NFM Chapter 41

“What—”

“It’s 2 PM now, right?” Lin Huai checked his watch. “I declare, starting now, you’re on vacation.”

He arbitrarily and willfully announced this person’s liberation. Then, he turned around and said, “Shall we go?”

“But…”

“What, are you scared?” Lin Huai laughed. “Xu Chi, you coward.”

Lin Huai provocatively spoke, stirring up the usually indifferent Xu Chi. He caught up with the person ahead.

They didn’t leave through the main gate because Lin Huai said he wanted to seek excitement. He arrived at a low wall and easily climbed over it.

He landed lightly on the ground, skilled and familiar, like a bad boy who had done this countless times. Then, he said to Xu Chi, “Come down.”

“I…”

“Come down, I’ll catch you.”

Encouraged by Lin Huai, Xu Chi also climbed onto the low wall. He stood on the wall, closed his eyes, steeled his heart, and jumped down.

After landing and steadying himself, Lin Huai laughed again, “Actually, it’s not that hard. Right?”

“Let’s go.” He waved the money in his hand. “Today, we’re going to spend all of it.”

They wandered aimlessly in the city center of Yangshui. Lin Huai first bought each of them a cup of milk tea. After a couple of sips, he switched to another cup, casually tossing the original one into the trash.

Then, he took the other to a clothing store, forcibly bought him a trench coat, shirt, and pants. After watching him dress up, he put a pair of black-framed glasses on him.

They went to a movie theater. Unfortunately, perhaps due to some malfunction, the theater was only showing movies from three years ago. After the movie, Lin Huai took him to eat, then to a bookstore, buying a pile of detective novels.

Finally, he bought a briefcase and took him to a newspaper office.

“The top of this newspaper building is the highest point in the city. Standing there, you can overlook the entire city,” Lin Huai said. “Want to go see?”

Xu Chi was stunned.

A sound of something breaking came from deep within him. He used all his rationality to tell himself not to move, but the other said, “Let’s go, we’ll take the elevator.”

With that, he walked ahead.

He didn’t wait to see if Xu Chi would follow, as if he didn’t care at all. He wanted to take someone out to do something, and he did it. Whether others accepted it or not was none of his concern.

Yet, Xu Chi still followed him.

By 7 PM, the evening was deep, and many office workers were leaving the building. Lin Huai led him through a glass door, casually saying, “Look, don’t you look just like them?”

Xu Chi looked at his reflection in the glass door and was stunned.

After being messed with by Lin Huai all afternoon, he looked much more mature, blending in almost seamlessly with the office workers around him. Lin Huai laughed again, saying, “This is what you’ll look like in five years, grown up. You wrote in your journal, didn’t you? You wanted to be a newspaper reporter, to interview a famous writer after they achieved success. This is the largest newspaper office in all of Yangshui.”

Xu Chi didn’t speak for a long time, then finally laughed, “Yes…” he said slowly, “Ah.”

“Oh no, I wasn’t precise enough.” Lin Huai lifted his bangs. “By the time five years really pass, your hairline will be even higher than mine.”

Xu Chi: …

Lin Huai: “Studying makes people age.”

Xu Chi: …

Lin Huai: “Hehe.”

They sneaked past the security guards all the way to the rooftop.

Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate.

Xu Chi: “The rooftop is locked.”

Lin Huai reached out and broke the copper lock on the iron door, turning to look at him, “No, it’s not.”

Xu Chi: “…It was really locked just now.”

Lin Huai said, “It really wasn’t.”

The two went up to the rooftop. It was evening, and the entire sky was dyed a beautiful orange-red by the setting sun. Large swaths of fiery clouds bloomed in the clear sky.

And the entire city, lit up, was beneath their feet.

Beautiful, bustling, and full of traffic.

Lin Huai leaned on the railing, speaking lightly, “Seeing clouds like these, tomorrow must be another good day.”

Xu Chi, beside him, softly said, “Mmm.”

“This is a beautiful world, isn’t it? I read a book once that said teenagers in their teens still have many dreams, many futures, and many possibilities.” He didn’t turn back, just spoke as if to himself, “…Xu Chi, do you think the future or the past is more important?”

