Don't look back

When the bus still failed to open its doors, the female teacher's tone grew urgent. "Students, it'll be dark soon. Please hurry and get off!"

"Yeah, driver, why aren't you opening the doors?" The passengers immediately grew anxious and began clamoring for the driver to open them. When he remained unmoved, some even threatened to file complaints.

"Listen, everyone, there might be something wrong with this driver's head! I was sitting right behind him, and he spent the whole trip muttering some Driver Rules. I don't think he's going to open the doors!" a girl couldn't help saying. Then she called to a passenger by the door, "Sir, open the door, will you? It'll be dark if we keep wasting time!"

"Yeah, hurry up and open it! Stop wasting time! I heard this school gets pretty creepy after dark." The passengers urged him anxiously.

Lin Yi and Wei Liang were sitting toward the back. Looking at the bags of all sizes crammed into the aisle, they simply stayed seated and waited, unable to get out anyway.

As they waited, Lin Yi pressed against the window and watched the people outside. Although their voices sounded urgent, their figures remained motionless in the fog, like sculptures.

After waiting for some time, Wei Liang couldn't help frowning and muttering in confusion, "Something's off about this driver. Last time I came, the driver opened the doors as soon as we arrived. Why's this one acting like a block of wood?"

Just then, a passenger near the driver's seat took advantage of the driver's attention being focused on the female teacher, spotted the door button, and swiftly reached out to press it.

"Hiss-"

The bus doors swung outward, and thin fog surged into the bus like a tide. Before long, the interior was shrouded in mist.

"Come on! Get off!" As the first passenger rushed off the bus, many others who had been waiting followed.

The driver reacted at once and promptly closed the doors, but several passengers had already gotten off. Watching them walk through the school gates and head straight toward the female teacher, he still rolled down his window and shouted, "Hey! Check whether they have name badges!"

One of those passengers stopped, then stepped back out through the gates and approached the bus. Just as the driver was about to speak, the man flipped him the middle finger. "Dumbass!"

Then he charged into the fog without looking back.

The driver's expression darkened, and he slammed a fist against the steering wheel. "Fucking hell! Bunch of little bastards with a death wish!"

"Name badges?" Lin Yi froze briefly, then immediately recalled the second Student Rule-all staff on Campus, except students, wore designated uniforms and name badges. Beware of anyone without a name badge, and do not believe anything they say.

"None of you get off until I've had a clear look!" the driver said through gritted teeth, his voice low. "Don't worry about the time. As long as you don't enter the school, you don't have to follow the rules. Something about those people feels wrong. With fog this thick, you can spend the night on the bus and go into the school tomorrow."

"Driver, you're such a dumbass. You actually believe that weird stuff?" A girl in a sailor uniform with a pink cartoon cat hair clip blew a bubble, planted her hands on her hips, and shrugged disdainfully. "That stuff is just made-up mystery to get attention. It's XX23 already. How does anyone still believe it?"

Hearing this, the driver couldn't help saying, "Girl, you came here without believing the Student Rules? Don't tell me you haven't even memorized them?"

The girl hefted the booklet in her hand and shook her head with a smile. "Driver, these rules are all nonsense. What's there to read? At worst, I'll just go with everyone else. With this many people together, we'll be safe, won't we?"

The driver was left speechless. "Good advice won't stop someone determined to die. You've got guts, girl."

The girl wanted to say something else to mock him, but just then, a passenger who had gotten off earlier called from the fog, "Driver, they've got name badges! It's fine!"

"Name badges?" the driver muttered, still frowning. After a moment's thought, he asked, "With fog this thick, did you really get a clear look? Did you see any numbers?"

"Driver, stop being so paranoid!" the girl grumbled around her gum. Carrying her shoulder bag with one hand, she approached the door and said impatiently, "That's enough already. You can open the door now!"

Calls urging him on also came intermittently from the fog. Under pressure, the driver could only hesitate before slowly opening the doors.

The remaining passengers began getting off one after another, but the driver still reminded them to take a good look.

Lin Yi went to the last row and patted his roommates. "Mao, Wei Sang, Young Master Tian, Kuai Kuai, wake up. Time to get off!"

Wei Liang called from the door, "Lao Lin, hurry up! You're the only one left!"

"You go ahead. We'll be right there." Mao Feiyang yawned sleepily and waved him on.

