The noticeboard outside the Cafeteria

S City University's Cafeteria opened for lunch from 10:40 to 13:20, but morning classes did not end until 11:00.

Even so, students still had more than enough time for lunch.

At 11:02 on May 7, X023, Lin Yi and Wei Liang stepped out of the classroom one after the other.

The instant he left the classroom, Lin Yi's heart suddenly lurched. He instinctively glanced back at the classroom and its doorframe.

Only a doorway separated them, yet a strange feeling arose within him-as though once that door closed, the entire classroom would be cut off from this world.

Inside and outside the door seemed to be two different worlds.

He lowered his gaze to examine his surroundings. The grayish-white Corridor walls were covered with ceramic tiles carved with exaggerated patterns, like the reliefs carved beneath stone bridges in old villages to suppress evil spirits. They gave him a powerful sense of the occult.

He looked ahead. Beyond the Teachers' Office, the sign for Group B Class 1 was clearly visible. Behind him were another Teachers' Office and the sign for Group B Class 3.

There was certainly some distance between classrooms, but not enough for him to walk as long as he had last night without seeing one.

He examined the area near the classroom entrance again, then narrowed his eyes and crouched down.

Material resembling the sculpture fragments beside the lectern remained on the ground outside the classroom. Quite a few hardened fragments lay scattered around as well. It seemed the Security Guard had been quite heavy-handed last night.

What puzzled him, however, was that the steps were right outside the Corridor. If he remembered correctly, judging by the sounds last night, the Security Guard should have rolled down those steps with that unidentified creature. Yet not a single step showed any sign of damage.

"With the Security Guard's build, plus such a thick iron chain, never mind holding some unidentified creature-even if he rolled down holding a bucket of water, those steps couldn't possibly stay completely intact, could they?"

"There should at least be a few scratches..."

As he pondered this, he suddenly recalled the scene he had dimly sensed last night.

When the thick fog surged up, the entire Campus seemed to have been covered by a quilt, so murky that even moonlight could not penetrate it.

In those conditions, the Teaching Building, engulfed by thick fog, resembled a ship lost on a vast sea beneath the mist of a moonlit night.

Below the steps seemed to lie a deep ocean, as though the Security Guard had fallen into it with that thing.

"But... that feeling was ultimately just a 'feeling.' Could there really be something bizarre beneath the thick fog? That's absurd... impossible."

He shook his head. How could something that practically overturned reality happen around him?

Just then, his gaze fell on the Teachers' Office door, and his expression suddenly froze.

"Overturning reality..." Something occurred to him, and he suddenly hesitated, murmuring, "...Is it really impossible?"

"If it's impossible, then what was going on with that stairwell?"

His eyes stared blankly at the Teachers' Office door, unfocused.

He had thought of something that overturned reality, something he had experienced himself-

Given:

[After arriving at the Teaching Building, their group first saw a Notice Board, then followed its directions into a stairwell. They descended stairs arranged in the shape of the Fibonacci Sequence for a full twenty minutes, then exited and turned left, arriving at the Teachers' Office door.]

And:

[After entering the Teachers' Office and obtaining their Student IDs and the Teaching Building Rules, the first door to the right upon leaving the Teachers' Office was the door to Group B Class 2.]

Then the question was:

[What was the spatial relationship between the stairwell and Group B Class 2...?]

There was no need to brainstorm. Simply judging from what he knew yielded an utterly reality-defying answer:

"The stairwell door was the door to the Group B Class 2 classroom!"

"Using the Teachers' Office as a frame of reference, those two things occupied the same position!"

"Fuck!" Lin Yi could not help swearing. "How the fuck is that possible?!"

It made no logical sense!

What logic? There was not the slightest trace of logic to it!

Just as Lin Yi's head began buzzing from all this thinking, Xu Shunkang's voice came through the classroom doorway. "So... what exactly happened last night? Seeing you like this is making me more and more curious."

Xu Shunkang and Xie Huayang walked out of the classroom and stretched luxuriously in the sunlight. "Sunshine really is the best! So warm-it makes me feel full of energy!"

He shook himself, then turned his gaze to Lin Yi, waiting expectantly for his answer.

