FIG CHAPTER 32

The girl’s laughter over the speaker grew clearer, and in the dimly lit setting, her tone sounded especially eerie.

“60, 59, 58…” the girl began counting down.

“AHHHH, she’s putting a curse on us!” Koty, pale as a ghost, clung to Zhu Lianzhen again, like someone hugging a pillow during a horror movie. His slender frame made him especially easy to hold onto.

Zhu Lianzhen was seriously fed up. “Get off me!”

“53, 52, 51…”

They had no idea what the countdown meant and could only try to look for clues left by the production team. Soon, they spotted a slogan hanging on the wall: No Loitering on Campus After School!

“It’s way past ‘after school’ hours by now, isn’t it?” Zhu Lianzhen said, simultaneously smacking Koty. “What would a student stay behind for?”

“46, 45, 44…”

Tan Qing looked up in the direction of the speaker and suddenly said, “Hide-and-seek.”

They all immediately caught on. “We’re supposed to hide?”

Before they could discuss it further, Fu Rong had already darted deeper into the corridor. Seeing that, the others sprang into action too. Like kids playing hide-and-seek, they instinctively scattered in different directions.

Zhu Lianzhen chose to head upstairs. He had just turned a corner when he noticed Koty still right on his heels. “Get lost! Go find your own hiding spot!”

“I’m scared! Don’t leave me alone!” Koty admitted his weakness with complete honesty.

He had only settled in China during high school. Unlike the others who had grown up being taught to dismiss superstitions, he still had a deep fear of ghosts and monsters. Even though he knew they were filming a variety show, he couldn’t get past that mental hurdle.

“30, 29, 28…”

Zhu Lianzhen ran to the far end of the second floor but, after a moment of hesitation, decided the spot wasn’t ideal and turned back to a classroom in the middle.

When he pushed the door open, the sight inside made his shoulders jolt in fright.

The dark classroom was full of people!

Zhu Lianzhen took a step back, but upon closer inspection, he realized each seat was occupied by a plastic mannequin with a wig. In the dim light, they looked frighteningly realistic.

“Why aren’t you going in?” Koty, who had followed him, mustered some courage and peeked inside, only to blurt out, “Holy crap.”

When Zhu Lianzhen played hide-and-seek as a kid, he liked to hide in crowds, so he thought this fully seated classroom was perfect. He said to Koty, “I’m planning to hide in here. What about you?”

The girl’s countdown was still echoing over the speaker. Just hearing her voice had already short-circuited Koty’s brain. He quickly nodded. “I’m going with you!”

With his eyes shut tight and clinging to the hem of Zhu Lianzhen’s shirt, Koty shuffled forward in tiny steps. Zhu Lianzhen looked around carefully and noticed there were still a few empty seats.

“Let’s go to the far corner.”

He led Koty over, and the two of them sat down one behind the other along the wall. Zhu Lianzhen sat next to the back door of the classroom, which had a clear glass pane that allowed him to see into the hallway.

Even after sitting down, Koty kept his eyes tightly shut. Still uneasy, he turned halfway around and grabbed onto Zhu Lianzhen’s wrist.

“3, 2, 1—”

The voice from the speaker went silent.

Zhu Lianzhen wasn’t a fan of the supernatural, but he sometimes watched popular horror movies for fun. As a result, he adapted to the atmosphere fairly well and began observing his surroundings calmly.

Only the light above the teacher’s podium was on. The blackboard was covered with steps for solving science problems, and next to it was a poster labeled “School Code of Conduct.”

It was too far to read clearly, so Zhu Lianzhen squinted, trying to make out the writing. The first line he could see read: Use civil language.

Just as he was focusing intently, he faintly heard footsteps coming from the stairwell.

“High heels,” Zhu Lianzhen whispered to Koty.

Koty kept his eyes shut tight and furrowed his brows, clearly wanting no part of the conversation.

Zhu Lianzhen pressed his ear against the back door and listened closely. The high heels moved slowly, but were definitely getting closer.

The sound grew louder and eventually stopped just outside the back door.

Not coming in?

From the edge of the glass, Zhu Lianzhen caught sight of a pair of shoe tips in his peripheral vision.

He wanted to get a better look, so he slowly raised his head—

And found himself face-to-face with a grinning face pressed right up against the glass, staring directly at him.

Caught off guard, Zhu Lianzhen let out a shout and immediately dove under the desk, covering his mouth.

