Chapter 690: The Bad Kid's Journey

Chapter 690: The Bad Kid's Journey

Two days later, my deskmate's punishment of standing in the corner finally ended, and he could sit in class like the other students again.

I thought seeing him sitting in class would make me feel better, but it didn't.

Doing something bad is really strange. I wasn't happy before doing it, wasn't happy while doing it, and wasn't happy after it was done.

If that's the case, why are there still so many bad people in this world?

I was terrified they would find out I was the one who did it. I was scared I'd end up in jail someday.

I suffered through that anxious feeling for a long time. Then, during the second class in the afternoon, the whole room suddenly started shaking.

When the room began to tremble, our homeroom teacher, who was in the middle of a lesson, let out a piercing scream. Her face flushed bright red. A few seconds later, she abandoned us and fled the classroom as if her life depended on it.

She stumbled every three steps, alternating between running and crawling, as if being chased by a man-eating tiger.

Watching her panicked retreat, my classmates and I sat in the shaking room, exchanging bewildered looks.

The teacher had said that if anyone left the classroom during class without her permission, they would get a zero on the pinyin section of every exam.

But what were we supposed to do now?

I clasped my hands behind my back and sat motionless in my chair. Maybe if I waited until the room stopped shaking, until the teacher came back, and she saw me sitting straighter than the other kids, she would praise me and call me a "good kid."

But by the time cracks started appearing on the walls and the ceiling fan began to fall, the teacher still hadn't come back.

The spinning fan blades crashed down on my classmates one after another. I saw with my own eyes the people in the first row being crushed underneath. They screamed in agony, blood pouring from their bodies.

Only then did people finally start to stand up. Everyone realized something was wrong.

"Zheng Yingxiong!" My deskmate grabbed me. "Run! The classroom is going to collapse!"

"No... no way..." I strained to keep my hands behind my back. "The teacher said..."

"Damn it! Who cares what the teacher said!" He yanked me up. "Zheng Yingxiong! This is an earthquake! If we don't run, we're going to die!"

But I felt like I couldn't trust him. He was a bad kid. The other students said he was from somewhere else, and his clothes were always dirty every day...

While I was hesitating, the ceiling fan above both of us finally couldn't hold on any longer. With a loud crash, it fell, spinning as it dropped, looking terrifying.

At the critical moment, my deskmate shoved me hard, pushing me to the ground. I only felt something hot splash across my face.

I froze for a few seconds, then immediately stood up to check on him. I saw that one of the fan blades was stuck in his chest.

He was sitting back in his chair, convulsing, blood spurting from his mouth with every breath.

"Xu Jiahua..." My voice choked as I walked over and shook him. "Xu Jiahua..."

But I didn't even know what to say.

"Zheng Yingxiong... run... run..." He used his dirty hand to push me away, but every time he spoke, more blood sprayed from his mouth. "Damn it... cough... it hurts so much..."

"I'm sorry... Xu Jiahua... I'm sorry..."

"Don't apologize... just run..." He kept pushing me. "I said I'd protect you... run..."

But I really wanted to apologize to him. If I didn't apologize now, I might never have another chance.

"The meal ticket—I'm the one who stole it, Xu Jiahua. I framed you..." I sobbed. "Please don't die..."

"I know... I know..." He reached out and patted me, but he was in so much pain that his forehead was covered in cold sweat. "It's okay, Zheng Yingxiong... run..."

But then, in the next second, the entire ceiling collapsed. The whole classroom building buried everyone together.

And I still didn't understand what Xu Jiahua meant by "I know" and "It's okay."

Was he in so much pain that he couldn't hear me clearly?

Was he about to die, so his mind was muddled?

I was the one who set him up. I was the one who put the meal ticket in his desk.

I was the one who made him stand in the corner for two days.

But he wasn't angry. He just kept telling me to run.

But where was I supposed to run to...?

I really had nowhere left to go... I didn't want to run out to the street. I didn't want to do my homework under that streetlight. I didn't want to go back to that home full of broken pieces.

If I was going to run... could I run back to being a little kid?

I used to do a lot of things that made my parents angry. I wanted to run back to childhood, start everything over, and this time I wanted to be a good kid.

Later, I realized that no one could ever run away from something called an "earthquake."

Whether I ran to the street, back to the streetlight, or into that room full of rubble, I could never escape.

When I woke up again, I was hanging from the ceiling of a dark room along with eight other people. Our hands were tied with some kind of rubber-band-like rope, and we swung back and forth like roasted ducks hanging from hooks.

What was going on now?

There were three strange people in the room. One wore a rabbit-head mask, one wore a tiger-head mask, and one wore a dog-head mask.

Behind the three of them was a large machine, and its screen was frozen on a ten-minute countdown.

"Good morning, the nine of you," the rabbit-head man said. "We're delighted to meet you here. You've been unconscious before us for twelve hours."

Was this jail?

Because I had lied, because I had stolen, because I had hurt someone, I had been caught and sent to jail!

If I was in jail... would they notify my parents?

I would get beaten.

The smell in this jail was really strong... Ever since I opened my eyes, I'd been smelling a strange, foul odor.

I had never smelled this stench before. No—actually, my nose had never been this sharp before.

The remaining adults seemed to say a lot of things, but I was too scared at the time. I don't remember any of it.

"Now we need to play a game with you," the rabbit-head continued. "The ropes binding your arms are specially made. If you pull hard enough or rub them bit by bit with your fingernails, you can break free from these special restraints. Once one person succeeds in escaping, the countdown behind me will start. You'll have ten minutes total. Within those ten minutes, you need to find a way to get the key to this room."

He then pointed to the wooden door in the corner of the room. "If anyone tries to break down the door, we will carry out 'sanctions' against that person."

"Where's the key?" a middle-aged uncle asked.

I looked around at the people hanging with me in midair. Aside from one young woman, the rest all seemed pretty old—either uncles or aunties.

"The key is in the well," the rabbit-head said, walking to a corner of the room and pointing. Only then did I notice there was a round hole there.

"You can send someone down to retrieve the key," the rabbit-head continued. "If you descend five meters, you can get five gas masks. If you descend ten meters, you can get the key to escape. How each of you wants to survive—that's up to your own abilities."