Ex-Girlfriend – Chapter 20
by Little PandaBreaking the Cage
Escape 20
Legal Hunting
In the second round, the boy chosen also selected a girl. The girl picked up the handkerchief and chased after him with all her might.
A person’s potential is truly limitless. The girl went into a wild sprint, caught up to the boy, and collapsed to the ground, almost completely spent.
The boy who had been caught wore a look of utter despair. Hysterically, he tore at the girl’s clothes as his body slowly began to fade away.
“There’s still a third round before our warm-up is over. Who are you going to choose?”
The teacher asked, beaming with smiles. The girl’s gaze wandered through the crowd, looking somewhat conflicted.
Out of a sense of gender solidarity, she desperately hoped more girls would survive. But regardless of whether she passed the initiative to a boy or a girl, a girl was highly likely to end up in trouble. Besides, she wasn’t familiar with anyone here except for one teammate, and there was no way she would choose her own teammate.
She stood up and placed the handkerchief behind the person she had chosen.
Shen Shuiyan stood up with the handkerchief, casting a cool glance at the girl.
Zou Yunfei glared at the girl, looking as if he wanted to eat her alive.
The moment the girl placed the handkerchief down, Xin Lan’s expression grew cold.
Shen Shuiyan’s physical fitness wasn’t particularly strong; otherwise, she wouldn’t have been the brain of the group. Her stamina was only at the level of an average girl. What would she do if she couldn’t catch the person in front of her?
As Shen Shuiyan stood up, Xin Lan mouthed something to her, but Shen Shuiyan acted as though she hadn’t seen it and began walking around the circle.
What Xin Lan wanted to say was that if Shen Shuiyan wasn’t confident, she should choose her; she would definitely let Shen Shuiyan win.
For her, at worst it was just a failed mission, but for Shen Shuiyan, it meant death.
If she failed the mission and exited, Shen Shuiyan could still rely on Zou Yunfei’s side to get out of here.
She gazed at Shen Shuiyan, waiting to see how she would choose.
The first run of the song ended, and the second run began.
Shen Shuiyan had planned her target and quickly opened up some distance after dropping the handkerchief.
The target Shen Shuiyan had chosen was also a girl. She didn’t have any tender protective feelings1 for her opponent; purely from the standpoint of strength, she had to ensure she survived.
She’d seen Little Tiger’s mouthed words. But how was that possible? How could she ever choose her?
If Little Tiger went easy on her and let her win, how would that be any different from sending Little Tiger to her death with her own hands?
She accepted Little Tiger’s kind intentions; she would just have to try even harder.
Shen Shuiyan felt as though she was running faster than she ever had in her life. But she didn’t just blindly sprint forward either; instead, she maintained a safe distance and strove to run out the ten minutes.
The ten minutes ran out, and the girl hadn’t caught up.
Shen Shuiyan let out a sigh of relief. Xin Lan quickly stood up to support her, letting her lean against her as she panted.
Seeing this, Zou Yunfei also felt relieved, but he noticed that Shen Shuiyan didn’t look in his direction at all.
Perhaps she was just too tired.
Shen Shuiyan was indeed exhausted, and she had absolutely no desire to spare a single glance for irrelevant people.
Xin Lan gently patted her back to help soothe her breathing.
Leaning against her, Shen Shuiyan caught a faint fragrance from her body. With her hand holding Xin Lan’s, her heart felt incredibly steady.
Little Tiger was truly so gentle. She really wanted to hold her in her arms, stroke her fur, pet her like crazy, and huff this tiger until she was floating in absolute bliss.
But that was just a fantasy; Little Tiger would definitely kick her away.
“Alright, class! The warm-up is over, and everyone performed exceptionally well. You can rest for ten minutes, but be careful not to wander off, okay? In ten minutes, we’ll start the official game.”
The teacher still wore that same beaming smile, but it only made everyone feel that the path ahead was completely bleak.
