Calculer

Chapitre 12

"What exactly are you planning to do?" Gu Xing wanted to ask some questions so he could be prepared.

Xu Chen was stunned for a moment after hearing this, and said embarrassedly, "Oh, haha, I haven't thought about it yet."

Li Xu couldn't help but chuckle when he heard Xu Chen mimicking Gu Xing's tone. Xu Chen clapped his hands after speaking, and the large group of people, seemingly hypnotized, left the sports field. Xu Chen added, "Anyway, there are still two days left. Take care of yourselves. Goodbye." He then jumped into the pond. At that moment, the lights on the field went out. Gu Xing approached and saw that the pond had disappeared, replaced by soft grass. Zhang Da checked his watch; the second hand had just started moving. The group sat in silence for a while before returning to their dormitory. A chill ran down their spines; they wondered what strange things might happen tomorrow.

Chapter Eight: The Game of Humanity

On Sunday, Gu Xing woke up at ten o'clock. He went out the window and saw that everyone on campus had returned to normal and he could no longer smell anything. At this time, Li Xu and Yang Mian came back from outside, carrying breakfast.

"Gu Xing, come and have some dumplings. I asked Chen Yuan from the next room to buy them for me from school." Yang Mian picked up the dumplings in his hand, showing no worry on his face.

Seeing that Yang Mian's mood had improved, Gu Xing was relieved and woke up Da Kai and Zhang Da, who were still sleeping, and they ate together.

"Heh...heh, looks like I won't be eating lunch either."

As soon as Da Kai finished speaking, there was a knock on the door, startling Gu Xing and the others. The door wasn't locked, and before Gu Xing and the others could open it, Mo Xiaoqiang came in. As soon as Li Xu saw him, he remembered yesterday and felt nauseous, so he stopped eating and turned his face away from him.

Mo Xiaoqiang came in and saw the things on the table, and said, "Ha, everyone went out to play on Sunday, but you guys hid here eating."

"What are you doing here?" Da Kai asked, watching him intently as he ate.

Mo Xiaoqiang didn't stand on ceremony and picked up the breakfast on the table to eat. While eating, he said to Da Kai, "Let's go play ball. You didn't go yesterday, but He Xiao and the others are going today. It won't be fun if you don't go."

Thinking that Yang Yi's matter had not yet been resolved, Da Kai waved his hand and said, "No, no, you guys go by yourselves."

Mo Xiaoqiang talked for a while longer, but seeing that Da Kai really didn't want to go, he left disappointed. After Gu Xing and the others finished eating, they stayed in their dorm rooms. Nothing happened until evening, and everyone felt very bored. Yang Mian said to Li Xu, "Hey! Say whatever you want. You're usually the most talkative."

Upon hearing Yang Mian's words, Li Xu took out a Buddhist scripture from under his pillow.

Gu Xing immediately said, "Alright, you'd better not say anything more. I don't want to hear it."

Disappointed, Li Xu hid the Buddhist scriptures. At this moment, Gu Xing said, "I think Xu Chen is not a scary person. She is just playful, like a child."

Zhang Da shook his head: "When she told me about the origin of that sickle last night, I got chills. You still say she's not scary?"

"I always felt that she wasn't a bad person."

“She’s no good either.” Yang Mian was a little unhappy to see Gu Xing speaking up for Xu Chen.

Li Xu immediately smiled tactfully and said, "Alright, alright, the weather is so nice, let's go for a walk on campus."

Da Kai also chimed in, knowing the situation. Gu Xing, afraid that Yang Mian would be unhappy, took the initiative to walk over and pat Yang Mian on the shoulder: "Let's go."

Yang Mian nodded and followed Gu Xing out. Da Kai and Li Xu followed behind, but Zhang Da refused to go. He took out the books from under the bed and started looking through them.

Gu Xing and his friends walked onto campus and arrived at the open-air basketball court. Da Kai couldn't resist joining a group of people in playing basketball, and Gu Xing and Yang Mian joined in as well. Li Xu sat and watched from the sidelines. Gu Xing, Da Kai, and Yang Mian played until late at night, thoroughly enjoying themselves. By then, Li Xu had already returned to his dormitory.

