School cafeterias and bathrooms would always be most crowded places.
But this school didn't have a public bath.
Preserving the dignity of a "compulsory" boarding high school, the living conditions weren't too bad——-
For the first and second years, the rooms are shared amongst four students and for the third years, two shared a room. Each room had their own private bathroom as well as a balcony.
Although the little fatty wasn't tall and was even round, he was indeed a senior at this school.
The rooms in his dormitory were double rooms and this was the same for You Huo and Qin Jiu.
"To prevent students from indulging themselves and wasting time, hot water will only be available from 9-12 in the evening." The little fatty explained: "Here, there is a card slot here. If you put your meal card in, you can get water. Money would be deducted from the card. You can just think of it as money to cover the water bill. It's also to prevent everyone from showering too long."
"Why is it 9 o'clock?"
"Because the most relaxed students, those first-year brats finish their evening self study classes at 9."
"You're a minor too yet you call others brats so easily." Qin Jiu said.
"That's because we're old birds now." The little fatty faked pretentious maturity.
You Huo couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't be sleepy during the day. If possible, he would like to shower and go to bed.
"Can you take it earlier?"
"Unfortunately not. Everything is unified here. It's the same for the teacher's apartments."
Qin Jiu: "There are also teacher's apartments?"
The little fatty pointed somewhere out the balcony: "The angle here is a little tricky and there are walls blocking it but if you go this way, there are two buildings. They're the teacher's apartments. In fact, the teacher's apartments are also double rooms, but they also have a living room and a kitchen like normal apartments. Ah, that's right, why didn't they arrange accommodations for you over there?"
Because the system is an idiot who couldn't tolerate seeing them being comfortable.
The window of the balcony was very clean but there were iron bars outside of it, dividing the large window into small pieces. It made everything feel a little confined.
Qin Jiu reached out and shook it before commenting: "Not bad, pretty solid. But can something like this stop those subjectively conjured things of yours?"
The little fatty said: "It's not installed to stop demons and ghosts. They're in place to stop us."
"Stop you from what? Worried about you escaping faster than the ghosts?"
"Jumping off." The little fatty said, "All the windows from the second floor up have it. Don't even dream about breaking a bone."
"...."
The little fatty was a very passionate tour guide. He introduced every nook and cranny.
Students overwhelmed with heavy workloads all have this problem. As long as they are able to get out of class a little, they were willing to even take the two guests through fire and water.
You Huo listened to his rambles one after another and casually looked through the furnishings in the room.
When he pulled open a drawer, his movements stopped.
Because there was something in the drawer.
It was a keychain.
In addition to two keys, there was also a mini bear accessory.
You Huo froze for a moment before grabbing the key and asking Zhang Ming: "Where did this thing come from?"
He recognised that keychain. It was Yu Wen's.
The bear accessory was something his girlfriend gave him. Yu Wen was worried about his father asking about it and had used his brother as a cover up.
He said to Old Yu: "This is something someone with a crush on my brother gave. My brother didn't want it, so I took it."
Old Yu actually believed this nonsense.
Because Yu Wen had unilaterally confessed about it to You Huo, he recognised this bear.
Even the scratch marks on the bear's butt was exactly the same. It was indeed Yu Wen's.
And the little fatty's next words confirmed this thought of his.
"It belongs to the people who had stayed here before." Zhang Ming said: "It was a student from the last group of transfer students and his dad, surnamed Yu. Uncle Old Yu came to accompany him but he fell sick and was in bed for many days, so I didn't speak to him much. But I got very close with Brother Yu! It's probably something they accidentally left behind."
You Huo didn't expect to find traces left by Yu Wen and Old Yu here.
He asked the little fatty: "What happened to them after that?"
"You mean Brother Yu?" The little fatty said: "He's very amazing. He even saved me once! Out of all the transfer students who came, only him, Uncle Yu who accompanied him and another man was fine. But they left right after the monthly exam. Director Xiao personally sent them off."