He suddenly posed this question. Xu Chi was silent for a while, then said, “I don’t know.”

“Not knowing is fine, young people still have plenty of time to find the answer.” Lin Huai leaned back against the railing, “Speaking of which, why is there a piece missing from this railing…”

“You talk as if you’re so old…”

“Xu Chi.” Lin Huai suddenly said, “That friend you mentioned earlier, is it Yan Xi?”

“…Why are you suddenly asking about this?”

“Because I want to know.” Lin Huai said, pulling on the railing and looking up at him, “Isn’t it normal for a teacher to want to understand their student?”

Xu Chi was silent for a long time.

“Tell me.” Lin Huai looked at him with eyes reflecting the fiery clouds, “You’re already an adult. Well, at least, you’ve been dressed up as one.”

Xu Chi looked at the distant sunset, not speaking for a long time. Only after a long while did he say, “Yan Xi and I became friends on an evening like this too. Back then, my parents had just divorced, and no one wanted me. I was thinking about… suicide.”

“It was the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, and everyone had left. I came alone to the school rooftop, leaned on the railing, thinking about what would happen if I jumped. Then I thought, I’ve never left Yangshui to see the world, would it be a pity to die here? Then he appeared.”

“He was a strange person, he asked me from behind, ‘I write novels, do you like reading novels? Would you like to read mine?'”

“He said he wanted to become the future Higashino Keigo. I actually prefer Otsuichi. He was a really strange person. He wrote a detective novel called ‘The Seven Wonders of the School,’ the crime methods in it were terrible, none of them made sense.”

“Later I went to class B, he stayed in class C, I actually missed a major question… he said he wanted to catch up to me quickly… to come to class B to find me. Then class C got a new teacher. I was immersed in studying in class B, and didn’t pay much attention to him for a long time.”

“My birthday, I invited him, he didn’t come. I didn’t know then that he was locked up at home… I was very angry, I distanced myself from him.”

“Then the last call he made before he died was to me, I didn’t answer, I hung up. The next day at school… he was already dead. It’s only natural that he would hate me, want to kill me.”

Xu Chi spoke softly. His voice grew weaker, gradually disappearing into the evening breeze on the rooftop.

They were silent for a long time, neither of them speaking.

“Is that so… that’s really an enviable friendship.” Lin Huai said.

“I don’t know if I still count as his friend now, probably not. I only knew him for a few months, he and Tang Feng knew each other for over ten years. Tang Feng was his best friend, and I, only a few months.”

“Maybe. But friendships, can’t be measured by time.” Lin Huai looked at him deeply, “I already know your answer.”

“…What?”

“Teenagers, lacking love, tend to place great importance on same-sex friendships, it’s quite normal, and I can’t tell whether it’s friendship, or missed love…”

“…”

Xu Chi was slightly angry. Then, Lin Huai laughed.

He took out a few coins from his pocket. Over five thousand yuan, spent in just one afternoon, leaving only a few coins. He took one out, flipped it into the air.

He caught the falling coin in his palm, and said to Xu Chi, “Let’s make a bet?”

“What bet?”

“If this coin lands heads, you have to promise to do something for me.” He said.

Xu Chi hesitated for a moment, then clenched his teeth.

He didn’t know why Lin Huai was making this request of him, but the feeling wasn’t bad.

“Okay.”

He said softly.

Lin Huai slowly moved his hand, the coin appeared on the back of his hand.

It was tails.

“Ah, it’s tails.”

He said indifferently, flipped his hand, and let the coin fall to the rooftop. Then, he took out a second coin, “Let’s try again.”

Xu Chi: …

The second coin was also tails. He threw it down in the same way, and took out a third.

Then, a fourth.

The sun was setting, from the high rooftop, Xu Chi could overlook the vast and beautiful city.

In this city, there was the movie theater they visited in the afternoon.

The clothing store that sold trench coats.

This tall building that overlooked everything…

The newspaper building that was once in his future plans.

And the person behind him, was still trying, again and again.

He flipped the coin again and again, getting tails each time, but he…

Was still trying.

