El hibisco como pintura

Capítulo 32

"What's wrong?"

You seem very excited!

Chen Shuai, who had already run downstairs, excitedly held up the photo album in his hand and said, "I've found something important!"

"Isn't that a photo album?" Lin Nana asked, puzzled.

"There's a secret behind this photo." Xu An held up the photo in his hand.

Lin Nana and Li Biqi immediately noticed the lines behind the photo.

"What do you mean by 'take'?" Li Biqi asked, puzzled.

Neither Chen Shuai nor Xu An responded. They exchanged a glance and smiled knowingly at each other. Then, they simultaneously opened their photo albums and took out all the photos marked with numbers.

Several numbered photos were laid out on the coffee table, arranged in numerical order. Gao Xiaoyuan, Chen Shuai, Xu An, Lin Nana, and Li Biqi were gathered around the coffee table, their expressions showing great tension.

"Shall we begin now?" Gao Xiaoyuan asked, and the other four nodded in unison. The five of them immediately picked up the photos in front of the painting and arranged them on the old map in numerical order. In about ten minutes, the map was completely pieced together.

Lin Nana's face lit up with surprise: "We did it!"

"It really worked!" Li Biqi exclaimed happily.

Chen Shuai let out a long breath, a relaxed expression appearing on his face.

Gao Xiaoyuan's mood improved a lot; the map was finally pieced together.

“Take a close look at this old school building. Where was the original first-year high school section?” Xu An asked nervously.

After hearing Xu An's words, the other four people immediately looked at the map, and then they were all stunned.

“No wonder things always happen there,” Lin Nana said first.

“Even Teacher Xia died there,” Li Biqi said nervously.

"It's strange, really strange. Something happened there in the same place a year ago, just like our class did." Chen Shuai tilted his head and looked at the map.

"Is this a coincidence?" Gao Xiaoyuan asked, looking at everyone.

No one spoke, because no one could answer Gao Xiaoyuan's question.

The location of the old school building's first-year high school section, as shown on the map, is right next to the new school building's concert hall.

10. Five boys and five girls

Returning to the concert hall again and again

Pushing open the heavy doors of the concert hall, Gao Xiaoyuan, Xu An, Chen Shuai, Lin Nana, and Li Biqi felt their hearts sink. None of them knew what awaited them; they only knew that they would find the answers they sought in this place.

A mysterious scent filled the air, and dust particles floated aimlessly. What secrets did the quiet concert hall hold? What exactly happened a year ago? Would Fang Manting and Principal Chen appear here? And what about the other students? Were they alright? With all these questions in mind, the five of them entered the concert hall.

"What other secrets do we not know here?" Gao Xiaoyuan looked around, her gaze finally settling on the stage.

Teacher Xia hanged herself there.

Peng Zhi's body was found under the floorboards, along with Su Siyu's...

"This doesn't look like a place with an entrance," Lin Nana said, looking around.

Xu An's gaze lingered on Gao Xiaoyuan's face because he noticed that Gao Xiaoyuan was staring blankly at the stage.

He understood her feelings and knew what she was thinking. Just as he was about to walk up to her, he heard a voice.

"Creak—" The sound seemed to come from a corner, and Gao Xiaoyuan and the other four people looked in that direction at the same time.

"Who's there!" Chen Shuai shouted.

No one responded.

Chen Shuai turned around and exchanged a glance with Xu An. The two nodded to each other, and then one of them secretly flanked Xu An from the left, while the other secretly flanked Xu An from the right. Gao Xiaoyuan, Lin Nana, and Li Biqi stood still, not daring to even breathe.

Just as Chen Shuai and Xu An were about to reach the corner, a figure suddenly flashed by. A person leaped over the chair in front of them and rushed towards Gao Xiaoyuan. Before Gao Xiaoyuan could react, the person's fruit knife was already pressed against her neck.

"Don't hurt her!" Xu An shouted anxiously.

Chen Shuai was about to rush forward when the man shouted at him, "Don't come any closer!"

Chen Shuai immediately pulled his foot back, but when he saw the other person clearly, he instinctively called out, "Wenbin!"

Upon hearing the shout, Gao Xiaoyuan quickly looked to the side and, sure enough, it was Li Wenbin, who had hurt Xu An before.

Lin Nana and Li Biqi were even more surprised: "Where did you come from?"

Li Wenbin was also surprised to see Lin Nana and Li Biqi together: "How did you two end up together?"

"What...what are you going to do?!" Lin Nana was so shocked she couldn't speak.

"It's you again." Xu An glared sharply at Li Wenbin.

"You're not dead? It's good that you're not dead. I don't want to hurt anyone, I don't want to hurt anyone..." Li Wenbin muttered somewhat neurotically.

"Wenbin, I'm Zhuofan, your good friend," Chen Shuai said.

"Don't come any closer, don't come any closer, I don't trust anyone now, I don't trust anyone."

"How could you not even believe me?" Chen Shuai looked at Li Wenbin with incomprehension.

"I don't know who I should believe, because... because the murderer is among us!"

When Li Wenbin said this, Chen Shuai and Xu An were stunned, and Lin Nana and Li Biqi were also surprised, because Li Wenbin's words were strikingly similar to what they had said.

"What did you say?" Xu An asked.

“Prince Qiu, are you the murderer?” Li Wenbin asked, pointing at Xu An.

