I crouched at the entrance of the school, and it was only when the sun slid down the middle and into the valley that Bai Zixu weakly walked out.

"You're amazing. You have no idea how hilarious your little brother's expression was when the teacher dragged him away, crying and screaming."

I handed her a bottle of water and briefly explained some irrelevant details.

She suddenly realized, supporting her sweaty forehead and then exclaimed in surprise, "I thought you would die when you went there. I didn't expect you to actually maintain a cheerful mood in this situation."

"You don't have to carry him back again on the way back, so of course it's pleasant," I laughed.

Although this village is cumbersome and chaotic, it seems relatively safe for now.

"No, the scariest thing on the way back is not my brother," Bai Zi disagreed, interrupting me with a helpless expression, as if looking at a child. "You don't think these things can kill so many people, do you?"

"The girls who couldn't escape to the school and were assimilated into villagers, the ones who arrived late and died, the classmates who failed and were divided into groups of four and six. At least those have reasons. The truly terrifying ones are the people who disappear for no reason on their way home from school."

"Disappear?"

She nodded, "Some people were fine one day and then gone early the next morning."

I called out to Bai Bai in my mind, "Do you have any travel suggestions for me on the way home from school?"

Since there's a travel guide, it means there must be a force that wants us to enjoy the trip. And if it's a trip, there must be a way to get out.

"Tourists just need to follow the village chief's command to enjoy a safe journey," she said.

Is it really that simple? But what about the missing people?

We chatted enthusiastically, fortunately, nothing major happened to both of us, and we split up at the fork of the third dirt road.

She probably knew that I was a radical person, so she took a few steps, turned back anxiously to look at me.

"Don't try anything dangerous, it's most important to stay alive," she said.

I waved my hand from a distance to reassure her and watched her petite figure gradually disappear around the corner.

It seems that someone told me before that staying alive is the most important thing. What did I do back then?

I became afraid.

I cowardly avoided.

And then regretted it for the rest of my life.