Ex-Girlfriend – Chapter 15
by Little PandaBreaking the Cage
Escape 15
Legal Hunting
“Is this what the item you got that day does? It can get you two clue fragments?”
Shen Shuiyan was surprised. She hadn’t expected the rules to be so generous as to suddenly give out two fragments at once.
“No.” Xin Lan shook her head and explained the card’s original function to Shen Shuiyan.
“That means someone is already dead, and you got these two fragments from them.”
Xin Lan nodded. The fact that the person who was killed actually had two fragments on them was somewhat unexpected; she had originally thought she could only get one.
Before this, she had wondered whether she could only use the card on someone killed by the rules or under other circumstances. But she later realized that the text on the card had already specified its scope of use.
“Silently recite to use during hunting time.” During hunting time, the rules themselves wouldn’t kill anyone.
Only when it ended and no one had died yet would the rules take action.
“The real hunt is about to begin. Stay close to me and don’t go off on your own.” Xin Lan slipped the clue fragments into her pocket and spoke as they walked.
Shen Shuiyan looked at Xin Lan’s sharply beautiful profile and nodded.
Xin Lan knew that something would definitely happen in the dormitory, but she hadn’t expected to run into trouble so quickly.
At the second-floor stairwell, Xin Lan and Shen Shuiyan ran into three people locked in a standoff.
To be precise, it was one against two.
A short-haired girl was being grabbed by two others, looking quite disheveled.
Seeing Xin Lan and Shen Shuiyan coming up, both sides froze.
“Save me!”
The short-haired girl hurriedly cried out for help, grabbing the wrist of the person clutching her clothes and pulling outward.
The two people grabbing her grew increasingly anxious, refusing to let go while warily watching Xin Lan and Shen Shuiyan, terrified that they would join the struggle.
If the newcomers decided to save the girl or help, the two of them would definitely find themselves at a disadvantage against three people. The girl they were holding was incredibly difficult to deal with; otherwise, they wouldn’t have spent over ten minutes without being able to snatch her clue fragment.
But they were really unwilling to offer benefits to get these two to leave, either. Caught in a dilemma, they could only hold tightly to the girl in their hands.
Shen Shuiyan looked at Xin Lan, letting her make the call.
After all, she had truly never been in a fight in her entire life; if they actually started fighting in a bit, Xin Lan would definitely have to be the main force.
“You’re blocking our way,” Xin Lan said flatly.
The three of them were stunned.
“How about we take out these two first, snatch the things on them, and then take what this single one has? What do you think?” Xin Lan tilted her head, speaking to Shen Shuiyan as if discussing it.
“Sounds good,” Shen Shuiyan agreed, keeping an eye on the reactions of the three in the hallway.
The faces of all three turned rather unsightly, but the short-haired girl suddenly spoke up.
“Save me! I’ll give you a clue fragment!”
Xin Lan raised an eyebrow and motioned for Shen Shuiyan to step back.
With Xin Lan’s skills, those two girls were simply nothing to her. After she gave each of them a few kicks, they fled in a sorry state.
“Are we just letting them go like that?” Shen Shuiyan looked at their hurriedly retreating figures, somewhat puzzled.
This didn’t fit Xin Lan’s personality.
Although Shen Shuiyan couldn’t bring herself to kill anyone, in the face of life and death, there was nothing to be soft-hearted about when it came to snatching things.
“I like to handle things all at once. They can hide today, but they can’t hide tomorrow.”
In terms of combat ability, girls were indeed not as strong as boys.
Boys could take more of a beating, and they always had a certain hot-bloodedness to them.
The short-haired girl fumbled around and found her shattered glasses, putting them back on.
“Thank you.”
“Where’s the fragment?” Xin Lan didn’t waste words and cut straight to the point.
“I can give all of mine to you, but can I join your team?”
The short-haired girl’s glasses were half-shattered, which looked a bit comical, but her expression was extremely calm, and she kept a safe physical distance from Xin Lan.
“It seems you have more than one clue fragment on you. Where’s your original team?” Shen Shuiyan asked.
“It was those two just now. At first, one of them wanted to snatch my things, but I turned the tables and snatched hers instead, so she teamed up with the other one.”
The short-haired girl shrugged. There were a few scratches on her face, likely from being clawed during the scuffle just now.
Shen Shuiyan was silent for a moment, but she still looked at Xin Lan.
As long as Xin Lan wanted, she could get all the fragments on that girl without paying almost any price; but likewise, as long as Xin Lan wanted, she could save this life.
Xin Lan wasn’t so unhinged as to insist on driving everyone to their death.
“Joining our team is fine, of course, but I don’t like people who play underhanded tricks.” Xin Lan lightly patted the dust off her clothes, and the girl hurriedly nodded.
“I’m Xu Deng, from Class 5.”
“Xin Lan,” Shen Shuiyan pointed at Xin Lan, then at herself, “Shen Shuiyan.”
“So you’re Shen Shuiyan.”
Realization dawned on Xu Deng. She was also someone who had heard the school year’s gossip, and facing this bizarre combination, she couldn’t help but feel a bit of wonder in her heart.
“You know me?”
“First in our year, I’ve heard so much about you. But let’s not talk here; it’s a bit dangerous. What if someone else runs out? Do you two live in the same dorm?”
Xu Deng looked at the corridor with some unease, touching her right lens which was cracked like a spiderweb, feeling very helpless.
“Yeah.” Shen Shuiyan nodded. Not only did they live in the same dorm room, they even slept in the same bed.
