"You just need to follow the rules, behave like a normal student, and leave the Campus on the seventh day. Understand?" Xu Shunkang stared into Lin Yi's eyes, wishing he could write those words into Lin Yi's rulebook.
Lin Yi's mouth opened slightly. He did his best to stop himself from thinking about what Xu Shunkang meant, then first explained the problem he had encountered. "I understand, but we got separated from my roommate, so I want to find him."
"You enrolled today... so the person you got separated from hasn't even received his Student ID?"
"He... might not have received it yet." Mao Feiyang had gone into the stairwell, and Lin Yi wasn't sure what his situation was now.
"Where did you get separated?"
"On the stairs."
"The stairs?" Xu Shunkang paused slightly. "Did he take the stairs on the left?"
"The left? No, we got separated on the stairs leading to the basement."
"The basement?" A trace of confusion appeared in Xu Shunkang's eyes. "Strange. The Teaching Building Rules say there isn't a basement..."
He instinctively began to think, his knowledge of this Teaching Building flashing through his mind.
Classrooms, corridors, offices... then the image of a stairwell intruded into his memories.
There was a grayish-green fire door, with an emergency exit sign glowing green on it.
But the moment he thought of that door, a wave of fatigue welled up from deep inside him.
Xu Shunkang's expression suddenly changed. He shook his head fiercely, then blurted out a mutter. "This is bad! That base... that thing falls outside my understanding of the rules!"
Lin Yi narrowed his eyes, a sharp gleam flashing between his lids. "Outside your understanding?!"
"Shut up! Shut up!" Seeing that Lin Yi seemed about to say something else, Xu Shunkang's expression instantly turned tense.
His gaze flickered, his expression panicked.
After cutting Lin Yi off, he immediately closed his eyes and began repeating, "The Teaching Building has no basement. The Teaching Building has no basement..."
As his conviction strengthened, his understanding of the Teaching Building began to solidify again, and he snuffed out the fatigue that had just emerged deep inside him before it could grow.
He opened his eyes again and let out a long breath. Then he studied Lin Yi and asked gravely, "Is this why you've kept thinking about the problems with the Campus?"
"Yes."
"So you've noticed something wrong with the Campus too, right? The strange weather, buildings beyond comprehension, and... those furtive figures..."
"Yes. That's why I've been thinking about it... isn't that what you do? If something's wrong and you don't think about it, doesn't that mean something's wrong with your head?" Lin Yi looked innocently at Xu Shunkang.
"You... you fucking..." Xu Shunkang had already been getting angry, but now he couldn't work up any anger. "You fucking" rolled around his mouth for a long while before he finally shook his head helplessly.
"You have a fucking point."
Lin Yi followed his lead. "Exactly. So can you give me some useful information?"
"Senior. Xu. Shun. Kang."
"You?" Xu Shunkang instinctively took a step back. Looking at Lin Yi's expression, he suddenly understood something, and a little of his suppressed anger resurfaced. "What you're doing is too dangerous!"
Lin Yi shrugged helplessly. "I don't have a choice, senior... one of my roommates is already in danger, and this guy beside me really can't give me any useful information."
Wei Liang didn't argue. He merely rubbed his nose awkwardly.
Xu Shunkang shook his head angrily. "No."
"You can't give us even one clue?" Lin Yi asked sincerely.
"No."
"Why?"
"No reason!" Xu Shunkang's expression was stern. "That's not something you should know!"
Just as Lin Yi was about to press him further, a voice sounded behind him.
"Because the more you learn about the Campus's secrets, the harder it becomes to pull yourself free..."
"That inability to pull free is beyond your control, like a magnet attracting an iron nail."
"Right now, you've only sensed a little of the magnet's pull from far away. But once you learn more, you'll move closer to the magnet. Once you cross a critical threshold, you won't be able to escape its magnetic field."
"The moment you step into that magnetic field, your understanding will be overturned and shattered. If you can't rebuild it, you're finished."
A student wearing the exact same blue-and-white striped tracksuit as Xu Shunkang walked up to Lin Yi.
"Xie Huayang, Athlete Student. Fatty and I are from the same intake," he introduced himself.
Then he looked at Xu Shunkang and urged him with a frown, "All right, Fatty. It's getting late. Keep your emotions under control and stop getting angry. We should go."
"We're leaving this early?" Xu Shunkang sounded surprised.
