"Why does Nora's diary tell a completely different story from what Tom said?" This thought troubled me, and then I remembered the last rule of the classroom:

Don't trust anyone's words.

My heart sank. Tom was lying! But why? And why did the others, who knew the truth about Nora, agree with him? What were they hiding?

As I pondered over the diary, a feeling grew within me: if I could unravel the truth about that year, I could catch the killer.

Quietly, I pulled out my phone and messaged Nora.

"Is Nora dead?"

"Yes."

"Is the diary truthful?"

"Yes."

My heart sank. My suspicions were confirmed.

"Is the killer of Alex among us?"

"No."

I gasped, staring at those words in disbelief.

I looked around. The expressions varied, but everyone seemed guarded.

With Lila's death, we were thirteen girls in the abandoned classroom. What was going on?

The killer wasn't among us?

Nora's chilly response sent shivers down my spine. Could there be more than one killer?

Suddenly, I recalled the shadow that locked us in the classroom. It seemed vaguely familiar.

I stared at the closed door, biting my lip, a bad premonition brewing within me.

Determined, I questioned Nora about each girl in the classroom, desperately trying to identify the killer.

But each inquiry was met with a "No."

How could this be?

I frowned deeply, staring at the chat. Could Nora be lying?

That's when a desk nearby was kicked violently.

"Are we just going to wait to die?" Tom barked furiously.

I coldly eyed him, "Did you lie about what happened to Nora?"

Catching a flash of guilt in his eyes, my heart skipped a beat.

"I didn't lie. Why would you think that?" Tom retorted coldly.

I remained silent, mindful of the first rule of the abandoned classroom.

Something was off about Tom.

I decided to confront him, "You said Nora came back for revenge and is among us. Then who was that shadow locking the door? What are you hiding?"

Suddenly, all eyes turned to Tom.

The people who had agreed with Tom before now looked nervous.

I locked eyes with Tom, seeing a flash of malice in his gaze.

Then, in a shocking turn, Tom pointed at me and accused, "Jiang Han, stop pretending. You're the killer."

I was dumbstruck, feeling a cold chill on my back. I wasn't the killer.

Someone from the crowd chimed in, "Right, it must be Jiang Han. She led us to this abandoned classroom. She's in cahoots with whoever locked us in here!"

Echoes of agreement filled the room.

"Certainly, she found Alex's body!"

"And she was the first to speak up about Emily."

I looked coldly at those speaking; they all knew the truth about Nora.

They were afraid I had discovered something.

How did Nora die?

Their eyes held a mixture of coldness and malice.

"Killing Jiang Han will save us all!" Tom shouted.

I stared at him in disbelief, my voice trembling, "You want to kill me? Murder is a crime. You can't escape it, and I'm not the killer."

Tom smirked coldly, "If we don't tell, who'll know how you died? We'll just say you were killed by whoever locked us in here."

Panic-stricken, I looked at the others.

Then someone spoke up, reminding of the classroom rule about being caring and kind.

Everyone fell silent.

Tom's face turned dark with thought.

I sighed in relief.

No one would risk their life, knowing I wasn't the killer.

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Soon, everyone dispersed to search for clues.

I could still feel eyes on me, as if waiting for a chance to end my life.

I slumped into the seat with Lila's name, overwhelmed by the day's horrors.

Leaning back, I suddenly noticed a newspaper in the desk. The headline was about a serial killer caught thirteen years ago...

The date of the paper was three years ago – the same day Nora died.

The last victim was a girl surnamed Xu, who had fallen from a building. The killer was found admiring her corpse but denied killing her.

I started piecing together the story.

The date in Nora's diary and the newspaper matched. Public opinion believed the serial killer murdered Nora, but why were Tom and the others so nervous when I asked about her?

What if Nora was pushed?

I glanced around the gloomy classroom. The day's events and clues seemed to be leading me to the truth about Nora's case.

But why? The person behind this knew the truth. Why not go to the police?

Chilling thoughts raced through my mind.

She trapped us in this remote school building, not just for us to discover the truth, but to experience the fear Nora felt before her death.

This was a game with rules leading to a terrifying end.

Then, the bell rang, spreading the eerie nursery rhyme throughout the building.

Lila's pale body lay in the corner, hinting at our grim fate.

"Quick, back to the classroom, the bell is ending!" I yelled.

Sweat dripped from my forehead as fear spread. Death seemed imminent.

In a panic, we all ran to the classroom, making it back just as the bell stopped.

Everyone exhaled in relief.

I collapsed onto the desk, reaching inside for a water bottle, but instead, I felt hair.

Disbelieving, I pulled out the item from the desk.

It was a doll in a red dress, smiling eerily...