“What? What happened?” Koty instinctively cracked his eyes open when his hand suddenly felt empty. Seeing Zhu Lianzhen crouch down, he quickly mirrored him.

The space between the desks and chairs was far too tight for two adult men. Koty pulled in all his limbs, trying to make himself smaller, and asked in a low voice, “W-what did you see?”

If he said it was a ghost’s face at the window, Koty would probably start screaming again. Still shaken, Zhu Lianzhen thought for a moment. “Uh, the homeroom teacher?”

Koty hesitated. “…Yeah, that is pretty scary.”

After a pause, he continued, still trembling, “It reminded me of when I was in high school, secretly reading ‘Ghost Blows Out the Light’ during class. I turned around and saw my homeroom teacher standing at the back door staring at me. It scared me so badly I got psychological trauma…”

Zhu Lianzhen: “Aren’t you scared of this kind of stuff? Why were you reading that?”

Koty: “Math is scarier than ghosts.”

The two had just started to relax a little while chatting when the sound of high heels echoed down the hallway again. Their conversation stopped instantly.

Zhu Lianzhen lowered his head as far as he could, peeking through the gap between the rows of desks to observe the front of the room.

This time, the sound of the high heels stopped at the classroom’s front door. And the next second, the door creaked open.

“Class has started. Everyone return to your seats.”

It was clearly an adult woman’s voice, and not the same girl who had been doing the countdown over the speaker earlier.

“Why isn’t everyone here? Where are the two Group One students at the back?”

Zhu Lianzhen immediately recognized the position being called—wasn’t that referring to him and Koty?

He quietly raised his head just above the desk surface and saw the same teacher who had scared him moments ago. Her makeup was bizarre: a deathly white foundation, heavy shadows under her eyes, and lipstick so bright it looked like blood. He couldn’t bring himself to look at her directly.

“Here…” Zhu Lianzhen responded in a low voice and sat back in his chair.

Then he stretched his leg forward and kicked Koty, signaling him to crawl out too.

“Oh, everyone’s here now. Let’s begin the lesson,” the teacher said as she walked up to the podium.

She first glanced at the teacher’s desk, then scanned the blackboard tray, and began rummaging around in confusion, muttering to herself, “Where did the eraser go?”

“Which student took the eraser?”

Zhu Lianzhen reached out and poked Koty’s back. “Do we have to help her look for it?”

Bracing himself, Koty got up with him. After all, they were filming a show, so he couldn’t stay curled up and hiding forever.

The two of them didn’t immediately start searching for the blackboard eraser. Instead, they carefully scanned the walls and corners, confirming the positions of the cameras. There were more hidden cameras than they had expected, which meant that even without a camera crew following them, the footage would still be sufficient. It was clear the production team had put in considerable effort to enhance their sense of immersion.

Zhu Lianzhen searched around the windowsill and storage cabinets. Before long, Koty called out to him, “Found it, found it.”

Koty’s eyes had locked onto a desk drawer in the center of the classroom. Inside was the blackboard eraser. He bent over toward it, and although he knew all the “classmates” around him were just plastic mannequins, his fear still made him move with extreme caution.

He reached into the drawer, and just as his fingertips touched the eraser, the mannequin sitting in that seat suddenly moved slightly.

It jerked its hand up and grabbed Koty’s arm tightly.

“AHHH—!” Koty let out a hysterical scream.

He immediately collapsed backward onto the floor, instinctively pushing himself away with all his strength, muttering nonstop as he retreated. His mouth spilled out exorcism chants from all over the world, picked up from who knows where.

The way he squirmed backward on the ground startled Zhu Lianzhen, who couldn’t help but scold, “Can you not be so embarrassing!”

“There’s a fucking real person in there!” Koty scrambled back to Zhu Lianzhen, clinging to him instantly. “You go get the prop! You go!”

“Then let go of me first!” Zhu Lianzhen deeply regretted teaming up with him.

Reluctantly, Koty released his grip. Zhu Lianzhen strode forward and swiftly pulled the blackboard eraser out of the drawer. He placed the prop on the teacher’s desk, and sure enough, the teacher nodded at him in approval.

They returned to their seats.

The teacher wiped the blackboard clean and began writing a new problem. “Given the parabola y = x² – 6x + 5, find its vertex coordinates. Who can give me the answer?”

From what Zhu Lianzhen remembered, this was middle school math, but he had long since forgotten everything about it—let alone Koty, who was only half Chinese.

“Why is no one raising their hand? No one knows? If no one volunteers, I’m going to start calling on people.”

