Chapter 25: Class-A Yellow Warning, Lotus Lake (14)

Ge Hua is dead?

All three were startled. Forgetting to listen to the servant, they rushed into the room together.

Passing through the main hall and entering the bedroom, Xu Yiliu first saw Chen Diandian slumped on the floor, and then Ge Hua lying on the bed beneath the covers. Ge Hua’s expression was peaceful, showing no signs of anything unusual. Xu Yiliu placed her fingers under his nose.

No breath.

She did not confirm it immediately; instead, she took his hand and pressed it against his wrist to check for a pulse. He was indeed dead. There was not a trace of pain on his face, and the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned. If not for the lack of vital signs, anyone would have assumed he was simply fast asleep.

At that moment, both Xu Yiliu and Ji Xianxing recalled the words he had spoken the day before:

"Ruyi died yesterday, Kong Yueming drowned this morning, will I be next... Even if I die, I don't want to die in such pain..."

It would be a lie to say they were not shocked. If death could be triggered by those words, then the criteria for the "word-spirit" were far broader than they had imagined. It seemed that even uttering the word "death" was dangerous.

Xu Yiliu suddenly felt an itch on her waist and instinctively wanted to scratch it. Her eyes swept back, falling unconsciously on Chen Diandian.

"What's wrong?" Ji Xianxing asked in a low voice, noticing her staring at him.

Xu Yiliu remained fixed: "There's a problem... I'll explain later."

She thought she might now know how to deal with one of the pollutants. Ji Xianxing understood.

With the experience of having dealt with Kong Yueming's body earlier, Fang Xiaoyi handled things extremely efficiently this time. Before long, Ge Hua was taken away by the servant and the farmhands.

The group went to have breakfast. Chen Diandian followed the other three like a zombie, having almost grown accustomed to the grim routine. He couldn't help but bite his fingernails, thinking: First Kong Yueming, then Ge Hua, so is he next? After all, the others were so capable; they didn't look like people who would die before him.

He was afraid, terrified, scared to his core. He feared that death would suddenly close in, that he might not wake up tomorrow, that he might never see his parents again. He had studied hard for over a decade just to get into Haicheng University; his future was supposed to be bright. He did not want to die here at all.

As his fear deepened, a sense of resentment and unwillingness began to grow within him. He resented why he was the one trapped in this terror, and he was unwilling to simply sit and wait for his own death.

Humans are strange creatures. When they don't know they are going to die, they think about striving to live; but when they clearly know they are going to die, they suddenly give birth to malice that would not exist in ordinary times.

That was exactly how Chen Diandian felt now. His premonition grew stronger, and he felt the proximity of death more and more clearly. It was a death he had no power to escape. Since he couldn't save himself, he began to think of doing something else.

For instance, making someone else die before him.

As long as he wasn't the first to die, it felt like he had won. Chen Diandian bit his finger, his gaze shifting between the three people in front of him. His eyes lingered on Fang Xiaoyi for a moment before moving to Xu Yiliu.

If someone as capable as her died before him...

Just as he was lost in thought, the person in front suddenly turned around, her gaze colliding with his. Xu Yiliu was tall, and perhaps due to lack of sleep, her eye sockets were slightly sunken, accented by dark circles. When she looked directly at him, he felt as if he had been seen through, and he couldn't help but lower his head in guilt.

He heard her say: "You aren't safe alone. Come with me later."

Chen Diandian was stunned, and both Ji Xianxing and Fang Xiaoyi were even more taken aback. Ji Xianxing, in particular, did not believe that Xu Yiliu was as kind-hearted as Fang Xiaoyi.

Xu Yiliu asked him with a smile: "What’s wrong? If you don't want to, that's fine."

Chen Diandian waved his hands in a flustered display of gratitude: "No, no, it's just that Teacher Fang has always been the one looking after me..."

"It can't always be Teacher Fang," Xu Yiliu said. "I think changing things up occasionally might lead to new ideas."

