Chapter 7 - Novice Copy (7)

Hongyi Amusement Park

Chapter 7 — Second Game (7)

In the second semester of the second year of high school, Li Hongying started to pull herself together a little bit. She started studying hard but because she had dropped too much, it was very troublesome to make up for it. Moreover, there were questions that had to be done and seen repeatedly until the point was understood. Then, she could do these types of questions.

Li Hongying started to work hard to brush up on questions, memorise vocabulary and classical poems, practice her listening comprehension……But she did all these things silently and didn’t call people to see.

Those classmates still singled her out and would do some boring pranks once in a while; took advantage of when she went to the toilet to throw her books and school bag onto the floor; or overturning her desk over and kicking it over to the dustbin. Li Hongying became more and more silent, using silence to cope with the ridicule and sarcasm of those people.

Everyone seemed to be doing these things with a ‘joking’ and ‘amusing’ attitude. There were people who even started to hit her for ‘fun’, demanding for her money……There was once, such a big fuss was made that it involved the teachers, with a sentence of ‘Why didn’t they bully others and specifically bully you?’ and Li Hongying swallowed all of her grievances. 1

Li Hongying seemed to have poured everything into her future. Everything was poured into her university entrance exam. Jiang Xiaoli found out that Li Hongying’s English didn’t appear to be that bad. She watched as the grades on Li Hongying’s test paper rose up to eighty something mark from a troubling forty something mark and then passed, then broke through a hundred……Although she watched it as a spectator, she had a strange feeling that the daughter she had raised was successful.

Everything seemed to be developing in a good direction. Even though Li Hongying was always in the back row, yet her grades steadily improved. The faces of the Li parents looked much better and their attitude towards Li Hongying became gentler. After all, it was the third year of high school.

……Whatever it is, it can be spoken once it was after the university entrance exam.

And Li Hongying. She was looking forward to being able to get into a big city, a flourishing place should be more open-minded, right? Her grades had a limit no matter how much she improved but Li Hongying was really desperate to get out.

——Break away from this place and go to a new place to start anew.

The university entrance exam was the ticket toward a new life in a new place.

However, Jiang Xiaoli thought of the ‘small joke’ that Li Hongying had mentioned as Li Hongying had gritted her teeth and pretended to be relaxed. She looked at the hope in Li Hongying’s eyes in the scene, her nose couldn’t help but become sour.

There was light in Li Hongying’s eyes in the scene but this light will be extinguished. Then contaminated with hatred, grief, unwillingness, obsession, wrath. Her pupils gradually turned red and transformed into the power of a feracious ghost.

Why?

Jiang Xiaoli thought deeply and exhaled a deep breath. Why did this happen? It was unfathomable.

It was a week before the night self-learning, before the university entrance exam. A few mischievous male students merrily swarmed to Li Hongying’s desk and sincerely apologised; for the teasing, ridicule and insults in the year after the division of classes and before the transfer; for the occasional fun in overturning Li Hongying’s desk; for stepping on Li Hongying’s books, etc……Apologising for a string of actions. Afterwards, a few people still gave Li Honying a bottle of iced cola, twisted off the bottle cap in front of her and placed it on her table. After they apologised once again and returned to their seats.

Jiang Xiaoli’s hand passed through the cola. She was unable to touch anything. This was really nothing more than a memory projection. She was unable to change anything. Passing through Li Hongying’s hand over and over again, she couldn’t do anything. She could only look on helplessly as Li Hongying stared at that cola for a long time. In the silence, the unwillingness and melancholy accumulated between her brows and eyes over the past three years, seemed to slowly loosen in a split second.

——She really believed.

She believed this was an apology.

Furthermore, she even truly accepted it.

Jiang Xiaoli looked on as Li Hongying drank it and then in the following time, Li Hongying’s face flushed bit by bit. In the classroom, led by that group of boys, there were people constantly looking at her. The sound of their whispers became louder but in the end, they hardly covered and laughed. The people in the front row, who wanted to study, seemed to be a little dissatisfied with the noise that affected their own brushing up on their questions. They only gave Li Hongying a contemptuous look and didn’t care about the following spectacle.

——Aphrodisiac.

