The Night of the Pig-Headed Monster

Having disembarked, Huang Xiu bid farewell to Shi Lei and set off for the school.

Ten o’clock was hardly late; for many, the night’s revelry would only just be beginning. Yet, Ying City, despite its designation, functioned more like a quiet county town, its nightlife far from vibrant. Situated within the school district, the bus station shuttered its doors after dark, ensuring that by ten, the street vendors had long since packed up their stalls and retreated home. A hushed stillness enveloped the surroundings, broken only by the intermittent chirping of crickets and the calls of unseen birds.

Huang Xiu strode along the road, his shadow stretching before him, as if racing against the pale moonlight.

By ten o’clock, the school gates had long been secured. This, however, posed no challenge for Huang Xiu. He approached the wall to the left of the main entrance and, with practiced ease, scaled it. Landing softly on the other side, he brushed dust from his trousers.

‘I should head to the classroom first to retrieve my charger and power bank,’ he mused. ‘Surely, there are still students studying there.’ Huang Xiu surveyed his surroundings, made his decision, and then walked directly towards the teaching building situated at the rear of the campus.

The campus, deep in the night, lay shrouded in profound silence. Darkness cloaked everything, save for the faint, yellow glow emanating from the streetlights lining the pathways. Swarms of insects, drawn to the light, danced and fluttered like shimmering specks of dust. In the distance, the five-story, U-shaped teaching building displayed only a handful of illuminated windows. These, he knew, belonged to diligent students still poring over their books.

‘Fang Miaoging… she must be there too, right?’ Huang Xiu suddenly wondered.

He quickened his steps, arriving at the base of the teaching building in short order. It was then that Huang Xiu abruptly realized the entire structure was utterly devoid of light. The classroom lamps he had glimpsed from a distance had, at some indeterminate moment, all flickered out, leaving him to wonder if his earlier perception had been nothing more than a fleeting illusion.

The teaching building’s corridor lights, being motion-activated, remained stubbornly dark in the absence of movement, plunging the space into absolute blackness. On the staircase, a striped iron door, its green paint peeling to reveal patches of rust, stood half-ajar, ajar in a way that seemed to draw more attention to its presence than conceal it.

Standing at the entrance to the corridor, Huang Xiu was suddenly seized by the chilling sensation that the teaching building before him had morphed into a ravenous, man-eating beast. A shiver of goosebumps prickled his entire body. From an unknown quarter, a gust of night wind swept through. The iron door, caught by the breeze, swung inward, its unlubricated, rusted hinges protesting with a loud creak before slamming directly against the staircase handrail behind it.

Dong! A muffled thud reverberated through the stairwell, and one by one, the sound-activated lights from the first to fifth floors flickered to life.

Huang Xiu swallowed hard, a knot forming in his throat. He sensed an unsettling shift in the teaching building tonight, as if some peculiar transformation had taken place. Yet, he found himself utterly unable to pinpoint the nature of this strange alteration. It felt almost as if his mind, fueled by the darkness and a burgeoning fear, was conjuring mere phantoms and illusions. But he was no coward; he had frequented these classrooms late into the night on countless occasions. After all, evening self-study sessions typically didn’t conclude until half-past nine!

In an instant, every campus horror story he had ever encountered or heard of—tales of the thirteenth stair, of ghostly wails echoing at midnight—erupted uncontrollably within his mind.

‘Firstly, I’m not a coward (TL Note: A Chinese internet slang term, ‘cóng xīn huǒ bāo,’ which is a pun on ‘sǒng,’ meaning cowardly.), and secondly, I simply want to return to my dorm and sleep,’ Huang Xiu thought frantically.

He took a step back, then another, before abruptly turning, poised on the verge of a full sprint.

The very next instant, his steps froze, his pupils dilating to their absolute limit. Reflected in the dark pools of his eyes stood the five-story teaching building, now entirely unlit and visibly aged, looming directly before him.

Szzzzzt! The sound-activated light in the fifth-floor corridor abruptly began to flicker erratically, as if plagued by a faulty connection.

Thump, thump, thump! Heavy footsteps suddenly echoed from within the corridor. Immediately thereafter… a low shzzzzzt filled the air… and the sound-activated light on the fourth floor began to flicker just as wildly.

Huang Xiu whirled around and sprinted once more, only to discover that no matter how he turned or how fiercely he ran, the teaching building remained stubbornly before him. The distance never wavered, always just a few paces separating them.

Only then did he recall his phone, hastily pulling it from his pocket and unlocking it. To his dismay, there was not a single bar of signal. Not even an emergency call would connect!

Every single sign, every ominous omen, was screaming at Huang Xiu that he had stumbled into a supernatural occurrence!

