The Silent Surroundings

Outside the teaching building was the school's sports field.

The enormous field lay under dead lights and dim gloom, but it was still far better than being inside the teaching building.

The darkness inside the teaching building had been so thick it had nearly swallowed them whole. It was dim here too, but they could still see their surroundings.

Only after the others ran here did the fear in their hearts gradually ease a little.

Their bodies had practically gone limp. Everyone sat on the ground, gasping for breath, almost unable to stand.

It was not because they lacked stamina. They had been trapped in the teaching building for too long, and after enduring such extreme terror before sprinting for their lives, they had collapsed from exhaustion in an instant.

"Scared—scared me to death. That was absolutely terrifying. It was so close, practically right in front of me. That baby was lying on Wang Shanshan's shoulder and staring at me. I had no idea when it crawled over there," a male student said, his voice still trembling.

"It has to be a ghost. That baby has to be a ghost. There are ghosts everywhere here, everywhere. We're dead. We're dead."

One of the female students was pale as death. She was already somewhat out of her mind.

"Wait, Wang Shanshan was taken by that ghost, so why is Yang Jian missing too?" Miao Xiaoshan suddenly spoke up.

She had been Yang Jian's deskmate and had known him since middle school, so she had always paid more attention to him.

Zhang Wei glanced around and sure enough, he did not see Yang Jian.

He could not help rubbing the corner of his eye. "Yang Jian died saving us. I won't forget him. Every holiday from now on, I'll properly pay my respects. If his family holds a funeral, I'll donate more money so he can go out in style. After all, he was a respectable man when he was alive."

"Miao Xiaoshan, don't be too sad. The dead can't come back to life. You all rest here for a while. I'll go back and see whether Yang Jian is really dead. If he is, we can discuss how to escape."

As he spoke, Zhang Wei gritted his teeth, intending to go back and check.

"Zhang Wei, after hearing that, I can say for certain that our friendship is made of plastic. If we run into danger again, I definitely won't save you. I'll just let you fend for yourself."

Yang Jian's voice suddenly sounded from behind them.

They saw him walking over, supporting Wang Shanshan.

"Yang Jian, you're okay. That's wonderful," Miao Xiaoshan said happily.

The others' eyes also lit up when they saw that Wang Shanshan and Yang Jian were both unharmed. This counted as the only good news they had received today.

Too many of their classmates had died since this all began.

"Got lucky and barely made it out alive." Yang Jian nodded.

Zhang Wei said excitedly, "Yang Jian, I knew you'd be fine. I was just talking nonsense earlier, so don't take it to heart. You can't stop saving me in the future. I'm counting on you to keep me alive for the rest of my life."

"I'm not interested in men. I only save pretty girls. At least a pretty girl might give herself to me, and even if not, someone can help me do my homework later. What's the point of saving a man? So we can pick up soap together?" Yang Jian said.

Wang Shanshan's face reddened slightly when she heard that, and a hint of shyness appeared in her eyes.

"Don't be so heartless. I gave you all my resources and didn't hide anything. We're bros; we should look after each other. After all, we've already been through hardship together."

Zhang Wei said, "Wait, something's off. How did you and Wang Shanshan escape that situation just now?"

His expression suddenly changed, and he studied Yang Jian with a hint of wariness.

"Obviously, I punched that kid away and dragged Wang Shanshan out. How else do you think I got out?" Yang Jian said.

Zhang Wei said seriously, "Brother, that teaching building is haunted. I can believe Wu Song fought a tiger, but you dare fight a ghost? Give me a break. I seriously suspect you're not Yang Jian at all. You might be a ghost in disguise, planning to mix in with us and get us all killed. That's how it always goes in movies."

The moment he said that, the already terrified crowd looked at Yang Jian with fear on their faces.

As though he really were a ghost.

"Can't your brain function normally for once? You suspect this person is a ghost, then that person is a ghost all day long. If you really ran into a ghost, you'd have croaked already. Would you still be standing here talking?" Yang Jian said.

"My phone's dead. Does anyone know what time it is now?"

"My watch seems to be broken. It says it's four in the morning." Miao Xiaoshan looked at the cartoon watch on her wrist in surprise.

"Eh? My phone says five past four in the morning too. But I clearly saw it was only eight thirty earlier."

"How did so much time pass?"

Everyone realized that something was wrong with the time.

Yang Jian turned and looked at the teaching building in the distance, shrouded in darkness. Then he said, "The time isn't important. I'm wondering why there hasn't been any reaction outside after something so huge happened here and so much time has passed."

"Yeah, I called the police earlier."

"I called my mom too."

"It's so quiet around here. There should usually be cars outside the school at this hour, but now we can't even see the lights of a single car."

Yang Jian looked up at the sky.

It was dim and lightless, as if covered by a layer of haze. There was no moonlight or starlight. That was not normal.

"Yang Jian, what's going on?"

Zhang Wei sensed that something was wrong too, and fear once again surged into his heart.

"What else could it be? We've been inside the Ghost Domain this entire time."

Yang Jian's expression hardened as he said in a low voice, "And from beginning to end, we never left it. The Ghost Domain doesn't only cover the teaching building; even the sports field is within its range. Its range may be even larger. The teaching building was probably at the center before, while we're closer to the edge now. Or... that ghost is moving, and the Ghost Domain is shifting along with the old man's position. But we haven't seen the old man anywhere around us, so we haven't been affected much."

"But I think the Ghost Domain is more like a special sealed space. Whether you're at the center or the side, whether you're more or less affected, the difficulty of getting out is the same. And distance doesn't seem to be the key to escaping the Ghost Domain."

"In other words, we're trapped now, like birds in a cage. The cage is moving, and the birds inside can only be forced to move with it. We just can't sense the movement."

"Th-then what do we do now?"

Wang Shanshan spoke in a trembling voice. Her hand tightly gripped Yang Jian's arm, and she could not help leaning against him, as though she had already taken him as her savior.

She never wanted to experience what had happened at the stairwell again for the rest of her life.

The others also looked at Yang Jian with fear and expectation, hoping he could come up with some good way to completely escape this terrible place.

Yang Jian remained silent and touched the several closed eyes on the back of his hand.

Perhaps there was only one way to leave this place: continue using the power of the evil ghost.

But Zhou Zheng had also said that every time one used an evil ghost's power, the ghost within one's body would revive a little more. One would also come closer to death. It was more vicious than taking poison.

No wonder Zhou Zheng said at the end that becoming a Ghost Tamer wasn't just for others, but for yourself as well. Because sometimes, it wasn't only about saving others. When facing an evil ghost, you had to save yourself too, Yang Jian thought.

But before that, there's something I need to figure out, and I might as well settle a private grudge. Otherwise, I won't be able to rest easy even if I die.

After making up his mind, Yang Jian said, "Whose phone has Fang Jing's number? Let me borrow it. If I'm not mistaken, he should still be trapped here just like us."