Chapter 004: The Death Trap

There was no doubt that the homeroom teacher’s death was only the beginning; Du Jiang’s game of vengeance would continue, and who knew what more depraved and terrifying things would come next. I knew Du Jiang could see everything happening here; he was hiding in some corner, watching our every move.

I shouted at the red cigarette box, “Du Jiang! Let this end here! Mr. Cao has already received his punishment! It’s not too late to turn back—don’t make more mistakes! No one else has to die!”

The speaker on the red cigarette box didn’t reply. Instead, it beeped twice, and then the iron kitchen door slid open on both sides with a metallic scrape, revealing another dim, sinister corridor before me.

Du Jiang had answered with this door—he wanted me to continue witnessing his next round of ten tortures.

Standing at the iron door, I felt a surge of complicated emotions. It seemed Du Jiang was absolutely determined to take revenge on these people. If it were just simple revenge, I could understand, but why did he emphasize four lives?

Could this be about the accident two years ago…

I thought back to an incident at school two years ago, during the summer before my senior year. Our class’s girls had used an electric kettle in violation of the rules, which led to a fire. It broke out in the middle of the night, flames raging, smoke billowing. By the time the fire was extinguished, four girls who’d been sleeping inside had all perished—exactly four lives lost.

If that was the incident, and if Cao Baoyang had mentioned a four-hundred-thousand yuan kickback, could there have been some dark secret behind that fire?

Full of doubts, I walked out of the kitchen, the floor still awash with blood. Before leaving, I closed Cao Baoyang’s eyes and grabbed a few handy tools from the auto repair room. I had a premonition that more people would die, and that what awaited me would be scenes of even greater horror and cruelty.

On the glass of the opposite cabin, I saw the words “Food Storage.” This was the storage room connected to the kitchen, meant for keeping ingredients. Behind the glass window, everything was pitch black, but I could faintly hear a buzzing, electric hum inside, sending a chill through my heart.

The iron door to the cabin was half open, a fist-sized gap showing. I peered in and deliberately coughed twice.

The electric hum inside was sharp and grating; the air was thick with a dry, fishy stench, like rotten seafood. On either side of the wall stood two large refrigerators, both covered with black cloth. The electrical noise was coming from these refrigerators.

I had a vague idea of what was going on. The space in the food storage wasn’t large, and the main objects were the two big refrigerators, which were especially suspicious because of those black covers—clearly, something was hidden beneath them.

I found the cabin’s light switch, and several fluorescent lights flickered on in succession, illuminating the entire food storage, every detail laid bare.

The setup here was much like the kitchen: a central aisle with open space on both sides. The two upright refrigerators stood opposite each other, their black covers conspicuous—at first glance, they looked like mourning banners at a funeral.

I watched for a while, then prepared to lift the black veil on the southern side. After what happened with the homeroom teacher, I was sure these refrigerators were anything but ordinary.

With a muffled pop, the cover came off, and despite bracing myself for the unexpected, I was still stunned.

What met my eyes wasn’t the inside of a refrigerator, but a transparent box about the size of a fridge—reinforced glass on all sides, rectangular, light shining through from every angle.

Inside the glass box lay a woman, dressed in a red dress, her back half exposed. Her figure was alluring, her face lovely. She was none other than the belle of our class, Gu Meijuan.

Gu Meijuan was unconscious at the center of the box, her body curled up, long hair disheveled, forehead slick with sweat. Whether it was her makeup or the fluorescent angle, her face looked ghostly pale. Most conspicuous on her neck was a red cigarette box speaker, exactly like the one on the homeroom teacher.

I then yanked off the black cloth on the other side—another gigantic transparent box. Inside, a short-haired woman, also my classmate, Xu Meijing.

Xu Meijing had arrived in a smart black business suit; now only a pale striped shirt remained. She was lying half-sideways against the glass, a red cigarette box on her neck as well. The two women faced each other through the glass.

Looking closely, there were differences between the two boxes. Gu Meijuan’s was completely sealed, with a steel pipe-like cable attached to the glass base. Xu Meijing’s box had a fist-sized opening at the top, connected to a thick water pipe.

Each box covered about a square meter. The fluorescent light refracted through the glass, making the two women the sole focus of the cabin, every move clearly visible.

What twisted game was this? What did Du Jiang intend for these two female classmates?

I knew Gu Meijuan was now a model in Beijing—she’d been the dream girl for many boys in our class, and now, with her fashionable looks and striking beauty, she was the kind of woman who could stir anyone’s imagination.

Xu Meijing sold health products locally, with delicate features and a strong-willed personality. Both were among the class’s most attractive women. What had they done to offend Du Jiang, and what punishment would he give them?

I knocked twice on the reinforced glass. Gu Meijuan’s long lashes fluttered, and as she realized her predicament, she snapped to consciousness.

“What is this damned place? How did I get here? Who did this? Let me out! Let me out!”

She started to pound and kick at the glass. I knew she’d never be able to break it—it was high-strength, dozens of centimeters thick. Not only was it impossible for her to smash it, even a sledgehammer wouldn’t get through. Even if she managed to shatter it, the box would remain airtight, not a drop of water or breath of air escaping.

Gu Meijuan soon noticed me. “Zheng Yan! Why are you here? Tell me what on earth is happening!”

Her cries roused Xu Meijing, who stood up, rubbing her head. She reached out and touched the glass, then recoiled in terror. “Why are we locked up? Weren’t we just at the class reunion? Can someone tell me what’s going on?”

I explained that it was too complicated to summarize in a few words, but that this was Du Jiang’s method of revenge.

“I don’t care what revenge this is—get Du Jiang here right now! I’m done with your game! I have a shoot tomorrow—if I miss it, which of you is taking responsibility?”

Clearly, Gu Meijuan hadn’t grasped the gravity of the situation. If she’d seen what was left of the homeroom teacher, she wouldn’t be worrying about her schedule.

“I don’t care for any of your games either! Let us out now, or you’ll regret it!”

Their complaints echoed like crashing waves in my ears, making my head throb. I cut them off sharply. “If you don’t want to die, shut up!”

Both women fell silent, staring at me in terror. I pointed to the cabin ahead. “Cao Baoyang is in there. He’s dead, his body left in pieces on the worktable. I’ll say it again: this is no game—it’s deadly serious.”

I gave them a detailed account of everything that had happened to Du Jiang, the teacher’s punishment, and the human meat grinder.

By the time I finished, Gu Meijuan was trembling all over, her courage drained away. “Zheng Yan? Is all this true? Du Jiang wants to kill us? He wants to kill everyone who ever wronged him?”

Xu Meijing was just as frightened. “Zheng Yan! I swear I’ve never done anything to Du Jiang—his injury, his illness, none of that has anything to do with me! Please tell him to let me go, I’m innocent!”

I told them plainly that no one wanted to die here, but Du Jiang was determined to destroy them. No one could save them now—the only ones who could save them were themselves. “See the red cigarette box in front of you? That’s Du Jiang’s communicator, and it holds the key to your fate. Before it gives any instructions, confess all your secrets. Leave nothing out, or you’ll end up like the homeroom teacher.”