The math teacher's prepared words never made it past his lips. He glared at Chen Ge for a long while, then slapped his ruler down on the lectern. "Sit down. Stop staring out the window. Du Ming, come up and solve the problem."
The round-faced little chubby kid walked up to the podium, while Chen Ge rubbed his backpack. "Everything here feels too normal. Something's off—there's definitely something wrong."
He managed to survive until the bell rang. Chen Ge immediately intercepted the round-faced chubby kid and dragged him to a corner of the school.
"What are you doing? You don't need to make such a big production just to copy my homework."
"I want to ask you some things, and you have to answer me honestly." Chen Ge pointed at himself. "What kind of person am I in your eyes?"
"Lonely, sharp-tongued, nobody likes you, and you're not very popular—a total slacker." The round-faced chubby kid ticked off each point on his fingers.
"Has my image really been that terrible all along?" Chen Ge looked at that familiar round face. Even though he knew the kid was telling the truth, it didn't exactly make him happy.
"Eh, it's okay, I guess." The round-faced chubby kid showed absolutely no awareness of his current dangerous situation.
"Fine, different question. Has anything weird ever happened at our school? Like strange noises coming from empty classrooms at night, specimens that move on their own, that sort of thing."
Chen Ge's face was practically radiating curiosity. The round-faced chubby kid couldn't bring himself to refuse. He rummaged through his bag and pulled out a report card, handing it to Chen Ge.
"What am I supposed to do with this?" Chen Ge took the report card and spotted Du Ming's name in second place for the class.
"Top ten in the entire grade, second in the whole class—and you're asking someone like me whether our school has urban legends?"
"What does being good at studying have to do with urban legends? Do spooky things just not happen because you're a good student?"
"The reason I get these results is simply because I use the time other people waste daydreaming to study instead."
"Shut up. If you weren't actually a decent person, I'd show you right now what an urban legend really looks like." Chen Ge was exasperated, but remembering that this was just a smug little kid, he let it go. "I won't lower myself to argue with you. Next question—has anything bad ever happened at our school? School violence, student deaths, things like that?"
"What kind of stuff do you think about all day?" The round-faced chubby kid shook his head and took his report card back. "Have you been under too much pressure lately? Actually, yeah—that makes sense. You're fourth from the bottom of the class and your grades have been steadily sliding. It's no wonder you can't face your family. My advice: buckle down and start studying properly. Thinking about all this other stuff isn't going to help."
The round-faced chubby kid stuffed the report card back into his bag and walked off.
"That guy's personality hasn't changed at all—exactly the same as I remember." Chen Ge and Du Ming weren't friends. The only reason they'd been relatively close back then was that they'd both had terrible personalities—two friendless, unpopular kids huddling together for warmth.
Soon, there wasn't a student in sight. The surroundings grew quiet. Chen Ge didn't leave. He chose to take a steady, methodical approach—explore the school first, then use it as a base to gradually search the entire town.
"Be careful. Daytime is probably almost over."
The sky was growing increasingly oppressive, pressing down like a weight that made it hard to breathe.
"The town's night won't be anything like the pleasant, warm daytime. It'll tear off its mask, bare its hideous fangs, and ruthlessly shred every innocent person."
Chen Ge turned and entered the teaching building, holding his backpack and peering through windows into each classroom one by one. He searched for a long time but still found nothing unusual.
It wasn't until he reached the top floor that he heard what sounded like footsteps on the roof. "School's already out—who would go up to the roof at a time like this?"
Gripping his Skull Crushing Hammer, Chen Ge stepped into the corridor. The door leading to the rooftop wasn't locked. He quietly pushed it open a crack.