Ex-Girlfriend – Chapter 7
by Little PandaBreaking the Cage
Escape 07
Legal Hunting
“I look forward to your arrival,” Shen Shuiyan said softly.
Neither of them spoke after that, walking side-by-side to the teaching building. There, Shen Shuiyan turned to enter Class 1, while Xin Lan returned to Class 3.
The 8:00 bell rang, and some students began to leave the classroom.
There was no rule forcing them to remain in the classroom during the discussion period. After all, the classroom was only so large; if others overheard their conversations or saw their clues, things would end badly. As a result, everyone sought out their own private spots.
“Did you all eat breakfast before coming here?”
The others nodded. Xin Lan stroked her chin.
“I haven’t eaten yet. Why don’t we go to the school cafeteria to eat and discuss? I happen to have something to tell you all.”
Zhou Mingfang thought of something and silently gripped the hem of her shirt.
She was somewhat afraid.
She wondered what she would do if her male teammates also wanted to leave the squad at any moment and decided to steal her clues.
Xin Lan bought soy milk, fried noodles, and two small shaomai1.
While Xin Lan was eating, her other teammates exchanged information.
Zhou Mingfang mentioned that one of the girls on their side had been killed by the rules, while Little Glasses, Cai Yang, reported that a brawl had broken out in the boys’ dormitory the night before.
“A fight broke out? Why?”
Zhou Mingfang gasped softly, then immediately lowered her voice.
Xin Lan ate her fried noodles while listening with interest, observing everyone’s expressions.
When Acne, Guo Ming, and Cai Yang spoke of it, their expressions were rather unsightly. Even Chen Zhihong had a grim face.
“At first, it was just inside a dormitory,” Cai Yang said. “Three boys were in a squad together, and the other one wasn’t. The three of them wanted to team up to steal his clues. But that guy had teammates too, and by the time they rushed over, he’d already been beaten pretty badly. So, the teammates just started fighting each other.”
“And that wasn’t the end of it. Some tried to fish in troubled waters, while others tried to copy them. It suddenly became incredibly chaotic.”
Guo Ming followed up on Cai Yang’s words, still harboring lingering dread over the sudden, unexpected brawl from the night before.
“Fortunately, the three of us stood together. If anyone tried to come near us, we kicked them away. We didn’t stay to watch the rest either; we hurried back to our dormitory and locked the door.”
Clue fragments were important, of course, but they still remembered why they needed to obtain them—it was to survive. Therefore, their lives were more important.
That happened during the period of legal hunting, when even deaths were permitted. They had not dared to stay any longer.
“It’s a good thing you didn’t go out. Your clues are all still there, right?”
Zhou Mingfang spoke up, seemingly letting out a sigh of relief.
The three nodded. Zhou Mingfang’s gaze quietly fell upon Xin Lan.
Xin Lan had two fragments. She had gone out yesterday, so she might have even more.
“How did it turn out?”
Xin Lan took a sip of her soy milk, pulled a tissue from her pocket, and wiped her mouth.
“We don’t know,” Cai Yang replied. “When we went out at twelve o’clock, everything was already over.”
Thus, they had no way of knowing who had actually stolen clues and who had failed.
“Right, didn’t you say you had something to tell us?”
Cai Yang looked at Xin Lan. Zhou Mingfang, guessing what Xin Lan was about to say, felt her heart tighten slightly.
“I plan to leave this squad.”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
Cai Yang looked completely bewildered. Did Xin Lan think their behavior of hiding during hunting time was too cowardly?
“I plan to act as a solo squad. The next time we meet, we’ll be competitors.”
Xin Lan stood up and bid them farewell.
Zhou Mingfang’s expression was complicated. Cai Yang wanted to speak, but Chen Zhihong clamped a hand down hard on his shoulder.
Xin Lan left the school cafeteria and walked toward the teaching building.
“Why did you just hold me back like that?” Cai Yang asked.
“What’s the point of keeping someone like her who has nothing going for her except a pretty face?” Chen Zhihong said disdainfully. “Besides, she was the one who wanted to leave. Why block her?”
He scoffed. She had probably latched onto someone else and was now acting like she was a solo squad. What a joke.
