Chapter Summaries

After escaping a strange road where time and people seemed to disappear, Lin Yi deduced that the Gymnasium’s notice board relied on firm belief and ignoring the wind. He and Wei Liang reached the Gymnasium, where Lin Yi felt an overwhelming sense of safety and was directed to pick up the Gymnasium Rules.

• Lin Yi recovered from the strange road and realized his watch showed that only two minutes had passed despite his long walk; Wei Liang said he had briefly turned around and seen Lin Yi rushing toward his feet.
• As Lin Yi and Wei Liang headed toward the Gymnasium, Lin Yi noticed nearby students disappearing and suspected they had been diverted onto the nonexistent road by the sea-scented wind.
• Lin Yi recalled the Gymnasium notice board and concluded that believing there was only one road to the Gymnasium and ignoring the wind could help people avoid the abnormal route.
• Wei Liang explained that he could not smell the wind because his nose was blocked, then told Lin Yi about the Giant Dome connected to the Gymnasium.
• At the Gymnasium entrance, athlete students carrying Baseball Bats hurried Lin Yi and Wei Liang inside and threatened Wei Liang with ball practice.
• Lin Yi felt an intense sense of safety as soon as he entered the Gymnasium, and Wei Liang directed him to the Self-Service Lending Machine to get a copy of the Gymnasium Rules.

Lin Yi and Wei Liang collected the Gymnasium Rules and went to the Gymnasium for PE, where Wei Liang recounted his terrifying previous class. While studying the map and inspecting the building, Lin Yi spotted kerosene lamps leading toward a forbidden corridor and what appeared to be a staircase to the basement.

• Lin Yi and Wei Liang each collected a Gymnasium Rules booklet, which warned them to stay in marked trial areas and prohibited entry to the basement.
• Lin Yi and Wei Liang arrived at the basketball court for a free activity period because the Gym Teacher had not appeared.
• Wei Liang told Lin Yi that a Gym Teacher had once held him underwater for an entire swimming class, then went upstairs to the gymnastics room.
• Lin Yi unfolded the map and examined the Gymnasium, noticing incandescent lights among the LEDs and a lit kerosene lamp.
• Lin Yi recognized the kerosene lamp as identical to the Security Guard's and realized it hung in a prohibited area.
• Lin Yi followed the lamps' direction with his eyes and glimpsed a door and staircase leading toward the basement.

Lin Yi met Tian Bufan in the Gymnasium, where they discussed their fading memories of Mao Feiyang and the shifting Teachers’ Offices connected to the Stairwell. Tian Bufan warned that the world seemed to be forgetting Mao Feiyang, then asked Lin Yi what the Athlete Student had told him.

• Lin Yi resisted the Basement’s pull and reunited with Tian Bufan beside the Gymnasium’s Kerosene Lamps.
• Tian Bufan said he was forgetting Mao Feiyang, and Lin Yi realized his own memories of Mao Feiyang were fading too.
• Tian Bufan concluded that Mao Feiyang was slipping away from them and said the world might be forgetting him.
• Tian Bufan explained his theory that the Teachers’ Offices moved and could be connected to the Stairwell, but warned Lin Yi not to enter them rashly.
• Lin Yi told Tian Bufan that an Athlete Student had advised him to think freely under the Sun, and Tian Bufan asked what else the student had said.

Lin Yi told Tian Bufan about his encounters with Xu Shunkang and Xie Huayang, then experienced a disorienting vision while listening to Tian explain the old lamp’s history. As PE continued, a formidable Sports Department Girl arrived with Xu Shunkang and his exhausted group, and her attention fixed on Lin Yi.

• Lin Yi told Tian Bufan about meeting Xu Shunkang and Xie Huayang, and Tian suggested that Lin Yi had caught someone’s attention.
• Tian Bufan described the old lamp as a relic from a distant era, and Lin Yi briefly sensed a terrifying, ancient presence before Tian reassured him.
• Tian Bufan left for the second floor, and Lin Yi reviewed the Gymnasium Rules before looking for equipment to borrow.
• Athlete Students made way for a tall Sports Department Girl carrying a club coated with a plaster-like substance, with the exhausted Xu Shunkang and Xie Huayang behind her.
• Xu Shunkang beckoned Lin Yi over, but the group’s pressure made Lin Yi falter as the Sports Department Girl struck her iron bar against the floor and fixed her flaming eyes on him.

