Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 142 The Spirit of Yingmin

Eun-young was sitting alone by the window in her guest room, her fingertips gently tracing the corners of her eyes.

Her gaze fell on the yellowed elementary school group photo on the bedside table—it was a class photo organized by Teacher Park after her first election as class monitor.

Memories came flooding back.

In the fourth-grade classroom, sunlight streamed through the gaps in the curtains onto the teacher's desk. Eun-young stood upright in front of the blackboard, her fingers gripping her speech for the class monitor election tightly.

The speech was ghostwritten by a college student hired by my mother. She practiced the speech until the early hours of the morning last night, and even my mother, who is usually very strict with her, expressed her approval.

After the speech, the audience erupted in applause.

"Okay, thank you very much for Wu Enying's speech. Next, please welcome Li Shihao to give his campaign speech."

As Teacher Park's voice faded, Eun-young watched the ever-smiling, unserious boy walk onto the stage. He hadn't even prepared a speech; he simply said casually that he wanted to "be friends with everyone" and "protect everyone when necessary."

When the voting results were announced, Lee Se-ho won by a narrow margin of 20 votes to 18.

Eun-young bit her lip hard, wrinkling her school uniform. Her mother had said that she was not valued in the family because she was a girl, but now she was more successful than Eun-young's uncles, having opened a company specializing in women's products.

After Eun-young was born, she often saw her grandmother giving her mother a hard time, complaining that she had given birth to a girl. So her mother told Eun-young that daughters of the Wu family should never be second best, and that girls should do better than men. She also said that even in elementary school, she shouldn't be neglected. If she could become class monitor, she could get closer to the teachers in daily teaching, receive some preferential treatment, and learn management skills, which would be better for inheriting her company in the future.

In the empty classroom after school, Eun-young finally broke down in tears. She tore her carefully prepared speech to shreds, not knowing how to explain it to her mother when she got home.

"Eun-young."

A gentle voice came from behind. Teacher Park was standing in the doorway, holding two cups of hot cocoa.

"You know what?" The teacher pushed one of the cups in front of her. "When I first participated in the teacher evaluation, I prepared for three months, but I didn't even pass the preliminary selection."

Eun-young looked up with tearful eyes at her teacher, who was always so elegant and composed, in disbelief.

“But the following year,” Professor Park sipped his hot drink, “I redesigned the curriculum based on those failures and made a brilliant comeback. Those who had looked down on me before now looked at me with new respect.”

Then, she pointed to Shihao on the playground outside the window: "Look, he's helping Dafeng pick up the ball. Being a class monitor isn't about who's more outstanding, but about who knows how to care for their classmates more."

Eun-young instinctively replied, then suddenly froze. Her mother had never taught her this; she had only told her that everyone around her was a competitor, and that scoring five more points would eliminate a whole bunch of competitors.

Ms. Park smiled and ruffled her hair: "How about trying to tutor Mi-ja in math before the next election? Your math grades are really excellent. Also, although you didn't become class monitor, you're still the vice class monitor and an important assistant to me."

After that, in a classroom on an ordinary afternoon.

Eun-young was tidying up her pencil case—imported stationery her mother had bought for her. Every pencil was sharpened to the perfect point, and the eraser was spotless.

Suddenly, she heard suppressed sobs coming from the back row.

Turning my head, I saw Miko with her head bowed low, her fingers clutching her pants. On them was a small, glaring dark red stain.

Dafeng reported to the teacher that Meizi had defecated on herself, and the whole class immediately covered their noses.

Eun-young saw Mi-ja's shoulders trembling violently, and large tears falling onto the desk.

Although she didn't understand what had happened, Eun-young immediately took out the scented tissues her mother had prepared for her and gently placed them on Mi-ja's desk.

"Let's go to the bathroom and wipe ourselves first," she whispered. Miko raised her tearful eyes, her dirty little hand hovering above the tissue, hesitant to touch it, as if worried about soiling the delicate paper.

Just then, Ms. Park walked over quickly. She understood the situation at a glance.

At that moment, Eun-young's little mind was filled with questions. Mi-ja looked more like she was about to bleed, so why did Da-bong say it was "poop"? Why didn't the teacher seem surprised at all?
That day, Ms. Park used the anatomical model in the classroom to give a special lesson on physiology. Eun-young will always remember the way the teacher demonstrated with a red paint pipe: "At a certain age, every month, a girl's uterus prepares a warm little bed. Although there is no baby to live in it yet, this preparation is very important."

That night, Eun-young perused the encyclopedias in her mother's study. Under the entry for "Human Reproductive System," she saw for the first time cross-sectional diagrams of the uterus and ovaries, as well as a description of the menstrual cycle in calm, scientific language:
"The uterine lining thickens under the influence of estrogen... If no fertilized egg implants, the endometrial tissue sheds to form menstruation... The age of menarche is usually between 10 and 16 years old..."

This discovery shocked Eun-young. The next day, she specially brought a pack of sanitary napkins and gave it to Mi-ja—it was a new product from her mother's company, with the advertising slogan "Cherry Blossom Instant Absorption" printed on the packaging.

As Miko blushed and accepted the tissue, Eun-young suddenly realized how childish and ridiculous her act of handing her the tissue had been.

"Thank you..." Miko's voice was barely audible, "Actually, Zhengyuan's mother is already..."