“He is not Prince Qiu, he is Prince Qiu’s younger brother Xu An,” Gao Xiaoyuan explained.

"Impossible! You must be Prince Qiu! You killed Su Siyu! It must be you!"

Xu Anwei frowned and looked at Li Wenbin: "Why do you say that?"

“I’ve investigated. I know Su Siyu was murdered, and the police suspect you!”

Xu An stared at Li Wenbin without saying a word.

Chen Shuai immediately asked, "You just said the murderer is among us. What do you mean by that?"

"I don't know, I don't know, but I know the murderer is among the ten of us."

"Can you explain yourself clearly?" Chen Shuai continued to press.

“One year ago, the power went out here for some reason. In the darkness, someone covered my mouth and choked me unconscious. I thought I was going to die. Luckily, I survived to this day. But when I woke up, I saw a line of words on the blackboard that said the murderer was among the ten of us.”

"Ten of us? Do you mean the ten students in Class 0 of the first year of high school?" Chen Shuai asked.

“That’s right. It’s among the ten of us!” Li Wenbin shouted hysterically. “For the past year, I haven’t dared to show up. I’m afraid that person is still alive. I’m afraid he will suddenly appear and kill me. I don’t want to die. I really don’t want to die!” Li Wenbin said, tears streaming down his face.

Blackboard? Blackboards are usually found in classrooms. Could it be that Li Wenbin knows...? Thinking of this, Xu An immediately asked, "You just said you saw a line of words on a blackboard. Which blackboard did you see it on?"

Li Wenbin gave a strange, ambiguous smile: "Do you know what I've discovered?"

Chen Shuai and the others didn't understand what Li Wenbin was trying to say, but Xu An suddenly had a strange feeling.

"I've discovered a strange place, it's so strange, it actually still exists! It really does exist!" Li Wenbin suddenly burst into laughter.

“I’m neither a prince nor a murderer. If I were the murderer, they would both be dead, so you can trust me,” Xu An said calmly.

“I don’t believe you. Maybe you’re deliberately not killing them now in order to find out who else is still alive!” Li Wenbin looked at Xu An nervously.

"I just want to find out why my brother disappeared, or rather... why he died," Xu An said sincerely.

“Wenbin, if you don’t believe him, you should believe me. We’ve been childhood friends. I fainted back then and don’t know what happened in the darkness. Now I want to know the truth too, so we must cooperate!” Chen Shuai said firmly.

“Li Wenbin, we were classmates before, and we still are. If the murderer is really among the ten of us, then we should work together to find that person. This mutual suspicion is not good for anyone,” Li Biqi said with a serious expression.

Li Wenbin looked at Li Biqi, Lin Nana, Xu An, and then at Chen Shuai. After a few minutes of this standoff, he finally put down the fruit knife he had been holding to Gao Xiaoyuan's neck: "I'm really lonely. Maybe I should try to trust you."

Chen Shuai stepped forward and gently patted Li Wenbin's shoulder: "We're still friends, and we'll definitely find out the truth." When Chen Shuai turned to look at Gao Xiaoyuan, he saw Xu An gently embracing her and comforting her. Chen Shuai suddenly felt a pang of sadness. He turned to Li Wenbin and said, "You said you found a strange place. Can you take us there?"

"I'll take you there right away!"

The old ones are below the new ones.

Li Wenbin opened a board on the stage and jumped off.

After exchanging glances, Gao Xiaoyuan and the others silently followed suit and jumped onto the stage. Little did they know that a hole, hidden beneath the stage's wooden planks, had been dug in the corner.

“This is it.” Li Wenbin pointed to the pit.

Xu An peeked inside.

The pit was pitch black, and nothing could be seen clearly. Xu An took out a flashlight from his pocket and shone it inside.

Below the pit was a wooden ladder, and at the end of the wooden ladder was an underground passage.

"What's down there?" Chen Shuai asked Li Wenbin, looking up at him.

Li Wenbin looked rather miserable, and he said with a wry smile, "You'll find out when you get down here."

"You'll find out when you go down," those words sounded so bitter. Gao Xiaoyuan suddenly felt that Li Wenbin must have gone through a lot of pain, otherwise he wouldn't have become like this. She still remembered the photo in Li Wenbin's bedroom; Li Wenbin in the photo was so energetic, but now he... Gao Xiaoyuan took a step forward, ready to be the first to go down, but was stopped by Xu An.

Xu An didn't say a word, but was the first to climb down the wooden ladder. Next came Chen Shuai, Li Wenbin, Lin Nana, Li Biqi, and lastly Gao Xiaoyuan. She didn't immediately go down, but looked around. For some reason, she felt like someone was watching them from somewhere. Was there really someone? Or was it just her imagination?

"Xiaoyuan, come down quickly." Lin Nana's voice came from the pit. Gao Xiaoyuan had no choice but to respond and slowly climbed down the wooden ladder.

In a dark corner of the concert hall, someone sighed softly, the sound seemingly concealing some indescribable sorrow.

When everyone had gone down into the pit, Xu An raised his flashlight and shone it forward.

Chen Shuai was stunned.

Lin Nana opened her mouth, unsure of what to say.

Li Biqi could hardly believe her eyes.

Xu An's cold face remained expressionless as he looked at Gao Xiaoyuan beside him.