nashuaworldcup Chapter 274 Principal Yan
Chapter 274 Principal Yan
While Yan Xun and Lou Yanchuan were discussing clues, Fang Shuo sent a message in the group chat.
Fang Shuo: I also graduated from Yunshan University.
[Fang Shuo: I didn't expect we were alumni!]
[Du Yun: Where's Lin Wen?]
Fang Shuo: She is too.
Yan Xun looked at the refreshed messages in the group chat and handed her phone to Lou Yanchuan. "What do you think?"
“The copy won’t contain useless information,” Lou Yanchuan said. “But we all graduated from the same school, and it doesn’t seem to have much to do with the secrets in our family.”
"Shu Fan is not Yun Shan; she and Kong Ling attend the same school."
Yan Xun leaned against the table to the side. "What is this, an alumni reunion?"
People in the group also felt that something was wrong.
[Buzz cut: No? What do you mean by making us all graduate from the same university?]
[Buzz Cut: Did they give this apartment a 50% discount to graduates from Yunshan?]
Fang Shuo: Shu Fan isn't from Yunshan, but she's also a homeowner.
Although the crew-cut man didn't continue speaking, his words expressed the sentiments of the players in the instance.
Why is this instance specifically designed? They all graduated from the same school?
“I think this clue might not be related to the secret in the house,” Yan Xun said. “If there are hidden quests in the dungeon, then maybe it will be related.”
Yan Xun thought for a moment and tagged the crew-cut guy in the group chat.
[Yan Xun: @Cuntou, please add the bamboo pole to the group.]
[Yan Xun: We're only missing one person in the group now. Add him in and see if any new clues emerge.]
Yan Xun thought that Cun Tou would object, saying that Zhu Gan was an NPC and couldn't join the group, but to his surprise, Cun Tou pulled Zhu Gan into the group without saying a word.
Bamboo Pole didn't say anything after joining the group; I wonder if he was still working and hadn't checked his phone.
The moment Bamboo Pole joined the group, perhaps because all the Yunshan University characters in the instance had arrived, a new task finally unlocked in the system taskbar—
Hidden Quest: My Secret.
[Cut-haired: ? Does it really require everyone from Yunshan to be present?]
[Buzz Cut: Did you guys get the notification?]
[Shu Fan: Received.]
[Shu Fan: Don't say this in the group chat.]
The guy with the buzz cut gave an OK emoji, probably thinking that Shu Fan was wary of the newbie who had just joined the group.
But Yan Xun knew that she was probably testing Lin Wen.
It's estimated that the intention was to test whether Lin Wen knew about the newly appeared hidden quest by refreshing the quest—NPCs cannot know the details of the quest—if Lin Wen was completely unaware of the new hidden quest, Shu Fan could determine the other party's exact identity.
Yan Xun then received a friend request notification.
Upon clicking, I discovered that the applicant was Du Yun.
He clicked "accept".
[Du Yun: What do you think that hidden quest means?]
[Du Yun: My secret?]
[Du Yun: Who is it? Who am I?]
"Is he stupid?" Lou Yanchuan also saw the three messages. "Or when did your relationship become so good?"
“Just average.” Yan Xun answered Lou Yanchuan’s second question, then replied to Du Yun.
[Yan Xun: I don't know.]
Du Yun probably realized that her question was a bit silly, so she sent a nodding pig emoji and ended her conversation with Yan Xun.
"Are you really unaware?" Lou Yanchuan asked.
Yan Xun sighed, "What do you think?"
“This ‘I’ is definitely related to Yunshan. The hidden quest was triggered because we all found our alma mater.”
“Excluding me, Duan Songen, and the others with the crew cut, we already knew about our alma mater beforehand.”
"But Du Yun and Fang Shuo were clearly unaware of it."
“This clue is hidden unless you look for it intentionally,” Yan Xun said. “The fact that pulling the bamboo pole in triggered the hidden quest further proves that this hidden quest is most likely related to Yunshan University.”
“We can’t leave the community to go too far.” Yan Xun looked at Lou Yanchuan. “So the instance definitely doesn’t require us to actually go to Yunshan University to look for clues.”
"Since we don't need to go now, it's highly likely that this secret happened in the past."
"We can uncover this secret by looking at the hidden clues."
Yan Xun is only a junior this year, and he is not in the same year as Cun Tou and others.
Logically speaking, there shouldn't be any deep connection between them.
Although the instance didn't explicitly state it, Yan Xun felt that the "I" in the hidden quest was most likely related to bamboo poles.
Yan Xun looked at the group chat, thought for a moment, and then added the muscular man as a friend.
The other party approved it very quickly.
Yan Xun sent a message directly—
[Yan Xun: Brother, I wanted to ask if your amusement park is still hiring? I'm looking for some summer jobs.]
