I won't be your doll

Chapter 11

"Lei Zi, you have a crippled uncle?"

Zhong Lei was taken aback.

"No! We grew up together, didn't you know?"

Yu Kai's question puzzled him a bit.

"Then, that person must not be a good person!"

Yu Kai's voice was very confident.

"Oh? Tell me, why?"

Zhong Lei's favorite thing to hear was Yu Kai's reasoning. Every time he read a detective novel, Yu Kai could predict the ending with pretty much the same accuracy. So, whenever Yu Kai came to a conclusion, Zhong Lei always liked to listen to the reasoning process, which was a kind of enjoyment for him.

After a moment's hesitation, Yu Kai began to speak calmly:

"First, we can conclude that the person who just checked was not a teacher, for two reasons: First, when he was peering at our door, he didn't look inside, but only at the membership list posted on the door, which is unusual. Second, we can conclude this from Wang Chong's words; he called him 'uncle,' which would never be the case if he were a teacher! At this point, we can confirm that the person was not a teacher."

Zhong Lei nodded in agreement, "And then?"

"Then, this person either has a genuine emergency, or he has ill intentions."

"Oh? What do you mean?"

Zhong Lei hadn't considered this.

"The reason he said that is because he lied. Based on my understanding of you over the years, you don't have an uncle, just like me. There are two reasons why he lied: First, he was in a hurry to find you, but he couldn't explain the reason clearly in a short time, so he made up a pretext to avoid too much trouble. Second, he wanted to harm you and lied to hide his identity."

Just as Zhong Lei was about to respond, Yu Kai continued:

"However, he just said he wanted you to go to the duty room to find him, so he doesn't seem like someone with ill intentions, therefore..."

He suddenly stopped talking. Zhong Lei was about to ask him a question when his mouth was covered.

"There's someone at the door."

Chapter Five: A Sleepless Night (Part Three)

Four

With a painful creaking sound from the broken wooden door, a dark figure appeared at the dormitory entrance. Zhong Lei knelt beside Yu Kai's bed, not daring to breathe.

"You, hiding in the darkness, come out!"

Zhong Lei was shocked. He had been discovered so easily! What a failure! He stood up dejectedly and walked towards the door, but he didn't notice the strange expression on Yu Kai's face as he lay on the bed.

After Zhong Lei was called out by the teacher on duty, he didn't receive any scolding or questioning. Instead, he watched as the thin teacher came to his dormitory door, banged on the door forcefully, and then shouted as before:

"Hey you singing inside, come out right now, or the whole dorm will lose ten points!"

After that, he stood at the door and didn't say anything.

Soon, Liu Dong, wearing only a pair of shorts, came out. He was completely oblivious to Zhong Lei's strange look and hurriedly explained to the short teacher:

"Teacher, no one in our dorm was singing just now. Everyone was sleeping soundly..."

The short teacher interrupted him impatiently:

"No? Then what did I just hear? A ghost singing?!" He seemed angry, but after hearing this, Liu Dong's face twitched, and he continued:

"Teacher, it really is... it's... something singing!"

The short teacher raised her eyebrows and raised her voice an octave higher:

"You're still talking back?"

Liu Dong quickly explained:

"Teacher, this is what happened! We were all sleeping peacefully when suddenly we heard someone singing that song, 'We sit on the high haystacks.' The sound was very clear, coming from inside the dormitory. And none of us in the dormitory use portable music players or anything like that, so we were all terrified!"

"You're still making this up!!" The short teacher, unable to contain his anger, leaped forward and slapped Liu Dong across the face. "You don't want your quantified points anymore!!"

Liu Dong covered his aching left cheek and said, feeling wronged:

"This is a boys' dormitory. That song is sung by a woman. How could it be sung by someone in our dormitory?"

The short teacher, who had just been burning with anger, was taken aback. After a moment, he nodded slightly and said:

"This definitely wasn't sung by anyone from your dorm, and I also believe you wouldn't have the guts to bring a girl here. So, give me an explanation now: what was that singing just now? Were you listening to a Walkman?"

After saying that, he crossed his arms and looked at Liu Dong, seemingly not ashamed at all for having mistakenly hit the student earlier, his expression remaining unchanged and his heart not skipping a beat.

