Those Classmates who Suddenly Disappeared-Chapter 1703: A Forest

Reluctantly and helplessly, everyone handed over their food and water to those desperados.

To prevent anyone from hiding supplies, the desperados rudely snatched everyone’s bags and searched through them.

"What are you looking at?" Old Five slapped Uncle Blacky hard across the face when he saw his indignant but silent expression. The slap was a loud one, meant to set an example.

To avoid suffering physical pain, everyone cooperated obediently, handing over their backpacks.

Old Three tossed a bag to Li Shi after inspecting several backpacks.

"This isn’t mine!" Li Shi picked up the bag and tried to return it to Gu Fan.

But Old Three was surprised. "Isn’t this bag yours? Why does it have your photo?"

At these words, everyone reacted in astonishment. Gu Fan’s face turned bright red, overcome with awkwardness, as he quickly grabbed the bag and hung his head low.

Old Five found it strange too. Picking up another bag, he asked, "Wait a minute, whose bag is this? Why does it have a picture of this male classmate?"

"What the heck!" Li Shi snatched the bag back hurriedly, both embarrassed and angry. "You guys rummage through girls’ bags and then start talking nonsense!"

With that, everyone was now completely baffled—Gu Fan’s bag had photos of Li Shi, and Li Shi’s backpack had photos of Gu Fan. Could it be...

The people around gave Gu Fan and Li Shi meaningful looks, as if to say, "You two, good job hiding this. How long has it been?"

Gu Fan tried to explain, "It must be that when you rummaged through our bags, you spilled out a lot of stuff and mixed things up when stuffing it back in."

"Oh, so it was us who got it wrong," Old Three and Old Five said with sly smiles. Everyone knew the truth—there was no way things had simply gotten mixed up while searching through bags separately.

The other classmates all had knowing expressions, as if they had already figured out there was something going on between the two of them, making Gu Fan and Li Shi even more mortified.

Someone commented, "Seriously? You could’ve just saved the photos on your phone. Why print them out? Now look, you’ve been exposed!"

Another classmate had a different opinion. "You don’t get it. If you keep photos on your phone and someone touches your phone—or when parents check it—you’ll be exposed anyway."

"Good point! Why didn’t I think of that?" The other classmates again gave Gu Fan and Li Shi meaningful looks.

At this moment, Gu Fan and Li Shi were so embarrassed that they avoided eye contact, diverting their gazes entirely.

Finally, someone curiously asked, "Come on, spill it—when did you two get together?"

"We didn’t! You’re misunderstanding!" Gu Fan protested in vain. No matter what he said, the others all looked like they didn’t believe him.

Although the atmosphere was initially quite terrifying, this sudden commotion brought a bit of levity, and everyone started laughing, feeling the tension lighten a little.

However, the boss couldn’t take it anymore. "Enough already! The most important thing right now is figuring out how to survive and get out of here. As for your lovey-dovey business, save it for when you make it out alive."

"Yeah, Gu Fan, you have to protect Li Shi now. That’s your responsibility as a guy," a few classmates said in a tone that seemed to support Gu Fan.

"Thanks, everyone. I’ll do my best," Gu Fan replied, giving up on explanations and deciding to simply let them think what they wanted.

Li Shi was already sitting on the ground, arms wrapped around her knees, her head buried in her arms—anyone could imagine just how red her face was right now.

Just then, suddenly, there was a noise from the roof that startled everyone.

"What’s going on?" Someone asked, just as another rumble came—louder and heavier than before—as dust started falling from the roof, drifting onto everyone’s faces.

As dust got into their eyes, everyone wiped it away while trying to focus on the roof, and soon enough, the fourth rumble came.

Gu Fan noticed a crack had formed on the roof. He immediately realized the danger and shouted, "Damn it, they’re trying to collapse the roof and catch us off guard!"

"What?" The boss also sensed trouble and hastily told everyone to run.

Unfortunately, in their panic, the group scattered and ran through both the front and back doors, splitting into two groups.

Gu Fan looked back and saw the others had already separated by some distance. He wanted to say something, but the roof suddenly collapsed, sending large chunks crashing down.

Luckily, they managed to escape just in time. Unluckily, the group had been split up.

Both Gu Fan and the boss realized that in such a situation, if everyone had rushed through a single door, they’d only end up crowding together, slowing down their escape and putting everyone at even greater risk. Splitting through the two doors was the only option.

The front door led to a street, while the back door opened onto a dense forest, behind which lay a small hill.

Gu Fan, Li Shi, the boss, Old Five, Old Six, Uncle Blacky, and eight others had fled through the back door. Facing the pitch-black forest, there was an overwhelming sense of isolation and danger.

The immediate priority was to circle around the area and reunite with the other group. Only by gathering everyone together could they have any chance of surviving.

Yet Gu Fan felt discouraged—houses in this area were built connected to one another, forming a long stretch. To circle around would require walking a considerable distance.

Someone griped, "What a mess! Why did they build everything so packed together? What kind of brainless design is this?"

Gu Fan agreed the layout was flawed, but this wasn’t the time to dwell on it. The critical question was whether to head left or right. Surely, the other group was also trying to figure out how to regroup.

If Gu Fan’s group moved left and the other group went the opposite way, they’d end up at opposite sides of the houses—a complete waste of effort.

Someone suggested retracing their steps to go back through the original building or perhaps another one to cut through.

The boss objected, "That building has been through enough turmoil—it could collapse at any moment. That thing might even be watching our movements, just waiting for us to go back inside so it can strike."

Feeling helpless, Gu Fan suddenly heard Old Three’s voice calling out from across one of the buildings, "Boss, are you all okay?"

The boss was delighted and immediately responded, "We’re fine. What about you?"

Old Three replied again, "We’re all okay, no one got hurt. But now what do we do?"

"Stay where you are. We’ll come to you right away," said the boss, quickly deciding their course of action.

Gu Fan had no objections. Looking back at the forest and then at the row of connected houses, he suddenly had an eerie hunch—it seemed as if these houses were built this way to conceal something in the forest.

Follow current novels on (f)reew𝒆bnovel