Chapter 96

"Is that Yi Junxi classmate?" Jingzhe opened the door and saw the mountain, "We want to ask you some things, about Zhou Ye, and also... 'Twenty-Four Curse'."

"We've heard that you and Zhou Ye are on good terms." Jingzhe probed, "Also, you know you've tried methods to resist the curse."

Yi Junxi's hand trembled slightly, and the spoon in the plate made a faint clinking sound.

This detail was keenly caught by Jingzhe.

"I... I don't know what you're talking about." He lowered his head, his voice very soft.

"Someone has seen it."

"Seeing Zhou Ye with you, you at that moment... looked like you were dead."

Yi Junxi suddenly lifted his head, his eyes filled with genuine fear.

This fear was half an act, half genuine.

He truly feared Zhou Ye, and also feared the girl who stood behind the three, uninvolved.

"I..." He opened his mouth, then closed it, finally as if he had made up his mind, he said dejectedly, "Yes, yes, there is such a thing."

Shen Jiarui sucked in a breath of cold air.

"Zhou Ye has found some kind of... method." Yi Junxi's voice trembled.

"He said he could trick the curse, needing my cooperation, pretending to be dead; that day in the tool shed, we were just testing this."

"And then?" Jingzhe pressed further.

"Then..." Yi Junxi's face turned even paler, "When I woke up, I felt all my strength drained away."

"Zhou Ye said the ritual was very successful, the curse was temporarily fooled."

He lifted his head, tears glimmering in his eyes, a physiological reaction brought on by genuine fear.

"Please, don't talk about this anymore, and don't let Zhou Ye know I came to see you; he'll get angry... when he's angry, he's terrifying."

Su Mian silently nodded in agreement in her heart.

It is indeed terrifying.

After Yi Junxi left, Chang Anning, who previously looked down on DM, also furrowed her brows, muttering in disbelief, "Isn't DM just a formality? How could it be that terrifying?"

Jingzhe glanced at her, smirked coldly, "If you're not afraid of death, give it a try."

Chang Anning pursed her lips; although she said nothing, she still felt unwilling to accept it, she rubbed the tarot card in her cross-body bag, secretly making up her mind.

She really didn't believe it, so she went straight to ask Zhou Ye—no better than asking Yi Junxi—what exactly are these people afraid of?

After a lot of fuss, several people finally sat down to eat; this was the first time they had eaten together. Jingzhe watched Su Mian silently eating dry rice, her cheeks puffed out, looking somewhat surprised.

Su Mian lifted her head to look at her.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing..."

Jingzhe gave a light cough, "I thought girls like you don't like eating rice."

Actually, that's a stereotype; usually, girls with insufficient qi and blood, looking delicate and weak, aren't they full after just two bites?

Su Mian swallowed the rice in her mouth, feeling that Jingzhe was making a fuss over nothing.

"If you get hungry at night, your stomach will hurt."

Su Mian also used to have a little habit of liking to eat a piece of sugar before bed.

Because going to sleep hungry might be tolerable for ordinary people, but she couldn't bear it; her stomach would hurt, hurting so much that breathing became difficult.

So she would secretly buy green-apple-flavored sugar to eat; after her mother found out, she stopped doing that, merely eating a bit more at dinner.

Jingzhe heard it and then tightly pressed her lips, unable to hide the sorrow in her eyes.

Su Mian had never seen her make that expression before; she found it a little funny, but she kept a straight face and looked away.

"Eat up."

A group of girls who had just finished PE suddenly sat down beside several people; they must have lingered on the Playground a bit, arriving late.

"Goodness, the Cafeteria only has some pig feed left."

"Just shut up; you have no appetite after exercising anyway."

Several people spoke loudly, drawing the attention of the players sitting nearby.

"Hey! Have you heard about what's been going on behind the mountain lately?"

"What, you finally realized the back mountain is a graveyard? That's just every school's tradition."

"Oh no, it's not that; a few days ago someone went up the mountain and accidentally found a strange Wooden Cabin, from which laughter and crying would occasionally come, sounding really terrifying."

"Is there still a Wooden Cabin on the mountain? Wasn't it abandoned long ago?"

"That's why it's strange; some say a middle-aged man in a Mediterranean-striped shirt often pops up there, wandering aimlessly..."

Su Mian's hand holding her chopsticks paused; Shen Jiarui glanced aside and whispered, "Could it be our homeroom teacher?"

"Most likely; maybe it's related to the clues, shall we go check it out later?"

Jingzhe had just finished eating, asked everyone's opinion; Chang Anning was eager to go, while Shen Jiarui looked reluctant, her gaze sweeping over the few of them.

"You... you all want to go?"

"Of course! Maybe we can find some clues about the Murderer; if you don't go, are you feeling guilty?"

"Not at all!"

Shen Jiarui's face flushed then paled, and she finally nodded in compromise.

After lunch, the four avoided the crowd and sneaked to the trail entrance behind the School.

The back mountain is less a mountain and more a densely vegetated small hill, right next to the School fence.

A dirt path worn by footsteps wound upward, with disordered shrubs and waist-high wild grass on either side.

Just past noon, the sun was fierce, but once entering the woods, the temperature suddenly dropped.

Several unidentified birds flew over, sounding like infants crying.

Wuu wuu wuu...

Don't cry, Shen Jiarui, it's not even fully dark yet—what are you afraid of?

I—I wasn't crying.

Shen Jiarui grabbed Jingzhe's hand, her steps dragging, and she spoke tremblingly.

As soon as those words were spoken, everyone fell silent.

Su Mian walked in the middle of the group, and after just a few minutes of climbing she began to pant.

She had to stop frequently, bracing her hands on the tree trunk to rest, her lips turning slightly purple from lack of oxygen.

Time seemed to stretch; the higher they climbed, the stranger the surroundings became.

The trees' forms began to twist, some branches and trunks coiling into spirals, the bark covered in dark moss like dried bloodstains.

"Did you hear that?" Shen Jiarui's voice trembled with tears, "Someone is speaking..."

"It's just the wind," Jingzhe said calmly, but her hand had already moved to her waist, where a folding knife was hidden.

【Mian Mian, are you okay?】 4399 asked worriedly.

Su Mian shook her head, "Not good, I want to die."

4399: ……Great, its host is still as world-weary as ever.

Just then, a shout came from ahead—Chang Anning cried, 'Look over there!'

Everyone followed the direction of her finger and, deep in the dense forest, could faintly see the outline of a dilapidated wooden cabin.

The windows were boarded up with planks, leaving only a few gaps.

That was the wooden cabin the girls spoke of, the one said to emit laughter and crying.

We… really have to go in? Shen Jiarui's voice shook uncontrollably.

We've come this far—of course we have to go in." Chang Anning said, starting to move forward.