After dinner, the group returned to their dorm. Gu Xing took a shower, and then Mo Xiaoqiang came to the dorm again. Gu Xing wasn't very familiar with him, and he found Mo Xiaoqiang's frequent visits a bit annoying. Gu Xing didn't intend to pay him any attention and sat back down on his bed. Mo Xiaoqiang was followed by another person, He Xiao. As soon as the two entered the dorm, they shouted, "Hey, Da Kai, I heard from others that you went to play basketball this evening, but you said you weren't going this morning."

"Never mind that, I'll play whenever I want," Da Kai replied while taking a shower in the bathroom.

Mo Xiaoqiang said helplessly, "Okay, okay, okay, I'm going out to play with He Xiao, Zhang Qing and the others now. Do you want to come?"

"No...no, I'm not free these next few days. You guys go by yourselves."

Mo Xiaoqiang was a little unhappy, so he left with He Xiao. Before leaving, he also greeted Gu Xing, who politely nodded.

Around 10 PM, Mo Xiaoqiang's laughter came from outside the door. It seemed they had returned, but they didn't come in to look for Da Kai; they simply passed by the dormitory door and went back to their own rooms. Gu Xing and the others also went to sleep one after another.

A piercing, strange noise woke up Gu Xing and the others. Gu Xing checked the time; it was already past 1 a.m. They all heard the noise coming from the square, so they looked out the window and saw Xu Chen standing on a tree branch, with about two hundred people gathered below him.

Gu Xing and the others rushed out of the dormitory and stopped at the dormitory entrance, looking at Xu Chen in the tree from a distance. The people in the dormitory were all gathered under the tree, talking noisily. At this time, the dormitory supervisor came out and shouted at Xu Chen: "Is that the strange noise you made in the middle of the night? Come down now, or I will tell the school supervisor and have him punish you."

Xu Chen completely ignored him. Seeing Gu Xing and his group watching from afar, he smiled, raised his hand, and waved to them, but Gu Xing and the others didn't respond. Seeing Xu Chen's nonchalant attitude, the dormitory supervisor angrily told one of the boys, "Go up and get her down."

The boy waved his hands repeatedly: "I can't climb trees."

"She climbed up too. You're not even as good as a girl." The dormitory supervisor was a little embarrassed and angry.

"I'll do it." Mo Xiaoqiang volunteered and stepped forward. Looking at the tall, cute, and beautiful Xu Chen, he smiled like a traitor and said to Xu Chen, "Hello, Miss, if you have something bothering you, you can tell me. Come down first and we'll talk. Don't do anything foolish."

"I'm not coming down, I like playing up here." Xu Chen made a face at Mo Xiaoqiang.

"Come down, I'll play with you," Mo Xiaoqiang said. Zhang Qing, who was next to him, whispered to him, "He's probably a lunatic. Even if you manage to get him, it won't do you any good."

Mo Xiaoqiang sneered: "What do you know? Girls these days love to play these kinds of pranks and act cute."

Seeing that Mo Xiaoqiang was clearly flirting with a girl, the dormitory supervisor pulled him back and repeated the same words to Xu Chen: "Get down now, or else..."

Xu Chen ignored him and instead asked the other boys, "Can you all play with me?"

Mo Xiaoqiang was the first to agree, and the others joined in the commotion. Da Kai, seeing this, was about to rush up and call Mo Xiaoqiang back.

"Okay, I'm coming down." Xu Chen said, staring at the ground. After a while, countless hands stretched out from the ground, tightly gripping everyone on the field, rendering them unable to move. Xu Chen immediately jumped down, knocked on the tree trunk, and murmured, "Come out."

Suddenly, several people jumped out from the tree trunk, each carrying a large black bag. One was the principal, one was a professor, one was the student council president, and one was the vice president. Seeing this, Da Kai retreated and watched in surprise with Gu Xing and the others.

Xu Chen said to the group, "Let's do it."

The men then split up and walked towards the group. The principal approached the superintendent, grinning maliciously, and thrust his hand forcefully into the superintendent's left chest. The superintendent felt no pain, only staring wide-eyed as the principal pulled a bloody, mangled object from his body. He couldn't believe his eyes. The principal chuckled and held the object up high; it beat rhythmically—it was a heart. The superintendent immediately fainted. The principal and his men continued to rip out the hearts from everyone present, placing them into a large black bag. The bag, filled with hearts, also beat rhythmically.

Gu Xing and the others stood at the dormitory entrance, their hearts pounding with fear. They remembered last night when Xu Chen said he was going to do it for real. Could it be that what they were seeing wasn't an illusion? Gu Xing and the others were filled with both panic and confusion.

