Ch49.1 - Sha, Sha, Sha

Nan Zhou and the others happened to enter 403 at exactly 7:30 p.m. last week. For the hours remaining, the three people looked at the information on their phones and gathered what they had brought with them when they stepped into the room of death last week.

They were going to repeat what they did last Friday. 

For the night visit, they called the Sun Guojing trio to go with them. Sun Guojing decided to go with them without arguing. There was no other reason. He had no way back. Hu Li said that once he heard the ‘sha sha’ sound, it was difficult for them to perceive his presence anymore. Sun Guojing was only one step away from fading out of their world.

The six of them met again, sat together and took the time to confirm their mobile phone records so they had grabbed everything they brought that day. They were trying to recreate that day and bridge, poker, aeroplane chess, table curling and other board games were readily available. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroplane_chess)

These were all prepared by Sun Guojing. They didn’t have time to open them after returning with them. The games were still packed in a cloth bag and thrown carelessly on the edge of the balcony. There were two small tickets in the cloth bag, one for the supermarket and the other for the milk tea takeaway. The time for the small ticket was the evening of that day. They ordered the same things in order to restore what happened on the 21st as much as possible. Jiang Fang specially added sugar to Nan Zhou’s milk tea.

After writing down the kebabs and beer on South Street, Nan Zhou looked around. “Anything else missing?” 

There was no response. He hummed. “Then…”

The next second, his wrist was suddenly pulled. Sun Guojing exhausted all his strength and gripped Nan Zhou’s wrist, the veins on his neck bulging. It was the grip of a drowning man trying to grab a life-saving straw, Nan Zhou was in no pain. He just stared at his deformed, white fingers.

Sun Guojing held out his mobile phone and almost poked Nan Zhou’s face with it. His teeth were chattering behind his white lips but he couldn’t say a word. Facing such a Sun Guojing, Nan Zhou calmly opened his mouth. “Yes, you say it and I’ll write it down.”

It was as if he hadn’t forgotten Sun Guojing’s existence. He treated Sun Guojing with a normal attitude so this person wouldn’t be alarmed. Unfortunately, it didn’t help. The big and rough man squeezed out a smile that was uglier than crying. “I… kept holding up my phone… reading to you what I want to bring.”

He looked around. “Actually… none of you noticed me just now, right?”

Luo Ge and Qi Tianyun’s eyes turned red but they followed Nan Zhou’s words. “I didn’t forget, I didn’t forget. How could I forget?”

Sun Guojing huddled helplessly to one side. His face was white and the muscles on his face swelled and shriveled. To ease his panic, he raised his hand and added in a hoarse voice, “…I wanted to buy another cake. I used the takeout software to place an order and made a special note to add extra cream for everyone to play with… there are seven or eight cans of silly string spray.”

After that, he lay motionless on the bed. His eyes were glazed over but he was still staring at the ground. Nan Zhou stared back at him and didn’t say anything. The Luo Qi brothers stayed on either side of him and gossiped with him. 

Sun Guojing didn’t say anything. He hung his head and was speechless. The brothers had to rack their brains and say something that would make him happy. The brothers spoke to him for a long time. Luo Ge even recalled the barbecue stall that the three of them jointly opened, saying he didn’t know if it would still be there when they got back. Would the tables and chairs be there and could they still open?

Just then, Sun Guojing absentmindedly said, “You two… don’t go.”

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.

He continued, “There is no one at the barbecue stall but it can still be opened. We can’t have all three of us gone.”

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Seeing that the task was almost completed, Jiang Fang got up first and made an appointment to meet the trio downstairs of the sports department dormitory at 7 o’clock.

In autumn, it always became dark early. In the daytime, the maple leaves were light and golden. The red shadows were dazzling and it was so beautiful that it made people hold their breaths. Then as soon as night fell, the maple leaves were blown everywhere by the cold wind. It swept by quickly like a small hand that was thrown all over the place.

The slightly fragile and dehydrated leaves were shattered and crushed under the feet of the people walking around at night and the ‘rustling’ sound made people shiver and wonder if the force was approaching. 

In the end, only Sun Guojing decided to go with the Nan Zhou trio to the East Fifth Building. The group of four walked further and further through the maple leaf avenue, the hustle and bustle of the campus behind them.

It wasn’t strong during the day. It was only by visiting at night that they could know how remote the East Fifth Building was. As they were around 200 meters away from the East Fifth Building, 70-80% of the streetlights had been broken. The flashing street lamp bulbs made a strange and clear sound.

