I Don't Have to Stand Watch

Afterward, everyone started eating the food they hadn't finished earlier.

The classroom was filled with the smell of food. More than thirty people shared the limited supply of bread and ham sausages, each eating carefully for fear that one bite too many would leave nothing for the next.

Lin Yang stood beside the lectern, with little appetite.

The image of the corpse still ran through his mind. The sweet, bloody smell of rotting flesh seemed to have stuck inside his nose, refusing to go away.

Jiang Yu'an made her way through the crowd. Her dark blue outdoor jacket flashed among the people before she stopped in front of him.

"Long time no see."

"Long time no see."

"How did you know I'd help you?"

She stared at Lin Yang, frowning. The classroom was too noisy for anyone to notice what they were saying.

Lin Yang glanced at her.

He remembered that she'd been just like this in high school, sitting alone in the third row by the window, quiet and demure. Whenever she was called on, she always got the answer right.

Back then, he'd sat diagonally behind her. He'd always loved staring at that face of hers, as though carved from jade.

Young people always liked someone pretty and good at school.

"You're smart," Lin Yang said, stuffing the rest of the bread in his hand into his mouth. He chewed twice and swallowed.

"Otherwise, you wouldn't have been recommended for admission to a top university to study forensic medicine."

Jiang Yu'an was taken aback. "You've been keeping an eye on me?"

"I just happened to see your Moments posts, that's all."

"Weren't you afraid I was a Faceling too?"

Lin Yang paused, then nodded.

"I was."

"Then why did you still ask me to examine it?"

"In that case," Lin Yang said calmly, "wouldn't I have found two Facelings?"

Jiang Yu'an fell silent for two seconds.

Her eyes narrowed slightly. It was such a subtle change in expression that Lin Yang wouldn't have noticed if he hadn't been watching her the whole time.

Then she nodded.

"We haven't seen each other in so long, and you've gotten a lot smarter."

Lin Yang didn't reply. He turned to look out the window. The sky was already beginning to darken.

In fact, even if Jiang Yu'an hadn't helped him, he had other ways.

Jiang Yu'an's cooperation had saved him a lot of effort, but even without her, the outcome wouldn't have been much different.

That was his confidence.

Twilight pressed in layer by layer, from far to near, soaking the outline of the unfamiliar False Person Experimental Middle School outside the window in deep gray.

"It's almost dark."

Jiang Yu'an followed his gaze out the window without replying.

The two fell silent for a few seconds. Then she turned and walked back into the crowd, her dark blue outdoor jacket blending into the dim light until she soon disappeared.

Lin Yang looked away.

His gaze fell on the twenty-four survivors.

There were twenty-four people in his group, twenty-five including himself.

The muscular men still had eight on their side, huddled at the other end of the classroom, staring over with venomous, hungry eyes.

Twenty-five against eight was an overwhelming advantage in numbers. But numbers weren't the problem.

The problem was that Facelings were still hiding among those twenty-five people!

There were five Facelings now. Perhaps they were mixed into his group, collecting food. They were watching him. And he was watching them.

The light in the classroom faded inch by inch.

Night fell. Moonlight shone through the windows, cutting long strips of cold white across the floor.

"Night... is the most dangerous time."

Many people were chattering away. "I won't get killed by a Faceling tonight, will I?"

"Yeah! What should we do? How about we don't sleep?"

"Not sleep? That won't work. How about... some of us sleep during the day and some at night?"

"Why don't we ask Lin Yang?"

"..."

Lin Yang walked to the middle of the classroom and clapped his hands.

The sound rang especially clearly in the quiet classroom, drawing everyone's attention to him.

"Everyone, listen." He looked around, making sure everyone could hear him.

"Starting now, we're setting up a night watch!"

A slight stir ran through the crowd, but it soon quieted down. After what had happened during the day, hardly anyone wanted to argue with him anymore.

"Excluding me, the twenty-four of you will split into six groups of four.

"All six groups will stand watch each night. One person in each group will stay awake, and the others can rest.

"That way, six pairs of eyes will be watching every corner of the classroom at all times."

He paused, letting the number settle in everyone's minds.

"If the Facelings want to kill someone, they'll have to get past those six pairs of eyes! You'll be able to notice immediately, too!"

Some people in the crowd nodded, while others whispered to the people beside them.

The young man in the dark gray hoodie was the first to step forward. His name was Shen Cheng, though Lin Yang only learned that later.

"I agree! In a group of four, even if one of them is a Faceling, the other three can keep each other in check. And the people on watch nearby can help each other too!"

"Then how do we divide the groups?" someone asked.

"Form your own groups," Lin Yang said.

"You can team up with people you know. Knowing each other well will make it easier to work together. But each group needs at least one person who can stay up late!

"If the person on watch gets sleepy, wake someone else in the group to take over. Don't try to force yourself to stay awake. A watchman who pushes on until he falls asleep is as good as no watchman at all."

Over the next ten minutes, the crowd began forming groups on their own.

There were about ten women present, and each was assigned to a group with men.

Shen Cheng formed a group with several men who were usually quieter. The fat man gathered two middle-aged men and a college student wearing glasses to make a group.

Lin Yang stood to one side and watched. He didn't seek out a group himself, because he was the exception.

"Brother Lin, you're not standing watch?"

someone asked.

"I'm staying in the storage room," Lin Yang said.

No one objected.

The storage room was the safest place here. It could be called special treatment.

But after the fight that day and that batch of food, Lin Yang had enough authority for most people to accept his special treatment.

The muscular men nearby were still unhappy. "Why do you get to stay in the storage room?"

The fat man immediately raised the table leg. "What? Got a problem with that? Wanna fight?"

The muscular man snorted and retreated, holding a woman.

Lin Yang walked into the storage room alone. He searched it carefully and made sure there was nowhere for anyone to hide before closing the door.

The moment the door shut, most of the noise outside was cut off.

He fastened the latch, then wedged the wooden stick diagonally between the door and the floor. After checking several times that the door wouldn't budge, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The air in the storage room was cooler than outside. A faint current came through the ventilation duct, carrying an indefinable damp smell.

He went to the back, moved the cardboard box aside, and exposed the keyhole underneath.

He still had the key hidden on him. He took it out, inserted it, and turned it. The refrigerator door opened with a click.

A cold white light came on in the cramped space.

Inside the refrigerator were a bag of bread, a carton of milk, two bottles of mineral water, and an unopened bag of ham sausages.

What he'd taken out that morning had been the bulk of it. He'd kept the rest as a reserve for himself.

He took the bag of bread and the carton of milk, closed the refrigerator, put everything back the way it had been, then sat on the cardboard and started eating.