Xu Shunkang was clearly still hesitant, but Xie Huayang suddenly said, "Kind words can't persuade the ghost who wants to die. If they were like Yuan Tietou, it'd be no use no matter how many times we tried."
Knowing that Xie Huayang was deliberately trying to anger him, when he heard the name Yuan Tietou, Xu Shunkang's just subsided anger flared up again.
He grabbed Xie Huayang by the collar, growled, "Shut up! Don't mention Big Head again! Do you really think that's how it was? We had a chance to save him!"
"There was no fucking chance! He thought he understood the rules, but he understood shit!" Xie Huayang furiously shook off Xu Shunkang's hand, "Didn't we try to persuade him? Didn't we tell him not to do it? But he wouldn't listen!"
He pointed at Lin Yi and Wei Liang, "Just like those two self-righteous idiots, refusing to listen! You are strangers met by chance, why waste words on them?"
"Sorry to interrupt... I did listen, you know..." Wei Liang raised his hands defiantly, speaking weakly.
Xie Huayang then pointed to the quartz clock on the classroom wall, "It's 8:43 now, are you leaving or not? If you're not leaving, I'm going!"
"If you want to go, then just go!"
"Then I'm leaving! I'm done here!" Xie Huayang turned around resolutely.
"Wait the fuck up!" Xu Shunkang, like a bicycle pump, had his anger drawn up and then pushed down again.
And now it had been drawn up and pushed down again.
His face was full of frustration.
He clenched the comic book in his hand, gritting his teeth, "I haven't finished this comic yet."
"What's so good about a Minotaur comic?" Xie Huayang snatched "Mountain and Sea Green Battle" from Xu Shunkang's hand, "Hong Kong comics just can't shake off this disgusting reader-baiting Minotaur trope. I've finished this book long ago, it gets worse towards the end, the big finale especially sucks, it's a draggy mess. If you ask me, you'd be better off reading some pure H-manga!"
"I still have a few of Oda Non's works stored away, I'll lend them to you to check out later." He patted Xu Shunkang on the shoulder, urging, "Come on, let's go, let's hurry!"
Xu Shunkang's anger had really almost dissipated by then, and after hesitating for a moment, he still said, "A little more time, I want to say one last thing to them."
"Hurry it up," Xie Huayang knew not to push too hard.
Xu Shunkang then came over to Lin Yi and Wei Liang, speaking earnestly, "We are leaving now, you two be careful."
"Where are you guys going?" Lin Yi asked instinctively.
"Careful of what?" Wei Liang blurted out almost at the same time as Lin Yi.
Xu Shunkang said, "After 9 p.m., it's not allowed to leave the Teaching Building, so we are heading out now."
"After we leave, you should be wary of everyone but yourselves."
"Because..."
He looked around, his icy gaze sweeping across the faces of those students who had gathered earlier.
"Nighttime is their home turf..."
Lin Yi and Wei Liang were startled.
"Remember, following the rules is the only way you can protect yourselves."
Having said that, Xu Shunkang walked toward the classroom door with Xie Huayang.
Before leaving, he seemed to remember something, turned to look at Lin Yi, and smiled, "However, theoretically, staying in the classroom overnight is relatively safe, hoping to see you tomorrow... Good luck."
After finishing, he opened the door and walked out with Xie Huayang.
As the classroom door opened, wisps of thick fog drifted in through the cracks just like noon smoke from cooking.
Outside the classroom, the bone-chilling wind mixed with icy moisture continuously battered the campus, making the whole classroom feel like a sailboat navigating the Caribbean Sea at night, ready to be overturned by the waves and the heavy fog.
After Xie Huayang and Xu Shunkang left, one by one, some students also began to leave the classroom.
Lin Yi noticed that these departing students were almost all dressed in uniform blue and white tracksuits.
That is to say, they were all Sports Students.
After the Sports Students left, the door of the classroom was closed again.
