Chapter 167: Chapter 150: The Disappearance of the 17th Person_2
Seeing Director Ding speak this way, Song Yan had nothing more to say. After a short while, Xia Xiuyan returned, reeking of smoke, with an unpleasant look on her face. When she saw Nie Hexiang’s dejected state, her anger flared even more, "Stop crying, you useless thing! Isn’t the trouble you’ve caused enough?"
Nie Hexiang hung her head low, not uttering a word. Her black hair fell forward, hiding her face. In his mind, Yang Xiao suddenly had a terrifying suspicion that Nie Hexiang might have been replaced by someone else, fearing that when she raised her head again, it would be the face of a strange man.
Fortunately, his suspicion didn’t come true. Director Ding interrupted Xia Xiuyan, gave a few instructions, and, seemingly still uneasy, decided to leave with Xia Xiuyan and the rest of the crew.
The old DV camera was left behind for them, now in Lu Ji’s hands.
"Nie Hexiang, don’t be afraid, and don’t talk nonsense, I’ll come to pick you up later," Xia Xiuyan warned Yang Xiao and Song Yan and the others with a look, her warning clear before she left.
After confirming Director Ding and the others had left, Yang Xiao exchanged glances with the others. Yu Mi and Pei Qiuyu approached the silent Nie Hexiang—this was a golden opportunity to gather information, not to be missed.
But no matter what Yu Mi and Pei Qiuyu said, Nie Hexiang remained silent, like a wooden stake, head down and expression indifferent.
"Okay, let’s complete the task Director Ding assigned first," Yang Xiao spoke up.
The group moved to the bedside, while outside the orderly student squads were arrayed neatly, starting their synchronized calisthenics to the familiar rhythmic commands.
They had all shared similar experiences, and memories of their school days gradually surfaced. Compared to the bright lights in other directions, the north side was much darker; the light that was supposed to be fixed remained broken.
Lu Ji lifted the camera, beginning to capture footage.
The figures of the students on the north side were quite blurred, shadowy and indistinct, with only their general shapes visible.
A moment later, Yang Xiao was slightly taken aback. As his gaze moved, he suddenly noticed something strange: under the broken light, a blurry figure was also following along with the exercises.
This person wore a school uniform, clearly also a student. Could it be a student caught by a teacher for not exercising properly?
"What’s wrong?" Song Yan was the first to notice Yang Xiao’s unusual demeanor and asked.
Yang Xiao turned around, pointing to the north side under the broken light, "There’s a student over there, something’s off."
As Song Yan and the others looked in the direction Yang Xiao was pointing, even Yang Xiao himself did not expect that in the brief moment he turned his head, the figure had vanished, leaving the dim light empty.
Yang Xiao: "!!!"
"What figure? I didn’t see anything," Yu Mi said bluntly, staring in that direction.
Yang Xiao realized something was not right. He took Lu Ji’s camera and after inspecting it, unfortunately, found that it hadn’t captured the northern side.
Seeing Yang Xiao and Song Yan’s faces grow graver, everyone else sensed the seriousness of the situation. Lu Ji spoke in a hushed tone, "Chu Xi, I have to remind you, being the only one to see that thing is not a good sign. You... you might have been targeted."
As for why, Yang Xiao understood very well. It was because of the scene he had played earlier, where his character was a deranged male teacher, preparing to assault a female student lured to his dormitory.
The reason was no longer important. What was urgent now was how to survive. Yang Xiao scanned the student squads below inch by inch; he had a premonition that if he didn’t find a way out by the end of the dress rehearsal, he would die.
There were not many students below, with 16 rows across and only 12 columns down.
Yang Xiao looked at the student formation, feeling increasingly uneasy. This feeling was deep-seated, more like a perception. He didn’t find the mysterious figure among the students, but his intuition told him that the "thing" was hiding among them.
