Illusions, Lies, Truth

Volume 3, Chapter 4: School Wonders, Part 2—The Forgotten People

Translator: lucathia (proofread by Taffygirl13 & Trespasserby)

“Why did you say those words?” Lu Yang demanded, “Don’t you know what the legend says?”

Jian Zhi asked in confusion, “If I don’t say it, how would we disprove the legend? We agreed from the start that I would say these words.”

“When did we decide something like that?” someone asked, puzzled.

“Huh? Didn’t we say I would handle this legend?” Jian Zhi looked like he was confused, too.

“No way…”

Lu Yang was practically about to explode. At first, he had thought the club to be somewhat proper, given that they had prayed and made offerings before setting off, so nothing serious should happen. Yet they had actually deliberately assigned someone to test the legend out?

“Don’t continue any further!” Lu Yang snapped, “If I knew the club activity would be so absurd, we wouldn’t have participated at all. Lin Zhixiang, I’m leaving with Jiang Ziya. Are you coming with us?”

He purposely called out to Lin Zhixiang. If enough people left, the remaining ones wouldn’t want to continue further. They already looked to be very tense. If half of the people left at once, the club activity would be disrupted.

“Okay.” Lin Zhixiang also felt that something was off. She hadn’t heard that someone would be assigned to test the legend out. She could not help but glance suspiciously at the president.

Xu Xikai quickly explained, “I didn’t! If you don’t believe me, you can ask Jian Zhi. I didn’t tell him to do it!”

The group looked at Jian Zhi one after another. The latter nervously said, “It was a message sent to the group. Weren’t we supposed to check the one we wanted to test? I saw that the anatomical model was the only one left, so it was the only choice I had.”

“There wasn’t a message like that!” Xu Xikai spluttered, “If you don’t believe me, go look at the sender of the message. It definitely wasn’t me!”

The group looked at each other, their expressions weird.

Lu Yang pulled on Jiang Ziya and said, “Come, whether or not the others leave have nothing to do with us anymore.”

Jiang Ziya was still taking measure of the anatomical model. As he turned to look at the rest of them, he abruptly felt that something was wrong.

Lu Yang saw that his expression was odd and immediately pretended to look at the group in anger, allowing Jiang Ziya more time to look.

Jiang Ziya surveyed the group. Wrong, wrong, everything is wrong!

Jian Zhi couldn’t help but draw a cross over his chest. With a pained face, he prayed, “God…”

Jiang Ziya finally realized what was the most wrong.

Where’s the angel?

“Jian Zhi.”

Jian Zhi turned and looked at Jiang Ziya, asking in puzzlement, “Huh? What is it?”

Jiang Ziya looked at Jian Zhi. There didn’t seem to be anything off about him, but the angel behind him had disappeared. When did such an eye-catching angel disappear?

He had been worrying the entire night, feeling that there was something off the entire time. He hadn’t noticed the whereabouts of the angel at all. Just when in the world did the angel disappear?

Was it when Jian Zhi told the model “You’re so fake?” No, this classroom is so dark. If the angel was still around then, it should have been really obvious, so…

His shoulder was suddenly patted. Jiang Ziya looked over at Lu Yang.

“Everyone’s leaving.”

Only then did Jiang Ziya notice that everyone was looking at him.

“Oh, let’s go.” The more he thought about it, the more his head hurt. He also felt that it was best to leave quickly.

The group left the medical building, pretty much in no mood to talk. Lu Yang purposely walked in the very front with Jiang Ziya to lead the way. Everything was too off, so it would be better for him to lead them to prevent them from being brought to the locations of the remaining two school wonders.

Thump, thump…

Behind them, Xu Xikai let out an “oh” and softly said, “The basketball courts are on our way out.”

The group frantically looked to the side. Indeed, wasn’t the area beside the trees the basketball courts?

Around five or six figures stood under the shadows of the trees and laughingly said, “Want to play together?”

It’s the exact same as the legend! The group was practically scared out of their wits. Are all the legends going to happen today without fail?

I don’t care anymore! Lu Yang was truly angry now. Just as he was about to summon Slay without a care to vanquish all of these things before them…

“Huh? You’re not part of our major, right?”