Lin Yi pulled himself out of his thoughts, glanced at him, and asked curiously, "If you're so curious, why did you leave yesterday? You could've just stayed and watched."

Xu Shunkang said noncommittally, "Personally, I wanted to stay and see it for myself, but I had no choice. If I hadn't left..."

"Ahem!" Xie Huayang smacked him on the head and warned, "Watch what you say!"

Xu Shunkang ducked his head, then said with a smile, "Almost said too much... Anyway, I had to leave, but I'm still really curious about what it was like there."

Lin Yi curled his lip. "If I knew what happened, how could you possibly be seeing me today?"

Xu Shunkang paused, then immediately understood what Lin Yi meant. He rubbed the back of his head and laughed. "You're right! I didn't think that through! Hahaha... Come on, come on, why don't we go grab some food at the Cafeteria together?"

"You're going to eat too?" Lin Yi asked.

Xie Huayang snapped, "Fuck, Fatty Xu gave you all our biscuits to show off. If we don't go eat, are we supposed to stay here gnawing on desks?"

Lin Yi said nothing, looking sheepish.

Wei Liang came over to smooth things over. "All right, all right, we can go together. But let's get one thing straight first: we're each paying with our own cards!"

Xie Huayang sneered. "You little shit, I've got plenty of money on my card."

Wei Liang said nothing. It was not that he was unwilling; the Student Rules explicitly said not to hand their Student IDs to anyone else.

May 7, X023, 11:12.

After checking the time, Lin Yi descended the Teaching Building steps and headed toward the Cafeteria along the route marked on the Map.

Walking along the cobblestone path, Lin Yi carefully noted the positions and numbers of the streetlamp poles he passed, taking out the Map to check them one by one.

He then discovered that the numbers and positions of the streetlamp poles on the grounds matched those on the Map exactly.

But that raised a problem.

"Since their positions match the Map exactly, that means the walk from the University Gate to the Teaching Building actually wasn't that long... Yet I spent ages walking."

"And after the fog rose yesterday evening, the distances between streetlamps were clearly different from the Map. Even their positions seemed to have changed..."

Lin Yi pondered the problem as he walked.

"Could some of the streetlamps have been off? Could they go out like the classroom lights?"

At that thought, he shook his head again.

"That shouldn't be it."

"The Teaching Building Rules mentioned that the classroom lights could flicker and go out. But the Student Rules clearly stated, 'After 18:00, all streetlamps on Campus will light up,' so none of them could have been off!"

"Then what exactly was going on?"

He frowned. No matter how he thought about it, he could not figure it out.

The root of the problem was not faulty logic, but that what he had encountered in reality conflicted with the rules, making the whole issue rather delicate...

There was also another problem that had been troubling Lin Yi all along, namely this rule:

[After 18:00, the streetlamps on Campus will light up. At this time, you may find the streetlamp nearest to you and keep following the streetlamps in descending numerical order. You will encounter the Security Guard.

Please follow the Security Guard until you reach a building shown on the Map, and leave his side before other students discover you.]

Following the streetlamps in descending numerical order would lead them to the Security Guard.

Yet judging by the S City University Map attached to the Teaching Building Rules, the Campus streetlamps were arranged in complete disorder. For instance, "Teaching Building-017" had both "Teaching Building-016" and "Teaching Building-012" nearby, but those two were in completely opposite directions.

Actually trying to follow the streetlamp numbers in descending order might well drive someone insane.

As Lin Yi walked and thought, he suddenly noticed some strange marks on the cobblestone ground. He stopped and crouched down.

"What's up, Lao Lin?" Wei Liang asked.

Crouching on the ground, Lin Yi stared at the gaps between the cobblestones with a deep frown. "Liangzi, look. Isn't that plaster powder stuck in here?"

"Huh?" Wei Liang exclaimed and hurriedly looked down. The gaps between the cobblestones were filled with a hardened White Plaster-Like Substance, as though someone had pressed plaster against the cobblestone path and scraped it along.

This plaster-like substance lay scattered in the gaps between the cobblestones, extending all the way to the end of the path.

