"You just need to obediently follow the rules, be a normal student, and then leave the campus on the seventh day, understand?" Xu Shunkang stared into Lin Yi's eyes, wishing he could engrave these words into Lin Yi's code of conduct.
Lin Yi's mouth was slightly open as he desperately tried to restrain himself from pondering the meaning behind Xu Shunkang's words, then he first addressed the trouble he had encountered: "I understand, but my roommate got separated from us, so I want to find him."
"You enrolled today... so the person who got separated from you didn't even get his Student ID card?"
"He... likely hasn't gotten it yet." Mao Feiyang had gone into the stairwell, and Lin Yi wasn't sure about his current situation.
"Where did you get separated?"
"In the staircase."
"The staircase?" Xu Shunkang was slightly startled, "Did he perhaps take the stairs on the left-hand side?"
"The left-hand side? No, we got separated on the stairs to the basement."
"The basement?" A hint of doubt appeared in Xu Shunkang's eyes, "Strange, the Teaching Building rules say there is no basement..."
He subconsciously started thinking, and images of the Teaching Building came flashing back in his mind.
Classrooms, corridors, offices... and then, the image of a stairwell intruded upon his memory.
It was a bluish-grey fire door with a greenish glow from the emergency exit sign on it.
But just as he thought of this door, a wave of exhaustion surged up from the depths of his heart.
Xu Shunkang's complexion suddenly changed, he quickly shook his head, and then blurted out in a lost voice, "No good! That basement... that thing is outside my rule cognition!"
Lin Yi narrowed his eyes, a flash of sharpness between his eyelids: "Outside of cognition?!"
"Shut up! Shut up!" Seeing as Lin Yi seemed about to say something more, a flash of panic flew across Xu Shunkang's face.
His eyes flickered, his expression frantic.
After silencing Lin Yi, he immediately closed his eyes and started muttering continuously: "The Teaching Building has no basement, the Teaching Building has no basement..."
As his thoughts became firmer, his cognition of the Teaching Building also began to consolidate again, and that wave of fatigue that had just emerged from deep within him was stifled in its infancy.
He reopened his eyes, took a deep breath, then surveyed Lin Yi and asked in a deep voice, "Is this why you've been pondering the campus issue?"
"Yeah."
"So you also feel there's something wrong with the campus, right? The strange weather, architecture beyond cognition, and... the sneaky figures..."
"Yes, that's why I was thinking about this problem... isn't it? If there's a problem and you don't think about it, wouldn't that mean there's a problem with your brain?" Lin Yi looked innocently at Xu Shunkang.
"You... you fucking..." Xu Shunkang had started to get a bit angry, but now he couldn't muster the anger, and the words "you fucking" lingered in his mouth for a long time before he finally shook his head helplessly.
"You fucking make a bit of sense."
Lin Yi followed his tone, "Right, so can you tell me some useful information?"
"Xu·Shun·Kang·Senior."
"You?" Xu Shunkang took a step back subconsciously, looking at Lin Yi's expression, he suddenly realized something, and a hint of anger resurfaced, "You're being too reckless!"
Lin Yi shrugged, said helplessly, "Can't help it, Senior... I already have one roommate in crisis, and this guy beside me can't give me any useful information."
Wei Liang didn't argue, just touched his nose awkwardly.
Xu Shunkang shook his head annoyed: "No. No."
"You can't give even a bit of a clue?" Lin Yi asked sincerely.
"No."
"Why?"
"No reason!" Xu Shunkang's expression was stern, "That's not something you should know!"
Just as Lin Yi wanted to keep asking, a voice came from behind him.
"Because the more you understand the secrets of the campus, the more you become ensnared..."
"This entrapment is uncontrollable, just like how a magnet attracts a nail."
"Right now, you're only remotely sensing a bit of the magnet's pull, but once you know too much, you'll get closer to the magnet, and once you cross a critical value, you won't be able to escape that magnetic field."
"The moment you step into that magnetic field, your cognition will be overturned, shattered. If you can't rebuild your cognition, then you're done for."
A student, wearing the exact same blue and white striped tracksuit as Xu Shunkang, walked in front of Lin Yi.
"Xie Huayang, Sports Student, I enrolled with Fatty. I'm in the same batch," he introduced himself.
Then he looked at Xu Shunkang, frowned, and urged, "Alright, Fatty, it's getting late, control your emotions. Stop getting angry; we should leave."
"Leaving so early?" Xu Shunkang was surprised.
"Early my ass." Xie Huayang leaned in and whispered, "Today we're short-staffed, you've just maxed out the hatred too, neither time, place, nor people are on our side, shouldn't we leave early rather than wait for death?"
"Uh..." Xu Shunkang was choked up for a moment, his anger suddenly dissipating somewhat.
He looked at Lin Yi and Wei Liang, hesitatingly said, "What about them?"
Xie Huayang glanced at Lin Yi and Wei Liang indifferently, "They pissed you off, and you're still thinking about them?"
"I'd say, what does their life or death have to do with us!"
"You've advised them a couple of times, and I've said a couple of things. The rest is up to them, they can listen if they want, and if they don't, then so be it!"