The Short-Lived Cannon Fodder Is Haunted By A Gloomy Monster [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 9

[“Have you heard? Several students from our school have gone missing lately.”]

During breaks, such discussions sprouted up in various corners of Mindel High School. It was currently the most captivating topic on campus.

In reality, many students were habitual truants. Initially, when a few failed to show up in class for two or three days, no one found it strange. Even their families assumed the children had simply run off to play as usual; no one took it seriously even if they couldn’t be reached.

However, once the situation persisted for four or five days, it became clearly abnormal.

The school seemed to be trying to maintain its pre-incident atmosphere, but as the number of missing persons continued to rise, the air of panic intensified. Many had already seen police officers moving in and out of the campus. Despite the school administration’s best efforts to control the narrative, the news spread like wildfire.

Following the police investigation, the bodies of all the missing students were soon discovered on the mountain behind the school.

The strangest part was that while every body had a different cause of death, they had all ultimately been drained of blood, turning into twisted, shriveled mummies.

Looking at that heart-shaped scratch, now so faint it had almost vanished, Shen Lu could practically visualize another person laughing and playing by Qi Qi’s side, leaving that mark behind.

At this moment, her heart didn’t feel like it was beating normally in her chest, it felt as though a demon had plucked it out and tossed it into a frying pan. After a bout of struggling and agonizing, all that remained was the charred residue of jealousy.

After a brief silence, she seemed to realize her tone just now had been too aggressive. She forced a clumsy, fawning smile. “Qi Qi, who was it? Tell me, please.”

Qi Qi brushed her hand away, her long brows arching slightly in a look of indifference. “It was just an accidental bump. Besides, it has nothing to do with you, right? Does a mere little pet want to manage the master’s business? It seems I’ve been too busy to discipline you lately, you’ve become quite disobedient.”

Qi Qi took the opportunity to add a reason for her recent absences. After speaking, she didn’t forget to steal a glance at the “little monster’s” reaction.

Strangely, upon hearing these words, which undoubtedly stripped her of her human rights and reduced her to a mere plaything, the little monster showed no sign of anger. The hand that Qi Qi had coldly brushed away had somehow, silently, climbed back onto her sleeve, gripping it tight.

She used great force, the fabric of Qi Qi’s shirt sleeve was pinched into deep, messy wrinkles, yet she was careful not to touch Qi Qi’s wrist.

Shen Lu just lowered her head and shook it frantically. From between her jet-black strands of hair, her ears had turned a strange shade of pink. She opened her mouth woodenly, her voice smaller than a mosquito’s buzz.

“…Ma… Master, I am very obedient.”

To Qi Qi’s ears, however, it was no less than a sudden clap of thunder. It startled her so much she nearly turned and bolted.

Fortunately, she held her ground.

Qi Qi stared at that patch of skin visible through the hair, watching the pink deepen into a dark red under her gaze. She pondered for a long time, her brain momentarily stalling, before she finally convinced herself that it must be the suppressed frustration of being unable to vent anger. The logic finally clicked.

Before the little monster could look up, Qi Qi retracted the shock from her face, pretended she hadn’t heard that dangerous remark, and changed the subject.

At that exact moment, Shen Lu overcame her shyness and lifted her head, eager to see Qi Qi’s reaction to what she had just said.

“If I don’t tell you, what do you plan to do?”

Qi Qi’s beautiful voice rose provocatively with a hint of wicked arrogance. Her index finger landed lightly and dismissively on the scholarship student’s pale brow, wandering aimlessly.

Shen Lu felt a pang of disappointment at not receiving the response she had imagined. She thought that by saying those words, she would receive a “reward.”

A caress, a compliment… she wanted more of Qi Qi’s attention, more… love?

In the little monster’s two differently colored eyes, Qi Qi saw her own reflection, the quintessential image of a sharp-tongued, mean spirited girl who loved bullying others.

She curled her lips in satisfaction, her finger stopping just at the edge of danger.

However, even as the fingertip seemed seconds away from touching that emerald-like eyeball, Shen Lu never blinked. It was as if she had lost her body’s natural reflexes, staring straight at her.

More so than before, her focus was obsessive to a biased degree. It was as if, in this world, nothing existed except the person in front of her.

“It’s okay if you don’t tell me.”

She would find that person herself, and then make sure they could never appear by Qi Qi’s side again.

Actually, she had discovered something good recently. Thinking of this, Shen Lu couldn’t help but smile.

