Yuying University
Chapter 472: The truth is revealed
With a “bang,” the door to the Vice Principal’s office closed.
The group was once again back in the third-floor corridor.
The corridor was pitch black. The only office door on the third floor was tightly shut, and the staircase to the side descended quietly. The entire building was so silent that it seemed they could only hear the sounds of their own breathing and heartbeats.
They looked at each other.
“So… what should we do now?” Cheng Can asked.
“Let’s go downstairs.”
The others turned their heads to look behind them.
Wen Jianyan was leaning against the wall, his face excessively pale, as if he were about to melt into the shadows behind him. He lifted his thin eyelids and looked at the people before him.
“Didn’t the Vice Principal just say we can ‘return the way we came’?”
He emphasized the last few words.
Wen Jianyan pushed himself off the wall, struggling to stand up straight. “How we came in is how we’ll go out.”
Suddenly, a voice came from behind:
“Are you okay?”
Wen Jianyan turned to look.
It was Zhao Ze.
That seemingly ordinary face, no different from his memory, was steeped in darkness, now looking at him with a concerned expression.
“Should I help you?”
He slowly took a step forward, reaching a hand straight towards Wen Jianyan, on the verge of grabbing his arm.
In the “Integrity First” live room chat:
[!!]
[Is he finally making a move! I’m so excited!!]
[The anchor’s SAN value is too low right now, he finally can’t hold it in anymore, can he?]
“…”
Before he could be touched, Wen Jianyan inconspicuously took a step back, avoiding the outstretched hand. “No need, thank you.”
He smiled, masking his expression well.
“I can still walk.”
Zhao Ze’ hand paused in mid-air and was slowly withdrawn.
Wen Jianyan turned his head to look at the stairwell in front of him.
Everything in the stairwell was as usual. The steps led straight down, and along with the old handrail, they were submerged in darkness, looking perfectly ordinary with nothing strange about them.
But no one could forget how, when they passed through the stairwell to get to the third floor, the ground under their feet had gradually turned a deathly pale and bizarre color, and how the outlines of human corpses had even emerged from beneath it.
Cheng Can: “Are we… just going down like this?”
Bai Qiangwei: “There’s no other way, is there?”
And so, the group once again stepped into the stairwell.
Their feet landed solidly on the ground. Then they stopped in place, waiting vigilantly.
However, as time passed, everything remained normal, and no danger appeared.
“Looks like it should be fine,” Cheng Can said. “Let’s go, let’s speed up.”
The group quickly descended the stairs.
Wen Jianyan followed slowly behind.
On his pale face, his expression hadn’t changed much from beginning to end.
He had already guessed this outcome before going downstairs.
The reason they had encountered the danger of reawakening corpses when they went upstairs earlier was that they had broken the rules and become a target for the security guard.
However, there were no rules related to “going downstairs,” so after they left the Vice Principal’s office, that premise no longer existed.
Passing through the stairwell now was naturally safe.
To prevent any further complications, the group moved quickly downwards.
This time, they didn’t re-enter the red-lit second floor of the administration building. They didn’t even stop for a moment and went straight down to the first floor from the stairwell.
“Welcome!”
Suddenly, a familiar electronic voice came from ahead. The sound, echoing in the narrow, silent corridor, gave everyone a start.
“Ah!”
A low cry came from behind.
Wen Jianyan stumbled and squeezed through the crowd to the front. He looked to be in a terrible state, his face completely bloodless, his reddened eyelids drooping, hiding his somewhat unfocused eyes. But his action of retrieving the item was exceptionally swift.
“…My apologies.”
He reached out, took down the Fortune Beckoning Boy hanging in the corner, and gave a weak smile.
“My bad.”
In “Integrity First” live room chat:
[…]
[…]
[Scared of losing your items, are we?]
[LMAO, even though your SAN is so low you can’t even walk straight, you have to get your hands on everything. That’s you alright!]
[You cheapskate!]
After this little interlude, the group finally returned to the first floor.
