IJRELD: Hide and Seek 2

MAY 17, 2023 ~ KIWII

The school gate opened slowly, and a man in a formal suit and leather shoes came out from inside.

The man’s pace was very fast, his face was full of anxiety and nervous look.

After standing still in front of them, he said straight to the point: “Hello, I am the principal of Linchuan Middle School.
A few students from the school disappeared a few days ago, and they have not been found after calling the police.
You are here because I want you to help find those students.”

The principal walked away while talking and took them to the boys’ dormitory of the school.

“Students have already moved out after the third-year middle school exam.
You will live in the room they vacated tonight.
Let’s discuss how to find these children tomorrow.” As he spoke, the principal asked for dozens of keys from the dormitory supervisor.

The principal looked at the key, and said to dozens of people with a sad face: “The dormitories in our school are all four-person rooms, you should allocate the rooms yourself first.”

Most people are tricked by acquaintances, so it is not difficult to form a four-person room.

Among the 48 people, Song Qingshu knew five people.
Except for Sang Yu, he knew the remaining four, but they were not from the same department, so they were not familiar with each other.

Those four people may know each other, and they stood together automatically as soon as the principal finished speaking.

“What should we do? Who should we find someone to share the room with?” Sang Yu looked around and asked Song Qingshu’s opinion habitually.

“Follow me.” Song Qingshu took Sang Yu quickly to the man, and asked him, “Can we share a room with you?” There was no sign of embarrassment of being caught peeking outside the school gate during the speech.

After speaking, he looked at the other party with those bright black eyes, with an expectant look on his face, as if saying: Say yes, or I will be sad.

He was paying attention to the movement here just now.
After the principal finished speaking, at least three two-person groups came to the man to share the room.

The man didn’t agree directly, he looked at several people, and seemed to be hesitating.
His eyes turned around several people, his thin eyelids lifted slightly, and he glanced at the place where Song Qingshu was standing.

Song Qingshu saw the man’s gaze sweeping over him, and thought to himself: Something must be done.

In order not to let others get the man first, Song Qingshu hurriedly brought Sang Yu over.

There is no doubt that the man is good-looking, but according to his observations among the more than forty people, this man should be the most capable, and the woman standing next to him is not bad either.

Ghost knows what will happen in the future, so of course the room must be combined with the strongest.

“Ok, let’s share a room.” The man looked at Song Qingshu’s expectant expression, as if seeing a fluffy canine animal, he hesitated a little and agreed.
He went to the principal to get the key and handed Song Qingshu two keys.

“How can you do this? We came first.” One of the two standing boys accused him angrily.
This person obviously came later than all of them, so why did he succeed in forming a team with the two strongest people in front of him?

“But he didn’t agree with you.” Song Qingshu showed a row of neat little white teeth on purpose when he smiled.

The corner of the man’s mouth raised a few invisible arcs, and he seemed to see the other’s tail that was raised to the sky.

The boy was so angry that he wanted to hit someone, but before he could stretch out his hand, another boy pulled him away.

The dormitory building had five floors, each floor had twenty rooms, they lived in twelve rooms on the first floor, and the remaining eight rooms were locked for various reasons.

The number marked on the key in Song Qingshu’s hand was 105, which meant he lives in room 105.

The four people went to Room 105 and got to know each other, of course in the form of nicknames.

Song Qingshu learned that the nickname of the man was Moon in the Water, and the nickname of the girl was Yan Ruyu.

Sang Yu’s nickname was Picking Mulberries.

It was Song Qingshu’s turn, he remembered his nickname and fell silent……

He doesn’t want to say his nickname at all, it’s too shameful.

He also doesn’t understand why other people’s nicknames are so literary and beautiful, but his own looks so mentally retarded.

Oh my god, Little Rabbit, be good, why is there such a childish nickname in the game system that a minor entered by mistake.

Isn’t this a scam? Song Qingshu wanted to flip the table.

Finally, under the watchful eyes of the three people, he whispered with red ears.

“Fuck, bullying my brother, 666.” Sang Yu clapped his hands and laughed when he heard the five words, and asked Song Qingshu after laughing: “Why did you come up with such a name?”

kiwii: 666 – “cool” or “nice.”

Song Qingshu exploded instantly, wanting to yell at him and tell him: Don’t blame me, don’t talk nonsense, the system hurt me.

But due to the fact that Moon in the Water was standing beside him, he could only forcibly suppress the small volcano that was about to erupt, glared at Sang Yu, and explained: “I pressed the dice, and the game system automatically selected it.”

Sang Yu actually didn’t want to laugh, but the contrast between that nickname and the Song Qingshu he knew was too great, so he couldn’t hold back his laughter in the end.

The door of 105 was open, and the people in the other dormitories heard Sang Yu’s unbridled laughter, and they all came out to look.
Sang Yu heard someone say: “That’s not possible, nothing happened yet, why are people going crazy?”

Hearing this sentence, Song Qingshu laughed out loud.
Laughter is contagious, Yan Ruyu laughed as if she had been poked into the laughing hole.
Only Moon in the Water remained calm, pursing his lips tightly, looking expressionlessly at the three laughing people.

The man shook his head, looking hopeless and giving up, and said, “Why is madnes also contagious? 105 is about to end.”

After a while, the three of them finally stopped laughing.

Sang Yu wiped the liquid from the corners of his eyes, and it took him a while to calm down.
Of course, he also got a lot of white eyes from Song Qingshu.

