Volume 3 Chapter 1 Part2 (1/2)

Illusions, Lies, Truth Volume 3: In the Name of G.o.d, Part One

Original novel in Chinese by: 御 我 (Yu Wo)

Chapter 1: College Life Part 2—What Happened to the Promised Films Studies Society?—translated by lucathia (proofread by Trespa.s.serby)

In the end, Jiang Ziya didn't give Jian Zhi a call beforehand. Who knows if making a call would be an invitation?

Even though he felt he was being too paranoid, the situation at home was complicated. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It wouldn't be too late to enter Jian Zhi's number under his contacts after Lu Yang had taken a look at him and made sure there was nothing iffy about him. Besides, he didn't care whether or not he had a good seat to watch the movie.

He followed the directions on the flyer and arrived at the student union building. He hadn't thought it would be so populated here. Several students had formed a crowd in their approach, and they greeted each other as they got on the elevator and even waved for Jiang Ziya to quickly get in.

Jiang Ziya shook his head and looked down at the flyer. On it was written: ”Bas.e.m.e.nt, level one. Please take a right turn at the elevators, walk to the end of the corridor, and use the stairs to go down.” Earlier, when he had read this, he hadn't thought much of it, but now that he had seen all the students take the elevator up, he started to feel something was off.

But if the audio-visual room for watching the movie needs to be soundproof, it's not odd for it to be in the bas.e.m.e.nt? Jiang Ziya thought it over and felt he was worrying too much. The student union building was even livelier than the location of his cla.s.ses. People came and went. Even standing in front of the elevator made him feel he was very much in the way. It would be too stupid to plan an ambush here.

After laughing at himself for jumping at nothing, Jiang Ziya walked directly to the end of the corridor indicated on the flyer. Looking at the deep staircase, he abruptly recalled when he had first discovered the strangeness of the twins and had wanted to get Xiao Xue out of there to throw her away. He had faced such a staircase then too…

But the situation was still rather different. At the time, the staircase had been so dark that he hadn't been able to see the stairs past a few steps. On top of that, the darkness had absolutely no increments to it, as if it were a steep cliff. Any closer, and he would have fallen into a bottomless pit.

However, the stairs in front of him grew darker the farther down it went, and he could faintly make out the flat intermediate floor where the stairs turned.

Suddenly, the staircase brightened, and a person stuck his head out to look up, crying out in surprise and elation once he spotted someone there. ”Jiang Ziya!”

When that person had stuck his head out, Jiang Ziya had immediately noticed him for no other reason than the presence of the eye-catching angel, who was even glowing. Even if he didn't want to notice, he couldn't. He raised his hand and said, ”Hey!”

Jian Zhi rushed up and excitedly said, ”I didn't get your call. I thought you weren't coming!”

”Oh, I felt that it's fine even if a seat isn't saved for me.” Jiang Ziya tried his best to ignore the angel that was flying behind him joyfully.

”I get you!” Jian Zhi nodded and said, ”Have you had dinner yet?”

”Nope.”

”Awesome, we have snacks before the screening. Come on!”

Jian Zhi hurriedly pulled Jiang Ziya down the stairs.

This club must really be unpopular? Jiang Ziya wasn't concerned about it. After all, he had come in the first place with the intention of appeasing Jiang Yu. The less the club required, the better.

After arriving at the bas.e.m.e.nt, he saw that the layout wasn't all that different from the floor above it. First was a great hall and then a long hallway to each side. Both sides led to several rooms.

The lighting was very dim, the surroundings fairly decorated. A few rows of chairs had been neatly lined in the middle. A white projector screen was directly ahead, the frame currently paused on the movie's t.i.tle screen. There were even spider webs hung about the walls around them, as well as tattered cloth, ghost masks, and the like. He could tell that they were for the sake of creating a scary atmosphere, which had heart but wasn't all that polished.

”No club wanted to use the bas.e.m.e.nt, so the school let us use it!” Jian Zhi happily said, ”Isn't it awesome? We're allowed to use such a large s.p.a.ce however we like. You can even borrow a room to watch films!”

”That is pretty cool.” Jiang Ziya felt they could borrow a room for Lu Yang to show off his swordplay or something, but why would no one want to use such a large s.p.a.ce? Even though it's the bas.e.m.e.nt, students shouldn't be so particular about it, right?

There really weren't that many people present, just about twenty or so, and several of them were looking around, curiously observing their surroundings. They didn't seem to be old club members. Most were probably like him who had come to partic.i.p.ate in the club activity.

Jian Zhi played host and said, ”Come over and eat. The female club member responsible for preparing the snacks is super good at it. They're delicious!”

Jiang Ziya didn't hold back, following Jian Zhi over to the dining area. After all, he intended to join the club, so he wasn't freeloading. That gave him peace of mind.

”Jiang Ziya?” a girl exclaimed.

Jiang Ziya stilled and looked toward the person who had called out to him. Isn't that girl standing near the soup and serving it no one else but Lin Zhixiang?

Lin Zhixiang asked a bit nervously, ”W-Why are you here?”

Seeing her expression, Jiang Ziya didn't quite know how to respond. Ever since the supermarket incident, he had thought that this girl would seek him out, but she hadn't done so at all. It was like they had never escaped from the supermarket together, though she had been out of sorts at the time.

Lu Yang said this wasn't odd. After many people experienced this kind of thing, they itched to forget about it completely. First, they would avoid everyone involved, and then they would begin to suspect whether it had just been a dream. Following that, they would completely forget it was something that had happened in real life, writing it off as something from a dream, movie, or even a novel or comic.

