Chapter 93: Death Class 7 (Part 17)

TL: There’s a little discrepancy on the author’s part. The second mystery case mentioned in c88 was reported to the police at 20:25. In this chapter, it suddenly became 20:29, and is mentioned twice.

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Silence descended once Chen Kaijie left, as everyone pondered the current problem.

There were hints on how to complete the storyline. However, they didn’t know what counted, making it quite challenging.

Xiao Muyu began recalling the information she had heard and seen over the past few days, hoping to find more clues.

The culprit wasn’t Liu Ya because she had behaved too normally. So, it should be Lin Xue. That perfectly matched the statement: the culprit was related to Liu Ya. Everything became clear.

“I remember another thing.” Xiao Muyu suddenly spoke up. “While looking through Lin Xue’s name on the exam roster, I had to check twice before I noticed it.”

Su Jin and the others considered this before opening the spreadsheet. They quickly found Lin Xue’s name without any issues.

Shen Qingqiu stroked her chin. “I believe Muyu. Given how sharp she is, there’s no way she needed to look for Lin Xue’s name twice. There must be something wrong. This further supports the conclusion that Lin Xue is dead. Under normal circumstances, Lin Xue wouldn’t be on the roster if she were dead, so Muyu didn’t see her name at first glance. The system probably didn’t anticipate we would check the grades so far back, hence the oversight.”

“That makes sense.”

Xiao Muyu clasped her hands together under her chin, her expression serious. “Tonight is going to be dangerous. I hope everyone is prepared. I can’t deduce any more information, so we must gather more clues before dark. Focus on proving that Lin Xue is the curse’s culprit.”

Su Jin was silent for a moment before speaking up. “The students are dismissed for today. Most of the ones staying behind are either studying in class or doing whatever. While we have the chance, I want to check Liu Ya and Lin Xue’s things. Maybe there’s more to be found there.”

Xiao Muyu and Shen Qingqiu exchanged a glance, then nodded. Still, Xiao Muyu reminded Su Jin, “Don’t force it. Try not to let them notice. Otherwise, it could anger them.”

“Understood.”

With that, the four of them split up.

A call soon came from Chen Kaijie.

“I couldn’t find anything.” He sounded rather disappointed. “The fire department records from January were deleted.”

Xiao Muyu remained silent while Zuo Tiantian muttered in frustration, “Why do I feel like the system is deliberately increasing the difficulty? Lin Xue and Liu Ya have been in the classroom the whole time, and we haven’t had a chance to check their things. We’ve figured out so much already, but it refuses to give us any solid evidence.”

At that moment, Xiao Muyu and Shen Qingqiu were roaming around the school, looking for clues. If Lin Xue had been burned to death, there had to be a crime scene.

No matter how ruthless the students in Class 7 were, they wouldn’t have set someone on fire in the open. So there must be a scene of the fire.

Even if the curse had made everyone in the school forget about it, that spot still existed. It might have just been rebuilt.

The places students frequently went to were the restrooms, classrooms, dorms, or the library.

When the two were about to enter the dorm to snoop, Shen Qingqiu noticed something and immediately slowed her steps. Her excellent eyesight made out some numbers on a dim display screen. Shen Qingqiu recognized it as the data logger for the smoke detectors.

Per regulations, every dorm room had a smoke detector installed. The data logger would log which room had triggered the detector before sounding an alarm.

Xiao Muyu noticed Shen Qingqiu had stopped and was about to ask why. But when she followed her gaze, she suddenly realized something and walked over.

The alarm hadn’t sounded, yet Xiao Muyu saw a log on the screen. The timestamp showed 20:05 last night, and the room number was 409. The display showed: [Initial warning, smoke and light.]

“Did the alarm go off last night?” Xiao Muyu asked.

Shen Qingqiu quickly shook her head. “No, the fire alarm emits a blaring sound. The school buildings are only about a hundred meters away. We would’ve heard it.”

“I remember the second police report Chen Kaijie found noted 20:29,” said Xiao Muyu. She pressed the “up” button and found a log at the same time two days prior. More appeared as she kept pushing the button.

Shen Qingqiu’s expression grew serious. “This is fishy.”

Xiao Muyu furrowed her brows thoughtfully, then entered the dorm. She raised her hand to knock on the dorm mother’s window.

A few knocks later, the dorm mother stuck her head out. She paused upon seeing them before impatiently asking, “There are no classes today. What do you want?”