The outside chill no longer crept in, and the large, empty classroom, under the incandescent yellow glow of the lighting, gradually warmed up again.
Watching the backs of the departing Sports Students, Lin Yi's mind was occupied by a phrase from Xie Huayang: "Because the more you understand the campus's secrets, the more you're unable to extricate yourself... This irresistibility is uncontrollable, like the attraction of a magnet to iron filings."
"Unable to extricate myself? Is that the guiding feeling I sensed before?"
"Don't think..."
"Keep thinking..."
"Damn it, is this how you play it?"
Lin Yi glanced at the wall clock, then looked at the time on his watch.
20:47.
"It's almost nine..."
Lin Yi took out the student handbook and flipped to the section about staying overnight.
[Student Handbook Rule 6: Please leave the dormitory between 6:00 and 7:40, and return to the dormitory between 21:00 and 22:00. After returning, do not leave the dormitory outside of this time frame. If you have not returned to the dormitory by 22:00, make every effort to return to the classroom. The lights in the classroom will not be turned off; please stay overnight in the classroom.
During this period, if you notice any unusual situations outside the dormitory management office or classroom, ignore them, especially if you hear someone calling your name.]
He then looked at the rules for this period in the teaching building regulations.
[Self-study time is after 18:00, but the school does not mandate that students participate in self-study unless the current time has already passed 21:00.
After 21:00, it is prohibited to leave the classroom, please self-study until the next day at 7:40. You may browse any books, but remember not to sleep in the classroom (the last sentence is bolded, underlined, and marked with numerous conspicuous exclamation points).
During this time, if you see anything abnormal outside the window or hear someone calling you at the door, ignore it.]
Lin Yi stroked his chin and thought.
"The student handbook states that the time to return to the dormitory is between 21:00 and 22:00, while the teaching building regulations state that it is forbidden to leave the classroom after 21:00."
"That means, normally, we should leave the classroom before 21:00, then get to the dormitory before 22:00. There's a full hour in between that can be used to make the journey..."
He flipped through the teaching building handbook to the last page, opened the map, and studied the relationship between the teaching building and the dormitory.
The teaching building on the map and as described in the rules are exactly the same, three buildings in a row, connected by bridges in the middle, arranged like three "square" characters placed together.
The distance from the teaching building to the dormitory is about the same as the distance to the school gate, similarly peppered with street lights like sprinkling rice along the way.
"Based on the rules, an hour should be ample time for the journey."
"But, the student handbook writes that if you haven't returned to the dormitory by 22:00, you should go back to the classroom and self-study till the next day 7:40. However, the teaching building rules state that it is forbidden to leave the classroom after 21:00..."
"Isn't that a contradiction?"
"No no, no contradiction... not being allowed to leave does not mean you can't enter. So, those who can't make it back to the dorm can return to the classroom for self-study. Yes, yes, that's right."
"However, not allowed to leave after 21:00..."
Lin Yi looked down at his watch, the time was now 20:52. Since the sports student left, he had been pondering for about five minutes.
But in these five minutes of thinking, he did not feel the tiredness he had felt before.
"Why am I not tired or sleepy now, but I was so tired before?"
Lin Yi took a deep breath, then looked around, taking in the environment of the entire circular classroom.
In the large classroom, there were now over sixty classmates, and about forty who had previously gathered around Lin Yi, putting pressure on him.
These people all had a very distinct characteristic: they were hunched over in their seats, as if trying to embed themselves into the seats.
They hung their heads, some with vacant eyes staring blankly at the air, others staring straight at other classmates in the classroom.
The other classmates seemed relatively normal, like Lin Yi and Wei Liang. There were probably twenty to under thirty of them.
Lin Yi shared his observations with Wei Liang.
After listening, Wei Liang said, puzzled, "I don't mind you saying that those thirty or forty are problematic, but how can you be sure about the rest being normal? Some ambiguous situations can't be detected just by observation, right?"
Lin Yi shook his head, "I didn't make judgments based on such basic observations."