go ahead.”

Li Yinhang had spent a long time with them and she dared to express her views. She disagreed. “He met that type of thing yesterday. How can we leave him alone?”

She naturally felt that the only trustworthy people in this instance were each other. The other so-called classmates were just characters in the instance and they were all fake. Even if the ‘students’ sat in the examination room with him, Nan Zhou would be alone. 

Nan Zhou respected her opinion. He nodded and agreed with her judgment of danger. Immediately afterwards, he put forward his own thoughts. “Then what if this is also part of the role playing?”

“The instance set the people on the same team to have a relatively close relationship. For example, Brother Fang and I are sex partners and you are my friend so it is reasonable for us to stay in his dormitory.”

“Then what if you do something that goes against your character setting? I think it will accelerate the danger and in the worst case scenario, affect the final score.”

“It is just like the first instance we played. If we didn’t finish the daily tasks set out in the instance then we wouldn’t have received the 500 points in the end.” 

Li Yinhang wanted to talk but stopped. “……”

She understood the truth. Just, why could he say the words ‘sex partners’ so easily?

***

Nan Zhou still decided to take the exam. Due to Nan Zhou’s reminder, the three of them checked their respective schedules for today. Li Yinhang had two compulsory courses this morning and two elective courses in the afternoon that could be skipped. She had the courage to go to them. 

Meanwhile, Jiang Fang had seen the class schedule for foreign students on his phone yesterday. They had relatively few classes. They were mainly lectures and group exchanges. There happened to be an academic lecture this morning. Yesterday, he had been considering whether to go or not. Now Nan Zhou’s speech convinced him.

The three of them separated and agreed to meet at noon in the South Second Cafeteria. Nan Zhou carried Nanji Star who was happily gnawing on half a banana and returned to Nan Zhou’s dormitory. The dormitory door was open. His three roommates were eating breakfast. As they ate, they read their notes intensively and complained.

“I thought we wouldn’t have to take the exam if Old Yuan didn’t come back.”

“Who said no?” 

“How many chapters are you short of?”

“It is more than a few chapters. Who can lend me their notes to see?”

“Yesterday, I borrowed Zhang Jun’s copy but I didn’t have time to read them. I thought the exam was in the afternoon so I was hoping to look in the morning…”

Nan Zhou opened the door silently and walked in like a cat. He confirmed the location of his bed and desk and then went to the bathroom. He judged which personal belongings were his through the wetness of the toothbrush bristles and the surface of the towels. 

Ordinary dorms had their beds and tables separated. The beds were bunk beds while the tables were lined up on the opposite side of the bed. Nan Zhou sat at the table closest to the door. He sat down at the table and prepared to search through his things.

As he was opening a drawer, the back of his hand accidentally bumped into one of his roommate NPCs who had placed his arm against the side of the table and was passionately flipping through a book.

“Oh, fuck me!” The man felt the touch and was shocked. He turned around, holding his chest with fright while exclaiming, “Nan Zhou, are you a cat? Why do you make no sound when walking?”

Nan Zhou was about to explore the drawer when he heard these words. He thought of the post that Jiang Fang sent yesterday. Hu Li was forgotten by everyone and evaporated from their hearts like green smoke. Nan Zhou thought about it and answered, “I’ve been here since a long time ago.” 

The person ignored this sense of strangeness and asked eagerly, “Nan Zhou, have you studied? I will sit next to you when you want to study…”

Nan Zhou asked back, “Which topic is the test on?”

Roommate A, “……”

Roommate B, “……” 

Roommate C, “……”

Fuck.

Roommate A collapsed and shouted, “Ahhhhh Foreign Architectural History!”

They saw that Nan Zhou was like this and started to feel anxious for Nan Zhou. Nan Zhou just hummed and picked out the thick textbook for architectural history from the shelf. The next second, he didn’t even turn over. He slumped down and closed his eyes as he used the textbook as a pillow. 

His roommates, “……”

It is over. I give up on myself.

