Shao Wei gradually regained consciousness three minutes later.
Before opening his eyes, he felt something cool pressed against his forehead. Around him, several voices clamored: “Hurry up, we only have three minutes left.”
Then came Lin Dangdang’s voice: “How can I hurry? If you can do better, then you do it. Oh, there’s a lock here. Who has the key?”
“The key… do you have it, Lin Huai?”
“No.”
“Lin Dangdang, have you found the key over there?”
“No, the key should be in the principal’s office. Why don’t you go back and look for it?”
“There’s no time…”
“Are you guys even trying? Lu Jin, come here and break this lock open,” Lin Dangdang said.
“Breaking props means we have to pay for them!” Lu Jin complained.
“So what if we have to pay? Playing in a haunted house is like chasing a serialized story. Can you rest without knowing the ending?”
“These so-called endings are as predictable as the classic three-choice deductions in ‘Detective Conan.’ Exclude one Kogoro Mouri option, and the one who talks the most with a gleam in their eyes is the final culprit… I can’t break it. Lin Huai, you do it. Huh? What are you doing while everyone’s busy?”
Shao Wei opened his eyes and returned to the world of the living. He saw his remaining teammates struggling with a wall, while Lin Huai crouched nearby, pulling aside a pile of grass to reveal a hidden hole.
Everyone: …
Shao Wei rubbed his head, feeling like the heroine of a romance novel who mistakenly entered the CEO’s room with the wrong hotel keycard. He couldn’t remember what happened before he passed out. Fortunately, he was dry all over, so he hadn’t lost his innocence in this age-appropriate Jinjiang novel. Hoarsely, he asked, “What are you guys doing now?”
They had been silently staring at the dog hole, but when they saw Shao Wei wake up, Lu Jin waved at him: “Shao Wei, come here. I want to show you something good.”
“What good thing?”
As soon as he approached, several people pressed him against the wall. Shao Wei panicked, thinking he had woken up in a different genre. He shouted, “What are you doing!”
Lu Jin said, “The door for humans is tightly locked.”
Tan Xiruo said, “The hole for dogs is wide open.”
Lin Dangdang said, “A voice loudly calls out:”
Lin Huai rolled his diary into a megaphone and placed it by his mouth: “Crawl out! I’ll give you freedom!”
“Ah!” Shao Wei understood their intentions and screamed, “I yearn for freedom! But I also know that a human body can’t crawl through a dog’s hole!”
“Kid,” Lu Jin coaxed, “With the diameter of this hole, only you in our entire dorm can pass through…”
“What about Lin Huai! Lin Huai’s waist is slimmer than mine. Why not him?”
“This is your chance to show off in front of the girls,” Tan Xiruo said, pushing his glasses.
Under everyone’s persuasion, the newly awakened Shao Wei, carrying the hopes of the entire village, crouched down and began to crawl through the hole.
As he crawled, he said, “When we get back, you guys owe me a spicy hot pot…”
Halfway through, his face stiffened.
Stuck… he was stuck!
His butt… was stuck!
In this extremely awkward situation, he tried to suppress the trembling of his facial muscles, pretending to be deep in thought rather than stuck. Lu Jin, however, called out, “Shao Wei, what are you doing? Why aren’t you moving?”
Shao Wei said, “I’m searching.”
“What are you searching for?”
This, this embarrassing situation, in front of his roommates, in front of the girl he liked… No, how could he admit he was stuck?
Shao Wei’s brain, operating at the speed of cramming for a calculus exam the night before, searched for a reason. Tan Xiruo’s devilish voice sounded above him: “You’re stuck, aren’t you?”
“No! I’m not stuck!” Shao Wei wailed, “Just, just a little blockage on the path of life…”
“You’re really stuck,” Lu Jin crouched down and tried to push his butt, finding Shao Wei completely stuck, “Rather than a little blockage on the path of life, it’s more like you’re completely stuck…”
“No, I’m not stuck,” Shao Wei said, still trying to wriggle forward. But his body refused to cooperate, getting even more tightly stuck in the hole. In a push-up position, he called out to the people behind him, “Help me!”
“…This scene is really bad…” Tan Xiruo crouched down, shining a flashlight, “Zhu Xiao, hold the flashlight.”
He handed the flashlight to Zhu Xiao and, with the expression of conducting an experiment, pushed against the resistance to help Shao Wei.
Shao Wei said, “I feel it loosening a bit! Use more force!”
Lu Jin, staring at the bewildering scene, finally clenched his teeth, closed his eyes, and shouted, “Jojo! I’m not human anymore!” as he joined the fray.
Lin Huai stood aside, watching the lively daily life of male college students, his eyes showing rare confusion.
“Lin Huai…” Zhu Xiao asked him, “Aren’t you joining in?”
Lin Huai: …I think breaking the wall would be more convenient.