Several guys holding basketballs walked out from the shadows of the trees. They looked at the group in surprise and asked in confusion, “Why were you walking out of our department?”

The members of the Supernatural Phenomena Studies Society all stared at the guys in front of them in a stupor. They seemed to be… normal people?

Xu Xikai asked in suspicion, “W-Why are you playing basketball so late?”

A guy rubbed his nose and said, “Is it late? After we finish, we’ll be just in time for breakfast. After eating, we can cram, and then go directly to class.”

What about sleep?

Lu Yang turned to glance at Jiang Ziya, who shook his head.

Only then did Lu Yang relax and say, “Sorry, we were just doing a club activity. We’re already done, so we were about to leave.”

The other person asked curiously, “What kind of club activity would bring you to our department?”

“Night venture.”

The guys stilled and laughingly said, “A night venture to our department? Ah, got it, it was to investigate the school wonders, right?”

“Exactly.” Lu Yang nodded. Right now, all he wanted was to quickly lead this group away from the school and have them all go home right away. Then, he still needed to discuss with Jiang Ziya what exactly had happened.

“Then, were you chased?” The guy asked with a smile.

“Chased?” Jiang Ziya asked, confused.

“By the anatomical model!”

The mention of the anatomical model made Lu Yang want to turn and glare at Jian Zhi, but he snapped, “No! Nothing happened!”

“Why so angry?”

Lu Yang really couldn’t be bothered to explain. He tossed out the words, “We’re leaving,” and then led everyone away.

Seeing that, the guys from the medical department also realized that this group wasn’t very happy, so they rubbed their noses and watched them walk away.

“Really, why the ugly complexions?”

“Bet they were scared out of their wits by the anatomical model.”

“Please, that super fake model? Even if it really were to chase me just like the legend says, I wouldn’t be scared of it, okay! Besides, you just have to run around in the building once and you’d be fine.”

“I would hope so. If it really were to chase you, I bet you’d piss your pants…”

“Let’s split.”

Xu Xikai said in frustration, “It was my fault. I didn’t plan it well.”

“It wasn’t really your fault…”

The group consoled him but didn’t dare to say more. No one really knew just who was at fault. In a normal night venture, no one really anticipated encountering anything supernatural, thinking it would probably be super boring. However, in actuality… Now, they would rather this activity have been beyond boring!

“Let’s go for now.” Xu Xikai said, dejected, “I-I’m going to see if there’s anything odd caught on film. I’ll notify everyone in a club message later.”

No one dared to respond, practically wanting to resign from the club.

Xu Xikai probably understood it, too. He hurriedly said, “Club adjourned,” and everyone fled.

As he watched the departing figures, Jiang Ziya froze.

“Ziya, let’s go.” Lu Yang had his head lowered to look at his cell phone as he patted Jiang Ziya’s shoulder and said, “Let’s go to the abandoned campus. My dad hasn’t responded this entire time. I don’t know why. I want to go take a look.”

“…Seven, eight.”

“What?” Lu Yang lifted his head to look at Jiang Ziya, who was so spooked, it was like he was possessed.

“Plus us two, there are only ten people!” Jiang Ziya’s breath grew short. He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. “Why is there only Lin Zhixiang left of the girls? That’s not right at all!”

“What’s wrong with ten?” Lu Yang asked, confused.

Jiang Ziya grabbed Lu Yang’s shoulder and blurted, “Think about it. Just how many girls did our group start with?”

“Girls? Wasn’t it just Lin Zhixiang…” Lu Yang stilled. Wait! No, I think I heard a girl other than Lin Zhixiang speak.

His face immediately darkened. “Just how many people did we have?”

Jiang Ziya tried his utmost to recall it. “I’m certain that a girl disappeared. She spoke in the bathroom, saying that she was about to pee herself. And she even asked if a ‘hello’ was all that was needed, and then we could go?”

“Shit!” Lu Yang rushed out, “She gave the greetings, and she even said it before Xu Xikai! Hurry, we’re going back to that bathroom!”

They glanced at each other and shot off. They rushed right back to that bathroom. Jiang Ziya wasn’t as fit as Lu Yang. By the time he reached the bathroom, all he could do was gasp.

