At this foggy school, no one was willing to believe Jin Sheng, in the boy’s memory, they were all monsters. When everyone around him became ugly monsters and they were the majority, those who were not monsters would appear so out of place. They might even choose to voluntarily assimilate into the ranks of the monster for the sake of self-preservation.
Han Fei raced down the corridor. Ma Manjiang who was 3 metres tall chased after him like a beast and close behind him were the students with no eyes. The students technically had no idea what was happening, they were quite literally blindly following behind Ma Manjiang, because the teacher was always right.
Everyone at the school was twisted in Jin Sheng’s memory. The place looked like a normal school with a simple and idyllic shell, who would have thought something so disgusting and horrifying would be lurking within. The dim corridor appeared to stretch indefinitely. Han Fei could hear Ma Manjiang catching up to him. Han Fei was slower, weaker and smaller than Ma Manjiang, this was exactly how Jin Sheng would have felt back then. ‘Is there really an exit around here?’
Han Fei still carried a bit of hope at the start of the mission but now, after having a taste of Jin Sheng’s experience, despair started to grow in his heart like wild grasses. He was helpless on his own and he could find no ally in the people around him. None of the students he met was willing to believe him, if anything, they all turned against him by helping Ma Manjiang. As Han Fei made his desperate escape, the more people he met, the greater the hatred was directed his way. Everyone wanted him to perish away silently, just how despairing that must have been?
Turning to look behind him, the two mouths in Ma Manjiang’s eye sockets yawned large. They could not wait to consume their meal. The distance between them was getting closer and closer. If Han Fei did not find a solution soon, he’d be caught up and bitten into pieces.
‘Ma Manjiang has absolute power of authority at the school. This bastard is an expert at disguise and manipulation, he has used his many different faces to swindle everyone at school. To get the other students and staff’s help, I will need to first expose Ma Manjiang for the true monster that he is!’ Han Fei turned back around. He believed that once he stopped, he would be killed. He would not even have the chance to struggle, the power level difference between them was too big.
Inside the isolated school, a new transfer who was ostracized and hated aimed to expose a well-loved and well-respected teacher, who also happened to be the biological son of the school’s headmaster. How was he supposed to accomplish that?!
Han Fei was not given much time to solve that conundrum. This was not a fair battle, it was a one-sided onslaught.
‘If no one at this school is willing to believe Jin Sheng, then there wouldn’t be 4 victims in the Case of the Foretold Murders. In other words, at least 3 other people were willing to trust Jin Sheng at this school and they ultimately sided with him.’ Han Fei pulled up the memory of the 3 other victims. They were Wild Hound, Zhang Guanxing, the security guard, Ol’ Lee as well as Jin Sheng’s class teacher. If Han Fei was to find any help at this school, it would come from these three people. ‘The butterfly is controlling Ma Manjiang, instead of doing what he should be doing according to Jin Sheng’s memory, he is directly coming after me. This is the easiest way to kill me, but it also provides a breather for the 3 other victims. If there’s something that I can contribute to ease someone’s misery, then this is all worth it.’ Han Fei’s brain did not stop spinning while his legs moved. Even in a death chase, his mind was very calm. ‘I should try to locate the other victims as soon as I can and get them to help me. Together, we might be able to find Ma Manjiang’s weakness.’
Han Fei was reliving Jin Sheng’s despair but he ultimately was not Jin Sheng. Even in this most disadvantageous situation, he still aimed to kill Ma Manjiang. As an outsider in Jin Sheng’s memory world, Han Fei would lose part of his memory every time he died; the same rules should apply to the blue butterfly since it was an outsider as well. The blue butterfly’s goal was probably to demolish Han Fei and then capture the real Jin Sheng.
Similarly, Han Fei’s goal was to murder the blue butterfly again and again, to grasp information about the real Butterfly from it!
Flying down the corridors, Han Fei headed to the first floor. His first destination was the security room. Yi Ming Private Academy in Jin Sheng’s memory world had the same layout as its counterpart in real life. The infirmary was on the 2nd floor of the office building and the security room was on the first floor of the education block. The two were not that far but the journey was extremely treacherous for Han Fei.
Any of the windows and doors could open at any moment to pull Han Fei into them. Tentacles of arms hid inside every classroom, they grabbed at Jin Sheng. They wanted to dig out Jin Sheng’s eyes and cut off his ears to turn Jin Sheng into one of them. For Jin Sheng, being ‘normal’ required paying a really high and bloody price.
With experience from his previous manager mission, Han Fei stayed away from places where he believed danger might lurk. The density of ghosts at Yi Ming Private Academy was not that high, that was the only good news so far. Evading the danger, Han Fei finally arrived at the stairwell. At the landing between 1st and 2nd floor, there was a bespectacled teacher who was lecturing a group of students. Just from appearance, the teacher looked no different from a normal human.
‘Lee Xun?’ When he laid his eyes on the male teacher, information about him appeared in Han Fei’s mind. He was a former staff member at Yi Ming Private Academy, he was Jin Sheng’s math teacher. There was nothing too special about him and he was not featured in any crime stories. ‘Why would he appear in Jin Sheng’s memory world? And in the appearance of a normal human?’
Regardless, Han Fei could not afford to stop. He moved down the stairs and kept his eyes away from the students and teacher. Han Fei did not once ponder the possibility of asking the math teacher for help. His instinct told him things were not that simple.
When Han Fei passed the teacher, he suddenly picked up his speed. But the math teacher had been keeping his eyes on Han Fei when he first appeared and now he removed his glasses. Strings of black threads shot out from his empty eye sockets. They bound around Han Fei’s body, preventing him from moving. ‘This man is on Ma Manjiang’s side!’
For a student, seeking help from a teacher when one was in trouble was something that could not have been more normal. However, the teachers in Jin Sheng’s memory were not to be trusted. They looked deceptively like humans but black lines would erupt out of their eye sockets to bind and constrain Han Fei.
‘Jin Sheng probably has approached Lee Xun in the past but the latter did not believe him. Instead, the teacher kept a watchful eye over Jin Sheng because Jin Sheng presented himself as a problem student who was out to slander a fellow staff’s reputation with nasty rumours.’ From Lee Xun’s perspective, he was only doing his job of preserving the school’s order and apprehending those who dared to cause chaos. But honestly, he did not really solve any problem. His disregard for Jin Sheng’s warning signs only increased the already heavy despair on the young student.
Jin Sheng’s pleas for help went unanswered. The other students looked at him with heavy annoyance, even the teachers refused to take him at his words.
Han Fei’s body was entangled and pierced through by black threads. Han Fei could feel his energy leaving his body. He tried his best to struggle but the ending seemed inevitable.
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