Come to think of it, that possibility certainly couldn’t be ruled out!
After all, time continued to flow past six o’clock.
Which meant the person could awaken at any point between six and midnight.
This also explained why, despite having gone through multiple loops, only the four of them had managed to survive past midnight so far.
Opening one’s eyes only to find oneself surrounded by ghoul-like rotting corpses—practically anyone would be doomed.
But if that was truly the case, even if she screamed her lungs out through a loudspeaker beneath the dormitories, the other person might not hear her at all.
Thinking of this, Ye Li suddenly felt a long and arduous road ahead.
Le Jun and Qi Yezhou furrowed their brows as well.
Just as the three of them were at their wits’ end, Luo Jiajia, who had remained silent the entire time, suddenly spoke up.
“Is it true what you said... that we’re trapped in this hellhole because of Wen Xue?”
She was naturally asking Ye Li.
Ye Li glanced at her. Rather than deliberately scaring her again, she answered honestly, “The possibility can’t be ruled out.”
As long as there was no evidence proving the two were unrelated, anything was possible.
Luo Jiajia bit her lip, hesitating for a moment before continuing, “Yi Lin and the others came back to school this evening. They should be in their dorm room right now.”
Hearing this, the eyes of the other three lit up simultaneously.
If this ghost domain was truly related to Wen Xue, then as the culprits responsible for her death, Yi Lin and her two cronies definitely could not escape being involved.
“How do you know that?” Ye Li asked.
After all, Tang Qi had only recently told her that Yi Lin and the others had not yet returned to school.
A faint blush of embarrassment crept onto Luo Jiajia’s face. “Halfway through the final period, my stomach started acting up. When I stepped out to use the restroom, I looked down from the corridor and happened to see them dragging their luggage through the school gates.”
Hearing this, Ye Li understood.
Returning to campus after five o’clock meant that by six, the three of them would probably still be in their dorm room unpacking.
With that, everything seemed to line up perfectly.
Now that they had identified their targets, the next question to consider was how to rescue them and safely endure until midnight.
By this point, Ye Li had polished off the chips, cookies, and soda.
She tore open the last bag of sunflower seeds and generously dished out a handful to everyone.
“Come on, crack some melon seeds and get those brains moving. Let’s brainstorm together!”
As she spoke, she poured herself another handful and began cracking them, a nonstop crunch-crunch-crunch resounding from her mouth.
Cracking sunflower seeds was unquestionably one of the most infectious and addictive habits in existence.
Typically, when one saw someone else cracking seeds, whether they liked them or not, it was all too easy to pick one up as well.
And once the first seed was cracked, a second and third would inevitably follow... until it was impossible to stop.
And so, in the dim, cramped space, the four of them sat in a circle cracking seeds.
Even Luo Jiajia could not resist popping seed after seed into her mouth, and the trash can she had brought inside proved immediately useful for the shells.
For a time, the rhythm of crunches filled the air without pause.
Set against the clattering thuds of the door being battered outside, the scene was utterly bizarre, yet oddly harmonious.
The U-shaped dormitory building had ten adjacent rooms per floor in both its left and right wings. The central wing had twenty rooms with doors facing each other across a hallway, and there was a restroom at each junction where the central wing connected to the side wings.
According to Luo Jiajia, Yi Lin and the other two lived in Room 703, the third room on the seventh floor of the right wing.
This meant that if they awakened at six o’clock or later, it would be utterly impossible for them to safely flee down seven flights of stairs through corridors teeming with rotting corpses.
Since going down was out of the question, going up was their only option.
But the roof of the dormitory building was completely sealed off, with no stairwell access whatsoever.
“Then what do we do? Can we climb up from the balcony?” Ye Li asked.
Each dorm room was equipped with its own small balcony for hanging clothes out to dry.
And from the seventh floor to the roof was only one story away—six or seven meters at most. If there was somewhere to get a foothold, she should be able to scale it.
“If you drag a bed onto the balcony, climbing up shouldn’t be too hard,” Qi Yezhou said. “However, you also have to consider whether there are rotting corpses in the room directly above.”
