The administrator was utterly baffled and questioned the security guards on duty outside. {What? You still don't know|.Reading.CＯＭ, read complete chapters without errors|Hurry up and Google it}
"While you were working the night shift yesterday and patrolling the library, did you see anyone?"
The security guards looked at one another, finding it strange as well. After thinking carefully, one of them said, "There wasn't anyone suspicious yesterday. Besides, the main door was locked, and all the windows were intact. It would've been hard for anyone to sneak in."
They patrolled once during the first half of the night and again during the second half, but hadn't heard a thing. Besides, the library was in a rather secluded location. There weren't many people around during the day, let alone at night.
"Then this is strange. Who could it have been?"
After several people investigated to no avail, they still had no leads. They had originally wanted to check the surveillance footage, but unfortunately, that area was a blind spot, completely outside the cameras' coverage.
Perhaps the person behind it all had counted on that, which was why they had acted so brazenly, provoking them time and again.
The administrator made a snap decision and installed a surveillance camera there.
"No matter what kind of demon or monster you are, you won't be able to hide now!"
However, when they arrived the next day,
books were still scattered across the floor, in the same places as before, as though they were taunting someone. Furious, the administrator dragged a security guard straight to the surveillance room.
"Well, look at you. Really stubborn, aren't you? Didn't you see the camera? I want to see which bored person is behind this."
He was determined to find out who was playing tricks.
However, after watching the surveillance footage for an entire day, they didn't see a person—there wasn't even the shadow of a ghost approaching.
Because that area was secluded and at the very back, the books placed there were miscellaneous works or books rarely borrowed. Not a single person passed by all day.
As he watched the empty footage, with the sun blazing outside, an inexplicable chill rose from the administrator's soles.
Even the few security guards looked frightened and couldn't help saying, "We've been watching this for more than half the day. Could there really be a ghost?"
The administrator forced himself to remain calm. "What nonsense are you talking about? How could ghosts possibly exist in this world? It must have been a person."
"It couldn't act during the day, so it must be operating at night."
That possibility was fairly likely. The books had all been opened, after all. Surely even a ghost didn't like reading books?
"Maybe someone comes in after I get off work, when there's no one in the library, and sneaks in while you're off your guard."
The group continued watching the surveillance footage. The images never changed, and they gradually grew drowsy, yawning nonstop.
It was already around eight o'clock at night.
"Bang!"
Suddenly, a muffled sound came from the surveillance footage, instantly drawing their attention.
However, when they saw the scene clearly, a chill ran through their entire bodies.
A book had fallen out of thin air. The surrounding doors and windows were all closed, and there wasn't the slightest breeze, yet it seemed as though some invisible force were at work.
The security guard was already getting on in years. He had thought working at the library would be easy and safe; when had he ever witnessed a scene like this? He nearly quit on the spot.
"T-There's a ghost here! There isn't even any wind around. How did the book fall?"
The security guard's teeth chattered as he spoke. At his age, he did believe in such things to some extent. Making money was important, of course, but his life was more important.
"Stop spouting nonsense. Maybe the book wasn't placed properly and fell by accident."
Although the administrator was somewhat frightened as well, he didn't believe in ghosts or spirits. He continued watching boldly.
Soon, a black figure appeared beneath the camera.
"Huh? What's that—"
The administrator quickly paused the footage, then enlarged it again and again.
It was actually a Little Black Snake!
How had this Little Black Snake gotten inside?
"How could there possibly be a snake here?"
The scene that followed was even more unheard-of and beyond reason.
The administrator and the security guard couldn't help widening their eyes. Although they were somewhat afraid, their curiosity drove them to grit their teeth and keep watching.
They saw the snake curl the corner of a page up with its tail and flip the book open with remarkable agility!
The security guard, who had wanted to quit moments earlier, was now completely frozen. He exchanged looks with the administrator, then even rubbed his eyes, thinking he was hallucinating.
"D-Did I see that right? It looked like a snake was flipping through the book just now?"
His companion wore the same look of disbelief.
The administrator rewound the footage and watched it again. Sure enough, it was a snake flipping through the book. Then the Little Black Snake coiled itself on top of the book, looking just as though it were—
reading!
At the same time, by slowing down the footage, he finally captured a frame from the instant the book fell.
At the moment the book was about to fall, the pointed head of a snake could be seen flickering in and out of view behind it. In other words, the book hadn't fallen for no reason—it had been knocked down by this snake.
Everyone looked at one another in silence. If they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, it would've been hard to believe that such an absurd scene could happen before them.
A snake had knocked a book off the shelf, then started reading.
What kind of operation was this?
That was the thought that surfaced in everyone's mind.
The security guard couldn't help muttering, "Could the books that fell over the past few days have all been because of this snake too?"
The administrator added from the side, "And although the books that fell each day were different, they were all the same type—classical Chinese texts and ancient books."
"Books like the 'River Diagram and Luo Scroll' and the 'Yi Jin Jing.' Even people can't understand them. Could a snake actually understand them?"
It was utterly ludicrous.
Everyone stared at the scene before them, unable to come back to their senses for a long while.
Now the truth had finally surfaced. It hadn't been a ghost—the troublemaker was a snake.
Yet this fact was even harder for them to believe than the existence of ghosts.
How could a snake possibly read books? It couldn't have become some kind of spirit, could it?
The next evening, the administrator didn't go home. Instead, he and the security guard hid there together, wanting to see whether the snake would return.
Unfortunately, by the following morning, the Little Black Snake still hadn't appeared. It seemed that its previous visits had merely been a whim.
"Perhaps this snake only comes here at night to find somewhere to rest. It just looks as though it's reading."
The administrator forced out an explanation, though confusion remained written across his face.
There were still many mysteries, however. Why had the snake gone to such lengths to knock the books down? And how was anyone supposed to explain its use of its tail to flip through the pages?
The more they thought about it, the less this explanation held water.
Yet they couldn't figure out what had attracted the snake and driven it to such abnormal behavior.
Even across the entire animal kingdom, this was something never before seen.
Unable to make sense of it, the administrator simply stopped thinking about it. In any case, the snake never appeared again after that.
It all became nothing more than a bit of folk gossip. No one truly kept such a matter in mind for long. After all, the mundane necessities of life and the smoke and fire of the human world were the norm.
The library once again returned to peace. Gradually, everyone forgot about the incident, treating it as nothing more than a strange tale. Some even wondered whether they had hallucinated at the time.
Only that stretch of surveillance footage recorded the extraordinary truth of it all.
(End of Chapter)