During evening study, the math teacher brought in three new students. All three had pale, bluish faces and blood-red pupils. One glance was enough to tell they were anything but normal.
Ye Chu's heart sank. It seemed their suspicions had been right. The previous students had probably all been converted into the monster's followers through some means.
"These are your new classmates. Make sure you get along with them." The math teacher's voice was icy. Then she added, "Oh, and the last exam covered the sciences, so the next one will cover the humanities."
Ye Chu jerked his head up and stared at the math teacher in disbelief.
They could switch the exam subjects just like that?!
Sensing his shocked gaze, the math teacher's smile grew even more sinister. "Everyone, remember to study hard..."
With that, she walked out of the classroom, her high heels clicking against the floor.
Ye Chu immediately carried his stool to the back row beside Wu You and Lu Rui. His expression grave and determined, he said, "We have to leave the game this Friday!"
Wu You and Lu Rui exchanged a glance and blinked. "Why?"
Ye Chu's expression grew even more serious. "Because I'm absolute trash at humanities."
Wu You asked uncertainly, "How bad are we talking?"
"Back when we had to choose between the science and humanities tracks, I could only score in the eighties in history and geography..."
Wu You and Lu Rui sucked in a sharp breath. They knew it. Trash, his ass. Ye Chu was just humblebragging.
"And I scored below fifty in politics."
Wu You's sharp intake of breath abruptly stopped halfway. "Below... what?"
Ye Chu pressed his lips together, clearly unwilling to repeat that shameful piece of his past. His classmates back then had jokingly called him an octagonal warrior.
"Ye Chu, I feel like you're dangerous. With grades like that, you're practically a villain with no morals! Hahaha!"
"Brother Ye, you never disappoint! A raging whirlwind in the sciences, a delicate Lin Daiyu in the humanities! Hahaha!"
Even his politics teacher had pulled him aside, pointed at his test paper covered in red crosses, and asked, "Ye Chu, come on, tell me. Do you have something against me?"
Ye Chu: "..."
Could I just say I genuinely didn't understand political philosophy?
Absoluteness, relativity, inhering in, containing... It wasn't quite that he couldn't understand it. Just looking at that section gave Ye Chu a headache.
"Then that settles it. We have to finish this fight on Friday night." Wu You immediately nodded and tossed her math workbook into the trash with a swish.
"Come on, let's talk tactics."
Ye Chu: "..." You didn't have to be quite that quick about it.
"The Laboratory Building on Friday..." As he spoke, Ye Chu glanced at Wu You and Lu Rui. "Youyou, Sister Lu Rui, you two should go."
Wu You and Lu Rui nodded as Ye Chu continued, "Feng Zi and Xiao Pei will definitely be there. You might see people with wolf heads or fox heads, but don't be scared. Just remember it's them."
"What do we need to do?"
Ye Chu interlaced his fingers, plotting something neither of them could fathom. "The monster has been holed up in the Laboratory Building all this time. There must be something important to it there. The four of you should search the building."
"Okay." Wu You asked again, "What will you be doing, Brother Ye Chu?"
Ye Chu's lips curved into a smile. "Well, I'll be watching the teachers and making sure the handoff goes smoothly."
"Okay." Wu You nodded again. She didn't doubt Ye Chu's plans or decisions in the slightest.
Meanwhile, Su Fengzi had been sprawled over his desk, drawing in his Five Years of Exams, Three Years of Practice workbook, when he suddenly hissed and sat upright.
"What's wrong, Brother Fengzi?" Hearing him, Pei Yanchuan turned his head and nudged Su Fengzi's desk with his back.
Su Fengzi asked uncertainly, "Pei Xiaohu, would you say... Ye Chu is a cautious person?"
"Yeah." Pei Yanchuan was a little puzzled by the question. "Why are you suddenly asking?"
Su Fengzi shook his head. "A few images just flashed through my mind. I couldn't make them out clearly. I've probably done so many problems I'm hallucinating."
Right. Ye Chu was a cautious person. That must have been a hallucination.
Pei Yanchuan looked at the workbook on Su Fengzi's desk. Five little figures filled the space meant for written solutions. Only the long-haired one looked carefully drawn; the other four had crudely scribbled faces.
"..."
Was he sure solving problems had caused those hallucinations?
Pei Yanchuan couldn't be bothered to correct him. He turned back to the cleaning roster in his hand, picked up a pen, and mercilessly crossed out the names there, replacing them with "Dad and Auntie Su."
Su Fengzi had already given up on correcting him. Still, though... Dalang.
Friday evening soon arrived. Most of the students were still studying in their classrooms when Pei Yanchuan and the other three headed to the Laboratory Building with brooms and cleaning cloths.
Contrary to their expectations, they saw no strange animal heads after entering this time. Instead, they saw actual, living people.
Perhaps it was because the illusion in the Laboratory Building had already been broken the previous week.
When Pei Yanchuan saw that Ye Chu hadn't come, his raised brows immediately drooped. He looked a little disappointed.
"Brother Ye Chu said he had other things to do, so he sent the four of us to look for clues." Wu You could tell at a glance what Pei Yanchuan was thinking. She rolled her eyes before explaining.
"Do you... feel like there's something strange about this Laboratory Building?" Lu Rui surveyed the unfamiliar surroundings. There was an indescribable eeriness to the place, and even the air seemed to carry a chill.
"Definitely." Su Fengzi rubbed his goosebump-covered arms. "How about we hold hands as we walk, just in case something happens?"
"Okay."
Holding hands, they cautiously headed deeper into the corridor. The farther they went, the colder the air seemed to grow.
At some point, several oil paintings had appeared along the corridor. They depicted a medieval church, where a group of cloaked figures knelt devoutly around a circular pool, their hands clasped in faithful prayer.
As they passed a room, the sound of running water suddenly came from inside. Lu Rui looked toward it and saw bright red liquid pouring from the faucet. Black tentacles crawled out of the sink and crept toward them.
She shuddered, involuntarily tightening her grip on the hands of the people ahead of and behind her.
Lu Rui suddenly froze. The temperature seemed to have dropped even further.
Wait. She had been the last in line. Her left hand was holding Wu You's, so whose hand... was her right hand holding?
Her heart gave a violent thud. Lu Rui whipped her head around and found herself face-to-face with a man. She quickly pulled her hand free, drew the knife hidden behind her waist, and raised it high.
The man she was pointing the knife at blinked in confusion. "Sister Lu, what's wrong?"
Still wary, Lu Rui took several sheets of paper from another pocket. Faces had been drawn on them, and she compared them one by one. When she turned to one particular sheet, her gaze stopped.
"Feng Zi?"
"It's me." Su Fengzi patted her shoulder. "Sister Lu, is something interfering with your mind?"
Lu Rui let out a relieved breath. "I got confused just now. I thought I was bringing up the rear, so I wondered why I was holding someone's hand on both sides."
At the front of the line, Pei Yanchuan turned at the sound of their voices. "Sister Lu Rui, you remembered wrong. Brother Fengzi is the one bringing up the rear."
Lu Rui looked at Wu You, who nodded to confirm that Xiao Pei was right.
Only then did Lu Rui fully relax, but Su Fengzi froze.
"I'm bringing up the rear..." A sudden, terrible feeling came over Su Fengzi. "But just now, both my hands... were holding someone's hand too."
Then what the hell had he been holding?!
Before you continue