Chapter Summaries

Ye Chu and his teammates confronted the ghosts and uncovered how Tian Fuguo had harmed three women in the building. They learned Granny Wang’s wish was to return to her hometown, while the nurse Li Jiayi’s death stemmed from Tian Fuguo’s attack.

• Ye Chu took Tian Yatou and gave Pei Yanchuan medicine, making Zhong Xiaoli retreat until she spotted Tian Fuguo and broke down in anguish.
• Wang Chunhua struck Tian Fuguo with her cane, then held Zhong Xiaoli as a tear fell from her eye.
• Ye Chu and his teammates regrouped in the morgue and found that Tian Fuguo had been involved in the deaths of his mother, wife, and nurse Li Jiayi.
• Wu You shared newspaper clues about women abducted and trafficked in the 1970s, and Ye Chu realized Granny Wang wanted to return to her hometown.
• Wu You explained that Tian Fuguo had stabbed Li Jiayi with a syringe when she treated Tian Guangzong, and that Li Jiayi later died by suicide.

Ye Chu and the others uncovered why Zhong Xiaoli had tried to help Tian Yatou escape and completed the Illusion Paradox challenge. Back in their room, Pei Yanchuan pretended his in-game injury still hurt, but the system exposed him.

• Ye Chu and the others found evidence that Wang Chunhua had wanted to help Zhong Xiaoli escape, and they realized Zhong Xiaoli had been killed after her attempt failed.
• Ye Chu and the others beat Tian Fuguo but left him alive for the law to punish.
• Zhong Xiaoli reunited with Tian Guangzong and Tian Yatou before vanishing as the hospital returned to normal.
• The players completed the challenge and woke up in their room.
• Pei Yanchuan pretended his arm still hurt, but the system said game injuries did not carry over, and Wu You teased him.

Back at the rest house, Ye Chu comforted Lu Rui as she explained how Tian Yatou’s story had reminded her of growing up in a family that favored boys. The group rallied around her, and Ye Chu left Pei Yanchuan curious about his own past.

• Su Fengzi showed Pei Yanchuan and Wu You the livestream replay, and they laughed over viewers’ comments about Wu You crying as she fought monsters.
• Ye Chu asked Lu Rui why she had seemed down since leaving the game, and she explained that Tian Yatou’s story had brought back memories of her childhood hiding under a bridge.
• Lu Rui apologized for letting her personal feelings affect her actions in the game, but Ye Chu hugged her and told her she had done nothing wrong.
• Wu You, Pei Yanchuan, Su Fengzi, and Ye Chu joined Lu Rui in a group hug, then fled the kitchen when they smelled her lunch burning.
• Pei Yanchuan asked Ye Chu about his own story, and Ye Chu said Pei Yanchuan would have to find out for himself.

Ye Chu and his companions entered the month-long instance “Rules of the Strange Tales: Campus Edition,” where Ye Chu nearly fell into a trap while registering and avoided having to read his name aloud. After he left the registration room in a plaid skirt, Lu Rui and Wu You mistook his arrival for a deliberate choice to join the girls’ class.

• Ye Chu browsed the system’s shopping interface while Su Fengzi and Pei Yanchuan played video games, and the group prepared to enter another instance.
• The system sent the players into “Rules of the Strange Tales: Campus Edition” and instructed them to survive for one month.
• Ye Chu followed an inexplicable urge to register at the Huizhi Building, where his clothes changed to a school uniform with a plaid skirt.
• The registration teacher warned Ye Chu that names were important, and he nearly wrote his real name before regaining his senses.
• Ye Chu wrote an absurdly difficult-to-pronounce name on the form, so the teacher confirmed his registration without reading it aloud.
• Ye Chu met Lu Rui and Wu You outside the registration room, and they teased him for supposedly choosing the girls’ classroom.

Ye Chu, Wu You, and Lu Rui registered at the haunted school using deliberately difficult names, while Pei Yanchuan and Su Fengzi discovered Ye Chu was missing from their registration room. Ye Chu joined the others in Class One and was assigned a seat beside the lectern.

• Ye Chu warned Wu You and Lu Rui that they would black out during registration and advised them to choose names that were hard to pronounce.
• Wu You and Lu Rui registered with absurdly long names that left their teacher struggling to read their nameplates.
• Pei Yanchuan and Su Fengzi found Ye Chu's name on the registration list and headed to the neighboring building to look for him.
• Ye Chu encountered a pale middle-aged teacher and joined Wu You and Lu Rui in the only class in the building.
• The teacher assigned Ye Chu the seat beside the lectern after struggling to read his nameplate.