‘What in the blazes?’ he thought. ‘My ordinary life suddenly shattered? Am I some kind of anime protagonist? Damn it, why did such a clichéd plot twist have to befall me of all people?’

‘Big Brother, I was only joking when I said I wanted to save the world!’ he pleaded silently. ‘I don’t have superpowers, nor do I possess some incredible bloodline—please, don’t do this to me! I just want to study in peace!’

Huang Xiu ranted frantically within his mind, as if this furious internal monologue could somehow diminish the profound unease and dread gnawing at his very core.

Szzzzzt, the third-floor lights continued their incessant flickering. As he craned his neck, a thick, oppressive shadow seemed to unfurl and creep steadily downward, following the erratic illumination.

‘I have no choice but to go in!’ Gazing at the flickering sound-activated light on the second floor, Huang Xiu abruptly steeled his resolve. He gritted his teeth, which were chattering uncontrollably from fear. He plunged into the teaching building, instantly assailed by a biting malice and an icy coldness that seeped from the corridors.

‘I can’t go upstairs; there’s something in the corridor, and touching it will lead to disaster!’ This terrifying realization suddenly bloomed in Huang Xiu’s mind.

He immediately spun around and bolted down the first-floor corridor, desperately trying to reach the other stairwell of the teaching building, the one closer to the cafeteria. Once there, he reasoned, he would be free to ascend and descend, no longer trapped on the ground floor, thus gaining crucial room to maneuver.

His footsteps echoed loudly through the silent teaching building. Thump-thump-thump! But then, abruptly, another set of dull, rapid footsteps joined his own, emanating from somewhere above and behind him, intertwining with his frantic pace. It was that unknown entity! The thing was incredibly swift, its speed accelerating with each passing moment, until it instantly overtook him, now leading the chase.

Terror seized Huang Xiu’s gaze. He skidded to a halt, attempting to vault over the first-floor railing in a desperate bid to escape, only to find that the other side merely led to yet another corridor. He then tried to force open a classroom door, hoping to hide within, but every single classroom along the stretch, both front and back, was securely locked.

‘Damn it, if I can’t hide, I’ll just fight you to the death!’ he cursed under his breath, trying to bolster his courage. ‘As long as you’re brave, female ghosts take maternity leave (TL Note: A humorous Chinese internet slang phrase, ‘nǚ guǐ fàng chǎnjià,’ meaning that if one is brave enough, even female ghosts will be scared away or rendered harmless, like taking a break.). Today, let me, Master Huang, see just how many eyes you ghostly monstrosity truly possess!’ He babbled, invoking a litany of protectors: ‘May Taoist Master Qianhe protect me, Uncle Ying protect me, Taishang Laojun protect me, Lord of the Washroom protect me…’

In his desperation, he resorted to every bizarre method he had ever encountered online, hoping to shatter the illusion that trapped him.

The ominous footsteps drew ever nearer, already almost upon the first floor. Seeing himself utterly cornered, Huang Xiu’s resolve hardened. His eyes, now bloodshot, were wide to their absolute limit, and every sound save for the approaching footsteps in the corridor and the frantic thumping of his own heart seemed to fade into a distant hum.

He was not one to simply sit and await his demise! Whirling around, he snatched up a mop that had been left leaning against the railing to dry. Snap! With a forceful stomp, he broke off its head. He then gripped the wooden pole, presenting its splintered, jagged end as a makeshift weapon.

Szzzzzt! The lightbulb in the first-floor corridor began to strobe erratically. From within the thick, impenetrable gloom, an abnormally towering figure slowly materialized into Huang Xiu’s vision. It was clad in a blood-stained blue suit and clutched a massive iron compass in its hand.

Its arched snout, caked with black mud and coarse bristles, twitched ceaselessly. Shreds of meat clung to its sharp teeth, from which foul-smelling saliva oozed. Where eyes should have been on its pig-like head, two pieces of chalk were instead plunged deep into its skull. Occasionally, fresh blood trickled down the base of the chalk, only to be greedily licked away by a long, slender tongue and drawn into its maw. Its massive pig ears flapped, and upon one, a small black dot pulsed with a faint, intermittent glow. It was only then that Huang Xiu truly comprehended: the eyes of this pig-headed, human-bodied monstrosity were, in fact, located on its ears.

Undoubtedly, this was a monster! And not just any monster, but an uncommonly terrifying, surreal abomination! Its colossal, two-meter-tall frame, its thick, powerful arms, and the sharp, bloodied compass it wielded all screamed a single, undeniable truth at Huang Xiu: this was not something a mere mortal could contend with! He was utterly outmatched!