Global Collapse

Chapter 378 Is it a coincidence?

"Sigh..." Just then, Gu Mian heard Guo Jimei's voice from behind.

Guo Jimei was seen with a strange expression, reaching out to touch the ground next to her buttocks, as if she had been poked by something.

"What's wrong?" Coco, who had been keeping her eyes closed, opened them and looked at her.

Guo Jimei's expression quickly returned to normal: "It's nothing, I just twisted my ankle by accident."

"Oh." Coco nodded hesitantly, then leaned against the wall and closed her eyes.

Just then, Pan Yue, who was standing at the door, seemed to be attracted by Guo Jimei's voice. She turned her head in this direction, and then, as if she suddenly remembered something, she walked over.

There was no other way but to temporarily suspend his conversation with Chu Changge.

“By the way,” Pan Yue walked up to them in a few steps and looked at Chu Changge, “Chu Meiren, you still haven’t explained why you voted for Yuan Qinghua just now.”

Chu Changge didn't hesitate either; he reached out and handed a yellowed photograph to Pan Yue.

Gu Mian recognized it as the one Chu Changge had found in the school's underground area; it contained twelve people, six men and six women.

Chu Changge spoke calmly: "Look at this photo, the ratio of men to women and the number of people are very similar to ours, but there is a faceless woman mixed in."

Pan Yue reached out and took the photo; old, moldy things always evoked a strange sense of dread.

Like a cupboard that has been sitting in a basement for years, whenever you get close, the dusty window seems to reflect the image of a second person.

Pan Yue felt a little scared just looking at the color tone of this old photo.

Upon closer inspection, she saw that the photo contained six men and six women, none of whom she recognized.

One girl didn't even have a face; she seemed to have melted into the darkness.

"What is this?" Pan Yue asked with a strange expression.

Chu Changge replied, "The photos we found tonight, as I just mentioned, are very similar to our current situation in terms of both the number of people and the male-to-female ratio. The woman without a face is the most suspicious."

Chu Changge paused for a moment at this point: "Look closely at this faceless person. Her figure is completely different from Lin Qi's. Instead, she looks somewhat like Yuan Qinghua."

Upon hearing this, Gu Mian looked at Yuan Qinghua, who was already sitting on the ground not far away.

She had her eyes closed, seemingly unaware that she had become the target of someone else's accusations.

"Furthermore, Gu Mian previously mentioned that there's a ghost between Yuan Qinghua and Guo Jimei, which can be seen from the voting papers they used..."

“That’s right,” Gu Mian nodded slightly. “Yuan Qinghua and Guo Jimei were in the same dormitory. According to them, during the first round of voting, they both saw a ballot sheet appear next to them, and neither of them voted.”

"But Guo Jiming's ballot paper mysteriously disappeared. It couldn't be found at all, leaving no trace, as if it had never existed."

"So I think there was never actually a ballot paper; remember Li Wentao got an extra vote in the first round? I guess one of them was a ghost who was with us during the first round of voting. That ghost voted for Li Wentao verbally; while the other one was sleeping in the dormitory. Only that person had a ballot paper."

Upon hearing this, Pan Yue frowned: "You mean..."

As she said this, she glanced guiltily in Guo Jimei's direction, then lowered her voice and said, "...Guo Jimei is that ghost?"

It is a certainty that Guo Jimei failed to produce a ballot during the day today.

“Not necessarily,” Gu Mian shook her head. “There’s only a piece of paper between the two of them, which could be stolen by theft or other means. That’s why I said the ghost is between the two of them.”

Chu Changge pushed up his glasses: "Moreover, Pan Yue, you also saw Li Wentao who seemed to be a ghost yesterday, but it turns out that Li Wentao is not a ghost, so I think the video you gave me about Lin Qi is unreliable."

"By the way," he said, looking up at Pan Yue, "besides the last part, did you watch any other time slots?"

Hearing this, Pan Yue felt a chill run down her spine.