Sports Department Girl summoned Lin Yi to swim and warned him about the fog and the women’s changing room. In the men’s locker room, Lin Yi found a note ordering him not to swim and to run, just as Sports Department Girl approached him in her swimsuit.

• Sports Department Girl approached Lin Yi, sniffed him, and invited him to swim while Xu Shunkang and Xie Huayang worried that something was wrong with him.
• Sports Department Girl warned Lin Yi that an overly precise sense of time could limit his cognition, especially while traveling through fog, then sent him to the men’s changing room.
• Lin Yi read the changing-room notice, including instructions for safely washing his hair, and changed into the swimwear from a locker he opened with his Student ID.
• A nearby locker sprang open and revealed a note telling Lin Yi not to swim and to run.
• Sports Department Girl came over to hurry Lin Yi, who stood frozen after reading the warning.

Lin Yi followed the Sports Department Girl to the swimming pool, where he experienced a deadly vision after sensing the Ancient Bronze Lamp at the pool’s far end. After he returned to his senses, the girl threw him into the pool when he began describing what he had seen, then said it was hard to imagine he had made it to the Gymnasium alive.

• The Sports Department Girl tore down a strange locker note and led Lin Yi through the water curtain to the swimming pool.
• Lin Yi stared toward the pool’s far end and became trapped in a vision of a cliff, a dark abyss, and a Security Guard holding an Ancient Bronze Lamp.
• Lin Yi focused on the lamp and repeated his identity until the vision faded, then found himself back at the pool, where the Sports Department Girl confirmed he had zoned out for about ten seconds.
• The Sports Department Girl asked Lin Yi what he had seen, and when he began to describe a sea, she hurled him into the pool to interrupt him.
• The Sports Department Girl sat at the pool’s edge and told Lin Yi it was hard to imagine he had made it to the Gymnasium alive.

While the Sports Department Girl forced Lin Yi to keep swimming, he fell into a terrifying abyssal vision beneath the pool and fought his way back to the surface. She then drew strange white particles from his body, which began covering her leg as the chapter ended.

• The Sports Department Girl kept Lin Yi swimming past the end of PE and pushed him underwater when she said his back was sticking out.
• Lin Yi found that the pool had become an endless abyss, resisted its pull, and hauled himself back to the surface.
• Lin Yi accidentally knocked the Sports Department Girl down while grabbing her hand, then resumed swimming when she ordered him to continue.
• A girl came from the changing rooms, whispered to the Sports Department Girl, and left after receiving instructions.
• The Sports Department Girl lured white particles out of Lin Yi with her foot, then stepped on his back to draw out the final surge, which crawled up her leg.

After swimming class, Lin Yi sensed a sinister presence in the Gymnasium changing room and tried to escape without looking back. The entity cornered him and offered what appeared to be a pulsing heart disguised as a tomato.

• The Sports Department Girl, whom Lin Yi learned to call Boss, finished his swimming lesson and warned him not to wash his hair without an Athlete Student keeping watch.
• Lin Yi noticed a surge of yin energy in the Shower Area, hurried to dress, and found the changing room apparently empty.
• An icy presence appeared behind Lin Yi, but he kept his eyes fixed on his locker and backed away without looking back.
• The presence followed Lin Yi as he retreated, then stopped him by pressing its cold body against his back.
• A pale hand offered Lin Yi a scarlet, pulsing object, and he realized it was a heart rather than a tomato.

Lin Yi escaped a Green Apron Chef in the Swimming Hall and fled to the Women's Locker Room, where Boss killed the pursuer. As Boss escorted him from the Gymnasium, Lin Yi told her about his earlier encounter with the chef and hinted that he knew who had accepted the Tomato Meat Sauce Pasta.

