Card Room

Chapter 26 - Bloody Maple Leaf: Mystery of the Curse

The scene of Ying Xiaoya’s fall was quickly cleaned up and the other classes resumed as normal. The hungry students emerged from the teaching building. They were full of doubts and discussed things in twos and threes.

“What’s going on?”

“Wasn’t it a police car that just left the school? Did the police come here?”

“Is it to do with Class 3? I saw that they were playing on the basketball court and Yu Hui and Xie Xinghe seemed to be fighting.”

“I heard from Class 3 that Yu Hui and Xie Xinghe often quarrel.”

“This month, Xie Xinghe was first in the entire year. I really don’t know what his brain is like.”

“Mathematics is so difficult yet he actually got a full score. In addition, he got 295 for science. He is a monster!”

Maple Forest High School was a walk-in school and the school didn’t have a student cafeteria.

They went to school in the morning until 12 and then classes resumed at 14:30 in the afternoon. The rest time at noon was two and a half hours. Most of the students walked home to eat while some rushed out with their bicycle. Today, the teacher had inexplicably made them stay in the classroom for nearly an hour and the lunch time was very urgent.

In the blink of an eye, the students left the school and the campus became quiet.

Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou were hiding near the school gates and listened to the opinions of the students coming and going. Yu Hui and Xie Xinghe were obviously popular in the school and all the students knew that the relationship between them wasn’t good.

13:30.

Yu Hui, Xie Xinghe and Yi Ru went to the school gate successively.

Xie Xinghe quickly caught up with Yu Hui and said, “The thing with Xiaoya, don’t feel too sad...”

Yu Hui looked back at him with eyes full of blood. “Don’t give me your hypocritical pretence of condolence! If you hadn’t hit me while we were playing then Xiaoya wouldn’t have disappeared under my eyes!”

Xie Xinghe frowned and the hands by his side clenched into fists. “Sorry, I didn’t expect this to happen.”

Yi Ru passed by the two men and turned a blind eye to their quarrel.

It was like the girl had lost her soul. The expression on her face was very sluggish and her walking posture was like a robot without any thinking ability. Yu Hui grabbed her and exclaimed, “Xiaoya left with you. What did you say to her?”

He was now like a mad dog that would bite anyone he saw. Yi Ru was shocked and spoke with a pale face. “She asked me to buy food, nothing else... I don’t know why she would jump off the building and commit suicide. Her expression was normal...”

Yu Hui shouted, “Shut up! She wouldn’t kill herself. There must be a reason. Did you push her down the stairs?”

Yi Ru took a horrified step back. “What are you saying&#k2026;”

“You secretly love Xie Xinghe but Xie Xinghe preferred Xiaoya. Were you jealous of her?”

Xie Xinghe stopped Yu Hui with a calm face. “Enough, stop talking nonsense. The relationship between Yi Ru and Xiaoya is so good, how can you say such things? Take time off this afternoon to calm down your mood before returning to class.”

Yu Hui stared at him red-eyed before turning away.

Xie Xinghe stared at Yi Ru’s upset expression. “You also take leave and have a good rest. I will go and talk to the class teacher.”

Yi Ru nodded. “Thank you Class Monitor...”

The three of them walked out of the school in tandem. Since it was a secret room plot and the challengers’ activity area was limited to the Maple Forest High School, it was impossible to chase them. Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang could only turn around and leave...

During the lunch break, the campus was surprisingly quiet.

There was an hour until the afternoon class. Xiao Lou’s stomach was growling and he suddenly remembered that he hadn’t eaten since coming to the Card World. Last night he had slept on the stairs and now he was really tired and hungry.

Seeing Yu Hanjiang frown and fall into thought, Xiao Lou couldn’t help reminding him, “Group Leader Yu, do you want to eat something first? This case won’t end today and if we don’t eat, we won’t have the strength to collect evidence at night.”

Yu Hanjiang nodded and walked to the snack counter with Xiao Lou.

They couldn’t leave school and the gold coins earned in the Clubs room could only be used at the snack counter.

The owner of the snack counter was a middle-aged woman. She saw two strange faces and was curious. Xiao Lou calmly smiled at Yu Hanjiang and asked, “Teacher Yu, what do you want to eat?”

