When Xia Miao materialized onto the desolate sports field clad in nothing more than a thin nightgown, her mind remained in a foggy haze. It wasn’t until a biting midnight wind swept past that she snapped entirely back to reality.
The surrounding area was completely deserted, its desolate, barren landscape lending a deeply eerie, sinister chill to the atmosphere.
Remembering that she had left her school uniform jacket sitting inside the classroom, Xia Miao calmly pivoted and headed toward the main academic building. Slipping into the lightless classroom, she located the jacket draped over her chair and threw it over her shoulders, feeling instantly much better.
Just as she was about to step back out into the hallway, a faint commotion drifting from outside caught her attention.
“Leng Yeting, do you genuinely have a way to keep us all alive?”
Leng Yeting possessed a notoriously cold, ruthless personality. In his eyes, anyone other than Ruan Zhizhi was basically no different from a common, insignificant insect. He typically couldn’t be bothered to waste his breath on such people, but tonight was a critical juncture—he needed bodies to help carry out his plan.
Suppressing his mounting impatience, he replied:
“Since I said I have a way to get you all through this alive, I wouldn’t lie to you.”
Flanking Leng Yeting were two men who happened to be his “classmates.” Just like Leng Yeting, they had managed to scrape by through sheer luck across four prior games. Tonight marked their final trial; if they could survive this last round, they would finally win their freedom and escape this hellhole once and for all.
That was why they were praying with every fiber of their beings that tonight’s executioner wouldn’t turn out to be the infamous murder ghost. Yet fate proved cruel—tonight’s butcher was precisely that terrifying entity.
Just as they were at their wit’s end, Leng Yeting had approached them with a proposition, assuring them that following his lead would guarantee them a lifeline.
“If it were any other monster, we might still stand a chance by simply hiding,” Leng Yeting explained. “But tonight happens to be the murder ghost. You all know better than anyone how nightmarish that thing is—his absolute favorite pastime is hunting down every last survivor. If we don’t take matters into our own hands, we’re all dead meat!”
Simply uttering the three words “murder ghost” was enough to send a shudder of terror through anyone’s spine. They had managed to coast by and survive the previous rounds by the skin of their teeth precisely because they hadn’t run into a game led by the murder ghost. Tonight was entirely different; sticking to the old, passive strategy of hiding would spell certain death.
One of the taller men asked:
“What is this foolproof method you claim will keep us alive?”
Ruan Zhizhi remained glued to Leng Yeting’s side throughout, looking equally eager to know what plan he had hatched.
Striding over to the window, Leng Yeting pointed out into the distance:
“Because hardly anyone ever makes it out alive from a murder ghost’s game, almost no one has ever noticed a crucial pattern: only on the nights when the murder ghost manifests does an extra building appear on the grounds.”
Following the direction of his finger, the others quickly zeroed in on the area near the school cafeteria.
Having visited the cafeteria numerous times before, they instantly spotted the glaring anomaly.
As a rolling bank of black fog slowly dissipated, a dilapidated structure loomed into view directly behind the cafeteria.
Ruan Zhizhi couldn’t help asking:
“What on earth is that?”
“An abandoned boiler room,” Leng Yeting answered flatly.
Convinced that Leng Yeting might actually have a viable plan to smuggle them out, the two men swallowed their doubts, agreeing to fall in line and move out under his command.
Hiding quietly inside the classroom, Xia Miao overheard every word of their exchange. Her dark eyes rolled thoughtfully as she formulated a plan to trail quietly behind them.
“Miaomiao!”
Materializing right before her out of thin air, the boy startled her with a sudden jump.
“Crybaby!” Lu Yan teased with a smirk.
Without an ounce of hesitation, Xia Miao delivered a sharp kick to his shin.
“Can’t you just pop up and talk to me like a normal human being?!”
Taking the hit without retaliation, Lu Yan muttered a string of quiet, aggrieved complaints under his breath, though he didn’t dare kick her back. Instead, he simply laced his fingers through hers, leading her out of the classroom and straight into the campus infirmary.