Why?

Why?

“Last coin.” He heard Lin Huai’s voice, “Last try.”

The evening breeze blew into his eyes, his tears fell with the flow of traffic lights.

“It’s heads.” Lin Huai said behind him, “I win.”

“Lucky.” Xu Chi said.

“No, it’s not my luck.” Lin Huai laughed, “It’s you who let me win.”

In the sunset, his clothes fluttered in the wind. The seemingly fragile young man handed the coin to Xu Chi.

“One thing.” He said with a smile, “Remember that.”

Four days later, early morning.

Yu Xingjian had just woken up when he heard devastating news.

Another student from class C of the third year had died last night in the cafeteria.

The deceased was Feng Zilu, the class monitor he personally appointed, and the student he trusted the most.

In managing the class atmosphere, Feng Zilu had been indispensable. He led many students, guiding the class to improve, helping to correct Yan Xi’s actions. He had also flipped Yan Xi’s meal tray multiple times, forcing him to eat in the restroom.

Yu Xingjian didn’t want to hear about Feng Zilu’s cause of death, he only knew that if this continued, the next to die would be himself.

Damn it, it’s haunted!

He had made up his mind to drive away from this school, away from Minghua, away from Yangshui, to another place… to a place where he couldn’t be caught.

Yan Xi, Yan Xi… this name had almost become his nightmare. When he stepped into Minghua Middle School full of ambition and determination, when he ordered Yan Xi to wipe the colors off the floor with his sleeve, he had never imagined that now, just hearing this name would make him shiver with fear!

The principal was not in in the morning, so he prepared his resignation letter, intending to submit it in the afternoon. He no longer wanted this month’s salary or any compensation, he just wanted to get away from here as soon as possible!

But in the afternoon, as soon as he stepped out of the principal’s office, another nightmare appeared before him.

Black suit, black hair, black eyes, handsome yet with a hint of evil…

Lin Huai!

Lin Huai stared at him, a smile curling up his lips, “Oh? Teacher Yu Xingjian is resigning so soon?”

If the beginning of his teaching career’s failure was Yan Xi, then Lin Huai was undoubtedly the final blow. Yan Xi proved his failure in educating, while Lin Huai struck him hard in teaching. He had never seen someone who could significantly improve the grades of the class considered the worst in just two weeks, and simultaneously, win the affection of the entire class.

Lin Huai was his nightmare. Since Lin Huai arrived, his proud grades were struck, and the students who once revered him began to rebel. So much so that now, whenever he saw Lin Huai, he felt a chill and looked at him warily, “What are you doing here?”

Lin Huai smiled lightly, parted his lips.

“Of course, I’m here to invite Teacher Yu to the restroom together.”

With that, he grabbed Yu Xingjian’s hand, and with the gesture of a high school girl inviting a companion to the restroom, dragged him along. Yu Xingjian, among adults, was quite adept at fitness and exercise, but held by those iron-like hands, he couldn’t break free.

He was dragged by Lin Huai from the principal’s office all the way to the restroom on the fourth floor of the fourth teaching building. Passing many students, they whispered behind him:

“Say, why are Teacher Lin and Teacher Yu so close…”

“What are they doing…”

“Somehow, it feels a bit gay…”

Cold sweat dripped down Yu Xingjian’s forehead, for some reason, he couldn’t speak, his throat couldn’t make a sound. Upon reaching the fourth-floor restroom of the fourth teaching building, Lin Huai threw him into the men’s restroom like trash, “Go in.”

The fourth teaching building was also known as the experimental building, usually deserted, rarely visited. Now it was also empty. Yu Xingjian was thrown into the restroom, rolling on the smooth tiles. Before he could get up, he heard the other’s voice like a demon, “Sorry, wrong throw.”

With that, he was picked up by that person again, a 180-pound man, lifted as easily as a plastic bag. The next moment, he was thrown onto the tiles on the other side, seeing stars, and when he came to, Lin Huai was standing in front of him, staring at him expressionlessly as if looking at a dead object.

“Take a good look.” He said, “The sin you committed.”

