```
This pattern...
What on earth is it?
Clang.
Suddenly, a muffled sound came from behind him.
It seemed as if someone had kicked a metal can, making a loud noise.
Li Chengyi's body trembled slightly, and he quickly moved his hand away from the angle where it could be reflected in the mirror.
Instinctively, he didn't want anyone to discover the pattern on his hand.
Being different might bring opportunities, but he was more concerned about the dangers it could bring. Ensuring his own safety before seeking benefits was his consistent approach.
He cleared his throat, pretending nothing had happened, lifted his foot, and stepped forward, passing between two cars.
To the left was a black car, to the right a white one, both SUVs with unfamiliar logos of a Z shape and a cross.
A large tire hung from the back of the white car; on it was an inscription in a circular script: Cloud Journey Automobiles.
Pausing for a moment, Li Chengyi moved past the vehicles, glanced at the back of his hand again to ensure it was smooth, without any pattern, and then he breathed a sigh of relief and continued on towards the gate of the campus.
Pat.
Pat.
Pat.
Footsteps on the ground made a distinct tapping sound.
It was the heel of his hard leather shoes colliding with the stone pavement.
But...
'Doesn't that sound a bit too loud?'
Li Chengyi's brow furrowed slightly as he suddenly felt something was amiss.
This was broad daylight; the school was usually bustling with people, with students coming and going. Why was it so quiet that his footsteps reverberated so clearly?
He looked around.
All around was desolate, with a dry fountain pool not far away on the gray-white ground.
Beyond the fountain, several somewhat old multi-story teaching buildings stood quietly in the mist.
'Fog? Since when did fog roll in??' Li Chengyi felt even more uneasy.
He distinctly remembered seeing many students walking around when he came in. But now??
Standing still, he scanned the area from right to left, making a full circle with his gaze.
But what made him even more startled was that the lively university campus, that had just been bustling with activity, was now completely deserted.
He quickly turned around to look back at the office building where he had just left Mentor Chen Shan.
Several rooms in the building had lights on, casting a quiet and mysterious yellow glow in the mist.
No voices, no footsteps.
Gurgle.
Li Chengyi's throat went dry involuntarily, and he swallowed.
'Where is everyone!?' His mind started to tense up.
Pat, pat.
He lifted his foot, leaving it hanging in the air.
Then he abruptly turned around, his leather shoes scraping the ground sharply as he took steps towards the office building he had just exited.
Re-entering the gap between the two cars, his peripheral vision was completely blocked.
The SUVs were high enough to completely obstruct his view, leaving only the stretch of space directly in front and above.
Whoosh!
Li Chengyi stepped out from between the cars.
Thump.
Suddenly, a large hand clutched his shoulder.
Li Chengyi shuddered, his pupils rapidly focusing from a state of dilation into sharp points.
"Xiao Yi? Why are you still here?"
Mentor Chen Shan's voice seemed to drift from afar, at times indistinct and at others clear.
"I..." Li Chengyi felt as if he had just broken through the surface of the water, and his hearing suddenly became clear.
He looked carefully.
Mentor Chen Shan was standing in front of him, looking at him with some concern.
The dark red tie at his collar, looking like a real bloodstain, was clear and startling.
At that moment, other sounds around Li Chengyi also rushed into his ears.
The noise of cars, the voices of students, footsteps, the sound of a starting gun from the distant sports field—all these sounds surged in like a flood, jostling to enter his ears and causing his eardrums to ache slightly.
"I... got a bit distracted. Sorry, Mentor Chen," Li Chengyi finally came to his senses and replied earnestly, bowing his head.
He didn't know what had just happened, and he even doubted whether he had experienced a hallucination or a conversion disorder, but in any case, it was best not to disclose anything until he had thought about and investigated the matter thoroughly.
Taking advantage of the moment he bowed his head, he checked the back of his hand once more.
No black pattern.
"That's good. Looking at your state, you don't seem very well. It's best to go back and rest a bit," Chen Shan said with a frown.
"Yes, I understand. I'll go back now," Li Chengyi nodded earnestly.
The incident had scared him as well.
Could it be that his mental state was indeed problematic??
Last night's event, along with the situation just now, made him worry even more.
After saying goodbye to Chen Shan, he quickened his pace and passed through the gap between the cars again.
This time, the strange occurrence from before did not happen again.
```
Looking around, there were no anomalies in the school; sunlight streamed through the clouds and fell to the ground, forming scattered beams of light, a beautiful and clear display of the Tyndall effect.
"Just now... wasn't there no mist?" Suddenly, a nameless confusion welled up in Li Chengyi's mind.
The mist was needed to create such a beautiful scene of light beams, but when he had entered the university earlier, there hadn't been any mist at all.
With this confusion, Li Chengyi suddenly felt the desire not to stay here any longer.
He quickened his pace, striding toward the school gate.
