My House of Horrors

Footsteps echoed inside the quiet library. The broken door was pushed open, and a man walked out. “There is no one in the library at all. Do the students behind the door not like to read?”

Carrying two bags, Chen Ge stood in the corridor outside the library. The reunion that he had anticipated did not happen; there was no one at the library. Thus, he could not get some information even if he wanted to. “Where have they all disappeared to?”

Walking down the corridor, Chen Ge sauntered about aimlessly. The campus behind the door appeared to be a completely enclosed building, and it was isolated from the rest of the world. All the windows were barred with wooden planks, and Chen Ge walked for a long time, but he still could not find the way out.

“Hey! Which class are you from?” A stern voice came from behind Chen Ge. He turned to look and realized that one of the doors that he had passed earlier had been opened, and a rotund, middle-aged man stood at the door.

“Not a Red Specter…” Chen Ge glanced at the sign of the door where the man stood, which read “Discipline Head’s Office”.

“It’s time for class. Do not loiter in the corridors.” The man noticed that Chen Ge did not show him any respect at all, so he instantly firmed up his attitude. “Which class are you from? Let me take a look at your student ID?”

“Student ID?” Chen Ge reached his hand into his pocket but kept his eyes on the man before him. There was a dangerous glow well hidden in his gaze. When he first saw the man, Chen Ge had used his Yin Yang Vision to scan the man. He had no idea about the man’s identity, but he knew that he was not a Red Specter.

“A new student from the first year?” The man took the student ID to take a look, and his tone turned sterner. “Truancy when you’ve just started school? A student like you needs to be harshly educated!”

He walked out from the office and reached out to grab Chen Ge’s arm.

“What do you want to do?” Chen Ge subconsciously avoided him. This was the world behind the door; he would not allow anyone to grab him just like that.

“Take you back to your class, and I’ll warn the teacher that allowed you to traipse around like this during class!” The man was mad. His eyes were bulging, like if Chen Ge did not follow his words, there would serious consequences.

“Fine, I’ll follow you back to the class.” Chen Ge still remembered the mission handed to him by Chang Gu; he could make use of this chance to find those students. Chen Ge stopped moving as if waiting for the man to lead the way. Seeing how flippant Chen Ge was acting, the man’s already lacking hair was standing on end from anger.

“Students these days are getting worse and worse.” The man shoved the ID back to Chen Ge and led Chen Ge down the corridor. The school was much bigger than Chen Ge thought. They walked for a long time and went down a floor before stopping beside one of the classrooms.

BANG BANG BANG!

The man knocked, and moments later, a thin man wearing black-rimmed glasses walked out. “Mr. Lei? How can I help you?”

“Didn’t you notice one student is missing from your own class?” The man grabbed Chen Ge’s shoulder. “He is from your class, so take charge of him! If I discover him wandering about again, be prepared to get punished alongside him! Even the teachers are becoming unreliable…”

The man left Chen Ge at the door. He seemed to have something else to attend to and left in a huff.

“Mr. Lei?” The thin teacher was confused. He pushed his glasses up and studied Chen Ge through his thick lens. “Are you a new student?”

“Mr. Lei brought me here. This is my student ID.” Chen Ge pointed at the man who had walked away. His expression and his tone gave an impression that he was familiar with Mr. Lei.

“Oh, come in then. There are a few empty seats in my class.” The thin teacher nodded and was about to bring Chen Ge into class when he suddenly stopped. “I do not like naughty students. I hope you can gel with everyone and join our big family as fast as you can.”

“Okay.”

“One more thing, my name is Lui. You can call me Mr. Lui.”

Pushing open the door, Mr. Lui brought Chen Ge to the podium. The class was very quiet, and it was conducive for studying, but there were many who were really studying. When they saw someone new walk into the room, many students lifted their heads.

“This will only take a minute. We have a new student who will be joining us today. Now, I’ll have him introduce himself.” Mr. Lui signaled for Chen Ge to walk over. Walking up the podium, Chen Ge looked down at the students in class. On the surface, the class looked fine, but he knew that the only beauty behind the door had already been taken away by the painter. The only things left in this world were various negative emotions suppressed in people’s hearts.

“My name is Chen Ge.” After a very short self-introduction, Chen Ge carried his bags and stepped down from the podium.

“Don’t you have anything else to say?” Mr. Lui coughed drily. “Your seat will be on the third last row. The seating in this class is arranged according to results. After midterms, if you have a good score, I’ll rearrange your seat.”

Mr. Lui’s words seemed to possess a different meaning. Chen Ge did not think that it would be that bad sitting at the back of the class. When he attended university, he had always taken the last row. Carrying his bags, Chen Ge walked to the back of the class with the whole class looking at him. Gazes fell upon him; some were gleeful, some were filled with malice, and some were dull. Chen Ge stopped next to his seat.

The student in the seat behind him placed his dirty shoes on Chen Ge’s chair. As the student’s body moved, his chair creaked noisily like it was about to crumble any time soon.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. I didn’t think we would have a new student joining us.” The boy slowly took his shoes away, leaving two dark-claret shoe prints on Chen Ge’s chair.

“Alright, quickly get to your seat. We’re going to continue the class.” Mr. Lui’s thick glasses seemed to have obscured his vision. It was as if he did not notice the bullying happening before his eyes, and he continued speaking. “Chen Ge, don’t just stand there. Take your seat.”

“Okay.” Chen Ge’s expression did not change. He took out a clean piece of paper from Lin Sisi’s bag and placed it on the table. Just as everyone thought that he was about to swallow everything and wipe the shoe print off, he reached out to grab the back of the chair, raised it up, and threw it right at the boy who sat behind him!

BANG!

The old chair burst into pieces right above the boy’s head. The class was quiet; even Mr. Lui was stunned into silence.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it either.” Picking up the clean piece of paper from the table, Chen Ge wiped the blood from his hands and then grabbed the chair of the boy from the seat behind him and moved it to his desk.

“You, you, you come out here!” Mr. Lui’s hands were shaking. It was unclear whether that was from shock or from fear.

“Okay.” Chen Ge activated the recorder, placed Lin Sisi’s bag on the table, and scanned the whole class again.