The School

“This is a hallucination. This is a hallucination!!”

In the dark bridge tunnel, blood dripping from his head, Li Huowang knelt on the ground, repeating the words over and over with a trembling voice, as if trying to shore up his own conviction.

The sight made Huanhuan cry. The pork buns in her hands fell to the ground. She turned and ran, wailing, out of the tunnel.

Li Huowang knelt there, thinking for a very long time. The environment around him flickered between dim and bright.

After the scene shifted three times between the tunnel and the woods, he walked to the riverbank, washed the blood scabs off his face, and turned to walk out of the bridge tunnel. A chill glint peeked out from between his fingers.

All that remained on the ground was Sun Xiaoqin’s name. The other name had been completely covered by blood.

Li Huowang remembered where Yang Na’s school was. She had once happily described to him all the good food they could eat on the nearby snack street. She had even made a pact with him: when he got better, the two of them would go there together and take a proper stroll.

When it came to matters concerning Yang Na, Li Huowang always remembered them with extreme clarity—even if she had only mentioned it to him once.

The sharp blade ran close to his scalp, shaving off the clumps of matted hair to reveal a scalp that had finally stopped oozing blood.

He stripped off his filthy old clothes and took a set of clean garments someone had hung out to dry.

Looking like this, Li Huowang seemed so normal. He walked among the crowd, and no one pointed at him anymore.

Under cover of night, he slipped into the train station. Disguising himself as a passenger’s relative helping with luggage, he snuck onto the train.

By the time Li Huowang, dazed and numb, came back to his senses, he found himself already in the city where Yang Na’s school was located.

He glanced at the bus stop sign, then began walking with heavy, dragging steps toward the university district.

He walked very, very slowly, as if he wished this long road would never end. But no matter how slow he went, the end would eventually arrive.

Li Huowang sat on a plastic stool at a barbecue stall, staring blankly at the school gate in the distance. His strange behavior drew a few puzzled glances.

What are you waiting for! This is a hallucination! Yang Na is fake! Stand up and do it! I can’t abandon reality for a hallucination! Do you really want Miao Miao to end up that inhuman, that ghostlike mess?

I’ve transmigrated. I already transmigrated a long time ago! Yang Na will be fine. She’ll live well in that world! There won’t be a lunatic harassing her, blocking her happiness!

What are you waiting for! Go! Go! You’ve already made Miao Miao turn into this damned state—don’t you want to save her?!

Li Huowang’s heart wrestled in agony. Right now, he wished more than anything that something could help him break free from this hesitation, let him stand up and act decisively.

Just then, the plump-faced stall owner walked over. “Ahem, young man, are you okay? You’re looking a bit pale.”

Li Huowang didn’t react, completely immersed in his own world.

The owner wiped the table in front of Li Huowang with a rag, then turned to get back to her business.

Suddenly, a scream came from inside the campus, yanking the owner’s attention away. Before long, she saw boys and girls rushing out of the school gates in panic. “Huh? What’s going on?”

As other people streamed past her stall, the owner grabbed a male student who usually ate there. “Hey, Little Fatty, what’s happening in the school?”

“Auntie Liu, call the cops! Those bank robbers have fled into our area! They’ve already stormed into the women’s dorm! One of them has a gun!”

Hearing this, Li Huowang slowly turned his head toward the speaking boy. Then he suddenly smiled.

Could it get any faker than this? Something this ridiculously improbable actually happened to encounter me. Looks like this really is a hallucination, no doubt about it.

Having shed all his doubts, Li Huowang finally stood up and walked against the flow of fleeing students toward the campus gate.

Li Huowang walked along the main campus road, his gaze fixed on the girls running in all directions, searching for a familiar face.

The deeper he went, the more violently his body trembled.

To quell this uncontrollable shaking, Li Huowang began speaking to the magnolia tree on his left as he searched. “Miao Miao, when I get my hands on that inner pain, if I can’t move from the agony, please help me achieve the ultimate pain of the flesh.”

“Remember how that man on Reed Island gouged his own throat out? Just do it the same way.”

Then, still uneasy, Li Huowang turned to a bicycle lying toppled to the side. “Sui’er, if Miao Miao really does that, don’t try to stop her, understand? She’s not hurting me. This is about whether we can get out of this damned place or not.”

“No matter what appears later, remember to stay close to me. As for those people from the Supervisory Heavenly Office—if I can save them, I will; if I can’t, then that’s that.”

The campus was very large. Li Huowang searched for a while but still hadn’t spotted Yang Na. By the time he reached the women’s dormitory, sirens were already wailing outside.

He looked up at the tall building before him. He could hear shouting and cursing from the middle floors. It seemed that hundreds of girls trapped on the upper levels had been bottled up.

“It’s all a hallucination. It’s all a hallucination.” Muttering to himself, Li Huowang stepped through the iron gate and entered.

The first and second floors were empty; everyone had already run out. As Li Huowang continued climbing the stairs, he came face to face with two men dragging a girl down.

Li Huowang nodded at them, slightly shifting aside to let them pass, and intended to continue upstairs.

“Stop right there! I said stop! Don’t come any closer! Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to! You’re plainclothes—I’ve had you pegged from the start!”

A bald man pressed a blade directly against the neck of the girl in his arms. He looked extremely tense, his breathing ragged.

“We need three SUVs! Full tank! And five hundred—no, one million! Cash! Then pull all your people out! You’ve got one hour to prepare! And hurry! For every half hour we wait, we kill one more person!”

Li Huowang ignored him. He addressed the girl in the man’s arms. “Excuse me, do you know Yang Na? What room is she in?”

The girl was clearly paralyzed by the situation before her. Aside from sobbing, she couldn’t muster any response at all.

Li Huowang didn’t mind. He prepared to continue upward.

“The hell you will! Stop right there!”

From the stairwell landing above, an old pistol extended, aimed at Li Huowang.

Footsteps followed. A tall, gloomy-faced man came down the stairs with the gun in his hand.

“Do you see what this is? This is a gun!”