With that, he opened the door to the innermost restroom, known to be haunted. Yang Fan, a student from class C of the third year, was tied up, with ligature marks on his neck, trapped there, eyes wide open.

He had clearly been dead for a long time.

“…There are indeed these two holes here, left by previous students for peeping. He once tied someone’s feet and put them in, that person was thus slandered as a peeping pervert. Later, he tasted the sweetness and on a rainy night locked that person in a locked teaching building, the next day, that person fell to his death.” Lin Huai said word by word, “Now a vengeful evil spirit has tied him here. No one saved him, just as no one saved another person in the past, the same.”

Yu Xingjian struggled to crawl on the ground, trying several times to get up. Whether because the floor tiles were too slippery, or because of the panic in his heart, he couldn’t get up, could only slide helplessly on the ground, like a dying spider.

“You trapped them in a web, now they’ve come for you.”

With that, Lin Huai took out a diary from his pocket.

“This is Yan Xi’s diary left in empty classroom 2.” He said softly, “Want to know what you did?”

Yu Xingjian let out an inhuman wail. He finally had the strength to get up, stumbling, and rushed out of the fourth-floor restroom.

Run! Run away! Get out of here!

When he escaped to the first floor, Lin Huai just followed him downstairs. He didn’t intend to follow Yu Xingjian, just looked at the sky with his dark eyes.

Sunny.

Sunny again.

No one was following behind, Yu Xingjian finally tremblingly opened his car. He swung the steering wheel, passed through traffic and numerous buildings, traversed the extensive traffic network, heading in one direction, then many directions.

Escape! Leave Yangshui!

He drove out, all the way north, just wanting to get as far away from Minghua as possible. All the scenery distorted outside his car window, and when he saw the toll station, his eyes lit up with wild joy.

He drove out of the toll station!

Then, stopped.

Uncontrollable fear filled his heart. He looked out the car window, dumbfounded, and fell into a great and indescribable fear.

What appeared before him was not a highway, not the distance.

But a huge—black chasm!

Like an abyss, outside, was absolute darkness. The entire city of Yangshui, with the toll station as the boundary, was separated from the world!

What he was in… was an isolated island!

Yangshui City, Minghua Middle School.

Lin Huai came again to the fourth floor of the third teaching building. The students were still in class, he came alone to where he first arrived, looking at the monthly updated class ranking list.

September, October, November, December.

January, February, March, April.

May, June, July, August.

September, October, November, December.

He tore off the ranking lists one by one, the ranking lists repeated, repeated…

Three years!

Three full years of high school ranking lists, all here! Three full years, the same grade, the same students…

High school!

The deep autumn wind blew in from outside the window. It started from the toll station, passed through the entire city of Yangshui, reached Lin Huai’s ear, and blew a strand of his bangs.

He closed his eyes and sighed.

No one died, no one lived.

It’s autumn, autumn again.

“From the very beginning of this dungeon, everything that happened in the past was beyond saving.”

He said softly.

Minghua Middle School, class B of the third year, trio.

The high-powered air conditioner was still running, but Li Fen had completely lost the mood for class.

Lunch break finally arrived, the students of class B filed out. Large patches of cadaver spots had already started to appear on their bodies, and the air even began to carry an unpleasant odor.

Li Fen, Xia Xingye, and Qiu Ran stayed in the classroom. Cao Aimin originally wanted to go eat, but seeing Xia Xingye, the designated female lead, sitting in the front row, decided to strike up a conversation.

“You…” He thought for a while, then said, “Your earrings… are quite nice.”

Xia Xingye looked up from his book. He seemed completely puzzled by this person’s intentions, then after a long while, he smiled with extreme gentleness and beauty, “Thank you.”

He had never spoken in such a soft tone, so soft it was eerie. But Cao Aimin completely failed to read the atmosphere and continued with his straight-man remarks, “How much did they cost? Must be expensive, right?”

“Not expensive.” Xia Xingye said softly, “My brother gave them to me.”

With that, he touched his earrings. The earrings sparkled in the light, faintly emitting a red glow, “Back then, I had just entered the game, and was very weak. It was he who gave this to me…”

—Like throwing away trash, with utter disdain and contempt, it was tossed to me.

