Chapter 130: Madness
“The killer is here!” Cao Song, the student who stayed back for a grade, shouted. When he was playing basketball yesterday, he saw Zuo Bo kill the other Zuo Bo.
The blood dried on his clothes. Zuo Bo looked unstable. He wore the patient’s garb underneath the white coat. He was both the doctor and the patient. He walked to his seat and sat down. Zuo Ba placed the bag beside his desk. He didn’t take out his book but placed the bloody knife on the table. The students didn’t get close to him. Even his deskmate, Xiong Di, was so scared.
Zuo Bo held the knife and mumbled to himself, “This is a large learned helplessness experiment. Despair and pain cannot be controlled. However, if we give up on the resistance, even if we have the chance to escape in the future, we’ll miss it due to habits!” “Zuo Bo…” Qian Junran’s eyes twitched. He covered his nose when he smelled the blood on Zuo Bo. “Are you alright?”
Zuo Bo slowly turned his head around. He glanced at Qian Junran and then at the numbers on the blackboard. “Don’t be afraid. This is false consensus bias. There are not that many ghosts and monsters. You think there are monsters all around you because there are monsters in your hearts.”
None of them could understand him and thought that Zuo Bo was crazy. Wang Jie nudged Gao Ming and whispered, “Do you understand what he’s saying?”
“I feel like Zuo Bo is more aware than most students. He has a point.”
Wang Jie frowned. There were two doctors in the class. One was insane, and the other one agreed with him.
The teacher on the podium stared at Zuo Bo. Then, she stood up and changed 32 to 33.
The students were shocked. Based on their prediction, the majority of the class was humans. They didn’t think Zuo Bo was still alive based on his appearance.
“Zuo Bo, are you… human or ghost?” Qian Junran asked directly.
“I am a human… and a ghost.” Zuo Bo revealed his teeth. He played with the knife. “There’s only one real human in this class. No…” He slowly turned his head to look at Gao Ming, “He’s only half a human.”
Zuo Jun didn’t wish for Zuo Bo to continue, so he pushed Yuan Hui away. “I don’t know if Zuo Bo is alive or not, but I can tell you that I am a human. Therefore, the two numbers on the boards, the 33 represents humans, and the 13 represents ghosts.”
“I agree with him.” Liu Yi raised her arm. “Can we have a show of hands?”
The students gradually raised their arms. The female teacher smiled, “It seems like you’ve come to the answer. Then, you can hand in your answer early. Write your answer down, fold it and put it in this box.” The teacher took out a white box from under the podium. The box had the words, election box written on it.
Zuo Jun was the first to drop his answer. Since no accident happened to him, the rest followed. As more answers were dropped into the box, the wooden box slowly turned bloody. It was like the students were not dropping the answer but picking someone to kill. When Wang Jie dropped his last answer, the originally white box had turned fully red.
“No one got it wrong. You are cleverer than I thought.” The female teacher caressed the bloody box like it was her lover. “This voting box will follow you to aid you in your decision until you leave the school on the bus.
“You don’t need to know what’s inside the box. You only need to know that all the decisions have been made by you collectively. None of you is innocent.” The teacher looked at them. Then, she carried the box, didn’t check it and left.
After the teacher left, the students turned to Zuo Jun.
It was Zuo Jun who insisted on the reunion. Now that something had happened, he should take full responsibility. If they didn’t beat him, they probably would be angrier.
“How many times do you want me to say it? No matter what we do, everyone will gather here due to various reasons. This is our destiny and something we should face.” Zuo Jun’s large body gave off intense pressure.
“I don’t care about destiny. I only care about the tape.” Wang Jie was not afraid at all. “Give me the tape, and I can help you.”
“Which tape? The one where you dismembered the homeless man? Or the one where you pushed the old lady into the river?” Zuo Jun then snapped his fingers. “I know. It should be the one where you buried your girlfriend!”
“Do you think you can drive a wedge between the class and me with these lies?” Wang Jie’s hands in the drawer tightened. However, there was no nervousness on his face. “The tape I want is the one you stole from my study when you pretended to search it. Those people are scarier than ghosts.”