Seeing that Lin Yi had discovered something, Xu Shunkang and Xie Huayang merely gave the plaster-like substance an indifferent glance and said nothing.

The four continued toward the Cafeteria.

When Lin Yi saw that this substance was present all along the way, his expression immediately darkened. Even in the sunlight, he still felt a chill.

He did not yet know how it had formed, but a deeply unpleasant feeling nevertheless took root in his heart at that moment.

Walking and stopping along the way, they caught sight of a building beyond a distant greenbelt at around 11:12.

According to the Map, that was S City University's Cafeteria.

Since S City University had been built around mountains on the outskirts, not only did the ground slope, but in some places, sections of gentler mountainside had been excavated to construct teaching buildings against the terrain.

The Cafeteria was much the same sort of building.

From a distance, the Cafeteria looked like a two-story building, but it actually had three floors.

Because of the mountain's position, the floor Lin Yi could see with the naked eye was actually the Cafeteria's second floor, accessible only by stairs or elevator.

The Cafeteria's overall appearance was thoroughly conventional. It looked like an elongated box embedded in the mountain, with sections painted in a school-style orange-yellow.

But because it stood against the mountain, vegetation had already covered its walls. In some areas, even the windows could no longer be opened.

"We're almost at the Cafeteria. Lao Lin, about how long have we been walking?" Wei Liang asked with concern.

Lin Yi glanced at his watch. "Ten minutes so far. At this rate, it should take about fifteen minutes to reach the Cafeteria."

"Yeah, about the same as when I walked there," Wei Liang said with a nod.

Something stirred in Lin Yi's mind. "What do you mean? You didn't take this route back then?"

A flicker of confusion crossed Wei Liang's eyes, and he said uncertainly, "I can't quite remember, but it feels like there were some slight differences... Though it could also be the Mandela Effect, and I'm remembering it wrong."

Lin Yi nodded silently and said nothing.

At 11:16 on May 7, X023, the four of them arrived outside the Cafeteria.

A huge, conspicuous Notice Board stood on the path they had to take to enter the Cafeteria. Its contents were very simple:

[Cafeteria opening hours:

5:40-8:00;

10:40-13:20;

16:00-20:00]

Immediately below were four lines of warnings with emphatic exclamation marks:

[Do not enter the Cafeteria outside opening hours!

Do not enter the Cafeteria during Abnormal Weather!

Do not enter the Cafeteria without your Student ID!

Please follow the Cafeteria Rules within the Cafeteria area!]

In addition, there was a line of small print:

[Please see the shelf below for the Cafeteria Rules. Before entering the Cafeteria, make absolutely sure you have read through the Cafeteria Rules once to familiarize yourself with their contents. You may also take the Cafeteria Rules with you in case you forget any rules, but please return them when you leave the Cafeteria and come back here.]

The enormous Notice Board stood planted in the ground like an archway meant to exorcise demons and ward off evil. The four warnings seemed ordinary enough, but in this setting they carried a somewhat strange air. They clearly felt alarmist, yet Lin Yi did not find them strange at all.

He approached the Notice Board and, sure enough, found a large number of copies of the Cafeteria Rules on the shelf beneath it.

Following the Notice Board's instructions, Lin Yi and Wei Liang each picked up a copy.

Just as Lin Yi was about to read his, he noticed that Xu Shunkang and Xie Huayang stood to one side without making a move.

"Aren't you going to read them?" Lin Yi asked, puzzled.

Xie Huayang could not be bothered to speak, so Xu Shunkang said with an ambiguous smile, "You two go ahead. We don't read the Cafeteria Rules."

"Then... how about taking a copy with you?" Wei Liang offered them two copies of the Cafeteria Rules.

Xie Huayang slapped his hand away and said impatiently, "Enough pointless talk. Hurry up and read. If you keep dawdling, you won't have enough time to eat no matter how much time you've got."

"All right, all right, all right... Don't get angry, don't get angry." Xu Shunkang smiled as he dispelled Xie Huayang's displeasure, then quickly said, "Anyway, you two just read them. We'll wait here until you're done, then go in together."

Although he mentioned the Cafeteria Rules, his gaze avoided them the entire time.

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