Volume 1: Breaking the Cage
Escape 19
Legal Hunting
Xin Lan looked over somewhat curiously, only to see Shen Shuiyan casually rubbing her hands, trying to warm them up.
“Let’s get in bed and sleep. Put your hands under the covers.”
Shen Shuiyan nodded, feeling a slight reluctance in her heart as Xin Lan withdrew her hand.
The little tiger’s hand was so warm, like a “warm treasure” (a Chinese hand warmer), she wanted to keep holding it. That feeling was much better than an actual hand warmer.
When the little tiger became gentle, it was enough to melt one’s heart.
Despite having an extremely beautiful appearance that seemed bewitching, when she raised her eyes, one could feel that cold current, yet it was also like scorching fire.
Knowing it was precious, and also knowing it was something that couldn’t be tainted.
But when she lowered her eyes and covered her hand, wanting to warm her up a bit, that touch of tenderness was captivating.
Shen Shuiyan found it difficult to describe her feelings with simple words; it wasn’t something that could be expressed as mere ‘shock’ or ‘joy’.
It was a sudden arrhythmia, like an avalanche or melting snow, causing a moment of blankness in one’s mind.
Shen Shuiyan took off her clothes and got into bed. Xin Lan had already lain down beside her and closed her eyes.
“Why can you always fall asleep so quickly?”
What an enviable quality of sleep.
“Sometimes when you can’t sleep, you’ll appreciate the value of sleep.”
Xin Lan said with her eyes closed, continuing to sleep.
Shen Shuiyan looked at her thoughtfully. What did ‘can’t sleep’ mean? It must be something the little tiger had experienced before. It didn’t sound like a good thing.
Shen Shuiyan didn’t think too much about it. After all, she couldn’t figure it out anyway, so she simply lay down to continue sleeping, still in a proper sleeping posture, even though she really wanted to hold Xin Lan’s hand now.
After the lunch break, they still had to go back to class.
Xin Lan thought that this system actually made people relax a bit, at least giving them room to breathe.
But when she was in class in the afternoon, she didn’t think so anymore.
The PE teacher walked in from outside, telling them that this period was PE class, and they had to assemble on the playground within ten minutes.
No one dared to disobey the NPC’s words, so after the teacher left, the students all walked out of the classroom.
Xin Lan didn’t know what the purpose of these rules was, thinking that maybe it had something to do with rewards, but it might also not be a good thing.
Zou Yunfei walked out, constantly staring at Shen Shuiyan and the others in front of him.
Shen Shuiyan looked back, her eyes full of mockery.
Xin Lan didn’t see it, if she had, she would probably have applauded.
It was a gaze of such lingering affection, reluctance to part, and “body in Cao’s camp, heart with Han” (an idiom meaning one’s loyalty lies elsewhere).
Zou Yunfei’s heart surged with emotion. The injuries on his body still hadn’t fully healed, his face was still swollen, and walking was painful all over, but his mood was soaring, filled with motivation.
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What he didn’t know was that after Shen Shuiyan turned her head back, her gaze was full of ridicule.
In less than ten minutes, everyone had assembled on the playground.
The playground of this high school was quite large, with a plastic track and artificial turf, with bleachers on both sides.
They assembled on the plastic track, forming a formation, but this formation had a gap.
Xin Lan had just counted, including her, there were only twenty-two people in the class, which meant that in one night, eighteen people in their class had died.
This was an astonishing number. If their class was like this, who knew what the situation in other classes would be.
The PE teacher stood on the bleachers and blew his whistle.
Everyone was on high alert, waiting for what would happen next.
“Let’s start with a warm-up. Everyone, spread out.”
Everyone spread out, creating distance between themselves and those to their left and right.
“This is a warm-up exercise. Everyone has played ‘Drop the Handkerchief’, right?”
The PE teacher waved the red handkerchief in his hand. This scene was quite comical, but no one dared to laugh.
“Twenty-two people, who will be the first to drop the handkerchief?”
No one responded.
Their expressions were stiff with a hint of fear. Shen Shuiyan had an idea about what they were about to face and her heart sank.
“No one’s speaking up, so let’s do rock-paper-scissors. The loser continues, and if one person is different from everyone else, then it’s them.”
Rock-paper-scissors with twenty-two people was indeed a massive undertaking.
But no one dared to say this was inconvenient, and they nervously extended their hands.
There was a pattern in this. It was a game of mutual restraint. As long as someone played differently, as long as someone played differently each time, this would be an unsolvable deadlock. But the NPC clearly had precautions against this. Xin Lan abandoned the idea of having three people in the team each play something different – it was too risky.
Moreover, in a situation where they couldn’t discuss, using eye signals to indicate to two teammates what to play was extremely difficult.
After all, no one knew what you would play next. It would be good if you could give hints to your teammates, but if others noticed, it wouldn’t be good.
The start of the guessing game was a bit chaotic, with everyone playing differently. However, there wasn’t a phenomenon where one person was different from everyone else. After three rounds, there was a clear balance.
