She Was Sentenced to Life Imprisonment [Unlimited] - Chapter 62

Chapter 62: The Studio (4)

◎That’s Our School Over There◎

Jiang Nan didn’t answer her. She just emphasized.

“We aren’t close.”

She said it so heartlessly, as if the person who had just been holding hands with Thanatos wasn’t her.

Lin Jia didn’t seem to care about her ambiguous words. She just gave her a mischievous wink and said.

“You don’t have to say that. I’m guessing you two had a little argument. It looks like she did something that upset you.”

She lowered her head and thought for a moment, then continued.

“Let me guess why. Is it because of that human skin mask?”

“What? There’s no such thing in the shop,” Jiang Nan said coldly.

Lin Jia leaned close to her ear and chuckled meaningfully.

“Of course not. I heard it’s a privilege for high-ranking players.”

Hearing this, Jiang Nan’s expression didn’t change. She said calmly.

“If you’re trying to pry her identity out of me, you can forget it. I told you, we aren’t close.”

As she spoke, she subtly glanced at Luo Ning, then spoke again.

“Come here for a moment.”

“Hmm? What is it?” Thanatos looked over, a smile still in her eyes.

When Lin Jia saw Thanatos making a move to come over, her expression changed slightly. For some reason, when she met those eyes again, she felt as if she had spied on something forbidden. A moment of heart-pounding fear spread throughout her body, making her feel cold all over.

She returned to a spot behind Su Yue before Thanatos could get there, but she still felt a pair of eyes watching her closely.

Jiang Nan glanced at Lin Jia, then leaned into Thanatos’s ear and whispered.

“How many faces do you have?”

She didn’t tell Thanatos that Lin Jia had figured things out. But not being able to hear their conversation and only seeing how close they were, Lin Jia couldn’t help but feel a little more guilty.

Hearing Jiang Nan’s question, Thanatos shook her head and said.

“I don’t know.”

Upon hearing this, Jiang Nan looked at her sharply. She saw that in her purple eyes, the confusion was replaced by a smile.

“Do you want to know?”

The next moment, her jaw was held by a cool hand. The refreshing scent of the other person was intoxicating. Jiang Nan couldn’t face the face that was so close to hers.

Jiang Nan’s eyes lowered slightly. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that others were looking at them. She immediately felt uncomfortable and raised her hand to push the other person’s hand away.

“Let go. They’re still watching.”

Thanatos, however, seemed to not see the discomfort in her eyes. She leaned closer to her ear. Her voice was still as beautiful as a cello, but what she said made Jiang Nan’s body instantly turn cold.

“You should like this face.”

“Yes,” Jiang Nan said coldly, not denying it.

After saying that, she pushed Thanatos away and looked elsewhere. The darkness in her eyes made it impossible to tell what she was thinking.

Thanatos was right. She liked that face. When Thanatos had used this face and jumped off the tall building with her, the other person had already been carved into her bones, becoming that pure white moonlight, a cinnabar mole.

But… this also made everything she had done after leaving the instance a joke.

The others could tell the atmosphere between them was strange, but as outsiders, they didn’t know what to say.

When it was lunchtime, as Lin Jia had said, they were only given half an hour to eat.

The art students’ lunches had been cold for who knows how long, but they still gobbled them down in the oppressive, crowded space. Their eyes, which hadn’t been rested properly for a long time, were dark and bloodshot, still tightly fixed on their unfinished paintings.

During this time, the dean who had urged Jiang Nan and Thanatos appeared at the door. He didn’t pay attention to the students. He just looked at the paintings on their easels and nodded in satisfaction.

“That balding guy, right? He has the roster for the entire school?” Yan Xin said.

Jiang Nan was distracted, but Thanatos nodded beside her.

When the teacher got to the door, his arrogant attitude towards the students instantly turned obsequious in front of the dean. He bowed and scraped, showing the dean the list of people he had chosen.

The balding dean said something to the teacher. They both looked at the players hiding in the corner.

“Keep an eye on those two. They’re both freaks. What’s with the white hair and red hair? It’s just a pointless display.” The dean’s nearly nonexistent eyebrows were tightly furrowed. He didn’t like the looks of them one bit.

“What about today’s list then…” the teacher asked a little hesitantly.

“Let’s just leave it at this for today. Send them up the day after tomorrow.”

“Yes, of course. Have a good day.”

The teacher bowed and scraped, seeing the balding dean off. His gaze then gradually turned arrogant as he looked sternly at the two most conspicuous people sitting in the corner.

Thanatos tugged on Jiang Nan’s sleeve. Seeing that she still had no intention of responding, she was momentarily confused about why the other person was angry. But it was only for a moment. In the next second, she said to Jiang Nan.

“He’s looking at us.”

The teacher’s gaze was clearly malevolent, but Jiang Nan was in a bad mood and didn’t want to pay attention to any of it.

Jiang Nan suddenly had the desire to die, just like in the original instance. Unfortunately, they were only on the first floor. Even if she jumped out the window, she would only be leaving this classroom.

