Chapter 91: The Frightening Campus, Sunshine Doll (29)

“Why, hesitating?”

Zi Yushu watched Tang Mu with a smile that was not quite a smile.

If this had been before, little Tang Mu might have been charmed by that roguishly wicked air of his. But now... damn it, why wasn’t he dead yet? What a disgusting creep.

Tang Mu still remembered the role she was playing, so she kept up her pitiful, delicate act and asked Zi Yushu for advice.

“What card should I play?” she murmured in a soft, sticky voice, so faint it was like the whine of a mosquito, making people itch with discomfort. “You’ve been following right behind me all this time. What if you want to kill me?”

“Hm...” That did put Zi Yushu in a spot.

He glanced at the cards in his hand.

Truth be told, he had also considered killing Tang Mu just now. Unfortunately, just as Tang Mu did not have the number 1 card, he also happened not to have the number 3.

What he did have were the number 1, 2, 9, 8, 7, and 6 cards.

9 + 8 + 7 + 6 + 1 + 2 = 33

21 x 2 = 42

42 - 33 = 9

So he too needed to move forward nine spaces from his current position.

“I’m not going to kill you,” Zi Yushu lied without so much as a blink. “You’re so beautiful, so delicate and endearing. Who would ever bear to lay a hand on you?”

But in his heart, he was thinking this: when it did not concern his own life, of course he could pity Tang Mu. But once it came down to his own survival, ha, what was a beauty worth then?

“Still, Miss Tang Mu, whether you play the card to kill Zhu Zhiming or the one to kill Yi Hongbo, you’ll lose a life either way. If you play a 9, moving from 4 to 13, then you have to gamble that Zhu Zhiming, standing on 11, does not have a 2. And if you play a 7, moving from 4 to 11, then you may be killed by me, because you can’t gamble on whether I have an 8.”

He pointed to his own position on the third square.

With fake sincerity, he urged Tang Mu to think it through carefully and not act on a whim. Otherwise, not only would she waste one of her lives, she would also have to experience death for nothing. For someone as lovely as a blossom in full bloom, how cruel that would be.

Zi Yushu almost instinctively believed that a girl like Tang Mu, outwardly so fragile and pitiful, must fear pain. So she would surely make the safest move, determined not to die even once.

Perhaps she would gamble that he would go easy on her.

Thus Zi Yushu figured the most likely choice Tang Mu would make was to move from 4 to 11 with a 7.

Then he would respond with an 8.

At that thought, a strange curve lifted the corner of Zi Yushu’s mouth.

Watching beautiful things be destroyed by his own hand was truly a most satisfying kind of triumph. His life had not been a happy one, and so he could not abide those snow-white flakes of innocence in winter. Merely looking at their pure, naive appearance was enough to make him want to crush them ruthlessly.

And yet Tang Mu played a swap card.

“I don’t have a 9,” Tang Mu said. “And I don’t want to kill anyone anymore. So, Yi Hongbo, I’m sorry.”

That play left both Zhu Zhiming and Yi Hongbo a little stunned.

“Even if you don’t have a 9, that doesn’t mean you don’t have a 7,” the onlookers below all signaled to Tang Mu, thinking her play was far too conservative.

“Why not kill anyone?” The spectators declared that this round was exhausting and utterly lacking in excitement.

You don’t kill me, I don’t kill you.

It made the whole match feel really dull.

“Hmph. If you won’t kill anyone, then don’t blame others when they strike back,” Zhu Zhiming, standing on square 11, declared that when his turn came, he would definitely play a 2 and kill Tang Mu!

Tang Mu, however, looked entirely unconcerned.

After all, she had two lives.

And as long as no one else swapped her cards, she would surely win this round.

Now it was Zi Yushu’s turn.

Seeing that Tang Mu had used a swap card, Zi Yushu frowned deeply.

“You’re awfully guarded. You’d rather play a swap card than leave yourself open to my attack? But no matter what you play, you’ll still be hunted down. Either by me or by Zhu Zhiming. So why not trust me just once?”

Zi Yushu looked genuinely regretful at having missed the chance to kill Tang Mu with his own hands.

On the surface, he truly wore an expression of extreme annoyance.

Hmph.

Keep pretending. Go on pretending.

Tang Mu could not be bothered to entertain Zi Yushu’s false benevolence.

“Just play,” Tang Mu said. “The people below are already getting impatient.”

“8.”

Zi Yushu indeed played an 8 and attacked Zhu Zhiming on square 11!

The stone pressing on Tang Mu’s heart suddenly dropped away.

After all, in the first two rounds, Zi Yushu had only played the number 1 and 2 cards.

If he did not attack now, how would he ever get through all ten cards?

It seemed she had gambled correctly this round.

Zhu Zhiming was furious.

He glared at Zi Yushu and angrily demanded why he had chosen to target him.

“Zi Yushu! Why the hell are you killing me? Wouldn’t it be better to keep me alive? If you keep me, then I can kill Tang Mu!”

“Do you need a reason to kill someone?” Zi Yushu said, utterly speechless. “Brother, you know full well I only have this many cards. If I don’t use them quickly, then what good are two lives? Isn’t it still death in the end?”

“So, for the sake of everyone else’s precious lives, I can only allow you to die a little early.”

The smile at Zi Yushu’s lips was calm, cruel, and strangely beautiful. It was violence as art.

“Oh, you interrupted me, and I nearly forgot to play my attack card. Here, have a pot of boiling oil. Don’t be too grateful.”

Zhu Zhiming: “...”

Before Zhu Zhiming could even struggle, he was dragged by a bizarre force into a huge pot full of scalding hot oil.

“Aaaaaah!”

The oil was boiling hot.

It splashed everywhere.

Only when the thing in the pot had been thoroughly cooked did Zhu Zhiming and the filthy oil pot vanish completely before everyone’s eyes.

“Nice, nice!”

The onlookers’ eyes were already changing. Their gaze was no longer that of simple children. It had become frenzied and savage, cheering for other people’s deaths and crying out over the sight of their suffering wounds.

Jing You looked down at the crowd beneath her, sorrow in her eyes.

She really did not like the way her classmates were acting.

Why couldn’t everyone be a little more peaceful and friendly? Why did they have to make it so absolutely life or death?

Couldn’t people simply live happily together?

Why did they have to take joy in other people’s wounds and flaws?

But even if she felt sadness in her heart, she still had to follow the rules of the game and continue playing.

She looked at the cards in her hand.

There were not many high cards left. If she played another high card this round, she would skip over 21 and circle back to 3. But if she did not play a high card, she would be killed by someone else, such as Tang Mu, who was now on square 13.

Jing You took a deep breath.

She did not want to kill anyone. But she also did not want to be killed.

So in the end, she played a high card.

“7.”

Jing You moved from 17 by 7, passed 21, and landed back on 3.

In this round, Jing You was the only one to return once more to the starting point.