This floor was still shrouded in a reddish darkness. The empty hall was chilly and grim, enveloped in an unnerving atmosphere.
Upon entering the hall, everyone’s gaze was involuntarily locked on the very center.
The giant, full-length mirror that had disappeared had somehow reappeared and was placed back where it should be.
Suddenly, a dark shadow flashed by, and something whipped down from above with a strong gust of wind.
In such low visibility, others might not have seen it clearly, but Wen Jianyan was different. The glasses Orange Candy had lent him were still perched on his nose, allowing him to see the area in front of him clearly, as well as the object coming at him—
It was an item.
He lowered his voice and shouted:
“Hey, it’s me!”
The dark shadow above him stopped.
Not far away in the darkness were Brother Hu and A-Bao.
They were panting heavily, staring intently in Wen Jianyan’s direction, their faces still showing a look of terror, as if they were carefully trying to identify something.
Finally, they spoke:
“…Is that you?”
Brother Hu and A-Bao looked behind Wen Jianyan, their gazes falling on the others. They said with dawning realization:
“It’s you guys?”
“Yes.”
Wen Jianyan swayed and leaned against the wall. The sharp reaction he had just burst forth with drained from his body, leaving only the cold sweat on his temples and his slightly unfocused eyes.
He caught his breath and said with a helpless expression, “Who else would it be?”
“Thank heavens it’s you guys who came down,” Brother Hu’s tense arm muscles finally relaxed. He let out a long sigh of relief. “I just heard the sound of that item, and I thought it was the security guard, or a corpse or something…”
Wen Jianyan turned his head to look at the mirror in the hall.
“When did it appear?”
“About a few minutes ago,” A-Bao said. “We didn’t do anything, it just suddenly appeared, so we had to get as far away from it as possible, which is why we retreated here.”
Calculating the time, it should have appeared right after they finished talking with the Vice Principal.
Brother Hu: “So what is it? Why did it suddenly appear again?”
“It’s a long story,” Wen Jianyan shrugged. “But in short, this is our way back.”
However, after hearing him, Brother Hu and A-Bao didn’t look happy. Instead, they exchanged a hesitant glance, as if they had something to say.
Wen Jianyan noticed their expressions.
“What is it?”
Brother Hu hesitated.
Finally, he gave up on summarizing and just threw up his hands. “Go see for yourself and you’ll know.”
Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes, casting a shadow on his pale face.
He nodded thoughtfully. “Alright, let’s go.”
After speaking, Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and pushed himself off the wall, trying to stand up straight, but his arm seemed to have lost all its strength… he failed.
He tried again.
Still failed.
Wen Jianyan: “…”
He turned to look at Brother Hu and said weakly:
“Give me a hand?”
Brother Hu: “…”
?
In “Integrity First” live room chat:
[Hahahahahahaha!]
[What? Finally done being stubborn?]
[LMAO, pay attention to your image, will you? The reliable image you just built up is completely ruined.]
Brother Hu walked over and dutifully helped Wen Jianyan up.
He was still an adult male, after all. Though he looked thin, Wen Jianyan was not exactly light.
Taking advantage of the other’s pause, Wen Jianyan draped his arm over his shoulder, pressing his entire weight onto him, and said with a straight face:
“What are you standing there for? Let’s go.”
He urged, “Hurry up, we don’t have much time.”
In “Integrity First” live room chat:
[?]
[You little brat, you’re just using him as a complete lackey, aren’t you?]
The great lackey Brother Hu dutifully supported Wen Jianyan’s body and led him towards the hall on the first floor.
The others followed closely behind.
Soon, they arrived in front of the mirror in the hall.
Wen Jianyan took his arm off Brother Hu’s back and looked up at the mirror before him.
Just as he remembered, the mirror was over a person tall and nearly two to three meters wide, directly facing the closed main entrance of the administration building. Its originally blurry surface was now smooth and dustless.
Wen Jianyan almost immediately understood what Brother Hu and the others had been trying to say.
The inside of the mirror was a bottomless darkness.
Although the light on the first floor was dim, it wasn’t so pure, so terrifyingly black.
