Writing Notes

The rolling fog surged up the steps and toward the corridor as though it had taken solid form.

"Scrape, scrape, scrape..."

Behind her came the unmistakably clear sound of stone scraping against the ground. She could sense something reaching out of the fog, about to touch her shoulder.

She rushed through the doorway, then slammed the office door shut with a bang!

She leaned back against the door, her chest heaving.

Only after several breaths did she realize she was drenched.

She glanced at the grandfather clock on the wall. At some point, its pendulum had started moving again. The hands now pointed to 21:41.

Bang, bang, bang!

Bang, bang, bang!

Bang, bang, bang!

An enormous force was still pounding relentlessly on the office door, and the cries of "Teacher, teacher..." kept coming from outside without pause.

Yet she seemed to have breathed a sigh of relief. After straightening her slightly disheveled clothes, she got up, returned to her desk, and calmly set the folder on it.

Before long, the knocking stopped.

She glanced at the grandfather clock on the wall.

21:43.

Then she opened the drawer and looked inside. When she saw the blue envelope sitting neatly in one corner, she finally relaxed completely, slumping into her chair and letting out a long breath.

Group B Class 2.

Even after sitting back down, Wei Liang still looked badly shaken.

Lin Yi's eyes were narrowed to slits as well, his mind filled with the covered corridor's flickering lights and the rolling fog.

At that moment, Lin Yi was utterly certain that the Teaching Building was not safe either. At least... the corridor was not safe at all!

He immediately thought of the military blast-resistant glass installed in the classroom windows...

It seemed that only the classroom was safe!

But inside the classroom...

He looked around. As the Head Teacher locked the classroom door, the classmates who seemed practically embedded in their seats appeared to be stirring one after another.

He could feel strange, naked gazes locking onto him without the slightest attempt at concealment.

So was the classroom really safe?

He opened the Student Rules again and found the rule about returning to the dormitory.

"The only time to return to the dormitory really is 21:00-22:00, but once the fog rolls in, it's definitely going to rain on campus at this hour!"

His head ached a little. Was he going to have to spend all seven nights in the classroom during this seven-day experience?

He thought of Xu Shunkang and Xie Huayang, and of what Xu Shunkang had told him before leaving.

He murmured Xu Shunkang's warnings again:

"After we leave, be careful of everyone other than yourselves."

"Because... nighttime is their home turf..."

"Remember, following the rules is your only means of protecting yourselves."

"But in theory, spending the night in the classroom is still relatively safe. Hopefully, we'll see you again tomorrow... good luck."

"Nighttime is their home turf..."

"Spending the night in the classroom is still relatively safe..."

"Following the rules is our means of protecting ourselves..."

As Lin Yi pondered the meaning of Xu Shunkang's words, Wei Liang's voice came from beside him.

"Fuck, what the hell was that?!" Wei Liang swore between gasps. Seeing Lin Yi come over, he could not help asking, "Lin, did you pick up something unclean?"

"I heard this place used to be an abandoned village ages ago. Maybe it was some kind of haunted village!"

Lin Yi rolled his eyes at him. "If it really had such a terrifying history, how did you dare come here last time?"

Wei Liang muttered, "Because I believe in science!"

Lin Yi teased him, "The last guy who said he believed in science flew away on a sword right after saying it."

"Then I'll believe in the occult!"

"If you believe in the occult, you'll scare yourself to death here sooner or later."

Wei Liang spread his hands with a miserable expression. "Fine, fine, it was for the money! All we have to do is pretend to study, and after seven days we get thirty thousand yuan, free room and board, and hentai to read. We're at the internship stage anyway. Wouldn't you come if you were me?"

Lin Yi sneered. "You could've just told the truth from the start. Why all that nonsense about science and the occult?"

Wei Liang pursed his lips, but the scene of that classmate inviting them into the elevator would not leave his mind.

He could not help asking, "Lin, did you realize something was wrong with that person right from the start?"

Lin Yi glanced at him and asked, "Do you really want to know?"

