Chapter 11 The Corridor Light Flickers

Lin Yi's heart jolted as his pupils slowly dilated.

At that moment, he felt a bone-chilling breath seep from his internal organs, as if it intended to freeze every pore in his body.

He even forgot to breathe for a moment, yet wisps of white breath still eerily escaped from his mouth and nose.

He shuddered violently and focused his gaze, only to discover that what seemed to be shadows in the corridor was merely overlapping mist; there were no suspicious figures at all.

"Hallucination?"

He furrowed his brows and squinted, his heart filled with doubt.

But regardless, that indescribable feeling of terror and the strange Phantom Vision didn't seem fake.

Lin Yi felt as if he had realized something, he took a deep breath, tossed the thought aside, and tried hard to suppress the urge to let his mind wander in that direction.

He began to observe his surroundings.

The decoration style of this Teaching Building was clearly several years old, with half-height tiles on the walls and pure white plaster above the window sills.

However, the plaster near the floor had started to turn grey and black, a sign of the building being damp all year round.

Lin Yi then looked up at the ceiling of the corridor.

A white incandescent light hung at intervals along the corridor, leading into the distance and fading into the far end.

Black particles, which looked like accumulated insect corpses, were deposited inside the light shades.

All signs indicated that this wasn't a newly constructed campus but appeared to be continuously modified.

"Could there really be a basement that's kept closed off for some reason?"

"Does that mean Building D and the others also have...?"

"Wait, wait, wait, can't think about these things..."

"Think about the Teaching Building..."

"The Teaching Building has lights, but why don't they have the same effect as street lights?"

"Is it the lights' problem, or is there some other reason?"

This time, Lin Yi was cautious; he abandoned his line of questioning as soon as it began.

He continued his observation and then suddenly realized that there was a women's restroom next to the men's, a line of people waiting there, too, but he hadn't noticed it at first.

Unknowingly, Lin Yi and Wei Liang had moved to the front of the restroom.

A student walked out from the restroom, and Lin Yi, standing at the door, stepped aside to let him pass.

But as the student brushed past Lin Yi, a strange and uncomfortable feeling suddenly arose in Lin Yi's heart.

He turned his head to look at the student.

The student moved forward with a stiff and slow gait, appearing unresponsive and sluggish.

As soon as Lin Yi looked at him, the student seemed to react, stumbling a bit and, like a marionette pulled by strings, slowly turned to face Lin Yi's position.

Lin Yi had already turned his head away the moment the student started to turn and then entered the restroom.

Throughout the process, he restrained himself from thinking too much about the student.

But even after he finished using the toilet, that bizarre feeling of discomfort still tightly enveloped him.

So, he went to the sink to wash his hands, scooping water to splash on his face, then looked at himself in the Mirror.

The reflection in the Mirror looked more haggard than he remembered, with a faint darkness under his eyes, causing Lin Yi some surprise; he had only been in school for a short while yet seemed to be showing signs of staying up all night.

He splashed his face several more times, but rather than dissipating, the discomfort became even stronger.

Suddenly he thought to use the Mirror to check; as he lifted his head after washing his face, he looked through the Mirror at the angle reflecting the corridor. But he couldn't find the student's figure in the Mirror.

He sighed in relief, shook his hands dry, and turned around, when suddenly a giant face intruded into his field of vision.

The student had returned from somewhere and now stood right beside him; when Lin Yi turned around, he bumped face to face with him.

Lin Yi involuntarily stiffened in fright.

"Classmate, were you looking for me just now?" the student asked with a mild tone.

Under the sickly yellow glow of the incandescent light, his face wore a twitching expression, as if attempting a smile but failing miserably—grotesquely unsettling.

Such an expression, in stark contrast with his tone.

"No, not at all," Lin Yi quickly shook his head, denying while desperately trying to keep his voice from revealing any anxiety, "I was just feeling a bit uncomfortable in my neck, just stretching it a bit."

"That happens when you sit for too long, which class are you from?" the student asked.

"I'm from Group B, Class 6," Lin Yi blurted out.

"Class 6?" the student said, puzzled, "Class 6 is upstairs, why did you come down to the first floor?"

"Too many people upstairs, so I came down," Lin Yi hurriedly explained, "just didn't expect it to be crowded down here too."

"At this time, it does get crowded. I'm also from Class 6, shall we go together?" the student said.

Lin Yi's expression froze slightly, and several profanities nearly slipped out, but just then Wei Liang finished washing his hands and came over to Lin Yi's side.

"Let's go, Old Lin," Wei Liang urged, "Time's not on our side."

"Yes, time's not on our side, why not walk together?" the student's face finally settled into a genuine-looking smile.

Perfectly normal.

Just like those off-putting classmates in the classroom.

"Eh?" Wei Liang hesitated, turned to Lin Yi, and gestured between them, questioning, "Just met?"