Chapter 144: No Way to Escape

Guo Junjie's face was pressed against the floor, his eyes level with Xue Fei's mud-caked, reeking shoes.

"Read it!" Xue Fei grabbed him by the hair, as if bullying a sickly stray dog.

Guo Junjie didn't fight back. He kept his eyes shut, letting Xue Fei punch and kick him at will.

"Fuck, read it!" Seeing the usually cowardly Guo Junjie actually dare to disobey, Xue Fei flew into a rage. Feeling he had lost face in front of his classmates, he snapped, "Playing tough with me, huh?"

He kicked Guo Junjie in the jaw, then stepped on his fingers, slowly applying pressure. "Are you going to read it or not?"

Pain twisted Guo Junjie's face. Even from a distance, I could hear the crisp crack of his finger bones.

Hiding in the emergency stairwell, I felt an inexplicable surge of sympathy for Guo Junjie. Enduring such humiliation, it wasn't hard to understand why he would commit murder.

"I'll read it..."

Guo Junjie finally chose to submit. He lay prostrate before Xue Fei and everyone mocking him. With mangled fingers, he held up the love letter written to Shen Mengting. "If love is a monologue..."

His youthful voice stood out amid the tidal wave of jeers, like a mythical bird trying to fill the ocean with pebbles—out of place, tiny, and pitiful.

"Did he write this poem himself? That's disgusting. It makes me sick!"

"Love? Does a bastard like him even deserve love? Why don't you figure out who your parents are first?"

"Where's Shen Mengting? Make her come over and listen too. It's the thought that counts, right? Haha!"

Amid the piercing jeers and heckling, Guo Junjie finished reading the love letter. This probably wasn't the first time something like this had happened. The expression on his face wasn't so much anger as sheer numbness.

Perhaps a fire was burning deep within his heart, but on the surface, his eyes were simply dim. He clutched his injured fingers, not shedding a single tear.

"Everything has a cause and effect. The bullying and verbal abuse only further warped this kid's already twisted mind," I murmured, watching Guo Junjie by the classroom door. Even though I knew this was just the Dream Realm, I still wanted to see what would happen next.

After finishing the letter, Guo Junjie hunched his back and tried to stand, but Xue Fei planted a foot firmly on his spine.

"Did I say you could get up?"

With his back pinned, Guo Junjie sprawled on the floor. He didn't dare meet Xue Fei's eyes, his fingers digging fiercely into the ground.

"Listen closely. Shen Mengting is my woman. A bastard like you isn't even fit to lick her shoes. From now on, you stay at least ten meters away from her, understand?"

With a high-and-mighty tone, Xue Fei poked Guo Junjie in the head, treating him like livestock. "A feral little shit with no one to raise you."

Xue Fei finally removed his foot. Guo Junjie leaned against the wall and slowly stood up. I thought things would end there, but I hadn't expected the "wonderful" show to have just begun.

"Xue Fei, don't you find it totally disgusting that this guy is chasing our sister-in-law? It's like putting a piece of shit right next to a cake. Wouldn't that ruin your appetite when you try to eat the cake?"

The speaker's voice was also familiar to me, and a name surfaced in my mind—Xiu Mu.

Coincidentally, these were all people I had encountered during my livestream at Xinhu High School. They were specifically targeted by the Primal Destiny Divine Fiends, forced to endure terrifying nightmares every single night.

"Cut the passive-aggressive crap!"

Xue Fei glared fiercely at Xiu Mu, scaring the boy into shrinking his neck back into the crowd. "I'm just looking out for you," Xiu Mu said. "Think about it, doesn't it make you uncomfortable? I also heard this punk secretly grabbed Shen Mengting's hand behind our backs. My heart bleeds for our sister-in-law's tender little hand."

"Bullshit!" Xue Fei was domineering and impulsive. Provoked by Xiu Mu's few words, his anger flared again, and he subjected Guo Junjie to another brutal beating.

Beating him wasn't enough. Egged on by the surrounding classmates, they forced Guo Junjie to use a marker to write abusive insults about himself on the plastic model. Their various methods of humiliation were an eye-opener even to an adult like me.

It wasn't until an eerie school bell echoed from deep within the corridor, followed by the approach of a pretty woman with long hair, that these vicious students finally stopped.

"A teacher is coming. Let's go!"

The crowd scattered, leaving only Guo Junjie kneeling on the floor, his body covered in bruises. Clenching the love letter in his hand, he stared at the plastic model covered in filthy words before him.

The long-haired woman walked through the crowd. When she passed by Guo Junjie, she didn't uphold justice, nor did she offer a single word of comfort. She simply cast a cold glance at him and turned her head to walk away.