"Early, my ass." Xie Huayang leaned closer and lowered his voice. "We're shorthanded today, and you just drew all their aggro. Timing, terrain, numbers-none of it's in our favor. If we don't leave early, are we staying here to die?"
"Uh..." Xu Shunkang was left speechless, and some of his anger suddenly faded.
He glanced at Lin Yi and Wei Liang and hesitated. "What about them?"
Xie Huayang gave Lin Yi and Wei Liang an indifferent glance. "They pissed you off, and you're still worrying about them?"
"If you ask me, whether they live or die is none of our fucking business!"
"You've warned them, and I've said my piece. They can listen if they want. If they don't, they can do whatever the hell they like!"
Xu Shunkang was clearly still hesitant, but Xie Huayang suddenly added, "You can't talk someone out of a death wish. If they're like Iron-Head Yuan, it won't matter how many times we try."
Though he knew perfectly well that Xie Huayang was deliberately provoking him, hearing Iron-Head Yuan's name made Xu Shunkang's anger flare up again just as it had begun to subside.
He grabbed Xie Huayang by the collar and growled, "Shut up! Stop bringing up Big Head! Do you really think that's what happened? We had a chance to save him!"
"A chance, my ass! He thought he understood the rules. He didn't understand shit!" Xie Huayang slapped Xu Shunkang's hand away. "Didn't we try to talk him out of it? Didn't we tell him not to do it? But he wouldn't listen!"
He pointed at Lin Yi and Wei Liang. "Just like those two self-important dumbasses! They won't listen! We're strangers who happened to cross paths. Why waste your breath on them?"
"Sorry to interrupt... I haven't refused to listen..." Wei Liang raised both hands and spoke meekly.
Xie Huayang pointed at the quartz clock on the classroom wall. "It's eight forty-three. Are you leaving or not? If you're not, I'm going ahead!"
"If you want to leave, then leave!"
"Then I'm going! You're on your own!" Xie Huayang turned around without hesitation.
"You fucking wait!" Xu Shunkang was like a pump, his anger drawn up inside him and then pushed back down.
And now it had just been drawn up and pushed back down again.
Reluctance was written all over his face.
He tightened his grip on the comic book and said through gritted teeth, "I haven't finished this comic yet."
"What's so great about a cuckold comic?" Xie Huayang snatched Mountain-Sea Green War from Xu Shunkang's hands. "Hong Kong comics just can't shake these moronic cuckold plots that disgust their readers. I finished this ages ago. It gets worse the further you go, and the ending's a pile of shit, a complete mess. If you ask me, you're better off reading some straight-up hentai!"
"I've got a few treasured works by Oda Non. I'll lend them to you to appreciate later." He patted Xu Shunkang on the shoulder and urged him, "Come on, let's go, let's go, let's go! Hurry!"
By now, Xu Shunkang's anger really had mostly dissipated. He hesitated, then said, "There's still a little time. Let me say one more thing to them."
"Make it quick." Xie Huayang also knew he couldn't push too hard.
Xu Shunkang walked over to Lin Yi and Wei Liang and said with the utmost seriousness, "We're leaving. You two take care of yourselves."
"Where are you going?" Lin Yi asked instinctively.
"Watch out for what?" Wei Liang blurted out almost at the same time.
Xu Shunkang said, "You're not allowed to leave the Teaching Building after 21:00, so we're heading out first."
"Once we're gone, be wary of everyone other than yourselves."
"Because..."
He looked around, his icy gaze sweeping across the faces of the students who had gathered around them earlier.
"Night is their home turf..."
Lin Yi and Wei Liang's hearts jolted.
"Remember, following the rules is the only way you can protect yourselves."
With that, Xu Shunkang followed Xie Huayang toward the classroom door.
Before leaving, he seemed to remember something else. He turned to Lin Yi and smiled. "Still, in theory, spending the night in the classroom is relatively safe. I hope I'll see you again tomorrow... good luck."
Then he opened the door and walked out with Xie Huayang.
The instant the classroom door opened, wisps of thick fog drifted through the gap like cooking smoke at noon.
Outside the classroom, bone-chilling winds mixed with icy moisture continually battered the Campus. The entire classroom seemed like a sailing ship crossing the Caribbean Sea at night, liable to capsize amid the waves and dense fog at any moment.
After Xie Huayang and Xu Shunkang left, some students followed them out of the classroom one after another.
Lin Yi noticed that nearly all the students leaving wore matching blue-and-white tracksuits.