“Um, sorry to interrupt,” a staff member with burnt makeup appeared from behind, “Time’s up, uh…”
She saw Shao Wei stuck in the hole, his butt facing out, with the others pushing him one after another like seven men crossing a river with a water bottle, and gave an awkward but polite smile.
“No!” Shao Wei’s muffled voice came from the other side of the wall, “Listen to me, we, we didn’t do anything…”
The staff wanted to say something but could only express her understanding.
“Young people are full of vigor,” she said, “Hehe, I understand.”
Ten minutes later, Shao Wei was finally rescued from the hole.
The news of “someone getting stuck in a haunted house hole” spread quickly, causing a buzz among the people waiting in line. The haunted house manager, hearing about it, came over to issue discount cards and apologize for the faulty facilities. All the staff stood by, trying not to laugh. Shao Wei looked at them, despairingly thinking that in a few days, he might be featured on Zhihu’s “What are the most outrageous things you’ve seen in a haunted house?”
Meanwhile, Tan Xiruo was debriefing with the manager, asking, “Where exactly is the key for the final challenge?”
The manager said, “You don’t need a key. There’s a small mechanism on the lock. Just press it gently, and it opens.”
Everyone: …
Seeing everyone’s increasingly grim expressions, the manager asked, “Are you students from S University nearby? You look like college students.”
“Yes, we…”
Tan Xiruo kicked Lu Jin, pushed his glasses, and calmly said, “No, we’re from F University.”
Meanwhile, Lin Huai bought two bottles of Assam tea, placing one on Shao Wei’s face to comfort him.
“I was wrong, I was really wrong,” Shao Wei said with empty eyes, “I shouldn’t have come to this haunted house in the first place. If I hadn’t come, my body wouldn’t have gotten stuck. If my body hadn’t gotten stuck, I wouldn’t have ended up in this sad place, if I hadn’t ended up in this sad place…”
Holding his milk tea, he began to cry. Lin Huai sat beside him, seriously saying, “At least you showed inhuman courage and a sense of responsibility.”
Shao Wei: “…And silliness.”
“No matter the adversity, even if the deadline for a big assignment is at midnight and you haven’t written a word by nine, you must march forward with your head held high. That’s the courage of a man,” Lin Huai said.
“Have you been watching some weird TV shows recently…”
Despite the complaint, Shao Wei tried to open the Assam tea. Just as he twisted the cap, a shadow covered his head.
Standing before him was Lin Dangdang.
Lin Dangdang looked at him in the sunset, her eyes sparkling as if glowing. She said, “Thank you for helping me find my lipstick.”
Pink bubbles seemed to float around them. Lin Huai tactfully walked away, not wanting to be a third wheel. Even as he left, he could hear their conversation.
“N-no, no need to thank me. I really embarrassed myself in front of you today.”
“That was cute too, haha.”
“Do, do you like TFboys? I have lots of high-quality pictures of Wang Junkai. Add me on QQ, and I’ll send them to you…”
“Sure.”
“Dangdang, you’re so nice…”
“We’re all sisters here. No need to be so polite.”
Lin Huai hadn’t walked far when someone stopped him.
It was a young man in his early twenties, handsome with a cold demeanor. He stared at Lin Huai, pursing his lips without saying a word, as if seeking revenge.
Lin Huai tentatively asked, “Do… you need something?”
The young man still didn’t speak. He took out his phone and pulled up a QR code.
“Add my QQ,” he said coldly.
Lin Huai asked, “Add QQ to see Wang Junkai’s photos?”
Chen Shu: …
After a series of confusing and mismatched conversations, they finally reached a preliminary agreement.
Chen Shu told Lin Huai that he was the chief designer of the Midnight Zone in this amusement park and was currently developing several new horror projects. However, he was lacking inspiration and hoped Lin Huai could join his team to provide some ideas or suggestions. As for the salary, it was negotiable.
Lin Huai left Chen Shu’s WeChat but didn’t agree to the part-time request—the reason was simple: June was approaching, and even a century-old ghost couldn’t escape the biannual tribulation—final exams.
Final exams were more terrifying than Sadako + Kayako. Their combat power was limitless, combining both area and single-target damage skills, with high burst and sustained performance, making people die and come back to life.
Just as Lin Huai was in the library, trying to understand the great thoughts of Marx and Engels over a weekend, a text message arrived on his phone.
It was a new express delivery, from SF Express.
The package had no sender’s name. Lin Huai took it back to the dorm and opened it.
“Still struggling with your grades? If your child doesn’t listen, they’re probably useless. Minghua Middle School meets all your tutoring needs! Opening on June 1st, first come, first served.”
On the black notice, the red font seemed to flow down like blood.
Lin Huai frowned at the notice.
Meanwhile, Shao Wei was sweetly chatting with Lin Dangdang on WeChat. Lu Jin looked at Lin Huai and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Lin Huai pondered for a long time before finally speaking.
“Is Material Mechanics on June 2nd?”
Volume 2: Solving Cases with Botany
