The men awkwardly tried to comfort the children, while Zhu Xi Ning and the others quickly managed to quiet them down.
In the end, only one little girl was still sobbing on the corridor, likely because Gu Xiang Kai had tossed her into the air and caught her, which had frightened her into tears.
Gu Xiang Kai looked embarrassed, and eventually, Jiang Xi Cheng took the little girl from him.
"Alright, do not just stand here frozen."
Jiang Xi Cheng did not even look at Zhao Zhenzhen, who still had a red handprint on her face. He nodded to Nan Yue while quietly coaxing the children.
Children cry quickly and forget just as fast; soon, they were running and playing in the corridor again.
Zhao Zhenzhen was left alone in the corridor for a long time before finally returning to her room, but no one paid her any attention. Everyone treated her as if she were invisible.
After lunch, Zhao Zhenzhen prepared to head to her class.
She tried her best to control her fear as she walked to the door and pushed it open, only to find herself face-to-face with Chi He, who was already preparing to lecture.
"...You lied to me!"
Zhao Zhenzhen's face twisted. She wanted to explode in anger instantly. She never expected that this newcomer, who seemed even more cowardly than her, would dare to deceive her.
"Teacher Zhao."
Chi He did not seem to fear Zhao Zhenzhen at all. He gave a cold smile that made the enraged Zhao Zhenzhen shudder.
How could one describe it...
It was like being stared at by a venomous snake flicking its tongue. His cold eyes were filled with pure malice, and that bone-chilling smile made the refined-looking Chi He appear almost like a mannequin for a moment.
"Are you planning to... disrupt the classroom order?"
Chi He's voice was very soft, yet it gave Zhao Zhenzhen a terrifying illusion.
He seemed to be looking forward to it... even craving to see her lose her life right then and there.
Zhao Zhenzhen stood frozen, unable to say a word. She could no longer judge where the mission rules or the killing intent lay, and she did not know if her name had already been written on a death list.
Chi He walked over to her and gently closed the door.
"Come, let us continue with the next lesson."
"One must be honest and trustworthy."
Zhao Zhenzhen stared blankly at the door while Chi He taught inside. It took her a long while to realize that if Chi He had lied to her, then her class was actually the next period, the Math class.
Thank goodness. Even though she had been tricked, she had not missed her class yet.
The afternoon passed quietly, but Nan Yue remained in her room with a grim expression.
Gu Xiang Kai was even busier after becoming a life teacher. The three men spent half the day washing clothes and changing bedsheets before they finally had a moment to rest.
"That Zhao Zhenzhen seems to have successfully attended her class."
Gu Xiang Kai spoke as he rolled down his sleeves. "What is wrong?"
Nan Yue withdrew her gaze and let out a cold sneer.
"We were screwed over by this mission."
Zhu Xi Ning was the quickest to react. "Are you saying there was something wrong with the two people dying during the Dormitory Inspection yesterday?"
Nan Yue's voice was cold to the extreme. "I know why nothing happened for the first few days, but something went wrong yesterday."
"Dormitory Inspection must be completed before lights out at 23:00. If you enter the students' dorms after lights out, you are violating the rules."
As soon as Nan Yue said this, those who knew about Zhu Xi Ning's prophecy understood.
The pitch-black darkness Zhu Xi Ning had seen after opening the door must have been because the lights were out.
Zhu Xi Ning murmured, "But we followed the time strictly for the Dormitory Inspection..."
As she spoke, she looked up at the clock on the wall with a look of disbelief.
"Is there something wrong with the clock?"
Everyone turned to look. Every room and classroom had an identical clock, and they had been attending classes according to these clocks.
"Yes. The clock... is running fast."
Gu Xiang Kai and the others knew Nan Yue was extremely sensitive to time; they had relied on her to judge the time back in Multi-fortune Town.
So, they believed her immediately when she said this.
However, Jiang Xi Cheng and the others were still unsure. Xu Yuan stared at the clock for a while and then said strangely.
"But when class ended today, I glanced at the clock. It was indeed exactly on time."
The curve of Nan Yue's lips held no warmth. "Because they also rang the bell early."
She had felt that something was slightly off about this mission, but if it had not been for the two deaths during the Dormitory Inspection last night, she might not have realized it.
The time was perfectly normal at the start of the mission, but from their first day, the clocks had begun to slowly drift.
The adjustment was so minute that it was impossible to feel, but after accumulating over several days, it differed from the actual passage of time by about five minutes.
At the same time, the school bells were rung early to ensure that whenever a scavenger checked the clock when the bell rang, it would match the time they expected.
With this two-pronged approach, everyone in the school relied on the clocks and the bells. With these two working in tandem, no one would realize that the time displayed on the clocks was wrong unless they already knew about the issue.
Nan Yue had spent the entire afternoon watching that clock. The difference per minute was negligible, but after sitting there for the whole afternoon, she was finally certain that the clock was the problem.
Everyone's expressions turned grim, especially the scavengers who had not yet performed a Dormitory Inspection.
No one knew when they would hit that critical point where the inspection would coincide with lights out. Anyone could be the one to encounter it, which was why Zhu Xi Ning's prophecy did not show a specific person's face.
But they were well aware that they were just a hair's breadth away from being the ones who died last night.
Seeing how terrible their expressions were, Gu Xiang Kai frowned and barked, "What is with all this gloom? Get it together!"
"Now that we know what the problem is, it is simple. We just conduct the Dormitory Inspection early tonight."
"I... I do not dare..."
Gu Yun was pale with fright as he pleaded, "Can I do it tomorrow? I will definitely do it tomorrow."
No one spoke. After all, only a few people had not done the inspection yet, and the others could not decide for them.
In the end, Xu Yuan agreed.
"Then I will go with Zhao Zhenzhen today."
There was a hint of ruthlessness in Xu Yuan's eyes, and his expression soured at the mention of Zhao Zhenzhen.
"There is one more thing. Life teachers can enter the students' dormitories at any time. I want to ask you all to look for any clues regarding the school."
Jiang Xi Cheng felt a bit helpless at this. They had searched everything they could over the past few days, but the dorms yielded no useful information.
"It probably is not anything obvious. Given the style of this mission, it might be in some unexpected place."
Nan Yue thought for a moment. "Do you remember... the words under our beds?"
Jiang Xi Cheng raised an eyebrow. "You think it is on the bed board?"
They had looked under the beds, but because of the angle, it was difficult for an adult man to see anything on the underside of a child's bed board.
"Or somewhere else underneath the bed."
Nan Yue felt a bit agitated. She was not a life teacher, so she could not just go in and search whenever she wanted, but time was tight. She felt certain there must be clues they wanted inside the school.
"And the kitchen."
She looked at Gu Yun. "Is there anywhere Engineer Yang does not let you touch?"
Gu Yun was dazed for a moment before saying, "Well... his wardrobe. He keeps things like his aprons in there."
Rate on N.U.
