Chapter 4

The door was pushed open before he knew it.

Ning Buwen got to his feet again and looked calmly at the woman before him.

The person standing in front of Ning Buwen was his homeroom teacher.

What could he say? She was exactly who he had guessed, and his accuracy scared even him.

His homeroom teacher was dressed completely differently from usual. In class, she looked like an utterly unremarkable female teacher, so ordinary that Ning Buwen had never suspected her in the slightest. But now she wore a white dress with a pair of bright red high heels, creating a strange sort of beauty.

"What are you doing here?" His homeroom teacher stared fixedly at Ning Buwen, her eyes seemingly unable to move. Anyone else might have been frightened to tears by the sight of her.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ning Buwen glanced at her feet and found that the spot where she stood was free of blood.

No—it would be more accurate to say that the heavy bloodstains that had covered the floor were rapidly fading away beneath her feet.

In the blink of an eye, the floor was clean again.

"Ma'am, I checked my pockets just now and realized my money was gone, so I was on the floor looking for it." Ning Buwen answered without changing expression or missing a beat. "What are you doing here, ma'am? Are you here to see Doctor Cheng too?"

After speaking to his homeroom teacher, Ning Buwen actually felt calmer.

He was gambling.

Gambling that he would not be killed.

He had been in her class all along, and his homeroom teacher had never done anything to make him suspicious. If she had really wanted to kill him, there was no need to wait until now.

Besides, Doctor Cheng was in the infirmary. His homeroom teacher had dressed up so beautifully to see him; he was probably the one she loved. Most women would not go on a killing spree in front of the person they liked, right?

Even a supernatural instance had to follow basic principles.

"Class is about to start. Come back with me." His homeroom teacher cast a somewhat reluctant glance toward Doctor Cheng, then reached out and grabbed Ning Buwen by the shoulder.

Her hand was terrifyingly cold.

Her strength was frightening too. Ning Buwen tried to break free, only to find that he could not move at all.

No. If he left with her, there was no telling whether he would die.

"Doctor Cheng! My Xiaoxin is sick. Could you please take a look at him?" Ning Buwen immediately shouted at the top of his lungs. It was already too late for his homeroom teacher to cover his mouth.

Doctor Cheng leaned out from the infirmary and frowned slightly when he saw Ning Buwen.

Ning Buwen frantically signaled with his eyes at the beautiful school doctor.

"I'll examine him first. You should go back." Doctor Cheng still said this to the homeroom teacher.

The hand on Ning Buwen's shoulder immediately withdrew.

Saved.

"You still have to come to class eventually." His homeroom teacher gave Ning Buwen a long look. The click of her high heels gradually receded down the corridor.

Ning Buwen relaxed his shoulders slightly, only then noticing that his palms were sweating.

"Come in," Doctor Cheng said. "You came to find me on purpose, didn't you?"

"Doctor Cheng, do you need an assistant here?" Ning Buwen scooped up Xiaoxin and darted inside. "I don't want to go to class."

Going to class now would be practically suicidal.

His homeroom teacher was definitely a formidable character. And whether the thing killing people in the classroom had anything to do with her was still unknown. He could not leave the school, and he had to survive the next few days. After thinking it over, the infirmary seemed to be the only place he could stay.

"No."

The moment Doctor Cheng finished speaking, he saw Ning Buwen holding his dog and beginning to cry, tears pattering down.

"Xiaoxin, you and I are destined to sleep on the streets. If we die by the roadside, I wonder whether the police will investigate. I should leave a suicide note saying it has nothing to do with Doctor Cheng—I'm the one who wants to die..."

Ning Buwen could cry like nobody's business, as though tears cost nothing at all.

He seemed to have been like this before. The slightest thing could make this student weep bitterly.

"Stop crying." Commands sounded rather unconvincing coming from Doctor Cheng's beautiful face.

Ning Buwen wailed even louder. "If you won't let me stay, I'll cry forever!"

