Fear of food

Chapter 89 A Perfunctory Holiday Notice
Hearing the four footsteps, Chen Qi felt a chill run down his spine.

So the person who was just following him wasn't his teammate?

When exactly did my teammates go missing?

There was also someone grabbing his clothes... Chen Qi reached behind him to touch the hem of his clothes that was being grabbed.

Instead, I touched a small, icy-cold hand covered in a sticky, slimy substance.

He didn't know what this thing was, but he figured it wouldn't hurt to try it out.

So he turned his hand and stabbed the needle backward.

He suddenly felt his clothes loosen, as if he had been released!
Chen Qi immediately started running, heading straight for the school gate not far away.

But then he heard four chaotic footsteps behind him, and those things were chasing him!

Chen Qi sprinted at full speed, and the school's retractable gate was almost in front of him when the dim lights in the security room suddenly became bright.

A face was reflected behind the light blue glass. It wasn't a security guard, but the head of the teaching department who had appeared earlier!

He opened the window and called out to Chen Qi, "The students are waiting for you to start class!"

Chen Qi ignored him completely. He leaped up, grabbed the iron frame above the retractable gate, and successfully climbed over.

He's out!

We arrived outside the school.

Chen Qi dared not linger; he ran wildly, but he couldn't see any difference between inside and outside the campus.

After all, his perception wasn't distorted; a flashlight was still a flashlight, and a syringe was still a syringe.

"Should I be out of the abnormal range by now?"

Chen Qi wasn't quite sure, but fortunately, he hadn't run far before he saw several food stalls by the roadside.

He shone his flashlight directly into the face of one of the stall owners, which should have earned him a string of curses.

But nobody paid him any attention.

Chen Qi picked up the syringe and injected it into a stall owner's thigh.

The stall owner turned around, glanced at him, and yelled, "Are you crazy? Why are you poking me with a feather duster?"

"how so!"

Chen Qi couldn't understand how he could still be trapped in distorted perceptions even after running all the way out of the school.
Why are people outside the school also affected?

Or is it that this effect of distorted cognition follows him?
"Or maybe I'm the only one whose perception is affected, and perhaps what I'm holding is a feather duster and a razor?"

Chen Qi pondered his next move. He took out his phone and glanced at it, only to find that it finally had a signal!

He quickly opened WeChat, ready to send a message to Momo.

Those two officials are clearly suspicious. Chen Qi is still unsure whether Chili and the other person were contacted by Momo for Coffee.

But when he opened the group chat, he was stunned to see that the date of the most recent message was still the evening of September 10th, just before they entered Jinghai Medical College.

Has no one spoken in the group chat for over a day?
This is actually quite unusual, because the group chat is usually quite lively, especially since Zhuifeng and Dabing both have a strong desire to share.

Chen Qi tapped his phone and sent a message in the group chat.

Biscuit: @momo, we've encountered danger at Jingquan School, and all the group members have gone missing. Could you please find someone to help us?
Cookie: Did Coffee ask you for the contact information of any official personnel?
Although I don't know if Momo is trustworthy, at this point I can only try it as a last resort.

Chen Qi waited anxiously for Momo's reply, but just then, he heard that series of messy footsteps again.

The next moment, his clothes were suddenly grabbed again.

Immediately afterwards, a strong force came from behind, and an invisible hand grabbed his clothes and lifted him up!
Chen Qi felt like a weight hanging on a scale, unable to break free no matter how hard he struggled or shook.

That hand carried him along, heading towards Jingquan School.

No matter how much Chen Qi shouted, the people around him seemed not to notice him at all, and were not at all surprised that someone was floating in mid-air.

Chen Qi was about to blindly inject the syringe when the hand holding him suddenly began to spin him violently. This made Chen Qi feel like he was on a giant swing ride at an amusement park, leaving him dizzy and disoriented.

The person carrying his things suddenly sped up, essentially giving Chen Qi the sensation of a roller coaster with a large pendulum swing.

He was so dizzy that he couldn't see clearly. When he regained consciousness, he found himself back in the lobby of the teaching building.

Chen Qiqiang forced himself to sit up despite feeling dizzy, leaning against the corner of the wall. He checked his pockets and found that his phone was still on him.

His equipment included his grimoire cookies, large syringe, pistol, and flashlight—he had everything he needed.