"Hey!" Wei Liang put on an angry face. "Why would I ask if I didn't want to know? What's your deal, anyway? I ask one question, and you keep dodging it. Did you discover some secret you don't want to tell me?"

Lin Yi sighed. "I'm afraid telling you would scare you to death."

Wei Liang froze, then said decisively, "Fuck, then don't tell me. I'm a coward. I can't take a scare."

"Giving up already?"

Wei Liang stood up and brushed off his clothes. "I'm not as smart as you, and I'm not as good at thinking things through. But judging by how you acted earlier... maybe I'll have a better chance of surviving if I just stay an idiot who knows nothing and follow the rules."

"Honestly, once this trial course is over, I'm never coming back to this shithole."

With that, he left his seat and headed straight for the steps.

"Where are you going?" Lin Yi hurriedly asked.

"To find some hentai!" Wei Liang's voice came from the back of the lecture hall. "Anything you want to read?"

Lin Yi had intended to refuse, but said instead, "Just grab a couple of mainstream shonen manga."

After saying that, he suddenly thought of something and asked, "Oh, Liangzi, do you have a small notebook and a pen?"

"Yep. Hang on, I'll bring them over," Wei Liang called.

Before long, Wei Liang returned with a small stack of manga and handed Lin Yi a palm-sized flip-top notebook and a black pen.

"Thanks, Liangzi." Lin Yi took the stack of books from Wei Liang.

"Read those for now. I'll go hunt around for more material." Wei Liang pointed toward the classroom's lectern.

The lectern stood on the central stage of the Circular Lecture Hall. Behind it was a row of bookshelves displaying set after set of manga.

"Be careful," Lin Yi warned.

The classroom door was right beside the lectern. For some reason, Lin Yi kept feeling that the door might as well not have been there.

Even though the Head Teacher had turned the lock who knew how many times.

"Relax, nothing's gonna fucking happen." Wei Liang patted his chest.

Lin Yi smiled helplessly.

Once Wei Liang had gone down the steps, Lin Yi first placed the little notebook and black pen in front of him, then opened the notebook and stared blankly at the paper.

He recalled what had happened since he entered the school gate, then wrote down a few notes in the notebook:

"1. There's something wrong with the teachers and students in foggy weather. They're said to be art teachers and art students."

After writing that sentence, he thought for a moment. Afraid that writing too much would lead to too much thinking, he decided to record only the simplest facts.

So he heavily scribbled out the latter part, "They're said to be art teachers and art students."

Then he continued writing:

"2. It's safe beneath lit streetlamps. If you get lost, waiting beneath a streetlamp really will let you encounter a security guard."

"3. The security guards are bigger and taller than normal people, with a huge iron chain wrapped around their waists. You can walk through the fog by following a security guard."

"4. The Teaching Building has a basement..."

At this point, he thought of the Teaching Building Rules, paused his pen, and added a "?"

He stopped to think, then crossed out the entire sentence.

Then he rewrote it:

"4. The Head Teacher wears a white name badge made of white acrylic on her chest. The badge says Group B Class 2."

Then he suddenly remembered that the Student Rules suggested writing down his name and student number on paper to avoid forgetting them, so he added after the fourth entry, "My name is Lin Yi. My student number is X0230506098."

At this point, Lin Yi put down his pen and took a deep breath. He checked how he felt: his mind was clear, and he felt no fatigue anywhere in his body. A conviction took hold in his mind:

Simply recalling facts he had experienced and things that did not conflict with his own understanding of the campus would not cause the kind of exhaustion he had felt earlier.

So he started a separate page and wrote:

"Thinking about confusing things causes fatigue. Fatigue makes you sleepy. Sleepiness attracts classmates-parenthesis: supposedly, the dormitory is somewhere you can sleep. Wait until returning to the dormitory before thinking about more questions. For now, only take notes."

After finishing that sentence, he tore out the page and put it in his trouser pocket.

But just then, the paper touched another ball of paper in his pocket.

It was the ball made from the scraps he had picked up in the Head Teacher's Teachers' Office!

So many strange things had happened one after another that he had forgotten he still had a ball of paper hidden in his trousers!

