IJRELD: Hide and Seek 3

MAY 22, 2023 ~ KIWII

Perhaps because no one paid attention to it, the knock on the door disappeared after a while. The creaking sound gradually subsided, it may have gone to other dormitories.

Song Qingshu’s heart in his throat hadn’t completely settled down yet, and he didn’t know which dormitory uttered several screams one after another, which made his heart slump a little and his throat was blocked again.

Hearing the screams, Song Qingshu thought: It’s over, someone died. He nervously tugged at the quilt covering his body.

Watching a horror movie is not the same as experiencing a horror movie yourself. Horror movies seen by the human eye are 2D anyway, but the experience is different, it is a 3D atmosphere, whether it is the horror atmosphere, real scene or the five senses, the fear is multiplied.

The singing echoed in the empty dormitory building, and Song Qingshu felt terrified when he heard it at first. But no matter how scary the song is, it can’t be scary when sung in cycles. Song Qingshu got used to it after listening to it, and he could even sing it in his heart without being scared.

Later, he fell asleep in a daze. Before he fell asleep, he only had one thought: Can you change the song? My ears can hear cocoons in the loop of the single song.

Song Qingshu didn’t get up from the bed until the wake-up bell rang at 6:00 a.m., and the students started activities one after another.

He sat on the bed against the wall and plucked a few handfuls of messy hair, with half-closed eyes. There were faint dark circles under the eyes, and he looked like he wasn’t awake.

“My eyes are blindfolded, my friends, who is playing hide-and-seek…” Song Qingshu softly hummed the sound that was looping in his ears, the more he listened to it, the more he felt that this song was a bit magical, he was about to be brainwashed by this song.

Sang Yu, who was on the opposite bed, just got up when he heard the singing that he heard last night behind him. He turned his head stiffly to find the source of the sound, and found that Song Qingshu was singing, and grabbed the pillow and threw it on him: “Stop singing, you’re scaring me to death.”

Song Qingshu caught the throwing pillow, smiled, yawned and regained consciousness, and replied: “Morning.”

“Morning.” Moon in the Water heard someone greeting when he opened the door, “All four people from 108 are missing.”

“What?” Song Qingshu remembered the screams he heard in the middle of the night, his eyes widened instantly, he sat up abruptly, and quickly got out of bed.

They went outside to check the situation. The four people in the 108 dormitory were all missing, the doors and windows were all intact, and there was no such thing as going out by themselves. They must have been captured by the ghosts at night. There were two other people from 106 who were frightened and crazy, and they couldn’t ask anything from them at all depending on their situation.

“And this song is called <Hide and Seek>. From the lyrics, it was a child playing hide and seek with his friends in an amusement park. The friends here should refer to students and players.” Moon in the Water said, “everyone be careful at night.”

There were three girls and one boy living in dormitory 106, and one of the girls and the guy were lying on the bed covered with quilts.

The quilt on the girl’s body was shaking violently all the time, she seemed to be terrified, and shouted: “Don’t come here, don’t come here……”

The man was also very frightened, but he didn’t make any sound, he only screamed loudly when others touched his quilt. When you get close, you can still vaguely hear the sound of grinding his teeth vigorously, as if the person is trying his best to overcome the great fear in his heart.

When Song Qingshu passed by, the girl had already fainted from extreme fear.

A burly man with big flower tattoos on his arms and exuding a social atmosphere asked the man who was shivering on the bed in a rough voice: “Tell me what you saw.”

The man didn’t speak and kept trembling under the quilt.

The tattooed man obviously didn’t have very good patience, and the long silence wore away what little patience he had left. In order to know the effective information as soon as possible to clear the customs and leave this ghost place, he took advantage of the man’s unpreparedness and pulled the quilt off his body

With no shelter, the man yelled loudly, incoherently shouting: “There are ghosts! There are so many ghosts! The rabbit has become a spirit! It can also sing!” Shouting, he rushed to take back the quilt, and wrapped himself up again, as if the ghost in his mouth couldn’t find him.

A singing rabbit? Song Qingshu thought of “Mr. Rabbit” in the lyrics, his eyes darkened.

“The rabbit sang the song last night? Can the rabbit make a child’s voice? This rabbit has become a genius.” After listening to Song Qingshu’s words, Sang Yu asked a series of questions.

Finally, someone commented: “If it is true, this rabbit is amazing and has a bright future.”

Song Qingshu: ……what should he say?

“What kind of rabbit is it? Is it a live rabbit in reality, or a two dimension cartoon rabbit? Let’s ask them when they are in better condition.” Moon in the Water said.

“I don’t think it’s a live rabbit or a cartoon rabbit, it’s a fluffy rabbit doll. There are some plush dolls on the market with singing devices inside to attract children.” Yan Ruyu analyzed.

There are all kinds of fluffy animal dolls in her house, and her sixth sense tells her that the so-called singing rabbit is a doll.

“That’s right, that’s it, that makes sense.” Sang Yu was second-guessing, and after finishing speaking, he blew a rainbow fart: “Miss sister is really talented and beautiful, and together with Brother Moon, they are really a match made in heaven.”

Yan Ruyu blushed instantly, and she quickly explained: “No, you misunderstood. He and I are just colleagues, not boyfriend and girlfriend. I have a boyfriend.”

Sang Yu smiled awkwardly and said embarrassedly: “Sorry, I thought you two were a couple.”

