Chapter 690: Bad Kids' Journey

Two days later, my desk mate’s punishment of standing was finally over, and he could sit and attend class like the other students.

I thought I would feel a bit better seeing him sit through class, but I didn’t.

It’s really strange to do something bad—you’re unhappy before doing it, unhappy while doing it, and still unhappy after it’s done.

So why are there so many bad people in the world?

I was terrified that they would find out I was the one who did it, and that I might end up in prison later.

I spent a long time in that anxious state, and it wasn’t until the second class in the afternoon that the entire room suddenly started shaking.

The homeroom teacher, who was in the middle of lecturing, let out a piercing scream as the room began to shake, her face turning bright red. A few seconds later, she abandoned us and fled the classroom as if her life depended on it.

She stumbled every few steps, running and crawling, like she was being chased by a man-eating tiger.

Seeing her panicked figure, the students just sat there in the shaking room, exchanging confused glances.

The teacher had said that if anyone left the classroom without her permission during class, everyone would get zero points on the Pinyin questions in the exams.

But what were we supposed to do now?

I kept my hands behind my back and sat perfectly still in my chair. Maybe if I waited until the room stopped shaking and the teacher came back, she’d see me sitting straighter than the other kids and call me a "good child."

But by the time cracks appeared in the walls and the ceiling fan started falling, the teacher still hadn’t returned.

The spinning ceiling fan began crashing down on the students one by one. I watched as the people in the first row were pinned underneath, screaming in agony with blood pouring from their bodies.

Only then did people finally start to stand up, realizing something was terribly wrong.

"Zheng Yingxiong!"

My desk mate grabbed me. "Run! The classroom is going to collapse!"

"No... I can't..." I kept my hands clasped behind my back. "The teacher said..."

"Damn it! Who cares about the teacher!" He yanked me to my feet. "Zheng Yingxiong! This is an earthquake—run or you're going to die!"

But I couldn’t bring myself to trust him. He was a bad kid, or at least that’s what the other students said—he was from somewhere else, and his clothes were always dirty...

As I hesitated, the fan above our heads finally gave way. With a loud crash, it fell, spinning as it dropped, looking terrifying.

At the critical moment, he shoved me hard, pushing me to the ground. I felt a rush of heat on my face, like something had splashed onto me.

I was stunned for a few seconds, then quickly got up to check on my desk mate. I saw that one of the fan blades was lodged in his chest.

He was slumped in his chair, twitching uncontrollably, blood spurting from his mouth.

"Xu Jiahua..." I choked up as I approached and shook him. "Xu Jiahua..."

But I didn’t know what to say.

"Zheng Yingxiong... run... get out..." He pushed me away with his dirty hands, but every word he spoke brought more blood 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 told you I'd look out for you... go..."

But I really wanted to apologize to him. If I didn’t do it now, I might never get the chance.

"The meal ticket—I stole it, Xu Jiahua. I framed you..." I cried as I said it. "Please don't die..."

"I know... I know..." He reached out and patted me, but he was sweating profusely from the pain. "It's okay, Zheng Yingxiong... just go..."

But even as the ceiling completely caved in and the entire school building buried everyone underneath, I still didn’t understand what Xu Jiahua meant by “I know” and “it’s okay.”

Was it because he was in too much pain to hear me?

Or because he was about to die and was confused?

It was me who set him up—I was the one who put the meal ticket in his desk compartment.

I was the one who got him punished for two days.

But he wasn’t angry; he just kept telling me to run.

Where was I supposed to run to, though...?

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

If I had to run somewhere... could I run back to my childhood?

I've done so many things in the past that made my parents angry. I wanted to go back to my childhood and start over—this time, I wanted to be a good child.

Later, I learned that something like an “earthquake” doesn’t let anyone escape.

No matter if I ran to the street, under the streetlight, or into a room full of debris, I could never truly escape.

When I woke up again, I was hanging from the ceiling of a dark room along with eight other people. Our hands were bound with ropes like elastic bands, swinging like roasted ducks.

What was going on?

Three strange figures stood in the room: one wearing a rabbit head mask, one a tiger head mask, and one a dog head mask.

Behind them was a large machine with a screen showing a ten-minute countdown.

"Good morning, all nine of you." The man in the rabbit head mask spoke. "I'm glad to meet you here. You've been asleep in front of us for twelve hours."

Was this prison?

Because I lied, stole, and hurt someone, I was caught and brought to prison!

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

I’d get beaten for sure.

The smell in prison was overwhelming... From the moment I opened my eyes, I’d been hit with this strange, foul odor.

I'd never smelled anything like it before—no, actually, it was like my nose had suddenly become much more sensitive.

The other adults seemed to say a lot, but I was too scared to remember any of it.

"Now, we need to play a game with you." The rabbit head man continued. "The ropes binding your arms are specially made. If you use enough force or rub them with your nails, you can break free from them. Once anyone escapes, the countdown behind me will start, giving you ten minutes total to find a way to get the key to this room."

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

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

I looked at the other people hanging in the air with me and noticed that besides one young sister, the rest seemed quite old—mostly uncles and aunts.

"The key is in the well." The rabbit head man walked to a corner and pointed. That’s when I saw the round hole there.

"You can send someone down to retrieve it," he said. "Go down five meters and you'll get five gas masks. Go down ten meters and you'll get the escape key. It's up to you how you survive this."