“Yang Jian! Stop sleeping! Come help me carry these!”
Wang Shanshan was holding a tall stack of exam papers, swaying unsteadily as she walked into the classroom.
Yang Jian opened his eyes in a daze. His entire left arm had gone numb from being pressed down, losing all feeling for the moment, so he could only slump over his desk and stare blankly at Wang Shanshan.
Seeing Yang Jian’s vacant expression, Wang Shanshan said, “Did you dream of a ghost? Hurry up and come help!”
“Wang Shanshan, I’ll help you.” Fang Jing came up from the back row, about to take the papers from her hands.
Wang Shanshan immediately said in disgust, “Go away!”
Then she turned to Yang Jian and said, “Yang Jian, the teacher will be here soon! Hurry and help me hand out the papers!”
“Oh, coming.”
Yang Jian stood up and took the exam papers from Wang Shanshan. They felt cold to the touch.
These exam papers seemed as if they were made from human skin.
Yang Jian shook his head hard. What was he thinking?
After helping Wang Shanshan distribute the papers, Yang Jian sat back in his seat, propped up his chin, and stared blankly out the window.
He was wondering when school would be over.
Ring, ring... ring, ring...
The bell for class rang.
The students laughing and messing around in the corridor immediately returned to their desks and sat properly, waiting for the teacher to arrive.
“Hey, did you guys hear? A new teacher came today.”
“I heard. That day I went to the principal’s office to move water, and it sounded like he was some ‘Top Ten Outstanding Rural Volunteer Teacher’ or something.”
“He’s here, he’s here. Stop talking.”
The classroom instantly fell silent. Everyone stared at the figure in the corridor.
“Knock, knock, knock.”
After knocking three times on the classroom door, a middle-aged man walked in.
He wore a Zhongshan suit, with an unsmiling expression.
The man turned and wrote three large characters on the blackboard.
“Zhang Xianguang.”
The man named Zhang Xianguang was extremely efficient in his conduct. Without much unnecessary talk, he gave a brief self-introduction, then began calling out the students’ names one by one.
“Yang Jian.”
No one in the classroom stood up. Yang Jian was still looking out the window, pondering the dream he had just had.
Zhang Xianguang raised his voice slightly.
“Yang Jian!”
A classmate behind him quietly reached out and pushed Yang Jian’s back.
“Hey, Yang Jian, he’s calling you!”
“Ah?!” Yang Jian immediately stood up.
“Here!!”
Yang Jian’s reaction made the entire class burst into laughter.
“Yang Jian, did you really dream of a ghost? Looks like your soul got hooked away.”
“Maybe it was even a female ghost.”
Zhang Xianguang tapped the blackboard.
“Everyone, please be quiet.”
He continued calling names.
“Zhang Wei.”
This time, everyone looked toward the desk beside Yang Jian. That was Zhang Wei’s seat, but it was empty now.
Zhang Xianguang raised his voice again.
“Zhang Wei!”
“Here—!!!”
A pig-slaughtering howl came from the back door of the classroom.
Everyone looked toward the source of the sound. Zhang Wei had a bag of bread in his mouth, a bottle of yogurt in his left hand, a schoolbag in his right, and bruises still on his face.
Panting, he said, “Hello, teacher! I was just helping an old granny cross the road, doing a good deed! But I didn’t expect a dog to suddenly rush out and chase me! I accidentally fell into a sewer, so I was late!”
“Hahahahaha, Zhang Wei, did you step in dog shit and that’s why the dog chased you?”
Everyone in the classroom immediately roared with laughter.
Zhang Wei’s face turned red as he said, “I was helping an old granny cross the road!”
“All right, don’t let it happen again. Go back to your seat.”
“Yes, teacher!”
With the bread still in his mouth, Zhang Wei dashed to his seat in a few steps and tossed the bread to Yang Jian.
“Yang Jian, what the hell? Didn’t we agree you’d wait for me to finish taking a dump? Why did you just run off?”
Yang Jian turned his head and said, “Don’t tell me you were holding this bread in your mouth while you were taking a dump.”
“How could that be?”
Zhang Wei took out his textbook and continued.
“The bag in your hand is one I just bought.”
“Then what about my original bag?”
“I ate it while I was taking a dump.”
“.”
Zhang Xianguang put down the chalk in his hand.
“All right, students. That will be all for today. Go back and properly digest what I taught today. Tomorrow in class, I’ll conduct random checks.”
After saying that, Zhang Xianguang took his textbook and walked out of the classroom.
“School’s finally over.”
Zhang Wei stretched lazily. He had slept very comfortably through this class.
“Zhao Lei! Liu Qi! Internet café for some ranked games?”
Zhao Lei waved his hand and said, “You guys go. The college entrance exam is coming up soon, and now they suddenly changed our homeroom teacher too. I plan to go home and review properly.”
Liu Qi also shouldered his schoolbag and said, “Yeah, I feel like the pressure is huge. I’m going home to read for a while.”
Zhang Wei said disdainfully, “Cramming at the last minute. Then Yang Jian and I will go.”
“Come on, Yang Jian. What are you spacing out for?”
Zhang Wei noticed that Yang Jian had been staring at the blackboard. He looked over. It was the content Zhang Xianguang had just taught in class. He had been asleep and hadn’t taken any of it in.
Powerful, vigorous chalk characters filled the entire blackboard.
“What’s this?”
Zhang Wei read out one of the lines.
“When facing supernatural incidents, some things do not need to be tested. If it feels wrong, then it is wrong. Intuition is the omen; details are the answer.”
“Anything can happen under any circumstances. Sometimes, you cannot trust your own memories. Follow your instincts and investigate the source of this supernatural event.”
“What the hell is this? A total mess.”
Zhang Wei nudged the dazed Yang Jian.
“Oi! Let’s go!”
Yang Jian raised his head, a trace of confusion flashing through his eyes.
“What is it... Zhang Wei?”
“The internet café!”
The two of them passed by the Buddha statue in the center of the school and walked out the school gate.
“Hey! Yang Jian!”
A girl’s voice came from behind them.
Yang Jian and Zhang Wei turned around and saw a girl with a ponytail jogging over.
Yang Jian asked, “What is it, Miao Xiaoshan?”
Miao Xiaoshan reached out and tapped his forehead with her finger, saying, “You were spacing out all day today. You definitely didn’t remember the knowledge points the teacher covered in class, did you? Here, this is for you.”
Miao Xiaoshan took a yellowed notebook from her schoolbag and handed it to Yang Jian.
Yang Jian touched the thick notebook. It was heavy in his hand, and he kept feeling as if he had seen it somewhere before.
“What is this?”
Miao Xiaoshan clasped her hands behind her back, her cheeks tinged faintly pink. She said, “My notes. I wrote down everything Teacher Zhang taught in class today.”
She turned and ran onto a bus, then looked back at Yang Jian and said,
“Yang Jian, review properly. We have to get into the same university, okay?”
Zhang Wei picked at his nose.
“Do you owe her money or something? She won’t even let you off when you go to university.”
“No.”
“Don’t hide anything from me if something’s going on. Don’t look at how poor I usually am; if it’s just a few million, I can still help you pay it back.”
“Really, no, A-Wei. I feel really unwell today. I want to go home and sleep.”
After Yang Jian finished speaking, he walked in the direction of home. He felt muddleheaded all over. Right now, he only wanted to lie down in bed and have a good sleep.
“Huh?! None of you are going? Then what am I supposed to do? How about I go read for a while too?”