Chapter 334
At the sight of the video, everyone in the auditorium received a rude awakening. The school leaders and professors who originally clamored to leave turned around and told the students, "Please calm down. Stay in the auditorium. Let’s not provoke the criminal and cause unnecessary casualties."
Obviously, in the eyes of these school leaders, well-known entrepreneur Bai Lei’s life was worth more than those children. The professors and students went at it hammer and tongs. I had seen too much of the ugliness and selfishness of human nature that I had grown numb.
One of the professors suddenly stood up and shouted, "Deng Chao, I was your counselor. Stop this! You’re only adding to your crimes! Listen to me, repent and be saved! Think about your parents and family. How are they to face the world after all you’ve done?"
Deng Chao seemed to have heard him and spoke sweetly into the speakers, "Hello, Professor Zhou!"
Then came a thunderous explosion and a blood mist rose from the professor’s body. Amidst the screaming and retreating crowd, the professor fell to the ground, his eyes still wide open. There was now a hole in his chest and blood spattered everywhere.
Deng Chao was almost out of breath from laughing too hard. "Goodbye, Professor Zhou!"
"Ahh, take off your corsages!" yelled another professor.
The professors attending today’s graduation ceremony all wore corsages with their names and seating positions written on them. Deng Chao had apparently placed a pocket-sized bomb on the corsages. The professors quickly threw their corsages to the ground, prompting the frightened students to back away.
I picked up a corsage and found nothing unusual. It seemed that only Deng Chao’s counselor’s was given “special” treatment.
"Ten minutes have passed,” Deng Chao continued. “And now you’re the only ones left on campus. Our game is about to officially begin. First, let me explain the other rules. The second rule is that Song Yang is today’s leading actor. None of you are allowed to hurt him or I’ll kill the hostages... and maybe some of you!"
Everyone fixed their gaze on me. Deng Chao’s voice continued to reverberate through the auditorium, "As for the third rule, although you can move freely around campus, the following areas are absolutely forbidden–the lab building, the student activity center and the library!"
The broadcast studio linked to the school’s PA system was located in the student activity center which was most likely Deng Chao’s hiding place. As for the lab building and the library, they were merely a diversion.
Right then, Xiaotao’s voice came from my headphones, "Song Yang, news has just come from headquarters. The third victim who we found this morning is a kindergarten bus driver. The kindergarten has confirmed that dozens of their students are missing, apparently abducted by Deng Chao who stole the victim’s identity. Information about the first victim has also been updated. Do you still recall his occupation? Our investigation found that his warehouse stored detonators and explosives, all of which were lost."
It suddenly dawned upon me, "It turns out that he was preparing for today."
"How’s the situation over there?" asked Xiaotao.
"Well, things almost went out of control earlier. But it’s slightly better now. The game will start soon."
"I’m in the small building opposite your campus,” said Xiaotao. “You can see my window from the auditorium. The SWAT teams have been dispatched to seal off the whole school."
I looked out and saw Xiaotao standing at the window, waving at me.
Our conversation was suddenly interrupted by Deng Chao, "Song Yang, do you remember what I said that day? I told you we’d have a good fight. I’ve waited so long for today!"
The auditorium quieted down. I didn’t want to waste energy shouting at him so I carefully listened.
"I have prepared some tests for you. As long as you smoothly pass these tests, I’ll make sure everyone’s safe, even the hostages. Right now, it’s time for the first test. Please use an idiom to describe what you’ve done to me. I placed a little hint in this auditorium. You need to find the other missing words that I’ve hidden throughout the campus and complete the idiom. The time limit is five minutes!"
I quickly turned on the timer on my cell phone and shouted at the others, "Let’s all look for it!"
The crowd immediately dispersed and half a minute later, a boy held up a sign with the word "fall" and shouted, "I found it!"
Fall? I immediately realized, The idiom was–Throwing stones at a man who’s fallen down the well.
There was no point arguing about Deng Chao’s distorted, one-sided logic. At present, my focus was to quickly pass the test. Deng Chao mentioned that the remaining words were scattered around campus. Did he mean that the other words were hidden separately in some corner of the campus?
It was unlikely! If he had randomly hidden the words, then we would easily locate them as long as everyone participated in a blanket search. However, there would be no meaning to the test.
Since he instructed us to find the missing words around campus, those words must already be there.
I called Dali and several classmates over, "Go to the bulletin boards, classrooms and signboards throughout campus and look for the words ‘well’, ‘down’ and ‘stone’ wherever there might be such words!"
"How are we to find them in such a short amount of time?” argued Dali. “It’s not like there’s a well on campus."
After a moment’s contemplation, I said, "There’s the word ‘well’ on the sign in the lecture hall. Anyway, he didn’t forbid us from picking out the words. As for the word ‘down’... I remember seeing a sign by the lake that says, ’No swimming or jumping down the lake.’ But the word ‘stone’...."
One of the boys interjected, "There’s a Korean stall on the fourth floor that sells Stone Pot Bibimbap!"
I quickly assigned them their tasks. I went to claim the word “well” while Dali would find “down” and the other boy the word “stone."
Xiaotao’s voice sounded from my headphones once more. "There was a little situation just now. Song Xingchen broke in and hurt several SWAT officers. Fortunately, I stepped in or they might’ve taken him for a suspect."
"Can I speak to him?" I asked.
"Wait a minute!"
A few seconds later, I heard Song Xingchen’s urgent voice, "Young Master, let me go in. I must protect you!"
"You don’t have to worry about my safety for the time being,” I assured. “The murderer obviously plans to take his time playing with me. He won’t kill me. He even prohibited the others from hurting me."
"That’s not reassuring at all!” protested Song Xingchen.
"Great hero, please don’t make things worse this time,” pleaded Xiaotao.
Upon further reflection, I asked Song Xingchen to hand Xiaotao the radio. "Let Song Xingchen sneak in and try to keep this under wraps from the others,” I instructed. “Deng Chao is probably hiding in the broadcast studio in the student activity center. Song Xingchen should be able to quietly sneak in."
"That’s too risky,” argued Xiaotao. “We’re still unsure of how Deng Chao is able to keep tabs on the situation. If he finds out..."
"Deng Chao doesn’t have super powers,” I sneered. “We’re probably being monitored by cameras inside and outside the campus. With Song Xingchen’s skills, avoiding the cameras is nothing. We can’t be led by the nose. We must take action!"
After some hesitation, Xiaotao replied, "Alright then, we’ll do as you say."
After our brief conversation, I ran to the lake, staring deeply at the tranquil waters. The thought that this was where it all began suddenly crossed my mind. Last fall, a newborn calf bravely pointed out Dr. Qin’s mistaken conclusion, then caught Deng Chao who pretended to be a murderous evil spirit and finally sent him to prison.
I cast off these thoughts, removed the sign by the lake and hurried back to the auditorium.
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