Chapter 97: Gray World
After having a friendly exchange with the female student, Lin Ye finally understood what these people were going crazy about.
Song Xiao Xiao’s friend was not the first student to disappear from the school; the student disappearance incidents had already been going on for some time.
These students were all insiders who believed that there was some kind of connection among the disappeared individuals. Perhaps it was like an infectious disease—if they killed one person about to disappear, they could stop this phenomenon from spreading further.
That was why they wanted to kill Wei Chen.
“We’re saving the world! If this continues, humanity will eventually vanish entirely, and you who try to stop us are the murderer!”
Seeing that Lin Ye did not attack them, the female student mustered her courage and loudly accused him.
“You’re right to do this, but how can you be sure that killing Wei Chen will stop this disappearance phenomenon? If you kill everyone in the school, maybe then you can be sure this won’t spread to the outside world.”
Lin Ye squatted in front of the female student, cupping her cheeks with both hands, forcing her to look into his eyes. He spoke slowly and seriously.
“…No… you can’t do this! There are still so many people in the school!”
The female student panicked; at this moment, she deeply felt the approach of death. “But compared to all of humanity, these people can be sacrificed. After all, it’s the entire human race. How about you start first?”
Lin Ye dragged the female student to the edge of the rooftop. The earlier fight against those students had energized him somewhat; now he needed some new stimulus.
“Wait, Lin Ye, what are you doing?”
Wei Chen got up from the ground, still a bit dizzy, but he had no time to waste.
“She wants to throw us off here, and I think what she’s doing is right.”
Lin Ye didn’t know why, but when doing such things, his sense of fatigue greatly diminished.
“But she didn’t succeed, right? We don’t have to be like her! Stay clear-headed!”
Wei Chen didn’t want his friend to become a murderer.
“I am clear-headed. If doing something wrong doesn’t come with punishment, then justice is meaningless. Do you know what the first code of law of humanity says?”
Lin Ye showed a malicious smile.
“What does it say?”
Of course, Wei Chen didn’t know.
“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”
Lin Ye released the female student’s right hand. Amid brief screams, he turned and left the rooftop.
Although he still couldn’t remember what he had to do, Lin Ye was now completely sober.
Wei Chen silently followed behind Lin Ye; he wasn’t sure if he was right, and now was not the time to think about it.
Song Xiao Xiao lived in female dormitory room 206, and Lin Ye quickly found her room.
The room was empty, but there were two beds.
“Where is her roommate?”
Lin Ye carefully examined every corner of the room, trying to find some clues.
“She lives alone, no roommate.”
Wei Chen was also looking for clues, but his way of searching was more like destroying the crime scene.
“Then that roommate must be the friend of hers who disappeared.”
Lin Ye indeed didn’t find belongings belonging to anyone else, but the room didn’t feel like a single room.
The arrangement of items, the position of the beds, the angle of the curtains… all the details emphasized that two people lived in this dormitory.
‘Song Xiao Xiao told the closest people about her friend, but Wei Chen didn’t believe such a person existed. Probably everyone else reacted the same way, so she was very sad.’
Lin Ye tried to put himself in Song Xiao Xiao’s perspective, thinking about her movement trajectory.
“What kind of person is she? If her friend disappeared, what would she do?”
Lin Ye only knew that Song Xiao Xiao was Wei Chen’s girlfriend and didn’t know much about her.
“She’s a smart and brave girl; she would probably go looking for her friend.”
Thinking about Song Xiao Xiao’s situation, Wei Chen felt even more regretful.
‘Brave means she likely did something that caused her own disappearance. Smart means she would consider that she might disappear too.’
‘If she disappears, Wei Chen would look for her just like she did for her friend.’
‘So she would leave some kind of clue, but since her friend’s belongings all disappeared, she wouldn’t leave the clue among her own items.’
Lin Ye’s gaze stopped at the pillow on the empty bed. Someone had swapped the pillows of the two beds.
Taking off the pillowcase, Lin Ye found stitch marks on one side of the pillow core.
The marks were few and easy to miss if not looked at carefully.
Cutting open the pillow core, Lin Ye found a hand-drawn map inside.
The map was very abstract, but when it came to abstract drawings, Lin Ye was above her level.
“Follow me.”
Lin Ye followed the map and soon found a hidden door behind a bookshelf in the school library.
On the other side of the door was a gray world. Apart from the color, it was exactly the same as here.
“I’ll go in to find her. You lock the library and don’t let this door close.”
Lin Ye decisively decided to split up.
“No, Xiao Xiao is my girlfriend. If I had believed her back then, it wouldn’t have turned out like this. So I’m going in; you watch the door here.”
Wei Chen didn’t want Lin Ye to risk going in. If Lin Ye disappeared too, he would never forgive himself.
“I’m confident I can bring her out, provided this door stays open. Are you?”
Lin Ye didn’t wait for Wei Chen’s answer and stepped inside.
The other side of the door was the same library. Lin Ye looked back to reassure Wei Chen outside and then went deeper inside alone.
Leaving the library, there was no one in the gray world’s teaching building.
Lin Ye soon spotted Song Xiao Xiao lying on the playground through a window.
Besides Song Xiao Xiao, there were many vague gray figures constantly moving on the playground. One gray figure stood right beside Song Xiao Xiao.
‘So troublesome, might as well just leave her here…’
Lin Ye suddenly tugged at his hair, not allowing himself to keep thinking.
‘No, can’t stay here any longer.’
Lin Ye gave up thinking and dashed straight toward Song Xiao Xiao. Those figures didn’t stop him, but as soon as he approached them, Lin Ye started to have some negative thoughts.
‘Ah, I want to disappear so badly…’
‘I’m so tired, don’t want to continue…’
‘So boring, want to leave here…’
‘So painful…’
‘So annoying…’
...
These thoughts were like thin threads, constantly entangling deep within Lin Ye’s heart. As long as he lingered even a little, he would be trapped here forever like the other gray shadows.
Although he wanted to stop a few times, Lin Ye eventually ran to Song Xiao Xiao’s side.
The shadow standing beside Song Xiao Xiao didn’t stop Lin Ye; instead, it stepped back a few paces and bowed its head to thank Lin Ye.
Lin Ye glanced at her, picked up Song Xiao Xiao, and quickly returned to the library.
Voices of arguing and banging came from the other side of the door. Lin Ye hurriedly passed through the door with Song Xiao Xiao; he definitely didn’t want to be trapped in this world.