My mom is waiting for treatment, and you're summoning me to be a hero?

The female teacher led Lin Mo up to the third floor.

Several faded student paintings hung on the walls of the stairwell, their glass frames half cracked, the paper damp and yellowed, and the edges curled.

The wall is covered with a photo gallery of teachers. Each half-body photo is labeled with the teacher's name and subject. Most of the people in the photos are dressed in formal attire and are smiling properly and with restraint.

Lin Mo's gaze swept across the top row and he saw a familiar face.

Black-rimmed glasses, a meticulously styled updo, and a perfectly measured professional smile on his lips; the caption below the photo reads 'Head of Students'.

"Are you the head of student affairs?"

Lin Mo's tone carried a hint of bored casualness.

The female teacher paused for a moment, followed his gaze to the photos on the wall, and nodded after her lips trembled slightly.

The fear from earlier still lingered in her voice, but she unconsciously straightened her back a little when talking about it.

"Yes...yes, my surname is Song. Before the apocalypse, I was the dean of studies for the senior year at this school. Those children were the last class I taught..."

She pointed to the rows of photos on the wall below.

"The day of the apocalypse happened to be a Friday. Before the last class was even over, there was…"

Her voice trailed off, and she didn't finish her sentence.

Some of those young faces on the wall are probably still alive, crammed into the tents on the playground downstairs, wearing tattered clothes and pulling grass to eat.

The other part has probably become minced meat under the wheels of war, or died in an earlier supply scavenging operation.

Lin Mo withdrew his gaze and continued walking forward.

At the end of the corridor was a heavy solid wood door, thicker than the other classroom doors, with a gleaming brass plaque hanging on it.

Principal's Office.

Pushing open the door, a blast of murky warm air hit me, mixed with the cloying sweetness of cheap scented candles, the stale smell of sweat, and some more subtle, fishy-sweet aroma.

The office curtains were tightly drawn, completely blocking out the light, with only a few candles flickering in the corner, casting a dim, yellowish glow over the entire room in an ambiguous, dark gold hue.

The room's furnishings stand in stark contrast to those of the other classrooms.

A large leather sofa, a mahogany desk that seemed to have been moved from somewhere, and several half-empty bottles of red wine on the table, their labels worn so worn that the words were no longer legible.

The bookshelves against the wall were empty of books, but filled with all sorts of luxury goods salvaged from the ruins: scented candles, silk scarves, and several pairs of brand-new but dusty high heels.

A full-length mirror stood in the corner, its frame gilded, and its surface was spotless, reflecting the candlelight.

The most eye-catching thing is the desk in the very center of the room... not an office desk, but a metal-framed desk used by students.

A thin, naked man lay on the table.

His hands and feet were tightly bound to the iron pipes of the table legs with strips of cloth, and his body was covered with dense scratches from fingernails.

His eyes were unfocused, his head was tilted to one side, and a trace of dried drool hung from the corner of his mouth.

The sound of Lin Mo pushing the door open made him shudder violently. The strip of cloth on his wrist dug into his flesh, and he struggled to turn his eyes to focus on the figure at the door.

The female teacher peeked out from behind Lin Mo and her face paled slightly when she saw the scene. She pursed her lips and quickly stepped forward, her fingers trembling as she untied the strips of cloth.

After being untied, the lean man remained lying motionless on the desk.

He simply followed the female teacher's movements with his eyes, and after a long while, he managed to squeeze out a muffled whimper from his throat.

Lin Mo ignored them.

He walked to the mahogany desk and began searching.

One by one, the drawers were pulled open, revealing files, ledgers, a well-worn calendar, several packs of cigarettes...

He used his mental power to cover the entire floor, perceiving everything from the floor to the ceiling, from the corridors to the wall cavities of each classroom.

There were no hidden compartments, no trace of any fluctuations in the laws, and nothing unusual.

Although the principal's office had more luxurious furniture than the other classrooms, its architectural structure was no different.

He walked to the window and drew back the curtains. Outside, there was a gray sky and rows of dilapidated tents on the playground below.

There is nothing that does not belong to this teaching building itself.

He flung the curtains back, his brow furrowed.

"That shouldn't be the case..."

Just as he was sorting through all the clues about the floating island in his mind, the fluorescent light tube above his head suddenly flickered and made a very slight hissing sound.

Then the light in the entire corridor began to dim visibly.

It's not that the light bulb is broken, it's that the sky outside the window is changing color.

He turned to look out the window, where the hazy sky was rapidly changing from gray to dark gray, and then to pitch black.

The female teacher had just helped the thin man up from his desk when she looked out the window at the sky: "It's getting dark... How come it's so fast..."

Just then, footsteps echoed down the corridor.

The sound was extremely soft and ethereal, echoing through the corridor step by step.

The female teacher subconsciously looked out the window, and the next second her face turned deathly pale.

"It's...it's...it's a ghost."

Seeing her terrified expression, Lin Mo frowned.

In the corridor outside the office, a petite, semi-transparent figure was tiptoeing, her hands gripping the edge of a classroom window, trying to peer inside through the glass.

It was the soul of a little girl, with short hair reaching her ears and a height that only reached Lin Mo's waist.

Her soul aura was extremely faint, almost transparent, and with each step she took, a few fine strands of light would scatter in the air from her edge, then slowly recombine.

But she was very serious about looking through the windows, moving on to the next one after finishing one.

He tiptoed again, peered through the window again, and looked out again...

It looked like they were searching for something.

Lin Mo's pupils contracted slightly when he saw that face.

He had seen this face in the basement of Saint Lin Village.

Gao Tiantian.

……

At that moment, Gao Tiantian was standing on tiptoe, peering through the window of a classroom.

Her toes were pointed straight, and translucent light shone from them, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't reach the top pane of glass in the window.

Suddenly, a pair of hands slipped under her armpits and gently lifted her up.

Gao Tiantian turned around curiously and saw that the person who picked her up was an older brother dressed in a black robe.

The older brother's palm was covered with a layer of dark blue soul energy, thinly attached to his skin, like an invisible glove.

Gao Tiantian's body was held firmly in his arms, her little skirt swaying slightly, and her short hair brushing against Lin Mo's collar.

"Are you here to find someone?"

Lin Mo met her gaze and asked, his tone the softest and gentlest he had used in months.

Gao Tiantian looked up at him, stunned for a moment.

There was no fear or confusion in those eyes, only a simple joy from being helped.

Then she smiled and nodded.

"Yes! I'm here to see my brother, Gao Yang."

After she finished speaking, she turned to look at the classroom behind her, carefully scanned it through the dusty glass, and then looked away in disappointment, her voice lowered and tinged with grievance.

"My brother isn't here. I've searched all these classrooms several times, but he's not in any of them. Where is he?"