The corridor lights flickered

Lin Yi was horrified, his pupils slowly dilating.

At that moment, he felt only an icy chill seeping out of his internal organs, as though it would freeze every pore on his body shut.

He even forgot to breathe for a moment, yet wisps of eerie white vapor still emerged from his nose and mouth.

He shuddered violently and looked closely, only to find what seemed to be nothing but overlapping layers of mist in the shadows of the corridor. There was no suspicious figure at all.

"Was I seeing things?"

He frowned and narrowed his eyes, unable to help wondering.

But whatever the case, that indescribable terror and bizarre vision had not felt false.

Lin Yi seemed to realize something. He took a deep breath and cast the thought aside, doing his utmost to suppress the urge to think along those lines.

He began observing his surroundings.

The Teaching Building's decor was clearly from the 2010s. Ceramic tiles covered the walls to waist height, with plain white plaster from the windowsills upward.

But the plaster closer to the ground already showed signs of turning gray and black, evidence of the Teaching Building's year-round dampness.

Lin Yi looked up at the corridor ceiling.

Incandescent lights were spaced along the corridor, stretching away until they vanished at its far end.

Black particles had accumulated inside the lampshades, seemingly the collected bodies of mosquitoes and other insects.

All the signs suggested that this was not a newly built Campus, but rather one that had undergone continual renovations.

"Could there really be a basement that's closed to the public for some reason?"

"Would that mean there's a Building D and others too...?"

"Wait, wait, wait. I can't think about this..."

"Think about the Teaching Building..."

"The Teaching Building has lights too, so why don't they work as well as the streetlamps?"

"Is it the lights, or something else?"

This time, Lin Yi behaved himself. He barely scratched the surface, abandoning each question the moment he raised it.

He continued observing, then suddenly noticed a women's restroom beside the men's. There was a line outside it too, yet somehow he had failed to notice it at first.

Before he knew it, Lin Yi and Wei Liang had reached the restroom entrance.

A student came out of the restroom. Standing in the doorway, Lin Yi turned halfway aside to let him pass.

Just as the student brushed past him, a strange, uncomfortable feeling suddenly arose within Lin Yi.

He turned to glance back at the student.

The student shuffled slowly forward with a stiff body, looking wooden and sluggish.

But just as Lin Yi looked at him, he suddenly reacted. His body jerked taut, then he slowly turned sideways like a marionette suspended on strings, looking toward where Lin Yi stood.

Lin Yi had already turned back the moment the other student showed signs of turning, then entered the restroom.

Throughout the entire process, he restrained himself from thinking too deeply about that student.

But even after he finished using the toilet, that strange discomfort still enveloped him tightly.

He went to the sink to wash his hands, scooped up some water to splash his face, then looked at himself in the mirror.

His reflection looked more haggard than he remembered, with faint darkness beneath his eyes. Lin Yi was a little surprised. He had only just enrolled, yet he already looked as worn out as if he had stayed up all night.

He splashed his face a few more times, but instead of disappearing, the discomfort grew stronger.

Something suddenly occurred to him. As he lifted his head after washing his face, he looked through the mirror.

The mirror faced the corridor directly, but he could not find that student's figure in it.

He breathed a sigh of relief, shook his hands dry, and turned around. An enormous face barged straight into his field of vision.

At some point, that student had returned and come back to his side. When Lin Yi turned, he found himself face-to-face with him.

The fright made Lin Yi instinctively straighten up.

"Classmate, were you looking for me just now?" the student asked in a gentle tone.

Under the clear yellow glow of the incandescent light, the student's face twitched, as though he wanted to smile, but the smile never reached beyond his skin. It looked extremely strange.

That expression stood in stark contrast to his tone.

"No." Lin Yi hurriedly shook his head in denial, doing his utmost to keep anything unusual out of his voice. "My neck was just uncomfortable, so I moved it a little."

"That happens when you sit too long. What class are you in?" the student asked.

"I'm in Group B Class 6," Lin Yi blurted out.

"Class 6?" the student asked in confusion. "Class 6 is upstairs. Why did you come down to the first floor?"

