"Anyway, all I wanted to tell you was just that," Gangye Yoshiko suddenly said as she escorted Beichuan Si out of the police station.
"Mhm," Beichuan Si nodded expressionlessly.
Seeing his reaction, Gangye Yoshiko couldn’t help but scratch her head and emphasize again, "Let repeat, Beichuan, I know nothing, and I haven’t told you anything. You got that?"
"Mhm," Beichuan Si nodded unemotionally.
Did this kid understand or not?
Gangye Yoshiko had a headache, and Beichuan Si’s deanor was hardly reassuring.
Just as she was about to speak for the third ti, Beichuan Si looked at her deeply and interrupted, "I get it, you don’t need to emphasize it so many tis."
The disdain in his gaze was clearly visible to Gangye Yoshiko.
"You brat!" Gangye Yoshiko wanted to kick Beichuan Si’s butt, but he dodged as if he had anticipated it.
"Tsk..." Gangye Yoshiko pulled out a cigarette from her bag, lit it for herself, and said, "Anyway, Beichuan, any action you take must prioritize your own safety, got it?"
"I’ll rember that," Beichuan Si extended his hand, and under Gangye Yoshiko’s stunned expression, he took the cigarette from her hand, "You should smoke less, it’s bad for your health."
Beichuan Si extinguished the cigarette, his tone even.
"You little jerk," Gangye Yoshiko half-laughed, half-angered, stretched out her foot again, "Get out of here, poking my eyes."
Beichuan Si didn’t dilly-dally.
He tossed the cigarette butt into the trash can and without looking back, he said, "Then I’ll take my leave."
Gangye Yoshiko restrained her smile and nodded, "Alright, be safe on your way, Beichuan."
Beichuan Si didn’t respond, just waved his hand behind him, indicating he understood.
...
After parting with Gangye Yoshiko, Beichuan Si sat in the car and scrolled through the novel ’Lost Yuchuan’ on his phone.
On the opening page, there was a note left by the author Seto Cheng—
’Tragedy can be called a tragedy because it has not been forgotten.’
The story told of around fifty years ago, in an inconveniently located small village called Yuchuan, was the only primary school around.
Yuchuan Elentary School.
As a state-run school, Yuchuan Elentary had state-of-the-art teaching tools, attracting many students.
After graduating, students from Yuchuan Elentary went on to study in surrounding cities and towns.
Forty years passed by just like that.
During this period, Yuchuan Elentary sent off batch after batch of students, so of whom did well in big cities, returning to Yuchuan to improve roads and help develop transportation in the village.
And this goodwill often marked the beginning of everything tragic.
With the constant developnt of transportation, locals preferred to send their children to larger cities for schooling.
The outdated Yuchuan Elentary’s condition declined.
Outdated educational facilities, insufficient teaching staff, and sowhat unreliable old wooden school buildings—
Eventually, at the request of the locals, Yuchuan Elentary was rightfully closed.
But in this trend, four elentary school students who particularly loved the school would sneak into the abandoned old school building every night to play their usual hide and seek.
Day by day ti passed, and one day, these four kids went missing. They searched everywhere, eventually focusing on Yuchuan Elentary.
But even after scouring the entire abandoned school, they still couldn’t find any trace of the children.
After that, rumors gradually erged about many children disappearing at Yuchuan Elentary.
Upon hearing this, townspeople raised funds to invite esteed monks from well-known temples to perform rites.
But the monks knew that rites couldn’t appease the spirits of these children, so on the day of the ceremony, they chose to seal off the old school.
This resolved the incident, and the area around Yuchuan Elentary was designated as off-limits for young children.
Over ti, the Yuchuan people gradually erased the tragedy from their minds. And the na Yuchuan Elentary seed to have been lost in so forgotten corner of their mory.
Another ten years passed. Because Yuchuan Elentary was located in a remote area and even though transportation had improved, it didn’t attract any major business investnts, leaving the old school building standing to this day.
During these ten years, a group of curious travelers ca to this picturesque small town and unintentionally disturbed the seal.
From the seal, resentnt that had accumulated for ten years seeped out—
Ever since then, anyone who played hide and seek at night in the abandoned school would be enveloped by a thick curse.
The cursed person’s wrist would exhibit purple-blue marks resembling those of a child’s grasp.
The first extended text was about the origin of the curse, enhancing the reader’s imrsion.
But what should have been just an introduction was written ominously and terrifyingly.
Especially certain descriptions were stupefyingly eerie, giving readers chills and igniting their desire to read further.
Yet the following story, using the technique of reverse montage, narrated the various deaths of those four young travelers.
For Beichuan Si, learning about Yuchuan Elentary was sowhat helpful, but not hugely so, as it required careful reading to glean bits of ti, which was indeed very ti-consuming.
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