“Auntie, we just saw the smoke detector data logger flashing.” Xiao Muyu feigned anxiousness, unbothered by the dorm mother’s rude attitude. “It shows a fire in Room 409. Should we go check it out? What if something happens?”

The dorm mother scoffed. “You fuss over nothing. That thing’s broken. Every few days it shows smoke alarms for Room 409. Sometimes, it even sounds the alarm. It’s scary when it suddenly goes off at night, and you can’t turn it off. But when it should go off, it stays silent. And now it’s gone off for no reason. Ridiculous. Hurry back. You don’t have classes, so at least go study. Don’t hang around at the dorm.”

“Does it show up often? Is it too sensitive? Why hasn’t the school fixed it? Auntie, have you ever checked it yourself? What if something really happens? You’ve heard the story of the boy who cried wolf, right?” Shen Qingqiu fired off questions, her expression indifferent. She didn’t look like the good student type.

The dorm mother shot her a glance, then turned away. “What’s there to check? No one lives in 409. Who could trigger the smoke detector?” She slammed the window shut.

Xiao Muyu glanced at the window. Something clicked in her mind.

“You say no one lives there, but the smoke detector frequently goes off?” Su Jin and Zuo Tiantian exchanged looks, getting goosebumps all over.

“‘No one lives there’ can only mean it’s a ghost.” Chen Kaijie also found it suspicious. Yet, amidst his fear was excitement. They finally had a breakthrough. ”So, can we conclude whoever was burned to death must have died there?”

“It’s also possible the smoke detector is broken.” Zuo Tiantian felt a little hesitant about it. The information didn’t advance their progress or warrant a word from the system. “Can we really use this as key evidence?”

“It’s not broken,” Xiao Muyu answered firmly. “But might be. Repeated alarms are possible if Room 409’s smoke detector has malfunctioned. But how can a broken device go off at 20:05 on the dot every day? Also, Chen Kaijie, you should remember the second report was on January 8th at 20:29. Everyone should have been in class at that time, yet there was an alarm. Something definitely happened!”

“Muyu’s not wrong, but I also think it might actually be broken,” Shen Qingqiu suddenly added.

Xiao Muyu immediately raised a brow and couldn’t help but glance at her.

“At 20:05, there was a fire alarm, with the triggers being ‘smoke and light’. As there was firelight, it wasn’t a false alarm. Logically speaking, 20:05 isn’t that late, so the victim was most likely awake.

“There were many teachers and students around, and the security guards should be awake. It wouldn’t have taken more than a few minutes for everyone to notice if the alarm had gone off then. Setting aside why the victim couldn’t escape, someone at least would’ve gone to put out the fire.

“Also, Yuanning High School’s fire hydrants, extinguishers, and other equipment are well-stocked. They weren’t recently installed. Muyu and I checked.”

Shen Qingqiu paused briefly, then crisply concluded, “So, there’s only one explanation: The alarm was broken.”

She had explained her thoughts in one breath, and her logic was sound.

“That’s right.” Chen Kaijie nodded repeatedly, entirely convinced. “When I checked the fire alarm logs at the fire department, I found that the fire station is only two kilometers away from Yuanning High School. They should have been able to get there quickly and save the victim.”

“No wonder she hated the group so much.” Su Jin felt indescribable sadness. “They must have completely cut off her exits. How could people be so cruel to a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old kid?”

*Ding!*

“Story progress: 50%. Keep up the good work!”

The system finally responded. Su Jin and the others brightened up at the notification. “Looks like this logic is solid. We’ve found the crime scene. What’s our next step?”

Shen Qingqiu lazily leaned against one of the pavilion’s pillars, arms crossed. Her gaze shifted to the fourth floor of the girls’ dorm, a smile tugging at one mouth corner. “Of course, we need to check out the unoccupied Room 409.”

Everyone instinctively looked at her. Xiao Muyu was the genius at deductions, while Shen Qingqiu was the expert at fighting or troublemaking.

Shen Qingqiu glanced at the other four before rolling her eyes. “You three, stop looking at me like that.”

Xiao Muyu shifted her gaze away. Unexpectedly, Shen Qingqiu grabbed her hand with a smile. “I wasn’t talking about you. You can look as much as you want, however you want.”

She turned to the others. “We can sneak in while the dorm mother isn’t paying attention. But the supernatural is too strong at night. We’d better not go after dark.”

Su Jin and the other two were speechless.

As Chen Kaijie was a man, he couldn’t enter the girls’ dorm, so he kept watch outside. He could use his item card to contact them if needed.