Lin Yi hesitated, then hurried off the bus. "Liangzi, wait for me! Coming!"

After Lin Yi got off, the driver glanced toward the back with some confusion. Then, as though something had occurred to him, he silently withdrew his gaze.

The mountain fog was thick. As Lin Yi and the others walked, each step stirred ripples, as though they were treading on smoke rings.

Upon entering the school gates, Lin Yi suddenly had the illusion that the world was receding from him. The ground behind him seemed to stretch countless times longer in an instant.

He looked back, and that eerie sense of space stretching vanished at once. The nearby bus was still faintly visible in the fog, but for a moment, he couldn't tell whether it was blue or some other color. He shook his head hard and focused his gaze before confirming that it was still a blue bus.

He turned to look ahead. The first group of passengers had already followed some Student Cadres into the fog, leaving only the female teacher and a handful of students to greet them.

Lin Yi looked at the female teacher's chest. A name badge was plainly pinned there, but just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief and walk over, a sudden shudder ran through him.

He darted up to Wei Liang and grabbed his hand. "Liangzi, wait! Don't go over there!"

Wei Liang jolted at the tug and turned in confusion. "What's wrong?"

Lin Yi leaned close to his ear and said quietly, "Don't go over there. She doesn't have a name badge!"

"Huh?" Wei Liang froze.

"Look carefully. That name badge... looks like it was drawn on paper!" Lin Yi lowered his voice. "You've been here before, haven't you? Look and see whether it's real or fake."

Wei Liang quickly steadied himself and cautiously glanced at the female teacher, then snapped his gaze away. He shuddered and instinctively shrank behind Lin Yi. "Holy shit! It really is fake! Fake as fuck! What the hell is going on?!"

"Wait! Teacher, students, teacher, students..." Wei Liang's thoughts raced, his eyes darting frantically. "Fuck, could they be the Art Teacher and Art Students people talk about?!"

"The Student Rules! The Student Rules!" Wei Liang muttered to himself. The atmosphere of agitation and danger was like the smell of garlic, making Lin Yi feel it too.

Wei Liang hurriedly said, "Streetlights! Right, Lao Lin, find a streetlight!"

The moment he finished speaking, Lin Yi felt a breath of clear air pass through the fog. Some of the mist nearby dispersed, revealing a pitch-black streetlight pole.

Seeing the pole appear as though summoned, Wei Liang felt cold shoot through the crown of his head, and his body began trembling faintly. He grabbed Lin Yi's wrist in turn and said in a quavering voice, "Lao Lin, don't fall for it! Find a lit streetlight!"

His voice was extremely low. "I remember now! During Abnormal Weather, the only thing you can trust is a streetlight that's on!"

Just then, some of the students nearby noticed Lin Yi and Wei Liang acting strangely, and the female teacher began urging them too. "Students, come over quickly! There isn't much time!"

At that moment, the female teacher's calm voice sounded especially grating, tormenting the two of them like a demonic sound.

The other passengers also began chattering at them to come over and stop wasting everyone's time.

Wei Liang was frantic, but he didn't dare show anything unusual.

At that critical moment, Lin Yi came up with an idea and called out, "Teacher, please wait! Our roommates are still on the bus. We'll go get them!"

"You... tsk! Hurry back!" The female teacher's voice grew more insistent.

"Okay, teacher!" Lin Yi quickly tugged at Wei Liang's clothes, and the two hurried toward the bus outside the school gates.

But after only a few steps, a rustling sound came from behind them, like stone scraping along the ground.

Something hidden in the fog was approaching them. It wasn't fast, but it was enough to put them under intense pressure.

Just then, the female teacher's urging came from behind them. "Too slow! Walk faster!"

Her voice was somewhat stiff, yet it carried an unquestionable authority.

"If you can't make it in time, turn back."

Lin Yi and Wei Liang felt cold darting up and down their spines, making them shudder.

Don't look back! Don't look back! Whatever you do, don't look back! The contents of the Student Rules suddenly surfaced in Lin Yi's mind.

Student Rule 3: At any time, if you hear footsteps and calls behind you, no matter how close the footsteps or how urgent the calls, do not look back. Once you return beneath a streetlight or enter a building, the footsteps will disappear.

As long as we don't look back, we should theoretically be safe!