Instinctively, he wanted to take it out, flatten it, and have a look. But he was afraid that even one more glance would trigger "endless wild speculation," so to be safe, he decided to wait until he returned to the dormitory.

Instead, he smoothed the paper ball as flat as he could inside his pocket, so its stiff edges would stop rubbing uncomfortably against his thigh.

He continued writing. "5. The athlete students seem to be good people."

"6. When going to the toilet, you need to firmly believe there's a toilet ahead. Parenthesis: could a firm will be the key to survival?"

At this point, he thought of Wei Liang. He raised his pen and lowered it several times, but finally could not resist adding, "Being wise enough to play the fool seems to work too."

After finishing the six entries, he twirled his pen and tried to recall whether he had missed any details.

He wanted to write about the chefs in blue aprons, but did not know what to write about them. Finally, he thought of the chefs in green aprons and those classmates whose movements were somewhat stiff, and wrote his final entry:

"7. Be careful of people whose smiles look obviously fake. There's something wrong with them."

As he wrote that sentence, Lin Yi suddenly noticed something slightly amiss.

He frowned at the notebook...

Suddenly, he noticed the light and shadow on the notebook flicker!

"Huh?!" Instantly alert, he looked up at the classroom ceiling.

At that glance, his pupils suddenly contracted.

Among the many incandescent lights hanging from the classroom ceiling, one had begun flickering, whether from aging wiring or a loose connection, going "pop-bzz-pop-bzz-"!

The instant he noticed the flickering light, a bone-deep chill rose from his innards, spreading through his meridians and blood vessels in thin strands until his whole body was cold.

Though he had been enrolled for less than half a day, he already understood something very important: real problems often lurked beneath ordinary appearances, let alone phenomena that were obviously wrong!

"Pop-bzz-"

The incandescent light flickered again.

Lin Yi vaguely sensed a subtle shift in the classroom's atmosphere. His whole body began to feel uncomfortable, as though something unclean had set its sights on him.

He turned his neck ever so slightly, cautiously scanning his surroundings with a wary gaze.

Ripples suddenly appeared in the lifeless eyes of those unsettling classmates sitting in the classroom, as though someone had tossed a pebble into a pool of stagnant water, stirring a faint ripple.

As the light continued flickering, their unfocused pupils gradually regained their spark. An indescribable hunger gradually rose from those ripples, finally spreading through their entire bodies.

Just then, a muffled peal of thunder sounded outside the classroom.

Rumble-

A pure-white bolt of lightning streaked across the night sky. Raindrops dotted the dark night, and a faint light swept across the fog-shrouded campus.

As Lin Yi observed the classroom, he glanced at its windows out of the corner of his eye...

In the faint light, he saw furtive figures lingering outside the windows. Those figures that had originally huddled beneath the thick fog seemed to have ridden it into the Teaching Building, onto the covered corridor, and up to the classroom!

At that moment, the Head Teacher's instructions before leaving echoed through Lin Yi's mind like great, booming bells:

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

"Do not close your eyes!"

"Do not look around or look up!"

"Keep your eyes fixed on the patterns on the floor or the desk legs, and silently repeat your names and student numbers!"

"Do not communicate with anyone!"

"Pay no attention to any sounds!"

"Until the classroom lights return to normal!"

"One last thing!"

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

The information raced through Lin Yi's mind again and again. He quickly closed the notebook and slipped it into his pocket, then shouted to Wei Liang, "Liangzi, get over here! Hurry!"

The flickering incandescent light was not actually hard to notice, but there were so many incandescent lights in the classroom that some people simply failed to realize it at first.

Wei Liang, for instance.

Should I pick this set of Peach-Colored Strange Tales, or this set of The Gods Descend into Pansi Cave 1v7? As Wei Liang stood before the bookshelves pondering which manga set to choose, he suddenly heard Lin Yi's urgent shout.

Almost reflexively, Wei Liang turned without hesitation and charged toward Lin Yi.

The instant he raised his foot, an enormous force pounded on the classroom door.

Bang, bang, bang!

Bang, bang, bang!

Bang, bang, bang!