It was less like a mirror and more like a black hole.
Even when Wen Jianyan shone his flashlight into the mirror, it couldn’t reflect even a sliver of a human figure.
It seemed to swallow all light, and the unforeseeable sense of terror made one’s heart pound.
No wonder Brother Hu and A-Bao had been so eager to get away after seeing the mirror’s surface.
Beside them, Bai Qiangwei spoke up hesitantly, “The ‘return the way you came’ the Vice Principal mentioned, is it really back through here?”
Wen Jianyan stared at the mirror in front of him.
“Yes.”
“But looking like this…” A Rui frowned. “Will there really be no problem?”
The others were speechless.
Clearly, they didn’t know the answer to that question either.
“Oh right, I remember, before we left the Vice Principal’s office, he said something else, didn’t he?”
Cheng Can said suddenly, as if remembering something.
“Right…”
Bai Qiangwei was startled and repeated, “It was something like… ‘it’s best to hold hands when you leave, otherwise you might get lost’?”
“Ah!” Zhao Ze, behind them, showed a look of sudden realization and nodded. “So that means, as long as we hold hands and enter the mirror, we can successfully return to the real world?”
Wen Jianyan finally pulled himself back from his deep thought.
He turned from the mirror and looked at the crowd behind him. “Yes, that’s what it means.”
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s—”
“Huh? What?”
Wen Jianyan’s gaze swept over the crowd before him. He said:
“There’s a ghost mixed into our team.”
“!!!”
The moment his voice fell, an uproar broke out among everyone present.
“Huh??”
“What do you mean??”
“A ghost? Who is it?”
“I’ve felt it was strange for a while now,” Wen Jianyan’s speech was slow, each syllable enunciated clearly. “Why, after it mixed in with us, did it do nothing from beginning to end, only accurately playing its role… I’ve been waiting.
And now, I finally have the answer.”
Wen Jianyan’s gaze shifted to Zhao Ze, focusing on his flawless face.
“Because its purpose was never to ‘kill’ us, but to leave the mirror through us.”
“The guidance the Vice Principal gave was correct, but he wouldn’t tell us what that guidance might bring,” Wen Jianyan said.
“Only by holding hands can we leave this world, but by the same token, only by holding hands can ‘it’ from inside the mirror be personally led out by us.”
The remaining few also followed Wen Jianyan’s gaze.
“Zhao Ze?” A-Rui was stunned. “No way?”
“Wait a minute, he’s been with us the whole time,” Bai Qiangwei spoke up, trying to argue for Zhao Ze. “Do you have any proof?”
A-Bao: “Proof?”
He sneered. “Is the fact that the three of us have seen his corpse with our own eyes enough?”
Once these words were out, the atmosphere in the hall instantly changed. Everyone’s expressions became vigilant, and the way they looked at Zhao Ze changed.
“…Wait a minute, what are you all talking about?”
Zhao Ze took two steps back, his face a mixture of shock and uncertainty. “What my corpse? What does all this mean? —You’re not suspecting me of being a ghost, are you?”
“No.” Wen Jianyan smiled, his expression still weak. He shifted his position slightly, as if to stand more comfortably. “I’m not suspecting you.”
But before “Zhao Ze” could breathe a sigh of relief, he heard the other continue:
“I’m certain.”
“…!?”
Zhao Ze’s face turned shades of green and white as he stared deadly at Wen Jianyan. “If you ask me, maybe you guys are the ghosts, huh? After all, only the three of you showed up last. At the beginning, only a few of us entered the mirror.”
Zhao Ze’s face twisted slightly, as if in great fear.
“How can you prove you’re alive?”
Bai Qiangwei stared at him coldly. “If he were one, there would have been no need to tell us the rule just now. He could have just left the mirror with us.”
She clenched her fists.
“What about you? How do you prove it?”
Zhao Ze: “Why can’t I prove it?”
As he spoke, he reached out his hand—
“Danger!” Wen Jianyan suddenly shouted sternly. “Watch out—back up!”