The atmosphere was tense. Zhong Lei clenched his fists secretly, while Liu Dong, though he dared not show it, also looked grim. Even the strange phenomenon he had just encountered didn't affect him as much as this teacher. He was a student who had spent a year at Phoenix City High School, a seasoned veteran, yet this teacher was treating him like a freshman, showing no respect whatsoever. Thinking this to himself, he hardened his tone:

"We didn't sing, nor did we listen to Walkmans. If you don't believe me, teacher, there's nothing I can do." After saying that, he stuck his left foot out and glanced at other places with disdain.

Liu Dong initially thought the teacher would erupt in anger, but to his surprise, he only heard a very gentle voice:

"Okay, I understand. You two didn't rest properly during your evening break, disturbing other people's sleep, talking back to the teacher, and having a bad attitude. I'm deducting two points from your quantitative assessment score each. This is out of consideration for your homeroom teacher's job, not to let you off easy. Also, you have another task: to be on duty on the sixth floor until 5 a.m. tomorrow. Don't even think about slacking off; I'll be watching you on the monitor."

After announcing the punishment, the short man waved his hand, pointed to the stairs, and squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth:

Go ahead! Good luck!

After saying that, a mischievous smile appeared on his face. For a teacher from Phoenix City to say such a thing surprised the two students. However, that wasn't the most astonishing part. What truly terrified them was that they were assigned to be on duty on the sixth floor.

Memories of the Past

November 18, 2004

Zhong Lei's first week on duty was also night patrol.

However, winter always comes quickly in the north. It snowed that night, and the first snow of 2004 came later than usual.

Because of the heavy snow, the students who were supposed to patrol the campus were assigned to the duty rooms of each dormitory building. Zhong Lei and a senior student from the student union sat around the stove in the duty room of the teaching building. The warmth of the stove gently enveloped the two of them, keeping the raging snow outside far away.

Watching the leaping flames in the stove, the senior suddenly felt like chatting. He was of medium height, with a small nose, small eyes, and a small mouth—very delicate-looking, and with slightly curly hair, he was practically a porcelain doll. His appearance naturally made him approachable, and his gentle personality made him very popular.

Zhong Lei seemed to have a different style compared to him. He was tall and strong, nearly 1.9 meters tall, with a angular face, thick eyebrows, big eyes, and a straight nose. His hairstyle was modeled after Jay Chou, with long hair on his forehead that almost covered his left eye. This was the famous handsome guy Zhong Lei from the first year of high school at Phoenix City High School.

The friendly senior student, staring at the fire, started talking:

"Zhong Lei, what do you think of our school since you came here?"

Zhong Lei answered truthfully:

"Just as rumored, it's incredibly strict!"

The senior smiled slightly:

"Legends? What other legends have you heard?"

"I've only heard that it's very strict, but I don't know anything else."

He chuckled again, but this time it was a really sly laugh. The senior continued:

Do you know where our school was built?

Zhong Lei looked completely bewildered.

"have no idea."

"Hehe, alright, then I'll tell you about the history of our school. I'm already a senior in high school and about to leave this godforsaken place. I don't want to leave any secrets behind. Actually, it's not really a secret. Although this is a confidential file of the school, every freshman class spreads this story around within six months. So, it's the least secret thing about the school."

Zhong Lei was completely confused and just nodded blindly, forgetting to do anything else.

Seeing that he had kept everyone in suspense for a while, the senior student lowered his head to gather his thoughts and began to speak:

"Our school was founded in 1999, and enrolled its first batch of students in the mid-2000s. This first batch consisted only of senior high school students, who transferred from several other high schools in the city. There were only a little over 300 students, divided into five classes. Do you know why there were so few students?"

Chapter Five: A Sleepless Night (Part Four)

Seeing Zhong Lei shake his head again, the senior pursed his lips smugly and continued:

"That's because very few parents in the city dare to send their children here." He finished speaking and waited to see Zhong Lei's reaction. To his satisfaction, Zhong Lei's eyes widened.

"Why? Is there some kind of monster here?"