Ye Chu read the classroom rules while Su Fengzi and Pei Yanchuan learned that credits mattered in their lesson. After class, they met Zhang Jinlian, who had only recently arrived at the school and knew little about it.

• Ye Chu sat beside the language arts teacher and read a rules sheet that made the teacher's authority central to classroom safety and discipline.
• Pei Yanchuan earned two credits by answering a math question, while Su Fengzi lost two credits after failing to solve a harder one.
• Pei Yanchuan showed Su Fengzi a workbook filled with his own comics, then tossed a paper ball to ask the neighboring student her name.
• The girl introduced herself as Zhang Jinlian, and Pei Yanchuan and Su Fengzi spoke with her after class.
• Zhang Jinlian said she had come to the school two months earlier and knew little about it, then offered them hot water.

Pei Yanchuan and Su Fengzi learned the school’s rules from Zhang Jinlian and arranged to get her excused from cleaning the dangerous Laboratory Building. Meanwhile, Ye Chu joined Xiao Xiao to clean at the Huizhi Building and learned more about the school’s dangers and restrictions.

• Zhang Jinlian explained the school schedule, its rules, and the weekly Laboratory Building cleanup, where she and Pei Yanchuan had been assigned.
• Su Fengzi poisoned Zhang Jinlian with a drug from Ye Chu, and Pei Yanchuan and Su Fengzi carried her to the infirmary to obtain a sick leave slip.
• Ye Chu accompanied Xiao Xiao to clean and realized she was warning him not to reveal that he was male.
• Xiao Xiao told Ye Chu that the Laboratory Building was extremely dangerous and that students assigned to clean it often failed to return.
• Xiao Xiao explained that students from the Huizhi Building and Zhiyuan Building could meet only during shared music and PE classes, and she said she had entered the school with her boyfriend, Zhang Lian.

Ye Chu and Xiao Xiao encountered strange figures while cleaning the Laboratory Building, while Pei Yanchuan and Su Fengzi found a suspicious emergency guide. Su Fengzi stopped Pei Yanchuan from following its instructions, warning that the guide was entirely fake.

• Xiao Xiao explained that she volunteered to clean the Laboratory Building to earn credits and replace her monster class president.
• Ye Chu and Xiao Xiao saw blood and two animal-headed figures, and Ye Chu struck the fox-headed one before heading upstairs with Xiao Xiao.
• Pei Yanchuan and Su Fengzi encountered red liquid, tentacles, and rabbit-headed figures, and Su Fengzi recognized the one who hit him as Ye Chu.
• Pei Yanchuan found an emergency guide and began preparing to follow its instructions, but Su Fengzi stopped him.
• Su Fengzi told Pei Yanchuan that the guide was fake, especially its final instruction.

Ye Chu and Xiao Xiao escaped the Laboratory Building after using poison to disrupt the monster, then reunited with Pei Yanchuan and Su Fengzi before the dormitory deadline. Ye Chu reached Xiao Xiao’s dorm room, where he learned that despite the four beds, only two people were allowed to live there.

• Ye Chu and Xiao Xiao refused the blood ritual, but the monster locked the safe room until they completed it.
• Ye Chu poured poison into the thermos, weakening the monster enough for the group to escape and resist their hallucinations.
• Ye Chu recognized Pei Yanchuan and Su Fengzi beneath their animal masks, and they confirmed their identities by writing on the tiles.
• Pei Yanchuan and Su Fengzi ran to the boys’ dormitory while Xiao Xiao led Ye Chu to the girls’ dormitory before the ten-past deadline.
• Xiao Xiao told Ye Chu that only two people could live in their room and handed him the Dormitory Residency Regulations booklet.

Ye Chu and Xiao Xiao followed the dormitory rules while Pei Yanchuan confronted the elderly dormitory supervisor after he knocked five times and ordered him to come along. Pei Yanchuan returned injured after attacking the supervisor, and Su Fengzi saw the damage the next morning.

• Xiao Xiao warned Ye Chu to open the door only if the supervisor knocked four times, and the female supervisor passed their room without getting an answer.
• The elderly supervisor knocked five times on Pei Yanchuan and Su Fengzi's door and ordered Pei Yanchuan to come with him.
• Pei Yanchuan used the dormitory key rule to delay the order, then struck the elderly supervisor with a bottle containing poison and transformed into a massive black-furred wolf.
• Pei Yanchuan returned to the dormitory injured, with his uniform torn, and apologized to Su Fengzi for waking him.
• Su Fengzi noticed the supervisor's bloodied arm, shredded uniform, and damaged office door the next morning, and guessed Pei Yanchuan had caused the destruction.

