Chapter 9 - Second Game (2)

Rainbow Kindergarten

Chapter 9 — Second Game (2)

It should be a nursery rhyme brimming with children’s taste but the players got goosebumps listening to it.

Jiang Xiaoli rubbed her arms. Her heart twitched, as if Li Hongying was showing concern for her. It didn’t hurt much but made Jiang Xiaoli calm down slightly. On their way past the classroom, they couldn’t help but look inside. Row upon row of little radishes 1 sat obediently on small rainbow cube stools, swaying their small heads and singing this song together. It gave the impression that they were incomparably obedient and there was nothing strange.

“These few rooms are the playrooms with all sorts of toys and building blocks. If you want to play, you can come here to play.” The tone of Teacher Wang’s voice did not have any undulation as he gave an introduction on the rooms, like a robot. After he finished, he stopped in his steps, “The place upstairs is where the children sleep, there’s a pantry and an office next to the nap room. Teachers can also take a little break there. Anyways, the teachers’ apartment building is next to that building and is slightly old. There is a special place for bathing and boiling hot water on the first floor.

The children in the playroom were well-behaved as they played with stacking blocks and there also seemed to be nothing unusual. Even if the NPCs inside this two-week-long copy are ghosts, they will not be ooc 2 on the first day.

After a brief stroll around the kindergarten, as Jiang Xiaoli followed after them, she unexpectedly took out two hundred yuan when she felt about herself. Seeing that she had taken out money, the other players also felt about themselves and all of them discovered that they had pocket money of exactly two hundred yuan.

There is a convenience store here.

Several players discussed about it for a while. Shang Chi went in to buy two bottles of water. The date written on it is 2017/11/22. “The items sold inside are more or less from this period of time.”

The players don’t have their mobile phones in their possession and they did not see any calendars anywhere. They thought about it and planned to ask the teacher in the passing what date it was today if they met the teacher again. They did not dare to drink the water for the time being as they feared it was old water stored from years ago. Although the convenience store looked clean and there was no dust on the items at all, they could not rule out that it was a trick. This was what Wei Qianrong had warned them of. According to her, there was deception in her previous game. Some players couldn’t help but to eat the meat in the chef’s refrigerator. Someone killed the ghost chef in the end, finding out that the meat was hairy and grew worms. It was so disgusting.

It was arranged that they will start working officially tomorrow and formally get in touch with the children. This was not considered to be good news. After all, the protection period is over tomorrow……

Two weeks of games

Usually, no one would die on the first day after the protection period is over but there’s no telling that you might be that unfortunate person? The players went to the teachers’ apartment building to find their own rooms, one person to one room, across the long stretch of the hallway. The male teachers stayed on the third floor and the female teacher stayed on the fourth floor.

They went along in order, Jiang Xiaoli entered 403, Wei Qianrong was next to her in 402 and then Yao Qinyu in 403.

The facilities in the apartment building are very simple and the place was not that big. A bedroom, a bathroom and a balcony; there was also no living room and a place to make food but it was clean. Jiang Xiaoli cleaned up simply and was basically satisfied with this place.

“Are there any ghosts?” She asked in a low voice.

Li Hongying did not respond so Jiang Xiaoli slightly relaxed. If there was a ghost, Li Hongying would definitely pinch her heart. She ultimately was not content swiping through Weibo to see “Husband Yun’s Wife” as she directly lived with a ghost now and Li Hongying gave her all in tormenting her.

“Fortunately, there are only three female players or else if I live in 404, I always feel that it’s a flag.” 3 Jiang Xiaoli did not linger for long in the room. Her following action was to generally search for information in her free time between organised activities. She did not want to be a sitting duck and gain a pair of panda eyes tomorrow. She still looked at dorm room 404 when she left and was slightly frightened when saw that ordinary 404 door plate.

Thinking about that time, she was guessing the game in circles and it did not come to her mind to guess that it was ghosts and spirits. She was a firm atheist. But now……

She had better go look for whether there were newspapers, it is not important whether there is any information. The main reason is that she wanted to use it to cover up the mirror at the sink so as to avoid seeing anything that should not be seen when brushing her teeth and washing her face.

This kindergarten still has a small playground?

Jiang Xiaoli turned around and came to the small playground. It was because there were a lot of trees planted around the area. Although the sun was shining, this playground was very cool. There were various fitness equipment, slides, swings and other facilities next to the playground. These facilities should be for the children to play.

“Jiang Xiaoli?” Someone called her.

Jiang Xiaoli looked over and noticed it was Wei Qianrong, who lived next door. Even though Wei Qianrong was wearing sportswear, her hand was unexpectedly holding a…….compass?

“Did you also find something wrong with this place?” It was a bit of a coincidence that Wei Qianrong saw her and she thought that the two female players this time would goof off. Yao Qinyu seemed to have found a thigh on the male players’ side 4 , this person……. “I haven’t seen any kindergarten that grows a lot of locust trees.”

These are locust trees? Jiang Xiaoli looked over attentively, no wonder she felt so cool! Although she doesn’t know much about ghosts and spirits, she still knew that locust trees nurture ghosts. “You are a Feng Shui master?” 5

“……No.” Wei Qiangrong kept her compass in mild awkwardness. Honestly, she would not use this thing but holding it in her hand gave her a sense of security. If she encountered danger, the needle of the compass would turn. “This is the reward for clearing the game.” She said looking at Jiang Xiaoli’s face, seeing that Jiang Xiaoli was not surprised, her mind also had an answer. “You and I have to live until the end, let’s cooperate. By the way, one of Shang Chi’s rewards should be those spectacles. He should be able to see some things.”

