I Know Who Another Faceling Is

It was covered in a dense web of blood vessels, spreading from the edges toward the center. A vertical pupil! A gleaming black point at its very center faced him, staring straight through the two-finger-wide gap!

It was back!

This time, there was no peephole glass between them, only a few rusty iron bars.

The gaps between the bars were narrow, but the eye had forced itself against one of them, deforming the skin around it and exposing the blackened flesh underneath!

His hand tightened around the keys, his knuckles turning white. He stared at the eye, and the eye stared back at him!

Man and pupil faced each other from less than a meter apart for about two seconds.

Perhaps anger had overcome fear. He picked up his stick and prepared to jab it!

But then, with a swish!

His stick was only halfway up when the eye vanished in an instant, sending a shiver through the surrounding dust!

Beyond the iron bars, only gray mist and darkness untouched by moonlight remained, as though it had never appeared.

It was gone!

Lin Yang gasped for breath.

His chest heaved, and cold sweat had soaked a patch of his jacket across his back.

He watched the vent without going any closer or lying back down to sleep.

He stayed there against the corner, keys clutched in his hand, staring at the two rusty iron grates until gray daylight began to filter in through the window.

The first thing he did the next morning was check the vent!

Faint morning light had entered the office, enough for him to make out the details on the wall.

The iron grate over the vent was still mottled with rust, just as it had been when he checked it yesterday.

But when his gaze fell on the outer frame, it stopped.

There were scratches all over the frame of the iron grate. Fresh scratches. The rust had been scraped away, exposing the silvery-gray metal underneath.

The scratches were fine, dense, and irregularly arranged, made by many sharp things clawing at it at once.

That thing had tried to squeeze in through here during the night, but the opening was too small, and it hadn't gotten in!

He fell silent for a moment, then turned and pushed open the office door.

It was already lively outside.

Nobody had died today. This was a different kind of commotion.

There was also the grating scrape of desks and chairs being knocked over.

"Hey! Why are you still pretending?"

"Why did you go out alone yesterday?"

Lin Yang pushed through the crowd and saw the fatty gripping Liu Jialiang by the collar, pinning him against a desk.

Liu Jialiang's face was pressed sideways against the desktop. A cut at the corner of his mouth oozed blood that ran down his chin and dripped onto the desk.

He glanced coldly around him out of the corner of his eye, neither fighting back nor defending himself!

"It was him!" The fatty waved his other fist, the veins in his neck bulging.

"He was there when someone died yesterday, and he was there when someone died the day before that! He ran outside during the night watch last night! I've been watching him for days! This fucker is definitely a Faceling!"

"That's right! I thought there was something wrong with the way he looked at us last night too!"

"He has to be a Faceling!"

Several people nearby chimed in. The girl with the ponytail huddled at the back, hesitation in her eyes, but she said nothing.

Some people had lost loved ones, killed in the slaughter on those two nights.

When grief could find no outlet, it became anger, and when anger could find no target, it was taken out on someone else. Liu Jialiang was a ready-made target!

"Speak! Are you a Faceling or not?" The fatty swung another punch.

Lin Yang's hand reached out of the crowd and gripped the fatty's wrist firmly.

"What are you trying to do?!"

The fatty's fist froze in midair. He turned to look at him and went blank. Everyone around them looked at Lin Yang.

"Brother Lin, he's a Faceling! How could you-!" someone said in disbelief.

"What makes you say he's a Faceling?"

The fatty opened his mouth, wanting to say there was something very wrong with this guy! But he had said all that yesterday, and Lin Yang had dismissed it all.

His mouth opened and closed a couple of times before he finally managed to force out a single sentence.

"Then! Then he at least has to explain what he was doing last night!"

Lin Yang turned to Liu Jialiang. "What were you doing last night?"

Liu Jialiang wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

"Something didn't look right outside yesterday, so I went out to take a look."

The fatty sneered. "If something was wrong, couldn't you have shouted? You think you're so capable? So brave!"

The others chimed in!

"That's right! Only a Faceling would be that brave! Running outside in the middle of the night? Who'd believe that?"

Liu Jialiang knew he couldn't talk his way out of it, so he said nothing. He had thought Lin Yang would take their side and deal with him too.

But instead, Lin Yang turned to the crowd and said,

"He told you. He heard something and went to take a look. You just don't believe him. That doesn't prove anything."

Lin Yang released the fatty's wrist and stood between Liu Jialiang and the fatty, separating them.

"I'm protecting him. If you want to kill him, you'll have to kill me first!"

Everyone froze at those words. "Brother Lin... you..."

Nobody understood. They couldn't understand why Lin Yang would protect someone suspected of being a Faceling.

But the classroom fell quiet.

The fatty slowly lowered his fist. The people behind him looked at one another, and someone lowered their head and took half a step back.

Lin Yang offered no further explanation.

The crowd remained silent for a few seconds, then gradually dispersed.

The fatty snorted and turned toward the corner, kicking a desk leg hard, but he didn't look back.

Liu Jialiang pushed himself up from the desk, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and looked up at Lin Yang.

His expression was complicated, almost grateful, as though he hadn't expected this.

"Why did you help me?" He followed Lin Yang to an empty corner of the corridor outside the classroom.

Lin Yang didn't turn around.

"No reason. You don't seem like a bad person."

Liu Jialiang was silent for a moment. "That's it?"

"That's it."

Liu Jialiang looked at his hand for two seconds, then reached out and shook it. His grip was strong, and the calluses on his palm were thick.

"Thanks."

He said nothing more, but he spoke the word steadily, without the hesitation he'd shown before.

Something flickered in his eyes, as though he were considering something.

Lin Yang withdrew his hand and walked back into the classroom.

Everyone's eyes fell on him, waiting for him to arrange the day's activities. He didn't rush to speak. Instead, he first called over the people who had kept watch last night.

"Did anyone leave the classroom last night? Or do anything unusual?"

The five watchmen looked at one another. Shen Cheng spoke first.

"Last night, our five groups each kept an eye on our own areas. No one got up during the night or left their position. Except him."

Shen Cheng pointed at Liu Jialiang.

The fatty said, "Brother Lin, if this keeps up, we'll never find the Faceling."

Several voices in the crowd chimed in.

"That's right. No one has ever said they're the Seer, so the Seer might already be dead. If this goes on, we'll just be waiting to die too..."

"..."

The crowd fell somewhat silent. Despair hung over everyone, and no one knew who the Faceling was.

After listening, Lin Yang was silent for a moment. Then he suddenly thought of something. The corners of his mouth rose as he spoke. His voice wasn't loud, but every word was clear.

"I know who another Faceling is!"