• Lin Yi evaded the Green Apron Chef, returned his towel, swimsuit, and waterproof card holder to the Swimsuit Recycling Bin, then ran from the Swimming Hall to seek help.
• With no Athlete Students nearby, Lin Yi rushed into the Women's Locker Room, and Boss charged out to confront the Green Apron Chef.
• Boss told Lin Yi to wait inside, then returned and said she had killed the chef; Lin Yi obeyed her orders and waited by the exit.
• Boss emerged in sportswear, said she had cleaned up the chef's remains, and escorted Lin Yi toward the Gymnasium entrance before sunset.
• Boss questioned Lin Yi about his arrival at the school and the fog, then asked about his encounter with the Green Apron Chef.
• Lin Yi told Boss that the chef had offered him Tomato Meat Sauce Pasta and said he thought he knew who had accepted the serving.

Lin Yi told Boss about the strange signs involving his head teacher, and Boss warned him to avoid her during Abnormal Weather. After Boss gave Lin Yi her shoes and found Wei Liang a pair, the two friends left the Gymnasium and noticed thin fog near the Teaching Building.

• Lin Yi described the head teacher's discarded pasta, the classroom intruder, and the strange tomato sauce and plaster fragments to Boss.
• Boss said something had gone wrong with the head teacher and warned Lin Yi not to trust her or get close to her during Abnormal Weather.
• Boss learned Lin Yi was in Group B Class 2, said the group lacked enough people to keep watch there, and told him to return to the Dormitory early.
• Boss gave Lin Yi her sneakers, then ordered Little Zhouzi to give Wei Liang his shoes when Lin Yi offered Wei Liang his spare boot.
• Lin Yi and Wei Liang returned the Gymnasium Rules and walked toward the Teaching Building, keeping each other talking as they passed the Notice Board.
• Lin Yi noticed thin fog gathering around the Teaching Building and reacted with alarm.

Lin Yi saw signs of danger gathering in the Wooded Belt, then found the Cafeteria and the Student Passage had vanished when he and Wei Liang arrived at its Notice Board. As his perception and sense of location began to collapse, Lin Yi desperately searched for a reference point to keep himself from being lost in the distortion.

• Lin Yi stopped Wei Liang from looking toward the misty Wooded Belt and studied it while Wei Liang stood guard.
• Lin Yi noticed a cold presence and scraping sounds within the Wooded Belt, but pulled away before he became sleepy and went with Wei Liang to get dinner.
• Figures resembling terracotta soldiers trudged toward the Wooded Belt's edge as Lin Yi and Wei Liang traveled to the Cafeteria.
• Lin Yi froze at the Cafeteria's Notice Board when he could no longer see the Cafeteria, the Student Passage, or the road behind it.
• Lin Yi reaffirmed that he was at the Cafeteria, but distorted light and shadow made him dizzy and threatened to overwhelm his senses.
• Lin Yi recalled the Student Rules' advice to find a reference point and searched for one, but the pebbles beneath his feet had already twisted.

Lin Yi escaped a three-minute reality distortion by using the Notice Board as a fixed reference, then reconsidered the Cafeteria’s passages and the school’s identity rules. He concluded that the passages corresponded to students with Student IDs, staff with name badges, and people without recognized identities, though the dangers facing those “other people” remained unclear.

• Lin Yi used the Campus Map and the unchanged Notice Board to escape the distorted world, then realized only three minutes had passed.
• Wei Liang said Lin Yi had abruptly charged at the Notice Board, and the two headed toward the Student Passage.
• Lin Yi noticed fog gathering on Basement Level One and resolved to ask Tian Bufan about what he had seen.
• Lin Yi and Wei Liang spotted students entering the unmarked Other Passage, prompting Lin Yi to recall that Athlete Students and other unusual people used it.
• Lin Yi connected the passages to the school’s identity rules and concluded that losing a Student ID could make him an “other person.”
• Lin Yi suspected that using a passage that did not match one’s identity could cause a terrifying transformation.

Lin Yi and Wei Liang encountered a cafeteria employee whose distorted perception turned their orders into tomato dishes, then followed the rules to discard the food. As a crowd of students fixated on their trays, a chef in a dark green apron blocked the Utensil Return Area and questioned them for throwing the food away.

