The square was in chaos.
Even though people were slow to realize it at first, after so much commotion, those upstairs finally caught on that something was wrong and rushed for the exits.
The entrance was a complete mess — the ground was littered with items people had dropped in their panic: clothes bought from the fashion store upstairs, a half-eaten durian crepe, a few clown masks that had been trampled, and two spray-paint cans.
Yu Jing glanced at the masks and realized the attackers had probably already escaped.
She quickly hurried toward the supermarket on the basement level.
The lights hadn’t come back on yet, so she raised her hand, summoning a ball of firelight that illuminated a horrific scene inside the mall.
Blood still glistened on the floors and walls, severed body parts hung from shelves, and corpses lay scattered everywhere.
By the time Shen Ning had finished off the last clown who hadn’t managed to flee — the fourth one — Yu Jing had arrived.
The moment Shen Ning saw her homeroom teacher, the nail-studded hammer slipped gently from her hands.
The fierce, unhesitating resolve she’d had during the fight vanished along with her reflection.
The tactical support time was up.
A few minutes later, Yu Jing guided the nine surviving students back onto the bus.
Most were so shaken they could barely speak, several huddled together on one seat, avoiding the back row entirely because Shen Ning was sitting there, by the window, just as she had on the way over.
As for the five students who hadn’t survived, they could only wait for the school’s follow-up team to come and sort things out.
“Drive,” Yu Jing instructed the driver.
“Back to school.”
“Yes, Ms. Yu,” he replied softly, obediently starting the engine.
He was supposed to have kept an eye on things too, but someone had ambushed him and knocked him out, and he’d only come to just a while ago.
Unsure what was going on, he didn’t dare ask questions.
Back at school, the other students had no focus for class.
Rumors were spreading that their classmates who’d gone out shopping had run into some kind of trouble.
Nearly half the seats in the classroom were empty.
What had happened to them?
“Xu Chuyao, do you know if they’re okay? Will Shen Ning make it back?” Mi Xiaolu whispered to her deskmate.
Her fiery-tempered roommate was usually a know-it-all who answered anything without hesitation.
Xu Chuyao sighed.
“Xiaolu, this time I really don’t know.”
After all, Shen Ning never went out in the original story.
Why’d she suddenly go on a shopping trip this time? What was so important that she had to buy it outside the school, and why now, of all times?
Chuyao couldn’t figure it out.
“Looks like they’re back!” a classmate by the window exclaimed.
“I see the bus!”
The bus slowly pulled up to the school gate.
The frightened students finally began to calm as they stared at the school gates through the windows, feeling as if they’d just woken up from a nightmare.
Leaning against the glass, Shen Ning glanced at the teachers and school leaders gathered at the gate — their faces wore all kinds of tense expressions.
She remembered the five pine needles that had drifted to the ground when they left.
By now they’d long since blended into the soil.
The incident caused a huge uproar, and rumors flew all day long.
Xu Chuyao never managed to catch a glimpse of Shen Ning in person, but hearing everyone whispering the story, she got the gist of what had happened.
Just as in the original plot, a group of first-rank Spirit-users in clown masks had attacked the mall and mercilessly slaughtered students.
But this time was different.
With Shen Ning there, nine students survived — and four of the clowns were dead.
The biggest issue was that none of the other students had fought back.
“I kind of believe what you said earlier,” Mi Xiaolu whispered when she came back after sniffing around for info.
“Sounds like she really has killed before.”
According to the circulating accounts, Shen Ning had fought back and taken several of the clowns down.
Some even whispered that she’d gone into a bloodthirsty rage and killed a classmate too.
“That’s just a rumor,” someone countered.
“The survivors were scared out of their minds and couldn’t see properly. They probably imagined things.”
Back at school, the teachers and administrators hastily convened a meeting to discuss the sudden attack.
Yu Jing glanced at a woman in a white lab coat sitting in the audience, her voice going cold.
“I hope this isn’t something someone deliberately put into circulation.”
“Still, the fact is that Shen Ning killed four people inside that mall,” countered Luo Kangsheng, the grade director who was seated across from Yu Jing.
Ten years her senior and a long-serving staff member, Luo had been against allowing Shen Ning to leave the lab and enroll in regular classes from the very beginning — though he’d failed back then, he hadn’t changed his stance.
“She also saved everyone else,” Yu Jing replied.
“And as for what happened before she came to school — the report states those people were already mutating when they died.”
Luo Kangsheng shook his head.
“The report also states those were people close to her — family members. What kind of normal person could kill them so decisively? This incident only proves that Shen Ning’s dangerous nature never left. We never should have let her out of the lab. Did you see the bodies? The way they were killed was even more brutal than what those masked murderers did.”
Dr. Helena, the physician in the white coat, chimed in.
“That’s true. Actually, we’ve suspected that the radiation from the mine back then affected her personality, making her unable to suppress her violent urges…”
“Is it your turn to speak?” Yu Jing snapped.
With one sharp glance from Yu Jing, Helena swallowed her remaining words.
Yu Jing then addressed the others.
“Shen Ning did nothing wrong. It’s a fact that besides the look-out man, all the clowns were first-rank. They weren’t that much stronger than the other students. If the others had fought back like she did, she wouldn’t have had to fight outnumbered, forced to use deadly force.”
“Oh, of course,” Luo Kangsheng replied in a tone dripping with sarcasm. “After all, none of the other students had handled any strange stones or already killed dozens of their closest relatives before even enrolling.”
“That’s enough. Let’s not argue,” the old principal finally spoke up, and only then did the two of them go quiet.
Graying but still commanding authority, he looked left and right — Yu Jing was adamant about protecting Shen Ning, and Luo Kangsheng wanted her locked back in the lab.
“Locking her up is too much. Let Shen Ning cool her head for a day at the old school building,” the principal decided, choosing a middle path.
“Just one day? But she—”
“No buts. That’s all about the students. Now let me tell you about the attacker.”
That evening, after the last period, Mi Xiaolu rushed back to the classroom with more updates.
“Xu Chuyao, I checked around. Of the nine survivors, the other eight have all been accounted for. Five are in the infirmary, three are in their dorms. Only Shen Ning hasn’t been seen.”
Xu Chuyao paused as she packed her bag, then set it back down.
From inside, she pulled out a small flashlight.
“Thanks for the intel, Xiaolu. I won’t be going back to the dorm tonight.” Chuyao checked her phone battery and then dug a power bank from her bag.
“I’m going to go look for her.”
Mi Xiaolu blinked in surprise. “
You know where Shen Ning is?”
“Of course,” Xu Chuyao replied, a determined glint in her eyes.
“This time, too — I know exactly where she is.”
What the hell is Xu Chuyao cooking?