Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 81 The Red Flashlight

Yang Jian stood on the roof of the experimental building, and the red light of the Ghost Eye instantly swept across the entire campus.

Liu Yan told him that she had tried to detect the Lost Layer using Gu worms, but to no avail. The entire Lost Layer was currently deathly silent; not even a single bluish-black ghost infant could be seen. This was even during the supernatural tides.

It's not like they hid; it's more like... they completely disappeared!

This situation is extremely strange.

Like the calmest moment before a terrifying storm.

Yang Jian recalled that in the library, one of his ghost eyes had already observed the Source Ghost, who was completely submissive to Zhou Zheng! And he had seen it clearly...

It was someone he had met before...

The source of the ghost is in the school...

But the coffin nails, after pinning down the ghost's eye, stole a portion of his memories.

But now, a part of his missing memories has awakened!

He learned from Zhang Wei that the No. 7 Middle School had started classes and that Dachang City was beginning to be covered by a dark, gloomy atmosphere. He went to the school to find those ghost tamers and ask them what was going on.

He had met Zhao Kaiming, Zhang Han, Li Jun, Tong Qian, and others...

The source of the demon is someone from the school!
They're either students!
Or they're faculty or staff!
It cannot be ruled out that they are among those who control ghosts!
But if that's the case, is it related to that underachiever who committed suicide back then? Did he meet that person?
Anyway, the intelligence has been compiled. Now it's just a matter of whether we can get any further leads.

At this time, it was Class 5 of Senior Three.

It's break time after the second-to-last class, and there are fewer than ten people in the classroom.

English class representative Song Yu was tiptoeing as he wiped away the remaining content from last semester from the blackboard at the back of the classroom. Chalk dust flew everywhere, causing him to sneeze a few times.

“As is customary, the English Corner should take up at least one-fifth of the space.” Song Yu said, rubbing his nose and turning around, chalk dust sticking to his hair. “Li Hua, write a model essay in the first person, about inviting your foreign friend Peter to dinner—this is your classic masterpiece.”

Li Hua was hunched over his desk drawing the dividing lines for a blackboard bulletin board sketch when he heard this, his pen paused: "A classic masterpiece?"

"I remember that one year the college entrance examination essay topic was this: Li Hua invited his foreign friend Peter to dinner. It seems that Li Hua first appeared in an English essay."

"These are college entrance exam essays from twenty or thirty years ago, right? You still remember them?"

Li Hua's voice was muffled as he traced the same line back and forth on the paper with his pen.

Cheng Mi's seat was empty; the chair had been moved away.

Qi Lan suddenly pushed the sketchbook in front of Li Hua: "How about this?"

Her slender finger pointed to the center of the sketch, "I'll draw the playground here, and add..."

Her voice trailed off as she saw Li Hua staring blankly at Cheng Mi's seat.

At the same time, Ning Xuan quietly kicked Song Yu: "You should be more moderate with your jokes. Can't you see that Li Hua is unhappy right now?"

The classroom suddenly became eerily quiet, with only the ticking of the clock hanging on the back wall.

“I just heard from the academic affairs office,” Li Hua suddenly spoke up, “that Cheng Mi needs to go for treatment first due to health reasons. This is definitely not normal! How did he end up sitting next to me today? Did he flip over from behind?”

Song Yu snatched the sketchbook: "We'll talk about this later! Let's continue our discussion, and we need to give the sketch to the teacher after school."

He scribbled so hard the pages ripped. "Ning Xuan, you're in charge of the famous quotes section, just write..."

“Let’s use the line from ‘Exhortation to Learning’: ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,’” Ning Xuan said softly, her gaze falling on Cheng Mi’s seat.

Cheng Mi's desk drawer had been opened a crack at some point, and it was dark inside.

Qi Lan suddenly poked Li Hua with her pencil: "Hey, did you hear that?"