She had been hated by this world for so long, cursed with words like “monster,” “jinx,” and “bringer of bad luck” for so long that she had almost started believing she was that kind of person.

But recently, two good things had finally happened to her. Truly, truly good things.

The little monster slowly revealed a pure, radiant smile that didn’t seem to belong to her at all. At a glance, it bore a subtle, eerie resemblance to that troublemaker, Bai Zhi.

The sight made Qi Qi, who was still wondering why she wouldn’t blink, instantly feel her skin crawl. She couldn’t help but pull her hand back, rubbing her stiff fingertips out of the little monster’s sight.

But when she calmed down and looked closely, the two looked nothing alike. She didn’t know why she’d had such a bizarre hallucination.

How strange.

Shen Lu keenly sensed the change in Qi Qi’s mood. She was at a loss regarding Qi Qi’s sudden coldness but didn’t understand why.

So, she hurriedly took Qi Qi’s hand and pressed it over her own “ominous” blue-green right eye. She imitated the clumsy, gentle way she had seen mothers on the street soothing throwing tantrums, though she tried her best, her throat, scarred by burns, could only produce a raspy voice. “If you like it, I’ll give the eye to you, okay?”

Hearing these bizarre words, Qi Qi knit her brows. Her palm felt itchy as eyelashes brushed against it. She wanted to withdraw her hand, but Shen Lu pressed down on it. Being stared at by the little monster’s other, unobstructed pitch-black eye, she felt as though her palm was cupping a beautiful, eerie, yet exceptionally submissive butterfly.

Looking at the little monster, who looked as though she would dig her eye out the very next second if she nodded, with no hint of joking, her human-looking black eye filled with earnestness and even… indulgence?

Qi Qi wanted to run away even more now.

“I don’t want it.”

Qi Qi’s disgust was undisguised as she pinched the girl’s cheek hard. “Eyeballs are slimy and disgusting.”

Shen Lu felt a bit let down that her gift wasn’t accepted, but the slight pain in her cheek pulled her out of her depression. On her pale skin, the faint red finger marks were quite prominent.

“Then, what does Qi Qi like?”

Qi Qi had already walked a few steps away. Hearing the voice, she glanced back and said casually, “Eat more. You’re too thin. You’re bony to the touch.”

She walked out, returned to the classroom, and smoothly gave the teacher a random excuse for her absence. She sat down and slumped onto her desk, intending to sleep peacefully to the hypnotic sound of the lecture.

Before falling into a deep sleep, she vaguely heard people nearby whispering about a student missing from Class 1.

Class 1…

Wasn’t that Shen Lu’s class?

Before she could think further, Qi Qi fell completely asleep.

In her dream, the little monster held a pair of eyeballs in her hands, chasing her and begging her to accept them. The pitch-black, hollow sockets stared at her obsessively, her smile unnaturally bright.

Shen Lu had encountered two good things recently.

First, she met Qi Qi.

Second, she discovered she seemed to possess a superpower like the protagonist of a story.

The curses she had written in her diary, originally just an emotional outlet for her helplessness in reality, seemed to be coming true one by one.

Late at night, the pale light of a cheap desk lamp reflected on the table.

The usual bullying had vanished after meeting Qi Qi; the world that was once full of malice toward her had become quiet. She no longer needed to imagine ways for those disgusting people to die, her mind, once filled with various dark thoughts, was now occupied with things related to one person.

As always, Shen Lu took the diary out of the drawer. However, unlike before, when the pages were filled with resentment and malice toward her tormentors, there was only one sentence this time.

[Qi Qi will fall in love with Shen Lu.]

Perhaps fearing that it would be ignored by the diary if it took up too little space, she had begun writing this single sentence repeatedly with the elegant, upright handwriting of a top student. She had filled many, many pages with it.

Though it wasn’t a curse, if anyone else saw it, they would see the deep, unconscious obsession of the writer.

Before closing the notebook, she hesitated, then wrote one final line.

[I need to eat well and quickly grow enough meat so that Qi Qi will feel comfortable holding me.]

That way, Qi Qi would hold her often.

Qi Qi had been coming to the lounge less frequently lately because she was busy, not because she was tired of her. And because she was too thin and uncomfortable to hold, Qi Qi didn’t touch her often.

The diary must be working. Qi Qi would fall in love with her.

And the people around Qi Qi… they wouldn’t appear anymore.