"What concerns me isn't that your senses are off, but something else entirely." Chen Ge couldn't go into the specifics with the students, so he could only turn the question over in his own mind. "How did I end up carrying Wenyu's aura? Is it because I spent a long time with her brother? Or did Chang Gu leave some relic of Wenyu's on me?"
"Don't worry, lost memories will always come back. I have confidence in you now." Zhou Tu didn't understand Chen Ge's situation — he was still remarkably upbeat. "Don't waste energy on unimportant things. What I'm about to tell you is extremely important."
"Every student who enters this school has their own choice, and different choices lead to different outcomes. The criteria for judgment aren't in the Painter's hands — they belong to the will of the school itself. That monster born from the fusion of all despairing souls is the true master of this school. The Painter is at most a spokesperson."
"What we need to do is earn the school's approval by committing ourselves to one choice and carrying it through to the end, then calmly accepting the final result." Zhou Tu thought for a moment. "The Painter's choice was most likely to escape reality — to build a home behind the door for all the lost souls. Wenyu's choice was presumably to find a way out of the school and return to reality. We can just follow the path Wenyu left behind, but the prerequisite is earning the school's approval first."
"How exactly do we do that?"
"Don't treat this school as a cold, lifeless setting. Treat it as a person — a person who's been bullied, who's filled with despair." As Zhou Tu spoke, he lowered his voice to barely a whisper. His expression grew strange, and with each sentence his face seemed to darken a shade, as though speaking of these things inside the school would invite a curse. "To earn the school's approval, you need to resonate with it. For example, like the Painter, by constructing a home to soothe the loneliness in the school's will and give it a place to belong. Or like Wenyu, by choosing to flee."
"I understand what you mean, but in my view, neither running away nor fabricating a new home addresses the root problem." Chen Ge had formed his own idea. "My approach might not be right, but if I were the one being bullied, I'd fight back in the most direct way possible."
"What are you planning? Wenyu and the Painter have already laid out two shortcuts for us — we just need to follow them." Zhou Tu furrowed his brow slightly. He saw flames burning in Chen Ge's eyes, the kind of gaze rarely encountered in this sinister campus. "No one willingly accepts being bullied. As long as there's even a sliver of a chance to resist, they should seize it with everything they have." Chen Ge stood at the edge of the tree line, gazing out at the sprawling campus beyond. "This world is fundamentally survival of the fittest. The weak like to follow the strong, or attach themselves to the strong's side. And the best way for the strong to demonstrate their power is to manipulate the weak — to project their authority onto them. It's all rather crude, but also perfectly real. Since we've ended up in this campus, we just play by the rules."
"Rules?"
"The souls that make up the school's will are those of the bullied. To earn their approval, there's another path we can take." Chen Ge strode out of the tree line. "We reposition ourselves — and we become the ones who bully the bullies."
Chen Ge's mind had made such a tremendous leap that the club members were stunned by his words. "Are you sure you want to do this? Going head to head might not only fail to resonate with the school — it could remind them of the desperate, spineless people they used to be, and turn their hostility toward us."
"Human beings are strange creatures. It's only when the pain lands on them personally that they understand just how much something hurts. My choice isn't the best choice — it's just my favorite choice." After waiting a long time without any response, Chen Ge turned to face the club members. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"What you just said doesn't quite match your usual behavior." Zhang Ju opened and closed his mouth. "I mean, those aren't the kind of words a teacher would say."
"Seems like you don't know me well enough." Chen Ge smiled and draped an arm over Zhang Ju's shoulder. "Most people have both a devil and an angel living inside them. Whenever they're about to do something, the devil and the angel get into a fierce argument, making them hesitate, making them doubt themselves. But I'm different."
"Are you saying only the devil is left inside you?" Zhang Ju's grotesque eyes locked onto Chen Ge, searching his expression for an answer.
"On the contrary — the devil in my heart has been locked behind the door. Only the angel remains, inseparable from me. She always supports me. No matter what decision I make, she stands right behind me."
"I'd guess... your angel must have blood on her hands and wear a scarlet coat." A rattling laugh escaped Zhou Tu's throat — he seemed to have misunderstood something.
"I can't be bothered to explain. All you need to know is that I have my own standards, and everything I do, I do with a clear conscience." Chen Ge stood amid the club members. "It's time to move out. Let's head to the second floor of the library — the mirror Wenyu left behind should hold another answer."
"Right, your instincts are sharp. We really can't linger here much longer." Zhou Tu's body leaned against Zhang Ju's back, growing increasingly translucent. "That side of the mirror is what the world behind the 'door' truly looks like. This place was constructed by the Painter — it's a home he built for those homeless children. Of course, you could also call it a cage."
Zhou Tu's condition was deteriorating rapidly. His body had become ghostly and insubstantial, threatening to dissipate at any moment.
"Let's save the rest for when we find the mirror. Let's go." Chen Ge had the persistent feeling that Zhou Tu had already been destroyed long ago — what leaned against Zhang Ju now was nothing more than an obsession. The moment he finished telling everything in his memory would be the moment he vanished completely.
There would be no more Zhou Tu in this world. Not a single trace left behind.
Zhou Tu had been caught between the Painter and Wenyu. He was likely one of the battlefields where those two had waged their war.
Judging by the outcome, the Painter had won — he had destroyed Zhou Tu. But Wenyu hadn't lost either. After all, she had used Zhou Tu to spread information about the Painter.
"Nobody in this haunted school is an easy opponent. But that's fine — the murkier the water, the better my chances."
Chen Ge led the club members toward the library, picking their way carefully through the trees. They discovered that in the buildings on both sides, every single door had been thrown open, as though "people" had been constantly going in and out.