He took out his phone and checked it, only to find that there was no signal again, and he had not received a reply from Momo.

After resting for a while, and as the nausea and dizziness gradually subsided, Chen Qi began to think about what had happened that night.

“Two officials are dead, my teammates are missing, and I’m all alone…” He hadn’t felt this sense of isolation and helplessness in a long time. Even when he was alone in the illusion of the medical school, he knew that his teammates would try to save him.

But this time, it was his teammates waiting for him to rescue them.

However, this time alone allowed him to eliminate all external interference, freeing him from doubting his teammates and himself, and enabling him to calmly review and reflect.

"I don't really have anything to be afraid of now. If those ghostly things wanted to kill me, they would have done so long ago."

"They're not killing me, but they also seem unwilling to let me leave Jingquan School, so they must need me to do something here..."

What's so special about Jingquan School?

This reminded Chen Qi of all the coincidences that had happened before, and all sorts of recent events had been leading him to Jingquan School.

"When exactly did it start?"

Chen Qi checked his phone; it was the early morning of September 12th.

Yesterday, in the early hours of September 11th, he went home after leaving medical school.

Because they couldn't find the mother, they checked the surveillance footage and discovered the existence of the little girl Lin Ning, which led them to identify Dr. Zhao.

It was Chen Qi who suggested going to see Dr. Zhao, but it was Coffee who first suggested checking the surveillance footage.

Of course, this idea is reasonable, but it doesn't necessarily mean there's something wrong with the coffee. Even if she hadn't mentioned it, Chen Qi might have figured it out himself.

"Because my mother went missing, and since both my mother and Lin Ning were teachers and students at Jingquan School, I subconsciously thought of coming to Jingquan School to look for my mother."

"So it all started back then?"

After Chen Qi woke up from a nap, he was dragged by Coffee to meet Chili, which led to the idea of ​​cooperating with the authorities to explore Jingquan School.

This meeting transformed Chen Qi's subconscious idea of ​​"exploring Jingquan School" into a definite thought.

This whole affair was also driven by coffee, and now that Chen Qi thinks about it, there's another very illogical point.

Contacting or even establishing cooperation with the authorities is a major event that affects everyone, yet only he and Coffee went to meet with Chili.

No one else was involved; they only found out about it afterward… Logically speaking, Coffee isn’t the type to be so inconsiderate.

After that, I went to see Dr. Zhao.

The information Chen Qi received from Dr. Zhao that evening directly transformed his idea of ​​"exploring Jingquan School" into something he had to do and that was urgent.

“When Dr. Zhao fell from the building, it was so difficult, yet he still managed to dramatically reveal all the key information. I felt something was off.”

"The events of yesterday were all interconnected, like an invisible hand pushing me, compelling me to come to Jingquan School."

"And coffee played an important role at several key junctures."

"You went to such lengths to lure me here, you certainly wouldn't let me go if you didn't achieve your goal, right?"

Chen Qi's thoughts were gradually becoming clearer...

Upon arriving at the teaching building, the head of the teaching department appeared, killed Chili and the other person, but then let them go.

He just escaped, was caught, and was thrown onto the first floor of this teaching building.

The darkness and danger outside the teaching building prevented him from leaving.

"Does this mean they want me to stay in this teaching building?"

"If things were to proceed normally, I should be exploring the teaching building right now, looking for my mom and Lin Ning."

"Now we also need to add the search for my teammates."

He seemed to have no other choice at the moment, so Chen Qi turned on his flashlight and walked towards the depths of the corridor on the first floor of the teaching building.

After walking a few steps, he saw a room with a sign that read "Broadcasting Station".

Remembering the sudden school bell earlier, Chen Qi pushed open the door and went inside.

There was no one in the radio station, only a few computers and broadcasting equipment.

Chen Qi walked to the table and saw several newspapers on it, most of which were school newspapers.

He picked up a copy at random and saw a notice prominently displayed on the front page:

Following notification from higher authorities, in order to cooperate with the upcoming citywide joint fire drill, all schools in the city will be closed for three days starting September 10th, and normal classes will resume on September 13th…

Chen Qi was stunned. So it's actually a holiday now?

All colleges and universities, does that include Jinghai Medical College?
This notice is strange and unreasonable; it feels like they just made up an excuse to give us a holiday.

(End of this chapter)