"There are no monsters, but strange things happen all the time. Let me tell you the story! Five years ago, this area around our school was a wasteland, long known as 'Eastern Wasteland.' Within a ten-kilometer radius, nothing grew, and the soil was strangely poor. Many well-meaning people tried to plant cacti, but all failed. Standing at the foot of the hill and looking up at the entire slope, it was covered with jagged rocks and flying sand and mud. During the day, under the influence of the light, countless people in the vicinity saw hallucinations. Some said they saw a large troop of people galloping across the wasteland, seemingly appearing out of thin air before disappearing again." In the blink of an eye, they vanished into nothingness. In this coastal province nearing the 21st century, few people raise horses anymore, let alone such a large herd of magnificent steeds. More and more people witnessed this strange phenomenon, and the rumor spread like wildfire throughout the streets and alleys of Guiping City. The media inevitably became involved in this mysterious event. A photojournalist captured images of the mysterious herd of horses and the eerie, bizarre figures on their backs. After the photos were published, the rumor seemed to receive official confirmation, further strengthening its credibility.

Seeing that his senior had stopped, Zhong Lei quickly asked:

"I've been here for so long and I've never seen any horses. Besides, I grew up in Guiping, how come I've never heard of any horses?"

"Could it be that your parents never told you anything, or when they were putting you to sleep as a child, they never said anything like 'If you don't behave, I'll throw you into the East Wasteland' to scare you?" He blinked after saying that.

At this moment, Zhong Lei lowered his head.

“I lost my father three months after I was born, and three years later, I lost my mother. So, no one put me to sleep, and I grew up in the city's orphanage.”

The senior's expression froze instantly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring this up." Her expression began to show some unease.

"It's nothing, I know you didn't mean it, please continue!" Zhong Lei forced a smile.

"Oh, alright then, I'll continue! During the 1999 meeting of the Municipal People's Congress Standing Committee, someone proposed raising the city's education level. The existing high schools in the city had lost their academic atmosphere, and their ranking in the provincial college entrance examination was close to the bottom three. Given this grim situation, the person who made the suggestion proposed building a high school in the suburbs, implementing semi-military management, and focusing on training students' all-round qualities, especially strictly managing the school atmosphere and fostering a good learning environment and school spirit. At that time, the Municipal Party Secretary and the Chairman of the Standing Committee were both newly appointed and eager to make a strong impact. Therefore, the proposal was quickly approved and formally documented and distributed to all districts and townships to raise funds for the school's construction. Newcomers are always efficient; half a month later, construction began on our school."

Chapter Five: A Sleepless Night (Part 5)

"The school's infrastructure construction has truly cost a fortune and a lot of effort. We can't find groundwater on the hill, and it's too far from the city; the nearest village is a ten-minute drive away. So, the infrastructure construction alone took four months. Our water supply is drawn from groundwater in nearby villages, so we often experience water outages (Zhong Lei quickly nodded in agreement). Our school's electricity is better, though; the new city power plant was recently built nearby, you should know that! So the electricity situation is okay. However, these difficulties are all quite ordinary; none of them compare to that matter. That matter wasn't just difficult, it was… bizarre!"

The senior was keeping him in suspense again. Seeing that he had stopped, Zhong Lei quickly pressed him for details:

"Senior, hurry up and tell me! Don't hold me back! Okay?"

The senior student smiled slightly, then immediately feigned fear.

"In order to meet the enrollment requirements as soon as possible, the school's first dormitory building was started at the same time as the main teaching building. For some reason, the construction of the dormitory building was very difficult from the very beginning of the foundation digging. First, some people objected to building the dormitory building here. A person who claimed to be a feng shui master said that this location was the most unsuitable place for people to live in, that is, this location was very evil. It seems that Principal Ning did not pay attention to this objection and just threw it aside as a nuisance."

The senior student swallowed hard.

"But then, strange things started happening. While digging the foundation, they unearthed a two-headed snake. It was later learned that this kind of snake guards ancient tombs and is commonly known as the Mountain Wind. Two workers were bitten to death by the Mountain Wind, and several others were bitten or whipped by its tail. It is said that the project was temporarily suspended, but it was only resumed at Principal Ning's strong insistence."

Zhong Lei sighed softly and shook his head:

"I never even heard of something like this happening here four years ago. It's a really hard feeling."

The senior smiled again:

"Hehe, actually, unexpected things happen all the time! Right?"