If there were rotting corpses on the floor above, climbing would become exponentially more dangerous.
Even so, it was at least the most viable plan they had right now.
“We’d better get a sturdy rope just in case,” Ye Li added.
To support human weight, the rope had to be exceptionally strong.
After all, seven or eight stories up, an accidental fall would mean certain death!
Le Jun pondered for a moment and said, “There should be one in the gymnasium. The tug-of-war rope from the previous tournament ought to still be in the storage room.”
A tug-of-war rope was thick, sturdy, and had virtually no elasticity—it couldn’t be more suitable.
With the rescue plan established, the next question was who would carry it out.
Qi Yezhou and Luo Jiajia awakened far too late; five minutes was nowhere near enough time for them to sprint from the library to the dorms.
As a boy, Le Jun couldn’t just walk into the girls’ dorms, not to mention his dreadful habit of getting weak in the knees the second he laid eyes on a rotting corpse.
The only person suited for the rescue was Ye Li.
“Alright, then I’ll go alone!”
Ye Li agreed without hesitation, starlight seemingly shimmering in her pitch-black eyes—clear, bright, and utterly fearless.
At worst, she would just die a couple more times. To her, that was nothing.
And so, the plan was set, waiting only for the next loop to begin.
Several hours still remained until midnight, making the wait both boring and agonizingly long.
In the end, having eaten and drunk her fill, Ye Li tilted her head against the window and fell fast asleep.
As her steady, even breathing drifted through the air, Le Jun looked up toward her.
He saw that the girl’s dark eyes, normally gleaming like starlight, were lightly closed into two curving crescents. Her thick, curled eyelashes cast faint shadows over her lids, and her thin lips were parted ever so slightly, her entire body in a state of complete relaxation.
With her head tilted, strands of black hair had spilled across her cheeks, making her look surprisingly soft and docile—so much so that he felt an inexplicable urge to reach out and ruffle her hair.
But he didn’t dare.
He feared that the moment he touched her, his hand would be broken.
In truth, Le Jun often admired the girl before him from the bottom of his heart.
He admired her fearless attitude toward everything.
Within her seemingly delicate frame lay a brave and formidable heart, uninhibited and carefree in a way that stirred both envy and longing...
Time trickled away, and midnight arrived right on schedule once again.
This time, no matter what, Luo Jiajia refused to leave.
Ye Li and the others did not force her; before the puzzle was solved, dying anywhere made no difference anyway.
Ye Li had even uncharacteristically shown some kindness by leaving her a large plastic snack bag, so that when the critical moment arrived, she could pull it over her head—suffocating was still better than choking to death.
The three once again left the library and exited the Comprehensive Building. Outside, the situation remained unchanged, with dense fog rolling in and spreading.
Not bothering to struggle anymore, Ye Li stepped into the teaching building, ready to solve all her woes with a leap.
Le Jun naturally followed close behind.
Only Qi Yezhou walked away alone with his backpack.
Heading all the way up to the sixth floor while the thick fog below had yet to catch up, Ye Li reconfirmed the plan for the next loop with Le Jun.
Le Jun woke up first, so he would head to the gymnasium to grab the rope, and they would meet on the athletic field.
Once they had the gear, Ye Li would head to the dorms while Le Jun retreated to the library to lay low until midnight.
If everything went smoothly, they could reunite after midnight.
If not, they would have to start over from scratch.
But no matter what, a breakthrough was finally within reach.
Ye Li was filled with anticipation for what was to come next.
The thick fog soon surged beneath the teaching building. Hesitating no longer, Ye Li vaulted over the railing, pulling Le Jun—who had already obediently shut his eyes—along with her as they leapt into the air together.
Bang! Bang!
Crimson blood quickly trickled from the two mangled bodies, silently spreading outward until it finally merged with the dark red “minced flesh” blanketing the ground.
As her consciousness grew hazy, Ye Li vaguely saw the bizarre substance, previously still, bubbling and gurgling as though boiling...
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