In that moment, a surge of dark emotions welled up within me. Through layers of memories, Xia Xingye seemed to see that day from many years ago.

‘Stop following me,’ that person said.

‘But I…’

‘Just seeing you makes me feel… annoyed.’

The cold gaze seemed to still pierce through him. After that moment, he seemed to see the overwhelming sea of blood once more.

‘Sacrificing him was the optimal solution,’ the same voice echoed in his memory. ‘You’re just too… emotional.’

Hmph.

‘An older brother, huh? Such expensive earrings, yet he says they’re not costly… must be a young lady from a wealthy family. Maybe even has a brother complex…’ he muttered in his heart. Thinking this, he tried to cater to her interests and asked, “You must have a good relationship with your brother, right?”

“We’re not blood-related. He was brought in by my father, and I was brought in by my mother. We’re from a blended family. Strictly speaking, there’s no blood relation between us.”

‘A blended family, no blood relation… so it’s legally acceptable for siblings to…’ Cao Aimin’s alarm bells rang loudly, and for a moment, he saw a future where he was cuckolded by the heroine’s brother.

“There are many things between us that need to be resolved,” Xia Xingye said, touching his earring again. The blood-red earring on his porcelain ear seemed as vivid as ripe fruit. “But what I want to do most right now is… find him.”

‘What kind of plot is this? A young lady joining an infinite flow dungeon just to find her brother?’ Cao Aimin’s eyes sparkled, feeling a renewed hope in his pursuit. He eagerly said to Xia Xingye, “You’ll find him, and I’ll help you…”

“I appreciate your kind words,” Xia Xingye smiled gently, like water. “Once I find him, the first thing I’ll do is…”

Revenge.

But such words were unnecessary to say to an NPC like him.

He stopped mid-sentence, masking the hatred on his face, and lifted a smiling expression once more.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Xia Xingye asked softly.

Cao Aimin snapped out of the sudden chill he felt. He repeatedly apologized and nervously ran downstairs.

Xia Xingye coldly watched his retreating figure disappear down the hallway. The smile that always lingered on his lips faded, as if he had thought of something deeply unpleasant. Qiu Ran’s voice came from behind, “Xingye…”

She hesitated, then asked, “Are you feeling down? Did something happen?”

When he turned to Qiu Ran, he was once again the always-smiling Xia Xingye. He said, “Alright, let’s start the meeting.”

“…This is truly unbelievable. Halfway through, six people have already died. Only one person remains.”

“What about Yu Xingjian?”

“He drove out of the school. We couldn’t catch up…”

‘Yang Fan, unreasonable anger, wrath. Feng Zilu, wasting food, gluttony.’ Xia Xingye stared out the window, thinking, ‘Only two more—greed and pride—and then it’s complete…’

“Xingye,” Qiu Ran asked him. In this dungeon, she had grown accustomed to relying on Xia Xingye’s reliability. “What should we do next? Yu Xingjian left, and we couldn’t catch him. If he’s killed outside the school… won’t Yan Xi become a true evil spirit?”

“Damn it, we’ve been stuck in this school for so long, yet we couldn’t prevent a single death. What’s going on?” Li Fen gritted his teeth in frustration. “What the hell!”

Xia Xingye quietly watched Li Fen’s anger. He gently said, “Then there’s only one way left.”

“A way?” Qiu Ran looked at him with hopeful eyes. “What way?”

Li Fen did the same. Xia Xingye had become the backbone of the entire team.

They trusted Xia Xingye. Whatever method he proposed, they would follow.

Xia Xingye lightly parted his pale lips and whispered, “Kill Yan Xi.”

“The current Yan Xi hasn’t fully become an evil spirit. He’s exhausted too much power killing so many people, constantly communicating with the outside world and the living, and is being eroded by Yang energy. He’s very weak now. We all have life-saving tools. Killing him in this state won’t be difficult.”

“As long as we kill him and stop him from becoming a terrifying evil spirit, we can survive.”

The next evening, light rain began to fall. Yu Xingjian returned to the school.