Xu Chen then instructed the principal and a few others to splash water on the unconscious people in the arena to wake them up. When the water dripped onto the ground, it was tinged with blood. Once everyone was awake, Xu Chen approached the school supervisor, who was trembling and staring at him in terror.

"What's your name?" Xu Chen asked the school supervisor with a sweet smile.

"Ling... Gang."

"Are all the boys in the school here? There are so few." Xu Chen looked puzzled, but he was very cute.

"The school has... three male dormitories, but only this one is built... over here."

"Oh! Is that so, Principal?" Xu Chen turned to look at the principal, who nodded.

Xu Chen laughed and said, "Oh, no wonder there are only a little over two hundred people here, but that's enough." After saying that, he jumped back up into the tree.

"Listen up, everyone! Your days are numbered!" Xu Chen shouted to the people in the square. The student council president clapped his hands and praised Xu Chen, saying, "Wow, Xu Chen can even use idioms!"

Hearing the chairman's praise, Xu Chen smiled smugly. Xu Chen's words caused several more people below to faint.

Xu Chen pointed at Gu Xing and the others in the distance and shouted, "If you don't want to die, listen to me. You all know them, right?"

As soon as Xu Chen finished speaking, a large group of terrified and helpless people turned around and looked at Gu Xing and the others. They immediately felt a sense of foreboding.

"They are your last hope. You only have one day, before midnight tomorrow..." Xu Chen deliberately paused, and the group below looked at him like starving refugees seeing a huge feast.

"Whoever kills one of them before midnight tomorrow night will be saved. That means only five of you have a chance to survive, so you need to seize the opportunity." Xu Chen looked very serious.

Everyone turned to look at Gu Xing and his group at that moment, and what they saw in each person's eyes was confusion, panic, helplessness, and disbelief.

"And another thing," Xu Chen began, and everyone turned their heads again. Xu Chen found this amusing, so he spoke and laughed, "Although you don't have hearts, you are just like ordinary people. You can get hurt and die just like everyone else. So when you hunt them, you have to be careful. You might end up being killed by them instead of killing them."

When Xu Chen finished speaking, the hand on the ground disappeared, and everyone on the field was able to move their bodies again, but everyone was so frightened by the sudden event that they stood still, not knowing what to do.

Gu Xing immediately shouted at the group, "Don't be fooled, this is all your illusion, it's not real."

Mo Xiaoqiang staggered out of the crowd, his face covered in sweat, his brows furrowed, his mouth half-open as he painfully stared at Gu Xing for a while, then slowly lowered his head to look at his left chest, which was stained red.

Fearing that he wouldn't believe her, and also afraid of upsetting him, Gu Xing lowered her voice and said, "It's a hallucination, a hallucination."

"Hallucination..." Mo Xiaoqiang's lips moved slightly as he turned to look at Xu Chen.

The others followed Mo Xiaoqiang and looked at Xu Chen, but Xu Chen clapped his hands nonchalantly and said, "Alright, there are still more than twenty hours until midnight tomorrow. Make the most of this opportunity. Now, let the performance begin." After saying that, he jumped up a tree and disappeared. The principal and the others also disappeared without a trace.

The people on the field didn't react. They hoped this nightmare would end soon. Gu Xing and his group didn't know what the people on the field would do next, and unconsciously took a few steps back. Seeing that the people on the field didn't react and were just staring blankly at the hole in their left chest, at a loss, Gu Xing shouted again, "This isn't real, believe me."

Mo Xiaoqiang looked at Gu Xing again, then reached out his right hand and probed deep into his left chest. He felt his left lung rhythmically heaving with each breath. He then touched the edge of the wound; the ribs had been neatly cut open. He gently pinched the red muscle inside, and immediately frowned, looking at Gu Xing in pain: "It hurts so much, it really hurts so much~~~~~~~~~~~~."

Hearing Mo Xiaoqiang's wails, Gu Xing didn't know what to say. Was it really a hallucination? Gu Xing and the others couldn't find the answer either.

Mo Xiaoqiang looked at Gu Xing in despair, shaking his head and crying, "It's not a hallucination... it's not..."

Suddenly, Mo Xiaoqiang picked up a brick from the ground and rushed towards Gu Xing and the others. Inspired by Mo Xiaoqiang, the others also chased after Gu Xing and the others.