Shen Shuiyan walked over, grabbed the backpack she had been carrying, and pulled out a bottle of water.
“Luckily I brought water, otherwise it would’ve been miserable after running for ten minutes like that.”
Shen Shuiyan opened the cap and gulped down several mouthfuls.
“Do you want some?”
Xin Lan shook her head, and Shen Shuiyan put it away with a slight sense of regret.
“What comes next will probably be even more dangerous.”
The warm-up was already this brutal, let alone the official game.
“What does it actually want? I originally thought avoiding those situations was enough. Why does it have to do this? Is it trying to force us to die?”
Xu Deng had a dark expression, trying hard to suppress the panic in her heart.
It was a gentle sort of mutual slaughter, and excessively real at that.
“Don’t you think this feels like a game meant to amuse a child?”
Shen Shuiyan had felt this way for a while. Hearing her speak her suspicion aloud made Xu Deng’s skin crawl.
Whether it was the nursery rhymes the ghosts sang earlier, the rules about damaging public property and sleeping in class, or the game of Drop the Handkerchief just now, everything exuded a sense of childishness. They didn’t feel like rules that an adult would make.
“Watching a game like this, that ‘child’ isn’t afraid of shortening their lifespan2.”
Xin Lan sneered. No matter what it was, it shouldn’t exist.
The ten-minute break was up, and the PE Teacher blew his whistle to gather them.
Twenty-two people had become nineteen, and the lineup was still visibly incomplete.
“The official activity is about to begin! Students, please get ready. Group, attention!”
“The next game we’re going to play is one that all of you have surely played before. It’s called ‘What’s the Time, Grandma?3’ The rules are that ‘Grandma’ stands in the middle of the circle, while the students on the outside hold hands and circle around ‘Grandma’, asking, ‘Grandma, Grandma, what’s the time?’ The ‘Grandma’ of each round can decide which hour will be their password. When the students hear that hour, they have to start running, and ‘Grandma’ will go catch them.”
“Do you all understand?”
The scattered responses showed that everyone’s mood was far from good.
“’Grandma’ can call out up to ten different times. The catching phase lasts ten minutes, and the play area is the playground—any student who accidentally runs out will be violating the rules! Those caught by ‘Grandma’ will be eliminated, and the predecessor will designate the next ‘Grandma’. If no one gets caught by ‘Grandma’, then that round’s ‘Grandma’ will be eliminated, and the new ‘Grandma’ will be decided by rock-paper-scissors again.”
What a childlike death game. Xin Lan had nothing to say; perhaps today’s activities should all be called ‘Ten Minutes of Life and Death’.
“Oh, right, the teacher forgot to add one little thing.”
The students, who were just about to play rock-paper-scissors, had their hearts leap into their throats again at his words.
“This game has nine rounds in total. If you’re caught by ‘Grandma’, don’t be afraid. As long as you can kill ‘Grandma’ within those ten minutes, you won’t have to be eliminated.”
“Kill?”
“Forcing us to kill?”
The students’ voices buzzed as the crowd erupted into a chaotic din.
“What kind of trash game is this? Why does it have to be like this?!”
Some were on the verge of a breakdown, while others fell deep into thought.
“Don’t let go of my hand when the time comes,” Xin Lan said in a low voice to Shen Shuiyan.
“I won’t,” Shen Shuiyan said with a smile. Even in a situation like this, she felt very happy just having Little Tiger by her side.
Standing to the side, Xu Deng felt that Shen Shuiyan was completely out of sync with the atmosphere.
After playing rock-paper-scissors once again to decide who would be ‘Grandma’, the game officially began.
The group formed a large circle around a boy standing in the center with his eyes closed.
Xin Lan recognized this boy too; he was Zhou Zhou from Zou Yunfei’s team.
His lips were trembling now, and his entire body was stiff.
“Grandma, Grandma, what’s the time?”
