École des sciences humaines

Chapitre 7

Nana skillfully led us up to the roof of the cafeteria through the back door, and a few steps further, there was a small staircase.

"Go up those stairs and you'll find the auditorium. I don't know why there's a staircase here. I found it when I dropped something on it that day and was climbing back up."

Sure enough, after climbing up, we found a large iron gate on the lower left side of the stage. We had always assumed it was where the equipment was stored, overlooking why we couldn't see the opening or closing mechanism from the auditorium. Turns out, it was opened from there. The gate wasn't locked; we pulled the latch, and inside was the auditorium. It was terrifyingly dark and terrifyingly large.

Afraid of being discovered, we dared not turn on the lights, and could only feel our way onto the stage with flashlights. The stage had been cleaned up, the police had finished collecting evidence, and the terrifying scene from the morning was no longer visible. I crouched down again to look at the carpet. Strangely, the dark brown stains from before seemed to have turned reddish now. Was it just the flashlight beam?

"Ah Ling... hurry! We need to go down that staircase and see what's going on in that room," Nana called softly.

After telling Daolian what happened on the stairs, he decided that he had to go into that room tonight and take a closer look.

"Huh? It's open..." I was a little surprised. The door that Nana and I couldn't open no matter how hard we tried that day, the door that we always thought was locked from the inside, actually opened with just a turn of the handle today.

Inside was a small room with a small window. Outside the window was the staircase we had just come up from. How strange, how come I didn't notice this window before? The walls of the room were covered with posters of celebrities, and there were also scratches on some things that had been torn off. There was a small desk in the room, and on the desk was the CD player we had listened to the other day.

Author: Xinxinjun Reply Date: 2005-01-02 0:45:00

“There’s no ghostly aura. Not even a trace of resentment.” Dao Lian frowned and said, “Do you want to hear it? We’ve already heard it, what’s the harm in hearing it again?”

“Go ahead and drive!” Nana said with a sense of resolute determination.

It started with a blank, hissing sound, then a chilling laugh, unlike the other day. "...Hehehehe..." It was a cold, eerie laugh that sent shivers down your spine. "I know...you're looking for me...hehe...I'm Xiangxiang...I'm here now...click—" The playback stopped, then the rewind button started flashing incessantly, and the same words played again: "...Hehehehe...I know...you're looking for me...hehe...I'm Xiangxiang...I'm outside the auditorium now...click—"

"...Hehehehe...I know...you're looking for me...hehe...it's Xiangxiang...I'm on the stairs now...click—"

Nana, Daolian, and I started to get a little nervous and stood together. I saw that Daolian already had the talisman in her hand.

"...The resentment is very strong...I'm afraid it might be difficult to deal with...You should try not to leave my side..."

"...Hehehehe...I know...you're looking for me...hehe...it's Xiangxiang...I'm at the door now...click—"

Without realizing it, we all turned our attention to the door. Suddenly, none of the flashlights worked, and we could only rely on Daolian to get as close as possible, since he was the only one we could trust right now.

"...Hehehehe...I know...you're looking for me...hehe...I'm Xiangxiang...I've arrived...click—"

The room was deathly silent. Only the three of us breathing could be heard. A cold wind blew in gusts…

"...Hehehe...I know...you're looking for me...hehe...I'm Xiangxiang...I'm right behind you now..."

My scalp started to tingle, and a hand appeared on my shoulder. It was that pale hand with red nail polish!

"I am Xiangxiang... Hey handsome guy over there with the talisman, don't even think about doing anything to me. I'm already attached to this unclean person. If you try to attack me, I'll possess her first. Her balance will be disrupted, and the result... you know... she'll definitely die!"

"What exactly are you trying to do! You made us listen to your evil songs, and now you're causing trouble for Ah Ling!"

"...I really like the feeling of being on stage...but...they won't let me go on stage...that person too...pretending to be nice to me...but then they took my script...oh well...it's great now...finally someone can act with me...you've all heard my songs...you can all act with me now...this is a play...called Death...my resentment wasn't originally this strong...it's all her fault...finally gave me the ability...the unclean one, hehe...how suitable for her...I've decided...you're the clumsy detective...see who I've chosen as the murderer...if I can't find him...you know...the murderer will kill...hehehe..." Slowly, the weight on his shoulders began to loosen, and the CD player started spinning again.

"Hehehe... I'm Xiangxiang... I'm leaving now... The performance... has begun..."

The flashlight was working. But the three of us remained silent. The room was still completely still, except for the CD player repeatedly playing that song:

"The first one dances in the air, red petals falling from her scattered hair; the second one, half light, half darkness, weeps alone; the third one kisses the earth, seeking only warmth; the fourth one lingers by the water, maintaining a smile until the end; the fifth one slowly decays, which is actually the beginning. Now we can be together forever, we will never be separated again, no one will be lonely... Now we can be together forever... The stage will always be ours..."