"There were too many people upstairs, so I came down," Lin Yi said quickly. "I just didn't expect there to be just as many people down here."

"There are quite a lot of people at this hour. I'm in Class 6 too. Shall we go together?" the student said.

Lin Yi's expression stiffened slightly. He had a few choice curses he wanted to utter. Just then, Wei Liang finished washing his hands and came over to him.

"Let's go, Lao Lin," Wei Liang urged. "It's getting late."

"Yeah, it's getting late. Let's go together." The twitching expression on the student's face finally began to settle into place.

An exceedingly standard smile.

Just like those students in the classroom who were not quite right.

"Huh?" Wei Liang froze briefly, then turned to Lin Yi, pointing between the two of them as he asked in confusion, "Did you just meet?"

"Yeah..." Lin Yi forced a smile.

"Come on, come on. There really isn't much time left," the student urged. "Follow me!"

With that, he walked out of the men's restroom without waiting for a reply, taking the lead and turning left.

Only then did Lin Yi notice a recessed section of the building to the left of the restroom. It lay precisely within the shadows beyond the incandescent light's reach, covered by drifting mist.

The student walked into the shadows without hesitation, then reached out and pressed the wall.

An upward arrow, "↑," lit up on the wall.

There was actually an elevator there.

"For Class 6... just take the elevator up and walk a few steps. Come on," the student invited.

"?!!"

Lin Yi's and Wei Liang's pupils both trembled.

The moment he heard the word "elevator," even Wei Liang abruptly realized the gravity of the situation.

"Move!" Lin Yi grabbed Wei Liang's hand and charged into the corridor with him.

"Holy shit, now you're quick to react!" Wei Liang was dragged along like a kite, but his exceptional physical fitness was fully demonstrated at this moment.

At first, his steps staggered badly as he was dragged along, his legs practically tangling together.

But after a few breaths, his stride steadied, and he was running shoulder to shoulder with Lin Yi.

"Go, go, go! Back to the classroom!" Although Wei Liang was panicking, his breathing was very steady.

Lin Yi gave him a surprised look.

"What are you looking at? I did take part in Wilderness Survival, you know!" Wei Liang could not help saying.

Lin Yi suddenly felt that Wei Liang did have some real skills to have been able to take part in that show.

Lin Yi glanced back and saw that the student had not followed. He merely stood woodenly by the elevator, staring at them with cold eyes.

"Huh, he didn't follow?"

"Wait...!!"

Once they were some distance from the elevator, Lin Yi suddenly realized that, as the mist thickened and the light dimmed, the student standing by the elevator looked exactly like the thin figure he had glimpsed in the corridor shadows earlier!

"Was it him I saw at the start?!"

An enormous wave surged through Lin Yi's heart. Just then, a heavy force tugged at his hand, as though someone had suddenly grabbed him.

Wei Liang had grabbed him.

"Lao Lin, slow down, slow down, slow down! Stop running! We're here!"

"Huh?!" Lin Yi froze. Looking up, he suddenly found the Group B Class 2 sign mounted on the wall a short distance away.

"What...?"

"We're back already?!"

"Why did the trip back take so much less time?"

A host of questions instinctively sprang up in his mind.

At that very instant, the thoughts he had previously suppressed also sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain. Although he had yet to think them through, that sense of exhaustion had already begun spreading uncontrollably from deep within him.

"Lao Lin, do you like black stockings or white stockings?" Just then, Wei Liang's low shout rang out beside his ear.

"Huh?" Lin Yi froze, his earlier thoughts abruptly swept away by black and white stockings.

Almost out of a gentleman's instinct, images of the legs of mature beauties in black stockings and little girls in white stockings flashed through his mind. At the same time, he blurted out without the slightest hesitation:

"Black stockings, a little more."

The moment he said it, the exhaustion within Lin Yi vanished.

"Hypocrite! I distinctly remember you're into little girls in white stockings!" Wei Liang said scornfully. As they spoke, the two had reached the door of Group B Class 2.

The classroom door stood open a crack, and the warmth behind it dispersed the mist at the entrance like firelight.

"Go!" Wei Liang pushed open the door and rushed into the classroom.

Lin Yi followed close behind.