Nan Zhou turned on the flashlight ahead of time. The flashlight swept in a fan-like arc, illuminating part of the road ahead. Still, this didn’t effectively alleviate the fear of others. The places that weren’t illuminated by the light became darker, as if there was an unknown giant eagerly waiting for the opportunity to swallow them up in one bite.

It was easy to get to the East Fifth Building. The moment they entered the corridor and the sensor lights lit up, Nan Zhou and Jiang Fang felt the two people behind them take a breath. It was 7:20 p.m. 

They arrived at the door of Room 403. Sun Guojing rubbed his frozen and numb palms together in front of his lips, letting out a bit of warm air. He pressed his hand against the doorknob and paused for a long time. It was as if it was his judgment seat. It was his path of reincarnation. He stood still and Nan Zhou’s group quietly stood with him.

At around 7:30, Sun Guojing raised his wrist to check his watch. He confirmed the time, gritted his teeth and was about to press down the doorknob—

However, the door was one step ahead of him. It slowly opened inward, bringing half of Sun Guojing’s body into darkness. Before Sun Guojing had time to feel fear, the lights of the classroom were turned on.

He fell into a bright light. It wasn’t known when they came but Luo Ge and Qi Tianyun, who had left the dormitory early, were waiting in 403. They had obviously been waiting there for a long time. 

“Aren’t we holding a party?” Luo Ge’s smile that he forced out was a bit exaggerated. He was clearly afraid that once his muscles relaxed, his entire expression would collapse. He turned his head and showed the room full of balloons and ribbons to Sun Guojing. “Look at what we’ve done for you.”

Qi Tianyun raised the key of Room 403 that he had removed from Sun Guojing’s keyring at an unknown time and shook it. “It is dangerous everywhere. So isn’t it good to go together as brothers?”

The originally fairly simple Room 403 was decorated by the two people and it had a bright and lively atmosphere. If 403 was the habitat of the mysterious force then seeing his home treated this way, it would immediately abandon Sun Guojing and first target the Luo Qi duo to maintain its dignity. Sun Guojing didn’t say anything. He hugged his two brothers one by one, his face pressed against their shoulders and his body trembling fiercely.

After the hard work of the Luo Qi duo, this was like a real gathering of friends. The six people sat on the ground in the gap between the podium and the seats. 

Sun Guojing handed Nan Zhou a can of beer. Nan Zhou waved his hand, holding his cup of milk tea with sugar and slowly drinking it. No one could tell that one day earlier, three of the six people were trying to rob the other three, only to be robbed in return.

The Longtan trio started to drink the cans and their faces soon took on a slightly drunken look. Sun Guojing couldn’t help swearing. “Xie Xiangyu, that son of a bitch. He just wanted us to scout the way for him!”

Nan Zhou calmly tried to communicate with the drunkard. “Did he contact you again?”

He didn’t think so. The surveillance incident was exposed and there would be no way Xie Xiangyu would come to see them again. Although Sun Guojing and the others didn’t know about the surveillance, they had already figured out they were being used to explore the way. 

Sun Guojing answered, “He didn’t, but I contacted him.”

He waved his hands through the air. “I called and scolded him!”

Nan Zhou held the milk tea and waited for the follow up.

As a result, Sun Guojing rubbed his hands together and spat out as he said angrily, “…Fuck, it took a long time before I figured out that this person had turned the phone on speaker and set it aside. He burned up 15 minutes of my phone bill. I called again but he didn’t answer. That fucking guy, he better hide tightly in some unknown ditch or I will beat him up if I run into him—” 

Nan Zhou bit the matcha flavored taro balls and didn’t talk. What exactly did Xie Xiangyu want? He chose to be alone. He clearly found the name cards before everyone else. He didn’t keep it to monopolize the clues but he didn’t communicate with any of them. He hid in a corner of the campus, spying on their every move. In this supernatural instance with such overwhelming power, he refused to cooperate or contact them. It was as if he had no fear at all. Was he planning something by doing such counterintuitive things? Or did he want to get through it by hibernating and waiting?

Jiang Fang squeezed the can of hawthorn juice and asked gently, “What are you thinking about?”

Nan Zhou told the truth. “Xie Xiangyu.”

“Ah, him. He is a very interesting person.” 

Nan Zhou’s attention was instantly attracted. “Why do you say that?”

Jiang Fang took a sip of the hawthorn juice. “I can probably understand what he wants to do.”

Nan Zhou listened carefully.

Jiang Fang pressed the can of hawthorn juice to his lips and whispered, “If I was a solo player, I might play like this.” 

Unfortunately, there were some things that he couldn’t do now.

Nan Zhou stared at his side profile thoughtfully.