“Thank you.” Jiang Xiaoli thanked her, then Wei Qianrong turned and left. Although it was strange here, the compass did not move. The time of the protection period is short, she still had to work hard to look for clues.

Rubbing her hands, Jiang Xiaoli turned a circle around the orchard of locust trees and other than feeling particularly shady, she did not notice anything unusual. She still specially bent her waist to look at the soil nearby but there was no trace of movement these past few days. ——It would be great if she also had an item rewarded.

After going around in circles but finding nothing at all. Jiang Xiaoli just went to the classroom to look at the timetable. Since their roles are kindergarten teachers, she reckoned that if they got the time wrong, they would die quite tragically.

7:00——8:00 Wake Up/Dress/Wash Up/Eat Breakfast

8:10—8:55 9:00—10:00 Teaching Activities

10:05——11:20 Vocal Music/Handicraft Activities

11:30——12:30 Lunch

12:50——14:00 Afternoon Nap

14:20——18:20 Playtime

18:30——19:20 Dinner

After dinner, it was also the time to play and then go straight to bed at nine o’clock. Jiang Xiaoli stared at that ‘playtime’ and pondered over it. It should probably be playing with building blocks, playing the piano or doing handicrafts and such; or perhaps going to the playground to move around. Other than waking up at seven o’clock being a bit early, Jiang Xiaoli did not have any objections to this arrangement.

Even if she had to substitute a client for an early lesson for morning self-learning, she would wake up at seven! This seven o’clock is to wait for the children to wake up so she must not wake up at six-thirty? There’s no mobile phone or anything here, the door to the kindergarten was closed and it looks like it was the campus the previous time, not being able to get out. But there seemed to be an alarm clock by the bed? Hopefully, that is useful.

“This classroom is really lively.” Jiang Xiaoli mumbled to herself, raised her hand to wipe her sweat and turned around to leave this place. She planned to find a place like the utility room, what if she could find something? However, as soon as she turned around, she saw a little dumpling 6 clung to the side of the door frame and looked at her. She covered her eyes with both her hands when she saw her looking over.

“What are you doing here? Aren’t you having classes right now?” Jiang Xiaoli walked up to the child and squatted down. Looking at the two pigtails of the child pointing straight to the sky, she thought it was cute. She originally wanted to hug her but she was afraid the child had the same virtue as Li Hongying and her raised hand was stiffly put down.

“It’s lunch time!” The child stopped covering herself, looking at Jiang Xiaoli and her voice became softer, “I still don’t want to sleep so, so I came out!”

“Sister, are you the new teacher this time? You are so pretty!”

A white and tender little dumpling, her eyes were even dewy. Jiang Xiaoli could not restrain herself and pinched the dumpling’s face, it was exceptionally soft to touch, “You can’t run out on your own, teacher will send you back, ok?”

The little dumpling actually shook her head, “Then I’ll go back on my own!” After saying so, she went in the direction of the staircase on her own. Jiang Xiaoli was not assured so followed behind to take a look and only turned around to leave when she caught sight of her running into a teacher.

This copy, what if the children aren’t ghosts but NPCs? In fact, Jiang Xiaoli also had some doubts about the NPCs, such as how to distinguish the difference between an NPC and a real person?

When it was time for an afternoon nap, this kindergarten quieted down. Jiang Xiaoli went around the rooftop for a while but did not find anything like a bloodstain. Even when she looked at some of the loose bricks, she also did not discover any bones even when she lifted the bricks to take a look.

“You’re also here, did you find anything?” The person who came was a tall and thin male player. Because he was very pale, the dark circles under his eyes were especially obvious.

Jiang Xiaoli thought about it, this guy seemed to be called Ding Yirong. “No, I only discovered that they planted locust trees at their playground. However, I didn’t find any dead bodies hidden underneath either.”

“Perhaps it’s our position?” Ding Yirong joked and followed up to say, “It should be autumn now. The approximate time should be the same as the one in the convenience store. I have a conjecture that the kindergarten takes a break once a month and after that two weeks……it could be the time the children go back home so we can also leave this place. This copy has teachers, children, and the principal. They said because those teachers returned home to take a break so as a result, they had to recruit new teachers to replace them. I asked Teacher Wang why some teachers returned home to take a break but he just stared at me, laughed and then left. I think that there is definitely something weird here.”

The strange thing is that there is definitely something weird. Jiang Xiaoli suddenly thought of a point and looked towards Ding Yirong, “Those returning back home to take a rest……are the previous group of players?”

Ding Yirong was taken aback for a moment and felt that Jiang Xiaoli’s guess was not unreasonable. He was about to say something when he heard someone coming up the stairs.

“I have already cleared two games, do you see this talisman? It can withstand the attacks of a ghost thrice and was obtained from my previous copy. As long as you follow me, I can guarantee you will clear this copy.”

“Thank you, Big Brother Guan!”

It is Guan Lin and Yao Qingyu? Ding Yirong pulled Jing Xiaoli to walk downstairs and even greeted them in surprise when they bumped into them. Then, they parted as if nothing had happened. Jiang Xiaoli actually did not feel much, only a little sour.

Talisman? Compass? Spectacles? Why do others always have things that she doesn’t! Walking to a place where there was no one, Jiang Xiaoli finally could not help but to ask, “Do you……all have props?”

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Footnotes

小萝卜 (xiǎo luó bo) : Normally used to call children in a slang way. The author used ooc in English which means out of character. The author left in English and it means ‘death flag’ or simply the trigger to run into misfortune. She found a backer to hang onto. A Feng Shui master, also known as a geomancer, does the practice of trying to maintain the balance between the individual and environment. 小团子 (tuán zi) : Also used to call little children in a slang way.