She lowered her voice: "The lock on your equipment room that was locked before was fixed yesterday, but Teacher Zhang absolutely refuses to let us use it during PE class, saying that it's being disinfected inside."

Li Hua suddenly looked up.

That incident also felt strange to him.

"Let's...let's discuss this again tomorrow." Ning Xuan suddenly stood up, her backpack strap catching on the chalk box.

Colored chalk was scattered all over the floor. She looked at it and suddenly said, "Hey, why is there no red chalk at all?"

After school, everyone listened to the radio again, and this time it was the school song as usual.

The school bell rang on time, and the sketch was handed to Liu Yan. She approved of it and told them to go home on time.

As the four of them hurriedly packed their things, Li Hua noticed something reflecting light in Cheng Mi's desk drawer.

Before he could take a closer look, Song Yu had already pulled him outside: "The cafeteria has a new sweet and sour pork with pineapple, it'll be sold out if you go too late!"

In the corridor, Qi Lan was the last to close the door. Just as she was about to close it completely, she seemed to vaguely see a figure sitting in Cheng Mi's seat through the crack in the door!
She was startled. When she pushed open the classroom door, she saw only empty desks and slightly swaying curtains.

Outside the school, Ning Xuan had just reached a road when she suddenly exclaimed, "Oh no! I forgot my math workbook in the classroom!"

She immediately turned around and ran back! At that moment, she completely forgot about the student rules that required students to leave school by 16:45 PM!

It was already 16:50.

The teaching building was eerily quiet.

Ning Xuan's footsteps echoed down the corridor, each step producing an eerie resonance. The moment she pushed open the classroom door, she froze on the spot—

The chair that had been moved from Cheng Mi's desk... is back!

Ning Xuan slowly approached and found that the desk drawer was also open.

Inside, textbooks were neatly stacked, with a math notebook on top.

She inexplicably opened the notebook and happened to turn to the latest page.

Then, she was horrified to discover that it contained the solution method for function problems that the math teacher had mentioned during the last class of the afternoon!
And the handwriting was exactly the same as Cheng Mi's! Ning Xuan had been a class representative before and was very familiar with Cheng Mi's neat and orderly handwriting!

But he's never in the classroom during math class!
"pat".

The back door of the classroom suddenly closed!
Ning Xuan turned around in horror and saw all the windows closing automatically, one by one. As the last rays of the setting sun were shut out, she heard a creaking sound coming from the drawer, like someone scratching at a wooden board with their fingernails.

At that moment, she suddenly noticed a small mirror in Cheng Mi's drawer.

Behind the small mirror, a figure stood on a desk behind her.

But the figure was obscured by her reflection, and only a portion of the grayish-white feet could be seen.

She remembered the student code of conduct...

Li Hua stood by the dormitory window, gazing at the dark campus. He hadn't touched the food in the cafeteria; he couldn't eat a thing.

He had called Cheng Mi earlier, but Cheng Mi's father answered the phone, his voice low and tired: "Xiao Hua, don't call anymore, we're already on the high-speed train."

"Uncle, what happened to Cheng Mi?" Li Hua gripped his phone tightly. "He was perfectly fine yesterday!"

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone, followed by a long sigh: "The doctor said he... needs to rest. We're going out of town for a while, so don't contact him recently."

After the call ended, Li Hua stared at his phone screen. Everything was too bizarre!

This is absolutely unbelievable!
Li Hua took a deep breath and decided to go for a walk on the playground.

The night breeze was cool, and the playground was deserted.

Li Hua was walking aimlessly when he suddenly noticed something reflecting light in the shadows under the old locust tree.

He squinted and took a few steps closer—

He actually saw it...

A red flashlight!

The red flashlight was crookedly wedged in a crevice in the tree roots. The red color was not like the normal color of the outer casing, but rather like a dark rust red after being soaked in blood. The paint was peeling off in patches, revealing the pitted metal underneath, which looked like a shriveled organ in the moonlight. Thin water streaks were running down its surface, whether it was dew or some other kind of slime, I don't know.