“You react so quickly.” Zuo Jun took the podium and wiped away the numbers. He took out the centre’s black band and placed it on the table. “I know everything every single one of you has done because I represent the investigation centre.”
Zuo Jun showed his hands. He told everyone about his identity as Queens Centre’s Captain. Everyone reacted differently. Gao Ming was thinking too. Why would Zuo Jun show his hands so soon? Was it because Situ An was losing in the competition to control the school? Originally, Queens Centre had the best investigators in the east city. Situ An even had Qing Ge and Doctor Lu. However, they were all eliminated by Gao Ming.
Huan Men Centre was split into two. Situ An could use fewer and fewer people. He was forced to change his plans and told Zuo Jun to come meet the students. “This school is a Level 4 anomaly. The reason for its appearance is within us.” Zuo Jun used the black band to project the info onto the blackboard. “Ten years ago, there was a car accident at the intersection between Han Hai, Xin Lu and Han Jiang. The bus overturned in a tunnel. All the passengers went missing, but strangely enough, no one came to lodge a police report.” Zuo Jun then showed a picture of everyone. “The police scanned the crime scene and found us through the hairs found at the scene.” Zuo Jun slowed down. “I know this is hard to believe, but after comparison, the hairs found on the bus do belong to us. All of us were on the bus when the accident happened, but none of us remember it.”
The projection changed. An arrow extended down from every student, and the arrows pointed to a black-and-white portrait.
“The key thing is the police discover that not only did Class 13 forget everything that night, but we also forgot the only student who didn’t get on the bus.” Zuo Jun walked to the portrait and pointed at that blurry face.
“How do you know there’s a 51st student? Everyone has no memory of him, so maybe he doesn’t exist.” Du Bai said in a low voice.
“Because the police found a schoolbag on the bus. The bag contains the 51st student’s homework, books and his phone.” Zuo Jun’s words grabbed Gao Ming’s attention.
“All of us who should be on the bus survived. The 51st student who shouldn’t be on the bus had his things left on the bus?” Liu Yi’s eyes sharpened. “What is in the kid’s phone?”
Zuo Jun revealed the phone content. “On the night of the accident, all of us called or messaged the kid. Some hoped he’d come to the tunnel, and others warned him not to go near the tunnel. Everyone had differing opinions, but from the results, it looked like he followed the majority.”
“If that’s true, then we would be all ghosts. Even then, we still tricked him over. That’s so bad.” Zhou Sisi didn’t dare to imagine it. She forgot her original choice. She only remembered that before she came to this school, she saw a bloody man in her bed.
“50 of us tricked the 51st student to the tunnel so that he’d be our scapegoat. 1 life for 50 lives?” Qian Junran nodded. “That’s a good trade.”
“Or he might need to suffer the pain and despair of 50 people on his own.” Gao Ming’s sudden words startled Qian Junran.
“Gao Ming might be closer to the truth. The 51st student is trapped in a death loop. As long as we are alive, he’ll have to keep dying.” Zuo Jun took out the centre’s latest investigation results. “However, a few days ago, the student who should be trapped in the death loop escaped. However, he has been in a dying state. After he was discovered by the people of Han Hai Charity, he was sent to the hospital next to Han De Private School. Then, he was personally taken care of by East City Centre’s temp Chief, Situ An. Then, the anomaly happened.”
“The anomaly here is caused by the 51st student. Does this mean that he can only escape from the death loop once 50 of us are dead? We have to return to accept our fate for him to regain a new life?” Zhou Sisi shook her head.
“That’s right. Due to our selfishness, Student 51 is under intense pain. Fate is trying to rectify this mistake, and that’s why we’re gathered here.” Zuo Jun put away the band, “Perhaps we conducted a bloody vote ten years ago, and it was us who pushed the innocent kid into the abyss.”
The class was silent as everyone pondered Zuo Jun’s words. However, there were exceptions. No matter what Zuo Jun said, Gao Ming wouldn’t be moved because he knew what kind of person Situ An was.
Situ An had a trump card no one knew about. He wanted to use it to control the 51st student, but there was an accident, and there were two sets of rules at the school.
Based on Gao Ming’s understanding of Situ An, the reason he had Zuo Jun gather everyone at the school was because he wanted to use the students in a trade with the 51st student.
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