“I know!” Eun-young puffed out her chest, mimicking her mother’s words, “This is a new product from our Sakura company, and its absorbency is 37% stronger than ordinary brands!”

It wasn't until yesterday that she understood the meaning of the advertising slogans such as "absorbency," "no leakage," and "sleep soundly until dawn."

The two girls smiled at each other, as if a bridge had suddenly appeared between them, leading to the mysterious adult world.

"Click."

The soft knocking of the door startled Eun-young from her reverie.

She turned to look at the bed—the blanket had somehow formed a human-shaped outline.

"Shihao?" She breathed a sigh of relief. "You came back from your smoking?"

no respond.

Eun-young frowned and approached, her fingers gripping the corner of the blanket: "Stop pretending to be asleep, we have to get up early tomorrow..."

She abruptly threw off the covers—

A rabbit mask lay quietly on the bed sheet, its dark eye sockets staring straight at her. "Ah!"

Eun-young staggered backward, knocking over a bunch of bottles and jars on the dressing table.

Just as she was about to fall, a deformed hand suddenly emerged from under the bed—its knuckles were swollen and thick, while its thumb was much thinner than the other four fingers!
"Giggle..."

A strange sound came from under the bed.

Eun-young's eyes widened as she saw a figure in a green sweater slowly crawl out, its deformed head twisted at an impossible angle, revealing a highly distorted face—

That was clearly Yingmin, who should have died long ago!
The monster in front of them held a blood-dripping cleaver in its left hand and put the rabbit mask from the bed on its face with its right.

Then, the monster charged straight at them, its cleaver whistling as it came down!

"boom!"

Eun-young instinctively rolled to the side, the blade slicing deep into the dressing table!

She seized the opportunity to rush towards the door, and behind her came the sound of bones cracking and twisting.

Eun-young quickly pushed open the door and rushed outside, running barefoot, her heart pounding in her chest.

The footsteps behind her were like a shadow, and she could almost smell the stench of decay that was getting closer and closer!

She ran to the stairs, but suddenly felt a warm, humid breath near her ear.

Eun-young turned her head stiffly, the rabbit mask almost pressed against her face, the cleaver held high above her head—

Soon-hee suddenly opened her eyes, her back soaked in cold sweat.

The room was pitch black, with only a little moonlight filtering in.

She looked around blankly, unable to recall when she had fallen asleep.

"What time is it?" She fumbled for her flip phone on the bedside table, and the screen lit up—21:27.

Soon-hee tried to get up, supporting herself on the mattress, but suddenly gasped.

A sharp pain shot through her lower abdomen, causing her to instinctively clutch her stomach.

Her fingers trembled as she reached into her pajama bottoms to check, only to find no menstrual blood at all—there was only a pain in her inner thigh, as if she had been hit hard by something hard.

The pain caused her to curl up involuntarily, and memories flooded her mind like a tide.

It was fourth grade. Shunxi will always remember Meizi's pale face that day—this usually smiling girl was clutching her school pants tightly, with a glaring dark red stain on them.

Soon-hee didn't understand what was happening at the time; she just instinctively felt she should help her, so she decided to lend Mi-ja her dance dress.
That day, Ms. Park gave a special lesson using a anatomical model. Soon-hee stared wide-eyed as the teacher poured red dye into the uterine model: "This is called menstruation; it's a sign that a girl is becoming an adult..."

On the way home, Soon-hee couldn't wait to ask her mother, "Why did Mi-ja bleed? Will I bleed too?"

The mother, who was arranging flowers, nodded and said, "Yes, you'll have to go through this sooner or later. As a woman, you'll have to deal with this 'good friend' for most of your life. But our Shunxi is going to be a star in the future, so Mom will buy you the best sanitary products."

A few days later, in the afternoon, Soon-hee also got her first period. At that time, the pain in her lower body was like being stabbed with a knife. She asked her teacher for leave and then rushed to the school gate, clutching her stomach.

On the roadside near the school gate, she suddenly saw a familiar figure—Zhengyuan's mother, the gentle auntie she always saw at the market, running towards the school in a panic.

Soon-hee wanted to greet her and ask why she was at school, but a sharp pain made her bend over. When she looked up again, Jung-won's mother had already rushed across the road.

The screeching sound of brakes shattered the tranquility of the road.

Shunxi will always remember that scene—her aunt's body flew up like a rag doll, and a living person was smashed to the ground, with blood gushing out like a fountain.

"If I call out to her..."

This thought became the deepest thorn in Soon-hee's heart.

She dreamt countless times of uttering that unspoken greeting, then watching her aunt turn away with a smile, escaping the out-of-control truck. That's why she never dared to tell Jung-won about it.

Soon-hee snapped out of her reverie; her leg still hurt a little, but it was better than before.

She wanted to go out to find some ointment, so she pushed open the door and went out.

As she walked to the top of the stairs...

"what!"

Soon-hee staggered backward, her phone flying out of her hand.

There, Eun-young lay face up at the bottom of the stairs—the ever-elegant and poised vice-class monitor was now lying unconscious, her hair disheveled. Even more horrifying was her expression; even with her eyes closed, her features were distorted, as if she had witnessed something utterly terrifying before losing consciousness.

"Eun-young! Wake up!" Soon-hee trembled as she reached out to check her breath, but pulled her hand back the instant it touched her skin—it was too cold, almost like…

A body in a morgue!

(End of this chapter)