The lens of the lamp head was cracked with a spiderweb-like pattern, and the edges were covered with dark brown clumps, like dried blood scabs. Several faint fingerprints were imprinted on the anti-slip rubber grip, deeply embedded in the rubber, like the indentations left by someone gripping tightly before dying, the curvature of the knuckles was frighteningly clear.

The bottom of the flashlight had several dark red patches, irregularly shaped, forming a strange pattern, like congealed blood!
Just then, a gust of wind blew by, rustling the locust leaves overhead. The red paint of the flashlight flickered in the shadows of the trees, carrying a damp, musty smell and an indescribable eeriness. It lay there quietly, as if at any moment, a hand stained with dripping blood would reach out from deep within the tree roots and grasp it back into its palm!
Li Hua froze, his mind instantly flashing back to Article 6 of the Student Code of Conduct: "No red flashlights will be placed under the old locust tree in the southeast corner of the playground. If you see a red flashlight under the locust tree, please do not touch it and move away quickly."

Li Hua took two steps back, turned around, and ran!
"Snapped!"

After running only a few steps, the entire school was suddenly plunged into darkness!

A chorus of screams erupted from the dormitory building, followed by a flurry of footsteps. Li Hua stood rooted to the spot, his heart pounding, his vision blurred.

"All boarding students and faculty members, assemble on the playground immediately! Repeat, all boarding students and faculty members, assemble on the playground!"

The sound from the radio was crackling, like a bad signal.

Soon, panicked students gathered in the center of the playground. Some were wrapped in bath towels, their hair still dripping wet; others were clutching laptops, looking utterly frustrated, probably because they hadn't saved anything properly.

Director Chen used a megaphone to maintain order: "Circuit malfunction, repairs are underway! Class teachers, please take attendance! No one is allowed to turn on their cell phone screen!"

Liu Yan stood in front of the senior class (3) line, holding a bundle of green glow sticks in her hand, and distributed them one by one.

"Li Hua."

"arrive."

"Qi Lan".

"arrive."

"Song Yu".

"arrive."

"Lin Xiaoyu."

Huh? Why does Teacher Liu call Lin Xiaoyu by her name?
Fortunately, this time, I didn't hear "present".

Another moment passed.

"Song Wei".

Li Hua suddenly looked up.

Song Wei? Didn't he drop out of school with Lin Xiaoyu and Zhang Yu?
What’s even more terrifying is——

"arrive."

A hoarse male voice came from the back of the line.

That was definitely Song Wei's voice!
Liu Yan immediately swept her green glow stick across the crowd, while Li Hua couldn't see the end of the line from his perspective. But at that moment, the crowd suddenly stirred.

"Why is Song Wei here?"

"Who pushed me?!"

"Don't squeeze!"

Li Hua stumbled a few steps from the jostling crowd, tripped, and fell heavily to the ground. The pain from his scraped knee made him gasp, and when he got up—

The playground was completely empty!
Glow sticks, flashlights, noisy voices... all disappeared.

Only a deathly silence, and the faint sound of something coming from afar...

The sound of a baby crying!

Li Hua trembled all over, turned to run, but saw the flag-raising platform—

A black flag is slowly rising.

In the complete darkness, Li Hua was terrified.

At this moment, the only thing that could bring him light was under the old locust tree on the southeast side!
To hell with student rules!
Li Hua stumbled towards the old locust tree, grabbed the red flashlight, and frantically pressed the switch.

"Click, click, click—"

no response.

The baby's cries grew closer, as if they were coming from all directions.

He turned and ran, trying to turn on the red flashlight as he ran.

When I ran down to the flagpole...

"Snapped!"

The flashlight finally turned on.

Under the blinding red light—

A baby, grayish-white all over with black pupils, was crawling on the ground toward him!
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(End of this chapter)