Lu Yang surveyed the entire bathroom. There was nothing wrong outside the stalls, but there were several stalls with closed doors, which gave him a foreboding feeling. He walked over and opened them one by one, until he opened the final one and angrily let slip, “Shit!”

A girl sat just like that on the toilet, all four limbs limp, yet her neck was pulled backward to the point that it was lying across the toilet tank. Both of her eyes along with her mouth were stretched to the extreme, as if she had seen the most horrifying thing on earth.

Lu Yang thoroughly remembered her now. She had been in the group in the beginning, yet she had disappeared when they had left the bathroom, and he hadn’t noticed it!

I was with them, yet this kind of thing still happened…

Lu Yang practically wanted to slap himself several times. If Jiang Ziya hadn’t seen through it, Lu Yang would probably have gone home foolishly and not known that a death had already happened!

Lu Yang walked out of the stall, only to see Jiang Ziya stand in front of the mirror, his body frozen in place. This sight scared him to death. He called out in a strangled voice, “Ziya!”

Jiang Ziya turned, looking dazed, as he said, “Lu Yang, he’s not in the mirror.”

“What?” Lu Yang asked in confusion, “Who’s not in the mirror?”

“The guy who made the wish at the Pond of Meditation!” Jiang Ziya frantically babbled in a high voice, “He’s not in the mirror’s reflection. The mirror didn’t reflect anyone extra. Someone was actually missing. It’s missing the guy who made the wish! He had already disappeared by then! We started with twelve people!”

Lu Yang mumbled, “The Pond of Meditation…”

He paled and pulled Jiang Ziya. They once again shot off, rushing to the pond.

A corpse was floating in the pond, face up, a one yuan coin stuck in the middle of its forehead. The pose was exactly the same as the mermaid that had died.

Lu Yang opened his mouth and fell to the ground on his butt, unable to say anything. He asked, shaken, “Ziya, were we really only twelve?”

“Yes.” Jiang Ziya pulled on him and said, “Let’s go. Jian Zhi’s angel disappeared by the time we were at the anatomical model. I can’t remember when. We have to find Jian Zhi.”

“Jian Zhi…” Lu Yang knocked on his own head, hard, and said with certainty, “He was still there when we parted earlier.”

Jiang Ziya knew that, too. “Yeah, so we might still be able to save him.”

Hearing that, Lu Yang jumped right up from the ground. “Let’s go!”

“But the problem is, where?”

Lu Yang looked at Jiang Ziya.

“Do we find Jian Zhi, or do we go to where the anatomical model is?”

Lu Yang took a deep breath and said, “I’ll go to the anatomical model. You find Jian Zhi, but don’t overdo it. If you find anything to be weird, protect yourself first. You got that?”

Jiang Ziya smiled. “Relax. I would never leave my sis by herself.”

“Good.” Lu Yang patted Jiang Ziya and said, “Come. We can’t waste any more time. Let’s split up! We’ll keep in contact with our cell phones.”

Jiang Ziya nodded and watched Lu Yang leave. He also began walking, to the place where everyone had split up. At the same time, he called Jian Zhi, but the call wouldn’t go through. With no other choice, he could only ask Lu Yang for Lin Zhixiang’s number.

“Hello? Who is this?”

“Jiang Ziya.”

“You shouldn’t have saved my number. I am the bane of all existence. Don’t you understand—”

Jiang Ziya stopped in his tracks. There were feathers on the ground, snow white feathers that were faintly glowing.

“Do you know where Jian Zhi lives or where he might be?”

He followed the feathers as he spoke with Lin Zhixiang.

“Jian Zhi lives in the dorms. I don’t know where he is right now. Why are you asking?”

“Something went wrong with the night venture. I suspect that something might happen to him. Can you help me find him?”

Lin Zhixiang sucked in a breath and said, “I’m nearby the dorms. I can head over right away.”

“Are you able to enter the guys’ dormitory?”

“Don’t tell me you don’t know. It’s difficult for a guy to enter the girls’ dormitory, but don’t you know how easy it is for a girl to enter the guys’ dormitory?”