For an entire day, he had driven around the city like a desperate, headless fly. He searched every direction, every exit, only to discover a final, despairing truth—

The city of Yangshui he was in was an isolated island cut off by a black chasm.

He went from hopeful to utterly despairing. He tried every possible method—cars, trains, planes… but none could take him out of this city.

It was as if the entire world had abandoned and imprisoned him, making him an outcast.

In infinite despair, he smoked an entire pack of cigarettes and ate a bowl of Lanzhou beef noodles. Gradually, his eyes turned red, and his teeth began to chatter.

Long ago, Yu Xingjian believed that his fate was in his own hands. That was why he came to Minghua High School, hoping for a fresh start. Guilt and panic were drowned in despair, and slowly, the instinct for survival, mixed with anger, swept over his heart.

‘I just want to live! To live decently and well… Why must I die here?’

‘I didn’t kill him. He killed himself. How could it be my fault? He wants revenge… revenge? Why should he seek revenge on me?’

There’s a kind of person who never reflects on themselves. Faced with others’ accusations, they only try to justify themselves, seeking a reason to feel at ease.

He remembered his childhood self, his parents’ pride; his teenage self, the king of the kids; the day he received his acceptance letter from a prestigious university, feeling triumphant; teaching at the best high school in the city, only to have his entire career ruined by a small mistake, and then being sent to this place…

Now, he was going to die, and his death was because of… a weak, malleable… boy!

‘Is being dead something great? Is being a ghost something great?’ he thought viciously. ‘If you were so easily driven to suicide when alive, why act so high and mighty after death?!’

‘I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die! What should I do… right, return to Minghua High School. Where it began, it must end… I refuse to believe I can’t defeat that ghost!’

He drove back to Minghua High School, but upon seeing the familiar school gate and the flagpole, his courage burst like a soap bubble.

‘Can I defeat it?’ he kept asking himself as he walked. ‘Can I defeat that ghost?’

Thinking of his parents’ disappointed eyes, the whispers of colleagues and relatives, he summoned boundless courage.

As long as he eliminated Yan Xi, broke the ghostly barrier he set up, and escaped from here, he could start over in another city. At worst, he wouldn’t be a teacher anymore; he’d do something else… As long as he was alive, everything could start anew. The student who was slapped deaf, Yan Xi… they were just a few dusty stumbling blocks on his glorious path in old age.

Their futures were over, but his wasn’t.

Because he was still alive!

Returning to the teachers’ office, he collapsed into his chair and let out a long sigh.

Then, he saw a dark red notebook on the desk that didn’t belong to him and that he had never seen before.

“What’s this?”

He hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and opened the notebook. On the first page, written in neat handwriting, were a few lines.

“The Seven Wonders of the School”

“Also known as the Seven Deadly Sins”

If Lin Huai were here, he would recognize the handwriting—it was identical to the future diary he saw on his first day at the school.

But he wasn’t here.

“Volume One: Sloth.”

“Volume Two: Envy.”

“Volume Three: Lust.”

“Volume Four: Wrath.”

“Volume Five: Gluttony.”

“Volume Six: Greed.”

Chapter by chapter… Yu Xingjian flipped through the pages. At first, he read quickly, skimming through the lines. But gradually, he slowed down, slower and slower.

It was a story of a bullied boy seeking revenge on everyone. The ways they died… the sins…

It was identical to the wonders he had seen in the school!

Drowning, hanging, being crushed, suffocating, poisoning…

Falling from the sky.

After reading the chapter about himself, Yu Xingjian’s strained nerves finally reached their limit!

“Hahahaha—hahahaha—”

He burst into laughter, then viciously said, “Want me to fall? Then come on!”

Extreme panic and complex emotions intertwined, pushing his mind to the brink of collapse. He let out an inhuman scream, clawing at his hair.

Then, he threw the notebook down and rushed toward the corridor where, according to the book, he would fall from the flagpole.

The notebook was casually tossed onto the desk, and as the wind blew through the window, it slowly flipped to the next chapter.

“Volume Seven: Pride.”

The chapter that should have been first—the jump from the building—was left for last.