"The doll's face was smiling, but it was smeared with a red birthmark drawn in pen, eerily similar to... Nora." Just then, Tom snatched the doll from my hands.

"I told you Jiang Han is the killer. The classroom rule states the doll won't smile, but look, the doll from Jiang Han's desk is smiling. What does this imply? Jiang Han is the killer," Tom accused, holding the doll menacingly.

A sense of dread filled me. The classroom rules didn’t require us to be caring, which meant Tom could harm me.

Out of options, I feigned composure: "Let's find the homeroom teacher. The rule says if the doll smiles, report it immediately to the teacher."

"You wouldn't want to break the classroom rule, right?" I said, staring coldly at Tom.

Our eyes met, each filled with determination and malice.

Suddenly, the door opened. The homeroom teacher walked in, glanced at the doll in Tom's hand, and her expression turned to horror. "Did you take this doll from your desk? It's smiling. Why didn't you report it to me immediately? You dared to break the classroom rule!"

Tom, as if burned, quickly tossed the doll at me. "No... It's not mine. It’s Jiang Han’s. She’s the one who broke the rule."

I pressed my lips tightly together, looking at the homeroom teacher. She gazed back at me, her tone grave, "The original doll had no smile. Now that it's smiling, it means the person who took it is the killer..."

Hearing this, everyone stepped back in fear, staring at me.

I felt uneasy.

But strangely, upon hearing this, Tom looked even more terrified, almost panicked.

"Grab Jiang Han; she’s the killer. If we catch her, we'll all be safe," someone in the crowd shouted.

They were about to seize me when suddenly the lights went out, plunging the room into darkness.

A piercing scream echoed, followed by a heavy thud outside...

Tom was dead.

He had fallen from the fourth-floor window.

The window was too high for an accidental fall; he was pushed.

When Tom died, the lights in the classroom immediately came back on. This was no coincidence.

But why would Tom die? He hadn't broken any classroom rules. The one who had was me.

Then it hit me!

I remembered that during the bell, we all ran to this classroom, and Tom was the first to enter.

Combining this with the teacher's statement about the person with the doll breaking the rule, Tom's reaction made sense.

Perhaps the doll was originally in Tom's desk. After finding it smiling, he got scared and didn't report it, so he planted it in my desk to frame me.

Tom had been breaking the rules all along.

But what did the teacher mean by 'killer'?

The doll's smile indicated the person with it was the killer.

But now Tom was dead. He couldn't have been orchestrating everything.

I stared out the window, feeling a strange familiarity.

All these events seemed oddly discordant. Why did this feel so familiar?

Then I realized.

Nora's death had been a fall from a building, just like Tom’s.

The teacher wasn't referring to the person who killed Alex and Emily or manipulated these events.

She meant the person who killed Nora.

I glanced at the homeroom teacher, only to find her staring at me...

Her gaze was icy, like looking at a dead person.

My heart skipped a beat.

Suddenly, the teacher pointed at me: "Jiang Han pushed Tom. I saw it with my own eyes. She is the killer."

I realized then.

The teacher who pushed Tom was trying to frame me. During the blackout, only the teacher and I were near Tom. And the shadow that locked us in the abandoned classroom, which felt familiar, must have been her.

The homeroom teacher was the mastermind.

"No, you're the killer. You're seeking revenge for Nora. What’s your relation to her? What really happened back then?" I confronted her coldly.

A tense standoff ensued, with everyone’s eyes shifting between us, on high alert.

I shouted, "Did you forget we were locked in the abandoned classroom? I was with you. How could I be the killer? All the events that happened today, in this building, it’s only us and the homeroom teacher. Who else could have locked us in the classroom? Isn’t it obvious?"

Everyone turned to look at the homeroom teacher, realization dawning on their faces.

The teacher just sneered, "Jiang Han, your acting is convincing. I know you have an accomplice. Remember, every victim was discovered by you. Isn’t that too coincidental?"

Someone in the crowd suggested, "Let's tie them both up and call the police. The realization hit me like a cold wave. Everything made sense now.

"No, we can't just tie us up. There’s another culprit among us. If we don't find them, we're all in danger."

Without waiting for a reaction, I seized the moment to dash out.

I had to catch the other killer. As I ran, I called the police, but it would take them fifteen minutes to arrive.

Sweat trickled down my forehead. If I could just survive these fifteen minutes, I might make it.

Reaching the abandoned classroom, I confronted the familiar figure in front of me. "Jiang Lila, so it was you all along."

Jiang Lila, presumed dead by everyone, stood before me, her expression icy.

"How did you know it was me?" she asked flatly, devoid of emotion.

"Because the cause of death didn't match."

The events of the day had seemed strange and familiar, but I couldn't pinpoint the anomaly until someone mentioned calling the police. It clicked then.