What’s so interesting to see? What’s so funny? This was a joke? Can this be explained with this word, this is a ‘joke’? Jiang Xiaoli was itching to seize the collar of that group of boys and beat them up at once but he couldn’t do anything. She could only look on helplessly as Li Hongying became more and more uncomfortable and look at that group of scum laughingly walk to the back row, putting on an act of concern by asking how Li Hongying felt.

There were even several boys who jeered that they wanted to help Li Hongying leave the classroom.

Li Hongying had never been so angry before and had never resisted like this before. She overturned her desk and her books scattered all over the floor. Her school bag full of materials heavily smashed towards that group of students. She lifted a chair to thrash it across but easily pushed to a corner by someone and her head knocked against the wall. The pain made her feel more clear-headed.

Jiang Xiaoli didn’t know what Li Hongying was thinking at that time.

She simply saw that, in the midst of the hustle and bustle, some were watching the excitement and their enjoyment in watching showed in their eyes. Li Hongying stepped on the chair of the student in the corner of the last row, climbed onto the window and she fell down without the slightest bit of hesitation.

This classroom was like a cage and she finally struggled free.

This high school had six floors and the third-year students were on the highest floor.

Li Hongying died.

As if the originally properly sealed cola was suddenly added with a Mentos, the originally tranquil and tense situation before the university entrance exam was broken in an instant. Especially when it involved keywords like drugging, third year, female student, bullying, etc. This matter went directly on the hot search.

Some people pitied; some people were puzzled; some people were making cynical remarks; some people were criticising the school and criticising the students; some people felt that there is no smoke without fire 2 , upholding the principle of ‘it takes two hands to clap’. 3

Public opinion exploded.

The school’s reputation became bad at once.

Li Hongying didn’t turn into a red-clothed ferocious ghost 4 in the beginning. She floated absent-mindedly in the school and realised everyone was paying attention to this matter.

But after a while, the school started to whitewash. It was the university entrance exams, an event that concerned that group of students and the university entrance exam they should take, still has to be taken. Their parents took out a large sum of money and did not utter a word. Countless people crowded into the school forum, wanting to request for a statement but the school alumni united as never before and started to splash dirty water at her, saying that she was disgusting, a pervert and had mental problems. It was her who smeared the school’s name and it was her fault.

——Those classmates are still children! They simply made a joke, nothing more! The medicine was fake, they deceived her and it had no effect!

There were also some who apologised, asking for forgiveness and then had a new beginning.

As the days passed, the bloodstains on Li Hongying got thicker and thicker until it turned into a red-clothed ferocious ghost.

——All of you have a new beginning, then what about her?

For what reason am I going around in circles while all of you are free; And she had to remain here forever?

Come on, I won’t leave one behind. Let’s play together.

Li Hongying stood on the roof of the school and numerous wisps of blood spread out from under her feet and completely……enshrouded this school.

……

Opening her eyes in a flurry, Jiang Xiaoli was in the classroom. She was shocked to find several boys merrily standing in front of Li Hongying’s desk and apologising, placing the cola on her desk and then was just about to return to their seats.

——She practically had no time to think, when Jiang Xiaoli recovered, the cola was already knocked to the floor. She looked back at the group of boys maliciously staring at her and then she realised what she had done with her conditional reflex.

But she did not regret it.

All these TMD 5 scums! B*stards!

She stood in front of Li Hongying. The classroom suddenly darkened bit by bit and the wisps of blood gradually permeated the air. The wisps of blood clung onto the snow-white walls and shifted around, like an ordinary agitated blood vessel. The students in the classroom stood up and turned back to look at her. Their eyes were empty and cold. Everyone had identical expressions and exposed a weird smile. They drew back the corners of their mouths higher and higher until the corner of their mouths ripped and seeped out bloodstains. But they were all smiling a silent smile.

Jiang Xiaoli’s body was ice-cold and her scalp felt numb but she still raised a hand, wanting to protect Li Hongying. However, she suddenly thought that Li Hongying was a ferocious red-clothed ghost and didn’t need her protection, so much that……

Blood splashed in front of her. Jiang Xiaoli only felt the pain after a bit. She sluggishly lowered her head, a hand pierced her chest and was holding her still-beating heart. It was stained red. A sharp pain made her dizzy.