Seeing this, the students jeered even louder. "You stinking bastard, even your stepmom doesn't care about you!"

"He really is utterly repulsive!"

They surrounded Guo Junjie again, seemingly preparing for a new round of venting. I, however, noticed a detail. Although the long-haired woman who passed through the crowd had only appeared briefly, something special hung around her snow-white neck: a Double-Faced Buddha Pendant!

I was completely engrossed in the scene when my clothes were suddenly tugged.

Looking tense, Huang Xue trembled as she spoke. "Are you addicted to watching? Once they're done with him, we'll be the ones surrounded!"

I already had a pretty good understanding of Guo Junjie's high school life, so there was no need to stay any longer. Lowering my voice, I told Huang Xue, "Alright, let's go."

To get downstairs, we had to pass by the corridor entrance. Though it was a distance of merely two or three meters, getting past without being spotted by those yin souls and malicious ghosts would actually be quite difficult.

They were crowded in the middle of the hallway, occasionally turning their heads to look around. I had to time this perfectly.

Peeking out, I saw the students still shouting and cursing. No one seemed to have noticed the two intruders hiding in the emergency stairwell at the end of the corridor.

"I'll go first." Spotting an opening, I darted past the entrance. Fortunately, I went unnoticed.

Clutching my pounding heart, I waved at Huang Xue.

Huang Xue nodded. She peeked outside first, but the sight of the crowded, swaying figures in the corridor made her pull back the foot she had just stepped out with.

"Don't hesitate, hurry!" My voice was a bit too loud. Right after speaking, I felt a chill run down my spine, but with all my attention focused on Huang Xue, I didn't pay it any mind.

Hearing my words, Huang Xue took a step forward, exposing her entire body to the corridor.

The group of mutilated students didn't notice her. She breathed a sigh of relief, but just as she was about to take her second step, she looked up and saw what was behind me.

Her body came to a sudden halt, freezing in place like a stone statue. Her face looked as if it had been painted with a fresh coat of white paint!

"Y-You..."

She extended a trembling finger. I was even more anxious than she was. "Why are you zoning out? Get over here!"

"There's someone behind you!" she finally managed to shout after stuttering for a long moment.

Knowing something was terribly wrong, I felt something press down on my shoulder before I could even turn around.

Checking out of the corner of my eye, I saw a mutilated hand. The fingers were severed, leaving only two exposed.

"You two look a bit unfamiliar," a hoarse voice whispered from behind me. I slowly turned my head to find a pale, ghastly face staring at me with curiosity. "Could it be that you came from outside?!"

The tragically dead student's voice suddenly spiked in pitch. The crowd of students bullying Guo Junjie in the middle of the hallway heard the commotion. Like a highly disciplined army, they snapped their heads around in unison, dozens of eyes locking straight onto Huang Xue standing at the corridor entrance!

"Oh? We have newcomers?"

"Should we give them a welcome?"

"What a beautiful body. We should make her just like us."

"That face is gorgeous. I'm going to rip it off and keep it as a souvenir."

"Grab them!"

Dozens of ghastly pale faces broke into twisted smiles. With eyes turning into pitch-black voids, they sprinted madly toward the corridor entrance!

Standing in the middle of the entrance, Huang Xue's legs gave out from fear. This scene was simply too terrifying; she could hardly believe this was happening in her own dream.

"Run!" Gripping a Talisman Incantation in my hand, I spun around and punched the student in the face. I grabbed Huang Xue and dragged her downstairs, but before we could take more than a few steps, even more swaying figures emerged from the floor below!

"Damn it!" With our path blocked, Huang Xue and I had no choice but to retreat the way we came.

...

While Huang Xue and I were fleeing for our lives, a pair of twins appeared out of thin air in the infirmary.

The older brother had a massive birthmark covering his face, while the younger brother looked delicate and handsome.

With their palms pressed together, the Double-Faced Buddha Head Pendant on their chests emitted a faint red glow.

"Brother, my mind is restless. I fear this Middle Dream Layer has already been occupied by malevolent spirits."

"A faint glimmer of blood fiend aura—even the Buddha has issued a warning. This dream is truly a nightmare!" The older brother touched the Buddha Head Pendant. Whenever he spoke, the large birthmark on his face quivered like ripples on water. "Don't waste time. Hurry and find the master of the Dream Realm! No matter the methods, we must find that scroll!"

The twin brothers began searching the room, but right at that moment, chaotic footsteps suddenly echoed from the stairs.

The two brothers exchanged a glance. "Who could that be?"