Rules of the Strange: I Can See Through All the Weird

The source of the sound was the person we were just discussing.

He kicked the chair in frustration and slumped back into it, utterly exhausted.

"Chen Lingyue, don't damage public facilities."

The class monitor, who had been studying at his seat, turned around and said something in a serious tone.

Chen Lingyue stared at the class monitor for a long time, then scoffed coldly and said nothing.

There wasn't much conversation between the two, but the atmosphere was tense and fraught with tension.

The air fell silent, and everyone turned their attention away, quietly going about their own business.

The school bell rang, and Teacher Jiang walked into the classroom, holding a list in her hand.

She stood on the podium, scanned the classroom, her gaze lingering on each student's face for a moment, and then began, "We'll have a class meeting today to discuss a few things."

She placed the list on the podium and unfolded it.

"First, regarding last week's 'discipline inspection,' several students did not leave school on time after evening self-study, and were recorded by the teacher on duty."

She read out several names, including Chen Lingyue.

Chen Jie frowned slightly but remained silent.

Teacher Jiang didn't look up and continued reading: "Secondly, some students have reported that there have been 'disharmonious phenomena' in the class recently. You all know what they are."

The classroom was silent for a few seconds.

Teacher Jiang raised her eyes and looked at Chen Lingyue in the back row of the classroom: "Sports Committee Member, you tell us what you want to say."

Chen Lingyue leaned back in his chair, his posture unchanged, and said in a low voice, "What did you say?"

"Tell me your understanding of 'disharmony'."

Chen Lingyue was silent for two seconds before speaking.

"I don't know what you mean by 'disharmony'. I only know that some people are spreading certain things, but the person spreading them doesn't admit it, and the person being spread about can't prove it either. I can't explain this kind of thing. You can figure it out yourselves."

After he finished speaking, he put his hands into the pockets of his school uniform jacket and stopped talking.

Teacher Jiang looked at him for a few seconds but didn't ask any further questions.

She looked away and crossed out a line on the list: "Alright, let's leave it at that. Don't bring it up again."

After the class meeting, Ms. Jiang walked out of the classroom, and the wind at the door blew her coat.

Qi Tong looked in that direction.

Instead of sunlight, what shone through the crack in the door was a hazy, gray mist clinging to the ground.

The fog was closer than in the morning, as if it were slowly creeping into the school building.

Qi Tong pulled her gaze away from the crack in the door without saying anything.

She looked down and tidied the desk, her fingers tracing the edges of the textbooks, as if she were thinking about something else.

The classroom was quiet for a moment. The sports committee member stood up from his chair, the chair leg scraping the ground with a short, sharp scraping sound.

He didn't look at anyone and walked out of the classroom through the back door.

As the door closed behind him, a wisp of mist entered, swirling around the threshold before dissipating.

The class monitor sat in his seat and reopened the textbook he had just closed, his movements as slow and careful as before.

The conversation we just had about "disharmony" never actually happened.

Qi Tong glanced at him. His fingers, which were turning the pages, stopped at one spot, as if he had seen a place worth stopping at.

She didn't linger; she packed her things and left the classroom with Xu Ning and Su Xin.

The fog in the corridor was thicker than before.

The three people walked down the corridor. The classroom doors on both sides were closed, and the windows were covered with a layer of condensation, making it impossible to see what was inside.

When they reached the stairwell, Qi Tong saw Chen Jie standing at the corner, leaning against the wall, as if waiting for them.

Seeing Qi Tong approach, he lowered his voice and asked, "Did you guys notice where the sports committee member went after he left?"

"no."

Chen Jie turned his head and gestured with his chin towards the end of the corridor: "He went that way. Towards that iron gate."

How do you know he went there?

"Because he paused when he turned the corner," Chen Jie said. "He glanced in that direction before turning."

Qi Tong was silent for a moment, then said, "I have class this afternoon, let's talk after school."

The afternoon classes were not much different from the morning classes.

Other teachers came and taught a few classes, teaching Chinese. Their voices were steady and their pace was even, as if they had been teaching this class for many years.

She didn't ask questions like Teacher Jiang did; instead, she seemed to be immersed in her own world of lecturing.

Qi Tong sat in his seat and listened for a while, his gaze occasionally drifting to the window.

The fog was sometimes thick and sometimes thin. The playground was deserted, and the white lines on the track were covered by the fog, leaving only a faint trace.

As school was about to let out, the fog thickened again.

Qi Tong noticed that the clouds on the horizon were lower than in the morning, as if they might fall at any moment and cover the entire school.

Someone in the classroom started coughing. The sound wasn't loud, but it was continuous, as if something had been inhaled into their trachea.

No one turned to see who was coughing, and no one stopped writing, as if it were a habit.

When the school bell rang, Qi Tong was the first to stand up.

She closed her textbook, stuffed it into her desk drawer, and then glanced at Xu Ning and Su Xin.

That look meant: You guys go first.

Xu Ning quickly understood and pulled Su Xin to the cafeteria.

She stepped out of the classroom, the mist in the corridor already reaching her ankles, and the chill seeped up through the soles of her shoes.

She walked towards the end of the corridor, her steps neither fast nor slow, each step firm and deliberate.

The iron gate was still in its original position, with a lock on it.

But when Qi Tong got closer, she noticed a thin scratch on the lock's latch. It was new, as if someone had repeatedly opened the lock recently, leaving a shiny mark on the metal surface.

She reached out and touched the lock.

The lock is cold.

Her fingers hovered over the clasp for two seconds, then she heard a voice from behind the door.

It was very faint, like someone coughing through the door, or like something rubbing against the crack in the door and then being covered by the fog.

The sound was neither continuous nor repeated, as if something behind the door had just happened to pass by.

Qi Tong withdrew his hand.

She neither unlocked the door nor lingered.

She turned around and walked back to the stairwell. There was a person standing at the corner.

He is the class monitor.

He stood against the wall, holding the thermos in his hand, as if waiting for someone.

"Why did you come to this floor?" he asked, his tone as gentle as usual.

"I went to the wrong place," Qi Tong said. "I was going to the restroom."

The class monitor didn't ask any further questions, nodded, and turned to walk down the stairs.

He took two steps, stopped, and turned his head to the side: "By the way, the toilet on this floor is unusable; it's been clogged for a long time."

He left after saying that, his footsteps echoing in the stairwell before being swallowed by the mist.