[Muscular guy: It seems like there's a good demand for summer jobs lately. If you're looking, I can ask around for you.]
[Yan Xun: Thanks, bro! I heard some places are reluctant to hire summer workers because they think they'll quit after school starts. Is that the case here?]
[Muscular man: No, I can't.]
[Yan Xun: By the way, which area are you mainly in charge of, bro? I saw on the official website that this amusement park has many areas.]
[Muscular guy: I usually work at the convenience store, but it seems the haunted house is short-staffed lately.]
[Yan Xun: Brother, I have another question, though it might be a bit presumptuous... Could I ask why you're working at the amusement park? I heard that graduates from Yunshan University have easy job prospects, and my parents are hoping I'll get an office job after graduation.]
[Yan Xun: I heard that amusement park concession stands don't have educational requirements. Don't you think that's a bit of a waste?]
Yan Xun glanced at the message and thought it was so ridiculous it deserved a beating.
He hoped the muscular man wouldn't call him and yell at him.
[Muscular man: ...]
[Muscular man: I never said I graduated from Yunshan University. Don't bother worrying about the job prospects of Yunshan graduates, Principal Yan.]
After sending the message with a sarcastic tone, he ignored Yan Xun completely.
"He's quite well-mannered; he didn't call to scold me." Yan Xun handed the screen to Lou Yanchuan.
Lou Yanchuan exclaimed in amazement, "To be able to force an NPC to mock you, you're quite a character, Principal Yan."
“He didn’t say he graduated from Yunshan University. There’s no need for him to forge a diploma. He probably just said he graduated from high school and used his high school diploma,” Yan Xun said. “So why didn’t he say he graduated from Yunshan University?”
"Are you worried it will affect your job search?"
There are four people in the dormitory with crew cuts.
The short-haired rich second-generation shut-in is also the owner of the house.
Zhu Gan works at the convenience store near the entrance; his family is not well-off.
The man in the shirt had been applying for jobs widely, but hadn't heard back. He also had a falling out with his previous company, and it seemed like the company had something on him, since he didn't ask for compensation after being fired.
The muscular man works at an amusement park, deliberately concealing the fact that he graduated from Yunshan University.
"No matter how you look at it, the problem with their dormitory is the most obvious," Yan Xun said.
"What insightful opinion does Principal Yan have?" Lou Yanchuan asked.
"It's nothing special," Yan Xun said. "It's just my guess."
"It's highly likely that something major happened in this dorm before graduation. It was initially well hidden, but as it came to light... both the shirt-wearing guy and the muscular guy were affected."
"After graduating, Shirt was laid off, and her job applications went unanswered."
"The muscular man would rather say he graduated from high school than that he graduated from Yunshan University."
"What kind of situation do you think would make the muscular man actively conceal this experience, while the shirt, although not concealed, has repeatedly encountered setbacks?"
Lou Yanchuan leaned against the headboard. "A terrible incident has occurred in the dormitory."
There were four people in the dormitory, so Yan Xun didn't need to think too much about who the victim was.
Based on the clues we have so far, the bamboo pole and the muscular man are slightly closer, while the buzz cut and the shirt are closer.
If this heinous incident occurred because the muscular man let slip... and the other party, out of guilt, chose to deceive themselves and deliberately conceal the truth.
"But it's strange," Yan Xun said, "the muscular guy in the instance treated the bamboo pole as usual."
"There was no feeling of deliberately avoiding it."
“Perhaps the player doesn’t have this memory if the storyline isn’t triggered,” Lou Yanchuan said.
“That’s true.” Yan Xun nodded. “If we can find out the secret just by asking questions without triggering any plot clues, then Cun Tou and the others don’t need to look for clues. They can just use torture to extract the confession.”
As a player, the shirt and buzz cut won't appear in your memory unless you find the key clues.
"Do you think that being bullied for four years will affect Shirt and the others' ability to find jobs?" Yan Xun asked.
Lou Yanchuan smiled and asked, "How likely do you think that is?"
"Even if Bamboo Pole was bullied for four years, since Crew Head's family is rich and powerful, the whole thing will eventually be blurred into a minor conflict between Crew Head and his roommate. Everyone is young and hot-blooded, so some friction is inevitable."
Lou Yanchuan said, "The fact that this incident was so serious that it affected Shirt's job search and that he was fired by the company without daring to ask for compensation only shows that this matter is much more serious than simple bullying."
“Judging from this, the dormitory shouldn’t be the primary crime scene,” Yan Xun said. “The dormitory is too small, and there are people in the next dormitory as well. If the commotion is too loud, it won’t be able to hide it from others.”
"So the crime scene was somewhere else?"
"Where does the crew-cut guy live off-campus?"
Yan Xun recalled the bamboo-like body she had seen in the bathroom.