"Run!" Before Gu Xing could shout, Yang Mian and the others had already started running. Gu Xing looked back as he fled, only to see over a hundred people chasing after him. Dozens of others stood still, staring blankly and aimlessly, while some picked up bricks and smashed them over their heads.

"Principal, Principal... are you asleep?"

"What's wrong? In the middle of the night."

"Something happened at the student dormitory, near the old boys' dormitory. Everyone seems to have gone mad..."

"Okay, come in and we'll talk."

The campus security guard opened the door, saw the principal standing in front, grinned maliciously, and stretched out his left hand to shove it forward...

(two)

Gu Xing and the others hid in the bushes in front of the school gate. It was already six in the morning. What happened last night had caused a stir throughout the entire campus. Everyone thought it was just another of the boys' usual outrageous behavior, only this time it was even more outrageous. When everything calmed down on the surface, the people on campus continued their daily lives as usual.

"Gurgle..." The wide-open belly made a loud noise.

"Open the door wide, don't make a sound." Li Xu had been sweating profusely since last night, and he felt completely exhausted.

"I..." Da Kai realized he was being too loud, so he immediately lowered his voice and said, "I need to eat as soon as I wake up this morning, and I'm starving. I can't even make a sound, it's suffocating me."

"Alright, stop talking. We'll be discovered sooner or later if we hide here. We need to find a safe place."

After Gu Xing finished speaking, Zhang Da suggested, "Going to Yang Mian's house would be the safest option."

"Tsk, you're so stupid." Gu Xing said, but his eyes were still looking around warily. "Xu Chen said we can't go outside. Besides, a lot of people thought we escaped off campus last night. In addition to us, several other people have been to Yang Mian's house and played with us. So now we can only hide here."

"How about we go get something to eat first?"

"Da Kai, are you starving? Going to eat now would be suicide." Li Xu looked at him with a hint of worry in his eyes.

"Listen to me, everyone..." Yang Mian calmly looked at Gu Xing and the others: "I'm going to the convenience store to buy some food. There aren't many people there in the morning, and those people won't expect us to still be on campus. But if something happens to me, you should all back out. I don't want to lose my sister and also cause my friend's death."

Gu Xing sighed, his eyes moist as he looked at Yang Mian: "Then what am I? I'm the one who brought Xu Chen back, so I told myself I had to rescue your sister. And now you want to give up? ... If you want to go, I'll go."

Seeing that Gu Xing was about to stand up, he opened his strong arm and pressed Gu Xing down, saying, "Damn it, you won't die from going hungry for a day, what are you guys doing?"

Just then, Da Kai's stomach rumbled again, so Zhang Da stood up, looked around, and said, "Anyway, there aren't many people here. Da Kai and I will go. Everyone's hungry too." Da Kai nodded and walked towards the convenience store with Zhang Da.

When they arrived, there were indeed few students. Da Kai and Zhang Da asked the shop owner for a lot of things. The shop had just opened and was not prepared. The owner went to the back of the shop where the goods were stored to find what Da Kai and Zhang Da wanted to buy. Da Kai waited anxiously, while Zhang Da kept looking around. In the distance, they saw the campus police walking towards them. After these few days, Zhang Da and Da Kai had become extremely nervous, both afraid that something might happen.

Suddenly, a person darted out from behind the shop. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be Shi Feng from the next room. The two were terrified and immediately ran in the opposite direction, the same direction the campus police had come from. As soon as Shi Feng saw this, he shouted, "The campus police are just like those people, come back quickly!"

Upon hearing this, Da Kai and Zhang Da stopped in their tracks. Seeing the campus police officer approaching nervously, Da Kai and Zhang Da felt a pang of fear. Shi Feng walked up to them and said, "Quick, come with me."

As Da Kai and Zhang Dazheng hesitated, the campus police officer approached, his hands in his pockets, seemingly about to pull something out. Seeing this, Shi Feng anxiously shouted, "Run! Follow me!"

After finishing his sentence, Shi Feng ignored Da Kai and Zhang Da and rushed into the bushes behind the shop. Da Kai and Zhang Da followed without hesitation. Shi Feng led the two of them for a long time until they reached a corner in the bushes.

Da Kai and the others dared not go any further. Seeing this, Shi Feng said, "Don't be afraid. I didn't go downstairs last night, but I saw everything from the window. It was terrifying."

"Thank you," Da Kai said gratefully, and he and Zhang Da carefully walked over.