Shen Shuiyan’s brain was working frantically, calculating various probabilities, thinking about what she should play in a few seconds.
Xin Lan was more casual, playing whatever she felt like.
After five rounds, five people had won against the others and stepped out of the battle circle.
Shen Shuiyan was one of the five, now nervously looking in Xin Lan’s direction.
Xin Lan came out on the third try, Xu Deng on the fourth. Now there were only four people left in the guessing team.
The expressions of these four people were all very tense, playing rock-paper-scissors as if they were going to their deaths.
Only two people were left.
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The two remaining people decided the winner, with the winner overjoyed and the loser ashen-faced.
“Alright, we’ve selected the person to drop the handkerchief. Everyone form a circle.”
Xin Lan had Shen Shuiyan on her left and Xu Deng on her right, with Zou Yunfei diagonally to her left.
“Since this circle is quite large, everyone will sing the ‘Drop the Handkerchief’ song three times together. During this time, the person dropping the handkerchief has ten minutes to chase the person in front of them. If caught, they’re safe and can’t be selected again. As for the person being chased…” The PE teacher laughed, “Unqualified students should be eliminated. Conversely, if the chaser doesn’t catch anyone, the outcome is the same. This warm-up has three rounds in total. Alright, let’s begin now.”
After hearing the NPC’s words, everyone fell into a deathly silence. Wasn’t being eliminated the same as dying?
If they hadn’t died during the previous clue collection, if they had avoided it before, they would die here. Who would be willing?
But there was no choice. Everyone could only pray that they weren’t the chosen one, hoping to avoid the one-in-twenty-one probability in the first round.
For the person who lost at rock-paper-scissors, the probability of life and death was now fifty-fifty.
Xin Lan was thinking about something else. This was just a warm-up, yet three people would die. What about the official exercise later?
The rules were too malicious, limiting the hunting time, yet arranging various additional competitions.
The people sitting here were destined to face the fear of death, brushing shoulders with death time and time again.
This fear was different from what the surrounding people brought to oneself, it was more direct and more cruel.
Xin Lan was quite confident in her speed. In most survival games, if one had good physical qualities, the survival rate would greatly increase. For this game, physical strength and agility were needed everywhere, whether it was the current ‘Drop the Handkerchief’ or the horror school building in the previous punishment game, or the competition for clue fragments in this overall game.
“Why aren’t you singing? Sing! Oh, and it’s best to clap your hands too. This is a game, and games should be more cheerful.”
Someone trembled at his voice, and sparse applause along with singing voices rose. Meanwhile, the person throwing the handkerchief began to move.
“Drop, drop, drop the handkerchief, gently place it behind a little friend’s back, don’t tell her everyone, quickly quickly catch her, quickly quickly catch her.”
The joyful song was sung by everyone like a funeral dirge. One girl even sang with a crying voice.
And that song was not allowed to stop, it had to be sung two more times.
“Drop, drop, drop the handkerchief, gently place it behind a little friend’s back, don’t tell her everyone, quickly quickly catch her, quickly quickly catch her.”
The lyrics that normally sounded fine seemed to have become a death warrant at this moment. Everyone couldn’t judge whether the handkerchief was thrown behind their back, they could only rely on the expressions of the people opposite to see if they were the chosen one.
When the song reached the third repetition, the chosen boy immediately started running, and the chosen girl, upon discovering this, immediately picked up the handkerchief and chased after him.
Choosing a girl did seem to give a better chance of winning.
Just moments ago, they were the chooser and the chosen, but the moment the handkerchief was dropped, their roles suddenly reversed.
One ran in front, while the other relentlessly pursued.
This was like a grotesque gathering. Everyone formed a circle, but their faces were all terrified. The one being chased, who had just dropped the key of death, now looked like a helpless sheep, constantly running, running.
The hunter behind, though without a knife in hand, was as good as having one. But that knife was double-edged; one wrong move would end her life.
No one had the heart to laugh at the spectacle, because no one knew if they would be next.
Only those familiar with each other were nervous; the others were all praying for themselves, their faces full of indifference.
Some might even be thinking in their hearts, ‘Let more die, let even more die.’
In the end, the girl who was given the handkerchief failed to catch up and collapsed on the spot, crying hysterically.
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Everyone watched as her body went limp, a chill running from the base of their spine to the top of their heads.
“Her clue fragment will be gifted to whoever she wills it to. The next person to drop the handkerchief will be decided by the previous survivor.”
The PE teacher said with a smile, but everyone could see the malice in his laughter.
Everyone immediately looked at the boy who sat down to fill the gap left by the girl who had just died, fearing he would choose them.
The boy hesitated for a moment, then chose one of the remaining twenty boys.
That boy stood up, picked up the red handkerchief from the ground, and glared fiercely at the person who had chosen him.
The song rose again. After three repetitions, who would be the one to die?
“Drop, drop, drop the handkerchief, gently place it behind a little friend’s back, don’t tell her everyone, quickly quickly catch her, quickly quickly catch her!”
The author has something to say:
This is a chapter with sound. I suspect you might end up singing it.
LP: Re-translated on November 18, 2024