"Let's take this machine with us! Maybe we can study it properly," Dao Lian said helplessly. "That's all we can do for now. Ah Ling... are you alright? After we get out, I'll check if she left anything on you, okay?"

"No... I know she doesn't. I can feel it. I know my own body."

We silently took the machine and left; the atmosphere remained heavy throughout.

“Ah Ling…” On the way back to the dormitory with Nana and me, Dao Lian, who had been silent all along, spoke up, “After this matter is over… during winter break… can you come back to my hometown in City C with me? I’m a little worried about what Xiang Xiang told me about you.”

“…Ah! If Zero goes, I want to go too! We can treat it as a group trip! That would be great!” Nana, who hadn’t spoken in a while, immediately became very interested when she heard Dao Lian’s suggestion.

"I don't know... I don't know anything..." I whispered.

"Never mind!" Dao Lian patted my head in a comforting tone. "Go back and get a good night's sleep. We'll think about it together tomorrow... who might be next. Let's see if there's any way to stop it from happening..."

That night, I had a dream. It was a scene from that play we were performing. But strangely, my role had been changed; it was the girl I'd seen before, the one who appeared in my dream the night before Xiao Ke died. I knew she was Xiang Xiang. The scene being performed was the one from the night of the typhoon, the one where the female ghost appeared. In her previous life, the ghost was a prankster, so she used various methods to cause minor injuries to the theater troupe members who gossiped about her. First, the proud female director, then the always-nervous supporting actor… Finally, the ghost appeared, asking everyone to help find the murderer hiding among the troupe members who killed her.

A ghost's prank? I think I know something...

"Nana...Nana..." I shook Nana awake, who was sleeping like a log. "I know the order! The order of the five people who died in the Ode to Calamity! Give me the script now!"

"Ah~~~~~~~~~Oh!" Nana immediately got up and dug out the script from her schoolbag.

"The first prank the female ghost played was on the troupe's handywoman... wait, that's not where it started... ah, here... The second was the proud female director, whom the ghost tripped over with the stage curtain... giving her a small bump on the head. After that... it was the nervous supporting actor A... the ghost pinched him in the door as he entered the sound control room. Next was the adorable playwright... the ghost made him fall off the stage, only to be caught by the male lead. Then came the narcissistic male lead, who was sprayed with water in the bathroom while he went to wash his hands. Wait a minute... there's one missing... what's the lyrics to the fifth line? Do you remember?"

"Um... I... I didn't dare to listen the second time! I was so scared!" Nana pretended to cry.

"Let me see the cast list. Xiao Ke is the real director of this play... so when we switch the cast, we have to do it according to reality. Who gets nervous the most during the performance? Right now, the one playing my role is the female ghost Xiang Xiang, so I have to play the detective. As long as the murderer is caught, everything will be over."

"It's our classmate... Ashu. He always messes up his lines, it's so funny!" Nana seemed to recall the hilarious moments. "He's so nervous, even though the actual performance hasn't even started yet." Only Nana, that clueless girl, could laugh like that at a time like this...

"The real playwright of this play is Nana, and the male lead is Dao Ren. That means if we can't find the real murderer after the second person dies, then the next one is... Nana, you..."

"Oh no! No way! I don't want it anymore!"

"Strange! How come there's one person missing... There should be five... Following the order... there are only four people starting with the female director... Could I be the fifth one? But that doesn't make sense... Nana! You have Dao Ren's phone, right? Tell him to bring the 'Obsessed Song' CD to class tomorrow! I want to listen to it again!"

"Should we call now? It's the middle of the night!"

"I've already used up all my brainpower, so if that idiot doesn't want to die, tell him he absolutely has to remember to bring it!"

"If you do that... you'll leave a bad impression on that handsome guy!"

"You brainless woman..."

At that time, we always thought Xiangxiang wouldn't act so quickly. But sometimes, we might really be too naive! That's how people are; they always tend to think positively, but they don't realize that despair can come so quickly.

Author: Xinxinjun Reply Date: 2005-01-02 0:48:00

It wasn't until later that I realized Xiangxiang's words contained a sentence that foreshadowed our future sorrow. At the time, I naively overlooked it. Is this what they call fate? Is it a destiny destined for tragedy? But by the time we realized it, the gears had already turned, and it was too late… We could never go back to the past.

As Nana and I passed by, another scream came from the auditorium. This time, however, it was a teacher's scream. Because of the murder, the teacher was now in charge of maintaining the auditorium.

Could it be...? Nana and I quickly ran forward.