***

Nan Zhou handed the papers in early and looked at his watch as he came out of the examination room. It was 10:30. Brother Fang should still be listening to the lectures and Yinhang was in class. 

The East Fourth Building that Nan Zhou’s examination room was on was close to the East Fifth building. He decided to go to Room 403 first. Yet before setting off, Nan Zhou braked in time. He remembered how Jiang Fang was angry last night so he took out his phone and sent a WeChat message to Jiang Fang and Li Yinhang to announce his plan.

“I’m going to Room 403.”

Li Yinhang replied in seconds. “Wait for us to go together.”

Jiang Fang pulled them into a group. In the group, Nan Zhou didn’t reply for a long time. In the classroom, Li Yinhang became restless. She typed and asked Jiang Fang, “He wouldn’t have gone by himself, right?” 

Jiang Fang answered, “Don’t worry. Wait for him.”

Two minutes later, Nan Zhou’s WeChat message arrived. “If three people go and something happens, none of us can escape. If I go alone then it will be safer.”

Li Yinhang, “……” Okay, she was persuaded. She had to wait for Jiang Fang to come up with a reason to persuade Nan Zhou.

However, Jiang Fang seemed mute. Approximately five minutes passed before Jiang Fang finally sent two words. “Look up.” 

Li Yinhang studied these two words for a long time. She didn’t understand. She raised her head blankly and glanced at the surroundings before enlightenment struck.

Meanwhile, Nan Zhou was sitting obediently on the stairs of the fourth floor and he raised his head according to the instructions. Jiang Fang stood in front of the sun with his hand in his pocket. It was just enough to prevent Nan Zhou’s eyes from being pierced by the sunlight. The sunlight gave his figure a golden glow and the natural silver hair also seemed to be sprinkled with gold.

Jiang Fang gently sighed with relief and adjusted his breathing to pretend that he hadn’t run all the way just now. He smiled and told Nan Zhou, “Let’s go.”

*** 

On the other side, Li Yinhang sat in the classroom and gripped her phone sadly. So what did it mean for Jiang Fang to pull her into the group? Was it to trick a single dog to come in and kill them? Li Yinhang was grieving when she heard a faint sound.

“Sha—”

Li Yinhang paled immediately. She pinched her palms and started breathing quickly. She had heard this sound when she went to the cafeteria for breakfast in the morning. At the time, Nan Zhou asked her to choose a crowded place to sit in the classroom.

Li Yinhang didn’t think too much. After all, daylight gave people a sense of security. Now this false feeling was shattered to pieces, revealing the horrible truth inside. 

Li Yinhang didn’t dare look at the people next to her or to gasp too loudly. Sharp numbness spread from her shoulders to her back and all the way to her thighs. Her imagination reached the peak. She was afraid that the noise she made would be too heavy and that when the person next to her turned their head, she would see a head without any facial features.

Li Yinhang trembled and took out her phone, trying to tell Nan Zhou that she heard the sound for the third time…

However, once she turned on her phone, the group chat of the three people where they had just conversed was blank. The group name was still there but what entered her vision was a message sent by an unknown person.

“Are you looking for me?” 

Li Yinhang didn’t know how she exited the current chat box. She moved her stiff fingers and chose the solo chat with Nan Zhou to explain her experience to him.

“Are you looking for me?”

No matter what chat box she clicked into, they all said the same thing.

“Are you looking for me?” 

“Are you looking for me?”

“Are you looking for me?”

……

Li Yinhang got up. “Teacher!” 

The associate professor giving the lecture turned back in surprise and saw Li Yinhang who looked like she had seen a ghost. She staggered like she had hypoglycemia. She squeezed out a word. “Infirmary…”

The associate professor’s doubt turned to worry. “Do you want a classmate to accompany you?”

Li Yinhang hurriedly answered, “No.” She grabbed her bag and ran out the back door.

The moment she rushed out of the classroom, Li Yinhang aimed the snake-like, cold mobile phone in her hand at the window that was directly opposite the classroom door and threw it straight down!