The bamboo pole was covered with dense scars, as if it had been smashed and pieced back together; ugly, centipede-like wounds covered its entire body.
Yan Xun mentally reenacted the scene from that time.
Bamboo Pole's biggest worry is probably that his roommates will find out he works at a funeral company.
Even on ordinary days, the buzz cut and shirt already ostracized him.
Once they find out that I'm working for a funeral company, they'll have countless reasons to bully me.
The only person in the dorm who knew this secret was the muscular guy.
The other party had promised Bamboo Pole that they wouldn't tell the two with the crew cut... Yan Xun thought the muscular man probably wouldn't tell them on his own initiative.
What could cause the other party to let something slip?
Drinking? Yan Xun pondered, could it be that the muscular man was drunk at the time and let slip that Bamboo Pole was working at the funeral company?
But bamboo poles and crew cuts have never gotten along.
If the other party rashly asks Zhugan to go to his house off-campus, Zhugan will definitely not agree.
Yan Xun thought for a moment and tagged the muscular man in the group chat.
[Yan Xun: @MuscleMan, before you graduated, did you go on trips and have parties together?]
[Muscular man: Yes?]
[Muscular man: What?]
[Yan Xun: Where are you? Our dorm is also discussing where to get together before graduation.]
Although the muscular man was a little annoyed by Yan Xun's previous question, he didn't hide it since Yan Xun had tagged him in the group chat.
[The muscular man: It's a villa owned by the man with the buzz cut. It's near a lakeside scenic area, and people often go there for vacation.]
[Yan Xun: That's too expensive, I'll take my leave.]
[Buzz cut: ...I also have a lakeside villa??]
[Muscular guy: You forgot? Before graduation, you invited us on a trip together.]
[Buzz cut: ...]
Yan Xun knew that this part of the story was completely absent from the memory of the man with the crew cut.
"It seems this happened during the graduation trip," Yan Xun said.
He could picture the scene: the four of them sitting in the villa owned by the crew-cut guy. The crew-cut guy was probably worried that Bamboo Pole would go around talking about what happened in the dorm after graduation, so he was pretending to try to ease the tension.
Unexpectedly, after a few rounds of drinks, the muscular man, who was drunk, accidentally revealed that Bamboo Pole worked at a funeral home.
Logically speaking, even if Cun Tou knew that Zhu Gan was working at a funeral home, Zhu Gan was about to graduate and they would have no further contact. Cun Tou shouldn't have been so angry as to kill him.
Yan Xun sent another message to the muscular man.
[Yan Xun: Isn't getting a buzz cut a bit of a bad habit?]
He asked the question cryptically, but the muscular man gave a straightforward reply.
[The muscular guy: He's a gambler, and he lost a lot before graduation. His dad told him to behave himself.]
Now that things have come to this, what is there left for Yan Xun not to understand?
Most likely, the muscular man accidentally mentioned that Bamboo Pole worked at a funeral home, and the crew-cut man immediately blamed Bamboo Pole for losing money.
Since the crew-cut man had always disliked the bamboo pole, and happened to be in his own villa, drunk—Yan Xun knew exactly what his reaction would be without even thinking.
"The bamboo pole was probably killed by the crew-cut guy," Yan Xun said.
He omitted the fact that Zhugan worked at the funeral home, only mentioning that Cuntou was a gambler.
Lou Yanchuan had already guessed where Zhugan was working, and combined with the chat in the group, he immediately understood what Yanxun meant.
"I suspect the shirt was also an accomplice."
The shirt was clearly designed to flatter the buzz cut guy, and since they were used to bullying the skinny guy in the dorm, the muscular guy thought it was better to avoid trouble and remained silent as an observer.
Bamboo Pole always looked sickly, and with two other men on the other side, one with a buzz cut and the other in a shirt, he couldn't fight back and was beaten to death.
"The crew-cut guy probably panicked after he found out that the bamboo pole had been killed, and he and the shirt discussed what to do."
"Neither of them wanted to go to jail, and they were also thinking that it was a lake area."
"Bamboo pole probably doesn't have any friends at school. With graduation approaching, and considering various factors, they decided to keep this a secret for now."
As for how to conceal it?
You can tell a lot by looking at the scars on the bamboo pole.
Yan Xun guessed that in order to keep the matter from being exposed, the muscular man also became an accomplice.
Yan Xun leaned against the table and remained silent for a long time.
He remembered catching a glimpse of the bamboo pole's name tag in the convenience store that day—
"The secret of the yellow-roofed house is that Xie Qingdu was murdered and dismembered by his three roommates before graduation."
The system notification, which had been delayed, finally appeared at this moment:
[Congratulations to player Yan Xun for discovering the secrets of the other residents!]
Side Quest 2: Discover the Secrets of Other Residents (A) (1/5)