• Lin Yi experienced strange frost-like sights and sounds in the Student Passage, ignored a Blue Apron Chef at its exit, and entered the Student Dining Hall with Wei Liang.
• At Meal Window No. 3, the cafeteria lady served Wei Liang stir-fried tomatoes and eggs while calling it beef with green peppers, and Wei Liang accepted the tray without correcting her.
• Lin Yi recognized the danger described by Rule 8, memorized the cafeteria lady's number, Chef-0391, and accepted a tray containing stir-fried tomatoes and eggs after agreeing with her distorted description.
• Lin Yi and Wei Liang headed for the Utensil Return Area to discard their food, but students crowded after them, drawn to the tomatoes and eggs.
• A chef wearing a dark green apron appeared beside the return area and asked why they were wasting food without eating it.

Lin Yi and Wei Liang avoided the Green Apron Chef by dumping their tomato-and-egg meal instead of trying to leave the cafeteria. As they queued for more food, Lin Yi realized the tomato-seeking students were consuming something tied to hearts and blood, and the chapter ended with Wei Liang questioning Lin Yi’s claim that the chef only attacked people leaving.

• Lin Yi warned Wei Liang to ignore the Green Apron Chef, and Wei Liang remembered the cafeteria rule about ignoring staff in the dining hall.
• Lin Yi deduced that the Green Apron Chef attacked only when students tried to leave, so he and Wei Liang could safely dump their food and buy another meal.
• The Green Apron Chef tried to take Lin Yi’s tray, but Lin Yi dumped the food himself, and Wei Liang followed before they walked past it.
• The Green Apron Chef retrieved the tomatoes and tempted nearby students, who ate them as the chef inhaled white powder seeping from their skin.
• Lin Yi realized the tomatoes drew the strange students and connected tomatoes with hearts, tomato sauce with heart’s blood, and plaster, then noticed he had accepted those ideas without feeling drowsy.
• Wei Liang asked what they should do next, and Lin Yi said the Green Apron Chef only attacked when they left, prompting Wei Liang to ask where Lin Yi had gotten that experience.

Lin Yi and Wei Liang tried to get food while avoiding the chefs watching them in the Student Dining Hall. Lin Yi escaped the nameless cafeteria lady’s dangerous serving window, but the Blue Apron Chef slipped a tomato onto Wei Liang’s tray as they prepared to leave.

• Lin Yi explained to Wei Liang that he had escaped the Green Apron Chef at noon by running, and they decided to look for Xu Shunkang or Boss while leaving time to eat and get out.
• Lin Yi saw the Green Apron Chef watching him in the queue, then noticed the Blue Apron Chef staring at him through the dining hall glass.
• At Meal Window No. 1, Lin Yi spotted that the cafeteria lady had no name tag and briefly saw an identical green-aproned figure with the tag Chef-0154 behind her.
• Lin Yi called over a male server with the name tag Chef-0105, who served food while the Green Apron Chef tried and failed to add scrambled eggs with tomatoes.
• The Blue Apron Chef placed milk on Lin Yi’s tray, then secretly put a tomato in Wei Liang’s hand, and Wei Liang set it on his tray without noticing.

Lin Yi and Wei Liang searched the Student Dining Hall for athlete students, then Lin Yi followed a group of them while trying to avoid the tomato-related anomaly. When a fake Wei Liang and a tomato appeared behind him, Lin Yi copied the athlete students’ unusual tray-return ritual and fled with them toward the exit.

• Lin Yi discovered that the milk on his tray had become a pulsing tomato, then pretended it was milk and put it back among the cartons.
• Lin Yi and Wei Liang spotted four athlete students in casual clothes and decided to eat beside them before following them out.
• As Lin Yi considered the Student ID’s importance and his own strange changes, he and Wei Liang finished their meal without incident.
• A fake Wei Liang appeared behind Lin Yi, and Lin Yi saw the milk on his tray repeatedly turn into a tomato while he kept moving toward the tray return.
• Lin Yi noticed the athlete students pause just before setting down their trays, copied them, and ran with them after they counted down and dropped their trays.