It really happened! Just like in the script. The perpetually nervous supporting character, A, is none other than our classmate, Shu!

His body was tightly clamped between the iron doors of the sound control room, almost crushed in the squeezed area, and his entire head was deformed; half of his eyeballs had fallen out, and his intestines were spilling out from the cracks in the door. Half of his body was in the sound control room, and half was in the auditorium, just like the song says, "half light, half darkness." Blood from his eye sockets dripped down like tears, following the direction in which his eyeballs had fallen.

The same song was still playing from the auditorium's loudspeakers: "The first one, dancing in the air, red petals falling from her scattered hair; the second one, half light, half darkness, weeping alone; the third one, kissing the earth, just for warmth; the fourth one, lingering on the water, finally keeping a smile; the fifth one, slowly decaying, that's actually the beginning. Now we can be together forever, we'll never be separated again, no one will be lonely... Now we can be together forever... The stage will always be ours..."

Xiangxiang is right, the performance has already begun, and if we don't end it, the nightmare will continue. This time, Nana wisely didn't go into the auditorium, because she already guessed what a terrible scene awaited inside.

Later, the police arrived, and the CD playing the song in the sound control room was blank. The school administration probably suspected it was a paranormal event and strictly prohibited students from coming there. The arts festival performance was also postponed to next month. As witnesses, the school administration strictly required us to keep it confidential.

According to the script, Nana is next...

When we left the principal's office, we found Dao Lian already waiting for us outside. Nana, still grinning foolishly, went over and took his hand; she truly idolized Dao Lian as some kind of older brother.

"Nana told me you know the order?"

"Hmm. But there's still something strange. I need to listen to that song again. If nothing unexpected happens, the murderer Xiangxiang chose will be Nana next, and then you... Nana, don't go out alone these next few days, okay? Daolian, until we have a result, can we try to stay together after school and after evening self-study? Because, here, only you know magic. If things continue at the same pace as before, Nana will be in danger tonight. Can you come over tonight?"

"Ah Ling, Nana, don't be afraid! I believe that with you all here, nothing will happen!"

"I will absolutely not let anything happen to you. If this started because of me, it will end in my hands!" I stared intently at Nana, silently making a vow.

Huddled in a secluded corner, the three of us listened to that ominous song again. "The fifth one, slowly rotting, is actually the beginning." This sentence felt strange; I seemed to have a clue, but it flashed by and I forgot it. The real murderer in the script was a very insignificant handyman. She fell in love with the male lead, so she killed the female ghost who had a somewhat ambiguous relationship with him in life. Later, she wanted to kill the screenwriter, but was stopped by the female ghost. Xiangxiang is a ghost who loves to act, so the murderer she chose must be related to the murderer in this script.

But... the key issue is that there seem to be a lot of girls at school who have a crush on Dao Lian... and not just a few. Even for this rehearsal, there are quite a few girls volunteering to do odd jobs. Wait a minute, odd jobs girls!

"Nana! Has anyone volunteered for rehearsal logistics lately but hasn't shown up for a while?" If I'm not mistaken, that's probably it...

"No! What's wrong? Zero, did you find something?" Nana, completely oblivious to the danger, was chewing on a bunch of snacks as she spoke, while Dao Lian stopped preparing to deal with the talisman she was drawing for tonight and turned to look at me.

"Listen, the last line is 'The fifth one, slowly rotting, is actually the beginning,' which means that the fifth person was actually the first to die. According to the script, the female ghost's first prank target was a handyman, and the murderer was also a handyman. So, I think Xiangxiang chose that handyman as the murderer! She killed her first, and then used the resentment of that person who was killed by a ghost to kill others. My grandmother once said that the resentment of someone killed by a ghost is always stronger than that of the ghost that killed them."

“Alright! Now that we know, that might be the case, but how can we break our agreement with Huoge?” Daolian said, not very optimistically.

“Our agreement with Xiangxiang was that we had to find the murderer, or we would stay on stage forever, and the play would never end. Because once the murderer is found, the performance will be over. Daolian, I ask you, what is the best way to relieve the resentment of someone who has just died with bitterness in their heart?”

“If you chant incantations at the place where she died, and she has already become a vengeful ghost, then you can only do what Ai Ai did before: stick a talisman on her spirit to force her to ascend to the next level.”

"It shouldn't have become a vengeful ghost yet; it's just that Xiangxiang is using its resentment. As long as we find the fifth corpse and you help her ascend, it should be over. Daolian, there are many people in your class who do odd jobs; go ask them if anyone has stopped going to class since hearing the Calamity Song."

