Chapter 17 The Survivor

The old professor sighed, his gaze towards Jiang Cheng filled with complexity, while Jiang Cheng raised an innocent and bewildered face, blinking at the old professor.

"You all go out," the old professor gestured to Qin Yi and the others. "I'll talk to them."

"Okay, okay, Professor." It was clear that Qin Yi respected the old professor, so without hesitation, he led everyone out, leaving the office to them.

"Professor, what brings you here?" Jiang Cheng moved closer, feeling an indescribable sense of kinship towards the old professor.

"If I hadn't come, you would have been transferred without even knowing it." The old professor paused, his gaze shifting as he looked at Jiang Cheng. After a moment, he continued, "Do you know about the swimming pool incident?"

"I know a little." Jiang Cheng recounted Yuan Xiaoyi's story to the old professor. Strangely, he felt no need to hide anything from him.

The old professor exuded a feeling that made Jiang Cheng trust him implicitly.

"Hoo—" The old professor exhaled, then turned to Jiang Cheng. "Yuan Xiaoyi told you this, didn't she?"

"Yes," Jiang Cheng replied.

"What she said is true, but not entirely." The old professor seemed to understand the weight of this buried past, his tone tinged with hesitation.

"Those high school girls didn't all die; someone survived." The old professor looked at Jiang Cheng and said, "The one who survived is Yuan Xiaoyi, the one you see now."

Jiang Cheng had already suspected this, so he wasn't surprised.

The school still allowed Yuan Xiaoyi to stay and continue her studies in her condition. It was clear that something was going on.

This could be seen as a form of compensation, both to silence her family and to keep Yuan Xiaoyi under surveillance.

"So, besides the girl who drowned, there were six other girls, five of whom died, and only Yuan Xiaoyi survived," Jiang Cheng said.

However, to his surprise, the professor shook his head. "Apart from the drowned child, there were only five others, but Yuan Xiaoyi was rescued in time."

"Oh, right." The old professor explained, "She was the last one. By then, the other children were already dead. She was at the police station, just finishing her account of the truth."

"When she was found, her head was stuck in the toilet, and her face was ruined. Fortunately, she was rescued in time."

"To mitigate the impact, the school spent a fortune on multiple surgeries for Yuan Xiaoyi to repair her disfigured face."

"She looks almost like a different person now."

After a pause, the old professor continued, "Moreover, to minimize the impact, the school made an exception and admitted her, even though her grades weren't high enough."

"Her name was also changed."

The word "name" caught Jiang Cheng's attention, and he immediately asked, "What was Yuan Xiaoyi's previous name?"

"Jiang Yanran," the professor replied without hesitation.

The fatty was so shocked that his mouth fell open, and he sprang up from the sofa. "Is that Jiang Yanran, one of the five missing girls?"

Was this person looking for herself?

The fatty felt his brain was short-circuiting again.

Jiang Cheng gave Huai Yi a look, and the latter immediately pushed the fatty back onto the sofa, signaling Jiang Cheng and the professor to ignore them and continue.

Fortunately, the professor's attention was focused on Jiang Cheng.

Various clues reassembled in his mind, and Jiang Cheng had a general idea of the mission. Now, all that was left was to fill in the details.

"Professor," Jiang Cheng looked at the old professor and asked in a low voice, "This Yuan Xiaoyi is the former survivor, Jiang Yanran. When did she become like this?"

"Right after she was rescued and woke up, her mental state was off. According to the doctors, she had suffered severe trauma and couldn't accept it psychologically for a while." The old professor explained, "After all, she was just a young girl. Besides, anyone who encountered such a thing would... would be unable to accept it."

The old professor seemed to want to say something more, but he moved his lips without making a sound. Finally, he sighed and said nothing more.

Through the previous investigation and the old professor's words, Jiang Cheng had figured out the general situation.

His previous guess was correct. As expected, the final swimming pool was the key to the mission.

And the person they had to save this time was the real "Yuan Xiaoyi," the only survivor of that incident, Jiang Yanran.

Leaving the school's security department, the group walked back, the sky darkening, and the streetlights illuminating one by one, emitting a dying light.

Jiang Cheng and Wang Qi walked in front, occasionally whispering to each other.

This made the fatty, who was following behind, very anxious. He wanted to eavesdrop but felt it was inappropriate. Huai Yi was with him, advising him not to go over, as they were obviously discussing serious matters, and it wasn't the right time to interrupt.

"Brother Huai Yi," the fatty raised his voice, assuming an attitude that suggested you were different from the three of us, saying sarcastically, "Watch your tone."

Having spent time with him, Huai Yi had realized that this fatty was a genuine person. Perhaps his abilities were frightening, but he was still reliable.

"What are you talking about?" Jiang Cheng stopped and looked back.

Wang Qi also turned around, her gaze towards the fatty different from everyone else's, a bit confused, but mostly filled with reluctance.

Hearing Jiang Cheng's call, the fatty immediately went over. "Doctor, tell me, what exactly is going on?"

"Is the thing following us the drowned high school girl from the swimming pool or the Heart-Eating Demon? I'm so confused."

"Both," Wang Qi said.

Hearing this, the fatty was stunned.

On the other hand, Huai Yi's brow slowly unfurrowed, as if he understood something.

Wang Qi looked at the fatty and continued, "The drowned high school girl is Yuan Xiaoyi's inner demon, or rather... Jiang Yanran's inner demon."

"The Heart-Eating Demon's method of killing is to invade a person's consciousness, find the dominant personality, and kill it, followed by physical death."

"But when it was killing Jiang Yanran, something went wrong."

"Jiang Yanran's mind collapsed under intense stimulation, and her sense of identity disintegrated. The dominant personality, Jiang Yanran, hid within five newly split secondary personalities."

The fatty belatedly widened his eyes. "So... the Yuan Xiaoyi who has been with us, introducing us to various urban legends, she's the ghost!"

"No, it's the Heart-Eating Demon, the Heart-Eating Demon has taken over her body!"

"The words she speaks are what the Heart-Eating Demon wants to convey to us!" The fatty's big head seemed to understand something, and he continued, "No wonder she always declined when we asked her to go with us to the urban legends at night to find her friends."

The body was Jiang Yanran's, but the consciousness had long been occupied by the Heart-Eating Demon.

And the reason the Heart-Eating Demon was so patiently guiding them was naturally to use them to kill all five personalities hiding in the urban legends.

Only in this way could it completely kill the only survivor, Jiang Yanran.

"But if that's the case, Jiang Yanran is hiding in the swimming pool urban legend, which is the Heart-Eating Demon's base camp." The fatty wondered, "How did she manage to avoid being discovered?"