Yet they had originally walked only a few meters after getting off the bus, and when Lin Yi had looked back earlier, the bus had been faintly visible nearby. But when they turned around and retraced their steps, they couldn't find any sign of it!

An eerie sensation mingled with the fog and enveloped Lin Yi like a tide. He suddenly realized that the fog and the patterns of the paving beneath their feet had disoriented them. They had turned around, but they very likely weren't walking toward the school gates!

"We're lost..." Lin Yi clenched his fists and gritted his teeth in frustration.

Wei Liang belatedly realized it too, and cold sweat immediately streamed down his forehead.

"Fuck, first time you're raw, second time you're cooked, third time they sprinkle you with cumin and serve you up. If I'd known, I wouldn't have come back!" Wei Liang looked utterly miserable. They hadn't found a streetlight, and the bus was nowhere in sight. Now they really were screwed!

But Lin Yi suddenly spotted something and said in a low voice, "Liangzi, there's a lamppost up ahead too!"

Wei Liang looked ready to cry. "But Lao Lin, it isn't on!"

Lin Yi pulled back his sleeve. The hands of the old-fashioned quartz watch on his wrist ticked doggedly onward. "It's 5:58 now. The Campus lights come on at six. In two minutes, if that light comes on, we'll go over!"

"What if it doesn't?" Wei Liang asked in instinctive panic, but Lin Yi had already lowered his head to stare at the ground by his feet.

"I don't know either... so we'd better pray it's real."

Wei Liang's lips trembled. Calm and fear, two contradictory emotions, appeared in him at the same time. He instinctively asked, "Th-then wh-what do we do now?"

At this moment of extreme danger, Lin Yi instead crouched down calmly and touched a particular pebble on the ground. "Liangzi, do you remember Student Rule 7?"

Student Rule 7: If you cannot immediately find a numbered streetlight, lower your head and stare closely at the ground beneath your feet. Find any reference point that can confirm you are still on the path.

"It doesn't matter what's behind us. As long as we follow the rules, we should be safe," Lin Yi said steadily. "Two minutes left... no, one minute and thirty-four seconds! We can take a chance! What do you think?"

"At a time like this, whatever you say goes. I'm going all in with you!" Wei Liang could clearly feel something behind him calling to him.

The best-case scenario was that it really was just the female teacher calling him.

"Scritch! Scritch! Scritch! Scritch..."

The scraping of the quartz watch's hands and Lin Yi's increasingly heavy breathing were distinct in the fog.

Lin Yi's heart pounded, rising from his chest to lodge in his throat. He could feel a faint, twisting change in the ground beneath his feet. The texture of the pebble paving began to resemble the markings of a python...

Within the flowing fog, there also seemed to be gazes watching them...

From behind.

From every direction.

"17:59:57... 17:59:58... 17:59:59..."

Lin Yi clenched his teeth tightly, his gaze piercing the fog like a sharp sword as he stared straight at the streetlight ahead.

"18:00:00!"

Time!

"Pop..."

The traditional incandescent bulb in the lamppost lit up as the power came on. Its orange-yellow light scattered the fog, driving back the eerie atmosphere like a pair of invisible hands.

The two broke into a run, charging toward the streetlight.

Under the light, their shadows stretched behind them into the depths of the thick fog.

The dense fog surged on every side. The rustling grew agitated and irritating, and the female teacher gave a low, unwilling growl, like a sound rolling from the throat of a crouching beast.

They reached the streetlight, and Lin Yi immediately looked at the pole.

"Teaching Building-023"

"The Teaching Building's area..."

He collapsed, leaning against the pole and panting heavily.

But before he could breathe a sigh of relief, Wei Liang's terrified voice rang out, trembling.

"L-L-L-Lin Yi! Y-you... look!"

Wei Liang stared fixedly ahead. The female teacher and several students stood in the thick fog not far away, watching them with venomous, snakelike gazes. The rolling mist made their figures flicker in and out of sight in the dim light.

Even through the dense fog, Lin Yi could see their bloodless faces, sallow as wax figures.

As for the passengers who had originally gathered around the female teacher, they had long since vanished without a trace.

May 6, X023, 18:03.

Beneath the Teaching Building-023 streetlight at S City University.

Beyond the clear yellow glow of the incandescent bulb, heads crowded the swirling fog. Figures hidden in the darkness stared at them like sculptures.