However, with the kind of reaction Lin Zhixiang had, she probably hadn't forgotten?

”He's a new club member I roped in!” Jian Zhi said excitedly.

Hey hey, I haven't agreed yet! Jiang Ziya rolled his eyes, but seeing Jian Zhi doing his utmost to hint with his glances, and the angel behind him similarly following suit with a worried gaze, Jiang Ziya could only rub his nose and nod.

”You're joining?” Lin Zhixiang was taken aback for a moment. ”Oh, it's fitting for you to join this club though.”

Why is she saying something so strange? Jiang Ziya frowned, but then he thought of the scary atmosphere around them. All right, recent events have been a bit scary.

”You know each other?” Jian Zhi asked curiously.

”Um, not really. She fainted one time at the school cafeteria, so my friend and I took her to the infirmary.”

Jian Zhi took in their awkward expressions. No matter what, that doesn't look like an expression someone would have when meeting one's savior? He rubbed his nose and said, ”I thought you were exes.”

”Nothing like that!” Jiang Ziya protested.

Lin Zhixiang's face reddened. She understood that her att.i.tude was inappropriate. She quickly explained, ”That time, I woke up halfway and didn't have a grasp on the situation. I thought he was a bad guy, so I slapped him.” As she spoke, she caught Jiang Ziya's eyes to clue him in.

”Oh…” Jian Zhi looked at Jiang Ziya with sympathy and said, ”That sucks.”

”It wasn't a big deal.” Jiang Ziya could only follow along. Both of them were hinting at him one after another. He really didn't know what they were doing.

Seeing that she had successfully bluffed her way out, Lin Zhixiang let out a sigh of relief. She quickly asked, ”Want something to eat? You haven't had dinner yet, right?”

Jiang Ziya nodded.

Lin Zhixiang immediately got two plates of food and a bowl of soup together in a hurried manner. Jiang Ziya couldn't carry it all, so even Jian Zhi had to help him. ”Come back for more if it's not enough.”

Jiang Ziya lifted an eyebrow. Are you stuffing me like a pig, or is this your way of thanking me?

”Thanks.” I'll treat it as the latter. After all, we survived through a life-and-death situation together.

Carrying a large amount of food, Jiang Ziya could only sit down first and eat dinner. If nothing else, this food was really quite delicious, even though it wasn't as good as the all mighty butler's handiwork across his place, but this quality was definitely on par with the common housewife's. It could give his sis a run for her money. Normally, if food that students prepared for club activities was fit for consumption, that was already good enough, not to mention being delicious.

Jian Zhi said while smiling, ”Pretty good, right? Lin Zhixiang is a great cook. She always prepares the food for club activities.”

”You're not eating?” Jiang Ziya felt a bit embarra.s.sed to be the only one gorging himself.

”Us club members have all already eaten.”

”Oh.” Jiang Ziya nodded.

”Take your time. I'm going to show the others around. If you have any questions, feel free to come find me.”

”Speaking of that, how do club fees work here?” Jiang Ziya asked a fairly practical question. He was someone in debt. He had to haggle over every cent!

Jian Zhi's eyes brightened, and he lowered his voice to say, ”If you join, I can help waive your fees!”

…Just how badly do you need people?

Suddenly, Jiang Ziya didn't dare to agree to join. Is it so hard for clubs to get people to join nowadays? Faced with double the hopeful expressions from both Jian Zhi and the angel, Jiang Ziya forged on and said, ”Let me see if the club activities interest me first.”

”Ah… I get you.” Jian Zhi and the angel both appeared pitiful, as if they had withered.

Jiang Ziya felt like he was the guiltiest person in the world, but this club was so in need of members that even the club fees were waived. No matter how he looked at it, something had to be wrong. It was best for him to test the waters first. If no one was joining because it was too boring, then he could join and make up the numbers. But if it was because of some other reason, then he had to reconsider it.

Jiang Ziya ate so much that he was stuffed. Just as he finished eating the food on hand, the event this time was about to start. Not only had the number of people not increased, there were even fewer people than earlier. Don't tell me they ran off after eating their fill? How ungrateful.

Unfortunately, this guess seemed to be right. A few people who looked to be club members all had on depressed expressions. Jiang Ziya took a count. Those sitting on the chairs probably weren't club members. There weren't even ten of them, and that was the result after he had counted himself too.

Following that, the club activity officially began. A few club members took turns on stage to introduce ghost houses and some ghost stories from many different places. They showed several spooky photos, and then they also had several people verify them, proving that some of them were fake, but some of the rumors actually seemed to have truth behind them and could not be disproved.

Jiang Ziya nodded. They were doing a decent job. Telling some ghost stories before watching a horror film would definitely make it even scarier. It was just that using this technique on him was useless. Ever since he was small, just what hadn't he seen before? Besides, the glowing angel was floating by the podium. I really can't feel scared at all…

”Now, let us enjoy the film. It is said to be adapted from true events, based on real people. Of course, whether that's true or not is for you to decide.”

Jiang Ziya greatly enjoyed the screening of the horror movie that followed. He didn't remember how long it had been since he had last watched a movie. There doesn't seem to be anything bad about this club. Maybe everyone just likes clubs that require you to be more active?

After the movie ended, he returned to himself and suddenly felt uneasy. He immediately turned to look. All of the club members were standing behind him, watching him with expectant eyes.

All of the other seats were empty.

Jiang Ziya felt very pressured…

Jian Zhi carried all of the club members' antic.i.p.ation, walking over and asking, ”Um, Ziya, what did you think of the club activity?”