El hibisco como pintura

Capítulo 20

"Could this be Li Biqi?" Gao Xiaoyuan exclaimed.

Xu An took the photo frame and frowned: "How did you get this photo?"

Gao Xiaoyuan shook her head: "I don't know. Every time a new student appears in Class 0 of the first year of high school, this photo shows that person."

Xu An's brows furrowed even more deeply.

"By the way, did you see any musical notes drawn on that blackboard in the concert hall yesterday?"

"I didn't see anything."

"Let's go see it now!" Gao Xiaoyuan said, throwing the photo frame on the table and running out with Xu An.

Li Biqi in the photo frame has a bright smile on her face.

Behind the concert hall, Xu An brushed aside the fallen leaves. Gao Xiaoyuan was about to crawl in when Xu An stopped her.

"Stay close to me, don't leave my side." After saying this, Xu An bent down and climbed inside.

Gao Xiaoyuan smiled brightly and followed Xu An inside.

Sunlight streamed in through the cracks in the doors and windows of the concert hall, and with the help of this light, Gao Xiaoyuan discerned the direction and led Xu An to the blackboard.

"This is it."

Strange musical notes were visible on the broken blackboard.

"Lin Nana told me that this is Li Biqi and Li Wenbin's code. Last time, there were also musical notes drawn on the blackboard in the southwest corner of the school. We just need to check that notebook to find out." Gao Xiaoyuan touched her pocket but found that the notebook was not there.

"Oh no, my notebook is gone!" She looked up at Xu An. "Did you see my notebook yesterday?"

Xu An, however, stared intently at the blackboard without uttering a word.

Gao Xiaoyuan was frantic: "If that notebook is lost, we won't know what these musical notes mean."

“Zhong,” Xu An suddenly blurted out.

"What?" Gao Xiaoyuan was taken aback and looked at Xu An.

It should be 'clock'.

"Xu An, what are you saying?"

"If I'm not mistaken, these notes are from a piece called 'The Bell'."

"You...know music?" Gao Xiaoyuan was puzzled. Last time, Chen Shuai guessed it, but Chen Shuai was originally from Class 0 of the first year of high school, so it was normal for him to know it. But now Xu An also knows it...

"What was the last code word?" Xu An looked at Gao Xiaoyuan and saw a look of doubt in her eyes.

How do you know anything about music?

"I've loved music since I was a child."

Gao Xiaoyuan had no choice but to nod: "The note in the previous code was Moonlight Sonata, but after checking the notebook, I found that it meant classroom."

"So you're saying it has nothing to do with the music itself?"

"It shouldn't be related."

Xu An frowned and lowered his head in thought.

Gao Xiaoyuan turned around and looked around the entire concert hall.

Last night, Lin Nana disappeared here. How could she suddenly disappear? Who turned on the stage lights and then moved one of them, seemingly to deliberately let her discover the blackboard? What was that person's purpose? Lin Nana lured her here, and she saw the blackboard because someone moved the stage lights. If we extrapolate from this, could Lin Nana be an accomplice of the person who moved the stage lights?

“I understand!” Xu An suddenly raised his head. “Moonlight Sonata represents the time when the moon rises, which is night. The classroom refers to Class 0 of Grade 11, and the clock must refer to the clock hanging in Class 0 of Grade 11.”

Gao Xiaoyuan suddenly realized, but then asked, "The notes of Moonlight Sonata have another meaning, so this clock must also have another meaning."

"I'll go to the classroom of Class 0 in the first year of high school tonight; maybe I can find the answer."

The answer of the six bells

The corridor was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Xu An and Gao Xiaoyuan darted into the corridor and huddled in a corner.

Grandpa Liu walked in with a flashlight, glanced around the corridor, and then turned and left.

Xu An and Gao Xiaoyuan only slowly stood up after they could no longer hear Grandpa Liu's footsteps.

"I was so scared, I was really afraid of being caught by Grandpa Liu," Gao Xiaoyuan said in a low voice.

Xu An turned on his flashlight and shone it ahead: "Stay close to me." As he spoke, Xu An walked forward, and Gao Xiaoyuan obediently followed behind.

A gust of cold wind blew by, and Gao Xiaoyuan seemed to sense something behind her. She turned around abruptly, but found nothing. She pouted and turned back to follow Xu An. When the two reached the classroom of Class 0, Grade 1, Xu An looked up at the door.

"Why is the door locked?" Gao Xiaoyuan looked at the newly hung padlock on the door with disappointment: "Now we can't get in."

Xu An raised his flashlight and scanned the classroom, then whispered, "Come with me."

Gao Xiaoyuan quickly followed Xu An back the way they came.

When the two walked out of the teaching building, Xu An was worried about being discovered by Grandpa Liu, so he quickly turned off the flashlight and pulled Gao Xiaoyuan to the southwest corner of the teaching building.

Standing in front of the window of Class 0, Grade 11, Xu An reached out and tried to push the window. He finally discovered that one of the windows was old and not locked at all, and that window was right in front of the teacher's podium.

Without saying a word, Xu An nimbly leaped onto the window and jumped inside, then turned around and extended his hand to Gao Xiaoyuan: "Let me help you."

Gao Xiaoyuan nodded, carefully climbed onto the windowsill, and then nimbly jumped into the classroom. However, as soon as she landed, she stepped on a broken piece of wood and fell forward, crashing into Xu An. The two fell to the ground at the same time, with Gao Xiaoyuan landing on top of Xu An.