The thought of dying was an extremely dangerous behavior in an instance.

Thanatos seemed to have sensed something, and her eyes grew cold.

【Jiang Nan, don’t think about dying.】

Jiang Nan: …

Jiang Nan frowned slightly. The thought that had appeared in her mind was replaced by an inexplicable atmosphere. After she finally regained control, she glared at Thanatos and said.

“I won’t die.”

No matter how sorry she felt that the other person wasn’t a human in the last instance, she really wasn’t a “person.”

As it grew dark, they watched the clock on the wall turn to one o’clock. The students only turned off the lights after the teacher had left.

They really didn’t go back to the dorms. They actually slept in the art studio.

Yan Xin carefully avoided them. After she got to the door, she couldn’t help but complain.

“After a few days of this, won’t it stink?”

Lin Jia shook her head. She observed the darkness for a moment and said.

“There should be a set time for them to shower, but this is too strict.”

Hiding in the shadows, it was impossible for them to fight against the people in the higher classes.

Jiang Nan had just skirted around a person when she discovered that they were watching them with their eyes open. She stopped, wondering if she should kill them to keep them quiet.

At that moment, Thanatos pushed her out first. The student, who had been watching with their eyes open, timidly spoke.

“Are you trying to go out?”

Hearing the voice, they were all startled and looked at the person.

It was a small, thin girl. Her school uniform was a little too big on her, and she looked malnourished.

While the others were still thinking about how to answer her question, Thanatos didn’t deny it and just said “Mm.”

Jiang Nan glanced at her, then sized up the girl. Seeing that she didn’t seem to have any intention of reporting their unauthorized exit, she spoke.

“You want to go out too?”

The girl stood up and spoke carefully.

“Can I go out with you? I want to go to the office and cross my name off. I don’t want to go up there and die.”

Only then did they remember that this girl was one of the three people the teacher had chosen today.

They didn’t know the way either. To save time, they ended up taking the girl with them.

The path the girl led them down had to pass by the small sports field where the statues were placed. Under the cold moonlight, the smiles on the faces of those statues had turned into monstrous and pained expressions.

These statues made the girl a little apprehensive. She kept her head down and didn’t dare to look at them.

“I haven’t seen any of these statues before. Do we… do we have to draw them?” Lin Jia asked.

The girl walking in front suddenly stopped. She then quickly shook her head and said quietly.

“No, you two just got here so you don’t know, but someone in our art studio likes to make statues. They’ve killed a lot of our classmates, and that person still hasn’t been caught.”

As she spoke, a cold wind made her shiver, and she didn’t dare to look at the statues even more.

“They like to use the people from the classes above, right?” Jiang Nan asked, her gaze calm.

Jiang Nan’s gaze swept over the statues. She didn’t know if she was just seeing things, but she saw a figure hiding behind a statue, watching them. But it was gone in an instant.

The girl was silent for a moment, then nodded.

“If the teachers value the people from the classes above so much, why don’t they switch them?” Yan Xin asked, frowning.

She didn’t want the people below to die in place of the people above; she was just purely curious.

The girl bit her lip, and something flashed in her eyes.

“Because it’s useless.”

If they could, the people in the classes above wouldn’t need to find scapegoats.

The girl’s gaze finally fell on Jiang Nan and Thanatos. After hesitating for a moment, she said.

“You two should be careful. They seem to really dislike you.”

Finally, as if afraid they wouldn’t believe her, she added quietly.

“I heard it today.”

“I know,” Jiang Nan said, a dark emotion flashing in her eyes.

This instance, or rather every instance, was designed to target her.

Thanatos took advantage of the moment before Jiang Nan could react and grabbed her wrist. She smiled nonchalantly and said.

“We happen to want to go up as well.”

Jiang Nan didn’t argue. She just lowered her head and tried to shake her hand off. When she found that she couldn’t, a gloomy look crossed her face. Her mood was still a little low, but she had given up trying to care.

When the girl heard this, she looked at them in surprise. She wanted to say something to try and dissuade them, but Su Yue interrupted her.

“The statues are moving.”

Hearing this, panic flashed in the girl’s eyes. She quickly said.

“No, no, you must be mistaken. Let’s go quickly.”

She walked quickly in front, glancing around from time to time as if she was afraid of something.

They all saw it, but the girl clearly didn’t want to admit it. There was nothing they could do, so they just followed her.

Jiang Nan looked at the statues. It wasn’t so much that they were moving as it was that only their facial expressions were changing. It was as if their hands, feet, and bodies were trapped, and only their faces were twisting in pain.

But later, they didn’t expect the girl to lead them to a wall.

“We have to climb over. Our school is over there.”

As the girl spoke, she painstakingly helped them move a stone to use as a stepping stool.

“That’s another school,” Jiang Nan said.

The sound of people reading aloud they had heard in the morning had come from over there.

Hearing this, the others looked at the academic building where the lights were off. It really did look like another school.

After Yang Yi helped the girl move the stone to the corner of the wall, the girl said a quiet “thank you,” then said.

“No, that’s not it. That’s our school over there.”