So, he chose the most foolish method and began to count one by one: the first row, 16 students; the second row, 16 students; the third row, 16 students... until he reached the eighth row, Yang Xiao was shocked; 17 students!
He quickly counted again, and sure enough, there were 17!
But... how could that be?
Each row and column was perfectly aligned, so an extra person would be quite noticeable, yet that was clearly not the case.
"Check for me, on the left side, how many people are there in the eighth column?" Yang Xiao said.
"Sixteen." Song Yan was quick to confirm, and the rest of the people had the same count.
"Chu... Chu Xi..." Lu Ji’s voice trembled slightly on one side.
As they brought over the camera, at first glance, there seemed to be no issue with the image. However, as Lu Ji pointed out each student, continually changing positions on the screen, it became clear there was a problem. The formation was neat, but in the camera’s view, the eighth column had seventeen people.
That is to say, there was an unaccountable person hidden among the formation.
Suddenly, while intently watching the camera’s screen, Yang Xiao felt a tingling sensation on his scalp. He abruptly looked up towards the student formation below; cold sweat formed on his forehead. Just moments ago, he felt a chilly, purely malicious gaze.
Now with no room for wishful thinking, he knew he was the one the ghost had fixed its gaze upon, and now, the ghost had come for him.
In the eighth column, at least they had narrowed down the range. Yang Xiao comforted himself, certain he would find a way.
He examined the students in the eighth column one by one. Everyone was wearing the same school uniform and continuously changing positions, which added to Yang Xiao’s workload.
But after looking over them once, none of the female students seemed unusual, at least not in a way that was immediately obvious.
"No, it’s not one of these people," Yang Xiao thought, perhaps there was something wrong with the method he was using.
"Since we’ve confirmed that thing is in the eighth column and I’m the only one who can see it, how about this; we’ll use the camera to review each person and ask the others. If there is a discrepancy in people’s perception of a student’s movements, then that student must be the problem."
With a clear plan in mind, Yang Xiao indeed found an issue. In the middle of the formation was a girl whose movements on the camera differed from what everyone saw with their eyes.
The movements were supposed to be standardized, more or less the same, but this girl’s actions were noticeably half a beat slower, and there was a certain stiffness about her.
Yang Xiao counted, and she was located in the ninth row of the eighth column.
"No, no, she’s in the eighth row of the eighth column," Yu Mi pointed out, looking at the camera screen.
"Stop talking nonsense, she’s obviously in the seventh row of the eighth column; how did you guys count?" Pei Qiuyu couldn’t help but count again aloud.
However, when Yang Xiao counted again, he felt a chill in his heart. The girl’s position had changed again, now to the sixth row of the eighth column, getting closer to him.
"Stop fucking counting!" Song Yan snatched the camera away and turned it off, "Don’t you feel it? That ghost thing is getting closer!"
Yu Mi shuddered violently; she hadn’t expected the ghost to possess such abilities.
"What do we do now?" Lu Ji also panicked, watching the ghost draw ever nearer. Even though he wasn’t the target, the situation was enough to make anyone tense.
"What if... what if we do nothing, won’t that mean the ghost can’t move, and... and it won’t come looking for us?" Pei Qiuyu naively asked.
"Don’t even think about it. Once a ghost sets its sights on you, unless you find a way to break the pattern, it won’t rest until you’re dead," Lu Ji said, aware of the severity as an experienced player.
As the person involved, Yang Xiao, after a brief adjustment, happened to be the one with the best mindset amongst all present. He knew the more confused and panicked one became, the faster they would die.
Upon further observation, Yang Xiao noticed something different about the girl; though her school uniform was also white and red, the actual pattern differed slightly from the other students around her.
If Yang Xiao were to describe it, it was that the uniform’s pattern seemed older and more conservative.
This looked more like a school uniform design from many years ago.
The thing that had fixed its sight on him was not the Ghost Teacher he had encountered before but... a ghost student, and a girl at that.