They looked at each other, but neither of them spoke.

"I...I'm sorry." Gao Xiaoyuan blushed and quickly got off Xu An.

Xu An said nothing, stood up, dusted himself off, looked around the classroom, and finally looked down at the floor.

“Someone has been here before,” Xu An said warily.

"I also noticed that it seems like other people we don't know have been here." Gao Xiaoyuan looked at the messy footprints on the ground. She knew some were hers, some were Wang Qin's and Lu Yao's, and perhaps many more, though some were definitely unknown to her. Gao Xiaoyuan's gaze slowly shifted to the podium. She remembered that when she came last time, the podium had fallen to the side, but now it was still standing. However, she clearly remembered that there was a hole under the podium, and she had seen something in the hole before…

Just thinking about that scene made Gao Xiaoyuan shudder, and she had no choice but to move closer to Xu An.

"What's wrong?" Xu An asked.

“That podium…” Gao Xiaoyuan pointed to the podium.

Xu An walked to the front of the podium, patted it, then walked around it once before finally pushing it to the side.

Below the podium was a flat ground, still covered with residual dust.

Gao Xiaoyuan was stunned. She clearly remembered that there was a hole under the podium, but how did it turn into a flat ground?

“The clock isn’t down there.” Xu An misunderstood Gao Xiaoyuan’s meaning. He looked up and walked to the back of the classroom, trying to move the old desks and chairs.

Gao Xiaoyuan walked blankly to the front of the podium and paced back and forth on the flat ground.

Xu An turned to look at Gao Xiaoyuan: "What are you doing?"

"Oh, it's nothing, I'll find Zhong right away." Gao Xiaoyuan walked to the side, but still glanced at the piece of land.

As darkness fell, moonlight streamed into the classroom of Class 0, Grade 11, but Xu An and Gao Xiaoyuan searched the entire classroom and still couldn't find Zhong.

"Could it be that we misunderstood?" Gao Xiaoyuan tilted her head and said, "It seems that those few notes must have another meaning."

Xu An remained silent, staring blankly at the moonlight spilling onto the ground.

Gao Xiaoyuan looked up at the ceiling and asked, "Could there have been a clock here before, and someone took it away?"

Xu An remained silent, his gaze fixed on the moonlight.

Time passed second by second, and the moonlight slowly moved until it finally settled on the ground where the podium had been placed.

Xu An's eyes suddenly lit up. He walked to the podium and patted it a few times. Then he laid the podium down and shone his flashlight into the inner layer of the podium. He found a worn-out round clock stuck in the inner layer that was right next to the podium.

"So this is where it is!" Gao Xiaoyuan exclaimed excitedly.

Xu An reached out, grasped the clock, and shook it back and forth a few times before finally managing to take it out of the clock.

"So there really is a clock." Gao Xiaoyuan looked happily at the clock in Xu An's hand.

The clock was dirty, covered with a thick layer of dust. Xu An brushed the dust away with his hand and found that the hour, minute, and second hands of the clock had all stopped, and the time was pointing to 2:03.

"What should we do next?" Gao Xiaoyuan asked Zhong.

Xu An remained silent, staring intently at the clock.

Gao Xiaoyuan noticed that Xu An was deep in thought, so she didn't dare to disturb him. She simply stood quietly in place, looking around the classroom.

The candy wrappers that flew out last time are gone. Who cleaned it up? But if it was cleaned up, why is there still dust everywhere?

"Could it be..." Xu An looked up at the window, "that means 2:03 AM?"

Gao Xiaoyuan looked at Xu An, but she still didn't understand what Xu An meant.

After looking around the classroom, Xu An said, "Let's wait until 2:03 and see."

Gao Xiaoyuan nodded. The two walked to the front of the stage and sat down, waiting patiently.

Time ticked by, Xu An staring intently at the clock in his hand. Gao Xiaoyuan, however, was already incredibly sleepy, her head bobbing back and forth as if she were about to collapse at any moment. Xu An turned to look at Gao Xiaoyuan, gently pulling her body closer to him, letting her rest her head on his shoulder. Soon after, Gao Xiaoyuan began to snore softly.

Xu An smiled faintly, looked up at the window, and his gaze inadvertently drifted to the blackboard outside.

The blackboard was clean now, as if someone had just wiped it today; there were still water stains on it. Xu An glanced down at Gao Xiaoyuan, who was fast asleep beside him, and remembered the first code word she had mentioned. That code word was in the southwest corner of the teaching building, which meant it must have been written on that blackboard, right next to Class 0 of the first year of high school. And the second blackboard was in the concert hall... Could it be...?

Xu An reached out and shook Gao Xiaoyuan: "Xiaoyuan, wake up!"

Gao Xiaoyuan rubbed her eyes groggily, "Where am I? Where am I?"

"Xiaoyuan, come with me!" Xu An stood up and walked to the window.

Gao Xiaoyuan was fully awake at this point, but she still didn't understand Xu An's meaning. She glanced down at her watch and said, "It's almost two o'clock now. Aren't you going to wait?"

“We’ve made a mistake. We shouldn’t be waiting here,” Xu An said as he jumped out of the window.

Gao Xiaoyuan walked to the window and took Xu An's outstretched hand, asking as she climbed, "If not here, where would we be?"

"Concert hall!"

Seven Maidens' Prayer