"You're a boy, and you're almost an adult." Doctor Cheng's expression twisted a little, but even an ugly expression looked beautiful on someone beautiful.

"All I've ever heard is, 'Men, go ahead and cry—crying isn't a crime.'" Ning Buwen sniffled. "Or are you favoring girls over boys, Doctor Cheng? Discriminating against me because I'm male?"

"How long do you want to stay?"

"Not long, not long." Ning Buwen held up four fingers. "Just four days."

"Two days."

"Five days."

"Three days."

"Three and a half!"

"Fine."

Doctor Cheng felt exhausted. "Even if you're avoiding your studies, you can't hide here forever."

"I'll hide for as many days as I can." The moment Doctor Cheng agreed, Ning Buwen wiped away his tears.

His ability to cry on command and stop on command was truly astonishing.

"Doctor Cheng, do you have any eye drops here?"

"Yes. Why?"

"I cried a little too long just now, and my eyes hurt. I'll put in a few drops first." Ning Buwen blew toward his eyes, but they still hurt a little.

It had been many years since he had put on such an earnest performance of "crying" in front of anyone. The only two times he had cried had both been in front of this school doctor.

But as long as it worked, that was enough.

Ning Buwen felt no psychological burden whatsoever. As long as tears could be a weapon, who cared whether he was male or female?

"I'll get them for you." Doctor Cheng was speechless for a moment, but in the end said nothing and dutifully went to get him the eye drops.

The infirmary consisted of two connected rooms. This one was the office; through the door was another room with several small single beds for students. Most of the medicine was kept in the other room as well.

Ning Buwen took the opportunity to inspect the office.

There seemed to be nothing wrong with Doctor Cheng's office. Apart from some professional books and books on psychology, there were only a few potted plants. Overall, it resembled a small reception room, and the warm tones made it easy for people to let down their guard.

"Your eye drops." Doctor Cheng returned holding an unopened box of eye drops.

"Thank you, Doctor." Ning Buwen deftly opened the box, unscrewed the cap, and tried hard to drip the medicine into his eyes.

Unfortunately, he could not get a single drop in.

Ning Buwen's eyelashes were long and curled, and his eyes were sensitive from all the crying. With his head tilted back like this, the drops ran everywhere, yet none made it in.

Doctor Cheng seemed unable to watch any longer. He walked over to Ning Buwen with a helpless expression. "Let me help you."

He took the eye drops from Ning Buwen. With one hand, he pulled back Ning Buwen's eyelid and said softly, "Look up. That's it."

From Ning Buwen's current angle, he could clearly see Doctor Cheng's chin and his magnified face.

He really was beautiful.

Even from such a disastrous angle, the doctor's beauty was still unbelievable.

It was not as though Ning Buwen had never seen beautiful people.

In fact, where he had grown up, there had never been any shortage of beauties—people of every nationality, mixed-race, blond, black-haired. If you could think of it, you could find it.

But even so, every one of this school doctor's features was exactly Ning Buwen's type.

Good-looking, gentle, and a doctor.

Even his gender was one Ning Buwen liked.

For the first time, Ning Buwen felt that coming to Pandora's game world was not entirely without benefits.

This was hell, but it was also heaven.

It could destroy everything, but here, too, one could find everything one wanted.

A strange thought occurred to Ning Buwen for once.

He had heard that in the real world, some members of the elite legions established specifically to clear Pandora possessed the power to bring NPCs with special abilities out of instance worlds and make them their own assistants.

If I joined too, could I find a way to bring Doctor Cheng out?

It was not impossible, was it?

And compared to those strange people already living through the apocalypse, NPCs from these worlds were more reliable.

Doctor Cheng paid no mind to what Ning Buwen was thinking and returned to work at his desk.

Ning Buwen looked over and found that apart from a photograph of Doctor Cheng himself, there was nothing else on Doctor Cheng's desk.