“Then let’s go to your dorm room first. It’ll be safer to lock the door.”
“Is tonight very turbulent?” Xin Lan asked. As expected, people’s patience wasn’t that great, especially when facing life-and-death situations. It was only the third night, and someone was already dead—and who knew how many more had died. Brazen robberies were definitely even more common now.
These were still just students studying in a school, after all.
“Yeah. From the moment the bell rang, some people started fighting like they’d gone crazy. Naturally, those who were robbed wanted to rob others to get their things back, so some people started forming gangs. And… there are even boys.”
“What do you mean?” Shen Shuiyan’s face fell slightly.
“Some people brought boys into the girls’ dorm as helpers. I don’t know what happened to them later, but anyway, the scene is incredibly messy. The second floor was really noisy just now.”
Xu Deng’s expression was also unsightly. This kind of thing couldn’t be thought about too deeply; the more you thought, the more terrifying it felt.
“My dorm is on the fourth floor. Let’s head up.” Xin Lan stepped onto the stairs, and the two followed behind her.
The third floor was extremely noisy, and the fourth floor was no better.
A wave of crying and cursing drifted down from upstairs. Xin Lan saw something flash past in front of her eyes and crash onto the ground, making a loud ‘bang’.
Someone had jumped.
Xu Deng’s face turned pale as she looked up toward the upper floors.
This was only the third day, and the rules hadn’t given any time limit.
Would everyone go crazy in the end?
Could she really get out of here alive?
Xin Lan walked to her own dorm room. Along the way, the few dorm rooms they passed were either tightly shut or wide open, with not a single person inside.
Xin Lan knocked twice, then suddenly caught a whiff of an odor.
Xin Lan withdrew her hand from knocking and walked to the neighboring dorm room.
Shen Shuiyan and Xu Deng didn’t know what she was planning to do, but they still followed her.
Seeing the situation in the neighboring room, Xu Deng covered her mouth to suppress her scream.
The floor was covered in blood with three people lying there, and in the middle of the pool of blood, two girls were clutching each other.
One of the girls heard footsteps and raised her head warily. The knife in her hand was still dripping with blood; presumably, the dying people on the floor were her handiwork.
She stood up unsteadily, shielding the person behind her.
“Do you also want to snatch our fragments?”
Her voice was slightly raspy, and she brandished the knife in her hand.
Xin Lan sneered and turned to walk away.
She continued to knock on her dorm room door, saying, “Open up.”
Xiao Chun opened a crack in the door, and upon seeing it was Xin Lan, she opened the door.
“Are you the only one here?”
“I don’t know where they went.”
Xiao Chun nodded and locked the door.
“You sleep in our dorm room tonight,” Xin Lan said to Xu Deng, and Xu Deng nodded.
Xin Lan smelled a faint scent of blood in the air and glanced at Xiao Chun. She took off her down jacket, let her hair down, and tied it into a low ponytail.
Shen Shuiyan also smelled a faint, strange odor. She thought it was the smell from the neighboring room wafting in when the door was just opened, so she didn’t think much of it.
“You sleep on this bed.” Xin Lan gestured to Zhou Mingfang’s bed for Xu Deng. “You’re still sleeping with me.”
“Okay.” Shen Shuiyan smiled and nodded.
Xin Lan went to the balcony, using a clothes pole to collect the clothes she had hung out earlier, when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She walked over and found a bracelet that was about to fall off.
Xin Lan: Tongtong, help me scan this dorm room to see if there’s anything that shouldn’t be here.
Zero Nine: Something that shouldn’t be here?
Zero Nine was a bit confused, not knowing what qualified as “something that shouldn’t be here,” but she still scanned the dorm room as Xin Lan said.
There were indeed quite a few messy little items in this dorm room, but what Zero Nine noticed was a very large shadow among them. She swallowed hard.
Zero Nine: Host, inside the wardrobe of the bed opposite yours, there seems to be something with a very large surface area. From my analysis here… it’s meat.
Xin Lan wasn’t surprised. She took the clothes off the rack and placed them on the table.
“Are you going to shower today?”
Xin Lan shook her head. The current situation was uncertain, and since it was winter, there was no absolute need to shower every day.
Hearing this, Shen Shuiyan smoothly took the clothes from her hands, placed them on her lap, and began folding them.
Xin Lan was stunned for a moment, but she let her be.
After entering the punishment game together, the relationship between the two had grown a bit closer.
If the first time they ran into a ghost, Xin Lan felt that Shen Shuiyan had insisted on following her herself, then the second time, she had dragged Shen Shuiyan into it.
But Shen Shuiyan didn’t show any resentment or anger; instead, at that moment, she had pushed her away from the edge of danger.
Xin Lan liked teammates like this, and she also liked the care that came from a teammate.
Looking at the girl folding the clothes so neatly, Xin Lan felt this person was truly quite nice.
The author has something to say:
Xin Lan: This person is quite nice.
The Top Student’s inner monologue: This shouldn’t be a friendzone card1, stay calm!
15555512 It’s that time again to act cute and ask for comments. What kind of author do you guys like? Aloof, full of banter, or soft and sweet? I’m splitting my personalities online!
Footnotes
- The term 'good person card' (haorenka) is Chinese slang for rejection, similar to being friendzoned, where someone is turned down with the line 'You are a good person.'
- A homophonic representation of crying ('呜呜呜' wuwuwu) commonly used in Chinese online spaces to express playful distress or whining.
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