After entering the classroom, Lin Yi moved to close the door.

"Wait." The Head Teacher caught the door. "Don't close it yet. I'll close it in a bit."

Lin Yi paused, then nodded. "Yes, teacher."

"Give me your names and student numbers." The Head Teacher opened her folder and took out a name list.

Lin Yi glanced at it and found crosses beside some people's names, while others had check marks.

Scanning it at lightning speed, he noticed that some names had neither a check nor a cross beside them, but an underline instead.

"Lin Yi, student number X0230506098."

"Wei Liang, student number X0230506096."

"Huh?" Lin Yi abruptly turned to Wei Liang. "Didn't you say you were 097?"

Wei Liang rubbed his nose awkwardly. "When I first met you, I had to test you a little, didn't I?"

Lin Yi clenched his fists, really wanting to give him two solid punches right then.

"All right. Go back to your seats," the Head Teacher said after finishing the registration.

Wei Liang headed for his seat first.

Lin Yi merely glanced outside the door.

The door to this classroom really was strange. When it was open, viewed from outside, a faint warm current seemed to pour out, dispersing some of the mist at the entrance.

But viewed from inside, mist could be seen continually seeping through the gap, accompanied by wisps of icy wind.

He looked into the darkness below the steps outside the door and suddenly saw some indistinct figures within the mountain-like layers of mist...

He rubbed his eyes and looked closely. The rolling mist brushed across the Campus like clouds of smoke, and the already hazy streetlamps grew dimmer, like a navigational beacon at sea about to be submerged by a torrential storm.

The rain seemed to have grown heavier. Lin Yi could hear its rustling even through the doorway. Indescribable terror spread like a venomous snake through the churning mist in the distance, and frost seemed poised to eat away at the Teaching Building's floor.

A trace of worry also appeared in the Head Teacher's eyes. She looked at the Teaching Building's Grandfather Clock.

21:35.

"Five more minutes..." Lin Yi heard her murmur.

But just then, a light in the corridor suddenly flickered.

The chill seemed to intensify.

The Head Teacher's expression changed instantly, and she glanced at the Grandfather Clock again.

21:35.

Then, holding her folder, she went straight to the classroom entrance and peered outside.

About half a minute later, another incandescent light flickered in the corridor.

"This is bad!" the Head Teacher exclaimed quietly.

Then she swept her gaze over the classroom and raised her clear voice. "Attention, all students staying overnight in the classroom. Today's circumstances are unusual. Once I close the door, no one is permitted to leave the classroom!"

"If the classroom lights begin flickering, you must immediately crouch beneath your desks and hold tightly to the legs of the desks and chairs!"

"The classroom lights won't all go out right away. Once every light goes out-do not squeeze your eyes shut! Do not look around or look up! Keep your eyes fixed on the patterns on the floor or on the legs of your desk. Ideally, silently repeat your names and student numbers!"

"Also, do not communicate with anyone! Ignore every sound! Until the classroom lights return to normal!"

"One last thing!"

"Be wary of anyone who enters the classroom after I close the door! Do not communicate with them at all!"

The Head Teacher spoke extremely quickly, but enunciated every word with exceptional clarity. Once she finished, she closed the door without hesitation.

Bang!

The classroom door slammed shut.

May 6, X023, 21:38.

The Head Teacher closed the door to Group B Class 2, then inserted her key into the lock and twisted it frantically.

Click! Click! Click! Click...

One turn, two turns, three turns...

The Head Teacher counted silently as she locked the door. The bolt seemed endless; no matter how much she turned the key, it never reached the end.

"Done!"

She pulled out the key and rushed to her left without hesitation. Reaching out, she blindly caught a door handle.

She raised her eyes for a look.

"Teachers' Office (a line of small text at the side: Group B Class 2)"

She let out a long breath of relief, then turned the handle and pushed the door open.

At that moment, the corridor lights abruptly flickered.

"Teacher..."

A hoarse call suddenly sounded behind the Head Teacher.

The first round of trial recommendations is about to begin. Dear readers, please add the book to your shelves and keep reading~ Here are some loud kowtows for you all~

orz... bang, bang, bang...