Not long after the room was assigned, it was time for dinner.
As soon as they walked from the dormitory to the cafeteria, they were almost suffocated by the surging students.

Song Qingshu was even staggered by a student who didn’t look at the road, and almost fell to the ground.
Fortunately, being supported by Moon in the Water, he didn’t fall.

He came back to his senses and wanted to stop the student for a lecture, and tell him the disadvantages of walking without looking at the road, and he could find no one when he looked up.

The student canteen has a total of three floors, the lower two floors are student canteens, and the third floor is specially prepared for teachers and guests.

This made Song Qingshu heave a sigh of relief.
He didn’t want to compete with those students for food.
Judging from his performance just now, he felt that he might not be able to grab a meal.

He has to say that the food in Linchuan Middle School is really good, four dishes and one soup

A dish of cumin beef, a dish of boiled shrimp, a dish of spicy tofu, a dish of shiitake mushrooms and choy sum with ham and winter melon soup, it looks like a nutritious meal specially made to take care of the health of middle school students.

There is more than one set of nutrition packages, he only looked at the other sets, and didn’t choose if they didn’t suit his appetite.

The four of them adhered to the good quality of eating without speaking, and they didn’t say a word from the beginning of eating.

Song Qingshu ate food silently, and looked at Moon in the Water and Yan Ruyu calmly.

After the meal, he found that Moon in the Water didn’t eat coriander, but preferred to eat beef instead.
Yan Ruyu didn’t eat fatty meat, she probably doesn’t like to eat vegetables, but she still ate the fried vegetables with a bitter face, combined with her figure, Song Qingshu guessed that she was losing weight.

After eating, the four of them planned to take a stroll around the campus to familiarize themselves with the terrain.
In order to find out the terrain earlier, the four people divided into two groups and went to different places.

Linchuan Middle School is the best private school in the area.
The entire campus occupies a large area.
There are two to three thousand students in total.
There are several teaching buildings and dormitory buildings.
The greenery in the school is very good, and you can see well-manicured trees and flowers everywhere.

There is a locked iron gate on the other side of the playground of Linchuan Middle School, and there is also a school inside.
From a certain angle, you can see a few big characters faintly written on the top of the school gate: Linchuan Kindergarten.

Song Qingshu and Sang Yu walked across the playground towards the iron gate.

Kindergarten dismisses much earlier than junior high school students, and there was no one in the kindergarten at this time.
Song Qingshu glanced inside, only to see slides painted with various cartoon patterns and swings wobbly by the wind in the garden.

“Did you see that swing?” Sang Yu said to Song Qingshu.

“You want to sit? I’ll push you.” Song Qingshu glanced at him from the corner of his eye.

Sang Yu: ……

“I don’t want to.
I just feel a little strange, do kindergartens really have such dangerous game equipment as swings? Aren’t those parents and teachers most afraid of children falling and knocking?” Sang Yu said.

“Makes sense, let’s look elsewhere.” Song Qingshu turned and left.

The sky was getting dark, and the lights of the teaching building in the distance were turned on one by one.
Song Qingshu looked in the corridor of the teaching building, and found that there were only a few students sitting in each class quietly doing their homework.
There was a teacher sitting there reading a book on the podium.

“These should be boarding students.” Sang Yu said.

“Um,” Song Qingshu stood in front of a schedule and looked intently, and then asked him: “What time is it now?”

Sang Yu glanced at the time and replied: “7:55 p.m.”

As soon as the voice fell, a game panel appeared in front of the two people, with a striking countdown on it.

Song Qingshu came to his senses immediately, and said to Sang Yu: “Hurry up and go back to the dormitory.” After speaking, the two quickly left the teaching building and rushed to the dormitory.

As soon as they arrived at the dormitory, they heard rumbling thunder, followed by heavy rain pouring down.

After the get out of class bell at eight o’clock rang, the students ran back to their dormitories in the rain and started to wash.

At 9:30 in the dormitory, the bedtime bell rang.
Under the urging of the dormitory uncle, the students finished washing and playing and went back to their dormitories.

The whole dormitory building gradually fell silent from the noise, and finally became deathly silent.

Song Qingshu and the others also lay down on the bed early.
He didn’t know if other people were asleep or not, anyway, Song Qingshu dare not sleep, and he doesn’t feel sleepy.
Ever since he knew that this game can really kill people, he has been very vigilant about this game.

It’s a pity that he still fell asleep not long after, but he didn’t sleep too deeply.

After an unknown amount of time, he heard a few strange sounds while he was half asleep and half awake, like wood dragging and rubbing on the ground, and occasionally creaking.

“My eyes are blindfolded, my friends, who is playing hide-and-seek…[1]” The clear and ethereal voice of the child echoed in the silent and empty corridor, making it particularly strange.

The singing sound invaded the player’s ears from all directions through the wall and ceiling, and the back of the listener felt cold, and the hairs stood on end, as if the child was right next to his ear.

Song Qingshu woke up instantly, and he listened to all kinds of voices vigilantly.
After a while, he heard a light knock on the door, and a child’s voice sounded outside the door: “Come out and play with me.”

—

The author has something to say:

Song Qingshu: Hey, I’m terrified.
Qin Shuiyue: I believe you

[1] Quoted from the song “Hide and Seek” Luo Tianyi’s version, it’s very nice, you can listen to it if you like_(:з”∠)_

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kiwii: I’ll post further chps after 21 May, because on 18 I’ll be going on a trip with my family.
Take care!