Those Classmates who Suddenly Disappeared-Chapter 53 - A History Lesson

53: Chapter 53 A History Lesson

53 -53 A History Lesson

The winter break was coming, and things seemed pretty peaceful lately.

Everyone was safe and sound, but Gu Fan and his friends didn’t let their guard down.

After all, their opponent could also be waiting for them to relax before striking back.

Like always, Gu Fan was attending classes at the university.

One of these was an elective course on foreign cultures, which he didn’t pay much attention to; it was purely for earning credits.

Gu Fan, Lin Xi, Lu Yi, and Jie were attending this elective course like the usual.

Their professor spoke about numerous small countries in the foreign lands, how these small nations rose and fell throughout history, and how it’s often impossible to verify whether many of these countries even existed.

The professor’s talk often captured their attention when he got to exciting parts, particularly when he spoke about the founders of these small nations being mostly locals from these foreign lands.

He talked out one rumor about a woman from the Central Plains who traveled to the foreign lands, conquered different tribes and territories, and eventually established a country known as the ancient Qian Ye.

This woman is also known as the first and only queen of these foreign lands.

But whether the ancient Qian Ye truly existed or not was still unknown.

It is said that it was buried and lost under a sky full of sand, lost forever.

There are many small foreign countries that disappeared for unknown reasons similar to this.

There are many versions of the tales involving the queen and the ancient Qian Ye.

Some suggest that the queen was ruthless, killing loyal subjects and punishing anyone who opposed her.

Eventually, her actions brought down divine wrath in the form of a massive sandstorm that buried her and the ancient country she built herself.

Another rumor was that this queen sought eternal life and brought in a high priest to perform a ritual.

In order to attain eternal life, twelve lives needed to be sacrificed in exchange.

As the class was about to end, Gu Fan found the illustrations in the textbook increasingly familiar, as if he had seen them somewhere but couldn’t remember where.

The illustration depicted a massive shadow, its silhouette resembling that of a city.

The surrounding scene suggested a sky full of blowing sand.

Within the sandstorm were twelve distorted figures, looking as if the wind had twisted them out of shape.

These figures seemed to be helplessly drawn towards the large black silhouette.

As the class ended, Gu Fan planned on heading home.

However, as Lin Xi was clingy, Gu Fan amiably walked with her, their affectionate interactions drawing envious glances from Lu Yi and Jie trailing behind.

In the middle of a conversation between Gu Fan and Lin Xi, Gu Fan’s expression changed abruptly.

This caught Lin Xi’s attention, and she asked, “What happened?”

“Nothing,” Gu Fan responded quickly with a smile, not divulging any more, and continued to walk Lin Xi to her dormitory.

After seeing Lin Xi enter the building safely, he finally felt relieved.

Seeing the couple finally part ways, Lu Yi quickly approached, “What about our drinks we’ve been putting off for so long, should we…”

“Sorry, I have an urgent matter I need to deal with at home,” Gu Fan quickly turned and rode off on his bicycle.

His swift exit was as if his house was on fire.

“Is it just me, or did Gu Fan seem off?” Jie wasn’t the only one who thought so.

Lu Yi also suspected that Gu Fan might have discovered something.

Indeed, Gu Fan had made a crucial discovery – the illustration in the history textbook.

He had been feeling that he had seen it somewhere before, and now he finally remembered where.

He rushed home as fast as he could.

Upon entering, Gu Fan hastily ascended the stairs without any regard for the old staircase’s fragility.

This worried Su Hui, who found Gu Fan’s disrespect towards the old house startling.

She scolded him, “What on earth are you up to?

Usually, you’re fussing at me to be gentle, and today, you’re treating this old house so harshly.”

Gu Fan rushed into his room and began frantically rummaging.

He couldn’t find what he was looking for anywhere.

Where could it be?

Where had he placed it?

Upon hearing the ruckus upstairs, Su Hui quickly went up to check.

She was taken aback to see the room in complete disarray, yet Gu Fan was still searching, looking increasingly desperate.

“What are you looking for, Gu Fan?” Despite asking, Su Hui did not receive a response.

Gu Fan seemed to be possessed, completely engrossed in his search, as if looking for a lifesaving straw.

Finally, Gu Fan found a painting from under his bed.

He immediately spread it on the floor, next to the page from the textbook with the illustration.

He started comparing the two.