"Amazing?" Hearing this description, You Huo almost thought he had made a mistake.
The little fatty nodded: "Yeah. Uh....He would still get scared when chased by ghosts but he was very reliable at critical moments. Because he's a bit older than us, he said he would protect us."
"He said he used to rely on being protected by his brother but here, with Old Yu falling sick, he's the oldest so he should protect everyone." The little fatty thought for a moment, removed his admiration filter and evaluated rationally: "Except for talking too much, no issues."
This surprised You Huo.
But that was indeed good news.
Old Yu and Yu Wen are still alive. That was probably the best news he had heard today.
***
Soon, Director Xiao and the others came.
Two sets of toiletries and two campus cards were given, and they even considerately prepared them an emergency box of medicine.
"The school clinic prepared this. Because the situation is rather special right now, every room is given one." Director Xiao said: "A box for colds and another for fever. The primary purpose is for the inflammation and pain relief. There's also a roll of bandages and a small box of sleeping pills."
Qin Jiu who saw the sleeping pills laughed.
He pointed to someone next to him and said: "Our top stu…..I mean, Teacher A, ignoring everything else, his sleep quality is much better than everyone here. Compared to sleeping pills, I might need some soothing ointment or essential balm more." (KKnotes: 清凉油 and风油精 was used here. Essentially, they're balms with a cooling effect. Kinda like Tiger Balm if anyone is familiar with it.)
You Huo intuitively knew he didn't have any good intentions: "...….What do you need those two for?"
Qin Jiu: "What do you think?"
"..."
You Huo didn't want to think.
Director Xiao laughed awkwardly for a moment and wondered if it was really okay to leave the school's welfare with these two here.
She felt a little despaired inside.
Teacher Zheng next to her reminded: "After dinner, the students have evening self-study classes. Do you want to go to the classroom to check on the situation after eating?"
Qin Jiu nodded: "Sure."
"Then you can follow Yu Luo." Director Xiao pointed at a young female teacher: "Teacher Yu is in charge of Zhang Ming's class and teaches Chinese. I still need to go and deal with the matters involving injured teachers later. If you need anything, feel free to ask Teacher Yu."
Director Xiao was so busy, she couldn't even find a chance to take a break. She turned around and immediately strode off.
"Would you like to go have dinner first? There isn't much time allocated for dinner at our school," Teacher Yu's voice was extremely hoarse. She coughed a few times and apologised: "I had eight classes today and spoke until I lost my voice. Don't mind me."
You Huo: "Eight classes?"
Do they only study Chinese at this school for her to have to run eight classes a day?
Teacher Yu whispered: "Both Biology and English teachers are injured. As for Mathematics and Chinese Studies...The counsellor recommended that they avoid arranging stressful lessons for students for the next few days. With more pressure, there are more nightmares. Chinese is a little on the easier to digest side, it's less stressful."
You Huo: "...…"
Teacher Yu: "To tell you the truth, I think Director Xiao arranged for you and Teacher B to go to my class with this intention in mind."
Qin Jiu had a look of surprise. For the first time, someone was afraid of these two being scared.
It was probably intentional.
He turned and asked You Huo: "Teacher A, do you dream?"
You Huo: "...…."
He stared down Qin Jiu expressionlessly before turning and saying to Yu Luo: "I don't."
Yu Luo: "I also didn't dream much before. After preparing for classes until late at night, I would fall asleep as soon as I'm done but I've been having dreams every day for the past few days. I think.....It's just my thought but, I think, no one can escape this."
No one can escape this?
Hearing this, the two with memory loss seemed to fall into thought.
You Huo didn't know what it was like for Qin Jiu.
In his case, he dreamt very little. He would neither have nightmares or sweet dreams.
Maybe on a particular night, he would occasionally dream of something.
But after waking up, except for faint, fragmented emotions that lingered behind, he would always be unable to remember anything.
He didn't know about person B, but he felt that he himself definitely could escape this.