In the afternoon, Nana and Daolian went to investigate the "fifth person," while I came to the auditorium alone via a side path to see if I could find any more clues. Daolian was a little worried and gave me a lot of talismans, mostly protective ones. But I believe that Xiangxiang won't do anything to me for now, because I'm the detective in this play, and if the detective fails, he'll be the last one to die. I'm very worried about Nana, so I must find out the results before tonight.

Just as I was about to open the door, I heard voices inside. Peeking through the crack in the door, I saw two teachers from the school. "This stage... it's really eerie. I told the principal back then not to keep that prop preparation room under the stairs, but he wouldn't listen. Last year, when the auditorium was just built, Tan Xiang from Class 3 of Grade 9 went missing... and now... the two dead students are probably connected to that incident!"

"Yes! They all say that Tan Xiang is unwilling to accept this, and her ghost has returned to haunt us, trying to take away everyone involved from last time!"

"No way! Tan Xiang was a student in our class! I just don't like such gloomy kids. But it's strange, it's been a year, and we've concluded that Tan Xiang is dead, so why can't we find her body!"

"Yes! That's so strange!"

"I remember back then, the play our class was rehearsing was a bit similar to the play the students from the two classes that had this incident were going to perform. It was also a mystery play, and we were going to submit it to a national competition. So the school even promised Xiao Ke, who was both the scriptwriter and director, that if he won an award, he would be admitted to high school without taking the entrance exam, and he would also receive a scholarship. Although at that time, because of Tan Xiang's disappearance, it affected everyone's mood during rehearsals for a while, we still managed to win first place in the country! Xiao Ke was even commended, what a good kid... I never thought that now... I'd be the head of this first-year high school class, all because of that award we won last time. Plus, Xiao Ke's dad is a major sponsor of the school... What a pity... Should I go visit Chairman Li's house after school?"

"That's good. We can't lose touch just because someone died..."

Author: Xinxinjun Reply Date: 2005-01-02 0:49:00

"Hey! Let's hurry up and leave. The longer we stay here, the more uncomfortable we feel..." Only after the two teachers' voices faded into the distance did I open the iron gate and enter the auditorium. Looking at the carpet on the stage again, the dark brown marks seemed even more pronounced, almost glaring. I couldn't resist lifting the carpet to take a look, only to find it was just a wooden stage plank underneath, nothing else. I don't know why, but I always felt something was off when I first saw those marks. But I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

I took a deep breath before opening the door. It was easy to open it again today. The three of us had been here last night, and we hadn't seen Ashu then, meaning Xiangxiang made her move at night. If Xiangxiang used this place as a stage, she must have left some clues. I started searching the small room.

"Beep beep~~~" When the melody of Jay's "Simple Love" started playing, I remembered that I had just exchanged phone numbers with Daolian today. There must be some new discovery.

"Hey? Zero, no one in our class is missing. I think we might be going in the wrong direction. Was the fifth person not the first one?"

"No... that's how the song goes! Ask Nana to make sure there's really no one there. We'll meet again after school this afternoon."

No! How could this be! I panicked, my mind a complete mess. If it's not... then tonight Nana... no... no! I don't want to! I slammed my fist on the table, and a blue hardcover notebook tumbled down from the bottom of the locked drawer.

"This is..." I picked up the notebook and slowly read it page by page...

"Hello? Dao Lian... I know everything... Tonight at 11:30... Wait for me at the auditorium entrance... Don't let Nana know. I will protect her, and no one else will die!"

Nana was fast asleep. She's always hard to wake up when she's asleep. After I put the talismans that Dao Lian gave me to prevent ghosts from entering our room on the windows and doors, I gently closed the door.

To my surprise, there was already someone waiting for me outside the door.

It's the spirit that appeared at our door during the last lovemaking incident; it's that girl.

She smiled at me: "Don't worry! I won't let anything else take her away. That matter is something you must settle!"

"Who are you?"

"You'll find out later. I might need your help soon! I've distracted the gatekeeper. You can go through the main gate without climbing over the wall."

"Thank you!" I can guess what I'll have to face tonight. I even have a premonition. Perhaps I'm destined for a sad future, but whatever happens, I absolutely do not... absolutely do not want anyone else to die.

Sure enough, Dao Lian was already waiting for me outside the hall. He was holding a peach wood sword, and it looked like he was preparing to fight Xiang Xiang. "Hey... what's with that awful expression! It looks like you're about to do something to hurt yourself! I'll just forcefully upgrade that ghost today, but don't do anything crazy!"

"Don't worry! Everything will be settled today!" I clenched my fist, and Dao Lian looked at me with some concern.

As we entered the hall, a chilling feeling washed over us. It was indeed a harbinger of what was to come; the aura of resentment was terrifyingly strong. If things didn't end before midnight, Nana would be in danger. Although, with the protective talismans, she might be able to hold on for a while longer.