Yu Hanjiang reached out and took a bag of instant noodles, two sausages and two marinated eggs from the shelf and placed them on the table. “It is enough for me to eat these.”

Xiao Lou who only took a packet of instant noodles, “...”

Group Leader Yu was close to 1.9 metres tall and he had a high physical fitness. It was normal for him to eat a large amount of food.

The things in the snack counter were so expensive that this added up to 1,400 gold coins.

Xiao Lou felt some pain as he pulled out two 1,000 gold coins from his pocket and asked while paying, “Do you have hot water? Can you give us some?”

The store owner said, “Yes, please wait a minute.”

She took a hot water kettle and soaked the noodles for the two people while giving Xiao Lou 600 gold coins change.

Yu Hanjiang suddenly asked, “Boss, do you have a flashlight?”

“Yes, it is 300 gold coins.”

Yu Hanjiang glanced at Xiao Lou. “Is it better to use the change to buy two flashlights?”

At present, Xiao Lou was in charge of the money. If Yu Hanjiang wanted to buy something then he would have to ask Xiao Lou first. Buying a flashlight was naturally to make it more convenient to search at night. Xiao Lou handed back the 600 gold coins that the store owner had given him and smiled. “Give us two flashlights.”

There were only 17 gold coins in his pocket and two were used for lunch. How could they live in the future?”

After pouring the hot water, the two men headed to the maple forest side to sit down and talk while eating.

Xiao Lou had a headache. “The prices in the Card World is really high. 2,000 gold coins were used to buy this type of thing. It feels like 20 yuan in the real world. We only have 15 gold coins left and we need to leave some for the future.

Yu Hanjiang looked at Xiao Lou earnestly calculating the accounts and agreed, “Yes, let’s save some.” Then he looked at the unsealed ham and eggs in his hands and placed them in Xiao Lou’s bowl. “You also eat more.”

Xiao Lou didn’t know if he should laugh or cry.

He usually ate in the school’s staff cafeteria or went home to cook for himself. In the real world, he never ate foods such as fried food. Now this was a luxury for both of them. It would be miserable to eat a few more meals.

Xiao Lou was silent for a moment before speaking emotionally, “I will earn more money in the Clubs room later.”

Yu Hanjiang, “...Yes.”

The two poor people silently bowed their heads to eat the instant noodles.

***

At 14:00 p.m. the two people got up and returned to the teaching building.

The students returned to school and Maple Forest High School returned to its normal order.

As the school bell rang, the teachers headed to their classes through the air corridor. Only Class 3 was shrouded in a sullen atmosphere. Yu Hui and Yi Ru’s seats were empty while Class Monitor Xie Xinghe was still in the classroom.

The afternoon curriculum was language, biology and mathematics but the language teacher obviously wasn’t in the mood for class. He stood at the podium, kneading his head in a tired manner. “This class is self-study.”

Below him, the students quietly read at first. Then they found the teacher didn’t care about them and several girls in the back row started to secretly pass papers among themselves.

It was unknown what was written on the note but they looked terrified when they accidentally threw it to the ground and alerted the class teacher on the podium.

The teacher frowned and picked up the note. He glanced at it and his expression changed sharply. “Don’t believe in this type of nonsense! What departed spirit demanding vengeance or ghosts are floating around? The people who are talking nonsense, give me 10 laps around the playground!”

The several girls paled with fright and bowed their heads to reduce their sense of existence.

The class teacher walked out of the classroom, crumpled up the note and threw it into the trash can in the hallway.

Yu Hanjiang quickly picked up the note, walked around the corner and looked at it with Xiao Lou.

A few lines were scrawled on the note.

“Do you think Ying Xiaoya jumped because of the curse?”

“It is possible since the location of our school is a place where many people died. It is said that some students heard strange crying when they passed the school in the middle of the night!”

“Last week after the exam, I came home late and saw a ghost in the maple forest. I was scared to death!”

“Is it a departed spirit demanding vengeance?”

“It is said that you will be cursed on your 18th birthday. In the year when Maple Forest High School was built, didn’t a girl jump off the building on her 18th birthday? Ying Xiaoya was 18...”

“I heard that people went missing in the past few years!”

“Is a wronged ghost wandering our school?”

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang glanced at each other.

Curse, this key word had finally appeared.