Why? Unexpectedly, the first thing Jiang Xiaoli was thinking about was this but she immediately felt relieved. The escape game, she was surprisingly serious about it. All were ghosts. Everyone was already ghosts. That group was too much. Li Hongying was also not a good person……Now, everyone was ghosts.

Ice-cold lips stuck to her ear. Li Hongying lightly hugged Jiang Xiaoli from behind and carefully held her beating heart, “You will be fine.”

Wisps of blood carefully over her chest. As soon as Li Hongying raised her hand, the window at the last row became a red door and she opened the door. All the ghosts stirred restlessly and at the same time, the wisps of blood covering the classroom also stirred restlessly. Those wisps of blood frantically began to twist and strangle those ghosts students in the classroom. Before Jiang Xiaoli lost her spirit, she could still hear countless filthy and vicious curses.

Li Hongying embraced Jiang Xiaoli and leaped down from the red door. The endless abyss enveloped her and that red door got further and further away, getting smaller and smaller until it disappeared. Li Hongying turned into a wisp of red mist and plunged into Jiang Xiaoli’s chest. Countless wisps of blood clung and returned her heart back into its original position. The wound healed……

[Beep! Congratulations on clearing: Hongyi Amusement Park~]

[In-progress evaluation of the level……]

[Perfect clearance! Reward: Red-clothed feracious ghost · 1]

[Entering the rest period, wishing the player a pleasant life~See you in seven days~]

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It hurts.

It hurts to death.

Jiang Xiaoli suddenly woke up and then found herself lying on the floor outside the toilet. She propped herself against the floor and tried to get up but the sharp pain in her heart made her unable to exert herself.

No, she survived? She had cleared the game? Why? Perfect clearance? Are you joking? April Fools?

——A dream?

Jiang Xiaoli’s awareness of that ‘nightmare’ was stopped when Li Hongying dug out her heart and then she was in so much pain that she lost consciousness. Jiang Xiaoli clutched her heart for a long time. That type of unbearable pain eased by a bit. This caused her the matter of peeing before she entered the copy to also gradually emerge. She strained to stand up by clinging to the front of the wall and pushed open the toilet door to enter.

Fortunately, nothing happened this time.

Jiang Xiaoli’s mind was messed up badly, both her body and spirit were exhausted. After she came out from the toilet, she collapsed on the bed and slept. Moreover, it was a lethargic type of sleep so she went directly into a deep sleep.

When she woke up, it was already noon, the next day.

Jiang Xiaoli stepped on her slippers lethargically and went to brush her teeth. She blearily looked at herself with a head full of messy hair in the mirror and while she was brushing, she suddenly noticed a person was standing behind her?!

“Cough, cough……” She choked directly on the foam.

“You’re not even able to brush your teeth?”

This voice……

Li Hongying.

That heart-wrenching ferocious ghost.

Jiang Xiaoli choked even harder. Li Hongying slid her cold hand down her back and made Jiang Xiaoli have a cold feeling that there was a knife stuck to her. She put down her toothbrush and did not even care about the foam at the side of her mouth, perfectly sober, “Why are you here!”

“Reward.”

“?” Jiang Xiaoli stuck to the wall as a precaution and her mind started to operate rapidly. Last night, last night……a red-clothed ferocious ghost as a reward for perfect clearance? See you in seven days……F*ck! It’s not what she thought it was, right?!

But Li Hongying, who was expressionless, was truly in front of her and this let her know that it was exactly what she thought.

Jiang Xiaoli wanted to faint again.

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Footnotes

To not speak of it any further and bear with the grievances she has experienced. 苍蝇不叮无缝的蛋 (cāng yíng bù dīng wú fèng de dàn) : Something happens for a reason. 一个巴掌拍不响 (yī gè bā zhang pāi bù xiǎng) : There must be at least two parties involved for it to happen. 红衣 (hóng yī) : Short form implication of red-clothed ferocious ghost since when ‘红衣’ is mentioned, people will think of ghosts in red. TMD is short for 他妈的 (tā mā de) which means f*ck.