“Is that so? Haha, that’s quite a coincidence. Maybe we even…”
Wu Peng continued trying to get closer with a smile.
The car drove along a dark path not far from the school.
There was no light around except for the headlights shining ahead.
But before he could finish his sentence, his laughter came to a sudden halt!
He had remembered something—this totem pendant was a proprietary product of that hotel. It wasn’t sold anywhere else.
His thoughts drifted back to that night 5 years ago…
Wu Peng remembered clearly.
The plan that should have been flawless was accidentally witnessed by a little girl!
Most importantly, she had escaped.
That immature face from back then gradually surfaced in his memory, slowly overlapping with Wang Meng’s face.
Although she was now 18 years old and her appearance had changed a lot, he couldn’t be mistaken about the familiarity in her eyes.
*Screech—*
The car stopped abruptly, startling Wang Meng.
“Teacher Wu, what’s wrong?”
Bewildered, she turned to look at him, not knowing what had happened.
*Boom!!*
The heavy dark clouds finally couldn’t hold back anymore.
Raindrops pitter-pattered against the car windows, making a tapping sound.
Thunder roared, accompanied by a flash of lightning.
The dim interior of the car was instantly as bright as day, illuminating Wu Peng’s cold, gloomy face…
“Ah!!”
A sharp pain shot through Wang Meng’s head.
The memories she had selectively forgotten kept flashing back, as if she were once again in that nightmare from that night.
When that face was lit up by the flash again, memories poured out.
On a rainy night, a man stood over a bloodied corpse with a sharp blade in his hand, staring intently at her.
“It… It’s you!”
As the fragments formed into images, Wang Meng’s long-buried memories finally resurfaced. She remembered everything…
—
Back at the school, Gu Chen dragged her tired body to the faculty dormitory.
They had agreed to meet here again.
In the room, Li Yanqiu and Tang Ziya were already waiting.
“Yo, why do you look like you’ve been sucked dry? Did you spend too much time ‘handling’ yourself?”
The Homeroom Teacher teased with a grin as soon as they met.
“I was doing fine at home until I was called over. Anyone would be lethargic, wouldn’t they?”
Gu Chen rolled her eyes at her, knowing she was asking the obvious.
“Tsk tsk. What, you aren’t tired after accompanying two little beauties to the film set, but you’re full of reluctance when your teacher asks you to come over? Isn’t that a bit of a double standard?”
Li Yanqiu complained with her hands on her hips.
“Filming?”
Tang Ziya looked at Gu Chen, completely confused.
“How did you know?”
Gu Chen was even more shocked, suddenly feeling more alert.
Did Wang Meng tell the Homeroom Teacher?
Or did she install a camera on her…
“Hee-hee, I’m not telling you,” Li Yanqiu said, keeping her in suspense on purpose.
“What’s going on? Who did you go filming with?” Tang Ziya couldn’t help but feel curious as well.
“I went with Wang Meng and Chu Xiaomeng to apply for a production crew…”
Gu Chen hadn’t intended to say anything, but since the Homeroom Teacher seemed to have gotten the news from somewhere, she couldn’t hide it.
She decided to stop keeping it a secret.
“Wang Meng really went?”
Tang Ziya wasn’t too surprised.
She gave a bitter smile.
“She mentioned before that she wanted to apply for the drama academy after graduation and become an actress. I guess she’s starting her internship now.”
“You knew about this too?”
As soon as Gu Chen asked, she realized it was a redundant question.
The two lived in the same dormitory and were in the same class.
They were best friends, practically inseparable.
They would definitely share things like this; they probably talked about everything except for the bankruptcy.
“Yeah. But how are the dormitory conditions over there? No unpleasantness, I hope?”
Tang Ziya nodded.
Forgetting why they were there, she continued to ask about the details.
“Single dorms, quite nice. When you’re away from home, you can’t be too picky,”
Gu Chen replied.
Since the girl wasn’t a wealthy socialite anymore, she probably wouldn’t be complaining about every little thing.
“That’s good. I was mainly worried that others wouldn’t get used to her habits,”
Tang Ziya said, nodding.
“Habits? What’s wrong?”
Li Yanqiu, standing nearby, also became interested and asked immediately.
They were originally supposed to research how to get Wu Peng to make another move, but the conversation had shifted entirely to Wang Meng.
“Wang Meng is particularly afraid of the dark. She can only fall asleep with lights on. But she’s also afraid of affecting others, so she installed a Little Orange Lamp by her bed. It was mainly caused by a psychological shadow from 5 years ago, so everyone understands,”
Tang Ziya explained slowly.
Having lived together for 2 years, she knew basically all of Wang Meng’s habits.
‘She actually knows too. She really is a good best friend,’
Gu Chen thought.
Gu Chen had only discovered this secret because of the sudden power outage on the set.
She only learned the full situation after asking Wang Meng’s brother later.
“How could that be? What happened to Wang Meng?”
The Homeroom Teacher frowned.
“5 years ago, Wang Meng’s family went on a trip abroad. She must have seen a murder scene on the mountain behind the hotel and narrowly escaped with her life. That’s what left the psychological shadow.”
“She saw a murder? Wang Meng told you that?”
Gu Chen really didn’t know about this and shouted in surprise.
Did that guy Wang Jun still have secrets from her?
“Not really, I deduced it. When people experience extreme fear, they choose to forget certain things to protect themselves. But when she dreams, she often feels like someone is chasing her. The nightmares became more frequent after the end of last semester, and I don’t know why. So, the conclusion is that she most likely saw something but doesn’t remember it. Her subconscious turned it into a nightmare that keeps haunting her. *Sigh*.”
Tang Ziya crossed her legs and sighed.
“I see…”
The credibility of this deduction was indeed high.
The Class Monitor really did have a detective’s mind, except when it came to targeting Gu Chen.
“Then we can help her remember and identify the crime scene. As long as the killer is caught, her psychological shadow should disappear,”
Gu Chen said slowly after thinking for a moment.
Things couldn’t go on like this.
Living like that for a lifetime would have a huge impact on her future.
After all, she wanted to be an actress.
She would be running around different film sets in all sorts of environments, and she would easily get triggered.
“Easier said than done. How can she identify something she isn’t even sure of herself? Besides, it’s been so many years, and it happened in a South Asian country. There’s no way to handle it.”
Tang Ziya shot her a look of disdain.
“We have to try. Did Wang Meng say what the person in her dream looked like? Maybe there’s a case file in that country already. We might be able to help.”
Gu Chen became increasingly curious, thinking they might even solve a major case.
She felt a bit excited.
“She did describe him. It was something like this…”
Listening to Tang Ziya’s description, Gu Chen directly input the physical characteristics into the AI.
With technology being so advanced now, it could generate a picture comparable to the level of a sketch artist.
“Boring.”
Seeing Gu Chen actually messing around with image generation, Tang Ziya rolled her eyes.