In other words, they were all Athlete Students.
Once the Athlete Students had left, the classroom door closed again.
The cold wind outside could no longer blow in, and the vast, empty classroom gradually grew warm again under the clear yellow glow of the incandescent lights.
Watching the Athlete Students leave, Lin Yi recalled something Xie Huayang had said: Because the more you learn about the Campus's secrets, the harder it becomes to pull yourself free... that inability to pull free is beyond your control, like a magnet attracting an iron nail.
Unable to pull free? Is that the sense of being guided I felt earlier?
Don't think...
Keep thinking...
Fuck, so that's how we're playing this?
Lin Yi glanced at the clock on the wall, then at the time on his watch.
20:47.
"It's almost nine..."
Lin Yi took out the Student Rules and flipped through them, finding the rule about staying overnight.
[Student Rules, rule 6: Please leave the Dormitory between 6:00 and 7:40, and return to the Dormitory between 21:00 and 22:00. After returning to the Dormitory, do not leave outside that time period... if you have not returned to the Dormitory by 22:00, please return to the classroom by any means necessary. The classroom lights will not be switched off. Please spend the night in the classroom.
During this period, if you notice anything unusual outside the Dorm Supervisor's Office or the classroom, please ignore it, especially when you hear a voice calling your name.
Be wary of roommates who did not spend the night in the Dormitory, especially when they ask you anything related to your Student ID.]
Then he checked the Teaching Building Rules concerning that time period.
[Evening self-study begins after 18:00, but the school does not require students to attend unless the current time is already past 21:00.
After 21:00, leaving the classroom is prohibited. Please study independently until 7:40 the following morning. You may read any books, but remember: Do! Not! Sleep! In! The! Classroom! (This final sentence was bolded, underlined, and marked with numerous conspicuous exclamation marks.)
During this period, if you see anything unusual outside the windows or someone calls to you from outside the door, please ignore it.]
Lin Yi rubbed his chin and began to think.
The Student Rules say to return to the Dormitory between 21:00 and 22:00, while the Teaching Building Rules prohibit leaving the classroom after 21:00.
In other words, under normal circumstances, we should leave the classroom before 21:00 and reach the Dormitory before 22:00. That gives us a full hour to get there...
He flipped to the back of the Teaching Building booklet, opened the Map, and examined the relative positions of the Teaching Building and the Dormitory.
The Teaching Building on the Map was exactly as described in the Teaching Building Rules: three buildings standing side by side, connected by bridge corridors in between, like three copies of the Chinese character "目" placed together.
The distance from the Teaching Building to the Dormitory was about the same as the distance to the School Gate. Streetlamps were likewise scattered along the route like grains of rice.
Judging by the rules, an hour should be more than enough time to get there.
But the Student Rules say that if you haven't returned to the Dormitory after 22:00, you should return to the classroom and study until 7:40 the next morning, while the Teaching Building Rules prohibit leaving the classroom after 21:00...
Isn't that a contradiction?
No, no, there's no contradiction... prohibiting people from leaving the classroom doesn't mean prohibiting entry. So anyone who can't return to the Dormitory in time can return to the classroom to study. Right, right, that makes sense.
But leaving is prohibited after 21:00...
Lin Yi lowered his head to check his watch. It was now 20:52. He had spent a total of five minutes thinking since the Athlete Students left.
Yet during those five minutes of thought, he hadn't experienced the fatigue from earlier.
Why am I neither tired nor sleepy now, when I was so tired before?
Lin Yi took a deep breath, then looked around, taking in the entire circular classroom.
There were still more than sixty students in the enormous classroom, and about forty of them had previously gathered around Lin Yi and put him under considerable pressure.
These people all shared one very obvious trait: they huddled in their seats, as though they wished they could embed themselves in them.
Their heads drooped. Some stared blankly into thin air, while others stared fixedly at the other students in the classroom.
The other students were those who looked relatively normal, like Lin Yi and Wei Liang. There were twenty-something of them, fewer than thirty.
Lin Yi told Wei Liang what he had noticed.
After listening, Wei Liang asked in confusion, "I have no objection to you saying there's something wrong with those thirty or forty people, but how can you be sure the rest are normal? You can't spot anything unusual about some of the shady ones just by watching, can you?"
Lin Yi shook his head. "I didn't make my judgment based on that level of observation."
Thanks to reader "Klee Blasts Fish" for the tip!
Before you continue