Before long, the students who had all been looking toward the broadcasting station slowly lowered their heads again.
The rumbling of suitcase wheels began to echo from all directions once more, layer upon layer.
Bright sunlight fell across their faces, yet not the slightest trace of a living person’s warmth could be seen.
Jiang Nuan stood where she was, watching the crowd in the distance continue forward.
The sounds that had just come through the broadcast seemed like nothing more than a brief malfunction.
But those figures that had crouched down, dropped to all fours, and scuttled toward the broadcasting station had definitely not been her imagination.
The people around her, however, acted as though they had seen nothing.
Jiang Nuan looked away.
Qinian’s booming complaints from the broadcast still seemed to ring in her ears. At least those two were still alive and kicking.
The clues involving the dormitory and the suitcase could wait.
There was too much uncertainty surrounding Ji Chuying’s situation. It was better to find Qi Sui and Qinian first.
Jiang Nuan raised her head and checked her bearings.
The school clinic was not far from the dormitory area, located inside a comprehensive services building.
She remembered that building.
The campus card replacement office, the counseling center, the student union office, and several club activity rooms were all inside.
Was the school clinic on the third floor? Or the fourth?
She had only ever gone there for physical examinations, and could no longer remember clearly.
She would check them all.
She quickened her pace toward the comprehensive services building.
The dormitory area was still bustling.
Freshmen dragged their suitcases in and out, while the dorm supervisor sat behind the service window, looking perfectly normal.
“Miss.”
A boy’s voice suddenly came from behind her.
“What time is it?”
Jiang Nuan kept walking without even turning her head.
Qi Sui had specifically warned her not to answer questions from strangers.
Ji Chuying might not count as a stranger.
After all, she was her roommate. In this campus reconstructed from Jiang Nuan’s memories, Ji Chuying’s existence itself made sense.
But Teacher Zhao was a stranger to her.
She had answered his question, yet nothing dangerous had been triggered.
It seemed there was something about Qi Sui’s warning that she still did not understand.
She would ask the brothers what exactly they had discovered once she found them.
The voice behind her fell silent for a moment.
A few seconds later—
Rumble.
The sound of suitcase wheels scraping across the ground rang out again.
This time, it gradually faded into the distance.
She had barely taken two steps when another voice called out to her.
“Jiang Nuan.”
Someone else was calling her.
Ji Chuying was walking out of one of the dormitory buildings, a card in her hand.
Jiang Nuan knew that card all too well.
It was her meal card from college. She had never expected this forbidden zone to reproduce it down to the smallest detail.
Jiang Nuan greeted her. “Are you going to eat?”
“Yes.” Ji Chuying smiled. “I still haven’t found the cafeteria. Do you know which way it is?”
Jiang Nuan thought for a moment, but did not answer. She merely raised her hand and pointed toward the cafeteria.
Ji Chuying followed the direction of her finger with her eyes.
Before Ji Chuying could speak, Jiang Nuan said, “I want to take a look around campus first. I’ll be going.”
“Okay.” Ji Chuying nodded and slipped the meal card back into her pocket. “Then I’ll go eat first. Oh, right—”
Backlit by the sun, her expression was impossible to make out clearly.
“Remember to come back to the dormitory early tonight.”
“There’ll be a room check.”
Jiang Nuan looked at her.
A room check? Her university had never had such a rule.
Was this a new rule added by the forbidden zone, or was Ji Chuying deliberately throwing it out to test her?
When Jiang Nuan did not respond, Ji Chuying did not get angry. She merely blinked and smiled.
“You have to come back early.”
“Otherwise, he’ll get angry.”
…There it was again: “he.” Who exactly was “he”? Could he be connected to the core of this forbidden zone?
Ji Chuying had already turned and walked away.
Jiang Nuan remained where she was until that figure disappeared around the corner.
On the surface, there was nothing unusual.
Jiang Nuan glanced back at the dormitory area.
Sheets hung from the balconies, swaying in the breeze. The area below was packed with freshmen dragging their luggage. Everything was exactly as she remembered from the start of a new school year.
The dormitory building from her memories stood right there, so familiar that she almost truly felt the urge to go inside and take a look.
But she quickly looked away.
This was a forbidden zone. What she needed to do most urgently was regroup with her teammates.
Jiang Nuan turned and headed toward the comprehensive services building.
The building still looked just as she remembered it. Its pale-gray bricks and tiles appeared somewhat weathered beneath the dim evening light.
But the instant she stepped through the entrance, a chill spread from the back of her neck throughout her body.
The lobby lights were off, and the reception desk was empty.
Perhaps because it was the first day of freshman registration, there was not a single person in the entire building.
When the door shut, even the rumble of wheels that had followed her all the way here was sealed outside.
The silence was unnaturally complete.
Jiang Nuan proceeded down the corridor.
The layout was different from what she remembered. The corridors, staircases, and various offices had all been rearranged.
Yet the familiar rooms—the student union office, the club activity rooms, and the counseling center—were all still there, not one missing.
She had no way to tell which room was the school clinic.
She could only start from the first floor, opening the doors one by one to check.
The light inside the building was poor. Fortunately, the evening glow had not completely faded, and it fell across the floor, barely illuminating a few steps ahead.
Before long, she had searched every room on the first two floors.
Jiang Nuan lifted her foot toward the stairs leading to the third floor.
She reached the landing and suddenly stopped.
There was a sound upstairs.
A faint rustling.
It sounded as if something had pressed its abdomen against the cold floor, its limbs bent as it crawled forward inch by inch.
The sound stopped for a moment.
Then it began again.
This time, it was closer.
Jiang Nuan’s entire body tensed. The silver Moonblade flickered into existence in her palm, ready to be thrown at any moment.
The top of the stairwell was extremely dark. She could make out nothing beyond a few steps.
But the rustling sound seemed to be crawling back and forth along the third-floor corridor.
At times, it came from the left.
At others, it sounded as if it were pressed right against the wall on the right.
Jiang Nuan lightened her steps and continued upward.
When she reached the third floor, the window at the far end of the corridor still let in a faint glow.
Remaining on guard, she proceeded down the corridor, pushing open one door after another.
Still not the clinic.
The sound never disappeared.
It came and went through the walls and doors, sometimes distant, sometimes close.
Jiang Nuan pushed open the next door and stepped inside.
There was still some light outside the window, but in the blink of an eye, it vanished completely.
The rustling outside the door suddenly became clear.
Its speed increased rapidly as it crawled all the way from the depths of the corridor.
Jiang Nuan retreated into the room almost at once and shut the door behind her.
The room was pitch-black.
Jiang Nuan raised her terminal and activated its flashlight.
A white beam flared to life, but it illuminated only the half-meter around her.
Beyond that half-meter, the darkness remained thick and impenetrable.
Based on her experience playing horror games before she crossed over, whenever she found herself in a scene where she could not see her own hand in front of her face and a rustling sound kept ringing out, the first task was always to find the light switch.
Whether monsters were afraid of light was another matter.
At least once the lights were on, she would not have to rely on her imagination to fill in the shape of whatever was lurking in the darkness.
After all, imagination was a precious thing. It should not be wasted guessing how many legs a monster had.
…She was only trying to stay alert. She was absolutely not afraid.