Song Qingshu glanced at Sang Yu with disgust. What was going on in this man’s mind, or was it just like the brain circuits of straight men?

He could tell from their behavior and speech yesterday that the two of them are not in a relationship. If any couple is like the two of them, it would be terrible.

And his radar told him that the Moon in the Water should be the same attribute as him.

If Moon in the Water really had the same attributes as him, it would be even more impossible to be with Yan Ruyu.

“Let’s go, go to breakfast, and wait for the principal to come and see us.” Moon in the Water proposed.

The breakfast in Linchuan Middle School is also made according to the nutritional recipes for junior high school students. There were many varieties, and there was no set meal. What you want to eat depends on your preference.

Song Qingshu lingered for a while in front of steamed buns of several flavors, and finally chose three steamed stuffed buns with three delicacies, a tea egg and a bowl of porridge.

He sat next to Sang Yu, facing Moon in the Water. He picked up a bun with chopsticks and took a small bite. The steamed stuffed buns were thin and tasty, and Song Qingshu squinted his eyes to show his enjoyment.

The porridge was hot, Song Qingshu poked his head out, stuck out his tongue, touched the top layer of the porridge lightly, found that it would not burn his mouth, then took a sip from the bowl.

Song Qingshu moved very quickly, but still fell into the eyes of Moon in the Water.

He saw a ruddy tongue stained with white liquid, which disappeared between the beautifully shaped lips and teeth in an instant. It was as if the liquid flowed down the other party’s fair and slender neck, passed the Adam’s apple rolling up and down, and entered the stomach.

It was obviously just a bowl of porridge, why did it make his mouth dry? He regretted not ordering a bowl of porridge.

Song Qingshu didn’t know what was going on in Moon in the Water’s mind at all, he let out a sigh of satisfaction after sweeping away all the things he had chosen.

“In the Taiyuan period of the Jin Dynasty, people in Wuling fished for a living. They walked along the stream, forgetting the distance of the road. Suddenly they came across a peach blossom forest, and there were hundreds of steps between the banks…” The students read Tao Yuanming’s “Peach Blossom Spring” neatly.

The sound of reading aloud calls out the sun, and when the golden light is all over the earth, those creepy sounds at night seem to be just a nightmare shared by many people.

Now it is dawn, and the dream is awakened.

There was a big sun hanging in the clear sky, and from time to time the breeze blew. The dewdrops on the flowers and plants in the campus gradually dissipated. Unknown birds were flying around on the treetops and chirping, as if this was a most ordinary campus.

Song Qingshu came out of the cafeteria, and the brilliant light shone on him, which was a little dazzling for a moment, but when he realized it, he stopped in his tracks, closed his eyes and faced the rising sun.

“What’s wrong?” Moon in the Water asked.

“I finally saw the sun, the sun is so good.” Song Qingshu answered him.

Under the sun, Song Qingshu’s eyelashes were as fine as a fan, and now they were dyed with a layer of golden light, like the wings of a glasswing butterfly.

kiwii: Glasswing butterflies (Greta oto) are a rare species that is found throughout areas of Central and South America. (See image here)

The whole person was shrouded in the light of the morning sun, like an elf who had just entered the world and was not stained with dust.

Song Qingshu was bathed in the sun, and the sound of the broadcast outside the school teaching building came to his ears, asking them to gather in front of the dormitory building.

The front of the dormitory building was full of people, and the principal stood in the middle of the crowd with a pale face and even more anxious.

The missing student was not found, and the people who came to look for the missing students were also picked up, how can he not be in a hurry.

“A total of 48 people, four missing, including the four of us, there are 42 people here, the two of 106 didn’t come out?” Sang Yu muttered softly.

The headmaster felt that they were almost there, so he hurriedly took them to the large conference room of one of the teaching buildings.

After everyone sat down, the principal turned on the big screen, and all the information of the missing students were displayed on it.

“Two weeks ago, these students disappeared from the school for no reason. These students are all boarding students. Normally, they should study at school during the day and go back to the dormitory to sleep at night.

Surveillance showed that these students were at school during the day and disappeared after school. We searched the entire school and did not find any trace of the students.

I was afraid that they would climb over the wall and go out to play, so I checked the surveillance outside the school, but there was none. These students just disappeared out of thin air.”

The principal said and pressed the page presenter in his hand, and the information of the other four students was replaced on the big screen, “Those students disappeared few days ago, and these four students also disappeared inexplicably from the school dormitory, disappearing like your mates.”

Surveillance at night saw a few students enter the dormitory and never came out again. The next day the teacher of their class said that these students did not come to class, so they called the dormitory supervisor. The dormitory supervisor went to their dormitory and found that the door was locked. After notifying us, they called someone to unlock the dorr, but after opening the door, these students were nowhere to be seen.”

The headmaster’s brows were tightly wrinkled, and they were about to twist into a hill.

“The parents came to ask for students, how could we give them out, and finally let them give us ten days to find a way, it has been four days, I invite you to help solve the matter. Of course the reward is indispensable as long as you find them, otherwise the problem will be serious.”

Song Qingshu flipped through the personal information of those children in his hand. Judging from the situation last night, the missing students must have been taken away by ghosts. But why hasn’t this happened before?

What the hell happened two weeks ago? Or did the first batch of students trigger something that led to the disappearance?

Song Qingshu fell into deep thought.