The moment his voice fell, the others were startled and hastily took a step back under his direction.
The young man leaned forward. Although his SAN value was already at a level that a normal human couldn’t endure, his movements were incredibly swift, like an agile cheetah leaping forward—
Wen Jianyan’s hand gripped Zhao Ze’s wrist tightly.
The next second, he turned and grabbed Brother Hu’s hand.
Brother Hu grabbed the stunned A-Bao.
The four of them together, pulling and dragging, fell into the mirror in the blink of an eye.
In the “Integrity First” livestream, the originally heated discussion in the comments instantly froze, falling into a brief blankness.
[…]
[…]
[Huh?]
[Huh?????]
The darkness of the mirror rushed towards them, followed by suffocation… endless suffocation, as if being gripped and pulled by countless hands, dragging them down into the depths of a Zhao Ze.
It felt like only a few seconds had passed.
Or maybe a century had gone by.
The darkness lifted from their eyes like a light veil.
The next second, an intense feeling of weightlessness hit them, and the four of them fell headfirst onto the hall floor.
Wen Jianyan’s body slammed onto the ground. He covered his mouth, the veins on the back of his pale hand bulging as he desperately suppressed the cough that was about to erupt from his throat.
“What’s going on?” A-Bao’s panicked and bewildered voice came from the side. “This is all—”
Wen Jianyan lifted his eyelids and glanced at him.
His eyelids were thin, his eye sockets bloodshot and red. His pale irises looked as if they were soaked in blood. The sudden glance carried a chilling sharpness and sense of oppression.
He put a finger to his lips, making a “shh” gesture.
Although they had left the mirror, they were still inside the administration building.
That meant the security guard’s rules were still in effect.
—No loud noises.
A-Bao flinched and subconsciously shut his mouth.
Wen Jianyan retracted his gaze, covered his mouth, and let out a couple of muffled coughs before pushing himself off the ground and shakily standing up.
He turned around and looked at the mirror.
Brother Hu and A-Bao also followed his gaze.
The huge mirror stood in the center of the hall, its surface covered in dust, looking no different from before.
But, in the faint light, they saw…
Three shadowy figures stood motionless inside the mirror. Their three faces were now completely expressionless. They stared out at Wen Jianyan with emotionless, hollow, black eyes. Their once familiar features now looked strangely alien, making one’s hair stand on end.
Then, under Wen Jianyan’s gaze, the features of the three faces began to blur, eventually fading into the darkness.
“…”
Watching this scene, even the dullest person would realize what had just happened.
Brother Hu and A-Bao stood stiffly in place, a chill running up their spines, the hairs on their bodies standing on end.
The good news was, Zhao Ze wasn’t a ghost.
But the bad news was…
Everyone else besides him was.
And every step they had taken in the mirror earlier, they had been walking with a group of ghosts.
The thought made them shudder.
Only then did Wen Jianyan dare to let out a long sigh of relief. As if drained of all strength, he swayed and took several steps back, leaning against the wall.
Beside him, Brother Hu looked at Wen Jianyan with a complicated expression. “You… how did you find out?”
Wen Jianyan slid down the wall and sat on the floor.
Hearing the question, he lifted his eyelids, looked over, and said softly in a low voice:
“It was too deliberate.”
The position of “Zhao Ze'” corpse was too conspicuous, as if to ensure they would find it.
More importantly…
After Wen Jianyan went downstairs, he had casually gotten information from Brother Hu:
When the two of them were waiting on the first floor, they hadn’t encountered that corpse again. And neither had Wen Jianyan during his journey from the second floor to the third, and back down to the first.
In other words, apart from the initial chase, that corpse had never appeared a second time.
So what was its purpose?
Was it just to scare them a bit on the first floor?
Or was it… to induce them to look elsewhere?
“Their disguise was indeed flawless. I only found the real flaw when I was on the third floor,” Wen Jianyan leaned his head back, letting it rest gently against the wall, and closed his eyes.
Brother Hu asked, “What was it?”
Wen Jianyan opened his eyes and looked over.