“This is…” Su Hui came over, looked back and forth a few times, her eyebrows furrowed slightly.

She then asked, “What’s happening?

This painting and the book illustration seem a bit similar, don’t they?”

“Do you think so?” Gu Fan’s face darkened, seemingly making an unpleasant discovery.

Then Su Hui asked again, “Does this painting have any special meaning?”

Gu Fan gave a wry smile, “When we toured the ancient town, an old man sold it to me after our classmate, Zhao Rui, went missing.”

“What?

These two paintings are identical.

That’s quite a coincidence,” Su Hui said, beginning to feel this was more than just happenstance.

Gu Fan handed Su Hui the textbook for the history elective so he could see for himself, while Gu began pondering on this discovery.

Once Su Hui finished reading, he looked astonished.

“The contents of this book, the painting, and what’s been happening to you guys…

You don’t think there’s some sort of connection, do you?”

“Maybe there really is?” Gu Fan said, frowning.

He’d always found the old man in the ancient town to be rather cryptic in his high-handed manner.

But what if he’d given Gu this painting, and his story, as a warning?

With the textbook in hand, Su Hui re-read the passage.

“This book mentions that to gain immortality, one needs to exchange twelve lives.

Gu, you don’t think the missing students have something to do with this immortality thing, do you?”

“Otherwise, why would so many students disappear?

Why would they be abducted?” Gu Fan felt he had to consider this possibility, as ludicrous as it sounded.

These were the times of scientific enlightenment, not those of obscurantist superstition.

Su Hui objected, “We’re basing all this on a tiny amount of information and a rather vague painting.

This is not enough to draw such conclusions.”

“True, we know very little, but at least this gives us a lead.” With that, Gu Fan put away the painting and started scouring the web for any information on the ‘foreign lands’, hoping to find something of use.

But the online resources disappointed Gu Fan.

They were either incomplete, feeble attempts at concoction, or irrelevant to the ‘Queen’s country’.

Surely, it was the history of foreign lands, and not very well-documented.

But Gu Fan wouldn’t give up.

If the internet had nothing, perhaps the books would.

It was Saturday the following day, and everyone was free.

So, Gu Fan gathered everyone he could at the library, including Lin Xi, Lu Yi, and Jie.

Everyone wondered why they were at the library.

Had Gu Fan suddenly become studious?

But after Gu explained the situation, their faces turned hesitant.

This felt superstitious, somehow tied to the ‘foreign Queen’.

“Anyhow, first we must locate relevant books and scrutinize them.

We might stumble upon some discovery.” Gu Fan insisted.

If they could unravel the secret behind the disappearances, they could tackle it directly.

Although everyone was skeptical, they decided to support Gu Fan’s determination.

Hence, they walked into the library and started digging through the history section, mainly focusing on foreign matters, although they were scarce.

Book after book, they found nothing relevant.

It seemed like these foreign mini-states had no significant impact on history.

Many nations ceased to exist without even making a mark in history.

They spent the whole day to no avail, and as they were about to call it a day, Lin Xi found a clue.

One of the foreign nations was frequently in contact with the Central Plains during its heyday, often engaging in cultural exchanges.

This nation, named Great Night Country, had a long history and still had relics that were protected as historical cultural heritage.

However, the Great Night Country struggled during its development, frequently engaging in wars with other small nations, until it encountered a nation founded by a woman – then the tide began to turn.

The book mentioned that this woman, although hailing from the Central Plains, was crowned as a queen in the foreign lands.

Her invincible armies posed a threat to each country in the foreign lands.

Later, the Great Night Country sent an envoy to the nation founded by the Queen, which subsequently fell, though the book didn’t detail the causes.

Finding such information was a tough feat in itself, but it didn’t seem very useful.

If they needed more details, who knew how long they would have to spend, and it might be from a wild goose chase as there might not be a connection at all.

Gu Fan had doubted his judgment.

But recalling the old man’s cryptic warning from the ancient town stirred a foreboding in him, suggesting that Zhao Rui wouldn’t be the last to disappear, and this was only the beginning.

His fears came true as several more students went missing.

This made Gu Fan convinced that the cryptic old man from the ancient town was trying to drop hints and that the painting definitely held significance.

With this realization, Gu Fan resolved to pursue his investigation.

Others could quit, but he wouldn’t force them.

Gu was resolved to see this through, to cling to every iota of hope to bring Zhou Yu and the rest back.