She saw it, and even caught a glimpse of a face behind the classroom door after Yue Nu put her phone away.

That face was right in front of me.

“No…no,” Pan Yue said, taking a few steps back with that face still on her face. “I went straight to the end and saw Yue Nu being killed…and then I rushed here. Now Guo Jimei smashed my phone, so I can’t watch anything ahead anymore.”

"It's alright." A voice suddenly interrupted at that moment.

Gu Mian turned her head and saw Coco, who had already come to her side: "As long as we have the memory card, we can leave school together tomorrow and go to the mobile phone street to see if we can fix the phone, or we can just read the memory card." "Yeah...right," Pan Yue nodded hurriedly, "We'll leave school tomorrow and take a look...and look for clues in this photo. I don't think this faceless girl looks like Lin Qi. Maybe we can find some clues by looking at the twelve people in this photo."

Because if they didn't start with this photo, they wouldn't have any other clues worth searching for.

Gu Mian reached out and took the photo, flipping it over and turning the back to face Pan Yue: "It has a date, June 12, 2013, a photo from six years ago. I think it will be difficult to find clues."

Just then, Yuan Qinghua, who had been keeping her eyes closed on the other side, suddenly seemed to sense something and leaned over: "Let me see..."

As she spoke, she leaned over to look at the photo, then exclaimed in surprise, "Huh?"

"You know him?" Gu Mian looked at Yuan Qinghua.

Yuan Qinghua immediately shook her head: "I don't recognize it, but I think I've seen this photo in the homeroom teacher's office... He has a photo album with group photos of senior students, and it seems there's a photo that looks the same in it."

Upon hearing this, Pan Yue's eyes widened: "Then do you know who the people inside are?"

Yuan Qinghua shook her head with some difficulty: "I don't know... but since he was a student taught by the homeroom teacher in 2013, there might be a record in his office, right? Why don't we go and take a look now?"

"Can you come in? The office is locked at night." Pan Yue frowned.

“I’m the class monitor,” Yuan Qinghua said matter-of-factly. “I have the key.”

As expected of the squad leader.

She led the entire team down a path of petty theft.

If Yuan Qinghua's homeroom teacher knew she would do something like this in the middle of the night, he probably wouldn't give her the key even if he swallowed it.

This class monitor was not only a petty thief, but also incredibly ruthless when it came to tearing up files.

It was as if a primary school student who had received compulsory education for many years had just graduated and then bravely tore up all his books.

Gu Mian and her classmates found the class files from 2013 in no time and stole them back to the classroom. The class monitor was holding the thick file and tore it open along the spine, dividing it into three parts.

She gave a reasonable explanation for tearing up the homeroom teacher's file: "We're going to vote in less than 24 hours. There's definitely not enough time to investigate these people together, so it's better to split up."

Others agreed with this statement.

Pan Yue nodded: "Tomorrow we'll investigate based on these students' addresses. Anyway, ghosts can't kill people before 8 PM..."

Today you throw out a ghost, tomorrow you'll have a new target.

The atmosphere inside the room finally warmed up a bit, except for Li Yibai, who remained squatting motionless in place.

In fact, Gu Mian greatly admired Li Yibai.

Because Li Yibai maintained this posture until the sunlight shone into the classroom the next day.

Even Gu Mian, who had slept for several hours, still saw Li Yibai squatting there motionless when she opened her eyes.

Letting Gu Mian stay like this definitely won't work; she might even develop a herniated disc.

Since we're splitting up, there will inevitably be groups, but today's grouping is quite strange...

Coco volunteered to be in a group with Li Yibai.

Chu Changge's motivation for being in the same group as Yuan Qinghua is unknown.

Guo Jimei and Pan Yue then freely paired up as a group.

Gu Mian was left all alone.

Gu Mian: "..."

Seeing this, Pan Yue said, "Just find any group to follow."

Therefore, Gu Mian chose to form a group by herself.

(End of this chapter)