Chapter 23
Chapter 23
Under the pillow was an employee ID.
Wei Sen hadn’t expected that she was actually a teacher. Did that mean she had to go teach students?
As the thought crossed her mind, something warm suddenly dripped onto her shoulder.
Wei Sen looked up. A strange red liquid, like something from an Eerie Entity, was seeping through the ceiling. More and more of it gathered, dripping down like water.
She reached up and touched the liquid on her shoulder. It was warm, sticky, and carried a nauseating metallic stench.
Was it blood?
Wei Sen examined the ceiling bleeding above her.
Upstairs was Room 304. Everyone who had survived yesterday knew the rule that only one person could stay in each dorm room, so it was impossible for a second person to have entered Room 304.
And a normal adult only had four to five liters of blood in their body. This much blood flowing out of the ceiling couldn’t possibly have come from Room 304.
But the blood was warm and fresh. It could only be this temperature if it had just flowed out of a human body.
Putting it all together, this should be impossible!
Which meant everything she was seeing and feeling was an illusion!
The moment Wei Sen became convinced of that, the blood on the ceiling seemed to come alive. It twisted crookedly into several lines of bloody words:
[Zhihui Primary School Teacher’s Rules:
1. As an outstanding teacher who cares for her students, please do your best to satisfy students’ reasonable requests during breaks. Refusing a student’s request may cause unnecessary emotional fluctuations and affect the harmonious teacher-student relationship.
2. As a conscientious and responsible teacher, please ensure that you are never late for class and never keep students after class. Starting and ending lessons on time is a basic show of respect toward both students and teaching work.
3. Lesson plans are very important. Without them, you will be unable to teach the children.
4. Please do your best to avoid corporal punishment or any behavior that harms students in any form. Such actions not only violate educational ethics, but may also lead to parent complaints and serious consequences.
5. Primary school students do not live on campus. If you see children appear in the school at night, close your eyes immediately until there is no more movement around you.
6. Do not leave the dormitory alone at night. The campus may contain unknown dangers after dark. Traveling with others is the best way to ensure your safety.
7. Your class has only forty-three students. If you discover a forty-fourth student in the classroom, close the classroom door at once, leave quickly, and report to the Academic Affairs Office immediately. Do not attempt to communicate or make contact with the extra student.
8. During class, if you see a figure in the corridor outside the window, do not make eye contact with it. No matter what the other party says, do not respond. Remember: Do not answer. Do not answer. Do not answer! Stay focused and continue teaching.
Warm reminder:
Please strictly follow the rules above to ensure the smooth progress of teaching work and your own safety. If you encounter any abnormal situation, please take the appropriate measures immediately and report to the Academic Affairs Office in a timely manner.
The safety and order of Zhihui Primary School depend on the vigilance and cooperation of every teacher.]
After Wei Sen finished reading, the bloody words quickly vanished. The ceiling returned to normal, and there was not a single trace of blood left in the room.
Sure enough, it had all been a trick of the eye.
But among these rules, the first, fifth, and sixth were the same as the fifth, ninth, and eighth rules in the School Rules. That meant these rules were all fine and could be followed.
After memorizing the rules, Wei Sen continued exploring the dormitory, but everything in the dorm looked perfectly normal during the day.
The only useful clue she found was a lesson plan book on the desk.
[Primary School Chinese Lesson Plan
Class: Class 2, Grade 3
Subject Teacher: Wei Sen]
The first page of the lesson plan was the timetable for Class 2, Grade 3:
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Chinese class was the first period in the morning, from 8:35 to 9:15.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, it was the second period in the morning, from 9:25 to 10:05.
The rest of the lesson plan was packed densely with preparation notes for primary school lessons. There was nothing unusual about it.
By the time Wei Sen finished washing up, the time on her watch had reached 7:40. Today was Monday, and Chinese class was the first period. She still had fifty-five minutes before she had to go teach.
Just then, her watch vibrated. Someone had started posting in the main group chat.