That line had traumatized nearly every student. Koty leaned back toward Zhu Lianzhen and whispered, “See? I told you math is scarier than ghosts.”

“Careful, the teacher might call on you.”

Right after he said that, the teacher called out Koty’s Chinese name. “Chen Maolin, can you tell me the vertex coordinates?”

Koty immediately went pale and stood up stiffly, while Zhu Lianzhen covered his mouth behind him, laughing gleefully at his misfortune.

“I don’t know…” Koty answered truthfully.

“Why don’t you know?” the teacher demanded sternly. “Haven’t we gone over this many times? Why don’t you know?”

As soon as she asked that, all the plastic mannequins in the classroom came to life. They turned their heads in unison and stared directly at Koty.

He froze in place, terrified, pressing his back against the wall and not daring to make a sound.

“Why don’t you know?”

“Why… don’t you know? Why… don’t you know?”

The teacher began repeating the question over and over. Her voice grew rougher, and her head jerked stiffly as if some mechanical part had gotten stuck. Then it spread to her shoulders, arms, wrists, and legs… every joint in her limbs twisted in unnatural directions.

“Holy shit, she’s transforming.” Zhu Lianzhen was dumbfounded, feeling like he was watching the filming of a zombie movie.

“Why… don’t you know?”

She finished the final question and paused for a few seconds, then, in that contorted posture, lunged straight at Koty!

“AAAHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Zhu Lianzhen had long anticipated something like this. He had already opened the window in the wall ahead of time. Stepping onto the desk, he pushed off the window frame with one hand and flipped himself cleanly out of the classroom.

“Bro, I’m outta here!”

Zhu Lianzhen dashed into the hallway, with Koty’s loud screams echoing behind him.

He ran down to the first floor, hoping to find the other teammates. But before he could even locate another classroom, he heard the crisp sound of bells coming from just around a corner less than five meters away.

For safety’s sake, Zhu Lianzhen didn’t move forward. But the hallway behind him was wide open, and if someone were to chase him, he wouldn’t be able to shake them off.

He scanned the area quickly and thankfully spotted a storage cabinet beneath the stairs.

He tiptoed over, quietly pulled the cabinet door open, and slipped inside to hide.

Barely two seconds later, the bell sounds passed right by the corner.

Just as Zhu Lianzhen was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he suddenly felt a cold breeze sweep past his ear, and then a hand firmly covered his mouth.

Terror instantly exploded across his scalp.

His mind went blank, but in the darkness, his senses sharpened. He quickly caught the scent inside the cramped space. His first thought was: This smell is too sweet.

And just like that, he knew exactly who it was.

Zhu Lianzhen immediately calmed down and didn’t make a sound. He lifted his arm and jabbed it backward, aiming around chest height—just the right level to confirm the person’s identity.

The hand covering his mouth loosened slightly but didn’t move away. The fingers curled faintly.

Zhu Lianzhen felt the fingers brush against his lips, and it tickled, so he opened his mouth and bit down. He probably bit a little too hard, because the person immediately pulled his hand back.

The sound of the bell jingles faded into the distance.

“Was that the ghost trying to catch us?” Zhu Lianzhen whispered. “What happens if we get caught?”

Tan Qing thought for a moment, recalling the rules of hide-and-seek. “You’d take her place. Become the new ghost.”

“So basically, that means being stuck here,” Zhu Lianzhen murmured.

He pushed the cabinet door open just a crack and, after confirming no other NPCs were nearby, stepped out. He looked back at Tan Qing and asked, “Can you still solve math problems?”

He brought Tan Qing back to the classroom from before, but Koty was no longer there.

Zhu Lianzhen pointed to the blackboard. Tan Qing glanced at the problem and picked up a piece of chalk.

Just as he was about to write, Zhu Lianzhen stopped him. “Hey, wait a sec.”

Tan Qing paused.

Zhu Lianzhen: “How about you just tell me the answer first?”

Tan Qing looked at him.

Zhu Lianzhen explained, “I can’t let the fans think I’ve forgotten how to solve such an easy math problem. What if someone says I didn’t finish the nine years of compulsory education?”

“Aren’t you an art student who got in without taking the exam?” Tan Qing said, but still handed him the chalk. “3, -4. Use parentheses.”

Zhu Lianzhen neatly wrote down the answer as instructed, the handwriting round and plump. Once he finished, Tan Qing clapped beside him and deliberately said with a look of heartfelt pride, “So impressive.”

“Tch.” Zhu Lianzhen tossed the chalk at him.