Chapter 14 | The Crazy Persona Must Not Collapse

Ye Li pressed her thin lips together, her brows furrowing slightly as confusion flickered in her starry, fox-like eyes.

First came the school heartthrob who drew everyone's attention, and now a stellar top student popped up?!

By comparison, she seemed to be the only one who was ordinary and plain...

Plain, my ass!

A pair of cowards!

Ye Li thought with disdain.

Still, she genuinely couldn't figure out the connection among the three of them or why they were trapped together in the ghost domain.

For a moment, it felt like the mystery was only snowballing, with not a single useful clue or lead in sight.

Tossing the textbook back into the backpack, she zipped it up, dropped it on the ground, and plopped right down, ready to wait for him to return.

The thick fog all around was still creeping and spreading outward. The sports field where she sat was the center of the campus, so she wasn't worried about him not coming back.

Still, Ye Li clearly underestimated the top student's ability to turtle up.

Not until the thick fog had nearly encircled the entire field and the rustling sounds echoed all around did she finally see Qi Yezhou tottering out of the mist.

He was clutching a wooden stick, clearly having come prepared.

Seeing Ye Li sitting on the ground guarding his backpack, Qi Yezhou visibly froze, doubt flashing in his eyes. Only after a good while did he tentatively ask, “A-Are you human?”

“Are you blind?!” After everything she had been through, Ye Li had completely run out of patience and snapped, “You’re the one who fucking isn’t human!”

“I’m sorry!” Qi Yezhou pushed up the glasses on his nose in mild embarrassment. After inspecting her carefully, he asked, “You’re from Arts Class 11, right?”

Ye Li’s eyes flickered slightly.

The top student clearly recognized the body’s original owner. It seemed her excuse of being a “new transfer student” wouldn't fly.

She nodded in acknowledgment.

Qi Yezhou still stood in place without stepping forward. Keeping his distance, he called out, “Could you give me my backpack back?”

Ye Li had no intention of making things hard for him. Grabbing the backpack beside her, she tossed it over to him.

Qi Yezhou hurried to offer a “Thank you,” picking up the backpack and hugging it to his chest.

By now, the fog was thick, and that bizarre “minced meat” was creeping toward them.

Seeing that time was running out, Ye Li cut straight to the chase: “Are you also repeating the same day over and over, trapped in a ghost domain full of rotting corpses the moment six in the evening hits?”

“Yes, that’s right!” Qi Yezhou was quite cooperative.

Ye Li asked again, “Is there anyone else like you?”

“There’s another girl named Luo Jiajia from Science Class 2,” Qi Yezhou said. “What about you?”

“I have a companion too, Le Jun from Science Class 3.” Ye Li asked, puzzled, “Where is Luo Jiajia then?”

Qi Yezhou’s expression shifted slightly. “She was bitten to death by the rotting corpses. What about Le Jun?”

“Same here,” Ye Li answered tersely.

“How much do you know about what’s going on? This is my first time holding out until midnight.”

As she asked, she quietly scrutinized the top student before her.

He possessed clean-cut, scholarly features with the bookish air characteristic of a good student, though he looked slightly shorter than Le Jun.

Upon learning she was human, his demeanor was reasonably composed—not at all losing control of his emotions like Le Jun had when they first met.

Moreover, his thinking was sharp; every time he answered, he followed with a question, all while keeping his distance and staying firmly on guard.

Compared to him, Le Jun seemed far more naive and straightforward.

“I don't know much either,” Qi Yezhou shook his head. “It’s my first time too!”

Through a few simple questions and answers, the two of them exchanged basic information.

The “minced meat” had already crept to their feet. Ye Li pushed herself up from the ground and asked one last question: “Where did you hide before?”

He was completely intact from head to toe, his clothes relatively neat and clean; evidently, their hiding spot had been comparatively safe.

Even if she didn't know how Luo Jiajia had died, at least there was experience to draw from!

“We hid in the library.” Qi Yezhou didn't hold back; he knew that only by cooperating would they have a chance of escaping alive.

“Then we’ll meet at the library next time!” Ye Li said.

“All right!” Qi Yezhou agreed immediately.

After that, neither spoke again. The “minced meat” had filled every inch of open ground.

Just as Ye Li had anticipated, the bizarre substance was now creeping up their legs.

A slick, slimy sensation set in. Ye Li shifted her feet uncomfortably, but the “minced meat” seemed fiercely adhesive, gluing and trapping her tight. She felt like someone sunk deep in a swamp, unable to pull herself out.

Waiting to die was no pleasant feeling, but to Ye Li’s surprise, Qi Yezhou remained quiet the entire time.

Clutching the backpack to his chest, he shut his eyes tight. Though his face was pale with fright, he never uttered a peep or struggled in the slightest, completely resigned to meeting his end in silence.

This guy was ruthless!

Ye Li, being equally ruthless herself, mentally pegged him as such.

The “minced meat” climbed higher and higher, sliding up her thighs, creeping past her waist and abdomen, wrapping around her chest, and surging all the way to her neck.

Ye Li tilted her head back with difficulty, both hands already clamped over her nose and mouth, but that overwhelming, nauseating stench still forced its way into her nostrils.

Her stomach churned violently and bile surged up her throat, but she could only grit her teeth, not daring to open her mouth.

Suffocating to death was better than choking to death on that disgusting filth!

Finally, the “minced meat” completely enveloped Ye Li, leaving not a single seam uncovered.

Severe oxygen deprivation sent a splitting headache tearing through her skull. Her lungs burned like fire, her heart pounded like a drum, and the suffocating pain in her chest felt on the verge of exploding.

At last, under this excruciating torture, she slowly lost consciousness...

...

“Ningning, wake up!”

Ye Li snapped her eyes open. Before the other girl could say another word, Ye Li clapped a hand over her mouth, sprang to her feet, and shoved her hard out of her chair.

Caught off guard, Tang Qi stumbled and nearly took a fall.

By the time she managed to steady herself against a nearby desk, the culprit had already bolted out of the classroom in a mad rush.

Bursting out the door, Ye Li sprinted all the way to the girls’ restroom around the corner, dashed inside, and hung straight over the sink by the entrance...

“Hurrrk—”

The moment she opened her mouth, her stomach heaved violently. She threw up uncontrollably, retching until the world spun.

In the end, with her stomach completely empty, she was dry-heaving bitter bile before she could finally manage to suppress that overwhelming revulsion.

That stuff was so fucking disgusting!

After throwing up for so long and expending so much energy, Ye Li felt dizzy and lightheaded, weak on her feet.

Taking another moment to recover, she rinsed her mouth, washed her face, rinsed away the vomit in the sink, and braced herself on the wall as she slowly stepped out of the restroom.

Outside, Le Jun was already waiting; he had followed her the entire way.

“Are you okay?” Having heard the commotion from inside the restroom, his voice was laced with concern.

Ye Li looked up.

Her small face was deathly pale, her eyes damp and rimmed with red, faint mist clinging to her thick eyelashes. An unprecedented delicate vulnerability surfaced on a face usually defined by cool indifference.