“They saved me.”
“…?!”
Both of them were stunned.
Huh? What?
“We’re a cobbled-together team, we don’t know each other well,” Wen Jianyan said softly.
“First, they shouldn’t have saved me. Second, they shouldn’t have saved me like that.”
If there was one thing Wen Jianyan was most familiar with, most sensitive to…
It was [people].
…People’s thoughts, people’s emotions, people’s relationships.
Human society is like a mycelium network. Although each individual is distinct and unrelated, they form a whole, operating by unspoken rules.
They were perfect at disguising a single person. Especially to someone like Wen Jianyan who wasn’t familiar with them, he couldn’t detect any clues at all. But when they acted as a collective, they revealed their flaws.
Because they were not “people.”
They only imitated human expressions, language, and even the smallest details could withstand scrutiny.
But they couldn’t imitate human emotions, selfishness, and decisions.
Wen Jianyan was just a stranger to them. He had only cooperated with those anchors in one basketball game. They didn’t know his name, weren’t clear about his abilities, and hadn’t established any real trust in him. Yet when his ankle was grabbed, they so unhesitatingly and unanimously chose to save him?
They didn’t even need to discuss it and could cooperate with each other.
You have to know, they were also strangers to each other.
“It’s that same phrase… too deliberate,” Wen Jianyan tilted his head and said softly.
According to the original logic, their action should have won his trust, but because the attempt to close the distance was too deliberate, it backfired, allowing Wen Jianyan to find a clue.
So, after leaving the third floor and meeting up with Brother Hu and the others, Wen Jianyan took the opportunity of being helped up to whisper in the other’s ear:
“When I shout ‘danger,’ grab A-Bao.”
“Of course, there are more details.”
Wen Jianyan pressed his temples and lowered his eyes wearily.
“The security guard is too terrifying. Its attack happens in an instant. On the first floor, with no way to create distance and no one prepared, it’s impossible for there to be no casualties.”
Even outside the mirror, the security guard was a terrifying entity capable of pushing their top-tier team to the brink.
What’s more, this was just a cobbled-together, motley crew.
For everyone to survive, or for only one person to die, was illogical.
“The drop in SAN value before the attack was first brought up by Zhao Ze, and the others just agreed.”
“…”
Brother Hu and A-Bao stood stunned, staring at Wen Jianyan with their mouths agape, listening as he listed the “evidence” one by one, their minds blank.
If before they were still immersed in the fear of how realistic those “ghosts” were.
Then now, they were beginning to wonder… whether they hadn’t noticed these things because the ghosts’ disguises were too good, or because they themselves had no brains.
Wen Jianyan stopped talking and raised his eyes.
“If you want me to, I can keep going, but it’s clearly not necessary.”
He turned his head, looked at Zhao Ze, and his voice was very soft:
“Hey.”
Zhao Ze seemed to finally snap out of his shock and stupor. He愣愣地 let out a single syllable: “…Huh?”
Wen Jianyan: “I just saved your life, right?”
Zhao Ze: “Uh, yes, thank you—”
His words were cut off by Wen Jianyan.
“A life-saving grace should be repaid with a gushing spring, right?”
Zhao Ze didn’t know what Wen Jianyan was going to say and answered hesitantly:
“…Right?”
The young man leaned against the wall, his messy fringe hanging down, hiding his reddened eye sockets and his tired, unfocused eyes—the toughness and sharpness he had been forcing himself to maintain had dissipated. He was clearly at the end of his rope, the pale porcelain beginning to crumble and shatter from within.
Wen Jianyan suddenly smiled and held out his hand.
“Give me the mineral water, as a thank you gift.”
In “Integrity First” live room chat:
[…]
[…]
[I knew it!!! You’ve been eyeing his water since the convenience store, haven’t you!!]
[This move, this is showing your dagger after the map is unrolled!]
Zhao Ze’s words were cut off by Wen Jianyan.
“But, before we go out, there’s one more thing we need to do.”
Theyre out! Woopwoop this story has me on edge