…Jiang Fang’s expression just now was the same as when he was calculating Qu Jinsha at the casino. The corners of his mouth were curved and his eyes were icy and sharp like a wolf.

Nan Zhou blinked and thought, ‘It is a bit cute.’ 

Nan Zhou still wanted to ask. However, since Jiang Fang had an idea in mind, Jiang Fang was probably on guard. Xie Xiangyu’s matter wasn’t very important. The most important thing was to figure out how they got to the ‘non-existence place’ and how to get rid of the influence of this force.

The 403 during the day was no different from the current 403. There were doodles on the tables and chairs, pictures of great people on the walls, windows that looked a bit gloomy due to the anti-reflective film…

There was nothing unusual. Of course, if the room had changed significantly last week then they should’ve noticed. It wasn’t advisable to speculate on things out of thin air so this path was blocked. So what about another way of thinking?

They spent nearly a day and night full of suffocation, horror and pressure so the three brothers considered this exploration party as a hearty way to vent. The cans of beer were poured down their throats one by one and Sun Guojing’s courage rose every minute. Before long, he had become arrogant and he wanted to fight with the instigator behind the mysterious power. The noise they made really wasn’t small. 

Nan Zhou had to sit closer to Jiang Fang. He held his milk tea as he asked this person, “Do you feel anything?”

He was referring to the feeling of being affected by that power. Jiang Fang shook his head. “Not yet.”

There were no signs of ghosts coming to 403 such as the air becoming cold or flashing light bulbs like in the movies. To confirm, Jiang Fang took out the Sixth Sense Cross hanging around his neck. The cross was intact.

Adding in the time when he went to the supermarket to buy apples this afternoon, Jiang Fang had only heard the rustling sound twice. The supernatural power wasn’t aimed at him yet and this cross was naturally useless. 

Nan Zhou said, “This force is too irreversible. Standing in front of it, there are too few things we can do.”

Chapter 49.2

Jiang Fang smiled. “This isn’t what Teacher Nan should say.”

Nan Zhou glanced at Jiang Fang and nodded. “…Yes, I haven’t finished speaking yet.” 

It was as Nan Zhou said. This force was too domineering. It had a strong power—it could erase the existence of a person without anyone else knowing. It had accurate positioning. Zuo Jiaming used a trick with the elevator and hid in the file room but he still couldn’t avoid its approach.

It was intangible. When the danger came, there was only a tinnitus-like rustling sound in their ears. The supernatural phenomena was intangible and couldn’t be harmed at all. It was so terrible that it was almost unsolvable. But—

“It is so powerful that there almost seems to be no loopholes.” Nan Zhou speculated. “If the rest is just as complicated, there is no way to play this game. Players can only rely on luck to decide who dies first.”

He declared, “Thus, it must have weaknesses. There are two points we need to understand about this force. First, how does it appear around us unnoticed? Second, how does it choose the order of erasure?” For the first one, it is ‘silent’ and this is one of the characteristics of unsolvable terror. It isn’t suitable for the current inference. This means the weakness that can be cracked is probably the order of erasure.” 

Jiang Fang, “……” It was really simple reverse thinking.

Nan Zhou hadn’t fully organized his thoughts yet. Therefore, he relied on thinking about them to clarify the clues. “Our investigation during the day has sorted out the relationship between characters.”

“The first person to die is the sports student Hu Li. The second to die is Zuo Jiaming. It is very likely that Sun Guojing is next. Then it is me and Yinhang… In the setting, Hu Li and Zuo Jiaming play football together and their relationship is very good. My relationship with Yinhang is also very good. She was worried about going to play with a group of boys so I came with her to protect her…”

Just then. Nan Zhou’s eyes lit up. He told Jiang Fang, “…Your phone.”

In the blink of an eye, all five mobile phones were placed in front of Nan Zhou. The only one missing was Li Yinhang’s phone, which was completely destroyed. According to the message left by Zuo Jiaming, once the sixth rustle was heard, their ability to convey information to the outside world with the aid of material carriers would disappear.

It was equivalent to being on a deserted island. This was why the message left by Zuo Jiaming wasn’t visible to the naked eye. Therefore, Nan Zhou needed to race against time to verify his idea before Sun Guojing heard the sixth rustle.

Fortunately, the force didn’t come to interfere with them at this critical moment. Soon, after intensive searching, Nan Zhou got the clue he wanted. Under Sun Guojing’s hopeful gaze, Nan Zhou expressed the conclusion first.

“It is possible that the order of erasure is the order in which we entered. The party held that day officially started at 7:30 but the order in which we entered the classroom was different.” 