“Zhou Mingfang, you’re in the same dormitory as her, right?”
Zhou Mingfang nodded.
“Did anything happen last night?”
“Xin Lan… she’s very formidable.”
Zhou Mingfang recounted the events of the previous night, particularly how Xin Lan had dragged someone off her bed to beat her up, the agonizing screams that echoed from the dormitory in the dead of night, and that chunk of flesh left on the floor.
Her description left the other three feeling a bit squeamish. Chen Zhihong’s expression was especially unsightly—the slap to his face had come too quickly, considering he had just called her utterly useless.
“You’re not lying to us, are you?” Guo Ming asked, somewhat skeptical.
“Why would I lie to you? We’re on the same team, right? What good would lying do me?”
“If she’s really that capable, how come she didn’t beat Zou Yunfei to a pulp when he dumped her?”
“Maybe a broken heart makes a person stronger?”
Cai Yang asked in return, and a collective silence fell over them.
Xin Lan walked straight back to her own class. There was a squad inside the room. When they saw her enter, they immediately ceased their conversation and stared at her.
Xin Lan had nothing much to pack. She stuffed her textbooks and pens into her schoolbag, slung it over her shoulder, and walked out of the classroom.
Upon stepping outside, she heard the murmurs of conversation again, the contents nothing more than speculation about clues and rules. Without pausing her steps, Xin Lan made her way to Class 1.
When Xin Lan entered, Shen Shuiyan and her group were not inside. The people chatting, just like before, were filled with wariness.
Xin Lan scanned the room and spotted a single empty seat.
It stood out conspicuously among the cluster of desks, for while the surrounding tables were piled with books, that particular desk was completely clean, with absolutely nothing on it.
Xin Lan placed her schoolbag and books on top of it. A seating chart was pasted on the desktop, just as it was on every other desk.
She sat there and opened the book.
The looks from those around her were somewhat peculiar. Thanks to her sharp hearing, Xin Lan could even catch their hushed whispers.
“Isn’t that Xin Lan? Why is she in our class?”
“Could she be looking for Zou Yunfei? That can’t be right—they already broke up.”
“Who knows? With how dangerous this place is, it’s not impossible that she’s here to cling to his thigh. Zou Yunfei won his fight yesterday.”
“How many did he get?”
“Not sure.”
“Dammit… What do we do? The more he gets, the more dead we are.”
“There’s always a way.”
Xin Lan turned a page. It seemed the original owner of this body was quite famous.
Zero Nine: “Nearly the entire grade and all the teachers know that the original owner was brutally dumped. Quite a few people even went out of their way to mock her afterward.”
Xin Lan continued to read. If anyone proved so blind as to provoke her, they might as well lose their mouth altogether.
Class time was approaching, and everyone began filtering back in.
At a glance, Shen Shuiyan spotted the girl sitting there in her school uniform, reading with her head lowered. Her hair was tied in a ponytail that curled slightly at the ends, and the elegant lines of her profile were exquisite, radiating a sense of calm.
Xin Lan nodded in her direction, acknowledging her.
The reactions of the Class 1 students varied, but one person clearly took the greatest issue with her presence.
Zou Yunfei knitted his brows, looking at Xin Lan with a look of pure disgust.
“Yunfei, she’s a beauty at the end of the day. Is that expression really necessary?”
Chu Lu looked at Zou Yunfei, then followed his gaze to Xin Lan, unable to resist teasing him.
Zou Yunfei shot a cautious glance at Shen Shuiyan beside him, let out a grunt, and refused to elaborate.
Seeing that he remained silent, Chu Lu quieted down as well.
The school bell rang, and the teacher walked in from outside.
From the original owner’s memories, Xin Lan knew this was Class 1’s Chinese Teacher.
He was a middle-aged man wearing a leather jacket, a high-spirited smile on his face.
In stark contrast to him, the students below looked completely listless, resembling withered heads of cabbage.
No one dared to speak, for everyone feared standing in a coffin2.
“Students, open your textbooks and turn to Lesson Six,” the teacher said. “Today, we will study Bai Juyi’s 《Song of the Pipa Player》 together.”