“Things are going to get pretty rowdy out there soon. Just stay put right here and rest, Miaomiao.”
Inside the infirmary, the bed had already been neatly made, waiting solely for Xia Miao to crawl in and catch some sleep.
Xia Miao caught him by the wrist.
“Lu Yan, aren’t you going to stay here with me?”
Bending down slightly, Lu Yan gave her cheek a playful poke.
“What’s the matter, is the little crybaby scared of the dark? You really can’t bear to be apart from me for even a second, how embarrassing!”
Narrowing her eyes at him, Xia Miao watched his smug, triumphant expression with an itch to sink her teeth into something.
“Lu Yan, are your skin acting up again?”
Shuddering violently under her glare, Lu Yan ultimately caved to cowardice. Reining in his petty arrogance, he muttered softly:
“Miaomiao, I have to go to work, I can’t stay here and keep you company.”
Xia Miao wasn’t an unreasonable person. She knew full well that Lu Yan was even more eager than her to find time to cling together, but if he had obligations to tend to, he was likely even more annoyed by it than she was.
She had no choice but to compromise.
“Then hurry back. I’ll wait right here for you to come pick me up.”
A subtle shift crossed Lu Yan’s gaze. It looked as though he were suppressing a wave of heavy emotion while desperately trying to maintain his usual, carefree, blockhead facade. Stretching out a hand, he gently caressed her cheek, letting his thumb linger against her skin for an agonizingly long stretch—as if forcing himself to carve the physical sensation of touching her deep into his memory.
“Miaomiao.”
Sensing a sudden, heavy shift in the air, Xia Miao frowned.
“What’s wrong?”
Lowering his head, he pressed his forehead affectionately against hers.
“I might be at work for a long time. If daybreak comes and I still haven’t made it back, just walk out of here on your own, understand?”
Xia Miao nodded.
“Got it.”
Pulling her into a tight embrace, Lu Yan planted several heavy, lingering kisses across her face.
“Alright, be a good girl and stay put here. I’m off to work!”
Watching Lu Yan’s retreating figure vanish from sight, Xia Miao couldn’t shake the nagging, bizarre sense of unease pooling in her gut. It felt less like a temporary parting and more like a final farewell—as if he were never going to see her again.
It’s not like we’re never meeting again. Why is he acting like he’s starring in a tragic tearjerker?
“Of course you won’t see him again, considering you’re about to leave.”
Startled, Xia Miao whipped her head around.
“Who’s there?!”
As the privacy curtain drawn across the partition slid open, a tall man wearing a white mask and sporting a heavily plastered, cast-bound leg was revealed lying on the adjacent bed. He had remained so utterly motionless and silent that neither of them had realized he was hiding in the room all along.
Recognizing him instantly, Xia Miao leaped up in sheer astonishment.
“You’re that mega movie star!”
“Wait…” Glancing down at his injured leg, a sudden realization struck Xia Miao like a bolt from the blue.
She remembered Fang Ke’ai mentioning that her secret crush had wound up admitted to the infirmary to recover from a leg injury. Come to think of it, the guy she and Lu Yan had targeted earlier had suffered an arm injury, hadn’t he?
“Do you… happen to know a girl named Fang Ke’ai?”
A sudden spark lit up the movie star’s eyes.
“I do.”
It was precisely because Fang Ke’ai had completely failed to drop by and visit him that he had been stuck rotting in the infirmary for so long.
Cold sweat broke out across Xia Miao’s forehead as she realized she had inadvertently committed a rather monstrous act of betrayal against her best friend.
Then again—
Lifting her eyes, Xia Miao pressed:
“What did you mean just now when you said I was about to leave?”
The star explained:
“Anyone who manages to survive five distinct games earns the right to walk out of Red Moon Academy for good. Tonight’s executioner is the murder ghost, yet he hid you away right here instead of hunting you down—isn’t that his way of cutting you loose and letting you go? This is your fifth game, and you’ve made it through.”