Lin Yi escaped the Student Dining Hall but discovered that the plastic strip curtain seemed to separate two incompatible versions of the space. After an Athlete Student broke off the Green Apron Chef’s arm, Lin Yi learned that knowing too much about such things could be a curse.

• Lin Yi raced for the Student Dining Hall exit while the Green Apron Chef pursued him, and he saw Athlete Students turn their clothes inside out and attack their pursuers with baseball bats.
• Lin Yi spotted a Blue Apron Chef beyond the exit, but it vanished as he passed through the plastic strip curtain; the Green Apron Chef also seemed to disappear from view.
• When Lin Yi approached the curtain, the Green Apron Chef thrust a pale hand through it, and an Athlete Student smashed the arm with a baseball bat until it broke off.
• Lin Yi saw the broken arm’s horrifying cross section before the Green Apron Chef withdrew; the curtain fell, and the severed limb became a plaster-like object.
• An Athlete Student helped Lin Yi up, picked up the plaster arm to take it to the Gymnasium, and warned him that learning too much could become a curse.

Lin Yi and Wei Liang crossed the fog-filled Student Passage, where Lin Yi experienced strange sounds and visions despite the short journey. After reaching the Teaching Building, Lin Yi noticed a fourth building had appeared beyond Building C, partly hidden in the mist.

• Wei Liang returned to Lin Yi, confirmed he had seen the Green Apron Chef chase Lin Yi, and agreed to lead him through the foggy Student Passage.
• Lin Yi followed Wei Liang down the passage while resisting the urge to look back and enduring eerie sounds, sea-scented air, and shifting wall reliefs.
• Wei Liang led Lin Yi out after one hundred steps, though Lin Yi’s watch showed that only four minutes had passed.
• Lin Yi and Wei Liang returned the Cafeteria Rules, then walked toward the Teaching Building after discussing the Campus’s nighttime fog and curfew rules.
• Lin Yi realized the Teaching Building had four buildings rather than three and spotted a covered bridge leading to a fourth, unfamiliar building in the mist.

Lin Yi noticed Teaching Building D emerging through abnormal fog and suspected it was connected to the nonexistent Art Building. He returned with Wei Liang to Group B Class 2, where the classroom was crowded with new arrivals, and began updating his notes.

• Lin Yi reasoned that Teaching Building D appeared during localized abnormal weather and might be the Art Building he had glimpsed before.
• Lin Yi spotted a lantern-bearing group that looked like Security Guards and Chefs heading from Teaching Building C toward Teaching Building D, then followed Wei Liang away.
• Lin Yi and Wei Liang returned to Group B Class 2 at 18:40 and found fog clinging to Teaching Building B.
• Lin Yi counted the classroom’s abnormal and normal students and noticed about twenty-five newcomers who seemed unaware of the danger.
• Lin Yi and Wei Liang found new seats, and Lin Yi checked the time before opening his notebook to record the day’s events.

Lin Yi recorded campus anomalies and remembered that he needed to report two cafeteria workers for serving food with tomato elements. After leaving to find the Head Teacher, he encountered a missing office sign and cautiously verified that he had found the correct room.

• Lin Yi tried to write that tomatoes were hearts and tomato sauce was blood plasma, but the information caused such terror that he crossed it out and added notes about Green Hats, spatial boundaries, moss, the Gymnasium, and Building D.
• Lin Yi realized he had been adapting to the campus’s inexplicable rules and discussed Rule 8 of the Cafeteria Rules with Wei Liang, who urged him to report the cafeteria workers’ badge numbers to the Head Teacher.
• Wei Liang borrowed Lin Yi’s notebook and secretly wrote a sentence on a torn-out page before Lin Yi left the classroom at 19:02.
• Lin Yi found that the Head Teacher’s office door sign was missing and, amid fog and distant sounds of waves, felt his way back to the Group B Class 2 door.
• Lin Yi entered the classroom for warmth, then cautiously checked the neighboring office sign and confirmed it read Teachers’ Office, with small print identifying Group B Class 2.