[Bai Xue: What roles did everyone get? I’m the director of the Academic Affairs Office.
Zhou Junjie: I’m the homeroom teacher for Class 2, Grade 3.
Zhao Yue: I’m the art teacher for Class 2, Grade 3.
Chen Lin: I’m the PE teacher for Class 2, Grade 3.
Wang Wenlei: I’m the science teacher for Class 2, Grade 3.
Lin Xiaoxue: I’m the moral education teacher for Class 2, Grade 3~
Huang Xinze: I’m the security guard…
Xu You: I’m the school doctor.
Wei Sen: I’m the Chinese language teacher for Class 2, Grade 3.
Bai Xue: @Xia Susu, what about you?
Zhao Yue: I saw her in the cafeteria this morning. She’s one of the cafeteria aunties.
Xia Susu: You’re the auntie! Your whole family are aunties!
Bai Xue: If anyone has any clues, let’s all share them here.]
Wei Sen watched as everyone in the group tossed out the rules they had found. The teachers’ rules were all more or less the same.
Someone had gone to the teaching building very early to investigate and found the Teaching Building Rules posted on the first floor.
[Zhihui Primary School Teaching Building Rules:
1. The teaching building is open only from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Anyone who enters the teaching building outside the designated hours does so at their own risk. If you find yourself inside the teaching building during non-opening hours, immediately locate the nearest exit and leave. Do not linger.
2. Anything written on the blackboard must be related to the lesson. If you discover unknown writing or symbols on the blackboard, do not erase or touch them. Leave the classroom at once and notify the Academic Affairs Office.
3. Chasing, roughhousing, and playing around in the corridors are prohibited. When walking in the corridors, always keep to the right.
4. If you see someone walking against the flow of traffic in the corridor, do not make eye contact with them or speak to them!
5. Loud noise is prohibited anywhere outside the classrooms. If you have already made loud noise, leave the teaching building immediately.]
There had been too much information over the past two days. Wei Sen sat down and carefully sorted through everything they knew so far.
First were everyone’s roles. Aside from the Academic Affairs Office, the security guard, and the school doctor, everyone else was a teacher for Class 2, Grade 3.
That meant the way to clear this Instance had to be connected to Class 2, Grade 3!
Next, the rules repeatedly mentioned reporting abnormalities to the Academic Affairs Office. Since Bai Xue held the role of director of the Academic Affairs Office, she might be able to access more information.
Then there were all the rules: Zhihui Primary School’s rules, the dormitory rules, the teaching building rules, followed by the teachers’ rules and the security guard’s rules. At present, the only unknowns were the school doctor’s rules, the cafeteria rules, and the cafeteria auntie’s rules.
This was a small rural primary school. The rules above were probably almost all of them.
As long as they did not violate any rules and could identify the one rule created by “It,” they would be able to survive safely.
Xu You said in the main group chat that she had not yet found the school doctor’s rules.
As for the cafeteria rules, Xia Susu definitely knew them, but she was unwilling to share with everyone.
Wei Sen picked up her lesson plan and stood. Since there was still time, she planned to make a trip to the cafeteria.
Before leaving the dormitory, she sent Bai Xue a private message.
[Wei Sen: Meet me at the cafeteria.
Bai Xue: I’m already here.]
Wei Sen looked at the instant reply, and a cold smile curved her lips.
It seemed Bai Xue had already guessed that Wei Sen would ask to meet her at the cafeteria early this morning.
But Bai Xue was clearly already at the cafeteria, yet she had not shared anything about the cafeteria rules in the main group chat. As for the rules tied to her role as director of the Academic Affairs Office, she had not mentioned a single word.
It was obvious that she was only sharing everything she knew in private with members of her own group, or with allies she deemed worth befriending.
That line in the main group chat asking everyone to share information was nothing more than an attempt to fish for information from the members of Group B.
It seemed that in this world, humans were more frightening than the Eerie Entity.
The Eerie Entity was bound by countless rules, but the human heart had never been bound by anything.