He pointed to Sun Guojing’s phone. The message he sent to Luo Ge at 7:10 was displayed: I’m here but Old Hu’s little lover hasn’t arrived yet. Haha, he is anxious like a monkey.

Luo Ge replied: It is a civilized monkey. Leave a place for me and Old Qi to watch.

From this, it could be seen that Sun Guojing had arrived at the meeting place at 7:10. Luo Ge and Qi Tianyun hadn’t arrived yet. Old Hu’s ‘lover’, Li Yinhang, also wasn’t there. Hu Li and Zuo Jiaming were known to be the first and second victims. It made sense if they followed the logic of ‘the order of entering the classroom is the order in which you become a victim.’

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.

Sun Guojing might’ve been in charge of the key for 403 but he could pass the key to Hu Li to let him unlock the door first. Hu Li was the first to open the door and enter the classroom. His football friend Zuo Jiaming followed closely behind. 

Vec Xebplcu jgglnfv ja 7:10. Rjc Itbe jcv Ol Tlctjcu kfgf pera joafg Vec Xebplcu.

Ktf mtja wfrrjufr yfakffc Rjc Itbe, Aljcu Mjcu jcv Ol Tlctjcu bcis wfcalbcfv Aljcu Mjcu’r rqfmlji gfijalbcrtlq klat Rjc Itbe jcv atf jqqblcawfca ab wffa ja Ebbw 403 ja 7:30. Ktfs cjaegjiis tjv atbeuta atja Rjc Itbe jcv Aljcu Mjcu tjv mbwf abufatfg.

However, it could be inferred from common sense that Jiang Fang might be Nan Zhou’s partner but the relationship between them hadn’t been fully public. It was a bit embarrassing to come together. Li Yinhang had asked Nan Zhou to accompany her to protect her. Thus, it was more reasonable that she and Nan Zhou came at the same time.

Xie Xiangyu came at around 7:20. It was because at 7:21, Sun Guojing sent another WeChat message to Luo Ge: The food will be cold if you don’t come soon. 

Nan Zhou wasn’t sure if Xie Xiangyu came before or after himself and Li Yinhang. Nevertheless, it was certain they came before Luo Ge and Qi Tianyun. Jiang Fang was the last to come. It was because according to reality, Jiang Fang was the last of them to hear the rustling sound.

In this case, everything was right. If Room 403 itself was a huge, silent, bloody mouth that only opened to visitors who came to it late at night…

Then the order in which it erased people was the order of entry. If the clues they determined were true and reliable…

This time, Qi Tianyun reacted quickly and almost jumped up with excitement. “We just need to disrupt the order. At the same time point, enter through the door again and it can be solved!” 

Qi Tianyun felt he had guessed right and was so excited that he turned in circles, his speech becoming faster. “Yes, yes! This is right. It must be right! If we enter the door again, the order in which the force erases us will be disrupted! Those of us who hear the rustling sound less often will go in first. We will take turns switching up the order every night. Even if the number of times we hear it isn’t reset after each disruption, we can work together and make it through five days! It is just right! What a coincidence! Old Luo and I were afraid you wouldn’t let us come so we entered early!”

Qi Tianyun rushed forward and grabbed the shoulder of Sun Guojing who was still in a daze. “Old Sun! We have been drinking for over an hour. Have you heard the rustling? Huh? How long has it been since you last heard it?”

Sun Guojing was dumbfounded. “Uh… adding in the afternoon, seven or eight hours…”

Qi Tianyun hugged Sun Guojing’s neck tightly and shouted incoherently, “Saved! Old Sun, you’re saved! You will be fine! I will be the next person to hear the rustle and then Old Luo! It will be me and Old Luo! It will take a long time for us to hear the sixth rustle! We are all saved!” 

Nan Zhou murmured, “…Is this the case?”

However, his voice was drowned out by the shouts and cheers. He glanced at Jiang Fang.

Jiang Fang leaned toward his ear, warm breath blowing against Nan Zhou’s earlobe and making it itchy. “Their idea is reasonable. We might as well… try it first.”

*** 

After slowly coming back to his senses, Sun Guojing found that he might’ve really escaped from this disaster. He was rejuvenated and drank freely and more uncontrollably. Every sip made the feeling of crawling from the line of death become clearer.

He even ran to make a toast to Nan Zhou. After standing in front of Nan Zhou, Sun Guojing bowed deeply without saying a word.

“Thank you, thank you very much.” Sun Guojing told him. “It is all in the wine.”

He raised a can of beer at Nan Zhou and then drank most of it in one go. Nan Zhou held the straw and gently blew bubbles into his milk tea. 