Jiang Ziya indicated that he lived at home, so he had no idea the difficulty for either situation.

“Go over and take a look. If you can actually find him, it would be best to take him somewhere with lots of people.”

“Okay.” Lin Zhixiang hesitated for a moment and asked, “Then, are you coming over?”

“I have another clue over here. If it doesn’t pan out, I’ll head over. Pay attention to your own safety. Don’t end up by yourself. If anything comes up, call me or Lu Yang.”

“Okay.”

After ending the call, Jiang Ziya began to search by following the feathers. He had a feeling that he would find Jian Zhi if he found the angel, even though when he last saw Jian Zhi, the angel had not been by his side.

Lu Yang rushed straight back to the medical building. Even though he didn’t have a key, it was not a big problem for him. He directly broke a window to enter. Things were urgent; a little bit of damage in return for a student’s life—even the university president would thank him.

After rushing to the anatomical model, Lu Yang looked at it but didn’t find anything different about it. He didn’t know where to start, so he just summoned Slay to his side to stay on guard.

Slay flew around the anatomical model, but nothing happened. Normally, demons and familiars were extremely afraid of demon-slaying spiritual swords.

Lu Yang hardened his heart and directly snapped off a finger from the model, but nothing happened. It was just plastic. He had thought that maybe “something” was inside, but nothing was there at all.

Frowning, there was nothing else he could do. As a precaution, he simply destroyed the anatomical model completely.

His cell phone went off. Lu Yang didn’t even look at it before he answered. “Ziya?”

“It’s Lin Zhixiang.”

“Oh, what’s up?”

Lin Zhixiang hurriedly said, “Jiang Ziya told me to find Jian Zhi. I’m at the guys’ dormitory right now, but his roommate says he hasn’t returned. I tried to call Jiang Ziya but the call didn’t connect.”

Lu Yang paled and quickly asked, “Did he tell you where he was going?”

“No. He just said he had a different clue.”

Lu Yang felt that his head was about to explode. He had told Jiang Ziya to find Jian Zhi. So where the hell did he go?

He quickly rushed outside, tapping his cell phone without a pause. Jiang Ziya really didn’t answer.

A few students walked over to him, but Lu Yang couldn’t care less about them.

“It’s you?” The other person asked in a strange voice. “Hey, why did you return? And what’s the hurry? Don’t tell me the anatomical model is chasing you?”

Lu Yang didn’t pay him any attention. He turned to leave.

“Then, all you have to do is run around in the building once. It won’t chase you any more after that!”

Lu Yang froze. He turned and asked, “What did you say? What exactly is the legend of the anatomical model?”

“Isn’t it that if you touch the anatomical model in the middle of the night, it will start moving and chase you wildly? But all you have to do is run around the hallways of the department, and it will obediently return to its original spot.” The university student laughingly said, “Haven’t you noticed that our building is a square shape? Probably, there was a senior who liked to run in the hallways in the middle of the night, so this legend came about… Hey, classmate, you okay? Your face looks terrible.”

It’s different! Lu Yang’s face turned ashen. The school wonder that the club had detailed had clearly said that you couldn’t tell the anatomical model that it was so fake, or else you would take its place and turn into an anatomical model.

Wait, come to think of it, aren’t these school wonders way too bloody? Logically speaking, school wonders didn’t have to involve people dying. Getting chased around by an anatomical model, like what this person before him mentioned, was much more like a school wonder. However, the school wonders told by the club were pretty much all deadly. That in itself was already a red flag.

He tried to recall those wonders. He remembered that the first one was the east-facing classroom: if you saw the student that jumped off the building smile at you, the next day, you would jump at the same time…

Lu Yang froze. Nearly all of the wonders they had experienced had come true. Why hasn’t the first? Is it because no one saw the smile of the student who jumped? You can’t even tell it was a person in that video… Jiang Ziya!

If there was anyone who could see the “smile,” it was definitely Jiang Ziya!

“Shit!”

He shot off, rushing to the rooftop of that building. Even though the dictated time was the same time of the following day, these school wonders were practically breaking the speed limit. You turn your back and someone’s dead. Who knows if the foretold time would be accurate or not!