The teaching building and the small plaza in front of it were both noisy, but farther back, everything grew very quiet. I could only just make out voices coming from ahead.
The basketball court was empty. Banners bearing slogans from a basketball game still hung on the iron fence surrounding it. Beneath the metal benches that served as the stands, a deflated basketball was wedged in a gap.
The person who had just delivered the waybill had already entered the clock tower.
The teaching building that housed the clock tower was long and narrow. The tower stood midway along it, built in a very traditional style, with a pointed roof that seemed to have a lightning rod on top. The teaching building below had only three floors. Counting the clock tower that rose above it, the whole structure was probably about five stories tall.
The first two teaching buildings from the main entrance weren't very tall, either. But the building beyond the clock tower looked to be more than twenty stories high. It resembled an office building, with a glass curtain wall through which I could see staircases and classrooms.
I glanced at the clock tower, but saw no one in its windows. Two of them had their curtains drawn. None of the classrooms were lit.
The clock tower's main entrance stood open. Its two doors were enormous—wide enough for three or four people to walk through side by side.
I approached and peered inside. I didn't see anyone or hear a sound.
I couldn't sense any yin energy. After quietly asking the little ghosts, I confirmed that they hadn't sensed anything, either.
Could that courier ghost not be here? Or had it gone back to the future world?
I thought it over, then cautiously stepped inside the clock tower.