The introduction letter from his mentor was still inside his inner pocket, but at that moment, he felt no inclination to secure his job position.
In the rearview mirror, the black pattern on the back of his hand was like a fishbone stuck in his throat, lingering in his mind.
Had something grown on his own body? Or was he having illusions?
The crossing, the parking lot that seemed like a dream, and the strange scene at the school he had just witnessed.
All these seemed to forebode—had he really started having hallucinations?
Breathing heavily as he walked out of the university gate, Li Chengyi looked back inside.
Many students were dressed formally, preparing to unfurl banners to welcome successful alumni.
A few media vehicles also slowly entered the gate, passing by him, with the local news media's logo printed in white on their sides.
In the distance, the loudspeakers at the main building started playing melodious ambient music.
Li Chengyi steadied his thoughts, feeling much more normal, and stood watching the media vehicles for a while until they had all slowly entered the bend of the road shaded by trees, out of his sight, before he turned and walked towards the bus stop to return.
On both sides of the street were rows of leafless ash-black trees, their dry branches reaching up to the sky like grasping hands.
As Li Chengyi walked along the street, he lifted his hand to take a careful look.
There wasn't a scar to be seen on the clean, smooth skin of the back of his hand.
He passed two green dumpsters and stopped in front of a dessert shop with a pale yellow light.
Using the shop's glass window next to the door, he placed his hand against the glass and looked again.
Black!
Li Chengyi's heart clenched once more.
This time he saw it very clearly.
Indeed, there was a large patch on the back of his hand that looked like a black pattern.
That mark gave him a familiar feeling.
It was like the black small flowers he had seen just before he crossed over!
"Would you like to come in and have a look? We just took cinnamon croissants out of the oven," the lady in the shop, wearing an apron with a little bear on it, called out as she came to the door with a yellow wooden basin, noticing him standing at the entrance.
"Er... no, thanks," Li Chengyi quickly put his hand down, to prevent it from being seen.
He sped up a few steps along the gray bricks on the ground that were shaped like chrysanthemums, passing by the dessert shop and walking with his head down.
Passersby moved past him, but he paid no attention to them.
All his attention was focused on the pattern on the back of his hand.
'What on earth is that pattern?'
'Were all those things before hallucinations?'
Deep down, he had a vague feeling that the black pattern might be the culprit that brought him to this world.
As for what it was, he might have to rely on himself to slowly unearth.
With his head down, he kept on walking, and before he knew it, time passed, and he found himself far past the bus stop, by several hundred meters.
The surrounding area was a street he did not recognize, the road was full of transport vehicles dragging fruits and vegetables back and forth.
Li Chengyi stopped, looking around.
Across the street was a farmer's market.
At the entrance of the market, under a leafless tree trunk, a group of plainly dressed middle-aged people gathered, seemingly engrossed in playing chess or cards.
As time went by, the light grew brighter, and the temperature hotter.
Li Chengyi withdrew his gaze, not looking at the bustling farmer's market, but found a coffee shop next to him and walked in.
He was a little hungry, regretting not having bought some of the cinnamon croissants from the dessert shop just now.
But the coffee shop was not bad either. The one he entered, named Yesli, sold self-service desserts and the prices were reasonable. It could be considered one of the most cost-effective places when hungry.
For just thirty dollars, he could fill the stomach of a man weighing over two hundred pounds.
The entrance of the coffee shop was white, with a white and black circle sign hanging in the air to the right of the door, supported by a large silver-black metallic cylinder beneath.
'The latest magnetic levitation technology,' Li Chengyi thought to himself, recalling the common knowledge.
Besides the sign, the entire door was made of clear glass, with a ring of flowers and plants at the bottom by the side.
The green leaves and the pure white flowers stood out strikingly.
Li Chengyi waited for a couple to push open the door and come out, then quickly stepped forward, grabbed the automatically retracting glass door, and went inside.
What he didn't notice was that as his feet passed by the white flowers next to the door, a trace of black pattern on the back of his right hand flickered and vanished.
"Welcome, please scan the code to order."
The automatic sweet electronic voice rang out.
Inside the coffee shop, the floor was pure white and the ceiling was black with patterns resembling flowing water.
The cafe had two floors; at the entrance of the ground floor was the counter, next to which stood a plastic model of a black rabbit more than a person tall.
The rabbit's eyes blinked, its large ears folded down, and its hands pointed to a black circle code on its chest.
"Please scan here," the sweet electronic voice sounded again.
Li Chengyi glanced at the shop assistant behind the counter, who didn't even look at him, took out his phone, scanned the rabbit's circle code, and then found a seat to sit down.
In the spacious ground floor hall, there were scattered white tables and chairs; amongst the forty or fifty tables, about a dozen customers were sparsely distributed.
Most of these customers were young, with some cheap desserts that they had taken for themselves positioned in front of them.