Fang Xiaoyi frowned, wanting to say something, but was interrupted by Ji Xianxing: "I think so too."

She said stiffly: "I plan to go find that opera troupe again with Teacher Fang. Let’s split up."

"How about we go to Lotus Lake?" Xu Yiliu asked Chen Diandian. "I’ve always felt there are still clues there, and if nothing else, a change of scenery would be nice."

Chen Diandian smiled stiffly: "Okay."

What good would a change of scenery do? No one could help with this kind of thing; only one could save oneself. And Chen Diandian knew he couldn't save himself—he lacked the ability.

It was so unfair that he, the only man left among them, had to face the terror of dying first...

He followed the group into the main hall, his mind elsewhere, his eyes drifting toward Xu Yiliu from time to time. Following her was fine; if he really were to do it, being alone with her would undoubtedly give him a good opportunity.

Death... He thought, this Class-A mission is so difficult; since everyone is going to die anyway, what does it matter if she dies before him?

Fang Xiaoyi frowned as she watched Ji Xianxing and Xu Yiliu. The two of them had orchestrated the regrouping in perfect sync, leaving her no room to argue. Her intuition told her they were planning something she didn't know about. Yet, Xu Yiliu remained calm, and Ji Xianxing was as expressionless as ever; no matter how hard Fang Xiaoyi looked, she could see nothing.

Fang Xiaoyi could only focus more on Chen Diandian. She noticed his hands were trembling, his eyes darting toward Xu Yiliu, his forehead covered in cold sweat, his cheeks flushed—it looked like fear, but also like excitement.

She immediately sensed that something was wrong with Chen Diandian. She wanted to speak up, but in the next second, she rubbed her eyes in disbelief.

Chen Diandian...

On the young man's face, black lines were faintly visible, vaguely forming the shape of a human figure. The blank portrait from last night surfaced in Fang Xiaoyi's mind.

The three characteristics of the pollutant: transmission, infection, and mutation.

Xu Yiliu and Kong Yueming had both experienced transmission and infection, and Chen Diandian here...

Mutation.

Even though she didn't want to guess in that direction, the word still appeared in her mind. What was Xu Yiliu planning?

Fang Xiaoyi was about to stand up in horror, but then she heard a sudden, sharp coughing fit. She looked over—it was Ji Xianxing.

Ji Xianxing seemed to be choking, her head turned toward Fang Xiaoyi, coughing incessantly. Due to the seating arrangement, Chen Diandian could not see her face, but Fang Xiaoyi could see it clearly.

Ji Xianxing’s eyes were fixed on her, unmoving. She was warning her not to act rashly, not to disrupt the rhythm that she and Xu Yiliu had set.

Fang Xiaoyi struggled for a moment, then slumped her head in defeat. Without any other way to clear the mission, she had no right to stop this.

Every person ate this meal with their own hidden agendas. Xu Yiliu was the composed one; she was incredibly sensitive to human malice, and that one glance back had been enough to roughly gauge Chen Diandian's thoughts. However, she felt neither disgust nor resentment; or rather, compared to the pure benevolence of someone like Fang Xiaoyi, she was more accustomed to facing this kind of malice.

She wasn't a good person herself, anyway. Compared to being "good" or "bad," she preferred to call herself a pragmatist.

After the meal, as Xu Yiliu was leading Chen Diandian out of the manor, they heard the commotion coming from the opera troupe's quarters.

Chen Diandian hesitated: "Should we go take a look?"

"Let's go," Xu Yiliu agreed.

There was no rush, after all; there were too many people around right now. Chen Diandian’s thoughts were almost identical to hers.

From the direction of the opera troupe, there were mostly shouts and curses, mixed with the sound of a whip cracking over and over again. The sound of the leather lash striking flesh was incredibly loud; those who heard it had the eerie illusion that the blows were landing on their own bodies.