A flurry of rustling pages echoed through the classroom as everyone turned to the specified page.
“But before we begin today’s lesson, there is one more matter. Does anyone remember the review material I assigned yesterday?”
The teacher’s gaze swept over the crowd, met only by dead silence.
“Teacher, it was to recite 《The Hard Road to Shu》,” Shen Shuiyan spoke up.
The teacher nodded in satisfaction at her response.
“Is there anyone who wishes to volunteer to recite it?”
The students wanted to flip back to check the text, but they discovered their textbooks seemed glued shut, entirely unyielding to their attempts to open them.
Shen Shuiyan remained still, debating whether to stand.
Thinking of yesterday’s clues, Xin Lan raised her hand.
The rules had not blocked off every possible path; a reward mechanism still existed.
If violating classroom rules led to punishment, would performing well in class result in a reward?
There was no way Xin Lan herself remembered 《The Hard Road to Shu》, but she had Zero Nine—and an exceptionally powerful memory.
The teacher smiled and locked eyes with her, gesturing for her to stand.
The moment she stood up, she instantly committed the text Zero Nine provided to her memory.
Every eye in the room focused on her. Xin Lan looked at the teacher and began to recite, her tone entirely flat:
“Alas! How high and perilous!3
The road to Shu is harder than climbing to the blue heavens.
Cancong and Yufu, the ancient kings, founded the realm in the mists of time;
Forty-eight thousand years have passed since then, isolated from the lands of Qin.
Westward, only a bird’s path crosses Mount Taibai, cutting straight across Mount Emei’s peak.
The earth split, the mountains crumbled, and the brave warriors died; only then did the sky-ladder and stone paths hook and link together…”
“Well done. I wonder if you have previewed what we are studying today?”
The teacher’s eyes were filled with satisfaction. Xin Lan naturally nodded.
Zero Nine hurriedly displayed the text of 《Song of the Pipa Player》 for her. Xin Lan scanned it once and resumed her recitation:
“By Xunyang River at night, I bid guests farewell,4
Where maple leaves and reed flowers rustled in autumn’s chill.
The host dismounts, the guest is already aboard the boat,
We raise our cups to drink, yet have no flutes or strings to play.
Drinking without joy, we are heavy-hearted on the eve of parting,
At the moment of farewell, the vast river is steeped in moonlight…”
Under the astonished gazes of everyone present, Xin Lan sat back down.
At the same time, a card dropped onto her desk with a crisp clack.
Those who had not yet looked away naturally witnessed this scene.
Xin Lan immediately placed her hand over the card. The students nearby did not even have time to catch a glimpse of what it looked like.
“Students who study diligently will always be rewarded,” the teacher announced. “Now, please read the lesson to yourselves.”
The sound of reading aloud soon filled the classroom, but many still kept their eyes trained on Xin Lan. Nearly everyone was speculating about what she had received.
Xin Lan glanced at the text on the card, her lips curving upward.
［Skill Card］: Can obtain a clue fragment from a deceased person on any given day. Silently recite to use during hunting time.
It was a reward, but it came with limitations. It was not as convenient as the one she had acquired the previous night.
The advantage was that she could choose her own timing; the drawback was that it was restricted to the deceased.
Did “the deceased” refer to those killed by the rules, or would any dead person do?
The author has something to say:
Ding! Card dropped.
Everyone: “I want to steal it so badly!”
Lan-jie: [Hands itching] “I really want to be robbed.”
Zero Nine: Offering incense to everyone present in advance.
Footnotes
- Shaomài (烧麦) is a traditional Chinese steamed dumpling, typically prepared with a thin wrapper and filled with seasoned sticky rice, pork, and mushrooms.
- Zài guāncai lǐ fázhàn (standing in a coffin) is a severe school punishment in this setting where students are forced to stand upright inside a coffin for failing to meet academic or rule requirements.
- From 'The Hard Road to Shu' (Shǔ Dào Nán) by the Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai. It describes the treacherous terrain of the path into the Shu region of modern Sichuan.
- From 'Song of the Pipa Player' (Pípá Xíng) by the Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi. It depicts a demoted official hearing a skilled but forgotten musician by the river.
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