Jiang Lila's supposed death was staged. She feigned death to prevent us from calling the police. Though we were monitored, it was hard to constantly watch, and controlling the signal jammer wasn't foolproof. She had orchestrated her 'death' to instill in us the belief that calling the police was fatal.

In the midst of the chaos and fear, with our adolescent minds, we never questioned the strangeness of it all.

Everyone subconsciously believed calling the police was a death sentence, as was breaking the classroom rules.

If not for finding Nora's diary and Tom's subsequent death, I might not have realized.

The pattern of the deaths mirrored Nora's experiences as described in her diary: bullying, betrayal, and ultimately a fall from a height.

But Jiang Lila’s ‘death’ was unrelated to Nora's experiences.

"Indeed, you're sharp," Jiang Lila said with a cold laugh.

"Why did you do this? If you knew who killed Nora, why not go to the police?"

Her laughter turned manic. "Go to the police? Without evidence, and considering their age..."

"But my sister was dead. How could I just let it go?"

In the ensuing moments, Jiang Lila revealed the events of the past.

Jiang Lila and Nora were twins, yet they were as different as day and night. Lila was fair and beautiful, the epitome of innocence, while Nora suffered from a facial birthmark and a sallow complexion, often being mocked as a clown. Their personalities were also starkly opposite: Lila was outgoing and smart, excelling in her studies, whereas Nora was introverted and struggled with her self-esteem and mediocre grades.

Lila was the elder sister, and Nora the younger. Their parents divorced when they were in primary school. Each parent took one child, and Lila changed her surname to match her mother’s, who was actually the homeroom teacher in their story.

Nora lived with their alcoholic father, who verbally and physically abused her, always criticizing her appearance and considering her a burden. Despite this, he refused to let Nora live with their mother, only keeping her for the child support payments.

Despite the divorce, Lila and Nora remained close, with Lila frequently visiting. However, their meetings dwindled during junior high.

Lila initially thought Nora was just busy with studies, until that fateful day - December 28, 2016, Nora's death day. They had planned to celebrate their birthdays together at their secret hideout, an abandoned building in the old district. They used to sit on the rooftop, stargazing and dreaming of the future. Nora had aspirations of getting plastic surgery, yearning to be ordinary.

However, that birthday wish was buried with her that rainy night. Lila, worried about Nora, went to their hideout only to witness a group of people, including Tom, surrounding and shoving a girl on the rooftop, accompanied by mocking and insults. A flash of lightning revealed the horrifying truth - the girl was Nora, and she was pushed off the rooftop by Tom.

Lila rushed to the scene, but Tom and the others had fled, and the heavy rain washed away any traces of evidence. The abandoned building had no surveillance, leaving no evidence but Nora’s lifeless body.

Lila was torn between wanting the culprits caught and punished and wishing they escaped justice so she could avenge Nora herself. While collecting Nora’s body, they found her diary at her residence, revealing the bullying she endured for an entire year.

She lived in despair and pain, unwilling to tell Lila for fear of causing her trouble. Nora hoped for relief each sunset, believing endurance would see her through. But after a harsh winter, Nora was gone from this world.

Standing in the abandoned classroom, watching Lila immersed in grief, I was at a loss for words.

"The people who bullied Nora are dead, and there’s no need for more violence. Nora had nothing to do with us."

Lila smirked meaningfully, "True, but do you think you can escape?"

I was puzzled.

Then, the police arrived, and Lila was apprehended. As she was led away, she gave me a triumphant look, chilling me to the bone.

"Officer, there's another culprit in the high school second-year classroom on the fourth floor," I said urgently, grabbing the officer's sleeve.

As we approached the classroom, my unease grew, especially recalling Lila's last smile.

Suddenly, the smell of smoke filled the air. The classroom was on fire, and the door was locked from inside.

I kicked at the door, hearing cries from within: "We didn't mean to kill your daughter. It was just a prank gone wrong. It was Tom who pushed her, not us. Please, let us go."

"We didn't mean to bully her..."

"We're sorry..."

The door was finally broken open, revealing the teacher, who coldly said, "How does it feel to burn? That pain is what my daughter felt when you burned her with cigarettes."

The fire was extinguished quickly, but the teacher and several students were hospitalized for carbon monoxide inhalation. The students' physical injuries would heal, but the scars would remain. The teacher, diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer, worsened by the smoke inhalation, didn't survive.

Lila was sentenced to life imprisonment for premeditated murder.

A year later, after my high school exams, I visited Lila in prison. She expressed regret for inviting Nora to the hideout that day, believing it led to the subsequent tragedy. I remained silent, unable to condone Lila's actions, yet aware that the true wrongdoers were the bullies...