Chapter 24: The Rescue

“I never expected Wang Jiansi and Chen Siyu would join forces.” Zhang Xiaofan walked along the path behind the school, suddenly halting. “No, they’re prepared; if I go in alone, it’s suicide. But I can’t ask for help either... otherwise Lin Rou would be in danger.”

As Zhang Xiaofan pondered, he glanced around. It was already quite dark; the rear mountain was heavy with gloomy air. He’d heard stories about ghosts haunting this place. Suddenly, inspiration struck him—he had a plan.

There was only a small grove on the mountain. When Zhang Xiaofan entered, he saw Lin Rou tied to a tree, a dirty rag stuffed in her mouth.

Beside her, Chen Siyu and her boyfriend Mao Dabing stood together. Behind Wang Jiansi was a bald thug, clearly an outsider.

“You two are insane! All just to beat me, and you resort to such despicable tactics?” Zhang Xiaofan shouted.

“Hmph, so you do like Lin Rou after all,” Wang Jiansi sneered.

Mao Dabing yelled, “Enough talk! Let Siyu and Wang Jiansi win three rounds, and we’ll let Lin Rou go.”

Zhang Xiaofan glared at the four, fists clenched.

The bald man waved a small knife near Lin Rou’s face, coldly threatening Zhang Xiaofan, “Kid, decide within three minutes, or your little girlfriend’s face will be covered in scratches.”

“Fine, I’ll let you win.” Zhang Xiaofan had no choice but to approach, stopping about a meter from them.

“I’ll throw ‘rock,’ you throw ‘scissors’—understand?” Wang Jiansi said with a cold grin.

Zhang Xiaofan nodded and threw his hand.

Wang Jiansi threw ‘rock.’ But Zhang Xiaofan... threw ‘paper.’

Wang Jiansi’s face instantly changed. He roared, “You’re messing with me! Brother, do it!”

Unexpectedly, just then, the bald man seemed to see something terrifying. He stared in horror—right in front of him, a woman with half her face rotten gazed at him, paralyzing him with fear.

Wang Jiansi looked back, cursing, “Brother, what’s wrong?”

Before he could respond, Zhang Xiaofan launched a powerful kick—thanks to training with Zhou Jian, his strength was immense—sending Wang Jiansi flying, crashing into Mao Dabing. The two tumbled to the ground.

Taking advantage of the bald man’s terror, Zhang Xiaofan slashed through Lin Rou’s ropes, shouting, “Lin Rou, go now!”

“But—”

“Go!” Zhang Xiaofan barked, then addressed the ghostly woman, “Please take her down the mountain. Later, I’ll help you find peace.”

The female ghost nodded vacantly. Zhang Xiaofan had met her just earlier, wandering as a restless soul for years, and finally someone promised to help her move on—of course she agreed.

Lin Rou quickly left. The bald man slowly recovered, but Zhang Xiaofan was ready—he stabbed him with the folding knife.

Killing was illegal, but since joining that red envelope group, death had become routine for Zhang Xiaofan—he felt nothing.

After two quick stabs, he turned his gaze to Wang Jiansi and the others.

“Don’t kill us! If you do, you’ll die too, right? You have to beat us to survive!” Wang Jiansi, his bulky body, crawled backward in fear.

Chen Siyu and Mao Dabing clung to each other, shocked by Zhang Xiaofan’s ruthlessness—he’d killed right before their eyes.

“Xiaofan, we were wrong, please spare us,” Mao Dabing sobbed, begging.

Chen Siyu pleaded in terror, “Don’t kill us! If you do, there’ll be no one left to play with you. Will you compete against your own friends?”

Zhang Xiaofan smirked coldly. “Fine, here’s the deal—each of you lose twice to me, and I’ll let you go.”

Wang Jiansi shook his head. “No, if we do that, we’ll die anyway.”

“In that case, don’t blame me.”

Suddenly, Zhang Xiaofan lunged, stabbing Mao Dabing, who collapsed clutching his chest. Chen Siyu screamed, paralyzed with fright.

Wang Jiansi tried to run, but Zhang Xiaofan quickly caught him, stabbing his thigh and pinning him to the ground, forcing him to throw his hand.

Inside, Zhang Xiaofan felt icy cold. Though they were classmates, their actions had crossed the line. Since they had no mercy, neither would he.

After forcing Wang Jiansi to play, Zhang Xiaofan threw ‘paper’ three times, winning each round. A notification appeared—he’d won. Blood streamed from Wang Jiansi’s neck.

Chen Siyu trembled, staring at Zhang Xiaofan. Her boyfriend had stopped breathing.

Zhang Xiaofan sighed. He knew the couple were always close. If they’d graduated smoothly, they would surely have married, inviting their whole class to the wedding.

But the red envelope group had changed everyone’s fate.

“Chen Siyu, you have two choices. One, lose to me and die—I’ll bury you next to your boyfriend. The other, I force you to lose like Wang Jiansi, then you die, but I won’t bury you together.”

Chen Siyu shuddered. Holding Mao Dabing’s lifeless body, she cried, “I’ll lose to you...”

She willingly lost four rounds to Zhang Xiaofan before dying.

With Wang Jiansi’s three losses and Liu Kaijian’s earlier loss, Zhang Xiaofan earned a total of 400 ghost coins.

Altogether, he now had 919 ghost coins.

He took a deep breath. For now, he had the most red envelope coins in the class. When he returned, he could safely lose once each to Lin Rou and Hu Xiaotian.

As promised, he buried Chen Siyu and Mao Dabing together. As for Wang Jiansi and the bald thug, Zhang Xiaofan left them—experience had taught him that the police and doctors would soon arrive for the bodies.

Leaving the grove, Zhang Xiaofan found Lin Rou anxiously waiting. Soon after, Jiang Jiewei and Hu Xiaotian hurried over.

“I was worried, so I called them,” Lin Rou explained.

“Xiaofan, you didn’t tell us anything!” Hu Xiaotian shouted from afar.

When they arrived, Zhang Xiaofan gave a brief account—not mentioning the killings, but saying he’d solved the problem through the game. As for Chen Siyu’s boyfriend, he claimed it was a suicide in grief.

Everyone listened with sighs.

“All right, Xiaotian, Lin Rou, let’s each play a round. Then we’ll all get through the game,” Zhang Xiaofan said.

The two nodded excitedly; this stage was cleared.

Descending the mountain late at night, Hu Xiaotian and Jiang Jiewei joked that Zhang Xiaofan should escort Lin Rou home.

Zhang Xiaofan readily agreed; after all, being alone with a beautiful girl made him a little excited.

As they walked, Lin Rou’s cheeks were as red as a persimmon. She whispered, “Xiaofan, why did you save me like that? Weren’t you afraid they’d catch you?”

The fight had happened so fast, Lin Rou hadn’t even noticed how Zhang Xiaofan succeeded. By the time she realized, he had already defeated them all. Now, she worshipped Zhang Xiaofan with awe.