The dorm mother sat behind her closed window, watching TV on her phone while knitting. The four women slipped in while she wasn’t paying attention to what was happening outside.

They disappeared around the staircase corner as the dorm mother remained hunched over. Her knitting needles moved deftly, but she had her head lowered and wasn’t watching the video playing on her phone.

Her eyes were shut tightly, with the eyelids fused at some point, as if melted by fire.

The four made their way to the fourth floor. Class 7 had twenty-three girls now, spread across six dorm rooms. Some stayed four to a room, while others mixed with students from different classes. They were all on the fourth and third floors.

Room 409 was at the end of a hallway near the washroom.

Now that school was on break, most students had gone home with their parents or guardians, leaving behind those who stayed to self-study. Especially students of Class 7—Xiao Muyu sensed they feared the dorms. If they haone of them would be here at night if they had a choice. The fourth floor, therefore, was quiet.

When they arrived at the door of Room 409, everything seemed normal. It looked no different than the rooms nearby. There were no scorch marks on the door, not even any dust.

Xiao Muyu lightly ran a finger across the door. It was spotless.

Su Jin understood why she did so and whispered, “No one lives here, yet it’s this clean. That’s not normal.”

“Mm, but we can’t tell much from outside. Let’s figure out how to get in.” Xiao Muyu twisted the doorknob, but it didn’t budge. “It’s locked.”

Shen Qingqiu glanced at the lock, then quietly told the others, “Back up a bit and stand by.”

Despite their confusion, Su Jin and Zuo Tiantian quickly stepped back. Only Xiao Muyu took a step closer, her eyes on the door.

Shen Qingqiu glanced at her before lowering her head, smiling briefly without saying anything.

She pulled out her dagger, inserted the blade tip into the keyhole, then twisted with her wrist.

With terrifying force, she destroyed the old, fragile lock mechanism. After repeating the motion a few times, the door finally creaked open.

Shen Qingqiu pushed the door, her eyes scanning the room warily. A few careful glances later, she said, “All clear.”

She performed masterful flourishes with the dagger before tucking it away and turning to face the others.

Unsurprisingly, aside from the unfazed Xiao Muyu, Zuo Tiantian and Su Jin stood there, their jaws dropping.

“That… that’s too good.”

Shen Qingqiu shrugged noncommittally. “Don’t get the wrong idea. Only this type of lock can be opened with brute force. Most locks aren’t so breakable.”

The door swung open, revealing an empty room. A thick layer of dust covered everything, giving the impression that no one had lived here for some time.

Shen Qingqiu reached back, stopping Xiao Muyu. She slowly stepped into the room, but nothing happened.

Xiao Muyu glanced at Su Jin and Zuo Tiantian. “Don’t come in yet.”

Su Jin’s face looked slightly tense, but she stayed outside as told.

Once inside, Xiao Muyu started sniffing, then noticed a smell in the air.

“What do you smell?” asked Shen Qingqiu.

“I can’t quite place it.” Xiao Muyu shook her head. “The room hasn’t been lived in for a while, judging by the dust. But it doesn’t smell like an empty room.”

To be honest, they were a bit disappointed. They had deduced this was where the fire happened and hoped to find additional clues inside.

“This doesn’t feel right,” Xiao Muyu murmured to herself.

“What doesn’t feel right?” Shen Qingqiu glanced around, then looked at the windowsill. She tested the lock on the window and discovered someone had tampered with it. She couldn’t open it.

“There’s no way we’d discover such an important place and find nothing inside,” Xiao Muyu said. She then noticed Shen Qingqiu’s actions, and after a quick look, her eyes darkened.

“If it’s been empty, it must’ve become like that after January. There’s too much dust accumulation for four months.” Not to mention it was a sealed environment until now. Xiao Muyu breathed in and out before carefully sniffing the air again. “I suspect what we’re seeing is a fake crime scene.”

Immediately after she finished her sentence, Shen Qingqiu’s expression shifted drastically. She urgently said, “We need to leave—now!”

She grabbed Xiao Muyu and pushed her toward the door. Outside, Su Jin and Zuo Tiantian panicked upon hearing her warning. They started turning around when a force suddenly shoved them into the room, knocking Xiao Muyu back in.

During the chaos, Xiao Muyu’s gaze happened to land on the doorway. Standing there was the dorm mother, with her head lowered. Slowly, she looked up, revealing a shriveled smile, her face charred black, with no flesh left.

*Bang!* The door slammed shut right before Xiao Muyu’s eyes.