During morning class, Pei Yanchuan and Su Fengzi narrowly avoided punishment during a strict appearance inspection, while Ye Chu’s group faced a brutal five-kilometer run in PE. The chapter ended with Ye Chu struggling to run in a skirt.

• Pei Yanchuan arrived late to class and tricked the Chinese teacher into accepting his answer of “six eighty-nine.”
• The Chinese teacher enforced appearance rules and tried to cut Pei Yanchuan’s long hair, but Pei Yanchuan recited Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng to escape punishment.
• Su Fengzi hid his long hair by tying it up, leaving the teacher unable to prove that his emo hairstyle broke the rules.
• Ye Chu, Wu You, and Lu Rui undid their braids for the appearance inspection and learned their next class was PE.
• Xiao Xiao explained that PE usually involved ball games and running, but Lu Rui and Wu You soon found themselves running five kilometers.
• Ye Chu struggled to run while wearing a skirt and repeatedly tugged it down.

Ye Chu and his companions compared theories about the school’s rules and the missing students while they ran laps in PE. They learned that the English teacher had died, suggesting the teachers could be killed, and Ye Chu looked to Pei Yanchuan as they considered what that meant.

• Ye Chu found Pei Yanchuan and Su Fengzi at PE, and the group discussed how the monster used school rules and rituals to gather power and transform students.
• Pei Yanchuan said he had fought the Dormitory Warden, and he acted injured and remorseful when Ye Chu asked if he was hurt.
• The group slipped away from the track and found Xiao Xiao and Zhang Lian hiding in the grove.
• Xiao Xiao and Zhang Lian said the school used to have an English class, until the Chinese teacher announced that the English teacher had died.
• Ye Chu concluded that the teachers could be killed and exchanged a knowing look with Pei Yanchuan.

Pei Yanchuan and Wu You secretly tested their strength against the PE Teacher while Ye Chu and the others searched for them. They defeated the teacher without killing him, then returned to human form and were scolded by Lu Rui for taking such a risk.

• Pei Yanchuan and Wu You slipped away from their companions to confront the PE Teacher, intending only to test his strength.
• Ye Chu noticed the two had not returned and went looking for them across the track.
• Ye Chu found the PE Teacher unconscious in a pit and discovered Pei Yanchuan and Wu You in wolf form nearby.
• Ye Chu checked on the wolves and comforted Pei Yanchuan as he pretended to be hurt.
• Su Fengzi and Lu Rui arrived, and Lu Rui scolded Pei Yanchuan and Wu You when they returned to human form.

After learning that the teachers were stronger than the Dormitory Warden, Ye Chu and the others returned to class, where their math teacher abruptly imposed a punishing study schedule and a Sunday exam. The group began preparing for the test while fearing what would happen if they failed.

• Pei Yanchuan told Lu Rui that the teachers were stronger than the Dormitory Warden and had been difficult for him and Wu You to defeat together.
• Ye Chu, Wu You, Lu Rui, Pei Yanchuan, and Su Fengzi returned to their classes after the PE bell rang.
• The math teacher announced that morning classes would start at five, evening study would end at eleven, and students would take weekly exams.
• The math teacher set a target of more than 500 points on Sunday's 750-point exam, and a new rule warned students to bear the consequences if they failed.
• Wu You cursed the new requirement and began studying high school material, while Lu Rui shared her frustration.

Ye Chu took an exam on subjects the school had never taught and secretly passed answers to Wu You, but the invigilator caught him copying and brought him to the teachers’ office. There, he found the teachers fighting over food, and the math teacher threatened him over the cheating accusation.

• Ye Chu took an integrated science exam despite having been taught only math and Chinese, while the invigilator deducted points from students who swore.
• Ye Chu passed Wu You his multiple-choice answers, then began preparing written answers, but the invigilator caught him and ordered him to come to the office.
• After the exam, Ye Chu followed the invigilator to the office, hoping to search for clues while there.
• Ye Chu found the music teacher and PE Teacher fighting, while the math teacher watched and discussed eating whoever lost.
• The invigilator accused Ye Chu of cheating, and the math teacher threatened him with her teeth before backing away.