Everyone asked as they circled, ready to flee at a moment’s notice.
“Seven o’clock.”
Zhou Zhou’s voice was a bit dry and hoarse, betraying his deep tension.
“Grandma, Grandma, what’s the time?”
“Five o’clock.”
“Grandma, Grandma, what’s the time?”
“Ten o’clock.”
A drop of cold sweat slid down Zhou Zhou’s temple. He couldn’t see the people continuously revolving around him, but he could sense them.
The questioning voices seemed stretched out to a blur, yet he still had to remember the times he’d already called.
There were twelve numbers in total. He could say a maximum of ten times, and they couldn’t be repeated. One of the twelve numbers was the password he’d set, which determined whether the chase would begin.
“Grandma, Grandma, what’s the time?”
“Eight o’clock.”
The moment he finished speaking, he suddenly snapped his eyes open and lunged toward the person closest to him.
The girl shrieked and fled, running forward with all her might.
“Don’t chase me! Don’t chase me! Please, go chase someone else!”
Zhou Zhou turned a deaf ear. From the very beginning, he’d planned to focus on catching just one person. There were only ten minutes, and if he didn’t set a target, he’d likely fail to complete it.
Xin Lan held Shen Shuiyan with one hand and Xu Deng with the other, dragging them both away from Zhou Zhou’s vicinity at high speed.
Since the girl Zhou Zhou was chasing was in the other direction, Xin Lan let go of Xu Deng.
“Be smart in a bit. Don’t just stand still; keep an eye on things and change directions. You must keep your distance from him.”
Xu Deng nodded. That was all well and good, but why were those two still holding hands?
This should’ve been a cheerful scene—blue skies, white clouds, and students playing on the playground.
But the relentlessly chasing figures, the other students frantically dodging because of their movements, and the teacher standing on the steps with a frozen, unchanging smile cast a dark shadow over everything.
The girl seemed to be running out of strength, and Zhou Zhou was closing in closer and closer behind her.
“Give me your hand, quick!”
Someone appeared beside the girl, presumably her teammate.
Overjoyed, the girl quickly grabbed his hand, and the boy pulled her along as they ran.
But the act of grabbing hands still caused a brief delay, and Zhou Zhou had already caught up.
The girl gritted her teeth, using all her strength to shove the boy beside her straight into Zhou Zhou’s arms, while she continued running forward.
Having caught someone, Zhou Zhou stopped chasing.
The boy, shocked to have his arms pinned behind him by Zhou Zhou, came to his senses and stared with pure hatred at the girl ahead of him.
“If I’d known, I wouldn’t have saved you. You motherfucker…”
A string of curses poured from the boy’s mouth, expressing his rage.
“I’m sorry. I don’t want to die.”
The girl covered her mouth, her eyes rimmed with red. No matter what the boy yelled, she only repeatedly mumbled her apologies.
The boy didn’t give up his struggle just like that. Remembering what the NPC had said earlier, he kept twisting his body, trying to break free from Zhou Zhou’s grasp and turn the tables on him.
Zhou Zhou didn’t give him that chance, pinning him down firmly.
The ten minutes was up, and the boy dissolved bit by bit amidst his screams.
The new ‘Grandma’ was to be designated by the predecessor. Zhou Zhou turned around and looked at one person.
“Xin Lan.”
The author has something to say:
I wonder if you guys have ever played this game, hahahaha.
It has been so cold lately; my fingers are freezing while typing.
Footnotes
- A traditional Chinese idiom meaning to show tenderness or protective care toward women, literally translating to 'pitying fragrance and cherishing jade.'
- A traditional Chinese belief that committing bad deeds, acting presumptuously, or receiving undue reverence can shorten one's lifespan.
- A traditional Chinese children's game similar to 'What's the Time, Mr. Wolf?' Players circle around a designated 'Grandma' and ask the time. When a predetermined trigger hour is called, 'Grandma' chases them.
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