"Doctor Cheng, why do you have a solo photo of yourself here?" Ning Buwen pointed at the frame. "This looks like it was taken just after you started at the school, doesn't it?"

In the photo, Doctor Cheng stood alone before the camera. Behind him was a large sign, with the words "Teacher Recruitment" written along one side.

"It was taken when I passed the interview and joined this school." Doctor Cheng thought for a moment. "But I always feel like I shouldn't be the only person in it."

By evening, Doctor Cheng got off work.

Before leaving, he gave Ning Buwen a spare key.

"Doctor Cheng, do you like my homeroom teacher? She dressed up so beautifully to see you today. She came to confess to you, didn't she?" Ning Buwen asked with feigned innocence.

"You should focus on your studies." Doctor Cheng did not answer directly. "A lot of people at this school like me."

—Was that the privileged answer of a beautiful person?

After that, Doctor Cheng said nothing more.

The moment he left, Ning Buwen immediately shut the door and prepared to conduct a thorough search.

Ahem.

Though he had developed a bit of lust for Doctor Cheng, lust could not compare to his life.

The office was small, but it was still troublesome to search, especially with the drawers locked.

Fortunately, the locks were an old style. He could just barely open them with a piece of wire.

"Who knew something I learned at eight would actually come in handy now?" Ning Buwen mocked himself as he nimbly opened Doctor Cheng's drawer.

Inside was a diary.

Ning Buwen opened it without the slightest psychological burden. Privacy, sorry, but this was not the time to worry about that.

Doctor Cheng's diary entries were all very short. Rather than a diary, it was more like a few casual notes.

Still, Doctor Cheng's handwriting was quite pretty. Of course, not as pretty as he was.

XX Year, XX Month, XX Day.

I entered this school with her. It is just as she said: a very rigid place. She was an optimistic person. I do not believe she would commit suicide simply because she could not bear the pressure of teaching.

XX Year, XX Month, XX Day.

This school is strange, but I do not know what is strange about it...

XX Year, XX Month, XX Day.

Zhao Shudong says she wants to avenge her older sister, but I find it strange. Were they really that close? Perhaps I should not have come to this school.

Hm?

Seeing this, Ning Buwen raised his eyebrows slightly.

Zhao Shudong was his homeroom teacher's name. Coupled with words such as "older sister" that he had heard earlier, the truth was about to reveal itself.

That dead female teacher was Zhao Shudong's older sister. Like Doctor Cheng, Zhao Shudong had come to this school to discover why her older sister had committed suicide.

Seen that way, the matter was not difficult.

But what role exactly was Zhao Shudong playing in all this? Judging by what he had encountered earlier, you would have to be blind to call her human.

Ning Buwen wanted to keep looking, to see whether there were any photographs or anything similar. Since the three of them had known one another from childhood, there should be something like that. If it was not in the office, he would have to find a way to inspect Doctor Cheng's home.

Knock, knock, knock.

Someone knocked on the infirmary door.

Once, then again.

The knocking made Ning Buwen's head ache even more.

"Student Ning, are you in there? Could you open the door and let me in?" A woman's voice outside kept pleading.

Ning Buwen held his breath and backed away again and again.

She could not get in.

If she could, she would not be saying this outside.

"Open the door, Student Ning."

The voice outside changed.

It sounded a little like Chen Ying.

"Didn't you want to ask about my previous homeroom teacher? Open the door and I'll tell you, all right?"

Ning Buwen covered his ears and shook his head hard, trying to shake the voice out of his mind.

When he opened his eyes again, he was sitting in the classroom, surrounded by classmates he knew.

Strange. Why am I in the last row?

"Now, evening self-study begins. Class is dismissed." Homeroom teacher Zhao Shudong stood at the podium and smiled faintly at Ning Buwen. "The student who stays last, remember to close the door."

— Author's note —

The first instance is a little special, but this novel is absolutely not pure horror!