Ye Chu faced five red-eyed teachers in the office after the invigilator accused him of cheating. He escaped by singing to the music teacher, who led him out, though she wanted to meet again to discuss songs.

• Ye Chu found a rule sheet warning him about the teachers and faced a choice between conflicting instructions about whether to sit.
• Ye Chu refused to sit, then won the math teacher's trust by acting pitiful and denying that he had cheated.
• The math teacher proposed checking the surveillance footage, and Ye Chu saw strange eyes appear on the office walls before slapping himself back to normal.
• Ye Chu sang for the music teacher, who responded enthusiastically and led him out of the office.
• Ye Chu excused himself from the music teacher, who suggested they discuss “Moonlight over the Lotus Pond” next time.

Ye Chu and his classmates received their exam results, then Pei Yanchuan faced a Chinese teacher who forced students to write essays praising him and seemed to brainwash them. Pei Yanchuan began writing an essay that challenged the teacher to prove his claim that he could do anything.

• Ye Chu saw that Pei Yanchuan had scored 721 and he had scored 655, while Su Fengzi barely passed with 501.
• Pei Yanchuan comforted Su Fengzi, who thanked him for helping him earn his score.
• Mediterranean assigned the class essays praising him and warned that students could not return to the dorms until they finished.
• Zhang Lian warned Pei Yanchuan that writing would brainwash him, while students around them showed signs of being possessed.
• Pei Yanchuan asked Mediterranean to confirm that he could do anything, then began an essay claiming the teacher would dare to eat shit.

Pei Yanchuan, Su Fengzi, and Zhang Lian used loopholes in the Chinese Teacher’s essay assignment to avoid being brainwashed and earn permission to leave class. They returned to the dorm after Zhang Lian’s risqué essay satisfied the monster, while Pei Yanchuan remained curious about what he had written.

• Pei Yanchuan noticed his essay had changed into praise of the Chinese Teacher, crossed out the altered lines, and submitted a thousand-word insult disguised as praise.
• Su Fengzi backed Pei Yanchuan’s essay, and Zhang Lian praised it too, so the Chinese Teacher let Pei Yanchuan leave the classroom.
• Su Fengzi wrote about the Chinese Teacher swimming in a cesspit, prompting the teacher to ban cesspit-related topics; Zhang Lian discarded his similar unfinished essay.
• Zhang Lian submitted a stream-of-consciousness erotic essay, which confused but impressed the Chinese Teacher enough to let all three students return to their dorm.
• Su Fengzi pulled the curious Pei Yanchuan away as Zhang Lian offered to share his writing online.

Pei Yanchuan and Su Fengzi discussed the monster’s motives, and Su Fengzi’s precognition revealed a ritual around the yellow-eyed creature. Ye Chu and Xiao Xiao examined a Senior Student’s diary, which warned them about the Laboratory Building and showed how the school’s influence had warped the writer’s identity.

• Pei Yanchuan told Su Fengzi he had enough credits to become Class Monitor at the next rotation, and joked about killing the current monster monitor to take the position.
• Su Fengzi concluded that the monster wanted followers rather than nourishment, then suffered a backlash after using precognition to see people performing a ritual around a monster covered in yellow eyeballs.
• Ye Chu wondered what would happen if the Dormitory Matron disappeared, then returned to the dorm and found Xiao Xiao reading a Senior Student’s diary.
• Xiao Xiao and Ye Chu read the diary’s warnings about the Laboratory Building and the monster, along with the writer’s repeated claims that she was not a student.
• The diary’s next page stated, in neat handwriting, “I am a student.”

Ye Chu and Xiao Xiao learned that staying in the Instance would turn them into monsters, so Ye Chu planned to return to the Laboratory Building. Meanwhile, Pei Yanchuan killed a succession of monster students to become Class Monitor and gained access to the cleaning schedule.

• Ye Chu explained that the promised month-long stay was a lie and asked Xiao Xiao to assign him Laboratory Building cleaning duty on Friday.
• Pei Yanchuan knocked out the Class Monitor, whose body vanished when he dragged it outside the dormitory.
• After the Chinese Teacher appointed a replacement Class Monitor, Pei Yanchuan killed the new appointee and continued killing each monster chosen for the role.
• The teachers feared that He would discover the missing students, and the Chinese Teacher finally appointed Pei Yanchuan as Class Monitor.
• Pei Yanchuan asked Su Fengzi when he could see Ye Chu and the others again, and Su Fengzi said they likely had music class that afternoon.