Sun Guojing put down the can of beer and wiped his mouth “Thank you for saving me twice. The first time is now and the second time was in the dormitory. If you hadn’t explained it to me, my sin value would be gone.”

Nan Zhou, “……” It was san value.

Still, Nan Zhou didn’t interrupt his high spirits. “Yes.”

“You have a good sin value, right?” Sun Guojing had drunk a lot and his words weren’t very clear. “I can see that you aren’t very afraid. You are a man. For the previous matter, I, Sun Guojing didn’t do it very well. I want to make you a friend…” 

Nan Zhou, “……”

He quickly took a step back. He frowned and thought that the people of today were really frivolous. Did they make ‘friends’ so casually now?

Sun Guojing had been drinking too much and he naturally didn’t notice Nan Zhou’s avoidance. His eyes widened and he found that Nan Zhou was missing from his vision. He staggered and laughed as he held the beer can and went to look for his two good brothers. He was really drunk.

In addition, Nan Zhou’s group wanted to verify if Qi Tianyun’s idea was true so they didn’t leave. Not long after, Nan Zhou gradually became sleepy. The bright lights in his vision turned into scattered, fluffy halos. He held onto the last trace of consciousness and tried to find two chairs together to lie down on. Yet the moment he moved, his head was lightly pressed by a hand that led him to tilt to one side. He ended up resting on warm skin. 

Jiang Fang looked down at him and smiled. “Why are you lying down on my lap?”

Nan Zhou, “……”

He didn’t lie down of his own initiative. There seemed to be something wrong. Forget it.

In the middle of the night, the three brothers who had a life-long friendship were dead drunk. Yinhang sat on the ground, her upper body leaning against the chair beside her as she slept peacefully. Nan Zhou was resting on Jiang Fang’s legs, breathing regularly. Meanwhile, Jiang Fang sat quietly. His fingers gently stroked the teardrop mole under Nan Zhou’s eyes as he looked at everything around him soberly. 

Sun Guojing had fallen down drunk on the stairs. He was lying on the hard floor with seven or eight empty beer cans thrown around him. The smell of alcohol came strongly from his breath. He slept a bit uncomfortably. He twisted his waist and grabbed the hem of his sweater, pulling it up and revealing a section of his abdomen. Then he turned his body to the other side. At this moment—

—Sha—

—Sha—

—Sha— 

The small sound of ‘sha’ had a subtle variation, turning into a prolonged syllable. It was like a nail against a blackboard, slowly moving down and creating a long, thin, sharp noise. However, Sun Guojing slept too well. He didn’t hear it. Jiang Fang naturally couldn’t hear the subtle sound that rang in Sun Guojing’s eyes.

As the sky turned white, he supported his head and gave himself 30 minutes to rest.

One night passed like this.

Luo Ge was awakened by Qi Tianyun. He stared blankly at the messy classroom after the party, apparently unable to digest the current situation. Luo Ge wiped the saliva from the corner of his mouth. “Why did we sleep here…?” 

Just then, Nan Zhou woke up. He woke up and rubbed Jiang Fang’s legs, which were said to be numb from being used as a pillow.

Qi Tianyun and Li Yinhang were busy cleaning up the rubbish with empty plastic bags.

“Oh!” After a short time, Luo Ge found the fragments of memories and waved his fists in excitement. “We found a solution to the problem!”

QI Tianyun also looked happy. “This is the best way. Okay, let’s do it again tonight…” 

As he spoke, he looked at Jiang Fang. “Jiang Fang, right? You’ve heard it the fewest number of times. You can come again this evening to share the burden for the two people in your team.”

Jiang Fang pressed against his thighs and made a sound like it was natural.

Qi Tianyun picked up a full trash bag, grabbed the key placed on the table and naturally said to Luo Ge, “Let’s go!”

Li Yinhang also saw hope when she saw the two of them head out the door of 403. She smiled and said, “Let’s go too!” 

Nan Zhou helped Jiang Fang stand up. Jiang Fang took two steps forward and a slight light flashed from his neck. Nan Zhou saw the Sixth Sense Cross hanging around Jiang Fang’s neck and frowned slightly. Who did he get this item from? As Nan Zhou thought about this problem, he helped Jiang Fang out of 403.

Qi Tianyun locked the door and shook the key while leaning against Luo Ge’s shoulder. He smiled as he walked toward the abundant sunshine outside. Meanwhile, Sun Guojing remained on the stairs, sleeping ignorantly and soundly in the dark and lightless Room 403 where the curtains were drawn.