"47, 47..."
In the darkness, vague whispers drifted down from overhead, growing faster and faster until they blurred together, almost as though they were calling Qi Si by his real name.
Qi Si lay flat on his back with his eyes closed, quietly ignoring it. But the voice refused to let up. At first, it only sounded from the upper bunk, but before long, it had reached his ear, blowing wisps of cold air against him.
Without betraying a hint of emotion, Qi Si covered the Pocket Watch of Fate beside his pillow with his hand and slowly opened his eyes.
After lights-out, there was no light anywhere in the world. He had assumed that without reflected light, he would be unable to see anything. Yet the moment he opened his eyes, he found himself staring straight into a human face.
The face hung by its neck from the edge of the upper bunk's railing, its head drooping down at an exaggerated angle. Its unevenly colored blackish-gray skin easily brought to mind a traditional ink-wash painting.
Its face was uneven, as though water might drip from it at any moment, and its hollow eyes stared fixedly at Qi Si.
When it realized that Qi Si was looking back at it, it murmured faintly, "You lying bad child. You killed us. You killed every one of us..."
Qi Si glanced at the rule on the system interface—"Nighttime chatting in the dormitory is forbidden after lights-out"—pressed his lips together, and said nothing.
The face would not give up, still chattering away endlessly. It was all the same old lines Qi Si had grown sick of hearing ten years ago.
He stared wide-eyed at the underside of the upper bunk, grumbling aimlessly to himself: *Don't ghosts get punished for breaking the rules? What